NJPW Road To The New Beginning 2021 - Day 5 1/23/2021

NJPW Road To The New Beginning 2021 - Day 5 1/23/2021

 Pics and gifs to come later.

I skipped the opener here.

TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) vs. The United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay) (w/Bea Priestley)

TenKoji jumps UE at the bell. Khan mongolian chops Tenzan, then Tenzan gives him some chops back. Tenzan then starts choking him and Evil turns it around and pounds on the back his neck. Khan works Tenzan's neck with a trapezius hold and sits on his neck in the corner. Osperay came in and got a spinning heel kick then Kojima came in with the hot tag. He did machine gun chops to Osperay then he dropped an elbow on him from the top.

Os did a spinning forearm to the guy then did a handspring into the ropes with a flip kick onto Koji. Os went for something but Koji ddt'd him. Os then spinning forearmed him and suplexed him.

Khan came in with mongolian chops on Tenzan and ended up taking a Koji cutter. Tenzan came back in and did a bunch of strikes onto Khan and suplexed him. They traded mongolian chops and Tenzan won the battle. Os and Koji then came in and traded forearms. Os bit Koji's hair but he hit a Koji cutter. Tenkoji then hit a 3D on Khan at 10 minutes. Tenzan put on the anaconda vice, Khan got up then he did an anaconda vice bomb for 2. Bea nailed Tenzan with a chair then Os got rammed into Khan's chair. Tenzan then got the chair, knocked the ref away and chaired Khan for the DQ. This wasn't bad at all for Khan's low standards and I liked that there was some animosity behind it. 

Kojima then lariated Os after and Tenzan chaired Khan more.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. BULLET CLUB (Dick Togo, EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi)

Ishii and Togo duck each others closelines and moves early then Evil nails Ishii from behind. Chaos clears out the heels then does the triple team back clubs to Togo. Yujiro pulls off the buckles then all of Chaos takes a whip into the steel.

Yoshi tries to fight off the BC 1v3 but BC does a 3 person assisted abdominal stretch. Yoshi does a reverse enzugiri then Okada and Evil go at it with Evil taking a DDT. Yujiro comes in and hits Okada with a fisherman's buster for 2. He tries to nail Okada with his stick but Yoshi superkicks him and Evil. Yujiro then gets catapulted into an Okada DDT for 2. Okada locked in the money clip on Yujiro and won it. This wasn't anything special nor was it going to be with only 10 minutes to work with.
 

Golden Ace (Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi), Master Wato, SHO & Tomoaki Honma vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)

Shingo and Tanahashi do basic stuff early and Shingo almost gets thrown out. Everyone on both teams joins to try and help, then Shingo almost gets thrown out on the other side. We get a 10 man face-off in the ring. Sho and Hiromu trade some shots and things slow down when Honma gets in at 5 minutes. Honma teases going for a headbutt but ends up pushing Naito off the apron, then Naito comes in and sliding dropkicks him. Naito cravates Honma.

Naito and Sanada double team Honma then Honma hits a DDT/reverse STO combo on them. Tana dragon screws everyone then Ibushi sliding kicks Sanada. Ibushi hits a standing moonsault on Sanada for 2. Sanada and Ibushi end up on the apron. Bushi tries to push Wato into them, but Wato ends up pushing Bushi into them, and they both get eliminated to make this a 4 on 4.

Wato springboard euro uppercuts Bushi and Bushi does his rewind enzugiri. Bushi and Wato fight on the apron then Bushi is eliminated. Hiromu does a sunset bomb and eliminates Wato.

Sho and Hiromu trade more forearms. Hiormu tries a flying hurricanrana but it caught and lifted over the top. They fight on the apron and Sho dropkicks Hiromu out to eliminate him. Shingo forearm combos Sho and as usual, takes a free shot on Tana. Shingo and Naito try a double team but Sho spears Naito and suplexes Shingo. Sho goes on the apron and Shingo lariats him off.

Shingo and Tana trade forearms and Tana does his somersault off the 2nd rope onto him, then both of them hit the other with a twist and shout. Tana dragon screws Shingo on the apron and eliminates him. Naito deals with a Tana/Honma 1v2 and is whipped into a Tana slingblade. Tana goes up top and Honma is pushed into the ropes into him. Tana lays on the apron and Naito dropkicks him off to eliminate him. Honma diving headbutts Naito then falling headbutts him.

Honma goes up top and is thrown off. Naito then goes up top and Honma superplexes him down for 2. Honma gives him a headbutt then lariats him over the top to win. It took a little to get going and they weren't going for an epic here. What they gave us was fine but the crowd couldn't cheer which hurt it and it was hardly their best work.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match - Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c) vs. BULLET CLUB (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori)

Des = El Desperado, ELP = El Phantasmo

Kanemaru tries to take off ELP's boot early as he thinks there is something in it. Des gets his shoulder put into the buckles and Taiji rakes his back and ELP joins in on that. ELP walks the top rope and moonsaults into a back rake on Des. ELP then catapults his throat into the bottom rope. Kanemaru gets in and double back rakes both opponents.

Kanemaru gets put into the tree of woe and gets a baseball slide then ELP stands on his crotch. Taiji then does the same and they both then stand on his crotch. Kanemaru goes for a tag but Isimori pulls off Des at almost 10 minutes in.

Ishimori and Des trade submissions and Ishimori comes out of a stretch muffler with a sunset flip. Ishimori does a handspring into a headkick. Phantasmo gets in, gets dropkicked in the knee and spikes himself off of his head for the sell. Phantasmo then does it again for a satellite ddt sell. Kanemaru puts ELP in the figure four and tries to see what's in ELP's boot but Ishimori breaks it up. ELP puts Ishimori on his shoulders and Ishimori comes off with a codebreaker, then he holds Kanemaru in that position so ELP can moonsault him.

ELP superkicks the ref in the gut after he and Kanemaru try to move around the ref. Des hits ELP in the face with a the title belt and Red Shoes Uno(the ref) gets carried out. Another ref comes down, Ishimori pulls him out. Ishimori hits Kanemaru with a title belt and then hits Des with it too. Kanemaru hits Ishimori with a whiskey bottle then ELP hits Kanemaru with a whiskey bottle too.

The other ref then gets taken out and a third ref comes out. Kanemaru pretends to get hit with a belt and the ref almost DQ's ELP, then Kanemaru hits a moonsault. ELP hits a lowblow then a superkick on Kanemaru and wins this complete turd. There is more bs with ref bumps and weapon shots now in New Japan than in WWE. I can't believe New Japan is resorting to this garbage.

Overall thoughts: I did skip the opener but the crowd having to be quiet hurt this and the main event was so bad. This was a very skippable show.