Two title matches in Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall
Night one of the new Beginning in Hiroshima hits Sun Plaza Hall on Wednesday February 10, with a pair of IWGP title matches seeing the Dangerous Tekkers challenge Tag team Champions G.o.D, and SHO facing Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in the main event.
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Main event: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship- Hiromu Takahashi vs SHO
Singles record: 1-1
Hiromu Takahashi has been an unstoppable force in the junior heavyweight division since his Best of the Super Jr. campaign. Takahashi can credit his success in no small part to constantly keeping goals in mind; and while they might seem lofty indeed, the Time Bomb has an uncanny knock for making them happen.
At current his ultimate goal is to headline in the Tokyo Dome with the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, something that might seem far fetched except his previous goals have included wrestling on prime time TV as junior heavyweight champion (check) and challenging for the IWGP heavyweight Championship as junior heavyweight champion (also check). Yet to be in the headline spot of all headline spots, Hiromu must first prove that he is the best, and the strongest junior heavyweight wrestler in the game today.
That’s the spirit that drove him to challenge not just then IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori, but also Super J-Cup 2020 winner El Phantasmo in two nights at Wrestle Kingdom; the spirit to remove all doubt as to who the best his. That achieved in the Tokyo Dome though, one doubt still remained; a doubt named SHO.
SHO’s victory over Hiromu during Best of the Super Jr. was one of the most emotionally rousing moments, after one of the best matches, of last year’s tournament. Improving his post excursion record with Hiromu to 1-1, SHO proved that he can beat his senpai from the Dojo days. Now he seeks to do the same in the biggest match of his career; his first ever IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship challenge. To SHO, the IWGP title represents everything that inspired him to become aa professional wrestler; to be the very best under 100kg. Can he attain that label tonight in Hiroshima?
5th Match: IWGP Tag Team Chanmpionships- Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) vs Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi)
Tag record: 4-0 G.o.D
An IWGP Tag Team Championship rematch from Wrestle Kingdom is our semi-main event on night one in Hiroshima as Dangerous Tekkers seek to reclaim their IWGP Tag Team Championship gold from the Guerrillas of Destiny.
This is a match all about curses. G.o.D, now a record seven times IWGP Tag Team Champions, lifted their record breaking titles and defeated two curses in the process. First at the Nippon Budokan in December, with KENTA’s help, they defeated FinJuice to win World Tag League for the first time. Then weeks later in the Tokyo Dome, the Wrestle Kingdom curse that had long plagued G.o.D was similarly vanquished. As Dangerous Tekkers fell, after Tama Tonga levelled Taichi with the Iron Fingers From Hell and Tanga Loa followed with Apes*it, a curse for the now former champions was extended. Four times DT and G.o.D have met, and four times the BULLET CLUB side has emerged victorious.
So for Suzuki-Gun’s premier heavyweight tag team to win back IWGP gold, they will have to vanquish a developing curse with G.o.D, but another sinister aura is at play in Sun Plaza Hall. Since Tama Tonga used the Iron Fingers that were once a favoured weapon of Takashi Iizuka to defeat Dangerous Tekkers, he has refused to return the weapon to Taichi, taking it with him wherever he goes, and arguably becoming more maniacal under their influence by the passing day. Will it be iron leading to gold in Hiroshima Wednesday?
4th Match: Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma vs Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito & SANADA)
The fourth match of the card will see Kota Ibushi and SANADA tie up for the last time before their double IWGP title match Thursday in our main event. Ibushi has steadily been trying to bring a more intense SANADA out for the biggest challenge of Cold Skull’s career, but SANADA has been characteristically cagey through the tour. With one last preview match, will SANADA show his hand? Or will he only show his cards when the stakes are at their highest?
3rd Match: CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano) vs BULLET CLUB (EVIL, Jay White, Yujiro Takahashi, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo)
An all star ten man tag team match will see CHAOS and BULLET CLUB meet Wednesday. Ever since his return, Jay White has been obsessed with getting his hands on Tomohiro Ishii, an obsession that will see him teaming with G.o.D to take on the NEVER Six Man Tag Team Champions Thursday; if there is CHAOS collateral damage for White then so much the better. At Korakuen Hall on February 8, there was plenty of collateral damage in six man tag team action, as YOSHI-HASHI hopped the guardrail from commentary, leading to backstage carnage.
Meanwhile, Kazuchika Okada is continuing a long campaign to be granted a singles match with EVIL. Monday night, Okada asked for a singles bout right there and then in Korakuen, only to be attacked with steel chairs from the King of Darkness. Could this finally be the match that makes his case for a straight up singles bout iron clad?
2nd Match: Master Wato vs BUSHI
Singles record: 1-0 BUSHI
Second on the billing, Master Wato faces BUSHI one on one. Wato’s path to the Grand Master has been a challenging one, and though he has had flashes of brilliance, many of his opponents have refused to take him seriously. With losses at high profile events like Summer Struggle and Wrestle Kingdom, a lack of a star making win on a big stage is a major part of that. Tonight he seeks to improve his resume with a win over BUSHI. As BUSHI has repeatedly dismissed the blue haired prodigy, can Wato finally take a big step forward to credibility tonight?
1st Match: Gabriel Kidd, Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
The action in Hiroshima will kick off with Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura and Gabriel Kidd taking on Suzuki-Gun. Ordinarily, with El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru still smarting from their IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship loss, and Minoru Suzuki being, well, Minoru Suzuki, this match could easily be subtitled ‘Young Lions Led to Slaughter’. Yet this is a highly motivated and quickly progressing crew. Effectively on the verge of graduation, Uemura, Tsuji and Kidd may give Suzuki-Gun something to think about tonight, especially as Uemura keeps up his campaign looking for a singles match against Suzuki. Hot action will be coming to you from the opening bell Wednesday.
