This was a strange show, one that makes you feel you’re watching a company in the midst of a transition period. In great contrast to the last three years, this was a New Year Dash! with very few major surprises, however there were still some big moments and matches set up for The New Beginning tour in late January and early February.

The main story is, as I expected in my Wrestle Kingdom 13 wrap-up, ‘Switchblade’ Jay White is the new top contender to Hiroshi Tanahashi and his IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The team of White, Gedo and Bad Luck Fale picked up a win over Tana, Okada and the returning YOSHI-HASHI, with a brutal beatdown post-match on both the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the man he defeated at Wrestle Kingdom giving White a moment to talk about how he will become champion and how this will be The Switchblade Era. I’ve been a big fan of Jay White since he returned to the company from excursion in late 2017 and though not all of his matches have been excellent, he’s had the potential to be a star since day one and is constantly improving. As leader of the Bullet Club – who are now back to being completely detestable – he’s very much looking like the top foreign star in the company, as Kenny Omega seems to be on his way out having not appeared on the show and given that he was hardly even mentioned.

White’s Bullet Club is now also two men stronger following the show, with Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi helping Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Taiji Ishimori retain their NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championships. This was the biggest surprise moment of the show and was the moment most fans, myself included, expected to be the reveal of Jay White’s CHAOS mole. This will, most likely, not seem so impactful due to Chase and Yujiro’s star power in the company not being too great, but that being said, this’ll hopefully give these two more of a direction than they’ve had the last few years and may also result in a possible Junior Tag Team Championship match for them in the near future.

That match won’t be at The New Beginning however as matches for those titles, as well as for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, was set up when Suzuki-gun beat Los Ingobernables De Japon. We saw these factions face off more than enough last year and we’re going to see them up against each other a few more times in 2019 as a shocking pinfall win for Taichi over Tetsuya Naito will see him get an Intercontinental Championship match, and El Desperado and Kanemaru’s beatdown on BUSHI and Shingo Takagi will see them get a rematch for the Junior Tag titles. We saw Naito and Taichi feud immediately after Wrestle Kingdom 12 last year as Taichi began his move to the heavyweight division, but that story didn’t start with a chair launched off Naito’s skull like this one has, so while there’s a chance this one will be more brutal and entertaining, more than anything this is just going to be a nothing feud to keep Naito occupied for the time-being.

While more stories will most certainly be made as The New Beginning tour starts and progresses, it seems that the two other matches we’ll be getting based on this show are Juice Robison making first defence of the United States Championship since regaining it at Wrestle Kingdom against Beretta. This one seemed likely before the match started, but after Chuckie T threw a chair into Juice’s face while the champion was arguing with Beretta, this match seems very likely to happen. I’d also advise you to keep an eye on Chuckie T, who is becoming more and more unhinged with every appearance he has in New Japan. You can also expect to see a match between Tomohiro Ishii and Yuji Nagata, who couldn’t stop brawling after their six-man tag team match. Ishii seems to brawl with everyone nowadays, whether it’s Suzuki or Fale or whoever. So there’s nothing much to this other than he likes a fight.

There’s a lot to look forward to as The New Beginning tour in Japan and the U.S.A. approaches, and a lot to keep an eye out on, such as whether we’ll be seeing Kenny Omega in New Japan again, and if we’ll be seeing ‘Switchblade’ Jay White as IWGP Heavyweight Champion a lot sooner than later.