With a weekend of Wrestle Kingdom 14 behind us, New Year Dash! has set us up for The New Beginning and beyond courtesy of a series of matches being teased and a couple of surprises. The deliberately unpredictable show wasn’t as shocking as previous years, but certain moments definitely came out of nowhere and got me more interested in The New Beginning shows for this year than I feel they did back in 2019.

Before we got into the matches, though, NJPW said goodbye to Jyushin Thunder Liger as a professional wrestler with his retirement ceremony opening the show. This was an emotional affair – it made Hiroshi Tanahashi cry! – and even though I didn’t rule out a beatdown for Liger from Jay White or KENTA, I’m glad this was more legitimate given Liger’s status. He deserved to out this way, in front of his wife and son, his mother, his awe-inspired colleagues and a legion of fans who happily sang along to every word of his theme – it’s been stuck in my head all day and I love it.

A six-man tag between the Japan and LA Dojos then kicked the matches off and was won by the trio of Fredericks, Coughlin and Connors, but what was following was what everyone wanted to see. Truth be told this show wasn’t even about the matches, as solid and entertaining as they may be, this was all about the set-up for the future. And the first main roster match seemed to do exactly that as far as the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championships are concerned. In a rare four-way tag team match, BUSHI accidentally helped former champions, Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo, get a win over SHO and YOH by spitting the dreaded mist into their faces. It’s possible this could set up an instant Wrestle Kingdom rematch, but I can’t help but think we’ll be seeing an LIJ duo involved in the match given BUSHI’s involvement in the finish. The only question is whether it’ll be Hiromu or Shingo teaming with him, as we know they’ll both be in singles action during The New Beginning Tour – more on Shingo in a minute.

After the new IWGP Junior Tag Team Champions competed, we had a chance to see the new IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champs in action as FinJuice teamed with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi to face the Bullet Club foursome of GoD, Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens. It was a much needed win for Ibushi, who got the pin over Chase, after going 0-2 over the weekend, and in return he’ll be getting an immediate title match as he and Tana then proceeded to challenge Juice and Finlay for their titles. I mentioned in my Wrestle Kingdom 14 review that I was very interested to see where these two would be heading after their losses to Okada and Jay White and Chris Jericho, and this is a fresh story and fresh match up that I’m really looking forward to watching. The IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships have been treated as something of an afterthought in recent years, but all of a sudden they’ve become main event calibre titles as a result of Tana and Ibushi being involved in the picture.

I’m not going to say exactly the same about the NEVER Openweight Championship, but similarly I find myself thinking it’s currently more important than it has been in ages – strange I know seeing as KENTA and Ishii have recently held it – and that’s primarily the case because of the four stars involved in this particular tag as well as the match we’ll probably be getting either later in the month or at the start of February. Goto and Ishii vs Shingo and EVIL was the most hard-hitting match on the card, and it was also the best, ending with Shingo pinning the champion in an excellent conclusion that featured his brutal take on the GTR. Four matches into this show and with three potential matches for the future booked, times are exciting in New Japan.

It’s definitely exciting if, like me, you’re really hyped about seeing Jon Moxley vs Minoru Suzuki in the coming weeks, and we got another taster of it on this show following a train wreck (in every way but the in-ring quality of the match) of an eight-man tag between CHAOS and Suzuki-gun that seemed to set up a couple of matches for The New Beginning. Seeing ZSJ defend the British Heavyweight Championship against notable rival Will Ospreay should be great if their interactions before, during and after are anything to go by, and while Taichi isn’t going to be a peak Okada opponent, he’s proven in the last two years to be a very reliable opponent after Wrestle Kingdom for a top star killing some time before he gets back in the main event. It was Taichi who caused the finish for the match, hitting Okada with Iizuka’s iron claw for the DQ and creating further ructions. Just before he was about to finish The New Ace off though was when Moxley entered the arena and had another interaction with Suzuki(!!!) On this occasion the new IWGP United States Champion got a lot more offence in, mocking Suzuki’s strikes while Suzuki (as per usual) mocked his, before hitting The King with a Death Rider that is only a little bit of payback for the choke and Gotch on Sunday. The way these New Beginning cards are shaping up is absolutely brilliant, I just hope the majority of these potential matches are confirmed to actually happen.

What doesn’t need anymore confirmation is what will be the main event of The New Beginning Tour, Tetsuya Naito’s first defence of his two major IWGP Championships against KENTA, who he faced in a tag match here. Naito teamed with SANADA, KENTA with Jay White and this was only a teaser of the emotionally charged match to come later on. Both men were very aggressive towards one another in this one and it really helped building the tension of the story if it wasn’t high enough already. I certainly can’t remember hearing a reaction like the one KENTA got as he made his entrance for this match. Even when Japanese crowds don’t like someone – Jay White, Taichi etc. – there may be “wo kaere” (“go home”) chants, but I’ve never heard them actively booing a wrestler like this. It’s mint! As for the other two men, they’re the ones who were involved in the finish, with SANADA picking up a massive win by pinning The Switchblade. I feel this will be a big year for the only member of LIJ not currently holding a championship, and this may have been the start of it. It’ll just be interesting to see whether he beats Jay in their singles match on the upcoming tour, as Jay made the challenge during his and KENTA’s beatdowns of the two Ingobernables. This followed up on Sunday’s somewhat deflating ending by ending Wrestle Kingdom season on a down note, but if that means we’re likely to get stellar New Beginning cards and more, I think I’ll take New Year Dash! being one for the villains in the future, especially if they’re great villains like Jay White and KENTA!

Jay White, Gedo and KENTA may be one step ahead of Naito and the rest at present, but times are really good in New Japan – I’m glad that once again they’ve strengthened despite the loss of a top star last year – and it only promises to get even better as the year goes on.