New Japan Pro Wrestling has reached the conclusion of the New Years Golden Series and will be presenting a two night finale, full of huge title matches. On the 19th, Hiroshi Tanahashi defends his IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against SANADA, in The Ace’s first defense of the US Title. The next night will see another chapter written in the epic poem that has been the rivalry between Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito.
Okada and Naito have had 10 matches against each other, and stand at 5 wins and 5 losses a piece. This 11th showdown between the two will truly cement who is the better man. The IWGP World Heavyweight Championship they’ll be fighting for is secondary, even Tetsuya Naito has said so. They’ll be fighting for the face of the next 50 years of NJPW history, to be the face that stands alongside Antonio Inoki as the two faces of NJPW’s century. As Inoki is the face and the standard of the last 50 years, the winner of Feb. 20th’s main event will likely be the face and standard of the next 50 years.
NJPW heads into its 50th anniversary celebration on shaky ground. The newly-minted IWGP World Heavyweight Championship is best described as “divisive” and the past two years of ever-changing pandemic restrictions, and a roster plagued by injuries has taken a toll on the company. In a perfect world, it feels as though Kota Ibushi was supposed to take the torch from the Naitos and Okadas of the world, but a brutal injury in October’s G1 Climax finals has taken Ibushi out of competition. Feb. 20th’s match between Okada and Naito, as well as Feb. 19th’s main event between SANADA & Tanahashi, are good, logical main events, but they’re also safe main events.
SANADA might be the most to prove of the four main eventers this weekend. Since losing in the finals of the 2020 G1 Climax, SANADA has hit something of a ceiling for himself. He spent much of 2021 tagging with Tetsuya Naito in one of the standout tag teams of the year, but when it came time to say goodnight to the crowd he almost-literally hid behind Naito’s charisma. Once thought to be the next face of NJPW, SANADA now finds himself in a race against time.The longer it takes SANADA to win his first singles title in the company, the more his star fades.
To get to the top tier of NJPW, it’s a long road. It’s a long and narrow way. The fans and NJPW have dug their way down to SANADA, and SANADA’s going to have to work his way up to them someday.
SEE ALSO: NJPW New Years Golden Series Results (1/20) (2/11) (2/13) (2/15)
In lighter news, Minoru Suzuki and Toru Yano are going to try to lock one another in a man-sized dog cage. The fans had a choice for a Dog Cage Match or a Handcuff Match for Feb. 20th’s KOPW 2022 match, and the dog cage won out. It should be a thrilling, dehumanizing battle. Both men have treated each other like animals over the course of the New Years Golden Series tour, and it can be assumed the dog cage will not be able to contain this rabid feud.
House of Torture continues their war against CHAOS as they’ll challenge for YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto’s IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles on Feb. 19th, and then turn around and defend their own NEVER 6-Man Titles against Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH.
The House of Torture and CHAOS rivalry took on a new edge over the course of January and February, as CHAOS has finally figured out how to fight back against the many run-ins of Dick Togo and his gang of hoodlums. With the outside advantage neutralized, House of Torture’s matches have become much more even affairs than the one-sided trolling of 2021.
YOH and SHO have spent much of January and February beating the hell out of each other. What started at Wrestle Grand Slam last year, has quickly boiled over into 2022, and become a sincere blood feud. While SHO & YOH are set to clash this weekend in the House of Torture/CHAOS war, it doesn’t feel like this rivalry will be over for a long time.
Other highlights from this upcoming weekend include a good ol’ fashioned Jr. Heavyweight four-way tag match for the IWGP Jr. Tag Titles. Calling back to the days of Timesplitters, reDragon, Forever Hooligans, The Young Bucks, and others, the Feb. 19th clash is likely to be a wild, frenzied affair between Flying Tigers, BCCTT, Six or Nine, and Suzuki-gun’s Desperado & Kanemaru. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI will likely be waiting in the wings to challenge the winners, as they’re seemingly the only Jr. Heavyweight tag team not in this match.
Here’s the full cards for both nights:
2/19
NJPW New Years Golden Series
3am ET on NJPWWorld.com
- Togi Makabe & Kosei Fujita vs. Suzuki-gun (TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI)
- Toru Yano & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Taichi)
- CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & YOH) vs. House of Torture (Dick Togo & SHO)
- Great-O-Khan vs. Tomoaki Honma
- Kazuchika Okada, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI)
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: Flying Tigers (Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask) (c) vs. Bullet Club’s Cutest Tag Team (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) vs. Six or Nine (Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
- IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto) (c) vs. House of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi)
- IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. SANADA
2/20
NJPW New Years Golden Series
12am ET on NJPWWorld.com
- Master Wato, Rysuke Taguchi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & TAKA Michinoku)
- Robbie Eagles, Tiger Mask & Kosei Fujita vs. Bullet Club (El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori & Jado)
- Tomohiro Ishii & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & DOUKI)
- Great-O-Khan vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi)
- KOPW 2022 Dog Cage Match (Winner Must Trap Their Opponent In A Dog Cage To Win): Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Toru Yano
- NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Championship Match: House of Torture (EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO) vs. CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH)
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Tonight!
The first of two massive cards in Sapporo!
Three championship matches highlight a massive event LIVE in English on @njpwworld!https://t.co/0jrCaG7e86#njpw #njgolden pic.twitter.com/VFoyXqsBbq
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) February 18, 2022
