Shelly Deathlock cares too much about Japanese wrestling and, as Captain of the S.S. Strong Style, she’s here to welcome you on board and fill you in on what’s going on in the world of puro. This time, you’re all her Valentines.

I wondered for a bit who was going to put up a Valentine’s Day themed breakdown of the New Beginning in Sendai show before I realized that this falls squarely in the Wrestling On Earth wheelhouse, which means I must be the one who has to write it, SO:

NJPW’s The New Beginning in Sendai

On Saturday, February 14th, at 6:00 PM Japan time, 4:00 AM Eastern, New Japan Pro Wrestling presents THE NEW BEGINNING IN SENDAI live exclusively on NJPWWorld. This card features a few title matches, some of which will be great, and a bunch of tag matches because why not make everyone work for their money?

See below for a match-by match breakdown, and to see all the custom Valentine cards I’ve made for you. They’re all for you. You’re all my Valentines here on the S.S. Strong Style (Love Boat Edition). Feel free to steal them and give them to someone you love (YOU CAN CLICK THROUGH TO BIGGER VERSIONS OF THE LITTLE ONES, JUST SAYING). Here’s a preview:

Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma & Yohei Komatsu vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan & Sho Tanaka

Breakdown: Basically – a tag match for the NJPW Young Lions Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu to get some ring time with some legends (Kojima, Honma, and Nakanishi) and Captain New Japan (because Tenzan is busy fighting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship I assume).

The Young Lions are great and we’re all very excited for their excursion and subsequent returns to take over the whole promotion to the surprise of NO ONE who saw their excellent singles match at the New Beginning in Osaka the other day.

Kaomoji excitement level rating for this match: (♥_♥)

Tiger Mask & Jay White vs. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish

Breakdown: Jay White is the very new Young Lion that we all just learned about this year. reDRag0n have been doing nothing but delivering great matches in NJPW and this should be no exception. It’ll be fun to see what this kid is made of in the ring with Kyle & Bobby.

Kaomoji excitement level rating for this match: ヾ（＾ヮ＾)ﾉ

Special Six Man Tag Match: Mascara Dorada, Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA vs. Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson

Breakdown: Mascara Dorada signed a one year contract with NJPW so it’s great to see them using him already. I’m not too familiar with his work in CMLL but he was great on the Fantasticamania show that NJPW puts on jointly with CMLL.

The Bullet Club half of the team currently hold the IWGP junior heavyweight title (Kenny Omega) and the IWGP jr heavyweight tag titles (The Young Bucks), so they will come to the ring all cocky and dripping with gold and too-sweets and crotch-chops and super kicks and whatnots. Hopefully Dorada & the Time Splitters can beat the snot out of them.

Kaomoji excitement level rating for this match: b(~_^)d Continue reading →