The New Beginning in Hiroshima (2021)

**The New Beginning in Hiroshima (2021)** was a two-day professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The events took place on February 10 and 11, 2021, in Hiroshima at Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall. Both nights featured six matches, with the first night featuring one and the second two of which were contested for championships. The first night was main evented by Hiromu Takahashi defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Sho, while the second night was main evented by Kota Ibushi defending the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships against SANADA.

This was the eleventh event under the New Beginning name and the second under the New Beginning in Hiroshima name. Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the tour had some restrictions in the attendance, after the Japanese Government lifted the State of Emergency.

## Production

### Background

The event aired worldwide on NJPW's internet streaming site, New Japan Pro Wrestling World, with English commentary provided by Kevin Kelly and Chris Charlton. The event was announced on January 4, 2020 in the first night of Wrestle Kingdom 15 in Tokyo Dome and it was also announced that the event would be held in the Osaka-jō Hall in the event's history.

### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, other wrestling promotions began to cancel or postpone their shows in an attempt to prevent further spreading of the COVID-19 virus. At the end of February, following recommendations by the Japanese Ministry of Health regarding the coronavirus outbreak, NJPW canceled the events between March 1 and March 15 including the promotion's Anniversary Event and the first and the second round of New Japan Cup. On March 23, NJPW also canceled the 2020 Sakura Genesis event, which was originally scheduled to take place on March 31. On April 8, NJPW canceled more events from April 11 through May 4, leading to the cancelation of both nights of 2020 Wrestling Dontaku and would also cancel the whole Best of the Super Juniors tournament as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on May 6. Various wrestlers such as David Finlay, El Phantasmo, KENTA, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa), Jay White, Juice Robinson, Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, and Robbie Eagles were unable to work on NJPW events due to travel restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, NJPW wrestlers and staff created the *NJPW Together* project in order to do bring content to NJPW World with interviews and old archived matches. On May 6, NJPW announced that their Wrestle Dynasty event would be postponed to 2021, due to the effects of the 2019-20 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On June 8, during an online press conference, NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced that the promotion would start to held shows on June 15, starting with the *Together Project Special* and the return of the 2020 New Japan Cup between June 16 and July 11, with all shows being held behind closed doors. It was also that the finals of the New Japan Cup and the Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall would be the first shows to allow fans into the arena, but only a third of the venue's normal capacity, after the Japanese Government lifted some restrictions on many regions in Japan.

### Storylines

The New Beginning in Hiroshima featured five professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The first night of the event was main evented by Kota Ibushi defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Sho. On January 5, 2021, on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 15 in Tokyo Dome, Hiromu Takahashi defeated Taiji Ishimori to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the fourth time. Afterwards, in a post match press conference, Takahashi nominated Sho as his next challenger for his title, after Sho had defeated him in December 2020, during the 2020 Best of the Super Juniors.

The second night of the event was main evented by Kota Ibushi defending the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships against SANADA. Also on January 5 on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 15, Ibushi made his first successfull title defense of the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships against Jay White. After the match, Ibushi was challenged to a title match by SANADA. Following the event, Ibushi expressed his ambitions of unifying the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships. Ibushi had previously defeated SANADA on October 18 in the finals to win the 2020 G1 Climax.

The *Los Ingobernables de Japon* angle resulted in The New Beginning in Hiroshima also featuring other prominent matches featuring the stable. On January 6, 2021 at *New Year Dash*, Ibushi, Sho, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Master Wato, Rocky Romero faced *Los Ingobernables de Japon* (Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, and Tetsuya Naito) in a losing effort, with Wato being pinned by BUSHI. Afterwards, BUSHI nominated Master Wato as his next target.

On December 11, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) defeated FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) to win the 2020 World Tag League. On January 4, 2021, on the first night of Wrestle Kingdom 15 in Tokyo Dome, the Guerrillas of Destiny defeated *Dangerous Tekkers* (Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr.) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship, after Tonga performed the *Iron Finger from Hell* on Taichi. Their feud continued two days later at *New Year Dash*, with the Guerrillas of Destiny teaming with their Bullet Club stablemates El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori to face Dangerous Tekkers and their Suzuki-gun stablemates El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru with Phantasmo pinning Kanemaru. Afterwards, Ishimori and Phantasmo posed with Desperado and Kanemaru's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships belts. Meanwhile, the Guerrillas of Destiny stole Taichi's *Iron Finger from Hell*.

The event also included a match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, with CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, and Yoshi-Hashi) defending their titles against Bullet Club (Jay White, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa). On January 5, 2021, on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 15 in Tokyo Dome, White who was frustrated about his loss, stated that "maybe [his] time should be spent some place else", adding that he was leaving the promotion on January 6 at *New Year Dash*. At the *New Year Dash*, White teamed with Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, EVIL, and Yujiro Takahashi, losing to CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano and Yoshi-Hashi in an eight-man tag team match, with White being pinned by Ishii. However, despite the rumors, on February 1, White made his return to the promotion attacking Tomohiro Ishii. The following day, following a eight-man tag team match between Bullet Club and CHAOS, White and the Guerrillas of Destiny challenged Goto, Ishii, and Yoshi-Hashi to a title match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.

## Results

### Night 1

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6

* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match