NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo 2024 Night 2 Results – Feb. 24, 2024 – Tetsuya Naito vs. SANADA

February 24, 2024
Sapporo, Japan – Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell
English Commentary: Walker Stewart and Chris Charlton

Quick Match Results

1. Pre-show: Frontier Zone match – Tomoya & Toru Yano defeated Katsuya Murashima & Tomoaki Honma via SOD (pinfall 7:48)
2. Boltin Oleg, YOH, Togi Makabe, El Desperado, & Shota Umino defeated House of Torture (Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, SHO, & EVIL) via Death Rider (pinfall 7:50)
   • Following the match, YOH grabbed the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and taunted SHO on the stage leading to SHO chasing YOH to the back.
   • Following El Despderado leaving the ring, the lights went off and when it came back on a video aired featuring a message from “Scapegoat” Jack Perry directed at Umino. This led to an angry response from Umino who stated that he will “beat his ass.”
3. YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & Kazuchika Okada defeated United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, & Jeff Cobb) & Matt Riddle via Rainmaker (pinfall 11:34)
   • Following the match, Okada stood in the ring with his CHAOS teammates and gave hugs to all of them and waved to the crowd. Okada then grabbed a microphone and gave speech hyping up New Japan’s future and promised that he would see them again in a New Japan ring in the future. Okada then bowed to the crowd and waved goodbye before leaving the ring.
4. Special Guest Referee match – (El Phantasmo & Hikuleo) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga) via Godsend (pinfall 14:04)
   • Prior to the start of the match, GoD’s Jado came out wearing a referee’s shirt to be the special guest referee for the match.
   • Following the match, El Phantasmo helped Tonga up in the middle of the ring and a tearful Tonga basked in the ovation from the crowd. All of GoD raised their hands one last time as a full group and all except Tonga left the ring so that Tong could get one last moment in the spotlight while the crowd cheered on. Tonga then left the ring and waved to the crowd and gave one final bow before heading to the back.
5. Ryusuke Taguchi & Nic Nemeth defeated Gedo & David Finlay via Danger Zone (pinfall 7:43)
   • Following the match, Nemeth gave a promo issuing a challange to Hiroshi Tanahashi to face him for his IWGP Global Championship. Tananashi who was sitting at the Japanese commentary table responded accepting the match offer.
6. BUSHI defeated TAKA Michinoku via Codebreaker (pinfall 9:13)
7. DOUKI defeated Hiromu Takahashi via Suplex De La Luna (pinfall 14:45)
8. Taichi defeated Shingo Takagi via Dangerous Backdrop Hold (pinfall 14:45)
9. Hair vs. Hair match – Yota Tsuji defeated Yuya Uemura via Gene Blast (pinfall 28:20)
   • Following the match, Uemura had his hair cut by Tsuji as per the stipulation for losing the match.
10. IWGP World Heavyweight Championship – Tetsuya Naito (c) defeated SANADA via Tornado DDT and Inside Cradle combo (pinfall 24:05)
    • Following the match, Naito gave a show closing promo to the crowd and called for Kazuchika Okada to come out to the ring. Naito thanked Okada for his final night in New Japan and offered him the LIJ salute, which Okada responded back giving the LIJ fist only for Naito to then spit in his face as a joke. The two then had a bit of a playful scramble before Okada left the ring for one last time for his New Japan career.