His recent win over Kenny Omega put Andrade El Ídolo one step away from an AEW World title match at next month’s Revolution PPV. A victory at Grand Slam Australia this weekend makes Andrade the #1 contender
for MJF’s AEW World title.
And thanks to a victory over Gabe Kidd today (Feb. 10) at New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s The New Beginning in Osaka event, Andrade could head into that March 15 show in Los Angeles as IWGP Global champion.
El Ídolo returned to New Japan around the start of this year, after resolving his WWE non-compete issues and before re-returning to AEW. He joined United Empire, and helped the stable win their tag match at Wrestle Kingdom 20. Kidd challenged him for the Osaka show, and put up a fight no-sellig the former La Sombra’s famous “tranquilo” taunt.
But the spinning backfist/DM combination AEW fans have seen a few times in the past month won the day for the Mexican star. He’ll now challenge reigning Global champ Yota Tsuji, who is also the IWGP Heavyweight champion (he successfully defended the Heavyweight belt against Jake Lee on today’s show). That match is set for NJPW’s return to the United States, Feb. 27 in Trenton, New Jersey at The New Beginning in USA.
Earlier in today’s show, another AEW act made a move in NJPW. After Knockout Bros OSKAR & Yuto-Ice’s successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag titles over Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura, The Demand made some demands via satellite. AEW National champion Ricochet wants to face Taiji Ishimori for his belt in Jersey. His guys in GoA, Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun, are coming after Knockout Bros and their belts on that same show.
Here are the full results from The New Beginning in Osaka, which featured a fairly stunning title change when Olympic gold medalist and highly-touted prospect Aaron Wolf lost the NEVER Openweight title he just won in the Tokyo Dome last month. It took a House of Torture screwjob to do it. Before Wolf’s match with Ren Narita, HoT’s DOUKI, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, and Dick Togo attacked the Olympian. Wolf fought them off until Togo choked him out, and made him easy pickings for Narita:
- Togi Makabe & Toru Yano def. Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato in 8:16
- Hiromu Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori def. Francesco Akira & Jakob Austin Young in 9:40
- Drilla Moloney & Shingo Takagi def. Great-O-Khan & HENARE in 9:24
- YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Boltin Oleg def. Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson to retain the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team championship in 12:21
- Andrade El Idolo def. Gabe Kidd to become the #1 contender for the IWGP Global Heavyweight title in 14:23
- Callum Newman def. David Finlay in 13:55
- Ren Narita def. Aaron Wolf to win the NEVER Openweight championship in 2:08
- OSKAR & Yuto-Ice def. Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura to retain the IWGP Tag Team championship in 19:37
- Yota Tsuji def. Jake Lee to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in 23:40
And with those results, the updated card for The New Beginning in USA looks like:
- Yota Tsuji (c) vs. Andrade El Idolo for the IWGP Global title
- Ricochet (c) vs. Taiji Ishimori for the AEW National title
- Knockout Brothers (c) vs. GOA for the IWGP Tag Team titles
- Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Boltin Oleg for the NJPW Strong Openweight title
- Syuri (c) vs. Athena for the IWGP Women’s title
- El Phantasmo (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the NJPW World TV title
Does any or all that have you excited for the next couple months in New Japan?
