NJPW New Beginning In Sapporo 2024 Day One Results

Day one of NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan was a good night for former WWE talents.

Nic Nemeth made his New Japan Pro-Wrestling in-ring debut in the main event of the February 23 show and he walked away with gold, defeating David Finlay to become the new IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion in a shock result.

Finlay dominated the vast majority of the match, gaining the upper hand even before the bell rang after he attacked the former Dolph Ziggler from behind. Nemeth had a brief flurry of offence but he was soon hobbled after Finlay targeted the challenger's leg and the Bullet Club leader looked set to retain after he connected with Oblivion. Nemeth managed to kick out, though, and with the NJPW crowd firmly behind him, he blocked a second Oblivion attempt from Finlay and followed up with a Superkick and the Danger Zone (FKA ZigZag) for the 1-2-3.

Nemeth looks set to be in action tomorrow night too as he requested for Hiroshi Tanahashi to be his tag team partner.

The semi-main event saw another former WWE talent in Matt Riddle capture the NJPW World Television Championship, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi. Riddle decisively defeated Tanahashi too in only his second NJPW match, pinning the company president after only eight minutes with the Bro-Derek.

There was a third title change on day one of the New Beginning in Sapporo as SHO defeated El Desperado by count-out to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Desperado was robbed of the title after SHO's House of Torture faction mate and Despe's former friend Ren Narita arrived from under the ring and locked the then-champion in a Rear-Naked Choke. This prevented Despe from getting back in the ring before the 20 count and he lost his title as a result.

Another high-profile match ended with victory for House of Torture as interference from Dick Togo and Yujiro Takahashi helped EVIL retain the NEVER Openweight Championship over Shota Umino, with the champion scoring the successful title defence following Everything is EVIL. Mayu Iwatani also successfully defended the IWGP Women's Title against Mina Shirakawa.

Elsewhere, NJPW held their usual slate of multi-man matches, with Kazuchika Okada in action for his penultimate New Japan match before he leaves the company. The Rainmaker is expected to land in All Elite Wrestling. In the opening contest, Zack Sabre Jr. continued his hot streak with a win over Yuji Nagata.

Full NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo 2024 Day One results:

• Zack Sabre Jr. def. Yuji Nagata
• House of Torture (Ren Narita, Yujiro Takahashi, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. Boltin Oleg, Togi Makabe, & Ryusuke Taguchi
• CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, YOH, & YOSHI-HASHI def. United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb, Francesco Akira, & Callum Newman)
• Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi, & BUSHI) def. Just 5 Guys (SANADA, Taichi, Yuya Uemura, DOUKI, & TAKA Michinoku)
• Mayu Iwatani (c) def. Mina Shirakawa - IWGP Women’s Championship 
• SHO def. El Desperado (c)  - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 
• EVIL (c) def. Shota Umino - NEVER Openweight Championship 
• Matt Riddle def. Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) - NJPW World TV Championship
• Nic Nemeth def. David Finlay (c) - IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship