Yota Tsuji and Jake Lee Have an Open Debate on NJPW Road to The New Beginning Day 10

By Noah Leatherland

NJPW were in the Osaka Edion Arena #2 for their final Road to The New Beginning event. While there tends to be plenty of jaw-jacking and fiery comments in the build up to major events, Yota Tsuji and Jake Lee took a much more civil approach to their final encounter before their match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Trios action saw Tsuji ride into battle with Gedo and David Finlay, while Lee was joined by Callum Newman and Francesco Akira. Lee led the United Empire to victory, winning the final match before The New Beginning in Osaka on February 11th. Following the match, Lee brought two chairs into the ring and invited Tsuji to join him for a chat.

Their full conversation was posted with English subtitles on the NJPW World X account, and is also transcribed in part below:

Lee: All the preview matches are done, and that just leaves our title match. But I want to ask you. You really went to break my knees today, didn’t you?

 

Tsuji: You think so? If I were trying to, you wouldn’t be able to walk right now.

 

Lee: Point taken. I don’t know if you guys saw it, but we talked backstage the other day. You invited me to Unbound Co. because you knew Hiromu was leaving, right? You had that in mind when you made the proposition, didn’t you, champion?

 

Tsuji: Sorry, Jake. That’s not how I think of you. I can’t forgive you for what you did to me in the Tokyo Dome. But I’ll get you back on February 11. If you can put that behind you, I think you’re a hell of a wrestler. Are you really happy with EMPIRE? Jake, you don’t cover a lie with a second one. Tell me the truth. What are you hiding? Where’s the lie? I still don’t know. What are you hiding under that mask?

 

Lee: Oh, that would be so dull to say. Let’s save something for February 11. Champion, thank you for today.

Here are the full results for NJPW Road to The New Beginning Day 10, courtesy of purolove.com:

• Hiromu Takahashi def. Masatora Yasuda (6:50)
• Tiger Mask & Katsuya Murashima def. Tomoaki Honma & Shoma Kato (8:23)
• Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita def. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Oleg Boltin & Ryusuke Taguchi (13:41)
• Ren Narita, Yujiro Takahashi, DOUKI & Dick Togo def. Aaron Wolf, Toru Yano, YOH & Master Wato (10:25)
• Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura & El Desperado def. Yuto-Ice, OSKAR & Daiki Nagai (11:36)
• Drilla Moloney, Hiromu Takahashi, Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X def. Great-O-Khan, HENARE, Jakob Austin Young & Zane Jay (13:53)
• Jake Lee, Callum Newman & Francesco Akira def. Yota Tsuji, David Finlay & Gedo (14:11)