Gaffney Match Chronicles Volume 3: The New Beginning USA '26

Over the weekend, New Japan Pro Wrestling ran one of their two shows in the United States this year, The New Beginning USA, in Trenton, New Jersey's Cure Center; headlined by IWGP Heavweight and Global Champion Yota Tsuji defending the latter title against AEW's Andrade El Idolo, but there were a couple of other matches on this card that piqued my interest. Those are the two matches preceding that main event in the form of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team and IWGP Women's Championship title clashes. With that in mind, no retro review match this week, as we're taking a look at both of those matches right now!!!

The Knock Out Brothers (Yuto-Ice and Oskar) vs. The Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona) for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships

The second that New Japan announced this match, I couldn't have been more excited. GOA; one of the most exciting, big hoss tag teams in AEW, vs. what is almost certainly the best tag team on the planet today in the Knock Out Brothers, who've been scorching hot ever since they returned from their multi-year exursion across Europe last August. Their feud with Yuya Uemura and Shota Umino has been one of New Japan's better offerings over the last half year or so, never mind their excellent New Year's Dash bout against the World Tag League winners Zack Sabre Jr. and Ryohei Oiwa.

This wasn't a match I was expecting to be akin to a ballet, and I'm happy to say I got what I was hoping for: four angry dudes beating the dogsh*t out of each other for about 18 minutes. Tons of physicality throughout this one, and I was a big fan of the sequences we got of Oskar and Toa Liona, with Oskar getting off a legitimately impressive delayed powerslam, which got followed up not super far after by Liona hitting a fallaway slam carrying both Oskar and Yuto-Ice. Needless to say, the big, well...bigger man, of GOA was a standout in this one.

Another simply tremendous spot here, further down the line, was Liona doing a disrespectful kick to back of Yuto-Ice's head to break up a pin, gets him up, grabs him by the neck and screams something at him (couldn't really tell what), beals him into the ropes, and then Yuto-Ice spits in his face before they go into some crazy slap exchanges. This is the hatred I'm looking for in my pro wrestling; it almost brought a tear to my eye. Then Liona cuts this off with a superkick, and then threatens the ref, who sells crazy for the "boy I oughta" fist raise, which popped me huge.

That essentially takes us to the finishing stretch, where Liona is neutralized after taking a sleeper, heavy forearm shot, and German suplex in succession, which forces Bishop Kaun into the mix, and after a couple of tries, KOB hits the KOB (tombstone piledriver, kick to the head combo) for the three. While not the best match for either team's catalog this year, I'm glad we got this matchup nevertheless, and by no means was it bad; very far from it, in fact. Hard to really say anyone would be close to Ice and Oskar in the tag team of the year race two months in.

The Gaffney Rating: 3.75 Stars

Syuri vs. Athena for the IWGP Women's Championship

Another match on this card that, when it was announced, had near instantaneous buzz and for good reason. It doesn't get a ton more legit in the Joshi scene than Syuri Kondo, a one-time Strawweight Champion in Japanese MMA outfit Pancrese with four UFC bouts under her belt (1-3), who's held World Championship gold in Stardom and CMLL before winning the IWGP Women's Championship twice last year. Really hard to also say how good Athena is period, and while I could probably go on for a good bit about how she should be a full-time fixture on AEW TV, it's performances like this that remind folks that she's a top dog in women's wrestling, and has been for years.

The crowd in Trenton was revved up for this one immediately, and I liked the feeling-out part that revolved around Syuri getting Athena rattled/frustrated during mat work. Athena turns the tide, however, after getting to the ringside after escaping an armbar attempt, and then after stopping a tilt-a-whirl DDT attempt, ragdolls Syuri into the barricades so hard it was unbelievable. Huge fan of the Low Ki-ian Razzle Dazzle forearm attempt, the corner splash-running forearm combo, and the headlock swing Athena broke out once things got back in the ring.

Ultimately, though, as physical as both women are in this one, Syuri's path to victory comes in the form of working the arms of Athena, who does some really sick work countering some submission offense with some powerbombs. Her one real shot to steal the win was with a tombstone piledriver, which she only gets a two, and the genuine shock on her face is tremendous (seen above). We go home here a minute or so later with Syuri's Syu-Sekai (essentially an Emerald Flowsion with a One-Winged Angel setup, which is as cool as it sounds). Hard to really say much else other than this is comfortably one of the five best matches I've seen in 2026, and Athena needs to be a fixture on AEW, not ROH TV, moving forward. Nevermind the fact that Syuri is as good as it gets in the Joshi scene.

The Gaffney Rating: 4.5 Stars