AEW Wrestlers Issue Challenges for NJPW New Beginning USA

AEW stars are heading to New Japan.

After the Knockout Brothers successfully retained the IWGP Tag Team titles against Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura on Wednesday, Ricochet and GOA appeared on the video screen. Ricochet said that they would be taking over New Beginning USA and called out Taiji Ishimori for an AEW National Championship match. Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona,  meanwhile, said they smelled blood in the water and would be going after YUTO-ICE and Oskar.

Ricochet became the first-ever National Champion back at Full Gear, winning a Casino Gauntlet match. Since then he has defended the title in other promotions, defeating CMLL’s Titan back on January 16 and in ROH at Final Battle, defeating Dalton Castle. On the February 4 edition of Dynamite, he successfully defended the title against Jack Perry.

Here is the updated lineup for New Beginning USA:

NJPW New Beginning USA (February 27)

• IWGP Global title: Yota Tsuji defends against Andrade El Idolo
• AEW National title: Ricochet defends against Taiji Ishimori
• IWGP Tag Team titles: Knockout Brothers defend against GOA
• NJPW Strong Openweight title: Tomohiro Ishii defends against Boltin Oleg
• IWGP Women’s title: Syuri defends against Athena
• NJPW World TV title: El Phantasmo defends against Konosuke Takeshita

Bryan Rose

Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.