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Main Event: IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
Yota Tsuji © vs Andrade El Idol
Following a gripping victory over Gabe Kidd at New Beginning in Osaka, Andrade El Idolo earned his right to challenge Yota Tsuji for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship, opening the door for a first-time main event here in Trenton.
During Tsuji's post-match comments in Osaka, Andrade approached Tsuji backstage and acknowledged the double Global and Heavyweight Champion's antagonistic attitude to Andrade's home promotion in AEW. While Andrade is coming for every title in professional wrestling, Tsuji was fired up by the prospect of dismantling the All Elite roster starting with El Idolo in New Jersey, setting a high stakes scene to come.
While champion and challenger have never faced off before, they both share the same 'Unbound' spirit. Many years before becoming the financial backer for United Empire, Andrade wrestled as La Sombra in CMLL, where he was a former IWGP Intercontinental Champion. In 2015, it was La Sombra who invited one Tetsuya Naito into his faction Los Ingobernables, begetting Los Ingobernables De Japon and shaping the future of Yota Tsuji when he finally joined NJPW. Now, Tsuji leads the Unbound Co., and Andrade is a CFO for United Empire in his own right. As the Unbound and the Empire continue to collide, who will leave New Jersey with a key symbol of power for NJPW on the international stage?
Match 7: IWGP Women’s Championship
Syuri © vs Athena
Another double champion defending one of her titles in Trenton is Syuri. When a message from ROH Women's Champion Athena saw her announce that she was heading to New Beginning USA and was challenging Syuri for the IWGP Women's Championship. That challenge has been accepted and now the two will face off at NJPW's first US card of 2026!
Athena has been unstoppable as ROH Women's Champion, the 'Forever Champ' capturing the title way back in December 2022 and dominating the Ring of Honor scene for well over three years since. Syuri however has proven she has means of beating the seemingly unbeatable; at Wrestle Kingdom 20 she stopped the dominance of 2025 pro-wrestling MVP Saya Kamitani to become double IWGP and STRONG Women's Champion. Will it be Athena who leaves Trenton as a double champion, or can Syuri pick up her second defense of the IWGP gold?
Match 6: IWGP Tag Team Championship
Knockout Brothers © vs GOA
It was an intense and memorable battle at New Beginning in Osaka that saw OSKAR and Yuto-Ice move to V3 with a stunning defense, continuing a hot streak for incredible competition over the IWGP Tag Team Championships and cementing it as arguably the most gripping division in professional wrestling today. Teams from all over the world are taking aim at the IWGP tag titles, and in the moments after the Osaka semi main event, the latest contenders revealed themselves.
Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona last wrestled in NJPW back during the 2024 World Tag League, but with a hot streak of their own in AEW as part of the Ricochet led faction The Demand, they're looking to make a bigger mark in Trenton. The 'We've become stronger, dangerous sharks', the Gates of Agony remarked in a powerful video message, 'and we smell blood in the water'. Their work will be cut out for them in the face of the awesome Knockout Brothers who GOA last saw while they were still Young Lions. On February 27, will it be NJPW or AEW's tag representatives who prove stronger?
Match 5: NJPW World TV Championship
El Phantasmo © vs Konosuke Takeshita
The first NJPW title officially set to be defended on US soil in 2026 will be the NJPW World TV Championship as Konosuke Takeshita challenges El Phantasmo. Phantasmo and Takeshita topped and tailed Wrestle Kingdom with ELP picking up a successful defense of his TV gold in the kickoff at the Tokyo Dome, while Takeshita fell in defeat in the semi-main event, losing his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to Yota Tsuji.
The night after WK20 saw ELP and Takeshita locking horns at New Year Dash, where tensions flared anew between the two competitors. This will be the fifth singles meeting between the two, with Takeshita scoring a pair of wins over ELP, including in the US at last year's Resurgence card. Phantasmo, for his part, has recorded a defense of World TV gold over the Alpha, but only via time limit draw last May at Dontaku. It seemed as if victory over Takeshita would remain out of ELP's reach until G1 opening weekend in Sapporo last summer, where Phantasmo finally got the win over Takeshita in 15 minutes and two seconds of match time.
There are 15-minute time limits on every NJPW World TV title match, meaning if their G1 Climax 35 bout had been under TV title rules, it would have ended in another draw. ELP will not be playing for time in Trenton but rather looking to retain his title with a clean win. For Takeshita meanwhile, capturing the TV title would add a new dimension to his international television footprint; who will claim the gold at New Beginning USA?
Match 4: El Desperado & KUSHIDA vs Jordan Oliver & Alec Price
A unique tag team matchup sees iconic staples in NJPW's junior heavyweight division in KUSHIDA and El Desperado face two men who may well prove to be the future of the style. Alec Price and Jordan Oliver are hotly tipped figures in the northeast scene, and the Bustah and the Brain are current holders of the GCW Tag Team Championships. Oliver has already tested himself in an NJPW ring against El Desperado himself back at All Star Junior Festival USA in 2023, and now he and Price are looking to make waves in New Jersey.
Match 3: AEW National Championship
Ricochet © vs Taiji Ishimori
Along with the Gates of Agony's challenge to the IWGP Tag team Championships came another 'surprise' from the Demand during New Beginning in Osaka. AEW National Champion Ricochet offered up a challenge to none other than Taiji Ishimori for Trenton New Jersey, as he seeks to claim the eighth defence of his reign with the AEW gold.
Although Ricochet's career path, at least in Japan, bears similarities between NJPW and Dragongate competition to Ishimori, the two have never faced off one on one before. Their closest meeting was in the 2016 Super Jr. Tag Tournament; an unlikely matchup of Ricochet and David Finlay taking on Ishimori and ACH. A decade later, and the resume of both men has only exploded, but will a new line in that resume mark Ishimori as the new National Champion, or can Ricochet extend to V8?
Match 2: NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship
Tomohiro Ishii © vs Boltin Oleg
Another title match has been added to New Beginning USA on February 27, and it's set to be a highly physical encounter, as Boltin Oleg will challenge the NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii.
January 19 in Korakuen Hall, Boltin joined with Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI to capture the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championships in a gripping heavyweight encounter. Now, the Big man from Kazakhstan is hungry for more gold, and the former NEVER Openweight Champion wants his second singles title in his US debut.
Tomohiro Ishii won the STRONG title back in Chicago last April, and after defending once against Drilla Moloney in California at Resurgence, is hungry for a singles challenge. On the same night as Boltin captured the NEVER gold, Ishii main evented in Korakuen, teaming with Taichi to put up a sensational performance in defeat to Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura. Yet Ishii's incredible will and determination perseveres, as does a desire to drive a message home to the younger generation of athletes within Hontai especially. Ishii's veteran grit is something he wants to see from Uemura, Umino, Boltin and beyond, and will put the Kazakh Beast to the test in a bid to see just that February 27 in New Jersey.
Match 1: Fred Rosser vs David Finlay
Another first-time singles matchup sees Fred Rosser going one on one with David Finlay. After a long feud with United Empire, Finlay had stated that he wanted new competition in New Jersey. That competition comes in the form of NJPW Academy coach and NJPW US stalwart Fred Rosser. Rosser and Finlay have never competed against one another before, and after emotional scenes after defeat to Callum Newman in Osaka February 11, speculation is rife that this bout may be a first time, last time affair. Who will emerge victorious?
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