The New Beginning 2013: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Manabu Nakanishi, Tama Tonga and Yuji Nagata defeated CHAOS members Jado, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka and YOSHI-HASHI in 8:20 to open The New Beginning at Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall on February 10, 2013. The five-on-five result gives this opener an identity apart from the subsequent championship defenses. WrestleFile's C+ / 6.5 marks it as support viewing. Nagata and his four partners were the winning team; Ishii and his CHAOS partners lost, and no title passed between them. The separate IWGP junior tag, junior singles, heavyweight tag and heavyweight singles championships were all successfully defended later on the same card.

Time Splitters, Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA, defeated Forever Hooligans, Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero, in 11:26 to RETAIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. WrestleFile's C+ / 6.9 score for the second contest reflects a title defense by established champions, not a new team crowned on February 10. Shelley and KUSHIDA held the junior tag belts; Koslov and Romero challenged. The very next match involved Prince Devitt retaining a different championship, the individual IWGP Junior Heavyweight title against Ryusuke Taguchi. Keeping the singles and team titles separate also prevents confusion with Killer Elite Squad's later heavyweight tag defense over Tencozy.

Prince Devitt defeated Ryusuke Taguchi in 14:01 to RETAIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at The New Beginning 2013. The third bout earned WrestleFile's B- / 7.1. Devitt was the incumbent singles champion and Taguchi the challenger; this result did not transfer the belt or settle the junior tag championship, already defended by Time Splitters in match two. The heavyweight tag championship also remained with Killer Elite Squad later on the card. All of these titleholders kept their positions, while the main event was another successful defense by IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi against Karl Anderson rather than a championship change.

Killer Elite Squad's Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. defeated Tencozy's Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima in 14:16 to RETAIN the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Hiroshima on February 10, 2013. WrestleFile graded this fourth match B- / 7.1, the same saved mark as Devitt's preceding junior singles defense but for a separate title lineage. Archer and Smith were already heavyweight tag champions; Tencozy lost as challengers. No new IWGP heavyweight team was crowned in this bout, just as Time Splitters had retained the junior tag titles earlier. The card later closed with Tanahashi keeping the heavyweight singles championship against Karl Anderson.

Togi Makabe defeated Yujiro Takahashi in 8:00 in the fifth contest of The New Beginning 2013, a non-title singles result at Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall. WrestleFile assigned C+ / 6.5, below the B+ given to the IWGP Heavyweight defense that closed the show. Makabe was the winning wrestler and Yujiro his opponent. Their short contest sits between Killer Elite Squad's successful IWGP heavyweight tag defense and Laughter7's victory over Hirooki Goto and Wataru Inoue. It was not another championship change, and the saved result does not supply a special rules stipulation or specific finish that would justify adding one.

Laughter7's Katsuyori Shibata and Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Hirooki Goto and Wataru Inoue in 11:07 at The New Beginning 2013. The sixth match was a two-on-two contest, not a challenge for a championship belt, and WrestleFile rated it C+ / 6.5. Shibata partnered Sakuraba on the winning side; Goto and Inoue lost. These exact identities separate Laughter7's result from the surrounding singles run, where Shinsuke Nakamura beat Kengo Mashimo, Minoru Suzuki beat Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi retained against Karl Anderson. Recording the two team pairings avoids borrowing stakes from the event's four actual title defenses.

Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kengo Mashimo in 11:21 in the seventh match at Hiroshima's The New Beginning in February 2013. WrestleFile graded the singles meeting C+ / 6.8, a supporting appraisal rather than the top B+ / 8.4 main-event score. Nakamura was the winner, while Mashimo lost; the event ledger does not assign an IWGP championship change or a more specific documented finish to this bout. It directly preceded Minoru Suzuki's victory over Kazuchika Okada, which itself was non-title. Hiroshi Tanahashi's later championship defense against Karl Anderson is therefore a separate result rather than an implied Nakamura or Suzuki title victory.

Minoru Suzuki defeated Kazuchika Okada in 15:59 in the penultimate singles match of The New Beginning on February 10, 2013. WrestleFile gives this eighth contest B- / 7.1, below Tanahashi-Anderson's B+ / 8.4 in the IWGP Heavyweight title finale. Suzuki's win was a notable non-title result: Okada lost but was not the defending heavyweight champion, and Suzuki did not receive Tanahashi's IWGP championship by beating him. Tanahashi instead defended that belt successfully against Karl Anderson immediately afterward. This distinction anchors the competitive order of the two late singles matches and prevents the penultimate result from becoming a false title transfer.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Karl Anderson in 25:10 to RETAIN the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in The New Beginning 2013 main event at Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall. WrestleFile gave this title defense B+ / 8.4, its highest mark for the nine-match card. Anderson challenged the reigning champion; Tanahashi won and kept the heavyweight title. The immediately preceding singles meeting ended with Minoru Suzuki defeating Kazuchika Okada, but that match did not determine the championship's ownership. The Time Splitters had already kept the junior tag title, Prince Devitt the junior singles belt, and Killer Elite Squad the heavyweight tag belts. The event's four championships thus all stayed with their incumbents.