Juice Robinson will face Hikuleo in a bullrope match in the main event of this week’s NJPW Strong Autumn Attack.
Robinson and Hikuleo have been feuding for months, including a singles match at NJPW Resurgence in Los Angeles in August. The two also squared off in a tables match on a Fighting Spirit Unleashed edition of Strong.
A new member of United Empire will officially be revealed on Strong this week, as Will Ospreay and a mystery partner face Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors.
In the second match, Bullet Club’s El Phantasmo & Chris Bey will tag against IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Robbie Eagles and Chris Dickinson.
A ten-man tag will open the show. David Finlay will team with his brother Brogan, Fred Yehi, Wheeler Yuta and Will Allday against Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita, Alex Coughlin, Kevin Knight and The DKC.
The Autumn Attack episodes of Strong were taped on September 25 and September 26 in Garland, Texas.
Strong airs at 8 p.m. Eastern time this Saturday on NJPW World. The show will also be available on demand immediately following airing.
Here is Saturday’s full lineup:
NJPW Strong Autumn Attack night three, Saturday, October 23, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World–
Bullrope match: Juice Robinson vs. Hikuleo
Will Ospreay & a mystery partner vs. Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors
El Phantasmo & Chris Bey vs. Robbie Eagles & Chris Dickinson
David Finlay, Fred Yehi, Wheeler Yuta, Will Allday & Brogan Finlay vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita, Alex Coughlin, Kevin Knight & The DKC
A new match has been added to the NJPW Strong Autumn Attack tapings in Texas on Sunday, September 26.
Juice Robinson will take on Hikuleo in a Texas bullrope match. The new bout was made official following Hikuleo’s win over Robinson in a tables match on Saturday’s NJPW Strong.
Seven matches are now official for Sunday’s show, while six have been announced for Saturday’s event. Tickets for the dates in Garland, Texas are on sale now.
Here are the announced lineups:
NJPW Autumn Attack night one, Saturday, September 25 —
Minoru Suzuki vs. Fred Rosser
Will Ospreay vs. Karl Fredericks
Jay White vs. Robbie Eagles
TJP, Clark Connors, Lio Rush & Juice Robinson vs. Hikuleo, Chris Bey, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo
Tom Lawlor vs. Ren Narita
Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs
NJPW Autumn Attack night two, Sunday, September 26 —
Texas bullrope match: Juice Robinson vs. Hikuleo
Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer vs. Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaacs
Lio Rush vs. Taiji Ishimori
Jay White vs. Daniel Garcia
Will Ospreay & a mystery partner vs. Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors
Robbie Eagles & Chris Dickinson vs. El Phantasmo & Chris Bey
Alexander hit a single leg and locked in a new crank early, Garcia countered quickly, but Alexander seem to have a counter for each of Garcia’s counters. Great technical grappling on showcase here from both.
Alexander used a an impressive stalling vertical suplex. Things got chippy between the two midway through this and the two exchanged hard slaps in the face between moves. This added a realistic flavor to it, like a flashier Young Lions-type match.
RC was able to slap on a guillotine choke and pulled Alexander into his full guard. Alexander stood up and tried to suplex Garcia off of him, but Garcia transitioned to the back and locked in a rear naked choke variation while hanging on Alexander’s back. Garcia is much smaller than Alexander so the visual is that much more striking. Garcia tried a figure four, but Alexander broke the hold. He then powered up and dropped Alexander with a backdrop Suplex.
When Garcia ran at him with a kick, Alexander caught him in a cradle, lifted him up and slammed him across his knee, a cool cradle backbreaker variation. He then stacked Garcia and deadlifted him to a power bomb before sticking him with a Jay Driller for the win.
TJP defeated Rey Horus
These two opened with a number of crafty and really smooth counter exchanges. Horus used a twisting cazadora thing, and then went for a dive. TJP halted that and set him up for a springboard basement dropkick on the apron.
TJP slowed things down midway through this, using a mix of submissions and holds. Horus was finally able to land his dive to the floor, somersaulting over the corner post onto TJP.
TJP would counter and land a few more hard face kicks before finally connecting with the running kick.
He would later land a Detonation kick and frog splash to put Horus away in just over ten minutes.
Afterwards, TJP said “In wrestling, there’s a saying that a good wrestler never has a bad match two times in a row, and great wrestlers never have bad matches.” That’s why he has great matches, and that’s why he had to beat Horus, since he lost last time.
Hikuleo defeated Matt Morris
They locked up after the bell, and Hikuleo forced Morris into the corner. Before he broke the hold, Hikuleo patted Morris on the head in a patronizing way.
He tried stomping Morris’ arm on the mat moments later, but Morris escaped as Hikuleo’s boot hit the mat. The youngest of Haku’s sons flashed Morris the two-fingers “this close” gesture.
Later, Morris missed a pescado to the floor. Hikuleo actually caught him in mid-air, then slammed him spine-first into the corner post. Hikuleo’s been booked like a monster this summer.
On commentary, Kevin Kelly told an interesting story about Hikuleo when he was training in the dojo early on and broke his hand three weeks earlier, but didn’t tell anybody. He just toughed it out.
Both Morris’ and Hikuleo’s chests began turning red as this went on. They laid in the chops in this one. Hikuleo controlled much of this match, but towards then end, Morris was able to low-bridge Hikuleo over the top rope and out onto the floor before taking him out with a running cannonball off the apron.
Back in the ring, Morris connected with a swanton off the top for a two-count. Hikuleo answered with a hard lariat for a two of his own. When he went for the Tongan Driller, Morris slipped out and locked in a sleeper. He must have watched the opener, because Danny Garcia used a similar escape in his match with Josh Alexander.
Finally, after a snap powerslam and the Tongan Driller, Hikuleo was able to put Morris away for the win.
**********
Despite the match being over, Hikuleo continued to torture Morris in the ring and began strangling him. He then pulled out a table from underneath the ring and attempted another Tongan Driller on Morris, this time through the table. Just as he lifted Morris into the fireman’s carry, Juice Robinson appeared for the save. Morris escaped to the floor.
Robinson tried putting Hikuleo through the table, but he slipped out of Robinson’s grasp before anything could happen. They jaw-jacked with each other as Hikuleo walked to the back.
The show wrapped with Robinson and Morris heading to the back to the tune of Robinson’s theme song.
Final thoughts:
BBQ Brawl turned out to be yet another good episode of NJPW Strong. It also felt like a fresher episode than in past weeks. We didn’t see any multi-man tag team matches, just singles bouts between with newer faces or less established guests.
Go out of your way to catch the opener between Josh Alexander and Danny Garcia if you get a chance, because that was excellent.
NJPW’s Hikuelo made an appearance on AEW Dynamite, where it was announced he would challenge for the IWGP United States title on next week’s show.
Hikuelo was shown in the crowd during tonight’s show. It was announced he would face the winner between Jon Moxley and Lance Archer for the United States title at Fight for the Fallen, which takes place on next week’s Dynamite. After Archer won the title in the main event, Hikuleo and Archer had a staredown as the show ended.
The son of Haku, Hikuleo started out in Japan as the Bullet Club’s young lion. When NJPW started to air Strong last year, he left his young lion status. His most recent high profile match was losing to Fred Rosser in a no disqualification match, but in recent episodes of Strong he has picked up wins over Alex Coughlin and Jordan Clearwater.
Archer won the IWGP United States title for the second time tonight in a Texas Death match, with Moxley unable to answer the ten count after being chokeslammed into a table with barbed wire set on top.
This was a solid opening match between the returning Batemen and Young Lion Alex Coughlin. We last saw Batemen in March in the New Japan Cup USA tournament, where he was eliminated by Brody King.
This was a trudge of a match, slow and hard-hitting, and in a good way. Coughlin has gotten ridiculously jacked since returning from a neck injury that kept him out for most of 2020. He had the better of the match early on until Batemen used an illegal fish hook to break one of Coughlin’s holds. Batemen feels like a throwback heel with his intentionally un-flashy bully style in the ring.
Coughlin launched himself off the ropes and crashed into Batemen with a flying shoulder tackle, it was more of a human slingshot than anything. Coughlin had Batemen locked in a Fujiwara armbar late, but Batemen came back and put the rookie away with a tombstone piledriver for the win.
Karl Fredericks and Brody King defeated Team Filthy (Danny Limelight and JR Kratos)
Team Filthy bushwhacked Fredericks and King before the bell. This was a fast-paced match, and that’s double-impressive considering how big three of the guys in this match are. Once the bell rang and the match was underway, Limelight worked over Fredericks for a bit, then JR Kratos came in to bring the pain. He threw hard knees at a downed Fredericks. When Limelight was back in, he scraped the edge of his forearm and elbow across Fredericks’ face, a cheap shot behind the ref’s back.
The “Alpha Wolf” eventually escaped Team Filthy’s corner and tagged out to Brody King, who was out for blood upon stepping inside the ring. He delivered a Death Valley Bomb to Limelight into the bottom of the corner post and directly onto a prone Kratos. King then pressed slammed Limelight to the floor. King followed and took the fight to Kratos ringside. Limelight at one point landed double knees for a close two-count.
Fredericks mounted a final comeback in the end, putting Limelight on the mat with Shibata’s patented choke sleeper, then spiking him with Manifest Destiny to pick up the win for his team. Get the “Alpha Wolf” back over to Japan ASAP, I say.
Fredericks cut a short but sweet promo on Team Filthy, explaining that all he had needed was a second to take them out, and tonight he did just that.
Fred Rosser defeated Hikuleo in a no-disqualification match
I can say with confidence that this was the most unique match in NJPW Strong’s short history. Rosser and Hikuleo had a fight, straight up. No flash necessary: This was a rugged, sloppy brawl. I mean that in a positive way, too.
“Mr. No Days Off ” Fred Rosser dove onto Hikuleo before the bell. He came dressed in appropriate brawling attire, which means taped fists and some sort of shirt you don’t normally wear. The match spilled out onto the floor early. As the match got more violent, announcer Alex Koslov claimed that this was “technically a street fight.” Wasn’t it technically a no-disqualification match?
Hikuleo found a table underneath the ring. When he attempted to stand it up, Rosser pegged him dead-center in the back of the head with a plastic bucket and it couldn’t have landed more perfectly. After about five minutes, they brawled past the guardrails and into the backstage area, where Rosser shoved Hikuleo through the swinging exit doors and into boxes of NJPW merchandise. Hikuleo launched Rosser through a door backstage and it looked vicious.
The youngest of Haku’s sons would drag Rosser outside of the building and into the NJPW ring truck. Kevin Kelly made reference to the infamous Dustin Rhodes vs. Blacktop Bully from WCW, one of the few truck-centric matches in pro wrestling history. No need for alarm, though: Tonight’s match was much better than WCW’s “King of the Mountain” affair.
Inside the truck, Rosser choked Hikuleo with his own wrist tape. Hikuleo gave Rosser a low blow, then almost decapitated him with the truck’s sliding door. He tried slamming it down really fast, but Rosser moved out of the way. When Hikuleo lifted the door back up, Rosser kicked Hikuleo, then dove out of the truck onto him. Rosser showered him with fists and choked him with a hose. Or, what looked to be a hose.
Rosser dragged Hikuleo by his long hair back to the ring. Rosser noticed the table that Hikuleo left by the ring earlier in the match. He decided to set it up and try putting Hikuleo through it off the apron. I’m not sure what the plan was, the spot ended with both diving off the apron and onto the table, but it didn’t break. It looked like a disaster, but I can’t honestly call it a botch. It looked completely appropriate after nearly 15 minutes of savage hoss battle. It looked like Rosser took the worst part of the fall, actually.
Rosser later grabbed Hikuleo by the hair and dragged him into the ring, then finally put him away after dropping Hikuleo with a gutbuster and a running knee. What a match. Rosser knocked over a table before exiting the back, still amped up from the donnybrook he took Hikuleo through.
Final thoughts:
Tonight’s show was a nice change in pace from the high-speed action we usually see on NJPW Strong. Each match is worth going out of your way to see, but tonight’s main event between Rosser and Hikuleo was a barnburner of a brawl, no doubt about it. It’s a good example of how two can push the violence without getting gory or over-the-top. For those of us who grew up on Crockett-flavored free-for-alls, this felt like a nod to those days. Rosser was angry, and so was Hikuleo, and they wrestled that way. Rosser wrestled like he was settling a score.
Most of this felt spontaneous, too, which can be exciting. Hats off to both fellows here, as this was probably the best singles bout in either of their careers.
On tonight’s episode of NJPW Strong, Brody King, Hikuleo, Tom Lawlor and Lio Rush advanced to the semifinals.
In the main event, King defeated Chris Dickinson in 10:42 after hitting a lariat. In the semi-main, Hikuleo defeated Fred Rosser with a Tongan Driller in 6:22 to advance. Lawlor used a rear naked choke to submit Ren Narita in 13:19 to move on. In the Strong opener, Lio Rush beat Clark Connors with a Rush Hour in 9:57 to stay alive in the tournament.
The semifinals will take place on the Friday, April 16 episode of Strong. Rush will face King, while Lawlor will take on Hikuleo.
The 2021 New Japan Cup USA finals will be held on the Friday, April 23 episode of Strong. In addition to winning the New Japan Cup USA, the winner of the tournament will also be crowned the first NJPW Strong Openweight Champion.
Here is the remaining tournament lineup:
New Japan Cup USA 2021 semifinals, Friday, April 16 on NJPW Strong —
Lio Rush vs. Brody King
Tom Lawlor vs. Hikuleo
New Japan Cup USA 2021 finals, Friday, April 23 on NJPW Strong —
NJPW has announced the full lineup for Friday’s New Beginning USA 2021 edition of Strong on NJPW World.
Already announced, the main event will see El Phantasmo, number one contender to Hiromu Takahashi’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, taking on Lio Rush.
ELP and Rush previously faced off in a first round match in the 2020 Super J-Cup, a tournament that ELP would go on to win.
In Friday’s semi-main, Fred Rosser will take on Bullet Club’s Hikuleo.
In the opener, Rocky Romero, Adrian Quest and Misterioso will face Rey Horus, Barrett Brown and The DKC.
Night two of New Beginning USA on February 26 will feature Jon Moxley defending the IWGP United States Championship against KENTA.
Strong airs Fridays at 10 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World and is available on demand shortly after airing.
Here is Friday’s full lineup:
El Phantasmo vs. Lio Rush
Fred Rosser vs. Hikuleo
Rocky Romero, Adrian Quest & Misterioso vs. Rey Horus, Barrett Brown & The DKC
NJPW has announced cards for the next two weeks of NJPW Strong, with Lio Rush making his debut on the program on Friday, January 29.
Rush, who is looking to avenge his first round loss against El Phantasmo during last month’s Super J Cup, will team with TJP and Fred Rosser in the main event of the January 29 show to face KENTA, El Phantasmo, and Hikuleo.
The main event for this week’s show will have LA Dojo young lion Ren Narita take on ROH’s Bateman. Narita will be making his debut on Strong following his appearance at the Super J Cup, where he teamed with Kevin Knight in a losing effort against Hikuleo and KENTA. Bateman is also making his first in-ring appearance on the program.
Here are the full cards for both shows:
January 22:
Ren Narita vs. Bateman
Brody King vs. JR Kratos
Jordan Clearwater and Kevin Knight vs. Sterling & Logan Riegel
January 29:
Lio Rush, Fred Rosser, and TJP vs. KENTA, El Phantasmo, and Hikuleo
Rocky Romero and Adrian Quest defeated The DKC and Danny Limelight
Good match. DKC and Limelight have already appeared on NJPW Strong, while this was Quest’s debut on the show.
Midway through, Limelight took Romero out with a jumping knee strike that left both temporarily KO’d. DKC tagged in next and showed lots of fire before plating Romero with an inverted Samoan Drop. The finish saw Quest do a crazy twisting plancha from the top to the floor to take out Limelight before Romero pinned DKC after using Sliced Bread #2 for the win. The three young guys were impressive in this.
Brody King and Flip Gordon defeated Jay White and Chase Owens
Gordon hasn’t been on TV since February in ROH. Neither he or King were wearing their Villain Enterprises gear.
Owens and Flip started the match off, but White intervened early on. He and Owens took turns wearing Gordon down in their corner. This was also Jay White’s first match in months, but he didn’t look to have any ring rust.
On commentary, Kevin Kelly said that Gordon changed up his in-ring style because of past knee injuries. He didn’t fly around too much tonight.
Flip was finally able to tag out to Brody King after a few more minutes. King cleaned house, laying White out with a spinning Boss Man slam. King then pinned Owens after a spike Gonzo Bomb to pick up the win.
This was really good. For some reason, White and Owens came off like they’d been a teaming forever. A rematch could be great down the road.
After the match, Jay White grabbed Gordon and went for a Bladerunner before King chased him off. Out of the post-match chaos appeared Hikuleo, younger brother to Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa, and laid out King. Looks like a program is building between these groups.
*****
New Japan announced that starting next week at the same time, the company will air NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed on the NJPW World streaming service.
*****
KENTA defeated David Finlay to win the 2020 NJPW USA Cup
There was no time limit in this one. The two grappled in the center of the ring for the opening minutes. The story here was that KENTA got an advantage over Finlay unless he resorted to cheating. It’s a subtle way of getting Finlay over in our minds without him having to do much. Hats off to KENTA, who relishes his 2020 heel life.
The pace of this might be too slow for a lot of people’s tastes, but I thought it was perfect for the context. KENTA worked slow and heavy over Finlay for a long five minutes or so. Finlay rallied back with a back suplex, then a knee strike and a spear only a two-count. It’s notable how much Finlay has improved a lot since his shoulder injury; his past three matches on this show have been solid. He’s crisper in the ring than before and it shows.
As Finlay went for Prima Nocta, KENTA shoved him into the referee, then kicked him low. This happened in KENTA’s match with Cobb also. The ref got back up but KENTA could only score a two-count on Finlay. The two went on to trade hard European uppercuts before KENTA was able to cinch in the GTS to put Finlay away for the win. KENTA is the first ever New Japan Cup USA winner.
KENTA was awarded a trophy and IWGP US title briefcase as his reward. He called out Jon Moxley next, shouting “Where’s Jon Moxley? What’s he doing?!”, saying he was coming for the current IWGP US champion.
KENTA switched to Japanese next and reiterated what he’d said in English until Jeff Cobb jumped into the ring. Cobb tried German suplexing KENTA, but KENTA escaped and ran out of the ring. The two jaw-jacked from a distance before the show ended.
Final thoughts:
Another solid hour of pro wrestling from NJPW. The tag match between White/Owens and Gordon/King was good, and it’s great to see those guys getting a chance to be in front of the cameras after half a year.
The main event was really good, though the slower, thinking-man’s pace isn’t for everyone. Regardless, both KENTA and Finlay did a great job, and it was cool to see Finlay finding his groove as a singles wrestler. Despite losing clean in the finals, he still got over.
NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed will air in the same time slot as NJPW Strong next week on Friday at 10 EST/7 PST on NJPW World.
NJPW continued their Wrestling Dontaku tour today in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.
The show was well-paced and easy to watch, but featured little in the way of must-see matches.
The undercard saw the continuation of some feuds, the highlight being the 10-man tag.
In a late switch, Rocky Romero’s spot in the 10-man was taken by Kota Ibushi. Ibushi’s team faced off against Tetsuya Naito’s LIJ squad. The issues between Ibushi/Naito, which have produced a series of classic matches, look to be continuing.
Naito challenged Ibushi at the conclusion of Saturday’s show, which led to the change in today’s card. Ibushi will be slotted in tags against Naito for the remainder of the tour as well.
The Young Lion team worked over Honma at the outset. Nagata tagged in and reversed his team’s fortunes. Kojima saw some action and used a half crab on Uemura, but Tsuji broke it up with chops.
Honma tagged back in and hit a kokeshi. Nagata used a full crab on Uemura, who reached the ropes. Uemura hit a dropkick, and Narita tagged in. I’ve been impressed with Narita on this tour. He hit a belly-to-belly on Nagata for a near fall. Nagata hit his own belly-to-belly and tagged Kojima.
Kojima hit machine gun chops on Narita. He went for his top rope elbow, but Tsuji cut him off. Tsuji, Narita and Uemura hit a triple dropkick on Kojima, which was awesome. It got a nice reaction.
Tsuji used a full crab on Kojima, but Honma broke it up. Tsuji hit Honma with a spear, but Kojima recovered and hit a Koji Cutter for a near fall. He followed with a lariat for the pin. A good opener.
MINORU SUZUKI, YOSHINOBU KANEMARU & EL DESPERADO DEFEATED JUSHIN LIGER, TIGER MASK IV & SHOTA UMINO
They continued the storyline that kicked off on Saturday, with Suzuki going after Liger. Suzuki-gun jumped their opponents right as the bell sounded, and they focused their assault on Liger.
The match spilled into the crowd, and Suzuki rearranged the chairs in the first few rows, dropping them on Liger. Suzuki also used a triangle over the ropes. Desperado and Kanemaru went for Liger’s mask, but he managed to keep it on.
Liger finally made a tag to Tiger Mask. Tiger ran wild with kicks and knee strikes. He hit Kanemaru with a Tiger Driver, but could not follow up with a cover. Umino and Suzuki tagged in. Umino hit a missile dropkick.
Umino went for a fisherman buster, but Suzuki blocked it. Suzuki locked on a choke, but Liger broke it up. Liger and Suzuki traded strikes, with Suzuki getting the better of the exchange.
Umino picked up a series of near falls off a cradle, a roll-up, and a backslide. Suzuki recovered and hit the Gotch piledriver for the pin.
The match was good, all action. Although the real highlight here was the continuation of the Liger vs. Suzuki issue.
ZACK SABRE JR., TAICHI & TAKA MICHINOKU DEFEATED YOSHI-HASHI, ROCKY ROMERO & TOA HENARE
Aside from the opener, this was the only match on the show without a clear storyline purpose.
Romero started off for his team, and he had his working boots on. Suzuki-gun used some underhanded tactics and turned the match into a brawl. Taichi went after Henare with a chair in the crowd.
Suzuki-gun worked Romero over. YOSHI-HASHI and Sabre got tags, and they had a nice exchange. Sabre gave YOSHI-HASHI a good bit of offense before taking over and working on the left arm.
Henare and Taichi tagged in. Henare hit a spear. Henare missed a charge into the corner. Taichi took his pants off and hit a buzzsaw kick for a two count. Taichi hit a lariat, then used a stretch plum on Henare for the submission.
A crazy match. Great stuff. If you watch one match from this show, make it this one.
EVIL and Ishii started off. They teased their finishers and countered out of them. Okada and SANADA did the same. SHO, YOH, Shingo and BUSHI also did a series of teases and counters of their trademark spots.
Ibushi and Naito entered, and they went about a thousand miles an hour. Ibushi went for a standing moonsault, but Naito got his knees up. YOH ran wild with dragon screws. BUSHI hit a codebreaker. YOH hit a falcon arrow.
The chaos continued as everyone jumped in for a big move.
The finish saw SANADA use a giant swing into the Skull End on YOH, who tapped out.
After the bell, EVIL and Ishii went at it again. Ishii nailed EVIL with a headbutt from the apron.
BAD LUCK FALE & CHASE OWENS DEFEATED JUICE ROBINSON & MIKEY NICHOLLS
This was quick. They tried to tell a story, but the crowd wasn’t that into it. This was the weakest match on the show to this point.
Owens used a backbreaker to break a Juice headlock, while Fale took Nicholls to the floor. Juice hit a full nelson slam into a double down. Fale and Nicholls tagged in. Nicholls dropped Fale with two lariats.
Fale hit a shoulder tackle, then tagged Owens. Owens hit a series of strikes. He used a running knee for a near fall. Juice and Fale jumped in. Juice tried to slam Fale, but he failed. He did connect with a cannonball.
Nicholls hit a sliding lariat and a Mikey Bomb on Owens, but Fale broke up the pinfall. The ref took a bump. Fale hit Nicholls with a Grenade, and Owens used a package piledriver on Nicholls for the pin.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT SIX-MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: TOGI MAKABE, TORU YANO & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI DEFEATED TAMA TONGA, TANGA LOA & HIKULEO TO RETAIN THE TITLES
I have probably missed at least one ref bump and two weapons shots in recapping the action here. This was very silly.
Bullet Club jumped the champs before the bell, and they brawled all around the arena. The crowd was quiet for this. Tonga and Loa doubled up on Yano in the ring, and the crowd started to get into it.
Yano started making a comeback. He untied a turnbuckle pad. Jado cut him off with a kendo stick shot from the floor. Hikuleo sent Yano into the exposed buckle. The challengers continued working over Yano for several minutes.
Yano finally got free and made a tag to Taguchi. Taguchi ran wild with hip attacks. Makabe made a tag, then hit 10 punches in the corner on Tonga. He followed with a northern lights suplex for a two count.
Hikuleo and Loa jumped in to save Tonga. They tripled up on Makabe. Tonga hit a splash. Loa made a cover, but he was not the legal man. Referee Red Shoes made the correct call.
While Hikuleo took the ref, Jado jumped in. He swung the kendo stick, but accidentally hit Tonga. Makabe hit the King Kong knee drop for a near fall.
There were more shenanigans. Hikuleo took the ref again, and Loa jumped in with the kendo stick and hit Makabe. Yano used a chair on Hikuleo from the floor, and Makabe covered for a near fall.
Makabe followed with another knee drop off the top on Hikuleo and picked up the win.
After the match, Makabe laid out Tonga and Loa, while Yano ran off with all of the Guerrillas of Destiny’s titles.
TAIJI ISHIMORI & JAY WHITE DEFEATED HIROOKI GOTO & DRAGON LEE
Ishimori and Lee have fantastic chemistry. They face off on May 3 for Lee’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight title, and I cannot wait for that match.
Ishimori and Lee started off here, and they had a brief, electric sequence. White and Goto tagged in. White used a side headlock, then dumped Goto over the top rope with a Saito suplex. Goto and Lee ended up whipped into the barricade. Ishimori went for Lee’s mask.
They teased a countout with Goto on the floor. He made it back in at 19, but White immediately sent him back to the floor. White sent Goto into the ring frame and the barricade, targeting his back.
Ishimori tagged in and continued to work on Goto’s back. White tagged back in for more chinlocks. Goto made his own comeback, hitting a double sledge on White and a lariat on Ishimori.
Lee got a tag. He ran wild with dropkicks, hitting White once, and Ishimori three times. Ishimori countered a Desnucado, sitting down for a near fall. The two traded strikes. Ishimori hit La Mistica, then a standing Spanish Fly into a double down.
Goto asked for a tag, but Lee refused, wanting to continue fighting Ishimori. Lee hit a snap German suplex, a poison rana, and a lariat into another double down. This time, both men tagged out.
Goto hit White with a mid kick. He followed with a lariat in the corner, a wheel kick, and a Saito suplex for a two count. Goto went for an ushigoroshi, but White countered with his own Saito suplex.
White used a DVD for a two count. He hit a lariat and went for a Kiwi Krusher, but Lee saved Goto. Ishimori entered to go after Lee. Goto hit a lariat on White, and all four men were down.
Goto and White teased their finishers. White hit a flatliner and followed up with a suplex. Goto blocked a Blade Runner, hit a headbutt, then used an inverted GTR for a near fall.
Goto went for another GTR, but Gedo jumped on the apron for a distraction. White went for the Blade Runner, but Goto hit him with an ushigoroshi. Ishimori jumped in and also ate an ushigoroshi. Lee hit a suicide dive.
Goto went for an ushigoroshi on Gedo, but White hit a low blow, then hit the Blade Runner for the pin. The screwy finish didn’t help things, but this was a good main event.
Two of New Japan’s young lions have been sidelined with injuries serious enough that they are being kept off of the next tour.
New Japan’s English website last night reported that Kitamura has been sidelined since March 4 with a concussion. He was originally set to take on Manabu Nakanishi a couple of days ago on the 46th anniversary show, but that match was postponed following the injury. Hikuleo has been out since March 3 with what the website described as ACL damage. Currently, there is no timetable for either’s return.
Tanga Loa will be taking Hikuelo’s place on the New Japan Cup tour. He will be teaming with various other members of the Bullet Club in multi-man matches.
Hikuleo had been wrestling with New Japan since the end of 2016, normally teaming with Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa. Katsuya Kitamura had been doing a best of seven series since winning the Young Lion’s Cup in December at Lion’s Gate Project 10.
