Tom Lawlor defeated Brody King to win the New Japan Cup USA and become the NJPW Strong Openweight Champion on tonight’s NJPW Strong.
Lawlor became the first-ever Strong Openweight Champion after beating King with a rear naked choke. King was unable to respond to the referee, who called for the stoppage finish at 20:05.
Lawlor already has a surprising first challenger lined up as well.
After being presented with the New Japan Cup USA trophy and the Strong title belt, Lawlor cut a promo with Team Filthy allies Chris Dickinson and JR Kratos by his side. He declared that no one in NJPW thinks they can beat him or is man enough to. Dickinson took the microphone from Lawlor and said that he is stepping up as Lawlor’s first challenger.
Lawlor ran through Ren Narita, Hikuleo and King to win the 2021 New Japan Cup USA tournament. Dickinson lost to King in the tournament’s first round.
Lawlor joins KENTA as New Japan Cup USA winners after the tournament was introduced in 2020.
Jordan Clearwater, Adrian Quest, Barrett Brown & Misterioso defeated The DKC, Kevin Knight, Alex Coughlin & Karl Fredericks
Both teams got chippy with each other before the bell. LA Dojo’s Alex Coughlin and Barrett Brown were in first. The DKC and Clearwater were in together after that, and DKC was extra fired up tonight. He stomped the taller Clearwater’s foot before tagging out to Adrian Quest. DKC tagged out to Kevin Knight, who made a fundamental bodyslam look more impressive than you’d imagine. Very strong dude, this Kevin Knight.
Brown and Quest double-teamed DKC until Coughlin got involved briefly. Later, Misterioso tagged in and worked over DKC some more. He was the whipping boy in this match, taking the brunt of the abuse from the opposite team until he was able to finally tag out to Karl Fredericks. He and Clearwater will probably have a barnburner of a singles match together down the road. Same goes for Brown and Knight, who looked good together towards the end.
Knight did a sliding shoulder block, then a standing frog splash for two. Coughlin blocked Quest from doing a dive to the floor, blasting him with a shoulder tackle. Quest eventually pulled off a springboard flip dive to the floor. Misterioso was next, and the six guys on the floor had to huddle and wait together until he jumped. This section towards the end messed with the flow of the match, which was up to this point pretty intense and without pauses in action.
Brown took out Knight with a huge 50 Calibre kick (Claymore Kick). Knight went flying, but later took Brown out with a high dropkick of his own. Misterioso pinned Knight moments later after a back cracker.
Barrett Brown freaked out on teammate Misterioso afterwards. “What are you doing?!” Brown has slowly been losing his cool on Strong, going off on a number of occasions after taking losses. The story here was that he, selfishly, wanted to be the guy who pinned Knight.
New Japan Cup USA 2021 semifinals match: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor defeated Hikuleo
This was good. “Filthy” Tom brought his Iron Shiek club to the ring again this week. He charged at the much bigger Hikuleo just after the bell. Hikuleo outmuscled Lawlor, slowing his assault. When Lawlor went for a dragon screw leg whip, Hikuleo didn’t go down, and instead picked Lawlor up by the throat. Lawlor clipped Hikuleo’s knee in an attempt to bring the rookie giant back to the mat. Lawlor made Hikuleo feel like a beast, and he wrestled in a way that felt realistic, or logical. He’s shorter than Hikuleo, so his offense was based entirely on making Hikuleo smaller, taking out his legs with kicks and a variety of leg submissions.
Hikuleo and Lawlor eventually rolled to the floor after Hikuleo attempted escaping a figure four leglock. He rammed Lawlor spine-first into the ring post. Lawlor slapped on another figure four, this time outside of the ring. The referee began counting them out, so they both tried getting back into the ring but kept fighting each other, cutting it close to a 20-count disqualification finish.
They were able to break the count, and soon after, “Filthy” Tom was able to wrap Hikuleo into a small package cradle for the win. Memories of Bret Hart vs. Diesel at Survivor Series 1995 flashed in my brain. Lawlor advances to the Cup finals, where he’ll face either Brody King or Lio Rush.
New Japan Cup USA 2021 semifinals match: Brody King defeated Lio Rush
Seeing King and Rush stand face-to-face made for a great visual. King dwarfed Rush. He played bully in this match, shouting “This ain’t the juniors anymore!” before smushing him in the face. Rush fired a few one-two combinations, fast stick-and-move shots not all unlike what we see from Kota Ibushi. Rush went for a tope suicida, but King caught him in the air, then chokeslammed him onto the apron. He shouted at Rush to get up before launching him with a hip toss.
Later, King went to power bomb Rush onto the apron. Rush escaped, then landed a nice plancha from the top rope to the floor onto King. He landed a frog splash inside the ring for two. He went for his springboard cutter finish, but King blocked it, shoved him into the ropes, then decimated with a lariat.
After a big Gonzo Bomb, that was it: King wins. He’ll next wrestle “Filthy” Tom Lawlor in the New Japan Cup USA 2021 Finals, where the winner will be crowned first-ever NJPW Strong Openweight champion.
After the match, King cut a promo saying Lio Rush brought the fight to NJPW pro wrestling but ran into “the beast.” King understood how experienced Lawlor is as a fighter, but even still, it wouldn’t match the level of violence King plans to bring to the ring.
Final thoughts:
Tonight’s episode was short and sweet, clocking in at around 45 minutes with King vs. Rush as match of the night. King faces Lawlor in the Cup finals on next week’s episode. NJPW will announce the rest of the card in the next few days.
The show opened with a slick montage of each competitor in this year’s New Japan Cup USA along with a few shots of the new Strong Openweight championship belt, which is what the winner of the 2021 USA cup will take home with them.
New Japan Cup USA Round 1: Lio Rush defeated Clark Connors
Really good opening match that was almost exactly ten minutes long. Rush offered Connors his hand before the bout, but Connors shoved it aside. Once the match was under way, action stayed close to the mat with each trying to out-grapple each other. On commentary, Kevin Kelly talked about Rush’s legitimate amateur background in his school days, competing not just in the D.C. area, where he’s from, but all over the United States. Kelly even described him as an “Olympic hopeful” before deciding to go into pro wrestling at a young age.
These two are actually good opponents for each other in that they’re roughly the same height, plus they’re equally athletic, just in different ways. Rush is faster, Connors is stronger, but here they seemed to have met in the middle. Connors laid Rush out a few times with hard shoulder blocks as Rush was bouncing off the ropes.
Rush used a rope-assisted frankensteiner minutes later, slowing down Connors’ attack in the process. He later laid in hard low kicks to Connors’ chest and Connors ate them for lunch; he expressed no serious damage. Rush used a jumping axe-kick to put the kibosh on any hint of a Connors’ comeback. That didn’t last long, though, because Connors eventually did make a comeback, smashing Rush with a pounce coming off the ropes. He then launched Rush with a front suplex for a two-count. Rush used a low-angle spin kick later, then landed an Asai moonsault to Connors on the floor.
Connors went for a spear but Rush kicked him in the head for his effort. Connors did eventually nail Rush with the spear, though, and when he did, he held onto his grip and immediately flipped Rush over into a Boston Crab submission. Rush escaped, but he found himself in the Crab once again after attempting a headscissors to Connors while Connors stood on the apron. Connors turned this into a modified Lion Tamer with his foot square on Rush’s head, which was entangled in the ropes. Brutal-looking stretch.
It wasn’t enough, though, as the Lion’s Break Crown winner fell to Rush moments later after Rush landed a low-angle springboard cutter to put Connors away. Between his recent work on Strong and his debut with Bloodsport last night, Rush has grown on me more than any wrestler as of late. Connors continues to be excellent, it was cool to see him mix it up with such a different style of wrestler. It worked.
New Japan Cup USA Round 1: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor defeated Ren Narita via ref stoppage
Lawlor brought out his Karl Gotch-style Indian club and gave it a few whirls inside the ring before the match.
Speaking of Bloodsport, this felt just like a match you would see on a Bloodsport card. Lawlor did the “he pulled my hair!” gesture early on. I love how the guy with the most fight experience and training also goes out of his way to lean into pro wrestling’s tropes.
Mid-way through the match, Lawlor tried a front kick but Narita caught it and took Lawlor to the mat. Lawlor had answers for most of what Narita went for on the ground.
After five minutes had passed, both were back on their feet when Lawlor tagged Narita with a hard low kick that connected with Narita’s thigh. Narita immediately grabbed his leg and walked himself back into the blue corner. “Filthy” Tom smelled blood and went on the attack, lighting Narita up with a few more of the same low kicks, plus chops and elbows.
Lawlor put Narita down hard with an exploder suplex. Narita sold this like he was borderline KO’d. Narita eventually shook it off and mounted as much of a comeback as he could against Lawlor, matching him hold for hold in quick exchanges on the mat. Narita was able to lock in his Narita Special, a modified Texas cloverhold, but Lawlor shut that down quickly and turned it into a figure-four leglock. Narita slapped Lawlor hard across the face. Lawlor screamed “Again!” at Narita a few times. One nice touch Lawlor added here was when Narita would turn his head and sell Lawlor’s figure-four, that’s when Lawlor would slightly sell the slaps Narita just threw. It’s an easy and smart way of showing how one can no-sell a hard slap in the face but show that it still does hurt.
Narita held on and was eventually able to break the figure four by reaching the bottom rope. He fired up again on his feet, first throwing him over his head with a knuckle-lock suplex, then held his grip and launched Lawlor again with a front suplex for two. He landed a spinning heel kick. Lawlor tried a few seoinage type throws but Narita was able to counter one of them and turn it into a sleeperhold from behind. Lawlor reversed that and threw one on of his own. He then let go, leaving Narita upright and dazed before Lawlor clobbered him with a penalty kick. He went back to the sleeperhold, and this time, Narita looked to be out cold. He was also bleeding from his nose or mouth quite a lot at this point, too. The referee called the match and Lawlor won via TKO and will advance to the next round of the New Japan Cup USA. He yelled at the ref to raise his hand in victory, then jaw-jacked with Kevin Kelly and Alex Koslov on commentary before exiting.
This was really good, but what’s really interesting is how both Lawlor and Narita came off stronger after the match.
New Japan Cup USA Round 1: Hikuleo defeated Fred Rosser
Great revenge- brawl that had a lot of energy from the get-go. These two have a history together on the show: Back in February, “Mr. No Days Off” beat Hikuleo on an episode of Strong. Hikuleo obviously hadn’t forgotten about it, because the giant ran at Rosser and took him out with a big boot before the bell had even rung. Rosser’s music was still playing as he walked to the other side of the ring, selling the boot like it may have taken a tooth out of his mouth. He and Hikuleo got back into it next and, really, it looked more like a hockey fight than a wrestling match. I mean that as a good thing. These two just tore into each other. It was full-on brawl. Rosser used a headbutt. Hikuleo threw Rosser over the barrier and Rosser looked to do a full flip dive over the rail. Hikuleo blasted Rosser with a chop near the blue corner post, then gave him Snake Eyes across the guard rail. The match technically hadn’t even started yet. Hikuleo did the “headbanger choke,” where he, just like his father, Haku, wrapped his hand around Rosser’s throat and started headbanging like a maniac. Awesome.
Hikuleo finally rolled Rosser in the ring but also tried to pin him, not realizing the match hadn’t officially begun yet. The referee appropriately asked “What are you doing?!” and tried bringing some semblance of order to the bedlam.
The match finally got underway, and as soon as the bell rang, he ran at Rosser in the corner, then used a running power slam for two. He was pretty relentless in punishing Rosser. Hikuleo also has a WALTER-esque front chop that echoes throughout the venue they recorded in.
Hikuleo went to choke Rosser some more, but Rosser grabbed Hikuleo’s long hair and yanked on it, sort of a tit-for-tat strategy on his part. Since Hikuleo dished out an inordinate amount of punishment, it felt fair that Rosser could use a few dirty tactics and allow himself to catch up, so to speak.
The strategy paid off for Rosser, who bought himself enough time to lure Hikuleo to the floor and get a few licks of his own in. He was able to lift and drop Hikuleo on the apron with a falling back suplex. Back in the ring, he threw a few blatant closed fists to Hikuleo on the ground. He threw a few hard double chops and elbows, but Hikuleo was able to powerslam his way out of Rosser’s control, then pinned him after a sitdown death valley bomb, or ‘Whiplash’ as Lash LeRoux used to call it. Hikuleo advances to the semi-finals of the Cup. Backstage after the match, Hikuleo claimed he won the match “fair and square” in spite of Rosser pulling his hair.
New Japan Cup USA Round 1: Brody King defeated Chris Dickinson
Dickinson went for a single-leg takedown early but couldn’t bring him down. King muscled out of the neutral corner and landed on him with a hard senton for a two-count. Dickinson locked in a single-leg crab with serious torque before letting go and stomping King’s knee over and over. “Dirty Daddy” then applied a figure four leglock after working the same leg over even more. The stories Dickinson has told on Strong are so clear but also logical; King is bigger, therefore Dickinson must do whatever he can to chop King’s legs out from under him. Dickinson stuck with the gameplan for much of this.
Unsatisfied, Dickinson pushed King into the corner and tagged him with a hard kick to the chest. King ate it. Dickinson then went back to Plan A and used a dragon screw leg whip to neutralize King.
King mounted a power-comeback, nailing King with a Steinerline in the corner that he followed with a running cannonball and piledriver, but just for two. Dickinson responded with a jumping, swinging DDT, then locked King into an STF until King grabbed the ropes for a break.
Dickinson used a deadlift German suplex on the larger King for another two-count. They traded chops in the middle of the ring next. The ring announcer made the ten-minute call and these two were still slapping the sh*t out of each other. Dickinson started laughing maniacally. He went for a step-up enzuigiri kick but King ducked, then deadlifted Dickinson with a German suplex of his own. King went to lariat Dickinson but he ducked; Dickinson landed the aforementioned enzuigiri kick, but King then threw the lariat he’d originally planned to throw, decapitating Dickinson, then pinning him to win the match and advance to the semi-finals. Maybe Dickinson joined up with King in ROH recently because he forgot they had a match on NJPW Strong. I’d believe it after that lariat.
Final thoughts:
There’s a lot of great pro wrestling to watch this week, but we really must include the latest episode of Strong. On tonight’s show, we got four great matches that were all different in tone and style, and all top quality. It was a slightly above-average episode of a series that’s close to batting 1000; interpret that as you will.
Next week’s episode features two semi-final matches, with Hikuleo vs. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor and Brody King vs. Lio Rush, respectively, plus an eight-man tag team match, with no wrestlers announced as of yet.
The field is set for the 2021 New Japan Cup USA tournament.
Chris Dickinson and Clark Connors claimed the final two spots in the field on Friday’s episode of NJPW Strong. Dickinson beat Blake Christian, while Connors defeated TJP.
On the March 19 Strong, Brody King defeated Bateman to earn a spot in the tournament, while Ren Narita secured his place by defeating Misterioso. Hikuleo and Fred Rosser gained tournament entry with wins on the March 12 episode of Strong. Lio Rush and Tom Lawlor won qualifying matches on the March 5 episode.
Tournament matches will begin on the Friday, April 2 episode of Strong and will run through the month of April. The Cup winner will again receive a title shot against the IWGP United States Champion.
The tournament bracket was also revealed. First round matches will be:
Clark Connors vs. Lio Rush
Brody King vs. Chris Dickinson
Ren Narita vs. Tom Lawlor
Hikuleo vs. Fred Rosser
The Connors/Rush winner will face King or Dickinson in the semifinals. Hikuleo or Rosser will face the Narita/Lawlor winner in the other semifinal match.
KENTA won the 2020 New Japan Cup USA tournament, earning a title shot against IWGP United States Champion Jon Moxley. KENTA won the tournament on the August 21, 2020 episode of Strong, but the match with Moxley did not take place until the February 26, 2021 edition of Strong due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
KENTA went on to successfully defend the IWGP US briefcase five times before finally facing Moxley.
Tonight’s show opened with promos from both Brody King and Batemen, who were set to square off in the main event, a qualifying match for the New Japan Cup USA 2021 tournament. Bateman explained how this win could change his life. He also promised that tonight’s match between him and King would get physical. King talked about coming up short in last year’s Cup, and that this year, we would see a different version of Brody King.
Jeff Cobb defeated Alex Coughlin
The newly mustachioed Alex Coughlin held his own against Jeff Cobb early on. This is one of Cobb’s first appearances on Strong as a member of the United Empire alongside Great O-Khan, Will Ospreay and Bea Priestley. We saw a meaner, oilier Cobb here tonight, who quickly cut off Coughlin’s attempts at offense with serious power. He ragdolled Coughlin a bit, but the young lion hung in there and continuously fired back at Cobb with strikes of his own to no avail.
Next, Cobb locked in an old school bear hug submission. When Coughlin went for a spear, Cobb side-stepped out of the way and guided Coughlin face-first into the mat. At around five minutes in, Coughlin drained most of his energy on trying to bodyslam Cobb. He eventually pulled it off, but Cobb answered back later, catching him with a spinning back suplex and later a vicious Tour of the Islands powerslam for the pin.
Cobb looked killer here. When he works with someone like Coughlin, someone who can take a serious physical beating, Cobb is allowed to show more “follow-through” in the ring on offense; the chops, lariats, and suplexes all had greater impact tonight as opposed what we’ve seen from the former Olympian in the past. It’s more clear than ever that Cobb is a heel now, and it’s great. And kudos to Coughlin, as well, who has lost pretty much all of his matches so far this year but looked excellent in every loss.
Ren Narita defeated Misterioso to qualify for the NJPW Cup USA 2021 tournament
Both were hesitant at the start as the two felt each other out. We saw a nice monkey flip from Narita early. Narita muscled Misterioso down to the mat with headlock, but Misterioso slipped out of his grasp and sprang to his feet. Narita then bullied Misterioso into the corner and wailed away with strikes.
Misterioso later went for a triangle moonsault but caught himself on the top rope. Luckily, the momentum from the dive carried him all the way down to the floor so it didn’t look too bad. It could have been a lot worse.
Back in the ring, Misterioso stuck a flying lariat and followed it with a powerslam. He used a Guerrero Special from the top for two. Narita wouldn’t stop fighting back, answering Misterioso’s offense with more submissions as opposed to strikes. Before he landed a pretty German suplex for a two-count, Narita put Misterioso away with his modified Cloverleaf finish for the win in just over ten minutes. This was decent, but Misterioso’s slight botches were also hard to unsee.
Brody King defeated Bateman to qualify for the NJPW Cup USA 2021 tournament
The Riegel Twins accompanied Brody King to the ring tonight.
Slow start until both started trading hard forearms. Bateman feigned another forearm shot but poked King in the eyes instead. He then tripped King who was coming off the ropes, and King landed face-first onto the mat.
King seemed not to like any of Bateman’s foul play and quickly turned the tides, locking in a seated abdominal stretch while peppering Bateman with huge forearms to the chest, King growling with each shot.
Bateman went back to the eyes. Loud chops from both. After catching King with two big elbows in the corner, he took off his elbow pads and threw him at King’s head with contempt. King didn’t seem to like that either and responded by using an exploder suplex into the corner on Batemen, then launched himself at a prone Batemen with a running cannonball.
Both were out for a while. Bateman came back to his feet and was able to lay in a few more elbows. Bateman later tried using a German suplex into the corner on King, but King’s head missed the post, so I guess it was just a regular German suplex. He used a face wash on King next. King couldn’t make a proper comeback at this point because of his injured knee. The Riegels encouraged King from the outside the ring. King was able to deliver a snap German suplex, a huge running lariat, and finally a Gonzo Bomb to finally put Bateman away. Good stuff from both here.
Brody King with the Riegel Twins appeared after the match, celebrating backstage. Before departing, King stated: “Last year I came up short, but this year I’m taking the whole thing” in reference to the NJPW Cup USA tournament.
Final thoughts:
The main event was the standout on tonight’s episode. Bateman is a refreshing personality in the mix, and his style and size help spice up the show without compromising any of the show’s usual quality. King has been very good in these main event spotsl. His singles matches are usually the highlights of those particular shows, and tonight’s performance provides more evidence of this.
Chris Dickinson vs. Blake Christian and Clark Connors vs. TJP are in action next week. Both are New Japan Cup USA qualifying matches.
