Tag: Njpw Capital Collision

NJPW returns stateside with Capital Collision: a Saturday pay-per-view from Washington, DC, on FITE.tv.

The IWGP U.S. title will be on the line in a four-way as Hiroshi Tanahashi defends against Will Ospreay, Jon Moxley and Juice Robinson.

IWGP World Champion Kazuchika Okada will team with Rocky Romero against Bullet Club’s Jay White & Hikuleo. Romero replaces Trent Beretta who tested positive for COVID-19.

In a pair of hard-hitting matches, Tomohiro Ishii will take on Eddie Kingston while Minoru Suzuki will face Brody King.

The show will also feature a pair of multi-person matches. One is Jeff Cobb, Aaron Henare, and Aussie Open vs. JONAH, Bad Dude Tito, Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste while in the other, Team Filthy (Tom Lawlor, Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs, J.R. Kratos and Danny Limelight) will take on Fred Rosser, Tanga Loa, David Finlay, Yuya Uemura and The DKC in a ten-man.

Two singles matches will see Ren Narita vs. Karl Fredericks, and The Great-O-Khan vs. Chase Owens

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Karl Fredericks defeated Ren Narita

This was great. LA Dojo vs. Noge Dojo action at the top of the card. The crowd was really behind Narita throughout. Both Fredericks and Narita went hold for hold, strike for strike, nonstop. Narita landed a front suplex at five-ish minutes into the match. Fredericks took control later on. He’d stick a springboard diving double stomp, crash-landing into Narita’s back. Narita later would come back and earn a two with a bridging exploder suplex. Fredericks tried fighting him off, but Narita finally locked Fredericks into the Narita Special #3 for a close submission, but Fredericks made it to the ropes, just barely. 

The two then unloaded on each other some more, strike for strike again, until Narita locked in an octopus hold. He’d lock in a sleeper, but Fredericks would reverse it into a modified backcracker and finally connect with Manifest Destiny, spiking Narita head-first onto the mat. That’d do it; Karl Fredericks is your winner. Chalk one up for the LA Dojo. The two embraced afterwards. Narita implied he wanted another go at Fredericks before exiting the ring.

When Fredericks left the ring, QT Marshall & the Factory ambushed Fredericks on the entrance stage. They dragged Fredericks into the ring and beat on him for not joining the Factory the last time they met. Marshall then punched out Fredericks with his gold watch around his hand. He said he’d see Fredericks in Philadelphia.

Team Filthy (Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, West Coast Wrecking Crew & Danny Limelight) defeated Fred Rosser, DKC, David Finlay, Yuya Uemura & Tanga Loa

Rosser and Kratos flipped each other off before the match. Yuya Uemura and “The Big Stromboli” Royce Isaacs were in first for their teams. Isaacs slapped Uemura in the face; Uemura slapped Isaacs moments later. He used a Steamboat-esque armdrag before tagging in a fiery Fred Rosser, who bypassed Isaacs altogether, storming across the ring to get his hands on “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, who forced Rosser to shave his head again at NJPW Strong: Mutiny. Rosser whipped Lawlor into the guardrail outside the ring, then powerslammed him onto the floor as his teammates barricaded themselves around Rosser and Lawlor, allowing Rosser to get his licks in.

David Finlay and Danny Limelight were in next and had a crisp exchange. Finlay laid Limelight out with a sidewinder suplex for two. Isaacs distracted Finlay, which allowed Limelight to take control on offense before tagging out to JR Kratos. Kratos took Finlay out with a leaping lariat before a delayed hanging suplex while flipping off the crowd. Team Filthy then jumped in the ring and posed over Finlay.

Finlay eventually tagged out to Tanga Loa, who got a nice reaction upon entry. He did a spinning Blue Thunder bomb on Limelight and scored a two-count, then mocked Limelight by doing his own version of the “ay, Papi” dance.

Lawlor tagged in and locked on a cravat and later a front facelock until Loa broke free to tag out to Rosser. Lawlor and Rosser had a heated exchange. Rosser blasted Lawlor with double chops and a hard lariat before both tagged out. DKC tagged in and did DKC Fire to Limelight, then used a crucifix driver on him before Kratos came back into the match. Kratos would take DKC’s head off with a lariat.

Tanga Loa and JR Kratos were in together next. Loa asked Kratos to give him a free shot. Kratos obliged; Loa no-sold it. Loa gave Kratos a shot of his own; Loa no-sold it. They threw wild strikes until Kratos put him down with a back suplex. Uemura and Finlay would take Kratos out next with a double lariat and double suplex. 

WCWC would re-enter to take out Finlay and Uemura. They took Finlay out, then double press slammed him onto the floor. The DKC took WCWC out with a double missile dropkick. Lawlor locked DKC in a sleeper, but Rosser got behind Lawlor and put him in a chicken-wing and both spilled out onto the floor.

Limelight scored the pinfall after taking DKC out with a tornado DDT. It was botched up on the first attempt, but he sort of stuck it in the end. Thankfully, the action didn’t stop here, and the teams kept going at it despite the bell sounding. Finlay went wild with the sheleighleigh. Rosser and co. stood tall in the ring as Team Filthy went to the back. 

Chase Owens defeated Great O-Khan

Short but really good matchup. The two had great rhythm together. O-Khan got a good crowd reaction. Owens shoved his recently-won IWGP World Tag Team title in O-Khan’s face during the ring introductions. Owens and Fale recently won the titles at Wrestling Dontaku this month.

When the match started, many were chanting O-Khan’s name. Owens quickly got frustrated with O-Khan and began stomping and pounding away at him. O’Khan recovered and tried making Owens kiss his feet. He sat on Owens’ head while he was trapped in the corner. I don’t think I’ve heard such a babyface reaction from a crowd for O-Khan before this. 

Owens snapped O-Khan’s neck between the top and middle rope. He grabbed O-Khan’s ponytail braid and yanked him to the mat by it, then dropped a textbook knee onto O-Khan. He shouted “I hate your face” before putting O-Khan down with a swinging neckbreaker.

A loud “Great O-Khan” chant broke out after this. Owens soaked it in for a few moments, then started throwing his own mock-Mongolian Chops. Owens tried coming off the ropes with one, but O-Khan blocked him, then unloaded a series of Mongolian Chops of his own before using an inverted suplex, flattening Owens. 

Owens used a short lariat to put O-Khan back onto the mat. He knocked O-Khan silly with an enzuigiri and connected with the Z-Trigger, but it wasn’t enough to put O-Khan away. He taunted O-Khan, slapping him repeatedly. O-Khan took it all and stayed on his feet until Owens hit a big knee and a C-Trigger before going for the package piledriver, Owens’ finish. O-Khan blocked and went for the Eliminator but Owens’ blocked it. 

Seconds later, he rolled O-Khan up and hung his ankles on the second rope for extra leverage and was able to pin O-Khan for the win. A hollow victory for Owens, but a win nonetheless. The crowd booed a lot. They love Great O-Khan.

TMDK (JONAH, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Bad Dude Tito) defeated United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Aaron Henare & Aussie Open)

Impressive eight-man tag match. TMDK went after Henare early, quadruple-teaming him. Henare would come back and take Bad Dude Tito out with a spinning leg lariat off the second rope. Aussie Open came in double-teamed Tito before they tagged Jeff Cobb in. The crowd loved Cobb. He landed a standing moonsault on Tito before standing on his back and surfing on him. He and JONAH kept jaw-jacking during this.

Tito made a comeback later and would tag out to JONAH, who laid into Henare. He continued talking smack with Cobb. Nicholls & Haste came into the match next and did their signature standing moonsault-fistdrop combination.

Each member of TMDK got a chance to show their stuff while working over Henare. It was when Shane Haste was in the ring that he’d finally connect with a Samoan Drop to slow the onslaught. He’d tag out to Mark Davis, who cleaned house, ripping fellow Aussies Nicholls and Haste with loud chops. He and Kyle Fletcher used impressive double-team work on Nicholls. When they went for a double pumphandle bomb, Haste countered out of it and used a headscissors on Davis to get him out of the ring. 

Henare and Tito traded hard lariats. On the third lariat, they both went down. Both teams were in the ring for a second until JONAH and Jeff Cobb were left alone, after the others spilled onto the floor. The crowd went bonkers. Neither man would budge despite trading moves. Cobb hit a nice dropkick; JONAH took Cobb out with a spear. Ten minutes had passed. 

All eight wrestlers were in the ring together next and began brawling, all throwing wild punches. Cobb and JONAH took their fight to the floor. Nicholls and Haste would take out Aussie Open in the end, with Nicholls pinning Fletcher to pick up the win for his team.

JONAH and Jeff Cobb kept getting into each other’s faces after the match. It wasn’t official beforehand, but while they were celebrating, Nicholls pointed at the TMDK logo on his tights. Tito shook hands with the other three, meaning he’s now an official member of the faction.

Brody King defeated Minoru Suzuki

The crowd heated up as soon as the graphic for this match appeared on the monitors in the venue. They sounded pumped for both wrestlers.

They threw hard, gunshot chops at each other early. Suzuki went for the hanging triangle choke over the ropes, but King blocked it. On the floor, King missed a chop and hit his hand against the ring post. 

Suzuki then took King’s fingers and tried snapping them in half. Suzuki’s chest looked like raw meat just minutes into this. He locked in a double-wristlock from North-South position, yanking on it, stretching King’s shoulder.

King missed a running cannonball in the corner. The two traded sharp chops again. Just an endless succession of chopping. Suzuki did an armbreaker on King. The crowd was chanting Suzuki’s name at the five-minute mark.

Suzuki was very close to sticking the Gotch-style piledriver but couldn’t swing it. After a few more hot exchanges, Brody King finally put Suzuki down with the Gonzo Bomb, much to the shock of the crowd. This was excellent, as you’d expect. 

To send fans home happy, Suzuki grabbed a New Japan staffer and gave him a Gotch-style piledriver, just because. 

Tomohiro Ishii defeated Eddie Kingston 

They got into each other’s faces before the bell. They went at it from the get-go, shoving, chopping, shoulder blocking each other. It’s the pissing match every single person wanted to see tonight. Kingston had bandages on his face until ripping them off a few minutes into the match. 

When Kingston maintained control on offense, he slowed the pace, locking Ishii in a bow-and-arrow lock. Ishii reversed it, but he’d soon find himself in a Fujiwara armbar. 

Kingston placed Ishii in the red corner and unloaded machine gun chops. Ishii responded with chops of his own. Kingston replied with even more chops, this time with more speed and intensity. Most of the crowd chanted “ED-DIE!” while pockets countered with an “I-SHI-I!” chant. 

Kingston took Ishii down with a running neckbreaker drop, a nice nod to Giant Baba and the AJPW King’s Road style he’s referenced in the past. He locked Ishii in a facelock until Ishii caught the ropes for a break. 

Kingston grabbed Ishii by the face and slapped him hard. Ishii stared, then slapped Kingston. The two then broke into a vicious slap-boxing exchange. It was a flurry you’d see in old Pancrase or something. Ishii drilled Kingston with a backdrop driver. They slapped each other simultaneously before KO’ing each other for a few moments. The crowd was losing it. 

Kingston later pulled the straps on his singlet down. It’s business time. Kingston earned a very, very close nearfall on Ishii, so close that the ref’s hand actually hit the mat, but he was clear in communicating that it was for two, not three. After a few more minutes of violence, the two wore themselves out again, both lying flat on the mat. Dueling chants broke out in the audience.

Kingston landed a uranage. Kingston connected with a uraken backfist. They traded hard headbutts. At 15 minutes into the match, the two had knocked each other out again. Minutes later, after Kingston landed another enzuigiri. Ishii pummeled Kingston with yet another lariat. He finally put Kingston away with a vertical drop brainbuster. He shared a few words and wagged his finger at Kingston before heading to the back. What a match. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a rematch soon, either in NJPW or AEW.

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Lio Rush made a surprise appearance next. He has platinum-colored hair now. He’s a Washington DC native, and the crowd showed their love by chanting “Welcome home.” He said he’s not yet cleared to wrestle, but that when he did come back, the landscape of the entire junior heavyweight division will change. 

He called out Robbie Eagles, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, and others. Rush said his time is slowly approaching. Whether or not he’ll show up in NJPW Strong, NJPW proper, or maybe both, it’s too soon to say. But it seems like Rush is committed to NJPW for the moment.

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Bullet Club (Jay White & Hikuleo) defeated CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero)

The crowd lost it for Okada. When him and Jay White were standing in the ring before the match got underway, fans chanted “Holy shit!” 

Lio Rush joined Ian Riccaboni and Alex Koslov on commentary for this match.

Okada rushed White and began raining down punches onto him, which is out of character for the current IWGP World Heavyweight champion. He clearly has a score to settle. For about 20 seconds, the two were moving at what felt like 100 MPH. Okada connected with a basement single-leg dropkick before White tagged out to the giant Hikuleo. Okada is a tall guy, but Hikuleo still stood a head over the champ. 

The crowd then loudly began chanting for Rocky Romero to tag into the match. Okada milked it for a bit, then shot him an emphatic tag. The smaller Romero stood nose-to-chest with Hikuleo. Romero comes up to right about where Hikuleo’s sternum is. The crowd loved this. It made for a great visual too.

Romero shoved Hikuleo a few times, but Hikuleo sent Romero onto the mat with his own shove. The crowd chanted for Romero some more. Hikuleo offered a free shot, so Romero poked him in the eyes. He took Hikuleo over with a hurricanrana before chopping him up in the corner. Hikuleo responded with a brutal chop of his own. It was so loud.

Later, Hikuleo launched Romero into the corner post before tagging out to White. He mocked Romero as he held him in a rear chinlock. He and Hikuleo kept Romero in their corner, cutting off the other side of the ring. White wrapped camera cables around Romero’s neck and strangled with him while Hikuleo distracted the ref.

Romero almost made it over to Okada for a tag after connecting with a Rewind Kick on Hikuleo. He’d finally land a swinging DDT and tag out to Okada to the delight of the crowd. The champion took Hikuleo off his feet with a running back elbow. He’d bodyslam Hikuleo before Hikuleo decked Okada with a big boot before tagging White back into the match. White chopped Okada up, but Okada returned the attack with forearms. White landed a Bladebuster for two. 

Okada took White out with a reverse shoulderbreaker while Romero neutralized Hikuleo on the floor. Okada went to the top and dropped a big elbow onto White, then did the Rainmaker poser.

White teased a Bladerunner, but Okada countered and caught White with what announcer Ian Riccaboni the “Million-dollar dropkick,” which it really is. Romero did Forever Clotheslines to White. He darted through the corner ropes and dove onto Hikuleo, too. He was fired up and the crowd showed their love, chanting “RO-CKY!” over and over. 

Okada was able to lariat Hikuleo over the ropes and out of the ring. Romero and White and a rapid-fire exchange; White teased the Bladerunner, but Romero avoided it for a while. When he went for Sliced Bread #2, White again was able to counter, this time sticking the Bladerunner from out of nowhere. It looked vicious.

White and Okada argued afterwards. Before anything could happen between the two, Hikuleo reappeared and took out Okada. White gave him a Bladerunner, then held the IWGP World Heavyweight title over a fallen Okada. Hikuleo would go for a chokeslam next, but Tanga Loa, Hikuleo’s brother and ex-Bullet Club member, showed up. “You don’t turn your back on family!” he said to his younger brother. He and White left the ring without physical confrontation.

Four-way IWGP US Heavyweight Championship match: Juice Robinson defeated Will Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jon Moxley to win the title

This was the first glimpse we got of “Rock Hard” Juice Robinson, who has new tights and new theme music to go along with his move to Bullet Club. Ospreay came to the ring with United Empire in tow. Mox made his entrance through the crowd. 

Retired NJPW referee Tiger Hattori appeared in the ring to present the IWGP US Championship belt before the bout got underway.

When the bell rang, Ospreay went right at Moxley, elbowing him and sending him to the floor. Tanahashi would soon after dive onto Robinson with a pescado. Robinson responded by whipping him into the guardrail. 

On the other side of the venue, on the entrance ramp, Mox back bodydropped Ospreay onto the stage. Mox spotted Tanahashi alone in the ring, then approached him. They finally got their chance to face off man to man after a few years of teasing a match. When Tanahashi climbed to the top for senton, Robinson pulled Tana’s hair to drag him down.

Ospreay did some sort of dive that the crowd reacted to, but the live camera didn’t catch it. We only got a shot of Ospreay posing outside the ring after what we could only imagine was a spectacular spot. The announcers didn’t even seen it.

Ospreay used his new spinning backbreaker spot on Moxley. Mox responded with two back suplexes, but on the third one, Ospreay moonsaulted his way out of it, landing on his feet. The two stared each other down before Mox used a suplex bomb to put him back on the mat.

When Ospreay went for an Oscutter moments later, he accidentally rammed himself into Juice Robinson’s steel chair, one that he was holding on the ring apron. This was clever. Robinson later slammed Mox onto the chair inside the ring. No disqualifications or count-outs in this, by the way. Robinson put the chair in the corner and whipped Mox into it, then started biting him. Robinson has good heel heel energy. Moxley was bleeding after this. 

Ospreay caught Robinson’s leg, but then Tanahashi appeared and caught Ospreay’s leg and did a double dragon screw legwhip. Mox appeared and flattened Tana with a cutter. Ospreay got back up and used a roundhouse kick on Moxley, then went for the Oscutter, but Mox caught him. Robinson approached, and Mox caught him, too. He DDT’d both of them. Tana then took Mox out with a slingblade. The crowd started chanting “this is awesome.”

It was difficult to catch all of the action on screen since there’d often be two hypothetical singles matches going on at the same time, one in the ring and one on the floor.

When Tanahashi locked Moxley in the Texas Cloverhold, Ospreay stood behind him and teased knocking Tana out with a Hidden Blade elbow. Robinson then dragged Ospreay out onto the floor and threw him at the ring announcer’s table. 

Robinson grabbed the US title and bashed Tanahashi in the back of the head with it, then once more to the front of his face. When he covered Tanahashi, Mox appeared to break up the pin. He threw Robinson from the ring, which allowed Ospreay to land a 450 Splash off the top to an already-prone Tana. 

Mox broke that up and pinned him. Robinson broke it up and pinned Tana himself, but no dice. Ten minutes had passed when the crowd began chanting “TA-NA-HA-SHI!”

Robinson hoisted Tanahashi into a torture rack, but Ospreay caught Robinson with a head-kick and crescent kick. Moxley approached, but Ospreay ducked and went for the Stormbreaker, which Mox immediately countered into a piledriver. 

He went for a Death Rider on Tanahashi next, but Tana landed another Slingblade on Mox. He took Mox out with a High Fly Flow body press. Robinson laid Tana out with Pulp Friction. Ospreay took Robinson out with an Oscutter. Mox spiked Ospreay with the Death Rider, but Ospreay transcended the damage and went for the Hidden Blade, which Mox evaded before turning Ospreay inside out with a lariat. He then drilled Ospreay with a high-angle Death Rider for a very close two. 

Moxley transitioned into a bully choke. Ospreay looked to be passing out when Tanahashi climbed to the top rope and crushed both of them with a High Fly Flow. He went for one more on Moxley, but Robinson interfered and tried putting Tana through the table set up on the floor. He couldn’t swing it, though, and Moxley ended up kicking Robinson off the apron, though he didn’t go through the table. 

Mox teased a Death Rider to Tana through said table, but Tana reversed it and drove Mox’s back and neck across the apron with a Slingblade. The Ace was fired up. He set Moxley up on the table before using a brutal High Fly Flow through the table. 

In the ring, Robinson scored a close nearfall on Ospreay. Ospreay answered with sudden Spanish Fly for two. 15 minutes passed when Ospreay teased finishing Robinson with the Hidden Blade, but before he could do it, Robinson shoved referee Jeremy Marcus across the ring, then landed a low blow before putting Ospreay away with a spinning reverse Death Valley Bomb—Juice Robinson is your new IWGP US Heavyweight Champion. 

The announcers kept bringing up whether or not Ospreay had his foot on the rope during the finish, but if there’s a no-DQ stipulation, why would that even matter?

“The ‘Ace of the Universe,’ my ass! All of you piss-ant marks act like the whole world shines on Will Ospreay’s ass!” He explained that he was the best because he not only beat Tanahashi, Moxley and Ospreay, but he beat them all at the same time. He called the fans idiots and said they hadn’t seen anything yet because he was now a three-time IWGP US Heavyweight champion. 

Final thoughts:

In terms of broadcast quality, this was much easier to watch than Windy City Riot. On my end, there were no technical issues with FITE, and the production was somewhat slicker than before.

The wrestling on this was high-quality, top-tier stuff. There was a match for everyone on this card, I’d say. The main event was relentless. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Eddie Kingston may have been the best, or my favorite, at least. CHAOS vs. Bullet Club was also really good, and Brody King vs. Minoru Suzuki was even better. Any of the matches I didn’t mention, they were all very good, too. The whole show is worth checking out.