TMDK will attempt to add more goal to its ranks next month at NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2024.
After Monday’s King of Pro Wrestling event, TMDK member Kosei Fujita cut a backstage promo answering Gabe Kidd’s Strong Openweight Championship challenge for Fighting Spirit Unleashed. NJPW has not formally announced the match yet, but Kidd posted a tweet accepting Fujita’s challenge.
IMA SAY IT NOW
I DON’T CARE ABOUT ANY BUSY BODY IN THE OFFICE
GABE KIDD VS KOSEI FUJITA FOR THE NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT TITLE WILL BE THE MAIN EVENT IN LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS NOVEMBER 8TH
AND I PROMISE YOU, THIS MATCH WILL SHOW THE TRUE SPIRIT OF NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
Kidd won the Strong Openweight Championship from Eddie Kingston this May and has made successful title defenses against Ultimo Guerrero, Lio Rush, and Anthony Henry.
TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr. became the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion on Monday by defeating Tetsuya Naito in the main event of King of Pro Wrestling. Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste — who also hold the Strong Openweight Tag Team titles — retained their IWGP Tag Team title belts at the show with a victory over Bad Luck Fale & Caveman Ugg.
The Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts is hosting Fighting Spirit Unleashed on Friday, November 8. Here’s what’s set for the show so far:
NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd defends against Kosei Fujita
Four-way number one contender’s match: Anna Jay vs. TBD vs. TBD vs. TBD (winner gets next shot at NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone)
Tonight saw the first of NJPW Strong’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2022 tapings from Hollywood, California.
Mascara Dorada defeated Misterioso
Dorada did a spinning rope-walk hurricanrana that took Misterioso to the floor. When Dorada went for a tope con giro to the floor, Misterioso caught him on the way down in mid-air, then slammed Dorada into the barricades at ringside.
Back in the ring, Misterioso connected with a running double-knee strike in the corner for two. Dorada would later catch Misterioso with a huge rope-walk somersault dive to the floor. “Death-defying” would be an appropriate way to describe the spot. Pretty amazing. The crowd lost it and broke out into a “LU-CHA!” chant afterwards.
Back in the ring, Dorada would connect with a flawless springboard swanton onto Misterioso. Dorada’s smoothness on the ropes is something else.
Misterioso later answered with a tope con giro of his own, though he clipped his legs on the ringside barricade on the way down. Thankfully Misterioso seemed all right, but the crowd went into a “HOLY SH*T!” chant after it happened. The impact the steel makes is so loud inside the venue, which inadvertently adds more of a dramatic effect.
Late in the match, Misterioso landed a beautiful springboard hurricanrana from the top rope. Again, the crowd went wild. Misterioso only got a two-count for his troubles, though. He then landed an electric chair-to-wheelbarrow German suplex for two. Misterioso can move like a smaller luchador, but he’s actually a muscular 230 lbs. with serious power. It wasn’t a perfect match, but this may have been his best showing on NJPW Strong since the inception of the show in 2020.
Mascara Dorada won the match with what commentator Alex Koslov called “The Guadalajara County Slam” to put Misterioso away for the win. Good opener.
Robbie Eagles defeated Kevin Blackwood
Midway into the match, Eagles lit Blackwood’s chest up with kicks. He then went for a basement dropkick into the corner, but Blackwood blocked it and returned with a flurry of strikes.
Eagles targeted Blackwood’s leg in order to soften Blackwood up for his Ron Miller Special submission. He used a springboard basement dropkick to take Blackwood out, though Blackwood wasn’t phased and immediately locked Eagles in a Texas Cloverhold until Eagles grabbed the ropes for a break.
Blackwood connected with a Buzzsaw Kick and followed up with a brainbuster—a nice little ode to TAJIRI—before Eagles answered with a Turtle Backpack driver before giving Blackwood a 450 splash from the top, one where Eagles crashed down onto Blackwood’s legs. Eagles then locked in the Ron Miller Special for the win. Eagles picked up the victory in his return to NJPW Strong.
NJPW Openweight Tag Team Championship: Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) (c) defeated West Coast Wrecking Crew (Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson)
This was excellent.
Nelson and Fletcher kicked things off for their teams, but after only a few minutes into the match, things had spilled out onto the floor between Isaacs and Davis. The other two brawled around ringside. Fletcher and Nelson followed. Aussie Open did a double backdrop suplex to WCWC, dropping them back-first onto the ring apron.
Davis locked in a back face lock on Nelson back in the ring. Davis tagged Fletcher into the match, and Fletcher tried taking Nelson to the top rope for some sort of maneuver. Nelson bit Fletcher’s bicep, which forced Fletcher to lose his balance and fall off the ropes. When Nelson went for a diving crossbody bodyblock, Fletcher blocked the press by pulling his knees up.
Nelson was eventually able to tag out to Isaacs, who’d immediately cleaned house. He did a flipping lariat, then stacked Aussie Open in the corner and proceeded to give them more lariats. It was a lariat parfait. Isaacs earned a two-count after putting Fletcher down with a jackhammer.
WCWC gained much of their momentum back towards the end of the match, at one point running roughshod on Aussie Open with power moves. Isaacs & Nelson tried doing stereo deadlift German suplexes on AO, but the Aussies countered and turned it into a stereo brainbusters instead.
Both teams traded superkicks. Nelson would land a big pop-up power bomb on Fletcher before slingshotting him to Isaacs, who’d catch Fletcher, spin him around, then drive him back onto Nelson’s knees with a Death Valley Bomb—but only for two.
Aussie Open mounted a final comeback and launched the rest of whatever artillery they had in their arsenal at WCWC. After a few more close nearfalls, they’d win the match after hitting Coriolus, putting Isaacs away for the pin. Aussie Open are now two for two.
Final thoughts:
The main event was great modern tag team wrestling, and with two of the hottest teams on the scene right now. The whole show was good, the main event turned out to be this week’s highlight.
Roppongi Vice, Taylor Rust & KUSHIDA vs. Bullet Club (Jay White, Hikuleo, Chase Owens & Juice Robinson) headlines next week’s episode of NJPW Strong: Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2022.
NJPW has announced the lineup for Friday’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed on NJPW Strong event.
In the main event, Bullet Club’s “Switchblade” Jay White will face Flip Gordon. White and Chase Owens lost in a tag match to Gordon and Brody King on the August 21 episode of NJPW Strong to set up this match.
The semi-main event will feature Hikuleo of Bullet Club taking on King. This match marks Hikuleo’s return bout after an excursion to RevPro in the United Kingdom.
On the undercard, Karl Fredericks will take on Misterioso, who with Barrett Brown, Blake Christian, and Adrian Quest defeated Fredericks, Clark Connors, ACH, and TJP on last week’s NJPW Strong.
In his NJPW debut, Fred Rosser, formerly known as Darren Young in WWE, will team with Alex Zayne in the opener. They will face the team of Clark Connors and The DKC.
NJPW Strong airs Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World.
New Japan returns to Long Beach, California tonight for Fighting Spirit Unleashed, where a number of key matches will take place.
Two titles will be on the line tonight, one which will feature Cody challenging current champion Juice Robinson for the IWGP United States championship. The Young Bucks will also make their first defense of the IWGP tag team titles as they will face the Guerillas of Destiny. There’s no love loss between the four following what happened in San Francisco back in July.
Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll will clash once again tonight as well, this time with the winner meeting KUSHIDA at King of Pro Wrestling on 10/8 for the vacant IWGP Jr. championship. The show will be headlined by a tag team match pitting the Golden Lovers against the CHAOS team of Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii.
Join us for live coverage this evening at 8 p.m. EDT. The show will air live on New Japan World, with the AXS TV broadcast airing this Friday at 8 p.m. EDT.
**********
Jushin Thunder Liger, ACH and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Roppongi 3K and Rocky Romero
This was a pretty hot opener. There’s noticeable empty seats throughout the arena, but the crowd is still hot. Rocky briefly had the heat on Liger but cut him and R3K off and tagged in ACH, who made a nice hot tag.
Rocky and Taguchi are back in. Taguchi runs wild with the hip attacks. ACH wiped out 3K on the outside with a double suicide dive as Taguchi planted Romero with the dodon for the win. Good opener.
The Addiction defeated Hangman Page and Chase Owens
This was a good, solid tag team match. Page and Owens showed some good tandem offense. Kazarian made the hot tag to Daniels. Page went for the shooting star shoulderblock on the outside but Kazarian got the knees up and took him out. The duo then laid out Owens and Daniels hit the BME for the win.
Jeff Cobb, Chris Sabin and Flip Gordon defeated Best Friends and Hirooki Goto
CHAOS worked on Sabin until he made a hot tag to Gordon, who ran wild on everyone with some really cool looking offense. Goto gets tagged in and runs wild on Cobb. Goto attempted a GTR but Cobb countered with a suplex.
He missed a standing moonsault as the Best Friends came in and took out Cobb with a double suplex. Cobb laid them out out with a double suplex in return. Chuckie piledrove Cobb and went for the moonsault, but it didn’t connect. Cobb gave him a lariat then pinned him following the tour of the islands. A good match and a great highlight reel for Cobb.
Goto confronted Cobb after the match as the two had a staredown. Doesn’t look like the end for them.
Zack Sabre Jr. and Killer Elite Squad defeated Tetsuya Naito, EVIL and SANADA
Much like in the previous matches, KES worked over SANADA. He tagged in Naito who went at it with Davey Boy Smith Jr.. Sabre and EVIL were tagged in, and went at it as they’re in the middle of a feud. EVIL hit a cool fisherman’s buster and tagged in SANADA as all three LIJ members went at it.
Naito and SANADA took out KES as EVIL went for the STO but Sabre countered out of it. EVIL hit darkness falls, but Sabre kicked out. EVIL went for the STO again, but Sabre escaped, bridged EVIL and pinned him in another good match.
KES beat up one of the young lions after the match for good measure. EVIL wasnt happy about taking the pin.
Jay White and Gedo defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and KUSHIDA
Tanahashi went to the top rope for the high fly flow, but when White got the referee distracted Gedo punched Tanahashi with what may have been brass knuckles. White then grabbed Tanahashi and hit the Bladerunner for the win. A solid match, not really into the ending.
White grabbed a microphone after the match. The crowd wouldn’t let White talk and drowned him out in boos and other naughty chants. White says Okada drew with you, but I beat you and thus I have the rights to this briefcase. He asks what is he waiting for? He says you and NJPW are scared because NJPW can’t deal with the thought of him or two headliners in the main event of WrestleKingdom.
White says that it is an inevitability, and you and everyone here will breathe with the Switchblade.
Marty Scurll defeated Will Ospreay
An excellent match, it goes without saying that these two have excellent chemistry with one another. The layout of the match was so well done.
Ospreay went a million miles an hour right at the bell, hitting a giant spanish fly, a Sasuke special, shooting star press then a suicide dive all within the first minute of the match. Scurll catches him on the outside with a superkick. He takes Ospreay to the ring and works him over with chops.
Scurll works on Ospreay’s neck, dragging him to a bottom rope and using all of his weight while standing on Ospreay’s neck. Ospreay comes back with a springboard kick, but Scurll cuts him off and takes him back to the outside. Back in the ring, Ospreay cuts him off and hits a giant sunset flip bomb to the floor.
The two traded offense, with Ospreay getting the better of thing with a lariat. The two meet on the top rope, where Scurll hits a springboard hurricanrana. Ospreay powers through Scurll chops and unleashes some of his own. The two trade some great back and forth near falls.
Ospreay connects with the cheeky nandos kick and went to go for something off the top rope, but Scurll meets him there again and smashes his head into the turnbuckle. Scurll unleashed a giant chickenwing suplex, then what I can only describe as a package sidewalk slam. Scurll then got the win with Graduation.
This makes it Marty Scurll vs. KUSHIDA at King of Pro Wrestling for the IWGP Jr. title.
The Guerillas of Destiny defeated The Young Bucks for the IWGP tag team titles
A different match than most Young Buck bouts, but a good match that told a good story.
The match starts out pretty even, until Tanga Loa took out Matt with a running powerslam. A table was introduced by Loa. The Young Bucks fire back, with Nick hitting a big dive onto Loa. Matt tries to go something on the top rope, but Tonga shoved Matt off, sending him into the table.
GoD focus on Nick as they work him over. They got the heat on him for a while until Matt came in and made a comeback. Matt went for a sharpshooter on Tonga but Loa attacked his back. They continued to work over his lower back until he finds and opening and tags in Nick.
The Bucks try for the More Bang for Your Buck but Matt’s back kept bothering him, and took a long while before he could actually connect. They try for the Meltzer driver but Tama Tonga hits a gun stun out of nowhere. An assisted gun stun on Matt seals the deal.
Cody defeated Juice Robinson to win the IWGP United States title
I liked this match a lot, not blow away but very good. Great heel work by Cody and Brandi throughout, and the finish was excellent.
Cody went for a dive off the top rope but Juice grabbed him on the outside and hit a belly to belly suplex. Brandi Rhodes, who accompanied Cody, tried to grab Juice but he shoved her away. In the confusion, Cody laid out Juice with an inverted DDT.
Juice came back with some roll ups, then connected with the cannonball in the corner. He went for a running powerbomb, but Cody countered with a hurricanrana that sent Juice into the turnbuckle. After Brandi rake the eyes, Juice managed to dodge a kick by Cody and connected with a crossbody.
Cody countered Juice with a figure four lock. Juice reversed it as Cody escaped and was consoled by Brandi, who gave him water. After distracting the ref, he blinded Juice with water and laid him out. Juice came alive and ended up hitting the pulp friction. But once again, Brandi came to Cody’s rescue by dragging him out of the ring.
After telling Red Shoes to stop counting, he exited the ring to grab Cody, only for Cody to come alive and plant him with the crossroads. They make it back to the ring where the two start exchanging punches until Cody rakes Juice in the eyes and laid him out with the Din’s fire (vertebreaker). Juice cut off Cody on the top rope and connected with a superplex, but Cody out of nowhere hooked Robinson’s legs on impact, cradling him and scoring the pinfall and the championship.
Golden Lovers defeated Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii
Great main event. It was nothing but action throughout and ended up turning into a really heated tag team match.
Things start off with some solid tag team work — Ishii worked against Omega, and Ibushi worked with Okada. The story of the early portion of the match was that Omega and Okada avoided one another, but every other variation worked against one another until finally Okada was tagged in. They went at it briefly before the Golden Lovers wiped both Okada and Ishii out with the Cross Slash.
Okada and Omega eventually do see eye to eye as they traded offense. Okada escaped a One Winged Angel attempt and connected with a dropkick. Golden Lovers connected with with tandem offense as Omega lays it in with a v-trigger. Okada counters another One Winged Angel attempt with a tombstone, and Ishii connected with a sliding D.
Omega laid out Okada with a uranage as Ishii and Ibushi came back in. The two exchanged strikes, which Ishii got the better of. He then hit a moonsault, but landed his knees on Ishii’s gut. Golden Lovers go for the Golden Trigger but Okada breaks it up. Ishii came in and soon enough all four men are laid out.
Ishii and Ibushi exchanged strikes once more, with Ibushi again getting the better of things with a lariat. Ishii powers back and Okada helps him get the advantage. Omega takes out Okada on the outside as Ibushi blocked a lariat and scored a huge kick to the head. Ibushi tried for the kamigoye but Ishii headbutted him. Omega comes in and they connect with the Golden Trigger for the win.
Omega after the match said it wasn’t the best night for the Bullet Club, and apologized to the Young Bucks. Despite some empty seats near the rafters, he sees so many familiar faces, happy faces who were happy to see The Elite. The worldwide movement is only beginning.
He then turned his attention to Ibushi. He said that when we decided to protect our ten year promise, it proved to be a disappointment to the front office and the fans. They want to see the rematch. At that moment, Cody came out. He said let me help you out and alleviate the burden. He asks the crowd if he wants to see the rematch….Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi….vs. Cody Rhodes.
Omega said that this is actually ingenious. They want to make history, and they want to do it their own way. Let’s show the beauty of professional wrestling and have a triple threat match. This isn’t personal, this is about the beauty and originality of professional wrestling. So it looks like we have our main event for King of Pro Wrestling next weekend.
