Four matches have been announced this week’s NJPW Strong. The episode will be the finale of the New Japan Showdown series of episodes.
In the main event, Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston will face Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer in a street fight.
In the semi-main, Brody King, Chris Dickinson and Daniel Garcia will take on Barrett Brown, Bateman and Misterioso in a trios bout.
Also set for this week’s episode, Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson and Danny Limelight will face Fred Rosser, Karl Fredericks, Rocky Romero, Ren Narita and The DKC in a ten-man tag.
In the opener, Jonathan Gresham will take on Alex Coughlin.
The New Japan Showdown episodes of Strong were taped on October 16 and October 17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the 2300 Arena.
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 New Japan Showdown night four, Saturday, November 27, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World–
Philadelphia street fight: Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer
Brody King, Chris Dickinson & Daniel Garcia vs. Barrett Brown, Bateman & Misterioso
Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson & Danny Limelight vs. Fred Rosser, Karl Fredericks, Rocky Romero, Ren Narita & The DKC
A singles match headlines this week’s NJPW Strong.
United Empire’s TJP will face Clark Connors in the show’s main event. The two have split their previous singles meetings 1-1.
Lio Rush will tag with Ariya Daivari in the second match on Strong. They will face the Bullet Club duo of El Phantasmo and Impact Wrestling’s Chris Bey.
In the opener, David Finlay and Juice Robinson will take on Yuya Uemura and LA Dojo’s Kevin Knight.
The New Japan Showdown episodes of Strong were taped on October 16 and October 17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the 2300 Arena.
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 New Japan Showdown night three, Saturday, November 20, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World–
TJP vs. Clark Connors
Lio Rush & Ariya Daivari vs. El Phantasmo & Chris Bey
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Yuya Uemura & Kevin Knight
A tag team match will headline this week’s New Japan Showdown episode of NJPW Strong.
In the main event, Will Ospreay and TJP of The United Empire will tag against NJPW LA Dojo graduates Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors.
In the semi-main, Juice Robinson will be in singles competition against Bullet Club’s El Phantasmo.
In the opener, Robinson’s FinJuice tag partner David Finlay will team with Alex Coughlin and Yuya Uemura against Team Filthy’s JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs and Jorel Nelson.
The New Japan Showdown episodes of Strong were taped on October 16 and October 17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the 2300 Arena.
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 New Japan Showdown night one, Saturday, November 6, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World–
Will Ospreay & TJP vs. Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors
Juice Robinson vs. El Phantasmo
David Finlay, Alex Coughlin & Yuya Uemura vs. JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
NJPW held night one of their Strong Showdown tapings Saturday night at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Dickinson headlined night one. Sunday’s show will be headlined by Suzuki and Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston in a Philadelphia street fight.
Below are night one’s results.
*Thanks to Travis L.*
**********
Hikuleo defeated Kevin Knight
Hikuleo won by pinfall with a Tongan Driver.
BATEMAN, Misterioso & Barrett Brown defeated Brody King, Karl Fredericks & The DKC
BATEMAN won with the This is a Kill tombstone, pinning The DKC.
JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson defeated David Finlay, Alex Coughlin & Yuya Uemura
Nelson pinned Uemura after a springboard cutter.
Juice Robinson defeated El Phantasmo
Juice won by pinfall and reportedly debuted a new finisher.
Alex Zayne defeated Ariya Daivari
Zayne won by pinfall with a Taco Driver.
Fred Rosser & Rocky Romero defeated Tom Lawlor & Danny Limelight
Rosser pinned Lawlor after reversing a rear naked choke.
Ren Narita & Clark Connors defeated Will Ospreay & TJP
Narita pinned TJP after a bridging suplex.
Jay White defeated Fred Yehi
White won by pinfall with the Blade Runner.
Minoru Suzuki defeated Chris Dickinson
Suzuki won by pinfall with the Gotch-style piledriver.
Jay White vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Juice Robinson vs. Moose and the debut of Buddy Matthews were announced for NJPW Battle in the Valley on November 13 in San Jose.
NJPW has unveiled the full lineups for this weekend’s Showdown events at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
Four new matches have been added to Saturday’s show.
NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Tom Lawlor will team with Danny Limelight against Rocky Romero and Strong regular Fred Rosser.
Three other members of Lawlor’s Team Filthy will be in action, as JR Kratos, Jorel Nelson and Royce Isaacs face David Finlay, Yuya Uemura and Alex Coughlin. Brody King, Karl Fredericks and The DKC will face Bateman, Barrett Brown and Misterioso in another trios match. Hikuleo will face LA Dojo’s Kevin Knight in the other added match.
For Sunday’s show, three new matches have been announced.
Juice Robinson and David Finlay will face Yuya Uemura and Kevin Knight. Brody King, Chris Dickinson and Daniel Garcia will take on Bateman, Barrett Brown and Misterioso in a trios match. New United Empire member TJP will face Clark Connors in singles competition.
Sunday’s show will be headlined by Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer in a tag team Philadelphia street fight match, while Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Dickinson is listed as Saturday’s main event.
NJPW has added four matches to the Showdown tapings in Philadelphia on October 16 and October 17.
Former WWE talent Ariya Daivari will be debuting for the promotion, wrestling on both nights of the tapings. On night one, he will face Alex Zayne in a singles match. On night two, he will tag with Lio Rush against Bullet Club’s El Phantasmo and Chris Bey.
New United Empire member TJP will team with Will Ospreay on night one against Ren Narita and Clark Connors. TJP joined Ospreay’s group at this past weekend’s Autumn Attack tapings in Texas.
Also added, Jay White will team with Hikuleo against Fred Yehi and Wheeler Yuta on night two.
Both nights of tapings will take place at the 2300 Arena. Tickets for both shows are on sale now.
Here are the announced lineups so far:
NJPW Strong Showdown night one, Saturday, October 16, 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA —
Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Dickinson
Juice Robinson vs. El Phantasmo
Jay White vs. Fred Yehi
Will Ospreay & TJP vs. Ren Narita & Clark Connors
Ariya Daivari vs. Alex Zayne
NJPW Strong Showdown night two, Sunday, October 17, 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA —
Street fight: Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer
Will Ospreay vs. Alex Zayne
Jonathan Gresham vs. Alex Coughlin
Fred Rosser, Karl Fredericks, Rocky Romero, Ren Narita & The DKC vs. Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson & Danny Limelight
Jay White & Hikuleo vs. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta
Lio Rush & Ariya Daivari vs. El Phantasmo & Chris Bey
Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer in a street fight has been added to NJPW Strong Showdown tapings in Philadelphia.
Moxley and Kingston will face Suzuki and Archer on Sunday, October 17 at the 2300 Arena in a rematch from their Lights Out match on this week’s AEW Rampage Grand Slam show.
The match will be taped for a later episode of NJPW Strong, which airs Saturday’s at 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World.
NEVER Openweight Champion Jay White will take on Fred Yehi at NJPW Showdown, one of four new matches added to the two nights of Strong tapings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 16th and 17th.
White and Yehi will do battle in a non-title match on night one.
The other night one match will see Juice Robinson take on El Phantasmo. Robinson has been feuding with the Bullet Club as of late, both in NJPW and Impact Wrestling.
Night two will feature former ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham vs. Alex Coughlin as part of Coughlin’s recent open challenge series. The match will mark Gresham’s return to an NJPW ring for the first time since 2019’s Super J Cup.
A ten-man tag team match has also been added to night two as NJPW Strong Champion Tom Lawlor will team with JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson and Danny Limelight against Fred Rosser, Karl Fredericks, Rocky Romero, Ren Narita and The DKC.
NJPW Showdown night one | Saturday, October 16
Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Dickinson
Jay White vs. Fred Yehi
Juice Robinson vs. El Phantasmo
NJPW Showdown night two | Sunday, October 17
Will Ospreay vs. Alex Zayne
Alex Coughlin vs. Jonathan Gresham
Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson and Danny Limelight vs. Fred Rosser, Karl Fredericks, Rocky Romero, Ren Narita and The DKC
NJPW has announced the first two matches of next month’s NJPW Strong New Japan Showdown tapings in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena.
On night one on Saturday, October 16, Minoru Suzuki will take on NJPW Strong regular and former Team Filthy member “The Dirty Daddy” Chris Dickinson.
On night two on Sunday, October 17, Will Ospreay will face Alex Zayne. Zayne is coming off a short WWE run, where he wrestled as Ari Sterling. Aside from one appearance on NXT, Zayne’s entire WWE stint was confined to 205 Live. Zayne’s original WWE signing was officially announced with the December 2020 Performance Center class. He was released by WWE on August 6, 2021.
Tickets for both nights of NJPW action in Philadelphia are on sale now.
NJPW Strong New Japan Showdown night one, Saturday, October 16 —
Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Dickinson
NJPW Strong New Japan Showdown night two, Sunday, October 17 —
NJPW has added three big names to their Showdown events in Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena on Saturday, October 16 and Sunday, October 17.
Will Ospreay, Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer have been announced for the show.
Ospreay made his return to NJPW at Resurgence in Los Angeles on August 14 after being sidelined for three months with a neck injury. In his return promo, Ospreay declared himself the rightful IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, promising to defend his version of the title on NJPW Strong.
For Suzuki, Showdown will mark his first appearances at the former ECW Arena.
Archer is a two-time former IWGP United States Champion and headlined Resurgence against Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Tickets are on sale now for NJPW Showdown.
Here is the full list of talent advertised for Philadelphia:
NJPW has announced a series of tapings for Strong to be held in the United States in September and October.
Strong will be taped on Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26 in Garland Texas, as well as Saturday, October 16 and Sunday, October 17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Texas tapings will be held at the Curtis Cullwell Center, while the Philadelphia events will take place at the 2300 Arena.
The Garland shows will be branded as Autumn Attack, while the Philadelphia cards will be presented as New Japan Showdown 2021.
No matches have been announced for the events, but a list of talent appearing has been released and can be seen below.
Tickets for both events will go on sale on Sunday, August 8 at noon Eastern time. Prices will range from $29-$149. Ticket bundles with a merchandise gift will also be available.
NJPW Strong will also be taped in Long Beach, California on August 16. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii have been announced for that sold out event.
Here is the lineup for Garland:
NJPW Strong Autumn Attack, Saturday, September 25, Sunday, September 26, Curtis Culwell Center, Garland, Texas —
Jay White
Tom Lawlor
Juice Robinson
David Finlay
Hikuleo
Lio Rush
Fred Rosser
Brody King
Chris Dickinson
Karl Fredericks
Here is the lineup for Philadelphia:
NJPW Strong New Japan Showdown 2021, Saturday, October 16, Sunday, October 17, 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania —
NJPW has released the full lineups for both Showdown episodes of Strong.
KENTA will defend the IWGP United States Right to Challenge briefcase against David Finlay in the main event of New Japan Showdown night two on Friday, November 20. The bout will be a rematch of the New Japan Cup USA finals, won by KENTA on the August 21 episode of Strong.
KENTA is coming off a successful defense of the briefcase against Hiroshi Tanahashi at Power Struggle on November 7.
The November 13 main event is Tama Tonga vs. PJ Black. This will be Tonga’s first singles match since the New Japan Cup USA tournament. Tonga lost a tournament match to Finlay on the August 14 edition of Strong.
Other highlights from the cards include “Filthy” Tom Lawlor taking on Fred Rosser on night one.
NJPW Strong airs Fridays at 10 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World.
Here are the full cards:
New Japan Showdown on NJPW Strong, Friday, November 13 —
Tama Tonga vs. PJ Black
Jay White, Tanga Loa & Chase Owens vs. Juice Robinson, Brody King & Karl Fredericks
Tom Lawlor vs. Fred Rosser
ACH & Blake Christian vs. Alex Zayne & Adrian Quest
New Japan Showdown on NJPW Strong, November 20 —
IWGP US Heavyweight Right to Challenge contract match: KENTA vs. David Finlay
Jeff Cobb vs. JR Kratos
Rocky Romero vs. Rust Taylor
Clark Connors & The DKC vs. Sterling Riegel & Logan Riegel
Connors tried taking Rosser down early, but Rosser wasn’t having that and exited the ring to collect himself. Once back in the ring, Rosser took control on offense and muscled Connors to the mat. After a legdrop, Rosser locked on a modified STF lock until Connors caught the ropes for a break.
Connors shifted the momentum and returned Rosser’s offense with intensity. There were lots of hard stomps and forearms. He then locked on a Boston crab until Rosser made it to the ropes for a break of his own.
The finish saw Rosser catch Connors with a kneelift when Connors went for a spear, then put him away with a gutbuster for the win. Solid stuff from both.
Karl Fredericks defeated ACH
Fredericks’ athleticism is pretty unreal. He landed a picture-perfect crossbody early on in this, as graceful as ever for someone his size. It sort of had me doing a spit-take.
ACH countered an early offensive flurry from Fredericks with a smooth sliding sweep, then a basement dropkick to lay Fredericks out. He slowed the pace down, locking in a side headlock to ground the taller Fredericks.
Fredericks came back at ACH with a Stinger splash and a big jumping elbow drop. After the five-minute call, things began heating up. The two traded moves up until Fredericks was able to whip ACH into a sleeper hold, no doubt a nod to his trainer, Shibata. Fredericks then put ACH away with Manifest Destiny for the upset win.
This was really good, and both looked top-notch.
Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa) defeated Brody King and Flip Gordon
King and Loa were in first for their teams and they hoss’d it up to start, big-man elbows and big-man chops. King hit a crossbody, then tagged out to Flip Gordon. When Gordon went to springboard into the ring, Tama Tonga dragged him to the floor by the ankle. G.O.D. bullied Flip outside the ring for a while until Loa threw Gordon back inside. Tama Tonga tagged in and worked over Flip from here. He was great in this.
Gordon used a high dropkick and was able to tag out to a fired up King on the apron. He and Tonga Loa had good chemistry together throughout this, especially in their second major exchange towards the finish. The two crashed to the floor after King landed a big clothesline over the ropes.
Flip fired up towards the end, but Tama Tonga caught him in mid-air and put him down with a sweet-looking Gun Stun for the win.
The NJPW Showdown tour was announced for next week’s episode of NJPW Strong.
Jay White defeated Rocky Romero
Romero pinned Jay White in a 12-man elimination match on an episode a few weeks back, so that was the story going into this.
White trash-talked Romero at the start, antagonizing him until Rocky slapped White hard across the face. He then cradled White for a two count, all only seconds after the bell sounded.
They kept the pace at a high tempo for the first few minutes. White slowed the match after shutting down Romero’s ‘Forever Clotheslines’ in the corner.
Jay White eventually started bullying Romero, disrespecting him, and constantly talking trash. Romero would periodically try mounting a comeback, but White would shut it down.
Romero eventually turned the match in his favor after landing a swinging tornado DDT and Strong Zero for a close near-fall.
White was in control of things as the ring announcer made the ten-minute call. He placed Romero on the top rope, but Rocky broke Jay’s grip and locked on a kimura until White backed off.
Romero had White locked in an armbar only moments later and looked to have White in a bad spot; his selling was convincing.
Following that submission, Romero landed two really close 2.99 near-falls, first with a backslide and later after hitting Sliced Bread. Rocky went for another, but White countered it into a nasty-looking backbreaker, then followed up with the Bladerunner to put Romero away.
White talked on the mic in the ring afterwards. “I am in control of everything.” He kept jawing at Rocky and in the direction of CHAOS, then hit of couple of his current catchphrases (“I single-handedly sold out Madison Square Garden,” “I’m the real rock’n’rolla”) before taking off.
Final thoughts:
This was yet another solid episode of NJPW Strong, with all matches honestly being worth a look. The main event was on par with most of what we saw over the G1 Climax last month. The tag match was very good, as were the two openers, particularly in Fredericks vs. ACH. Next week’s episode will start the NJPW Showdown tour.
