Tonight saw the first round of tapings from NJPW’s recent Detonation tapings in Hollywood, California.
Lucha Libre Rules Match: Rocky Romero & Adrian Quest defeated Atlantis Jr. & Virus
The “Lucha Libre Rules” stipulation meant wrestlers would not be required to tag as long as each team kept with the “one in, one out” rule.
CMLL’s Atlantis Jr. & Virus made their NJPW Strong debuts here. Romero and Virus were in together first. On commentary, Ian Riccaboni talked up Romero and Virus’ past singles bouts. They had a great mat exchange at the top of the match. The crowd was excited to see both Virus and Atlantis Jr., and chanted for both throughout the first few minutes.
After a few minutes of trading holds, Romero stuck his hand out at Virus in a show of respect, but Virus wasn’t interested, waving Romero off and tagging out to Atlantis Jr. The crowd “ooh’d” at that.
Adrian Quest and Atlantis Jr. were in together next. Quest landed a springboard corkscrew press before Atlantis Jr. took him down with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.
Later, Atlantis Jr. took out Romero & Quest with a tope suicida. Virus and Atlantis double-teamed both Quest and then Romero in the ring for a while. The five-minute call sounded when Romero made a comeback and tried laying in his Forever Clotheslines on Virus, who cut him off after just two clotheslines.
Quest made the save for Romero and earned a two after landing a standing shooting star press. Virus answered with hard chops and a short jab to lay Quest out. Romero hit Sliced Bread for two. Atlantis Jr. and Quest got into it next. Atlantis Jr. landed a nice dropkick before Quest answered back with a spinning back suplex. Atlantis rolled to the floor and Quest followed him out with a somersault senton, crashing onto Atlantis.
Virus scored a close two with a snap powerslam. Romero responded with a rewind kick. The two went back and forth teasing finishes before Romero cradled Virus for a sudden three-count. Romero & Quest score the win in just over ten minutes. Virus was very good, and Atlantis Jr. showed tons of charisma and maturity despite being just 24 years old. The in-house crowd enjoyed this one.
Homicide defeated Danny Limelight
This was sold as a grudge match because Team Filthy’s Danny Limelight used to be a member of LAX with Homicide before turning his back on the group.
Just before the match got underway, Limelight got into Homicide’s face and called him a hater. When Homicide beat “Filthy” Tom Lawlor on Strong a few weeks ago, Limelight helped Lawlor out and in a promo after the match, Limelight said Homicide is just jealous.
Homicide went right after Limelight, repeatedly shoulderbutting him in the corner and hitting him with a cutter before taking Limelight onto the floor for a ringside beating. Homicide threw Limelight over the guardrail into the first row. He rolled back into the ring to break the ref’s ring-out count, but when he came back out, Limelight caught him off guard with a blockbuster from off the guardrail.
Back in the ring, Limelight shared words with fans before landing a nice diving crossbody press. Homicide answered with a front suplex. Limelight landed a short double-stomp to the back of Homicide’s head.
The crowd enjoyed giving Limelight a hard time. They booed when he went for the Eddy Guerrero-style three vertical suplexes in a row. When Limelight went to the top rope for another attack, the “Radioactive Papi ” paused to showboat for the crowd, which allowed Homicide to recover, follow Limelight to the top, and superplex him off the ropes.
Limelight would later flip Homicide the bird, and Homicide’s response was to bite Limelight’s finger before spitting out a chunk of something. The announcers thought it was a fingernail. Homicide would then shove Limelight against the ropes and stick a fish hook in his mouth while biting his forehead. The crowd loved it and would later start chanting “Danny P*to!”
When the ten-minute call sounded, Limelight landed a Pelé kick before catching Homicide with a springboard tornado DDT. Limelight would go for another one moments later, but Homicide landed the Cop Killer and picked up the win in just over ten minutes.
Afterwards, Homicide looked like he was ready to enact some punishment on Limelight as he circled the ring looking for weapons. He found a bucket, a suitcase, a plastic bin and other pro wrestling booty under the ring and tossed it all inside. Just as Homicide was about to lay into Limelight, Bobby Fish appeared from out of nowhere and attacked Homicide. He threw a few knees before launching him with an exploder suplex into the ropes. The former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion grabbed the mic and said the enemy of his friends (like Tom Lawlor) are his enemy. He said that he and Team Filthy “have some work to do,” and that the NJPW Strong locker room should be worried about that.
*****
Backstage, Emily Mae interviewed the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns about their upcoming title defense against Stray Dog Army. Both Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley explained that they’d been all over the world and spent their time making their names on “the blue mat” (NJPW) and in CMLL, IMPACT and elsewhere. Sabin said the only way Stray Dog Army would take the titles would be when they pried them from MCMG’s cold dead fingers.
“Rock Hard” Juice Robinson defeated Blake Christian
Christian darted at Robinson when the bell rang, but Robinson immediately rolled out of the ring to avoid any contact. Christian would chase Robinson to the other side of the ring and again Robinson scurried away. It was on the third try that Christian was able to catch Robinson with a tope suicida on the floor before throwing him back into the ring.
When Christian went for a moonsault off the apron, Robinson caught him in mid-air, then dropped him throat-first across the guardrail with Snake Eyes. Robinson then charged at Christian, but Christian moved and Robinson crashed shoulder-first into the ring post. Christian would immediately capitalize, targeting Robinson’s shoulder. He used an armbreaker over the guardrail before simply wrenching on Robinson’s shoulder as it was stuck in between the rails. Referee Jeremy Marcus had to step down onto the floor and yell at Christian to force him back into the ring.
Back in the ring, Christian came off the ropes but Robinson caught him with a tilt-a-whirl slam before putting him down with a spinebuster for two. He crushed Christian with a heavy senton next, then stomped away at Christian in the corner before connecting with a running cannonball. Five minutes had passed by this point. The crowd chanted “Let’s go, Juicy!”
Christian came back and took Robinson out with a springboard forearm. The energy in the crowd would die down when Christian would return offense, who slowly became more pro-Juice as this match went on.
Christian landed a Rob Van Dam-style Rolling Thunder splash on the apron before doing a Sabu-style Arabian Press onto the floor. The crowd started chanting “f*ck you, Blake!”
Back in the ring, Christian landed a rolling single-arm DDT before locking in a Fujiwara armbar on Robinson’s injured shoulder. Robinson sold like his arm was about to be ripped out of its socket.
Robinson was able to catch Christian with his Left Hand of God, but when he ran at Christian in the corner for a lariat, Christian deflected and kicked Robinson in the injured arm. The crowd was fully behind Robinson. Christian then went for a victory roll, but Robinson reversed the pinfall and held onto the ropes for extra leverage, which he used for the win. Robinson quickly escaped the ring and ran to the back whilst flipping the double bird to the crowd. The crowd kept chanting “Juice!” as the show finally wrapped.
Final thoughts:
I enjoy the more eclectic episodes of NJPW Strong, like tonight’s episode. The opener was a solid, fast-paced bout with new faces for the show. Hopefully NJPW Strong shows in Los Angeles will become a regular destination for more CMLL stars.
Homicide vs. Danny Limelight was good as well, and the Bobby Fish appearance was a total surprise. He’s someone who’d fit in perfectly with the current crop on Strong.
The main event between Juice Robinson and Blake Christian was good as well, but the most interesting part of the match was how positive the crowd reacted to Robinson, who was doing his best to play heel to Christian’s white-bread babyface role. The Hollywood crowd reacts similarly to Jay White also; no matter how bad or nasty they act in the ring, Bullet Club’s Robinson & White seem to always get the hero treatment.
