NJPW Strong is headed to Japan for the first time for a pair of pay-per-view events at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
NJPW revealed Sunday that NJPW Strong Independence Day events will be held on Tuesday, July 4, and Wednesday, July 5 at Korakuen Hall. Both shows will air as pay-per-views on NJPW World.
AEW’s Eddie Kingston, Fred Rosser, Hiroshi Tanahashi, plus Team Filthy’s Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, and West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) are the talent announced for the events so far.
BREAKING
July 4 and 5, #njpwSTRONG comes to Korakuen Hall for the first time! STRONG's Independence Day is in Japan this July!
Kingston appeared in a video promo on Sunday’s Resurgence pay-per-view in issuing a challenge to the NJPW Strong Openweight Champion for a future event. KENTA defeated Hikuleo by countout to regain the Strong title at Resurgence.
It was also revealed on Sunday’s Resurgence event that new Strong Tag Team Champions will be crowned in a Bishamon vs. House of Torture match at Dominion on June 4, as Aussie Open have been forced to vacate the titles due to an injury to Mark Davis.
The inaugural Strong Women’s Champion was also set to be crowned in Resurgence’s main event, a tournament final match between Mercedes Mone and Willow Nightingale.
NJPW has announced a one-night tournament to crown the first Strong Women’s Champion.
Mercedes Mone, Willow Nightingale, Momo Kohgo, and Stephanie Vaquer will take part in a tournament at Resurgence on Sunday, May 21 in Long Beach, California to crown the inaugural NJPW Strong Women’s Champion.
In first round matches, Mone will take on Vaquer, while Nightingale will face Kohgo. The winners of the first round bouts will meet later in the evening to determine the first NJPW Strong Women’s Champion.
Mone’s initial NJPW/Stardom contract was set to expire after Stardom’s All Star Grand Queendom event on April 23, where she dropped the IWGP Women’s Championship to Mayu Iwatani. Mone reportedly agreed to a contract extension, the length of which has yet to be determined.
After losing to Iwatani, Mone stated that her next stop would be Resurgence, and NJPW officially announced her for the event on Monday.
Vaquer works primarily for CMLL in Mexico and holds one half of the promotion’s Occidente Women’s Tag Team Championship.
Kohgo is a Stardom talent who appeared on the All Star Grand Queendom pre-show in the Yokohama Rumble.
Nightingale is signed to AEW/ROH, and challenged Athena for the ROH Women’s title on Ring of Honor TV on the March 9 episode.
Resurgence will air live on NJPW World pay-per-view for 2,290 Yen (approximately $22.30).
May 21, when Resurgence hits the iconic Walter Pyramid, watch LIVE in English on @njpwworld PPV!
NJPW will return to Long Beach, California in May.
The promotion announced its Resurgence event will be held at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach on Sunday, May 21. Tickets for the show will go on sale on Wednesday, March 15, with prices ranging from $25 to $299.
The show will air live on pay-per-view, with the event being broken up into four episodes of the NJPW Strong television show for NJPW World subscribers at a later date, under the new NJPW Strong Live and NJPW Strong On Demand model announced in January.
No talent has been announced for the show to this point.
Walter Pyramid last hosted NJPW in 2018 for Strong Style Evolved and Fighting Spirit Unleashed.
The first Resurgence was held in August 2021 at The Torch at LA Coliseum in Los Angeles, a show headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi defeating Lance Archer for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.
NJPW released a promotional video for the event on Wednesday:
NJPW has finally announced their plans for the future of NJPW Strong which will include a rebranding of their U.S.-based live events to use the Strong name, and weekly TV content coming from those events that will air on NJPW World.
The first such show under the new Strong Live branding will be February 18th’s Battle in the Valley in San Jose, California.
While that will be a pay-per-view, it will make up four episodes of their weekly TV series that will now be called Strong On Demand on the NJPW World streaming service beginning on March 4th.
The four-episode model will continue with other U.S. events that includes March’s Strong Style Evolved at WrestleCon and April’s Capital Collision in Washington, DC and Collision in Philadelphia shows.
From the statement:
“This dual model will give fans on a budget the chance to stay up to date with the hottest action in the US through their regular NJPW World subscription, while the very best live experience on the planet awaits on pay per view as it happens.”
The President of New Japan Pro Wrestling says an announcement regarding the future of NJPW Strong is coming soon.
Takami Ohbari revealed earlier this month that the weekly show on NJPW World will be “rebuilt” in 2023. He then announced Saturday evening that there will be an update on Strong coming “within a few days.”
Ohbari wrote:
Thank you for watching and supporting NJPW STRONG over the years. It has adapted to environmental changes since its inception and will soon be reborn in a new form.
We’ll make an announcement regarding #njpwSTRONG within a few days.
Previously, Ohbari stated that the future of NJPW Strong would put focus on “quantity over quality.” He wrote, “We started it when the strict lockdown was forced, so we focused obviously on ‘continuity’. Fortunately, fan and we are about to overcome the pandemic. We should now focus on ‘quality’ rather than quantity.”
The fourth episode from the NJPW Nemesis tapings held in December aired on last night’s show. The promotion doesn’t host another event in the United States until next month’s Battle in the Valley on February 18, 2023, from San Jose.
NJPW Strong’s Nemesis episodes wrap up this Saturday with an Openweight Championship match.
In the show’s main event, Fred Rosser will defend the NJPW Strong Openweight title against Peter Avalon. Avalon issued a challenge to Rosser for a title match after defeating Keita Murray on a previous Strong episode.
Also set for Saturday’s show, CMLL’s Mistico will be in action against Misterioso in a battle of masked stars.
In Saturday’s opener, Blake Christian will take on Keita. Christian is coming off a singles loss to Juice Robinson on Strong, while Keita is still in search of his first Strong singles victory.
Strong’s Nemesis episodes were taped on December 11 at the Vermont Hollywood venue in Los Angeles, California.
The full lineup for Saturday’s show:
NJPW Strong Nemesis, Saturday, January 28, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World —
NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: Fred Rosser (c) vs. Peter Avalon
C4 is a younger team from DEFY Wrestling based in the Pacific Northwest who have actually squared off with WCWC in DEFY over the years. There were some nice chants going for C4 early on.
On commentary, Kevin Kelly shouted out Jim Valley of F4W, who also happens to take on announce duties at DEFY from time to time.
There was a point in this match where Isaacs, who was outside the ring, hoisted Chhun up in the air with a stalling vertical suplex and proceeded to walk with Chuun around the ring before dropping him on the floor, and in stereo with Nelson to boot. Nelson used a stalling vertical suplex of his own on Rosas and synched the slam with Isaacs’ on the floor.
Nelson lifted Chhun up into a power bomb hold and looked like he was about to pass Chhun off to Nelson, as the Wrecking Crew is known for their creative tag team offense. Instead, Chhun countered with a hurricanrana, which sent Nelson flying into Isaacs with an inadvertent spear. Chhun tagged out to Rosas, and the two hit an assisted Liger bomb on Nelson for two. Rosas got fired up and shook the ropes like Ultimate Warrior. Chhun hit a backspring cutter before diving out of the ring with a tope.
Nelson caught Chhun with a fisherman’s buster for two. Isaacs later put Chhun down with a dominator before Nelson came off the top rope and hit Chhun with a diving elbow drop. Isaacs was the legal man, so he pinned Chhun to pick up the three-count for WCWC.
KENTA defeated QT Marshall
This was good, and it sounded to be a real crowd-pleaser of a match. The crowd was loud in their support of KENTA in his debut at The Vermont Hollywood. They relished KENTA’s heelish antics, like cheap-shotting QT Marshall in the face with a slap coming off a rope break. Marshall was basically doing Heel 101 and delivered. He was perfect in giving the crowd everything they *didn’t* want from this match.
After almost five minutes of ring introductions and general jaw-jacking, the match was finally underway. It was a total “KENTA fan service” match in that he got dozens of moments to shine and do his signature spots. It was exactly the kind of match a fan should expect.
In the end, KENTA hit Go 2 Sleep on Marshall for the win. He basked in the “KENTA!” calls before heading to the back. This was a good one.
STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championship Match: Motor City Machine Guns (c) defeated Roppongi Vice
Sabin and Beretta kicked things off. After a nice exchange, Sabin offered Beretta a sportsman-like hug, then quickly turned it into a sneaky school boy cradle for two. Sabin then walked over to his corner and hugged Shelley before tagging him in. Beretta would also tag Romero into the match.
Romero and Shelley would later have a short dance-off which saw Shelley bust out a bit of the “Ravishing” Rick Rude hip swirl. It was all a ploy from Romero, though, the self-proclaimed “King of Sneaky Style”. We should have known. While in mid-swivel, Rocky tripped Shelley up and slapped on an ankle hold.
MCMG played heel to Roppongi Vice’s hometown babyface. They wrestled with a bit of an edge, more so than usual.
Beretta was able to swing the momentum back his way and trapped Sabin in the corner and began chopping him. This was right before he’d spike Sabin with a jumping piledriver for two. Beretta went for another piledriver on the apron, but Sabin back body dropped him onto the apron instead, where Beretta would ultimately crash onto the floor.
“Come on, you son of a bitch!” Shelley shouted at Romero. The two started decking each other. MCMG would later catch Beretta with a double superkick to the head while he stood on the floor. When MCMG went for a dive, Roppongi Vice blocked it with a double jumping knee. They hit Strong Zero on Sabin for two. Sabin landed a power bomb for two. He caught Beretta with a huge kick to the face in the corner. MCMG landed a power bomb/sliced bread double team maneuver from the top on Beretta but again, only for two. They did Roppongi’s Dudebuster + dropkick combo finish and *again* a count of two. The crowd was chanting “RO-PON-GI!” over and over.
The finish saw MCMG hit their finisher on Romero for the pinfall in 18:12. As one would imagine, this was a very good match. The Machine Guns retain their tag titles.
Final thoughts:
It was one more solid episode of Strong tonight, with a lot of tag team action plus a really good story match between KENTA and QT Marshall. The main event between MCMG and Roppongi Vice stole the show, though.
NJPW Strong’s Tag Team titles will be on the line in the main event of Saturday’s Nemesis episode.
In the headlining bout, Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) will defend the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship against Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero).
Also set for Saturday, AEW’s QT Marshall will face KENTA in singles competition.
In the opening match, Jorel Nelson and Royce Isaacs of Team Filthy’s West Coast Wrecking Crew will take on Cody Chhun and Guillermo Rosas in tag team action.
Strong’s Nemesis episodes were taped on December 11 at the Vermont Hollywood venue in Los Angeles, California.
The full lineup for Saturday’s show:
NJPW Strong Nemesis, Saturday, January 21, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World —
NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship: Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defend against Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero)
KENTA vs. QT Marshall
Team Filthy’s West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) vs. Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas
“Filthy” Tom Lawlor appeared at the top of the show, interrupting announcers Kevin Kelly & Ale Koslov. He, Danny Limelight & Bobby Fish would take on Homicide, Eddie Kingston and David Finlay in a six-man tag later in the show. He complained about Homicide and the fact that he’s just a street fighter who doesn’t have balls. He’d go on to challenge Homicide to a “Filthy Rules” no-disqualification match at Battle in the Valley on February 17th.
Mascara Dorada defeated Che Cabrera
Good opener. Dorado wore new sci-fi-looking shoulderpads to the ring. He did some of his signature rope-running springboard attacks early. Cabrera, who looks a lot like Jim Powers, was solid in this as well. He laid Dorada out with a neck screw off the ropes. Dorada would go on to win the match with a rope-walk springboard elbow drop.
Homicide, Eddie Kingston & David Finlay defeated Bobby Fish, “Filthy” Tom Lawlor & Danny Limelight
Finlay and Fish started things off for their teams. Good matchup. Later, Eddie Kingston threw a chair in the ring while Team Filthy was posing. There was some chaos outside the ring, with Kingston, Limelight and the ring bell all a part of it. Kingston and Homicide made the match feel like anything could happen during it.
Kingston was officially back in the match later on and chopped up both Lawlor and Limelight in the corner. He’d use a nodowa-otoshi chokeslam followed by a stretch plum submission—The Royal Road Combo.
Lawlor responded later with a big Takeshi Rikio-style uranage. Finlay took Limelight out at the end with a perfect Trash Panda, where Danny Limelight’s headband flew off when he hit the mat. Good stuff.
Fish went after Finlay just after the three-count.
Team Filthy took it to Finlay until Kingston and Homicide were in the ring with chairs. Fans were really hot for Kingston and chanted “EDD-IE! EDD-IE!” over and over.
Jay White rolled into the ring while Kingston’s back was still turned, but Kingston quickly noticed and raised a chair at him. White backed off and rolled out of the ring. He then unfolded a chair and told Kingston he was using a chair “how it’s supposed to be used.” and sat down onto it.
White jaw-jacked a bit until giving Kingston the mic. Kingston insisted that White back up his talk of being the best in NJPW and the father of NJPW Strong and fight Kingston, right there. White declined and attempted to leave. Kingston then mentioned Battle in the Valley as a possible date for a match, and White eventually agreed. He said it was still “his era.” It is now official that the two will square off on February 17 in San Jose at NJPW’s Battle in the Valley.
Jeff Cobb defeated Bad Dude Tito
This was pretty much everything you’d want from these two in a match that had to be under ten minutes. Big guys doing wild big guy stuff. They traded shoulder blocks early on, a lot of them. Cobb would finally take Tito down with a jumping shoulder block.
Tito hoisted Cobb with a Blue Thunder bomb. Cobb did a Swing Cycle spinning backdrop suplex and followed it with a standing moonsault. He’d eventually put Tito away with the Tour of the Islands.
Final thoughts:
Good episode with two official announcements for Battle in the Valley in Kingston vs. White and Tom Lawlor vs. Homicide in a Filthy Rules match. The six-man tag was a good brawl and the final match was solid and will probably be better next time.
Jeff Cobb vs. Bad Dude Tito in a singles match headlines this Saturday’s NJPW Strong Nemesis episode.
Cobb, representing United Empire, vs. Bad Dude Tito, representing TMDK, was announced for Saturday’s show by NJPW on Monday night.
Two additional matches have also been announced for Saturday’s show.
In a trios bout, AEW’s Eddie Kingston will team with Homicide and David Finlay against Team Filthy’s “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, Bobby Fish, and Danny Limelight.
In Saturday’s opening contest, Che Cabrera will take on Mascara Dorada in a singles match.
Strong’s Nemesis episodes were taped on December 11 at the Vermont Hollywood venue in Los Angeles, California.
The full lineup for Saturday’s show:
NJPW Strong Nemesis, Saturday, January 14, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World —
Jeff Cobb vs. Bad Dude Tito
Eddie Kingston, Homicide & David Finlay vs. Team Filthy (“Filthy” Tom Lawlor, Bobby Fish & Danny Limelight)
This week’s NJPW Strong kicked off the Nemesis series that was held in Hollywood, California. Announcer Kevin Kelly finally returned to after calling a number of shows onsite with NJPW last year, joined by Alex Kozlov.
Tonight featured the first-ever Strong Survivor match, a unique multi-man match used to determine a new number one contender to Fred Rosser’s Strong Openweight Championship.
Bullet Club (Jay White & El Phantasmo) defeated Hikuleo & Alan Angels
After some stalling, it was White and Angels who kicked the match off. The Hollywood crowd was pretty loud in support of Angels, who has quickly become a Strong favorite.
Later, when El Phantasmo tagged in, he and White held Angels in the corner so ELP could do his corner-to-corner rolling back rake spot. The crowd started chanting “holy sh*t” and Kelly’s response was dead on: “All right, let’s take it easy out there. It was a back rake!” It’s great to have you back, Mr. Kelly.
Angels was later able to put Phantasmo down with Shiranui and tag out to a fresh Hikuleo, ex-Bullet Club giant. ELP tagged out to White who dropped White face-first onto the turnbuckle pad with Snake Eyes and then laid him out with a running lariat for two, broken up by Phantasmo.
Hikuleo put White down with a snap powerslam and then went for a chokeslam, but ELP appeared. It looked as though he would be getting chokeslammed instead, but White chop blocked Hikuleo from behind, taking out his knee and letting go of Phantasmo.
Angels re-appeared and took White out with a low tope through the bottom rope. He would then catch Phantasmo off the ropes with La Mistica until White broke it up. Hikuleo charged at White, so White parried while pulling the rope down, low-bridging Hikuleo over the ropes out onto the floor.
Angels went for a quebrada inside the ring, but Phantasmo caught him mid-air with a low superkick. He flattened Angels with the UFO (Unidentified Flying Opponent) for the win.
– There was a pre-taped promo from United Empire’s Jeff Cobb. He called out Bad Dude Tito (TMDK) for trying to make a name for himself off of Cobb and United Empire. Cobb said when Tito first came to Japan last summer, he couldn’t make a name for himself off of anyone.
Then came the cutting words: Cobb said Tito was not a “bad dude” at all, but was, in fact, a “so-so dude.” Feel the burn! Cobb then told Tito to get ready to fly, because he’d be throwing Tito all around the Strong ring. They square off next week.
KENTA won the first-ever Strong Survivor Match and earns a shot at Strong Openweight Champion Fred Rosser
The rules: The match begins as a battle royal with mystery entrants until the match is down to four remaining wrestlers. Then, eliminations will be pinfall or submission only until one Strong Survivor remains.
The participants were Christopher Daniels, Blake Christian, The DKC, Adrian Quest, Mascara Dorada, JR Kratos, C4 (Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas), Rocky Romero, KENTA, Wheeler Yuta, Jakob Austin Young, Bateman, Misterioso, KEITA and Che Cabrera.
All wrestlers waited at ringside until the match was officially underway. Once the bell sounded, it was bedlam as entrants rushed into the ring and began throwing fists immediately. Kratos wisely took his time entering the ring, though he did so about 30 seconds after everyone else had.
C4 (Rosas & Chhun) were eliminated first, back to back. KEITA was next, then Romero. Christian eliminated Cabrera after snapping the straps on Cabrera’s singlet, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. Kratos eliminated Misterioso next.
When Mascara Dorada went for a springboard attack into the ring, Yuta caught him mid-air with a dropkick, knocking Dorada to the floor and eliminating him. Yuta then threw Young over the top to eliminate him too.
Kratos then caught KENTA, Yuta and Christian with separate avalanche attacks in the corner. He pancaked DKC coming off the ropes next before powerslamming Quest and tossing him over the top. Bateman felt the wrath of Kratos just seconds later with Kratos sending him flying over the top with a lariat. He went to eliminate Daniels next, but Daniels held on. While Kratos fought with Daniels, the rest of the entrants got behind Kratos and threw him over the top, eliminating him.
DKC then threw Daniels out of the ring, but since Kratos and the other wrestlers were arguing with referees on the floor, Daniels snuck back into the ring and threw DKC out of the ring. The refs never saw Daniels eliminated, so ended up in the final four despite DKC clearly eliminating him on screen.
The final four entrants were Daniels, KENTA, Christian and Yuta with eliminations now occurring by pinfall or submission.
Christian went on a tear and laid both Daniels and KENTA out with some aerial offense, but it would be Daniels who would score the first elimination (and on Christian to boot) when he rolled Christian up with a schoolboy cradle while putting his ankles on the second rope for illegal extra leverage. Referee Jeremy Marcus didn’t see it, so Christian was eliminated.
Daniels and KENTA formed a short-lived alliance meant to take out Yuta. After some double-teaming, the two eventually started arguing over who would be the one to eliminate Yuta. Daniels got fed up and shoved KENTA. Daniels was quick to apologize and change his mind, insisting that KENTA be the one to eliminate Yuta. As soon as KENTA turned his back, Daniels went after KENTA — the heel of heels.
Daniels teased Angel’s Wings, but KENTA reversed it and then teased Go 2 Sleep, which Daniels slipped out of. Then, out of the corner came Yuta, who took both out with a double lariat and a double missile dropkick off the top later.
While KENTA was on the floor, Yuta caught him with a tope suicida. He went for a sunset flip over the ropes to Daniels back in the ring, but Daniels sat down into a pin to counter while holding onto the ropes for leverage. Yuta was able to kick out at two despite Daniels’ shifty tactics.
Moments later, it was Yuta who would eliminate Daniels with a bridging German suplex for a three count. Without a moment to celebrate, KENTA reappeared to greet and floor Yuta with his busaiku knee.
After a bit more back-and-forth, KENTA would finally take Yuta out with another busaiku knee to score a pinfall at 15:45 of the match, winning the first-ever Strong Survivor match to earn a Strong Openweight title shot.
Final thoughts:
The opening match was a nice way to kick off the show. The Strong Survivor bout was fine, but it was most interesting at the end when it was down to the final four. Daniels stole the show, but Yuta, KENTA & Christian all had memorable (albeit short) moments in this one.
Following a Christmas Eve tweet from NJPW president Takami Ohbari indicating change was coming to NJPW Strong and Hiroshi Tanahashi writing in a blog post that the show is coming to “an end,” Ohbari further commented on the future of Strong.
On December 24th, Ohbari tweeted that Strong would be “rebuilt” in 2023. That was followed up on Saturday in the aforementioned blog post by Tanahashi who wrote in Japanese (translated via Google to English), “#NJPWSTRONG, which has been going on for over two years, will come to an end with this recording. It seems that overseas tournaments will be announced in a different form in the future.”
On Sunday morning, Ohbari again commented on Twitter, saying the show will be “rebuilt” and focus on quality over quantity.
#njpwSTRONG will be rebuilt to adapt external and internal environment. We started it when the strict lockdown was forced, so we focused obviously on "continuity".
Fortunately, fan and we are about to overcome the pandemic. We should now focus on "quality" rather than quantity.
The weekly TV series debuted in August 2020 and is produced by their NJPW of America arm as part of the group’s expansion into the U.S. With their own titles, NJPW Strong includes NJPW roster members in addition to North American talent like Josh Alexander, Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta, and others.
Further adding to the speculation about the future of Strong is AEW & ROH owner Tony Khan’s comments about ROH TV following December’s Final Battle. As he was talking about how ROH’s eventual weekly TV show will be on HonorClub at some point in 2023, he mentioned several times about NJPW being involved but didn’t go into specific details.
The first-ever Strong Survivor match will headline this week’s episode of NJPW Strong.
Saturday’s show will have a battle royal with mystery entrants with over the top rope eliminations. Once four finalists are left in the ring, eliminations will then take place by pinfall or submission. The winner of the match will get the next Strong Openweight title match against Fred Rosser.
In the second match on the card, Hikuelo will team with Alan Angels to take on Jay White and El Phantasmo of Bullet Club. The match will air just days after Jay White is set to defend the IWGP World Heavyweight title against Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome.
Matches from this week’s show are part of the NJPW Strong Nemesis tapings that took place on December 11.
Here is the lineup for Saturday’s show:
Strong Survivor battle royal
Bullet Club (Jay White and El Phantasmo) vs. Hikuelo and Alan Angels
Tonight saw the final set of tapings from NJPW Strong’s Detonation series. This was also the final episode of 2022, with STRONG Openweight Champion Fred Rosser defending against Team Filthy’s JR Kratos, a match Kratos received as a “gift” from Jay White to thank Team Filthy for helping Bullet Club out earlier in the year.
Before the match, Mascara Dorada and Lince Dorado spoke to announcers Ian Riccaboni & Alex Koslov. The former WWE tag team expressed their excitement to wrestle for New Japan and against C4.
C4 are regulars on the Pacific-Northwest scene and are regulars at DEFY in Seattle. Cody Chhun has competed on NJPW Strong previously, but both Guillermo Rosas and Lince Dorado are making their debuts.
Dorada and Rosas had a nice exchange up top. The crowd chanted for Dorada. When Chhun tagged in, Dorada and Lince Dorado unloaded some double team offense. Dorada hit a spinning rope-walk dropkick.
Later, C4 put Dorada down with a double backdrop suplex. The crowd kept chanting for Dorada. Lince Dorado finally tagged back in and cleaned house. He put Chhun down with a brainbuster for two before taking him down with a diving body press. He’d then lock in an armbar, but Rosas dropped a senton onto Dorado to break the hold.
C4 put Lince Dorado down with an assisted Liger Bomb for two. Dorado responded by taking both C4 out with a double Lethal Injection. Mascara Dorada did a flip dove onto Rosas on the floor. Lince then jumped off the top rope and caught Chhun with a frankensteiner while Chhun was standing on the apron. That was wild.
The finish saw Lince Dorado catch Chhun with a shooting star press while Mascara Dorada would land a diving elbow drop off the ropes for a stereo pin. The crowd loved this one.
Bobby Fish defeated Kevin Blackwood
Fish made his official in-ring return to New Japan on this show. He recently won his boxing debut on the Floyd Mayweather card in Dubai back in May, defeating Boateng Prempeh via TKO.
The two had a nice back-and-forth exchange early on. The crowd gave Fish a hard time.
When the match spilled to the floor, Blackwood caught Fish with a diving double foot stomp on the apron. Fish responded later with an Eddy Guerrero-style slingshot somersault senton. Parts of the crowd started chanting “Let’s go, Bobby!” and “BOB-BY FISH!”. Fish then won with a falcon arrow.
After the match, Homicide ran in and the two brawled. David Finlay ran in for the save on Homicide, carrying a shillelagh. Finlay and Homicide shook hands.
STRONG Openweight Championship Match: Fred Rosser (c) defeated JR Kratos
Rosser and Kratos charged at each other just as the bell sounded. They crashed into each other with a ton of big shoulder blocks; neither would go down. The energy & tension was great.
Rosser caught Kratos with an Earthquake splash before pummeling him with front forearm shots to the chest and back.
They traded arm locks on the mat as the pace slowed. Rosser put Kratos in the corner and battered him with forearms and hip attacks. Kratos almost powered out, but Rosser shut Kratos down with a relentless non stop barrage of hard strikes.
When Kratos tried power bombing Rosser off the apron onto the floor, Rosser countered it with another Earthquake splash, sitting straight down onto Kratos’ neck and shoulders. Nice reversal.
Rosser dove off the apron, but Kratos caught him in mid-air, then ran him back-first into the ringpost on the floor. He then launched Rosser with a front suplex onto the floor mats.
Kratos then ripped the mats off the concrete floor, then grabbed the guardrail and attempted to throw it or hit Rosser with it. Rosser had enough time to stop the attack with a kick, forcing Kratos to drop the weapon. Before Kratos got back into the ring, Kratos threw a NJPW staffer onto the exposed floor.
The crowd started chanting “FRED! FRED!” as the match went on. Rosser put Kratos down hard with a neckbreaker onto the ring apron. When Rosser went to move Kratos back into the ring, Kratos locked Rosser in a headlock as he lay on the apron. Rosser then showed amazing strength and dragged the larger Kratos off the apron and into a tombstone piledriver position. He then put Kratos down hard onto the exposed floor.
Kratos sold as though he was dead. Referee Jeremy Marcus began counting Kratos out and got very close to 20, but Rosser actually stopped Marcus from making the call, shoving him into the corner. He peeled his wrist tape off and called for Kratos to come back into the ring.
Rosser started boxing Kratos’ head in as Kratos attempted to pick himself back up to his feet. Rosser peppered him with short shots. Kratos took Rosser down with some fluid judo trips, but Rosser was back to his feet immediately. Rosser’s “fighting spirit” is infectious.
As Rosser climbed to the top rope for another attack, Kratos suddenly met him with a jumping enzuigiri kick to the back of Rosser’s head. At this point, the 15-minute call sounded.
Kratos put Rosser down with a big superplex before decking him with a lariat that shot Rosser over the top onto the floor again. It was the exposed-concrete side of the ring.
Kratos stood in the ring with a pensive look on his face. He’d then stare out into the crowd, teasing a tope. The crowd bit. Kratos hit the opposite ropes for a running start, then skyrocketed himself over the top rope onto Rosser, crash-landing on the concrete floor, way past where the guardrail would have been if Kratos hadn’t removed it earlier. Air Kratos. The crowd lost it. It looked amazing.
Back in the ring, Kratos used a giant lariat and falcon arrow on Rosser, but just for two. The crowd began chanting for Kratos at this point.
Rosser clipped Kratos’ leg and slapped on a step-over toe hold before locking in a sleeperhold. Kratos would passed out, Rosser wins via TKO.
Afterwards, Peter Avalon appeared from behind the commentary table (which he’d been on earlier), grabbed a mic, and said to Rosser that he was the next in line for a shot at his STRONG Openweight title. Rosser didn’t say it into the mic, but he did tell Avalon he’d face him anytime and anywhere before raising his championship belt high above his head.
When Rosser turned around, Avalon pummeled Rosser, stomping into the corner without stopping. Blake Christian and C4 then appeared to make the save, but then they were followed by others from the NJPW Strong locker room. The show ended with dozens of wrestlers brawling in the ring as the show faded to black.
Final thoughts:
This was a nice eclectic edition of NJPW Strong, with three very different matches from beginning to end. Rosser vs. Kratos was very good, but the post-match chaos that ensued afterwards wasn’t entirely explained. Regardless, it was a fun episode to watch because of the variety.
The Openweight Championship will be on the line on the final new NJPW Strong episode of 2022 on Christmas Eve.
On Saturday’s Detonation show, Fred Rosser will defend the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship against Team Filthy’s JR Kratos. Rosser defeated Kratos in their previous NJPW Strong meeting in 2021, while the two went to a no contest in their other career singles bout at an APW show in September 2022.
Also announced for Saturday’s show, Bobby Fish will take on Kevin Blackwood. Fish returned to NJPW at the Detonation taping, and this bout will mark his first singles match on Strong.
In Saturday’s opener, Lince Dorado will team with Mascara Dorada against C4’s Cody Chhun and Guillermo Rosas.
A Best of 2022 episode will air on December 31, making this week’s show the final new episode of Strong this year.
Strong’s Detonation episodes were taped Sunday, November 20 in Los Angeles at the Vermont Hollywood.
Here is this week’s lineup:
NJPW Strong Detonation, Saturday, December 24, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World —
NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: Fred Rosser (c) vs. JR Kratos
