Jan 1, 2023
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seen from Canada
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seen from Guatemala
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seen from United States
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Road to Power Struggle Night 7 - 10/31/2021: Yuto Nakashima Returns; NJPW Strong Episode 64 - 10/30/2021; More Battle In The Valley Matches; Detonation Card Announced: Barnett Returns to NJPW; Romero Fails To Win X-Division Belt in Impact
Happy Halloween if you celebrate it. The tour continued today.
- 10/31/2021, Fukushima Big Palette
Yuto Nakashima TLD Ryohei Oiwa (10:00)
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] & Kosei Fujita (Kanemaru > Fujita, Boston Crab, 11:01)
Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare [United Empire] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Tomoaki Honma (Henare > Honma, Streets Of Rage, 10:52)
SANADA & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Togi Makabe & Ryusuke Taguchi (SANADA > Taguchi, O’Connor Bridge, 8:50)
EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, SHO & Dick Togo [Bullet Club] d. Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] & Master Wato (EVIL > Wato, EVIL STO, 12:35)
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask IV d. KENTA, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club] (Okada > Jado, Money Clip, 14:42)
Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] d. Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] (Takagi > DOUKI, Reverse STF?, 12:17)
The NJPW official results called the winning move for the main event a “Back STF” so I guess that’s a reverse STF of some kind? Maybe? Honma got his one win for the year and it’s been downhill ever since. Yuto Nakashima’s return match went much better than his debut, going the full 10 minute time limit without any issues. Good to see he stuck through it and returned.
This week’s episode of NJPW Strong concluded the matches from the Autumn Attack taping sessions in Garland, TX.
Fred Rosser & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] d. JR Kratos & Danny Limelight [Team Filthy] (Rosser > Limelight, Gut Feeling, 14:40)
Lio Rush [AEW] d. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] (Final Hour, 15:13)
Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] & Lance Archer [AEW] d. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy] (Suzuki > Isaacs, Gotch Style Piledriver, 11:07)
Post-main, Chris Dickinson came out and challenged Suzuki for the Philadelphia show (that has already happened). Suzuki responded by saying he spoke very little English, but also “Fuck you.” Of course, those Philly tapings should start with next week’s episode of Strong. Rush v. Ishimori seems very much worth watching.
In other NJoA news, three more matches were announced for Battle In The Valley on 11/13/2021. In a battle featuring three guys who will be out of a ROH contract in December, VLNCE UNLTD (Brody King & Chris Dickinson) will take on two of the Stray Dog Army, Bateman & Misterioso. The two most recent Impact World Champions will also be in attendance, as Josh Alexander faces Yuya Uemura, whilst Juice Robinson goes against *spits* Moose.
Meanwhile, what could be the full card for Detonation, on 11/15/2021 in Riverside, CA, has been released. First, it is now official, that Fred Rosser will challenge “Filthy” Tom Lawlor for the NJPW Strong Openweight title. However, the biggest news here is that Josh Barnett wrestles his first NJPW match since 5/3/2004, when he beat Ken Shamrock by DQ in the Tokyo Dome. Barnett did work several events for Inoki Genome Federation after that over the years, and was of course the color commentator for NJPW on AXS from 2015 - 2018, before a shoot incident between himself and Jay White at G1 Special in San Francisco on 7/7/2018 saw the beginning of the end of his career with AXS. Barnett will now be the next opponent in Alex Coughlin’s challenge series.
Full card as announced below:
Detonation (NJPW Strong Taping) - 11/15/2021, Riverside Municipal Auditorium, Riverside, CA
Alex Coughlin Challenge Series: Alex Coughlin v. Josh Barnett [FREE]
Kevin Knight & The DKC v. Jordan Clearwater & Brogan Finlay
Lio Rush [AEW] & Adrian Quest v. Bateman & Misterioso [Stray Dog Army]
Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors & Ren Narita v. Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb & TJP [United Empire]
Gabriel Kidd v. Jonathan Gresham [ROH]
Chris Dickinson [VLNCE UNLTD] & Alex Zayne v. Jay White & Hikuleo [Bullet Club]
Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] v. Brody King [VLNCE UNLTD]
NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor [Team Filthy] (c) v. Fred Rosser
Last bit of news: Rocky Romero appeared in Impact on their TV show this past Thursday, challenging and falling to the new X Division champion Trey Miguel. This show was part of the tapings at Sam’s Town in La Vegas, NV, that started this past Sunday 10/24/2021, so expect to see Minoru Suzuki on episodes in the coming weeks as well. It does appear at this time that co-promotion between Impact and AEW is done, at least for now.
The tour continues tomorrow.
- 11/1/2021, Saitama Kumagaya Citizen Gymnasium
Yuto Nakashima v. Kosei Fujita
Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] & Ryohei Oiwa v. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]
Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Togi Makabe v. Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare [United Empire]
Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask IV v. SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables]
Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] & Ryusuke Taguchi v. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, SHO & Dick Togo [Bullet Club]
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Tomoaki Honma & Master Wato v. KENTA, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club]
Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG]
my dad just surprised me with tickets to NJoA’s New Beginning in Nashville in January. i’m crying.
Kizuna Road 2021 Night 5 - 6/20/2021; State Of Emergency Now Lifted In Nine Prefectures; NJPW Resurgence In Los Angeles With Fans, Moxley, Jay, Good Brothers, Shooter, Lio Rush 8/14/2021; NJPW Strong Episode 44 - 6/18/2021: Josh Alexander Debuts, Tag Team Turbulence w/ Good Brothers In July on Strong
The tour continued today, in another show that was not streamed. Meanwhile, the state of emergency is now lifted in nine prefectures, with Okinawa remaining under the order until 7/11/2021. Seven of those nine, including Tokyo and Osaka, will have quasi-emergency measures taking place (as detailed in an earlier post), but also, there are claims that the vaccinations will be accelerated during this not-state-of-emergency period by the government. We’ll see if that actually takes place. So far they have seemed more willing to try to hold the Olympics than to take care of the needs of the people. (One wonders if this modern IOC would have forced the Games to go on during World War II, but then, they literally did hold the Games in Nazi Germany in 1936, so...)
Results:
- 6/20/2021, Ibaraki Lily Arena MITO
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Ryusuke Taguchi & Yuya Uemura (Desperado > Uemura, Numero Dos, 10:49)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Master Wato d. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Yota Tsuji (Tenzan > Tsuji, Anaconda Vice, 11:15)
Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Toru Yano [CHAOS] d. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, Dick Togo & Jado [Bullet Club] (Ishii > Togo, DQ, 11:26)
SHO, YOH & Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] d. Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo & Gedo [Bullet Club] (Okada > Gedo, Money Clip, 12:11)
Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki & DOUKI [SZKG] (Takagi > DOUKI, Last Of The Dragon, 16:40)
I had the last match listed incorrectly (twice) in earlier posts, oops. EVIL, Yujiro and Togo attacked the CHAOS team following the DQ and declared they would be the next NEVER 6-Man Comedy champions.
Last night, New Japan of America announced Resurgence, taking place on 8/14/2021 at The Torch At LA Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. This will be NJPW’s first show in the USA with fans since the last night of The New Beginning USA 2020 in Atlanta, GA on 2/1/2020. (Several shows had been planned, including Lion’s Break: Project 3 during Wrestlemania Weekend and Wrestle Dynasty in Madison Square Garden but obviously the pandemic put those plans on hold.)
The talents announced are quite something. Both IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley and NEVER Openweight Champion Jay White are listed for the event, as is Shota Umino, marking his first NJPW match since the 12th Young Lions Cup final day on 9/22/2019. Speculation is rife that we will see a reunion between Mox and Shooter, and it seems quite likely!
Also listed are the Good Brothers, “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows, returning to the NJPW ring for the first time since February 2016. Juice Robinson & David Finlay are listed as well, as is NJPW Strong Openweight Champion “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, and Lio Rush, in what may be his final match both with NJPW and in wrestling.
No card has been announced yet. Tickets will go on sale on 6/30/2021, starting at $39. This show will also be shown in English on FITE TV for a price, and in Japanese on NJPWWorld.
This Friday’s episode of NJPW Strong was pretty Impact Wrestling heavy, as Satoshi Kojima was in the main event, and Impact’s X Division champion Josh Alexander made his NJPW debut, continuing the Ignition series of shows.
Josh Alexander [Impact] d. Alex Coughlin (Divine Intervention, 11:25)
Bateman [ROH] & Barrett Brown d. Fred Rosser & Adrian Quest (Bateman > Quest, This Is A Kill, 9:41)
Satoshi Kojima d. JR Kratos [Team Filthy] (Lariat, 11:26)
Kojima gets the win in his grudge match, whilst Barrett Brown continues to come out on top over Adrian Quest in their former-partners beef. Alexander acquitted himself nicely in his NJPW debut.
Next week will have the NJPW Strong Openweight title match between “Filthy” Tom Lawlor v. Karl Fredericks.
Coming soon to NJPW Strong is the Tag Team Turbulence tournament starting in July. The Good Brothers will be taking part in this, but so will Yuji Nagata, returning to NJPW Strong. Here are the first round matchups for this single elimination tournament starting on the 7/16/2021 edition of NJPW Strong:
TJP [FREE] & Clark Connors v. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows [Impact]
Kevin Knight & The DKC v. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs
Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita v. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta
Brody King [ROH] & Chris Dickinson v. JR Kratos & Danny Limelight [Team Filthy]
It’s single elimination, but let’s face it, the odds are high the Good Brothers are winning this, being multiple IWGP tag champs in the past.
The tour takes a day off tomorrow, before resuming Tuesday with a title match main event. The Young Lions’ trial series’ continue as well.
- 6/22/2021, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)
Yuya Uemura Trial Series: Yuya Uemura v. Taichi [SZKG]
Yota Tsuji Trial Series: Yota Tsuji v. Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG]
SHO, YOH, Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano [CHAOS] v. Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club]
Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata v. Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] © v. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo [Bullet Club]
NJPW Strong Episode 62 - 10/16/2021; Danielson Defeats Suzuki in MOTYC; Suzuki v. Dickinson Booked For Bloodsport 7 on Friday
Last night was the next episode of NJPW Strong to come from the Autumn Attack tapings in September down in Texas. This episode was not unopposed, as AEW ran a (pretty lackluster, honestly) special Saturday episode of Dynamite.
Alex Coughlin Challenge Series: Chris Dickinson [ROH] d. Alex Coughlin (Cross Armbreaker, 13:03)
Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] d. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy] (Romero > Nelson, Backslide, 13:41)
Juice Robinson, Lio Rush [AEW], TJP [FREE] & Clark Connors d. Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & Chris Bey [Bullet Club] (Robinson > Hikuleo, DQ, 11:07)
Will Ospreay [United Empire] d. Karl Fredericks (Hidden Blade, 18:08)
Ospreay defeats Fredericks, and then welcomed TJP into the ranks of the United Empire by helping with the beatdown. Two scumbags can be in the same unit; poor O-Khan. I think this would have worked better had TJP’s match from that night not had been the previous one, which ended when Hikuleo used a bullrope on Juice in lead-in to their Bullrope Match. Think there may have been some poor choice in match placement in the editing room here. There also seems to be some confusion as to who actually won Dickinson v. Coughlin. NJPW’s English site says Coughlin, others including Cagematch and F4W say Dickinson.
Next week’s episode continues the Autumn Attack cycle. The Showdown shows should be wrapping up right about now if they haven’t already. Again, I’m not going to spoil anything so I have something to discuss when the episodes air on NJPWWorld.
Minoru Suzuki was at the Showdown Strong tapings in Philly yesterday and today, but on Friday, he was in Miami for the AEW Rampage Buy-In where he and Bryan Danielson wrestled what was, frankly, a MOTYC and one of the best matches I’ve seen in North America ever. It was magnificent, and you need to see it now on AEW’s YouTube channel. Danielson did win the strike and submission heavy match with a Busaiku Knee, almost going the full 30-minute time limit, and believe me, they could have gone longer and I would have been Just Peachy. Seriously, watch it now. This may be my #1 match for Suzuki’s US tour now, displacing Suzuki v. Homicide in GCW on 9/24/2021, but then, I’ve still not seen all of the matches yet.
On that note, on Friday, Suzuki will be in LA for GCW Bloodsport 7. His match has now been announced, and as expected, it’s against Chris Dickinson. The two had some words last weekend in GCW, as well as a match yesterday in Philly as part of the tapings. This match should have happened in 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic. Now if we could only get Suzuki v. Orange Cassidy back eh?
NJPW Strong Episode 60 - 10/9/2021; Suzuki Victorious in GCW, West Coast Pro; Tomohiro Ishii v. Vinnie Massaro in West Coast Pro 11/12/2021
This past Saturday was an extra-length episode of NJPW Strong, with matches from Autumn Attack a few weeks ago. This one kinda deserved it, with a title match, a champion v. champion battle and Minoru Suzuki.
Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] d. Fred Rosser (Gotch Style Piledriver, 11:34)
NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor [Team Filthy] (c) d. Ren Narita (St. Andrew’s Cross, 20:14) - Lawlor succeeds his 5th defense
Jay White [Bullet Club] d. Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] (Blade Runner, 18:07)
The NEVER Openweight Champion defeats the IWGP Juniorheavyweight Champion, also his former stablemate. Following the match, Jay fired some shots at EVIL, reminding everyone who’s in charge of this New Era. Narita failed in beating “The Strongest For The Longest,” “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, but seems to be adopting a much more Shibata-like demeanor now. Fred Rosser tried to tell Suzuki that he was in Rosser’s house, which did not end well for him. This was not the only time this happened over the weekend. More on that below.
Next Saturday’s episode continues the Autumn Attack cycle of episodes; the next two episodes also run against special Saturday editions of AEW Dynamite.
It was another weekend of Minoru Suzuki doing Minoru Suzuki things on the US indies.
On Friday, Suzuki defeated the current indie flavor Daniel Garcia (at the same time a pre-taped match between Garcia v. CM Punk was shown on AEW Rampage. Funny how this keeps happening with Garcia), at West Coast Pro’s 3rd anniversary show, No Leaf Clover. It was a very shoot and strike heavy match that included several refrains of “FUCK YOU YOUNG BOY!” from Suzuki. OH MY. Also on that show, Yuya Uemura & Karl Fredericks teamed with Juicy Finau to defeat D-Rogue, Kevin Blackwood & Vinnie Massaro in the show opener, whilst Clark Connors & Kevin Knight of the LA Dojo fell to the West Coast Wrecking Crew of Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson. Slight followup item to all this below. You can see this on-demand on IWTV.
Suzuki took Saturday off, but then returned to Game Changer Wrestling on Sunday to face Joey Janela, he of the Spring Breaks, in the semi-main of The Aftermath. (The Aftermath of what, you ask? Jon Moxley v. Nick Gage for the GCW World title on Saturday’s show, which was a gnarly deathmatch that saw Mox retain.) This was a fun outing, with Suzuki not really taking Janela very seriously throughout the match as they brawled all over the Showboat in Atlantic City, NJ. Post-match, Chris Dickinson said that Suzuki was in “his house” (there’s that phrase again), and said even tho they have a match next weekend in Philadelphia at the NJPW Strong tapings (that’s on Saturday 10/16/2021 at the 2300 Arena), they have “unfinished business” in GCW too, meaning, their Bloodsport match that never happened due to the pandemic. AFAIK Suzuki’s match at Bloodsport 7 has yet to be announced, so this could be that. But also, we never got Suzuki v. Orange Cassidy either, from the postponed Spring Break from that year, and that has yet to be rescheduled too. Suzuki laughed off the “His House” comment too. Honestly, the Saturday card was more engaging than the Sunday one overall, but both are worth watching, which you can on FITE TV.
This coming weekend, Suzuki is at the aforementioned NJPW Strong tapings, which will also have he and Lance Archer in a Philadelphia Street Fight against Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston, the latter making his NJPW (NJoA, really) debut.
Back to Friday at West Coast Pro for a moment, after the opener, Vinnie Massaro cut a promo where he challenged “The Best” from NJPW, saying he was tired of rookies and Young Lions. Well, he’s got it now, as Tomohiro Ishii will face Massaro at West Coast v. The World, on 11/12/2021 at the State Room in SF, CA. The next night, of course, is Battle In The Valley in San Jose (which will also be up against AEW’s Full Gear PPV). Tickets for this are on sale, and this will likely also be on IWTV as well.
Wrestle Grand Slam STARDOM Matches Announced; NJPW Strong Moving to Saturdays 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT on 9/18/2021; More Autumn Attack Matches Announced; Minoru Suzuki v. Dominic Garrini in Timebomb Pro on 10/21/2021
NJPW has announced the two opening STARDOM exhibition matches for both nights of Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome. The Queen’s Quest tandem of Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani will be working both nights it appears. Tomorrow, they will face off against Donna del Mundo’s Maika, who will be teaming with the currently unaffiliated Lady C. Then on Sunday, the QQ pair will go against the current Artist of Stardom tag team champions, Donna del Mundo’s Giulia & Syuri, in what appears to be a non-title match. NJPW is taking great pains to point out Giulia will be less than 24 hours removed from a 5-Star Grand Prix tournament match against current World Of Stardom champion Utami Hayashishita, so they expect that to play a factor in the match in Saitama on Sunday morning.
Again, for the first time since Bushiroad purchased the company from Rossy Ogawa, STARDOM matches will be shown on NJPWWorld, having been prevented from doing so previously due to STARDOM’s existing contracts with NTV, a direct competitor to NJPW minority partner TV Asahi, who facilitates NJPWWorld. Again, I don’t know the ins and outs of how this was made possible, but it’s good STARDOM is now getting to be shown to an even wider potential audience that will hopefully be receptive to the womens promotion.
Tonight, NJPWWorld will show the “BBQ Brawl” episode of NJPW Strong. This is hands down one of the all-time worst titles they have ever come up with for an NJPW event of any kind. That said, the first match tonight looks to be very good, as Impact Wrestling’s X Division champion Josh Alexander returns, this time to face Daniel Garcia, who once again will be wrestling on two TV shows in one night as he is also due to take on Darby Allin on tonight’s live AEW Rampage from my home base in Hoffman Estates, IL. (I was never due to be at this show, but if you still need a ticket for GCW/BLP 3 Cups Stuffed or tomorrow’s BLP show, hit me up.)
The real point of this entry, is that NJoA have announced that in two weeks’ time, starting 9/18/2021, the show will be moving to Saturday nights from Friday nights, at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT on both NJPWWorld or FITE TV (for a fee). One wonders if this is in fact due to AEW Rampage taking place at the same time now, and their continued partnership. With AEW being a much hotter product than NJPW at the moment, I can’t imagine there are too many people skipping Rampage to see Strong on Fridays, but I can see a lot of people skipping Strong for Rampage. I am guessing with the big move happening, that the Fighting Spirit Unleashed set of matches will start airing with this show.
NJPW Strong started life last summer as Lion’s Break Collision, an experimental empty-arena TV show during the peak of lockdown, and has run ever since. There have been some memorable moments on the show, it has to be said, but lost a lot of its luster once NJPW proper started running again. Now that shows are starting to happen outside of Thunder Studios, maybe interest will start picking back up.
On that note, NJPW have announced four more matches for the September NJPW Strong taping shows Autumn Attack, 9/25 & 9/26/2021 at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX, have been announced.
One that looks to be a highlight of Night 1 is “Filthy” Tom Lawlor v. Ren Narita. Curiously, the NJPW hype piece for this does not mention Lawlor being the current NJPW Strong Openweight Champion, so one wonders if that’s an accidental spoiler. Also added to Night 1 is an 8-man tag match, as Juice Robinson, Lio Rush (possibly the Strong champion now?), Clark Connors & TJP will take on a Bullet Club tandem of Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & Impact’s Chris Bey. This would be Bey’s first NJPW event since joining the Bullet Club in Impact.
On Night 2, the indie flavor of the month Daniel Garcia is booked against Switchblade, Jay White, in a non-title match against the NEVER Openweight Champion. Then, a tag match has been booked, where Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors will face off against the United Empire’s Will Ospreay and a mystery opponent. This could be Jeff Cobb, this could be Great O-Khan, this could be Aaron Henare... or this could be a new member of the Empire (most likely). We’ll see at the end of the month.
The announcements for Minoru Suzuki’s tour of the US indies continue. Now announced for Thursday 10/21/2021 in Dilwroth, MN, is Suzuki going into Timebomb Pro, a promotion based in Fargo, ND. No, it’s not just a movie/TV show, it turns out. At this show, Suzuki will have a first-time dream opponent in Dominic Garrini, an amateur wrestler/shooter type who’s been big on the indies the last few years, often teaming with Kevin Ku as Violence Is Forever, which is the name this show is taking on. Tickets for that event at TimeBombPro.com if you feel so inclined and are in that neck of the woods.
I actually am starting to keep track of all of Suzuki’s bookings now, so once we get closer in another week or so, I’ll post the entire list.
Summer Struggle in Sapporo 2021 Night 1 - 7/10/2021: Ibushi Out Due To “Vaccine Side Effects”; Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome Will Go On, Ticket Sales End Tomorrow; NJPW Strong Episode 48 - 7/9/2021; Kojima Challenges Lawlor on Strong 7/23/2021 Episode, Looks To Be Done In Impact
The first night of Summer Struggle in Sapporo, and the first night of the entire Summer Struggle tour itself, took place earlier today, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. An IWGP Juniorheavyweight title match was the main event. Kota Ibushi was scheduled for this show, but had to sit out, officially due to “side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine,” ergo he was knackered after getting jabbed, which, hey, it happens. Hiromu Takahashi also made an appearance before the opening bell rang once more.
Summer Struggle in Sapporo - 7/10/2021, Hokkaido Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena (NJPWWorld)
Master Wato d. Yuya Uemura (RPP, 9:09)
EVIL & Dick Togo [Bullet Club] d. Tomohiro Ishii & YOH [CHAOS] (EVIL > YOH, Scorpion Deathlock, 11:37)
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] d. KENTA, Yujiro Takahashi & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] (Tanahashi > Yujiro, High Fly Flow, 15:00)
Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire] d. Kazuchika Okada & SHO [CHAOS] (Cobb > SHO, Tour Of The Islands, 11:41)
Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI [SZKG] (Takagi > DOUKI, Pumping Bomber, 13:40)
IWGP Juniorheavyweight Championship: El Desperado [SZKG] © d. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] (Pinche Loco, 28:54) - El Desperado succeeds his 2nd defense
Taiji Ishimori fails to become a double-crown junior champion, like Despy was earlier this year. Post-main, Robbie Eagles challenges Despy via video message. I had honestly forgotten Robbie Eagles was still a NJPW wrestler, although he had taken part in Best of the Super Juniors XXVII just this past December. Whoops!
KENTA, Rocky Romero and Jeff Cobb all returned to the lineups today. Cobb looks to be in a feud with Okada, whilst KENTA is engaging with Tanahashi. Cobb returning is good because it means we can get more Great O-Khan.
Last post, detailing the now fourth state of emergency in Tokyo, I said nobody knew exactly now this would affect the already-postponed-once Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome, the rescheduled date being 7/25/2021. Now we do know: the show will go on, but ticket sales will be ending tomorrow (Sunday 7/11/2021).
On July 25, ‘Godzilla vs Kong presents: Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome’ will proceed as planned, with NJPW continuing its commitment to safe events as held across Japan with fans for the past year.
However, in light of the recent announcement of another state of emergency across Tokyo and the subsequent restrictions this enforces on live events, we regret to announce that ticket sales for Wrestle Grand Slam will end at midnight JST on July 11.
We deeply apologize for the inconvenience this causes. We look forward to welcoming fans on July 25, with fan safety given the utmost priority.
So there’s that, then. I am not altogether certain which attendance cap will apply here (5000 spectators or 50% capacity -- previous enforcement took the *higher* number into account), so I guess we will find out. I am going to guess it won’t be Wrestle Kingdom levels, but I could be wrong.
Last night’s NJPW Strong was the Road to Tag Team Turbulence, that tournament beginning with next Friday’s episode. Here, three singles matches act as prelude, including the return of someone we could really do without.
Barrett Brown d. The DKC (Schoolboy, 7:02)
Alex Coughlin Challenge Match Series: PJ Black [ROH] d. Alex Coughlin (Bad Habit, 9:33)
Josh Alexander [Impact] d. Rocky Romero [CHAOS] (Divine Intervention, 11:51)
Amazing how that main event happened what with Rocky in Japan this morning and Josh Alexander in Chicago last night wrestling Jake Something in AAW. Ahem. PJ Black also returns to Strong, but was also still spouting off anti-vaxxer bullshit on Twitter just yesterday, so fuck that guy.
The tournament starts next episode, with these matches taking place (not sure of order):
TJP [FREE] & Clark Connors v. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows [Impact]
Kevin Knight & The DKC v. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs
Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita v. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta
Brody King [ROH] & Chris Dickinson v. JR Kratos & Danny Limelight [Team Filthy]
Strong’s 50th episode (which I’ve now “corrected” my episode count above, so there’s no Episode 47 here on this blog. However, they had a special recap/best-of episode around XMas or New Year’s last December and I didn’t count that as an ep, but clearly they do. So now we’re in line, I guess.) will happen during the tournament, and it will be main evented by “Filthy” Tom Lawlor’s 3rd defense of the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship, taking on Satoshi Kojima, who challenged him several episodes ago, and had been feuding with Team Filthy’s JR Kratos.
In other Bread Club news, Kojima looks to be done in Impact Wrestling, as he tweeted out on Thursday. Since Impact is still no-fans and pre-taped, who knows how much more material will make it to air. He was not on this Thursday’s episode of Impact, but there’s another episode to go before the Slammiversary PPV next Saturday 7/17/2021. My guess would be if Kojima is on that, he will face William Morrissey as that was who seemed to be calling him out on last week’s Impact episode. We’ll see as the Slammiversary card gets announced.
Tomorrow is the second night of Summer Struggle in Sapporo, with another title match main event. Kota Ibushi is still listed for this show, but the card is, as always, subject to change.
- 7/11/2021, Hokkaido Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena (NJPWWorld)
SHO [CHAOS] & Yuya Uemura v. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]
Tomohiro ishii [CHAOS], Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] v. EVIL, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club]
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yota Tsuji v. KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]
Kazuchika Okada & YOH [CHAOS] v. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire]
Kota Ibushi & Master Wato v. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] © v. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables]