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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]