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Pre-Show– STRONG Survivor Match:
Zane Jay def Matt Vandagriff (7-0 in SS matches) — (13:22, Boston Crab) -
The story here was Vandagriff’s win streak has turned him into a cocky heel, who’s underestimating an opponent he previously beat easily. (Unfortunately he didn’t really work heel, instead doing impressive moves that got the crowd behind him.) Meanwhile Jay got to go train in the Noge Dojo, so has his head shaved and went for a lot of fundamental Young Lion moves.
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Vandagriff’s loss means he’s lost his spot as STRONG Survivor/pre-show match guy.
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Mina Shirakawa def Johnnie Robbie — (7:40, Glamorous Driver MINA)
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English commentary basically tells us here that we’ll see Mina at Dynasty. We have a women’s division main event. Let’s see if the math adds up.
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STRONG Openweight Tag titles: West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) def Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) [c] — (12:43, flash pin)
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GYV are heels. WCWC spent pretty much all of 2024, including the last time we saw them, being vicious asshole heels. They ended up playing sympathetic faces here.
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The team who were vicious asshole heels the entire year, including the last time we saw them, get a massive face pop for winning the titles.
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Rocky Romero [office staff version] comes out and congratulates
himself for bookingWCWC for winning the belts. He then declares himself and YOH their first challengers, at Battle in the Valley on January 11th. -
WCWC then attack Rocky, so apparently they’re heels again. None of this entire match/segment made any sense within the shreds of storyline that STRONG has.
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TJP def Clark Connors, KUSHIDA, Kosei Fujita — (10:24, flash clutch pin)
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Clark brings a chair to the ring, because four-ways are technically no DQ. He tries to attack someone with it and everyone else beats him up and tosses him out.
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TJP steals it by getting KUSHIDA in a clutch pin while Fujita has Clark in the Kami Special submission.
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We have a post-match face off between all four men, whose partners will be in a four-way on the first of the televised WK go-home shows (22nd).
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Hechicero def Lio Rush — (11:29, headscissors guillotine leg drop)
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Hechicero is massively over, to the point where he and Lio decide to do a crowd appeal battle to take advantage of that.
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Post-match, Hechicero briefly goes into the bleachers to celebrate with the fans.
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English commentary (and common sense) basically tells us that this is going to lead to Hechicero getting booked on Dynasty, so keep an eye out for the Backstage Comments.
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Templario, Jakob Austin Young [w/TJP] def Titan, Hiromu Takahashi — (10:34, El Templo [powerbomb backcracker])
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ICYMI, which Veda Scott apparently did because she thought this was the reveal, Templario is in United Empire now.
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Hiromu is massively over. He is jumped by Templario and Jakob to start the match.
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Post-match the three UE members pose together with TJP’s spooky version UE flag.
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STRONG Openweight title: Gabe Kidd [Mad Dr. version] [c] def Ryohei Oiwa — (14:36, Mad Man Bomb)
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In the opening moments a fan heckles Gabe, who responds in kind. It happens again later and Gabe makes some very lewd gestures towards the crowd.
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Oiwa hits the Doctor Bomb, but Clark Connors appears and pulls the ref out of the ring. He grabs a chair and gets a couple hits in on Oiwa before going for No Chaser. Kosei Fujita runs out and takes Clark out with a springboard dropkick. Fujita drags Clark to the back.
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Gabe gets a mic post-match. He first says fuck anyone who’s booing him and tells one of the fans who heckled him that his mom’s a ho. Then he cuts a promo on Kenny/against AEW to hype the Dynasty match. He ends by calling out Tomohiro Ishii for a STRONG title match at BitV.
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Zack Sabre Jr., Shane Haste, Bad Dude Tito def Shota Umino [pink highlights version] , Fred Rosser, Tom Lawlor [cozy Xmas version] — (16:45, Tequila Screwdriver)
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Champ and challenger start off. TMDK is over and Zack is the most over one in the match, but Shota is getting good reactions/not getting booed.
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As usual, Zack and Shota have heated words post-match.
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Konosuke Takeshita, Jack Perry def Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji — (17:44, [dick punch followed by] Glass Jaw [knee])
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The odd couple pairing of Perry and Take have some bumps, but stay on track well enough to get the dirty win.
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Perry and Takeshita continue beating down LIJ post-match. Hiromu comes out to save them, but The Young Bucks [cunty office staff version] come out and hit him with an EVP Trigger. Jack Perry, who was previously aligned with The Elite before they hastily went on vacation, just walks away.
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Bucks have a mic. They cut a standard EVP Bucks promo to hype their match at Dynasty.
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STRONG Women’s title: Mercedes Mone [c] def Hazuki — (26:36, Mone Maker)
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This was a match that justified the existence of the NJPW Women’s division.
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Mercedes victory promo. She wants a match at Wrestle Dynasty and asks who’s ready to step up to the CEO. Mina Shirakawa comes out. Mercedes vs Mina in a double title match for the STRONG Women’s title and RevPro Women’s title on January 5th (provided Mina successfully defends her title on 12/21).
ETA– Backstage Comments roundup:
- Joshi legend and US excursion mama Sumie Sakai has asked Hiromu to be her opponent in her retirement match, which will take place at BitV. Hiromu accepted, but proposed a 3 vs 3 mixed tag match instead of a singles.
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by EffingKENTA