((I usually try to keep these fairly neutral, or at least to keep my opinions to a minimum. I could not do that here. I fucking hated this show.))
Pre-Show— STRONG Survivor: CJ Tino def Allan Breeze — (5:25, roll up)
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The gimmick if this match is the winner gets to be in the next iteration if it on the next NJoA pre-show. Today there’s no defending Survivor, since Zayne Jay vacated his spot in order to focus on training in Japan.
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CJ Tino previously unsuccessfully challenged Zayne. Breeze won the NJ Academy Cup on a show you can watch on YouTube.
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Post-match CJ extends a hand to Breeze, but is left hanging.
Bea Priestley debut
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The lights go out, then some generic music hits. Bea Priestley is here, dressed in her gear.
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Bea cuts a promo. It’s been four years since she’s been “here.” Her 90 days ended today, so she figured she’d show up in “the top Women’s division.” (lmao) She’s the “Top Gaijin” and wonders which “bitch” wants to fight her.
Pre-Show: Bea Priestley def Viva Van — (4:17, Plan B)
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Bea jumps Van while she’s making her entrance.
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The crowd either isn’t in the building yet or just didn’t like this. Wouldn’t blame them if it was the latter, this was not particularly good.
Fred Rosser def Matt Vandagriff — (13:45, Crossface Chicken Wing)
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The story here is Vandagriff is a cocky youngster who stopped taking advice from Coach Rosser seriously. He’s also a heel, but in his last singles match he was a little too flashy with his moveset and ended up getting big cheers for it.
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Vandagriff has new entrance gear, including a mask, and looks like he should be going to The Gathering of the Juggalos.
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While Rosser’s getting in the ring, Matt gives him the double birds and then jumps him to start the match.
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Eventually we get our first outside brawl of the night.
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This was fine overall (some rough patches) and the crowd was into it. But man, is Vandagriff miscast as a heel IMO. He’s just got too impressive a moveset and the crowd gets behind him because of it.
STRONG Openweight Tag Titles: Templario & TJP def World Class Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs)[c] — (13:12, roll up)
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ICYMI, TJP has been causing all sorts of trouble online to the point where I’m surprised he didn’t get pulled off this show. Like, he was spilling backstage dirt and trying to rope Bushiroad owner Kidani into things, which are both massive no-nos.
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TJP is wearing red gear and no UE merch. Templario is in his UE green gear.
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WCWC jump UE(?) to start the match.
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Another fine but shaky at points match. Yes, we’re (sadly) apparently not free of TJP, yet.
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Post-match, TJP says some things directly into the camera that we cannot hear at all. He and Templario do celebrate together as they leave.
The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson), The Young Bucks (Nicholas Jackson & Matthew Jackson) def Gedo, Clark Connors, Gabe Kidd, David Finlay — (13:39, Magic Killer)
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NJPW decided to attempt to give me a seizure during the War Dogs’ entrance. They get a somewhat mixed reaction.
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They played part of the weird Good Brothers hype video. They look goofy as shit and get cheered upon their entrance. The Bucks are wearing gear that matches GB’s and also get cheered.
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Uh oh, War Dogs try to do the bark and they do not get much of the crowd to participate. The crowd reacting to the Dogs opposite to how Japanese crowds do has been a problem in the past on NJOA shows, particularly with Gabe.
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War Dogs jumpstart the match. Second outside brawl of the night. TBH I forgot to pay attention to who was legal first.
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Once again we get Gabe Kidd having to start working heel partway through a US match; he gets the mic and starts trash talking GB.
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What in the actual fuck are we doing here? What purpose does this serve for the super over face War Dogs that exist in Japan and just had their second biggest win as a unit?
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Post-match, Gabe, Clark, and Finlay get in the ring. GBYB offer the 2 Sweet, but WD do the Dog pound with each other instead and then leave.
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They play the original BC theme while GBYB celebrate with the crowd.
STRONG Openweight Title: Tomohiro Ishii[c] def Drilla Moloney — (13:39, Vertical Drop Brainbuster)
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Drilla gets a decent enough reaction, but he is going to be fighting an uphill battle here against US fan fav Ishii.
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This was worked well, as one would expect, but hurt by the bizzaroworld crowd who never really got too into it beyond cheering for Ishii.
NEVER Openweight Title: KONOSUKE TAKESHITA[c] [w/Rocky Romero] def El Phantasmo — (17:48, Raging Fire)
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I was in a good mood for this match and then I saw Rocky come out and remembered they’re tainting TAKE’s NJPW work with this stupid Don Callis Family stuff.
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ELP super heavily telegraphs a dive onto TAKE in the first row, but staff still fails to fully clear the fans and ELP pretty much lands in a girl’s lap. Sloppy shop.
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That was also the point we started getting Rocky involvement/distractions, though thankfully they weren’t super impactful.
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Until the closing stretch, when ELP hits Thunderkiss 86 but Rocky pulls the ref out of the ring. ELP goes to the outside and superkicks Rocky then powerbombs him through the table.
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Great match marred by the stupid, and sadly predictable, interference.
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Post-match, TAKE casually offers a handshake to ELP, who accepts. TAKE leaves alone without even looking for Rocky.
Walker starts throwing to the WHC match, which had been listed as the final match on the card; though apparently on the English site (where the actual card page had been broken for months) they didn’t list match numbers for the last two (I am 90% sure the Japanese site’s card listed the women’s as match 6 of 7). Sure enough, once again we apparently didn’t know the fucking card order of the NJOA show until it happened. Why the fuck is NJPW doing WWE shit? What the fuck are we doing here?
IWGP WHC: Hirooki Goto[c] vs Zack Sabre Jr.[w/Shane Haste] — (17:28, Double Pin)
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They played the regular version of Young Punks instead of the remix.
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The finish of both men pinning each other at the same time killed the crowd.
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Post-match,Zack argues with the ref. Goto is visibly annoyed. Everyone hates this. What the fuck are we doing here?
STRONG Women’s Title: AZM def Mercedes Mone[c], Mina Shirakawa — (17:53, AZM Sushi)
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Mercedes is playing heel here, but is getting the biggest reactions as if she were the face.
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In classic lolNJOAproduction fashion, the sound mix all night has had certain portions of the crowd being picked up by one of the mics. Here, it picks up one woman who is screeching for Mercedes for the whole first half of the match.
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The match was great, as one would expect. The finish once again kind of killed the crowd.
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Post-match, Mercedes and Mina start arguing and shoving each other, then chase each other to the back.
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AZM promo. In English she says she’s the new Champion. Some Japanese then “I’m so happy!” and she thanks the crowd in English. The crowd can’t decide whether to chant “AZM” or “New Japan,” then settle on “you deserve it.”
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“Its AZM time at last.” That’s the end of the show.
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by EffingKENTA