NJPW Strong results: Jay White vs. Fred Rosser non-title match

Saturday’s show saw the final set of matches from NJPW’s Showdown tapings in Hollywood, California, headlined by a non-title match between NJPW Strong Champion Fred Rosser and 

Aussie Open (Kyler Fletcher & Mark Davis) defeated Jakob Austin Young & Gregory Sharpe

We saw Young & Sharpe previously on this year’s Strong tapings from North Carolina.

Aussie Open ambushed Young & Sharpe before the bell sounded. After throwing them to the floor, Fletcher & Davis smashed their opponents into each other spinefirst before tossing them aside.

Later, back in the ring, Sharpe answered back with a few elbows of his own, plus one high roundhouse kick to Davis’ head. The fans in attendance booed Sharpe’s comeback despite he and Young clearly being designated as the babyface team. Aussie Open seem to be that well liked.

After putting Fletcher down with La Mistica, Sharpe crawled to his corner and tagged out to Young who lit Fletcher up with chops before catching him in a standing crucifix submission. 

Sharpe later tagged back in and landed a flying crossbody press onto both of Aussie Open. The crowd began to warm to the new faces from this point on.

Aussie Open shifted the momentum moments later, catching Sharpe in an assisted GTS before laying him out with a double-team cutter maneuver, but Sharpe was able to kick out at two. 

The finish saw Aussie Open put Sharpe away after hitting their Coriolis finisher. 

Juice Robinson defeated Jake Something

Something made his return to a New Japan Strong ring after prior appearances this year.

He and Robinson had a good big man match. Early on, Robinson landed on Something with a sandbag of a senton. 

At around five minutes after Robinson had been more or less in control of things, Something was able to explode out of the corner and take Robinson out with front bodypress before spearing him in the corner. He would then do a running tope to the floor onto Robinson. Something is a large dude, so this was extra impressive. Something scored a two-count back in the ring with a falcon arrow. 

Robinson was able to headbutt Something on the top rope and take him down with a super Frankensteiner before blasting him with a shotgun dropkick that sent Something flying into the corner. Robinson would then attempt his signature cannonball in the corner, but Something caught Robinson mid-air and laid him out with a Liger bomb for two. 

Robinson caught Something in a schoolboy and pulled on Something’s tights for leverage. The Hollywood crowd got a full view of Something’s rear end before he could kick out. 

The two collided into each other with simultaneous lariats. Robinson connected with his Left Hand of God, but Something didn’t go down. The ten-minute call sounded. In the end, Robinson was able to flatten Something out with an inverted sit-out death valley bomb for the win. 

After the match, Blake Christian appeared. While Robinson wasn’t paying attention, Christian nailed him with a springboard dropkick before diving over the ropes onto the floor to beat on Robinson some more. 

Backstage, Robinson addressed Christian’s attack. He said it shouldn’t be “All Heart” Blake Christian but “sh*t-for-brains” because only someone extremely stupid would have went after him. He asked if Christian had seen what he had done to Ren Narita recently when Narita “bit off more than he could chew.” Robinson was referring to when he left Narita lying in a pool of blood after a hardcore match earlier this year. Robinson and Christian will take each other on in next week’s main event.

IWGP World Champion Jay White defeated NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Fred Rosser in a non-title match

This was a non-title match between Strong Openweight champion Rosser and IWGP World Heavyweight champion White. 

The crowd in attendance sounded happy to see White and did a noisy “too sweet!” chant for him. Rosser appropriated it and did some “too sweet” gesturing of his own which White didn’t like so he slapped Rosser in the face before sliding out of the ring to gather himself. When Rosser chased after him, White grabbed onto Rosser’s ankles and dragged him to the floor. 

Back in the ring, White held Rosser in a side headlock. Rosser would try to reverse White’s weight and leverage, but White was always able to keep Rosser neutralized in a heavy side headlock. 

Rosser was later able to catch White coming off the ropes with a powerslam before decking him with a lariat that sent both men flying over the top to the floor. Rosser then jumped the barricade to celebrate with the fans. He even did the Prime Time Players dance with someone in the front row. How can you not like this guy?

Rosser stood White against the ring post on the floor and locked him in a crossface chicken wing, using some the ring post for some extra leverage. 

White was able to bring Rosser down with a stun gun across the ropes before whipping him into the barricade. White methodically began picking Rosser apart. He would piece him up with short strikes mixed in with some illegal shots. Once, he stuck both thumbs into Rosser’s eyeballs and squeezed until referee Jeremy Marcus forced White to break. 

At around this point, the crowd began chanting “Thank you, Jay!” though I’m not exactly sure why. Even the announcers sounded mildly confused. 

Rosser kept eating more shots from White, but after a while, he was shouting for White to hit him some more. Rosser threw a big headbutt and took White off his feet with a hard two-handed chop. 

White would drop Rosser with a Bladebuster suplex. Later, when White had Rosser back to his feet, he continued chopping him. Rosser insisted on eating more. He even locked his arms behind the ropes and wore a smile on his face, offering his chest to White as a blank canvas for chopping. The Strong Openweight champion shouted “HIT ME!” at White who laid in hard chops. Rosser absorbed all of them like they were nothing. He then stormed out of the corner and chased White with a few chops of his own until the crafty White took Rosser down with a sudden flatliner, flattening Rosser from out of nowhere. 

White put Rosser down with a big Russian suplex for two. He then went for a half-nelson suplex, but Rosser escaped to the ring apron, making it difficult for White to fully lock in the hold. White then attempted the half-and-half on the apron, but Rosser was able to reverse it into his signature falling backdrop onto the apron, dropping White backfirst onto the stiffest part of the ring. 

Despite White feeling the pain of the apron backdrop, he was still able to muster up enough strength to launch Rosser with the half nelson suplex, drilling Rosser onto the back of his head. 15 minutes had passed at this point. 

White went for the Bladerunner, but Rosser countered and took White out with a fireman’s carry gutbuster. He fought to lock White in the crossface chicken wing over the next couple minutes, even headbutting White in the shoulder to lock in the hold more deeply.

Marcus began checking to see if White could continue. If White’s arm fell three times, the match would be over. When White resisted his arm going down for a third time, Marcus signaled to the timekeeper that White was not out, but in the split second he had his back turned, White threw a mule kick between Rosser’s legs, connecting with a hard low blow that Marcus didn’t see. 

White went to finish Rosser off with the Bladerunner, but then, suddenly, Rosser slipped away and locked White right back into the chicken wing, this time with Rosser also locking White into a body scissors so that had a harder time escaping. The crowd was very hot at this point. 

White first went to grab the ropes for a full break, but suddenly, within another split second, White brought Rosser down with the Bladerunner to win the match. 

Afterward, White grabbed the mic. He claimed that he was responsible for NJPW Strong being around which meant he could have easily had the right to challenge for Rosser’s Openweight title. But White said that he had his hands full at the moment being the IWGP World Champion. So instead, he, “The Father of NJPW Strong,” would choose the champion’s next opponent. He then explained that he had recently made a deal with former Openweight champion “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, and said that per Lawlor’s request, Rosser’s next title match would be against Team Filthy’s JR Kratos. 

Kratos then appeared from backstage. He walked to the ring, took Rosser’s beaten body, and deadlift suplexed him before the end of the broadcast.

Final thoughts:

Tonight’s main event really felt like a big deal. Both Rosser and White were excellent and the last few minutes of this were very good. The crowd was all in toward the end. White and Rosser wrestle very different styles but together, they were like peanut butter & jelly. I’m curious to see how this match would have gotten over if a) one or both titles were on the line and b) if this had taken place in Japan. I anticipate a rematch sometime down the road, maybe next year, and that should be great.