NJPW Strong results: Motor City Machine Guns vs. Roppongi Vice

West Coast Wrecking Crew (Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson) defeated C4 (Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas)

C4 is a younger team from DEFY Wrestling based in the Pacific Northwest who have actually squared off with WCWC in DEFY over the years. There were some nice chants going for C4 early on.

On commentary, Kevin Kelly shouted out Jim Valley of F4W, who also happens to take on announce duties at DEFY from time to time.

There was a point in this match where Isaacs, who was outside the ring, hoisted Chhun up in the air with a stalling vertical suplex and proceeded to walk with Chuun around the ring before dropping him on the floor, and in stereo with Nelson to boot. Nelson used a stalling vertical suplex of his own on Rosas and synched the slam with Isaacs’ on the floor.

Nelson lifted Chhun up into a power bomb hold and looked like he was about to pass Chhun off to Nelson, as the Wrecking Crew is known for their creative tag team offense. Instead, Chhun countered with a hurricanrana, which sent Nelson flying into Isaacs with an inadvertent spear. Chhun tagged out to Rosas, and the two hit an assisted Liger bomb on Nelson for two. Rosas got fired up and shook the ropes like Ultimate Warrior. Chhun hit a backspring cutter before diving out of the ring with a tope.

Nelson caught Chhun with a fisherman’s buster for two. Isaacs later put Chhun down with a dominator before Nelson came off the top rope and hit Chhun with a diving elbow drop. Isaacs was the legal man, so he pinned Chhun to pick up the three-count for WCWC.

KENTA defeated QT Marshall

This was good, and it sounded to be a real crowd-pleaser of a match. The crowd was loud in their support of KENTA in his debut at The Vermont Hollywood. They relished KENTA’s heelish antics, like cheap-shotting QT Marshall in the face with a slap coming off a rope break. Marshall was basically doing Heel 101 and delivered. He was perfect in giving the crowd everything they *didn’t* want from this match.

After almost five minutes of ring introductions and general jaw-jacking, the match was finally underway. It was a total “KENTA fan service” match in that he got dozens of moments to shine and do his signature spots. It was exactly the kind of match a fan should expect.

In the end, KENTA hit Go 2 Sleep on Marshall for the win. He basked in the “KENTA!” calls before heading to the back. This was a good one.

STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championship Match: Motor City Machine Guns (c) defeated Roppongi Vice

Sabin and Beretta kicked things off. After a nice exchange, Sabin offered Beretta a sportsman-like hug, then quickly turned it into a sneaky school boy cradle for two. Sabin then walked over to his corner and hugged Shelley before tagging him in. Beretta would also tag Romero into the match.

Romero and Shelley would later have a short dance-off which saw Shelley bust out a bit of the “Ravishing” Rick Rude hip swirl. It was all a ploy from Romero, though, the self-proclaimed “King of Sneaky Style”. We should have known. While in mid-swivel, Rocky tripped Shelley up and slapped on an ankle hold.

MCMG played heel to Roppongi Vice’s hometown babyface. They wrestled with a bit of an edge, more so than usual.

Beretta was able to swing the momentum back his way and trapped Sabin in the corner and began chopping him. This was right before he’d spike Sabin with a jumping piledriver for two. Beretta went for another piledriver on the apron, but Sabin back body dropped him onto the apron instead, where Beretta would ultimately crash onto the floor.

“Come on, you son of a bitch!” Shelley shouted at Romero. The two started decking each other. MCMG would later catch Beretta with a double superkick to the head while he stood on the floor. When MCMG went for a dive, Roppongi Vice blocked it with a double jumping knee. They hit Strong Zero on Sabin for two. Sabin landed a power bomb for two. He caught Beretta with a huge kick to the face in the corner. MCMG landed a power bomb/sliced bread double team maneuver from the top on Beretta but again, only for two. They did Roppongi’s Dudebuster + dropkick combo finish and *again* a count of two. The crowd was chanting “RO-PON-GI!” over and over.

The finish saw MCMG hit their finisher on Romero for the pinfall in 18:12. As one would imagine, this was a very good match. The Machine Guns retain their tag titles.

Final thoughts:

It was one more solid episode of Strong tonight, with a lot of tag team action plus a really good story match between KENTA and QT Marshall. The main event between MCMG and Roppongi Vice stole the show, though.