NJPW Strong results: Team Filthy vs. West Coast Wrecking Crew

Tonight marks 52 episodes of NJPW Strong, which premiered on NJPW World almost a year to the day last August.

Alexander James defeated Kevin Knight

James has wrestled for wXw in Germany and Beyond Wrestling , plus has been featured on a few of Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport cards. On commentary, Kevin Kelly mentioned that he trained at the same school as Adam Cole did in Maryland and was a student of WWE’s Drew Gulak.

For those who haven’t seen Alexander James wrestle yet, know that he’s a perfect fit for Strong. From his in-ring wrestling style to body size to overall demeanor, James seems to fit like a glove here in NJPW. He wrestles a hard-hitting, classical style of pro wrestling, something more in line with coach Katsuyori Shibata’s “realistic” vision of what wrestling should be, a style adjacent to how Young Lions wrestle these days.

James worked Knight over for the first five minutes of the match, slowly grinding down on Knight’s shoulder with a series of standing arm and wristlocks. Knight was able to swing the momentum back his way after connecting with a high dropkick. He later locked on a Boston Crab which quickly turned into a single-leg crab, but James escaped and went after Knight’s shoulder again. He then climbed to the top and dove onto Knight with a flying headbutt and landed onto Knight’s shoulder. James locked in a modified cobra clutch, then lifted him and did something I’d call a Rainmaker Judas Effect, or a spinning wrist-drag into a back elbow, before pinning Knight with a gutwrench powerbomb to win his first match on the show. Nice showing for James. Knight continues to impress, as well.

Rocky Romero and Fred Rosser defeated Ren Narita and Alex Coughlin

Rosser and Narita were first for their teams. I like the way Rosser has adapted his ring style to New Japan without having to compromise much, if anything, and actually being able to stand out in a very different way among a high-end, generally younger roster. Don’t sleep on Mr. No-Days-Off.

Alex Coughlin and Rocky Romero were in together next after a short exchange between Rosser and Narita. Coughlin is another of the Young Lions who, along with classmates Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors, should be due for a bump up the roster sooner rather than later. Coughlin used a big deadlift German suplex on Romero.

Coughlin and Rosser later brawled on the floor while Narita attempted a single-leg crab on Romero inside the ring. Romero avoided any damage and enzuigiri’d his way out of Narita’s attack to tag back out to Rosser, who cleaned house. After ragdolling Narita around the ring a bit, he placed him on the top rope for a possible superplex, but Narita escaped and landed a spinning wheel kick that dazed Rosser. Coughlin tagged in and did some ragdolling of his own, using a deadlift gutwrench suplex for two. Remember, Rosser is 6’1″, 238 lbs, not exactly the size of someone that can be ragdolled around. The two traded hard elbows before Rosser got the better of the exchange and tagged out to Romero.

When Romero went for Sliced Bread #2, Coughlin caught him mid-air to block, then hoisted him atop his shoulders into a fireman’s carry-to-gutbuster, a lá Dean Malenko. Coughlin earned a two-count for that plus a bridging fall-away slam afterwards. Romero persisted, kicked out, and was eventually able lock in a cross-armbreaker. He’d finally tap Coughlin in the armbreaker with an assist in leverage from Rosser.

Afterwards, with a giant smile across his face, a happy Fred Rosser went over to shake Narita’s hand again, just as he did before the match. This time, though, Narita shot Rosser a cold glare and exited without shaking Rosser’s hand. Rosser looked to enjoy the tension building between the two since his smile seemed to get wider as Narita got angrier. Romero stepped in to separate them before Narita was finally out of the ring. I anticipate a singles match between the seasoned Rosser and rookie Narita on the show this summer.

Team Filthy (JR Kratos & Danny Limelight) defeated West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs)

Isaacs and Limelight entered first for their teams. Isaacs showcased both his amateur style skills and overall power, using one huge powerslam early on. It didn’t hold Limelight down for long, and he was running the ropes just moments later, exploding with offense that was cut short when Jorel Nelson tagged in and took Limelight’s head off with a dropkick.

Limelight eventually slipped away to tag Kratos into the match. Kratos ran roughshod on WCWC, cleaning the ring out quickly. He launched Isaacs from post to post with a vertical suplex, and later would do a similar deadlift vertical suplex on Nelson. Kelly called him a one-man wrecking crew. Isaacs threw a proverbial hail mary late in the match and put Kratos down with a deadlift suplex of his own, exhibiting serious strength.

Isaacs tagged out to a fresher Nelson who cleared the ring of both Limelight and Kratos quickly. They did a jumping knee to German suplex and then a super power bomb on Limelight, both for two. When the WCWC  tried lifting Kratos onto the top rope for a double-team finish, Kratos was able to interrupt and block his way out of their clutch, then used a jumping knee of his own. Kratos is around 260 lbs., by the way. He used another vertical suplex variation before Limelight dropped two knees on Nelson from off the top rope for two. Kratos is reinventing the vertical suplex.

When Nelson was back inside, he did some “lucha things” to take care of Kratos, like landing a frankensteiner to Kratos to put him on the floor, then diving onto him with a tope suicida. Back in the ring, he connected with a diving elbow drop off the top that’d make Randy Savage say “Ooh yeah.”

In the end, it was Team Filthy who’d come out victorious: Kratos launched Nelson into the air with a flapjack before Limelight delivered a pretty double-jump tornado DDT, spiking Nelson head-first before picking up the three-count.

The teams got into a post-match dust-up before STRONG Openweight champion (and F4W’s own) “Filthy” Tom Lawlor got into the ring. After calming his crew down, he told the WCWC that he liked what he saw and offered his hand. “It looks like a deal has been made!” The West Coast Wrecking Crew is now a part of Team Filthy, along with Lawlor, Kratos and Limelight.

Final thoughts:

Tonight’s show was really good. The first singles and second tag team match were solid, but the main event was a hell of a tag match. I enjoyed the slight twist-ending tonight, too, with WCWC joining up with Team Filthy. It didn’t seem like Nelson or Isaacs gave much thought to it—they decided within about five seconds. With such power of persuasion, I think Lawlor should try his hand in politics someday.

This is the penultimate episode of NJPW Strong before NJoA Resurgence, which airs live from Los Angeles, California on August 14.