NJPW Strong results: The first-ever Strong Survivor match

This week’s NJPW Strong kicked off the Nemesis series that was held in Hollywood, California. Announcer Kevin Kelly finally returned to after calling a number of shows onsite with NJPW last year, joined by Alex Kozlov.

Tonight featured the first-ever Strong Survivor match, a unique multi-man match used to determine a new number one contender to Fred Rosser’s Strong Openweight Championship.

Bullet Club (Jay White & El Phantasmo) defeated Hikuleo & Alan Angels

After some stalling, it was White and Angels who kicked the match off. The Hollywood crowd was pretty loud in support of Angels, who has quickly become a Strong favorite.

Later, when El Phantasmo tagged in, he and White held Angels in the corner so ELP could do his corner-to-corner rolling back rake spot. The crowd started chanting “holy sh*t” and Kelly’s response was dead on: “All right, let’s take it easy out there. It was a back rake!” It’s great to have you back, Mr. Kelly.

Angels was later able to put Phantasmo down with Shiranui and tag out to a fresh Hikuleo, ex-Bullet Club giant. ELP tagged out to White who dropped White face-first onto the turnbuckle pad with Snake Eyes and then laid him out with a running lariat for two, broken up by Phantasmo.

Hikuleo put White down with a snap powerslam and then went for a chokeslam, but ELP appeared. It looked as though he would be getting chokeslammed instead, but White chop blocked Hikuleo from behind, taking out his knee and letting go of Phantasmo.

Angels re-appeared and took White out with a low tope through the bottom rope. He would then catch Phantasmo off the ropes with La Mistica until White broke it up. Hikuleo charged at White, so White parried while pulling the rope down, low-bridging Hikuleo over the ropes out onto the floor.

Angels went for a quebrada inside the ring, but Phantasmo caught him mid-air with a low superkick. He flattened Angels with the UFO (Unidentified Flying Opponent) for the win.

– There was a pre-taped promo from United Empire’s Jeff Cobb. He called out Bad Dude Tito (TMDK) for trying to make a name for himself off of Cobb and United Empire. Cobb said when Tito first came to Japan last summer, he couldn’t make a name for himself off of anyone. 

Then came the cutting words: Cobb said Tito was not a “bad dude” at all, but was, in fact, a “so-so dude.” Feel the burn! Cobb then told Tito to get ready to fly, because he’d be throwing Tito all around the Strong ring. They square off next week.

KENTA won the first-ever Strong Survivor Match and earns a shot at Strong Openweight Champion Fred Rosser

The rules: The match begins as a battle royal with mystery entrants until the match is down to four remaining wrestlers. Then, eliminations will be pinfall or submission only until one Strong Survivor remains.

The participants were Christopher Daniels, Blake Christian, The DKC, Adrian Quest, Mascara Dorada, JR Kratos, C4 (Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas), Rocky Romero, KENTA, Wheeler Yuta, Jakob Austin Young, Bateman, Misterioso, KEITA and Che Cabrera.

All wrestlers waited at ringside until the match was officially underway. Once the bell sounded, it was bedlam as entrants rushed into the ring and began throwing fists immediately. Kratos wisely took his time entering the ring, though he did so about 30 seconds after everyone else had.

C4 (Rosas & Chhun) were eliminated first, back to back. KEITA was next, then Romero. Christian eliminated Cabrera after snapping the straps on Cabrera’s singlet, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. Kratos eliminated Misterioso next.

When Mascara Dorada went for a springboard attack into the ring, Yuta caught him mid-air with a dropkick, knocking Dorada to the floor and eliminating him. Yuta then threw Young over the top to eliminate him too.

Kratos then caught KENTA, Yuta and Christian with separate avalanche attacks in the corner. He pancaked DKC coming off the ropes next before powerslamming Quest and tossing him over the top. Bateman felt the wrath of Kratos just seconds later with Kratos sending him flying over the top with a lariat. He went to eliminate Daniels next, but Daniels held on. While Kratos fought with Daniels, the rest of the entrants got behind Kratos and threw him over the top, eliminating him.

DKC then threw Daniels out of the ring, but since Kratos and the other wrestlers were arguing with referees on the floor, Daniels snuck back into the ring and threw DKC out of the ring. The refs never saw Daniels eliminated, so ended up in the final four despite DKC clearly eliminating him on screen.

The final four entrants were Daniels, KENTA, Christian and Yuta with eliminations now occurring by pinfall or submission.

Christian went on a tear and laid both Daniels and KENTA out with some aerial offense, but it would be Daniels who would score the first elimination (and on Christian to boot) when he rolled Christian up with a schoolboy cradle while putting his ankles on the second rope for illegal extra leverage. Referee Jeremy Marcus didn’t see it, so Christian was eliminated.

Daniels and KENTA formed a short-lived alliance meant to take out Yuta. After some double-teaming, the two eventually started arguing over who would be the one to eliminate Yuta. Daniels got fed up and shoved KENTA. Daniels was quick to apologize and change his mind, insisting that KENTA be the one to eliminate Yuta. As soon as KENTA turned his back, Daniels went after KENTA — the heel of heels.

Daniels teased Angel’s Wings, but KENTA reversed it and then teased Go 2 Sleep, which Daniels slipped out of. Then, out of the corner came Yuta, who took both out with a double lariat and a double missile dropkick off the top later.

While KENTA was on the floor, Yuta caught him with a tope suicida. He went for a sunset flip over the ropes to Daniels back in the ring, but Daniels sat down into a pin to counter while holding onto the ropes for leverage. Yuta was able to kick out at two despite Daniels’ shifty tactics.

Moments later, it was Yuta who would eliminate Daniels with a bridging German suplex for a three count. Without a moment to celebrate, KENTA reappeared to greet and floor Yuta with his busaiku knee.

After a bit more back-and-forth, KENTA would finally take Yuta out with another busaiku knee to score a pinfall at 15:45 of the match, winning the first-ever Strong Survivor match to earn a Strong Openweight title shot.

Final thoughts:

The opening match was a nice way to kick off the show. The Strong Survivor bout was fine, but it was most interesting at the end when it was down to the final four. Daniels stole the show, but Yuta, KENTA & Christian all had memorable (albeit short) moments in this one.