It’s a new set of shows as Ren Narita says farewell to his US excursion on New Japan Strong.
Quick Results
Shota Umino pinned QT Marshall in 10:12 (***¼)
Ren Narita submitted Juice Robinson in 19:58 (***¾)
Jay White & Karl Anderson pinned Homicide & Wheeler Yuta in 14:35 (***)
Bloody hell lads, three matches and 80-minutes long? We’re at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas, with Ian Riccaboni and Alex Koslov again on the call…
QT Marshall vs. Shota Umino
This one started back in Charlotte when Shota answered QT’s open challenge…
Marshall’s wristlock gets countered early, so he throws Shota down by the hair… prompting Umino to take QT into the ropes. There’s a cheapshot as the referee tries to separate the pair, but Shota’s able to shake it off and take QT back into the corner. Forearms by the ropes earn Shota a big boot in return, before Shota’s ‘rana and running uppercut took QT to the outside. Back inside, QT scores with a neckbreaker, while a chinlock kept Shota down. A back elbow does the same trick, but Marshall takes his time making a cover as he proceeded to hit a slam and an elbow drop to Shota. Umino begins to fight back, but got wiped out with a dropkick from Marshall for a lax two-count, before Shota mounted another comeback.
An elbow and a low dropkick gets Shota back in it, while a Fisherman suplex almost led to the win. QT escapes a Death Rider and returned with a pop-up forearm… then a sit-out Last Ride for a near-fall there. QT takes too long to follow up, and almost got caught with a tombstone… which the pair reversed back-and-forth until Shota landed it for a near-fall. Umino absorbs, then throws forearms back-and-forth with Marshall, ending with a discus forearm before Marshall rolled up out of a Death Rider. From the kick-out, Shota goes for a backslide, before Marshall again escaped a backslide… and hit a handspring enziguiri. The cutter looks to follow, but Shota rolls the dice twice instead, before a lifting reverse DDT and finally the Death Rider got the win. ***¼
Promo time with JR Kratos and Danny Limelight is next, featuring shots at Local Sports Teams, and Danny being a little sour at how Aussie Open are the Strong tag team champions. He’s annoyed that he and Kratos weren’t in the tournament, despite the fact that those two hadn’t tagged since September 2021. It led to a challenge from Kratos to Aussie Open, going through a dodgy mic too.
Aussie Open appear on the stage and accept the challenge… which’ll be fulfilled later in the tour.
Ren Narita vs. Juice Robinson
Juice attacked Narita through the curtain as a slam dropped Ren on the stage.
Narita’s bowled down the steps off the stage, then bounced off the guard rails before he’s taken into the ring. Juice demands the match start, as he chucks Narita outside and into the ring post for good measure. Going for the ring bell, Juice shoved down the referee before he cracked Narita in the head with the bell… which led to the obvious DQ at 1:21.
Narita’s come up all red as he tried to make a mark on the proverbial Muta scale… while Juice took the mic and offered to have the match restart under no-DQ rules. In among all that, Juice had gotten hold of a Kendo stick that he swung at Narita, but it’s ducked as a kick and a Figure Four leg lock left Juice laying, at least until he got the Kendo stick and used it to smash the hold apart. Juice wrecks the Kendo stick against Narita’s sides, then headed outside to look for more weaponry, pulling a table out from under the ring. Picking up Narita, Juice hauls him up for a suplex, but it’s reversed as Narita continued to leak blood, before the pair returned to the ring… where Juice bit the cut.
Juice removes his belt and blamed a fan for the belt whipping he prepared for Ren, before a Left Hand of God (with a belt) nearly put Ren away. It’s back to the chair as Ren ducks a chairshot, as did Juice, who then had the chair dropkicked into his face. Ren Van Dam? Right hands take Juice into the corner from there, but Juice fights out and removed a corner pad… so he could wedge a chair into the corner. Of course, it all backfires as Narita reversed a throw into the corner, with Juice eating that chair… then a suplex out of it. Narita sets up the chair and suplexed Juice into the open seat for a near-fall. Juice struck back in with a low blow, A piledriver onto the remnants of the chair followed, but still Ren kicks out, before he was taken outside and powerbombed through that table from earlier.
Back inside, Narita again kicks out as Juice was getting increasingly annoyed, even more so as he hunted under the ring for another table. He couldn’t find one, so he yanks the timekeeper’s table into the ring, then took Ren up top for what looked like an avalanche gutbuster through it… but Ren breaks free and grabbed a rear naked choke on Juice, flipping the table over in the process before the old Zack Sabre Jr. Young Boy Killer finally forced the submission. A real gutsy showing from Narita that’ll have gotten way more coverage when New Japan weren’t taking down screenshots and GIFs on social media – and a fitting farewell for Ren. ***¾
Wheeler Yuta & Homicide vs. Bullet Club (Jay White & Karl Anderson)
Tom Lawlor joins commentary as we’ve a wacky tag team up against the Bullet Club – with Eddie Kingston missing out due to covid in what would have been a trios match here.
We’ve got the better part of half an hour left on the VOD when the bell went, with Anderson and Homicide starting us off. A shoulder tackle has Anderson down, before the pair tried for cutters that got pushed off… allowing Tom Lawlor to make quite the reference on commentary. It took me a while too…
A headlock takedown from Anderson resets things as Homicide takes them into the corner for a clean break. Just kidding, we’ve an uppercut from Homicide after some jaw jacking, before a snapmare and a chinlock gave the Machine Gun something to fight out of as tags brought us to Yuta and White. Jay uses the hair to take Yuta into the corner, before an attempted chop was ducked and met in kind. Headlock takedowns and escapes follow, before White took things to the corner as he whaled away on Yuta with right hands and chops. White’s been busted open by an earlier exchange, and he dives out to tag in Anderson, who’s quickly dropped for a Yuta back senton.
Homicide’s in to work over Anderson, then take down White’s interference attempt, as the match spilled outside with all four men brawling by the railings. We’ve a suplex attempt from Homicide, but it’s broken up as Doc Gallows ends up charging Homicide into the commentary table, knocking over a monitor and (presumably) some water onto Lawlor… who chucked his water back on Homicide. Homicide and Lawlor had a mini brawl that the camera crew just about caught, as Homicide was taken back inside for an Anderson spinebuster. White’s neckbreaker gets a two-count, but Anderson’s quickly back in, only to get taken to the corner as Homicide set up for a cravat superplex… which was pushed off. Instead, Anderson lands a clothesline before chops from White took Homicide to his knees.
White demanded a too-sweet from Homicide, but instead got his ear bitten. Fair’s fair. White broke free with a slam, then a chinlock, which probably isn’t how I’d react to having my ear bitten, as Homicide’s jawbreaker allowed both men to tag out. Yuta hits a Manhattan drop and an enziguiri to Anderson, before a flying forearm off the top took Anderson down… only for Anderson to try and come back with a Gun Stun. Yuta countered that with an Angle Slam of sorts for a near-fall, before Anderson hit back with a fisherman over-the-knee brainbuster. White tagged in but walked into an inside cradle as Yuta brings Homicide back in for Manhattan drops and a STF as Anderson eventually pushed Yuta into the pile to break it up. A snap DDT from Anderson sparks a Parade of Moves, featuring a Blade Runner countered into a German suplex by Yuta, before White escaped a Cop Killa… only to turn around into a cutter.
White kicks out at two from that, before Doc Gallows got on the apron to cause a distraction. Tom Lawlor leaves commentary as things broke down, allowing White to hit the Blade Runner on Homicide for the win. This was fine, but the finishing stretch with the layered interference felt out of place – as we’re seemingly building to Homicide/Lawlor. ***
Post-match, Yuta makes the save as Lawlor was choking out Homicide… then went after the rest of Bullet Club as Jorel Nelson and Royce Isaacs joined to help Lawlor. Shota Umino comes out to keep the melee going, before Team Filthy and Bullet Club worked together to disarm Homicide from his fork. Tellingly, there was no JR Kratos or Danny Limelight for Team Filthy here, as the show ended with Jay White calling out Eddie Kingston for missing out on his chance to take on “the single biggest Japanese wrestling legend.”
So we’re probably getting Kingston vs. White on one of the US shows down the road as Lawlor closed out the show with some strutting.
Autumn Action started off pretty hot – but personally I’d have headlined with Narita/Juice on this show. Particularly that, with Eddie Kingston’s omission, the Bullet Club tag could have gone on any other episode from the “tour.”