New Japan Strong – July 17th, 2022 & This Week in the G-1!

Howdy!

Well, with Forbidden Door behind me and the BOSJ done, I think it’s time to get back on the Strong beat to please Scott’s new blog overlords. We’ll throw in some G-1 thoughts at the end.

With that in mind, the tag tournament to crown our Strong Tag champs continues this week on New Japan Strong, so let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Your hosts are Ian Riccaboni and Alex Koslov. This week, the Ignition tour continues, as does the the aforementioned Strong tag title tournament! Last week, Christopher Daniels and Yuya Uemura defeated the Factory (and the ghost of Karl Fredericks, apparently) and The Mighty Don’t Kneel were victorious over the West Coast Wrecking Crew! This week, we get the other side of the bracket, along with a singles showcase as former Strong champion Tom Lawlor faces BAD DUDE TITO. Our main event is the Dark Order, in this case Evil Uno & Alan Angels (whoops, methinks the pretape may have missed something important there) taking on the United Empire’s Aussie Open!

But we’re getting started with the other bracket tag match, as we’ve got the Stray Dog Army vs Midnight Heat (Yay!) in a 1st round matchup!

Midnight Heat (Eddie Pearl/Ricky Gibson) vs Stray Dog Army (Misterioso/Barrett Brown)

Oh man, I love me some Midnight Heat. If they ever faced off against FTR, I think that the awesome would be too much for any ring to contain. Misterioso controls on Gibson to kick us off, then Brown comes in for some fun. Pearl comes in with a missed elbowdrop, which leads to some armdrags from Brown that Pearl sells big-time, Brown goes for another one but Pearl avoids it, being sure to point to his noggin to indicate intelligence….right before missing an elbowdrop. I giggled like a schoolgirl at that sequence. What a great bit of 80s tag wrestling just put into the match for kicks.

The Army takes control with double teams and a Brown dropkick gets two. Gibson wants time out, but Misterioso kicks him instead and Barrett dropkicks Gibson out of a swing for two. Pearl trips Brown from the apron into a DDT from Gibson and now the heels take over on Brown. Quick tags as they cut the ring in half to destroy Barrett. Ian points out that Misterioso is on the apron trying to let his partner know where he is with noise and sound in case Brown is too out of it to realize where he’s at in the ring and holy CHRIST why in God’s name do we still have JR grunting his way through an hour of Dynamite when IAN RICCABONI is actually doing some of the best commentary work in wrestling? Just hire him for AEW, TK. Put him with Excalibur and let JR do Rampage or something, I dunno.

Brown tries to fight out of the heel corner, escaping a double suplex, but the Heat cut him off by grabbing the tights and hitting him with double knees, forcing Misterioso in to make the save. Gibson ends up flying through the ropes and Misterioso goes for a moonsault from the apron, but ends up slamming his legs into the railing when he hits it, which, you know. Fucking ouch. But that keeps Pearl on the floor and Gibson all alone with the Army, and that leads to a Misterioso lungblower and running knee from Brown to give the Stray Dogs the win. (Stray Dog Army over Midnight Heat, pinfall, 8:30)

THOUGHTS: **3/4. I’m a total sucker for Midnight Heat and their shenanigans, and this match was super, super fun. Total formula tag match with the heels controlling before the babyfaces came back for the win, this did exactly what it needed to do as a match. I really liked it quite a bit.

BAD DUDE TITO vs ‘Filthy’ Tom Lawlor

Oh yeah, motherfuckers, it’s BAD DUDE TITO. I’m only half-joking with the over the top love for his royal badness, Mr. Tito; I actually think he’s super-talented and I’m happy he’s on the G-1 tour. Hope he gets over with the Japanese crowds, which he almost certainly will IF THEY KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR THEM, THAT IS. True story about Tom Lawlor – my wife was watching a bit of the G-1 the other day with me and Tom came on-screen, and her first thing she said was ‘he’s a white trash 80s wrestler, right?’.

Tito chops the shit out of Lawlor to start, while Tom tries some of his own which pale in comparison to that which is the baddest of dudes. They do some grappling exchanges from there and then it turns pretty fun as they work into a double wristlock as the match turns into a grappling chain affair, which is a-ok with me. Lawlor goes for the arm like a dog with a bone, but Bad Dude Tito uses his superior grappling skills to turn that into an anklelock, then schools Filthy through a triangle and a wheelbarrow to keep going after that ankle. Tom rolls to the apron and contemplates quitting against the force of nature that is Bad Dude Tito, but instead comes in and takes a cheap shot to take back over.

Bad Dude Tito comes back with his educated feet and then knocks the soul from Lawlor’s body with a rolling elbow. The ref takes forever to get over to count which likely accounts for it not being a 3 count. Overhead throw from Tito, then another one. Lawlor fires up, likely due to some sort of drugs he took before the match, then hits a driver for two. That weak sauce isn’t gonna beat Bad Dude Tito, as he catches a Penalty Kick and goes back to the anklelock. I’m pretty sure I heard Lawlor say “I quit, I quit, take my G-1 spot” more than once, but the incompetent ref doesn’t hear it. Tito catches Tom with a kick and hits a Blockbuster! This man can do it all!

Tito goes for a suplex, Tom turns that into a choke, but Tito isn’t going down to that and hits a Blue Thunder Bomb. He goes up and attempts a frog splash, but misses it. It’s nice of him to give Tom a chance in this match. Tom hits a knee to the race and one to the back of the head, likely with a loaded knee or something, then goes for a choke. Bad Dude Tito escapes and goes for another Blue Thunder Bomb, but Lawlor gets luckier than seemingly possible and hits a headlock driver for the pin. (Tom Lawlor over Bad Dude Tito, pinfall, 12:07)

THOUGHTS: ***1/2. This was a really, really good match, as they subverted expectations a bit and worked more grappling than striking, with a story to the match of Tito having a plan but Lawlor managing to barely survive it. I really liked this one quite a bit, as it showed what both guys are capable of in there and both looked good.

Bad Dude Tito should have won, though.

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Main event time!

Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher/Mark Davis) vs the Dark Order (Evil Uno/Alan Angels)

Final first round match here. Call me crazy, but I don’t see this ending well for the Dark Order. The match should rule, though. I like Aussie Open and I like both of these Dark Order guys.

Fletcher and Angels start, but that doesn’t go far as they stalemate and we’re over to Uno and Davis. Davis gains control and Aussie Open double team Uno and send Angels to the floor in the process. The Evil one is stuck in the heel corner and it’s some Aussie beatdown as a result. More double teams but Uno manages to fight them both off with the referee neckbreaker, and now it’s a tag to Angels.

Angels runs wild on both Aussie Open members, hitting a tornado DDT on Davis and a Spanish Fly on Fletcher. Blind tag by Uno and it’s a German suplex on Fletcher. End of Days gets two for Uno on Kyle. Angels back in with a giant chop on Kyle, then another one. I cannot get why AEW let this guy go, he’s super young and has all the tools. Unbo back in and he chops Fletcher now, as poor Kyle’s chest is turning to raw meat out there.

Double down and both guys make tags, with Davis dominating Angels and tossing him all over the ring. He ends up on the floor, though, and that gives Angels the chance to hit a tope. Back in and Angels comes off the top but gets chopped in midair by Davis. Aussie Open with double teams on Angels, including a double cutter. Alan makes a go of the comeback with ‘ranas and Uno gets the tag. They destroy Kyle but Davis pushes Angels into Uno to break up the pin.

Davis back in and he exchanges chops with Uno, and now the EVIL VEST IS OFF. You know Uno means business now. Strike battle ensues, won by Davis, but Angels comes in and everyone ends up down on the mat. Back up and Aussie Open finally takes control for good, handling Uno and sending him to the floor, then hitting the Corealis on Angels for the pin. (Aussie Open over Dark Order, pinfall, 12:44)

THOUGHTS: ***. Really nice piece of tag work here, although I had some issues getting into it for whatever reason. I don’t know if it’s because even though I remain unspoiled on Strong most of the time, I did know who was winning here and never really gave the Dark Order a chance. Match was good in a lot of spots and very hard-hitting, so I can say it did the job, so to speak. Angels looks like he’s got the talent, we’ll have to see if he can find what he needs to get over the next hump.

Ian wraps us up and sends us home.

FINAL THOUGHTS: A very solid episode of Strong here, as the tag tournament dominated but there was a very nice singles match sandwiched between the tags tonight. Overall, the best consistent hour of wrestling on the internets continues to be exactly that, so here’s hoping that things continue.

With that in mind, let’s head to Japan proper to see what’s going on there!

THIS WEEK IN THE G-1:

We’ve had Nights 1, 2, and 3 so far as of this writing. While I didn’t do the usual G-1 preview this year, I had (and still do have) Tetsuya Naito winning this thing, as I think his continually getting so close this year without winning is a setup for him finally overcoming.

But that having been said, here’s a quick breakdown of the nights as we get started in our 4 block, month-long tournament.

Night 1 (July 16, 2022): Undercard tags weren’t anything to really write home about except for the continuing adventures of JADO, the happiest and most confusing babyface in all of New Japan. Part of the collateral damage from Tama Tonga’s face turn, JADO turning face makes so little sense on so many levels, plus he’s the absolute shits in the ring, yet he’s been amazing to watch as he’s clearly having the time of his life out there. Even in these undercard tags, he’s out there living it up and I can’t help but enjoy watching it so much, despite the fact that he SUCKS as a worker, even more than he ever did before.

As for the actual tournament matches, this was a hell of a kickoff. Our matches were:

Aaron Henare over Hiroshi Tanahashi
Will Ospreay over El Phantasmo
Jay White over SANADA
Kazuchika Okada over Jeff Cobb

Henare/Tanahashi was ***1/4 by my count, which is a middling Tanahashi match but a good bout for Henare who needs to get wins like this here and there. It didn’t do much for Chase Owens last year, although he did get a decent enough push as a tag champ later. Ospreay/ELP was voted Match of the Night by a lot of folks online, so it seems well worth seeking out. White/SANADA was an easy **** and was Jay at the height of his powers as a heel, as he controlled the match and paced it to build to all of SANADA’s big spots. And this is coming from me, someone who is not exactly a big SANADA fan. And Okada/Cobb went ****1/4 for MOTN honors on my end, as the two have phenomenal chemistry together.

Night 2 (July 17, 2022): One of the things I thought was notable on the undercard tags was the White/Owens vs the JADO/Tonga match, in that White really avoided every bit of contact with Tama that he could, which obviously makes total sense as Jay was the one who orchestrated Tonga’s ouster from Bullet Club. Kevin Kelly on commentary pointed out that while Tonga and Jay are in the same Block, they won’t meet until the final night, which set off my GEDO booking alert bells; one would think that Tonga, even if not winning the Block, is very likely to end up costing Jay the Block and earning a title shot in the process.

Tournament matches were:

Taichi over Tomohiro Ishii
Toru Yano over JONAH
Zack Sabre Jr over KENTA
Juice Robinson over Shingo Takagi

Taichi/Ishii is the match of the tournament so far, with huge near-falls and dramatic moments there were expertly salted throughout the match. I thought it was ****1/2 for sure, and I wouldn’t argue too strenuously with ****3/4 on it. Ishii is simply the best in-ring talent likely in the world due to his being able to get great match after great match out of a huge variety of talent, and Taichi, who I’ve slammed in the past for being a lazy fuck, has absolutely earned my respect with how far he’s come over the last two years. Yano/JONAH was pretty much what you would expect, a **1/2 match as Yano won by countout through shenanigans. I want to like JONAH and hope this tournament helps me turn the corner on him, but as of right now he’s just a decently athletic big man who doesn’t strike me as better than Cobb. ZSJ/KENTA was brilliant, brilliant wrestling, a ****1/4 affair with a bit of story behind it. Commentary sold the fact that ZSJ was a young boy under KENTA during KENTA’s time on the top of NOAH and KENTA played that up quite a bit, even pulling ZSJ up when he had him beat. That’s never really my favorite storyline, but it always gets heat and it bit the heel in the end, as ZSJ tapped him out. Juice/Shingo only got ***1/2 from me, likely because they for sure screwed up the ending and I just don’t know about Juice – he wrestled almost exactly the same except he tried to do it as a heel instead of a babyface, and I’m not sure that worked, frankly. It’s definitely a wait and see with this one.

Night 3 (July 20, 2022): There’s no really good way to say it, except that this show kind of sucked. They can’t all be winners, you know? Undercard tags were pretty much nothing.

Tournament matches were:

Yujiro Takahashi over David Finlay
Tama Tonga over Chase Owens
Bad Luck Fale over Lance Archer
Hirooki Goto over Tetsuya Naito

I saw some folks who had Fale and Archer as worse than Yujiro and Finlay, but not this reviewer. Takahashi/Finlay was BAD, you guys. We’re talking ** bad, and I’m probably being generous with that, as Yujiro seemed uninterested in doing pretty much ANY work out there. David was game and did what he could with the very little he was given, but an anemic match with a bad finish involving SHO and the wrench AND Yujiro going over was too much for him to overcome. Tonga/Owens was perfectly acceptable wrestling but not a G-1 high level match, call it about *** or so. Fale/Archer was really, really bad, but I expected nothing from it and boy did my expectations get met in another ** affair that was won by a Fale countout. The main event almost saved the show, as Goto and Naito had a ***3/4 match that was only a shade off 4, with an upset to boot. But this one sure didn’t live up to the standard the first two nights set.

And that’s this week….in the G-1.

And that’s all for me. See you next week as we recap Strong and keep up on the G-1 as the tournament continues!

As always, thanks for reading this thing I wrote,

Rick Poehling
@MrSoze on Twitter
jedimacewindu@yahoo.com for email