A Pay-Per-View Event by NJPW

I’m a bit behind on these, but I wanted to try to get through the Nemesis series before I start up on the recent New Beginning USA specials from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Episode one will be hard to beat, as the main event between Eddie Kingston and Gabriel Kidd was awesome! That said, Jonah makes an appearance here, and he has really been doing well for himself since he left the shackles of WWE employment. This event is split into four episodes which is the typical delivery method for NJPW Strong episodes. If you are interested, do yourself a favor and pick up the bundle on Fite.TV. Not only do you get a full length pay-per-view experience, it’s only something like $7.99.

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

The Card:

• 1 Karl Fredericks and Kevin Knight defeated Stray Dog Army (Bateman and Misterioso) Tag team match 10:04
• 2 Brody King defeated Dave Dutra Singles match 6:31
• 3 Jonah defeated David Finlay Singles match 8:20

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I stopped awarding “grades” to things long ago, after my gig at a videogame site slid into them manipulating scores. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

Misterioso Moves Like He’s Much Younger

I knew Misterioso was trained by Rey Misterio Sr. and is basically like Rey Jr.’s “brother” in terms of the mask and name, but I had no idea the guy was 55 years old! The man still moves like somebody much younger, and seems to be a great talent to have in NJPW, being able to impart his vast knowledge to a younger generation. I also liked his nod to Spiderman in terms of attire, taking a cue from some other Lucha Libre stars as of late.

Not sure about David Dutra’s New Gimmick

Not to take away from the man’s in-ring ability, but it seems that David Dutra has gone all in on his “Battle King” gimmick. Normally this wouldn’t be bad, because the man looks cool in the armor and such, but he also looks like the long-lost brother of another wrestler – Warhorse. It’s mostly just the faceprint, and I know I could find plenty of wrestlers that do this sort of thing – Hell Warhorse is obviously inspired by The Ultimate Warrior. Just a minor quibble I had watching this.

Brody’s Gonna Kill Youuuuu….

My concerns did not last long as Brody King came out and committed attempted murder on the poor guy. Can’t wait to see what King can do in AEW, as he debuted but hasn’t had a BIG match quite yet.

This Commercial Cracks Me Up:

Much like MLW’s Stephen P. New ads, NJPW has been pushing this Card Fight Vanguard game like crazy while they clean the ring between matches. They make it look like all of these wrestlers constantly hang out playing this game, which I find unlikely. However, considering all these vlogs everyone does, it would make a cool feature to open card packs I suppose.

The Main Event:

David Finlay is a powerhouse of a man, but he was no match for the wrecking machine known as Jonah. WWE should take note – this is how you book a big man. With 330 pounds of pure death from above crashing on Finlay, Jonah sealed the deal, and the crowd going wild was no surprise as a result.

Conclusion:

Overall, solid show – not as good as the last episode, but I have to remind myself that this is more of 1/4 of a full event vs a normally structured Pay-Per-View of any nature. Main event was easily the best match on the card, but I was glad to see some people I don’t normally see on the other two. Jonah is going to be the guy to look out for in 2022, if he doesn’t win some kind of belt in the near future I will be amazed. The next episode should be up fairly soon, which appears to have a Team Filthy Match on it!