Hamilton’s New Japan Strong (Road to Detonation) 11.28.2020 Review

Quick Results
Clark Connors submitted Logan Riegel in 7:47 (***)
ACH & Juice Robinson pinned Adrian Quest & Jordan Clearwater in 8:01 (***)
Tom Lawlor, Rust Taylor, JR Kratos & Danny Limelight submitted Rocky Romero, Jeff Cobb, PJ Black & Fred Rosser in 11:42 (***½)

Kevin Kelly and Alex Koslov are back on the call for this… I swear this tour’s logo has just been knocked together with some WordArt.

Logan Riegel vs. Clark Connors
It’s the off-shoot of the recent team battles between the Riegels and Connors and the DKC – and both men have their partners with them at ringside.

Logan starts with a wristlock, but Connors gets free and looked to work in a toe hold, which was quickly kicked away. A side headlock takes Riegel to the mat, with Clark looking for a pin, but that gets nowhere as Connors instead went for a takedown, looking for Riegel’s back as he eventually grounded him in a chinlock. Some figure four headscissors on the mat are quickly escaped, so Connors charges Riegel into the corner, with things descending into strikes on the break. A headlock takedown from Logan has him back ahead, before some misdirection ended with Connors charging down Riegel with a shoulder tackle.

Clark keeps going with chops, stinging Logan’s back ahead of an elbow to the head. A spear from Connors is countered with a roll-up for a near-fall, but Clark recovers with a back elbow for a two-count of his own, then a snap suplex as he wasn’t letting the tag team specialist get far away.

Riegel counters a suplex with one of his own, before an elbow and a ‘rana took Connors to the apron, ahead of a Slingblade on the edge of the ring. Back inside, Riegel leaps over a spear and hits a neckbreaker for a two-count, before a knee breaker got him a little closer as we hit the final three minutes of the ten-minute time limit… which prompted Connors into life as he elbowed Riegel away, then hit a spear, before the Boston Crab of Doom forced the submission. A pretty good little match to keep the tag feud going – and next week we get DKC vs. Sterling, because of course we should! ***

Adrian Quest & Jordan Clearwater vs. Juice Robinson & ACH
The random line-ups on NJPW Strong have given us Juice and ACH as a tandem… which I’m not totally against.

Juice and Clearwater start with a lock-up, as Jordan looked to work a wristlock… but Juice reverses as he took down Clearwater in an armbar. Jordan’s back with a hiptoss, but Juice pushes him away… only for the big lad to take Juice down in an armdrag before Adrian Quest tagged in. He can’t do much as Juice tags out to ACH, but Quest manages to ground ACH with a side headlock, but ACH gets up and shoves Quest into the corner.

Quest backflips over ACH and comes back with a ‘rana, then a dropkick, before a springboard back elbow found its mark. ACH returns with a tiltawhirl backbreaker, then tagged Juice back in for a double sledge to the ribs. There’s a suplex out of Juice too, then a back senton which drew a big belly laugh out of ACH.

ACH tags back in for some slams, then brought Juice back for a suplex… but Quest gets out and hits a dropkick to free himself. Clearwater gets the hot tag in, clearing Juice with elbows and neckbreakers, before a spinebuster drew a two-count. Jordan stomps his feet looking for the Midas Touch big boot, but Juice sidesteps and hits a flapjack instead, before tags brought us back to Quest and ACH.

Adrian goes wild with clotheslines before he went for headscissors into a Magistral cradle. ACH kicks out at two and countered with an enziguiri, before a suplex was countered back with a ‘rana as Quest almost nicked it. A head kick follows, before ACH pushed away a tornado DDT, dumping Quest with a quick brainbuster for the win. A pretty quick finish to a solid tag match – with that tornado DDT counter being particularly flashy. ***

It took me long enough to notice that the Rocky/Koslov advert was probably filmed on the same sofa the Young Lions cleaned with the LEC cleaning gimmick. Don’t snap your fingers…

They show a recap from last week’s main event where we had a myriad of run ins that saw Tom Lawlor and friends win… complete with some cartoony effects. I particularly liked the dust flying during the submission…

Tom Lawlor, Rust Taylor, JR Kratos & Danny Limelight vs. Jeff Cobb, Rocky Romero, PJ Black & Fred Rosser
Lawlor’s Iranian club-ish demonstration gets a pop out of me… particularly as the much larger JR Kratos looked at it as more of a weapon.

The good guys charge the ring, but of cause Team Filthy scatters away… circling the ring as commentary brings up PJ Black and Fred Rosser’s past in another group that did that. You’re Nexus or against us, I guess? Cobb and Limelight start out after the jump start, with a singular chop decking Limelight as Rocky Romero came in to put the boots to Limelight… before he played pass the parcel with a suplex on Limelight, with poor Danny being passed from Rocky… to Jeff… to PJ… to Fred, who completed the move.

A quick knee drop shocks Limelight for some two-counts, but Danny’s back with kicks and chops before he’s knocked down with a body attack. Rosser’s sit down splash lands for a two-count, while a back elbow and an elbow drop kept the momentum ticking ahead of a backbreaker.

Throwing Limelight into the corner invited a tag out, which is taken up as Lawlor comes in… and traps Rosser in the ropes for some chops. Lawlor locks in a waistlock through the ropes as he dragged Rosser back in for a German suplex. Kratos is next in, chopping Rosser into the corner, before a suplex brought him back in from the apron, after some, erm, assistance from Kratos’ partners.

An elbow drop keeps Rosser down as Rust Taylor came in to fish hook away on Rosser. Taylor’s uppercut keeps Rosser away as Limelight tagged in to keep isolating him. Kratos does the same, but Rosser begins to offer some hope as he fought free and dove across to tag in PJ Black. Black flips over Kratos and comes in with an elbow before an elbow off the top knocked the big man down. A crossbody’s next to knock Kratos and Taylor down, but Limelight rushes in and gets caught with a spinning DDT. All that gave Kratos time to recover though, as he propelled Black into the air, then brought in Lawlor… but tags bring us to Rocky as well, who went straight for Tom with headscissors as the good guys cleared the apron.

That leaves Lawlor in the ring for a barrage of Forever clotheslines and suchlike in the corner as Lawlor ate everyone’s big moves, leading to a back senton from Rocky for a near-fall. The ring clears after that as Rocky lays into Lawlor ahead of a Shiranui, but it’s pushed away as Limelight caught Rocky with some kicks… sparking a Parade of Moves as everyone cycled in and out.

Rosser’s dispatched with a Final Cut from Lawlor, before Tom went back for Rocky with a rear naked choke out of the corner. That’s countered with a roll-up out of an Exploder as Rocky had one last burst, but he’s caught with an Exploder before the rear naked choke forces the stoppage. This was a pretty good tag main event, suitably wild – playing off of the run ins the week before – as Lawlor and co look to dominate on this show. ***½

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Another solid episode of NJPW Strong - but this remains a show you need to watch in a vacuum, because the constant lack of acknowledgements to happenings elsewhere in New Japan will drive you nuts if not!