Andrew’s NJPW Strong Ep. 15 Results & Match Ratings: 11.13.2020

With Talk’N Shop-A-Mania 2 at the same time as Strong, I had to choose, and I prioritized getting beer drunk and laughing for two hours. So with that, I was in no condition to review this right after, so I decided to sleep on it.

The card for this episode is actually pretty lovely. Tom Lawlor could bring something out of Fred Rosser we haven’t seen yet, a high flying tag match, Juice Robinson’s NJPW Strong debut and a main event with Tama Tonga against PJ Black. This is one of those shows that excites me on paper, but we also know how I’ve been with the NJPW Strong product.

Let’s see if Strong executes well with a solid card!

Ratings:

• ACH & Blake Christian vs Alex Zayne & Adrian Quest: Zayne wins via Double Leg Cradle Reversal @7:12- *** ¼
• Fred Rosser vs Tom Lawlor w/JR Kratos & Rust Taylor: Lawlor wins via Submission @11:13 – *** ¾
• Tanga Loa, Jay White & Chase Owens vs Juice Robinson, Karl Fredericks & Brody King: Juice wins via Pulp Friction @9:31 – ***
• Tama Tonga vs PJ Black: Tama wins via Gun Stun @10:38 – ***

Results:

ACH & Blake Christian vs Alex Zayne & Adrian Quest

It’s been a couple weeks since we’ve seen Adrian Quest, but I do remember not hating him…so that’s positive. This match could actually be a pretty decent.

I appreciate the story that Koslov and Kelly were trying to set with this match, explaining that Zayne and Christian are best friends outside of the ring. So ACH and Adrian Quest were really just window dressing on the bigger story. That’s not to take anything away from them, because they more than entertained…though ACH hitting a Dropkick and then popping up doing the AJ Styles pose and shouting “Get Ready to Fly” probably has more meaning than I’m aware of.

However, Blake and Zayne were really great fun to watch, a ton of quick counters, fun poses and playing at each other; which would’ve seemed stupid without the knowledge they are friends. Blake was the most impressive as he springboarded off of people, Leapfrog John Woo Drop Kick, he countered the Crunchwrap Supreme and Crunchwrap, pulled off a running Spanish Fly; so this really seemed like Blake’s win. We get to a Cradle reversal spot, Blake gets a two, Zayne reverses with his own Cradle and leans back (no tights) and picks up the pinfall!

Nice finish to prove how equal they are and that it wasn’t a truly decisive victory. Alex Zayne versus Blake Christian is a singles match I’d really like to see now.

Fred Rosser vs Tom Lawlor w/JR Kratos & Rust Taylor

Oh, it looks like Lawlor is putting together a Strong version of Team Filthy. So that ties into why Kevin Kelly said he was scouting from the shadows last week.

Last week I made mention that I wasn’t sure how Rosser’s style would translate if he faced the actual New Japan strong style main event wrestlers…but Lawlor definitely helped to answer that question. Lawlor came out hot driving Rosser into the corner and throwing strikes and knee lifts, but Rosser repositioned, pushed out and started brawling with the Filthy One.

Where I usually take off points for Rosser’s slower WWE approach to some spots, Lawlor’s aggression easily masked it or fired up Rosser to not lean into the WWE style as much. Lawlor started focusing on the left arm of Rosser, and Rosser sold that like a champ. One armed push offs, comebacks and any attempts at the Gut Check were done lifting from the good side.

Lawlor hit a nice Exploder Suplex during the match, the Ura GTR and hunted for submissions like he was Minoru Suzuki. He turned Rosser’s Seated Senton attempt into a Sleeper Hold, that he tried to transition to an Arm Breaker, but Rosser used the ropes to great advantage through the match. Rosser kept grabbing ropes with his good arm, or his feet and fighting back from underneath, when he finally hit the Gut Check, there was a small delay before going for the Sliding Kick he started doing.

So when he attempts the kick, Lawlor catches it, ties up his legs then goes to neutralize the arms, turns him over like a Surfboard and the referee calls for the bell. Not sure if Rosser verbally submitted or the referee protected him, but this was the best match I’ve seen of Rosser over the last few months between Strong and UWN.

Tanga Loa, Jay White & Chase Owens vs Juice Robinson, Karl Fredericks & Brody King

Juice’s NJPW Strong debut, and wow it made a difference. Juice’s energy and calling out “watch out” and just being Juice actually added a great pulse to this style of match. Fredericks started the match against Jay White and got a lot of good offense. We get possibly a snap shot of a G1 match up or big event belt showdown in the future.

If Chase Owens wasn’t playing distraction, Jay would’ve been on the receiving end to someone who was a Young Boy just 1 year ago. Brody and Loa played their roles doing great power guy things and goading each other to get hit. Juice finished the match with Chase, and Chase seemed to have things wrapped up until Karl came in for the save via Orton Style Backbreaker, and then we got the ‘everyone comes in and does a big spot’ moment of the match.

Bullet Club ended up on top after the big moves, but as Chase and Jay both needed to work together to get Brody out of the ring, Juice took advantage. O’Connor Roll for 2, Left Hand of God, Pulp Friction and Bullet Club eats a very rare loss on Strong.

Tama Tonga vs PJ Black

What started off as both kind of playing with each other, PJ Black ends up getting cut really early in the match. Not really sure how it happened, but that played a part in the match a bit. Some of PJ’s spots were a little slower either due to impaired sight or blood loss; there were a few spots that felt a little too plodding.

Generally a decent match, where PJ did find ways to bring the injury into the narrative with sliding back into the ring quickly, or searching for ways to mask the blood loss to not get the referee’s pity to just call the match. Tama hit a Tongan Twist that looked more like a Scorpion Death Drop, but PJ still did a great job countering away from the Gun Stun. It wasn’t until the finish when a Body Scissors Cradle attempt from PJ only got two, and as he was getting back to his feet, he got caught with the Gun Stun.

Tama had a great promo after the match, and a solid singles run for Tama Tonga is something I’m here for.

Overall Score: 7.25/10

Hopefully this isn’t an outlier but, it took 15 episodes and Strong finally threw together a solid episode with salient story points, enjoyable match quality and fleshing things out with interesting characters.

Most of us expect Black, Tama, Juice and Jay to put something together that was solid, but I’m totally here for Blake Christian and Alex Zayne. That got established as a solid babyface rivalry that could just be a ton of fun to watch. Plus we get the tentative creation of the NJPW Strong version of Team Filthy. Lawlor puts on a great match that brought something different out of Rosser, and both ended up looking good.

I know I saw something where Alex Coughlin should be debuting on Strong soon and next week is David Finlay vs KENTA for the briefcase; so everything finally seems to be rolling. Granted, as soon as I get my hopes up, the next episode really craps the bed. So I’m tempering expectations but I would like to see Strong grab some momentum.