New Japan Pro-Wrestling held its NJPW Strong “Independence Day” event night 1 on July 4 from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The show saw the cards filled out by talents from freelance independent stars, to NJPW STRONG regulars on the show with some main NJPW Stars as well as AEW stars so, there was something for everyone.
There were a couple of key takeaways from Night 1. The first was that Gabe Kidd & Alex Coughlin where crowned the new NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Champions when Kidd pinned YOSHI HASHI (12:18) with a tag team combination move named the Hijack Piledriver. There was another title change as more gold was added to Bullet CLub as Drilla Moloney and Clack Connors became new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, when Moloney pinned TJP (15:38) with the Full Clip following Connors’ No Chaser.
The Main event saw a bloody and brutal Doomsday NO DQ Match which saw Jon Moxley team up with Homicide to face El Desperado and making his NJPW debut the Death match legend Jun Kasai. In the end, Desperado and Jun Kasai ended up victorious as Desperado hit Homicide with a reverse Tiger Driver, followed by Pinche Loco onto a trash can (18:34) to get the pin. After the match Despe and Jun Kasai agreed to team up together anytime anywhere when there is a call.
You can see the Full Results below:
NJPW Strong “Independence Day” Night 1 Results (July 4):
- Ryusuke Taguchi, Oskar Leube & YOH def. Kengo, Takahiro Katori & Dragon Libre
- Bad Dude Tito def. The DKC
- JR Kratos, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs (Team Filthy) def. Ryohei Oiwa, Alex Zayne & Lance Archer
- Tom Lawlor def. Kosei Fujita
- Rocky Romero & Eddie Kingston def. KENTA & Gedo (BULLET CLUB)
- Willow Nightingale & Momo Kohgo def. Giulia & Thekla (Donna Del Mondo)
- NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships: Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd (BULLET CLUB War Dogs) def. YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto (Bishamon) (c) to win the titles
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney (BULLET CLUB War Dogs) def. Francesco Akira & TJP (Catch 2/2) (c) to win the titles.
- Doomsday No DQ Match: Jun Kasai & El Desperado def. Jon Moxley & Homicide
Photo Credit: NJPW
Author: Rohit Singh Karir