#tag team: moxley & homicide

[allelitewrestlings]

[blueonwrestling]

NJPW Windy City Riot 2024

Minoru Suzuki vs. Ren Narita 2.75 stars

NJPW STRONG Women's Title Match Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. AZM 4 stars

NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Title Four Corner Match Guerrillas Of Destiny (El Phantasmo & Hikuleo) (c) vs. Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor vs. TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste) vs. The West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) 3.5 stars

Jack Perry vs. Shota Umino 4.75 stars

Mustafa Ali vs. Hiromu Takahashi 3.5 stars

Riot Rules Match Eddie Kingston, Homicide & United Empire (Jeff Cobb & TJP) vs. BULLET CLUB (Clark Connors, David Finlay, Gabe Kidd & KENTA) 3.75 stars

NJPW World Television Title Match Matt Riddle (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 3 stars

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Nic Nemeth 3.25 stars

IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Jon Moxley 4.5 stars

A blow away success for NJPW in the united states, well done, Moxley winning the IWGP title is massive, but above everything else Jack Perry showed himself tonight that good fucking lord we've got some gold right there.

Also special shoutout to AZM and Vaquer for having a fucking great match and my BOYS TMDK winning gold finally.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[wrestlingisfake]

Mania Weekend: Thursday March 31

I'm trying to map out all the minor-league shows that will be running in Dallas over Wrestlemania weekend. There's a lot! This post will just cover Thursday, so check back later for the rest.

Since I won't be in Dallas, I'm just focusing on the ones that I know will be streaming live. I'll call out some of the matches that catch my eye, but for the full card I recommend googling each show or checking the promotion's Twitter feed.

Glory Pro Wrestling: Cemetery Gates [The Collective]

12pm EDT (11am CDT) - $12.99 on Fite or part of The Collective bundle (12 shows for $139.99)

Glory Pro is an indy promotion that mainly runs in the St. Louis/East St. Louis area. I mainly hear about them because of Davey Richards and WARHORSE, but they're also turning out a lot of up-and-coming Black wrestlers like Tootie Lynn and Mike Outlaw. I believe this is their first Mania weekend show so I hope they do well.

Josh Alexander vs. WARHORSE

Davey Richards & Rocky Romero vs. Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett

Jake Something vs. Max the Impaler

Tootie Lynn vs. Janai Kai

Mike Outlaw vs. Bryan Keith

and more!

GCW: Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 8

4pm EDT (3pm CDT) - $19.99 on Fite or part of The Collective bundle (12 shows for $139.99)

I've never actually checked out Bloodsport before. As I understand it, it's meant to be a hybrid of MMA and pro wrestling that emphasizes grappling and strikes without all the flips and dives. If you dig Jon Moxley and Minoru Suzuki matches, you'll probably love this shit.

Jon Moxley vs. Biff Busick (Oney Lorcan)

Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Dickinson

Josh Barnett vs. JONAH (Bronson Reed)

Marina Shafir vs. Zeda Zhang

John Hennigan (John Morrison) vs. Simon Grimm (Simon Gotch)

Masha Slamovich vs. Janai Kai

and more!

AAA Invades WrestleCon

6pm EDT (5pm CDT) - $14.99 on Fite or part of the WrestleCon bundle ($74.99 for 5 shows)

The top promotions in Mexico are CMLL, which is entrenched in traditional lucha, and AAA, which goes all out with ridiculous overbooked clusterfucks. Do you enjoy heel referees, fucky finishes, scary dives, endless run-ins, false advertising, and unprofessional conduct? Well, even if you don't, AAA has a certain car-crash appeal.

Psycho Clown vs. Black Taurus

AAA cruiserweight title: Laredo Kid vs. Flamita vs. Bandido

NWA tag title: Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf vs. Aero Star & Drago

and more!

GCW: Joey Janela's Spring Break 6, Part 1

9pm EDT (8pm CDT) - $19.99 on Fite or part of The Collective bundle (12 shows for $139.99)

This is the centerpiece of GCW's sprawling empire of Mania weekend shows. I've never watched a JJSB but I've always spent Mania weekend hearing all about it. I expect at least one deathmatch on this show, but for the most part this looks like it'll be more about big names than blood 'n' guts.

GCW world title: Jon Moxley vs. AJ Gray

Joey Janela vs. X-Pac

Mickie James vs. Allie Katch

GCW tag title: Nick Gage & Matt Tremont vs. Mark Briscoe & Jay Briscoe vs. Mance Warner & Matthew Justice

GCW ultraviolent title: Alex Colon vs. John Wayne Murdoch

and more!

WrestleCon: Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow

9pm EDT (8pm EDT) - $14.99 on Fite or part of the WrestleCon bundle ($74.99 for 5 shows)

WrestleCon has been a fan convention over Mania weekend since 2013, and the Supershow since 2014. The show was renamed in 2018 to honor Mark Hitchcock, a member of the con's team. This show is running head-to-head with JJSB, which should get more buzz, but this one's arguably got the biggest star power of the night. Incredibly, the Briscoes are booked for both events, which are three miles apart, so I guess somebody's going to give them a ride.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Timothy Thatcher

Minoru Suzuki vs. Biff Busick (Oney Lorcan)

Athena (Ember Moon) vs. Mia Yim

Johnny WrestleCon (John Morrison) vs. Taya Valkyrie (Frankie Monet)

Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Homicide & Low Ki

Bandido vs. Mike Bailey

and more!

Control Your Narrative: The Awakening

9pm EDT (8pm CDT) - Free (with ads) on Pro Wrestling TV

After EC3 was released from WWE he turned "Control your narrative" into a catchphrase, a mantra, and now a wrestling promotion. This isn't CYN's first show, but it's gotten a lot of negative buzz, due to its weird rules and the booking of problematic wrestlers like Austin Aries. (There was also a crazy Reddit post claiming the whole thing is a right-wing operation backed by Donald Trump, which is absurd, but the upshot is that a lot of people are rooting for EC3 to fail.)

I've read this will be exclusive to a new streaming venture called Pro Wrestling TV, which tweeted that the show will be free. But PWTV's site is very short on details, which isn't very promising. We'll see what happens.

EC3 & Adam Scherr (Braun Strowman) vs. Damo (Killian Dain) & Erick Redbeard (Erick Rowan)

Westin Blake (Wesley Blake) vs. Austin Aries

Dirty Dango (Fandango) vs. Flip Gordon

Killer Kross (Karrion Kross) vs. Vincent Marseglia

and more (maybe?)

GCW: Planet Death

12:59am EDT (11:59 CDT) - $12.99 on Fite or part of The Collective bundle (12 shows for $139.99)

GCW loves doing these midnight shows. This looks to be the real deathmatch show, for anybody who thinks there isn't enough broken glass on the rest of the lineup. I'm not familiar with anybody announced for the card, so I take that to mean they're deathmatch specialists that make Nick Gage look tame.

Hoodfoot vs. Mad Man Pondo

Slade vs. Bam Sullivan

Shane Mercer vs. Neil Diamond Cutter

Sawyer Wreck vs. Brandon Kirk

and more!

[gdwessel]

Naito Suffers Knee Injury, Out of G1 Climax 31; Suzuki Officially Added To GCW Bloodsport 7 10/22/2021; Bullet Club Beats FinJuice Again at Impact Victory Road; Shooter, Yota, Ospreay at RevPro High Stakes 2021, Aussie Open Joins United Empire

Bad news regarding G1 Climax: It has been reported that Tetsuya Naito suffered a left knee injury (MCL and meniscus) during his opening match Saturday against Zack Sabre Jr. There is no timetable for his return, so he will be forfeiting the rest of his A Block matches, with the rest of his opponents getting a free 2pts because of this. The cards will be altered, with Yuji Nagata, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi and Satoshi Kojima all stepping in to wrestle Naito’s opponents those nights in non-tournament matches. If you ask me they could have just put Kojima in to give him one last G1 Climax, but I don’t book New Japan Pro Wrestling so what do I know.

This will also make Naito the first person with 0pts in G1 Climax since Tomoaki Honma in G1 Climax 24 back in 2014, although Honma wrestled all his matches, whereas Naito had to forfeit after one round. So maybe not really the same thing.

As predicted, Minoru Suzuki has been officially added to the card for GCW’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 7 event. No opponent has been announced for this as yet. Suzuki was in the first two Bloodsport branded events (the first one under the name of *spits* Matt Riddle), and was due to face Chris Dickinson at Barnett’s Bloodsport 3 during Mania Weekend 2020 before the pandemic put paid to that.

So with that, here’s the updated Suzuki indie itinerary.

- 9/22/2021, All Elite Wrestling, Dynamite: Grand Slam, Arthur Ashe Arena, Queens, NYC, NY (Airing 9/24/2021 on AEW Rampage on TNT)

Lights Out Match: Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston v. Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki

- 9/24/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, Get Lost A Lot, Melrose Ballroom, NYC, NY (FITE)

Minoru Suzuki v. Homicide

- 9/25/2021, New Japan of America, Autumn Attack Night 1 (NJPW Strong taping), Curtis Culwell Center, Garland, TX

Fred Rosser v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

- 9/26/2021, New Japan of America, Autumn Attack Night 2 (NJPW Strong taping), Curtis Culwell Center, Garland TX

Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] & Lance Archer [AEW] v. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy]

- 10/1/2021, WrestleMax, Episode VI, Affton Elks Lodge, St. Louis, MO

Minoru Suzuki v. Calvin Tankman

- 10/2/2021, Premiere Wrestling Xperience, All Hail The King, Cabarrus Arena, Concord, NC

Minoru Suzuki v. Anthony Henry

- 10/3/2021, Glory Pro, Little Ring of Horrors, South Broadway Athletic Club, St. Louis, MO

Minoru Suzuki v. Davey Richards

- 10/5/2021, NJPW Toukon Shop Online Meet & Greet

- 10/8/2021, West Coast Pro Wrestling, No Leaf Clover (3rd Anniversary Show), The State Room, San Francisco, CA (IWTV)

Minoru Suzuki v. Daniel Garcia

- 10/10/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, The Aftermath, The Showboat, Atlantic City, NJ (FITE)

Minoru Suzuki v. Joey Janela

- 10/17/2021, New Japan of America, New Japan Showdown 2021 Night 1 (NJPW Strong taping), 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA

Chris Dickinson [ROH] v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

- 10/18/2021, New Japan of America, New Japan Showdown 2021 Night 2 (NJPW Strong taping), 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA

TBA

- 10/21/2021, TimeBomb Pro, Violence is Forever, Tak Music Venue, Dilworth, MN

Minoru Suzuki v. Dominic Garrini

- 10/22/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 7, Ukrainian Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA (FITE)

Minoru Suzuki v. TBA

- 10/23/2021, Game Changer Wrestling, War Ready, Ukrainian Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA (FITE)

Nick Gage v. Minoru Suzuki

In other news, Saturday was Impact’s Victory Road PPV, which among other matches, had the Bullet Club tandem of Chris Bey & Hikuleo once again getting the better of FinJuice in a tag team match, continuing that feud as we head into Sunday’s NJPW Strong tapings with the rubber Texas Bullrope Match between Juice v. Hikuleo. Also on the show, NJPW Strong guest Josh Alexander decided to utilize “Option C” with regard to the X Division title, whereby he vacates that title in order to challenge Christian Cage for the Impact World Title. That will happen at the forthcoming Bound For Glory event.

On Sunday, RevPro in the UK held their High Stakes 2021 event, that saw Shota Umino defeat Dan Moloney, as well as Yota Tsuji beat Mark Haskins in 21:45, which turned out to be the 3rd longest match on the show, and definitely the longest match Yota Tsuji has ever wrestled.

Will Ospreay retained the Undisputed British Heavyweight title by defeating British Heavyweight champion Ricky Knight Jr. (there’s something there with RevPro acquiring some promotions and grandfathering in their champions, or something). I’d still like to know how Will Ospreay is able to go back and forth between the UK and the USA right now. Post-main, Ospreay continued to beat down Knight, which brought out Shooter for the save. Ospreay and RevPro tag team the Young Guns continued to beat down Shooter, until RevPro tag team champions Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) came out.... and also attacked Shooter, whilst Ospreay then turned on the Young Guns. With that, Aussie Open have now joined the United Empire, and it’s a good chance one of Aussie Open will be Ospreay’s mystery partner in Texas this Sunday.

[allelitewrestlings]

Desperado, you’re gonna be in Korakuen Hall on July 4th and 5th?

[allelitewrestlings]

Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley (w/ Homicide) celebrate their victory over Suzuki-gun AEW Rampage: Grand Slam (Sep. 24, 2021)

[allelitewrestlings]

credit: scott lesh ringside photography

[wrestlingisfake]

AEW Fake Rankings, 9/25/2021

Men's singles division - babyfaces

CM Punk

Bryan Danielson

Jon Moxley (GCW world champion)

Chris Jericho

Cody Rhodes

Darby Allin

Christian Cage (Impact men's world champion)

Eddie Kingston

Orange Cassidy

Brian Pillman, Jr.

Men's singles division - heels

Kenny Omega (AEW men's world champion, AAA mega champion)

Miro (AEW TNT champion)

MJF

Malakai Black

Adam Cole

Andrade El Idolo

Matt Hardy

Powerhouse Hobbs

Shawn Spears

Daniel Garcia*

Unranked: Brian Cage, Dante Martin, Dustin Rhodes, Frankie Kazarian, Feugo Del Sol, Jake Hager, John Silver, Lance Archer, Lee Johnson, Matt Sydal, PAC, QT Marshall

* Not listed on official AEW website roster

A big talking point lately is that AEW's roster has gotten pretty huge. One effect of this expansion is that it's a major pain in the ass for me to keep track of all the wrestlers who mainly compete on the YouTube shows. Going forward, I'll be focusing on the performers who have wrestled in the past 30 days on television or pay-per-views.

There's concern that the big stars from other major-league companies (mostly WWE) will crowd out the wrestlers who came up from the minors. That issue became more clear to me when I put together the above list. Twelve of my men's top 20 came to AEW best known for their WWE runs, and Omega made his name in New Japan. So if you expected AEW to be "the best of the rest," you're left with Darby, Eddie, Orange, Pillman, MJF, Hobbs, Garcia, and a bunch of guys in the background.

We'll have to see if this becomes a problem. I'm optimistic that AEW knows what they're doing, and wrestlers will be regularly cycled into and out of the spotlight. But WWE has conditioned wrestling fans to think that if a wrestler only appears on the C-show, then the bookers have totally given up on them. So I don't blame fans for being skeptical that AEW can find a better way. It's on AEW to prove that guys like Brian Cage, Pac, John Silver, Dante Martin, and Lee Johnson will get their day in the sun. And that's not even getting into the dozens of wrestlers that aren't listed above.

Men's tag team division - babyfaces

Lucha Bros. - Rey Fenix & Penta El 0M (AEW tag team champions, AAA tag team champions)

Santana & Ortiz

Jurassic Express - Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy

Evil Uno & Stu Grayson

Chuck Taylor & Wheeler YUTA*

Men's tag team division - heels

The Young Bucks - Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson

Men of the Year - Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky

FTR - Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood

The Butcher & The Blade

Private Party & Marq Quen & Isiah Kassidy

2point0 - Matt Lee & Jeff Parker

TH2 - Jack Evans & Angelico

* Not listed on official AEW website roster

At any given time, AEW has about 16-20 active tag teams, but a lot of them are mainly on Dark and Elevation. Limiting the rankings to teams that have been on real TV in the past month gives us just twelve men's teams. Then again, that's still more than you'll see on most other wrestling shows.

I think it's important that three of the heel teams (Butcher/Blade, Quen/Kassidy, Evans/Angelico) are in Matt Hardy's stable, so it feels like Matt is begging for one of those teams to break away and turn face. The Dark Order also features three teams (Uno/Grayson, John Silver/Alex Reynolds, Alan Angels/Preston Vance), but their storyline about internal problems could break up one or more of those pairings, if not the entire faction. Interestingly, they've started to set up a feud between the entire Hardy Family Office and the sort-of reunited Dark Order, which may be where they blow off a lot of these issues.

Women's division - babyfaces

Ruby Soho

Kris Statlander

Thunder Rosa

Anna Jay

Tay Conti

Hikaru Shida

Big Swole

Riho

Red Velvet

Leyla Hirsch

Women's division - heels

Britt Baker (AEW women's world champion)

Jade Cargill

Nyla Rose

The Bunny

Penelope Ford

Jamie Hayter

Abadon

Diamante*

Unranked: Emi Sakura, Kiera Hogan*, KiLynn King*

* Not listed on official AEW website roster

AEW doesn't do a lot of women's matches on Dynamite and Rampage, but because of the battle royale on the 9/4 pay-per-view some of the overlooked ladies managed to make the cut.

We've seen some alliances forming in this division, which has stoked talk of introducing a women's tag team championship. However, it looks like AEW has other plans, involving a new women's TBS title to complement the men's TNT title.

I don't think the women's roster is deep enough to support any new belts. That doesn't mean I don't want a secondary title or a tag title. I do. But I'm not convinced that introducing a new title will commit AEW to actually push more wrestlers and expand the roster. That commitment is what I really want; new belts are just gravy.

Part-time/semi-retired: Chavo Guerrero Jr., Homicide, Karl Anderson (Impact men's tag team champion), Luke Gallows (Impact men's tag team champion), Mark Henry, Minoru Suzuki, Rebel, Sting, Tully Blanchard, Paul Wight

I don't get the impression that Homicide and Suzuki will be sticking around for very long. Aside from them, all AEW is getting from the "forbidden door" these days is Gallows and Anderson, and all they do lately is stand in the back of Kenny Omega's entourage. These crossovers have been fun and all, but they've been more like Green Lantern/Silver Surfer than JLA/Avengers, if you get my drift.

The Dan Lambert/American Top Team storyline appears to be setting up some kind of match involving Junior dos Santos, Jorge Masvidal, Paige VanZant, and a bunch of other MMA jagoffs I can't be bothered to remember. We'll see if that actually happens, or if they just jerk around about it for another two months.

No TV or PPV matches in 30 days: Aaron Solo, Alan Angels, Alex Reynolds, Anthony Bowens, Austin Gunn, Billy Gunn, Colt Cabana, Colten Gunn, Griff Garrison, Joey Janela, Luther, Marko Stunt, Max Caster, Nick Comoroto, Peter Avalon, Preston Vance, Ricky Starks (FTW champion), Shawn Dean, Sonny Kiss, Wardlow

This doesn't include people like Julia Hart and Serpentico, who regularly appear for AEW but aren't on the official roster and apparently aren't under contract. Regardless, this gives you a good sense of which wrestlers would be the "AEW Dark roster," if we treated it like a separate brand or something. It'll be interesting to check in a few months which of these names are still stuck in this category.

No matches in 30 days: Anthony Ogogo, Brandi Rhodes, Brandon Cutler, Christopher Daniels, Leva Bates, Michael Nakazawa, Sammy Guevara, Yuka Sakazaki

As huge as AEW's roster is, it's impressive that only eight wrestlers are listed here. Guevara has a match set for 9/29, and Daniels is doing a little crossover thing on Impact Wrestling. Brandi just got back from maternity leave, and while I assume she plans to get back in the ring, that remains to be seen. As for the others, it's possible some of these people have injuries or are taking time off, and the details just haven't gotten out.

Inactive

Darius Martin (knee - unspecified ACL injury)

Hangman Page (paternity leave)

Kip Sabian (undisclosed injury)

Serena Deeb (left knee - unspecified injury)

Trent Beretta (neck - herniated intervertebral disc)

The big story here is Page, who was being set up for a major run for Kenny Omega only to suddenly lose his title shot and disappear from the show. That left everyone pretty anxious for Page to get back, especially since a wave of big new stars could crowd him out of his spot. I'm sure AEW knows when Hangman is scheduled to return, but there's no way for any of us to figure it out, which is frustrating.

Trent had neck fusion surgery, which has a notoriously slow recovery time; I don't expect him to be on TV until the middle of 2022. I haven't seen any kind of timetable for Sabian or Martin, probably because there are so few details available about the extent of their injuries.

Deeb had knee surgery in March, returned to the ring in May, and went back on the shelf in July. Evidently she came back too soon, and she's still rehabbing the original knee injury. I worry about that kind of thing when I see Britt Baker (or Impact's Chelsea Green) working through a broken wrist.

[wrestlingisfake]

King of Pro Wrestling preview

Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA - Okada is defending the IWGP heavyweight championship.  Whoever wins this match will likely be the defending champion at Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome on January 4.

In one-on-one matches, Okada is 6-1 against Sanada.  You could barely call it a rivalry, but on March 24 Sanada really impressed Okada in the finals of the New Japan Cup.  Okada won, earning a title shot, and decided that if he won the belt he would face Sanada in his first defense.  Okada did win the belt and proceeded to beat Sanada to retain it on May 4.  So when they met again on August 3 in the G1 Climax, Sanada was under tremendous pressure to not go 0-7.  It looked like he’d have to settle for the moral victory of a 30-minute time limit draw, but then Sanada finally got the pin at 29:47.  That one win earned Sanada another title shot, and shifted the psychological balance between the two men.

The big issues heading into this match are that Okada is trying to convince everyone Sanada isn’t in his league, the fans are split between them and increasingly leaning toward Sanada, and Okada just cannot hit his big dropkick on Sanada these days.  That dropkick thing is brilliant, because I’ve seen gif after gif of Sanada dodging the dropkick, and you know when Okada finally hits him it’ll blow the roof off the building.

It’s pretty rare for the IWGP heavyweight title to change hands between the G1 Climax and Wrestle Kingdom--it’s only happened three times in the past decade, and the last time was 2014.  So aside from the fact Sanada is not the guy who should be headlining the Tokyo Dome, I wouldn’t expect Okada to lose even if he was wrestling Batman.  As for Sanada, I think he’ll suck it up and have a better showing in the World Tag League tournament.

Kota Ibushi vs. EVIL - The winner of this match receives Ibushi’s “IWGP Right to Challenge contract”--the document that Ibushi earned by winning the G1 Climax, which entitles the bearer to an IWGP heavyweight title match on January 4.  Ibushi’s won the G1 with an 8-2 record, and tradition obligates him to defend the contract against anyone who beat him during the tournament.  He’s already avenged his loss to KENTA, but Evil also holds a win over him from July 14.

There is a minor subplot being pushed by Kevin Kelly (I’m not sure the creative team has even intentionally made this a thing) that Evil could win the title shot and his tag partner Sanada could win the title, and Evil beat Sanada in their last match.  That’s a clever observation, but I don’t expect it to lead to anything.  I would be incredibly shocked if Evil wins this match.

The whole “G1 winner gets a contract for a Wrestle Kingdom title shot” deal has been a thing since 2012.  In that time, guys who have challenged for the contract have gone 0-15.  Evil should give Ibushi a good match, but this is all about putting Kota over on his way to meet Okada at the Tokyo Dome

Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson - Moxley won the IWGP United States title from Juice on June 5, but Juice pinned Mox in a non-title match during the G1 on August 11, so the title is on the line in a rubber match.  Moxley has demanded that this must be a no-disqualification match.

Moxley’s run as US champ has been a little unusual because of his dual contracts with AEW and NJPW, which aren’t in a working relationship.  He doesn’t bring the US belt to AEW shows and his AEW deal precludes him from appearing at NJPW shows in North America.  So you’ve got a weird situation where New Japan has done, like, four US shows this summer but the US champion is the one guy who can’t appear on those shows.  Juice has been playng up the idea that Moxley isn’t a fighting champion, although technically Mox has only skipped one major tour since his debut, and he had a staph infection anyway.

What really matters here is that these two guys have had two great brawls that have established how determined they are to kill one another.  Juice is obsessed with proving he isn’t some prelim guy being fed to the big ex-WWE star.  Mox knows he’s poking the bear by antagonizing Juice, and he can’t let up for a second.

I’m expecting Juice to win the title here, since I doubt Moxley will be back in Japan until Wrestle Kingdom.  Technically, though, Moxley doesn’t have to drop the title--he only has to defend the title once every six months, so he could beat Juice here and go on to another title defense in January.  However, my gut says that it’s better for everyone if Mox puts Juice over now, before the politics of AEW protecting their guy and NJPW protecting their belt start to get complicated.  WIth luck, one or both men will get called out to set up their Wrestle Kingdom opponents.

Will Ospreay vs. El Phantasmo - Ospreay is defending the IWGP junior heavyweight championship.  Phantasmo’s RPW British cruiserweight championship is not at stake.

Phantasmo beat Ospreay on May 22 during the Best of the Super Jr. tournament.  That would have been enough to ensure him a title match after Ospreay won the belt, but he also beat Ospreay again on August 25 in the finals of the Super J Cup tournament.  For a while Ospreay and Robbie Eagles were challenging Phantasmo and Ishimori for the IWGP junior tag team title, but ELP and Ishimori retained.  So Ospreay has failed to beat Phantasmo over and over again, and now he’s putting his own gold on the line.

The match should be great and I could see it going either way.  With the Super Jr. Tag League coming up, there won’t be much focus on the singles title for a while, so they could literally drape all the gold on ELP for a while without derailing any potential title match plans for January.  Phantasmo’s been on a roll--an arrogant, smarmy, hateable roll--so I could certainly see him winning here.  But in spite of that I think I’m gonna pick Ospreay to retain.

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki - The backstory here is that Liger announced he’ll be retiring in January, and Suzuki started giving him shit over an old grudge.  See, in 2002 Liger faced Suzuki in a shoot MMA match, which Suzuki easily won, and Liger commented that he would try again in a couple of years.  Well, the rematch never happened, so Suzuki accused Liger of trying to retire without ever doing it.  This led to Suzuki perpetrating all sorts of heinous attacks on Liger for months, including pulling off Liger’s mask.  This led to Liger flipping out on September 22 and turning into his super-mode, Kishin Liger.

Now, New Japan has not advertised that Jushin Liger will be in Kishin Liger mode for this match.  Jushin Liger has appeared since September 22 in normal friendly mode, so it’s possible this match will be about him trying not to let his homicidal demonic alter ego loose.  It is possible we will have to wait until later to see Suzuki really tangle with Kishin Liger.  BUT...we might just get to see Kishin Liger try to stab Minoru Suzuki in the fucking face.  (During a typhoon.)

I’ve watched footage of Kishin’s other appearances, and it’s safe to say he will brawl like a sick bastard, using weapons and making Japanese women shriek in the stands.  What will make this more interesting is that Suzuki tries to pull that shit all the time, so this could be like watching Dr. Jekyll turn into Mr. Hyde to fight Freddie Krueger.

The other interesting wrinkle is that there have been rumors going around that Suzuki is planning to leave New Japan, and that if it weren’t for the Liger storyline he’d already be gone.  I don’t know if I believe those reports, but since I’ve heard about them it’s easy to imagine that could be Suzuki’s final match in the company, and that Kishin Liger is going to murder his ass to send him packing.  Which is cool, because for months I expected Suzuki to poke the bear until he got Kishin Liger, and then he’d just beat Liger anyway like it was no big deal.  True or false, the Suzuki rumors make it feel plausible that this one could go either way, which is fantastic.

Bottom line, we may get Jushin Thunder Liger trying to wrestle a fair fight and getting crushed by Minoru Suzuki.  Or we may get Kishin Liger literally ending Minoru Suzuki’s New Japan career.  Or we may get anything in-between to set up a rematch at the Tokyo Dome.  I am super hype for this match no matter what the hell happens.

Jay White & KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI - Goto is trying to goad White into giving him an intercontinental title match.  Kenta has some bad blood with Ishii and Yoshi over his heel turn a couple of months ago, but he’s already beaten both of them in singles matches so I don’t see where else that issue can go.  Takahashi is basically a jobber so I assume he’s going to lose the fall.

Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & Lance Archer & Taichi - This is kind of random tag match between guys who have nothing going on, so I suspect this is happening in order to set up an angle.  Sabre recently won his feud with Hiroshi Tanahashi and reclaimed his RPW championship, so I could see Naito or Takagi being positioned as the next challenger.  Archer and Takagi both ought to get slotted with someone they can beat to advance their pushes.  Meanwhile, Bushi isn’t scheduled for the Super Jr. Tag League so he’s just kinda there with nothing to do.  As for Taichi, I’m pretty sick of Taichi and don’t care what happens to him as long as he doesn’t fued with Naito for the hundredth time.  I’m guessing the Naito team wins this match.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano - This seems kinda random.  They’ve been doing house show matches with Tana and Honma teaming with Yoshi-Hashi to challenge Makabe, Yano, and Ryusuke Taguchi for the NEVER six-man tag team title.  I don’t know what the point is of doing two-thirds of that match.  I suppose the winning team would get a boost ahead of the World Tag League tournament next month.  But the other weird thing is that Makabe is as well-known for teaming with Honma as he is for teaming with Yano, so that would seem to foreshadow some divided loyalties.  I can’t imagine anything real big coming out of this match when it’s so low on the card, though, so I figure Tanahashi will just win for a feel-good moment.

SHO & YOH & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI - This is vaguely a preview of the Super Jr. Tag League tournament, as Roppongi 3K (Sho & Yoh), Taguchi & Rocky Romero, and Kanemaru & Despy are all scheduled to compete there.  The Taguchi/Romero gimmick is that they’re both coaches, and Romero is the coach for R3K, so I guess the idea is Taguchi is teaming with his partner’s proteges.  The other thing here is that Despy is back from a broken jaw (if I recall correctly) and he happens to be teaming with Douki, who was recruited into Suzuki-gun to fill in for him.  Douki’s New Japan run is going so well that he isn’t even in the Super Jr. Tag League, so I expect he’ll do the job in this match.