New Japan is back in the US today for their monthly, or close to it, international event, Fighting Spirit Unleashed. This installment is the first time in 5 years they’re back in the northeast US as the last visit was before the pandemic began. It’s a loaded 11 match card with 3 title matches and more: The first title match will be for the STRONG Tag Team Championship as Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls, fresh off losing the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in Japan, try to retain these titles against James Drake & Zack Gibson aka former WWE team Grizzled Young Veterans. In the second title match, the All Elite Wrestling International Championship is on the line as Konosuke Takeshita defends against TJP. In the main event, Kosei Fujita will try to build on his Super Junior Tag League victory earlier this week when he faces Gabriel Kidd for the STRONG Openweight Championship. There also is a 4-way for the next STRONG Women’s Championship shot at Mercedes Mone which seems to be between AEW’s Anna Jay and Trish Adora, with Stardom sending Hacuki & Koguma to participate too.
Today’s event will be held at Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, MA and can be watched LIVE on New Japan World in Japanese and English. The event will also be available as a PPV on TrillerTV/FITE for $19.99. There will also be a FREE 30-minute pre-show on these outlets and YouTube. One match has no time limit but everything else is 30 minutes so despite the number of matches I expect this to be a “standard length” US PPV event with, including the pre-show, a total running time of about 3 1/2 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
Matt Vandagriff vs. Seabass Finn
PPV/main show:
Kevin Knight vs. David Finlay
STRONG Tag Team Champions Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls vs. James Drake & Zack Gibson for the titles
Lio Rush vs. Mustafa Ali
Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaavs in a 2/3 Falls Match. Fall 1 is a Tables Match. Fall 2 is a Submission Match (win only by submission). If needed, Fall 3 is a Last Man Standing Strap Match (win only by KO/TKO, unable to answer 10 count when down)
Anna Jay vs. Trish Adora, Hazuki & Koguma in a 4-way for a STRONG Women’s Championship shot
Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi vs. Matt Taven & Mike Bennett
Ryohei Oiwa vs. KENTA
Zack Sabre Jr. & Bad Dude Tito vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Umino
AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. TJP for the title
STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd vs. Kosei Fujita for the title
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 3:30 PM PT/6:30 PM ET.
3:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Lowell Municipal Auditorium in Lowell, MA. Your hosts are Haruo Murata, Milano Collection A.T. & El Desperado. If you’re watching on New Japan World it’s Japanese only right now..If you’re on Triller/FITE, your hosts are Walker Stewart & Veda Scott. We also don’t have our usual US ring announcer (Tak I think his name is).
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The venue’s maximum capacity is 2800 but it’s a smaller setup and the crowd is still filing in. I’m thinking based on advance sales it’ll be closer to 2000. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1022. Apparently a much smaller setup than ticket maps led me to believe)
Pre-show:
Match 1: Matt Vandagriff vs. Seabass Finn. 20 minute time limit
Result: Matt Vandagriff beat Seabass Finn. Borderline glorified squash. Afterwards, Vandagriff with microphone. Buries his oddly named opponent and more in English. Interrupted by Zane Jay who throws down a rematch challenge. Accepted which leads to a Vandagriff beatdown.
Grizzled Young Veterans promo.
TJP promo. In multiple languages.
Quick rundown of the rest of the card.
End pre-show.
Updates will resume when the PPV/main show begins.
Main show/PPV:
Match 1: Kevin Knight vs. David Finlay. 30 minute time limit
Result: David Finlay beat Kevin Knight
Match 2: STRONG Tag Team Champions Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls vs. James Drake & Zack Gibson for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: James Drake & Zack Gibson beat STRONG Tag Team Champions Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls to win the titles. Drake & Gibson become the 10th STRONG Tag Team Champions. Gibson pinned Nicholls.
Match 3: Lio Rush vs. Mustafa Ali. 30 minute time limit
Result: Lio Rush beat Mustafa Ali
Match 5: Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaavs in a 2/3 Falls Match. Fall 1 is a Tables Match. Fall 2 is a Submission Match (win only by submission). If needed, Fall 3 is a Last Man Standing Strap Match (win only by KO/TKO, unable to answer 10 count when down)
Fall 1: Rosser/Lawlor win when Lawlor puts Nelson through a table.
Fall 2: Nelson/Isaacs win when Isaacs beat Rosser with a rear naked choke.
Fall 3: Nelson/Isaacs win when Rosser can’t answer 10 count.
Result: Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs beat Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor 2-1. Afterwards, they call out Grizzled Young Veterans and demand a STRONG Tag Team Championship match, or tried to but the first microphone cut out on Nelson. They want the title match on 12/15 in Long Beach, CA at the next US event.
Quick break for ring cleaning.
Mercedes Mone promo. The winner of the next match gets to face her for the STRONG Women’s Championship on 12/15.
Match 5: Anna Jay vs. Trish Adora, Hazuki & Koguma in a 4-way for a STRONG Women’s Championship shot. 30 minute time limit
Result: Hazuki beat Anna Jay, Trish Adora & Koguma in a 4-way by pinning Adora. As a result, Hazuki will face STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone for the title on 12/15. WHAT?!? UPSET ALERT!!! Mone came out immediately afterwards. With microphone. Brief promo before Hazuki cut her off and said in English “This belt will be mine”. Mone responded with a direct shot both on the microphone and physically, getting the better of the exchange and laying out Hazuki.
Match 6: Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi vs. Matt Taven & Mike Bennett/ 30 minute time limit
Result: Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi beat Matt Taven & Mike Bennett. Tsuji pinned Bennett after Gene Blast (and a Takagi Pumping Bomber right before that). Afterwards the lights went out and a mysterious promo was shown. When the lights came back on, Jack Perry appeared at ringside and attacked Tsuji then laid him out in the ring. Perry with microphone. In English, he challenged Tsuji to a match on 1/5 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. Perry then set up for another running knee strike but Takagi made the save.
Match 7: Ryohei Oiwa vs. KENTA. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ryohei Oiwa beat KENTA. KENTA protested afterwards as it was a reversal of a rollup for 3.
Match 8: Zack Sabre Jr. & Bad Dude Tito vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Umino. 30 minute time limit
Result: Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Umino beat Zack Sabre Jr. & Bad Dude Tito. Umino pinned Tito after Death Rider.
Jon Moxley promo. This aired after the match and is directed at Umino. Sounds like he’s picking someone to face Umino on 1/5. Afterwards, Umino with microphone. Challenge accepted in English to bring any of his factionmakes, even dropping a couple of clever f-bombs. Especially the finish-F**K YOU JON MOXLEY! Good stuff.
Match 9: AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. TJP for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita beat TJP to retian the title. Afterwards, Takeshita with microphone. He said he would defend the title at Tokyo Dome then called out challengers. Nobosy came out. Until he thought nobody was going to then Takagi emerged. Challenge thrown down for 1/4, and possibly a double title match also for the NEVER Openweight Championship. But before they were done posing in the ring, Tomohiro Ishii came out. He pointed to both then walked back out.
Main Event: STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd vs. Kosei Fujita for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd beat Kosei Fujita to retain the title. V3 for Kidd. Next up: Oiwa, who made the challenge after making the save following a Kidd & KENTA beatdown on Fujita post-match.
End Show.
The next event is NEW JAPAN ROAD tomorrow at Tosho Arena Anjo in Aichi. This was traditionally the annual Kazuchika Okada hometown event but not so much now with Okada in AEW so Tam Nakano is coming from Stardom to fill the void. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
In other news, a change to Tuesday’s Taiji Ishimori Produced event was announced-Dragon Kid is now off the event. Neck injury. He was to have faced Ishimori. Replacement TBA.
