New Japan runs their final US event of the year, STRONG STYLE EVOLVED 2024, today, and the event may have implications for Tokyo Dome as well as their next US event in January (which I will be attending). In addition to plenty of Tokyo Dome previews, 3 title matches headline the event-first is STRONG Tag Team Champions Grizzled Young Veterans defending the titles against West Coast Wrecking Crew. The second title match sees STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd defend against Ryohei Oiwa. And in the main event, after pulling off quite the upset to earn this spot Hazuki will try to win the STRONG Women’s Championship from Mercedes Mone, and frankly ruin January for me as I really want to see the C.E.O. in person as champion, not having the title go to Stardom yet. We’ll see.
Today’s event will be held at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, CA and can be watched LIVE on New Japan World in Japanese and English. It will also be available as a PPV on TrillerTV/FITE for $19.99. There also will be a pre-show with one match 30 minutes before the event. Including that and with all the main card matches being 30 minute time limit I anticipate this being a “standard” PPV with a total running time of about 3 1/2 hours (not much longer as it’s a Sunday night event).
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show: Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay
PPV:
Mina Shirakawa vs. Johnnie Robbie
STRONG Tag Team Champions James Drake & Zack Gibson vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs for the titles
Clark Connors vs. KUSHIDA, TJP & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way
Lio Rush vs. Hechicero
Titan & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jacob Austin Young & Templario
STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd vs. Ryohei Oiwa for the title
Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Fred Rosser, Tom Lawlor & Shota Umino
Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Jack Perry
STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. Hazuki for the title
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM ET.
4:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, CA. Your hosts are Haruo Murata & Milano Collection A.T. Your English hosts are Walker Stewart & Veda Scott.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The setup is for just under 2800 and the latest estimate on ticket sales I had was Friday afternoon and was roughly 1900. Mostly empty now as the crowd is slowly filing in but I’m thinking the final number will be around 2000. (Early main show note: The crowd looks smaller than that, or in some sections it’s a very late arriving crowd. Looks closer to maybe 1500 from what I can see after the first match. Typical late-arriving LA area crowd as it grew a bit over the first hour) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2435. That number definitely sounds overstated. Didn’t look like that much on livestream)
You can also watch the pre-show FOR FREE on YouTube.
Pre-show match: Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay. 20 minute time limit
Result: Zane Jay beat Matt Vandagriff by submission. Vandagriff’s “STRONG Survivor” run is over.
Updates will resume when the PPV/main show begins.
PPV/main show:
Match card order opening video starts things off.
The matches begin at 5:04 PM PT/8:04 PM ET.
Match 1: Mina Shirakawa vs. Johnnie Robbie. 30 minute time limit
Result: Mina Shirakawa beat Johnnie Robbie
Match 2: STRONG Tag Team Champions James Drake & Zack Gibson vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs beat STRONG Tag Team Champions James Drake & Zack Gibson to win the titles. Nelson & Isaacs become the 11th STRONG Tag Team Champions. Isaacs pinned Drake. Long time coming win for West Coast Wrecking Crew. Afterwards, Rocky Romero came out. With microphone. He greets the crowd then congratulates the new champs while putting them over. Then the Vice President gets to business…challenge issued with Yoh as his partner for 1/11 in San Jose (SWEET!!! When I’ll be there in person!). Accepted. When Romero leaves, Isaacs drags him back in for a suplex.
Match 3: Clark Connors vs. KUSHIDA, TJP & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way. 30 minute time limit
Result: TJP beat Clark Connors, KUSHIDA & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way by pinning KUSHIDA. Rollup while Fujita had Connors in a submission hold to steal it with a 3 count. VERY CLEVER!!!
Match 4: Lio Rush vs. Hechicero. 30 minute time limit
Result: Hechicero beat Lio Rush
Match 5: Titan & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jacob Austin Young & Templario. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jacob Austin Young & Templario beat Titan & Hiromu Takahashi. Templario pinned Titan.
Match 6: STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd vs. Ryohei Oiwa for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd beat Ryohei Oiwa to retain the title. V4 for Kidd. Afterwards, Kidd with microphone. He cursed out the crowd and a particular fan in the crowd with some uncensored language. He then turned his attention to Kenny Omega, who Kidd is scheduled to face at the Tokyo Dome in January. He finished by calling out Tomohiro Ishii for his next title defense on 1/11 when I’ll be there. OOOOOOOOOOOH!!!
Match 7: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Fred Rosser, Tom Lawlor & Shota Umino. 30 minute time limit
Result: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Fred Rosser, Tom Lawlor & Shota Umino. Tito pinned Lawlor after a piledriver.
Match 8: Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Jack Perry. 30 minute time limit
Result: Konosuke Takeshita & Jack Perry beat Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuhi. Perry pinned Tsuji after a running knee strike. Afterwards, Takagi went back in for more but got the heel beatdown until Hiromu Takahashi made the save, only to then get blindsided by Matt & Nick Jackson with a Suprekick Party. The Young Bucks will face Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at Tokyo Dome. After they sent Perry to the back, Matt Jackson with microphone. Took some working up the crowd to try and get half a near-hometown pop (the Jacksons are from nearby Rancho Cucamonga) before Nick stated they came back to play politics…oh wait, to win the tag titles on 1/5 one more time before they retire. Despite trying to be heels they got a mixed reaction.
Main Event: STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. Hazuki for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone beat Hazuki to retain the title. V3 for Mone. But many very close calls over the 25+ minutes. Afterwards, Mone with microphone. She began talking about May 2023 when, in the first title match, she was stretchered out after being injured during the match and now she’s back at champion. Then she stated her first goal for 2025-Tokyo Dome on 1/5. So I may not get the C.E.O. as champion on 1/11…but perhaps…next up…Mina Shirakawa came out. Rather skimpily dressed too but she’s a diva after all. Shirakawa with microphone. Of course she started in English playing the HLAEW card but then she got serious. Challenge issued for 1/5. In return, Mone said she wants a double title match for one of the Europe-based titles Shirakawa holds. So I’m gonna have to hold my breath for 3 weeks to see if I get my Mone worth or if I have to settle for some HLAEW…they did a little synchronized strutting & showing off in the ring to end the event.
End Show.
The next event is the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour, the year-ending series, starting Wednesday at Tokorozawa Municipal Gym in Saitama. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. (No broadcasts for the first 3 events then back live on New Japan World for the final 2 events of the year at Korakuen Hall)
UPDATE: It’s now official-Mone vs. Shirakawa for the STRONG Women’s Championship is set for 1/5. If Shirakawa retains the RevPro British Women’s Championship in her next defense against Dani Luna before then, it’s for both titles. Also added to 1/5 is a Lucha Gauntlet Match with 8 TBA participants, 4 from New Japan and 4 from CMLL. 2 start then a new wrestler enters every minute, first pinfall wins. The participants will not be announced in advance.