New Japan is back in the US today for their next STRONG LIVE event, Lonestar Shootout. Following up on last month’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed, it’s another loaded event with 5 title matches among a 12-match lineup. First up, the STRONG Tag Team Championship is on the line as Hikuleo & El Phantasmo defend the titles against West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs), who want to bring the titles back stateside away from the Japan mainstays. Second, STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston will defend the title against the legendary Satoshi Kojima, who has already firmly established the Bread Club in Texas. The third title match is a highly-anticipated show stealer candidate as NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. goes for his 16th (!) successful defense against Mike Bailey, who basically continues to do nothing but have MOTY candidate matches all the time. In the 4th title match, IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani travels to the US from Stardom to defend against CMLL standout Stephanie Vaquer, who earned her chance at the title with a victory in Las Vegas. Finally in the main event, NEW NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi will defend the title against AEW’s Trent Beretta.
Today’s event will be held at Curtis Culwell Center in Garland Park, TX (Dallas/Ft. Worth area) and can be watched LIVE on New Japan World in Japanese. It was originally planned to be a PPV on the service but following yesterday’s (bumpy of course) major update/relaunch of the New Japan World service it was decided to make is available for all with no additional purchase required. Those who purchased the PPV before on the service will get refunds (I never saw/had that option). With the pricing changes at the relaunch yesterday a new subscription will now cost $9.99/month if you go through their website, or as much as $12.99/month going through app stores. It will also be available LIVE on FITE in English only for $19.99. There will also be a FREE 30 minute pre-show before the event on FITE, which also is part of the New Japan World broadcast, and it also will be available on the New Japan World YouTube channel. The pre-show is headlined by another rivalry match between Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor. Only 2 of the matches have longer than 30 minute time limits, but based on last month as well as the pre-show I anticipate this event having a total running time of around 4 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
Matt Vandagriff vs. Barrett Brown
Fred Rosser vs. Tom Lawlor
Main show/PPV:
Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask 4 & Atlantis vs. Hechicero, Rocky Romero & Ultimo Guerrero
Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga vs. Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin & Chase Owens
Toru Yano vs. Joey Janela
Mistico vs. TJP
STRONG Tag Team Champions Hikuleo & El Phantasmo vs. West Coast Wrecking Crew for the titles
STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston vs. Satoshi Kojima for the title
NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mike Bailey for the title
Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta vs. David Finlay & KENTA
IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani vs. Stephanie Vaquer for the title
NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi vs. Trent Beretta for the title
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM ET.
4:05 PM PT UPDATE: After some initial connection issues on their end, the live stream has successfully launched in pre-show mode. I am testing the new Apple TV app and will be using that initially to stream the event. The presentation is the same as watching it in a web browser.
4:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Curtis Culwell Center in Garland Park, TX. Your hosts are Haruo Murata, Milano Collection A.T. & Miki Motoi. (If you’re watching in English on FITE, your hoses are Walker Stephens & Veda Scott)
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The configuration looks to be for around 3400 at most (using a half-arena setup), so based on ticket sales through yesterday I’m thinking it’ll be in the range of 2800-3000. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1027. Was I ever off…much smaller setup than I expected, and there seemed to be a lot of ringside seats left today which surprised me)
Pre-show:
Match 1: Matt Vandagriff vs. Barrett Brown
Result: Barrett Brown beat Matt Vandagriff
Match 2: Fred Rosser vs. Tom Lawlor. 20 minute time limit
Result: Fred Rosser beat Tom Lawlor
Quick break for end of pre-show.
PPV/main show:
The opening match rundown video misspelled David FInlay’s last name as Finley.
Match 1: Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask 4 & Atlantis vs. Hechicero, Rocky Romero & Ultimo Guerrero. 20 minute time limit
Result: Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask 4 & Atlantis beat Hechicero, Rocky Romero & Ultimo Guerrero. Dorada pinned Hechicero after Shooting Star Press.
Match 2: Toru Yano vs. Joey Janela. 20 minute time limit
Once Yano entered the ring Janela sneak attacked him. Janela with microphone. After finding Yano’s pants were loaded with rolls of tape, he demanded a No DQ match. The change was made and the match is now No DQ.
Result: Toru Yano beat Joey Janela
TJP interviewed backstage.
Quick break to reset the ring after that last match. Toru Yano likes to remove the tunbuckle padding (New Japan uses velcro-attached padding in the corners)
Match 3: Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga vs. Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin & Chase Owens. 20 minute time limit
Result: Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin & Chase Owens beat Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga. Connors pinned Knight after an assisted piledriver.
Match 4: STRONG Tag Team Champions Hikuleo & El Phantasmo vs. West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Tag Team Champions HIkuleo & El Phantasmo beat West Coast Wrecking Crew to retain the titles. Phantasmo pinned Nelson after an errant Isaacs belt shot (ducked and hit Nelson). V2 for the champs.
Match 5: Mistico vs. TJP. 30 minute time limit
Result: Mistico beat TJP by submission
Match 6: STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston vs. Satoshi Kojima for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston beat Satoshi Kojima to retain the title. V7 for Kingston. Next up: Apparently Gabriel Kidd, who came out and laid out Kingston with the title belt. Kidd with microphone afterwards then a piledriver. Kidd finishes by saying David Finlay sent him out to win gold. Sounds like this could happen in January at the next US event in San Jose, CA.
Trent Beretta interviewed in the back as he arrives.
Match 7: Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta vs. David Finlay & KENTA. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta beat David Finlay & KENTA. Moxley pinned KENTA after Death Rider.
Match 8: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mike Bailey for the title. 15 minute time limit
Result: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. beat Mike Bailey by submission to retain the title. V16(!) for Sabre. Ended with only about 5 seconds left until the time limit.
Match 9: IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani vs. Stephanie Vaquer for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani beat Stephanie Vaquer to retain the title. V2 for Iwatani.
Main Event: NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi vs. Trent Beretta for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi beat Trent Beretta to retain the title. V1 for Takagi. Post-match, Takagi with microphone. In English, as he did when he won the title last time, he demanded a next challenger appear. At the end the lights went out, so it appears we have our answer: G.o.D…specifically, Tama Tonga. With microphone. REMATCH! (Takagi beat Tonga last month in Las Vegas to win the title) Takagi said “OF COURSE! At Tokyo Dome!” We’ll see if New Japan makes this official. Afterwards, Takagi produced a cowboy hat and wore it in the ring while posing for photos and waving to the crowd to end the show.
Including the pre-show and post-main event stuff, the event ran about 4 1/4 hours total. As far as the initial new NJPW WORLD experience, I give it a 9.9 out of 10. No issues with the stream once it began, quality was a little better than before (the ringside video camera quality was noticeably improved), the only thing I would like is improved DVR functionality-specifically being able to press left/right on my Apple TV remote to rewind/fast forward 10 or 15 seconds at a time. Right now it’s going way too far either way when I try to prevision jump back. But a very minor complaint at that. Almost perfectly passed my first test.
The next US event scheduled is Battle In The Valley on 1/13/24 in San Jose, CA. Tickets are on sale now. Broadcast plans TBA.
The next event in Japan is Anjo Rainy Days tomorrow at Tosho Arena Anjo in Aichi. This may be a Kazuchika Okada hometown event. The matches will not be announced ahead of event time. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
