New Japan is back in the US for their next PPV tonight Rumble On 44th Street. Coming off a surprise-filled special event last night that cane off quite well, this more structured event is still loaded with big names from New Japan and All Elite Wrestling among others, and both NJPW STRONG titles are on the line. As a bonus, there is an SWA Championship match, a women’s title that must always be defended against foreigners not from the champion’s native country.
Today’s event will be held at Palladium Times Square in New York City and can be watched live as a PPV on FITE in English and New Japan World in Japanese. On FITE the event is available for $24.99 and includes the live broadcast and unlimited on demand replays. It also is available as part of a combo pack including unlimited replays of last night’s special event (which you should check out) for $29.99, a $10 savings compared to buying both events separately. The New Japan World broadcast costs 2990 Japanese yen (around $20-21) plus the monthly New Japan World subscription fee if you are not a current subscriber (so add about $7 for that). I will be watching on FITE as I pre-purchased the combo pack. There also will be a FREE pre-show 30 minutes before the PPV begins.
If you’re planning to watch alongside other events, get ready for lots of split-screen as I expect tonight’s event, including pre-show, to run close to 3 1/2 hours. Finally, because I will miss the pre-show and will be using the DVR functionality on FITE to watch from the beginning after missing the first part of the event due to work conflicts, the results below will be NEAR LIVE and about 20-30 minutes behind real time.
Tonight’s lineup:
Pre-Show:
Mina Shirakawa & Waka Tsukiyama vs. Kylie Rae & Tiara James
PPV:
Yoh & Rocky Romero vs. Sho & Yujiro Takahashi
STRONG Openweight Champion Fred Rosser vs. Jonathan Gresham for the title
STRONG Tag Team Champions Aussie Open vs. Motor City Machine Guns and The DKC & Kevin Knight in a 3-way for the titles
Homicide, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino vs. Tom Lawlor & West Coast Wrecking Crew
Clark Connors vs. Minoru Suzuki
SWA World Champion Mayu Iwatani vs. KiLynn King for the title
KOPW 2022 Trophy Holder Shingo Takagi vs. El Phantasmo in a Street Fight for the title
Kazuchika Okada & Eddie Kingston vs. Jay White & Juice Robinson
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at around 8:30 PM ET/5:30 PM PT.
Pre-Show: Kylie Rae & Tiara James beat Mina Shirakawa & Waka Tsukiyama by TKO. Rae beat Tsukiyama.
8:30 PM ET UPDATE: Updates begin below.
We are (NEAR) LIVE from Palladium Times Square in New York City. Your hosts are Ian Ricccaboni, Matt Rehwoldt & Alex Kozlov.
The paid
Match 1: Sho & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Yoh & Rocky Romero. 20 minute time limit
Result: Sho & Yujiro Takahashi beat Yoh & Rocky Romero. Takahashi pinned Romero after a Sho spanner shot from outside the ring. (Side note: Yoh dyed his hair blonde for these events. Usually it’s black). After the match, Lio Rush returned to break up the heel beatdown on Yoh.
Match 2: STRONG Tag Team Champions Aussie Open vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) and The DKC & Kevin Knight in a 3-way for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: Motor City Machine Guns beat STRONG Tag Team Champions Aussie Open and The DKC & Kevin Knight in a 3-way, when Sabin pinned Knight, to win the titles. Motor City Machine Guns become the second STRONG Tag Team Champions.
Alex Coughlin comes out. With microphone. He calls out JR Kratos but also issues a challenge to everybody, both in the US and Japan. He finishes by saying “he’ll be back” next month at the World Tag League.
Match 3: STRONG Openweight Champion Fred Rosser vs. Jonathan Gresham for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Openweight Champion Fred Rosser beat Jonathan Gresham to retain the title. V5 for Rosser.
New Japan will return to San Jose, CA on 2/18/2023 for their next US event, the second installment of Battle of the Valley.
Match 4: Homicide, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino vs. Tom Lawlor & West Coast Wrecking Crew. 30 minute time limit
Result: Homicide, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino beat Tom Lawlor & West Coast Wrecking Crew. Umino pinned Jorel Nelson after Death Rider.
Match 5: Clark Connors vs. Minoru Suzuki. 30 minute time limit. MMA legend Ken Shamrock is in Connors’ corner.
Result: Minoru Suzuki beat Clark Connors
At this point (9:55 PM ET) results are LIVE the rest of the way.
Match 6: SWA World Champion Mayu Iwatani (Stardom) vs. KiLynn King for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: SWA World Champion Mayu Iwatani beat KiLynn King to retain the title. (Side note: The title has a unique rule-defenses can’t be against wrestlers from the champion’s native country/ethnic background. So as long as Iwatani is champion, a Japanese woman can’t challenge for the title)
Match 7: KOPW 2022 Trophy holder Shingo Takagi vs. El Phantasmo in a Street Fight for the trophy. 1 Hour time limit
Result: KOPW 2022 Trophy holder Shingo Takagi beat El Phantasmo to retain the trophy.
Quick break for ring cleaning. The ring sweeper gets some chants from front row fans as we go to a promo video for the main event.
Main Event: Kazuchika Okada & Eddie Kingston vs. Jay White & Juice Robinson. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Jay White & Juice Robinson beat Kazuchika Okada & Eddie Kingston. White pinned Kingston after Bladerunner. Afterawrds, White with microphone for a post-main event heel promo to not necessarily send the crowd home happy.
End Show. Including the pre-show, the event ran about 3 1/2 hours.
The next US event likely will be the 2/18/23 event announced earlier tonight.
Back on the Japan side of things, the next event of the BATTLE AUTUMN ’22 Tour is tomorrow at Kumagaya Citizen Gym in Saitama. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 982.
