A wild main event, a big post match attack, and statements made across the Summer Struggle card.
Summer Struggle USA came to an end this week on NJPW STRONG, with Team Filthy in a wild eight man main event, Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos and the West Coast Wrecking Crew taking on Violence Unlimited, Juice Robinson and the STRONG number one contender Lio Rush.
Rush started the bout with Lawlor and outquicked the Openweight Champion weeks before his title showdown on Fighting Spirit Unleashed. Even as Brody King and JR Kratos tagged in, the pace stayed high, with fast tags leading to Juice targeting Kratos’ arm, but the power of the Most feared shone through when he tossed Rush into King, and set to work on Juice.
Robinson was in a bad way over the coming minutes, as Team Filthy instigated a mugging that extended both in and out of the ring. Cattle Mutilation from Lawlor, and a big suplex from Kratos had Robinson reeling, and when his partners had seen enough, chaos broke loose. Kratos wanted to deliver a slam on the hard concrete floor on Juice, but Robinson would escape, and Big Bad Brody took charge.
A Black Hole Slam from King to Kratos led to cannonballs from corner to corner on Jorel Nelson, but a powerbomb pin was broken up. As a massive fracas broke out in ring, Lawlor would get squashed, and bodies would fly. The champion spilled to the floor, where Rush was able to hit a baseball slide and spring into Rush Hour on Nelson in one fluid movement, setting up for Dickinson’s DVD and STF for the submission win.
Post match, Lio Rush and Violence Unlimited delivered some powerful messages backstage to Team Filthy, but the biggest message was delivered by Hikuleo. Furious at his Resurgence flash pinfall loss, The Young Gun drove Juice through a backstage table as a violent feud is set to develop.
Also on STRONG this week, after a challenged issued on his Friday night debut, Alexander James took on Karl Fredericks one on one. James punished the Alpha Wolf and had him sweating with some effective stretches, but ultimately Fredericks put James away with a spinebuster and the MD.
Kicking off the action this week, the Stray Dog Army of Bateman, Misterioso and Barrett Brown picked up a win over The DKC, Wheeler Yuta and Adrian Quest. Quest and Yuta especially frustrated Brown and Bateman respectively, but as the match broke down and the DKC had Brown in trouble, smart tag work opened the door for Bateman to make the save and pick up the win with This Is A Kill.
