Big moments highlight a big card in Manhattan
Watch the Rumble on 44th Street replay!
Rumble on 44th Street saw a score of highlights in New York City, none bigger than the return of Clark Connors to in ring competition. Connors had called out Minoru Suzuki for one on one competition, but against a very difficult opponent, Connors had chosen the best possible cornerman in Ken Shamrock. A surprsingly sportsmanlike open saw a respectful break in the ropes before proceedings grew rather more intense with some vicious chops and elbows.
Suzuki wanted the arm of Connors, the Wild Rhino quickly getting to the ropes. There a triangle was awaiting him; Connors reacted impressively, drilling the King with a spear on the outside, but this only seemed to awaken the beast within Suzuki as he took to his foe with brutal palm strikes. Now with the Wild Rhino softened, Suzuki got the double wrist lock he had been working for.
Connors got space with a powerslam, and brought incredible heart as he fought through his hurt arm to deliver brutal strikes. A massive right from Suzuki crunched Connors to the mat, but the Wild Rhino fired back, and picked the ankle for an Ankle Lock as Shamrock looked on. As Suzuki escaped, Connors looked to follow with a right hand, but was caught with a rear naked choke and then the Gotch Style Piledriver. In victory, Suzuki would offer a rare show of humanity, grudgingly raising Connors’ hand with a chiding comment of ‘f**king young boy’, before hugging Ken Shamrock to applause from the crowd.
Clark Connors wasn’t the only return at Rumble on 44th Street, as Alex Coughlin made his own return in New York. After referring to his long delayed rematch with JR Kratos, Coughlin delcared that he would be a part of World Tag League. Who will his partner be?
Six man action on the night saw Tom Lawlor and Homicide’s issues continue, as Lawlor and the West Coast Wrecking Crew faced Homicide, Wheeler Yuta and Shota Umino. A chaotic battle quickly went to the floor and the stage, where a spectacular dive saw Yuta take out Royce Isaacs and Jorel Nelson.
Homicide had rather less luck in ring, as he was kept in the Filthy corner and humiliated by the ‘Filthy pose’ before a hat trick of suplexes struck to first Isaacs and then Lawlor, the last suplex delivered after fighting out of a guillotine choke. Yuta was waiting for the tag, and gelled impressively with Umino; with Homicide assisting to break up Team Filthy’s comeback, he drilled Lawlor with a cutter before a trademark tope con suicida.
Umino was left legal with Jorel Nelson, and fired up with an impressive flipping neckbreaker, before scoring with Death Rider for three.
First match on the main card was the continuation of CHAOS and HOUSE OF TORTURE’s year plus long rivalry as YOH and Rocky Romero faced SHO and Yujiro Takahashi. Strong team work for YOH and Romero put the lie to their time apart in tag combinations, but YOH would be separated by HOUSE OF TORTURE until a neckbreaker led to the tag. Rocky was able to score Forever Clotheslines and take the fight to H.O.T, but with a wrench assist, Yujiro scored a schoolboy to pin Rocky.
Yet as Yujiro and SHO continued to put the boots in, none other than Lio Rush made the save! Backstage it was revealed that Rocky had connected Rush and YOH, and with the Man of the Hour looking to make waves in Japan, it seemed like a tag team was official for Super Jr. Tag League.
The night kicked off with a tag match pitting Cosmic Angels’ Waka Tsukiyama and Mina Shirakawa against Kylie Rae and Tiara James. The Cosmic Angels duo were able to bring Rae down to size as Waka took in the chants of the New York crowd, before being isolated. A cross body would lead to a hot tag to Shirakawa, who tried for a figure four on James before being cut off by Rae and bloodied with some hard strikes.
Tsukiyama would tag in for a nearfall on Rae, and primed for a hammerlock DDT before being countered and blasted with a thrust kick for two and a half, but a TKO sealed the deal for Rae.
