Team Filthy gets a new recruit on Saturday nights
On a night full of highlights, the biggest match on NJPW STRONG this week saw former LAX stablemates Danny Limelight and Homicide go one on one. As Limelight fought to defend the honour of Team Filthy against Homicide. The Notorious 187 started with violent strikes on Limelight before clattering him with a lariat and sending his foe crashing into the front row, only to be surprised with a springboard blockbuster onto concrete in response.
Limelight retained control of Homicide, but a tease of the Three Amigos was too much of an insult to Homicide, who battled back and dropped Limelight with a sky high superplex, and then a monkey flip into the turnbuckle. Homicide retained violent control as the referee gave the Notorious 187 a lot of leeway, but was slowed by the Symbiote DDT, Limelight getting 2.5 from the referee. Limelight wanted a second to end the match, but was spiked with the Cop Killa for the homicide win.
Post match, it was clear Homicide’s issues with Team Filthy were far from over. When Homicide looked to continue a beating on Limelight, a new member of Tom Lawlor’s crew jumped him from behind. When the assailant was revealed to be Bobby Fish, another chapter looked set to unfold.
The main event on STRONG saw Blake Christian take on Juice Robinson. Juice would stall in the opening moments, but the explosive Christian would fly to the floor, bringing the fight to the Rock hard BULLET CLUB member before being caught on one plancha too many. Thought Christian would keep the cat an dmouse game up, dealing some damage to Robinson’s shoulder, but the power of Juice would result in a tilt a whirl, and then sustained control.
Going back to the shoulder, Blake Christian launched stinging kicks to fight his way into the bout. Launching a series of strikes, Christian had Juice in trouble, and kept up with Robinson’s veteran escapes to score an apron splash and then a slingshot single arm DDT into a Fujiwara armbar. Having made the ropes, Juice sacrificed his hurt left arm to hit the Left Hand From God, and then as Christian responded with a victory roll, reversed the hold and grabbed a handful of ropes to get the win.
The opening contest saw an early preview of Fantasticamania, as Virus and Atlantis Jr. of CMLL took on Rocky Romero and Adrian Quest. Romero and Virus continued their long history to start before Quest and Atlantis quickened the pace and combined with his veteran partner to take control of the bout. Romero’s Forever Clotheslines would see him dumped to the floor, but Quest would make benefit of the lucha tag rules and leapt to the floor with a traingle quebrada; as the pace quickened in the ring, Romero surprised Virus with an inside cradle to get the pin.
