NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING

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MAY.2.2021

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Clark Connors takes Karl Fredericks to the limit in STRONG classic 【NJoA】

Karl Fredericks victorious; Connors makes great strides forward

The main event of Friday’s LA Dojo showcase on NJPW STRONG saw the first rivalry of the LA Dojo class play out in grand form. Karl Fredericks met Clark Connors in a hard hitting encounter that saw Fredericks emerge still the ‘Alpha Wolf’ of Katsuyori Shibata’s first students, but Connors showed he was more than ready to be viewed as his own man. 

After a tense opening to the bout saw the two competitors evenly matched, Connors moved with trademark intelligence, misdirecting Fredericks and allowing him to assert himself with a tackle and snap suplex. Yet Fredericks has become known for his athleticism and high leaping ability quickly shifting the match to his favour. That’s exactly what happened when a cross body sent Cnnors scrambling to the floor, where the bout radically changed form. 

Fredericks went high risk with a tope suicida to wipe out Connors on the floor, but the LA Dojo’s former ‘captain’ was able to battle back. With no love lost for his training partner, Connors delivered a devastating snap suplex hard onto the thin matting and concrete as the referee’s 20 count was applied. 

While both men avoided the countout, it appeared each was going to challenge the other to a knockout strike exchange. After snapmares and stiff strikes to the back were exchanged, before the pounce from Connors rocked Fredericks. Still Connors couldn’t get the job done as Fredericks found a spinebuster and STF, before Connors was able to find the Boston Crab that has submitted so many on STRONG to date. 

It wasn’t quite enough to submit the Alpha Wolf though, Fredericks making the ropes, and then cutting off Connors who tried to end things off the top rope. A superplex would be the result of that, and as both men battled back to their feet, the young athletes would exchange ever more vicious and painful strikes. A spear, powerslam and German suplex almost ended the match for Connors but it was Fredericks just able to find his trademark reverse neckbreaker and the MD for the victory. 

Post match, both men agreed that Clark Connors’ time as a Young Lion was over. What form will the reinvigorated Clark Connors take on STRONG in the future? Keep watching Fridays at 10/9c on NJPW World to find out!

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