Satoshi Kojima defeats JR Kratos to close a night of thrilling action.
The main event of NJPW STRONG this week saw Satoshi Kojima emerge with a victory over the ‘Most Feared’ JR Kratos, in an incredible hard hitting brawl.
Kratos was far from intimidated by his legendary opponent, and quickly overpowered Kojima at the bell. Kratos would not yield to Kojima’s attempts to tackle him, and instead landed his own flying tackle, before a gutwrench suplex got two and a spectacular release vertical suplex kept the advantage in his corner.
Kojima would cut Kratos off with a boot, and unloaded machine gun chops in the corner, but Kratos was able to withstand the barrage, before cutting off the Bakayaro elbow. Moving to the apron, Kratos had ill intentions, trying to German suplex the Third Generation member to the floor, but Kojima was able to block the move, and landed a trademark apron DDT.
Back inside, Kojima hit his elbow for a nearfall, but Kratos fired back with a choke bomb and brainbuster, Kojima refusing to lose after a very close two count. Summoning up a DDT, before a second and a third, Kojima was stunned to see Kratos continue to stand up, but a Koji Cutter finally put the big man down, and after one attempt missed, a lariat connected on the second try to give Kojima the win.
Post match, Kojima declared that he was ‘well aware’ of the STRONG Openweight Championship and current title holder Tom Lawlor; could he have an eye on next week’s main event, when Lawlor defends against Karl Fredericks?
Also on STRONG this week, Adrian Quest and Fred Rosser teamed up to take on Barrett Brown and Bateman. Rosser offered back up to Quest in his feud with Brown after Bateman got involved in their singles match two weeks ago, but in the end, as Quest was on the verge of victory, a Bateman blind tag led to This Is A Kill for the win.
Opening the night’s action was the first in Alex Coughlin’s open challenge series. Coughlin has vowed to test himself against competition from anywhere at any time, and the challenge was accepted by IMPACT Wrestling’s X-Division Champion Josh Alexander.
Alexander and Coughlin had a phenomenal, hard fought contest that saw Coughlin take the Walking Weapon to the absolute limit, before eventually falling prey to the Divine Intervention double underhook piledriver. The LA Dojo captain was quick to state afterward that the challenges would keep coming however; who will face Coughlin next?
