#autumn attack

jay white goes off on iishi after iishi challenges him for the NEVER openweight championship

pt 1

Last night was the next episode of NJPW Strong to come from the Autumn Attack tapings in September down in Texas. This episode was not unopposed, as AEW ran a (pretty lackluster, honestly) special Saturday episode of Dynamite. 

Alex Coughlin Challenge Series: Chris Dickinson [ROH] d. Alex Coughlin (Cross Armbreaker, 13:03)

Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] d. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy] (Romero > Nelson, Backslide, 13:41)

Juice Robinson, Lio Rush [AEW], TJP [FREE] & Clark Connors d. Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & Chris Bey [Bullet Club] (Robinson > Hikuleo, DQ, 11:07)

Will Ospreay [United Empire] d. Karl Fredericks (Hidden Blade, 18:08)

Ospreay defeats Fredericks, and then welcomed TJP into the ranks of the United Empire by helping with the beatdown. Two scumbags can be in the same unit; poor O-Khan. I think this would have worked better had TJP’s match from that night not had been the previous one, which ended when Hikuleo used a bullrope on Juice in lead-in to their Bullrope Match. Think there may have been some poor choice in match placement in the editing room here. There also seems to be some confusion as to who actually won Dickinson v. Coughlin. NJPW’s English site says Coughlin, others including Cagematch and F4W say Dickinson. 

Next week’s episode continues the Autumn Attack cycle. The Showdown shows should be wrapping up right about now if they haven’t already. Again, I’m not going to spoil anything so I have something to discuss when the episodes air on NJPWWorld.

Minoru Suzuki was at the Showdown Strong tapings in Philly yesterday and today, but on Friday, he was in Miami for the AEW Rampage Buy-In where he and Bryan Danielson wrestled what was, frankly, a MOTYC and one of the best matches I’ve seen in North America ever. It was magnificent, and you need to see it now on AEW’s YouTube channel. Danielson did win the strike and submission heavy match with a Busaiku Knee, almost going the full 30-minute time limit, and believe me, they could have gone longer and I would have been Just Peachy. Seriously, watch it now. This may be my #1 match for Suzuki’s US tour now, displacing Suzuki v. Homicide in GCW on 9/24/2021, but then, I’ve still not seen all of the matches yet.

NJPW has announced the two opening STARDOM exhibition matches for both nights of Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome. The Queen’s Quest tandem of Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani will be working both nights it appears. Tomorrow, they will face off against Donna del Mundo’s Maika, who will be teaming with the currently unaffiliated Lady C. Then on Sunday, the QQ pair will go against the current Artist of Stardom tag team champions, Donna del Mundo’s Giulia & Syuri, in what appears to be a non-title match. NJPW is taking great pains to point out Giulia will be less than 24 hours removed from a 5-Star Grand Prix tournament match against current World Of Stardom champion Utami Hayashishita, so they expect that to play a factor in the match in Saitama on Sunday morning.

Again, for the first time since Bushiroad purchased the company from Rossy Ogawa, STARDOM matches will be shown on NJPWWorld, having been prevented from doing so previously due to STARDOM’s existing contracts with NTV, a direct competitor to NJPW minority partner TV Asahi, who facilitates NJPWWorld. Again, I don’t know the ins and outs of how this was made possible, but it’s good STARDOM is now getting to be shown to an even wider potential audience that will hopefully be receptive to the womens promotion.

Tonight, NJPWWorld will show the “BBQ Brawl” episode of NJPW Strong. This is hands down one of the all-time worst titles they have ever come up with for an NJPW event of any kind. That said, the first match tonight looks to be very good, as Impact Wrestling’s X Division champion Josh Alexander returns, this time to face Daniel Garcia, who once again will be wrestling on two TV shows in one night as he is also due to take on Darby Allin on tonight’s live AEW Rampage from my home base in Hoffman Estates, IL. (I was never due to be at this show, but if you still need a ticket for GCW/BLP 3 Cups Stuffed or tomorrow’s BLP show, hit me up.)

The real point of this entry, is that NJoA have announced that in two weeks’ time, starting 9/18/2021, the show will be moving to Saturday nights from Friday nights, at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT on both NJPWWorld or FITE TV (for a fee). One wonders if this is in fact due to AEW Rampage taking place at the same time now, and their continued partnership. With AEW being a much hotter product than NJPW at the moment, I can’t imagine there are too many people skipping Rampage to see Strong on Fridays, but I can see a lot of people skipping Strong for Rampage. I am guessing with the big move happening, that the Fighting Spirit Unleashed set of matches will start airing with this show.

NJPW Strong started life last summer as Lion’s Break Collision, an experimental empty-arena TV show during the peak of lockdown, and has run ever since. There have been some memorable moments on the show, it has to be said, but lost a lot of its luster once NJPW proper started running again. Now that shows are starting to happen outside of Thunder Studios, maybe interest will start picking back up.

On that note, NJPW have announced four more matches for the September NJPW Strong taping shows Autumn Attack, 9/25 & 9/26/2021 at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX, have been announced.

One that looks to be a highlight of Night 1 is “Filthy” Tom Lawlor v. Ren Narita. Curiously, the NJPW hype piece for this does not mention Lawlor being the current NJPW Strong Openweight Champion, so one wonders if that’s an accidental spoiler. Also added to Night 1 is an 8-man tag match, as Juice Robinson, Lio Rush (possibly the Strong champion now?), Clark Connors & TJP will take on a Bullet Club tandem of Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & Impact’s Chris Bey. This would be Bey’s first NJPW event since joining the Bullet Club in Impact.

On Night 2, the indie flavor of the month Daniel Garcia is booked against Switchblade, Jay White, in a non-title match against the NEVER Openweight Champion. Then, a tag match has been booked, where Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors will face off against the United Empire’s Will Ospreay and a mystery opponent. This could be Jeff Cobb, this could be Great O-Khan, this could be Aaron Henare... or this could be a new member of the Empire (most likely). We’ll see at the end of the month.

The announcements for Minoru Suzuki’s tour of the US indies continue. Now announced for Thursday 10/21/2021 in Dilwroth, MN, is Suzuki going into Timebomb Pro, a promotion based in Fargo, ND. No, it’s not just a movie/TV show, it turns out. At this show, Suzuki will have a first-time dream opponent in Dominic Garrini, an amateur wrestler/shooter type who’s been big on the indies the last few years, often teaming with Kevin Ku as Violence Is Forever, which is the name this show is taking on. Tickets for that event at TimeBombPro.com if you feel so inclined and are in that neck of the woods.