PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

ONGOING NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING AT WRESTLECON BLOG

Welcome everyone to my New Japan Pro Wrestling at Wrestlecon blog from Dallas, Texas!

Cory Strode will be handling play by play, so I'll be giving random thoughts as we make our way through the event.  

The show looks to be almost 100% full.

I only saw the last few seconds but in the opener Ren Narita defeated Rocky Romero.

Our second bout is Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks & Mascara Dorada & Yuya Uemura vs. FinJuice & Daniel Garcia & Kevin Knight.

Holy hell, this was so good with lots of big back and forth moves and the crowd losing their mind.  Uemera looked so great here in everything he did.  Dorada hit a hell of a tope con hilo to the floor.  The crowd chanted New Japan.  Just a tremendous six man tag showing everyone fighting to get the win and building to a kickass series of sequences at the end.  Dallas loved the hell out of this.

Our third bout was former WWE star Killer Kross making his New Japan debut vs. Minoru Suzuki.  The story early on was that Kross' toughness and power had even Suzuki reeling until he snatched Kross in an armbar in the ropes.  Suzuki mauled him on the floor, attacking the shoulder.  Suzuki had a really funny exchange with referee Brandon Tolle after he almost hit him in the corner, smoothing his shirt and making sure he was OK.  Suzuki attacked the fingers and the arm.  Basically, any extremity would do!  They built to a point where they were chopping the sh** out of each other, to the point of ridiculousness.  Kross looked really damn good here and was obviously came in with something to prove post-WWE and he made his point.  I cracked up when he called Suzuki a "young boy."  Suzuki's Gotch piledriver to end it was great.  Fun stuff!

Jon Moxley showed up as a surprise.  MASSIVE POP from Dallas.  He said he wasn't leaving Dallas until he stepped in the New Japan Pro Wrestling ring.  He loves this ring because it brings out the best in him and it has fostered his love of professional wrestling, the same love everyone in the room has.  He came here to remind people their words have consequences.  He cut a promo about facing Will Ospreay on 4/16.  Good stuff to build to that PPV.

Jay White vs. Mike Bailey is next.  White bullied him early with Bailey showing off his aerial skills when he fought back.  He nailed an awesome springboard moonsault to the outside.  White gained control when Bailey went for a double knee strike on the apron, but there was no water in the pool and Bailey crashed hard to the point I half-expected he blew his knees out.  White worked him over and mauled him but Bailey came back with some stiff kicks to the chest.  Bailey's knees kept hurting him.  He then went for a shooting star knee strike and came down again, HARD.  This dude is going to blow his knees out and it's going to be his own fault.  White preyed upon him and that was all she wrote for Mr. Speedball.

Next up was Tomohiro Ishii vs. Chris Dickinson.  Really nice to see Dickinson back in the ring.  SLUGFEST from two burly fighters from the start.  Dickinson hit an INSANE back suplex on Ishii.  He ALMOST scored the pin with a DVDR.  They battled until Ishii scored the pin.  It would have been a nice win for Dickinson here.

Chris Bey & Hikuleo vs. Bateman & Barrett Brown was next.

 

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet