Welcome to POST Wrestling’s coverage of New Japan’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed card from the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California.
Mike Murray and I will have a POST Show later tonight free for everyone on the site.
ROPPONGI 3K & ROCKY ROMERO VS RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER & ACH
The audience was energetic at the start.
Taguchi and ACH applied ankle locks while Liger applied a surfboard for an early triple submission spot.
Taguchi hit the hip attack into the corner and the audience popped for the spot.
Romero attacked with the Forever clotheslines and was stopped on the third with a Taguchi hip attack. Taguchi followed with hip attacks to everyone and did his Shinsuke Nakamura mannerisms.
ACH landed a suicide dive to both 3K with Taguchi remaining in the ring to pin Romero with the Dodon.
WINNER: RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER & ACH AT 8:55
Mauro Ranallo is sitting in the front row.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN VS HANGMAN PAGE & CHASE OWENS
Kazarian has a big bandage on his head from the cut he sustained at the Ring of Honor pay-per-view on Friday.
Owens and Page isolated Kazarian, he landed a back cracker onto Owens and made the tag to Daniels.
Daniels was in and his right leg is significantly taped. He turned around and was caught with the buckshot lariat from Page.
Page went for the shooting star off the apron, Kazarian fell to his back and Page landed on his knees when he landed it.
Kazarian held Owens and Daniels came off the top for the Best Meltzer Ever and pinned Owens.
WINNERS: CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN AT 8:14
The crowd was into everything, Page was very popular and SCU could do no wrong. The audience has been great so far.
HIROOKI GOTO, CHUCKIE T & BERETTA VS JEFF COBB, CHRIS SABIN & FLIP GORDON
Gordon received a hot tag and dove off the top to the floor, he landed a sling blade as he springboarded from the middle rope as the audience cheered on.
Goto and Cobb were tagged in as they built to this interaction. The audience was hot as they went at it. Goto connected with a spinning heel kick into the corner.
Chuckie and Beretta came in and suplexed Cobb together. Cobb came back and suplexed both at the same time. Chuckie then hit a piledriver to Cobb and was saved by his teammates.
Chuckie missed a moonsault and Cobb lifted him and hit the Tour of the Islands.
This match was designed for Cobb and get got over in the position, it was a great weekend for him and the next steps of his career.
WINNERS: JEFF COBB, CHRIS SABIN & FLIP GORDON AT 12:04
Goto got into Cobb’s face and they have a face-off before Goto left to a lot of boos. This appears to be Cobb’s first notable program in New Japan.
TETSUYA NAITO, EVIL & SANADA VS ZACK SABRE JR. & KILLER ELITE SQUAD
Naito was so popular to this audience and chanted his name loudly.
The match built up to EVIL and Zack Sabre Jr. and they had a great interaction. Sabre avoided Everything is Evil several times.
It ended with Zack using the European clutch while flipping off the audience with the middle finger as he pinned EVIL.
WINNERS: ZACK SABRE JR. & KILLER ELITE SQUAD AT 9:29
EVIL was left in the ring in disbelief that he was defeated and let his team down.
EVIL was on his knees in front of Naito and the audience chanted for EVIL and LIJ left for the back.
JAY WHITE & GEDO VS HIROSHI TANAHASHI & KUSHIDA
White took Tanahashi to the floor and choked him with a cable.
They got the advantage on Tanahashi as he was bleeding from the mouth. Tanahashi hit a reverse cross off the turnbuckle and tagged KUSHIDA.
KUSHIDA hit a rolling DDT and applied an armbar to Gedo but was attacked by White.
White was in with Tanahashi and went for the Blade Runner, which was blocked, and he hit Twist & Shout followed by the sling blade. KUSHIDA took Gedo to the floor as Tanahashi climbed up, White grabbed Tiger Hattori and Gedo hit Tanahashi with brass knuckles.
White grabbed Tanahashi’s prone body and hit the Blade Runner and pinned Tanahashi.
WINNERS: JAY WHITE & GEDO AT 8:51
They are building the Tanahashi and White match but it’s very rare they would have Tanahashi take a pin unless it’s a big deal, which elevating White is as a top priority.
White cut a promo after the match while Tanahashi was lifeless on his back. The audience chanted, “Fuck you, Switchblade”. He said as soon as Tanahashi won the G1, he gave Okada a chance at the briefcase and said he beat Tanahashi so he has a right to the briefcase. White called this “the new era”. White was really on point during his entire performance tonight.
This is when they took an intermission.
MARTY SCURLL VS WILL OSPREAY
Ospreay immediately hit a standing Spanish Fly, a Space Flying Tiger Drop to the floor and a shooting star press within the first 30 seconds for near falls on Scurll. He teased the OsCutter and Scurll went to the floor.
Scurll came back with several huge chops and took over inside the ring. Scurll attacked the neck and drove it down into the mat with his feet as the audience cheered on Scurll. Ospreay stopped the attack with a handspring enzuigiri off the ropes but grabbed his neck in pain.
They fought on the apron, Scurll was knocked down and Ospreay proceeded with a sunset bomb to the floor.
Scurll countered the OsCutter with a backslide attempt, released it and superkicked Ospreay.
Scurll stopped Ospreay’s kicks and hit a vertical suplex and into the chicken wing. Ospreay rolled back and escaped.
They cut to Mauro Ranallo applauding during the match and was sitting with Frank Shamrock.
Scurll ran him into the post from the turnbuckle and landed a Tiger suplex from the top.
Scurll followed with a double underhook driver onto the neck and pinned Ospreay with Graduation.
WINNER: MARTY SCURLL AT 16:09
Excellent match and Scurll will face KUSHIDA next week at Sumo Hall for the vacant title.
This could be opening the door for Ospreay to leave the junior heavyweight division.
THE YOUNG BUCKS VS THE GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY FOR THE IWGP TAG TITLES
Haku came out with the Guerrillas.
The audience began chanting for the Bucks and then started a “G.O.D.” chant.
Matt started selling his chronic back injury early in the match and had to tag in Nick.
Tanga Loa grabbed Matt and powerslammed him onto the floor to injure the back further. This left Nick to fight both on his own. He executed a dive onto Tanga Loa and nearly cracked his face into the guardrail.
Matt tried to get involved by climbing the turnbuckle and Loa shoved him off through a table set up on the floor. Nick was beaten down and got to his corner, but Matt was down on the floor.
Matt received the tag and fired up. Matt applied the sharpshooter to Tama Tonga, Loa broke it up. Matt continued to heavily sell his back.
The Bucks struggled and hit More Bang for Your Buck onto Loa, who kicked out after Matt’s moonsault.
Nick helped Matt lift Loa, he went for the Meltzer Driver, but Tonga cut off Nick with a Gun Stun in mid-air. Loa hit Apeshit for a huge near fall.
Loa lifted Matt into the air to set him up for a Gun Stun by Tonga, which was really a 3-D and they pinned Matt.
WINNERS: THE GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY AT 19:21 TO WIN THE IWGP TAG TITLES
Another solid match and the right finish given all the emphasis they have placed on the Firing Squad this past summer.
Matt’s selling was a strong part of the match, but Nick really stood out for his comebacks which are always excellent and he was terrific in this match.
The audience got behind both teams at various portions of the match and this crowd has elevated every match tonight.
JUICE ROBINSON VS CODY FOR THE IWGP UNITED STATES TITLE
There was no secret what role Cody was playing tonight he was the overt heel.
They were on the floor, Brandi came up from behind and Juice accidentally knocked her down. It was a ruse they played on Juice as Cody attacked him from behind as Brandi revealed she was fine.
Brandi grabbed Robinson’s leg to prevent a cannonball, he followed up minutes later and connected with it. Cody knocked Robinson into the turnbuckle and Brandi gauged his eyes.
Cody applied a figure-four.
Cody took of his weightlifting belt, handed it to Red Shoes and behind his back he spit water into the face of Robinson.
Robinson avoided the powerslam, they each went for the finishers and were blocked, it ended with Robinson landing Pulp Friction and Cody rolled to the floor. Robinson had Red Shoes stop the count and they fought on the floor with both making it back inside in time.
They had an exchange of punches with chants for each when they landed. Cody poked him in the eyes and hit a superkick. Cody went for Din’s Fire and hit it and Robinson kicked out.
Robinson hit a superplex but Cody cradled Robinson after landing and caught him for the pin.
WINNER: CODY AT 16:46 TO WIN THE IWGP UNITED STATES TITLE
The announcers debated who got the pin but it didn’t seemed designed to be a disputed finish.
THE GOLDEN LOVERS VS KAZUCHIKA OKADA & TOMOHIRO ISHII
Okada and Ibushi started the match, Okada went for a Rainmaker and Ibushi ducked.
Ishii spit into the face of Ibushi. They exchanged chops and kicks and lit each other up. Ishii’s chest was so red from chops.
Okada made the gun sign at Omega and being arrogant towards Omega.
At around the 10-minute mark, Okada and Omega were tagged in together.
Omega and Ibushi hit the Cross Slash to the floor on opposite ends.
Omega and Okada had a face off in the middle of the ring. The audience was buzzing for it. Omega ducked a Rainmaker and lifted Okada onto his shoulders and it was avoided. Omega hit a snap dragon suplex. Omega went for a V-Trigger and was caught with a dropkick.
Okada went for the Rainmaker and Ibushi grabbed the arm of Okada to stop it. Okada countered the One-Winged Angel for a tombstone, Omega reversed, and it ended with another reversal and Okada hit the tombstone. Ibushi saved Omega and broke up the cover.
Ibushi was in with Ishii and landed the double knees off a standing moonsault.
Omega countered Okada’s big dropkick with a sit-out powerbomb and looked tremendous. Ibushi took down Ishii with a Pele kick. All four were down and they received a standing ovation.
Ishii and Ibushi had a big slapping exchange ending with an Ibushi lariat for a two-count. Okada dropkicked Ibushi towards Ishii for a frightening high angle powerbomb for a two-count.
Okada was run off the apron by an Omega boot and they landed the Golden Trigger to pin Ishii.
WINNERS: THE GOLDEN LOVERS AT 23:06
Outstanding main event. This was an amazing show.
The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, and Hangman Page come into the ring. Omega acknowledged the yellow seats before the show but sees a lot of familiar and happy faces now.
Omega mentioned King of Pro Wrestling next week. He said people want to see the singles match between himself and Kota Ibushi and addressed him in Japanese. He challenged Ibushi for next week at Sumo Hall. Cody interrupted before Ibushi could answer and he challenged Ibushi and Omega for a three-way. So, that is the main event for King of Pro Wrestling.
