Several new champions were crowned on the second night of NJPW STRONG’s Independence Day cards at Korakuen Hall.
Eddie Kingston is the new STRONG Openweight Champion after beating KENTA with the Northern Lights Bomb. Kingston becomes the fifth man to hold the championship since its inception in 2021.
Kingston was in tears after winning the match and was embraced by Homicide ringside as he made his way to the back.
The championship win coincides with Kingston’s first appearance in the G1 Climax, which begins later this month. Kingston is part of the C Block and has his first match on July 16 against Shingo Takagi.
Giulia is the new STRONG Women’s Champion after beating Willow Nightingale and unseating the inaugural champion.
Nightingale won the title in May at Resurgence in a one-night tournament. Mercedes Mone was set to win the final when she suffered a legitimate injury and they changed the outcome on the fly with Nightingale prevailing.
In the main event of the Independence Day show, Jon Moxley won the ‘Final Death Match’ against El Desperado in a match that went approximately twenty minutes and followed up a wild brawl the night prior where El Desperado & Jun Kasai beat Moxley & Homicide.
Here are the results from Wednesday’s card in front of an announced attendance of 1,401 (Courtesy: Purolove.com):
*Final Death Match: Jon Moxley over El Desperado in 20:33
*STRONG Openweight Championship: Eddie Kingston over KENTA © in 13:30
*IWGP Tag Team Championships: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI © over Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd in 11:29
*STRONG Women’s Championship: Giulia over Willow Nightingale © in 13:29
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano & The DKC over Tom Lawlor, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson in 13:10
*Lance Archer & Alex Zayne over Bad Dude Tito & Kosei Fujita in 9:31
*IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles: Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors © over Rocky Romero & YOH in 12:05
*Francesco Akira & TJP over Homicide & Ryohei Oiwa in 12:09
*Satoshi Kojima over Oskar Leube in 5:23
*Dark Match: Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato & Boltin Oleg over Dragon Libre, Rekka & Takahiro Katori in 11:37
Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson will have a review of the two STRONG Independence Day cards on the POST Wrestling Café later today
