The New Japan USA crew has graduated from weekly TV during a pandemic to well-attended monthly shows during an endemic, now featuring more and more talent direct from Japan. This past weekend they hosted Capital Collision in Washington D.C., and on tap was a much-anticipated match between Eddie Kingston and Tomohiro Ishii as well as an appearance from “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada.
1. Ren Narita vs. Karl Fredericks
Someone has got to get Karl Fredericks to Japan. This poor man. He continues to work a good young lion match, but the man must be 42-years-old by now. The U.S. crowd provided a hot atmosphere for this one, woooo’s for the opening bell ringing followed by loud “REN NA-RITA” chants – not things in actual Japan. Then, it was onto the match: bodyslams, dropkicks, and chops. A really nice half-hatch suplex hold. A tremendous Texas Cloverleaf struggle. Rapid-fire counters were followed by a sleeper and Octopus hold from Narita, both negated by an implant DDT from poor Karl. Good opener. ***
2. Fred Rosser, David Finlay, Tanga Loa, Yuya Uemura & DKC vs. Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs & Danny Limelight
Fred Rosser learned from the greats on how to light-up a Championship Match in New Japan, just yanking Lawlor off the apron early in the match to throw him into a guardrail. Tanga Loa, who is now over everywhere he goes, set up a quality showdown with fellow big man JR Kratos later in the match. Then Limelight messed up the finish. Nothing like 15 minutes with friends. **3/4
3. Great O-Khan vs. Chase Owens
Between wrestling boring Chase Owens and doing it in the U.S. where the quirky gimmick ratio is a little higher, the charm of Great O-Khan wasn’t wholly present here at Capital Collision. He did the signature moves like the thing in the corner and the thing with the Claw, but the match mostly meandered until a rollup with feet on ropes ended it. **
4. JONAH, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Bad Dude Tito vs. Jeff Cobb, Aaron Henare, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis
TMDK are having themselves a very very very delayed reunion, while the Aussie Open are similar to Karl Fredericks in that it seems like they should’ve been in Japan years ago. Most guys here like to throw strikes, so that’s what they did. Haste’s hurricanrana counter of the Aussie’s finish was very cool, and you would not believe how over the JONAH vs. Jeff Cobb showdown was. Very well-timed closing sequence too. ***1/4
5. Minoru Suzuki vs. Brody King
They got right to the point here, which as both an aging man and spoiled wrestling fan I really appreciated. Big Brody chopped the steel turnbuckle post with his hand by mistake, then got messed up for a bit. Suzuki made him earn the win, slapping and chopping the life out of Brody before a Ganso Bomb put down grandpa. Go elsewhere for your grace; this was 10 minutes of fun. ***1/4
6. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Eddie Kingston
Based on a read of his wrestling style and Twitter Feed, AEW’s Eddie Kingston looks up to these tough guy Japanese wrestlers — but he thinks he’s as good as them, too. The test of wills was immediate, and it was awesome. Eventually Kingston began struggling and doing that wobbling thing he does, before he ripped off his face bandage and started throwing more chops.
They packed a lot of action into 15 minutes. About 10 minutes in as they exchanged another round of slapdash strikes, each screamed and delivered a suplex before they both fell down and over the P.A. it was announced that just 10 minutes had passed — a great punchline. The pace and physicality was such that a few minutes later when Kingston was firing off backfists like a guy on his last legs shooting bullets, it seemed legit. They lost a bit of momentum as it came to a close, but like Suzuki/Brody the folks saw another great no-BS slugfest with a head-spike finish. ****1/4
7. Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero vs. Jay White & Hikuleo
Romero replaced Trent Beretta prior to the show but it probably didn’t make much difference: Kazuchika Okada is over as shit and they went full house show style, 80s Hulk Hogan and somebody to take a beating from then defeat somebody and somebody. Rocky and Switchblade closed up well enough. ***
8. 4-Way Match – IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi [c] vs. Jon Moxley vs. Will Ospreay vs. Juice Robinson
Juice Robinson as a biker version of The Cleaner is a much more credible top guy look than the whole other thing he was doing, though there probably could’ve been a bit more pomp and circumstance around his U.S. Heavyweight Title victory. NJPW USA got the memo on shorter matches and went all-action 15-minute 4-Way for this main event, which was fun if not a bit forgettable. An opening brawl setup a very cool showdown between Moxley and Tanahashi, while in a strange twist I am pretty sure Moxley and Ospreay really dig working together. Tanahashi wrecked his hands on a High Fly Flow through on the floor, which setup the surprising if not anti-climatic finish. ***1/4
Happy Thoughts: Way higher quality than your average American house show, though outside of Ishii/Kingston this definitely still had the feel of an American house show. 3.0 / 5.0
