NJPW STRONG Episode 20 12/18/2020

 NJPW STRONG Episode 20 12/18/2020

 Rocky Romero vs Danny Limelight

Well, I've seen two Danny Limelight matches this week. That's two more than I have seen in my whole life. Good for him.

DL gets jumped when Rocky enters and they trade blows. Rocky goes into the post and DL works his arm outside. More work on the arm here from DL. DL judo throws him into an armlock.  Rocky tries to comeback but gets dropkicked and as DL screws around with clotheslines, Rocky comes back with one of his own to drop him. Rocky comes back with chops and forearms and DL slaps him. Rocky hangs him on the middle rope and dropkicks him. DL sells it well getting stuck in the ropes.

DL kicks him in the arm he was working on and DL half-nelson suplexes him. Rocky gets caught in mid-air and DL suplexes him into an armlock. DL does a spin kick to the shoulder that looks good but Rocky kicks out at 2. DL climbs up the buckles but Rocky catches him with a dropkick on the way down. Rocky does a tilt-a-whirl cutter for 2. Rocky then does the falcon arrow into the armbar for the win at 9:18.

I thought DL was pretty good here working the arm and this was a fine match that mostly made sense.

Jeff Cobb vs Rust Taylor

Rust gets the edge over Cobb early with his technical skills and gets rolled over to the ropes with Cobb's wrestling. Cobb lifts Rust into a slam and gets caught in a triangle when he tries a moonsault on him. Rust attacks the arm, tying it up in the ropes. Rust holds Cobb's arm in place with his legs while he strikes him. He takes a bunch of forearms and a big short-arm european uppercut.

Cobb hits Rust with a swinging backdrop for 2 then hits a moonsault on him for another 2. Rust reverse axe kick's Cobb and goes back to work on the arm. with an armbar attempt. They trade some strikes and Rust combo's him with euro's and arm kicks. Rust gets suplexed and then takes Cobb's swinging slam for the Jeff Cobb win.

It was a little short as I expected with the 15 minute time limit but Rust looked really good and overshadowed Cobb in many ways.

Tom Lawlor and JR Kratos vs PJ Black and Fred Rosser

Nexus reunited here with Fred being Darren Young and PJ being Justin Gabriel. Gabriel used to be a good looking dude and looks like a homeless meth addict now. Kratos is the reason I'm here. He's one of the few heavyweights out there anymore.

Fred gets shoulderblocked out by Kratos early. He tags into Black who gets backdropped hard. Lawlor comes in and brainbuster's him for 2. Lawlor runs the ropes and hits nice spinwheel kick. Lawlor has control for a bit here over Black and Black tries to leapfrog him, but Lawlor grabs the leg and makes it an ankle lock.

Kratos comes in and throws off Black hard then nails him with a forearm hard. Black gets tripped by Lawlor on the outside and popped-up and down. Kratos deadlift suplexes him for 2. Kratos launches Black into the turnbuckle and he just bounces. Lawlor is back in and jumping stomps him, then exchanges a shot with Fred as Kratos comes in for a free shot. Black does a high spinkick and Fred takes over on Tom. Both go over the top on a clothesline and Fred legdrops him from the apron. He slips or something and ends up on the conrete.

Lawlor exploder suplexes him inside and both tag out. Kratos gets double teamed and Lawlor accidentally enzugiri's Kratos. Black hits the 450 and wins it, getting the pin on Kratos in what I think is a strange result. I thought they kind of rushed the finishing stretch but it had a lot of good stuff in it with Kratos looking great.

IWGP United States Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Briefcase Match - KENTA vs Brody King

Kenta stalls outside a bit early, looking for something under the apron. Kenta starts kicking at the leg of Brody to start. They exchange some strikes and Brody senton's him. The size difference between these two is really so big that it's honestly hard to believe King can't kill him anytime he wants. Brody takes over for a while and Kenta starts making him chase him. Kenta pulls his head down on the ropes and then follows up with more leg kicks.

Kenta bullies him around with some kicks and you can clearly see Kenta is struggling just to pick him up and lift him. King really sells the leg here. They trade shots which I just find silly and Brody takes him down with a clothesline. Kenta dragon screws him and figure four's him. They end up battling on the apron with Kenta working the knee.

They come back in with Kenta draping him over the middle rope and DDT'ing him for 2. Kenta hits a flurry of hard slaps and runs at him but gets caught in a spinning side slam. King then piledrives him for 2. Kenta pushes him into the ref and then DDT's him. Kenta grabs his briefcase and hits him with it after a low blow. Kenta wakes the ref up, penalty kick's him and hits the Go2Sleep for the win. I thought they did a pretty smart match all things considered, though I wouldn't have done the Go2Sleep here. This one made sense and they did the best they could with the size differences.

Overall thoughts: Not a bad hour of wrestling. The matches could have gone a little longer, but the hour flew by and they packed a lot in here.