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Summer Struggle in Jingu - 8/29/2020: Title Changes, Surprises, But No G1 Climax 30 Announcements; NJPW Strong Episode 4 - 8/28/2020; RIP “Bullet” Bob Armstrong (10/3/1939 - 8/27/2020); Suzuki At BJW Last Buntai Show 8/30/2020

The end show for Summer Struggle, and NJPW’s first outdoor show in 21 years, took place this morning, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. This show had a few surprises, but it’s also what did NOT happen that’s worth discussing.

Summer Struggle in Jingu - 8/29/2020, Tokyo Meiji Jingu Stadium (NJPWWorld)

Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Master Wato (Sunset Flip, 7:31) 

KOPW 2020 Final 4-Way Match: Toru Yano [CHAOS] d. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], SANADA [Los Ingobernables] & El Desperado [SZKG] (Yano > Okada, Schoolboy, 7:01) - Yano is the inaugural KOPW 2020 Champion

NEVER Openweight Championship: Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] d. Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] © (Gotch Style Piledriver, 14:56) - Takagi fails his 4th defense - Suzuki is the 30th champion

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] d. Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] © (Yes Lock, 13:30) - Hiromu fails his 2nd defense - Ishimori is the 87th champion

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] © d. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi (Taichi > Tanahashi, Zack Mephisto, 16:01) - Dangerous Tekkers succeed their 1st defense

IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championships: Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] d. EVIL [Bullet Club] ©© (Destino, 26:20) - EVIL fails his 2nd IWGP Heavyweight defense - Naito is the 72nd champion - EVIL fails his 2nd IWGP Intercontinental defense - Naito is the 26th champion

For a six match show, a lot was packed into it. Have to say, most of the results are surprising to me. The main event was not one of them, and good as it was, it was nice to see Naito go out with the revised Roll Call, and with fireworks in the sky seeing him out. 

Golden Ace are probably done now, after they failed to regain the tag belts. Hiromu loses Belt-san, AGAIN! Suzuki beat Shingo in a banger. Yano winning the Kazuchika Okada Invitational Tournament by low-blowng Okada is hilarious. Master Wato still has quite a Way to the Grandmaster if he can’t put Kanemaru away. Suzuki-gun looks the strongest out of this show, whilst LIJ lost two belts, but regained the biggest one. 

The biggest surprise from this show, was the lack of announcements for G1 Climax 30. Intermission for this show would have been the time to go ahead with those, but they did not. The upcoming New Japan Road shows don’t appear to be carried by NJPWWorld (no Korakuen Hall shows for one) so this looks to be going to a press conference coming soon. Stay tuned for that one.

Last night was this week’s episode of NJPW Strong, which you can also see on NJPWWorld. THey dubbed this episode the Road to Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2020, the namesake of which seems to be the next two episodes of this Friday night TV show. Here’s the results:

Danny Limelight d. Jordan Clearwater (Symbiote DDT, 5:58)

Misterioso, Barrett Brown, Blake Christian & Adrian Quest d. TJP [FREE], ACH [FREE], Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors (Misterioso > Connors, MSO, 12:04)

Chase Owens [Bullet Club] d. PJ Black [ROH] (Package Driver, 11:10)

Next week’s episode promises Jay White v. Herb Flip Gordon, Brody King v. Hikuleo, and the NJPW debut of one Fred Rosser, the former Darren Young in WWE. On 9/11/2020, the main event will be KENTA v. Jeff Cobb for the challenge rights to the IWGP US Heavyweight title won by KENTA last week by winning the New Japan Cup USA. 

Tomorrow, the newly-crowned NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki will be making his way back down to Yokohama, to face Takuya Nomura in night 2 of Big Japan Pro Wrestling’s Last Buntai event. This happens at the Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium, the site of the famous 8/8/1988 match between Tatsumi Fujinami v. Antonio Inoki that was why NJPW usually ran in Yokohama on August 8, excepting this year. It seems the Buntai will be getting torn down soon, to make way for the Yokohama United Arena, which will be opening sometime in 2024. A little sad that such an historic venue is going away, one that also hosted the volleyball events in the 1964 Summer Olympiad. 

Another death in the NJPW family to announce. “Bullet” Bob Armstrong (Joseph Melton James) passed away on Thursday at the age of 80, succumbing to bone cancer. He’d had quite the career - he gained the name “Bullet” after a gimmick he was given that required him to wear a mask following an accident with a dumbbell that required $38,000 worth of plastic surgery to his face, including ripping his nose off. 

He’d spent most of his career in the NWA’s southern territories, wrestling full-time from 1960 - 1988, with the 90s spent in semi-retirement, although he was a semi-regular feature in Smoky Mountain Wrestling from 1992-1995. Four of his sons also entered wrestling, in Brad, Scott, Steve and Brian, the latter being quite a part of the Attitude-era in the WWF as “Road Dogg” Jesse James.

In his gimmick as Jim Durango, he took part in the very first show for NJPW on 3/6/1972 at Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium, losing in a tag match with John Durango (whomever that was) against Toyonobori & Kotetsu Yamamoto. (We discussed this in Episode 3 of Strong Style History.) He would take part in the rest of this opening tour as well, including a Best Of 3 Falls match against NJPW founder Antonio Inoki. His CAGEMATCH profile only seems to list this tour, however it looks to be a bit incomplete as well, so who knows if this was his only tour of NJPW, or Japan as a whole.

Such an accomplished wrestler will be missed. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

The next show is a New Japan Road show on 9/3/2020, but no cards have been announced for these shows yet.

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