By Chris VeterProWrestling.net Contributor (@ Crisvetter 73)
New Japan Pro Wrestling “Lonestar Shootout”
Dallas, Texas Fairmont Hotel (Wrestlecon)
Live streamed on FITE TV
Like other shows at this venue on weekends, the crowd is probably 400. They have recorded three or four more matches for the upcoming episode of New Japan Strong. The commentators were Kevin Kelly (Welcome Back to America!) And Matt Rehwalt.
1. Ren Narita defeated Rocky Romero at 7:40. Narita still wears a generic black trunk. Kelly mentions that Ren is now taller and stronger than Romero. Narita definitely beat him with her hands and chops. Narita hit a nice Northern Lights suplex at around 5:30 p.m. Romero hit a flipping sliced bread, almost Destino. Romero equated him with a line of tight clothing. Out of nowhere, Narita catches him with an overhead suplex with a bridge to score the pin.
2. Mascara Dorada (f / k / a Gran Metallik), Yuya Umera, Clark Connors, and Karl Fredericks defeated Jose Robinson, David Finlay, Kevin Knight, and Daniel Garcia at 10:44. Dorada and Knight opened with a quick reversal. Garcia and Connors enter and turn on the hard chop. Juice and Finlay works on Umera. No team is working like Hill. Juice Uemera hit a rolling tumbleweed in the corner at 5:30. Connors finally got the hot tag at 7:00 and he dropped both Juice and Finlay.
Fredericks enters the ring for the first time at 8:00 and fights with Knight, hitting a spine. Knight counter with a dropkick. Converse Night Spear. Juice performs a spine on Uemera. Mascara hit a flip dive on the floor at 9:30. It just kept Fredericks and Knight in the ring and hit the Manifest Destiny Jumping DDT for Fredericks Pinn. Good, endless action.
3. Minoru defeats Suzuki Killer Cross at 9:48. Cross came out alone. If you haven’t seen her recently, her brown hair has grown a bit and it looks very different from her Impact and NXT run. The crowd warms up as they open with armbands. Minoru applied the divorce court armbreaker on the rope at 2:30 p.m. The cross loosened some stiff arms on the floor. Back in the ring, Minoru tied his arm and bent the cross finger.
Cross executed an overhead suplex for a near fall at 6:00. Suzuki went back to the arm. Suzuki yells at Cross, yells at him. They start trading tough overhand chops, and Minoru shows off his evil smile. Cross applied a back-nude choke at 9:00, but Cross escaped. Out of nowhere, Suzuki cross-ups for Goch-style piledrivers and scores pins. Which suddenly rolled up. Good fight. Suzuki grabbed the hand of a boy, probably 8 years old, and Kelly shouted, “Oh no! He will eat that baby! ” It made me laugh out loud.
Jon Moxley showed up without an ad, and Kelly immediately talked about Moxley’s match against Will Osprey in Chicago in two weeks. Moxley got up in the ring and grabbed Mike. He said that all these fans have gathered in Dallas because of their love of pro wrestling. He says he has had three matches in the last 24 hours. He is ready to fight Osprey. “I’m not just going to teach him a lesson, I’m going to make an example from Will Osprey,” he vowed.
4. Jay White defeated Mike Bailey at 14:17. Bailey hurled some spin kicks and the crowd shouted “Speedball!” Said the slogan. J performs a stunner across the rope at 2:30 a.m., hitting Bailey in the neck before falling to the floor. Ouch. White unloaded some hard chop on the floor. In the ring, Bailey presses a corkscrew to read around 6:00.
Bailey misses his top-rope 450 knee drop, but he hits a springboard moonsult on the White floor at 8:00 and the crowd comes up and shouts, “That’s great!” Back in the ring, White tied Bailey’s legs. They got to their feet and did chop and hard kick business. Bailey hit a 450 double knee drop at 13:00 and fell close, but he sold his leg pain. Bailey missed her top-rope 450 nidrop. White immediately hits the blade runner spinning face plant for a clean pin.
White grabbed the mic, the crowd cheered, but then he threw it away and disappointed the fans.
5. Tomohiro Ishii defeated Chris Dickinson at 16:17. Dickinson won a surprise victory over Suzuki at the Bloodsport event the day before. Kelly talks about Dickinson’s significantly faster recovery from his hip injury. There was an intense lockup to open and then a shoulder tackle was run but initially no one fell. Ishii finally went down. They start a hard chops business, then fight on the floor. In the ring, Dickinson hit some spin kicks at 5:00 and he was in charge.
Ishii gets angry and dares Dickinson to hit him. Ishii starts unloading her own stiff arms and chops and the crowd gets excited. Dickinson hits a brainbuster but Ishii pops up at 10:00. Dickinson then followed the Death Valley driver to a believable approach. They trade more weapons. At 13:00 Ishii gets hit in the head which knocks the two of them out. Dickinson nailed a brainbuster to get another believable closer. Ishii is connected to an engiguri at 15:30, then a line of basement cloth for a near fall. Ishii has performed a brainbuster for Clean Pin.
Minoru appeared on the Suzuki stage and challenged Ishii in a singles match. It is now set for the April 16 Chicago show.
Last thoughts: The show lasted for about 1 hour, 40 minutes. It was a fun, fast-paced show that didn’t miss its welcome. Both Ishii and Suzuki have been fascinated by their uninterrupted schedule in Dallas for the past two days. I’ve said this a few times recently, but the young lions continue to fascinate, because both Umera and Narita look much prettier than they did in Japan a few years ago. I have seen Bailey lose three of four matches in these two days, but he continues to impress in every outing. Cross is a welcome addition to this roster, and hopefully he will be used more soon.
