August 14th 2021 signals an important moment in the US expansion of New Japan Pro Wrestling, with the lion mark taking over the Torch at LA Coliseum. The star-studded card features a duo of top title matches, alongside a very exciting singles match, a mystery participant, and some interesting undercard tag encounters.

The card isn’t completely set yet, with possibly another match or two to be added, but at time of writing the booked matches offer an intriguing show that flaunts one of NJPW’s cards of the year.

MATCH CARD:

Alex Coughlin vs Karl Fredericks

Rocky Romero, Fred Rosser and Wheeler Yuta vs Ren Narita, TJP and Clark Connors

Jon Moxley and X vs Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson

Team Filthy (Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Jorel Nelson and Royce Isaacs) vs Lio Rush, Brody King, Chris Dickinson, Fred Yehi and Yuya Uemura

Moose vs Tomohiro Ishii

NEVER Openweight Championship:
Jay White (c) vs David Finlay

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship:
Lance Archer (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

Undercard Highlights
Without going through the undercard matches in overzealous detail, I’ll look at Alex Coughlin’s open challenge match against former Young Lion Karl Fredericks, as well as the two NJPW Strong tag team face-offs.

The massive NJPW Resurgence show begins with Coughlin’s open challenge singles match against Karl Fredericks. With it being a Young Lion vs fully-fledged roster member, I would expect Fredericks to pick up the victory over Coughlin. If NJPW Strong is anything to go by, this should be a nice match, so it’s definitely worth watching (don’t skip the opener)!

The next match is Rocky Romero, Fred Rosser, and Wheeler Yuta taking on Ren Narita, TJP, and Clark Connors in a 3-on-3 tag team match. Rosser has surpassed my expectations in NJPW Strong, being a real gem of the weekly show. Wheeler Yuta, Narita and Connors are all great prospects, so this match should be worth checking out too.

Thirdly, the card’s interesting 10 man tag match, as Team Filthy takes on an eclectic mix of NJPW Strong’s wrestlers. The high-flying athleticism of Lio Rush, Brody King and Chris Dickinson’s powerful Violence Unlimited tag team, Fred Yehi’s technical nous, and Yuya Uemura’s immense potential piece together a great team.

This match also marks the beginning of Yuya Uemura’s US excursion – an important step in his career progression. For this reason alone the match is certainly one to watch, as in his excursion Uemura will be able to advance his skills and maybe even experiment with varied gimmicks and styles. 

Team Filthy have been a permanent fixture of Strong over the past few months and recently they’ve added a new tag team to their ranks, The West Coast Wrecking Crew. This is their first key outing as a part of Tom Lawlor’s faction, which could present an interesting dynamic to an already intriguing tag match.

Jon Moxley and X vs Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson
The first main match of the night will be New Japan Strong’s recent Tag Team Turbulence winners, Gallows and Anderson, taking on Jon Moxley and his mystery partner. This is in answer to Mox’s open challenge to the entire NJPW roster, but the former IWGP US and AEW World Champion heads into this without the fans knowing who his tag team partner will be.

Perhaps the biggest intrigue of the show is Moxley’s mystery partner. My initial guess was Shota Umino, but UK-US travel restrictions mean that’s out of the picture. Shooter was the obvious choice, and perhaps he was going to be the mystery man before the COVID-19 restrictions continued, so X is someone else.

So who will it be? Maybe it’ll be Moxley’s AEW partner Eddie Kingston or his ally Darby Allin, but the list goes on. X could well be someone that Gallows and Anderson have history with, or maybe even a figure from the Death Rider’s past. Your guess is as good as mine!

Moose vs Tomohiro Ishii
Moose vs Tomohiro Ishii. One of the strangest matches in recent NJPW history, as former-American footballer and IMPACT Wrestling mainstay faces the pitbull of New Japan’s heavyweight ranks.

A match beyond fantasy booking, with a spectacle that just makes me so happy. I laughed for a good few minutes when I saw this match announcement just because of how odd a prospect it is. This match is going to be so much fun. I genuinely can’t wait to see it in front of a surely rabid full-capacity American wrestling crowd.

Ishii is one of my favourite wrestlers, despite his career never quite reaching the IWGP Heavyweight winning heights it certainly could. Moose is a very powerful man inside the ring, and his style should mix well with the bullish, heavy-hitting Stone Pitbull.

Match of the night contender? Possibly.

NEVER Openweight Championship:
Jay White (c) vs David Finlay
The first of Resurgence’s double main event is Jay White defending his NEVER Openweight prize against one of New Japan’s rising stars, David Finlay. In a match which has surprisingly been built on IMPACT Wrestling, the Switchblade defends his title for the first time in his reign, against 4th-generation wrestler Finlay.

The full-capacity crowd will definitely be up for this one, with the underdog babyface persona of David Finlay a crowd favourite against New Japan’s best heel.

Finlay defeated the Bullet Club leader in 2021’s New Japan Cup, back in March, thus earning this title shot. The result could go both ways, with it being feasible that Finlay might out-do Jay again, this time becoming the NEVER Openweight Champion. However, the Switchblade may just have a long title reign in his near-future, so a retention is likely the safest bet.

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship:
Lance Archer (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
The second instalment of Resurgence’s double main event is the IWGP United States title clash between the reigning champion, Lance Archer, and New Japan Ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi. 

Archer only just captured the championship – doing so on July 21st’s AEW Dynamite from Jon Moxley – before going on to successfully defend his title against Hikelou one week later. The Moxley match was a thrilling Texas Deathmatch, harking back to their Wrestle Kingdom 14 encounter of 2020. 

Just prior to the Hikelou defence, Tanahashi appeared on the show via a video on the arena big screen. The Ace challenged the champion, with the match later being set for the all-important NJPW Resurgence main event after Archer retained. This match won’t be akin to the hardcore Moxley encounter, but instead will likely take on a more conventional New Japan main event feel, which Tanahashi is spectacular at.

This show is a real break from the domestic New Japan product, with all the undercard matches having an identifiable and meaningful story heading in. The two main events stand out as potentially great matches too – all in all it’s a very well rounded and thrilling card. 

The event promises to be superb: maybe even a show of the year contender.

Show Details
When: Saturday 14th August @ 8pm PDT/11pm EST/Sunday 15th August @ 4am BST
How to Watch: Available live on NJPW World for only 999¥ per month (roughly £7.50/$9.30) or Fite TV for $20.00
Notes: English commentary will be exclusively on Fite TV. Only Japanese commentary will be available live on NJPW World.