Jay White is having a bad year. It began with a high profile loss to Kota Ibushi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 15. He stalled his slide by picking up a win over Hiroshi Tanahashi, and the NEVER Openweight Title along with it, but his luck ran out on Saturday.
White lost the title to Tomohiro Ishii in a blistering main event in San Jose. With the win, Ishii becomes a record-setting six-time NEVER Openweight Champion. He was tied with CHAOS stablemate Hirooki Goto since 2020. With other members of Bullet Club rising up the ranks, its going to be tough for Jay White to hold on to his frontman position in the group much longer.
Congratulations to new NEVER Openweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii!https://t.co/XHtTsfIrZJ#njpw #njvalley pic.twitter.com/NNjaBmkCJs
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) November 14, 2021
Elsewhere on the show, Buddy Matthews made his NJPW debut. The former-Buddy Murphy wrestled against franchise star Kazuchika Okada in a match that saw Matthews seamlessly blended the influences of Kenny Omega, and former-tag partner Seth Rollins, to bring the fight to The Rainmaker, but was unfortunately unable to get the win.
“元WWE戦士”バディ・マシューズが新日本マット初登場！
オカダ・カズチカと白熱マッチを展開も、最後はレインメーカーで敗戦…!!
現地時間11.13サンノゼ大会の結果は
⇒https://t.co/rVLKXkfSX1#njvalley #njpw pic.twitter.com/F9zxJjost3— 新日本プロレスリング株式会社 (@njpw1972) November 14, 2021
After the match, Okada’s victory celebration was interrupted by “real World Champion” Will Ospreay challenging the winner of Okada/Takagi to a match on January 5th. Ospreay’s challenge wasn’t the only surprise.
Former-WWE NXT North American Champion Jonah Rock (Bronson Reed) returned to NJPW for the first time since 2018. After attacking Juice Robinson, he made it clear that New Japan was where the super heavyweight was landing. It wasn’t the only bad luck for Juice, who was battered and beaten from a loss to IMPACT Champion Moose.
Will Ospreay didn’t just run his mouth on Saturday, he also put Ren Narita down for the count in a hard-fought match. Ospreay and The United Empire have been feuding with the LA Dojo students, and Narita fought like hell to try and silence The Commonwealth Kingpin’s big mouth. A Hidden Blade from Ospreay put an end to that hope.
Also Fred Rosser led the LA Dojo boys to victory against Team Filthy, Josh Alexander submitted Yuya Uemura, and Bullet Club left Young Lions The DKC & Kevin Knight laying.
A bit of unfortunate news from the undercard, Chris Dickinson suffered an injury during a tag match against Bateman & Mysterioso. Dickinson had to be stretchered out of the arena, and sent out a tweet asking for good thoughts. The injury seemed to come off of a Frog Splash, a tribute to Eddie Gurrero, who passed 16 years ago.
Need every and all positive vibes in the world right now. Please ?❤️
— Chris Dickinson – クリス・ディキンソン (@DirtyDickinson) November 14, 2021
Here are the full results:
11/13
NJPW Battle In The Valley
San Jose, CA
Available on NJPWWorld.com
- Pre-Show Match: Bullet Club (Chris Bey & Hikuleo) def. The DKC & Kevin Knight by pinfall. (8:35)
Hikuleo pinned The DKC via Chokeslam - Josh Alexander def. Yuya Uemura by submission via Ankle Lock. (11:44)
- Bateman & Mysterioso def. Brody King & Chris Dickinson by pinfall. (10:08)
Bateman pinned Chris Dickinson via Roll-Up. - Fred Rosser, David Finlay, Alex Coughlin, Alex Zayne & Rocky Romero def. Team Filthy (Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson & Danny Limelight) by pinfall. (15:12)
Fred Rosser pinned Royce Isaacs via Gut Feeling. - Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks def. United Empire (Jeff Cobb & TJP) by pinfall. (10:00)
Karl Fredericks pinned TJP via Cradle Pin. - Will Ospreay def. Ren Narita by pinfall via Hidden Blade. (15:43)
- Moose def. Juice Robinson by pinfall via Spear. (14:51)
- Kazuchika Okada def. Buddy Matthews by pinfall via Rainmaker. (16:23)
- NEVER Openweight Championship Match: Tomohiro Ishii def. Jay White (c) by pinfall. (28:40)
NJPW will return on Nov. 14th at 4:30am ET for Night 1 of the World Tag League on NJPWWorld.com
