NJPW Strong Rivals spoilers: Former NXT star debuts
A former NXT North American Champion made his NJPW debut at Thursday night’s NJPW Strong: Rivals taping in Los Angeles.
Shane Strickland, formerly Isaiah “Swerve” Scott in WWE NXT, answered Jay White’s open challenge at the event, taking the loss in the show’s main event.
Strickland was one of three unadvertised former WWE talents to make surprise appearances on the show.
Ahead of his return to an NJPW ring at next month’s Strong Style Evolved taping, Mascara Dorada, formerly Gran Metalik, made an appearance at Rivals.
The former Shane Thorne, Shane Haste made his first NJPW appearance since Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 2015 at Rivals, aligning with the Bad Dude Tito and JONAH stable.
Here are full results from the Vermont Hollywood:
- Hikuleo defeated Kevin Knight
- Christopher Daniels defeated Karl Fredericks
- Elimination match: Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson & Danny Limelight defeated Fred Rosser, Tyler Rust, Adrian Quest, The DKC & Clark Connors
- TJP defeated Brogan Finlay
- Keita Murray, Fred Yehi & The DKC defeated Bateman, Misterioso & Barrett Brown
- Kevin Blackwood defeated Ariya Daivari
- Daniel Garcia defeated Yuya Uemura
- Black Tiger (Ricky Reyes) defeated Rocky Romero
- JONAH & Bad Dude Tito defeated Juice Robinson & David Finlay
- Chris Bey defeated Blake Christian
- Buddy Matthews defeated Ren Narita
- Jay White defeated Shane Strickland
An F4WOnline Editor since 2019, Ethan has been covering wrestling and MMA since 2011. He has hosted The Wrestling Life Podcast since 2014, and is a former Baltimore Sun TV/Tribune Media contributor. He is also a Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore Orioles fan.