New Japan Showdown (2021)

Promotional poster featuring various NJPW wrestlers

**New Japan Showdown (2021)** was a two-day professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling's sub-brand New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America (NJoA). The event took place on October 16 and 17, 2021 and aired on tape delay on November 6, November 13, November 20 and November 27, 2021 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States with with the event being the fourth NJPW event to be held with an audience and the second event outside of the Thunder Studios following the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This was the fourth show under the New Japan Showdown name. The show was also part of the *NJPW Strong* televisions series.

## Production

### Background

On October 27, 2020, NJPW announced a second event under the New Japan Showdown name with two nights being held at the Oceanview Pavilion in California, United States. NJPW began usually promoting the New Japan Showdown events since 2019, as part of NJPW annually promoting events in the Unied States. The 2020 New Japan Showdown events were also part of the *NJPW Strong* televisions series and were held behind closed doors without a live audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. New Japan Showdown was announced in August with the event taking place on October 16 and 17 at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This event also marked the fourth NJPW show has held an event in the United States with fans in attendance since February 2020, due to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tickets went on sale on August 8, costing from $29 to $149. On September 7, NJPW announced that recent budget cut released wrestler from WWE, Alex Zayne (formerly Ari Sterling in WWE) and Jake Atlas were going to take part of the event including Imapact Wrestling and Ring of Honor wrestlers, Chris Bey and Jonathan Gresham. On September 15, NJPW announced partial card for the first night as well as a partial card for the second night. On September 26, NJPW announced that Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston were going to take part of the event. On September 29, NJPW announced that Jake Atlas was pulled out from the event, after Atlas announced his retirement from professional wrestling due to his mental health leading to NJPW to announce his replacement with recent budget cut released WWE wrestler, Ariya Daivari. On October 13, NJPW announced the full card for the first night as well as for the second night.

### Storylines

New Japan Showdown (2021) featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

On August 14 at Resurgence, Will Ospreay made his return from injury, announcing that he was medically cleared to return in-ring competition, before as the "real IWGP World Heavyweight Championship" belt, before stating that he would be appearing on *NJPW Strong* defending his title. Afterwards, Ospreay began feuding with the members of the LA Dojo, being confronted by Clark Connors, Karl Fredericks and TJP. During his feud with the LA Dojo, TJP who had previously align with Fredericks, turned on him, and joined the United Empire at Autumn Attack. The L.A. Dojo and United Empire return angle resulted in New Japan Showdown also featuring other prominent matches, with Ospreay and TJP facing Ren Narita and Clark Connors and Connors taking also on TJP.

On September 5, at All Elite Wrestling's All Out, Minoru Suzuki made his AEW debut by confronting Jon Moxley. A match between the two was made for the ensuing episode of *Dynamite*, which Moxley won in his hometown of Cincinnati; prior to the match, Suzuki's iconic "Kaze ni Nare" entrance music was cut off which would led to a lot of fan backlash which would be dubbed as the Suzuki incident by fans and wrestlers. On September 15, Suzuki and Lance Archer, who returned to the stable would cite the incident as hometown bias towards Moxley and challenged him and Eddie Kingston to a tag team match at *Rampage*: Grand Slam. At the event on Spetember 24, Archer and Suzuki were defeated by Moxley and Kingston in a Lights Out match, following the interference of Homicide during the match. One day later rematch was announced was later made official for the show in a Philadelphia Street Fight match after Suzuki and Archer challenged them to rematch at the show.

## Results

### Night 1

 2
 3

* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match

### Night 2

 6
 8
 9

* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match

### Night 3

 2
 3

* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match

### Night 4

 2
 3
 4

* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match