Juice Robinson is ‘Rock Hard’ after winning IWGP US title at Capital Collision

New Japan’s May 14 Washington D.C. PPV, Capital Collision, is a wrap. The highly anticipated main event saw Hiroshi Tanahashi defend his IWGP United States championship in a 4way against Jon Moxley, Will Ospreay & the newest member of Bullet Club, Juice Robinson.

Robinson recently swerved the world by saying he was done with NJPW and possibly even retiring. After he showed up at Wrestling Dontaku and joined the Biz Cliz, he boasted about having lied to “a bunch of gullible idiots.” If it wasn’t clear Juice was getting a push, his new entrance theme and leather-clad attire gave us more clues. And if it wasn’t clear the old babyface Robinson was gone, that was fully evident by the time he bashing Tanahashi with the title belt midway through the 15 minute sprint of a match. As 4ways often are, it was two singles matches at times, including for the finish which saw Tanahashi hit High Fly Flow on Moxley through a table on the floor. That left Ospreay & Juice alone in the ring, and after a low blow and a spinning falcon arrow, Robinson won the U.S. title for the third time in his career.

He then got on the microphone to run down the three men he beat, especially Ospreay (whose foot was under the ropes for the three count, as the story of him being screwed out of wins continues). He also reminded us that he’s now “Rock Hard”, and hinted at big things in the Bullet Club’s future.

That was one of three kick-ass matches to close Capital Collision. Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii lived up to the hype, with both men laying in shots throughout that left them both laid out.

Ishii scored the pin after hitting the VDBB (vertical drop brainbuster), and this one deserves to be run back. Forbidden Door, anyone?

That was followed by CHAOS’ Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero against Bullet Club’s Switchblade Jay White & Hikuleo. The D.C. crowd was rabid for the IWGP World Heavyweight champion, and excited for Okada’s latest showdown with his Dominion challenger White. The Switchblade scored the victory here by pinning Romero, then squared up to the Rainmaker. It was a set-up for an attack by Hikuleo, however. The beatdown of Okada was eventually stopped by Tanga Loa, who showed up to chastise his brother (Hikuleo) for picking the Bullet Club over his family.

In between those two matches, Lio Rush returned for his first appearance in several months. The local product said he’s not cleared to wrestle just yet, but teased showing up on any of New Japan’s shows in either country soon. When he does, he put the Junior Heavyweight division on notice, specifically mentioning Robbie Eagles, Hiromu Takahashi, and current champ Taiji Ishimori.

Here are the full results from Capital Collision:

• Juice Robinson def. Hiroshi Tanahashi (c), Jon Moxley & Will Ospreay to win the IWGP United States Heavyweight championship
• Bullet Club (Jay White & Hikuleo) def. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero)
• Tomohiro Ishii def. Eddie Kingston
• Brody King def. Minoru Suzuki
• TMDK (JONAH, Bad Dude Tito, Mikey Nicholls, & Shane Haste) def. The United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Mark Davis, Kyle Fletcher, & Aaron Henare)
• Chase Owens def. The Great-O-Khan
• Team Filthy (Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs, Jorel Nelson, & Danny Limelight) def. Fred Rosser, Tanga Loa, David Finlay, Yuya Uemura, & The DKC
• Karl Fredericks def. Ren Narita