NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors Finals Highlights & Results

IWGP US Title: Juice Robinson (c) vs Jon Moxley

Perhaps the most anticipated match of the evening, Jon Moxley made his debut against the IWGP US Champion Juice Robinson. That opening sentence, by the way, highlights Robinson’s entire problem with the build to this match. Instead of anybody asking what Robinson would have in store for Moxley, everyone has been pondering what Moxley will bring to Juice and New Japan. The champion has taken a backseat to the debuting Death Rider.

From the get-go, Moxley immediately set himself apart from everybody else on the New Japan roster. Channeling his Shield days (or maybe a love for Iizuka), Moxley entered through the crowd. For the first time in years, Moxley wore actual wrestling gear which was as big a mind-blowing moment as his entire debut.

Not to be upstaged, Juice revealed a big change during his intro. Removing his entrance garb, the US Champion showed off a fresh haircut. No longer donning the long hair, Robinson looked more serious and determined as he stared a hole through Moxley across the ring. Moxley, never to be intimidated, served Juice the double birds to heighten the champion’s frustrations.

Taking full advantage of the looseness of New Japan officiating, Moxley and Juice brawled to kickstart the match. With Juice on the outside, Mox crushed him against the barricade with a suicide dive sending both men into the crowd.

Brawling back toward the entrance, Mox proved that he had already learned one of the secrets of fitting into the NJPW roster: beating up Young Lions. Mox dropped one of the rookies before attempting to piledriver Juice on the floor but the move was reversed into a back body drop.

Juice contemplated heading back to the ring momentarily but then ventured into the crowd to gain access to the entrance structure. Standing above the entrance, and the recovering Mox, Juice leaped with a somersault dive crashing down on his opponent and the Young Lions below. Showing solidarity with DOUKI, Juice overshot his jump a bit and it looked like a crashed down hard on his tailbone more than connecting flush with anybody on the floor.

Fighting back at ringside, Juice and Mox battered one another with no care for the wellbeing of themselves or their opponent. In one of their brief moments in the ring, Juice went to the top rope but was brutally dumped to the outside by the challenger.

Back on the floor, Moxley paid tribute to Cactus Jack with a chair-assisted elbow drop from the apron to a waiting Juice sprawled across a table. As we all know, Japanese tables don’t break too easily and Mox found this out. Not to be shut down, though, he drove Juice through the table with a suplex.

Playing the hits, Moxley wrapped Juice in a ring post figure four leglock before setting up for a Pillmanizer. Juice battled back, throwing the chair into Moxley’s head, before building some momentum of his own. Using a bit of Moxley’s own game plan against him, Juice delivered a running cannonball on Mox against the table before powerbombing him through the wood on the arena floor.

This would be Juice’s last big moment, though. Back in the ring, Moxley delivered his double-arm DDT which Juice somehow managed to kick out of. Ready to send a message to both Juice and the rest of the professional wrestling world, Moxley spiked Juice with an implant double-arm DDT for the victory.

Jon Moxley is the new IWGP US Champion and everything is as unknown and confusing as ever in pro-wrestling. It’s not currently known how long Moxley will be sticking around New Japan, but his home promotion of AEW will start television in October. With no working relationship between the two companies, it will be interesting to see if Moxley holds the title beyond October.

This was an absolutely incredible debut for Moxley, though it is surreal to see him in a New Japan ring and in actual wrestling gear. Juice had a career-making performance despite dropping the title. He turned it up to another level completely and proved that he can be a serious wrestler with the fun-loving Juice character sent to the back burner.