ELP and Hikuleo will be defending the Strong Openweight championships in a 4 way open challenge at Windy City Riot. TMDK has already challenged and likely to take a spot but who are the other candidates.
Firstly, I don’t think we will get any other NJPW regular roster opponents and instead see Strong regulars and outsiders.
STRONG candidates:
Monster Sauce (Very Likely): After failing to win the belts last year but with a strong Tag league showing this is a good candidate as they can shine in a fast paced, multiman affair.
West Coast Wrecking Crew (less likely): NJPW maybe souring on this solid team. They were not in tag league and instead chose an AEW import over them. Moreover, they broke up Team Filthy after BITV.
Tom Lawlor +1 (possible): Lawlor has been advertised but not booked as of yet. Rocky can tend to book Strong Show to show occasionally ignoring the rest of the wrestling landscape. During the backstage segment in which Team Filthy broke up an alliance was formed with his old rival Fred Rosser. This could be a way to get the back bones of Strong on the card.
The other option is Davey Boy Smith Jr who Lawlor recewon the MLW tag belts with. However, there may be some bad blood between he and NJPW.
CMLL imports (quite likely)
Rocky does love utilising the partnership with CMLL and we could see a luchador led team in this 4 way. They would add some fun and explosiveness to the match. Who would be the team however.
Rocky has been teaming with Soberano regularly which is option 1. Soberano has also been teaming with Tempelario recently which can be a solid choice. On the tecnico side, it could be a team such as Mistico and Mascara Dorada or Volador Jr.
TNA guests
This relationship maybe on the way out, it is quite ambiguous right now.
MCMG (unlikely) : former strong champs who can really ride the Openweight line, they may also be on their way out of TNA and this could be a step in joining the NJPW roster.
ABC (possible) : Would just be a fun addition and not outside the realms of possibility
AEW imports
Gates of Agony (possible): They competed in tag league and TK isn’t the most high on them, he could let them join in on this match.
BCC(unlikely) : This would be Claudio and Wheeler, it would be a fantastic surprise. But NJPW would have announced Claudio if they had him by now.
Who do you think and who do you want to round out this match?
by shecanbromehard
