It may be the 4th of July, but WWE is over in Tokyo, Japan, for The Beast in the East event from a sold-out Ryougoku Sumo Hall. It was a stacked event that included Brock Lesnar, Neville, Chris Jericho, John Cena, and an NXT Championship match. The event was one to be remembered and aired live on the WWE Network, but it was very early here in the United States, so for those that missed it, here are all the results and a full recap.
John Cena and Dolph Ziggler defeated King Barrett and Kane
Typical WWE house show tag match with Dolph Ziggler taking the big punishment and then the hot tag to John Cena. Some big offense from the babyfaces on the heels and it was the end of the show.
Finn Balor defeats Kevin Owens to win the NXT Championship
This was an absolute amazing match that easily could have been the main event in Tokyo or on any WWE pay-per-view. Both men simply destroyed one another, and Owens even brought out a reverse Bloody Sunday twice — that was his finisher for a long time in New Japan.
Balor was able to kick out and eventually got the best of a cocky Owens. Balor floated over the pop-up powerbomb and nailed Owens with a missile dropkick and then another. He climbs the ropes and hits the Coup de Grace for the pin and the title.
Streamers come down on the ring and WWE Hall of Famer Tatsumi Fujinami comes down to pay respect to the new champion and shake his hand.
A prince returned home and became a champion. Congratulations to @wwebalor on winning the @WWENXT title. #WWETokyo pic.twitter.com/HgwJkpwm3j
— Triple H (@TripleH) July 4, 2015
Brock Lesnar demolishes Kofi Kingston
The announcers tried to make it seem like this would be competitive, but it wasn’t. Kofi Kingston ran around a lot, but then he got caught and Brock Lesnar gave him a German suplex. Kingston landed on his feet and hit some dropkicks, which Lesnar totally no-sold.
Lesnar then hit three huge suplexes and an F-5 to end it. Xavier Woods and Big E run in and each get an F-5 for their interference.
Nikki Bella retains the Divas Championship over Paige and Tamina Snuka
This wasn’t a bad match, but it wasn’t anything overly special either. It was kind of slow until the ending, which had Paige lock in the PTO before being met with a Tamina superkick. She went for a Superfly Splash on Nikki but missed. Nikki hits a forearm to win.
Chris Jericho defeated Neville
The official opening bout saw one of the best matches in a long time as past met future. Even though many Japanese wrestling crowds are usually quiet, there was actually a “This Is Awesome” chant at one point, and that should tell you how great this match was.
The ending came as Nevill landed some big superkicks and went up top for the Red Arrow. Jericho got the knees up for the counter and then locked in the Liontamer for the submission victory.
The Beast in the East may have had the focus of Brock Lesnar since he is the “Beast Incarnate,” and it was rightfully done as he made easy work of The New Day. Still, Finn Balor winning the NXT Championship and the Neville/Jericho match were some other highlights in a great Tokyo event.
[Image via WWE]
