JONAH Makes Surprise Appearance At NJPW Battle In The Valley

The former Bronson Reed laid out FinJuice at New Japan's latest special.

by Andrew Pollard
JONAH NJPW Battle in the Valley
NJPW

With plentiful speculation as to where he'd resurface after being released by WWE in August, the former Bronson Reed made a shock appearance at last night's NJPW Battle in the Valley event.

Now known simply as JONAH, the one-time NXT North American Champion made his presence known after IMPACT World Champion Moose had defeated Juice Robinson in a non-title contest. Teasing a confrontation with Moose, the super heavyweight instead turned his attention to Juice, laying out the former IWGP US Champion with a splash.

Robinson's partner David Finlay hit the ring to make the save, although he too was decimated by JONAH - before the Australian cut a promo proclaiming how the shackles were off and promising to bring violence.

Advertisement

Despite working several WWE dark matches in the belief that a move to Raw or SmackDown was on the horizon, JONAH was surprisingly released by Vince McMahon's sports entertainment giant on 6 August. The big man was reportedly due to debut for IMPACT at last month's Bound for Glory, but that ended up not happening. Now, it appears the athletic powerhouse has his fingers in IMPACT and NJPW pies from here on out.

In addition to JONAH making waves at Battle in the Valley, another former WWE name who starred at the PPV was Buddy Matthews, aka Buddy Murphy. He may have ultimately lost the match, but Matthews put in an excellent showing in a 17-minute barnburner against Kazuchika Okada.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.