NJPW Dominion Results & Ratings

As I said in my picks, Dominion is the big summer event and we knew most of the important storylines.

Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho and Hiromu Takahashi, all were challenging for a new chapter. Jericho could make history being the first person to hold IWGP Intercontinental and WWE Intercontinental gold. Omega and Hiromu could finally get over the hump against their respective opponents. The Bucks look to prove they belong in the Heavyweight Tag Division.

With all of this going on, let’s just see how it all played out.

IWGP Junior Tag Title: Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c) vs Roppongi 3K (SHO and YOH)

Despy tries to hit SHO with the belt before the bell, but he ducks and SHO and YOH take out both members with stereo Dropkicks and then stereo dives. After a attempting something from the apron, Desperado trips up YOH and both Suzuki-Gun members manage to take advantage of the less experienced wrestlers.

Some moves outside and Roppongi 3k manage to get back in by 17. YOH continues to take punishment before he finally pulls off a big Dragon Screw on Despy and Vertical Suplex on Kanemaru for the hot tag to SHO. SHO hits multiple suplexes before Kanemaru shows up for a double team move, but YOH comes back in to split things off and SHO manages to turn the tide on Desperado again.

SHO counters Kanemaru’s mist attempt, and hits a big Lung Blower on Desperado for a near fall. He then motions for the Shock Arrow, but Desperado counters, pushes SHO into the referee, to bump him hard enough for Kanemaru to use the whiskey bottle to pick up the ‘sneaky style’ pinfall and retain their championships.

Winner: Desperado & Kanemaru via Cradle after Whiskey Bottle

Rating: ** 3/4

Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson and David Finlay) vs. Chaos (Jay White and Yoshi-Hashi)

Jay White starts off quickly with chops and strikes on Juice. Juice counters, he and Finlay hit a couple double team moves and Yoshi-Hashi comes in to get kicked around by Finlay before Jay White helps them get some momentum back.

Nice corner spot when Jay White is seated, Yoshi-Hashi tries to interfere but gets hung up in the Tree of Woe, and Juice hits a big cannonball on both men. A little 4 man chaos as Jay hits a Blade Runner on Finlay, but he’s not the legal man. So a nice left handed punch from Juice, leads to the Pulp Friction, and the pinfall.

Juice is most likely the next challenger for the US Title.

Winner: Juice and Finlay via Pulp Friction

Rating: ** 1/4

Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) vs. Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr.)

This match had a lot of fun story threads. Ishii and Suzuki have an issue, Ishii also recently took Sabre’s British Heavyweight title and Yano…is Yano.

Suzuki and Ishii do the majority of the work and it’s just a tough guy marathon. Suzuki does much less submission wrestling and they just try to beat the hell out of each other. The amount of disdain they both have for each other comes through in every strike.

Fast forwarding to the finish, we see Yano do his playful trickster thing with removing the turnbuckle pad and trying to hit a low blow. However, Sabre counters it by bringing his knees together to trap Yano’s arm. He turns it into a Grounded Hammerlock Inverted Armbreaker, and Yano submits quickly.

After the match, Ishii and Suzuki keep chasing each other around the arena trying to kill one another.

Winner: Suzuki & Sabre via Grounded Hammerlock Inverted Armbreaker

Rating: *** 1/4

NEVER Openweight Triple Threat: Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Michael Elgin vs. Taichi

There’s so much going on in this match, it’s hard to piece out, so I’ll do the highlighted version. Taichi played the heel who kept avoiding contact for a good portion of the match, and utilized Miho as a distraction a little more than he usually does.

Taichi attempted to form alliances, but they both hate him. Elgin hit a big Tope con Hilo on both Goto and Taichi. Towards the end, Taichi slides in, hits Elgin and Goto with the microphone stand and starts cackling like an anime villain. The crowd erupts, while most are laughing I think they’re chanting ” Go Home Taichi”.

Taichi his a Superkick for 2, attempts a Gedo Clutch, but by that point Elgin is up and hits a Buckle Bomb. Then he throws Taichi into Goto, to finish the match by Elgin Bombing Taichi.

Winner: Elgin via Elgin Bomb

Rating: *** 1/4

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Championship: Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA and EVIL) (c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)

Match was paced quickly, and that helped and hurt it at the same time. Matt and Nick sold a back and foot injury through most of the match, but that fell apart a little towards the end.

Most of each teams signature moves were hit, SANADA was never able to hit Skull End or his Moonsault and EVIL never managed to hit Everything is Evil. So LIJ weren’t hurt at all in the loss, but the super hero resolve and a fairly bad sell on the Magic Killer just to increase the suspense made the finish feel flat to me.

Yes there was a lot of action, so it was entertaining, but it felt more like an older Young Bucks match when people would complain they had no psychology and were all about spots. Let’s hope that their first reign as Heavyweight Tag Champs have more well rounded matches.

Winner: Young Bucks via More Bang for Your Buck

Rating: ****

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Thunder Liger and Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Bullet Club (Cody, Hangman Page and Marty Scurll)

Early mind games with different Bullet Club members calling out a member of the legend team that wasn’t legal. But when it got down to it, it was an entertaining match. Tanahashi didn’t do much in fairness, but Mysterio put on a clinic to prove he’s healthy and Liger even managed to get in some decent offense.

Biggest spot of the night was probably Mysterio hitting the double 619 on Page and Scurll, but the Cody train just doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. Cody landing Crossroads on Liger, just continues to solidify him as a force in wrestling.

Winner: Bullet Club via Cody hitting Crossroads

Rating: *** 1/2

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi

Starts off with a flurry, Hiromu with the release German into the corner and attempts the Apron Sunset Bomb. Ospreay blocks that and takes a page out of Hiromu’s book by running up the apron, for a full sprint running flip dive off the entrance ramp.

Ospreay goes for a more methodical approach, a Grounded Hammerlock Inverted Armbar, while leaning back keeps Hiromu on the ground. Then we see Ospreay being more aggressive and deliberate, until Hiromu finally starts stringing some offense together.

Lots of quick erratic movements, a big Pop-up Power Bomb gets Hiromu a near fall, leading into a corner chop spot and Ospreay curses at Hiromu. Pip Pip Cheerio, leads into a few attempts and counters at offense. Hiromu goes to the outside and Ospreay hits a Space Flying Tiger Drop.

Oscutter attempts number one, gets caught by Hiromu for a big German Suplex to break the flow of offense. We get the building up strikes back and forth spot, before the pace accelerates and there is a lot of transition and counter wrestling. Suplexes countered, Enzuigiris, but Ospreay catches Hiromu with two big Reverseranas, goes for Stormbreaker, but Hiromu counters with a Code Red.

Match moves to the apron and we get some back and forth strikes before Ospreay superplexes him outside in into the Burning Star Press. A Corkscrew Shoot Star press from Ospreay gets a near fall. Ospreay goes for Stormbreaker one more time, Hiromu counters it into a Canadian Destroyer and tries to tap him out with his Triangle Choke.

Ospreay powers out by twisting and driving Hiromu’s head into the mat, like a Triangle Driver or something. Ospreay goes for another Oscutter, but Hiromu finally gets the Sunset Bomb, into the Dynamite Plunger for 2.

Lots of sloppy offense from Ospreay at this point, Crescent Kick doesn’t hit right, Spinng Heel Kick barely makes contact, and Hiromu manages to counter the Stormbreaker one more time. Hiromu hits his Time Bomb after a Butterfly Piledriver, and a few other moves and, defeats Ospreay!

Winner: Hiromu via Time Bomb

Rating: **** 1/2

IWGP Intercontinental Title : Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Chris Jericho

Wow, Jericho jumps Naito before the bell, hits him with tripods, barricades, anything that isn’t tied down. Hell even a Japanese Table breaks for Jericho. Also it must be noted that Jericho comes out looking like Clockwork Orange. Nice call back to his finger flip off spot, but this time he takes a video camera. Jericho DDTs Naito on another table, but it refuses to break.

Eventually Jericho slides in Naito for the match to start, Naito fights back a little, but Jericho maintains all of the advantage. Even hits a nice Lionsault, for another near fall.

Jericho manhandles Naito from pillar to post, until the classic Naito spit spot, gives him a small opening. The leg sweep, Wrecking Ball Dropkick leads to a Rude Awakening on the apron and Naito is finally showing signs of life.

He begins choking Jericho with parts of his suit outfit, and the crowd boos him pretty thoroughly. Maybe Naito is popular, everywhere except Osaka. Naito takes a piece of the broken table and beats Jericho over the head with it multiple times, to more boos.

Naito hits a big Piledriver onto the table from earlier, that still doesn’t break, moves back to the ring and Jericho takes a Dropkick to the back of his neck. Jericho blocks a top turnbuckle Frankensteiner and drops down into the Walls of Jericho. At this point it sounds like the crowd finally comes around to Naito.

At this point it seems to go a lot of one for one with Jericho really pushing to win with the Walls of Jericho, but Naito doesn’t tap. Scary moment when Naito goes for a running Destino, but Jericho loses his balance and then saves it to look more like a side slam cover.

Few more strikes and then they do the Destino spot correctly. But too lose to the ropes. Naito goes for a flying forearm, but Jericho catches him with a Codebreaker. Naito lands Gloria, goes for a Destino again, but Jericho slips away, and pushes Red Shoes. Low blow and Codebreaker, equals Jericho is the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion.

A little sloppy and slow at points, so their chemistry wasn’t fantastic. But, it was a brutal and entertaining match.

Jericho continues beating on Naito and EVIL shows up for the save. So I’m guessing the first official Jericho defense may be EVIL.

Winner: Jericho via Codebreaker

Rating: **** 1/4

IWGP Heavyweight Championship 2 out of 3 Falls: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kenny Omega

Okay, outline version for this match, since too long, too much going on and hard to look away to type.

• Okada and Omega go to the outside, Okada goes for his crossbody, but V-Trigger counters right into his ribs.
  Omega top rope Dragon Suplex, Okada countered into Tombstone on Apron
  Rainmaker pose, turned into Dragon Suplex, then Rise of the Terminator
  Okada sits down in a sunset flip position and picks up the surprise first fall.
• Double stomp from Kenny on table
  Okada teases backdrop through table
  Omega teases Dragon Suplex through table
  Reverserana on the outside from Kenny to Okada
  One Winged Angel wins Kenny fall 2
• Callback to second match, Omega gets thrown into ropes, Omega collapses and Okada lands on his back after attempting a Dropkick.
  Omega hits a Styles Clash
  Ibushi tells Kenny to go for a Phoenix Splash, it misses.
  Okada couldn’t pull of the tombstone, goes for a Rainmaker, and another callback as Okada crumbles after barely making contact
  So many attempts at Rainmakers, both were exhausted a really fast One Winged Angel sets the stage for one more V-Trigger and one final One Winged Angel.

Winner: Kenny Omega 2-1 via One Winged Angel

Rating: ***** 3/4

Analysis:

So the main event definitely delivered, but with a 2 minute intervals between falls, it did hurt the flow of the match. Due to the starting and stopping between matches, it’s hard to say it matched or surpassed previous epics. Still a tremendous match, but a shade worse than the first two matches. This signified the culmination of everything Omega has gone through, and the appeal Omega brings to the Western market makes things very interesting.

Some classic Japanese wrestling fans may not like that most of the NJPW champions are gaijins, but the show was still good and it’s hard to find fault in the finishes.

Even Kenny Omega’s press conference after the show talked about expanding more worldwide and that Okada was more of a local hero. Also declared that he, Ibushi, and the Bucks are now the Golden Elite.

Dominion was a very good show, even if the ratings weren’t off the chart, each match brought a different level of entertainment.