By Tokyo Wrestling Fan @twf87

Dominion opened with an address from the new New Japan President Harold Meij, who delivered it in both fluent Japanese and English.  From his address to the Dominion crowd, and the interviews he’s given recently, Meiji seems like a good addition to NJPW – someone who is committed to the product but also has a good understanding of international business practices.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship 

Roppongi 3K (SHO and YOH) w/ Rocky Romero vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado (c) – SHO and YOH came into this match on the back of an excellent Best of the Super Juniors tournament, which raised their profile as singles competitors.  When the time comes I’m sure that they will both have strong singles runs, but they still have time to flourish as a tag team right now.  Thankfully YOH had changed back from his terrible tasselled-shorts to the tights that he wore before BOSJ.  This match featured plenty of Suzuki-gun shenanigans outside the ring, including a very close teased count out.  YOH primarily played the face in peril, which was a role that he excelled at during the BOSJ tournament.  SHO got a hot tag and showed off his power moves, but Desperado cut him off with a great spinebuster.  Roppongi 3K came back and hit some double team moves, until Kanemaru took out YOH and left SHO and Desperado in the ring.  SHO got a near fall with a Lungblower and then tried to get Desperado up for a Shock Arrow, which Desperado escaped from and shoved SHO into the referee.  While the referee was distracted Kanemaru hit SHO in the face with his whiskey bottle and Desperado rolled him up for the three count.  This was a decent opening match, but the ending was an anti-climax, and yet again Suzuki-gun can’t win clean.  I’m not sure who the next team to challenge Kanemaru and Desperado will be since the junior tag division is quite thin, but apparently Roppongi 3K are moving on to something else.

Winners: Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado, 9:29

Juice Robinson and David Finlay vs. Jay White and YOSHI-HASHI – After Jay White successfully defended his US title against David Finlay on the Road to Wrestling Dontaku, it seemed like Juice Robinson would be the next challenger to step up to take on The Switchblade.  YOSHI-HASHI presumably was just included to make up the numbers, although he had picked up quite a few wins in tag matches prior to Dominion.  Juice and White had some great interactions in this match, and they both have some of the best character work in the ring in New Japan.  Juice and Finlay showed off some tag team moves in this match, and generally had the better of it until the closing stretch, when Finlay hit the Prima Nocta on YOSHI-HASHI but then turned around straight into a Blade Runner.  Juice then caught White with a punch to the jaw and picked up the win with Pulp Friction.  After the match Juice posed with the US title, before laying it across White’s prone body as he left the ring.

Winners: Juice Robinson and David Finlay, 7:26

Tomohiro Ishii and Yano Toru vs. Zack Sabre Junior and Minoru Suzuki w/ TAKA Michinoku – Suzuki and Zack entered to Kaze ni nare and a mashup entrance video featuring both of them, rather than the new Suzuki-gun theme song.  TAKA Michinoku came out with Suzuki and ZSJ and did his hype-man routine, which is still as good as ever (although a bit strange that he only mentions ZSJ, even when he’s tagging with Suzuki.)  Before the match started Suzuki and Ishii had words, and as soon as the bell rang they started exchanging vicious forearms to the face.  Ishii and Suzuki are two competitors I would love to see have a one-on-one match at some point, and they just beat the crap out of each other in this match.  Yano and Zack also worked well together, and I never realised I wanted to see them face off in a battle of submission reversals and roll up pins until this match.  Hopefully they face each other in this year’s G1.  Finally Zack forced Yano to tap out, as both Yano and Ishii were caught in elaborate submissions.  After the match Ishii ran after Suzuki and they brawled with chairs until the Young Lions pulled them apart.  After Ishii had been taken to the back by Yano, Suzuki beat down the Young Lions holding him back and ran after him, disappearing into the back to presumably continue their brawl.

Winners: Zack Sabre Junior and Minoru Suzuki, 8:42

NEVER Openweight Championship

Taichi w/ Miho Abe vs. Michael Elgin vs. Hirooki Goto (c) – Triple threat matches are a rarity in New Japan, especially on a major card like Dominion.  After Goto defended his title against Juice Robinson on the Road to Wrestling Dontaku Michael Elgin made a challenge, but he was interrupted by the newly heavyweight Taichi who also wanted a shot at the title.  Taichi spent the last few weeks attacking both Elgin and Goto, and when the match started they both turned their attention on him, so he ran out of the ring to leave them to fight.  As soon as Elgin and Goto locked up he ran into the ring, tried to roll up Goto, and then left as soon as Elgin attacked him.  This match fell into the tendency of a lot of triple threat matches, in which one wrestler is thrown outside and then two fight in the ring, but they did try to keep it interesting, including at one point Elgin hitting a topé con giro onto Goto and Taichi on the outside.  Taichi used Miho Abe to distract the referee and hit Goto and Elgin with his microphone stand, before getting a very close two count after kicking Goto in the face.  Elgin then broke up a Taichi-style Gedo clutch by picking Taichi up and buckle bombing him, then buckle bombing him again onto Goto.  Finally an Elgin Bomb on Taichi was enough for a three count and a new champion.  Obviously the issues that Elgin has in the US hasn’t stopped New Japan pushing him, at least to the NEVER title level.

Winner: Michael Elgin, 13:46

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship

The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) vs. EVIL and SANADA (c) – The Young Bucks were already NEVER Six Man Tag Team Champions going into this match, where they were hoping to add the Heavyweight Tag Team titles to their extensive collection of championships.  EVIL and SANADA have held the titles since Wrestle Kingdom 12, although EVIL was injured for quite a while this year so they haven’t had many defences in the past five months.  The Young Bucks moved up to heavyweight earlier this year, and this match proved that they can keep pace with the heavyweight tag teams.  It might even be a good advertisement for getting rid of the separate tag divisions altogether, since New Japan’s tag teams have never been that deep.  The Young Bucks controlled the early portion of the match until Nick missed a kick aimed at EVIL on the apron and hit his leg on the ring post.  This led to the LIJ team focusing their attack on Nick’s leg, and some great selling of his injury for the rest of the match.  Nick and Matt’s selling this year has been top quality, and at one point Nick attempted a Meltzer Driver, but couldn’t springboard off the ropes because of his injured leg.  There were some great near falls towards the end of the match from both teams, but The Young Bucks finally came out winners after they hit More Bang For Your Buck on SANADA.  This was definitely the best match of the card so far – The Young Bucks are such a good tag team, and SANADA and EVIL put in a really good performance despite losing.

Winners: The Young Bucks, 15:03

Rey Mysterio Jr., Jyushin Thunder Liger, and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, and Cody – Three legends of wrestling took on three of Ring of Honor’s Bullet Club stars in this match.  Rey Mysterio was originally slated to face Liger at the Long Beach show in March, until an injury ruled him out of that match, but Marty Scurll laid the seeds for this match by ripping Mysterio’s mask off in the aftermath of the Will Ospreay vs. Liger match at Long Beach.  Scurll taunted Liger throughout the BOSJ tournament by performing his Romero Special submission move, until Scurll’s post-match attack on Tanahashi at the finals caused Liger to intervene and then challenge Bullet Club to this match at Dominion.  Masahiro Chono came out as a special guest on commentary for this match.  Mysterio had a really impressive New Japan lion-style mask, and red and yellow face paint that looked slightly terrifying.  This was a fun match, which included Tanahashi performing press-ups to mock Cody’s flexing, and a good break before the three title matches.  Mysterio seemed to revel in his role in this match, and the crowd had a massive pop when he hit a 619 on Page and Scurll.  Finally, Cody picked up the win for Bullet Club with a Cross Rhodes on Liger.  I was surprised that the legends did the job in this match, but surely Mysterio will be back for another match with New Japan?

Winners: Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, and Cody, 11:35

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Will Ospreay (c) – Hiromu was the winner, and standout competitor in my mind, of this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament.  Ospreay for his part had an amazing year up to this point, putting his body on the line to churn out some amazing matches.  He beat Hiromu, Marty Scurll, and KUSHIDA in singles matches already this year, and has been firmly established as the new junior ace.  Now the question was, could he keep that momentum going against a newly reinvigorated Hiromu?  This match started fast, and both competitors came flying out of the blocks throwing strikes and kicks.  Hiromu went for his sunset flip powerbomb very early on, but it was countered by Will, who hit his own dive on the entrance ramp.  These two competitors know each other so well at this point that this match was full of amazing combinations and counters, my favourite of which may have been the Storm Breaker attempt countered into a Canadian Destroyer by Hiromu.  Ospreay seemed to be in control after hitting a superplex and a corkscrew shooting star press on Hiromu, but then he fell prey to Hiromu’s triangle choke.  Ospreay tried to power out, but Hiromu refused to let go, and just as it looked like Ospreay would be forced to tap out, he managed to power out into a spinning powerbomb.  Ospreay nearly fell prey to the D later in the match, but again managed to power out, only this time Hiromu reversed that into the D Driver, then followed up with a Death Valley Driver into the turnbuckle.  Finally he hit a Time Bomb for the three count as the crowd went absolutely wild.  This was another excellent match between these two, and they both put everything on the line for the sake of the title.  Hiromu was a deserved winner, especially after his showing in BOSJ this year, but Ospreay will undoubtedly be back in the title picture before too long.  Hopefully he now gets a well-deserved break to heal some of his aches and pains before he’s needed back in a New Japan ring.

Winner: Hiromu Takahashi, 20:20

IWGP Intercontinental Championship

Chris Jericho vs. Naito Tetsuya (c) – Naito won the Intercontinental title from Minoru Suzuki at Wrestling Hi no Kuni in March, but he has refused to bring the belt with him to matches ever since then, continuing his love-hate relationship with the title.  Jericho first attacked Naito at New Year’s Dash, but then disappeared from New Japan, and he claimed on Twitter that he wouldn’t be returning.  However, Jericho is always working, and on the second night of Wrestling Dontaku he emerged from the crowd in a mask and viciously attacked Naito.  Since then he has been taunting him via video messages during the BOSJ tournament, claiming that he was just trying to help make Naito famous since he failed to capture the IWGP Heavyweight title at Wrestle Kingdom.  Naito for his part responded to Jericho in his usual tranquilo way, and seemed unimpressed by anything Jericho had to say to taunt him.

Jericho entered first wearing lipstick and some interesting eye makeup, followed by Naito who actually brought the Intercontinental title with him, but dropped it on the entrance ramp and left it there.  Jericho jumped Naito before the bell rang and they proceeded to brawl in the area around the commentators.  Jericho threw a camera tripod at Naito, then powerbombed him through a table before he had even taken his suit off.  Jericho kept brutalising Naito at ring side, including a horrible sounding DDT onto a table that didn’t break, then eventually brought him back into the ring and instructed the referee to ring the bell.

Naito finally managed to turn the tide on Jericho and hit a nasty looking neckbreaker on the apron, and then on the outside.  As he started taking off his suit it was revealed that his right eye was bleeding, and turned fully red.  Presumably that was from the earlier DDT, but whatever the cause it added another level of violence to the match.  Naito got his own back on Jericho by trying to piledrive him through a table at ringside, which once again did not break.  This was a strange match – the pacing was slow, presumably because Jericho can’t keep up with a full pace match these days, but there were also some noticeable botches.  It didn’t seem like Naito and Jericho had great chemistry, which might have been to do with Naito’s eye, but equally might just have been them.  Jericho put Naito in the Walls of Jericho for a long time, but he eventually managed to escape to the ropes.  However, Jericho finally picked up the win after shoving Red Shoes, lowblowing Naito, and hitting a Codebreaker.  I didn’t love this match, it felt like a less good version of the Jericho vs. Omega match at Wrestle Kingdom, and I wasn’t as big a fan of that as a lot of other people were.  After the match Jericho continued to beat down Naito, until EVIL ran out and saved his leader.  Maybe we’ll get EVIL vs. Jericho for the Intercontinental title at the Cow Palace?

Winner: Chris Jericho, 17:16

IWGP Heavyweight Championship

Kenny Omega w/ Kota Ibushi vs. Kazuchika Okada w/ Gedo (c) – Okada began his current heavyweight title reign at Dominion in 2016, and last year had three excellent matches with Kenny Omega.  They finished that sequence with one win each, and a 60-minute time limit draw, so after Okada beat Tanahashi he challenged Omega again for a match at Dominion.  This time it would be a best two-out-of-three falls match, with no time limit.  Before the match started there was a J-drama style video package of the lead up to this match, featuring Ibushi who asked if Kenny was ready for the match, and how much it had cost him, to which Kenny said “everything.”  Back in the real world, Ibushi accompanied Kenny to the ring in a Golden Lovers t-shirt.  Kenny’s entrance video still says Bullet Club, but otherwise he seemed to have shed his Bullet Club persona by this match.  The crowd was vocally behind Kenny, although there were some pockets of Okada fans who cheered for him when he went face-to-face with Kenny just before the bell rang.

We came close to the first fall about five minutes into the match, when Okada nearly hit a Rainmaker, swiftly followed by Omega nearly hitting the One Winged Angel.  The opening to the match was cagey, and both Okada and Kenny were clearly not wanting to give anything away.  Okada dodged the One Winged Angel by throwing Kenny over the top rope from his shoulders, and after that the match opened up more.  Kenny worked Okada over with submission holds, which the Japanese commentary team noted was a change from his usual game plan.  Omega was largely in control until he tried to set up a dragon suplex from the top of the turnbuckle, in a call back to their Wrestle Kingdom match, which Okada was able to reverse into a tombstone on the ring apron.  It was then Okada’s turn to punish Omega until he did the Rainmaker pose over a prone Kenny, who suddenly leapt up and hit a snap dragon suplex.  Kenny followed that up with Rise of the Terminator, and was back on the offensive.  He came close to hitting the One Winged Angel again, then got an incredibly near fall with a German suplex.  Kenny ducked a Rainmaker attempt, and then hit a ripcord V-trigger for yet another near fall.  Okada hit a tombstone, then pulled Kenny to his feet with an absolutely insane grin on his face, but the Rainmaker was dodged by Kenny again.  However, Okada reversed the reversal into a roll up for the first fall.  First fall winner: Kazuchika Okada, 28:47

After the first fall there was a two minute break, and Ibushi and Gedo gave a pep talk to their fighters.  The second fall saw a lot of brawling outside the ring, and obviously the first fall had taken a lot out of both men.  Back in the ring, Okada caught Kenny in the Cobra Cluth, which Kenny fought out of with a jawbreaker and took things back outside the ring.  Kenny laid out Okada, then placed a table on top of him, which he did a double foot stomp on top of (and obviously it didn’t break.)  Back in the ring Okada escaped from a You Can’t Escape, but Kenny was able to take him to the top of the turnbuckle and hit a cross-legged fisherman buster.  Subsequently Okada got his knees up when Kenny attempted the moonsault portion of a You Can’t Escape, and hit a vicious elbow to Kenny’s head.  Kenny attempted to suplex Okada through the table that was set up outside, but this was reversed, and then Kenny hit him with a reverse Frankensteiner.  They teased a count out, but Okada made it back into the ring on 19, and Kenny again nearly hit the One Winged Angel.  However, this was reversed into a spinning tombstone, and another Rainmaker came close to connecting, but Kenny ducked and hit an uranage.  Counter followed counter, until Kenny hit a reverse Tiger Driver, followed by a vicious V-trigger, and then finally hit a One Winged Angel for the second fall.  Second fall winner: Kenny Omega, 47:57

By the time the third fall began Okada hadn’t gotten to his feet, so Kenny hit him with a V-trigger right to the back of the head.  This was followed by an attempted One Winged Angel, but this time Okada reversed it into a successful Rainmaker.  Both men were so exhausted by this point that it took Okada a long time to roll over and cover Kenny, which gave him the chance to kick out.  Both Kenny and Okada fought to try and lift each other for a tombstone, but clearly fatigue was setting in at this point, and when Okada whipped Kenny into the ropes he missed a dropkick because Kenny collapsed on them rather than bouncing off them.  Kenny scored an extremely close fall after he hit Okada with a Styles Clash, and the crowd burst into a spontaneous “AJ Styles” chant.  Ibushi urged Kenny to go up to the top rope, where he tried to hit a Phoenix Splash, but Okada rolled out of the way.  The back and forth of counters continued until Okada pulled Kenny to his feet for a Rainmaker, but couldn’t put any strength behind the move.  Both men ended up prone on the mat, and it was only the sheer will to win that dragged them up before the ten count.  Kenny looked to have the upper hand, but then was caught by a Rainmaker out of nowhere.  A second Rainmaker followed, but Okada was slow to follow up on it again.  When he went for a third Rainmaker, Kenny countered into two German suplexes.  Every time it looked like one man had the upper hand, the other was able to counter them in some new way.  Omega finally countered a Rainmaker into a One Winged Angel, but couldn’t cover Okada.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Kenny hit another V-trigger and hoisted Okada up onto his shoulders one more time.  This time there were no counters, and the One Winged Angel led to a three count, and a new IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

Winner: Kenny Omega, 64:50

After the match the Young Bucks came out and hugged Kenny, and then Ibushi joined in to the joy of the crowd.  After the match Kenny cut an impassioned promo promising to lead New Japan forward, alongside his “best friends” and “lovers.”  Finally, Cody appeared at the top of the entrance ramp and stared at Omega before retreating backstage.

Final Thoughts

Wow. What a good night for Bullet Club.  What a terrible night for CHAOS.  In one night the landscape of New Japan has shifted in monumental ways.  Kenny Omega finally overcame the man that many thought would never lose the belt in an absolutely epic match.  The main event was absolutely spectacular, and words don’t do it justice.  The amount of creative counters, and chain wrestling that Okada and Omega were able to put together was jaw dropping.  This felt like the right time for Okada to drop the belt as well, and it allows for some fresh matchups going forward.  Assuming that Kenny is now back in the Bullet Club they now hold the NEVER Six Man Tag Team Titles, the Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, and the IWGP Heavyweight Title.  The only let down for me on the card was the Naito vs. Jericho match, and even that wasn’t terrible.  This was hands down the best show of the year since Wrestle Kingdom, and it might even have been better than Wrestle Kingdom, especially the main event.  I can’t wait to see what New Japan delivers going forward to the G1 Climax.

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