Dominion in Osaka Jo-Hall (July 12, 2020)
Match #1 – Kojima, Nagata, & Taguchi def. GBH & Kidd
Match Time: 9:25
To open the show for Dominion we have more of the veterans in the roster with young lion Gabriel Kidd getting in the ring with some of the greats. He targeted Nagata in particular who is the head trainer of the Tokyo Dojo so there’s some background there for sure. Again, this was your standard opening bout consisting of lower card guys, not much else to say really. All men did their signature moves and spots, with Nagata locking in Kidd for the submission win.
Match #2 – Hiromu, SANADA, & BUSHI def. Yano, Ishii, & Tsuji
Match Time: 10:15
LIJ members coming off the EVIL betrayal back in some more action against CHAOS members with young lion Yota Tsuji in there. Not much to say here, although it’s probably just me but Hiromu was a little aggressive with his striking here particularly his chops, releasing the anger he felt over last night’s events. He also has the Japanese letters for “WHY?” written all over his wrist tapes. He’s the one clearly taking in the most frustration out of all the recent turmoil. He tapped out Tsuji with a Boston Crab.
Match #3 – Desperado, Kanemaru, & DOUKI def. Tenzan, Wato, & Uemura
Match Time: 9:44
As soon as Master Wato tags in with other guys he loses, the undefeated streak is over! In all seriousness though, this is just building up Master Wato’s rivalry with the Suzuki-Gun members, in particular Yoshinobu Kanemaru who attacked him last night after his win over DOUKI. Also another solid showcase from Desperado who gets another win for his team and we’ll soon know why he’s being built up in such a way.
Match #4 – Yujiro & Ishimori def. Okada & Goto
Match Time: 9:42
Okada and Goto teaming up? This is quite a rare occasion in itself at least in a tag-team scenario and of course the logical result for this is Yujiro Takahashi getting the win over their duo. Yes of course. We now live in dire times indeed when Okada is relegated into a midcard feud against Yujiro freaking Takahashi who is only relevant when he’s got his valets with him but Pieter ain’t even around right now. It was a fine tag match but it was nothing more than to build up the Okada vs. Yujiro match for Sengoku Lord which not a single person asked for.
Match #5 – Shingo Takagi def. SHO (NEVER Openweight Championship)
Match Time: 20:07
With all the filler multi-men tags out of the way, time for actually something good the NEVER Openweight Championship bout between Shingo and SHO. We all know in the NJ Cup tournament, SHO got a massive first round upset over Shingo, avenging his loss at their BOSJ encounters last year. Both of their previous single bouts were high intensity non-stop action. This time, it wasn’t on the same level of volume but that’s fine as they conveyed a better story this way, a much more methodical pace but still filled in with a lot of great action sequences. It’s a good development for their story in a sense that these two have become familiar with one another now, knowing each other’s moves, strengths, and weaknesses so they know how to cancel each other out better and it makes sense for the speed of the match become slower. That said, I thought this was easily the best match of the night, packed with great action from top to bottom as expected. I was rooting for SHO to actually win here but Shingo is still victorious in his second defense with the belt but this was clearly the “coming out party” for SHO if you will. With YOH out of the picture for awhile due to injury, I think it serves as somewhat of a blessing in disguise for SHO in terms for his solo run, he can prove even further that he is capable of being a superstar level member of the roster as evident of his great solo resume since coming back from excursion few years ago. After the match, El Desperado blind attacks Shingo in the entrance way, another junior heavyweight attempting to dethrone The Dragon from his title.
Match #6 – Dangerous Tekkers def. Golden Aces (IWGP Tag-Team Championships)
Match Time: 28:43
It’s been awhile since I’ve looked forward to an IWGP Tag-Title match mainly because New Japan hasn’t really cared much at all about their tag division for years now. However this one has been built up nicely, the feud has been intense from both sides, it’s been brewing on for awhile now and all four men are connected with each other since the past couple of years. One of Taichi’s first opponents since moving up the heavyweights was Tanahashi and he had a great performance against him, of course Ibushi and ZSJ have a long standing rivalry at this point, and it all sort of culminates here in this match but I’m sure it wouldn’t be the last time we’ll see these two teams face off especially with the lack of other teams. Which thankfully I’m fine with because another GoD tag-title run is too much for my tastes. Anyway back to this match, the early going was a solid back-and-forth between both teams, no one really had a strong momentum until when Ibushi got basically knocked out of the match due to Taichi using Iizuka’s iron claw against him. Then for the bulk of the match as is tradition, it was a dessimation of Tanahashi’s knees receiving screwdrivers and other sorts of punishment from the Tekkers. They have been dominant in the entire build of this match and it sometimes makes you wonder the result would be different come match time but nope, they continued their dominant presence over the Golden Aces with Zack securing the victory once and for all with the Zack Driver on Tanahashi. Probably the best IWGP Tag-Title match in quite some time. The styles of both teams meshed well against each other and it was a nice classic babyface-heel story but this time, the villains were victorious.
Match #7 – EVIL def. Tetsuya Naito (IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championships)
Match Time: 38:01
Here we are the main event of the evening and yes, that was certainly a match. Despite the build up with the betrayal feeling a bit underwhelming, I thought there was still potential for this match to be solid. All we needed was a straight up FIGHT, not some silly ol’ wrestling match, but a brawl especially on the part of Naito. The story is right there in their faces, he was betrayed by his supposedly most loyal stablemate, he shouldn’t be Mr. Tranquilo this time around, he should feel heated and go after EVIL and show some form of aggressiveness, to make it feel like he means business. But nope. What we got was a typical slow paced match. This is coming from yours truly who has been a massive fan of Naito’s work but they really put the crown onto him way too late, it is evident he is going way past his athletic prime now but still this is not an excuse. Lately, I’ve covered the reigns of Kenta Kobashi and Toshiaki Kawada in the 2000’s wherein both men were not in their primes anymore in the 90’s but they were able to adjust their styles as they got up in age to keep their performances compelling and at least be around on the same quality as they did in the past. Naito should be the same, yes he has suffered a lot of injuries through the years but same as the aforementioned two legends, they’ve got stacked up injuries too but managed to still be two of the best performers heading into the new decade. But I guess that’s what separates the legends from the greats.
Anyway, this match was a slog. For as something as historic of a bout, it lacked all the intensity it needed, there were no pivotal or memorable moments other than EVIL attacking Milano and ramming Naito’s knee into the table. It wasn’t an awful match, but for what it’s trying to live up to and the main event of a big show, it certainly did not reach that level. Naito phoned it in, EVIL’s style isn’t going to improve things especially now that he’s a full blown heel using foreign objects to his advantage. This match should have been a big deal with all the story behind it but sadly what we got was a highly forgettable in-ring action. Too many interferences as well, it felt like a WWE-esque match and I get it, Bullet Club are heels and all that but it was too excessive. Especially when you got the lower tier members of the faction, it just felt silly rather than threatening to see. Jado and his kendo stick? That’s a running gag, not a sign of a match ender. All of EVIL’s below the belt shots throughout the tour led to the return of Dick Togo. Yes, former KAIENTAI member and multi-time KO-D Openweight Champion is now a part of Bullet Club. He hid under a BUSHI mask, presumably attacking him backstage and aiding in the victory of EVIL over Naito which is a callback to how Naito got the title win over Okada in 2016 because of interferences as well so he got a taste of his own medicine here. It does feel a little bit random but for the unaware, despite his age Dick Togo is still a solid worker in his own right and is one of the reliable veterans in the country so this is more of them sticking EVIL with someone with a lot of experience and quite frankly, I’ll always like me some old school dudes in present with the new generation.
The match itself was completely forgettable. It lacked everything it needed for a supposed big time match, it didn’t feel high profile at all. Bullet Club without Switchblade or the Tongans feels like a cheap ripoff right now, borderline nWo 2000 levels. The brand of the faction is a far cry from what it used to be and with the influx of native talents, one might wonder if we’re going to get a proper civil war storyline in the future. I wouldn’t look past it and I’m sure it will be better than the Elite vs. OG’s since this time full time guys are on the roster. As for EVIL becoming the second ever Double Champion, I still cannot fully comprehend it. All this time we thought SANADA was going to be the breakout star of the group but with him being an AJPW dojo graduate and not a full-time contracted talent, obviously they’d still heavily favor EVIL who is a New Japan dojo product. I don’t know, right now I’m still not feeling it. It’s like when Jinder Mahal won the WWE Title, it felt like they only did it for the heat and was a failed experiment in capitalizing the Indian demographic. For EVIL, they took the title off Naito for the sake of heel heat and wasted the six year journey on such a lame finish. Now I know this rivalry is far from over and everyone is counting on EVIL being a transitional champion but it got me less interested on the product rather than be excited for what’s to come, even though yes I know I’ll still watch how everything unfolds because I’m a crazy wrestling fan, plus there are worse products out there, I’m not going overboard and say this will kill the business for NJPW, it’s just a result I don’t agree with and if you actually like it, then more power to you. Let us all see where this fiasco leads us and I am happy for EVIL on a personal level for him to finally reach this level but it is a little too soon for my liking. I think a lot of things would’ve been forgiven if the match didn’t turn out to be a disappointing mess.
All thoughts are my own and does not reflect the entire website. Thanks for reading.
