NJPW Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall
July 5, 2015 Osaka, Japan
In the spirit of the 2015 G1 Climax being just about over, I thought I'd take a gander at the show held prior to the start of the tournament, an event named Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall. I'd review the tournament, but my sanity needs to be retained as long as possible, so that's a no. At Dominion, every championship owned by New Japan is on the line as this would be NJPW's first trip to the Osaka Hall in over two decades and they wanted to show Osaka what epic looked like. Boasting a crowd of over 11,000 fans of whom the New Japan roster had to win over by the night's end, would they succeed? We discover as one!
What a gorgeous building no?
A quick one-time only note before we begin in earnest. Unlike my Spotlights, whereas I give more of a play-by-play, this will be more along the line of my "verdicts" at the end of the match reviews. This card in particular is over four hours in length and I'm fairly certain none of you wants to read a 500 page account of it. I'm long winded by nature, so to cut back on what would set new records for word count in a wrestling review, I'm viewing the match, then giving general thoughts upon its completion. Groovy? Groovy.
1. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada, & Sho Tanaka d. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, & Yohei Komatsu by pinfall when Dorada pinned Komatsu (8:17)
Opening up with a ten-man tag match where everyone can get their shit in quick isn't the worst idea ever. Immediately, I feel behind the times as the only guys I'm familiar with are Nagata, Tenzan, Kojima, and Liger. If that is Tiger Mask IV, then I've only caught him in the surreal "Legend of the Tiger Masks" match from Toryumon. Mascara is flossing the CMLL Welterweight belt, while Tenzan is wearing a relic that appears to be the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Go. Watch this. Now. I'll wait.
2. IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title Match: The Young Bucks(c) d. reDRagon & Roppongi Vice by pinfall when Matt pinned Romero (14:31)
Roppongi Vice, named after a hard partying section of Japan, is comprised of former Havana Pitbull Rocky Romero and former WWE midcarder Trent Baretta. I've never personally seen reDRagon other than a few Bobby Fish matches early in his career in NOAH, so this should be fun. Last but not least, The Young Bucks still dress like The Hardyz circa 1997 and represent Bullet Club, heel stable supreme and current internet darlings. Cody Hall is out with them and even throughout the Climax in his tag matches, I haven't seen him do much of note yet. Personally, I find the Bullet Club schtick hard to get into because there is homage and tribute, and then there is Bullet Club, who do the exact same hand motions, catch phrases, and taunts that nWo/DX used. Word for word and line for line, I find it more like they are just trying to imitate old WWF/WCW guys other than establish their own thing.
That all being said, I'd rather shit glass than attempt a play-by-play of this match. There was so damned much going on from the time the bell rang that it became just unreal towards the end. O'Reilly looked like a star out there and pretty much everything he touched was gold. Not to say Fish was bad, as he is definitely talented, but Kyle was amazing in this match. The Bucks did their job superbly, which was to be the chickenshit, asshole heels who could still turn the tide with their talent. I was a little worried about Baretta keeping up with all this wizardry, but he looked better than I've ever seen him. Granted, all I really remember about him was a short run in NXT before his release. The crowd was into it and I joined them and exploded when The Bucks somehow made a member of reDragon tombstone the other. Once those Young Bucks turn it on, it can be a sight to behold. "I'm on fire baby and I'm a psychopath!" You go on with your bad self, Matt Jackson. Fireman's carry to the corner for a double dose of moonsaults on Romero and The Young Bucks retain in a killer Jr. tag team contest. Any other federation, this is a show stealer and we're going home, but this is New Japan. Party on!
3. Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma d. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) when Honma pinned Takahashi (8:50)
Ah, now we're in familiar territory. Takahashi is a younger guy who makes up for his being average with eye-candy and Fale is one of those big men who can either have a hell of a match or a total stinkeroo depending on who he is in there with. Naito is fresh into his heel turn here and the crowd hates everything he does. His work in the G1 is taking cocky prick to new levels and he will only get better. Honma is a fan favorite who I've never seen win a match in two G1s, but the crowd always rabidly gets behind him.
Speaking of, this is the only way I've kept my head together trying to keep up with this year's G1.
This was an entertaining dynamic as Naito spent the first half of the match not even bothered to try to tag in. Finally, he takes pity on the ass beating Honma is eating and comes in, nails a few nice moves, and lays down like the smug bastard he is. They manage to work together long enough to neutralize Fale and Honma hits the top rope Kokeshi (a headbutt without even trying to protect oneself) for the win. Wait, what? Honma wins? HONMA WINS! I'm sure he has had victories in the tag ranks before, but this is the first time I've seen him at the pay window myself. Rather short, but Honma's energy and Naito's ridiculous behavior made for an entertaining little match.
4. Katsuyori Shibata d. Kazushi Sakuraba by pinfall (11:49)
A classic student vs. teacher shoot style match a few years in the making. Sakuraba and Shibata returned to pro wrestling and formed a tag team back in 2014. Eventually they went their own ways and didn't cross paths until a tag match in 2015, where Sakuraba tapped his one time protege out.
Shibata and Sakuraba in their fighting days.
That all brings us to this moment and it is damned sure brought. Between Shibata's ferocious kicks and Sakuraba's creative as all hell offense, they had the crowd in the palm of their hands the whole time. I kid you not, at one point, I said to myself, "Well, there isn't going to be any planchas in this one" and at that moment in time, Sakuraba hits a goddamned plancha. Those are the types of moments that will stick in my head long after I've lost my childhood memories. At one point in the match, Sakuraba had a sleeper locked on where he would wrap up any body part that Shibata put near the ropes, forcing him to bite the ropes for the break. Another clever moment was an armbar by the master that also came loaded with a footchoke. Shibata's eye roll selling of almost being out cold was too awesome. I would've put money on that being the finish, but Shibata escapes and they trade sleepers. That ends up being the mistake Shibata was looking for and after Sakuraba is half out, he hits the running stiff kick to the chest for the pin. That was one of the better shoot style matches I've seen as they knew what to do and when to do it to keep the crowd rocking. Seek this match out for sure.
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match: KUSHIDA d. Kenny Omega(c) by submission (20:45)
I found KUSHIDA to be impressive the one time I saw him team with Alex Shelley and Omega was one of the first guys YouTube turned me into a huge fan of, so expectations run high here. The NJPW production team put together a neat package on KUSHIDA that I didn't need to know Japanese to understand. He has dreamt of being a wrestler since he could remember (complete with footage of him at 7 already performing moonsaults!) and he plans to win. He has also just came off of winning the annual Best of the Super Juniors tournament, earning him this championship match. Omega has stated that he will not defend this title again until the big January show if he is victorious, thus pissing on tradition.
Other than one glaring section that took me out of the match for awhile, this was gold. The execution of everything was spot on and everything, but KUSHIDA's selling of Omega's working of his leg was wonky. One way of not selling an extended killing of one's leg is to pop up and start doing springboards and using said leg as an offensive weapon. Other than that, this was a fantastic showing by both men and Omega is a rock star out there. He had zero problems with selling the work on his arm and even hit a one armed powerbomb that damned near made me run around in gleeful hysterics. The main I dig Kenny is that he is one of those guys who doesn't seem to be going out of his way to be strange as shit, he simply is. The five minutes or so leading up to the finish was mind-exploding stuff and Omega's lightning fast dragon suplex stands out. Omega goes for the One Winged Angel(fuck yes!), but KUSHIDA counters that mid-move into his Hoverboard Lock and that's enough to get the tap out and begin his second reign.
6. NEVER Openweight Title Match: Togi Makabe(c) d. Tomohiro Ishii by pinfall (17:50)
This going to be stiffer than a teenager who snuck some of his dad's Viagra. Makabe has taken both bouts between the two, so maybe this is Ishii's night. To sum up these fellas, Ishii is a man who had his neck removed and replaced with extra fighting spirit and Makabe is a wild eyed brawler who would scare the hell out of anyone in a dark alley. The NEVER Championship would take awhile to explain, so think of it like the TNA X Division belt, except normally held by older heavyweights. That makes even less sense now that I typed it out, but hell, I tried.
If you saw these matches, you remember these matches.
I may catch hell for this, but this match reminded me of the old Hansen/Kawada wars where both guys had already established that they could wrestle like gods, but instead felt like kicking the piss out of each other for twenty minutes. That's pretty much how it goes down as these two men just lay into each other with shots you can't help but feel. I was worried early on due to Makabe catching Ishii on a flip from the top to the floor with half his pinky, but the challenger seems okay. Anytime it almost resembled a wrestling match, they would ditch all of that noise and go right back to trading vicious chops, slaps, headbutts, and whatever else goes smack at each other. This is the type of fight that would give Jim Ross a ten foot smile. Ishii either hurt his shoulder or can sell with the best of them as the trainer even sneaks a look at him between moves. He showed up soon after to the G1, so I'm thinking the latter, but his great job of selling it has me unsure. The dinged up shoulder is too much to overcome and Takabe hit the turnbuckle suplex followed up by his jumping knee drop for the pin. Good old fashioned barbarian battle here, even if Takabe seems to have poor Ishii's number at three in a row.
7. IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Bullet Club (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) d. The Kingdom(c) when Anderon pinned Traven (10:09)
Before I forget, whoever the announcer is that sing/screams the wrestler's names like Rob Halford before every match is one of my new favorite humans. This will be my first experience watching The Kingdom, who are seconded by Maria, who many would recognize from WWE. The cameraman has way too much creeper going on as they may as well put a graphic on her ass and announce it as a match participant. Anderson is currently tearing it up in the G1 and Gallows, not so much so. Amber Gallows is out with the challengers and we look to have a U.S. style match on our hands.
This was decent, but sadly felt a little shorter than it needed to be. The crowd ate up the female distraction segments quite a bit, but whereas they aren't used to these, we get them two for one here in the States. The Kingdom had impressive timing and their double teams were on point, even if I didn't see anything really new. Karl Anderson strikes me as a man that Vince would throw wads of cash at because he was a few levels up in terms of talent from the rest of the guys and has the size McMahon goes cuckoo for. Not knocking the other guys at all, they performed well, but Anderson stands out like the man is glowing. After leaving the husband and wife team of Mikey and Maria laid out at ringside, they hit the Magic Killer on Traven after a brief fight to take back their titles. This title reign of The Kingdom must have just been a quick deal from the NJPW/ROH partnership, because Bullet Club went over strong and clean as if this book is now closed shut.
7. Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Toru Yano by pinfall (12:33)
The story here is that Yano scored an upset victory over Tanahashi in the opening round of the New Japan Cup earlier this year and has been trolling the hell out of him ever since. Yano is an entertaining heel who isn't always an instant victory and will kick you in the nuts and steal a pin before you can blink. Tanahashi is the ace (think John Cena with much crazier hair) and is here with his serious face on to shut this little shit down once and for all.
What, me worry?
Once this got going, I got the feeling it maybe should've been lower on the card, but they shoved that line of thinking right up my ass and how. Yano was hilarious here with his "cheat every second of the match" style and it is refreshing to see this type of heel again. He looks kind of rough, isn't strong, isn't quick, but will out think his opponents into making mistakes all day, every day. Yano throws everything at Tanahashi including a chair, the ref, another chair, the corner pads, and more chairs and since he has pinned the ace before, the near falls had just the right amount of drama to make a killer match. I had the feeling Tanahashi just had to go over here, but was never 100% on it, which made me much more invested in it than I'd normally be in a main eventer vs. mid-carder affair. Tanahashi got a brilliant idea and began to counter Yano's heel tactics with his own and at one point after being racked by Yano, delivered a reciept, leaving both men hopping around in a duet of bruised testicle agony. Yano never recovered and after a Sling Blade and the High Fly Flow, Tanahashi tasted his sweet, sweet revenge. For pro wrestling as pure entertainment and nothing more, this was all that and a bag of chips with expensive dip. No one was expecting Flair-Steamboat, so why pick it apart you know? Not for everyone, but I appreciated the heck out of it.
9. IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Hirooki Goto(c) d. Shinsuke Nakamura by pinfall (22:10)
A rematch from New Japan's last major card where Goto won the belt, this could finally be the match where I follow the rest of the world's plan to worship Nakamura. I've seen quite a few really good matches with him, but nothing that made me raving mad, though I'll admit he wakes up in the morning shooting charisma from his eyeballs. Keep in mind, other than last year's G1 and the one happening currently, my New Japan fandom is still in its infancy. This year, Nakamura has been running at half to three-quarter speed most of the tournament due to shoulder injury, but Goto has been an absolute animal, having the best match of the fifteen shows held so far against Ishii.
What can you really say?
Always one to make an entrance as well, Nakamura arrived in a sparkly red ninja outfit. If Ric Flair can get away with pink robes loaded down with feathers, this gets a pass too. Being the longest match on the card so far, this one started out alot slower than the rest. It seemed like it was going to remain that way until I understood the pacing of the match. Instead of going all out, chilling for a bit, and then turning it up towards the finish, this was more of a slow burn. Both men started off in first gear, but every few minutes would turn it up a bit more so that by the end of the match, they were redlining. Sick kicks and knees from Nakamura met Goto's array of power moves well enough to make the crowd hang from the proverbial rafter by the end. After having both kicked out of all they could throw at each other, Goto caught Nakamura with a no touch headbutt and the Shouten Kai (suplex into a nasty side slam) to take the rematch and retain the Intercontinental Championship. Solid work and could've held its own easily as the main event.
10. IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada d. AJ Styles(c) by pinfall (26:27)
These two have been at war with each other since the moment AJ stepped foot into New Japan. Debuting by taking the title from Okada as well as winning the rematch, the leader of Bullet Club has been a major player and nothing but. Okada made an ill-fated trip to the U.S. to work for TNA, but came back to NJPW pissed off and motivated to be better than ever and ran with it. Both men with their respective stables, Bullet Club and Chaos, have faced each other a few times in the months leading up to this event, with neither winning anything decisively. Styles normally plays the trash talking gaijin, but seems oto have changed his tune to that of a more humble and babyface persona, also made intresting by the fact that Okada has been less of a heel in his ways of late. Okaka has GEDO as his second and the champion brings all three hundred members of Bullet Club to the shindig.
New Japan! Where wins and losses matter!
The nice guy in the champ sure didn't last long as the first half of the bout is mainly comprised of Bullet Club pouncing the hell out of Okada, then sending him back to AJ for more pouncing. The referee gets wise to this plan and ejects the lot of them with a "suck it" on the way out. Again, I know nWo was a riff off of a NJPW angle but the use of "too sweet" and "suck it" go over my head here. Once it is down to mano e mano, things got buckwild in a hurry in what can only be described as top shelf graceful violence. For such a tall dude, Okada flies around like he has wings and AJ hasn't lost a step since I first saw him back in 2001. I'm almost convinced that he discovered and had a swim in the Lazarus Pits during his many travels. Both men fought like hell towards hitting their finishers, leading them to hit just about everything else in their huge arsenals to get there. Without exaggeration, the finish was one of the greatest wrestling sequences you'll ever see and they had the crowd on the verge of a mass nervous breakdown. After what felt like ten counters each inside of thirty seconds, Okada hits two Rainmaker clotheslines and regains the IWGP Heavyweight Championship once again. The big match feel was well deserved as this was many flavors in the same pot and all of it done at a very high level from the brawling to the ground work to the high flying. The beginning beatdown segments for the first half drug things down a bit, but once Bullet Club got the heave-ho, it turned into an instant classic that alone is worth the NJPW World subscription. Hell, seeing the finish of this one match alone would justify it.
The Rainmaker begin his third reign as champion.
VERDICT:
From top to bottom, one of the greatest wrestling shows of the last decade, if not ever. Many styles of the art were on display and the variety carried things just as well as the talent. If you are a long time fan of wrestling and have never seen a New Japan show, this is the first one I would recommend. The finish of the main event will be remembered years to come, the semi-main event had Osaka roaring, and even Tanahashi-Yano was far better than I thought it'd be. Must see and worth going as far out of your way as you need to in order to catch it.
NJPW DOMINION 7.5 IN OKASA JO-HALL RESULTS
1. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada, & Sho Tanaka d. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, & Yohei Komatsu by pinfall when Dorada pinned Komatsu (8:17)
2. IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title Match: The Young Bucks(c) d. reDRagon & Roppongi Vice by pinfall when Matt pinned Romero (14:31)
3. Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma d. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) when Honma pinned Takahashi (8:50)
4. Katsuyori Shibata d. Kazushi Sakuraba by pinfall (11:49)
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match: KUSHIDA d. Kenny Omega(c) by submission (20:45)
6. NEVER Openweight Title Match: Togi Makabe(c) d. Tomohiro Ishii by pinfall (17:50)
7. IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Bullet Club (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) d. The Kingdom(c) when Anderon pinned Traven (10:09)
8. Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Toru Yano by pinfall (12:33)
9. IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Hirooki Goto(c) d. Shinsuke Nakamura by pinfall (22:10)
10. IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada d. AJ Styles(c) by pinfall (26:27)
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