For the eighth year in a row, New Japan Pro Wrestling returns to Osaka, Japan for their annual Dominion event. The show will be headlined by Naito defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada, as well as the first ever ladder match in the promotion’s history, as Kenny Omega defends the Intercontinental title against Michael Elgin, who is filling in for Hiroshi Tanahashi.
NJPW Dominion
June 19, 2016
Osaka, Japan
HIROYOSHI TENZAN, MANABU NAKANISHI & SATOSHI KOJIMA vs. DAVID FINLAY, JAY WHITE & JUICE ROBINSON.
This was the free pre-show opener. The crowd was still making their way in but it looks like a pretty good house tonight. There were still some tickets left at bell time, so it’s not a sell-out, but at least from the way they’re shooting the arena it looks packed. The match itself was fairly short and your standard opening multi-man tag, but all six of them looked good. Juice, the former CJ Parker of NXT fame, had a funny spot squaring up to the much bigger Nakanishi; he did manage to suplex the guy, to his credit. Tenzan submitted Jay with an Anaconda Vice for the win.
Tenzan hugged Jay White after the match, and the three winners stood on the ramp and clapped for him as Jay gave his farewell address, in full Japanese.
THE BULLET CLUB (BAD LUCK FALE, ADAM PAGE & TAKAHASHI) vs. CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN, TOGI MAKABE & YOSHITATSU
Bullet Club attacked before the bell and Page tried to hang Yoshi with his noose. Cameras definitely missed a Shooting Star headbutt off the apron by Page early on because they were distracted with Fale tearing up the barricade and beating the heck out of Makabe. Your standard Bullet Club match, with the babyfaces trying and failing to combat the numbers/isolation game. “Hangman” Page pinned Captain New Japan with an Omori Driver.
The Club hung Captain New Japan with Page’s noose after the match. A pretty strong debut character-wise for Adam Page in New Japan.
CHAOS (TOMOHIRO ISHII & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI & SANADA)
This was a pretty fun tag match, but short, with some really excellent exchanges between Sanada and Yoshi-Hashi throughout. You can barely tell this is the same Sanada that TNA never fully capitalized on for years, and he’s a perfect, natural fit for L.I.D.J. right now. Chaos with duel submissions for a victory here. Yoshi-Hashi with the winning submission on Sanada, and looked completely spent after the match.
EVIL vs. HIROOKI GOTO
A stiff exchange to start things out, before EVIL took complete control of about 90% of the match, after a brutal headshot with a chair on the outside. Goto also took one of the best looking lariats of the year so far, which looked painful, to say the least. Goto gets his second wind and they trade stiff shots and lariats, and picks up the win with the Ushitoroshi followed by the GTR.
IWGP Jr. TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
MATT SYDAL & RICOCHET (c) vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. ROPPONGI VICE vs. REDRAGON
This is an elimination match where you can be eliminated by pinfall, submission or by being thrown over the top rope and having both your feet hit the ground. The Bucks said “good luck” to Gallows and Anderson at Money in the Bank on their way down to the ring.
The first five minutes or so of the match was almost completely Roppongi Vice and reDRagon, likely because they were the first two teams eliminated. The Bucks threw over Roppongi from behind after Rocky had completely dominated everyone and got some heat for it. The champs eliminated reDRagon shortly after. Some great exchanges, in particular a few creative two-on-one moves from Ricochet. The Bucks won after a JBL-style powerbomb on Sydal into the corner, followed by a swanton in between the ropes, and finally the Indytaker. They did the Booker T “five time, five time, five time” shtick after the match.
IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
KUSHIDA (c) vs. WILL OSPREAY
As anticipated, the best match of the night so far. Kushida worked over Ospreay’s wrist and arm early on with kicks, and he sold it throughout the match. It was all Ospreay for the majority of the match, and he exhausted pretty much his whole arsenal and then some, even busting out the Sasuke Special. Kushida looked like he had it with an armbar late into it but Ospreay reversed into a Tombstone and then a Codebreaker for two. Kushida put it away with the Hoverboard Lock to retain. Everything these guys do together is completely fluid and looks incredible. This wasn’t quite at the level of some of Ospreay’s recent matches but it was still damn good.
IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY (TAMA TONGA & TANGA ROA) (c) vs. THE BRISCOE BROTHERS
Good match. Not great, but good. This was all G.O.D. for the first half after Tanga (the former Camacho in WWE) powerbombed Jay onto the apron early on. Tanga worked most of the match as Tonga kept Mark isolated from his brother. Things evened out with the Briscoes finally getting in at the same time, and it was an all-out brawl from there on. Jay landed the Jay Driller on Tanga for a nearfall, before the Briscoes put him away with a springboard Doomsday Device. New champs.
The rest of the Bullet Club rushed the ring after the match and attacked the Briscoes. Adam Page hung Mark Briscoe over the top rope with his noose before they left. Looks like Page and Takahashi might be challenging next as they taunted with the titles on their way out.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
YUJI NAGATA (c) vs. SHIBATA
Great match. As expected, extremely physical, hard fought match that went back and forth, over and over again. Shibata worked the arm early on. Nagata chopped him down with stiff kicks to the chest and Shibata kept asking for more, which got a good pop from the crowd. They traded forearm shots before breaking into a great sequence; Nagata with a side suplex, Shibata responds with a German suplex, then Nagata with a release German, and Shibata with an STO takedown to exhaust both guys. Shibata slows it down with a sleeper but it’s reversed into an armbar and Nagata does his Super Saiyan spot, but of course it’s not over there. Shibata ends up with his own sleeper, Nagata rolls through but Shibata hangs on even tighter. The champ fades, and Shibata releases the hold to lay him out with a stiff punt kick for the win. New champion. Great, great match.
Shibata bowed to Nagata after the match out of pure respect, but Nagata embraced him and raised his hand in victory. Tenzan, Nakanishi and Kojima were all there and shook Shibata’s hand and sent him off with applause. The four then celebrated in the ring together, and it kind of came off like Nagata might be done in big matches, which would be a damn shame.
IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP LADDER MATCH
KENNY OMEGA (c) vs. MICHAEL ELGIN
Page and Takahashi are out with Omega, but no Young Bucks. Red Shoes looks under the ring and finds the Bucks, and ejects them from ringside. Hilarious.
The story of the match, as you’d expect, is basically Elgin being in total control on strength alone, and Omega needing Takahashi and Page as well as numerous weapons to keep him down, only for him to never actually stay down. Some really good spots, including one where Elgin is perched on the ladder and the Club are handing Omega things to hit him in the face with, including a traffic sign and a garbage can lit, followed by Omega hitting a sunset flip powerbomb over the ladder. The big crescendo spot is Elgin setting up a ladder on top of two trash cans, and Omega actually lifting him up and powerbombing him THROUGH the ladder. From there it’s actually a wrestling match for awhile. Omega reverses a powerbomb into a Frankensteiner and gets heat for using the Slingblade. Elgin does a brainbuster off the top of the ladder to kill both of them. The tables come out later on; Elgin climbs a ladder and powerbombs Omega into them and he actually bounces off, which somehow looks worse. Elgin is poised to win after that, but the Young Bucks come out and spray mist in his face and then handcuff him to the ropes. Captain New Japan rushes out and eats a double superkick. Yoshitatsu does the same, to the same end. Sydal comes out and distracts them until Ricochet flies over the ropes to take the Bucks down. Omega climbs the ladder but Elgin breaks the handcuffs with his bear hands and launches him over the ropes and into the massive heap of humanity on the floor, before climbing the ladder and winning the title. Just a spectacular match that was crazy from start to finish. They went well over 30 minutes and both guys put in career high performances.
Elgin celebrates his title win with Sydal, Ricochet, Captain and Yoshitatsu as the Bullet Club leaves unhappy.
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
TETSUYA NAITO (c) vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA
Naito is out in a full suit with Los Ingobernables, who he sends to the back before the match starts.
Seemed like the Osaka crowd was firmly behind Okada, with Naito getting a lot more boos here than he has of late. Some big spots early including Naito sprinting the length of the entrance ramp for a dropkick, Okada dropkicking Naito off the turnbuckles and to the floor, and then Okada doing a similar dropkick on the ramp when Naito tried to walk out on the match. Lots of solid chain wrestling in the middle; so many good reversals and sequences as these two have everything scouted. So many dropkicks and elbows and counters. After trying for it all match, Okada eventually hits the Tombstone piledriver into the Rainmaker, but Naito kicks out at two-and-a-half, which fires up the crowd into an absolute roar. Naito almost steals it with a small package out of nowhere, but Okada kicks out and levels him with two stiff lariats, followed by a second Rainmaker for the 1-2-3. NEW. CHAMPION.
Incredible match. There’s a great psychological element to this program, and the commentary team touched on it, basically saying that Naito has this newfound confidence and charisma that Okada lost at some point and that he needs to get it back. Well, I’d say he took a pretty big step in that direction by winning back his IWGP title. This will continue, and we’ll likely see the rematch at Wrestle Kingdom. While this wasn’t quite at the level of some of the Okada/Tanahashi instant classic five-star battles, it was damn close and you get the feeling that with Styles and Nakamura gone, and Tanahashi badly banged up, these two will definitely be the next big rivalry in New Japan over the next few years. Expect to see this one several more times, which after that, isn’t a bad thing at all.
Okada closes out the night with his victory promo. He says that is what an IWGP heavyweight title fight looks like. He also says he’s always claimed he will win the G1 Climax as reigning champion, but never has… until this year. Okada says he’s going to give the fans the different view they’ve been wanting, and make it rain cash down on New Japan once again.
That’s our show.
In the press conference after the show, Okada celebrated with all of Chaos and they drank beers together. He basically said that Naito was an incredible opponent, even without all the interference from his crew. He said he wished Gedo was out there for him, but he wanted 1-on-1 and Naito sent his guys to the back and that’s what we got. Okada said he had to do that on his own away from his “parent” but that Gedo would always be there for him. He again stated that he had dreams to win at Wrestle Kingdom as champion, and to win the G1 Climax as champion; he’s already accomplished one of those goals, and is setting his sights on the other this year.
