New Japan Pro Wrestling put on a huge card this morning with “Dominion” taking place as the Osaka-Jo Hall in Japan. The card was very much focused around the main event which saw a rematch of the Wrestle Kingdom 11 epic battle between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Title.
There were a number of other belts on the line also throughout the show with four (IWGP Jr HW Tag Titles, IWGP HW Tag Titles, IWGP Jr HW Title & IWGP Intercontinental Title) changing hands during the event.
Early on the show Los Ingobernables de Japon were able to retain the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Titles in a great match featuring some of the very best across the NJPW roster.
The Young Bucks claimed the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Titles for the sixth time in beating Roppongi Vice. As usual, Trent took a number of solid bumps throughout the bout and the end came when Matt submitted Romero with a sharpshooter.
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KUSHIDA and Takahashi tore the house down in an IWGP Junior Heavyweight contest which was one of my favourite matches of the show. When KUSHIDA is up against someone who brings the intensity of Takahasi, I think we really get to see the best version of him. This was KUSHIDA’s promised Title shot after winning BOSH and he took full advantage of it, cashing in and getting the win. What a year so far for KUSHIDA.
Moving forward to the main event and the question everyone had on their mind was whether or not these two could top the six star match from Wrestle Kingdom earlier in the year. In my honest opinion, this was better. Yes it may have gone on for an hour which may have lost some people, but it had me captured from the opening bell all the way to end and featured pretty much every aspect of a wrestling match that I love to watch. Given the time it went on, it was certainly slow in places but this was fine for me as I enjoyed the intricacies of Omega focusing on attacking Okada’s leg. But by gawd it also featured some crazy spots including a Heavy Rain on the apron which was just insane. In the end I hadn’t even been paying attention to the time and so was completely shocked when it was declared a draw, but these two men left everything in the ring and I could watch them “fight forever!”
NJPW Dominion Full Results:
David Finlay, Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino defeated Hirai Kawato, Katsuya Kitamura & Tetsuhiro Yagi
Tiger Mask, Tiger Mask W, Yuji Nagata, & Togi Makabe defeated Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, & Jushin “Thunder” Liger.
NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Championship Gauntlet Match
BUSHI, EVIL, & SANADA defeated Bad Luck Fale, Hangman Page, & Yujiro Takahashi vs Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & YOSHI-HASHI vs Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Juice Robinson, Ricochet, & Ryusuke Taguchi.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
The Young Bucks defeated Roppongi Vice
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
The Guerrillas of Destiny defeated War Machine
Cody defeated Michael Elgin
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
KUSHIDA defeated Hiromu Takahashi
NEVER Openweight Title Lumberjack Deathmatch
Minoru Suzuki defeated Hirooki Goto
IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Tetsuya Naito
IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada & Kenny Omega fought to a time limit draw