This was the big one.

New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) built the first shows they promoted on their own in the United States around a new title, the IWGP U.S. Championship, and the Bullet Club. An eight-man tournament ran through both nights of the G1 Special in Long Beach, with the semi-finals and the finals happening on Sunday, July 2.

After delivering one of the matches of the night on Saturday in a first round win over Michael Elgin and then creating a buzzworthy moment with a post-show confrontation with fellow Club member Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega took care of business in a semi-final win over Jay Lethal.

To close night two, he met Tomohiro Ishii, who’d defeated Zack Sabre, Jr. in a great match from earlier. Omega and Ishii delivered a hard-hitting match that represented well for New Japan and will probably get a lot of stars.

It featured stiff shots, a crazy table bump with Ishii hitting head first on a dragon suplex off the apron...

Omega splitting his pants at the crotch while taking his own finisher...

And a whole lot more. At the end of a performance that did as much for the four-time NEVER Openweight champion’s reputation with a broader wrestling audience as it did for Kenny’s, Omega pulled out the win with a sequence which saw him hit Ishii with a neckbreaker, a running knee, a reverse Frankensteiner, another knee and finally the One-Winged Angel to become the first man to win the new belt.

Cody showed up in the aftermath to tease further conflict, but ended up hugging his faction mate and helping put the title around his waist. Omega delivered a very babyface promo about his struggles to reach this moment, his efforts to push NJPW to come to North America and promising to be back bigger in 2018.

Stay tuned for more Cageside Seats’ coverage of this show, and much more from Kenny Omega and New Japan as they head into G1 Climax 27 later this month.