Another month, another great show delivered by NJPW. What can we say after this year’s Dominion? Was Okada/Omega II better than their WK’s clash?

SIDENOTE: G1’s participants were announced after this article had been finished. This text does not include Ibushi in my “fantasy booking”. I will write another article before G1 Climax in 2nd week of July.

Well, first of all, Dominion was a night of WK’s rematches. RPG Vice/YB, KUSHIDA/Takahashi, Naito/Tanahashi and, most importantly, Okada/Omega. It was obvious that Dominion would be somewhere around WK’s level of in-ring action, and, for me, in some aspects it even topped Tokyo Dome’s show.

Why is that? In my opinion, stories were told even better than before Wrestle Kingdom. Matches from WK helped a lot in building background for Dominion’s, which is NJPW’s best show in this year so far. You simply can’t underestimate hype for Okada/Omega II – another 5-star match was on the skyline and guys definitely lived up to the expectations.

I wanted to start with Cody vs. Elgin, but, obviously, after American Nightmare’s appearance in main event I’ll leave my notes about him for the end of this post. Let’s take a look at Jr. Hvw. Division – KUSHIDA has beaten Hiromu and became IWGP Jr. Hvw. Champion for the 5th time in his career.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. KUSHIDA

Their WK’s match was one of the best thing that I’ve ever witnessed in Jr. Hvw/Cruiserweight division. I think that this time story behind the match was much more personal – you could just feel the hate between those guys. KUSHIDA came back to the game after winning BOSJ. It wasn’t a bad tournament for Takahashi, though he lost his semifinal with Will Ospreay.

Hiromu defended his title 4 times, including one match with KUSHIDA – beating Yujiro in just 2 minutes was devastating for the Time Splitter. Takahashi had pretty good reign and we gotta admit, that his return on last year’s Power Struggle was a true salvation for Jr. Hvw. Division.

Result of the fight was pretty much the best that could happened to Juniors. After five months of Hiromu’s domination, KUSHIDA is back on the throne and he already has one challenger – BUSHI. In my article about Hiromu joining LIJ last October I mentioned that Los Ingobernables will be the top stable in this division. They’re proving it now, giving some free time to Hiromu and replacing him with BUSHI, whose ways also crossed with KUSHIDA’s. NJPW booked it really well – we have another contender who was off the game for some time. Last BOSJ proved that the competition is not so far away, as Scurll joined NJPW and Dragon Lee finally beat Takahashi. This is just a beginning of Jr. Hvw. division’s rise – maybe Will Ospreay will get somewhere higher?

NEVER Openweight Championship Match: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto

We got pretty used to NEVER being a typical strong-style belt. After taking over the belt from Shibata, Goto succesfully defended his title 3 times. Suzuki began his first NEVER Openweight title reign on Road to Wrestling Dontaku in April. His first title defence was to take place on Dominion.

Well, first of all, an gimmick match is not the most popular thing in New Japan. Most of the matches are just standard singles/tag-team clashes. Last year we had first ever New Japan’s ladder match between Omega and Elgin. This time we saw 3rd lumberjack match in NJPW’s history – after Inoki/Kimura in 1981 and Devitt/Tanahashi in 2013, the time has come for Suzuki and Goto.

I enjoyed this match pretty much. I loved how Suzuki played with Liger – disrespecting the legend is probably the most heelish thing you can do in NJPW. Great heel work also by the rest of Suzuki-Gun – especially Taichi, who practically won the match for Minoru by just one chair-shot. After few months of stagnation, Suzuki-Gun came back to the game.

Mentioned chair shot from Taichi to Goto was sick. I have a feeling that Suzuki-Gun came out from this as an stronger stable, they outmatched CHAOS in almost every fight. The only man who was eligible enough to take a stand against them was YOSHI-HASHI – and that’s a interesting thing. In my opinion, YOSHI will be the next NEVER Openweight Champion. He was booked strong, the heat between he and the whole Suzuki-Gun was real. CHAOS vs. Suzuki-Gun is definitely not over.

IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Naito is finally free to go for the main gold – that was my first thought when I saw the result of this fight. Guys put another amazing match, Tanahashi once again really impressed me with recovering his injury so quickly. Let’s talk about what’s next for Naito and Tana!

I saw a lot of guys being pissed off by the treatment that Naito gave to IC belt and Tana was one of them. Additional reason to have a rematch from WK – the match we all waited for maybe as hyped as for Okada/Omega II.

As I said, I was and still am very impressed by Tana’s recovering. Being able to fight just few weeks after tearing his biceps is pretty amazing. And putting match like that is a reason to bow down to Tana. Losing the belt for Naito is a clear signal that Tetsuya is an favorite to win this year’s G1. A man, who’s in my opinion the real NJPW’s ace has to come back to the top. Let’s make some fantasy booking guys. Naito wins G1, Omega takes IWGP Hvw title on King of Pro Wrestling. Tetsuya already told that he wants a rematch with Kenny for last year’s Climax, when the Cleaner defeated him in semifinal. Is that real?

I have doubts. IMO Naito will face Okada at WK and very likely win the title. He’s still feeling disappointed about WK8’s main event, when fans chosen Nakamura/Tanahashi for IC title over his Hvw. Title fight with Okada. I honestly can’t wait to see Naito with the main championship once again – I have a feeling that this time his reign will be much longer than the last one. And better.

What about Tana? He’s still an ace of company, maybe not as promoted as Okada right now, but still – fans love him. He’s just the kind of guy you want to held IC title – making the title popular and putting good fights in defences. In the era of Okada/Naito and Omega, it’s very unlikely for Tana to have one more IWGP Hvw. Title reign. IC title is great for him – he can drop it to someone who needs promotion and he won’t lose any momentum.

IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kenny Omega

Internet wrestling community is split again – which fight between these two guys was better? WK or Dominion? In my opinion their WK fight was slightly better, but, I got to admit, that this time Kenny’s chances for winning the belt were much bigger.

I believed in his WK’s victory, althought I knew, that this match was very important for Okada too. Winning WK’s main event with 2016’s most improved wrestler was exactly what he needed. 2017 has been so far a great year for Okada – 6 star match in January, defense against returning Suzuki in February, victory over legendary Tiger Mask in March, instant classic with Shibata in April. After beating Fale in May, it was time for Okada vs. Omega II.

Well, I was incredibly hyped – one of the reasons was that, as I said, Omega had bigger chances to take the title. His fanbase is far greater than it was before January 4th, plus – G1 Climax is coming. Why I’m mentioning G1? Well, after Naito’s loss to Tanahashi it’s pretty obvious to me that Tetsuya will be this year’s Climax winner. The best moment for Okada to drop the belt/for Kenny to win it was Dominion – Kazuchika would take some time off the main title, Kenny would show the world what he’s capable of when being a champion – win/win situation. On King of Pro Wrestling Okada would take the title back from Kenny and main event WK once again, this time with another ace of company, Naito. What’s in Gedo’s head? I don’t know, but after draw in Okada/Omega II, there’s no doubt that this story will be continued.

It’s pretty hard to me to speak about the fight itself. We all saw what we saw and we all are still pretty amazed. As I mentioned before, in my opinion their WK’s match was just better than Dominion’s. It’s still a 5-star material and an awesome match – psychology was absolutely over the top. Just take a look at this:

The other significant moment for me was when Cody wanted to throw a towel to the ring. It trully gave me a goosebumps – very dramatic moment. After announcing Okada vs. Cody at the G1 Special, I see many opportunities and options to make this a beginning of maybe some kind of split in BC? Cody wanted to sacrifice Omega’s chances to take the belt by throwing a towel, but Young Bucks stopped him. In my opinion this is a beginning of split in BC’s rows – maybe Cody will turn on The Elite?

We all are pretty sure that this is not over. I think that most of the questions will be answered after 1 and 2 July, when NJPW will come to Long Beach. IWGP USA Championship Tournament, Okada vs. Cody – those night are going to be crazy!

My thoughts after Dominion

BUSHI is finally back in the game for IWGP Jr. Hvw. Title – LIJ will make even bigger impact than it did before.

YOSHI-HASHI will take over NEVER Openweight Title soon or, at least, will be the factor that will take the title away from Suzuki (like interfering in match between, for example, Suzuki and Ishii). It’s time for him to finally put some gold on his waist.

Naito is going to be this year’s G1 Climax winner. After dropping the belt to Tanahashi, Tetsuya is free and, althought he should achieve IWGP USA’s title tournament final, he will lose to Omega or Elgin.

Okada/Cody may seem pretty easy to predict, but in my opinion it’s not that simple. Of course I think that Okada will retain the title, but it’s very possible, that someone from The Elite will interfere.

What’s next for Korakuen Wrestling

My exams are finally over and I can concentrate on other things. I’m going to college in October (English philology), and, until then, I’m going to chill and maybe do some work. My girlfriend wanted to watch some wrestling with me – Okada/Omega II was our first match and she loved it! She even made a draw of Kenny Omega:

You can find the rest of her arts HERE, but be warned – Omega was her first wrestling drawing and the stuff that she does is pretty different from wrestling! (Plus, her post are written in Polish).

See you guys at the end of the month – I’ll publish preview of G1 Climax Special in USA! Until then, please make a vote in my poll:

And leave a like at my Facebook page:

KORAKUEN WRESTLING