Wednesdaymania 224: NJPW Dominion 2019

Three days ago, in Osaka-Jo Hall, New Japan did it again. They had a brilliant show that left me wondering how everyone involved is neither dead nor permanently injured.

Dominion is, I'd argue, one of New Japan's best pay-per-views.

I love Osaka-Jo Hall. Massive and incredibly conducive to the lighting used for wrestling, it's home to a very welcoming and appreciative crowd which catches you up in the excitement like a leaf in a whitewater river. You can't help but enjoy a show in Osaka-Jo.

The fact that New Japan continues to make generally good decisions with their booking certainly doesn't hurt matters either. This pay-per-view comes hot on the heels of AEW's Double or Nothing, which was a mind-blowing show. New Japan does not disappoint, and despite not having an official working relationship with AEW, still has two major wrestlers attached to that company working in this event!

Match 1: Jon Moxley vs Shota Umino

Now, generally speaking, when a Japanese wrestler is wearing black trunks without any kind of branding, no knee or elbow pads, and very plain boots, they're what's called a "Youngboy". It's become something of a derogatory term among wrestling fans, since the Youngboys are usually very young (hence the name) and still in training, and therefore are used primarily as heaters (performing matches to warm up the crowd's interest) or jobbers (wrestlers who generally lose their matches to make their opponents look very strong).

While this match does have a Youngboy (Shota Umino) going up against and losing to Jon Moxley (aka Dean Ambrose), it was laid out in such a way that it didn't feel like a match designed to pique a crowd's interest (and get them to sit down and stop buying concessions and merchandise for five minutes). It didn't feel like a Squash Match either (a match where the more popular man wins with very little effort against a "jobber" who makes them look really good).

To be sure, Umino helped make Moxley look like a million bucks, but he also looked good. They worked well together, and while Moxley hasn't been to Japan in a while, it seemed like they both spoke the same language in-ring. Umino made Moxley's moves look deadly. Moxley made Umino look tough and ready to move into the next phase of his career. It wouldn't surprise me if it turned out that Shota Umino is going to go work in Mexico or something in the next six months. He might be ready.

This match was brutal, but it didn't feel like nearly four minutes - it felt both longer and shorter, which is a testament to how well these two work together. Every submission felt like it could be the last. Every blow felt like it could cause injury. All in all, a fantastic opening match, and one that I think both men should be proud of.

Match 2: Satoshi "Bread Club" Kojima vs Shingo "The Dragon" Takagi

 I love bread. I cannot love it as much as Kojima. That said, he was the one getting kneaded for the most part during this match! Seriously, Takagi is a terrifying wrestler, since he can bounce around like a high-flyer (which Kojima probably hasn't been able to comfortably do in about a decade), but then he'll just... whip around, and suddenly he's got his opponent in an inescapable, scary-looking hold. But don't count Kojima out - he's been doing this for years. He knows how to get out of holds. He knows how to apply rough holds that can have the toughest opponents crying for mercy. He is filled with carbs and experience, and that is usually enough.

It wasn't this time.

Takagi took quite the beating, certainly. In fact, despite the fact that his own lariats are almost as well-respected as Kojima's Cozy Lariat, Takagi almost failed to take his opponent down with them. It took four, and the third one stunned Takagi. It was great storytelling. Takagi had to literally put every finisher he had on Kojima (which was terrifying to watch - Kojima is almost 50) in order to take him out at a little over eleven minutes.

If you want to watch two men try to kill each other with lariats and you don't want to watch a Stan Hanson match, this is the one for you.

Match 3: Jyushin Thunder Liger and Yoshi-Hashi vs Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr)

Hooo boy. This was a rough, rough match. And I don't mean that in a bad way. You've got three submission-specialists and Yoshi-Hashi's weird Uncanny Valley face. Yes, it's mean for me to say that about a guy who literally destroyed his face on the ring apron a while back. Yes, it's also true. He does not look like Yoshi-Hashi anymore.

But about the match:

This was a submission lover's dream. While there was a fair amount of brawling (since three of these guys are getting older, and it's rough on the joints to hold a lot of these submissions for any length of time), there was also a lot of searing submission work. Seriously, guys, I was worried that we'd hear joints popping and separating during this match, that's how cranked-on a lot of these were!

In the end, Suzuki-gun had a pair of truly heinous octopus holds on Yoshi-Hashi and Liger, but in a shocking turn of events, these were reversed and somehow, somehow, Yoshi-Hashi got the win.

What?

Okay...

At a little over nine and a half minutes, this is a fast but very strange match. I will be watching it again, since I still don't really understand how all of this happened...

Match 4: Taguchi Japan (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, and Ryusuke Taguchi)
vs
Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase "Dadbod" Owens, Taiji "Bone Soldier" Ishimori)

What does Chase Owens do for New Japan? Seriously, what is his role outside of wrestling because he absolutely cannot match these other five guys. I like ya, Chase, but it's weird that you're the only guy I can call a jobber.

Pretty much whenever I see Chase, I know that the team he's on is going to lose, and he'll be the reason for it.

While, at first, Bullet Club were almost surgically decimating Taguchi Japan, suddenly the Faces took control. Sort of. I mean, Taguchi was busy with Ishimori, White was busy denting steel chairs over Tanahashi's dome, but Owens stood alone against Juice Robinson, who basically just murdered him with a Final Cut and a roll-up.

Match 5: Tomohiro Ishii vs Taichi for the NEVER Openweight Championship

I love Ishii almost as much as I despise Taichi, so I was really looking forward to this match. I mean, why wouldn't I want to watch one of the toughest men in New Japan rip Taichi apart? I believe I've made my dismal opinion of Taichi perfectly clear in the past. It has not improved. At all.

I hate that they gave him the NEVER title to begin with.

So watching Ishii turn him inside out. After watching Taichi blunder his way through a lot of scary moves, it was wonderful to watch Ishii just... beat him. It was a beating. Forearms, kicks, strikes of all varieties, and then one of Ishii's terrifying powerbombs. Pin. 1-2-3. New champ! Congrats Ishii!

At a little over eleven minutes, this was still one of the fastest-feeling Taichi matches I've ever sat through. Thanks Ishii.

Match 6: GoD (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) vs LIJ (EVIL and SANADA)
for the IWGP Tag titles.

Oh my god, this match. I had my doubts early on about EVIL, but they've been wiped away. He's become such a fantastic and amazing power-man. I could watch these four beat each other up for hours, to be honest. Tama is a fantastic talent both on and off the mic, Tanga Loa has my vote as Most-Improved wrestler to ever be in Bullet Club, since he went from dismal to dominating in less than a year! As for Sanada, he's always been amazing.

So all of these guys are great. I love both teams they represent. They're cool.

So it's hard to say who I wanted to win in this match.

This was a very WWE style match, however, being a show of power, primarily, with a focus on the interference from Jado, who got involved at every available opportunity.

Jado might be the biggest reason that the Guerillas of Destiny maintained their championship titles in a little over sixteen and a half minutes. Awesome match!

Match 7: Will Ospreay vs Dragon Lee for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship

We follow a more American-styled match with an undeniably Japanese one. This match was all substance and style combined. How could it not be with two of the craziest, most talented wrestlers on earth. While I haven't yet forgiven Dragon Lee for breaking Hiromu's neck, this was maddeningly cool. I was pleasantly surprised by how relatively few high spots we started out with - Ospreay took a few lessons from Zack Sabre Jr, it seemed! With some scary, scary holds and submissions, it began to seem like this would be a shockingly slow match from two speed demons.

I needn't have worried.

With a horde of Suicide Dives, insane flips and hurricanranas and Spanish Flies... it was a match that defies explanation. Seriously, you have to watch this thing in order to understand what I'm even trying to say here. What the heck.

After a little over twenty minutes of pure magic, Ospreay reclaimed the IWGP Jr Heavyweight title from a very battered Dragon Lee. Holy mackerel. Watch this match.

Match 8: Tetsuya Naito vs Kota Ibushi

I love Naito. Holy crap, I love Naito. I don't get why this match ended the way it did. Kota has finally signed with the company. He's giving them everything. He's theirs. They won.

So why, after giving them one of the scariest damn matches I've ever seen, putting his very life on the line (looooook at that move! His temple is hitting the side of the ring!) did Naito win?

Naito hates this belt.

To be honest, I haven't been keeping up with NJPW the way I should, but why give Ibushi any belt time if he's only holding it for one PPV?

I should say, though, that this match does make Naito's victory worthwhile. There can be no doubt of him having earned this victory, but it's still baffling.

That being said: I would watch all twenty two minutes of this match another eight times, because it was that good! Seriously. Wow.

Also, how is Ibushi claiming that he's "fine" after that? He should've been hospitalized. What the heck.

Main Event: Jericho vs Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Rainmaker vs Painmaker

 Jericho is getting older, and as he ages, I think he has a resentment building for the things he can no longer do. He cannot really be a flier anymore. He cannot take the bumps he used to take. I estimate about five more years of Jericho in the ring with any kind of good matches, because the Wrestling life has absolutely taken its toll.

It has not, however, taken his mastery of the ring.

Kazuchika Okada has been top dog for a while now, and fresh off of his feud with Kenny (who, interestingly enough, Jericho is also fresh off a feud with...) he's even more solidly in the limelight. These are two hugely talented titans of talent who are facing off over one of the nicest-looking, longest-running, and most prestigious belts in Professional Wrestling.

It's a heck of a match.

This is elder vs younger, big guy vs bigger guy, fame vs fame, madness vs sanity!

It's almost twenty six minutes of pain and suffering and amazing move after amazing move and how is no one dead?!

Seriously, if you watch some of the crazy stunts they pulled outside the ring, it's insane. I'm shocked no one was seriously injured.

Okada did his best to mount a defense against Jericho, but I think Jericho has been studying his tapes lately, because nothing Okada could do was enough to stop him. He brutalized that man. It was nearly a straight-up assault at times!

Eventually, Jericho tried all his crazy finishers on Okada, but through some fluke of skill and determination, Okada finally succeeded and retained his championship with a sudden, confusing rollup.

This match, however, was not over, despite the decision being made and final. No. Jericho wanted revenge for his loss and beat Okada so severely I was beginning to wonder if Okada had somehow made overtures to Jericho's wife. Eventually, Tanahashi had to interfere, seeding future matches for all three men involved.

Great storytelling, but that finish needed some work, I think.


But Wait! There's More!!!

At one point, between matches, I believe, a familiar, but very unlikely theme started playing. I was confused at first by the gentle guitar chords starting up. How could "The Wrestler" Katsuyori Shibata have arrived? He was no longer wrestling after the headbutts took him down! He was a teacher!

But there he was, wearing a suit and tie, walking down to the ring like he owned the joint. I was in awe. I love Shibata. I miss him in the ring. I'm sad he's not going to be able to wrestle ever again.

But Shibata's presence (and the deafening roar of the crowd's approval and excitement that accompanied him) was not the only surprise we got.

Shibata was in the ring to make an announcement. Someone else from WWE was coming to NJPW. Someone was coming... home.

And that someone was KENTA.
You may also know him as Hideo Itami, if you're more of a WWE mark...

Whatever you call him, the knowledge that KENTA is going to be in the G1 Tournament (along with Jon Moxley and many, many amazing talents from NJPW) is amazing.

I was not expecting that, even though I had seen some rumblings that he'd not only left WWE, but that he had a clear plan of where he was headed.

I'm so excited for the G1! Who will win? Who will surprise us next? What's in store for KENTA, who innovated the GTS used by CM Punk?

We'll just have to wait and see.

And if you've got four hours to spare and a subscription to New Japan World (which is only 999 Yen right now), definitely give Dominion 2019 a watch!

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