NJPW Dominion 6.21

Dominion 6.21

21^st June 2014, BODYMAKER Colosseum, Osaka.

The midsummer spectacular of New Japan Pro Wrestling has historically been an explosive affair. Just twelve months ago, Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata continued their boiling bloodfeud in an encounter many take to be the finest of their tear-ups. A flowering boy-prince named Kazuchika Okada was still our champion, defeating To(u)gi Makabe before being challenged by Prince Devitt, who had just downed Hiroshi Tanahashi in the semi-main.

Conversely, this would be the first defeat Tanahashi would suffer at Dominion, having defeated Okada in 2012, Goto in 2011, Yano in 2010 (in a hair vs. hair match that sounds fucking LOL) and the man who shall forever be prefixed with 'veteran' Manabu Nakanishi in 2009 in a 30+ minute encounter are you INSANE?

Despite a similarly-staffed card and some niggling criticisms (no citation) that Messrs. Gedo and Jado have been developing storylines at a snail's pace, 2013's edition feels very much a world away. Doubtless aided by the IRL career development of Prince Devitt, some will point to the greater spacing of matches of spectacle that have robbed the 2014 edition of Dominion of prestige. This is all very possible.

My view is slightly more optimistic; the roster is aging and not everyone can wrestle MOTN candidates every month without hitting the valium simply to get to sleep before too long. Given the recent news about Jado's spine, at least we have a booker who understands first-hand what it is to work hurt.

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Matt and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks) (Bullet Club) (c) vs. Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA (Time Splitters)

For all their criticism as spot-monkeys and proponents of the generic flip assault that characterises independent American wrestling, I feel that a solid defence of the Young Bucks is a long-time in coming. These two are far from generic. They are unique.

In a world that undervalues tag team wrestling, that considers it the domain of 'singles guys they haven't got anything for', they have planted their flag royally and travelled the world forcefully playing their hand as a duo whose awesomeness derives from being greater than the sum of their parts. They know that they're eminently detestable little Californian douche weasels with punchable faces and they utilise that to generate great heat and light.

They also have a dazzling array of killer tag team manoeuvres (not all of them are 'spots', some of them are just well-worked and refreshing MOVES, they just have more mechanical parts per execution) and are just about as near as you'll get to a lock for a good-to-great match each and every night. I will level with the Bros. Jackson if they are reading: I don't think anyone wants to go to a Superkick Party. They sound a bit rubbish.

I am not telling you which is which

Their opponents are no less estimable, though theirs is a journey I will flesh out in future editions. This match was a lot of fun, with an intelligent pacing that built so that you couldn't see the join between the mid-section of the match and 'let's go to hot finish'; it grew as organically as one could expect from predetermined fighting.

Shelley, seemingly healed from the injury that forced his retirement from Best of the Super Junior at the semi-final stage, has a great line in 'good guy in trouble'. Repeatedly he goes for the hot tag, but the Jacksons are now veteran as fuck in addition to being approximately 14 years old and they don't want this. Eventually, after many tears and beatings, Shelley finds a clear-line to his corner...and KUSHIDA has been taken out by an errant Buck. These little details brought life and nuance into a match that could easily have coasted on its status as opener in an overlooked division.

Of note: there is no Bullet Club interference, nor are there any Bullet Club members at ringside. Expectations, from here at least, were that this wicked gaijin faction would interfere and cheat and stop at nothing to ensure all members (except pool boy Tama Tonga) were decked in tangible plaudits. However, the positioning of this match ensured that in their defeat the suggestions that perhaps it would not be the night of Bullet Club after all and that some bewigged and besuited senior figure in Bushiroad had interfered to save me from the hands of my least favourite faction since Millionaires Club. KUSHIDA picked up the win with his kimura, or as he calls it, the Hoverboard Lock. So cute. ****1/4

Time Splitters d. The Young Bucks to become IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

Tama Tonga (Bullet Club) vs. Tetsuya Naito

If there is one thing that I have realised it is that Japanese audiences do not appreciate when a wrestler is forced down their throat, even when that wrestler turns out to be as good as Shinsuke Nakamura. Nakamura, like Naito, was the dream boy of management. It seems odd to think of Nakamura as ever having been a failure, given the three IWGP Heavyweight Championship runs he had under his old 'I'm a serious guy' gimmick, but it really wasn't the wild success hoped for across the board. Only a gimmick change, a recalibration of moves and the insertion of the worker's actual personality did the connection between wrestler and audience begin to truly occur.

There can be little doubt about Tetsuya Naito's in-ring ability. There's also a subtle charm and innate ability to read a situation. Re-watch his fantastic encounter against Tomohiro Ishii from the 2014 New Beginning in the same building that this event comes from. Supposedly the babyface against an underdog heel, the smart fans get on his back immediately after winning the first exchange. Rather than crumbling in the manner that Dave Bautista did after Royal Rumble 2014, Naito smirks and taunts the crowd, addressing the elephant in the room and allowing the partisan nature that enlivens many great matches to flourish. And indeed, a great match it was.

Millstone pictured

Naito is floundering by any yardstick. The winner of 2013's G1 Climax, yet voted by the masses into the semi-main event at Wrestle Kingdom 8. Losing and failing to regain his NEVER title. Taking two clean defeats to Bad Luck Fale. Ironically, now Naito finds himself at a low ebb, 'smarter' fans have begun to note his phenomenal work-rate, improved selling and all-around ability. In other Asian territories, such as Taiwan and Thailand, as well as the more remote regions of Japan, Naito gains warm reactions. There's probably redemption down the line. But defeat to Tonga, yet to score a notable pinfall of any stripe, is surely unthinkable.

So it proves, as Naito downs his less experienced opponent in a simple and effective carry job. The match is microcosmic of the Naito problem: he wins, he does everything right, but many people will remember this match as the moment he nearly tumbles off the turnbuckles in his pre-match pose and the way he imitates Tonga's slithering gestures across the ring. **

Tetsuya Naito d. Tama Tonga.

Yuji Nagata and Tomoaki Honma vs. Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata (Meiyu Tag)

Whatever the problems are with NOAH, the GHC Heavyweight Championship remains a title of immense prestige and deep honour in world wrestling, let alone Japan. It is the domain of men who only need one name to ring out in eternity: Misawa, Kobashi, KENTA, Rikio.

Unfortunately for NJPW, allowing Yuji Nagata on an excursion to stablise NOAH in the loss of their biggest star, his utility as somebody who can be inserted into a situation up and down the card has diminished. Affording this rival promotion's title respect in such a manner is an unthinkable act from an American perspective: imagine if WWE allowed Kane into TNA to hold their title whilst simultaneously working WWE shows. This situation unfortunately means that Nagata can not take the fall, nor can he be drawn into significant conflict. He is just there. And as much as I like Blue Justice / 'Salute Dork' (© Minoru Suzuki), no one on a wrestling card should just 'be there'.

(don't) remember him this way

Nagata's entry into the G1 Climax perhaps heralds the end of his GHC reign, though the viciousness exhibited by all parties in this outing caught everybody by surprise and in retrospect should be taken as some kind of sign. Shibata, about whom I'll digress nearer to the G1 tournament, needs opponents who are willing to take and throw fire. Nagata, a mildly avuncular figure 95% of the time, does not require much coercion to snap and start kicking the fuck out of somebody.

His partner, the underrated Tomoaki Honma (who wears a long waistcoat with the epithet 'Vampire Chicken' on the back) is of similar stock, plying his earlier trade in the sort of nonsense requiring fluorescent light-tubes, and his trade of strikes with Shibata is edge-of-seat stuff, slapping the petulant Shibata so hard that spray gets caught in the light and looks awesome.

After an extended and thrilling brawl, Goto, looking somewhat distant, picks up the pin with an awkward-looking non-finisher on Honma. Nagata and Shibata fight to the back as the match continues and beyond its finish. What's that? They're in the same G1 block? Cha-ching! Take my money. ***3/4

Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata d. Yuji Nagata and Tomoaki Honma.

 

NWA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima (TenKoji) (c) vs. Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. (Killer Elite Squad) (Suzuki-gun)

NJPW's partnership with NWA, highlighting their major singles and pairs titles, has not thrown out an abundance of fantastic matches in the lengthy chance it has had to shine. Kojima can still go, no mistake, whereas Tenzan is more than a little broken down. However, after Kojima dropped the singles title quietly in the USA and a good three-way tag dance at Back to the Yokohama Arena, spirits are up for the angle once again.

These particular pairs have contested countless tag matches and the chemistry on show is that of guys bringing all the game they can muster. This outing went for 15 minutes, a phrase which does not sit well with most of these competitors in 2014, but I can't find a blog or report or review that can't at least admit to this match being quite surprisingly good. Who would I be to disagree in this instance? Archer did a great-looking moonsault and probably stole the show in this outing. Smith Jr. ate the fall after a Kojima Lariat. ***1/2

TenKoji d. Killer Elite Squad.

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Ricochet

Given the superlative performances in the ring of both of these competitors, it would be tempting to attempt to respond with an overload of verbiage that attempts to convey their majesty by force. I think that's the wrong way to approach this.

Ricochet is an American wrestler primarily associated with the rival Dragon Gate promotion. He does things in the ring that I haven't seen before and combines this with a fairly believable and engaging personality. People have been upset by what they perceive as a lack of 'psychology' in his matches. Psychology in this instance prizes the art of storytelling within the situation of a wrestling contest, where attention is divided as much between the performance of moves and the action that takes place between the delivery of moves (selling pain in a consistent and coherent manner, appealing to the crowd, working to keep the audience invested in the contest). 

To people overly-concerned with this in the case of Ricochet, I blow a raspberry in your general direction. There's a moment in this match where Ibushi attempts a top-rope Frankensteiner, which Ricochet counters by adding an extra rotation and landing on his feet, walking away with a facial expression akin to "yeah, and?" before planting Ibushi with the Benadryller. It might not be 13 years of Kobashi and Misawa chopping and elbowing each other that coalesces in one glorious moment, but man...it's something. It's also psychology: the psychology of the new guy royally trumping you and then rubbing it right in your face.

image courtesy of @SenorLARIATO

Called up to add wider appeal to the annual Best of the Super Junior, Ricochet shocked many by winning the entire tournament in a fantastic final against KUSHIDA.  It was a strange decision, though one met with widespread applause. With Ricochet dropping his Dragon Gate title before entering the BOSJ, rumours were rife that NJPW has made a significant new acquisition.

On the other side of the ring: Kota Ibushi. There's a lot going on with Ibushi right now that perhaps might become clearer by the end of the G1 Climax. Allegedly wrecked from his dual schedule as ace of DDT and ace of the NJPW junior division, the Golden Star opted to sit out the annual round-robin, offering his title as bait for the winner.

I am not the type who plays fantasy booker and believe quite strongly in the direction the company is heading in, however enigmatic and shapeless it may feel to some. However, the time is right to begin considering Kota Ibushi as a serious candiate to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Absurdly popular, almost incapable of a bad match, good-looking, with legitimate credentials in kickboxing, Ibushi has displayed incredible dedication to improvement and both of the companies that he has signed for. Adept at both 30 minutes of wrestling against a marionette in DDT comedy matches and serious fighting spirit classics against renowned heavyweights, Ibushi should not be held back by the number he tips on the scales.

This match: it is good. Shorter than expected, not that short is automatically bad. The chemistry is really good and Ricochet makes most of the running, with Ibushi resorting to brains to outsmart his dominant opponent. Perhaps a prelude to a future encounter, the match gets less time than the previous match and ends abruptly with Ibushi's brilliantly absurd-looking Phoenix Plex, which Wikipedia describes as a 'bridging package fallaway powerbomb' but looks to me like a man trying to insert himself and his opponent into an envelope. ****

Kota Ibushi d. Ricochet.

Ibushi now goes onto the G1 Climax, the blocks of which are announced during the interval. If ever there was a group of death in a wrestling competition, Block A of the 2014 G1 Climax is it. Which is terrible news for Ibushi, as he's in it. Those blocks in full.

BLOCK A: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kota Ibushi, Tomohiro Ishii, Katsuyori Shibata, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Bad Luck Fale, Doc Gallows, Shelton Benjamin, Davey Boy Smith Jr.

BLOCK B: AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Kazuchika Okada, Minoru Suzuki, Hirooki Goto, Yujiro Takahashi, To(u)gi Makabe, Lance Archer, Toru Yano, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tetsuya Naito.

The headline matches for each night are announced, some of which make the crowd go absolutely apeshit. I'll let you decide which ones those were.

Toru Yano (CHAOS) and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka (Suzuki-gun)

Is Iizuka the worst in-ring wrestler in the major five promotions internationally? Perhaps he outshines The Great Khali. Outside of his wrestling ability (which I have video evidence which suggests was once quite good), he is quite brilliant. Looking like an escapee from a secure unit drawn by John Kricfalusi, his entrance never fails to enthrall the live audience. In a taped 'shoot' interview (admittedly very mild) with Toru Yano, commenting on their days as friends rather than foes, Yano admitted how difficult it was to generate a reaction following Iizuka into the arena. That's Toru Yano, the man who has lasted over a decade in the best promotion in the world nearly on personality alone. 

Suzuki (l) and Yano (r): a great bunch of lads

Yano and Suzuki have feuded on and off, mostly on, for the best part of two years for reasons that could probably use a video package by this stage. Reductively: they don't like each other, Suzuki attempted to bully Yano by force, but Yano was too smart and found counters, so Suzuki has developed smarts of his own. Wrestling per se is not the issue, but the will of two guys who won't back down or admit that maybe the ground stood to gain by winning isn't actually worth much.

We do see a video package of Iizuka's Yokohama duplicitousness, whacking his long-term buddy with a chair. This act returned feud momentum back to Suzuki, who either looks like the coolest man on earth or a brutal gangmaster who wrestles to fill the gaps between forcing people into shipping containers for human export.

One tactic Yano has counted on in his war with Suzuki is to recruit a legend as a mercenary tag partner. At Wrestle Kingdom 8, The Great Muta was summoned from the ether and Suzuki was beaten. This time, Yano goes closer to Suzuki's pride, asking legendary MMA fighter turned disappointing pro wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba to help out.

There were some attractive and fluid catch wrestling paragraphs early in the short story that this match told, opting for the simplicity and ease of the muscular prose of brawling for the whole. On this occasion, Suzuki remains too strong, taking out Sakuraba. Iizuka hits his dastardly Iron Fingers finisher (he attaches what looks like a cardboard set of fingers spray-painted silver and prods his opponent) on Yano before Suzuki dispatches his troll opponent with a Gotch-style piledriver, with the count delivered by Suzuki-gun stablemate TAKA Michinoku. Not bad, but this also got longer than Ibushi/Ricochet. **1/2

Suzuki-gun d. Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba.

Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) vs. AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club)

I'm going to save the storylines and exposition surrounding this match for another time: Ishii is set to defend his NEVER title against Takahashi at the Kizuna Road show on 29^th June, where Okada is set to face-off with IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles once again on the opening night of the G1 Climax on the 21^st July, and this match is a tease for that. There's more surrounding this, particularly to do with the ascent of Bullet Club, the disintegration of CHAOS, the rise of Ishii and the consolidation of Styles as top guy, but that can wait.

Bullet Club react disapprovingly to journalist from Gay Times (ref: here)

This was a pretty good house show type tag match featuring the newly-loved Okada, the newly-minted champion Styles, the newly-awesome Ishii and the newly-pseudo-gaijin Takahashi. It never got out of third gear, and some of the passages with Takahashi in dominance are a little bit wearying because I can't shake the following two ideas: i. Bullet Club sucks. ii. Takahashi sucks.

After tossing Okada clear of the action (where he spent much of the match), Styles hits a nice Pele Kick on Ishii, who stumbles into Takahashi's new finisher Miami Shine (Death Valley Bomb). Continuity pedants may ask why this finisher needed changing given that the old one, Tokyo Pimps, set Styles' heavyweght championship win up, but I like both moves just fine considering the guy delivering it. *** 

Bullet Club d. CHAOS. 

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows (Bullet Club) (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and To(u)gi Makabe (Ace to King)

Tanahashi is reportedly being moved slowly into a veteran role owing to a dodgy back after 1000 main event matches that generally begin with the spot where he gets whipped full belt into the metal guard rail. Probably. As changes go, this seems pretty logical and easy to get behind, with Makabe wandering the upper midcard seemingly lost and with the tag team department in serious need of fresh blood.

And as many reservations as there are about Bullet Club and the two representatives of said stable in this here match, it would be remiss of me to say that this match was anything but a really good example of heavyweight tag team wrestling. Early on in a slap exchange with Gallows, Makabe seems to bust and hits the mat hard and rolls out of the ring. Visibly bleeding inside his mouth, Makabe goes fully xtro, breaking out more than just punches, even hitting a never-seen-before (by me) Northern Lights suplex.

Tanahashi and Makabe: always been the best of friends. (credit: @puro_yottsume)

Given real life impetus, Makabe cleverly sells the jaw that much harder when met with a boot to the face, with a compelling storyline developing between two ex-IWGP singles champions who ought to lick their opponents in singles competition, but lacking the timing and cohesion and double-team manouevres that comes with time and brotherhood (not that Gallows has been around too long, unless you consider him a late-season actor replacement for Giant Bernard).

The champs prove worthy, dumping Tanahashi with the Magic Killer, dropping Makabe with the Gun Stun and applying a further Magic Killer for the fall. Expectations cleverly recalibrated earlier in the evening with a double Bullet Club defeat, momentum swings back their way with a pair of victories. The headliner, in that case, is a rubber match. ***1/2

Bullet Club d. Ace to King

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Shinsuke Nakamura (CHAOS) (c) vs. Bad Luck Fale (Bullet Club)

One week before our main event, I had the pleasure of witnessing both of these men in action in the city of London. Entrances are sometimes an accurate bellwether of a performance. This was Nakamura's. 

 

Facing the current GHC Jr Heavyweight Tag Champion Zack Sabre Jr., a fine young wrestler with a command of ring Japanese, the two proceeded to have the best match I'd ever seen live. It had a little bit of everything I like about wrestling and even managed to tell a little story, with a home crowd roaring at Sabre's back, sensing the trepidation of the dominant foreign heavyweight champion determined to ensure his hard-earned star reputation will not be dragged through the mud by way of a potential upset. He and Sabre Jr. proceeded to have a phenomenal back-and-forth contest that I doubt I'll forget easily.

By turns Fale, a late replacement for Karl Anderson, had a difficult outing against another fine domestic wrestler Dave 'The Bastard' Mastiff. By no means a dud, though the giant Fale hasn't many singles outings to his name, let alone ones against people actually heavier than him by about 60lbs. His inexperience was a little exposed and only in distant retrospect do I think that both NJPW stars would have been better served by switching opponent: with Fale able to bounce off a lighter opponent in Sabre Jr whilst making use of his giant stature, whilst Nakamura could have still worked true and stiff against the uproarious Mastiff. The class chasm between the two competitors going into this main event looked distant.

Fortunately, this match delivered to a pleasing degree. The ending was perhaps telegraphed with a callback to their previous New Japan Cup final match, won by Nakamura after wriggling out of the Bad Luck Fall to deliver a pair of fatal Boma Yes. During that match, whilst Fale held Nakamura in the crucifix position that precedes the Fall, blood streaming out of Nakamura's nose busted by a clumsy overstep by Fale, there was one of those timeless moments that sets the production element of New Japan ahead of the international pack, framing Nakamura's straggly hair, panic-stricken and streaming face in a pose redolent of Jesus. It was possibly a happy accident, but unignorable.

During this match, Nakamura could not wriggle out when caught in the move for a second time and was dispatched for a clean three count, after Fale also delivered a gruesome (good sense) top rope splash to a prone Nakamura. Nakamura is a goddamn wrestling genius and I don't care who tells me otherwise.

Bullet Club celebrate wildly to close a third consecutive PPV whilst Nakamura was carted to the back on a stretcher and can you guys at least watch NJPW if you're going to buy those damn Bullet Club t-shirts which the more I think about it look a lot like the sleeve art for Cut Hands' recent work. ***1/2

Bad Luck Fale d. Shinsuke Nakamura to become IWGP Intercontinental Champion.

The next two shows are Kizuna Road events at the Korakuen. Only one is announced for iPPV as far as I can see. If there's time, I'll try and review the Dragon Gate show from the Korakuen, though I will state for the record that I am much less familiar with the company and have resolved to 'give it a go'.