Topic: New Japan Dominion Thread

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New Japan has their Dominion show today. If WrestleKingdom is their WrestleMania, Dominion roughly equivalent to their SummerSlam.

Here is the card:

The Dojo Boys (Jay White, David Finlay, & Juice Robinson) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, & Manab Nakanishi. Simple story, young guns vs. vets. I predict the veterans to win. Also worth noting this is White's final match in New Japan as he is ROH bound.

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, & Adam Page) vs. Togi Makabe, Yooshitatsu, & Captain New Japan. Captain is almost always the guy that gets pinned on the losing team. I predict Bullet Club to win.

CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi) vs. Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI & Sanada). Just shooting from the hip, I think CHAOS wins over the new heel stable. More on that later.

EVIL vs. Hirooki Goto - Goto and EVIL (of Los Ingobernables De Japon) have been feuding for a while. I predict him to get the win. More on that later.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Titles: Matt Sydal & Richochet(c) vs. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson), Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta), and ReDragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) - This is a "special elimination" match. Not only do pinfalls and submissions count, but so do over the top rope tossings. I like that they are doing an elimination match, even if it is an over the top rope rule. I predict Sydal & Ricochet to retain.

IWGP Jnior Heavyweight Championship: KUSHIDA(c) vs. Will Ospreay - Ospreay won the Best Of Super Juniors tournament to earn the title opportunity. I fully expect him to win the title, making him the first British IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. Finn Balor, Owen Hart, and He Who Shall Not Be Named are among the non Japanese wrestlers who have held that title.

IWGP Tag Titles: Guerillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa)(c) vs. The Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark Briscoe) - New Japan and ROH have a working relationship. I wouldn't be surprised in The Briscoes win the titles. It will give them something to do outside of the ROH Tag Title picture.

NEVER Openweight Championship: Yuji Nagata(c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata - The story is Shibata has been disrespecting veterans. Nagata is roughly the equivalent of New Japan's Kurt Angle. 48 years old and still a credible champion. I am predicting Nagata to retain.

IWGP Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Kenny Omega(c) vs. Michael Elgin - This was originally meant to be Tanahashi challenging Omega, but Tanahashi is legitimately injured. Elgin pinned Omega in a recent tag match to earn this title opportunity, However I predict Omega to retain.

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito(c) vs. Kazuchika Okada - Okada is the former champion who has had several brawls with Naito. Naito is also the leader of Los Ingobernables De Japon. I predict him to retain, so as to counter any losses the heel stable may have throughout the show.

[Zandrax]

I'm probably gonna need a couple days to watch this. As I say on the podcast for Manias, this show is.... FIVE HOURS!

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, & Manab Nakanishi b. The Dojo Boys (Jay White, David Finlay, & Juice Robinson) when White submitted to Tenzan's Anaconda Vice. White then cut a promo in Japanese, presumably thanking the fans because he's ROH bound.

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, & "Hangman" Adam Page) b. Togi Makabe, Yooshitatsu, & Captain New Japan when Page pinned Captain with an inverted piledriver. The heels beat p the faces for a bit, with Page even doing the bullrope hang over the ropes to Captain until Makabe & Yoshitatsu made the save.

CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi) b. Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI & Sanada) when Yoshi-Hashi made Sanada submit to some form of double armbar. I'm a little surprised that Yoshi-Hashi got the win, as he's usually the guy that loses for his team. They did do a cool double submission finish.

Hirooki Goto p. EVIL with the GTR (think Big Show's Final Cut move but into a single knee backbreaker).

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The Young Bucks (of Bullet Club) b. Ricochet & Matt Sydall, Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta), and ReDragon (Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish) in a Special Elimination Match. As explained above, this was an Elimination Match where being thrown over the top rope also counted for elimination. This allowed for some creative near-elimination spots Roppongi Vice were eliminated first via top rope toss by The Young Bucks. ReDragon were eliminated by Sydal & Ricochet via over the top rope. The match ended  when Matt Jackson pinned Matt Sydal after The Bucks hit The Meltzer Driver. This means not only are The Bucks the Junior Heavyweight Champions, but there are 2/3rd of the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Champions.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA s. Best Of The Super Juniors winner Will Ospreay with The Hoverboard Lock. This was as good as you'd expect. A lot of high flying and some great kicking.

Katsuyori Shibata p. NEVER Openweight Champion Yuji Nagata with The Penalty Kick to win back the title. The story is Shibata had been disrespecting veterans like Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Satoshi Kojima. After the match, all the veterans were in the ring, and Shibata bowed to Nagata. So it appears the grudge has been settled.

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The Briscoe Bros. b. The Guerillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Rao) when Jay Briscoe pinned Rao after a Doomsday Device. Some good brawling. All for men wore camouflage so I could only see them from the waist up.

Fellow Bullet Club members Yujiro Takahashi and Hangman Page jumped the Briscoes and Page hung Mark over the top rope with his hangman noose rope.

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Michael Elgin b. IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kenny Omega in a ladder match to win the title. This may very well have been the longest ladder match I have ever seen. It was easily 20-30 minutes. There was a lot of interference from Bullet Club, and babyface wrestlers, including Yoshitatsu, Matt Sydal, Ricochet & Captain New Japan) came out to defend Elgin. Elgin was handcuffed to the ringpost. The end of the match happened when all the interfering wrestlers were at ringside, and Omega was about to grab the belt. Elgin powered out of his handcuffs, and tipped the ladder to dump Omega onto the crowd of wrestlers. Elgin then climbed the ladder and retrieved the belt.

I'm not sure I would've beaten Omega so relatively shortly after his title win, but there could always be a rubber match, or a G1 tournament story to be told. That said, all of Los Ingobernables lost tonight.

Kazuchika Okada p. Tetsuya Naito with three straight Rainmaker clotheslines. Naito kicked out of a Rainmaker, which to my knowledge only Hiroshi Tanahashi has done, and even that was at a Wrestlekingdom. Again, Naito's reign has been short, but Naito could win the G1 and challenge at next year's WrestleKingdom, as could Omega. We'll see where this goes

This was a very good show overall. I'd say it was better than MITB because unlike MITB, there were no crappy matches or segments. It was very long, but very good.