The month of June, the squared circle has been ignited with amazing and compelling action and stories from outside the WWE. The world of New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) along with their collaboration with Ring of Honor (ROH) over the past ten years is becoming a serious alternative for the fans of the sport of pro wrestling.
Dominion on June 9, 2018, in historic Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan, NJPW’s second largest event of the year behind Wrestle Kingdom (held in January at the Tokyo Dome), headlined by the dual main events of the International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending versus rival Kenny Omega, (best 2 out of 3 falls, no time limit) and former WWE superstar Chris Jericho challenging IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito. Both matches were something that the WWE would love to book for one of their own PPVs, but NJPW gave wrestling fans one amazing show and keeping with the theme of their push for global expansion. NJPW Dominion 2018 featured wrestling stars from all over the world, including a working relationship with American promotion ROH, giving fans and workers an option outside of the WWE.
For those unaware, NJPW is the largest professional wrestling promotion in Japan. Founded in 1972 by Antonio Inoki and was a major affiliate of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) during the 70s and 80s, and resuming relations in the 90s. This promotion is where the term “strong-style” puroresu originated. Strong-style is a style of pro wrestling that uses full contact strikes and martial arts combined with catch and submission-style wrestling. Some of the major stars to have come to the states over the years that some fans might have heard of were names such as Inoki (the founder), Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta, Tatsumi Fujinami, Yuji Nagata, Masahiro Chono, Tiger Mask and Jushin “Thunder” Liger. Current WWE Superstar Shinsuke Nakamura has probably become the greatest crossover star that made his way from NJPW.
The English broadcast team of Kevin Kelly and Don Callis are on the call for the show. The show opened as NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship as El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru retained against Roppongi 3K and a fast-paced back and forth match of great Jr. Heavyweight action fans can expect when watching NJPW.
A grudge tag team match featuring Juice Robinson and David Finlay defeated Yoshi-Hashi and Jay White when Robinson hit his finisher Pulp-Friction (a jumping Unprettier) on Jay White for the win. This is obviously leading to a match down the line with Juice challenging White for his IWGP United States Championship.
The next match is what you look for when you are asking to see what “strong-style” looks like when Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano when Sabre forced Yano to tap. The after-the-match theatrics was quite the affair as Suzuki and Ishii decided they were not done with the fight and proceeded to beat the ever-loving tar out of each other for another few minutes with stiff forearm shots. It was not for the weak at heart.
The Never Openweight Championship was won by Michel Elgin as he pinned Taichi in a triple threat match as the former champion Hirooki Goto was not pinned to lose his championship. Taichi was inserted into this match to take the fall, but this will lead to a one on one match in the future for Elgin versus Goto. This was another match that a casual or new fan would love because of the implementation of the “strong-style” type of match that will draw you in.
The second half of the show only gets better as we have the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Sanada and Evil of Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIDJ) fell in defeat by the most popular tag team in the world The Young Bucks. The Bucks had to put on mass to get to reach the heavyweight division after competing as light-heavyweights for most of their careers. A different style of psychology than a typical Bucks match as more selling on the wear and tear of a match with Matt selling a bad back and Nick selling an injured leg. With these injuries, the Bucks could not perform much of their normal offense but won with More Bang for your Buck, a rolling senton into a moonsault and 450 splash combination (Google this on YouTube to see how elegant the move is).
Up next, Team Cody of the Bullet Club (Cody, Marty Scurll, and Adam Page) versus a team of legends with Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Liger, and Rey Mysterio, Jr. Tanahashi is the “Ace” of New Japan. He helped resurrect the promotion after years of mismanagement and was the “Face of the Franchise” for over fifteen years.
Liger is considered the greatest Junior heavyweight of all-time…unless you consider Rey Mysterio. Bullet Club is Bullet Club and won with some underhanded tactics as Cody pinned Liger. This match was here to set up other feuds down the line such as Tanahashi/Cody and Scrull/Liger and also the dream match of the GOATs of the junior heavyweight/light heavyweight/cruiserweight division in Liger/Mysterio.
Hiromu Takahashi took the momentum of winning the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament (making him the number one contender) and then defeated Will Osprey to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion is a match that saw a clash of styles. Osprey is known as the “Ariel Assasin” versus Takahashi that uses “strong-style” approach in his match.
On to the headliners, Chris Jericho took the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tetsuya Naito in a classic. This match is booked as East vs West. Jericho was the classic heel in this match and Naito, the babyface tried to fight off all the dirty tricks but fell due to the aid of a low blow followed by a Codebreaker from Jericho for the win. Jericho then placed a post-match beatdown on Naito but then was saved fellow LIDJ team member, Evil.
The main event was the fourth match in a series that sits 1-1-1 between Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega.
This match lived up to all expectations as Okada, the four-time and longest reigning IWGP Champion, took the first fall after over twenty minutes. The story of this match was beautiful as Okada seemed to not put the pressure on and ran at cruise control which allowed Omega to win two consecutive falls to finally become the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. The total match length ran over seventy minutes and was given the controversial 7-star rating by Wrestling Observer columnist Dave Meltzer (the previous three matches received over 6-stars) breaking the classic 5-star rating he previously used for his match quality rating system.
So, for someone that has never watched wrestling, or has not watched in a while, or is down on the WWE product, this is the show that might get them back into the sport of the gods. The presentation of this show was much like a real sport versus a television show. The saying is that “styles make fights” and each match delivered just on that saying. Every match served a purpose, “all thriller, no filler” and lead to further storytelling down the road. For the price of less than $10 per month, worth every penny. In addition, four of the top championships are now held by non-Japanese wrestlers with Omega, Jericho, Elgin, and the Young Bucks. NJWP is pushing using the western-contingent to help promote the company increase viewership in the western hemisphere. NJPW has a major show, The G1 Special, coming up at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, July 7. As of the date of this post, the main event will feature Bullet Club members Kenny Omega vs “The American Nightmare” Cody for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. This is the second match between Omega and Cody, with Cody going over at ROH’s Super Card of Honor VII back in April. Fans can go to https://www.njpw1972.com/30309 for the full card.