Jordan’s NJPW Dominion 2017 Review

Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima, and Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tiger Mask W, Tiger Mask, Yuji Nagata, and Togi Makabe

My Thoughts: This was a very enjoyable opening contest that featured all the dads getting their normal spots in which is always fun to see. Imagine being New Japan and having Kota Ibushi and instead of using him well, putting him in a New Japan dads opener and him getting like no time to shine. Overall, this was entertaining and a solid way to kick this show off.

Rating: ***

LIJ (EVIL, BUSHI, and SANADA) (C) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, and YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Adam Page, and Yujiro Takahashi), Suzuki-Gun (Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Taguchi Japan (Ryusuke Taguchi, Ricochet, and Juice Robinson) in a Gauntlet Match for the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championship

My Thoughts: This got really good during the last stage between LIJ and Taguchi Japan, everything before was either decent or short. I’m really happy they kept the match-up between basically just Yano against Suzuki-Gun short so we didn’t get a fuck ton of Taichi/Yano bullshit and then the following stage didn’t last too long either. It’s too bad we didn’t get much Sabre, but he did look good from what we got to see including his post-match submission on Juice. The final match-up didn’t have the crowd for a little while but once they got going they didn’t stop and it was a great effort by mostly everyone besides Taguchi who was in his “This isn’t a big match so I don’t need to step up my game” mode. It was incredibly nice to see the champions actually retain for once so that made this match even better. Solid outing for the most part but the last match is the only must-see thing about this.

Rating: ***1/4

Roppongi Vice (C) vs. The Young Bucks for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship

My Thoughts: This was really fucking awesome. The callbacks to the Wrestle Kingdom match were phenomenal. This time Rocky was taken out for a portion of the match due to his back being targeted and Trent had to fight it alone for a while which he did a great, great job at. Trent truly does not get enough credit for how damn good he really is. The spot of Strong Zero out of nowhere followed up by a Swanton Bomb to break up the pin was insane. Matt Jackson showed so much intensity in this one that added so much to the match. The callback spot of the interruption of More Bang for your Buck into a roll-up was great. Finally, the finish was tremendous. The working of the back fucking payed off. After resisting and resisting Rocky got locked back in the Sharpshooter and had to tap due to the punishment his back had endured. This was such a smart match and the best Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title match in a long time.

Rating: ****1/4

War Machine (C) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny for the IWPG Heavyweight Tag Team Championship

My Thoughts: They kept this at a quick pace the whole time which is crazy for the size of the men in this match. Tonga Loa is still a weird wrestler, constantly seeming lost, but his weirdness was overshadowed by the hard work put in by Hanson and Rowe and even Tama Tonga. The German Suplex no sells bothered me but that was such a small thing in the match. The tossing Decapitation was AWESOME and the counter of the tossing powerslam into the Gun Stun was really fucking cool. This was overall a surprisingly very good encounter minus a couple things that bothered me, but I can’t knock it too much. It was fun and they worked hard. The finish was meh and the title change wasn’t needed at all though. War Machine were just getting started as champions so it sucks to see them already lose them.

Rating: ***1/2

Cody vs. Michael Elgin

My Thoughts: This was the best Cody match in New Japan thus far, but still far from fantastic. It was pretty good, when I first heard the announcement of this match I thought “If anyone could pull a great match out of Cody it’ll be Michael Elgin”. This wasn’t great but it was pretty good. Cody is good, just not outstanding. I don’t know what it is about him. He puts in the work but just isn’t putting on great matches. He performed well here but the finish was kinda flat and Elgin outworked him. I still liked this but didn’t love it.

Rating: ***

Hiromu Takahashi (C) vs. KUSHIDA for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship

My Thoughts: This match had a big fight feel and the fight was great. They went at it and went at it hard. They beat the living hell out of each other with chops and punches and big moves. This was overall very good but also felt a bit odd. It felt as though it jumped right into the middle of the match right from the outset, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because it skipped over the sometimes unnecessary slow and plodding portion of the match. It was also weird because the crowd was heavily booing KUSHIDA because they favored Takahashi and didn’t like KUSHIDA’s vicious side, which I actually loved. The finish was the strangest part though, I must say, considering KUSHIDA added this new finisher to his arsenal but beat him with his famed submission hold, the Hoverboard Lock. Those are my few knocks on the match but overall, this was a tremendous match and both men killed each other and put on a great match. BUSHI misting KUSHIDA afterwards was random but I guess they wanna go ahead and establish a filler challenger for KUSHIDA right out of the gate.

Rating: ****

Minoru Suzuki (C) vs. Hirooki Goto in a Lumberjack Death Match for the NEVER Openweight Championship

My Thoughts: I didn’t expect this to be your typical big New Japan title match with the stipulation obviously, but it was actually going pretty well even though it wasn’t what we’re used to in New Japan and not necessarily a great match in the technical way. I was so happy to not see Taichi out there with the rest of Suzuki-Gun at the start because this is a match heavy on interference and I didn’t need any extra from Taichi who is literally all annoying ass shenanigans the entire fucking time. The finishing stretch following HASHI’s dive was going extremely well and I was getting really into it until FUCKING TAICHI STUCK HIS BIG ASS NOSE INTO IT by pulling the referee out. Why the fuck couldn’t badass Suzuki win clean, or could they just really not think of a better fucking finish. I’m over the Suzuki-Gun bullshit. LIJ doesn’t have constant interference in like any of their matches period. Hell, that’s the same with Bullet Club for the most part. Why is it a thing with Suzuki-Gun? I’m sick of it. This match was good for the most part but the finish hurt it and the stipulation, while different, kind of hurt it as well. They did set up Suzuki/HASHI which is nice and I loved the disrespect Suzuki showed Liger which would also be a great future NEVER Openweight title match considering it is the OPENWEIGHT title so heavyweights and juniors can battle for that belt.

Rating: ***

Tetsuya Naito (C) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship

My Thoughts: This was a masterful performance as both men put in the work and topped their match at Wrestle Kingdom undoubtedly. Structurally this was laid out perfectly. You just start with the fact that this match had a big, big, big fight feel and they lived up to the big fight. The brawl started from the outset which I liked. Tana showed a more vicious side like he has been showing recently and similar to KUSHIDA earlier in the night. No matter what Naito did, he found a way to target the bicep which was so smart. Naito just wrestled a really smart match and Tana played a tremendous underdog. I didn’t mind the finisher kickouts because they added to the drama here. I really did like the finish because I like when wrestlers win with things they don’t primarily win with as Tana made Naito tap to the Cloverleaf which looked vicious. Fantastic outing that had one hell of a story and Tana fought through the legit bicep injury to win. You’ve gotta see this, this was one of the best matches I’ve seen this year.

Rating: ****1/2

Kazuchika Okada (C) vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship

My Thoughts: Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Absolutely fucking perfect. I doubted that they would be able to top their first match. I knew this would be amazing but god damn I didn’t think they’d be able to have a better match but I think they did just that. I may have to rewatch the first match after this but right now I think this was better. This was a work of art, a masterpiece. These are the two best wrestlers in the world. These are quite possibly two of the only guys on the face of this planet that can have a 60 minute match that you didn’t want to end. By the time this had hit 40 minutes I didn’t realize it had been as long as it was. They pulled out some things in this match I had never seen before. That dropkick into a powerbomb counter was awesome. The death valley driver on the apron made my jaw drop. This match literally made me come to my feet and shout. Kenny collapsing when Okada tried to hit the Rainmaker again really late in the match was crazy. I also love that Okada never actually kicked out of the One Winged Angel. Cody teasing in throwing in the towel was executed so well and added to the story of the match. The finishing stretch was absolutely beautiful. I love wrestling and this is an example why. A 60 minute classic. This was the exact way this needed to go too. I believe the 60 minute draw made this even better. It was so smart because now it leads in perfectly to a third match whenever they choose to do it. This was perfect in every sense of the word.

Rating: *****

Overall Thoughts: This was such a great show. I liked this more than Wrestle Kingdom because every match was either good, great, or just downright amazing. RPG Vice and the Bucks were able to definitely top their WK match. Tana and Naito topped their WK match. Okada and Omega topped their WK match. The only thing that didn’t top its WK counterpart in my eyes was KUSHIDA and Takahashi. Overall, this is a must-see show from top to bottom. There were a couple just good matches in there but it’s still worth it to just sit down and watch the entire show.

Overall Rating: 9/10