NJPW Dominion 7.5
NJPW Dominion 7.5 (7/5/2015)- Osaka, Japan
TIGER MASK IV, YOHEI KOMATSKU, JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & HIROYOSHI TENZAN vs. YUJI NAGATA, SHO TANAKA, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, MANABU NAKANISHI, & MASCARA DORADA- 4.25/10
Hooray! We got everyone on the card! Mission accomplished.
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) (w/Cody Hall) vs. reDRagon vs. Roppongi Vice- 7.25/10
As if Roppongi Vice couldn’t be any more unbearable, Rocky now has an embarrassing attempt at â€"bling†that says â€"Roppongi Vice on it. Trent Barreta has none because he knows how annoying this gimmick is.
There are count-outs in this three-way match. Cool. I’ve always been a fan of that. Now please explain to me how Rocky Romero making it back into the ring means that reDRagon shouldn’t be counted out.
They did their standard stuff and it was great, but it also really started to feel like it was dragging toward the end.
TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi)- 5.5/10
This was… weird.
Naito now has really long hair and some facial hair. He looks like he’s doing the â€"I don’t give a sh*t†gimmick that AJ Styles did his last year in TNA, and they seem to be showing that by having the Bullet Club jump Honma in the ring and beat him down, but Naito doesn’t hurry up to make the save in any way. When things settled down and got more normalized, he also wouldn’t extend his hand for a tag. Eventually Honma got fed up with that sh*t and tagged Naito in by force, so Naito got in there and wrestled and did his usual stuff until he got cut off. Then he tagged out and kind of strolled around ringside a bit, still in the area, but never there for Honma when he was needed.
Up until this point, things seemed to be going well, but then Naito randomly decided to help Honma with a double team. Then he had a lame brawl with Fale on the outside while stuff was happening on the inside, and Honma wound up pinning Yujiro and getting the win, which seems to me like it really takes some of the punch out of this Naito turn. There is nothing on the line in this match, but it is a match on one of the biggest shows of the year and the turn has just happened… so why not help cement the idea that Naito now only cares about himself by having him not be there for Honma when Honma needs him and have that result in Honma taking the loss?
KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA- 6.75/10
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kenny Omega(c) (w/the Young Bucks) vs. KUSHIDA- 7.75/10
A really great match that could have been a lot more if KUSHIDA’s up to that point awesome selling hadn’t collapsed during his comeback.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Togi Makabe(c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii- 8/10
Hooray for Togi Makabe and his ability to keep the usual dumb Ishii no-selling and overselling out of his matches. If Ishii worked with Makabe until the end of time, then maybe I’d stop dreading his matches.
IWGP TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Kingdom(c) (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. The Bullet Club (w/Amber Gallows)- 5.5/10
The graphic on the screen accidentally misspelled Mrs. Gallows' name as â€"Anber.â€
There was some good stuff in here, but I found it very hard to get into. I was also baffled by the lack of DQ for Maria kicking Gallows in the nuts right in front of the ref.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. TORU YANO- 3.75/10
Apparently Tanahashi has been wrestling Yano for so long that whatever psychosis Yano has that makes him obsessed with taking the turnbuckle pad off has now infected Tanahashi as well. So they do this spot where Tanahashi tries to take the turnbuckle pad off, but Yano has more practice at it so he gets his pad off faster and hits Tanahashi in the back with it, and Tananashi sells this giant piece of padding like it’s a steal chair.
They had a boring match that went way too long. Yano sucks, and the fact that he is in the G1 is utterly ridiculous.
IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Hirooki Goto(c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura- 8.5/10
A lot of work on the head as you would expect, and some great false finishes towards the end.
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles(c) vs. Kazuchika Okada (w/Gedo)- 8.25/10
These two are always awesome, so it’s no surprise that they had an awesome match together. The most awesome part, though, was that spot with the referee and Bullet Club. That rocked.
That being said, I REALLY don’t like this title change. AJ has had the belt for almost five months, but this was only his second defense! Tanahashi never even got his rematch. Okada has faced so many guys in his two previous title reigns. AJ faced no one but Okada and Tanahashi and had one match against Ibushi. Why not use the G1 to set guys like Makabe and Shibata up for a title shot, and put Tanahashi over AJ to build up to their rematch (which should take AJ up to the Tokyo Dome) show when he can face Nakamura for the first time ever and you can put Nakamura over for a belt he hasn’t held in forever instead of just having him trade Intercontinental Title back and forth with random guys. You can even then build up a future AJ vs. Okada title match with the story being the Okada has never beaten AJ with the belt on the line (maybe have them in the same G1 block next year and give Okada the win over AJ; or even two if they are doing a block finals) en route to winning the G1 and then put the belt back on AJ so Okada can finally get the monkey off of his back at the 2017 Tokyo Dome show. Putting the title back on Okada right now just seems so… stagnant.
An awesome show from New Japan, as usual. You should definitely go out of your way to watch it.
TIGER MASK IV, YOHEI KOMATSKU, JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & HIROYOSHI TENZAN vs. YUJI NAGATA, SHO TANAKA, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, MANABU NAKANISHI, & MASCARA DORADA- 4.25/10
Hooray! We got everyone on the card! Mission accomplished.
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) (w/Cody Hall) vs. reDRagon vs. Roppongi Vice- 7.25/10
As if Roppongi Vice couldn’t be any more unbearable, Rocky now has an embarrassing attempt at â€"bling†that says â€"Roppongi Vice on it. Trent Barreta has none because he knows how annoying this gimmick is.
There are count-outs in this three-way match. Cool. I’ve always been a fan of that. Now please explain to me how Rocky Romero making it back into the ring means that reDRagon shouldn’t be counted out.
They did their standard stuff and it was great, but it also really started to feel like it was dragging toward the end.
TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi)- 5.5/10
This was… weird.
Naito now has really long hair and some facial hair. He looks like he’s doing the â€"I don’t give a sh*t†gimmick that AJ Styles did his last year in TNA, and they seem to be showing that by having the Bullet Club jump Honma in the ring and beat him down, but Naito doesn’t hurry up to make the save in any way. When things settled down and got more normalized, he also wouldn’t extend his hand for a tag. Eventually Honma got fed up with that sh*t and tagged Naito in by force, so Naito got in there and wrestled and did his usual stuff until he got cut off. Then he tagged out and kind of strolled around ringside a bit, still in the area, but never there for Honma when he was needed.
Up until this point, things seemed to be going well, but then Naito randomly decided to help Honma with a double team. Then he had a lame brawl with Fale on the outside while stuff was happening on the inside, and Honma wound up pinning Yujiro and getting the win, which seems to me like it really takes some of the punch out of this Naito turn. There is nothing on the line in this match, but it is a match on one of the biggest shows of the year and the turn has just happened… so why not help cement the idea that Naito now only cares about himself by having him not be there for Honma when Honma needs him and have that result in Honma taking the loss?
KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA- 6.75/10
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kenny Omega(c) (w/the Young Bucks) vs. KUSHIDA- 7.75/10
A really great match that could have been a lot more if KUSHIDA’s up to that point awesome selling hadn’t collapsed during his comeback.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Togi Makabe(c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii- 8/10
Hooray for Togi Makabe and his ability to keep the usual dumb Ishii no-selling and overselling out of his matches. If Ishii worked with Makabe until the end of time, then maybe I’d stop dreading his matches.
IWGP TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Kingdom(c) (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. The Bullet Club (w/Amber Gallows)- 5.5/10
The graphic on the screen accidentally misspelled Mrs. Gallows' name as â€"Anber.â€
There was some good stuff in here, but I found it very hard to get into. I was also baffled by the lack of DQ for Maria kicking Gallows in the nuts right in front of the ref.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. TORU YANO- 3.75/10
Apparently Tanahashi has been wrestling Yano for so long that whatever psychosis Yano has that makes him obsessed with taking the turnbuckle pad off has now infected Tanahashi as well. So they do this spot where Tanahashi tries to take the turnbuckle pad off, but Yano has more practice at it so he gets his pad off faster and hits Tanahashi in the back with it, and Tananashi sells this giant piece of padding like it’s a steal chair.
They had a boring match that went way too long. Yano sucks, and the fact that he is in the G1 is utterly ridiculous.
IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Hirooki Goto(c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura- 8.5/10
A lot of work on the head as you would expect, and some great false finishes towards the end.
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles(c) vs. Kazuchika Okada (w/Gedo)- 8.25/10
These two are always awesome, so it’s no surprise that they had an awesome match together. The most awesome part, though, was that spot with the referee and Bullet Club. That rocked.
That being said, I REALLY don’t like this title change. AJ has had the belt for almost five months, but this was only his second defense! Tanahashi never even got his rematch. Okada has faced so many guys in his two previous title reigns. AJ faced no one but Okada and Tanahashi and had one match against Ibushi. Why not use the G1 to set guys like Makabe and Shibata up for a title shot, and put Tanahashi over AJ to build up to their rematch (which should take AJ up to the Tokyo Dome) show when he can face Nakamura for the first time ever and you can put Nakamura over for a belt he hasn’t held in forever instead of just having him trade Intercontinental Title back and forth with random guys. You can even then build up a future AJ vs. Okada title match with the story being the Okada has never beaten AJ with the belt on the line (maybe have them in the same G1 block next year and give Okada the win over AJ; or even two if they are doing a block finals) en route to winning the G1 and then put the belt back on AJ so Okada can finally get the monkey off of his back at the 2017 Tokyo Dome show. Putting the title back on Okada right now just seems so… stagnant.
An awesome show from New Japan, as usual. You should definitely go out of your way to watch it.