NJPW Dominion 6.6 In Osaka-Jo Hall
Hiromu Takahashi Promo - He came out, welcomed everyone, opened the show, ran down the card, and joined the commentary. If this guys is ever forced to retire for good, he'll have a good career as a hype guy.
I always wanted a YOSHI-HASHI and TANA-HASHI tag team and call it Tag-a-HASHI or Futari-HASHI.
Anyway, not much to this match, it was mostly to get as many people involved. Several of these wrestlers had already gone through their stuff in the Road To shows, or had been used as filler to make up for some of the people that were gone or out of commission. YH was the babyface in peril, Ishii the hot tag, and the match came down to Ishimori pinning SHO for the win.
Post-match - Bullet Club attacked Goto, YH, and Ishii, making their intentions clear that they were coming for the Never 6-man titles. The team seems to be EVIL, Togo, and Yujiro, but I wouldn't be surprised if Togo is just there and they add Ishimori instead.
It seems like the new direction for the tag titles will be LIJ vs Dangerous Tekkers. The match was good and short and it was just a means to set up the program. The only interesting thing I'd say was that Suzuki-Gun had the upper hand most of the match, even when SANADA came in, Zack kept most of the upper hand until the surprise pin over Zack.
Post-match - LIJ did some shenanigans, messing around with Suzuki-Gun and the referees. Pretty much to set up the challenges.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
YOH went from baggy shorts to long tights, I have a feeling that he's not super happy with the state of his legs after recovering from injury and will rather not show them.
Talking about legs, this whole match was about working the leg. Desperado worked the leg towards Numero Dos, while YOH kinda went back to some of the Fujinami arsenal he had started using a while back before he got injured. I had wondered if he was going back to that, it seemed like a good direction for him at the time. The match eventually transitioned from submission work into striking, as they set up the ending sequence with more of a big move approach. Desperado managed to hit la Guitarra de Angel for a near fall, YOH survived a Numero Dos and blocked a Pinche Loco, but Desperaro eventually hit it on a second attempt and won the match.
Really good match, Desperado continues to deliver as a champion.
Post-match - ELP and Ishimori came down and challenged R3K to a tag title match at Kizuna Road, and a ELP was going to challenge for Desperado for a rematch, Ishimori jumped in, and made the challenge himself, so we should be getting Desperado vs Ishimori soon.
I love the combination between these two, it took him a while, but Cobb has finally become himself in NJPW, he's grown confident to throw people around, and what can we say about Ibushi, he is exactly the type of wrestler that can make Cobb look like a million dollars.
The match played out like a small vs big guy match, with Cobb tossing Ibushi around a lot early on, but as the match went on, Ibushi came back and chipped away from Cobb until they playing field was more balanced. Ibushi started chasing every knee-to-head attack he could. Cobb managed to kick out of a BOMAYE and one Kamigoye, Ibushi survived one Cobbgoye, but at the end, it was Ibushi escaping a Tour of the Islands, bringing Cobb down and hitting a bare knee Kamigoye for the win.
I could watch these two wrestle over and over, and surely, without the rest of the foreigners, I wouldn't mind if Cobb becomes a big rival for someone like Ibushi.
Vacant IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match
This is a match with minimum build. Okada and Shingo got two Road To shows to cut promos, but they did have extended sit down interviews on NJPW world, which were a combination of shooty stuff with kayfabe build. Highly recommended, but where I'm going with this is that somehow, the interviews, the allure of a new champion, and the fact that this will be the first time that Okada and Shingo in a big match that allows different things than a G1 or New Japan Cup match, all of that created this sense of a big match feel to one of the coldest shows we've seen in NJPW in years.
Having said all of that, I don't think many people came in to this match expecting Shingo to win the title, I know I didn't, I always expected for Okada to win the title at Grand Slam, and so this felt like part of the process to get to that point again, but when Shingo hit the Last of the Dragons and Okada didn't kick out, I seriously lost my shit, not only was this the win of one of those wrestlers that had already been classified as 'workhorses that will never win the title" like Ishii or Goto, but it was also a bit of a payoff for the fans that have followed Shingo. It throws a bit of a swerve ball to the fan's expectations and it opens up some interesting possibilities going forward in terms of feuds or challengers. Straight up, given that Ibushi and Ospreay lost the title so quick, NJPW may want to keep the title until Power Struggle or KOPW, giving Shingo a strong reign to fulfill his career.
As for the match, it was somewhat similar to the New Japan Cup one, with Shingo just having a way heavier strike than Okada, finding openings to hit the Pumping Bomber on Okada, over and over again, and working over Okada's injured midsection. Okada fought with all he had and had the ability to counter Shingo and had the speed to cut Shingo off, but the beating that Shingo was delivering eventually wore him out until Shingo hit Last of the Dragons for the win.
Post-match - Shingo cut his winner's promo and nominated Ibushi, the first champion, to a match.
Dominion has been a weird show for the last years, this one kinda came out of nowhere, with so many shows being cancelled, shows that were supposed to build this show. It kinda helped that only the big shows were cancelled, but the road to shows kept building things like Cobb vs Ibushi. Looking at it from the top, this was a great show, with wrestling going from good to great, and because of the small card, most matches had a good amount of time to do their thing.
CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, SHO, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, El Phantasmo, EVIL, Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi) - 5/10
I always wanted a YOSHI-HASHI and TANA-HASHI tag team and call it Tag-a-HASHI or Futari-HASHI.
Anyway, not much to this match, it was mostly to get as many people involved. Several of these wrestlers had already gone through their stuff in the Road To shows, or had been used as filler to make up for some of the people that were gone or out of commission. YH was the babyface in peril, Ishii the hot tag, and the match came down to Ishimori pinning SHO for the win.
Post-match - Bullet Club attacked Goto, YH, and Ishii, making their intentions clear that they were coming for the Never 6-man titles. The team seems to be EVIL, Togo, and Yujiro, but I wouldn't be surprised if Togo is just there and they add Ishimori instead.
Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) - 6.5/10
It seems like the new direction for the tag titles will be LIJ vs Dangerous Tekkers. The match was good and short and it was just a means to set up the program. The only interesting thing I'd say was that Suzuki-Gun had the upper hand most of the match, even when SANADA came in, Zack kept most of the upper hand until the surprise pin over Zack.
Post-match - LIJ did some shenanigans, messing around with Suzuki-Gun and the referees. Pretty much to set up the challenges.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
El Desperado (c) vs. YOH - 8.5/10
YOH went from baggy shorts to long tights, I have a feeling that he's not super happy with the state of his legs after recovering from injury and will rather not show them.
Talking about legs, this whole match was about working the leg. Desperado worked the leg towards Numero Dos, while YOH kinda went back to some of the Fujinami arsenal he had started using a while back before he got injured. I had wondered if he was going back to that, it seemed like a good direction for him at the time. The match eventually transitioned from submission work into striking, as they set up the ending sequence with more of a big move approach. Desperado managed to hit la Guitarra de Angel for a near fall, YOH survived a Numero Dos and blocked a Pinche Loco, but Desperaro eventually hit it on a second attempt and won the match.
Really good match, Desperado continues to deliver as a champion.
Post-match - ELP and Ishimori came down and challenged R3K to a tag title match at Kizuna Road, and a ELP was going to challenge for Desperado for a rematch, Ishimori jumped in, and made the challenge himself, so we should be getting Desperado vs Ishimori soon.
Kota Ibushi vs. Jeff Cobb (w/The Great-O-Khan) - 9/10
I love the combination between these two, it took him a while, but Cobb has finally become himself in NJPW, he's grown confident to throw people around, and what can we say about Ibushi, he is exactly the type of wrestler that can make Cobb look like a million dollars.
The match played out like a small vs big guy match, with Cobb tossing Ibushi around a lot early on, but as the match went on, Ibushi came back and chipped away from Cobb until they playing field was more balanced. Ibushi started chasing every knee-to-head attack he could. Cobb managed to kick out of a BOMAYE and one Kamigoye, Ibushi survived one Cobbgoye, but at the end, it was Ibushi escaping a Tour of the Islands, bringing Cobb down and hitting a bare knee Kamigoye for the win.
I could watch these two wrestle over and over, and surely, without the rest of the foreigners, I wouldn't mind if Cobb becomes a big rival for someone like Ibushi.
Vacant IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match
Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada - 9/10
This is a match with minimum build. Okada and Shingo got two Road To shows to cut promos, but they did have extended sit down interviews on NJPW world, which were a combination of shooty stuff with kayfabe build. Highly recommended, but where I'm going with this is that somehow, the interviews, the allure of a new champion, and the fact that this will be the first time that Okada and Shingo in a big match that allows different things than a G1 or New Japan Cup match, all of that created this sense of a big match feel to one of the coldest shows we've seen in NJPW in years.
Having said all of that, I don't think many people came in to this match expecting Shingo to win the title, I know I didn't, I always expected for Okada to win the title at Grand Slam, and so this felt like part of the process to get to that point again, but when Shingo hit the Last of the Dragons and Okada didn't kick out, I seriously lost my shit, not only was this the win of one of those wrestlers that had already been classified as 'workhorses that will never win the title" like Ishii or Goto, but it was also a bit of a payoff for the fans that have followed Shingo. It throws a bit of a swerve ball to the fan's expectations and it opens up some interesting possibilities going forward in terms of feuds or challengers. Straight up, given that Ibushi and Ospreay lost the title so quick, NJPW may want to keep the title until Power Struggle or KOPW, giving Shingo a strong reign to fulfill his career.
As for the match, it was somewhat similar to the New Japan Cup one, with Shingo just having a way heavier strike than Okada, finding openings to hit the Pumping Bomber on Okada, over and over again, and working over Okada's injured midsection. Okada fought with all he had and had the ability to counter Shingo and had the speed to cut Shingo off, but the beating that Shingo was delivering eventually wore him out until Shingo hit Last of the Dragons for the win.
Post-match - Shingo cut his winner's promo and nominated Ibushi, the first champion, to a match.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Dominion has been a weird show for the last years, this one kinda came out of nowhere, with so many shows being cancelled, shows that were supposed to build this show. It kinda helped that only the big shows were cancelled, but the road to shows kept building things like Cobb vs Ibushi. Looking at it from the top, this was a great show, with wrestling going from good to great, and because of the small card, most matches had a good amount of time to do their thing.