We all knew that it would come down to this. There were questions about how they’d do it, but it was written in the stars. Okada vs. Omega III with the winner going to the final. Could they capture the magic of their first two matches with the constraints of a thirty-minute time-limit? Of course they fucking could, stupid.
And A Block comes to a close with the return of the English commentary team and a final day where everything came down to Tanahashi vs. Naito. The winner goes to the final, and in hindsight, that was always going to be the case. On the closing stretch it feels appropriate to go back to reviewing the undercard because you know, we haven’t watched enough wrestling in the last month. Let’s do this!
After a fantastic opening night of the G1 Climax from Block A, it was Block B’s turn to step up to the plate. It’s perhaps the weaker of the two, but there’s still a hell of a lot of talent on show, and once again New Japan had a card perfectly capable of delivering match of the year contenders. So let’s start dishing out those stars.
Spit in my eye and call me Shirley because New Japan Pro Wrestling has done it again. This was one hell of an event, and I’d go as far as saying Dominion might be the best show I’ve seen from them yet. If you like wrestling and aren’t watching NJPW right now, you are doing it wrong. It’s like loving rock music but only listening to Shinedown. Sure, it has guitars, but you’re just punishing yourself. With that in mind, here are ten things we picked up on at Dominion.
Following the disappointment of Payback – although some people liked that show more than me – it’s easy to drop into a wrestling related mood. Many a time a bad show can leave you feeling like you can’t be arsed anymore. Thankfully, that’s when New Japan tend to step up to the bat. While, as is the case with most New Japan shows, there were plenty of tag matches to get through before you hit the juicy stuff, Dontaku was a good to occasionally great few hours of pro wrestling and here’s what we thought while we enjoyed it.
There was a very real danger that Sakura Genesis would get lost in the shuffle. The week after WrestleMania most of us are suffering from wrestling fatigue and it would be easy to decide this was a show you could miss. If that’s a decision you made, then I’m here to tell you to sort your life out. Sakura Genesis put everything WWE did to shame, and New Japan continued to prove themselves the best wrestling company in the world. While this card was far from perfect there wasn’t a true dud to be found and here are ten things that we noticed during this brilliant night of wrestling.
After the madness that was Fantastica Mania New Japan gets back onto the serious stuff with The New Beginning in Sapporo, a show that kicked off Suzuki-gun’s invasion of New Japan proper. Even with a second event next weekend this was a stacked card and gave me plenty to think about as I continue my New Japan education.
Coming into 2017 I made the decision that from now on I was going to watch less WWE. With five hours of Raw and SmackDown and two PPVs a month enough was enough, and it was dampening my enthusiasm for other wrestling. Alongside that, I vowed that this would be the year I finally got into New Japan. I’ve watched a couple of Wrestle Kingdoms in the past, but it is time for me to give it the effort it deserves. With that in mind, the last two days have seen me sign up to New Japan World and tune into Wrestle Kingdom 11 and New Year Dash and as this is the internet in 2017, here are some things I learnt.