I'm back again with another Plus and Minus, this time we're talking about this mornings NJPW Dominion show, I didn't get up early enough so I only saw the last 4 matches. But they were long and great and enough to talk about for a post, but that also means there wasn't a minus here.. well maybe.
The Plus
+ Kushida vs Hiromu Takahashi: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
These two have had a collection of great matches now and to no big shock they had another great one, compared to the next matches we saw this one was a shorter one but still entertaining. Some highlights of this match have to be Kushida's Sabu-esque dropkick from the chair into Takahashi. The two started the match with some back and forth stiff slaps to each others chest and near the end of the match the same spot was revisited with both exhausted on their knees. Some great story telling and in the end we see Kushida take the victory and he poses with his Super Juniors shield, the ROH TV Title and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belt. While Kushida celebrates we saw BUSHI attack him from behind spraying mist into his face. Assuming this is the next feud for Long Beach it should be fun. If I'm going to guess, I would say the WK 12 match-up may be Kushida vs Marty Scurll for both ROH and IWGP belts. This is a good way to intertwine a ROH storyline into New Japan especially since Marty is a newly debuted Junior to Japan and former TV champ.
+ Hirooki Goto vs Minoru Suzuki: NEVER Openweight Championship
New Japan never usually do gimmick type matches and on paper the Lumberjack match, even with Goto and Suzuki, you can't help but feel the match would be lack-luster. But surprisingly it wasn't that way at all. The match showed Suzuki in the best light however, as a 49 Year Old, who recently got much much leaner, it's crazy to see him move so quick, hit so hard and look unfazed and undamaged by the end of the match. Goto is my favourite underdog in New Japan and it is sad to see his shot at the NEVER Openweight gone for a while but hopefully he will be implemented into a new string of storylines soon, maybe he is even in the G1 tournament. The match itself did have a little too much interference for me but overall it did add a lot, especially sections between Suzuki and Liger, which is something I would like to see at WK12, or Suzuki vs Yoshi-hashi, which is the next feud for the belt. I also saw our own English resident Zack Sabre Jr take a lot of shots at Tomohiro Ishii. I'm unsure if this was intentional or not but I'd love to see some kind of match up between those two. Overall fun match.
+ Tetsuya Naito vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: IWGP Intercontinental Championship
The story here was really cool. Naito is one of the biggest wrestling stars in the world today and his LIJ gimmick of being 'Tranquillo' has allowed him to create a story that hasn't been seen like this before. IWGP Championship has been broken and destroyed to the point where the side plates had fell off the strap had been worn and the main plate of the belt had actually snapped. Not only that but Naito insisted that he would retire the belt if he won. Sadly I know that means he definitely isn't winning especially when the belt is the second biggest in New Japan. Either way it was very worthy of being the second to last match on the card and eventually saw Tanahashi take the belt away from Naito. Hopefully we see a new design or restoration of the IC belt cause it is horrible looking right now.
+ Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
Okada has had the best year in Pro Wrestling this year. 6 Stars at WK, other great 5 star matchups with Suzuki and Shibata and now the rematch from WK with Kenny Omega. Guess what? It is better than the last on, at least I thought so. If Dave Meltzer agrees then he is gonna have to give this match a 7 Star rating. The match was the perfect blend of story telling, and amazing technical and flashy wrestling. The biggest part for me was when Omega finally hit the One Winged Angel on Okada something he couldn't do last match and has been shown as a finisher that FINISHES a match. Once that move is executed you've lost, Kenny hit the move and Okada luckily had his leg on the rope right next to him. Keeping the move sacred and still hitting it within the match. I also loved how New Japan handled The Young Bucks throughout the match, knowing that in Long Beach in a couple of weeks they will be debuting in USA, they want their biggest USA stars looking at least like faces to the fans of them. So The Young Bucks spent the match calling tips to Kenny, encouraging Kenny and seeing if he was ok when he took a big bump. To fans of Okada this could have been seen as the Young Bucks constantly getting involved but to the ones supporting Kenny we saw The Young Bucks being good friends and not interfering in the match at all. Especially when Okada put Kenny on the table and The Bucks went mental to the ref shouting "What the hell, why are you allowing this" which is a valid point. We also saw the rest of The Bullet Club especially Cody Rhodes look concerned for Kenny and coming out and making it clear that they didn't want Kenny to get hurt anymore. This could sprout some divide in The Bullet Club which will also be a great storyline. The match ended in a draw which is a crazy thought especially when you could consider this match probably the best Professional Wrestling match ever had. Afterwards we saw Cody again, this time interrupting Okada's press conference and issuing a challenge at Long Beach, I'm looking forward to what Cody can do with the best wrestler in the world.
The Minus
- KENNY SHOULD'VE WON DAMMIT
Personally I want Kenny Omega to have that belt, like a lot. And because of the draw, I think New Japan should have the belt in a limbo state until they can have a rematch, I think that would be an interesting storyline to have and they could have the rematch during Long Beach, but they might not want to waste Omega/Okada III a month later after the last one. But that's just my opinion.
I hope you enjoyed this wrestling addition of The Plus and The Minus. I will probably do these for the WWE PPVs that I watch and for the NJPW events that I get the chance to watch. I'll see you next time!
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