Dominion

Dominion 2015

(2015/5/7)

0.      Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada, Sho Tanaka vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Yohei Komatsu

Decent, purposeful pre-show affair.

**3/4

1.      3-WAY for IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta) vs. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) vs. Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) ©

Obviously, this sucked, it was same old shit. 2015 is a horrible year for the division.

bad

2.      Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma

Ingobernable Naito is so goddamn cool, he’s only scratching the surface of endless possibilities with the character. Also, Honma defeated someone with a Kokeshi!

**3/4

3.      Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Excellent, grueling semi-shoot genre war, this match was everything I was hoping for and then some more. Sakuraba once again delivers in a big match. Shibata was holding nothing back against his former mentor and tag team partner, he was throwing all the ruthless slaps and kicks at him the same way he did it to Tanahashi, Nakamura, Goto, etc. This was epic.

****1/2

4.      IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: KUSHIDA vs. Kenny Omega ©

This would’ve been great without KUSH’s too selective selling. Omega destroying his leg was basically the main plot of the first half and then KUSH just completely forgets about it on few important occasions. It wasn’t your usual fighting spirit institute, no, it was him simply forgetting to sell it, which is damn shame. But still, this is a good match overall, the finish was totally awesome.

***1/4

5.      NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe ©

Makabe “carried” Ishii to his first bad match in fucking AGES. Congratulations, you walking abomination of a brawler! And he’s 3-0 against Ishii this year, let that sink in, folks.

bad

6.      IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Michael Bennett & Matt Taven ©

I hope this shit’s finally over.

bad

7.      Toru Yano vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Really fun match based on your usual YTR antics and cheating, great conclusion of their story with Tana finally properly avenging that NJC loss.

***3/4

8.      IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto ©

Great clash that was super physical and with a red hot finishing stretch. I loved the story aspect of Goto constantly cutting off Nakamura’s comebacks via lariats. I hope Goto’s choking days are ancient history now. He just went over Shinsuke twice in a row and it’s gotta count for something.

****

9.      IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada vs. AJ Styles ©

Just when the Bullet Club angle was about to jump the shark, Mr. Red Fucking Shoes stepped the fuck up and ejected those gaijin nerds out of arena. It felt so satisfying to the point where all the previous shenanigans were worth it, and was the turning point of the match because it finally enabled Okada and AJ to wrestle that classic they always had in themselves. Super match, the climax was something else, I’m telling you, groovy shit.

****1/2