[6/11] A Coronation of Omega Proportions: New Japan Pro Wrestling Dominion 2017

[stro]

Yeah I really wanna like Cody but it's hard to rock with some of the stuff he's doing. He's as over the top now as he was as Stardust yet he's not playing a character as far as I can tell so it's real stuff. His match with Mike fell real flat with me mostly due to his antics.

Dude got out charisma'd by Michael fukking Elgin, despite him out there doing all of his antics like he's this super charismatic dude. Like, Mike is not known for his charisma and his natural shyt felt way more engaging than anything Cody was doing.

 

[stro]

I'm up to Naito/Tanahashi, and so far this has been much better than the average NJ card, as the undercard is actually watchable and pretty solid when not full of garbage multiman tags. Young Bucks using psychology . Heavyweight tag match being more of a sprint bumpfest than the juniors . Kushida/Takahashi being MUCH more exciting and better than Kushida/Ospreay. Cody and Elgin having a decent enough match. Goto/Suzuki wasn't good at all, though. I think I've had my fill of Suzuki. Dude is almost 50 and is really starting to feel like it. Crowd is litter than a mug, too.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

Long Beach lost

But I can't be surprised... Japan is the clear #1 market by a mile, they aren't going to sacrifice main event matches to satisfy a few Americans. That's something Vince would do

 

[Vinny Lupton]

Long Beach lost

But I can't be surprised... Japan is the clear #1 market by a mile, they aren't going to sacrifice main event matches to satisfy a few Americans. That's something Vince would do

 

[Vinny Lupton]

I know it's fun to say "expect NJPW to give a good card to Cali brehs " but how is this putting your best foot forward regarding a US expansion? People will be cautious in the future to spend money to go to these US shows if they are gonna be treated like a WWF C-Roster house show in 1994, at least without knowing the card

 

[Neuromancer]

is this the second Omega V Okada match?

 

[Konnan]

Kushida vs Takahashi

I just wish they would stop doing the forearm exchanges on their knees every big match

Other than that

 

[jackswstd]

Almost done with it. Left off on Naito vs Tanahashi, I'll finish it up tonight.

 

[stro]

NJPW Dominion 2017


Abnormally good top to bottom NJ show, which is almost always a complete waste of time until the last 2-3 matches. This was pretty fun at least from junior tag match on, as I didn't watch the shyt before that. Tanahashi/Naito again stole the show, imo. I'm getting tired of Okada's forced epics where the assumed length to make them feel "epic" ends up being a detriment. Every title match he's had this year outside of maybe the Shibata match could have and needed 10-20 minutes cut out. I get the booking story of match 1 having Okada pushed to the brink, match 2 beyond his limits, and 3 being Kenny getting the win (more likely lolokadawins, though), but what a 60 minute draw meant was a lot of time where nothing was happening at all. I really feel like a big spot leading to neither man being able to reach the 10 count, or some kind of double ref stoppage would have been preferable to the draw, especially since by the end of the match the story seemed to change from Kenny pushing Okada beyond his limits to Kenny just trying to stay alive while Okada kills him until time runs out.

There's also the trademark Okada overselling the knee just to no sell it later, and all the going from dead on their feet to furious bouts of energy near the end that bugged me, but it was still a good, entertaining match. There's an argument that Kushida/Takahashi was a better match. I don't really have the energy to make it, but at the very least Kushida/Takahashi was LEAGUES ahead of Kushida/Ospreay. On every possible level. Only real dud was Goto vs Suzuki.

 

[Konnan]

Naito is Mr NJPW fukk what ya heard

 

[Cladyclad]

Even tho this angle been done a million times it's still


I'm so glad WWE didn't make Joe a hoe

 

[Jmare007]

I know it's fun to say "expect NJPW to give a good card to Cali brehs " but how is this putting your best foot forward regarding a US expansion? People will be cautious in the future to spend money to go to these US shows if they are gonna be treated like a WWF C-Roster house show in 1994, at least without knowing the card

People keep overlooking the fact that this US expansion is as small as it can be. Kidani has stated that right now the only thing they want is to get an L.A dojo going once again, run small shows, and best case scenario they will use whoever comes out as a standout out of the dojo and those shows on the main roster in Japan.

It's why the experiment failed in 2004 and it couldn't even get started in 2011...shyt, they bankrupted JAPW before they could get things going the last time they tried to do something in the US

The less ambition they have, the better.

 

[3Rivers]

-Enjoyed the show. I think my favorite match was Naito/Tanahashi. No nonsense Tana not waiting for Naito to finish his entrance, spitting at Naito, both men going after the others weakness, Tana with the nod to Nakamura before the HFF and the unexpected cloverleaf victory. It all worked really well for me

-Omega/Okada II was good but I wonder if it would have worked better for me as maybe the 3rd or 4th match in a long term feud. Only their 2nd singles match and they already went 60 minutes. What now?

-We really need to appreciate Hiromu Takahashi before he's broken down. He and KUSHIDA put in work

-Poor Goto. Samurai can't catch a break Curious to see how Tacos/Suzuki works

-Something isn't quite clicking with Cody

 

[3Rivers]

This one was a 1 hour match were the FIRST 40 fukkING MINUTES meant absolutely nothing. And the crowd knew it, they reacted very little to anything they did besides a couple of cool sequences or big bumps.

I do recall Okada hitting one of his numerous rainmakers and the crowd didn't really give a big reaction to it

 

[stro]

I do recall Okada hitting one of his numerous rainmakers and the crowd didn't really give a big reaction to it

Rainmaker is dead as a finish, imo. It's become the FU at this point. He's going to have to come up with a new super finisher pretty soon, because people aren't buying the Rainmaker until like 4 or 5 of them.