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NJPW Dominion 2017. Contains Wrestling Dontaku 2017 spoilers.


The Natural

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50 minutes ago, Marty Sugar said:

Watching this now. I enjoyed Elgin/Cody. Fun match.

I love Elgin so much. I've done a complete 180 on him from roughly 5 (or even fewer years) ago in Ring of Honor. At the time, I thought his ceiling was BJ Whitmer and his most likely career arc was that of Erick Stevens. 

He's become so awesome in New Japan, though. Loved the ladder match against Omega last year, the Naito match from New Beginning in Osaka might be my MOTY, and he's shown way more charisma than at any time in his RoH run. 

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Got together with a few friends to watch this whole card today. I think I do like Omega/Okada II better than the first. Yeah, the rope running was excessive and a bit cooperative looking; no, the knee work didn't amount to much. But the whole second half is amazing, and the final quarter is as good as wrestling gets. We'd all of us watched the match already, and were still exclaiming at spots, leaping off the couch at nearfalls, and exhaling at the end. 

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1 hour ago, Charlie M. said:

It was an easy watch for an hour long match. Probably because they had the story with the OWA to keep coming back to. It really shows the value of having a story to your match coming in and working to that story.

Agreed - I had no idea the match had even gone that long before I noticed tweets talking about it.  Had me the whole way, and like has been said, the last 20 minutes were bar none fantastic.

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I thought they outdid the Dome match's opening act with doing more of the same incredible high speed countering to show that they were on the same level but then the leg work was really good. Yeah, it sucks that it was so quickly dropped and that they didn't come back to it in the final act with a desperation move from Kenny. BUT that was my only complaint. I was wondering if they were going the full 60 how the fuck they'd pull it off at the ~40 minute mark. They looked so beat down by then, particularly after that gruesome table spot, that I was concerned it would drag but it never did. The pacing was perfect and the selling aside from the leg was top notch. Both men sold desperation, emotion, and exhaustion tremendously.

Kenny crumbling to his knees to inadvertently dodge the rainmaker may top even the OWA nearfall. So creative! I don't know if the match as a whole tops the Dome match but it's fucking close and with all the expectations they had, I think that's remarkable in itself. 

Was that gnarly looking welt on Okada's back from Kenny's shoe? Gross.

Just starting to listen to Meltz's WOR rundown of the show. He said it could be the best show he's ever seen, which I think is pretty generous. The undercard wasn't anything special, though I fucking LOVED Kitamura and Oka bringing it in the dark match. The Bucks match was borderline great, HIROMU/Kushida was great, Naito/Tanahashi was fantastic, and the main event was another instant classic. I feel like there's been more complete start-to-finish shows from New Japan over the past 3 or so years but the high end stuff on this is hard to beat. I was a bit disappointed that Hiromu lost the title but he had a helluva run with it and will probably get another go soon enough. As professional, smart, smooth and well rounded as Kushida is, I think I prefer Hiromu's wildness and unpredictability. I don't know if he has the frame to move up to heavyweight convincingly but his future is super bright if he doesn't flame out due to injuries, which is a serious concern.

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The legwork being dropped didn't bother me - to me, it felt like it was dropped early enough that Omega just figured "okay, this isn't going to work this time" and moved on.

Like I said on Twitter, I hope we all loved that collapsing dodge of the Rainmaker, because we're going to be seeing it a million times on the indies over the next year.

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It reminded me of the old Kawada spot where he'd collapse after being Irish Whipped. Cool when done sparingly but if you see it enough you start to ask "why doesn't everybody just collapse on purpose?". Ball's in your court, indy dweebs.

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Thought Okada/Omega 2 outshone the Dome match. Good storytelling and a nice few callbacks to their first encounter. 

The stretch from the Two rainmakers,Omega barely able to stand and hitting Okada to no effect followed by Cody nearly forfeiting for him leading to hitting the OWA was fantastic. Thought Kenny should've won at that point.

I really hope Cody isn't a stopgap champion so Omega can get the belt, the third match should be when Kenny finally figures Okada out.

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6 hours ago, peterien said:

I really hope Cody isn't a stopgap champion so Omega can get the belt, the third match should be when Kenny finally figures Okada out.

I agree with this. There's not a better story going, nor is there someone the crowd so badly wants to see win the belt. (I'd have listened to an argument for Shibata, but obviously that's not happening.)

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Finished up the show last night, it's definitely a contender for show of the year at this point. Top to bottom nothing was bad. There's not much left to be said about the main, they brought it and it was amazing. I figured going into the IC match that Naito was going to lose due to the storyline but was still bummed when he had to submit but it was a fantastic match also. NJPW is just loaded with guys who can have just top level fantastic matches any given night right now, Okada, Naito, Omega, Tanahashi, Takahashi, KUSHIDA It makes it great to be a fan.

As much as I loved the IC match I think the Jr Heavy title match was probably the second best match of the night. Watching them go at again was amazing, loved that they both went for their big moves right out of the gate to play up on the last match being so fast. Loved the teases for the off the apron sunset flip powerbomb, loved KUSHIDA's hatred his work on the arm and those nasty face stomps at the end. Omega/Okada might be the best in-ring feud so far this year based on their two singles matches but I don't think KUSHIDA/Takahashi is that far behind.

Enjoyed to lumberjack match a bit more than I thought I would, I wasn't sure what it would be like going in but it was a fun time. I love Suzuki-gun being assholes to everyone and loved Tachi pulling the ref out, he is a wonderful little shit. His performance in the BOSJ made me change my tune about him, he's not great in the ring but he is a great sleazy heel. Also joining Suzuki-gun is the best thing ZSJ has done, I'm starting to like him more as a cocky shit heel like the rest of Suzuki-gun I think hanging around Minoru could be really great for his style of wrestling

 

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I don't know how the original six star could have been interpreted as anything other than 'please, please stop taking my match ratings so seriously'. I don't think he's ever been big on the reverence he gets and the breaking point was probably the build up to Wrestle Kingdom where he's watching the challenger in the main event cut promos about how he's better because Dave gives his matches more snowflakes. The thing with a six and a quarter star rating is there's no way to brag about it without looking like a goof.

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I said this in another thread, people should know that Meltzer is working/trolling whatever you want to call it. He might legitimately feel that Okada/Omega is the best series of matches he's ever seen and they are great matches but the number of stars I think is just to fuck with people who take it too seriously. 

I think Okada/Omega, Takahashi/KUSHIDA and Tanahashi/Naito were probably 3 of the top 10 matches I've seen all year. No bullshit. Tremendous show top to bottom. 

Meltzer did per usual overrate the Young Bucks match.  It was okay if you are into that but I'm not so whatever. 

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