Csonka’s NJPW Road to Dominion Review 6.28.15

NJPW Road to Dominion 6.28.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Jay White @ 9:30 via submission [***]
– Tiger Mask defeated Sho Tanaka @ 6:35 via submission [***¼]
– Jushin Liger defeated David Finlay @ 7:31 via submission [***]
– Mascara Dorada defeated Yohei Komatsu @ 7:25 via pin [**½]
Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Yuji Nagata & Captain New Japan @ 8:20 via submission [**½]
– Tetsuya Naito, Manabu Nakanishi & KUSHIDA vs. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Kenny Omega @ 10:30 via pin [**]
– Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Barreta vs. Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Yujiro Takahashi @ 12:18 via pin [***½]
– ELIMINATION MATCH: Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe, Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma @ 26:50 via pin on Honma [****]

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Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Jay White: This was a strong opening match, with Jay White impressing and Taguchi not annoying me as much as usual. They worked a good and energetic pace, the work was clean and I felt that everything made sense and provided the right amount of action for the opening match; not doing too much or kicking out of endless shit. Taguchi scored the win with the ankle lock, and we’re off to a good start.

Tiger Mask defeated Sho Tanaka: Tiger Mask is a guy that’s very miss for me most times, but I really enjoyed this. Tiger Mask was channeling his inner Don Fuji as he worked the grumpy old man gimmick and it worked for him big time. Tiger Mask focused on being a dick and working the knee and for submissions while Tanaka made some great, fiery, babyface comebacks. Tanaka is also getting really good, he’s no Komatsu yet. But he’s getting good. Tiger Mask connected with the top rope butterfly suplex and chicken wing to score the win. Another good match.

Jushin Liger defeated David Finlay: I felt that this was one of Finlay’s more complete performances since joining NJPW. He’s still doing some of his father’s trademark stuff, but is slowly showing more signs of his styletuff, which is a nice little evolution. Liger continues to be so much fun, Old Man Liger working with these kids is such a good idea and I have no idea how anyone dislikes this. The dude is a legend, the fans still love him, he still has good matches, he’s not booked as some vanity or dominant champion, and he’s teaching the next generation. It just makes sense. Anyway, some fun stuff here as they went back and forth, Finlay got a good near fall off of a roll up late after surviving a Liger bomb. Young Finlay was looking to go for a suplex (maybe even brainbuster) and Liger countered with an arm bar to pick up the win. Another quality and fun match.

Mascara Dorada defeated Yohei Komatsu: Mascara Dorada and Yohei Komatsu had a fun, but under whelming match. Dorada did his wild stuff early; Komatsu made a comeback and then got cut off. Dorada then hit the Dorada driver for the win. It was fun at times and the match was completely fine, but I really expected more from both. It’s one of those matches where nothing was wrong, they did stuff, it worked ok and then they went home and you were like, “ok, moving on”. Basically they are capable of much better.

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Yuji Nagata & Captain New Japan: This was a fine, but forgettable tag match. TenKoji are fun at times, but it is hard to care about the CNJ and Nagata team. Nagata has no direction right now, and they either need to shift him to NOAH full time or put him in NWA Title matches for a while to gibe him some purpose. He has value, but is just wandering the land looking for something to do other than tagging with the token masked jobber. I know this’ll shock you, but Captain New Japan walked into the TenKoji cutter (3D) and was pinned.

Tetsuya Naito, Manabu Nakanishi & Kushida vs. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Kenny Omega: This was probably the “worst match” on the card, but it wasn’t actively bad or anything. Tonga is still just a dude, Nakanishi worked in super slow motion at timed but the Omega and KUSHIDA stuff was fun. The story here wasn’t the match, but instead was about the set up for Omega vs. KUSHIDA and what appeared to be a reboot of Naito. Naito has a new swagger and heel like attitude here, arriving later for the match with longer hair, some facial hair and giving no fucks. He scored the win with the leg clutch roll on Tonga, got his hand raised and bailed. I got a bad feeling for Honma on July 5th, Mr. Naito doesn’t seem as if he will be all that trustworthy partner moving forward. The tip off? Heel facial hair.

Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Barreta vs. Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Yujiro Takahashi: With the Bucks busy in the US winning the PWG tag titles and selling merchandise in the middle of the ring, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Yujiro Takahashi stepped in for Bullet Club and took on Okada and Roopngi Vice. This was the standard really fun six-man to set up the future Bullet Club matches. Okada and Roppngi Vice scored the win, and vowed to take the Jr tag and IWGP titles at Dominion. I liked the action, they worked hard and the match was a lot of fun overall. It was everything you wanted action wise from this match. I wish they had mixed things up here, as Anderson and Gallows have a tag title shot on July 5 against the Kingdom, and I was not a fan of them losing here (even if Jobber-Hashi took the fall). I don’t feel that Gallows and Anderson have a lot of momentum here; a basic reshuffle of the card could have avoided this.

ELIMINATION MATCH Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe, Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma: I really enjoy when NJPW does these big main event elimination tags heading into a big event. They do eliminations via pin, submission and over the top rope. This allows some guys that need a bigger win to score a pin, while the main event guys in the higher tier feuds an advance their issues through the over the top eliminations. It also breaks up the usual multi-man tags they run, and had a bigger feel to it. They did the typical pairings here t set up the Dominion matches; Makabe and Ishii as they went over the top and battled on the apron, Tanahashi eliminated Yano as he hung over the ropes, Yano distracted Tanahashi allowing Sakuraka to score a huge win, Sakuraba and Shibata eliminated each other when Sakuraba pulled Shibata over the rope and locked in a triangle sleeper, Nakamura tossed Goto over the top, and Honma got to pin YOSHI-HASHI. Nakamura scored the pin in the end after he hit the Boma ye on Honma. The former IC champion looked amazing heading into his return title match, and they did a great job of advancing the feuds for Dominion and also giving guys like Sakuraba and Honma big pin falls to help them out. This was a great way to end the show.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia.”

7.6

The final score: review Good

The 411

The structure of this card was completely infuriating. Running the four singles matches and then the four tag matches isn’t a pleasant formula. You have so much to pay with there, you can alternate or to two singles, two tag to singles and two tags to break it up and make the show have a better flow. Also, the other issue is that the four singles matches were “young lion” matches, matches that the “young lions” always lose. And that is the issue; they need to star mixing things up. Komatsu (for sure) and also Tanaka are guys that need to be elevated and start picking up wins. Komatsu had an awesome run in the BOTSJ tournament, and needs to move on from this type of booking. Also, having the “young lions” lose four consecutive matches and all via submission felt archaic to me; get with the times New Japan.

With the discussion about the show’s structure out of the way, this was an overall good show with a strong opening stretch of matches, a very good co-main and an excellent main event. Most importantly, I felt that this served as a really good way to set the stage for Dominion on July 5th, which was the entire purpose of the event. This one’s a lot of fun and worth your time to check out most of when you get the chance.