The last NJPW show before this Sunday’s Dominion event took place this morning at Korakuen Hall, featuring a big six-man match as the main event. Here are the results:
El Desperado & Taka Michinoku defeated Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi
This was a solid opener with your typical fare. Both Umino and Yagi looked good for their experience level. Umino showed great fire at points. Desperado submitted Yagi with the stretch muffler for the win.
Yuji Nagata, Tiger Mask IV, Tomoyuki Oka, Togi Makabe & Hirai Kawato defeated Katsuya Kitamura, Jushin Thunder Liger, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima
They had a short, pretty good ten-man tag, but there wasn’t much to note beyond it being a solid bout. Kitamura was showcased a lot. He’s fine, at least for this level in terms of his work but definitely stands out, even beyond just having a great physique. He took the fall for his team after Nagata planted him with a backdrop driver.
Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page defeated Gedo & Tomohiro Ishii
The winners gained momentum going into the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Championship gauntlet match at Dominion. This match was nothing of note aside from Page’s offense. Yujiro pinned Gedo with the Pimp Juice DDT to pick up the win.
Cody, Bad Luck Fale & Guerillas of Destiny defeated Michael Elgin, David Finlay & War Machine
Solid match. Bullet Club managed to isolate Hanson for a bit before he avoided a clothesline and tagged in Ray Rowe, who ran wild. Both War Machine and Guerrillas of Destiny brawled to the back as Cody and David Finlay went at it. Finlay went for his stunner finisher, but Cody reversed it into the Cross Rhodes for the win.
Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Jado
Suzuki-gun gained control with their usual underhanded tactics. The faces started to gain momentum once Sabre Jr. came in thanks to Goto, but he was taken out and kept down by Suzuki. Gedo tried to capitalize on the brief comeback, but Sabre Jr. took him down and quickly submitted him with a double armbar.
The submission finish was pretty cool, but it was pretty much the only highlight of the match, which was just fine.
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Ricochet, KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated SANADA, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, EVIL & SANADA
Tanahashi’s right arm was heavily taped up from the torn bicep. He worked the latter part of the match and ate a four-way superkick from all of LIJ. Naito did the springboard dropkick into the corner and SANADA followed with a TKO, but Tanahashi kicked out. More back and forth went on until Tanahashi caught SANADA with a crucifix and picked up the win.
Naito immediately attacked Tanahashi’s arm as the rest of LIJ attacked everyone else. Tanahashi’s injury will probably play a big part in his match against Naito at Dominion. Naito and Tanahashi did a pose-off for a bit before Naito handed him the Intercontinental title and left.
The Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) defeated Kazuchika Okada & Roppongi Vice
This was a pretty fun main event, but it wasn’t an out of this world match. I think with everyone having big matches in a couple of days, they wanted to have a fun match more than anything and they accomplished that here.
The Elite tried to go for a triple suicide dive early, but the faces took them out and teased their own dives before posing. They bailed and ran to the back, with Chaos following them. They came back and hid under the ring.
Chaos came back to beat the count, but they walked right into The Elite’s trap. They went for a triple superkick, only for Chaos to grab them, but The Elite countered and laid them all out.
They did some comedy, with the Bucks going to the ropes to deliver four boots on Baretta. Cody made his way out to give up his cowboy boots to make it six, but Baretta threw Omega in there instead. With the referee casually distracted by Matt Jackson, Cody took out Gedo and helped his stablemates in the ring.
Rocky Romero began to make a comeback but ate a superkick. The heels remained in control until Okada managed to regain momentum. Romero went for a super rana, but Nick Jackson held on. Matt came in and planted Romero with an Indytaker, then Omega followed with the One Winged Angel for the win.
Omega called Okada back into the ring after the match. Omega distracted him long enough for Matt Jackson to come in and lay Okada out with a superkick. The Bucks set up a table and Omega teased like he was about to send Okada through it with a One Winged Angel, but instead paused and let him go.
Omega took a microphone and said he’d rather beat him at Dominion at 100 percent, fair and square…goodbye and good luck.