DOMINION 6.16

June 16, 2012

TAKA Michinoku . . . thinks that it’s still 1996 and that he can tear down the house like he’s still in Michinoku Pro.

Minoru Suzuki . . . looks awesome and loses, proving that talent not being important isn’t exclusive to the U.S.

Kazuchika Okada . . . puts in a good performance, even though he falls short this time around.

KOTA IBUSHI/KENNY OMEGA/DAISUKE SASAKI vs. PRINCE DEVITT/KUSHIDA/BUSHI

If you like overly flashy spotfests, then this isn’t something you’ll want to steer clear of. It’s got boatloads of exciting dives and various flying spots, but there isn’t a whole lot else to be found. Nobody stands out as a weak link, there isn’t anything found in the work that would lend itself to any sort of storytelling, or developing any real themes. There are a few smart touches, like Omega selling his midsection after a moonsault from KUSHIDA, which makes Devitt’s diving stomp seem that much more effective, and a bit later Sasaki saves Ibushi from the Bloody Sunday by taking out Devitt’s knee, but neither has any real lasting effects on the match. BUSHI gets a good near fall on a counter to Ibushi’s Last Ride powerbomb, but it only takes a single lariat for Ibushi to do the spot again for the win, it’d have been nice to see BUSHI get a little run off offense against a former IWGP Jr. Champion instead of getting easily dispatched.

TOMOHIRO ISHII/YOSHI-HASHI/ROCKY ROMERO vs. YUJI NAGATA/WATARU INOUE/CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN

Honestly, this isn’t structured all that differently from the previous trios match. Replace the flashiness with a lot of brawling, and it’s pretty much the same match. There’s some amusing comedy between Romero and YOSHI-HASHI with Romero wailing away on Inoue in the corner and ‘HASHI wanting in, but Romero doesn’t give him a chance. The only real memorable exchanges are between Ishii and Nagata, mostly for their stiffness. Cap is the clear weak link here, because of how impossible the gimmick is to take seriously. He could squash Okada in five minutes for the IWGP Title, and I still wouldn’t believe in the gimmick. Cap tagging in is the beginning of the end, and even when Nagata is right there to help him, he still screws up, and eventually gets pinned.

JYUSHIN LYGER/TIGER MASK vs. TAKA MICHINOKU/TAICHI (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles Decision Match)

To no surprise, this is easily the most watchable match up to this point, which isn’t a shock with Lyger and TAKA both involved. TAKA doesn’t look a day removed from the Kaientai glory days of Michinoku Pro, Ishikari looks like he’d fit right in with the group, and Lyger knows all the tricks to make them look even better. The ref goes down and it looks like the fun in going to continue with some mask ripping, but Lyger came prepared and blinds both of the heels with red mist, and tries to take out Ishikari with a spike. A table also gets involved, and it leads to TM swooping in to pin TAKA with the Tiger suplex to give the Sekigun team the titles. Lyger does the work, and TM gets the glory. But, I’d rather see that than see TM doing the work. Actually, I’d *rather* see Lyger teamed up with someone else.

SHELTON BENJAMIN/MVP vs. KARL ANDERSON/TAMA TONGA

And, we have, yet another, middle-of-the-road type of match. Tama and Shelton are more flashy than their partners, but neither of them adds anything special to the match. All four of them come in and do their stuff. There’s nothing great, and nothing horribly offensive, it’s all just there. There’s no real themes developed or story to be told. The finish is certainly memorable, with Shelton doing a huge vertical leap to the top and overheading Tama down, and then hitting the Paydirt to get the pin, but there’s nothing before the finish that anyone, save for fanboys of any of these four, is going to remember in five minutes time.

LOW KI © vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title)

These two had some good ideas, but this doesn’t come together nearly as well as it should have. Ki spends a good chunk of time sharking on Taguchi’s knee, but it doesn’t matter too much. It doesn’t prevent Taguchi from pulling off anything, and the only spots that it leads to are a throwaway sharpshooter, and a surprise enzuigiri from Taguchi. Ki and Taguchi had clever counters to the Ki Krusher and the Dodon up their sleeves, but there’s little else from either of them that could get the match out of first gear. The finish is the usual contrived nonsense that wasn’t even necessary, nor done that well, with Taguchi wanting a Dodon off the top, but Ki escapes and does the Warrior’s Wrath to finish him off. So, they tease a huge spot and then don’t deliver, and when Taguchi gets hung up to allow Ki to do the stomp, he’s not hung up at all, there’s nothing keeping Taguchi hung up, until Ki steps on him, and Taguchi had plenty of time to escape.

TORU YANO/TAKASHI IIZUKA © vs. HIROYOSHI TENZAN/SATOSHI KOJIMA (IWGP Tag Team Titles)

Intensity like this is always good to see, even if it is mindless. This may as well be a match between Brody and Abdullah from ‘81, or Dreamer/Sandman/Spike against the Dudleys from ‘98. They brawl all over the arena and the concept of anything resembling order or structure is left by the wayside. The ref realizes that it’s hopeless and just starts the count and ends it on a double count out, but nobody is down with that kind of finish, so we get a restart. The second attempt doesn’t fare all that much better than the first, it’s a structured match this time around, but their work isn’t anything all that special, and no amount of hatred and intensity is going to cover that up. It seems to be a recurring trend on this card, nothing is especially bad, but nobody really steps up and builds any momentum to carry the match along. Things start looking up for the former champions leading to chairs getting involved and ref getting clobbered, and it all ends with a second ref throwing the match out again. Well, it’s certainly the most memorable match of the card so far, but that speaks more to how underwhelming this undercard has been, than it does any sort of merit to this match.

SHINSUKE NAKAMURA/MASATO TANAKA vs. HIROOKI GOTO/TETSUYA NAITO

It takes them some time to hit their stride, but, once they do, this winds up being a nice tag match. It’s structured like a typical tag match, with Nakamura and Tanaka working over first Naito, and then later Goto, to build up to the hot tag. Nakamura and Tanaka aren’t great here, but they’re more than serviceable. It’s fun to watch them tear apart Naito’s midsection during the first run, and Nakamura adds a nice dickish spot where he’s throwing kicks at the ribs, and then changes up and kicks him in the teeth. It only winds up being filler though, because they move away from it soon afterwards, and Naito’s selling wasn’t anything all that good. Goto isn’t all that good as the hot tag either, the crowd is dead for the tag, and even with Nakamura taking a few big bumps from Goto, he didn’t have the fire or energy that you’d expect.

Things are infinitely better when it’s Naito getting the hot tag, although it probably helps that the control segment on Goto wasn’t especially long. Naito has the fire that Goto was lacking in, and has the best exchanges of the match with Tanaka. I could do without the Sliding D kick out, but, at least Tanaka takes off the elbow pad for the second one, which winds up putting Naito down for good. Nakamura is in the right place at the right time to cut off Naito’s momentum, like stopping him from going up top for the Stardust press, and the Boma Ye to the back of the head to break up his pin and set up Tanaka for the second Sliding D. If the first half was as good, or at least as exciting, as the second half, they’d have stolen the show. As it is, it’s still good enough to stand out on this card. ***

MINORU SUZUKI vs. TOGI MAKABE

This is a classic case of power vs. technique, with Suzuki easily able to outwrestle Makabe, but Makabe has his lariats and other strikes at his disposal to do damage to Suzuki. This really isn’t all that bad, but it needed to be far less lopsided for Makabe’s win to look believable. Suzuki spends the better part of the match sharking after Makabe’s knee, including a couple of extended submission holds, while Makabe only gets in a handful of big shots. Makabe’s selling of the bad wheel isn’t anything special, the only time it really seems to come into play is Makabe’s first attempt at the King Kong knee drop, which misses, and they’d have probably done the exact same thing if Suzuki never touched the knee.

The way this plays out really doesn’t do anything to put over either of them. Makabe looks bad for getting dominated in such a manner, and Suzuki looks bad for losing to someone that he’s obviously much better than. At least Suzuki loses in style. He puts over Makabe’s Spider German suplex perfectly, considering that he hadn’t been worked over all that much. Makabe’s follow up knee drop is a nice example of someone taking the big risk and having it pay off. Suzuki is already on his feet, but the diving knee is Makabe’s big move, so he tries anyways and winds up basically doing a more dangerous looking version of the Grave Digger. With Suzuki, hurt from that, Makabe goes back up and does the regular King Kong knee and gets the pin. If nothing else, this is a nice exhibition of how much fun Suzuki can be to watch, but there are tons of fun Suzuki matches that aren’t as frustrating, and are structured better.

Watching Okada put on these great performances the last few months makes me wonder if watching him engenders the same sorts of feelings that fans of All Japan had during the glory days of Misawa, Kawada, and Kobashi. Okada is nowhere near the level of the AJPW legends, but his performances are a huge step up from what the rest of the promotion seems to be capable of churning out. This doesn’t hit the same level as the prior match that Okada had with Tanahashi, let alone the Naito match, but, even a somewhat disappointing Okada match is still good enough to be the match of the night.

At first, it looks like this will be structured similar to the February and March title matches, Tanahashi sharks at Okada’s knee and then Okada reciprocates by going after the neck to soften it up for the Rainmaker. But, Okada’s selling isn’t as good as it had been during the other matches. It’s good enough to still make him stand out compared to your Kojimas, Gotos, Makabes, etc. But it’s a sad sight to see Okada blow off the idea of his knee being torn up to do a Yakuza kick over the rail, and then forget about his knee once he’s on offense. He’ll occasionally remember about the leg, like after the reverse neckbreaker, but, more often than not, it’s out of sight and out of mind. Okada has a few great moments, such as the somersault bump he takes from the low dropkick, and before he forgets about selling, he puts over the knee as good as you’d expect.

Unlike their February match, this isn’t totally based around the limb work, after each of them gets a chance to show their stuff, the real story of the match comes together. Tanahashi refuses to let lightning strike twice and shows how prepared he is for Okada this time around. It’s akin to seeing an MMA fighter get beat quickly in the first round, and then win the rematch by taking them the distance and outclassing them the whole time. Tanahashi has blocks and counters ready for all of Okada’s big shots. It’s something that seems to sorely lacking in the modern era, the idea of avoiding the bombs instead of sucking them up and continuing. The sling blade and Dragon suplex haven’t been consequential finishers for Tanahashi in a long while, but it’s still nice to see him counter Okada’s bombs into familiar spots. While the spots themselves aren’t a big factor, the cumulative effect of them is, and it gives Tanahashi the opening for the High Fly Flow to regain the title. Tanahashi isn’t perfect either, although his shortcomings aren’t as noticeable as Okada’s given how often that Okada had been bringing the goods. Tanahashi’s Cloverleaf usually looks like crap, and this is par for the course, and, in a setting where it could have been of real consequence, instead of just being a familiar spot, it’s even less excusable. Tanahashi’s selling also isn’t as good as it was during February. So, it’s not like it was Okada’s fault they felt short of their first match, but his shortcomings were much more noticeable. They still had enough good, and smart, work to be the best match of the night, it’s just too bad they couldn’t top their own performance from four months ago. ***1/4

Conclusion: The Nakamura/Tanaka tag and the main event are the only things really worth going after, and they’ve all done better. The title change would be useful on some sort of compilation, but there’s simply no reason to warrant hunting down this show as a whole.