Okada, Tanahashi and Ishii Vs Moxley, Castagnoli and Umino - NJPW Dominion 5/6/23
The BCC challenge for the six man titles, and New Japan is back baby!
One of the emerging stories of 2023 is New Japan Pro Wrestling getting it’s groove back and elevating younger talent. The BOSJ tournament in May was the best one since COVID hit, and conjured up the refreshing final of Master Wato Vs Titan to really shuffle the pack in the Juniors division as they finally pulled the trigger on Wato. Gedo’s youth push doesn’t end there though. Clark Connors, Dan Moloney, Alex Coughlan and Gabriel Kidd have all surfaced in NJPW proper as part of David Finlay’s LA Dojo themed Bullet Club, 10 of the 32 G1 participates are first time ever entrants in the tournament, while the Main Event of this show saw 29-year old Yota Tsuji challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in his first match since returning from excursion in Mexico. These leap of faiths can’t all be hits of course – black hair Sanada is still as painfully dull as blonde hair Sanada and is fast becoming a sour note to end major shows on – but on the whole it’s an exciting time and definitely the right call to make after the promotion became stagnant a number of years ago.
To allow all this new talent to step up, there has to be some reshuffling and some moves down the card. The idea of Tanahashi, Okada and Ishii as 6 man tag champions in 2016 would have felt like a bit of an insult those guys, but in 2023 it feels like a great move to have this super group of the former ace, the current ace and the best Japanese wrestler of last decade (fight me) as the champions. New Japan’s Velvet Revolver or Traveling Wilburys if you will. With Tanahashi and Ishii in their mid-to-late 40s it may also be a move of necessity to have them in multi-man matches now. For Okada it’s allowing him to be booked in important matches while he takes a break from the IWGP World title picture and showcase the most interesting character work of his career to date. I have a love/hate relationship with Okada, but I’m finding him pretty undeniable this year. I’m loving grumpy Okada big leaguing all these young punks like Kiyomiya and Umino that are nipping at his heels. Fuck these kids Okada > Sad ballon Okada.
Their opponents on this night were an unofficial Blackpool Combat Club trio of Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Shota Umino, with Moxley taking Umino under his wing back in 2019, dubbing him ‘Shooter’ and becoming his NJPW tag partner ever since. There was a very recent 6 man tag at NJPW STRONG Resurgence between these two factions which saw Umino constantly go after Okada, even when the rainmaker wasn’t the legal man in the match, elbowing him off the apron whenever he got the chance. Umino’s fire and desire to make a statement was still on show in this match as he zoned in on Okada and chucked a table at his head outside the ring early on. Umino has struggled to show star charisma in his big spots so far in New Japan, but when he’s teaming with Moxley he seems to have his chest puffed out more and this mini-program with Okada is doing wonders for him.
Speaking of reshuffling, this match had to be shuffled to the semi-main event spot on the card to give Claudio a chance to make it to the show on time following a flight delay. He had to share the spotlight on his first match for a Japanese company since 2011, but it was great when he got his moments to shine. The crowd were in awe for him delivering the big swing to Okada, a moment made even better with referee red shoes holding his hands to his head in disbelief. I really hope this wasn’t a one-off and Claudio is slated for more New Japan appearances in the future. Would it be too cheeky to ask for Tanahashi to challenge Claudio for the ROH title at Forbidden Door?
There was a great, high-energy pace to this match throughout. For the most part wrestlers paired off against each other, Okada against Umino, Ishii against Mox and Tanahashi against Claudio. Quite a large portion of this match was Ishii and Moxley in fact, calling back to that great match they had in the 2019 G1 Climax in Mox’s early post-WWE run. Wouldn’t you just know it, Mox ended up bleeding in this match. You can’t blame him this time, he didn’t have any say in the matter when Ishii headbutted the fuck out of his dome. I enjoyed the return of the Shield-vibes triple powerbomb that Mox, Umino and Yuta previously used at the aforementioned Resurgence show. The closing stretch ended with Okada hitting the Emerald Flowsion and Rainmaker on Umino to retain the titles for his team. Correct call as we are far away from the right time for Umino to pin Okada, and Okada has a big match coming up….
After the match Moxley had a challenge for Okada from the true best wrestler in the world – Bryan Danielson.
“You call yourself the rainmaker? When you step into the ring with me, you’re getting into the fucking DESERT, and there ain’t gonna be no rain”
What a line! When the video finished Bryan got yes chants from the crowd and he wasn’t even in the building. The feelings of the fans from Osaka-Jo Hall extended right around the world as the news of Danielson’s challenge clogged up social media feeds on Sunday. Dream match might be the biggest overused term in wrestling, but I think Danielson Vs Okada really ticks that box. It’s a hell of a match, along with the Omega/Ospreay rematch, to make Forbidden Door feel like a can’t-miss live event.
If your looking at checking out New Japan ahead of Forbidden Door to get reacquainted with the product, I think this six man tag is a great place to start. I expect all of these men to be on the card on June 25th.