When he entered Osaka on February 12th for The New Beginning, Kazuchika Okada was merely a boy. Okada had demonstrated some upside, but fans had little reason to believe in Okada, who had been reduced to a joke in TNA, and when given the spotlight on his return, Okada was immediately overshadowed by Hiroshi Tanahashi, an actual star, not a youngster playing dress-up. Everything about Okada's appearance at Wrestle Kingdom 6 was haphazard, from his oversized coat to the lack of any impact to his new finisher, the Rainmaker. There was no rhyme or reason for Okada to be destined to be anything more than a random detour for Tanahashi, a little piece of trivia during the fifth IWGP Championship reign of New Japan's resident Ace. But when Tanahashi and Okada stepped into the ring together, all reasonable logic and predictable booking soared out the window. Okada hung with Tanahashi on that night, doing a passable job looking the equal of Japan's brightest star, and in the flash of an instant, Okada took his throne. The Rainmaker felled Tanahashi, and Kazuchika Okada was on the path to becoming a man. His road ahead was ripe with danger, but Okada grew into his role as champion, beating Tetsuya Naito and Hirooki Goto in incredible main events, quickly adding a sizeable fanbase. Okada was thrown into the deep end, in a time where the future of the company rested on his back following the Bushiroad buyout, and Okada more than held up his end. After four months as champion, Okada's winding path has led him back to Tanahashi, back to Osaka, to once again push Okada into the stratosphere.
- Dominion 6.16 comes to you from the Bodymaker Colosseum in Osaka, Japan, the site of Okada's title win back in February when it was still named the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. Dominion is one of the biggest events of the year for New Japan, originating back in 2009, and it's the third year out of the last four that Hiroshi Tanahashi was been in the main event.
- The Undercard: The trio of DDT junior heavyweights (Daisuke Sasaki, Kenny Omega, and Kota Ibushi) defeated representatives from NJPW (Prince Devitt, Bushi, and Kushida) when Ibushi pinned Bushi for maximum name-related confusion; Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask won the vacated IWGP Junior tag belts; Shelton Benjamin and MVP defeated Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga; Low Ki and Ryusuke Taguchi ran back their Best of the Super Juniors finals match, with Low Ki retaining his IWGP Junior Heavyweight title; Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano caused chicanery while defending the Heavyweight tag belts against TenCozy, with the match ending in a double count-out, then a no contest; Chaos members Shinsuke Nakamura and Masato Tanaka defeated Tetsuya Naito and Hirooki Goto; and Togi Makabe put down Minoru Suzuki with two King Kong Knee Drops in a grudge match.
- Thoughts and Analysis: This was a card stuffed full with variety, and it was a fun watch. The opener had the requisite amount of flips, plus an entertaining undercurrent storyline where Sasaki kept thwarting Devitt's big moves. Liger embraced his inner Japanese devil, transforming after having his mask torn by the fiendish Taka Michinoku and Taichi, spewing both men with red mist, attempting to impale Taichi with a spike, before planting the pants-ripper with a Liger Bomb through a table. It's all part of what makes Liger a defining character for New Japan, and while the wrestling was mostly non-existent, the anime violence more than made up for it. Shelton impressed in his match, bouncing all over the ring, and the Osaka crowd ate it up. Shelton's athleticism contributed directly to the win, as he leapt to the top rope to deliver an avalanche belly-to-belly suplex on Tama, before getting the pin with the Paydirt. Low Ki and Taguchi weren't as impressive as they were in their tournament finals six days earlier, as that match was full of wild spots and electric moments, while this bout was merely fine. They did flash plenty of chemistry again, but it wasn't anything special. Low Ki won with the Tree of Woe double foot stomp. The Heavyweight Tag Title match was dull, with Iizuka and Yano doing very little wrestling, brawling on the outside and introducing weapons instead. Tenzan looked like an absolute fool at the finish, battering Yano with a chair to get the match thrown out, ensuring this heatless feud will continue. The Nakamura & Tanaka v Goto & Naito tag match was a hidden gem, as all four men kept up a relentless pace and the final few minutes were a parade of big moves. Naito put on a dazzling display, but takes the fall after a Boma Ye from Nakamura and a Sliding D from Tanaka. Definitely check this one out, it was a ton of fun. Finally, the Suzuki-Makabe match was classic puroresu, as Suzuki pushed Makabe to his limit with debilitating legwork and several sick headbutts, only for Makabe to roar back with thunderous power, dropping Suzuki on his neck with a Spider German suplex, before landing those two mighty knee drops. I didn't love Makabe's selling in this one, but he and Suzuki had the crowd enraptured throughout.
- Main event time, the rematch between Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Championship, with Okada entering Osaka as the champion for the first time. Tokyo Sports named this their Match of the Year in 2012, and it's hard for me to argue with that accolade, both men absolutely delivered, and unlike most Tanahashi matches, this got going quickly. Within the first few minutes, Tanahashi takes a wild bump, dropkicked off the top rope to the floor, and when Okada then delivers another dropkick a few minutes later, the announce team and every being in the arena are already marking out. There are too many dramatic and bewilderingly rapid sequences to count, but I'll try my best to list off some of the highlights. Okada popping up after a Sling Blade to deliver yet another dropkick was definitely one, as was Tanahashi being launched off the mat into an Air Raid neckbreaker. The Osaka crowd desperately believe a battle for the back is the set-up for the finish, and bite hard on Okada's kickout after a Dragon suplex, which was an immaculately timed near fall on Okada's part. Tanahashi gets overzealous, landing a High Fly Flow but wanting another, and that allows Okada to counter, getting his knees up and nearly turning Tanahashi's lights out with several nasty uppercuts. Both men push through exhaustion for a gritty final sequence, as Tanahashi counters a Tombstone Piledriver into one of his own, evades Okada's last gasp attempt to land the Rainmaker, and connects flush with a second High Fly Flow. The hangtime Tanahashi gets is breath-taking, almost literally, as Tanahashi lands with incredible force, assisting him in securing his pinfall and the gold. This was a masterpiece of pure wrestling, a blur of counters upon counters and near falls galore. It's impossible for me to truly cover everything that made this match great, so please watch it for yourself, and don't be put off by the near half-hour runtime, this was wall-to-wall action with very little downtime.
9/10
Outside of the over-reliance on tag matches, Dominion 6.16 is a near-flawless event, punctuated by an impossibly great main event to close out the night. There's really no reason not to sit down and watch everything, it's a well-constructed and consistently entertaining card that more than lived up to Dominion's reputation as a hotly anticipated NJPW supershow.
- Henry
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