New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced the full card for Dominion, which will take place on June 11th at Osaka-jo Hall.
In a match that became apparent once KUSHIDA won this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament, he’ll challenge for Hiromu Takahashi’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight title at Dominion. KUSHIDA defeated Will Ospreay in the finals of this year’s BOSJ to become the tournament champion and receive the title shot.
There will be a gauntlet match for the NEVER Six-Man tag titles as well, with SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI defending against Ricochet, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI, Bad Luck Fale, Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi, and Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.
Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) will also make his return to NJPW as he’ll team with Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask IV & Yuji Nagata to take on Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan.
Before Dominion, the final build to the event will take place at Korakuen Hall with a “Road to” show on June 9th, airing at 5:30 a.m. ET. The card is mostly comprised of tag team matches, with a big six-man tag headlining the show.
That main event will be Kazuchika Okada & Roppongi Vice vs. Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks. It will be Okada and Omega’s final in-ring meeting before their rematch for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion. The Young Bucks will also challenge for Rocky Romero & Trent Barreta’s IWGP Junior tag titles in Osaka.
Both shows will air live on New Japan World and will have English commentary. The full cards are:
Dominion in Osaka-Jo Hall (June 11th at 3 a.m. ET) —
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Kenny Omega
IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito defending against Hiroshi Tanahashi
NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki defending against Hirooki Goto in a lumberjack match
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi defending against KUSHIDA
Michael Elgin vs. Cody
IWGP Tag Team Champions War Machine defending against Guerrillas of Destiny
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice defending against The Young Bucks
NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Champions SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI defending against Ricochet, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI, Bad Luck Fale, Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi, and Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. in a gauntlet match
Tiger Mask W, Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask IV & Yuji Nagata vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
David Finlay, Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino vs. Hirai Kawato, Katsuya Kitamura & Tetsuhiro Yagi
Road to Dominion (June 9th at 5:30 a.m. ET) —
Kazuchika Okada & Roppongi Vice vs. Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, Ricochet & KUSHIDA vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi
Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Jado vs. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.
Michael Elgin, David Finlay & War Machine vs. Cody, Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny
Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo vs. Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi
Togi Makabe, Yuji Nagata, Tiger Mask IV, Hirai Kawato & Tomoyuki Oka vs. Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Thunder Liger & Katsuya Kitamura
Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. El Desperado & Taka Michinoku
Today’s Best of the Super Juniors show in Osaka determined the winner of the A Block as the tournament begins to wind down. The results were:
Prelim matches —
– Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado defeated ACH & Volador Jr. when Kanemaru caught ACH with a flash pin. Desperado teased hitting Kanemaru with a chair, adding some tension to their match tomorrow.
– Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson & KUSHIDA defeated EVIL, BUSHI & SANADA when Taguchi pinned BUSHI with a la magistral cradle.
– Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny defeated War Machine & David Finlay after Fale hit the Grenade on Finlay.
– Yujiro Takahashi & Kenny Omega defeated Gedo & Kazuchika Okada when Takahashi pinned Gedo after hitting the Pimp Juice DDT.
Tournament results —
Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Taichi
This was more of a story-driven match than a match telling a story. The work itself was fine, but the storyline was dramatic enough to make things pretty interesting.
Taka Michinoku and El Desperado were out there to interfere early, and did so often in the first part of the match. They all beat up on Liger, with Taichi using the camera cord to choke him. Taichi continued to dominate the match, landing a superkick, but somehow Liger found a way to kick out.
Liger mounted a comeback, laying out Taichi with the shotei. Taichi threw the ref in Liger’s way, allowing all of Suzuki-gun to come in for a beatdown. The ref at this point was about to finally throw out the two instigators when, once again, Taichi threw Liger into the ref.
Using a pair of scissors, Taichi cut Liger’s mask and bodysuit, ripping it apart. Ryusuke Taguchi and KUSHIDA finally came in to even up the odds. Taichi went to use a steel chair, but Liger responded with the koppo kick, the shotei, and a brainbuster to pick up his first and only win in the tournament.
Liger cut a promo after the match, saying thanks to Taguchi and KUSHIDA he finally picked up a win. Next year without him, the junior heavyweight scene in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament will be even better.
Taka Michinoku defeated Dragon Lee
This was pretty short. There wasn’t much to it, though what did go down was pretty good. Michinoku focused on the mask early, but Dragon Lee made a quick comeback. A lot of good back and forth and near falls took place towards the end. Michinoku landed the Michinoku Driver and pinned him, eliminating Lee from the tournament.
Marty Scurll defeated Ricochet
This was great, as the two meshed really well with one another and had a great back-and-forth match. The drama behind Scurll being Ricochet’s possible spoiler added to the match as well. It was probably the best match of the night.
Scurll jumped Ricochet at the bell, but Ricochet quickly came back and took him out with a Fosbury flop to the floor. He went to the top rope, but Scurll caught him with the chickenwing, only for Ricochet to escape.
Scurll worked over Ricochet with a couple of surfboards, but Ricochet bounced back with a 619 and a flying uppercut. Scurll landed a version of Adam Cole’s Last Shot, though Ricochet was able to kick out.
Ricochet fired back with some great kicks that took out Scurll. He went for a shooting star press, but Scurll got his knees up and landed a piledriver, then another one. He tried for a superkick, then Ricochet tagged him with one of his own.
He went for a reverse suplex, but Scurll transitioned around. Ricochet tried to roll him up into a bridge, but Scurll trapped him in the chickenwing and despite putting up a fight, Ricochet tapped out. That puts him out of the tournament, with the winner of the main event advancing to the finals.
Will Ospreay defeated Hiromu Takahashi
I don’t think this was a complete blow-away match, but this was still great with some crazy spots.
Ospreay started off hot, hitting a huge suicide dive and dropkicking Takahashi into a bunch of empty chairs in the crowd. Takahashi soon fired back with a sunset flip bomb to the floor.
Takahashi worked over Ospreay’s leg, but Ospreay fired back with a shooting star press and a corkscrew press for a near fall. They both countered their opponent’s finishing attempts, with Takahashi landing two German suplexes after Ospreay attempted the OsCutter.
Ospreay hit a shooting star press to the floor, then tried to follow with a Phoenix splash in the ring, but Takahashi got his knees up. Ospreay hit a Canadian Destroyer DDT and the imploding 450 splash — but Takahashi kicked out. The OsCutter then sent him to the tournament finals.
Ospreay cut a promo. He said two weeks ago when he beat Ricochet he said he would make it to the finals. The butterflies and nerves are gone, and while the Best of the Super Juniors is prestigious, he wants to make it even more so.
He is the champion of his block and he will challenge all comers. It doesn’t matter who the B Block champion is, he will become a back-to-back Best of the Super Juniors winner.
Tournament standings —
Block A ends with Will Ospreay earning ten points. Dragon Lee, Ricochet, Taichi, Hiromu Takahashi, and Marty Scurll finished with eight points. Taka Michinoku jumped up to four points, and Jushin Thunder Liger scored two points in his final Best of the Super Juniors tournament.
Everyone in Block B has six points heading into tomorrow. Whoever loses their matches on tomorrow’s show will be eliminated, and whoever wins will probably rely on tiebreakers to win their block.
Tonight kicks off the 24th Best of the Super Juniors tournament, which will run through June 3rd. It will feature some of the best junior heavyweight wrestlers in the world.
Headlining tonight’s show will be current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi taking on Dragon Lee. The two have been known to tear it up each and every time they step into the ring, both in Mexico and in Japan. With the spotlight on them, they may actually try and outdo themselves tonight, which will be tough as the two have had some of the most dangerous, but awe-inspiring matches in recent memory.
Both the A block and B block will be represented tonight. A block matches feature Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Taka Michinoku, Ricochet vs. Taichi, Will Ospreay vs. the debuting Marty Scurll, and the main event.
B block matches include Tiger Mask vs. Volador Jr., ACH vs. BUSHI, KUSHIDA vs. El Desperado, and Ryusuke Taguchi against Yoshinobu Kanemaru.
Join us for live coverage this morning at 5:30 a.m. ET/2:30 a.m. PT.
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A Block: Taka Michinoku defeated Jushin Thunder Liger
Good opener. More about the hot crowd than anything, though it was clear both had their working boots on. Taka came out in his Kaientai Dojo gear.
As this was the opener, it had a pretty hot start, with both brawling around the ring. Liger used a chair on the back of Michinoku to gain heat. Taka took him down with a crossface and teased a submission forever but finally but a foot on the bottom rope.
Liger hit the Liger Bomb but Taka kicked out at 2.99. Liger went to pick up Taka, but it was a trap as he raked his eyes, grabbed his arms and took him to the ground, rolling him up for the sneaky win.
B Block: Volador Jr. defeated Tiger Mask
This was pretty solid while it lasted, the two worked well together. After some back and forth wrestling, Volador springboarded off the ropes which is where Tiger Mask dropkicked him in the back, taking him down. Tiger Mask pelts him with kick and relatively keeps him grounded until Volador unleashes a big tope con hilo to the outside.
Tiger Mask came back with a back suplex that took down Volador, but he bounced back and hit a spanish fly off the top rope for the win.
Block A: Ricochet defeated Taichi
Before the match, Taichi appeared in the crowd lip syncing to his song. I will admit, his entrance isn’t bad. The rest of the act, however, isn’t very good. As far as the match goes, this was okay once the stalling ending.
Taichi started the match by bailing and stalling for a long while. Finally, after what felt like forever, Ricochet wiped him out with a suicide dive…..but Taichi continued to stall, calmly exiting the ring. Then threw in his lady of the day. This distracted Ricochet long enough for Taichi to jump him with his microphone stand, then started choking him with it.
Ricochet made his comeback, looking very good. Taichi came back with some strikes. Ricochet grabbed him but Taichi grabbed the ref, and in the confusion Taichi wiped him out with a superkick for a nearfall. Taichi’s lady handed him the microphone stand, but Ricochet grabbed him and laid him out the the Bendryller. He followed that with a shooting star press for the win.
B Block: ACH defeated BUSHI
This match was a excellent highlight reel for ACH, who looked great out there, and BUSHI held his own to make it a pretty damn good early bout.
BUSHI started the match by wanting to shake ACH’s hand. Like a dope, ACH obliges and his quickly taken down with a dropkick. He quickly makes a hot comeback, but BUSHI takes him to the outside, then flies out of the ring, landing a hurricanrana and follows that with a DDT on the apron.
ACH soon starts mounting a comeback, jumping on the inside of the middle rope then launching himself the other way onto an unsuspecting BUSHI with an awesome looking crossbody. BUSHI mounts a comeback, going for the MX, but ACH fires back with a dropkick and soon lands with the Michinoku Driver for the win.
B Block: El Desperado defeated KUSHIDA
Good match with a hot crowd.. I know a lot of people will be surprised at the result, but I’m guessing we’re doing a slow build to where KUSHIDA doesn’t pick up the wins he needs until later on in the tournament.
Desperado goes for something off the top rope, but KUSHIDA springboard kicks him in the face, climbs to the top rope and in mid air grabs Desperado’s arm. He sinks in the kimura, but Desperado quickly manages to get to the ropes.
KUSHIDA sinks in the kimura lock again, but a ref bump means KUSHIDA doesn’t pick up the submission win when Desperado taps. KUSHIDA goes to wake up the ref, but Desperado on the outside grabs KUSHIDA’s ROH Television title.
KUSHIDA knows what is going on and fights back, but Desperado grabs him and plants him with a underhook facebuster. KUSHIDA kicks out, but soon falls to the Guitarra de Angel in an upset.
Block A: Marty Scurll defeated Will Ospreay
Really great match, especially the last few minutes as they were just doing one insane move after another. Eye popping would be the best way to describe some of this stuff, just amazing moves from Ospreay. The crowd being hot for everything helped a lot, too.
They taunted one another early in the bout. Very close back and forth match. Scurll finally caught him, putting the knees up on a shooting star attempt, then nailed him with a superkick as he recovered on the outside.
More hot back and forth action. Scurll wipes out Ospreay with a superkick as Ospreay was standing on the middle rope. Ospreay derails Scurll with a stunner as Scurll was lifting him, then hits the Sasuke special to the floor. Ospreay does the Rainmaker pose as he looks to go for the rainmaker, but Scurll grabs Ospreay’s hand and “breaks” one of his fingers.
Scurll looks to go for a finish but Ospreay wipes him out with a pele kick, lands on his feet after a clothesline attempt and hits the Robinson special. He looks to go for the Ozcutter but Scurll latches on to him in midair and applies the crossface chickenwing. With nowhere to go, Ospreay quickly taps out.
I liked this. The work overall was solid, but I kind of enjoyed the finish and the story of the match overall.
Kanemaru quickly gains the upper advantage and works on…Taguchi’s butt. Well, sure, I guess that works. He continually has the upper hand, hitting multiple DDTs, then hits his usual finish, the DDT off the top rope but Taguchi kicks out in a surprise.
Taguchi manages to fire back with the ankle lock, but Taka Michinoku climbs to the top rope to distract the ref. Kanemaru manages to low blow Taguchi and pokes him in the eyes, but as he falls Taguchi’s legs fly up right into Kanemaru netheregions.
Taguchi takes the opportunity to shove Kanemaru into Taka, then rolls him up as he recoils for the win.
Block A: Dragon Lee defeated Hiromu Takahashi
Great match. The February match was definitely better as I think they were a bit safer in spots (which really shouldn’t be a negative, considering how dangerous their last match was), and there was some sloppiness towards the end of the match. With that said, they still did plenty of crazy stuff and turned out to be a pretty heated match.
A fierce chop battle starts between the two. Dragon Lee soon starts flying, hitting a hurricanrana to the floor then following with a big tope con hilo.
Takahashi gets the advantage and slows things down a bit, but Dragon Lee fires back with a sunset flip bomb to the floor. Lee hit a cool looking suplex into a powerbomb for a near fall. He went to do a double foot stomp off the top rope, but Takahashi dodged it. He goes to do the move Lee couldn’t do…but Lee avoids it himself as they start trading some scary looking German suplexes.
Takahashi went to do the reverse sunset flip bomb off the top rope, but Lee countered with a foot stomp that sent Takahashi face first on the floor. Takahashi brushes it off and hits the time bomb a running death valley driver into the corner and starts ripping on Lee’s mask.
After hitting another death valley driver into the ring post, Takahashi goes for another time bomb but Dragon Lee awkwardly counters it, only for Takahashi to counter with a wheelbarrow suplex. Lee quickly counters, grabbing Takahashi and hitting Takahashi’s running death valley driver into the corner, then finishes off Takahashi with the phoenix plex for the win.
Dragon Lee cut a promo after the match to end the show, saying he’s thrilled to be here and will win the tournament.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has released all of the cards for the upcoming Best of the Super Juniors 24 tournament, which feature a bevy of high profile matches over the two week period.
The tournament will kick off on May 17th at Korakuen Hall with Hiromu Takahashi taking on Dragon Lee in the main event. Those two have had killer matches both in Mexico and Japan, and it seems likely they’ll continue that trend on opening day.
Another spectacular rematch from the past year pits Will Ospreay and Ricochet against one another on the second night, also to take place at Korakuen Hall. Their match in last year’s tournament became the talk of the pro wrestling world in its immediate fallout, with them having more standout bouts in other promotions since.
Other live shows will be on May 29th, with Ryusuke Taguchi taking on KUSHIDA, and the finals, which are to take place live at Yoyogi 2nd Gymnasium on June 3rd. It’s not known if the June 1st show will be live or taped, as NJPW has not put out their complete June schedule yet.
Here are the results from this morning’s NJPW Wrestling Toyonokuni event in Beppu, featuring two big title matches and the continuation of the feud between EVIL and Hiroshi Tanahashi:
– Jushin Thunder Liger, Hirai Kawato & Tomoyuki Oka defeated Tiger Mask, Katsuya Kitamura & Shota Umino when Oka submitted Umino with the Boston crab.
Nice opener. All of the young lions looked good, including Umino, who’s adapting to the young lion style pretty well.
– Roppongi Vice defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado after Baretta pinned Desperado following the Strong Zero.
Good back and forth match — Baretta and Romero continually improve as a team and complement each other very well. Desperado went to use a chair but Baretta dodged it. He and Romero then laid Desperado out and followed with the Strong Zero.
– SANADA & BUSHI defeated Ryusuke Taguchi & Yoshitatsu when SANADA submitted Yoshitatsu with the Skull End.
This was an okay match, though nothing was really worth noting.
– Tama Tonga, Tanga Roa & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & David Finlay after Roa pinned Finlay with a sit-out piledriver.
This was kind of just there as a match. Tonga worked it despite his recent biceps injury.
– Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Minoru Suzuki, Taka Michinoku & Taichi when Ospreay pinned Michinoku with the Ozcutter.
Of course, the focus was on Goto and Suzuki, who traded some good back and forth with one another. They had a typical tag match with some brawling around the stage to boot.
Suzuki and Goto traded blows after the match, signaling they may be continuing their program.
– Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano defeated Bad Luck Fale, Kenny Omega & Chase Owens when Okada pinned Owens following the Rainmaker.
Everyone got involved and looked good here. Okada laid out Fale with the Heavy Rain, then took care of Chase Owens for the finish.
Okada immediately went for a tope to wipe out Fale following the match, but Fale grabbed him and laid him out, giving him the upper edge heading into Wrestling Dontaku.
– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi defeated Ricochet to retain his title
This was a really great, crazy match with tons of incredible spots. I wouldn’t say it was as good as previous Hiromu Takahashi matches in the past year, but this was by no means a disappointing match — they lived up to expectations.
Ricochet immediately flew into action, hitting a suicide dive, a fosbury flop, and a 450 splash within the first minute of the match, perhaps a callback to the last Junior title match that lasted only a few minutes. Ricochet went for a springboard, but Takahashi caught him in mid-air and laid him out with a German suplex.
The match had lots of frenetic action from there. Takahashi slingshotted Ricochet on the top rope and tried for the sunset bomb on the floor, but Ricochet countered with a hurricanrana that sent him into the barricade. After spending some time in the ring (including dropping Takahashi with a reverse facebuster off the middle rope), Ricochet took him to the outside where he laid him out with two suplexes.
Ricochet went for a shooting star press, though Takahashi managed to get the knees up. He went to charge in the corner, but Takahashi countered and laid him out. The action picked up more from there as Takahashi went for the Time Bomb, but Ricochet countered and eventually landed the Benadryller for a near fall.
Ricochet tried to follow that with a 630, but Takahashi rolled out of the ring and hit what I can only describe as a Canadian Destroyer-like DDT. He followed with the running Death Valley Driver in the corner and pinned him with the Time Bomb.
– Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated EVIL
This was a very good match. Tanahashi does tag matches most of the year, but he still can deliver when it comes to high profile singles bouts. I think I would have been fine without the LIJ interference, but the face prevailed in the end with a clean win so there’s not much to complain about.
Like the previous match, Tanahashi wasted no time in starting things as he took out EVIL with a tope and whipped him around the barricades. EVIL managed to do the chair on the throat routine on Tanahashi and threw him into the post for heat.
Tanahashi tried to rally a comeback, but in a clever spot EVIL grabbed one of his legs, threw it to the ref, then superkicked Tanahashi to continue the beatdown. Finally, Tanahashi laid out EVIL with a High Fly Flow to the floor. After getting back in the ring, they battled with forearms until EVIL waffled him with a lariat.
Tanahashi came back and started gaining momentum, hitting the slingblade and going for the High Fly Flow when BUSHI and SANADA decided to start interfering just because.
It eventually backfired when BUSHI sprayed SANADA on accident with the mist and Taguchi came out to clear the ring.
Tanahashi hit the dragon suplex bridge but there was no ref, as the whole time he was laid out on the outside. Tanahashi went for the High Fly Flow again, but EVIL got his knees up. After a bit more of back and forth, Tanahashi laid out EVIL and hit the High Fly Flow, then another for the win.
– IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito defeated Juice Robinson to retain his title
I thought this was a very good main event. The crowd was behind Naito for this but didn’t boo Robinson at all and he managed to get over just by doing a few key spots like the spinebuster and the kick out of the Destino. He’s improved dramatically since his NXT days and this was another example of that.
Naito brawled with Robinson on the outside early into the match, eventually focusing on a leg. He took him back into the ring and started working him over. Robinson tried to mount a brief comeback with a rolling senton into the corner but Naito dodged it, sending him crashing. He next followed with a powerbomb attempt, but that failed too.
Robinson finally got some heat by countering Naito and laying him out with a kick. After battling back on the outside, Robinson grabbed a charging Naito and planted him with a spinebuster right on the apron. Naito eventually fought back, targeting Robinson’s knee, landing a running dropkick, then following that by clipping him from behind.
Naito went for a hurricanrana off the top rope, but Robinson instead powerbomed him off the ropes and followed with another powerbomb on the mat for a good near fall. He went for the Pulp Friction until Naito countered with a koppo kick. Robinson tried for another Pulp Friction, then when that didn’t work he went for something else, but Naito was able to land a version of the Destino in mid-air. He followed with another, but Robinson kicked out to a huge pop.
Naito tried for a third until Robinson overpowered him and began to make a comeback. He landed a firm punch to the face and tried for the Pulp Friction again, but Naito countered with a third Destino and scored the win.
Tanahashi came out after the match to challenge. Naito ignored him coming out but then gave him a mic as he cut the promo. Once he left, Naito cut his usual promo to close out the show.
There were no match of the year contenders or anything, but this was a very good show overall. All three top matches met their expectations and we now have a few ideas for the next big PPV, which is Dominion on June 11th.
This week in wrestling, New Japan was on a busy road to Wrestling Dontaku, Jinder Mahal is still a thing, and Vince McMahon is involved in a movie about Vince McMahon because Vince McMahon. Here’s our favorite wrestlers this week. Who’s yours?
Well, it seems someone has finally listened, and that someone is New Japan’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, Hiromu Takahashi.
New Japan’s Road to Wrestling Dontaku has been one of the more enjoyable Road To’s I’ve seen for a good while, with great title matches, fun clashes between LIJ and the New Japan All-Stars, and the latest breed of Young Lions getting some shine. But mostly, it’s been Hiromu Takahashi’s bizarre, yet captivating backstage interviews that seem to progressively become weirder each time.
The thing is, though, despite being in a foreign language on top of being completely absurd, he actually does a really great job of conveying his message and building up his title match with King Ricochet. If you haven’t seen them yet, click those links back at the top and prepare to be blessed.
Roderick Strong
By Joseph Currier
Following the excellent video on him that aired on Wednesday’s episode of NXT, Roderick Strong is undoubtedly my favorite wrestler this week.
Strong opened up in a way that he never really has on TV before, talking about growing up with a mom who had a drug problem and a dad who was an alcoholic. Sharing the story of his mother shooting his father during an argument (with his father thankfully surviving) must have been difficult, and I have a totally new perception of who Roderick Strong is after watching it.
Aside from just being inspiring (which is ultimately what’s most important), Strong being willing to open up and WWE showcasing his story will help him so much going forward. Strong’s history is unique to him, but everyone in WWE has real-life stories that could shape who they are as characters and make them more identifiable.
I’m looking forward to part two, and hopefully we see more segments like this in the future.
Minoru Suzuki
By Chris Aiken
The body of work created by Minoru Suzuki over the years is a blend of violence and art. His violent art differs from almost anyone like him, if there is actually anyone else like him on the planet.
Even out of his combat gear dressed in a suit and fedora trying to look cosmopolitan, he can flash a maniacal smile and reveal that violent artist that lives within. Almost akin to both a gift and a curse, an aura follows him wherever he goes.
That aura was in Hiroshima this week as Suzuki captured the NEVER Openweight title in a thrilling match against Hirooki Goto. Critics of the match seemed to have concerns about strikes to the head only mere weeks after Katsuyori Shibata suffered a debilitating injury likely from a blow to the head. That is probably a valid criticism. Take out the head strikes and the drama in the match would still remain intact.
Nevertheless, the greatness on display as Suzuki and Goto battled is evident to anyone that loves a good fight. Likewise, all the titles in the promotion are supposedly going to be on the line during the July weekend shows in Long Beach. That means I will likely get to see the violent art of Suzuki in display in person. I am thrilled.
Matt Sydal
By Jeremy Peeples
Matt Sydal returned to Impact and managed to shine brightly despite being booked as the third most important part of a one-on-one match thanks to Shane Helms being positioned as a bigger star than him despite being a manager.
He had a good match with Trevor Lee that allowed both men to shine and made me salivate at the thought of them having what would no doubt be a better, more well-booked match in either PWG or CWF Mid-Atlantic, where they could be given time to shine, a storyline that fits the match, and actually be presented as modern-day stars.
With Sydal in the picture, we should get some outstanding matches against Low Ki, and that could be enough to reignite a flame for the X Division. It’s incredibly unlikely that it can regain the traction it had in 2002 and 2003 due to the industry changing, but with WWE watering down cruiserweights, it has a better chance, and if they make Sydal a top guy and run with it, they could have something.
