attendance: 33,995
THE RUMBLE (MASAHITO KAKIHARA) (31:06): This was the standard, pre-show Rumble match where every few minutes a new, surprise entrant comes out. The crowd popped big for ROH's Cheeseburger for some reason. Most of the surprises were old Japanese wrestlers I never heard of, so I guess I missed out on any of this being cool. It was the usual, forgettable thing. *1/2 (out of ****)
RAPPONGI 3K vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (18:49): Blasphemy, but lately the Bucks have had more entertaining matches in the other promotions they wrestle in. I guess I enjoy their comedy matches more than their more serious fare like this. And they were in much better matches years ago in NJPW when they were stuck in three and four team melees. There was more brutality in this than usual (head drops on the apron, back slams on the entrance ramp). A lot of crazy high flying but it never reached a pinnacle. The Bucks won the Jr. tag titles. **1/2
BERETTA, TOMOHIRO ISHII & TORU YANO vs. BAD LUCK FALE, TANGA LOA & TAMA TONGA vs. MICHAEL ELGIN & WAR MACHINE vs. TAICHI, TAKASHI IIZUKA & ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. JUICE ROBINSON, TOGI MAKABE & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI (17:03): This was for the coveted 3-man titles, which the random team of Yano, Ishii, and Beretta won. A lot of these guys deserved better singles matches (like Ishii, Elgin, and Zack Sabre, Jr.). And I kind of hope this doesn't mean we won't be seeing Ishii in singles matches anytime soon. The whole match I was just mystified that Bad Luck Fale is dating that hot chick with the bunny ears. The highlight was Ishii suplexing Fale. Maybe he's mad and mystified, too. This was entertaining in spots. **
KOTA IBUSHI vs. CODY (15:08): Good match, shockingly. Ibushi is like the fucking horse whisperer but with wrestlers. He pulled a great match out of the injured Tanahashi in November, and now he's having a good match with the ultra-bore, Cody. I will admit that Cody did more here than usual. He did a wicked spin DDT to Ibushi from the apron to the floor. And he's going full bore Ric Flair heel, which is good. ***
EVIL & SANADA vs. LANCE ARCHER & DAVEY BOY SMITH, JR. (14:14): Almost unwatchable. This was a WWE squash then miraculous comeback win. Which is always dull. Evil and Sanada won the tag titles. 1/2*
HIROOKI GOTO vs. MINORU SUZUKI "HAIR VS. HAIR MATCH" (18:04): Yawn. Suzuki lost then just sat down and buzzed his shark fin and not the rest of his hair then left. So even the ending was lame. I really hope that Suzuki Gun disappears in 2018. *1/2
WILL OSPREAY vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. MARTY SCURLL vs. KUSHIDA (21:18): Excellent in spots but a little too long and a little too much of a mess. We all wanted an Osprea/Takahashi match and that would have been better. Ospreay did a moonsault off a lighting platform at ringside. And there were of course a million dives and flips. It was pretty wild but just not exceptional. Ospreay won the Jr. title. ***
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. JAY WHITE (19:56): This was lousy. Tanahashi is hurt. But he's the IC champ. I just wish he'd go recuperate for awhile since he's been wrestling hurt since May. Jay White is a good wrestler. His match with Ospreay in NYC last Spring for ROH was awesome. But maybe he didn't want to hurt Tanahashi because he didn't do much of anything here. Tanahashi is a pro, hurt or not, so he did all of his big moves like the High Fly Flo off the top rope to the floor. This just never truly heated up to much. *1/2
KENNY OMEGA vs. CHRIS JERICHO "NO DQ MATCH" (34:36): Ugh. This was atrocious. When Naito won the G1 and would be in the main event tonight I sighed. That meant no Okada/Omega 4 tonight. Then when Omega and Ibushi were probably going to wrestle tonight I was okay with that. It meant that at least we'd have one four star match on the show. Then Jericho showed up. I get it. He's an international name. They'd get international media buzz from this match. But Jericho is old (and tonight he was fat) and slow and dull now. So this was a hardcore match with blood and tables and chairs. It went on forever. Omega couldn't do a lot of his crazy moves like the Dragon Suplex and the hard-knees. He did his dives and fell through the announce table. This was just a slog, though. I truly hope we don't get a sequel to this anytime soon. *1/2
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. TETSUYA NAITO (36:30): Surprise! I was fucking shocked when Okada won. What the fuck? Why? He's the Ace, yes. And apparently, the Ace doesn't lose at the Dome. But he's been champ since June of 2016. Omega should've won the title last year and Naito, as super popular as ever, should have tonight. As for this match: it was good, great in spots (they did a spectacular, back and forth sequence early that was awesome and the final few minutes were dramatic as hell with the Destino's and Rainmaker's and pile-driver's and reversals), but throughout it never reached the type of dizzying heights Naito/Omega have done or Omega/Okada did last year. A lot of it was fairly boring. And it capped an entertaining show that was still a disappointment when compared to past Dome shows. With Omega being in a lame match and Tanahashi wrestling hurt against a new opponent and Shibaata out, we didn't really get a stellar card to begin with. I hope this isn't the end of NJPW's glory days, because in a lot of ways it kind of felt like that. ***
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