NJPW WRESTLE GRAND SLAM

 

Tokyo Dome

RAMBO (CHASE OWENS) (35:36): This was a strange show. Originally, New Japan decided to have two shows in baseball stadiums in May for whatever reason. I'm guessing because they could only have 50% capacity because of the pandemic at the regular buildings they were using, their thinking was 50% at a huge building like the Tokyo Dome would mean a lot more people and thus more profit. Well both Grand Slam shows in May were cancelled thanks to the pandemic. Ospreay was supposed to defend his title against Okada at the Tokyo Dome which may have been the greatest wrestling match in the history of pro-wrestling. Ospreay got injured, relinquished his title, and now we're finally getting that Tokyo Dome show two months later (the outside baseball stadium show is now 2 shows and scheduled in September). Things didn't get better for this show, though. The main event was scheduled to be Shingo vs. Ibushi but Ibushi got pneumonia that at first was blamed on his Covid vaccine but then they said it had nothing to do with the vaccine. So the day of this show it was announced that Hiroshi Tanahashi would take his place. Tanahashi was just in the main event on the show yesterday against Kenta, so I'm sure he fucking loved being in another main event right away. The other weird thing about this show was that usually they build a big light stage above the ring and of course an entranceway. They didn't build either. There was no entranceway, the wrestlers just walked out of one of the entrances by the seats. They kept the bright house lights around the top of the Dome on which amplified the fact that there was a sea of empty seats. While they probably got 5 or 10 thousand people, it still looked like the Dome was maybe 80% empty. So the show looked bush league and that didn't help. It was also obviously quiet with all of the empty space, plus fans could only clap, which probably didn't help when Evil came out to beat up Shingo at the end of the show and the fans couldn't boo so the place was just a silent tomb. The first match on the show was the traditional Royal Rumble opener. This was for the King of Pro-Wrestling title, surely wrestling's stupidest title by far. Some of the wrestlers were thrown over the top rope to be eliminated and some, like Kenta and Honma, were handcuffed to the ropes to be eliminated. I guess this was a handcuff match? Who the fuck knows? The match had some big stars like Ishii, Goto, Master Wato, etc., but was a total fucking bore and way too long. Chase Owens won the title. 1/2*

EL PHANTASMO & TAIJI ISHIMORI vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & ROCKY ROMERO (20:56):

Phantasmo and Ishimori retrained the Jr. tag titles, titles I swear disappeared awhile ago. They used to be a big deal back in the day when The Time Splitters and The Young Bucks and Rappongi Vice used to always have great matches for them. I think even Sho and Yo broke up, so these titles are pretty meaningless these days (all four wrestlers in this match are singles wrestlers first and rarely tag team wrestlers). Phantasmo walked the ropes and did a moonsault off the top rope and over the guardrail onto everyone. That was pretty cool. This was a fairly basic, forgettable match, though. **

ROBBIE EAGLES vs. DESPERADO (19:56): Most of this show was a bore and a slog. I'm not sure if it was just the empty building and pandemic-tamed crowd or if the matches were just that dull. Robbie Eagles did win the Jr. title here which was kind of a surprise. Considering wrestlers coming into Japan have to quarantine for 2 weeks first, I'm guessing Eagles is sticking around for awhile since he won. Desperado worked on Eagles leg, which is just about the stupidest thing you can do in terms of entertainment in a high flying match. Um...the fans want to see top rope flips and dives...not a hobbled Eagles unable to walk. Eagles did a 450 splash onto Desperado's ankle. So eventually both guys worked on the other's leg...just double the stupidity. This was pretty monotonous. *1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. JEFF COBB (19:23): Okada won with a rollup schoolboy of all things. Jesus. Would it kill this company to give Jeff Cobb a push? Cobb looked good, although Okada kicked out of his finisher which kind of ruins it being a finisher. Okada had a good match with Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom, but lately his matches have been pretty slow and pretty dull. The final few minutes were kind of dramatic and entertaining, but a lot of this was pretty average. **

ZACK SABRE, JR. & TAICHI vs. TETSUYA NAITO & SANADA (37:58): This match was about the same length as the main event...yet during this match I actually wondered if they were going to do a 60 minute draw. That's how fucking boring this match was. Or maybe that's just how great the main event was (it wasn't that great, though). These two teams just wrestled for the titles two weeks ago and Naito and Sanada won the titles. That match was a yawn-inducing, sleep fest. This wasn't much better. Zack and Taichi won back the titles in this match, which kind of tells you how important and prominent the tag titles are. After twenty minutes of seemingly wrestling in slow motion they all decided to finally start wrestling at a faster clip. Unfortunately, they still had 20 more minutes and so they went back to going slow. There were also a lot of slips, botches, and sloppy maneuvers in this match. Why this match was almost 40 minutes boggles my mind. 1/2*

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (37:26): The best I can say about this match is that, unlike the previous match, it didn't feel like 37 minutes. The last ten minutes are so were fairly dramatic and there were a lot of suspenseful near falls. The early part was pretty boring, though, and this was not some epic, awesome, classic New Japan main event. I'm not sure even Ibushi and Shingo could have had a great match in this empty Dome with the house lights on but who knows? These two wrestled in January in a main event and Dave Meltzer gave that match 5 stars (on a 5 star scale...although ridiculously he sometimes gives matches 6 stars). I did watch that match but barely remember it, so I'm guessing I didn't think it was that great. Tanahashi can still get the crowd to wake up, as there were a few minutes when the zombie crowd woke up from their slumber. Tanahashi is great and knows what to do and when to do it...but he's obviously a hobbled, shell of his former, great self. So this was probably the best Tanahashi you're going to get these days. Shingo is usually brutal in his hard hitting elbows and clotheslines but he couldn't really do that to an old man so he didn't and the match suffered because of it. This was definitely the best match on the show but in all honesty it was pretty average stuff. **1/2