NJPW Dominion

[Tim Cooke]

Need to watch Sakuraba vs. Shibata again, but it was really good the first time, in the **** range for me. The praise I’ve seen for this match has mostly been about Sakuraba working a match towards Shibata’s style and that made the ebd result great. But I didn’t walk away from the match with that perspective.

 

My impression of Shibata has been that he is the guy being stiff for the sake of being stiff and that his “shooter” personality makes popping up after 1 count’s late in the match okay. I thought his matches in the 2013 and 2014 G-1 with Ishii were okay but quite flawed from the ****3/4-***** ratings they were given.

 

I’ve been told by people I trust that Shibata has been much better this year but I haven’t paid close enough attention to see it on my own.

 

Regardless, I walked away thinking that this match could only work as well as it did with Sakuraba. Maybe Kushida could do it with Shibata, but that would most likely be too much of a different kind of match (more flying from Kushida).

 

Sakuraba brought too much to the table to call this a typical Shibata match. The early mat work, while not 1998 RINGS Tamura vs. Kohsaka level, was fresh and wouldn’t look out of place in the 2015 legit grappling world.

 

Sakuraba’s foot stomp (from his real fights in PRIDE) and Shibata's penalty kick reversals and the way they ended the scramble with that made me think of Low Ki vs. Red. I would be interested in seeing a Saku vs. Ki and Saku vs. Red match now. And Saku vs. Rey Jr - that may be the ultimate money mark match I would run if I won the lottery.

 

Couple of other thoughts:

 

· Sakuraba’s plancha had some great height on it. I believe he did one in his 2000 worked match against Kendo KaShin on the Inoki NYE show and he has done it a couple times in New Japan but it seemed like this was the first time he was comfortable that someone would catch him properly and that allowed him to get a little more height than usual

 

· I’m usually good with Japanese or Spanish commentary for their respective matches, but I think Mauro Ranallo or someone else would have been good here, if just for this one spot. After Sakuraba eats the corner dropkicks from Shibata, they get back to their feet and Sakuraba wails on him in the corner, ignoring the referee to break. It would have been interesting and added to the match if English commentary talked about how in his PRIDE days, there was no need to break and that Sakuraba was being totally zoned in his opponent and forgot that this wasn’t an MMA fight. It’s a very small thing but when I see things like regular, every day arm selling in Dragon Gate matches or quick glances from seconds in New Japan being praised as strong psychology, I would be remiss to not mention this.

 

· The build to Sakuraba crawling up Shibata’s back and grabbing one arm and then the other so that Shibata had to use his teeth for the rope break was excellent. I’m a big fan of MMA matches with lighterweight fighters who take risks flying around (Rumina Sato vs. Takumi Nakayama 11/02 and Rumina Sato vs. Makato Ishikawa 3/05 being two prime examples). Going into the match, I had no idea that this had been building in their tag encounters. Got a lot of heat, was a neat visual spot, and one that really doesn’t hurt either guy.

 

· Sakuraba’s kicks were great and that variation in striking really helps freshen up matches. It’s one of the reasons the Misawa/Kawada dynamic worked so well: Misawa’s elbow vs. Kawada’s kicks, with each splicing in some other striking to keep the crowd on their toes.

 

· Also read praise for Sakuraba finally taking some big bumps. I counted two (plancha and the german suplex head drop).

 

This made me really want to see more Sakuraba, even if it is in a pro-style worked environment.

 

I still dream that in the next year or two we will get Saku vs. Tamura (take the best elements of their 3 shorter UWFI 1996 matches) or Saku vs. Kohsaka at Korakuen Hall to do their 2015 version of the Worked Shoot but for now, Sakuraba vs. Kushida or Tanahashi would be at the very least interesting and at best, just great.

[Parties]

Goto-Nakamura: I never know what to expect from a Goto match, and I'm not sure Gedo does either. Started with perfunctory title match grappling, and some Nakamura handstand flair thrown in for spice. I can understand the booking. Nakamura loses the belt and rematch to build to a G1 win and main eventing the next Dome with Okada. But when the former champ completely outshines the new champ, you risk making Goto look second-rate. Which he is and always has been. On one hand, that came through here. But I also feel like he was made to look bad by the booking. If he's the champ, and Nakamura is about to win the G1, there's more to be gained by Goto decisively kicking the ass of the established top star. Go to Suplex City and have him beat Nakamura in ten minutes. You're not gonna kill Nakamura's heat by having him decisively lose the match that comes right before the biggest win streak of his career.

 

If Goto has any warpath in him, this is the now-or-never run in which he needs to show it. Frankly he's already had a couple now-or-never runs prior to this one that didn't click. I don't know if he has that killer instinct, but this is a match where he could have brought back some of those violent strikes from his Shibata series. Instead, he was made to look inferior to Nakamura the entire match. Even in defeat, it ended up being the Nakamura show, which is an error in booking more than it is in the performances, of which Nakamura's was terrific (perhaps better than it should have been), while Goto's was as lackluster as ever. Even as a series of moves in a bubble, I thought it was a rote sequence of stuff that I've seen Nakamura do enough times. Mix it up a little. Had way less heat than his stuff this year with Ibushi and Strong. Again, that's as much the fault of the booker as it is the very talented worker. I realize Japanese booking can be conservative, but this was Jim Inhofe conservative. The last minute or so was good – wish the whole match had been like it.

 

Styles-Okada: Opening video of the past champions was awesome. I forgot Makabe held the IWGP title. That is shameful and sadistic. Styles looks great from the outset: really crisp and fluid in his motions. Okada is a guy I'll admit I don't get. He almost always looks awkward to me. Even aesthetically: the hair, gear, and lanky Baba build seem gangly. I've only liked his work in things like tags where he's the third or fourth best guy in the match. He feels like the Rock, in that he's clearly really over and the crowds view him as very charismatic, but when you're removed from that cultural cache and aren't understanding what's being said the promos, it just looks like a guy who can't really work. His character doesn't come through in his matches.

 

Styles was fantastic early on: he's figured out the expressive stuff he lacked in past years, and all of his selling was superb. Awkward strikes from Okada. Likewise seemed like he wasn't equipped to catch Styles off aerial moves on first bounce, leading to miscommunication. Seems like Styles is able to work around the height disparity, but Okada is having trouble. Liked the combo of Styles getting crotched on the ropes and then dropkicked, but he was too quickly back on offense. I believe it was Dylan who said that Big Show has a better elbow drop than Okada. He runs the ropes better too, but I digress. Doing four Tombstone reversals doesn't work for me either. Styles bumped his ass off throughout, all of his flips and dives looked impactful, and he heightened the drama via his reactions. Styles is the closest guy that we have to prime Ric Flair, and he was trying to make magic with the closest guy we have to prime Tom Zenk. The last 30 seconds was good (or at least impressive in pace), but like Nakamura-Goto, a huge title match needs more than 30 rapid seconds.

 

Overall, this show didn't make me want to see more Goto, or even see Nakamura and Okada headline the Dome. It made me want to see Styles vs. Sakuraba under UWF rules, and Nakamura vs. Yano in a “Coward Waves the Merch” match.

[shoe]

Makabe's performance was worse than Matt Morgan's TNA ppv return.