NJPW Dominion 2019: Results, Grades, and Analysis

YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS) & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.)

Liger and Suzuki immediately started brawling, as the story between the two continue where Suzuki wants to retire him before January 4th, where Liger said he would retire. Meanwhile, in the ring Sabre locked a series of crazy submissions on Sabre. Suzuki and Sabre locked tandem submissions on YOSHI-HASHI, showing that Suzuki and his protégé work well together. YOSHI-HASHI started to exchange strikes, but Suzuki murdered him with a well placed forearm.

YOSHI-HASHI eventually made the tag to Liger, who ran wild, but was eventually overcome with submissions by Suzuki. Suzuki looked at the crowd in disgust as they began to cheer for Liger, and he locked on his sleeper hold before going for the Gotch Style Piledriver. Liger fought out and dropped Suzuki with a headbutt and a brainbuster! ZSJ And YOSHI-HASHI made their way in the ring and YOSHI-HASHI started to hit some offence on Sabre before draping him on the top rope and hitting a dropkick on ZSJ.

Sabre immediately grabbed an arm, and went for armbar again, but Liger broke it up. Suzuki locked on an Octopus stretch on Liger, and Sabre did the same to YOSHI-HASHI. YOSHI-HASHI made it to the ropes and Suzuki and Liger went to the floor and continued their brawl. Sabre hit the ropes, and YOSHI-HASHI hit a lariat and went for Karma, but ZSJ fought out. A series of counters were exchanged, but YOSHI-HASHI managed to roll Sabre up with a technical pinfall and he got the win!

Result: YOSHI-HASHI & Zack Sabre Jr.

Rating: **3/4 (2.75 stars out of 5)

The Young Lions had to drag Suzuki away from Liger as YOSHI-HASHI posed with the British Heavyweight Championship! It looks like we’ll see YOSHI-HASHI challenge for the title at a future RevPro show!

Bullet Club (Jay White, Taiji Ishimori, & Chase Owens) w/ Gedo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jay White, Ryusuke Taguchi

Robinson and Owens started the match, with Chase going right after the eye that was split open against Jon Moxley. Juice, however, fought back with a series of strikes and called Owens back into the ring. Ishimori tagged in, and Taguchi wanted to tag in. Taguchi and Ishimori used to be a team, and he thought he could reform it, but Ishimori just started beating on him. I guess not.

Everyone started brawling at ringside, and Ishimori sent Taguchi into the guardrail. Meanwhile, Jay White was working over the arm of Tanahashi on the floor. White rammed Taguchi’s back into the guardrail and the apron, before locking on a headlock in the ring. Taguchi went for a flying hip attack again, but White dodged. Today is Taguchi Day (6/9) as he is the 69th IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, but it doesn’t seem to be working out for him.

Tanahashi tagged in and began taking it to White, eager to show that he isn’t done yet. He hit a big dragon screw and then hit a flipping senton on White. White kicked out as the fans rallied behind Tanahashi. Tanahashi went for a lariat, but White hit the injured left arm and hit a suplex before the Bullet Club started to fight Tanahashi 3 on 1. White hit a rolling vertical suplex, but Tanahashi kicked out.

White went for the Blade Runner, but Tanahashi dodged. Tanahashi went for a sling blade, but White countered and went for a Blade Runner again. Tana countered and both men hit the mat. Chase Owens ran in, dragged White to the corner, and tagged himself in before going after Tanahashi again. Taguchi ran in and went for the hip attack, but Owens dodged and went back to working over Tanahashi’s arm again.

Owens went for the package piledriver, but Tana fought out and on the outside Robinson nailed White with a huge left hand, dropping him. Tanahashi then hit a sling blade type move on Chase and scored the pinfall. Is this a new finisher for Tanahashi?

Result: Tanahashi, Taguchi, & Robinson

Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)

Tanahashi looked like he hit a Final Cut here, or something like it. It was not the smoothest of moves, but I think there is a story here with Tanahashi in rough shape. NJPW does everything for a reason and I’m interested to see what stories NJPW are going to tell with Tanahashi heading into the G1.