Cero Reviews NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam In Tokyo Dome

[cero2k]

NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam In Tokyo Dome
July 25, 2021
Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan

This is a Tokyo Dome show, but it doesn't look like a Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show, they've stripped off all the stage and instead they're kinda working it like a Baseball field. I can appreciate trying to make the shows different from each other.

NJPW King Of Pro-Wrestling Trophy 22 Man New Japan Ranbo With Handcuffs Match
Toru Yano (c) vs. Satoshi Kojima vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Tiger Mask vs. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma vs. KENTA vs. Togi Makabe vs. Minoru Suzuki vs. Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi vs. Dick Togo vs. BUSHI vs. YOSHI-HASHI vs. Chase Owens vs. DOUKI vs. YOH vs. SHO vs. Master Wato vs. Great-O-Khan - 4/10
This was the pre-show match, a gimmick rumble for the comedy gimmick trophy, and need I remind you, in a pandemic? If you came here expecting anything else, I think it's all your fault.

The match wasn't really that good, it had great talent, but this is what happens when you try to Americanize wrestling, you end up with clusterfucks where no one really shines. There was a rule that if someone got handcuffed during the match, they were eliminated, and I actually liked that rule, it added a new way to eliminate people and I particularly loved that those losers were forced to stay cuffed around the ring for the rest of the match.

I really wouldn't look into any story coming off from here, but there definitely was some focus on CHAOS vs Bullet Club, which just finished feuding for the trios titles. Chase Owens one and I really don't mind, it's the curtain jerker title, it really doesn't matter, but it be cool if he were to try to introduce a different type of stips into his matches.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships Match
BULLET CLUB (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) (c) vs. Mega Coaches - 7.5/10
Good match overall. I personally liked their singles matches a bit more, but this was still quite good, with a good amount of time to build up some stories with Romero being the babyface in peril and later on, a story where ELP injured his own foot after landing on his alleged loaded shoe and Taguchi making an effort to reveal the truth, which in itself ended up being the finish, when Taguchi took off ELP's shoe, saw what was inside, but before showing it to the referee, Ishimori distracted the referee and allowed ELP to low blow Taguchi and finish him for the win with a CRII.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
El Desperado (c) vs. Robbie Eagles - 8.5/10
Really good match. I had some conflicting feelings towards Eagles in this match, I thought a lot of what he did came off as a bit heelish, but I also thought a lot of that offense helped the match be more about two competitors going for a title, than trying to tell good vs evil stories.

Match saw both guys work the leg, which is not that unusual for Desperado, who tends to chase the Numero Dos, but him getting his leg worked too was a cool dynamic that really paid off towards the end when both guys were already hurting. A lot of Eagle's offense, while not high flying, was going for the Ron Miller Special, which he used throughout the match until he managed to submit Desperado with it. I don't really know how to feel about Eagles as the champion right now, we all know Desperado kinda came to it because Hiromu got injured, but Eagles doesn't feel like a long term project unless he's willing to stay in Japan for the foreseeable future and is not buying houses in the US.

Post-match - Hiromu and Eagles visually agreed on a match for the title, which if indeed happens, it's gonna likely have most people hoping and expecting a Hiromu win.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb - 8.5/10
This was fantastic, I loved the idea that they established with this match. Even when facing a man at the level of Okada, Cobb was protected and made to look like a total monster, a Vader or Scott Norton monster heel without the scariness. It forced Okada to look for alternate approaches to win because he just couldn't break Cobb's shield, the Moneyclip wouldn't work on someone like Cobb and he just couldn't land a Rainmaker. So the story was that Okada was good enough to out-wrestle Cobb, escape the Tour of the Islands and such, but he just didn't have the power to put him down, and so he had to outsmart him and taking advantage that Cobb gets cocky and wants to use his opponents move on them, Okada countered his own Rainmaker as done by Cobb, rolled him up, and got the win that way. Okada escapes with the win, but both him and Cobb know that this could had gone to Cobb if Okada had stumbled at any point.

IWGP Tag Team Championships Match
Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) (c) vs. Dangerous Tekkers (w/Miho Abe) - 9/10
This was freaking great! These four men just had great singles matches not long ago, a great tag match where LIJ originally won the titles, and now they did it again here. For years, Sabre has been a great opponent to both SANADA and Naito, and as of late, Taichi grew to become a great opponent too. I thought the match went the perfect length, not a minute more nor less.

Story of the match was that SANADA and Naito are just so great, that as a team, they created a bit of a Mega Powers type team, that was just too much for Sabre and Taichi at times, especially after the former got his leg destroyed. As the match went on, Sabre and Taichi eventually made some comebacks that leveled out the playing field, especially after that spot with everyone hitting their finisher on each other. And at the end, after all they had gone through, it came down to Sabre reversing a Destino into an European Clutch for the win.

Post-match - Goto and YOSHI-HASHI came down and along with Naito and SANADA, they all wanted a shot at the titles. Sabre and Taichi just wanted to leave and rest.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match
Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - 9.25/10
This was fantastic. I'm preaching to the choir when I say that Tanahashi is amazing, but this guy took this match with one day notice, after main eventing a big show against KENTA in a somewhat violent match, and then he went in there with someone like Takagi and gave us a MOTYC. The story with KENTA the day before actually helped build this match a bit, since they made it a #1 contendership match and Tanahashi still had a win over Shingo from when he won the NEVER title from him.

The match itself was part of tonight's theme of 'leg work'. Tanahashi usually works the leg, but Shingo also kinda went after Tana's bad knee in addition to his usual head-decapitation attempts. The pacing of the match was a bit mix of Tanahashi at first, but as Shingo gained momentum, it really became a Shingo match, and Tanahashi obliged, I've heard some other people that he was doing a lot of Shibata stuff, but I just saw normal strong style as a means to counter Shingo's.

Post-match - After Shingo celebrated, the lights went out and EVIL played a video saying that no matter who had won, he was coming for the title. After the video ended, EVIL and Togo attacked Takagi and left him laying. I liked the touch that EVIL didn't know who was winning when he recorded the video, since he had to prepare it prior to the match if he wanted to be ready to run in after the winner was decided.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
After a year long curse with the new championship, injuries, and COVID restrictions, it's clear that NJPW is still the top promotion. Just looking at the series of shows that they ran during July, the fantastic matches that main evented most of the Summer Struggle tour, and then this show, there is no denying that NJPW is having a good year wrestling wise. As much as the drones complain about interferences, and gimmick matches, and lack of fans, I just keep getting great wrestling.

[Big Red Machine]

I don't really know how to feel about Eagles as the champion right now, we all know Desperado kinda came to it because Hiromu got injured, but Eagles doesn't feel like a long term project unless he's willing to stay in Japan for the foreseeable future and is not buying houses in the US.

I assume that he'll turn heel and join Ospreay when Ospreay comes back. Aren't those two best friends (or, if not in reality, in kayfabe)?

[cero2k]

I don't really know how to feel about Eagles as the champion right now, we all know Desperado kinda came to it because Hiromu got injured, but Eagles doesn't feel like a long term project unless he's willing to stay in Japan for the foreseeable future and is not buying houses in the US.

I assume that he'll turn heel and join Ospreay when Ospreay comes back. Aren't those two best friends (or, if not in reality, in kayfabe)?

I'm expecting the same, UE needs a Jr Heavyweight and without Ospreay, he just feels odd in CHAOS