NJPW Dominion 7-12-20 at Osaka Jo-Hall

For the second time since the pandemic, New Japan is back before fans and with EVIL turning on Naito last night after a win over Okada, he is riding a wave of momentum and with Jay White unable to travel, it appears he'll be his placeholder and new leader of Bullet Club. The tag titles are also on the line with a VINTAGE ENGRISH graphic tonight as they face ZSJ and Taichi. SHO also faces

Nagata, Kojima, and Taguchi face Makabe, Honma, and Gabriel Kidd. Gabriel and Taguchi work the mat for a bit before Kojima and Honma exchange headlocks and charges because that's about all Honma can do that looks decent. The loud clapping in place of chants works fine for New Japan since that's always been a thing in Japan and it allows this to all feel pretty natural. THE IRON ASS gets 2 on Makabe. Exploder by Nagata to Makabe, but a lariat hits hard. Kidd charges Nagata down for 2. Nagata lock crossface wins it and man is Nagata's cup therapy distracting.

Takabashi, BUSHI, and Sanada face Ishii, Yano, and Tsuji. Sanada busting out the rolling Terry Funk cradle on Yano, who yells with each revolution is tremendous. SANADA paradise locks him in the rope! Tsuji lays into everyone with hard chops and almost pins Horomu off a sunset flip but fittingly taps him to a Boston Crab - so the young lion loses to a young lion move. Hiromu stares up knowing he won this, but also still being crest-fallen by tonight's main event.

Tenzan, Uemura, and Master Wato face off with Desperado, Douki, and Kanemaru. So you've got two stars in there with one legend between them, young lions, and then super-low card guys in Wato and Douki. Tenzan chokes Douki to get revenge on his beatings of Wato, Wato runs wild with kicks and kinda misses the jumping spinning back kick. Springboard swandive uppercut hits for 2, but Desperado hits Uemura with the Pinche Loco and pins him before MORE BRAWLING!

Okada and Goto face off with Yujiro, and Ishimori. Not much of a match as Okada gets his taped-up neck worked over. Goto comes in and backdrops Taiji for 2. Goto goes for a GTR, but Ishimori prevents that and he eats a Bloody Cross and the Pimp Juice ends it. GEDO bonked Okada with a wrench to prevent any kind of save. SHO comes out and already has fans behind him with big clapping for just his intro - he needs to split off from 3K ASAP.

 SHO works the arm to start and dropkicks him to the floor early. He goes for a tope, but Shingo charges him down. Shingo grinds away, but eats rolling Germans and a rope-run snap German for 2. THEY EXCHANGE BIG LARIATS and Shingo is taken aback by the first, so he makes sure to really lay into him. SHO gets a big jumping knee, but eats a shotgun lariat. SHO lands big alternating forearm strikes and a rope-trapped lariat but they meet in the middle and lariat each other. Shingo wants Made in Japan, but it gets blocked. He gets a gutbuster and MIJ gets 2! GTR on the rope and then Last of the Dragon ends it, leading to Desperado attacking Shingo - so that'll be his next challenge.

 The world's most gifted singer Taichi comes out to team up with ZSJ to face GO ACE and the Golden Star. Pale Ibushi is quite a site. Tana and Ibushi lay into ZSJ with a flashing elbow/corkscrew senton/running senton combo. Taichi chokes away on Tana in a great many ways before ZSJ tags in and ties up Tana. Tana saves Ibushi from a Taichi dragon sleeper with a standing one of his own. Last Ride hits for 2. Zack driver with a superkick from Taichi ends it! TEAM STUDMUFFIN LOSES THE BELTS! The heels keep attacking Tana's knee after the bell.

EVIL megapush recap and him just beating Okada gives him the feeling of a true top guy. It helps that his presentation has always been top-tier. Fans are shown clapping and clanking their belts to pay tribute to Naito. EVIL superfan Milano gets beaten up by EVIL after he takes Naito down. He eats a guardrail for easy heat. In being retired for a decade, I like that even a guardrail shot is shown as something to be taken seriously because he's out for the night. It's so great.

They brawl and EVIL works the knees over more. Naito teases a piledriver off the apron through a table, but EVIL avoids that and atomic knee breakers him off the apron THROUGH THE TABLE! Chair Pillmanizer is still BY RED SHOES! Countout tease leads to a scorpion deathlock by EVIL for a finish tease given all the damage done to the legs.

EVIL avoids Destino and the Bullet Club is run off BY HIROMU! Naito now has his chance to retain with the odds formerly against him! EVIL chairshots him in the gut and then BUBBA CHAIR SMASHES him with the chair shattering over his head! Naito fires up and gets an inverted swinging tornado DDT. He has hope and gets 2.9! VALIENTA HITS , but EVIL mule kick low blows Naito while grabbing Red Shoes!

BUSHI is out and cheers Naito on BUT SLUGS HIM AND CHOKES HIM OUT WITH WIRE. Bushi distracts Red Shoes while EVIL stomps Naito right in the balls. EVERYTHING IS EVIL ENDS IT. EVIL WINS THE IC AND IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLES! In 24 hours, he's gone from a pushed guy to the top theoretical guy in Japan. Bushi unmasks as Dick Togo - who now gets the biggest actual push of his career at 50. They put the boots to Naito and I love the idea of having a player/coach manager who can actually still go. FANTASTIC show from start to finish - I actually enjoyed it more than Wrestle Kingdom since it was just one show.