[6/11] A Coronation of Omega Proportions: New Japan Pro Wrestling Dominion 2017

[jackswstd]

Great show. I hope Tanahashi gets that IC title fixed cause Naito fukked it all up missing side plates, the centerpiece was missing pieces.

I liked Okada vs Omega better at WK but this match got really good near the middle and end, The Rainmaker lost it's potency as a finisher.

Kushida vs Takahashi was insane. Kushida had the fans turning on him when he was stomping him out.

I wish Shibata hadn't used that gotdamn headbutt

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

currently watching

Taguchi is a fool lol

ZSJ, i'm not a fan of his matches and him being in Suzuki Gun is status

When you watch him perform in the temple as Prince Puma, its hard to give a fukk about plain ol Ricochet

Tama Tonga should try to go for the NEVER title...dude has a lot going on for him to well pulling double duty as a tag team and at least the NEVER title

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Can someone explain to me wtf Cody's gimmick is right now? Not the American Nightmare tag, but what the fukk he's doing in the ring blowing kisses constantly and acting like Jim Carrey's Riddler while also being adoring to fans with his merch. Dude feels like a guy playing a wrestler in a movie. He's got the fakest, most put on "charisma" of anyone right now.

Besides not really having a gimmick (or not being fully committed to whatever he's doing), his moveset hasn't changed much. He's basically doing the same stuff he was doing in the WWE. He hasn't even adopted a strong style like other US wrestlers have. A-Train, AJ, Tomko, and several others adopted a more hard-hitting style with they went to Japan, but Cody is just the same Cody, just with a new tattoo and attire. It's weird

 

[Scottie Drippin]

Rainmaker is dead as a finish, imo. It's become the FU at this point. He's going to have to come up with a new super finisher pretty soon, because people aren't buying the Rainmaker until like 4 or 5 of them.

But this isn't true I can't think of a match where he's hit more than 2. Am I forgetting one in this match other than the one Kenny kicked out of before the Throw the Towel segment, and the one at the end he didn't get the cover on?

I think some of ya'll are missing the plot a little with his finishing run/combo. Okada, nor the audience, treats anything other than the full set-up (behind wrist clutch, spin, lariat) as a Rainmaker. Lariat or short-arm lariat =/= Rainmaker.

And before anyone says the difference doesn't matter, due note that in this match the audience audibly gasped when Kenny trapped Okada's arm before the One-Winged Angel. The levels of Okada's finishing run is based on nuance, but nuance that the crowd is fully plugged in to. Hence why they go ape shyt whenever he tries to do a German suplex, because that was his second levelled up Rainmaker combo.

Every time someone calls the Rainmaker done as a finish, he adds a new component to the set-up. It's been going on for five years now, surely we all know the drill

His next big win he'll have some new move to transition into it seamless and Sumo Hall or Tokyo Dome will be losing their minds.

Okada definitely comes out of this looking like a broken ace though, which is fantastic. On top of that, no one has run the tough heel heatbreakingly not tough enough to beat the face ace since Kawada/Misawa. Okada/Kenny. Their story thread for the next few years gonna be so captivating

 

[stro]

But this isn't true I can't think of a match where he's hit more than 2. Am I forgetting one in this match other than the one Kenny kicked out of before the Throw the Towel segment, and the one at the end he didn't get the cover on?

I think some of ya'll are missing the plot a little with his finishing run/combo. Okada, nor the audience, treats anything other than the full set-up (behind wrist clutch, spin, lariat) as a Rainmaker. Lariat or short-arm lariat =/= Rainmaker.

And before anyone says the difference doesn't matter, due note that in this match the audience audibly gasped when Kenny trapped Okada's arm before the One-Winged Angel. The levels of Okada's finishing run is based on nuance, but nuance that the crowd is fully plugged in to. Hence why they go ape shyt whenever he tries to do a German suplex, because that was his second levelled up Rainmaker combo.

Every time someone calls the Rainmaker done as a finish, he adds a new component to the set-up. It's been going on for five years now, surely we all know the drill

His next big win he'll have some new move to transition into it seamless and Sumo Hall or Tokyo Dome will be losing their minds.

Okada definitely comes out of this looking like a broken ace though, which is fantastic. On top of that, no one has run the tough heel heatbreakingly not tough enough to beat the face ace since Kawada/Misawa. Okada/Kenny. Their story thread for the next few years gonna be so captivating

He doesn't even try to pin after hitting the first one anymore. And if it does, it's an automatic kick out as long as it's after intermission. That's why I compared it to the FU/AA. There's no drama until at the 3rd one. Since WK last year, he's had to hit multiple per match, and this year he's been hitting chains of 3, with like 7 done in Okada/Omega 2.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

He doesn't even try to pin after hitting the first one anymore. And if it does, it's an automatic kick out as long as it's after intermission. That's why I compared it to the FU/AA. There's no drama until at the 3rd one.

Which match has he needed three? Not even being facetious. I legit can't think of one where he needed more than a second/first levelled up one.

 

[stro]

Which match has he needed three? Not even being facetious. I legit can't think of one where he needed more than 2.

Literally all of his title matches this year.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

Literally all of his title matches this year.

I've gotta re-watch then I can't remember two Rainmaker kickouts in any of his matches, but that's probably just me slipping.

But back to the move itself. You say he needs an upgraded finisher, but he keeps upgrading the Rainmaker with the combo before. Saying the crowd doesn't buy the standard rainmaker as a finish is like saying the crowd doesn't buy the Tiger Driver as a finish to knock Misawa's work. I mean, obviously.

But does the crowd buy a German-Rainmaker combo, or a lariats-Rainmaker combo, or a 180 Tombstone-Rainmaker combo as ending any match? Absolutely. Just clock the reaction those moves get when he attempts them/hits them. Okada's escalation is in the before, not the during or after. It's a unique, and I think dope aspect to his work.

 

[stro]

I've gotta re-watch then I can't remember two Rainmaker kickouts in any of his matches, but that's probably just me slipping.

But back to the move itself. You say he needs an upgraded finisher, but he keeps upgrading the Rainmaker with the combo before. Saying the crowd doesn't buy the standard rainmaker as a finish is like saying the crowd doesn't buy the Tiger Driver as a finish to knock Misawa's work. I mean, obviously.

But does the crowd buy a German-Rainmaker combo, or a lariats-Rainmaker combo, or a 180 Tombstone-Rainmaker combo as ending any match? Absolutely. Just clock the reaction those moves get when he attempts them/hits them. Okada's escalation is in the before, not the during or after. It's a unique, and I think dope aspect to his work.

Not two kick outs, because he doesn't even attempt the pin anymore. He's ended all of this title matches this year with chaining 3 together, sometimes with a German suplex in between, usually after hitting 1 earlier in the match, but sometimes just going straight to the chain because 1 Rainmaker ain't shyt anymore.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

Not two kick outs, because he doesn't even attempt the pin anymore. He's ended all of this title matches this year with chaining 3 together, sometimes with a German suplex in between, usually after hitting 1 earlier in the match, but sometimes just going straight to the chain because 1 Rainmaker ain't shyt anymore.

But that's to what I said earlier, you're calling all the short-arm lariats Rainmakers.

Has he ever won a match with a front facing, wrist-clutch lariat?

So why would you consider him doing one a finisher?

The lariat series is just currently his highest tiered set-up for the Rainmaker, after the 180 Tombstone, the German set-up, and the back-to-back set-up he hasn't done in a few years, but was the first level up he introduced against Tana and Karl. Putting the German into the middle of the lariat series was a level up from just the lariat series he first used on Naka.

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

why are they treating Omega knee strikes on some finisher level?

 

[Spartan]

It's depressing how garbage the WWE product is ( booking, storylines, promos, wrestling... ) compared to this.

NXT has shown they could do so much better....

 

[BlackDynamite310]

why are they treating Omega knee strikes on some finisher level?

They look like they could be. Hell they are 100% better then Seth rollers knee finishers

 

[Jmare007]

I've gotta re-watch then I can't remember two Rainmaker kickouts in any of his matches, but that's probably just me slipping.

But back to the move itself. You say he needs an upgraded finisher, but he keeps upgrading the Rainmaker with the combo before. Saying the crowd doesn't buy the standard rainmaker as a finish is like saying the crowd doesn't buy the Tiger Driver as a finish to knock Misawa's work. I mean, obviously.

But does the crowd buy a German-Rainmaker combo, or a lariats-Rainmaker combo, or a 180 Tombstone-Rainmaker combo as ending any match? Absolutely. Just clock the reaction those moves get when he attempts them/hits them. Okada's escalation is in the before, not the during or after. It's a unique, and I think dope aspect to his work.

We discussed this after the Shibata match. I agree he doesn't need a super finisher, he just needs another weapon to be his equalizer and mount his comebacks. I'm not that big of a fan of him working around the Rainmaker in 10 different ways because a lot of times it comes off as very convoluted and choreographed. It's different, so he has that going for him, but it hasn't win me over, specially in this current Ace run he's having.

Having said all that. I didn't think this was a problem in the Omega rematch. I actually thought he did the best job he's ever done using his dropkick as an equalizer. Then again, I think it's because he finally changed the formula of his previous title defenses. This time he was clearly the one working from over after the pointless legwork section ended, and as you have said in the past, that's were he's most comfortable in. That's suits him much, much better than trying to be Misawa and get the shyt beat out of him before mounting an epic comeback (and failing in the "epic" part).

Okada definitely comes out of this looking like a broken ace though, which is fantastic. On top of that, no one has run the tough heel heatbreakingly not tough enough to beat the face ace since Kawada/Misawa. Okada/Kenny. Their story thread for the next few years gonna be so captivating

Now don't go full Meltzer on me breh, come on. How about Yamazaki and Hashimoto? Poor Kazuo always gets overlooked

 

[stro]

They look like they could be. Hell they are 100% better then Seth rollers knee finishers

For everyone that looks killer, he throws 6 more that completely miss. Not even in a safe worker way, but in a "tighten your shyt up" kind of way. I think his strikes look pretty shytty. Okada's too, which is why their strike battles have been so lol. If you aren't good at something, either get better at it or don't include it in your matches. It kind of made sense in the Okada vs Shibata/Suzuki matches because Okada was getting REKT trying to keep up strikes with them while hopelessly outmatched in that department. In the Omega matches it's just normal "we gotta have strike battles" and neither of them are good at that specific thing.