I’m Oli Davis, welcome to the WrestleTalk News - where this is not a drill.
It’s a wrestling match.
Because at one of the biggest New Japan shows of the year, Bryan Danielson just called out
Kazuchika Okada.
At Sunday 4th’s Dominion pay-per-view, the New Japan dream team of Kazuchika Okada, Horse
Shoe Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii beat Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Shota Umino
- with AEW’s Blackpool Combat Club members being protected, as Okada pinned Moxley’s
young boy Umino for the finish.
Mox cut a promo in defeat, saying the BCC trains with the real best wrestler in the
world, throwing to Bryan Danielson in video package form, where he said:
“For the last 10 years, I’ve heard people talk about how great you are.
How you’re the best wrestler of this generation…
You call yourself the Rainmaker but you step into the ring with me and you’re getting
into the f****** desert, and they’re ain’t gonna be no rain.”
He gets climate change into everything, this guy.
Okada then accepted the match, all but confirming the two will wrestle in just 20 days’ time
at the New Japan and AEW joint show Forbidden Door in Toronto on June 25th.
I’m seeing double here.
Four of the best wrestlers of our generation.
Not a Simpsons gag.
Because the other two best wrestlers of our generation are booked in a different match
at Forbidden Door.
In Dominion’s opening match, Will Ospreay beat Lance Archer - making Will the IWGP US
Heavyweight Championship’s #1 Contender.
A championship currently held by Kenny Omega.
Setting up Omega vs Ospreay II also at Forbidden Door, after they immediately at the best match
of the 2023 on January 4th this year at WrestleKingdom.
But Ospreay doesn’t just want to fight Omega.
He wants to fight all of Canada, as in the post-Dominion interviews, he said comments
I’m pretty sure can get you locked up there - arguing that actually not all Canadians
are nice, ey.
“Chris Jericho, asshole.
Don Callis, asshole.
El Phantasmo, asshole.
Bret Hart just moans all the f****** time.”
Ospreay, you’ve just set yourself up a match with Tempest as far as I’m concerned.
Perhaps getting carried away with the concept of the Forbidden Door, Ospreay then took to
Twitter to call out WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, as they’ll be very
close to each other when Money in the Bank takes place in London.
“The 02 arena is 20 minutes from my house aye 👀”
To which Seth replied: “Bruv.”
This, of course, would also be a rematch, as Rollins beat Ospreay four years ago to
the day of Forbidden Door 2023, via bank balance.
It feels like wrestling summer has finally begun, particularly with the other huge announcement
on Dominion - the line-up of this year’s G1 Climax tournament.
Just over a month’s worth of matches which typically make up half the year’s best bouts.
There was the standard roll call of New Japan legends: Okada, Naito, Sanada, Ospreay, Tanahashi,
Ishii, Sabre Jr., Toru Yano.
But the biggest pop came to the surprise AEW/ROH entrant - our boy and Japanese wrestling aficionado:
Eddie Kingston!
I am so, so happy for him.
He loves Japanese wrestling more than anyone, and being able to compete in a G1 tournament
must be a dream come true.
Because now’s the perfect time to jump back on the New Japan bandwagon, with Forbidden
Door later this month and the G1 through the Summer, here’s my attempt at recapping Dominion
in a one minute, one take.
I’m going to mispronounce so many names.
Ospreay beat Lance Archer to become the No. 1 contender for Omega’s US title.
Lance revealed after he’s not wrestled much recently because of a triceps injury, not
AEW’s bad booking.
LIG saw Titan pin Just 4 Guys’ Taka Michinoku.
Just 4 Guys, title of your mum’s nightly Premium Live Event.
TJP won the Junior Heavyweight tag titles with Francesco Akira, beating Intergalactic
Jet Setters.
TJP is amazing.
Zack Sabre retained his TV title against Jeff Cobb.
Bishamon’s Goto and YOSHI-HASHI won both the IWGP Heavyweight and New Japan Strong
tag titles, beating House of Torture and MJF’s favourite wrestler Great O’Khan in United
Empire.
Bishamon started a feud with Bullet Club War Dogs after.
David Finlay retained the NEVER Openweight title against El Phantasmo.
There are so many titles in New Japan.
Takahashi retained the Junior Heavyweight title against Master Wato.
The G1 competitors were announced, with bonus Eddie Kingston.
Okada, Tanahashi and Ishii retained the Never Openweight 6 man belts against Mox, Claudio
and Umino - leading to Danielson’s challenge.
And Sanada retained his World Heavyweight championship against New Japan’s potential
next breakout star Yota Tsuji.
Definitely go out of your way to watch Dominion, as it’s one of the best shows of 2023.
It’s great to see New Japan back to its best after a rough pandemic.
Over in WWE, Cody Rhodes is back to doing what he does best: trying to create his own
80s pocket dimension within a larger wrestling organisation.
Cody is currently drawn one win each, but one arm down, with Brock Lesnar.
Cody won their first encounter at Backlash, Lesnar broke his arm on Raw, helping Brock
win their second round at Night of Champions.
According to BWE on Twitter, who has been leaking accurate plans for WWE TV, but is
still a new source in the wrestling news space, so still accompany with recommended pinch
of salt, Brock and Cody getting a dog collar match stipulation in their series was
“Rejected.
No need to say who.”
We’ll have to speculate somewhat here, but it’s probably safe to assume Cody was the
one pitching the dog collar match, as not only is he a huge fan of the 80s style stipulation,
one of his greatest matches ever used it, with his fantastic TNT title match against
Brodie Lee in 2020.
Dog collar matches are exceedingly rare in WWE.
They did one in April 2022 on an episode of NXT UK, between Eddie Dennis and Wild Boar.
I think we can also assume that slid under the radar of Vince McMahon not even knowing
NXT UK existed.
In terms of who rejected it, we can also make an educated guess of Vince ‘definitely not
influencing creative’ McMahon.
He is known to be very resistant to match stipulations his company didn’t come up
with - see: War Games - and looks down on what he sees as ‘southern rasslin’ traditions.
Of course, there could be another reason WWE decided not to do a Dog Collar match.
They were worried how red Brock’s head would get if it also had a collar wrapped round
his neck.
According to Shayna Baszler, Cody wasn’t the only one clashing with WWE management,
as she’s revealed Ronda Rousey demanded their Women’s Tag Title run.
Talking to the Ringer’s Cheap Heat podcast, Baszler admitted her and Rousey had been asking
for a tag title run for forever.
Real life friends from their MMA past, Shayna and Ronda became an onscreen act together
shortly into Triple H’s creative reign in October 2022.
After a brief hiatus following her title loss to Charlotte Flair, this became an overt tag
act back in February.
They even won the women’s WrestleMania Showcase Fatal Four Way Tag in April, despite Ronda
barely getting involved because of her elbow injury.
In short, it feels like Ronda has wanted a tag title run for her and Shayna for a while.
They finally won the belts on the 29th May episode of Raw, but only after the titles
were vacated due to Liv Morgan’s injury.
Perhaps this was when Ronda directly demanding the belts happened, as Shayna recalls:
“She finally put her foot down and went to the office and said, 'Listen, we've been
asking for this forever.
You keep telling us, 'After, after, after this, this.'
I honestly don't know if she hadn't done that, if they ever would have got to it."
Baszler said they both want to build an actually credible women’s tag division in WWE, rather
than just one made up of temporary teams of randoms thrown together.
So expect to see them beaten by Lacey Evans, and, I don’t know, B-Fab, in a couple of
weeks.
Evans made her latest repackaged regimmicked return on the Friday 2nd June episode of SmackDown.
Her previous characters include ‘heel sassy southern belle’, ‘babyface mother southern
belle’, ‘Ric Flair’s implied baby mama heel’, ‘babyface military veteran’,
‘heel military veteran’, and ‘babyface military veteran again’.
Now we have her latest gimmick: Sgt.
Slaught-HER.
Wrestling Zelina Vega in a Money in the Bank qualifier match, Lacey’s attire was overtly
modeled on Slaughter’s iconic costume - prompting the Hall of Famer’s daughter to call her
out on Twitter.
“No.
This is NOT okay.
@WWE Who the f*** does @LaceyEvansWWE think she is?!?
There’s only 1 @_SgtSlaughter, there’s only 1 Slaughter Daughter, and she’s just
a poser.”
Prompting Evans to answer who she thinks she is.
“Your daddy's biggest fan.
A United States Marine.
And a bad Mfer.
🇺🇸 you know who I am.
And where to find me.”
For SlaugherDaughter to clarify: “You’ve got my respect for serving our
country.
💯 I’m talking about the gimmick.
Cobra clutch & now the hat.
You look ridiculous.
#stolengimmick” Do you think Lacey’s new gimmick disrespects
Sgt.
Slaughter?
Or do you think it’s just a bit lazy and Vega beat her in the match anyway so you’re
not really sure why SlaughterDaughter has gotten so angry?
Let me know in the comments.
Now go watch Adam Blampied’s list
of 20 WWE wrestlers who should and shouldn’t win Money in the Bank…