10 Major Predictions For NJPW Dominion 2018

Kazuchika Okada is in the midst of the most legendary Heavyweight title reign in puroresu history, all metrics considered.

At time of writing, the reign has reached the 715-day mark. Over the course of nearly two full years, Okada has both reinforced his Ace status and redefined the role. Match quality is out of this world; Okada isn't merely the greatest wrestler on the planet, but in contention for the greatest of all time.

Okada has carved this demigod character through absorbing the powers of his defeated challengers.

When he defeated Katsuyori Shibata at Sakura Genesis 2017, he proved a match for his absurdly stiff striking game, steeling his own in the process. When he defeated Zack Sabre, Jr. at the same event one year later, he deflected his opponent's rash-like submission game to develop an immunity to it, forcing his next opponent to the top rope. When he shockingly defeated Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 12 he positioned himself as unbeatable. When he defeated the Ace he supplanted, Hiroshi Tanahashi, at Wrestling Dontaku '18, he unlocked a level above even that. In the fiction of NJPW, Okada is the undisputed greatest wrestler ever to rise from the Land Of The Rising Sun.

At the Best Of The Super Juniors Final, he used the V-Trigger absorbed from Kenny Omega as a taunt directed at him. Was this an act of hubris too far, one punishable by the Gods?

Does the God-like reign come to an end on Saturday?

The safest prediction of a card boasting endless intrigue, Dominion feels special even by the stupendous standards of New Japan's Golden Age.

There is scope for Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega to pick up countless absorbing narrative threads from their genius 2017 trilogy in their 2 Out Of 3 Falls, No Time Limit main event for the IWGP Heavyweight Title - just one of which is the effectiveness of Omega's One-Winged Angel. Built as the most devastating threat to Okada's legacy, when it was finally detonated clean in the middle at the G1 Climax B Block final last year, Okada suffered an ultra-rare loss in the big match arena. If he kicks out of it on Saturday, with Omega already 1-0 up, the roof will blow off Osaka-jō Hall.

There is, literally, no limit to the potential brilliance of the main event.

Chris Jericho enters Osaka with another point to prove. Why can't he steal the show? He stole Wrestle Kingdom away from both the best wrestler in the world and the biggest star in the country. Will Ospreay and Hiromu Takahashi will steal years from their own lives in their pursuit of this shared goal.

Osaka, known accurately as the Chicago of Japan, will bring the noise.

Match quality will be brought by this unreal roster.

As for the match results...