9 Things We Learned From NJPW Dominion 6.19

3. Katsuyori Shibata Is Finally Ready For The Top Table

NJPW Dominion
njpwworld.com

If I'm honest, the feud between Katsuyori Shibata and the New Japan Third Generation (Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata) has been my favourite story in NJPW all year. There is something inherently fun and comical about it, even if it does focus heavily on respect and kicking old men as hard as possible.

Shibata won the NEVER Openweight Championship back at Wrestle Kingdom 10, and has long been considered someone who doesn't truly respect what NJPW stands for. He drew the ire of the third generation, but was able to back up his disrespect by continually putting them to sleep and then kicking their heads off.

'Blue Justice' Yuji Nagata was a step ahead though, and he managed to defeat Shibata for title at Invasion Attack. Shibata has slowly begun to show respect to the elders, and after winning his title back at Dominion Shibata finally bowed down to Nagata and the elder statesmen of New Japan Pro Wrestling.

After walking out of the company when it was at its lowest ebb, Katsuyori Shibata has finally regained the respect of the soul of New Japan. The main event beckons.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.