NJPW's Dominion: 14 Biggest Stories Ahead Of The G1 Climax And More
How Dominion and its outcome will affect the G1 Climax, Kizuna Road, and Southern Showdown events.
While Wrestle Kingdom has been New Japan Pro Wrestling's premiere annual event for over thirteen years, the Dominion show has been their summer spectacular since debuting in 2009. Occasionally the June event has even outdone and overshadowed the big one in years past.
This year's news-making show featured marquee matches, ever-evolving feuds, and multiple stars laying out their paths for the remainder of the summer. The theme of the night quickly became who would throw their hat in the ring for the upcoming G1 Climax tournament. From the first bout through to the main event, multiple major stars announced their intentions to compete in NJPW's most prestigious tournament--from junior heavyweights Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi to the shocking declaration of Jon Moxley and possibly even Chris Jericho.
Furthermore, Dominion saw the championship landscape shift as titles were retained and changed in surprising fashion. New title challengers also stepped forth or were called to come out from the shadows. Meanwhile, Chris Jericho found another rival to add to his list by the night's end.
With all those stories and more - including what to expect for the G1 Climax -let's break down everything that happened at Dominion and where it's all headed from here.
14. Largest Crowd In Dominion History Fills Osaka-jō Hall
The city of Osaka has housed New Japan’s second-biggest event on its calendar since 2009, though it wasn’t until 2015 that Dominion was moved to the larger and more prestigious Osaka-jō Hall. Prior to that, the city’s Prefectural Gymnasium with only eight-thousand seats hosted the June event. Since moving to Osaka-jō, Dominion has consistently drawn over eleven-thousand fans - save for 2016's singular sub-ten-thousand turnout.
However, this year saw Dominion’s largest ever crowd of 11,901 people flock to the Hall. While barely beating out last year’s attendance by just sixty-nine people, the record crowd is indicative of NJPW’s continually growing popularity. Furthermore, when advance tickets went on sale in May, it was announced just three days later that they'd all sold out - this with only three bouts announced at the time: the IWGP Heavyweight, Intercontinental, and NEVER Championship fights.
Unsurprisingly, it was announced during Sunday's show that Dominion will return to Osaka-jō Hall in 2020. With the company and event's growing popularity, however, perhaps a move to the even larger Osaka Dome, with a capacity of around fifty-thousand, could be on the horizon in years to come.