(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin – NJPW Dominion 2016

Many people consider Kenny Omega to be one of the best wrestlers in the world today, if not the best. When he was first ascending to the top of New Japan years ago, many people were awestruck by how quickly he was rising and how much he was changing the wrestling landscape, for better or for worse. He was like the wrestling equivalent of a bullet train passing through a station at high-speed without stopping: an overwhelming force that came in and left before onlookers had enough time to register what happened.

Most people consider Omega’s rise to the main-event level to have begun at the 2016 G1 Climax. It was during that tournament that Omega ran the gauntlet and showed what he was capable of. He had excellent matches during that tournament, including two back-to-back career best performances against Tetsuya Naito and Hirooki Goto, respectively.

However, Omega’s rise to the top began months earlier. Before he could enter the G1 as a credible threat, he needed to prove that he was more than just a goofy comedy guy thrust up the card by external forces. To that end, let’s revisit one of Omega’s best matches of 2016, one that, for one reason or another, often gets overlooked, especially when compared to what was around it at the time.

Previously I was writing for a site called TJR Wrestling and now this series is coming to Blog of Doom. For now you can check out the series in its entirety here.

The story

On January 4th at Wrestle Kingdom 10, Kenny Omega lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to KUSHIDA. The following night, Omega ousted Bullet Club leader AJ Styles and took his position as the faction’s leader. On one hand this was expected since AJ Styles was known to have signed with WWE. On the other hand, few people believed that Omega was worthy of that spot at the time. He still had this unshakeable reputation as a comedy midcarder with an over-the-top style. People simply didn’t take him seriously and his accomplishments in NJPW thus far hadn’t changed many minds.

But NJPW’s bookers needed Omega to change; as the leader of the top heel stable in the company Omega was expected to come off as something of a threat when facing off against the company’s top babyfaces. And so it began. A month after Styles’ ouster, Omega won the vacant IWGP Intercontinental Championship, beating Hiroshi Tanahashi to do so. That was a huge win for Omega as Tanahashi was to New Japan what John Cena was to WWE.

But then Omega found himself facing a different kind of threat: Michael Elgin.

Elgin was a simple wrestler: a stout powerhouse that could stop wrestlers flying at him in their tracks and throw them around with ease. He called himself “Big Mike”, even though he only stood 5’11. However, weighing 267 pounds made him heavier than almost everyone around him. And since New Japan’s roster – including its heavyweight division – was filled with lither wrestlers that liked to sprint around, Elgin had an advantage since few of his opponents were willing to exert the strength needed to actually lift him off his feet.

Elgin got some momentum over Omega at Invasion Attack in April when he, Tanahashi, and Yoshitatsu beat the Elite to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag titles. Initially this feud was built around Omega and Tanahashi; however, Tanahashi suffered an injury that forced NJPW to change plans for Dominion. Tanahashi had originally demanded another shot at Omega’s IC title, which Omega accepted but only if Tanahashi accept his stipulation that it be a ladder match, the first of its kind in New Japan history.

Tanahashi accepted these terms, but in the weeks leading up to this show Tanahashi injured both a bone and a muscle in his arm, which sidelined him. NJPW saw an easy fix and opted to have Elgin, Tanahashi’s then-#2, replace him in the ladder match. There was already some history there, so NJPW figured “eh, why not” and booked the match between the two Canadians.

Even without the story being what it was, there was genuine curiosity going into this among NJPW’s fans. The company almost never did gimmick matches like this; even during the Inoki years and the company’s 1990s prime the only weapons used were chairs and tables. Even when crazier wrestlers like The Great Muta and Atsushi Onita wrestled, they didn’t use ladders. So people went into this wondering if this would be as much of a classic as Shawn Michaels versus Razor Ramon from WrestleMania X. Those were huge shoes to fill, but if anyone in NJPW could make this gimmick work, it was Omega. But could he get the same out of Elgin, a guy who rarely ever left his feet to begin with?

The match

This match originally took place on June 19, 2016. It was rated ****3/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Before the match starts, referee Red Shoes Unno checks under the ring for anything that shouldn’t be there. Sure enough, he finds the Young Bucks hiding under one side and ejects them from ringside, ignoring their protesting. They continue arguing up the ramp as Unno does the “suck it” gesture, unafraid of what they would do to him. A referee with authority and the balls to stand up to wrestlers, what a novel concept.

This is for Omega’s IWGP Intercontinental Championship. The instant the bell rings Omega pounces on Elgin with kicks and forearms. Elgin hits back and choke-tosses Omega into a corner. Elgin ducks a Polish hammer and clotheslines Omega hard. He catches Omega on a leapfrog but Omega escapes from a fireman’s carry, only to eat a back elbow. Omega avoids some corner charges but runs into a big overhead press slam. He escapes a vertical suplex, hits some stiff chops, and escapes to ringside to grab a ladder. Elgin cuts him off, steals his broom (because “Cleaner”) and grabs a ladder. But before he can bring it to the ring, Omega lands a big plancha from the ring onto the ladder and onto Elgin.

Omega gets a big running start and lands his Rise of the Terminator suicide dive back to the floor. The crowd boos as Omega’s allies Hangman Adam Page and Yujiro Takahashi come in and attack Elgin. They hold him in place so that Omega can hit him with another ladder. They hold him in place once more while Omega sets up a ladder in the ring to retrieve the title. Omega climbs quickly but Elgin breaks free and cuts him off and hits a big forearm smash. He attacks both Hangman and Yujiro, and then does the ladder helicopter spot as all three Bullet Club guys take turns running into him and getting hit for a small comedy pop.

Five minute have passed as Elgin yanks Omega over the rope back into the ring with great force. Elgin follows with a huge corner whip that sends Omega careening into a ladder, twice back-first and once with a front bump. Elgin does a light press slam onto the ladder and setup a slingshot splash but Omega dodges and Elgin falls onto a prone ladder instead. Omega takes advantage with a corner foot choke and attempts to whip Elgin into another corner with a ladder setup horizontally with the legs sticking out. Elgin resists and fights back with several hard strikes, including a loud enzuigiri. Elgin tries to whip Omega into the ladder but Omega slides under it and out of the ring, where’s joined by his BC allies and then by Elgin as Elgin does a topé onto all three of them.

Elgin grabs a different, shorter ladder and sets it up near the ropes. He climbs it presumably for an over-the-rope superplex but Omega blocks it by hitting Elgin’s head with various objects handed to him by Yujiro. Omega takes advantage of a stunned Elgin to land a springboard over-the-ladder sunset flip powerbomb. Then Omega sends Elgin into that horizontal ladder from earlier which he then sets up to climb. Elgin cuts him off but Omega boots him to the floor.

At ringside, Omega whacks Elgin’s head with more metal objects, sends him into a barricade, and sets up another ladder to create a bridge from the ring apron to the barricade. Omega teases a suplex but Elgin resists and then counters with a gourdbuster that sends Omega onto said ladder instead. Elgin places that ladder against the ring and tries to catapult toss Omega into it. Omega lands on the ladder and attempts a quebrada. Elgin catches him and lawn darts him into it instead, sending Omega into the ladder shoulder-first.

Fifteen minutes have passed as Elgin begins climbing a ladder in in the ring. Omega cuts him off with more shots with a street sign. Omega follows with his You Can’t Escape combination and climbs a ladder once more but Elgin pulls him off with an Electric Chair suplex. Elgin smashes that ladder into Omega’s gut and back several times and hits two vartiations of a corner lariat. He tries a German suplex but Omega lands on his feet and lands a superkick. Omega charges at Elgin but Elgin hits first with a back body drop, sending Omega onto a ladder, breaking it in the process.

As Omega writhes in pain, Elgin grabs two garbage cans from under the ring and creates another platform using the short ladder. Elgin attempts a top-rope superplex onto that ladder but Omega escapes. Omega goes for a crossbody but Elgin catches him. Omega escapes a powerslam and lands a facecrusher onto the ladder. Then Omega hits a deadlift gutwrench powerbomb onto the ladder as the twenty-minute mark passes.

We get a brief moment of “comedy” as Omega tries to climb an obliterated ladder for no reason. He then sets up and climbs a full-size ladder but Elgin cuts him off with a bucklebomb. Elgin goes for his follow-up spinning powerbomb but Omega gets onto the ladder. Elgin knocks him off and hits a standing lariat combo. Elgin charges for a running lariat but Omega hits first with a V-Trigger, to which Elgin responds by angrily throwing a ladder at Omega’s head.

Elgin teases another bucklebomb but Omega counters with a poisoned Frankensteiner. Omega follows with a second V-Trigger and attempts the One-Winged Angel but Elgin escapes. Elgin charges but Omega answers with a Tanahashi slingblade which gets loud boos from the crowd. Omega climbs a big ladder near a corner but then Elgin climbs from the other side. They brawl at the top of the ladder until Elgin lands a huge superplex.

After some downtime, both men climb the ladder from opposite sides once again. another strike exchange ends with both men falling off. Both men end up on the apron and Omega counters a powerbomb attempt with a back body drop. Omega gets up first and sets up two tables and then whacks Elgin with a garbage can. Omega teases doing a Jeff Hardy spot but Elgin cuts him off. Then Elgin powerbombs Omega from two third of the way up the ladder onto the tables. I say “onto” and not “through” because neither table breaks, causing Omega to literally bounce off one of them on his way down. Fucking OUCH!

Elgin climbs a ladder in the ring but then here come the Young Bucks with cold spray to stop his ascent. At this point they no longer fear the referee, but if so why did they leave in the first place? Damn overbooked nonsense. Anyway, the Bucks superkick Elgin and handcuff him to one of the chains connecting a top turnbuckle. Captain New Japan comes out to save Elgin but eats a superkick for his efforts. Yoshitatsu does the same and suffers the same fate. Matt Sydal comes out but he’s only a distraction so that Ricochet can dive onto the Bucks. Ricochet and Sydal try to save Elgin but Omega knocks both of them to the floor. Omega climbs the ladder. He’s within reach of the title belt when Elgin breaks the handcuffs. Elgin lifts the ladder up sending Omega crashing onto eight people below. Elgin climbs and pulls the title belt down to become the new champion!

Winner and NEW IWGP Intercontinental Champion after 33:32: Michael Elgin

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5uhjdj

Review

This is, coincidentally, the third match in a row that I’ve reviewed that involved some kind of chicanery towards the end. And just like those ones, the interference was really annoying and it took away from what was otherwise an interesting match. But it was far worse here: the interfering wrestlers shifted the focus away from the ones actually competing in the match, all for some convoluted high-spots and cheap heat that complicated things unnecessarily. The match was described as “overbooked” when it first happened and that remains a fair assumption today. Even though the crowd was hot for this – likely because it was a first for New Japan – crowd noise alone wasn’t enough to justify putting together such a long, plodding, overcomplicated match.

The match was agonizingly slow at times with lots of meandering around the ring and convoluted setup sequences that brought the action to a crawl. Both Omega and Elgin sold things inconsistently here as they both took disgusting bumps and sold as though they suffered genuine injuries, only to fire up and sprint moments later. One can try to conceal such inconsistency as “fighting spirit” but there’s a difference between “persevering and trying to fight on as your last gasps of energy leave you” and “going from almost zero to one hundred in the span of five seconds”.

With all the constant back-and-forth exchanges and shifts in control involving high-impact spots, the action had this seesaw pacing to it that made the match come across as phony instead of realistic. It was more akin to watching a car crash than a wrestling match. And while there’s certainly some appeal in that – Omega comes across as such an obnoxious prick in his matches that you want to see him get ragdolled – at some point the ladder spots became excessive. There was no sense of escalation or flow with the ladder spots except for the final one. Most of the successful ladder spots would’ve ended matches in a previous era; here they were transitional spots.

And given how the match was shot, there were several moments during which one could see both wrestlers either cooperating with each other or faking impact using some kind of sleight-of-hand. That stuff may fly on the indies but not with New Japan. Even though that company has embraced a working relationship with some of the wilder and more “creative” foreign wrestlers out there, there’s still an expectation among its core fans for top-level wrestlers to at least try and suspend disbelief, which wasn’t easy to do here.

Final Rating: ***1/2

As a demolition derby this match was fine, though it wasn’t anything most fans hadn’t seen before. It was an Americanized match brought to a Japanese audience for the first time. But even though it was new there wasn’t anything unique about it, especially since both Omega and Elgin used most of their usual flair throughout the match. Considering that New Japan only did a ladder match once after this (in 2021, and the general consensus was that it was dreadful), it’s clear that neither NJPW the company or its fans are fans of the gimmick.

There are much better matches out there that offer what this match lacks. If you want to see old school ladder matches that actually have psychology and a sense of build, then either of the two Shawn/Razor matches will work for you. If you want to see ladder-centric stunt shows then I would suggest any of the pre-2010 Money in the Bank matches. If you want to see Michael Elgin at his best, then I would suggest his match with Davey Richards from ROH in 2012. And if you want to see the best that Kenny Omega has to offer, then you’re better off watching his match with Naito from the 2016 G1 or any of his singles matches with Okada, or even his second match with Ospreay in Toronto.

Any of those matches will be a better use of your time and energy than this.

Thanks for reading. You can email me with any questions or comments, and be sure to check out my 5-Star and Almost 5-Star Match Reviews series here.