With New Japan Pro Wrestling’s third Tokyo Dome show of the year looming large, a stacked Wrestle Grand Slam card hopes to entice thousands of fans into the famous venue. Four title matches and one special singles encounter outline a very interesting card, perhaps the best NJPW has put together since its last Tokyo Dome venture.

Toru Yano’s KOPW Trophy is up for grabs in the show’s opener, but with some quite peculiar stipulations in play, I’m going to skip this one and head straight into the five serious matches of the night.

MATCH CARD:

KOPW 2021 Rambo Match

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships:
Bullet Club (El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori) (C) vs Mega Coaches (Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship:
El Desperado (C) vs Robbie Eagles

Special Singles Match:
Kazuchika Okada vs Jeff Cobb

IWGP Tag Team Championships:
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito and SANADA) (C) vs Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi)

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship:
Shingo Takagi (C) vs Kota Ibushi

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships:
Bullet Club (El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori) (C) vs Mega Coaches (Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi)

The first proper match of the enthralling Tokyo Dome show card is the Mega Coaches challenging for Bullet Club’s Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles. The build up to the match mostly contained two Korakuen Hall singles matches – with Ryusuke Taguchi defeating Taiji Ishimori and Rocky Romero battling El Phantasmo to a 30 minute draw.

This speaks to one of main issues with current-day NJPW, as too many matches go an unnecessarily long time. This has the potential to be an exciting, fast-paced junior opener between four very capable competitors. The Bullet Club duo make their first defence of their tag team titles after ousting Yoshinobu Kanemaru and the reigning Junior Heavyweight Champion, El Desperado, in late June.

I would expect a routine defence for the Bullet Club pair. Romero and Taguchi make a very enjoyable tag team, with a distinct mixture of comedy and well-polished work. However, ELP and Ishimori have the most upside and if they can string together a series of tag team matches (in a mostly barren division) it would likely be a much better situation.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship:
El Desperado (C) vs Robbie Eagles

After El Desperado successfully defended his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taiji Ishimori at Summer Struggle in Sapporo, Robbie Eagles challenged the champion with a video on the arena big screen. Desperado certainly wasn’t enamoured by these tactics from Eagles, but he still accepted the challenge.

Having already defended his title against YOH and Taiji Ishimori, a returning Robbie Eagles could well be Despy’s biggest challenge of his reign so far. The Australian is a rejuvenated commodity after a near 7 months away from the Lion Mark. 

El Desperado is on the best run of his career, but his opponent will be charged as he’s heading into his first NJPW singles match since the 2020 Best of Super Juniors tournament. This isn’t an easy one to call. There are reasonable arguments both ways, so it’s certainly one to watch for this added intrigue.

Special Singles Match:
Kazuchika Okada vs Jeff Cobb

The sole non-title match of the night is a well-built encounter between company golden boy, Kazuchika Okada, and one of the promotion’s greatest rising-stars, Jeff Cobb. I’m very excited for this one – if not just because of the many transitions into a Tour of the Islands that Cobb could showcase. 

Rainmaker into a Tour of the Islands, anyone?

This could prove a decisive moment in Cobb’s New Japan career, as he has a broad platform to impress fans, company brass and everyone in between. With his singles match against Kota Ibushi not too far back in the memory, it’s a great chance for Cobb to further his star appeal even more.

I also think it’s a good spot for Okada to be in, as when he’s not in the direct title picture these sorts of matches are exactly what he needs to be doing. They have potential to be great matches (Ibushi vs Cobb is case and point), and importantly they can help elevate a new talent. 

This could be a show stealer, so definitely keep your eyes on it!

IWGP Tag Team Championships:
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito and SANADA) (C) vs Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi)

In a rematch from Summer Struggle in Sapporo, Dangerous Tekkers look to regain their prized tag team titles from newly crowned champions in L.I.J. The two teams will look to outdo their over-30 minute encounter from a few weeks ago.

Dangerous Tekkers have been the crown jewel of NJPW’s mostly ill-treated tag team division, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the belts flip back to the Suzuki-gun duo. It’s a big spot for L.I.J’s first title defence, with it being second from the top (behind the exciting IWGP World Heavyweight Championship encounter). So, it must deliver. 

In my opinion, their first match was too long, with a good 10 minutes needing to be shaved off. I hope their Wrestle Grand Slam face-off is much shorter, as it would be wholly more interesting if this is the case.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship:
Shingo Takagi (c) vs Kota Ibushi

In Wrestle Grand Slam’s much anticipated main event, New Japan’s Dragon defends against former champion Kota Ibushi. This is what NJPW is all about. Two of the world’s very best going one on one.

Shingo Takagi’s coronation was a breath of fresh air for New Japan, and his first defence will hopefully thrust this air further still. Ibushi was officially the first IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, so it seems unlikely that he would regain the title so soon after, but nothing is out of the question in the current era of NJPW.

Kota Ibushi fell in his first defence of the new World title to Will Ospreay, who was then forced to abdicate the championship due to injury – so will Shingo break the curse?

These sorts of New Japan main event matches always deliver, and I expect this one to be no exception. This show is the most interested I’ve been in a NJPW event in a few months, and this match is the principle reason. 

Shingo Takagi. Kota Ibushi. Tokyo Dome main event. Just what the doctor ordered!

Show Details
When: Sunday July 25th, Pre-Show @ 8am GMT/3am EST/Midnight PST, Main Show @ 9am GMT/4am EST/1am PST
How to Watch: Available live on NJPW World for only 999¥ per month (roughly £7.50/$9.30)
Notes: English and Japanese commentary will be available live!