New Japan Pro Wrestling‘s Dominion 2018 is behind us and Hiromu Takahashi completed his quest to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. “The Time Bomb” defeated “The Areal Assassin” Will Ospreay to win the Jr. Heavyweight title in one of the best bouts in the evening, that featured solid shots, high risk moves to the neck and a unmatched paste.
至高の“ジュニア頂上対決”は、高橋ヒロムがオスプレイを下してIWGPジュニア王座を奪還！
バックステージには、“宿敵”エル・デスペラードが登場…!!
6.9大阪城ホールを新日本プロレスのスマホサイトで独占詳報中！https://t.co/fZBv59Rk7y #njdominion #njpw pic.twitter.com/fvoVeMKwnx— 新日本プロレスリング株式会社 (@njpw1972) June 9, 2018
Hiromu entered NJPW Dominion four days after his incredible match against Bullet Club’s Bone Soldier, Taiji Ishimori in the finals of the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors. The match itself against Ospreay was another great display of high paste offense and dangerous moves that are making this era of Junior Heavyweights one of the best or the best ever in New Japan history.
高橋ヒロム「決勝で“大ヒロムコール”が起こって、とてつもない期待を感じましたから。（略）『ヤバい。これは死んでも負けられない！』っていう恐怖心が試合中に芽生えましたね」
☆新日本プロレスのスマホサイトで直撃インタビュー更新中！https://t.co/2F5KufHgTe #njdominion #njpw pic.twitter.com/SMIXsg1l9s— 新日本プロレスリング株式会社 (@njpw1972) June 8, 2018
Hiromu at the end prevail, hitting his notorious Time Bomb and beating Ospreay for the title. Hiromu completed the task of winning this year’s Best of the Super Juniors Tournament and winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship in Dominion. That’s something that has only been done by greats like Finn Balor, Kota Ibushi and Kushida.
What’s next for Hiromu Takahashi now that he has regain the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship?
As Lucha Blog noted on twitter, there’s two possibilities for the next opponents to Hiromu’s title. Desperado and Dragon Lee were the only two that beat Takahashi in this year’s BOSJ.
Desperado for now seems to be the next step, since Dragon Lee has been battling injuries and having feuds in Mexico with LA Park and the Ibarra family (Volador Jr. & Flyer) and probably with Pentagon Jr. in the near future. Will Ospreay will have to gain some momentum to comeback and challenge Hiromu. As for Marty Scurll, he could gain some wins to challenge for the title later this year.
The Dragon Lee match is the most anticipated of them all, since their series of matches are one of the best ongoing feuds in wrestling today, so a future match with Hiromu is a sure classic.
