Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall

Promotional poster featuring Kazuchika Okada and Jay White

**Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall** was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on June 12, 2022, in Osaka, Osaka, at the Osaka-jō Hall and was the fourteenth event under the Dominion name and eight in a row to take place at the Osaka-jō Hall. The event was headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Jay White.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event had some restrictions in the attendance, after the Japanese Government announced the State of Emergency.

## Production

### Background

Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall was officially announced on January 4, 2022, during Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Tokyo Dome. The event is NJPW's biggest between Wrestle Kingdom 16 and July–August's G1 Climax. The event aired through NJPW's internet streaming site, New Japan Pro Wrestling World, and featured English commentary.

#### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The event was originally to take place on June 6, 2021. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, other wrestling promotions began to cancel or postpone their shows in an attempt to prevent further spreading of the COVID-19 virus. At the end of February 2020, following recommendations by the Japanese Ministry of Health regarding the coronavirus outbreak, NJPW canceled the events between March 1 and March 15 including the promotion's Anniversary Event and the first and the second round of New Japan Cup. Since the start of the pandemic various wrestlers such as David Finlay, El Phantasmo, KENTA, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa), Jay White, Juice Robinson, Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, and Robbie Eagles were unable to work on NJPW events due to travel restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, NJPW wrestlers and staff created the *NJPW Together* project in order to do bring content to NJPW World with interviews and old archived matches. NJPW resume promoting shows in June being held behind closed doors, until the finals of the 2020 New Japan Cup with a limited capacity after the Japanese Government lifted some restrictions in many regions in Japan.

On May 4, on the second night of Wrestling Dontaku, NJPW announced that two wrestlers complain of a fever at the beginning of the show, leading them to undergo examinations and a PCR test. The following day, NJPW announced that those two wrestlers had tested positive for COVID-19. On May 7, the Japanese government announced an extension to the state of emergency currently in place in Tokyo and other prefectures, leading NJPW to announce the postponement of the Wrestle Grand Slam.

### Storylines

Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall was headlined by Kazuchika Okada making his fifth title defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Jay White. On May 1, 2022 at Wrestling Dontaku, after sucessfully defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito, Jay White made his first Japanese appearance in NJPW after a year, attacking Okada and laid him out with the *Blade Runner*, before challenging him to a title match. This will be White first title challenged since May 2021, when he faced Hiroshi Tanahashi for the NEVER Openweight Championship. The last time that Okada and White faced each other was on April 6, 2019 in the main event of G1 Supercard, where White lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Okada, marking his first loss to him in four matches, which White won three.

On the January 27, 2022 episode of *Impact!*, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) made their Impact Wrestling debut, challenging The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) to a title match for the Impact World Tag Team Championship. On February 19 at No Surrender, the Guerillas of Destiny unsucessfully challenged The Good Brothers for the Impact World Tag Team Championship, after they were betrayed by Jay White. Subsequently, the Guerillas of Destiny were kicked out of Bullet Club and White reinstated The Good Brothers as members for the first time in nearly a decade. Afterwards, Tonga and Loa continued feuding with Bullet Club and aligned themselves with NJPW's home unit, with Tonga not forgetting their betrayal. At Wrestling Dontaku, Tonga defeated EVIL to win the NEVER Openweight Championship, winning his first singles title in NJPW. Afterwards, Anderson and Gallows made their return to NJPW after six years, attacking Tonga, after his match, before Anderson challenged him to a match for the NEVER Openweight Championship.

On January 5, 2022, on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 16, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated KENTA to win the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, before losing the title to SANADA in his first title defense on February 19. He vacated the title on April 9 at Hyper Battle, after being sidelined due to a broken orbital bone. He tried pass the title to the former champion, Tanahashi, but the request that drew the ire of Will Ospreay, who demanded SANADA to give him the title, since he was the one that injured him. Tanahashi and Opsreay where scheduled to face each other for the vacant championship at Wrestling Dontaku, but Opsreay was replaced by Tomohiro Ishii after testing positive for COVID-19, leading Tanahashi to defeat Ishii to become the new champion. He lost the title to Juice Robinson in a four-way match on May 14 at Capital Collision, also involving Ospreay and Jon Moxley, with Robinson pinning Ospreay to become the new champion. After a online feud, between Opsreay and Robinson, the two were scheduled to face each other on June 3, but Robinson was forced to miss the event, due to suffering from appendicitis.

At June 3 event, former champion SANADA announced his intentions to challenge for IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at Dominion, which Robinson later agreed, setting up a three-way match. However on June 11, Robinson was stripped of the title, after being unable to wrestle in a scheduled title defense at Dominion due to suffering from appendicitis, leading Ospreay and SANADA to face each other for the vacant title.

Also at Wrestling Dontaku, Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens) won the IWGP Tag Team Championship by defeating United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb) and Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) in a three-way match. Afterwards, since Cobb and O-Khan were directly beaten in the three-way match, Cobb, who was incensed at their title reign ending prematurely challenged Owens and Fale to rematch for the IWGP Tag Team Championship.

In April, Taichi began feuding with Shingo Takagi over the provisional KOPW 2022 trophy, with Taichi promising to raise the KOPW trophy to ‘the main event level’ and afterwards nominating Takagi to be his first challenger, while in the backstage area, with then Takagi mocking Taichi on wondering whether Taichi would regret his words, stating that he would pick the hardest rules possible, with him a deserted island Ganryujima death match as a half joking example, with Taichi then leaving. This led to on April 25, Takagi defeating Taichi in a 30 Count match to become the provisional KOPW 2022 champion. At Wrestling Dontaku, Taichi scored a direct pinfall victory over Takagi, before challenging Takagi in a post-match interview to a title match. After a fan vote on June 10, it was announced that their match would be a 10 Minute Unlimited Pinfall Scramble match, with Takagi winning the vote.

On the June 1 episode of *AEW Dynamite*, Hiroshi Tanahashi answered a challenge from AEW World Champion CM Punk at Forbidden Door. Two days later at *AEW Rampage*, Punk announced that he would be needing surgery and would be taking time off; however, he would not be relinquishing the championship. Afterwards, it was announced that Tanahashi would face Hirooki Goto at Dominion to determine, who would be placed in the match to crown the interim AEW World Champion at Forbidden Door.

Also on June 3, Suzuki-gun's Zack Sabre Jr. and Yoshinobu Kanemaru faced two-thirds of the reigning NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions House of Torture's EVIL and Sho in a winning effort, after outsmarting Sho en route to an easy victory. Afterwards, Kanemaru grabed one of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship belts, and alongside Sabre challenged the House of Torture to a title match at Dominion. On June 9, it was announced that EVIL, Sho and their House of Torture stablemate Yujiro Takahashi would defend their titles against Kanemaru, Sabre and their Suzuki-gun stablemate El Desperado at Dominion.