A number of big bouts and title matches are set to take place over the next few weeks during NJPW’s Destruction tour.
Destruction in Beppu on Sunday, September 15 will have Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his newly won RevPro British Heavyweight Championship against Zack Sabre Jr., who lost the title to Tanahashi at Royal Quest. IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) will face YOSHI-HASHI & Tomohiro Ishii in a non-title match.
Destruction in Kagoshima the following day will be headlined by Kota Ibushi defending his right to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 14 against one of the people he lost to during the G1 Climax, KENTA. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori will also defend their IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles against Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles.
Shingo Takagi will face Hirooki Goto in a singles match at Destruction in Kobe on Sunday, September 22. That show is being headlined by Testuya Naito defending his IWGP Intercontinental title against Jay White.
The three shows will also feature Young Lion tournament bouts. DOUKI, who previously wrestled in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, is returning for this tour as well.
Here are the full cards for the three Destruction shows:
Destruction in Beppu (September 15) —
RevPro British Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defending against Zack Sabre Jr.
Guerrillas of Destiny vs. YOSHI-HASHI & Tomohiro Ishii
A big feud and a title match headline this morning’s second Destruction event in Beppu.
The main event will feature a special singles bout between Minoru Suzuki and Tetsuya Naito. In a rarity, there’s no title on the line — it’s a straight up singles match. The two have been feuding off and on over the summer, and look to culminate their feud tonight, possibly in a very brutal manner if Suzuki has anything to say about it.
Meanwhile, Hirooki Goto will square off against Taichi for the NEVER title. The title has revolved around Hirooki Goto, Michael Elgin and Taichi for most of 2018. Goto took care of Elgin in a singles match earlier this summer, but now looks to successfully defend against someone who has a knack of finding shortcuts and other ways to get ahead. Goto will have more than his hands full this morning trying to dispatch Taichi from title contention.
As usual, there will be a number of undercard matches as well, mostly tags. Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi will be on opposite sides of an eight man tag team bout ahead of the final Destruction card in Kobe on September 23.
Join us for live action starting at 5 a.m. EDT. There will be English commentary.
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Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi and Yuya Uemura defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Yota Tsuji
Fine opener, Kojima and Tenzan mostly worked over Uemura. Tsuji came in and shone against Yuji Nagata. He’s clearly going to be a heavyweight prospect. Nagata took him down and soon submitted him with the crossface.
David Finlay and Ren Narita defeated Toa Henare and Shota Umino
Umino busted his nose during a spot with Narita. Same structure as the previous match. This time it was Finlay and Umino who had some good back and forth exchanges. Finlay eventually pinned him with the stunner.
Ayato Yoshida defeated Takashi Iizuka by DQ
Iizuka jumped Yoshida has he made his way to the ring. He tried to bite Yoshida but couldn’t because he had a mask on. Eventually he made Kevin Kelly unmask him. He then bit Yoshida in the boot then on the forehead.
Yoshida catches Iizuka with a clothesline and a penalty kick. Iizuka cut him off and chokes him with a ring rope he had in his pants. He took out the steel fingers of doom and struck Yoshida with the fingers for the DQ. A pointless match.
KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi, Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask and Will Ospreay and Roppongi 3K
Liger’s team focused on YOH, who got cut off after getting the better of Taguchi. YOH ended up cutting Taguchi off by, well…poking him in a place that shouldn’t be poked in a wrestling match. A lot of of comedy here between Taguchi and Romero.
Ospreay and KUSHIDA traded some good looking offense. KUSHIDA escaped the stormbreaker and landed a pele kick. Tiger Mask and Romero were in next, with Tiger Mask hitting a spinning tombstone piledriver for the win. Good match, though the finish felt like it came out of nowhere.
SHO was sporting a nasty looking cut under his eye after the match.
Killer Elite Squad defeated Best Friends
DBS Jr. got the heat on Beretta while Archer threw Chucky T into the barricade. Beretta tried to counter with a tornado DDT, but DBS blocked it and suplexed him instead. Chucky T made a brief hot tag, but DBS cut him off with multiple German suplexes.
Best Friends cut off Archer briefly but DBS comes back in to make the save. Chucky T took out DBS with a tope con hilo, but Archer cut off Beretta, who tried for a suicide dive, and chokeslammed Beretta on the apron. Chucky T makes the save for Beretta, but is taken out with a snap suplex to the floor by DBS.
Beretta tries to fight off KES, but gets caught in the killer bomb. Archer pins him for the win in a pretty good match. KES are likely the next contenders for the tag team titles after the tag title match in Long Beach.
Zack Sabre Jr., Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated EVIL, SANADA and BUSHI
SANADA works the early part of the match, taking on Sabre and Kanemaru before tagging in BUSHI. EVIL comes in but is tested by Sabre, who locks him in an octopus stretch. He manages to make it to the ropes by using his teeth.
EVIL looks to use the STO but Sabre counters with a backslide, scoring the win. This felt kinda short, but pretty good while it lasted. Seems like based on thse last two shows, they’re building a match between EVIL and Zack Sabre Jr..
Taichi defeated Hirooki Goto to win the NEVER Openweight title
Taichi stalled as the match started. Goto sat in the ring as nothing happened for a while. Finally Miho Abe distracted the referee, which allowed Kanemaru to jump Goto, putting Taichi in control. He walloped Goto with a steel chair and tried to powerbomb Goto on the stage, but he cut him off and suplexed him instead. When Kanemaru tried to jump him again, he met the same fate.
Goto cuts off Taichi with a kick and he looks to regain some momentum. He follows with a lariat, but Taichi cuts him off and lands a buzzsaw kick. Goto comes back with a sleeper, then goes for the GTR but Kanemaru just waltzes into the ring to interfere. Goto laid him out but then Desperado came in to interfere.
Roppongi 3K warded off Desperado and Kanemaru as Goto hit the ushigiroshi, then the shouten kai, but there was no referee, as Red Shoes was still out. Goto hit a PK then a reverse GTR but Taichi kicked out. Iizuka then runs in, and with the distraction Taichi low blows and hooks Goto in the Gedo clutch for a nearfall.
Taichi hits a superkick and the last ride but Goto still kicked out. An air raid crash followed, and this time Taichi gets the win. Overall this was fine but I really hate the idea of the 10,000 run ins when it was done to death in the G1. And you know it’ll be a thing in all of his title matches.
Tetsuya Natio defeated Minoru Suzuki
Match starts with a brawl outside the ring. Naito threw Suzuki into the guardrail, then into another. Suzuki blasts Naito with a boot and takes him into the English announcer’s table, then into the crowd where Naito is thrown into the chairs. They continue to brawl on the outside, with Suzuki landing a running dropkick on the outside.
Suzuki takes things back into the ring as he works over Naito’s hand. Naito fires back with punches and some more offense, but Suzuki takes him out back to the outside and throws him into the guardrail. He sets up a table as he grabs Naito and chokes him off his feet on the apron. He goes for a Gotch piledriver, but Naito blocks him and sends him through the table with a reverse neckbreaker.
Naito connects with Gloria and goes for the Destino but Suzuki blocked it multiple times, including stomping on Naito’s knee. Naito took him to the top rope but Suzuki starts to target the knee again. He applies a kneebar, torquing the knee. Naito finally makes it to the ropes, but is met with more offense by Suzuki once he gets up.
Suzuki tries for the Gotch piledriver, but out of nowhere Naito lands the Destino. They get back up exchange strikes, with Naito actually attempting a Gotch piledriver, but instead hit a powerbomb. He then hits a Destino for the three count. Thought this was a good main event, though the finish was kind of flat. I liked the work on the knee and the story the match told of Suzuki being utterly dominant right before the final moments of the match.
Naito cut a promo after the match, promising that the next time they’re in Beppu LIJ will be at 100%.
New matches and programs began to take shape last night during the G1 Climax finals.
The biggest story coming out of last night’s show was the breakup of Kazuchika Okada and Gedo. After his match last night in a backstage interview, Okada said he wouldn’t be relying on his manager going forward. Despite the breakup, he and Gedo shook hands after the announcement. It seems that while Okada isn’t leaving CHAOS, Gedo will no longer accompany him to the ring going forward. Gedo had been his manager going back to 2012 when Okada first returned from excursion.
The next IWGP title defense has also been set, as Tomohiro Ishii officially challenged Kenny Omega following a tag team match featuring both of them. Ishii beat Omega during the tournament, cementing his case. After their match last night, Omega accepted Ishii’s challenge in a backstage interview.
Cody also made his intentions clear last night as he pinned Juice Robinson square in the middle of the ring during another tag team match. After the match was over, Cody made it official that he wanted a shot at his IWGP United States title. Zack Sabre Jr. also indicated he wanted a title match too, as he submitted Robinson during the G1 tournament.
And while there wasn’t an indication of a future title match, the Guerillas of Destiny do have a case for a IWGP tag team title match as they defeated The Young Bucks and Marty Scurll to win the NEVER six man tag team titles. The Young Bucks mentioned after the match that things weren’t over between them and the Bullet Club OG.
New Japan is taking the rest of the month off, with shows resuming in September. Road to Destruction events run from September 7-9, with three Destruction events set for September 15, 17 and 23.
Kenny Omega will miss most of the upcoming Destruction tour with a left meniscus injury, but he won’t miss the tour entirely.
New Japan made the announcement early this morning that he would be out for a majority of the tour. They didn’t mention any further details regarding the injury, but did mention that his IWGP United States title defense against Juice Robinson is still scheduled for September 24th in Kobe.
Leo Tonga is set to take his place in the upcoming tour. He is the brother of both Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa, as well as the son of Haku. He’s been training at the New Japan Dojo since the start of the year, and before that was training at the Dudley Boyz’ Team 3D Academy. Standing at 6’8, it would make him the tallest member of the New Japan roster.
His first match on the tour will be on the September 7th Road to Destruction show in Korakuen Hall, where he will team with the Guerrillas of Destiny to take on War Machine and Juice Robinson.
It started in 2014. New Japan Pro Wrestling, a piping hot product and home to some of the world’s most talented wrestlers, began splitting certain major events into two shows. It ran its New Beginning show in Osaka and Okayama, and its Destruction event in Kobe and Okayama. At the time, it was a somewhat controversial call, at least to fans of the product. I assume NJPW felt their roster was deep enough and their product was popular enough that they could make some extra scratch by drawing two big crowds instead of one.
But for viewers at home like me, the reaction was mixed. While more New Japan isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there was an NJPW overload feeling brewing. And while the split shows were a good mix of major singles and tag matches and entertaining multi-mans, it’s hard not to imagine how much better a single show stacked with major matches and less filler would have been like.
Nonetheless, the decision to split the shows must have worked because in 2015, they again split New Beginning and Destruction into two shows. Once again, they were all solid, but it was hard not to feel like we were being robbed of really super single major shows: the kind of shows that drew me to NJPW in the first place.
That brings us to now where New Japan went a step further by splitting Destruction into THREE shows: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kobe. This year, however, there was no doubt about that aforementioned feeling. None of the Destruction shows felt important, and were all filler with only one or two matches of importance. As a viewer, I was left disengaged and underwhelmed. My interest in the product was at an all-time low, but then the next month, King of Pro Wrestling happened and all was right in the world again.
Uing King of Pro Wrestling as a comparison, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the concept of splitting major shows in lieu of one big show and determine who really benefits in the end: New Japan, the fans, both, or neither?
The Numbers
In terms of attendance, Destruction looks like a flop on paper. The first one in Tokyo drew 2,803 which is not even close to a sellout. Hiroshima drew 2,801 fans which is a disappointing number as in previous years, they’ve drawn nearly double that in the same building. Kobe did better, drawing 5,432, about 700 off from a sellout. That sounds pretty good until you realise they’ve consistently sold out that building since 2012.
In total, the three Destruction shows spread across nine days collectively drew 11,036. In comparison, King of Pro Wrestling half a month later drew 9,671 to Sumo Hall. Not a huge difference, but I think it’s safe to assume the three Destruction gates combined was higher than KOPW. Destruction also has the advantage of being able to sell more of the expensive ringside seats. Then again, the costs involved in running three shows in three cities must have been higher than the singular KOPW.
So in the end, was the financial benefit of running three shows really significant? It’s tough to say without any hard numbers, but considering the small difference in attendance and other factors, it doesn’t appear to be a clear cut monetary win.
The Reception
Taking a purely subjective point of view, in terms of pure entertainment and viewer satisfaction, how did the three Destructions compare with King of Pro Wrestling? In this lowly writer’s opinion, the difference was night and day.
None of the Destruction shows had that big show feeling that major NJPW events usually have…because they weren’t really big shows. They felt more like the “Road to” shows that build up to the big one rather than the big one itself. And in a way, that’s what they were, at least for the company’s major singles title.
At Destruction in Hiroshima, Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada avenged their G1 losses over YOSHI-HASHI and Bad Luck Fale, respectively. That led to challenges for KOPW by Goto and Marufuji with Marufuji going after Okada’s IWGP Heavyweight title, and Goto looking to take Omega’s Tokyo Dome spot.
Personally, I was a thousand times more interested in Marufuji going after the title than Okada getting his obligatory win back over Fale. And while Omega and YOSHI-HASHI had an awesome G1 match, the result of the rematch, which was also very good, was somewhat obvious, thus slightly diminishing the excitement level.
Meanwhile, Goto vs. Omega in a G1 final rematch at KOPW was guaranteed to be awesome with the added layer of the result setting up the Tokyo Dome main event.
There were other title matches on the Destruction shows (KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI in the main event of the Tokyo show), but that match didn’t quite deliver in that spot. The tag title match in Hiroshima with The Briscoes defending against the Young Bucks had some good heat going in with idea that it might lead to an eventual merger of New Japan’s two tag titles, but that idea fizzled out with the Briscoes retaining.
While none of the other title matches were bad, there was nothing blow away or at the usually high NJPW standard. The main problem for me was the amount of unimportant six man, eight man, and regular tag matches that filled the Destruction cards. Destruction in Kobe, for example, only had one singles match: Naito vs. Elgin for the IC title in the show’s main event. The rest of the show was filled with two eight man matches, three six man matches (one was at least for the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Title), and three tag team matches. That’s a “Road to” card if I ever saw one.
Again, nothing on the Destruction shows was inherently bad, but so much was skippable which is a rare thing for a major NJPW show. I found myself tuning in to only a select few matches on each Destruction show and skipping the rest. Yes, I even missed the match of the year contender of Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Captain New Japan & Yoshitatsu.
Now take a look at the King of Pro Wrestling card:
Dark Match
Red Death Mask vs. Tiger Mask W
Six Man Tag Team Match
BULLET CLUB (Adam Cole, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI)
Eight Man Tag Team Match
CHAOS (Beretta, Jado, Rocky Romero & Toru Yano) vs. Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma), Bobby Fish & Ryusuke Taguchi
Eight Man Tag Team Match
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata vs. Go Shiozaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya & Maybach Taniguchi
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. David Finlay & Ricochet
IWGP Tag Team Title Match
Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) (c) vs. Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)
Eight Man Tag Team Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jay Lethal, KUSHIDA & Michael Elgin vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito)
NEVER Openweight Title Match
Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Kyle O’Reilly
IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Match
Hirooki Goto vs. Kenny Omega
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Naomichi Marufuji
Now that’s the NJPW big show feel that I know and love.
Look at just the top three matches alone. On paper, they looked great, and in excution, they all delivered beyond expectations. Even the multi-man matches felt bigger with Los Ingobernables taking on the NJPW (& ROH) All Stars, and the NOAH vs. NJPW feud reigniting with a great eight man tag, and a post match Go Shiozaki NEVER Openweight challenge. And of course, the outcomes of the top two matches cemented the Wrestle Kingdom main event.
But most importantly, we got the debut of Tiger Mask W, who has clearly been trained by Kota Ibushi. The big crowd also helped make the show feel important and gave it that great, exciting Japanese wrestling atmosphere.
That was another issue with the Destruction shows. Hiroshima in particular suffered from a fairly dead crowd. The other shows were ok, but the crowd of 9,671 at Sumo Hall for KOPW blew them away. Crowd atmosphere can make or break a show for the viewer at home, and though it didn’t “destroy” Destruction, it didn’t do it any favours either.
Who Wins?
In terms of match quality, importance, and overall enjoyment, it was a no brainer. KOPW was on a completely different level from all three Destruction shows. And it’s a good thing too because after Destruction, my enthusiasm for New Japan took a bit of a hit.
So back to my original question: Who really benefits from splitting major shows?
I have to assume New Japan benefits financially. Otherwise, why do it? Destruction in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kobe made New Japan’s product feel diluted, and as a viewer, it turned me off. The whole concept has an air of greediness about it, but NJPW is a business and how they deem it fit to make money is up to them. But splitting shows certainly seems to be putting profits in front of the fans, and that is not an attractive notion.
But just when things started to look bleak, they follow the disappointing Destruction with the exceptional King of Pro Wrestling, and you forget why you were so salty in the first place. As a viewer and a NJPW fan, I hope Destruction was a failed experiment, and next year they go back to only splitting certain shows into two events, or not splitting them at all for that matter.
Splitting major shows without losing that big event feel is beyond even New Japan’s ability. Their roster is deep, but not that deep. It might increase profits, but is watering down your own product really worth the risk?
Matt Sydal is off today’s card, I guess the travel issues from a few days ago are still ongoing (that is the official New Japan word, anyway). Shibata is also out the rest of the tour due to his injuries. They announced that David Finlay is taking Sydal’s place, and whoever wins the match are the new NEVER six-man tag champions.
This was a surprising result. Solid match, not much of note. Just your typical opener. Romero submitted to Taguchi’s ankle lock in the upset.
Might be a storyline reason to this as Barreta and Ospreay pretty much left Romero in the dust following the match, possibly teasing dissension.
Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan
This was more of an angle than anything. Yoshitatsu cut a promo announcing that his poll had concluded, and that Captain New Japan was out of the Hunter Club. Yoshitatsu was civil about it, but CNJ turned on him, laying him out and joining Bullet Club in a three-on-one assault. CNJ laid out Yoshitatsu with the uranage and Takahashi pinned him with the pimp juice DDT not long after that.
CNJ continued the assault after the match, laying the Bullet Club flag on Yoshitatsu and choking him with a rope. My best comparison for this is like Crush or Horace Hogan joining the nWo C-team.
Tenzan, Kojima, and Nagata’s themes all seemed to be dubbed again on New Japan World. Weird.
This was pretty good, everyone seemed to step it up a notch. Kanemitsu brought his A game and looked really good here. Kanemitsu brought it early to GBH. He actually showed a great amount of fire and intensity here, but got cut off by a double lariat/clothesline combo by GBH. Honma laid in a Boston crab and Kanemitsu made it to the ropes. He tried a comeback, but Honma took him down again with a Boston crab and this time Kanemitsu submitted.
reDragon defeated Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata
Nagata and Nakanishi worked a lot against O’Reilly. Nakanishi had another off night, struggling to get to the top rope and slipping twice on his way up. Nakanishi at one point overpowered both members of reDragon single-handedly. O’Reilly trapped him in an armbar. Nakanishi tried to get him up, but O’Reilly kept it on. Nakanishi collapsed and eventually submitted.
David Finlay, Ricochet & Satoshi Kojima defeated The Young Bucks & Adam Cole to become the new NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions
Fantastic match, probably the best match on any show so far. This was a total Young Bucks six-man in that they did a bunch of crazy stuff, especially when Ricochet was involved in the action. It’s hard to describe, as there were so many crazy moves throughout.
The crowd was into it. Ricochet wiped everyone out with a fantastic looking dive to the outside. Bullet Club took out Kojima with a triple superkick and isolated Finlay. Nick did a double swanton bomb as Finlay and Ricochet were draped on the bottom rope. Ricochet took out one of the Bucks with a flying cutter, Finlay followed with a rolling senton on Nick then Ricochet hit a great looking shooting star press for the win.
Finlay got the mic after the match and challenged the Bucks for the IWGP Jr. tag titles. From what it seems like Sydal has basically vanished from the Earth in this promotion.
Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale & Guerillas of Destiny defeated The Briscoes, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto
Briscoes looked very good here. Everyone else held their own and it turned out to be a pretty good tag team match, nothing wrong with it. Tama Tonga got the win for his team, picking up the win with the Guerrilla Warfare. Makes sense as they are the future title challengers, probably at next month’s PPV.
Another good tag team bout, but nothing all that special at the same time. Everyone was fine. They continued to build the BUSHI/KUSHIDA rematch as they worked together for a few minutes. Robinson’s teammates did a double plancha as SANADA focused on Robinson. He kicked out of a TKO but got trapped in the Skull End and quickly submitted.
Another good tag match that did a good job in building matches for both promotions. They teased the Marufuji/Okada match for next month by having them go at it for a bit, both at the start and towards the end of the match. Jado and Gedo also faced off with Harada and Kotoge as they are next in line to receive a GHC Jr. tag team title shot.
Okada and Marufuji came in again and traded some big shots. Yano and YH worked together as well, as did YH and Harada. After some good back and forth, YH picked up with the win with his Karma finish, which is a pumphandle driver.
Okada and YOSHI-HASHI made it clear after the match that they wanted a shot at Marufuji and Yano’s GHC Heavyweight tag team titles. Good idea as that brings some intrigue to future NOAH shows.
Tetsuya Naito defeated Michael Elgin to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Amazing match, better than the six-man tag in some ways. It was very well paced and never dragged. Even the interference, which seems utterly normal now in New Japan main events, worked well and the last few minutes were incredible, the heat was unreal and the finish was one of the better ones I’ve seen all year. Definitely a must see match.
After a few minutes of back and forth, which also mainly involved Naito playing mind games, they went to the outside where Naito targeted the leg of Elgin, which he and the rest of LIJ had been targeting all tour. Naito focused on the leg, working on it, but Elgin cut him off with a big wheelbarrow suplex. Every time Elgin made a comeback, Naito would go right back to the leg to gain the upper hand.
Elgin drilled Naito with German suplexes and even caught Naito with a powerbomb but Naito came back with a tornado DDT, then gave him a hurricanrana off the top rope. Naito followed up with a reverse rana and worked on the leg some more, sinking in a submission but Elgin escaped. He caught Naito on the apron and laid him out with a Death Valley Driver, then followed that with the falcon arrow.
Elgin went for the buckle bomb, but Naito countered and took out the ref in the process. Elgin tried to hit the powerbomb but BUSHI and EVIL came out and stomped on him. In response, KUSHIDA and Tanahashi made the save. SANADA came out. EVIL laid out Tanahashi with the STO and BUSHI misted KUSHIDA. Elgin took out the rest of the Ingobernables by powerbombing BUSHI into his team.
Naito hit the Destino once the dust cleared but only got a near fall. Elgin laid him out with two lariats but Naito still kicked out. Elgin hit the buckle bomb and went for the powerbomb but Naito countered with the Destino and hit another to win the championship.
Final Thoughts:
This was probably the strongest of the three Destruction shows. It had two of the best matches of the entire tour (the main event and the NEVER six-man tag titles match) and the tag matches were okay to pretty good. It’s pretty obvious, however, doing three shows like this is overkill — it dilutes the cards and makes shows feel very long, which doesn’t happen often for New Japan cards. Today’s show was at least stronger than the others.
Here are results from this morning’s New Japan Destruction event. It’s the first of three big shows taking place over the next couple of weeks, all featuring big title matches. Tonight’s big matches are Katsuyori Shibata defending the NEVER title against Bobby Fish, and KUSHIDA defending the Jr. Heavyweight title in the main event against BUSHI.
Roppongi Vice defeated David Finlay & Henare
This was the typical young lion match you see on every opener. Henare is still pretty green and not as good as other young lions that have come up in the system, but there’s always room for improvement, especially at this stage. He took the loss after being planted by Beretta’s dudebuster. Fine match.
On New Japan World’s Twitter, he mentioned David Finlay is no longer a young lion. This makes sense as he’s changed his gear and got a win with the stunner on the last Lion’s Gate show.
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata defeated Captain New Japan & Yoshitatsu
This was the same story as usual, with Yoshitatsu starting to grow tired of CNJ constantly losing. Both Yoshitatsu and CNJ were pretty much overwhelmed by Nakanishi. Yoshitatsu made the tag and CNJ cleared house. With YT helping him, they got rid of Nagata, but Nakanishi came back and the tide turned back to them. Nagata got the win with an exploder suplex. This was okay.
None of the guys really have a program at the moment so there wasn’t much here in this typical six-man NJPW tag. It’s interesting that Liger and Tiger Mask are on different teams since they usually team together. There were some cool interactions between Liger and Honma. Eventually Honma got the win for his team, pinning Liger with the top rope kokeshi.
This was okay. The GoD just don’t feel over at all and have stalled big time in a lot of ways here. The best moments of the match were when Goto and Tonga were in as they have really good chemistry with one another. Ishii picked up the win, drilling Roa with the brainbuster.
Kyle O’Reilly defeated Juice Robinson
This was pretty fun. O’Reilly looks a bit bigger than usual and looked great here. Robinson went for a sunset flip but O’Reilly grabbed an arm and went for an armbar, and worked on Robinson’s arm. O’Reilly worked on him a while until Robinson cut him off and did a huge dive to the outside. O’Reilly made a comeback with the guillotine but Robinson got up, only to fall back down. O’Reilly transitioned into a leglock, then added in an armbar and Robinson submitted.
YOSHI-HASHI, Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay defeated Yujiro Takahashi, Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale
Yujiro, who was accompanied by many women continuing his transition to a lame Godfather like gimmick, did a big introduction for Omega. A lot of the focus was on Okada and Fale since they are due for a clash somewhere down the line. Ospreay was tagged in, and he and Kenny had a really fun back and forth. YOSHI-HASHI got in and traded some offense with Yujiro, eventually getting the with the pumphandle driver he calls Karma.
Fale jumped Okada after the match and tried to give him the Bad Luck Fall but was stopped before he could land it. Once the heels were cleared, YOSHI-HASHI cut a promo.
Michael Elgin, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & SANADA
This was another good six man. A lot of the early portion of the match was on Elgin and Naito, but Tanahashi and SANADA had some exchanges as well. Taguchi made a comeback and, for whatever reason, did the white eyes armbar like Yuji Nagata except he got cross-eyed. He eventually got trapped in the Skull End submission, and had no other alternative but to tap.
Naito destroyed Elgin’s leg after the match. I think they’ve done this in previous matches, so that might play a part in their upcoming IC title match later this month.
NEVER Champion Katsuyori Shibata defeated Bobby Fish to retain
This was really good, but not out of this world, and felt short more than anything. But, a lot of the match was pretty intense and full of hard impact spots, interesting considering how banged up Shibata is.
They start off with some pretty good mat wrestling with Shibata getting the better of it. Fish takes it outside and works on Shibata’s still taped up shoulder, including wrapping it around the barricade. Fish hit a suplex into a DDT that looked downright scary, and was dangerous (stupid?) for Shibata to take considering he nearly couldn’t compete in this match due to an already bad neck.
Shibata started to make his comeback and hit the dropkick in the corner. Fish got in a suplex, but Shibata immediately fired back with a German suplex then the penalty kick, but couldn’t get the cover. Fish went for a brainbuster but Shibata hit him with a giant headbutt, put him in a sleeper, and then got the win with the PK.
O’Reilly entered the ring and made it clear he’s next in line. Shibata responded by kicking him and they had a staredown. Shibata then cut a promo sealing the deal.
BUSHI defeated KUSHIDA to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title
The last few minutes were good, but a lot of this was interference and LIJ tomfoolery. It never really got going to another level, and as a main event was pretty much a disappointment. It was ok.
The mysterious Ingobernable that made his debut at the Road to Destruction event on Monday was here, again seconding BUSHI. Eventually, they made it to the outside where BUSHI trapped KUSHIDA’s arm with a chair and hit a running dropkick. BUSHI remained in control until KUSHIDA escaped from the top rope where he was draped, and laid out BUSHI.
The mysterious Ingobernable interfered but bumped into BUSHI. Then, the two accidently collided into one another. There was a ref bump that ended up with KUSHIDA getting misted. Naito strolled down to the ring and helped BUSHI connect with a tope suicida. BUSHI was going for the finish when Elgin came in and took them both out, then beat up Naito all the way to the back.
They had a big slugfest as the match resumed. KUSHIDA started to wrench the arm, then sunk in the kimura. BUSHI tried to escape, but couldn’t until he grabbed an unsuspecting KUSHIDA in a roll-up for a near fall. BUSHI countered another kimura attempt with a Canadian destroyer in a cool spot.
BUSHI eventually made his way to the top rope and hit the codebreaker, but KUSHIDA kicked out. He went for a second and hit it, covered and got the three count to win the title. After the match, BUSHI cut a promo and misted the title.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This was fine up and down the card, but it felt like a “Road to” show until the top two matches, and neither really blew me away. This was a show where you can tell them going with the three show idea really dilutes the idea of these big shows feeling special.
Here are some notes from this morning’s Road to Destruction event held in Korakuen Hall, continuing to set up events for the three Destruction shows taking place later this month.
David Finlay defeated Henare after pinning him with the stunner. Finlay has a new look and a new finish, evolving beyond young boy status, it looks like.
Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens defeated Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan when Yujiro pinned CNJ with the Pimp Juice DDT. Yujiro has new music, I guess removing the one thing that people liked about him. His new music has a lady moaning throughout it. This ended up how you’d expect a Captain New Japan match to go — he gets in some offense, but loses in the end.
Yoshitatsu cut a promo after the match. The gist of it was that he was tired of losing, needed more help from CNJ, and would leave it up to the fans if they should keep teaming by doing some sort of Twitter poll.
Jushin Liger, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, Gedo, and Baretta when Taguchi submitted Romero with the ankle lock. Pretty solid, fun match between these guys. Ospreay looked great in particular.
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi after Makabe hit the King Kong knee drop on Nakanishi. Honma also assisted with a Kokeshi beforehand.
EVIL defeated Juice Robinson with the STO. Pretty decent match.
ReDragon defeated Tiger Mask & Katsuyori Shibata when Tiger Mask was pinned following the Chasing the Dragon. Another pretty solid match. Bobby Fish cut a promo after the match talking about the ROH TV title.
Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada, & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Guerillas of Destiny, Kenny Omega, & Bad Luck Fale when Ishii pinned Tanga Loa with a brainbuster. YH has a new blonde look. After the match he cut a short promo
BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito, & SANADA defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, & KUSHIDA when BUSHI defeated KUSHIDA with the codebreaker from the top rope. BUSHI decided to watch the match rather than participate early on in the bout. Lots of back and forth between Naito and Elgin. KUSHIDA worked with SANADA since BUSHI was on the outside.
Suddenly, BUSHI emerged and came down to the ring. Turns out the guy that came out with SANADA and Naito wasn’t BUSH, but someone new.. BUSHI comes out, mists KUSHIDA and hits a codebreaker for a near fall. After some frantic back and forth, BUSHI managed to land another codebreaker and picked up the win. Fun main event.
The heels laid out the faces after the match. BUSHI grabbed KUSHIDA and chokes him out on the bottom rope. Elgin ran in and tried to make the save but was thwarted as the numbers game became too much, and was dropkicked on the knee by Naito which might lead to something.
BUSHI cut a promo after the match, but didn’t reveal who the new Los Ingobernables member was.
Tetsuya Naito welcomes (?) us to the show this week, which features highlights from last year’s Destruction in Kobe show that took place on September 27th.
IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
This is one of those matches that I initially didn’t mind at all, because these two are great and ended up having a good match, but it was actually better than I remembered. Nakamura is just so great in his style and how he applies it to each match.
But beyond match quality, I wasn’t a fan of the actual result as it felt stale and tired. I don’t think Nakamura winning the title back added anything to him, whereas Goto winning the title meant a breath of fresh air. It felt like a step backward more than a step forward. Nakamura won back the title with the Bomaye.
Karl Anderson comes out and challenges Nakamura for a title shot, even using Nakamura’s “Yeaoh” catchphrase. Nakamura does the catchphrase the right way, making it seem like the match is on.
Nakamura says that it seems the next challenger has been decided. The only thing to do is to continue fighting.
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tetsuya Naito
Naito says ever since the G1, he’s been making up for the loss. He mentioned how Shibata called him out. He thought it would be the right time to finish this once and for all. He doesn’t hate Shibata but he’s on a different path. Shibata is really straightforward, while he is not, as he keeps his cool. He gradually had more fun teasing him.
I liked the story behind this match as it was Naito teasing Shibata and looking to avenge a loss he suffered at the G1 just a month prior. The match itself was pretty good, though I think the previous match was a lot better. I think this got the better slot as Nakamura isn’t with the company any longer.
Naito won the match after two low blows and the Destino. Makes sense as they’re trying to get Naito’s new character over.
Naito asks who is the winner here and says Shibata is the uncontrollable one. He’s happy for him, he got to show off those gleaming eyes of his. Shibata, as well as the rest of the crowd, should thank him. The G1 is over, he beat the most bothersome guy in the tournament.
When mentioned that Tanahashi wants to challenge him, he says if he wants to face him he should challenge him face-to-face.
In his reflective interview, Naito says he had fun. Everyone watching Shibata in that match should thank him, and Shibata should thank him for getting that glistening feel from three years ago.
Final Thoughts:
Nice, solid show this week. Watch the first match if you can.
Togi Makabe welcomes us to the show this week. Action is from September 23 in Okayama as we look at last year’s Destruction card.
Tencozy vs. IWGP Tag Team Champions Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows
This match is a good representation of the staleness of New Japan’s heavyweight tag team roster in 2015. With Archer and Smith gone, there isn’t much diversity – it was usually just these two along with The Kingdom, who aren’t even teaming anymore. Funny how things change in a year. As for the match, it was solid stuff. Tencozy are established veterans, and as a unit, they rarely have what you would consider a bad match.
Anderson and Gallows, for the most part, are consistently solid, and sometimes good under the right situations. Heat picked up towards the end with some good nearfalls. Anderson and Gallows retain with the Magic Killer. Afterward, Gallows said they would make Tencozy Tenlozy and they accomplished that. They toasted each other.
Kenny Omega vs. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kushida
This was a good match and the same these two usually have, but I didn’t like either the result or how the title changed hands. Karl Anderson ran in for no reason and laid out Kushida. Why? I don’t know. They never followed up on this. Omega then got the win with the One Winged Angel. First off, the finish was pretty stupid. It was totally an Americanized ending, and not a good one. It’s bad enough WWE and even Ring of Honor does these kind of cheap finishes, but the last place I want to see finishes like this is on New Japan.
Omega regaining the title seemed far too quick. I get that they were probably doing a switch at the Tokyo Dome, but Kushida had only won it a short time before. Oh well. Afterward, Kushida says you can’t move up the Junior ladder with a move like that. Are you really content with this, Kenny Omega?
Makabe talks about being hurt going into his match with Ibushi. Kota seems stuff on the outside, but is stoic when doing his match. He’s just amazing. He has great skills, he can admit that. But he know where he started off, in DDT. He didn’t respect Kota back then, respect is earned. The fans don’t mean anything as he’s the one doing his thing in the ring. Again, Makabe says he did have great skills, and did wonder how the match would turn out.
Togi Makabe vs. Kota Ibushi
Makabe is right when it comes to Kota’s facials in the ring – at times, he’s chillfully stoic, other times he’s on fire. I love Ibushi’s facials because they seem to unbecoming at times. You’d think since there was a size difference between these two, they wouldn’t work well, but they did just fine and had a hell of a match with some really stiff shots. Ibushi at one point went for the double foot stomp off the floor onto a table, hit it, but the table didn’t break. Ouch! They went back to the ring and traded some pretty good offense before Makabe leveled him with a spider Dragon suplex (seriously) then pinned him with the King Kong knee drop. This was a really good, fun match.
Makabe grabs a mic after the match and says you just saw him win, and Ishii came to challenge him (yes, this match again). He will show you what genuine pro wrestling is.
In interviews backstage following the match, Ishii says he hasn’t won against Makabe, but he just wants to be the last man standing and will take his title back. Makabe says that Ibushi has excellent skills, and there’s nothing more to say- he’s one of the top wrestlers and is only getting better. Only thing he needs to work on is his heart, and NEVER shows that really well.
Makabe noted in his reflective interview that the crowd thought this would be quick, but it wasn’t. He says people say when Ibushi loses it, you don’t notice it. Regardless, he put over his big finish and mentioned that his skill probably led to Makabe’s anger. When it comes to NEVER, we never dodge, hence why the division is so popular. We put our lives on the line, so it’s not a big surprise.
Final Thoughts:
Good show overall. Definitely check out the main event, as it was one hellacious battle. The other parts of the show weren’t as good, and had some questionable booking but wasn’t terrible.
