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NJPW return with their first major show since the G1 Climax with the first of two Destruction shows. Destruction in Okayama is live on NJPW World tomorrow morning (September 23) at 15:00 JST (2AM Eastern/7AM UK). Here’s a look ahead to what to expect from the show.
Katsuyori Shibata, Yuji Nagata, Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka vs Tetsuya Naito, Manabu Nakanishi, Jay White & David Finlay
This is all about building ahead to Naito vs Shibata on Sunday in Kobe. Shibata has been doing his best to murder Naito ever since they met in the G1 and Naito has been doing everything he can to annoy him. We’ll have a lot of that here, but expect a whole lot of great wrestling as we have all four young lions together. They always tear it up, but we rarely see them all together, so this should be a hell of an opening match.
Jushin Thunder Liger & Mascara Dorada vs ReDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly)
ReDRagon won the IWGP Jr tag titles in their last match in NJPW, so expect them to get the win here to cement themselves as champions before their title defence against Time Splitters on Sunday. Liger & Dorada are an interesting team and Dorada’s style should be a great mix for ReDRagon.
NWA Jr Heavyweight Championship
Steve Anthony vs Tiger Mask IV
It’s been awhile since we had NWA involvement in NJPW, but Steve Anthony is a guy that stood out the last time he was there. TIger is great when he is playing the grumpy veteran. Tiger has promised to win the title and defend it against Liger at Korakuen Hall.
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Matt Sydal vs Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga
Here we have the NJPW debut of Matt Sydal. Sydal scored a pin over IWPG Jr champion, KUSHIDA at the ROH TV taping in Philly, so he is in line for a shot at that title. Hopefully he gets a chance to shine and a win over Tonga. This also serves as a preview of Tanahashi vs Fale on Sunday as they meet for Tanahashi’s Wrestle Kingdom title shot. It wouldn’t shock me if Fale pinned Tanahashi here.
IWGP Tag Team Championship
Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
This was originally meant to be a non-title match, but when Kojima got a pin on Anderson on the opening night of the Road to Destruction tour in Korakuen Hall, Tenzan & Kojima made the title challenge and their wish was granted. It has been a very long time since Tenzan & Kojima have challenged for the titles, a title they have held on many occasions. I see Gallows and Anderson retaining here.
Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma, Captain New Japan, Alex Shelley & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Rocky Romero & Beretta
Goto defends the IWGP Intercontinental championship against Nakamura on Sunday, so that is previewed here. This should be a fun match with some of CHAOS’ best workers involved. This also sees Alex Shelley return to NJPW action after several injuries, the most recent, losing teeth at the hands of Mark Briscoe in ROH. This will be your usual fun NJPW ten man tag.
Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano vs AJ Styles & Cody Hall
Styles challenges Okada for the IWGP title at King of Pro Wrestling on October 12th. Yano & Hall are odd choices to be involved in this, but we should get a nice preview of Okada vs Styles.
IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship
KUSHIDA & Kenny Omega
KUSHIDA won the IWGP Jr title from Omega in one of the best matches of the year in July at Dominion. Since then we haven’t seen much from Omega. If this is half as good as the Dominion match it will be something special and I have no reason to think that it won’t be. Omega has been phenomenal since joining Bullet Club and KUSHIDA has become one of the best in the world this year. I wouldn’t be shocked if Omega won the title back, but it is far too soon for KUSHIDA to drop the gold. Omega has a huge future ahead of him outside of the junior division. I can’t see him moving on just yet, but KUSHIDA needs a long reign as champion to establish himself as the number one junior in NJPW.
NEVER Openweight Championship
Togi Makabe vs Kota Ibushi
Ibushi earned this title shot by beating Makabe in their G1 Climax match. Since then they have been trying to tear each other apart when they have met in tag matches. The story is Ibushi matching Makabe with strikes and heavy blows and refusing to back down from the brawler. Ibushi has shown that he can play Makabe’s game and win. Ibushi continues to evolve and move away from his high flying side. He has become much more comfortable in a “fight”. I really hope Ibushi wins the title. I think Ibushi as NEVER champion could be really interesting and could deliver lots of fresh interesting matches. If he wins I’d love to see him defend it against both juniors and heavyweights. However, I see Makabe retaining the title in a really great match.
The card for Destruction in Kobe on Sunday is:
Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka vs Jay White & David Finlay
Yuji Nagata, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan & Juice Robinson
Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada vs Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Rocky Romero & Beretta
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Matt Sydal vs Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Kenny Omega
Katsuyori Shibata vs Tetsuya Naito
Kazuchika Okada, Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano vs AJ Styles, Tama Tonga & Cody Hall
IWGP Jr Tag Team Championship
ReDRagon vs Time Splitters
Wrestle Kingdom Title Shot
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Bad Luck Fale
IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Hirooki Goto vs Shinsuke Nakamura
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