NJPW Destruction in Hiroshima Review, 15/9/18

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By Tokyo Wrestling Fan @twf87

New Japan Pro Wrestling returned to our screens this week with the Destruction tour, making stops in Hiroshima, Beppu, and Kobe.  First up, the slightly unfortunately named Destruction in Hiroshima show, featuring the NEVER Six Man Titles being defended by Guerrilas of Destiny and Taiji Ishimori against Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, and David Finlay.  The main event saw Kenny Omega defend his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Tomohiro Ishii in a rematch from the G1 Climax in front of a crowd of around 3,700 fans.

Roppongi 3K (SHO, YOH, and Rocky Romero) vs. Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, and KUSHIDA – This was a decent opening tag match, which featured one of the participants in the upcoming Junior Heavyweight title tournament in KUSHIDA.  He hasn’t particularly done much this year, but whenever KUSHIDA is called on he’s always a very good worker.  Roppongi 3K showed some impressive moves, but ultimately Liger and Tiger Mask isolated Rocky and a Tiger Driver followed by a Tiger Suplex was enough to put him down for a three count.

Winners: Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, and KUSHIDA, 7:14

Toa Henare vs. Bad Luck Fale – Henare had been given some singles matches on the Destruction tour – on the second night he lost to Beretta – but this match against Fale was clearly his biggest challenge to date.  Henare trained at the Fale Dojo in New Zealand, so this match had added weight behind it.  Henare jumped Fale before the bell rang and tried to use his speed to overcome the size disadvantage between him and his opponent.  Despite his valiant efforts, Fale soon overcame him – a near miss Bad Luck Fall transitioned to a Grenade for a Fale victory.  It’s great that Henare is getting singles matches, but given that he loses all of them has he really benefitted from graduating from a Young Lion without going on excursion?

Winner: Bad Luck Fale, 2:46 

Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) vs. Ayato Yoshida and Michael Elgin – KES made their return to NJPW for the first time since Wrestling Dontaku and took on the team of the recent K-DOJO acquisition Ayato Yoshida and Michael Elgin.  Yoshida has impressed in his matches on the Lion’s Gate shows, and despite the fact that he’s been taking most of the pins in his matches on this tour he has continued to look good.  KES controlled the early part of the match until Elgin was tagged in and was able to fight back.  Yoshida scored some near falls with two PKs on Smith, but finally a Killer Bomb put Yoshida down for the three count.  A solid win for KES to start building up their momentum again going into the World Tag League.

Winners: Killer Elite Squad, 8:53

Kota Ibushi, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Best Friends (Chuckie T and Beretta) and Will Ospreay – The Bullet Club Elite took on the CHAOS team of Ospreay and the Best Friends, of whom Beretta had recently returned from a lengthy injury lay-off.  This was a fun match between six very good workers, which continued teasing a confrontation between Ospreay and Ibushi.  They both looked excellent in the ring, particularly when Ospreay hit one of his trademark dives over the top to take out Ibushi and Yujiro.  Beretta got the win for the CHAOS team after he hit a Dudebuster on Owens, assisted from the top rope by Chuckie T.  Post-match Ibushi and Ospreay faced down again, while Best Friends look forward to a match against KES later in the tour.

Winners: Best Friends and Will Ospreay, 9:50

NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship Match

Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, and David Finlay vs. Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) and Taiji Ishimori (c) – GOD and Ishimori won the NEVER Six Man Tag Titles at the G1 Climax Final, and this was their first defence against a makeshift Taguchi Japan team.  GOD spent most of the G1 Climax pissing people off by interefering in tournament matches, and finally won the Six Man Tag Titles against the Young Bucks and Marty Scurll on the final night.  The match’s placement on the card should tell you what sort of level the NEVER Six Man belts are at right now.  For some reason Taguchi came out wearing a scrum cap and a rugby shirt, and he used the scrum cap later in the match to protect his head from GOD attacks – not entirely how scrum caps work but close enough that a lot of the American audience probably wouldn’t know the difference.  This was a decent enough match, and Ishimori continued to look very good, he really ought to be back in contention for the Junior Heavyweight title once the tournament is over.  Tanga Loa got the win after he hit Finlay with his finisher, Apeshit, to complete their first successful title defence.  Nothing that you should go out of your way to see, but a decent match, with the usual Taguchi comedy and a solid win for the Bullet Club OGs.

Winners: GOD and Taiji Ishimori, 11:27

Hirooki Goto, Gedo, and Toru Yano vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru – This match was part of the build-up to the NEVER Openweight Championship match between Goto and Taichi at Destruction in Beppu on the 17th of September.  Taichi jumped Goto before the bell was rung and spent a lot of this match beating him down, trying to damage the champion ahead of their title match.  This match was pretty underwhelming, with lots of brawling and shenanigans involving Iizuka and Gedo, but things improved when Goto and Taichi got into the ring.  Goto got the upper hand, and managed to hit Kanemaru with a GTR, but Taichi broke up the pin and started hitting Goto with his mic stand, which led to a DQ finish.  I’m looking forward to the title match, but this match wasn’t very good.  Post-match Taichi hit Goto with a Last Ride powerbomb and stood tall.

Winners: Hirooki Goto, Gedo, and Toru Yano, 10:42

Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, and Zack Sabre Junior vs. Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, SANADA, and EVIL – Since the end of the G1 Climax there has been a build towards a match between Suzuki and Naito, who last faced each other at Wrestling Hi no Kuni for the Intercontinental Title, but apparently have unfinished business with each other.  Throughout the Destruction tour Los Ingobernables de Japon and Suzuki-gun have been facing each other, and this match wasn’t anything radically different from those matches.  I’m not a big fan of the eight-man tag matches that end up devolving into lots of brawling on the outside.  The in-ring portion of this match towards the end was decent, and LIJ managed to get the upper hand because Suzuki was fixated on attacking Naito to the point that he ignored everything else that was happening.  It was quite funny that the other members of LIJ didn’t try and help Naito as Suzuki beat him up, but maybe they realised that they could get a win while he was distracted.  EVIL and SANADA hit a Magic Killer on TAKA for an LIJ victory, while Suzuki kept choking Naito outside the ring.  Finally the Young Lions were able to separate them, and a stretcher was brought out, but Naito was able to walk out under his own power.

Winners: Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, SANADA, and EVIL, 12:12

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Great Bash Heel (Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe) vs. Kazuchika Okada, Jay White, and YOSHI-HASHI – As the winner of the G1 Climax, Tanahashi will face Okada at Destruction in Kobe on the 23rd of September to defend his Wrestle Kingdom main event contract.  Since they fought to a draw in the final match of A Block during the G1 Tanahashi chose to put his contract on the line against the Rainmaker, who he hasn’t beaten in a one-on-one match since 2015.  This match also featured Switchblade Jay White, who beat Okada (and Tanahashi) in the G1 and has been clear about his designs on overthrowing Okada as the leader of CHAOS.  The tension was palpable in the match as Jay immediately tagged himself in when Okada and Tanahashi were getting ready to face off.  This also played into the ending of the match, when Okada accidentally kicked YOSHI-HASHI in the face, who was then rolled up by Tanahashi for a three count.  Post-match YOSHI-HASHI and Okada exchanged some angry words and YOSHI-HASHI stormed off looking very frustrated.  This match wasn’t only about the cracks forming in CHAOS, it was also a chance for Honma to continue his comeback from a very serious injury, and the Hiroshima crowd was very excited to see the Kokeshi.  Honma hit the Kokeshi headbutt on YOSHI-HASHI, which resulted in a near miss from Tanahashi’s High Fly Flow, but ultimately it was the CHAOS in-fighting that cost them the match.  This was the best match on the card so far, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing Tanahashi and Okada face each other again in Kobe.

Winners: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, and Tomoaki Honma, 12:14

IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kenny Omega (c) – Omega put the IWGP Heavyweight Title on the line in Hiroshima because Ishii beat him in an epic bout during the G1 tournament.  That match was absolutely excellent, so I was expecting big things tonight.  In the pre-match video package Ishii promised to become the first 1.70 metre IWGP champion in history.  The crowd came alive for this match more than any other on the card, and by the end of the match they were heavily behind Ishii.  This match began quite slowly and felt a bit disjointed, as Omega attacked methodically.  He took Ishii outside and hit a double-foot stomp on Ishii as he lay on the English commentary table, which resulted in a very near twenty count.  The matched heated up as it entered the last ten minutes, and Ishii came close to hitting a Brainbuster on several occasions.  The crowd popped loudly for Ishii when he imitated Kenny’s taunt and hit his own V-trigger, but even that wasn’t quite enough to put the champion down.

Finally Kenny was able to hit a V-trigger when Ishii was on the ropes, and a One Winged Angel for the pin.  This match underwhelmed me somewhat, and it certainly didn’t live up to their G1 Climax match.  Kenny really needs to dial back the number of V-triggers that he does in a match because it loses the impact when he hits so many in one go.  It felt like it dragged quite a lot at the start, and since I was about 99% sure that Ishii wasn’t going to win the title they didn’t do enough to make me think that Ishii had a realistic chance of pulling off an upset.  Post-match Kenny cut a promo offering to take on Ibushi if he wanted a match, before Ibushi reminded him of the Golden Lovers’ promise to fight together.  I guess that means no match just yet…

Winner: Kenny Omega, 30:55

 

Final Thoughts 

Destruction in Hiroshima was a fairly average show overall, with a couple of highlights, but nothing that you need to go out of your way to watch.  It wasn’t helped by the crowd, which for the most part was subdued and only really got going towards the end of the show.  The build for the Tanahashi vs. Okada match in Kobe was probably the best part of the show, although the IWGP Heavyweight Title match was decent, if underwhelming.  It seemed incredibly unlikely that Ishii had any chance of beating Omega, and nothing about the match changed that for me.  Now that Kenny has survived his first challenger, who will he face at King of Pro Wrestling?  The smart money seemed to be on Ibushi, although given their post-match interaction perhaps not.  If not Ibushi then I have no idea who Kenny will be facing next, although maybe that will become clearer after the Long Beach show at the end of September.

Looking forward to the next two Destruction shows, the NEVER title match and the match between Tanahashi and Okada are my highlights, although KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI in the opening match of the Junior Heavyweight tournament should also be good.  Taichi has come in for a lot of criticism in the past, but he has the chance to build up his reputation as a heavyweight and stake a place in next year’s G1 in his match with Goto.  As for the Wrestle Kingdom main event contract match, I’d expect Tanahashi to walk out the victor, but given his history with Okada it’s by no means certain.  The lack of a forgone conclusion to these matches should make them more exciting than the Omega vs. Ishii match.  As for the Naito vs. Suzuki match at Beppu, my interest levels are not that high since there’s nothing really on the line right now.  Their match at Wrestling Hi no Kuni wasn’t brilliant, so they definitely have room to improve, but this feud feels like it was just thrown together.  Hopefully the match quality comes through this time and makes it worth everyone’s time.  Next stop, Destruction in Beppu on September 17th.

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