{"id":10217,"date":"2018-09-26T05:19:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T05:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=10217"},"modified":"2018-09-26T20:40:08","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T20:40:08","slug":"njpw-destruction-in-kobe-review-23-9-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/26\/njpw-destruction-in-kobe-review-23-9-18\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW Destruction in Kobe Review, 23\/9\/18"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>@<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/twf87\"><strong>twf87<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The final show of the Destruction tour aired in Kobe on Sptember 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, headlined by a match between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada.\u00a0 At stake was the Wrestle Kingdom 13 main event contract that Tanahashi won as G1 Climax winner.\u00a0 The semi-main event saw BUSHI take on KUSHIDA in the first match of the tournament to crown a new Junior Heavyweight Champion.\u00a0 Nearly 6,500 fans came to the Kobe World Hall to watch the show.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Yota Tsuji <\/strong>vs. <strong>Yuya Uemura <\/strong>\u2013 Tsuji and Uemura have currently faced each other sixteen times, and each one has been a time limit draw.\u00a0 This was another time limit draw, but both Tsuji and Uemura are looking increasingly impressive with each match.\u00a0 Uemura got a very close near-fall with a jacknife cover, but as the time expired Tsuji had Uemura trapped in a Boston Crab.\u00a0 The first time one of these two wins a match is going to be really special.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winner: Time Limit Draw, 10:00<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Roppongi 3K (SHO and YOH) <\/strong>vs. <strong>Shota Umino and Ren Narita<\/strong> \u2013 Roppongi 3K took on the two most senior Young Lions in this tag match, and despite the fact that SHO and YOH got the victory they made Umino and Narita look really good.\u00a0 The junior tag division has been a bit of a mess this year, but this win gave Roppongi 3K some momentum going into the upcoming Junior Tag League.\u00a0 Narita got a very close fall with a small package pin on YOH, which was one of YOH\u2019s trademarks during Best of the Super Juniors this year, but finally YOH hit a falcon arrow to pick up a win.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t be opposed to having Umino and Narita in the Junior Tag League this year, they make a good team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winners: Roppongi 3K, 8:46<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tiger Mask and Jyushin Thunder Liger <\/strong>vs. <strong>Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado<\/strong> \u2013 The booking of the Junior Tag Team Titles this year has left a lot to be desired, and with the G1 Climax dominating the summer calendar there hasn\u2019t been a title defence since Dominion.\u00a0 This was another good tag team match, which ended with a surprising win for Tiger Mask and Liger, who managed to overcome Suzuki-gun\u2019s cheating to presumably book a title shot in the near future.\u00a0 Kanemaru hit a beautiful moonsault on Tiger Mask for a two count, and was setting him up for a Deep Impact, but Tiger countered and picked up a win with a crucifix pin.\u00a0 Both teams looked good in the leadup to the Junior Tag League next month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winners: Tiger Mask and Jyushin Thunder Liger, 6:50<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ryusuke Taguchi, Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma), and Ayato Yoshida <\/strong>vs. <strong>TenCozy (Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan), Manabu Nakanishi, and Yuji Nagata<\/strong> \u2013 Ayato Yoshida\u2019s tour continued with a match involving the New Japan Dads plus Taguchi.\u00a0 This match was fairly average, but it was a chance to get people on the card, and the crowd popped for all the veterans\u2019 signature moves.\u00a0 Kojima has looked great since he came back from injury, and it was a shame that he had to miss the G1 this year.\u00a0 Out of all of the New Japan Dads, he\u2019s the one that I\u2019m most excited about right now \u2013 he looks like he can still put on some quality matches.\u00a0 Yoshida took another pin in this match from a Nagata back drop, to round off his Destruction tour.\u00a0 He\u2019s looked good in defeat and presumably his stock is high with the company given the matches that he\u2019s been put into so far.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winners: TenCozy, Yuji Nagata, and Manabu Nakanishi, 9:56<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Friends (Chuckie T and Beretta) <\/strong>vs. <strong>Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.)<\/strong> \u2013 This was a rematch from Destruction in Beppu \u2013 when KES beat Best Friends with the Killer Bomb \u2013 and it gave Best Friends a chance to avenge their previous loss.\u00a0 Best Friends again used their speed to overcome KES\u2019 power advantage, although Beretta demonstrated his toughness by surviving an onslaught from both Archer and Smith, including a Killer Bomb that he reversed into a flash crucifix pin for the victory.\u00a0 The two matches involving these teams were good fun, and a solid warm up for the World Tag League.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winners: Best Friends, 12:41<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/trentylocks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@trentylocks<\/a> lives! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njdest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njdest<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8n90d75Nfk\">https:\/\/t.co\/8n90d75Nfk<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Bv74sUp7ut\">pic.twitter.com\/Bv74sUp7ut<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/totaldivaseps\/status\/1043916752516771840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Toa Henare, David Finlay, and Juice Robinson <\/strong>vs. <strong>Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI, and Jay White <\/strong>\u2013 YOSHI-HASHI has been the subject of a bit of a tug of war between Okada, White, and Tanahashi in the lead-up to the main event of this show, and this match continued to further some of the tensions simmering within CHAOS.\u00a0 This was a fun match, which allowed everyone to show off their stuff \u2013 Henare looked particularly good \u2013 and White continued his shit-housery.\u00a0 This culminated in YOSHI-HASHI holding Henare up for White to hit, but Henare ducked and White predictably hit YOSHI-HASHI in the face.\u00a0 Henare nearly caught White with a roll-up, but a quick Blade Runner led to a three count and a CHAOS victory.\u00a0 After the match YOSHI-HASHI and White remonstrated in the ring, before Ospreay and YOSHI-HASHI left looking exasperated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winners: Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI, and Jay White, 9:05<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, and Zack Sabre Jr. <\/strong>vs. <strong>Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, and SANADA <\/strong>\u2013 At Destruction in Beppu Naito got a victory over Suzuki, while ZSJ won the tag team match with a roll-up pin on EVIL.\u00a0 EVIL swore revenge on Sabre, and gained a measure of it in this match when he pinned TAKA after an STO.\u00a0 The majority of this match was decent, but given that Naito already beat Suzuki this match felt like filler before they transition Naito into a new feud.\u00a0 The best part of the match was when EVIL and ZSJ were in the ring together \u2013 that\u2019s a match that I would like to see in the future.\u00a0 Finally, TAKA ended up in the ring with EVIL, and fairly inevitably he fell prey to an STO and LIJ picked up the win.\u00a0 I\u2019m ready for Naito to move on from Suzuki-gun now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winners: Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, and SANADA, 11:20<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Junior Heavyweight Championship Tournament<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>KUSHIDA <\/strong>vs. <strong>BUSHI<\/strong> \u2013 Thanks to the injury sustained by Hiromu Takahashi at Dominion he was forced to relinquish the Junior Heavyweight Title, and a four-person tournament was put together to determine the next champion.\u00a0 Going into the match NJPW put a poll online to ask who the fans wanted to see win the title, and BUSHI won by a landslide.\u00a0 The Kobe crowd was also behind BUSHI, although KUSHIDA was able to silence the crowd quite effectively with an early onslaught.\u00a0 I have been down on BUSHI previously, and I thought quite a few of his Best of the Super Juniors matches were formulaic, but he was very motivated in this match and when he managed to avoid Back to the Future he seemed to have the upper hand.\u00a0 This was an interesting juniors match since it didn\u2019t involve much of the usual high flying that you would expect, but the grappling from both men was excellent.\u00a0 BUSHI attempted to hit an MX but KUSHIDA managed to counter it into a Hoverboard Lock, which nearly forced BUSHI to tap out.\u00a0 BUSHI was able to escape by spitting mist into KUSHIDA\u2019s face and a backslide pin came very close to a three count.\u00a0 Despite being blinded by the mist KUSHIDA caught BUSHI in mid-air and hit successive Back to the Futures for the victory.\u00a0 Next up, the winner of Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll at Fighting Spirit Unleashed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winner: KUSHIDA, 16:41<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Time circuits on! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KUSHIDA_0904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KUSHIDA_0904<\/a> is going Back to the Future! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njdest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njdest<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8n90d75Nfk\">https:\/\/t.co\/8n90d75Nfk<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jGrNM8ZMO5\">pic.twitter.com\/jGrNM8ZMO5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/totaldivaseps\/status\/1043939099575504898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match Contract<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Hiroshi Tanahashi <\/strong>vs. <strong>Kazuchika Okada <\/strong>\u2013 Before the match started there was an excellent video package summarising Tanahashi and Okada\u2019s respective years, and highlighting the history between the two.\u00a0 The Kobe crowd was heavily behind Tanahashi as the two men faced each other in the ring before the bell.\u00a0 Tanahashi\u2019s record against Okada since he returned from excursion was three wins, five losses, and three draws, with the most recent of those draws coming in this year\u2019s G1.\u00a0 The match started off slowly, with both men not wanting to give up an early advantage, although this changed after Tanahashi injured his knee doing a dive to the outside.\u00a0 In many of his matches Tanahashi targeted the knee of his opponent, but this time Okada was able to capitalise on his mistake, which drew the anger of the crowd.\u00a0 After surviving an attack on his knee, Tanahashi turned the tables with a chop block and took the attack to Okada\u2019s knee.\u00a0 Despite that, Tanahashi clearly struggled with his knee more than Okada.<\/p>\n<p>Tanahashi plays the injured underdog better than anyone in New Japan right now, and that was on full show in this match as Okada unleashed his heelish side on the Ace.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t stop Tanahashi from pulling off some daredevil moves, including a High Fly Flow to the outside after he had hit Okada with a Tombstone on the arena floor.\u00a0 In a call back to their G1 match Tanahashi hit a High Fly Flow on a prone Okada just before the thirty minute mark and got a very close two count.\u00a0 When he tried for a second High Fly Flow Okada was back on his feet and managed to counter with a dropkick.\u00a0 Tanahashi managed to counter or dodge all of Okada\u2019s attempts at a Rainmaker, until finally Okada was able to connect with a rolling Rainmaker.\u00a0 Tanahashi reversed a full Rainmaker into a dragon suplex, and was able to finally put down his old foe after hitting three High Fly Flows to end the match with a decisive victory.<\/p>\n<p>As Tanahashi celebrated after the match Jay White ran into the ring and hit him with a Blade Runner.\u00a0 He then turned his attentions towards Okada and started beating him up, along with the Young Lions that tried to stop him.\u00a0 YOSHI-HASHI came to the ring to try and stop him, but White attacked him with a chair, then Gedo ran down to the ring and grabbed the chair from White\u2019s hands.\u00a0 Okada got to his feet and stared down White, when suddenly Gedo hit Okada from behind with a chair.\u00a0 A final Blade Runner on Okada left White and Gedo standing tall in the ring.\u00a0 Gedo closed the show by cutting a promo hyping up Jay White and telling everyone to \u201cbreathe with the Switchblade\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi, 35:43<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Breathe with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JayWhiteNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JayWhiteNZ<\/a>&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njdest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njdest<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8n90d75Nfk\">https:\/\/t.co\/8n90d75Nfk<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RSCtADeKLl\">pic.twitter.com\/RSCtADeKLl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/totaldivaseps\/status\/1043955396346605568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was definitely the best of the Destruction shows &#8211; the main event was a great match, not even taking the storyline progression into account, as was the Junior Heavyweight match and much of the undercard.\u00a0 New Japan makes a lot of its money from ticket sales so having a longer tour makes sense, but three Destruction shows felt like they had to drag out the good matches, and the quality of the first two shows was pretty average.\u00a0 Cutting down to two shows would have helped I think, especially since the undercard got pretty repetitive after three shows.<\/p>\n<p>Turning to the events of Kobe, the biggest news coming out of this show was Tanahashi defeating Okada decisively only to see Jay White seize the moment to try and take control of CHAOS.\u00a0 Since Jay beat him in the G1 he will be Tanahashi&#8217;s opponent at King of Pro Wrestling next month, and while I doubt that he will beat Tanahashi he should still prove a tough adversary, particularly with Gedo in his corner.\u00a0 The turn on Okada was hinted at throughout the G1 but going forward it will be interesting to see how things shake out.\u00a0 Will other members of CHAOS follow Switchblade and Gedo, or remain loyal to the Rainmaker?\u00a0 I could see this leading to a match between Okada and White at Wrestle Kingdom 13, potentially involving other CHAOS members as well.<\/p>\n<p>The result of the Junior Heavyweight match was somewhat of a surprise to me, since I thought that BUSHI would win as a tribute to the injured Hiromu.\u00a0 Obviously that&#8217;s not going to happen now, and I have a suspicion that the final will end up being KUSHIDA vs. Marty Scurll, since KUSHIDA vs. Ospreay has happened a lot in the past.\u00a0 Either way it should be a top match.\u00a0 It is another interesting booking decision from NJPW, who continue to overlook Los Ingobernables de Japon for the top titles, despite the apparent fan support (admittedly Hiromu was LIJ, but the booking of Naito this year raises a lot of questions).<\/p>\n<p>The full card for Fighting Spirit Unleashed was released yesterday, and on top of the US Title match between Juice Robinson and Cody, the Tag Title match between GOD and The Young Bucks, and the Ospreay vs. Scurll match, there are a number of matches to look forward to.\u00a0 Okada and Ishii take on the Golden Lovers in the main event, in a match that some people have suggested could see Ishii turning on Okada (I&#8217;m not so sure).\u00a0 KUSHIDA and Tanahashi take on the new team of Gedo and Jay White, while So Cal Uncensored, recent BOLA winner Jeff Cobb, Flip Gordon, and ACH make their returns.\u00a0 Although the card is more heavily ROH than I would like, there are enough good matchups, and the likelihood of more CHAOS fallout, to keep me interested.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>@twf87 The final show of the Destruction tour aired in Kobe on Sptember 23rd, headlined by a match between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada.\u00a0 At stake was the Wrestle Kingdom [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,204,37,22],"tags":[371,44],"class_list":["post-10217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-njpw","category-njpw-reviews","category-reviews","tag-new-japan-pro-wrestling","tag-njpw"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-2EN","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/0-1.jpeg?fit=797%2C449&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10221,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10217\/revisions\/10221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}