Finishing up the Destruction trilogy with the last show, held Saturday morning (Sept. 25) in Kobe, folks. Check out my recommendations for Tokyo and Hiroshima if you missed ‘em, refresh yourself on the recommendation scale below, and let’s get to it!
As always, I've got a very simple five point scale laid out where a 1 is total skip, 2 you can probably skip unless you love one of the folks in it, 3 is a match that's worth watching but not necessarily worth making time for, a 4 is a solid recommendation to make time for if you can, and a 5 is a must-watch.
Mind you, these are not star ratings. They're not meant to be absolute ratings in any sense, but rather a simple (and hopefully sensible) way to determine if a match is worth your time. A one is not necessarily a bad match, but rather just one I feel like you're best off skipping. I have my biases, of course, but hopefully I can make it easy for you to adjust for them.
Henare, Tiger Mask IV, & Ryusuke Taguchi over Chaos (Beretta, Rocky Romero, & Will Ospreay) (2): Pretty standard opening tag stuff, fun but inessential. Henare gets a nice run early on, looking forward to seeing more of him. Rocky Romero has a particularly bad day, with Tiger Mask catching him in the rope feint taunt and Taguchi ducking the reverse roundhouse on the Black Magic-style enzuigiri.
Bullet Club (Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) over Hunter Club (Captain New Japan & YOSHITATSU) (1): This isn’t really a match, and I have no idea why the referee rang the bell. Yoshi announced the results of the poll, that the Captain was officially out of Hunter Club, he turned on Yoshi and started beating him up with Chase and Yujiro, and then the bell rang and they had a “match” that just consisted of more beatdown. Utterly baffling, New Japan.
And then the post-match made it clear— Captain New Japan joined Bullet Club, everybody. They made a valiant effort continuing on without AJ and the Hoots, but the experiment is over. Let’s get one last Too Sweet in and close up shop.
Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) over Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Teruaki Kanemitsu (3): Another undercard tag with a new-ish Young Lion in it where he goes full bore to start! Kanemitsu going absolutely toe-to-toe with Honma here, and even remaining defiant in the face of Makabe. And Kanemitsu keeps bringing it throughout, although GBH, through veteran wiles, always manage to cut him off.
Overall, it’s a really fun match and Teruaki Kanemitsu really made the most of being promoted to the third match on the card in the wake of Shibata and Sydal being out.
reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) over Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata (4): With reDRagon officially moving to the heavyweight division, this is a good showcase for them. Especially Kyle bravely facing off against Nakanishi, trying to lock a triangle around his meaty frame, countering the backbreaker rack with a headlock, good stuff.
Great finish that plays right off that as well, Kyle finally gets all the triangle on Nakanishi, Manabu tries to power out but Fish comes in and chops away at his legs with kicks until he collapses, then Kyle switches to an armbar and gets the submission victory. Not quite as awesome as it would have been with Shibata in as originally scheduled, but still worth your time.
David Finlay, Ricochet, & Satoshi Kojima over Bullet Club (Adam Cole, Matt Jackson, & Nick Jackson) to win the vacant NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (3): The title, if you missed it, was vacated because Matt Sydal had travel issues and ended up missing the entire Destruction tour.
Anyway, after some opening action with Kojima and Ricochet, Finlay comes in and the match is about Bullet Club beating on him and telling him his dad sucks at wrestling. Which, frankly, seems like a strategic error, as I wouldn’t put it past ol’ Fit to hunt ‘em down and teach ‘em a lesson. But I digress.
Plenty of six-man shenanigans are present— Bucks and Cole setting up brainbusters on all three of the opposing team only to get reversed into suplexes of their own, Kojima laying the machine gun chops on all three BC guys at once, a Superkick Party, hanging Ricochet and Finlay up for the rope-hung Swanton at the same time.
Very fun match of the sort that the NEVER 6-man title has become known for in the nine months it’s been around. Finlay and Ricochet issue a challenge for the Bucks’ IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship afterward.
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Kenny Omega, Tama Tonga, & Tanga Roa) over Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark Briscoe) & Chaos (Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii) (3): This is a solid eight-man that’s at its best when all hell is breaking loose and Kenny Omega’s doing stuff like choking Ishii out with his G1 winner briefcase. Indeed, Ishii spends much of the match as Bullet Club’s whipping boy until he makes a desperate tag to Goto, who comes in with good fire beating on Omega.
Unfortunately as a result the actual tags feel like a bit of an afterthought in this one even though they’re instrumental in the last third and responsible for the finish. Can’t help but feel like it would have been better served being just Fale & Omega vs. Goto & Ishii and finding something else for the Briscoes and Guerrillas of Destiny to do for the day.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, & SANADA) over Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, & KUSHIDA (4): Match starts pairing off like you’d expect, Tanahashi and SANADA, KUSHIDA and BUSHI, but instead of going to Juice and EVIL, Ace Juice Time continue beating on BUSHI for a while. But sooner rather than later LIJ take it outside and gain the advantage back.
Then it’s KUSHIDA’s turn to be the whipping boy, as EVIL finally gets in the match proper and works him over. BUSHI takes a turn but it doesn’t last as the 1/100 Dude comes in and the faces get unison submissions on all three members of LIJ. They break and the tide turns again as SANADA goes after Tanahashi for a while, but Juice comes in with his lovely spinebuster and our heroes coordinate some dives.
SANADA locks Skull End in on Juice, then Tanahashi comes in and grabs one of his own, which is fun, and leads to the usual trios match “everybody do something cool” sequence and a TKO and the full bodyscissors Skull End for the win. Good solid back and forth action, worth the watch.
Chaos (Gedo, Jado, Kazuchika Okada, & YOSHI-HASHI) over Team NOAH (Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada, & Naomichi Marufuji) & Toru Yano (4): Okada and Marufuji kick it off with a nice little rematch of their G1 tilt and/or preview of their already scheduled King of Pro-Wrestling match. Then it’s the juniors, Jado vs. Kotoge first, Jado wooo-ing along to his own chops and Kotoge busting out a neat over-the-ropes headscissors. Gedo comes in and he wants Harada but he’s not about to just let Kotoge get the tag for free, so he beats on him some only for the Noah boys to turn the tide and leave Kotoge grabbing a hold in the middle of the ring.
And so when Harada gets in there against Gedo, he’s taking his turn in sequence following Yano as they isolate Chaos’ mentor and wear him down. At one point Okada tries to save his pal but Marufuji swats him away with a single hard chop. Gedo finally tags out with Jado’s help and we get more Okada/Marufuji action where Marufuji is a step ahead at almost every turn.
Then Tacos and Yano go at it, the Sublime Master Thief going easy on the playbook with his usual allies but still pulling hair. Kotoge and Harada take center stage for a moment until Okada breaks things up but then Marufuji’s in to show the Rainmaker what’s up again. YOSHI-HASHI and Harada go at it with the Loose Explosion soon hitting Karma to end it.
Not as heated or violent as the 3rd Gen vs. NOAH tags we’ve been blessed with,but still a really well laid out and executed match. Loved, in particular, Marufuji completely and totally having Okada’s number here. Really leaves me looking forward to their KOPW match.
Tetsuya Naito over Michael Elgin (c) to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship (3): Naito plays it tentative early, stalling and napping, but two can play at that game and BIG MIKE does the Ingobernable roll! Elgin dominating for a bit, hits a big delayed vertical suplex, but Naito nails the bad knee with a low dropkick and a chop block and goes to work.
Naito hangs Elgin on the barricade and dropkicks the leg from the apron for a 17-count nearfall and keeps the pressure on as soon as he gets back in. BIG MIKE eventually fights back with strikes, willing his dead leg back to life but it’s clear he’s hurting. Naito gets a few more hits in but Elgin’s able to gut through it for a wheelbarrow German suplex.
That gets the adrenaline going and Elgin’s able to get a head of steam going again, including a wicked military press powerslam, but adrenaline only lasts so long and Naito’s able to cut him off and go to town again. Elgin catches Naito on a tornado DDT and lands a Falcon Arrow before going forearm for forearm. Naito tries to go back to the leg but Elgin fires off a trio of German suplexes to leave him laying on the mat.
Naito lands the DDT on a second try, and soon counters an avalanche powerbomb attempt into a Frankensteiner and follows with the poison Frankensteiner! Inverted short legscissors on and Elgin’s in agony here but he won’t give. Unbreakable holds true as he hits a Death Valley Driver on the apron and follows it up with his deadlift avalanche Falcon Arrow.
Naito bumps referee Red Shoes on a another powerbomb-to-headscissors reversal and LIJ come running down to beat the crap out of Elgin. But they’re not alone, as Tanahashi and KUSHIDA soon follow to try and even the odds but get the crap kicked out of them. BIG MIKE wakes up and does the Samoan drop/fallaway slam combo on SANADA and EVIL before powerbombing BUSHI over the ropes and to the outside on his compatriots.
But when he turns to go back to Naito... Destino! And Red Shoes is awake for the pin! BIG MIKE LIVES! He reverses a second Destino into a slam but that won’t finish it either. Elgin keeps hope alive with a pair of huge lariats before the buckle bomb and the revolution Elgin Bomb but Naito reverses to an inverted DDT and hits a second full-on Destino for the win.
Hoo boy. I really wanted to like this one, honest. But making the whole story leading up to it about the leg and then totally ignoring the leg for the back half of the match leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Like, I’m not somebody who needs limbs sold like death at all times, I quite like the way Elgin sold the leg in the first half, limping but occasionally just gutting through for a maneuver. That works for me, but just full-on abandoning the injury in the middle of the match.
Likewise for the interference— I don’t think interference automatically kills a match, but this felt more like a cheap way to get another five minutes out of the match more than it felt like it built any kind of story.
So final verdict, first half is a must-watch, back half is kind of a total skip, so I’m calling it right down the middle, but use your own judgement and your own tastes to decide whether you need to watch this one.
There you have it, folks
The last of three Destructions that probably would have been better served as two, all rated and ready to go.
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to toss in your two cents below, Cagesiders.