New Japan Pro Wrestling announces full set of Destruction cards, double main event for King of Pro-Wrestling

The G1 Climax is over, we've had a week to catch our breath, and New Japan have set us on the beginning of the long road to Wrestle Kingdom with announced cards for all three Destruction shows in September, as well as a pair of top matches for October's King of Pro-Wrestling show.

So let's not waste any more time before we crack these bad boys open, shall we?

Destruction in Fukushima (September 10, 3AM Eastern / 12AM Pacific)

1. Hirai Kowato & Yuji Nagata vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Shota Umino
2. Chaos (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Katsuya Kitamura & Tomoyuki Oka
3. Bullet Club (Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Chaos (Beretta & Jado)
4. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, Takashi Iizuka, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Taguchi Japan (Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, Ricochet, & Ryusuke Taguchi) & Togi Makabe
5. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith, Jr., & Lance Archer) vs. War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe) (c) (IWGP Tag Team Championship)
6. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Kenny Omega) vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson
7. Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito)
8. Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero, & Toru Yano) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, & SANADA) (c) (NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship)
9. Michael Elgin vs. Minoru Suzuki (c) (NEVER Openweight Championship)

Destruction in Hiroshima (September 16, 5AM Eastern / 2AM Pacific)

1. Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Jado, & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Liger, & Tiger Mask IV
2. Bullet Club (Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Roppongi Vice (Beretta & Rocky Romero)
3. Kota Ibushi, Michael Elgin, & Togi Makabe vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, & Takashi Iizuka)
4. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Taguchi Japan (Ricochet & Ryusuke Taguchi) (c) (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship)
5. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith, Jr., & Lance Archer) vs. War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe) (c) (IWGP Tag Team Championship)
6. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Kenny Omega) vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson
7. Chaos (Gedo, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & Will Ospreay) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, & Tetsuya Naito)
8. El Desperado vs. KUSHIDA (c) (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship)
9. Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. (IWGP Intercontinental Championship)

Destruction in Kobe (September 24, 3AM Eastern / 12AM Pacific)

1. Hirai Kawato & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka
2. Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku)
3. David Finlay & Togi Makabe vs. Katsuya Kitamura & Michael Elgin
4. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Chaos (Beretta, Hirooki Goto, & YOSHI-HASHI)
5. Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Taguchi Japan (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ricochet, & Ryusuke Taguchi)
6. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith, Jr., & Lance Archer) vs. War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe) (c) (IWGP Tag Team Championship)
7. Chaos (Rocky Romero, Tomohiro Ishii, & Toru Yano) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, SANADA, & Tetsuya Naito)
8. Chaos (Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi)
9. Juice Robinson vs. Kenny Omega (c) (IWGP United States Championship)

King of Pro-Wrestling (October 9, 4AM Eastern / 1AM Pacific)

1. Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Climax 27 IWGP Heavyweight Championship Contract)
2. EVIL vs. Kazuchika Okada (c) (IWGP Heavyweight Championship)

There's a lot to unpack there, but let's start with the bad-- we're really going to do the three-way heavyweight tag three times in a row?

Like, in general the way splitting these shows up creates a proliferation of undercard tags as each show has fewer "big" matches on it, that's fine, that's just how New Japan works and we have to accept that, but man, the same match three times running is a bummer.

Also a bit of a bummer is that neither Kota Ibushi nor Hiromu Takahashi have singles matches on any of the Destruction cards. Granted, Ibushi is only wrestling on one of them, so I get not reshuffling the whole card just to get him a shot somewhere, and Hiromu at least is consistently paired up in tags against Will Ospreay that should both result in some cool stuff (and maybe a singles grudge match at KOPW? Please?), but I still can’t help but look at these cards and wish life had found a way.

Those nitpicks aside, the big matches that have been shuffled out of the deck for these cards are basically perfect choices in the aftermath of the G1 Climax. Juice Robinson and Zack Sabre, Jr. are rewarded for being utter standouts in their first tournament with main event rematches of two of their finest matches from the G1, plus Big Mike gets a shot at the NEVER in the main event in Fukushima.

The two headline matches for KOPW are well-chosen as well, Ishii having a crack at Naito's contract, which is great because he's "safe" in that you know that Ishii is unlikely to main event Wrestle Kingdom, but if anybody was gonna knock the Stardust Genius aside, what better reason than for the Stone Pitbull to finally get a moment in the big time? Plus capitalizing on EVIL busting Okada's streak by giving him another chance to do it with the greatest prize in New Japan on the line.

On top of all that, your eyes don't deceive you, that's Roppongi Vice together again, wrestling a Bullet Club team in what is billed as their final match after Rocky Romero announced at the Long Beach shows that he would be true to his word and send Beretta onto the heavyweight ranks.

There you have it, folks

All in all, some pretty exciting matches headed our way. Ready to wake up at butt o'clock for some New Japan action, Cagesiders?