NJPW Destruction in Kobe
September 25, 2016
This was the last of the three Destruction shows and the final major event before October’s King of Pro-Wrestling.
Two major pieces of news:
- Matt Sydal is still not in Japan. The official party line is “travel issues”, but it’s a strange situation and we’re still trying to figure out what’s going on. David Finley, who recently moved up from his Young Lion role to a full-fledged roster member, will be teaming with Satoshi Kojima and Ricochet in the NEVER 6-man title match, and whichever team wins becomes the new champions.
- Katsuyori Shibata has been taken off the tour. They’re finally giving him time to rest from a fairly severe significant spinal injury.
(1) Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Henare def. Roppongi Vice & Will Ospreay. I don’t think anyone expected that outcome.
(2) Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi def. Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan. After months of building it up and Captain doing the same shtick in every night of the G1 tour this year, Tatsu finally kicked him out of the Hunter Club. Captain then attacked Tatsu and joined the Bullet Club.
(3) Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe def. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Teruaki Kanemitsu
(4) Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby FIsh def. Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata
(5) David Finlay, Ricochet & Satoshi Kojima def. The Young Bucks & Adam Cole to become the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man tag team champions. Possibly the best match of the Destruction tour so far. Crazy spot where the Bucks were going for the Meltzer Driver, but Ricochet hit a springboard RKO Outta Nowhere on the diving Buck.
(6) Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa def. The Briscoes, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto
(7) Sanada, Evil & Bushi def. Juice Robinson, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kushida
(8) Kazuchika Okada, Yoshi-Hashi, Gedo & Jado def. Naomichi Marufuji, Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge & Toru Yano. New Japan vs. NOAH here…and Yano, who does both. Lots of story-building in this one, with it setting up Okada/Marufuji and the bookers against the GHC junior tag champs, but also put Okada and Yoshi-Hashi in line for Marufuji and Yanos’ GHC tag titles as well.
(9) Tetsuya Naito def. Michael Elgin (c) to become the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion. Incredible match, and with the 6-man tag the best matches of the entire Destruction trio. More shenanigans from Los Ingobernables de Japon, as they all came out followed by Tanahashi and Kushida, because… I guess they’re the white knights of New Japan. After the chaos Naito ended up hitting three Destinos to win the title.
