Csonka’s NJPW Destruction in Kobe Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview the NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2019 event. The show will feature IC Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White, Shingo vs. Hirooki Goto, young lion’s cup matches, and more. So today I will breakdown and preview the event. Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

Young Lion Cup Match: Ren Narita vs. Clark Connors: Unfortunately, I had to complete this preview before the VOD matches were fully available so I don’t have the updated standings, but these two are in the mix. Narita has had a really good YLC run, while I think Connors has proven himself to be the most complete LA Dojo Lion, so this could be quite good. I wouldn’t rule out a Connors surprise win, but I think that Narita takes it. WINNER: Ren Narita

Young Lion Cup Match: Shooter Umino vs. Karl Fredericks: Unfortunately, I had to complete this preview before the VOD matches were fully available so I don’t have the updated standings, but these two are in the mix. As of this writing, Fredericks is still in the mix, while Umino has been a favorite since the start. Umino has been my pick since day one, so I will go with him here and to take the latest YLC, WINNER: Shooter Umino

Yuji Nagata, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Alex Coughlin & Michael Richards: During the back half of this tour, Nagata & Nakanishi have replaces Kojima & Tenzan in the dads take your kids to work matches. Nagata & Nakanishi will lead the troops and bring the star power, while the lions will carry the load and be allowed to shine. It’s a toss up as there are no real stakes, but I’ll go team Nagata for the win. WINNER: Yuji Nagata, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, & Toa Henare vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, & Chase Owens: Random undercard tags continue here as this is a match with no stakes, no issues, and the only real intrigue here will be to see if Makabe actually takes a bump in an undercard tag. It doesn’t look great on paper, but I see Bullet Club winning because you have to keep Fale strong… for reasons, WINNER: Bullet Club

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Rocky Romero vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI : Tanahashi dropped the RevPro title back to ZSJ, so they will continue thier issues here while the build to Liger vs. Suzuki continues. This will likely either e solid to good, but will be highlighted by the Liger vs. Suzuki feud, which I love. That feud is really building nicely as Suzuki keeps getting more and more ruthless and disrespectful, while Liger continues to get more pissed off due to that. GIVE ME THIS MATCH. Suzuki-gun likely wins, but if not they may lose via DQ again. It really doesn’t matter as it’s all about building to Liger vs. Suzuki. WINNER: Suzuki-gun

Big Tom Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Will Ospreay, Sho, & Yoh vs. KENTA, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo: With 3K recently pinning G.O.D. in a multi-man tag match, Sho & Yoh were added to this match, while Ibushi and Eagles were moved over to the next match and it all makes sense. So you have Big Tom & HASHI still having issues with G.O.D., 3k recently beating G.O.D., the build to Phantasmo challenging Ospreay, and Big Tom still looking for revenge on KENTA, who beat him for the NEVER Title. So while I can fully agree that we have some tags that serve as nothing but filler. This isn’t one of them as we have plenty of ongoing issues to play with. With the players involved, this has the potential to be good. I see the boys from CHAOS taking this one, and possibly setting up Ishii vs. KENTA & 3k vs. G.O.D. for King of Pro Wrestling. WINNER: CHAOS

Kazuchika Okada, Kota Ibushi, & Robbie Eagles vs. SANADA, EVIL, & BUSHI: As mentioned above, we had some switching going on as Ibushi and Eagles were moved to this match, which makes sense with EVIL about to challenge Ibushi for his WK title shot. We’re also still building to SANADA vs. Okada for the championship, while BUSHI & Eagles are here to be workhorses and for one of them to take a fall. There’s a lot of talent in this match so this has potential to deliver in the ring. With SANDA & EVIL in the roles of challenger, I think it makes the most sense for LIJ to take the win here. WINNER: LIJ

Shingo vs. Hirooki Goto: This is a rematch from night 18 of the G1, where Shingo defeated Hirooki Goto in what was a great, hard-hitting battle with both men throwing bombs and doing everything they could to end their opponent with great fight spots and realistic struggles. Shingo’s ability to go from 0-100 is amazing as his explosivenesses is next level, and despite spotty booking, Goto can still deliver great matches. Their interactions on the tour building to this match have been great and this is my most anticipated match on this card by a mile. There is absolutely no reason that they shouldn’t deliver a banger here, and I really feel that Shingo should win. But I fear that they simply give Goto his win back in order to set him up and a potential challenger to White to give him something to do at King of Pro Wrestling. WINNER: Hirooki Goto

IC Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White: This is a rematch from night 18 of the G1, where Jay White defeated Tetsuya Naito in a disappointing match where they went for style over substance. White did a lot of his bullshit early on, and while it picked up down the stretch with some great counter work, it never once felt main event or block final worthy and I found it hard to get invested in. Hopefully that changes here. White is a really polarizing performer. No one doubts his potential, but many have become less invested with his matches due to the formula/interference that plagues them. Naito can still be great, is hugely over, but his career has taken a physical toll on him, but he still steps it up in big matches. I am sure that this will be good, and possibly even great depending on the layout/booking of it. White has joined the bandwagon in terms of wanting to become a double champion, but has to get past Naito here to even make that a possibility. White winning and Naito chasing him until WK is in play, which I suppose would be fine but doesn’t excite me all that much, mostly because I will have to listen to people cry about Naito being BURIED by NJPW. I want Naito, but think I’ll get White.WINNER: Jay White

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 52. On the show, the good brother, Jeremy Lambert, joins 411’s Larry Csonka as the guys will discuss Brock Lesnar returning to pull the plug on Kofi Kingston’s WWE Title run, review NXT’s two-hour debut, and then dive into coverage of the NJPW Destruction tour. The show is approximately 108-minutes long.

* Intro
* Lesnar Returns For a Brocktober Title Run: 4:20
* Breaking Down The NXT Two Hour Debut Show (9.18.19): 13:10
* Examining The Shane Taylor/ROH Worked Shoot Angle: 49:20
* NJPW Destruction in Beppu Review: 1:01:10
* NJPW Destruction in Kagoshima Review: 1:10:20
* NJPW Destruction in Kobe Preview: 1:29:15

You can subscribe and listen to the 411 on Wrestling Podcast via the above player on Transistor, or on the following platforms:

* iTunes
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* Google Play

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.