Kevin’s NJPW Destruction in Hiroshima Review

NJPW Destruction in Hiroshima
September 15, 2018 | Hiroshima Sun Plaza in Nishi-Ku, Hiroshima | Attendance: 3,761

Ah, back to reviewing NJPW. I haven’t done one of these since the G1 Climax. They had some “Road to” shows that I watched, but didn’t have time to review. I made time for this with it being a bigger show. The last few years, Destruction hasn’t been great, especially last year. Breaking it up into three shows makes for lackluster cards for the most part. Today’s card is a basically a one match show, but it’s a doozy as Kenny Omega puts the IWGP Heavyweight Title on the line against perennial crowd favorite Tomohiro Ishii.

Jushin Thunder Liger, KUSHIDA, and Tiger Mask IV vs. Rocky Romero and Roppongi 3K
This is a better opener than usual, at least on paper. Rocky Romero had some fun when the bell rang by playfully threatening his replacement for the evening on English commentary. The match featured many of the traditional things you get in an opening multi-man tag. Everyone got a bit of shine, with Roppongi 3K looking for a Jr. Tag Title shot soon, KUSHIDA up for the Jr. Title Tournament, and everyone else just doing their things. Surprisingly, it was Tiger Mask IV who picked up the win for his guys, hitting Romero with the Tiger Suplex at 7:14. A fun way to kick off the show, though you can tell these guys were kind of taking the night off after a run in RevPro recently. [**¾]

Bad Luck Fale vs. Toa Henare
Henare got squash by his former trainer during the G1 Climax Finals. He was here for redemption. He fared better this time, attacking Fale as soon as the bell rang and getting in more offense this time around. Still, he didn’t do much better. The Grenade put Henare down in 2:46. A squash. [*]

Ayato Yoshida and Michael Elgin vs. The Killer Elite Squad
Well, this outcome is obvious. The story here was that KES are pissed they haven’t been in the Tag Team Title picture this year. They took it out on Yoshida. He wanted to start the match and took a beating for it. He showed fire, but clearly bit off more than he could chew. Elgin got a mild tag and did well to stop the momentum of the former champions. Of course, Yoshida became the legal man again and fell to the Killer Bomb at 8:53. It went about as expected, but I appreciated how well they told the story. [**½]

Beretta, Chuckie T, and Will Ospreay vs. Chase Owens, Kota Ibushi, and Yujiro Takahashi
The Best Friends are set for some upcoming tags, so this was a way to reintroduce them to the Japanese audience. Despite that, most of the focus was on Will Ospreay vs. Kota Ibushi. They continue to tease this, as it is two of the most athletic wrestlers in the world. Ibushi’s just so far ahead of Ospreay in terms of in-ring skills that I can’t get too excited. Like Ospreay/Okada from earlier this year, but with a bigger gap. Anyway, the match was fast paced and filled with some fun spots throughout. The Best Friends work well together and I’ve enjoyed the dynamic of Kota with guys like Owens and Yujiro. Obviously, Owens was in the match to eat the pin, losing to Strong Zero at 9:50. The best thing on the show so far. Fun tag team action. [***]

NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: The Guerrillas of Destiny and Taiji Ishimori [c] vs. David Finlay, IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Juice Robinson, and Ryusuke Taguchi
The challengers came out decked in rugby gear. Another match that went the way you’d expect. The Firing Squad team used many underhanded tactics, cursed a lot, and weren’t that interesting outside of Ishimori. The faces saved this and were just a blast to watch. I’ve raved about the Finlay/Juice pairing in the past and throwing in Taguchi added a lot to it. He used the rugby stuff for several comedic moments, which gave this a different flavor than your usual drag of a Guerrillas match. Kevin Kelly seemed confused that Tama Tonga said he didn’t care about star ratings. As a wrestler, you’re not supposed to care about that. You’re supposed to want wins. Granted, Tama doesn’t seem to care about that either, but I digress. Finlay got hit with Ape Shit to lose at 11:27. Solid and kind of fun at points, but ultimately just there. [**½]

Gedo, NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto, and Toru Yano vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Oh, boy. I’m honestly not even going to waste my time giving this a recap. The best thing about the match was Yano being Yano. Everything else sucked. Lame cheating tactics, the same old nonsense, and a DQ finish when Taichi attacked Goto with the microphone stand at 10:42. This barely went double digit minutes and felt like half an hour. Dreadful. [DUD]

BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA, and Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, and Zack Sabre Jr.
It really feels like the only guys capable of getting something interesting out of Suzuki-Gun are LIDJ. The intensity was kept up between Suzuki and Naito. They brawled all around the ring and I got a kick out of Minoru stealing a page from Naito’s playbook by sitting in a chair during their battle. There was also backstory involving Sabre and Naito, since Sabre beat Naito on the last night of the G1 to eliminate him. A lot of focus was given to EVIL as well. He seems to be on a collision course with Chris Jericho and the Intercontinental Title, so it’s important that he look strong. I enjoyed his back and forth with Sabre. That would be a clash of styles singles match I’d be down for. In the end, EVIL and SANADA hit the Magic Killer to beat TAKA at 12:12. This was a good multi-man tag. I dug the Naito/Suzuki interactions, as well as the Sabre/EVIL ones. [***]

Post-match, Suzuki went after Naito again, while Sabre and EVIL got into a shoving match. Naito nearly did a stretcher job, but refused.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, and Tomoaki Honma vs. Jay White, Kazuchika Okada, and YOSHI-HASHI
I get the appeal of Tanahashi vs. Okada, but I’m over it. They still have great matches (other than WK10) but it’s been done to death. I really liked White tagging himself in and stopping a Tana/Okada battle. White straight up said, “I beat you, why do you get to decide?” He makes a great point. White was the star in this one. He made the match interesting. He kept messing with Okada, from brutal attacks on Tanahashi that the CHAOS leader seemed to disagree with to tagging himself in when Okada wanted in. White also wanted YOSHI to use a chair, but he declined. Okada accidentally kicked HASHI, allowing Tanahashi to roll him up for the win at 12:14. Without Jay, this would’ve been a bland tag. He kept me intrigued, as did his argument with Okada over the finish. [***¼]

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega [c] vs. Tomohiro Ishii
These guys are 2-2 against each other. Ishii won in the New Japan Cup last year (****¼) and this year’s G1 (****½) to earn this shot. Omega won at Wrestling Dontaku (****½) and the G1 Special (****½). I think their series is certainly superior to Omega/Okada. Needless to say, this had a lot to live up to. Thankfully, they mostly did that. There was a sense of urgency from the start. Omega went for the kill and tried winning several times early. From a countout tease to the One Winged Angel, he was bringing his big guns early. Of course, this is Ishii we’re talking about. He was prepared with counters. When he did get hit, he was on point with the expressions and his selling. Ishii continues to rank among the best in the business at selling. They called back to their history, like Ishii delivering a tremendous looking super rana that he nails cleaner than a man his size should. Late, they managed to do just enough to make me believe that Ishii could honestly pull this off. I came in knowing Omega was winning and that magnificent bastard Ishii made me believe. Omega threw a lot of V-Triggers late (he’s like 2008 Nigel McGuinness and his lariats), before hitting the One Winged Angel to retain at 30:55. This was a great main event. It wasn’t their best match at all, though it would still rank ahead of their first meeting. They went a bit overboard down the stretch, but they told a compelling story and gave us a lot of hard hitting action. The pace they went at for 31 minutes shouldn’t be possible. Ishii is 2-2 in awesome IWGP Heavyweight Title matches. [****¼]

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

On paper, this seemed like a one match show. That’s basically what it was. Ishii and Omega delivered a fantastic main event. Other than Jay White making the CHAOS stuff intriguing, the rest of the show is an easy skip. I understand the business reasons for splitting the shows, but there’s never enough stuff of interest to make it worth it from a critical standpoint.