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Kevin’s NJPW Destruction In Beppu Review

September 15, 2019 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
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Kevin’s NJPW Destruction In Beppu Review  

NJPW Destruction in Beppu
September 15th, 2019 | Beppu B-Con Plaza in Beppu-shi, Oita | Attendance: 2,430

You already know the drill with New Japan’s Destruction events. They come during that awful lull between the G1 Climax and Wrestle Kingdom. The roughest point of the year for the company. These shows are often bloated and feature a lot of nothing on the card before a big main event. On paper, this looks like more of the same but let’s see if the effort outpaces the booking.

Young Lions Cup: Karl Fredericks [6] vs. Yota Tsuji [2]
These Young Lions Cup matches have been the highlight of the Road to Destruction shows. They’re a slog outside of these guys putting in the effort. Once again, these two put on a pretty good show. Their move sets are limited but their energy certainly isn’t. Lots of evenly matched back and forth between two guys on a level playing field. Fredericks looks to be the more polished wrestler and he showed off some nice stuff. His spinebuster looked good. It set up the half crab that scored him the win and eliminated Tsuji from competition after 7:23. A solid little match to kick things off.[***]

Young Lions Cup: Alex Coughlin [4] vs. Shota Umino [6]
Shota Umino has to be a favorite to win this thing. His experience is a factor but there’s also the fact that he’s paired up with Jon Moxley. That makes him notable. There’s not much to say about this that I didn’t say for the previous match. It was two guys giving their all and bringing a lot of energy. I dug the section where they just fired up and traded uppercuts and strikes. It felt like something out of a NEVER Title match but on a smaller scale. Umino won with a fisherman suplex in 8:14 to cap another good performance from the Young Lions. Give me those guys over half the NJPW roster. [***]

Clark Connors, Manabu Nakanishi, Michael Richards & Toa Henare vs. Ren Narita, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuji Nagata & Yuya Uemura
A mixture of Young Lions, New Japan Dads, and then Henare and Taguchi. I don’t hate it. Though this was otherwise a traditional multi-man tag, there were good bits. Ren Narita hitting a slam on Manabu Nakanishi was great. The Nakanishi/Nagata battle is always appreciated. Toa Henare continued to show that he’s good and Taguchi threw ass attacks at everyone. Add in some fiery Young Lions and you’ve got a recipe for an enjoyable match. It wasn’t anything memorable or even worth remembering, but it wasn’t a bad time at all. Taguchi made Richards tap to an Ankle Lock in 11:18. [**¾]

DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jushin Thunder Liger and Roppongi 3K
I really like the babyface team. Unfortunately, Kanemaru and DOUKI are incredibly boring. Not even the fun boys from Roppongi 3K could make them interesting. On the flip side, we got more from Liger vs. Suzuki. I have been ALL about that since they started feuding a few months ago. I still contest that Liger/Suzuki should have been on the Dominion card. Their exchanges here were fantastic and saved this from being something to avoid. DOUKI fell to 3K at the 10:36 mark. Come for the Liger/Suzuki, ignore the rest. [**½]

Bad Luck Fale, El Phantasmo, KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Birds of Prey, Great Bash Heel & Kota Ibushi
This was here to build towards KENTA/Ibushi and the Jr. heavyweight Title match tomorrow. The Birds of Prey are Eagles and Ospreay, not the Harley Quinn led film next year. I don’t know which is better or worse. New hair and theme for KENTA. With matches like this it’s another case of knowing what to expect. Fale, Yujiro, and Great Bash Heel were just here to fill out the card and give some guys a payday. Plus, someone has to eat the pin, right? KENTA and Ibushi had some great back and forth reminiscent of their G1 match. The junior tag guys had fast paced exchanges. World keeps spinning. A mostly fine match that KENTA won with the Go to Sleep on Honma in 9:17. [**¾]

BUSHI, SANADA and Shingo Takagi vs. Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada and Rocky Romero
I know I sound like a broken record but that’s because that’s what New Japan undercards are. Broken records. The multi-man tags serve their purpose like this one did. BUSHI and Rocky Romero were the guys included to take the loss, while Goto/Shingo and SANADA/Okada were built towards. I’m all for Shingo/Goto because their G1 match was very good. But I am BEYOND over the idea of SANADA/Okada. It has been done to death and it has never been great in my opinion. Just a slew of good yet underwhelming matches. This was a good multi-man tag with plenty of solid exchanges throughout. It’s another that isn’t a time waster but another that nobody will remember once it ends. SANADA beat Romero by submission in 10:40. [***¼]

Chase Owens and Jay White vs. EVIL and Tetsuya Naito
Again, this is here to preview stuff. Jay White has an Intercontinental Title shot next week after beating Tetsuya Naito in the G1. That match lacked and I don’t have high hopes for the rematch. The partners chosen here give away the outcome. Chase Owens is no EVIL. I admit that I kind of like the way White/Naito is being built. They’re being friendly and nice to each other but you can tell none of it is genuine. They turn the tide just in time for the action. However, that portion is never quite as good as the build. Naito pinned Owens with Destino at the 11:11 mark. I die a little inside whenever Kevin Kelly yells Destino. [**½]

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Guerrillas of Destiny [c] vs. Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI
Serious question. Who the hell thought the Guerrillas of Destiny should wrestle for 21 minutes? Because that person needs to go home tonight and stub their toe. They’re not good. Tomohiro Ishii is phenomenal and did his best to raise this up. But when you’re working with three uninteresting and uninspired wrestlers, there’s not much he could do. I couldn’t get into face in peril YOSHI-HASHI or the heat segment from the champions. It was so dull. Ishii fired things up when he got in there and bless that man for trying. The Guerrillas were coming off of a good match against Aussie Open at Royal Quest but that might have been an anomaly. Jado got involved and KENTA ran in near the end. I thought it was to continue Ishii/KENTA but instead seemed to be building towards HASHI/KENTA. No thank you. Tama Tonga rolled up HASHI with a handful of tights to end this way too long match in 21:35. Someone please stop booking boring wrestlers to compete for 20 minutes. I love you, Ishii. [**¼]

RevPro British Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi [c] vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
At Royal Quest, Tanahashi bested Sabre for the title and took a 4-3 lead in their series. Their meetings have all ranged from ***¾ to ****½ in my eyes. That Royal Quest meeting got ****. But five singles matches in one year is too much. That is mainly why this suffered from the law of diminishing returns. In no way was this a bad match. It’s just that they’ve kind of done this stuff so often together that none of it feels fresh or new. Everything they did came off crisp, was smart, and worked in a way that made total sense. They played well off of their past but didn’t do enough to make this one stand out. Tanahashi tried to do Zack’s game too much, which worked a bit at Royal Quest but Sabre came prepared. He bested Tanahashi in that area and regained the title with a pretty sweet cradle in 26:43. I dig that finish between these two, so I wish a rollup hadn’t ended the previous match. Feels like cheap Raw style booking to me. Like I said, the match was very good and had elements of being great but it was too much o the same. [***¾]

5.0
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
About what I expected. A lot of undercard stuff that was kind of just there, a lame GOD tag match, a very good main event, and the Young Lions bringing the effort. I get the business reasons behind splitting Destruction into three shows, but there’s only about five or six meaningful matches across them.
legend

article topics :

NJPW Destruction, Kevin Pantoja