Pantoja’s NJPW Destruction in Ryogoku Review

NJPW Destruction in Ryogoku

October 9^th, 2023 | Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 5,002

I pleaded with New Japan to try new things and they gave me EVIL vs. SANADA in a top title program. Maybe that’s on me for daring to ask for something new.

DOUKI, Tachi and Yuya Uemura vs. SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Yujiro Takahashi

As everyone expected, Yuya Uemura is back from excursion and is the new member of Just 5 Guys, replacing Kanemaru after his defection. Other than the Yuya return, there wasn’t a lot to this one. It’s the House of Torture, so you know it won’t be good and these teams haven’t really been lighting it up in these matches together. Yuya was the focal point with the hot tag and he got to strut his stuff. As usual, New Japan has an exciting prospect on their hands. We’ll see how they handle this one. Yuya got the win with the Deadbolt Suplex in 7:57. It was fine for what it was. [**]

Chase Owens vs. Tanga Loa

It’s official. Gedo must be stopped. Either that or he’s trolling by booking this singles match. Any small bit of hope this match had went out the window when Tanga got stuck going for a 619, leading to a very awkward sequence. It was all downhill from there as these two never recovered and this never even sniffed being decent. Tanga has looked really rough since returning from injury and that was never more evident than here. He got the win with a crossface, mercifully ending this in 8:05. I had no expectations for this and they were somehow still too high. [DUD]

BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito and Yota Tsuji vs. Callum Newman, The Great-O-Khan, HENARE and Jeff Cobb

It’s still wild to me that they gave Naito another G1 despite his body breaking down badly a few years ago. Anyway, this was the expected step up in quality given what came before it. LIJ has always done the multi-man tag well and United Empire are good at it but there was still something missing here. Maybe they knew they were working so low on the card and didn’t bring their best. I did like the BUSHI/Cobb interactions because he’s so much smaller than the former Matanza Cueto. It was like a Lucha Underground snippet. Naito beat new UE member Newman with a Destino in 7:44 to take this. There was a focus on Yota and HENARE which is a singles match I’d be down for. [**¾]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney [c] vs. The Intergalactic Jet Setters

Okay, everything going forward on this card has something on the line. The new AGGRESSIVE Bullet Club jumped before the bell because heels in this company only have one plan of attack. The challengers were able to weather the storm and turn this into a more traditional tag pretty quickly. I feel like KUSHIDA’s work as a tag guy is underrated given how well he performed in the Time Splitters, this team, and others. Knight actually was the standout here, flying all over the place and it’s cool to see how well he’s come into his own over the past two or so years. The Electric Chair Dropkick is a cool spot that really shows off his leaping ability. The final few minutes were very strong and KUSHIDA’s sell of the Drilla Killa was 10/10. I wish that would’ve been the finish because having KUSHIDA counter another move before falling to the Spear/Suplex wasn’t as good. This went 13:28 and was a fun, fast paced title match that was the first thing on the show I’d call good. [***¼]

Match #7 In Best of Seven Series: El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita vs. Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata

I’ve heard pretty good things about this series but admittedly haven’t seen any because they were part of the Road to shows and I tend to avoid those these days. Coming into this, the former Six-Man Champs have a 3-2-1 edge, so all Wato, Umino, and Nagata can do is finish in a tie. That sounds like Gedo booking. Desperado and Wato did the junior heavyweight thing with some quick paced action, Narita and Shooter reignited their rivalry as they try to position themselves as key future pieces of the company, and then Suzuki and Nagata had the hard hitting dad battle. Though all of those exchanges were good, I was most invested in Shooter and Narita. They really went at it late and I liked how commentary pointed out that they weren’t looking to tag out. This was about pride for them, especially Shooter who couldn’t win the series. In the end, it was Shooter who pulled it out, beating Narita with the Death Rider in 14:10. Look at who was involved here. Of course I enjoyed it. They gave me just what I wanted here. [***½]

Post-match, Shooter and Narita shook hands. Then, Desperado basically shook Wato’s hand with his pinky. Nagata and Suzuki slapped each other a few times before shaking hands.

NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship: Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd [c] vs. El Phantasmo & Hikuleo

As mentioned with the Bullet Club duo earlier, these champs also attacked before the bell. However, Coughlin came out and Kidd snuck in from behind to jump the challengers. See, they did it differently. Creativity. Anyway, the strategy was to isolate ELP when he was legal and cut down Hikuleo by attacking the leg when he was the legal man. It was a fine idea but the people involved didn’t rope me into getting invested or caring about any of it. Coughlin and Kidd are fine wrestlers but their heat segments lacked here and I didn’t care much more for the selling by the faces. They got going late and used a barrage capped by Thunderkiss 86 to give us new champions in 13:12. That was a match and it was inoffensive so I appreciate that. [**¼]

NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii [c] vs. Josh Alexander & The Motor City Machine Guns

The main reason I wanted to see this show was for MCMG. They’re legitimately one of my favorite teams ever. There’s also the added story of Alexander having a shot at Shelley’s Impact. I liked how individually, the New Japan guys had the advantage often but when the Guns got to work together, they were in firm control. Their offense is still just as crisp and good today as it was a decade ago. The one guy who more than held his own alone was Alexander, who was kind of kicking Ishi’s ass at points. There’s also just something really cool about watching Shelley and Sabin go at it with Tanahashi and Okada. When they hit Okada with their tandem move involving a dropkick, I popped because it’s a move I’ve always loved. The closing stretch saw Alexander inadvertently hit Shelley, which set the champion up to fall to the High Fly Flow in 15:40. A really fun tag with an ending that sets up the future. I could watch these three hold these titles for years. [***¾]

NEVER Openweight Championship: David Finlay [c] vs. Tama Tonga

My laptop had to do an update while this match was on so I wasn’t able to type as I watched. They told a tried and true story here where Finlay was AGGRESSIVE (because he’s a Bullet Club member) and kind of beat the hell out of Tama at every turn. That included talking smack (that never felt threatening in the least) and using tables as weapons. The problem with the layout of this match is that Tama isn’t a good sympathetic babyface. He’s much better in the role of someone with fire who brings energy. Having him sell for a longer than it should be match wasn’t a good move. Add in that Finlay isn’t the most imposing of villains and that I haven’t bought his whole “violent” persona and this was a clear miss for me. Tama rallied late and won after hitting a Styles Clash and Jay Driller in 19:39. This feud needs to be done with here. [**]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi [c] vs. Mike Bailey vs. YOH

Hiromu has had great matches with both men but three-ways in New Japan can sometimes disappoint. Hiromu tried to let the other two fight it out but when they knocked him off the apron, it backfired because they left him out of the equation for a while and he could’ve lost without eating a pin. Commentary couldn’t remember that AZM/Hazuki/Mercedes was the last three-way for a title in this building and I understand because it seems Gedo also forgot that that title is a thing. The Bailey/Hiromu superkick exchange was great because of the fake outs and such. This picked up in the expected big way down the stretch with both challengers coming close at different times. Bailey was taken out, leaving Hiromu alone with a guy he’s beaten over and over again. YOH dared Hiromu to give him his best shot and he did, laying him out with a lariat and retaining with the Time Bomb #2 in 17:53. A really entertaining match but again, it’s a case where a New Japan triple threat match was just lacking something. This company could use more Bailey around though and honestly, Hiromu has been beyond this division for years. [***¾]

After an angry Mike Bailey left, the lights went out. It wasn’t some new debut or something. It was Taiji Ishimori to attack Hiromu. So we’re getting that program again. Yay.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Lumberjack Match: SANADA [c] vs. EVIL

The idea here is that SANADA wanted this to be a lumberjack match so his guys will be out there to even the score with House of Torture. In theory it makes sense but wouldn’t it just make more sense to ban them from ringside? This just allowed for more shenanigans and nonsense. Just 5 Guys were nice enough to put EVIL back inside without jumping him but obviously, House of Torture didn’t return the favor. It makes the faces looks like dweebs. The other glaring problem with this was the length as New Japan just has to have their main events go 30 minutes. This dragged on in front of a largely uninterested crowd with all sorts of overbooking. Red Shoes did give out the double bird, which was kind of fun. At the end of it all, SANDA retained with Deadfall at the 28:01 mark. The usual trash from House of Torture and this feud did nothing to help SANADA’s already bland reign. And as usual, I’m not going to spend too much of my time writing about it because clearly, New Japan doesn’t care enough to fix this problem. [**]

Post-match, Naito came out for the staredown with SANADA ahead of the Tokyo Dome in January.

Gedo gave us EVIL in a main event, another Hiromu/Ishimori program, an actual Owens/Tanga PPV match, and a Best of Seven ending in a tie. Yikes.

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

I was hoping for a really good show but I didn’t get one. Six of the 10 matches couldn’t crack three stars and there are some overly long bouts that are lackluster at best. Come for the Jr. Title match, the NEVER Six-Man Title match, and the Best of Seven match but none of it is must see.