The first stop in the Destruction tour ended up being a real below average show. It wasn't that the matches were overall bad, just most were painfully average. It didn't help that the crowd seemed non-existent for most of it. The arena was at about one-third capacity, and it sure as hell sounded it through the card. On a card that needed all the help it could get, a lack of heat for anything impacted the presentation hard, as we shall see.
Hirai Kawato and Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino and Manabu Nakanishi
The opening match saw the continuation of the random Nagata/Nakanishi blood feud that has developed in the past month. If you watched either of the "Road to" matches involving these two and the Young Lion Army, they were all better than this match. The G1 proved that Nagata can easily still go, whereas Nakanishi is a serious detriment to most matches. The Third Generation members are able to slow their paces down to his and still deliver an alright match, but the rest of the roster suffers from trying to keep down. As it stood, most of the match was either Nagata/Umino or Nakanishi/Kawato. Hirai is still my favorite Young Lion, and needs to be moved up from this kind of match. Nagata eventually made Umino tap to the Crossface-Nagata Lock
1/2*, if Umino and Kawato spent more time in the ring together the rating could have been higher.
Katsuya Kitamura and Tomoyuki Oka vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI)
I hope this doesn't means that Goto and YOSHI are going into the Tag League together. I think Ishii brings out the best in Goto as a partner, and Okada and YOSHI's team name is wondrous ("CHAOS Ride The Lightning" is fucking awesome). Kitamura is getting better with how he presents himself every time I see him. I seriously can't wait for him to come to America on excursion and learn how to be a modern, babyface powerhouse. For some reason, CHAOS got the heat on Katsuya. Maybe Oka isn't good at selling and I haven't noticed, but I'll have to pay attention next time. Oka got the tag, but got quashed pretty quickly. Goto won with his Waterfall kick thing. A nothing match that did nothing for any of the four involved.
*1/4
Bullet Club (Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi) vs CHAOS (Baretta and Jado)
Jado decided that the crowd needed to wake the fuck up, and did it as Ric Flair. The last hing I was expecting from a New Japan show was to see a Flair Flop, and his needs work. Other than that, maybe it's because I've never seen his actual prime runs, but I never knew how good Jado was at working a crowd and working a match. A third nothing tag team match in a row really. If Baretta's getting a singles push like I think he is, he needs a change in gear. The monochrome gear he has now isn't working, when he's in a faction with built in team colors (Yeah, I know I love Ishii, and he doesn't wear the red and gold, but he's Ishii and anything other than black and white shouldn't be worn in the ring). This was still a fight between CHAOS and the Club's B-Squads, and the crowd treated it as such. Pimp Juice on Jado for the pin, heading into RPG Vice's last tag team match.
*1/2
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale and Leo Tonga) vs Juice Robinson and David Finlay
Okay, the match would have been a well worked match with Kenny in it, but the story we got in the opening was great. The opening few minutes had Bad Luck Fale trying to show Leo how to be a monster heel, with slams and corner foot chokes. It was an awesome moment in what was, again, a boring tag team match. I know Leo was rushed into this spot in the tour due to Kenny's injury, so what I'm about to say is so not his fault, but he needs a lot of work still. HE did nothing, but what he did looked alright. I hope that Finlay and Robinson can stay partners, if only to see their contrasting gear every night. Nothing much to say, Leo ate a Prima Nocta (Stunner) and a Pulp Friction to be pinned.
*3/4, at least the matches were getting progressively better.
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| Taguchi Japan gets better each day. |
Finally, we got something to sink our teeth into on this show. We had the usual Taguchi Japan opening comedy, with the twist that Iizuka managed to continuously beat Ryuske's ass. All the Juniors decided to put the nitro on, and worked at 100 miles per hour. The crowd was finally getting into something here. At one point, Taichi used the hammer gimmick on Tanahashi. But after just striking him with it, he proceeded to shove the handle right into the man's sinus. That had to suck horribly.
Speaking of Hiroshi, the man needs surgery immediately on his arm. 90% of his offense was from his left arm, and he was clutching the right to his side the whole time. I'm now endorsing the option of Sabre Jr. winning the Intercontinental title immediately, and getting Tanahashi strait into an OR. There was some wacky three stooges shit at the end, involving TAKA forced to poke Kanemaru's and his own eyes, before Taguchi rolled TAKA up for the pin.
**1/2, maybe it wasn't actually that good but it was still better than everything so far.
IWGP Tag Team Championships [2nd Title Defense]
War Machine (c) vs Killer Elite Squadron vs Guerillas of Destiny
I had such high hopes for this to be good. It was going to be the almighty, entertaining car crash that I thought would start to save this show. But, like a lot of matches on the show, the wrestlers seemed off. There were a lot more minor mistakes in this match, and the show in general, than in most New Japan shows. Here was no exception. The six men seemed almost uncomfortable in the multi-man situation. This honestly would have been better as a two on two match, and maybe at King of Pro Wrestling that's what we'll get. I'm usually very good at keeping track of who's legal in these matches, but here I lost track in the last few minutes. War Machine hit Fallout on Tanga Loa, and hopefully these Triple Threats get better from here.
**1/2
CHAOS (Will Ospreay and Tomohiro Ishii) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito)
It's actually impossible for me to have not liked this match. It's four of my favorite wrestlers in the world in a tag team match together. There's something coming up between Ospereay and Takahashi, hopefully some kind of number one contender's match for the Junior Heavyweight title at the Dome. Which is a best case scenario either way. Besides those two, Ishii and Naito are putting their match building powers to the max for their encounter at King of Pro Wrestling. Ishii is coming in solidly as the babyface it seems, and has a bad leg to go with it that Naito worked over like hell this night. This is contrast to their first encounter at Dontaku last year, where Naito was solidly in the babyface spot. The action was good in this match, and there was a very good story-building moment with Ospereay choosing to help his tag partner instead of doing a wacky dive to the outside. This proved to be fatal, however, as Ospereay ended up getting fouled hard by Naito, leading to a Destino for the pin.
***, it was the first match in the whole show I actually enjoyed. It also has bits that'll be important later in the time stream, so watching is a solid probably.
NEVER Openweight 6-man Championships [3rd Title Defense]
Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL, SANADA, and BUSHI) (c) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero, and Toru Yano)
You know, I never knew how actually important chemistry is in a 3-man team. I mean obviously, but it really shows in the ragtag CHAOS trio that came in here. It really gave me an appreciation for how well the LIJ members work together, and how well combinations of Taguchi Japan work together. There were several times that Romero's fast pace, Yano's shenanigans, and Okada being Okada really got in the way of each other. The three CHAOS members truly felt thrown together. In addition to this, I don't think anyone believed the titles were really going to change here. The entire defense served as a backdrop to the Heavyweight Title match coming next month. I've decided, however, that SANADA and Yano must fight forever, being a font of high physical comedy whenever they work together. The ending added a half a star to the match; EVIL took Okada out with an STO, SANADA put Yano in a Paradise lock within the ropes, all before BUSHI killed Romero with the MX. A lovely piece of teamwork, and building for the future.
***1/4
Minoru Suzuki (c) vs Michael Elgin
Lumberjack Deathmatch
I'll get the positive aspect out of the way; Elgin looked as amazing as possible coming out of this match, short of winning the title. The match was a very good back and forth murder fest, and Elgin absorbed everything Suzuki had to give him in terms of stiff offense and illegal tactics. But, in the end, the Suzuki-Gun bullshit triumphed. I mean, really, bullshit is the only word to describe how the match ended. For those who didn't see the match, Iizuka came out with his infamous Iron Fingers from Hell to jam Elgin in the throat/head/beard, so that Suzuki could hit the fastest Gotch piledriver ever for the pin. Which is hair pulling levels of frustrating. This match needed to be quality. The whole show before this was a misery of average. Up till the final minute the match was even looking really good in terms of action, even with Suzuki-Gun's normal shenanigans. I thought it would save my judgement on the show. But, with hindsight, this was the main event the show deserved, one of disappointment and apathy, not the one it needed.
***3/4
I wish this show had been better, and I could come here and say this was a great start to the Destruction Tour. But, the trio starts on a sour note. If you're looking for a final recommendation, just watch the final three matches of the card for everything salvageable from the show. I'm left hoping that Hiroshima and Kobe are awesome to balance out this unfortunate display of a New Japan worst case scenario.
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