Destruction in Okayama
23rd September 2014, Convex, Okayama
Okayama is just an hour and a quarter west of Kobe by the train that leaves Shinkobe station every fifteen minutes, which means if you really wanted to pull a live double-header for this PPV then it would be pretty easy. New Japan haven't run a big show here in the Bushiroad era, often granting the city smaller shows on the Tag League tour, giving this show the quality of a step into the unknown (unlike say, Osaka or Korakuen Hall).
On initial announcement my reaction was one of hesitation, feeling that there was more 'angle' than 'spectacle'. Drilling down deeper I must admit that all of the title matches and the contendership bouts offer something noteworthy. Match of the night seems genuinely up for grabs rather than nailed-on. As a critical word, I don't think that I can recall a main event where the result has been so completely expected ahead of time.
Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, Tiger Mask and Maximo vs. Captain New Japan, Ryusuke Taguchi and BUSHI
End of the line for Maximo, who jets back to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) having missed their 81st Anniversary show and the once-in-a-lifetime atmosphere of the Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero mascara-contra-mascara match to indulge in some bawdy kisses with Taichi. I think he would not want it any other way. He's been pretty impressive actually, as entertaining as Mascara Dorada gets when he tries and leagues ahead of Fuego.
The match is fine, though very short, with Maximo getting one last go around on his kissy-kissy routine and Taguchi (who appears wearing a weird Tutankhamen mask) getting to embed himself as King Junior. BUSHI, after a couple of light botches in sequence with Liger, takes the win with his impressive top-rope Codebreaker type move on Maximo. The finish makes sense later when we learn that BUSHI will enter into singles competition at the next supercard against NWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion Chase Owens. I'm not sure who that is either, but I guess it means more Bruce Tharpe! **1/4
BUSHI, Taguchi and Captain New Japan d. Liger, Tiger and Maximo.
Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov) (CHAOS) vs. Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks) (Bullet Club)
There has been no announcement to back this up but I am going to guess that this is basically a #1 Contendership for the Jr. Tags as well as another front in which Bullet Club can face CHAOS down. These pairs worked a very good match in the final of the brief 2013 Super Junior Tag Tournament, which was won by the Bucks, who used the win to springboard toward a successful title shot.
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| Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov: Forever |
During the championship run the Bucks defended successfully against Koslov and Romero at Wrestling Dontaku back in May, as well as beating them as part of a three-way tag dance at the Ring of Honor crossover show and a four-way tag dance at Wrestle Kingdom 8. It is only the pinfall scored by the Hooligans at Destruction in Kobe that seems to indicate any real chance for our pseudo-communist buddies.
No change of luck is in order as the Bucks take a match that needs a couple of minutes to evolve beyond comedy spots and develop a sense of meaningful competition. Once it does click, it motors along even if both teams wrestle a little within themselves, with near falls and big moves (my current fave Bucks move is the Buckle Bomb -> Enziguri, which lesser teams would kill to have as their finish). One More Bang For Your Buck later, which the commentary team sell big for, and the Bucks reestablish their winning ways in New Japan. ***1/2
Young Bucks d. Forever Hooligans
Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano and Gedo (CHAOS) vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka and TAKA Michinoku (Suzuki-gun)
We can't keep on complaining about this feud. They are slowly moving Suzuki off Yano and onto Sakuraba. Another scruffy brawl ends with Yano cheating to pin TAKA and Sakuraba and Suzuki working each other over on the outside after the bell. **
CHAOS d. Suzuki-gun
Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) vs. Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata)
Only its inherent status as exhibition and the match taking place post-feud that puts a potential humdinger like this in the first half semi-final slot. It's worked as a short slugfest, ending as the Shibata-Honma G1 bruiser in Osaka did, with the former pelting the chest of the latter with a PK. Fine enough bout but unmemorable.
There's something stirring for days beyond this bout. Goto and Makabe have a bit of a shouting match after the bell, then Goto offers Makabe a conciliatory hand, which Makabe eventually takes. Earlier on the tour Goto is said to have taken the mic in his hometown of Kuwana and proclaimed a new era, which has been reported as Goto starting up a new stable that includes Makabe but possibly not Shibata.
There's also a weird tease of a relationship between Shibata and Honma here too; Shibata picks Honma up and tosses him out of the ring in the same manner he did to Goto at the G1 Final (as an act of friendship, weirdly, returning him to his friend Makabe so he could be helped to the back). I don't know what it all means but I think I'm ready for a shake-up of alignments and factions. ***1/4
Meiyu Tag d. GBH
IWGP JR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) (c) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Taichi)
KUSHIDA is back down to just one championship having dropped the singles title of the junior division to Taguchi in a surprisingly peppy technical encounter. Still selling the effects of the limbwork, the brats of Suzuki-gun target KUSHIDA's gammy leg and Shelley's knackered shoulder and generally run an accepted playbook on heelish antics of any generation of wrestling in any country.
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| all those yen baby |
This said, the match lags and doesn't rise to expectations until Taichi i. cedes control and ii. rips his trousers off. Perhaps those expectations are high because of a couple of years of high-octane non-stop action, but neither Suzuki-gun man seems capable of living at the level established by the Splitters, Bucks, Hooligans or reDRagon. Heck, El Desperado couldn't wrest these very belts alongside Kota Ibushi, a man several echelons above Taichi.
Nonetheless, effort alone makes for a decent match that doesn't just rely on a Shelley-gets-whacked-KUSHIDA-saves template in the middle reaches. Shelley gets to look good, hitting his impressive Shiranui DDT (Sliced Bread #2) both solo and in tandem with a KUSHIDA assist to finish the job and retain.
Both the Young Bucks and Forever Hooligans appear in the post-match hustings to jostle for a shot at the title. I'm not exactly sure what the Hooligans grounding is as multi-time losers but IWGP eventually sanction a three-way dance for Kings of Pro Wrestling. Weird but I'm sold. ***1/2
Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) vs. Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga (Bullet Club) |
| Let's go round again |
Though I'm not a fan of cramming two guys together just because of a shared or similar racial heritage, I could get behind the tag team of Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga. They're a believable duo, their personalities and styles are complementary, with a monster and a middleweight, one solid and the other slippery. Crucially, I would argue that neither is ready to work the longer style singles matches required by New Japan.
If I had a criticism of Nakamura or Ishii, and it would only be a minor gripe in context, is that neither particularly excels or gives it the maximum effort in tag matches. One imagines that is because their calling lies elsewhere on the card. Besides, as a sheer force of personality style team, I doubt there is one finer anywhere in wrestling right now.
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| The World's Most Kawaii Tag Team |
It's a decent match by any stretch, revolving around repeated attempts to Brainbuster Bad Luck Fale by Ishii, who is incrementally more successful each time (ie: i. not successful ii. successful with assist iii. nearly there/reversed iv. successful). The fans are all over Ishii here, roaring him on with every shot. Murmuring to myself at home, I expected that the match would set up Ishii vs. Fale as a G1 rematch, but any teases were quickly retrieved as Nakamura put Tonga (who made a couple of fairly basic errors) away with a booming Boma Ye before popping the house with a short promo. ***1/4
CHAOS d. Bullet Club
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
TenCozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) (c) vs. Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi
Since gaining the NWA belts from Iron Godz (Jax Dane and Rob Conway) at Invasion Attack, by wisely not facing NWA talent, TenCozy have managed to raise the profile of the titles by a hare or two. The last defence took place in June at the Dominion 6.21 show against Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.), which to my mind was a surprisingly fine bout.
As a sign of their gluttony for punishment and their utility as ambassadors for NJPW, both Kojima and Nagata have signed on for Pro-Wrestling NOAH's Global League, the latter as defending champion, which presumably renders both men out of serious home promotion action for the rest of 2014.
Though a bit ponderous in places, the match wisely opts to pad out the bulk of its run time with the most mobile members - Kojima and Nagata - whose exchanges are always gamely contested and snug. It's haphazardly structured but comes across charming, guys trying to bust their balls to give what they can rather than appearing clueless.
Everyone gets a good shine moment down the stretch, with Nakanishi keeping pace well even though fifteen minute tag matches clearly aren't easy for the permanently-injured man mountain. Nagata looks to have sealed the deal with a late roar, though Kojima has removed the elbow padding in a prior moment, allowing him to wallop a full-service boneshaker of a lariat to end the contest and retain. ***1/2
Tencozy d. Nagata and Nakanishi
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| Nagata and Nakanishi: always the best of friends |
As a sign of their gluttony for punishment and their utility as ambassadors for NJPW, both Kojima and Nagata have signed on for Pro-Wrestling NOAH's Global League, the latter as defending champion, which presumably renders both men out of serious home promotion action for the rest of 2014.
Though a bit ponderous in places, the match wisely opts to pad out the bulk of its run time with the most mobile members - Kojima and Nagata - whose exchanges are always gamely contested and snug. It's haphazardly structured but comes across charming, guys trying to bust their balls to give what they can rather than appearing clueless.
Everyone gets a good shine moment down the stretch, with Nakanishi keeping pace well even though fifteen minute tag matches clearly aren't easy for the permanently-injured man mountain. Nagata looks to have sealed the deal with a late roar, though Kojima has removed the elbow padding in a prior moment, allowing him to wallop a full-service boneshaker of a lariat to end the contest and retain. ***1/2
Tencozy d. Nagata and Nakanishi
NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Yujiro Takahashi (c) (Bullet Club) vs. YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS)
Wake up YOSHI-HASHI, it's time to shine!
Here is the first singles championship contest for the CHAOS teasmaid and New Japan poster boy for pinfalls, earned on the back of interrupting the permanently assholish Yujiro from being a jerk at the G1 Finals. Since that moment he's been getting great reactions, and though Yujiro is a dick, his dickishness is a mirror that allows YOSHI to reflect upon what his personality might actually be (plucky goofball).
Whilst YOSHI-HASHI is accompanied by stablemates Nakamura and Ishii, Yujiro opts for a lithe sexy lady not wearing very much. The thing is, I detect a little sadness behind Yujiro's eyes from time to time. You can see it in the Yano CHAOS Field Trip DVD; he is an awkward soul, ruminating on sex constantly. But to what end? And to what degree is this a radical character in a country where businessmen read of the unspeakable activities of tentacles on the underground?
Whilst YOSHI-HASHI is accompanied by stablemates Nakamura and Ishii, Yujiro opts for a lithe sexy lady not wearing very much. The thing is, I detect a little sadness behind Yujiro's eyes from time to time. You can see it in the Yano CHAOS Field Trip DVD; he is an awkward soul, ruminating on sex constantly. But to what end? And to what degree is this a radical character in a country where businessmen read of the unspeakable activities of tentacles on the underground?
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| New Nottingham Forest striker YOSHI-HASHI |
It's a pretty good match that firmly establishes YOSHI-HASHI on a higher rung in the NJPW hierarchy. It's a rarity that you see the man wrestle singles bouts as a theoretical equal, and his style is unusual, like that long-retired legend who can still do some general stuff that has a low technical requirement but a decent visual impact - all rushing frontflip neckbreakers and a Hansen-esque lariat.
Sadly for the crowd, who are fully behind the underdog, Yujiro takes the win in a match that picks up down the stretch (again, Yujiro is a bit infuriating in parts). YOSHI-HASHI powers out of a pin attempt from the Tokyo Pimps, but cannot escape the Miami Shine that follows it, granting Yujiro his first successful defence.
In a badly-staged post-match, Yujiro's sexy lady dances around a child who is helping make the presentation of the victor's trophy whilst Ishii and Nakamura check on the decked YOSHI-HASHI. It's weird and messy but we establish the direction when Yujiro gets into Ishii's face and offers him a singles shot at the belt he took from him, a kind of delayed rematch. Ishii never backs down and the match is made for the next event. ***3/4
Yujiro d. YOSHI-HASHI
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito vs. AJ Styles and Doc Gallows (Bullet Club)
The central beef here is between Tanahashi and Styles, given that Styles' absent stablemate Jeff Jarrett clocked Tanahashi with a guitar at the G1 Climax Final. Styles doesn't want any of Tanahashi here though, demanding to start the match with Naito (who defeated Styles during the G1 blocks in a decent contest). From the strapping on Styles' shoulder, it appears that he's hurt, though he is an underrated seller.
The match seems of lesser importance that than the story that they're trying to set up and is wrestled as such, with only Naito rushing around the ring as if the whole thing was of any significance. It's not bad, given that 75% of the talent here could have a decent match in their sleep, but you won't remember this match one year from now and will probably struggle to recall it by the end of this year.
Naito wins the match with a Stardust Press on Gallows, and Tanahashi gets into it a little with AJ after the match. In the hours following the event it was announced that AJ Styles will defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Tanahashi at Kings of Pro-Wrestling. The whole thing sort of makes me cross and happy at the same time; of course that sounds like a stellar main event, but I don't know why we have to go through three-quarter-hearted matches at PPV to 'sell' them. ***
Tanahashi and Naito d. Bullet Club
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP #1 CONTENDERSHIP
Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS) vs. Karl Anderson (Bullet Club)
Karl Anderson defeated Kazuchika Okada during the G1 Climax. That much is true. It came out of nowhere, as Anderson's wins tend to, on day four of the tournament and snapped the streaks of both men (Anderson was 0-3, Okada was 3-0). However, the loser of the match ended up winning the entire tournament, whilst the winner ended up cheating to defeat a man whose arm, wrist and shoulder were being held together with tape and fairy wishes.
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| How this one usually pans out |
It's not just that Okada will take his win back and more that he will establish the conquering form of the G1 run (which arguably he never lost in the first place). This match is for the #1 Contendership at the Tokyo Dome in January. It is a show that requires huge stars. Okada is such a star. Karl Anderson, a fine wrestler and current tag team champion, is not. The run from G1 Climax Final to Wrestle Kingdom is developing a mythos and pattern similar to the run from WWE's flagship Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania events, where only the proven will do.
The two have displayed excellent chemistry together in the past as well and are a natural match. So it proves in a match that doesn't manage to put together a long chain of excellence, rather choosing to break it up into little chunks of a nice bit here, a cool reversal there and a nice bit of action along the way. Anderson is the king of reversals, hitting a desperation Gun Stun from a Rainmaker attempt, but Okada proves just as adept, flipping beautifully out a later Gun Stun attempt before leading Anderson down the corridor of doom where German Suplexes, Tombstones and Rainmaker lariats live.
In the post-match, Tetsuya Naito emerges to remind Okada that he also downed Okada during the G1 tournament and that it is only right that he gets a chance to take Okada's Tokyo Dome shot away from him. Okada agrees, and a further match is made for Kings of Pro-Wrestling. Tickertape shower, music, lights, we're out. ***1/2
Okada d. Anderson
I'm really not sure about this whole two show PPV thing at all. ESPECIALLY when they're B-level supercards and one of the shows is clearly secondary to another. It's not that either Destruction card was bad - Kobe was very good and this was decent - but it dilutes the quality and meaningful nature of some of the matches by having them merely set up A-level supercard events.
Kings of Pro-Wrestling, however, looks particularly strong. Here is the card (running order not necessarily this)
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT
AJ Styles (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT #1 CONTENDER
Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito
NEVER OPENWEIGHT
Yujiro Takahashi (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii
NWA TAG TEAM TITLES
TenCozy (c) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.)
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT
Ryusuke Taguchi (c) vs. El Desperado
NWA JR. HEAVYWEIGHT
Chase Owens (c) vs. BUSHI
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAGS
Time Splitters vs. Young Bucks. vs. Forever Hooligans
Shinsuke Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI vs. Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata
Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka
Kota Ibushi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma and Yuji Nagata vs. Bullet Club
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