Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/17/njpw-destruction-in-beppu-report-feat-tetsuya-naito-vs-minoru-suzuki/
New Japan’s Destruction cards continued Monday from Beppu.
Kevin Kelly and Mark Warzecha are calling the show in English.
YUJI NAGATA, MANABU NAKANISHI & YUYA UEMURA VS HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA & YOTA TSUJI
Uemura and Tsuji were engaging in a heavy chop battle.
Kojima entered and chopped Uemura in the corner and followed with the top rope elbow drop. Nagata came in and lit up Kojima’s chest with kicks. He attempted the Fujiwara armbar and was stopped by Tenzan.
Kojima hit a Koji cutter to Nagata, Tsuji demanded to be tagged in and worked with Kojima & Tenzan. He applied the Boston crab on Nagata, who broke out of the hold, hit the exploder and applied the Nagata Lock
WINNERS: YUJI NAGATA (submitted Yota Tsuji), MANABU NAKANISHI & YUYA UEMURA AT 9:09
Yota Tsuji got a nice sequence at the end standing up to Nagata before falling on his sword.
The current crop of Young Lions is an impressive class.
Nagata and Kojima looked good in their limited time during the match.
TOA HENARE & SHOTA UMINO VS DAVID FINLAY & REN NARITA
Kevin Kelly explained the “C Block” and how David Finlay won the small trophy.
Umino received a bloody nose early in the match.
Henare and Umino double-teamed Finlay, Henare speared him and Umino followed with a missile dropkick before applying the Boston crab.
Finlay kicked out of a victory roll from Umino, caught him with the uranage back breaker for a two-count on Umino and then hit the stunner for the win.
WINNERS: DAVID FINLAY (pinned Shota Umino) & REN NARITA AT 6:40
Shota Umino was the standout in the match and the bloody nose was maximized by Umino for added drama.
TAKASHI IIZUKA VS AYATO YOSHIDA
Iizuka immediately attacks him with a chair on his way to the ring while wearing his muzzle.
Iizuka went after Kevin Kelly and he took a bump on the floor as he screamed for his life.
The muzzle came off and Iizuka began biting Yoshida.
Yoshida hit a PK and went for a follow-up, which was caught. He continued with kicks to Iizuka.
Iizuka choked Yoshida with the rope, then pulled out the Iron Fingers and attacked Yoshida in the throat and the bell was called.
WINNER: AYATO YOSHIDA BY DISQUALIFICATION AT 4:42
Kevin Kelly suggested that Iizuka affected by deep emotional pain as the cause of his outbursts.
This wasn’t very good and the Iizuka character is better suited hidden in tags for one or two sequences and not singles matches.
WILL OSPREAY, ROPPONGI 3K & ROCKY ROMERO VS KUSHIDA, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, TIGER MASK & JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER
The audience was behind Liger and seemed to get the strongest response of anyone this far on the show.
YOH began using a hip attack on Taguchi, who came back and his own to YOH.
Taguchi stood on the turnbuckle with his ass facing the ring, YOH was Irish whipped, stopped and poked his fingers into the ass of Taguchi. Kevin Kelly asked how Gordon Solie would have called that spot.
Romero and Ospreay did comedy with the forever clotheslines throwing off Ospreay being thrown into the corner. They all hugged, and Taguchi tried to join in with the opposing team and they attacked Taguchi.
Taguchi went for a hip attack into an atomic drop onto Ospreay’s knee.
KUSHIDA avoided Ospreay’s Storm Breaker. Taguchi and KUSHIDA hit stereo hip attacks to 3K and then were taken out by Ospreay.
Tiger Mask hit a Tiger Driver that Romero kicked out of and then pinned him after a tombstone.
WINNERS: TIGER MASK (pinned Rocky Romero), KUSHIDA, JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI AT 12:00
SHO suffered a cut under his right eye and the announcers noted it was swelling up.
The match was fine but nothing to go out of your way to see. They teased that Ospreay and KUSHIDA could meet in the final of the junior heavyweight title tournament that begins next weekend with KUSHIDA taking on Bushi and continues on September 30th with Ospreay against Marty Scurll in Long Beach.
KILLER ELITE SQUAD VS BERETTA & CHUCKIE T
They got the advantage on Beretta with Beretta beaten down with strikes and kept in KES’s corner.
Beretta stopped a running power slam and hit a half-nelson suplex to Smith before tagging Chuckie. Smith caught him with three rolling German suplexes and his bridging German is called, “The Dungeon Special”.
Beretta took out Smith with a somersault dive to the floor, Archer caught Beretta and dropped him onto the edge of the apron from the floor. Beretta countered a chokeslam into a roll-up for two and was hit with a Black Hole Slam that Chuckie broke up.
Chuckie was taken out with a snap suplex on the floor by Smith.
KES double-teamed Beretta inside the ring, Smith caught him and they hit the Killer Bomb for the win.
WINNERS: KILLER ELITE SQUAD AT 10:35
Archer hit a huge chokeslam to Ren Narita, who was ringside with the Young Lions after the match.
After the match, Archer said they are coming for the Young Bucks and will take out any teams that get in their way. Smith then tossed water onto the announcers. Kelly remarked he was having a “hell of a night”.
EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI VS ZACK SABRE JR., EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU
23:04-31:37
Desperado jumped Sanada before the bell rung while Kanemaru was about to lock up with him. Sanada placed Kanemaru into the Paradise Lock after fighting off Desperado.
Suzuki-gun triple-teamed Sanada before Desperado and Sanada continued the match.
It built to Zack and EVIL being tagged in with Kelly noting they have never had a singles match before and is something clearly being set up for the near future.
Zack applied the Octopus hold and clasped his hands behind his back, EVIL bit the top rope for the break.
Everything is Evil was countered by Zack with a high angle bridging roll up to cover EVIL for the surprise win.
WINNERS: ZACK SABRE JR (pinned EVIL), YOSHINOBU KANEMARU & EL DESPERADO AT 8:33
EVIL just remained in the ring stunned that he was defeated. They went through all the members of LIJ that Zack has defeated.
The stuff with Zack and EVIL was strong and they will have a great match down the road.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI, JUICE ROBINSON, TOGI MAKABE & TOMOAKI HONMA VS KAZUCHIKA OKADA, JAY WHITE, YOSHI-HASHI & TORU YANO
39:54-52:56
The audience cheered for Honma as he was tagged in early with Jay White.
CHAOS got the advantage on Honma in their corner and attacked him behind the back of Red Shoes. Yano sent Honma into the exposed buckle, but Honma quickly returned and landed the kokeshi.
It led to Tanahashi and Okada being tagged in, Tanahashi attacked with the dragon screw leg whip and attacked the left knee. Okada caught him with a dropkick as Tanahashi came off the rope, Tanahashi ducked a Rainmaker and landed the Twist & Shout followed by a sling blade.
Tanahashi climbed to the top and missed the High Fly Flow.
Robinson attacked Yosh-Hashi with jabs and did the Sting yell. Yoshi-Hashi hit a big lariat onto Robinson for a near fall. He went for a powerbomb and was stopped with a flying headbutt from Honma.
Pulp Friction was countered by Yoshi-Hashi, Jay White ran in and missed Robinson to take out Yoshi-Hashi. Robinson landed a left hand and Pulp Friction to pin Yoshi-Hashi and win the match for his team.
WINNERS: JUICE ROBINSON (pinned Yoshi-Hashi), HIROSHI TANAHASHI, TOGI MAKABE & TOMOAKI HONMA AT 13:02
Jay White was angry at Yoshi-Hashi even though White screwed up. Tanahashi came in after the match to check on Yoshi-Hashi and continue this story of Tanahashi trying to recruit the CHAOS member, who was inadvertently attacked by Okada in Hiroshima and White on this show.
Okada checked on Yoshi-Hashi and he didn’t want Okada’s help.
HIROOKI GOTO VS TAICHI FOR THE NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE
Taichi killed time on the floor while Goto sat cross-legged in the center of the ring awaiting Taichi to enter. Taichi constantly evaded Goto and went to the floor.
Miho Abe distracted the referee and allowed Yoshinobu Kanemaru to attack Goto on the floor. Goto fought back as Taichi grabbed a chair and attacked Goto from behind.
They went into the audience as Taichi continued to attack using a chair. Taichi grabbed the title and held it up inside the ring while Goto fought back to beat the count.
Taichi landed a lariat that woke up the crowd and hit Goto with a head kick for a two-count.
Goto attempted a rear-naked choke and was suplexed onto his neck by Taichi.
Goto went back to the rear-naked choke and had it applied in the center, Taichi was struggling, then lifted for the GTR and Taichi grabbed onto Red Shoes allowing Kanemaru to run in and attack Goto. Goto attacked Kanemaru and sent him to the floor.
Goto went for the Ushigoroshi to Taichi and now Desperado ran in and stopped Goto. Desperado was clotheslined to the floor and had his back turned. Goto ducked the microphone stand and hit Taichi with the Ushigoroshi.
Roppongi 3K came out to remove Kanemaru and Desperado.
Goto hit the Shouten Kai but Red Shoes was out on the floor.
Goto just killed time until hitting a reverse GTR and Taichi kicked out.
Takashi Iizuka appeared on the apron and was knocked down, Taichi then hit a low blow and used the Gedo clutch for a convincing near fall. Taichi landed a superkick and hit the Last Ride powerbomb for another near fall that the people bought. He lifted Goto for the Air Raid crash and won the match and title.
WINNER: TAICHI AT 20:55 TO WIN THE NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE
It took a long time for the audience to get into Taichi’s offense and near falls, but they did react for the final few minutes. The run-ins were a turnoff throughout the match and it didn’t have a lot of heat. This wasn’t one of the better Taichi matches that he’s had with Tetsuya Naito or Hiroshi Tanahashi over the past year.
TETSUYA NAITO VS MINORU SUZUKI
Suzuki attacked Naito immediately and each was sent into the guardrail on the floor. Naito spits on him on the floor.
They fought back to the ring, Naito was sent flying off the apron into the guardrail from a big boot. They went into the crowd and Suzuki wrapped a chair around Naito’s neck and hit him in the body with it.
Suzuki went for a kimura but grabbed hold of Naito’s pinky finger while going for it and pulled back on the fingers with Naito’s wristband.
They trade big forearms in the corner and Suzuki landed a running boot into the corner. That set up four straight PKs and then went back to the floor. Suzuki took the timekeeper’s table and nailed Naito in the head with it with the table cracking from the hit, which cut Naito’s head. The table was set up on the floor and Naito was placed onto it. Red Shoes stopped Suzuki from using a chair and refused to let go and always looks silly that he can outmuscle someone like Suzuki.
Suzuki applied the rear-naked choke on the apron and hung him before dropping him to the floor. Suzuki teased a Gotch piledriver off the apron to the table on the floor, Naito blocked and fought back. Naito grabbed Suzuki and sent him off the apron with a reverse neck breaker through the table. Suzuki had a blank stare with his eyes wide open from the impact. Suzuki stumbled in his attempt to climb into the ring before breaking the count.
Naito hit Gloria and Suzuki kicked out. Suzuki applied a kneebar and Naito reached the rope. Naito was favoring the right knee, which Suzuki continued to target.
Suzuki blocked Destino and went back to the kneebar on the right knee. He cranked back on the knee in a half crab before reverting to the kneebar. This was a lengthy submission sequence with the audience rallying Naito. Suzuki changed to a figure-four as Naito hung onto Red Shoes and eventually made it to the rope. This was too long and I felt it took the air out off the urgency of the knee injury because it was so long.
Naito hit the Destino after ducking a slap and both were down.
They did a big slap exchange and Suzuki was dropped with an enzuigiri. Naito lifted him for a Gotch piledriver but instead drove him down with a powerbomb maneuver. He followed with Destino and won the match.
WINNER: TETSUYA NAITO AT 32:08
It was the best match on the show, but I had my issues with the main event. Typically, a match benefits from having more time to tell the story you want and hopefully the match intensifies with the added time.
This match peaked for me in the middle and went for at least ten minutes too long. They were having a great match and after the table spots, I thought it was time to go into the final sequences. The super-long kneebar spot took me out of it because it stopped being a believable submission and felt like they were going long just for the sake of going long because New Japan main events have to be 25+ minute affairs.
I enjoyed it, but the final ten minutes should be the most dramatic and didn’t feel it achieved that and this would have been a significantly better-received match at 20 minutes compared to 30.
Overall, I wouldn’t highly recommend this show, the card in Hiroshima was much better and outside the main event, I can’t say there was even a lot of future angles set up or anything you must see. Goto and Taichi were average at best and the undercard didn’t feel as important as Hiroshima aside from the Tanahashi vs. Okada build.