Over the next week-plus New Japan Pro Wrestling is giving us not one, not two, but THREE Destruction events containing 27 matches! Many of these are house show tag bouts, but each PPV has a handful of big matches with either a title or a briefcase on the line, and there should be no shortage of quality bouts to talk about heading toward King of Pro-Wrestling in October. Landon Wayne (LSWayne21) and I will give our predictions for all three cards, starting with Destruction in Tokyo (this Saturday, Sept. 17th).
David Finlay & Henare vs. Roppongi Vice
Experienced Young Lion teams with kiwi newcomer Young Lion against one of the company's most accomplished teams. Yeah I'm pretty sure the Young Lions are gettin' pinned here. Should be fun though.
Justin's pick: Roppongi Vice
Landon's pick: RPG Vice
Hunter Club vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
The Hunter Club has to be the least effective faction ever assembled to take on a dominant heel stable. Nagata & Nakanishi have their way with Yoshitatsu & the Captain.
Justin's pick: Nagata & Nakanishi
Landon's pick: Nagata & Nakanishi
Tencozy & Jushin Liger vs. Great Bash Heel & Tiger Mask
This one could go either way and should be a very enjoyable six-man. If it were me I'd give this to GBH and Tiger Mask, but I have a feeling it goes the other way.
Justin's pick: Tencozy & Liger
Landon's pick: Great Bash Heel & Tiger Mask IV
Guerillas of Destiny & Chase Owens vs. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo
The Bullet Club C-Team vs. two guys I hope go after the IWGP Tag belts in January plus Gedo. I could be way off base but I'm calling Ishii & Goto to win the Tag League this year.
Justin's pick: Chaos
Landon's pick: Bullet Club
Kyle O'Reilly vs. Juice Robinson
This is an odd little addition to the card. Since Bobby Fish is in a title match I guess they needed something for O'Reilly to do. I hope in the near future we get to see O'Reilly challenge Shibata as well. Clearly Kyle is winning this.
Justin's pick: Kyle O'Reilly
Landon's pick: Kyle O'Reilly
Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi
It's a preview of the WrestleKingdom 11 main event as Omega and Okada lead their teams in battle. This could go either way but I'll take the Bullet Club.
Justin's pick: Bullet Club
Landon's pick: CHAOS
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Los Ingobernables
By the same token here's a preview of the likely semi-main event for WK11, Tanahashi vs. Naito. To me this match and the previous one set up the title challenger to get a win of some kind over their respective quarries.
Justin's pick: LIJ
Landon's pick: Team WMB (White Meat Babyfaces)
NEVER Openweight Championship: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Bobby Fish
This should be a helluva good fight. ROH TV Champion Fish should be able to hold his own in a slugfest and maybe add some grappling fun to the proceedings. I don't see Fish taking the belt here certainly but it will be entertaining. As I said before I hope we get Shibata vs. O'Reilly in the near future as well.
Justin's pick: Shibata
Landon's pick: Shibata
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Kushida vs. Bushi
We saw this match earlier this year and it was a helluva contest. I see this one bettering their New Beginning match since it's getting the main event slot here (which is awesome and illustrates what a great, credible Jr. Heavyweight Champion Kushida is). I could very easily see Bushi getting a short run with the Jr. HW belt and Kushida either winning it back prior to WrestleKingdom, or at that show itself.
Justin's pick: Bushi
Landon's pick: Kushida
This show is on paper the weakest of the three Destructions, with really only two matches of real significance. But those two matches alone will make this worth seeing I think. The Hiroshima and Kobe shows obviously have much more meat, while this feels like an appetizer.
Anyway, stay tuned for Hiroshima picks coming up on Monday! Thanks for reading!
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