Seeing how the IWGP and Never Openweight titles are being defended at Royal Quest, we'll see an IC, US, and Jr. Title match on these shows.
Mox vs. Juice seems obvious. I wonder who Naito gets. I know he's being matched up against White in a tag match at Royal Quest. But they waited so long to do the 1st match, hard to imagine them doing it again so quick on the Destruction Tour.
A huge championship match has been signed for DESTRUCTION in KOBE on Sunday, September 22, as Switchblade Jay White will face champion Tetsuya Naito, it has been announced.
Naito and White met one on one on the last day of block action in G1 Climax 29. In controversial form, with Gedo playing an assisting role, White defeated Naito, and advanced to the finals of the tournament. While White would lose in the G1 finals to Kota Ibushi, he would remain steadfast in the belief that Naito was his ‘destino’.
In Long Beach on August 25, White would take to the microphone and declare that he and he alone deserved to be Intercontinental Champion, and would go on to become the first ever double Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Champion in the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom 14. Naito has long declared double gold to be his ambition, and Kota Ibushi stated after winning the G1 Climax that he too had designs on the unprecedented feat.
For White, the first step is seizing the title from Naito. Jay White’s one and only Intercontinental Championship match was at Wrestle Kingdom 12, when he took on Hiroshi Tanahashi on return from excursion. White fell short, but quickly shot to stardom afterward.
Naito will be making the first defence of his fourth reign as IWGP Intercontinental Champion, but hasn’t been entirely successful of late with the belt, with his last two reigns as champion ending at one and zero defences respectively. Naito will be hungry for revenge, and eager to keep his Tokyo Dome dreams strongly alive.
In addition to the young lion's cup, it seems that they are doing Jay vs Naito at destruction with Jay White also stating he wants to be double champion.
If Gedo hot potatoes the title AGAIN which I won't be surprised, I think that lays to rest the "prestige" of the title as anything more than a prop at this moment.
If Michael Richards is in that Young Lion Cup, I have to watch!! He's from my local indy fed in Auckland. I love New Japan cos they seem to love hiring people from NZ :lol
Well if we're holding onto this hope of a mini tournament at Wrestle Kingdom, Gedo is going to have to break Naito fans' hearts one more time. Otherwise, it makes it harder to justify White being in that tournament at WK.
A lot of interesting stuff to take in from these two videos:
1. Jay White has stolen the IC Title. :lol Kinda makes me think Naito may actually win in Kobe and continue his reign until WK?
2. EVIL stated all he wants is the IWGP Title and that he'll "make his move". Could he possibly sneak his way into the KOPW main event to make it a triple threat with Okada and SANADA??
3. Shingo then hints at Goto putting his hair on the line in their rematch in Kobe since he's already beaten him. He then says he wants a singles title shot after he runs through Goto again. You'd have to think whoever wins that match will immediately challenge the winner of White/Naito for KOPW.
My bet is still on White winning. God forbid the double title match ends up being White vs Okada. At least Naito going 0-2 against White heading into WK gives him a higher chance of winning than 1-1 and 50-50.
He probably means beating Ibushi and getting the IWGP title shot. Nothing too crazy.
That's why my bet is on White winning and Goto being his challenger. Goto lost once against Shingo. Makes sense for him to beat Shingo and then challenge White. Goto vs Naito is just...meh. White vs Goto has some story.
While Shingo vs Naito will be a banger, I think it can saved for a smaller show heavyweight title match next year for Naito (hopefully).
4,004 in Kagoshima. Good number. Higher than the 2nd Destruction show they ran last year with Omega/Ishii for the IWGP Title in the main event.
What happened in the main event though? A lot of people online seemed to shit on it because KENTA didn't look fully recovered and it was booked like a WWE run-in main event or something?
It was probably best KENTA's match in NJPW so I hope that we get more of those "WWE run-in main events" from him in the future.
I think real problem here is that many western puro fans want clean matches and nothing else. We are probably going to see more of these complaints in the future since it looks clear to me that this is the direction of Bullet Club with their main guys now being White, KENTA, GoD and ELP.
Another issue is that I think that many people only watch select few matches and don't get what is even going on. Like I saw some saying that run-in was pointless. It wasn't because it looks like they are building towards KENTA/Yoshi-Hashi with these run-ins.
Also, another noteworthy thing on this show was that Yoh rolled up Tama. Their Dallas opener was rather fun match so I guess they might do another one for the titles.
Because NJPW has established factions and you have rivalries at different levels within the factions, I think the main event yesterday worked.
Kenta cost Yoshi and Ishii the tag titles, G.O.D. cheated to win, G.O.D. are trying to keep the Never Openweight title in their group, etc. So it all makes sense and when it makes sense it can add to the match.
I know right. I wish their feud would like..never end. I wonder what the path to WK for the loser of the main event tonight looks like. If Goto and White win it seems pretty straightforward..if they lose..not so much.
I just don't get this Jay White megapush. Sure he's talented but he only has been wrestling for like 6 years and is already a Triple Crown winner, G1 finalist and is pinning the most popular wrestler in Japan time after time. Talk about a Lesnar push lol.
When Gedo goes, he goes. Plus his title wins have kind of been timing and circumstances more than anything. He won the US off Kenny because, lets be honest, Kenny didnt need it and it furthered the BC breaking apart storyline more than anything. He was never supposed to win the HW title but Omega left and they obviously wanted a gaijin to main event MSG and he and Okada already had story, and now hes winning the IC title to mainly get him to the WK tournament that wouldn't happen any other year.
So while mega push I guess is the right term, its also been right place right time. I mean his HW title reign went 2 months with no defenses and his IC title one likely to go 3 months with 1 defense. So im not sure thats Lesnar eqsue.
Naito vs Jay for IC could work well here as then they could always do Naito vs Sanada or Evil at KOPW, as LIJ aren't your typical Njpw faction.
Would be great for them to do Juice vs Moxley here so that they can do face different opponents at KOPW. Really want to see Juice vs Archer at one point. And if Jericho returns for KOPW, then Moxley could face Okada at KOPW.
Ospreay and Ibushi could also have defences here to with Ospreay facing either ELP or BOSJ winner and Ibushi facing Sanada.
With Kenta vs Ishii in UK, can definitely see Ibushi vs Kenta for Ibushi's shot at KOPW now.
Naito/Taichi for Beppu.
Ibushi/KENTA for Kagoshima.
Not sure who mains Kobe. I think that Okada/Sanada could, but what they'd do for KoPW then? Ibushi/Evil wouldn't be big enough I think.
You would hope they wouldn't do Okada vs. Sanada for the 4th time this year. But with Okada pretty much having to defend the belt again after 8/31, who else could it be?
Regardless, don't see it happening on the Destruction Tour. Naito vs. White/Taichi, Mox vs. Juice, Ospreay vs. ELP, and I guess a Jr. Tag defense.
Ishimori and ELP are the champions right? Is it sad that I forgot that?
Fantasy booking time! Here's what I would do/what I think they'll do going off the format of last year:
The Korakuen shows will be main evented by a Jr. Tag Title defense, some 10-Man Elimination Matches, and maybe some kind of special tag like White & KENTA vs. Okada & Ospreay or something idk.
Destruction in Beppu Special Singles Match: Goto vs. Shingo (Goto gets his win back to eventually challenge KENTA) IC Title: Naito vs. Taichi
Destruction in Kagoshima Jr. Title: Ospreay vs. Phantasmo (this may not even happen at all tbh depending on the J-Cup) WK Rights Contract: Ibushi vs. KENTA
Destruction in Kobe
Some kind of big tag match(es) and a NEVER 6-Man Title defense down the card US Title No DQ Match: Moxley vs. Juice III (this will be the drawing test for Moxley)
You can probably just put the Jr. Title match on the Kobe card to help the drawing power because I imagine people are gonna flock to see Ibushi in the main event of his hometown against that asshole KENTA in Kagoshima.
Btw I don't want them to do Okada/SANADA again either at KOPW but Gedo probably will cause I'm not really sure what else they can do for Okada to pass the time unless they wanna go ahead and get Okada/White out of the way. I would also hold off doing Naito/White again this soon. Definitely not on the Destruction tour.
Also if Tanahashi wins the British Title we have even more options!
The Okada vs EVIL vs SANADA idea could work. English commentary isn't much of an authority, but they did constantly spin the notion of how championship matches could work post-Climax and that EVIL d. SANADA, SANADA d. Okada, and Okada d. EVIL. So, I mean, there's wiggle room to set up another three way main event for KOPW two years in a row. And why not? Varies up the Okada vs SANADA scenario and puts EVIL back in another championship match too with dynamics vs Okada & his tag partner.
Something I'll be keeping an eye out for once the Destruction cards begin to be fleshed out. Long shot, but what the heck. We all know Okada has got to have at least one more defense following Suzuki.
I don't know, I think it would open up the door for stupid stuff that I don't want to see in NJPW. Suppose 5 people, including the champ, pinned each other in G1, so are we going to do a 5-way now at KoPW?
That's why the champion rarely takes losses. To avoid that from happening. He's sort of the glue on the logic (thin or secured) behind any of its potential.
But on the same line; that's more or less what they did for the Omega vs Ibushi vs Cody match last year.
That's why the champion rarely takes losses. To avoid that from happening. He's sort of the glue on the logic (thin or secured) behind any of its potential.
Champs doesn't need to lose more than once for this to get stupid. Why shouldn't they add Ospreay as well to this? He has beaten Sanada who has beaten Okada and Okada has beaten Ospreay.
Okada vs Sanada vs Evil would be a fresh match up and defiently better than Okada vs Sanada again so soon. Plus with Okada, it adds the normal 3 way hype of him losing title without being pinned.
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