This was the final stop before Sunday’s big NJPW Destruction in Fukushima event which will see Michael Elgin challenge Minoru Suzuki for the NEVER Openweight title, the NEVER six-man titles on the line and a triple threat match for the IWGP Tag Team Championships. The show kicks off early Sunday morning in the U.S. starting at 3:00AM EST, only on New Japan World. Here is the final match card:
- Yuji Nagata & Hirai Kawato vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Syota Umino
- Katsuya Kitamura & Tomoyuki Oka vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi
- Beretta & Jado vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
- Taguchi Japan vs. Suzuki-Gun
- IWGP Tag Team Titles: War Machine (c) vs. KES vs. GoD
- Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Bad Luck Fale & Leo Tonga
- Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay vs. Testuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi
- NEVER 6-Man Titles: EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & Rocky Romero
- NEVER Title: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Michael Elgin
NJPW Road to Destruction Results
September 9, 2017
1. Yuji Nagata, Hirai Kawato & Tomoyuki Oka def. Manabu Nakanishi, Katsuya Kitamura & Shota Umino. Pretty standard opening match with the Young Lions going back and forth, and the third gen legends getting in there to show them how it’s done. Umino tried to mount a comeback late into the match but ended up tapping out to Oka.
2. Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi & Trent Baretta def. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tanga Loa. Baretta pinned Yujiro to get his win back from the last “Road to” show. Bullet Club immediately attacked the CHAOS members after the match to get some instant revenge. Looks like they’re building towards Takahashi as Baretta’s first feud as a singles heavyweight competitor. Interesting choice as Takahashi has always sort of floated around the divisions most of his career.
3. Togi Makabe & War Machine def. Taka Michinoku & Killer Elite Squad. Makabe pinned Taka with the King Kong knee drop, in a match mostly based around War Machine and KES promoting their upcoming title bout with GoD. That should be chaotic, to say the least.
4. Will Ospreay & Rocky Romero def. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI. So… Hiromu thinks Ospreay is a cat now. That’s a thing. I don’t know what’s happening, but at least there’s another program brewing in the juniors division that doesn’t involve Kushida’s title (yet). Romero pinned Bushi with a knee strike in a fun match.
5. Juice Robinson & David Finlay def. Chase Owens & Leo Tonga. Juice picked up the pin with Pulp Friction on Leo Tonga, who is the youngest brother of Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa, so there’s three of them now. Juice is on a whole different level as a star in Japan now.
6. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & Sanada def. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano. Interesting dynamic here as Naito has Ishii next and Okada has EVIL, but there’s still that element of the Wrestle Kingdom main event hovering overhead. While those two pairs ripped into each other, Yano and Sanada engaged in ridiculous shenanigans ending in Sanada stealing the win with a low blow.
7. Taguchi Japan def. Suzuki-Gun in a 10-man elimination tag team match. This was a giant chaotic mess that also had the benefit of being a lot of fun. Eliminations came by pinfall, submission or being thrown over the top rope for some reason. Tanahashi is still injured and his elbow came into play early on as everyone tried to gang up on him. Ricochet was the first to go unfortunately, followed by Kanemaru, Taichi and Captain Taguchi after several “mist” spots and general Suzuki-Gun antics. Desperado pinned KUSHIDA to get a leg up heading into their title match, but was thrown over by Elgin. Iizuka eliminated Tanahashi but got destroyed by an Elgin Bomb for his trouble. It came down to Big Mike and NEVER champion Minoru Suzuki, until everyone from both sides came back and got involved again. Elgin ended up winning the match for his team by kicking Minoru off the apron.
