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| Of course the best match of Destruction featured Kenny Omega Photo via SI Extra Mustard |
Such was the case for a large portion of the three shows that made up this year's Destruction. NJPW has made Destruction a two-night event in years past, but recently they've gone to three, and it's for the simple reason that they make more money if they do this. Sounds a lot like the tiresome business practices of a certain Trump-donating company, doesn't it? I guess no one is immune to raking in the dollars. So it was that Destruction came to Fukushima, Hiroshima and Kobe with some interesting upper-card matches, and not much else other than the promise of seeing a few stars.
***
The September 10th show in Fukushima was almost entirely forgettable. We saw the first of three three-way dances for the Heavyweight Tag Championship among War Machine, Guerillas of Destiny, and Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith, Jr.). It was decent, but good lord, they did it again at the next two Destruction shows and now I resent all three teams just for existing.
The show was headlined by NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki defending against Michael Elgin. This was a "Lumberjack Match" in the sense that both guys had groups of friends on the outside to just cause a bunch of chaos. Though both guys are great, the match itself was never able to gel properly due to awkward brawling on the outside, and then it ended in the worst way possible, with Takashi Iizuka lumbering down to the ring and hitting Elgin with that ridiculous metal glove, securing the win for Suzuki. It was dumb fun, but with the emphasis on "dumb."
***
What especially sucked about the Fukushima show was that only one out of nine matches was a one-on-one match. This ratio got marginally better for the September 16th show in Hiroshima, which saw TWO one-on-one matches. Hey now! KUSHIDA defended his Junior Heavyweight Championship against Suzuki-gun member El Desperado, in a match that was better than it had any right to be, except KUSHIDA just seems to make magic out of working with basically anyone. He can make you care even when you thought you couldn't possibly.
The headliner was Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his Intercontinental Championship against another Suzuki-gun member, Zack Sabre Jr. They went just over 30 minutes in a battle of psychological warfare, mostly driven by the maneuverings of Sabre. The early part of any Sabre match is almost always dominated by his style of choice, with lots of grappling and bending. Tanahashi, being one of the best wrestlers in the world, was more than ready to step up his game, so he engaged in the bendy stuff, while never giving in to Sabre's overt assholeish antics. The ending became a typically grand Tanahashi-driven affair, with lots of leg whips and High Fly Flows for everyone. If this was a test of Sabre's ability to main event an NJPW show, he earned high marks.
***
Again, the September 24th show in Kobe was dominated by multi-man tags. It was starting to feel like an underwhelming episode of Smackdown up in there. But it was saved by two singles matches, the first of which saw Beretta (known to all decent wrestling fans as Trent) in his first match since moving up to the Heavyweight division. He took on Yujiro Takahashi, permanent basement-dweller of the Bullet Club, so it wasn't necessarily a high profile situation, but both guys brought out their very best and made it feel as important as it could be. After nearly looking like he'd lose his first Heavyweight outing, Beretta came through with the Dudebuster and took down the Tokyo Pimp (I admit, I really was just looking for an excuse to say "Tokyo Pimp").
And in typical NJPW fahsion, they saved the best for last. Kenny Omega, just two weeks removed from surgery on a torn meniscus, put on a match hardly different from the 7-star level you'd expect. It's a little freakish. Juice Robinson made a show early of not going after the knee, but as he got desperate, he started attacking the knee, almost apologizing to the crowd as he did so. Omega sold like a pro, and gritted through the pain to deliver reverse ranas, V-trigger knees and a jaw-dropping top rope One-Winged Angel. Honestly, how does a guy put on such a brilliant match with a knee that barely works? The match itself might not have been 6 stars, but that left knee of Omega deserves all the snowflakes Meltzer can throw at it.
