This Sunday, September 28th, NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) will be presenting their annual mega card DESTRUCTION in KOBE!as reported by nwjp1972.com
- braddrake97
- Sep 25
- 9 min read
The end of September in NJPW means Kobe World Hall, and Destruction. Kobe's annual mega card this year sees multiple title matches, and multiple personal feuds settled as we begin to pave the road to the Tokyo Dome January 4.
Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship- Zack Sabre Jr. vs Ren Narita
Singles record: 2-1 Narita
The main event sees Zack Sabre Jr. seeking his second defence of his second reign as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion against Ren Narita. Over the years, Sabre and TMDK have tended to have the upper hand over HOUSE OF TORTURE, but Narita has bucked that trend against the Frontman. While ZSJ defeated Narita inside the Tokyo Dome a couple of years ago to become the first NJPW World TV Champion, Narita has defeated the current World Heavyweight Champion both in the 2024 New Japan Cup and then on night one of G1 Climax 35.
That win in Hookaido saw Narita break from his typical H.O.T gameplan, forgeoing copious interference for a rough fighting and hardly free of shortcuts, but a singular fighting style and one centered around using his grappling expertise with the finest technician in the world. While unable to submit the submission master, the work Narita did on Sabre's knee would ultimately soften him for the Hell's Guillotine that instantly set his stall for a future world title shot.
That shot has now arrived, and off the back of a Road to Destruction that has seen tensions and tempers flare. With even more aggression than usual, Sabre has brawled with his challenger in the ring and backstage around Hokkaido of late. Yet the results in ring have spoken perhaps to Narita's favour; while TMDK have been dominant in non televised events, H.O.T have been victorious when the cameras are rolling. It feels as if Narita has controlled the narrative while most people have been watching, and most will be watching overall in Kobe.
One person who will certainly have an eye on this match will be the G1 Climax winner and the man with the next challenge to the title at King of Pro-Wrestling October 13. With Konosuke Takeshita set to face our main event victor, who will take on the challenge of the Alpha?
7th Match: IWGP Global heavyweight Championship- Gabe Kidd vs Shingo Takagi
Singles record: 2-1 Takagi
Top billing of a three match run pitting NJPW's Unaffiliated wrestlers against the War Dogs, the IWGP Global heavyweight title is on the line tonight in our semi main event. Shingo Takagi and Gabe Kidd should have collided during the G1 Climax this summer, but when a knee injury forced Kidd to withdraw, the match was voided. While Takagi accepted that as a fact of life in professional wrestling, he was rather less accepting of what Kidd chose to do on his return.
Kidd would come back to the ring not in NJPW, but in AEW during Forbidden Door, and while Kidd's presence in the Death Riders puts him distinctly in the opposition of the AEW establishment, to the Dragon this equates to speaking out of both sides of the Briton's mouth. For Kidd to speak with such pride of New Japan at the start of 2025, his actions since have left Shingo with a lot more questions than answers.
Takagi is not alone in conveying that confusion and anger, but Kidd is nothing if not true to himself, and public criticism has fallen on deaf ears. Kiddhas evoked the words of Theodore Roosevelt in slamming his critics while stating that 'the man in the arena' is the one whose opinion matters. Yet nobody evokes being the man in the arena than Shingo Takagi himself. A bitter war of words is sure to erupt into brutal blows between two deeply prideful individuals, but who will leave as Global champion, and whose face instead will be 'marred by dust and sweat and blood'?
6th Match: Yota Tsuji vs David Finlay
Singles record: 3-2 Tsuji
After trading wins at Wrestle Kingdom and during the G1, it's a 2025 rubber match for Yota Tsuji and David Finlay in this special singles encounter. In 2024, Tsuji rallied from a singles defeat to the Rebel in May to beat Finlay twice during the G1 Climax, once in league competition and then again in the tournament semifinals. With that momentum at his back, Tsuji was able to capture the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship from the BULLET CLUB leader at the Tokyo Dome on January 4, but the Gene Blaster didn't stay flawless against Finlay, or indeed other War Dogs.
Tsuji fell to Gabe Kidd at Dominion, bringing his reign as Global Champion to an end. Kidd took headlines that night with hand raised, as Finlay was stretchered away from Osaka Jo Hall. A G1 to forget for Finlay and Kidd both saw Gabe withdraw, while Finlay's slow start turned into a run to the playoffs. Yet Finlay called out Tsuji's own performance, having beaten the former champion during the league phase, and seeing Tsuji fall to another man the Rebel had beaten in EVIL in the semis.
What seems on the surface to be a rubber match between two evenly matched top class athletes carries undertones that may influence more shifting sands within NJPW. Tsuji is in dire need of a re-establishing victory following a knock out loss that prematurely ended his G1, while Finlay now feels the weight of his own words more keenly than ever. Needing to lead through strength, and knowing that the guns within BULLET CLUB point in as much as they point out, Finlay needs to once again prove himself as the central character of his faction and the promotion at large.
5th Match: GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship-Hiromu Takahashi vs Taiji Ishimori
Singles record: 6-4 Hiromu
After Taiji Ishimori snuck a win over Hiromu Takahashi in tag team action in Sapporo, the freshly minted GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion demanded his title be on the line, adding to what was originally scheduled as a non title special singles match. The bout represents the first time the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship has been defended in an NJPW ring since April 27, 2004, when then champion Jyushin Thudner Liger defended against Kotaro Suzuki in Hiroshima.
Hiromu already had a first defence scheduled against NOAH's Eita for the promotion's October 11 Ryogoku card. Addressing the impromptu title bout, Hiromu said that the winner of himself and Ishimori would be the one to face Eita, yet Ishimori has accepted this title match ont he condition that should he win, he will only defend the belt in New Japan. Hiromu's capturing of the gold was already controversial, and his unilateral actions have drawn sharp criticism from the NOAH roster online.
Still, Ishimori's ten defences with the GHC gold between 2013 and 2014 mark him out as the most dominant champion in GHC junior history, and in isolation, the Bone Soldier is more than qualified for the shot. What happens in the latest chapter of this junior heavyweight rivalry, and could Ishimori hold NOAH's gold hostage?
4th Match: IWGP Tag Team Championships- Tomohiro Ishii & Taichi vs Knockout Brothers (OSKAR & Yuto-Ice)
After an impactful re-debut tour back from excursion, the Knockout Brothers OSKAR and Yuto-Ice challenge for the IWGP Tag Team Championships in Kobe. In the last 365 days, we've seen seven IWGP Tag Team Champion teams, with only one successful defence between all of them; that being for TMDK over Don Fale and Caveman Ugg in Ryogoku last October.
There is no doubt of a collective desire to bring stability to the division, and that's something both champion and challenger teams are hoping to present. For Ishii and Taichi, veteran will and hard fighting nature takes precedence over a hungry younger division. For the challengers, the desire to make a statement perfectly aligns with a pair of long held individual gatekeepers guarding the entrance to tag domination. Ice and OSKAR have consistently shown their physical dominance on the road to Kobe, but can they convert that to hardware?
3rd Match: NEVER Openweight Championship- Boltin Oleg vs Don Fale
Singles record: 1-0 Boltin
The first of our night's four title matches sees the NEVER Openweight Championship on the line as Don Fale challenges Boltin Oleg. Former IWGP Intercontinental Champion Fale is heading into his first singles championship match sinbce challenging for the old United States Championship back in 2019. For HOUSE OF TORTURE's super heavyweight, things date back to March of this year with Boltin, where a first round matchup in the New Japan Cup saw the Big Man From Kazakhstan log an impressive victory.
Fale's position as top super heavyweight monster clearly threatened, the Don sought to undo Boltin's impressive strides during the G1 this summer, where a splash through a table helped EVIL to victory over Boltin and ultimately ensured that the King of Darkness would go on to make the final as Boltin crashed out of the league phase. With post tag team match attacks during the finals weekend driving the point home, it's clear Fale wants to re-establish himself as the biggest monster in New Japan, and as the NEVER Champion.
For Boltin, a NEVER Championship wrestled away from the winner of the G1 Climax in Konosuke Takeshita is a prideful treasure not to slip into H.O.T hands September 28.
2nd Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi Final Road: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Great-O-Khan
Singles record: 2-0 Tanahashi
For Great-O-Khan it's an attempt at third time the charm as they face Hiroshi Tanahashi one final time in Kobe. When O-Khan first came onto the scene in 2020, it wasn't long before they targeted the Ace, with a view to make Tanahashi their stepping stone to greatness at Wrestle Kingdom 15. Yet defeat that night in the Tokyo Dome was followed by another loss the very next month in Osaka Jo Hall.
O-Khan has since struggled to find sustained success ever since, and as United Empire continue a struggle to prominence, O-Khan has made their frustrations known. Needing to go back to their roots, and to pick up a significant victory, O-Khan called Tanahashi out for this one on one encounter that could well shape the fate of the Dominator, and of their entire faction. For Tanahashi's part, wrestling O-Khan evokes memories of a long lost former attendant of his by the name of Tomoyuki Oka, a man who since disappeared n the mists of time, but still seems familiar, and might just be a presence the Ace seeks to recall in the ring tonight.
1st Match: Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura, El Desperado, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, SANADA, SHO, DOUKI & Dick Togo)
Action will kick off in Kobe with Hontai taking on HOUSE OF TORTURE. EVIL and SANADA have taken a surprisingly low profile through the Road to Destruction, and it seems to be a given that the King of Darkness and the Fashion Monster are working on making an impact in Kobe World Hall. Meanwhile, Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura have made an impressive combination of late, and will be looking to show how far they've come as a tandem opposite a pair of former IWGP Tag team Champions in a former Los Ingobernables De Japon life.
Plus a more recent addition has seen IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado, his most recent challenger YOH, and the IWGP Junior Tag Champions DOUKI and SHO join the mix. After a successful eighth defence was logged for El Desperado in the main event in Sapporo, he found himself confronted by DOUKI. Desperado's current title reign started in the Tokyo Dome when DOUKI's top rope dive to the floor ended in disaster and a match stoppage. DOUKI claimed that Desperado was a 'fake king and a fake champion', saying that the time had come to take 'his' title back.
With Desperado and YOH ending their bout in Sapporo with a rare show of mutual respect, the two have agreed to team and now Kobe's opening six man tag team match for Hontai and HOUSE OF TORTURE has grown to a ten man. Who will set the pace at Destruction Sunday?
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