On Thursday September 5, the Road to Destruction continued with the second of three consecutive nights in Korakuen Hall.
8th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito & EVIL) defeated BULLET CLUB (Jay White & Bad Luck Fale) when Naito pinned Fale.
Naito and White would try and bait each other early, Naito’s game of tranquilo eventually frustrating the Switchblade who paid the price. Naito took control of the match briefly, but Fale made the difference, and the BULLET CLUB team would effectively cut Naito off from EVIL.
EVIL would eventually get into proceedings, and cleared the ring with some powerful strikes and effective use of the referee. A refreshed Naito proceeded to work over his Intercontinental Championship challenger, but when he headed to the top rope for some big offense, he would be crotched by White, who followed with an Uranage.
With Fale back in ring, Naito would fire up with a swinging DDT, and went for Destino, but Fale shoved Naito into the referee. With the ref down, BULLET CLUB tried to take advantage, but LIJ were able to beat them at their own game. A Gedo brass knux shot was stopped by Naito, and while White came in with a chair shot to El Ingobernable, EVIL made the save before hitting his home run double chair swing to Fale. A Destino would follow and a revived ref counted the three.
Post match, Naito talked about how he, Ibushi and White all want to be double champions. He proposed a double Intercontinental and Heavyweight title match at the Tokyo Dome, before making his own plan B: ‘if that doesn’t happen, well, I’ll just keep this title and then take the Right to Challenge Contract as well’.
7th Match: CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Rocky Romero & Kazuchika Okada) defeated CHAOS (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & SANADA) when Goto pinned BUSHI.
As with Wednesday night, Okada and SANADA would start off opposite one another, but the two would exchange offense at a much higher rate, SANADA putting Okada in a Paradise Lock before Rocky Romero and BUSHI would enter the fray. BUSHI would take over on Romero with a T-shirt assisted choke, and LIJ would take control of proceedings.
Romero eventually broke free with a rewind kick, bringing in Goto for CHAOS. The fierce warrior would overpower the LIJ trio at first, but the advantage didn’t last long. A train of attacks came Goto’s way, but he would evade an MX from BUSHI. As both teams fought to ringside, it was Goto and BUSHI left in at the end of the match, and a GTR sealed the deal for CHAOS.
6th Match: SHO, YOH, Ryusuke Taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Suzuki-Gun (DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Junior) when SHO pinned DOUKI.
Suzuki-Gun would get their typical early start and took control on Taguchi, but moments later a Taguchi japan train would befall Suzuki. When Taguchi was in prime position on the top rope however, Suzuki would resist, and Taguchi would be stranded in no man’s land.
Despite the Coach attempting to make peace with a gift in the form of his rugby helmet, Suzuki was not in a generous mood. The fight moved to the floor where Taguchi and Tanahashi both ate chair shots from Suzuki. Taguchi would barely make it back to the ring in time for the 20 count, only to be further punished by Suzuki and Sabre submission holds.
A hip attack to Kanemaru would eventually create space for Taguchi to tag out. As the match broke down, it was SHO left in the ring with DOUKI, and Roppongi 3K showed their worth as former three time tag team champions with a 3K finish on DOUKI.
5th Match: BULLET CLUB (Yujiro Takahashi, El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) defeated Tomoaki Honma, Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles when Takahashi pinned Honma.
El Phantasmo and Ospreay would start the match, and engaged in some high speed spectacular maneuvers before Ospreay knocked ELP down with an elbow. Quick tags with Eagles saw the Birds of Prey isolate the arm of ELP, and Honma helped with a Kokeshi.
The BULLET CLUB trio would take advantage of Honma outside the ring, but Honma would manage to fire back with a big vertical suplex to Ishimori, allowing Eagles to tag in. The Australian would target his former partner’s leg with a low 619 and springboard dropkick, but an attempt with Ospreay to hit Red Wing was cut off, and Ishimori would manage a Poison rana on Ospreay.
The match came down to Honma and Yujiro; Honma brought the fight to Takahashi with a huge Kokeshi, but got too greedy as he tried for one from the second rope. Paying the price, it was moments later that a Pimp Juice sealed the deal for Yujiro.
4th Match: Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Toa Henare defeated BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) when Ishii pinned Owens.
BULLET CLUB got the jump as the match started and took over on YOSHI-HASHI, aided by Jado’s kendo stick. Ishii would get a break for his team however, overpowering GoD, but when Henare came in with Owens, revenge for last night weighed too heavily on his mind; rushing to a Toa Bottom attempt, he was instead dumped to the floor by Owens, who followed with a dropkick through the ropes.
Owens would take the pin in the match, but was close to being the hero of the BULLET CLUB side; when Ishii came in, Owens made effective use of GoD’s assistance to lock in a reverse bow and arrow on Ishii followed by impressive knee strikes. He would almost follow with the Package Piledriver, but YOSHI-HASHI would intervene, allowing Ishii to get free and hit the Vertical Drop Brainbuster to grab the win.
3rd Match: Alex Coughlin, Clark Connors & Satoshi Kojima defeated Yota Tsuji, Shota Umino & Hiroyoshi Tenzan when Kojima pinned Tsuji.
Despite the Young Lions going nose to nose before the bell, it was Kojima and Tenzan starting as yesterday; Kojima unleashing Mongolian chops on Tenzan before the originator showed Kojima how the move was done.
The Young Lions would soon be in, Coughlin and Tsuji picking up on their brutal chop battle from Wednesady night while Shota Umino brought fire and speed to his LA Dojo counterparts. He would be cut off by a Connors spear however, leaving the match to Tsuji and Kojima. Kojima delivered a powerful spear of his own on Kojima, but the Strongest Arm was too strong and a lariat would turn Tsuji inside out for the pinfall loss.
Young Lion Cup matches started the evening’s action.
2nd Match: Ren Narita (1-0) defeated Karl Fredericks (0-1) by submission.
Fredericks started hard and fast on Narita with some strong strikes. Narita would respond with a dropkick, but the LA Dojo prospect cut Narita off with a spinebuster and then a deep half crab.
Narita managed to land a front suplex to get some breathing room however. As the match went on, Fredericks continued to instinctively use his taped right arm to strike at Narita, and was clearly troubled by the injury; this would allow Narita to get in first a half crab and then his leg laced Narita Special No.3. Fredericks tried to make the ropes but was gator rolled and submitted by Narita.
1st Match: Michael Richards (1-0) defeated Yuya Uemura (0-1) via submission.
Uemura grounded Richards early and came up with his arm, but Richards used his size and power effectively, with a strong headlock. The Fale Dojo memkber would take control of the martch, but when he left a gap, Uemura exploited it with a clssic New Japan Dojo dropkick. When Uemura followed with a Boston Crab, Richards made the ropes, and got to his feet to land a big lariat and suplex. Richards would then navigate a Boston Crab of his own; while Uemura tried to block with frenzied slaps, it was of no use. Uemura made the ropes once, but not a second time as Richards went to ground and maintained the hold to win.
