Night three of the Road to Destruction ended a three night stretch in Korakuen with a pair of tag team main events.
8th Match: Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Junior) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi when Sabre pinned Taguchi.
Confusion reigned at the start of the match when Suzuki suddenly broke away from his entrance to attack Jyushin Thunder Liger, who was commentating at ringside. Suzuki would hit a Gotch Style Piledriver on Liger onto a chair, bringing Taguchi and Tanahashi out early to make the save.
‘Big Match Taguchi’ was in full effect, as the furious Coach flew at Suzuki before controlling the early match on Sabre. Suzuki would catch Taguchi with an armbar from the apron however, and the match went into the crowd. When Taguchi was back inside, it was in Suzuki’s hands, and King floored Coach with an almighty forearm shiver.
The Iron Glutes came through for Taguchi however, as he scored with hip attacks to ZSJ. That brought Tanahashi into the action, and the Ace came close to victory with a Slingblade to Sabre, but a follow-up High Fly Flow found the Briton’s knees.
The match ended with Taguchi and ZSJ legal. A fired-up Taguchi was amazing in negotiating the Oh My & Garankle and nearly submitting the former British Heavyweight Champion, but after ZSJ made the ropes, Taguchi’s Bummer Ye attempt found the ‘Windy Man’s’ painful submission grasp. Tanahashi broke the hold up, but ZSJ replied with a Zack Driver to both men in turn and the pinfall win.
Post match, ZSJ punished Tanahashi further with an excrutiating submission on Tanahashi, whose arms looked in an extremely questionable state as Suzuki-Gun stood tall.
7th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito & EVIL) defeated BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens & Jay White) when EVIL submitted White.
A now typical period of reticence between White and Naito ended when Owens charged in to strike EVIL and Naito got the match started with White in return. The LIJ duo would take control of the match, but Gedo’s outside involvement would see the action spill to the floor, and Owens and White take over on EVIL.
Owens would land some impressive strikes to EVIL, but the King of Darkness would respond with a Fisherman’s Buster to create space. Naito and EVIL would have the edge over first White and then Owens, but the Switchblade would make the save for Owens, hitting a Bladebuster to EVIL and allowing the Crown Jewel to follow with a huge knee.
Owens couldn’t quite hit the Package Piledriver on EVIL however, and as the match broke down, EVIL could focus all his efforts on White’s partner. Chase would land an impressive barrage of strikes on EVIL, but it was for nought as EVIL would lock in the Scorpion Deathlock to give the LIJ pair the win.
Post match, a frustrated Jay White attacked Naito on the floor, before stealing the IWGP Intercontinental Championship belt and leaving Korakuen with it in hand.
6th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & SANADA) defeated CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Hirooki Goto) when Takagi pinned Romero.
Unlike the first two nights of the tour, it was Goto and Takagi starting. Takagi took the upper hand in the ring, but when the fight went to the floor it was CHAOS in control. Okada nearly hit a Tombstone on the floor to SANADA, while Goto got the advantage over Takagi, and then BUSHI back inside.
Bushi would eventually land a big Hurricanrana to Okada, with SANADA rushing in to attack the IWGP Champion and fly to the floor with a plancha. Goto would then press the advantage on Takagi,before tagging in Romero, who hit a huge DDT to the former junior heavyweight. A Shiranui failed however, and a train of attacks would connect on Romero.
A Last of the Dragon attempt from Takagi to Romero would be broken up by Goto and the match would break down; as bodies flew in all directions, Takagi kept his head and landed a Pop-Up DVD and then Made In Japan on Romero for the count of three.
5th Match: BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) defeated Robbie Eagles, Will Ospreay & Toa Henare when Fale pinned Henare.
The Birds of Prey showed effective teamwork early but the BULLET CLUB team took over on Henare, hurting and humiliating the Maori Warrior with back rakes. Henare would show his power however, with a double suplex to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champions.
Henare’s trio would come close, as BoP threatened a Red Wing and Henare nearly hit a huge Samoan Drop on Fale, but none of the three could quite seal the deal before a Fale Grenade to Henare ended things.
4th Match: BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi) defeated Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI when Loa pinned Honma.
Tonga baited YOSHI-HASHI into a BULLET CLUB assault early, but the number one contenders to GoD’s tag titles fended the champions off. As the BULLET CLUB team looked in trouble, Jason got involved, grabbing YOSHI-HASHI from outside and bringing the fight to the floor.
Ishii was eventually able to come in hot and went a long way to taking out all three members of the opposition on his own before the numbers game got to be too much. After taking heavy punishment however, Ishii’s heart and strength saw a duplex and tag to Honma, who landed a Kokeshi to Loa. Jado’s cane once again became a factor however and Loa’s Apesh*t soon followed.
3rd Match: Yota Tsuji, Ren Narita & Satoshi Kojima defeated Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino & Hiroyoshi Tenzan when Narita pinned Uemura.
Kojima and Tenzan started off the match as they did on the first two nights of the tour. Kojima would power Tenzan down before Narita and Umino have a vicious preview of their match Sunday, throwing stiff shots back and forth. When Narita was drop kicked down, he would tag Tsuji and Uemura brought himself into the match to take on his closest rival.
Uemura would gain the upper hand and his team would set to work on Tsuji. A Tsuji bodyslam to Umino would bring in Kojima, who fired a machine gun barrage of chops to Umino and hit his first elbow drop of the tour. Umino would respond with a drop kick however, bringing in Tenzan, who worked over Kojima until a Koji Cutter.
The Young Lions re-entered the fray ending with Narita and Uemura. Uemura showed his suplexing ability, but the bridging front suplex for Narita saw his team get the win.
2nd Match: Karl Fredericks (1-1) defeated Clark Connors (1-1) via submission.
In Mat holds and shoulder blocks, Fredericks and Connors were evenly matched early, but Connors took the mental edge, evading a Fredericks dropkick to threaten a Boston Crab and then take control of the match. Fredericks tried to fire back, but again used his hurt right arm, leaving him vulnerable to attack.
Fredericks’ feet were just fine though, and allowed a shotgun drop kick to Connors and a corner splash before being cut off by a spear. A spinebuster for Fredericks stopped Connors short before he could follow-up however, and a deep half Boston crab led to Fredericks’ first two points.
1st Match: Alex Coughlin (2-0) defeated Michael Richards (1-1) via submission.
Alex Coughlin is quickly gaining a reputation for his chops, and they played a big part in his assault on Richards in the early going. Richards would try to settle Coughlin with a grounded head scissors, but Coghlin’s amazing bridge turned the hold into an Indian stretch and kept the LA Dojo member in control. A fearsome bridging version of the Indian Deathlock would follow to finish a relatively easy night for Coughlin.
