We’re on the Road to Destruction, with one week left on the tour culminating Sunday in Kobe World Hall. Bringing the NJPW live experience to towns across Japan means a lot of travel, as Hiroshi Tanahashi shows:
鹿児島を出発。島根県へ。食事休憩を考えると9時間↑。プップー🚌 pic.twitter.com/t8W0OhJ0D8
— 棚橋 弘至 feat.鉄の意志 (@tanahashi1_100) September 17, 2019
‘Leaving Kagoshima on our way to Shimane prefecture. Add in a lunch break and that’s over nine hours. Beep beep!’
Travel is an awful lot harder on body and soul when you’re recovering from a hard loss, as Tanahashi is after relinquishing the British Heavyweight Championship back to Zack Sabre Junior in Beppu on September 15. KENTA was dealing with his own loss, after dominating Kota Ibushi in Kagoshima but falling to a pair of Kamigoyes; still, BULLET CLUB’s new member was able to revel in the hate of the Kagoshima crowd.
I made Kagoshima happy
YOU ARE WELCOME #BulletClub
— KENTA (@KENTAG2S) September 16, 2019
YOH was in the winner’s circle in Kagoshima, after surprising Tama Tonga with a roll-up to get a pin on half of the IWGP Tag Team Champions.
今日の勝ちを絶対次に繋げます！
— YOH (@njpwyohei_k) September 16, 2019
‘I promise I’m going to use today’s win to bring us to what’s next!’
When what’s next is a nine hour journey, is YOH handling the bus ride any better than Tanahashi?
鹿児島から島根へ移動なんだけど、8時間くらいかかるのよ。だから俺はこの移動日のためにマンガをいっぱいもってきたんだ。でもすでに昨日までにほとんど読んじゃったんだ。島根遠い。
— YOH (@njpwyohei_k) September 17, 2019
‘It takes about eight hours to drive from Kagoshima to Shimane. I brought a ton of manga with me just for the travel day, but I read most of it yesterday. Shimane is far.’
Maybe YOH can spend that time image training for a potential rematch from Dallas with SHO against GoD?
Another match that’s still in the ‘potential’ category, but growing more inevitable by the day is Jyushin Thunder Liger meeting Minoru Suzuki one on one. The day of Destruction in Kagoshima was Respect for the Aged Day in Japan, a national holiday, and Suzuki paid tribute online to his father figure in pro wrestling, Karl Gotch:
親愛なる天国の友人へ#敬老の日 pic.twitter.com/T31xf9rZx3
— 鈴木みのる (@suzuki_D_minoru) September 16, 2019
‘My beloved friend in heaven’. Gotch’s famous words of ‘never lie, never cheat, never quit’ are ones to live by, and Suzuki certainly hasn’t shown any signs of quitting on the way to getting Liger one on one in the ring, going as far as taking his mask in Kagoshima.
Liger was furious at the theft of his mask, vowing a reckoning at some point in the future. Hirooki Goto has the chance to bring a reckoning to Shingo Takagi in the imminent future, the CHAOS member furious at the theft of his moveset by the recently minted heavyweight Dragon. Responding to Goto calling him an ‘insect’ for stealing his GTR, Takagi would state ‘Enough with the cute talk. We’re going to beat the hell out of one another right? I have a secret plan in store…’
綺麗事ばかり言うな。
潰し合いなんだろ？
秘策あります…㊙️#njdest https://t.co/hPSb97VwWe
— 鷹木 信悟(SHINGO TAKAGI) (@Takagi__Shingo) September 16, 2019
