New Japan finished up the first part of the Road To DESTRUCTION Tour today in Sendai.
Today’s event was held at Sendai Sun Plaza in Sendai and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 1126.
Pre-show match: Yasutora Yasuda vs. Daiki Nagai went to a 10 minute time limit draw.
Before the matches began, a 10 Bell Salute was held for former wrestler & New Japan Dojo head Kuniaki Kobayashi, who died earlier this week.
Match 1: Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma beat Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato. TM 4 pinned Kato with a tiger suplex hold.
Match 2: Francesco Akira beat TAKA Michinoku.
Match 3: Taichi & SANADA beat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. SANADA pinned Sabre after Deadfall. Between this and post-match comments, if Sabre wins the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship later this month (not waiting until Tokyo Dome for his G1 CLIMAX 34 prize use), this could set up a title match at Royal Quest 4.
Match 4: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Boltin Oleg, Shota Umino, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Togo pinned Taguchi after Magic Killer.
Match 5: Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI beat Jake Lee, Gabriel Kidd & David Finlay. Goto pinned Kidd after a brainbuster.
Match 6: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tauji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Jacob Austin Young, Callum Newman, HENARE, Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan. Naito pinned Young after Pluma Blanca.
Main Event: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI beat Taiji Ishimori to retain the title. V1 for DOUKI. Next up: Possibly Kanemaru.
The next event is Saturday at Noboribetsu City General Gym in Hokkaido to begin the second part of the tour, with all remaining events in Hokkaido. Former New Japan wrestler Takashi Iizuka will participate as will Kazushi Sakuraba, and there will also be a NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship match. The event is a legit advance sellout. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET. This is the last broadcast for the tour (the rest after this will have no live or on demand video).
