DESTRUCTION in RYOGOKU, New Japan’s October blowout event, is now in the books.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched in demand on New Japan World outside Japan. It may not yet be available in Japan where it aired live only on ABEMA.
The announced paid attendance was 5002. While they do use a smaller layout for the venue now than the full capacity used for sumo (in particular for the mass/box seats being at only half capacity), this seems rather low for Ryogoku.
Pre-show Match: Oskar Leube, Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano, Tiger Mask & YOSHI-HASHI beat Takahiro Katori (Eagle Pro Wrestling), Jun Masaoka (Independent/Freelancer), Kengo (Independent/Freelancer), Takeshi Masada (DDT) & Kazuma Sumi (DDT). Taguchi beat Katori with Oh My & Gar Ankle.
Match 1: Yuya Uemura, DOUKI & Taichi beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho & Yujiro Takahashi. Uenura pinned Takahashi with a suplex hold. Uemura, just back from Impact Wrestling, is now part of Just 5 Guys.
Match 2: Tanga Loa beat Chase Owens.
Match 3: BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Naito pinned Newman after Destino.
Match 4: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA to retain the titles. Moloney pinned KUSHIDA after Full Clip. V2 for the champs.
Match 5: Best of 7 Series Match 7: Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata beat Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki. Umino pinned Narita after Death Slider. 3-3-1. DRAW.
Match 6: El Phantasmo & Hikuleo beat STRONG Tag Team Champions Gabriel Kidd & Alex Coughlin to win the titles. Phantasmo & Hikuleo become the 6th STRONG Tag Team Champions. Phantasmo pinned Coughlin after Super Thunder Kiss ’86.
Match 7: NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Josh Alexander, Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley (Impact Wrestling) to retain the titles. Tanahashi pinned Shelley after High Fly Flow. V3 for the champs.
Match 8: Tama Tonga beat NEVER Openweight Champion David Finlay to win the title. Tonga becomes the 40th NEVER Openweight Champion.
Match 9: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi beat Yoh & Mike Bailey in a 3-way by pinning Yoh to retain the title. V6 for Takahashi. Next up: Possibly Taiji Ishimori, who attacked Takahashi afterwards. Ishimori has been out the last several months due to injury.
Main Event: In a Lumberjack Deathmatch, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA beat EVIL to retain the title. V4 for SANADA. Next up: It’s probably Tokyo Dome, which means, if all goes as planned the next 3 months, Naito. Destino.
The next event is ROYAL QUEST 3 Saturday at Copper Box in London, England. The event will be a live PPV via Revolution Pro Wrestling and their on demand streaming service beginning at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT. The service costs $9.49/month or $89.99/year and additional purchase may be required, but you must subscribe first. It will be available on demand on New Japan World at a later date.
UPDATE: If you believe New Japan’s official English social media outlets, it’s now official. Naito-SANADA at Tokyo Dome on 1/4.
UPDATE 2/ The first 1/4 press conference, with the first matches announced, will be tonight at 12 PM PT/2 AM ET and can be watched live FOR FREE on New Japan World and may also be available on YouTube in Japanese.