BRM Reviews NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2015

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2015 (9/27/2015)- Kobe, Japan

SHO TANAKA & YOHEI KOMATSU vs. DAVID FINLAY JR. & JAY WHITE- 2.5/10
Every short young boys match you’ve ever seen.

JUSHIN “THUNDER” LIGER, TIGER MASK IV, & YUJI NAGATA vs. MANABU NAKANISHI, JUICE ROBINSON, & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN- 4/10
Why are Nagata and Nakanishi on different teams all of a sudden? Did they break up while I wasn’t looking?
Seeing Liger and Tiger Mask being the ones getting the heat was a little weird. Captain New Japan eventually made the hot tag to Nakanishi, who came in like a house of fire except that he was REALLY, REALLY SLOW. Juice Robinson looked perfectly competent, but not like anyone who I would go out of my way to book.

TOGI MAKABE, TOMOAKI HONMA, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, & MASCARA DORADA vs. CHOAS (Trent Barreta, Rocky Romero, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI)- 4.75/10
A giant, cluster-f*cky waste of time. They got Ishii and Makabe in their to do some spots together to build up to their NEVER Openweight Title match at King of Pro Wrestling 2015, but other than that, none of this was in any way interesting or even particularly entertaining.

HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & MATT SYDAL vs. BULLET CLUB (Doc Gallows, Kenny Omega, & Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson)- 6.5/10
You know the spot where the one partner puts his boot out and the other partner slams the opponent’s head into the outstretched boot? Well the Bullet Club did that and Omega started to sell his leg a lot after it. That was dumb. They also did a really stupid-looking pig-pile triple team. The stuff between Sydal and Omega was good, though, and Sydal pinning Omega earns him a title shot at King of Pro Wrestling.

TETSUYA NAITO vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 6/10
The ref ordered the bell to be rung to start the match without making Naito take his hard, metal-looking mask off. Do your f*cking job, referee!
They had a repetitive match with a good heel finish.
BULLET CLUB (AJ Styles, Tama Tonga, & Cody Hall) vs. Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba, & Kazuchika Okada (w/Gedo)- 5.75/10
AJ and Okada were great, everything else was boring aside from some brief stuff at the end with Sakuraba and Cody.

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. Time Splitters- 8/10
Awesome match.
After the match, Roppongi Vice turned heel and beat up reDRagon, hitting Kyle with their finisher on one of the title belts.

TOKYO DOME #1 CONTENDERSHIP CONTRACT MATCH: Hiroshi Tanahashi(c) vs. Bad Luck Fale (Tama Tonga)- 7.5/10`

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Hirooki Goto(c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura- 8/10
Yes, the match was awesome, but we’ve seen it four times now in the past four months, and it’s not like the matches have been stellar. They’ve been awesome, but they’ve all been in the same 8-8.5/10 range and they’ve all felt the same. If they were putting on matches that were, like 9/10 all the time like Tanahashi seems to do with AJ and Okada and Nakamura, then that would be one thing… but they’re not. And yes, I realize that I am complaining about getting matches that are virtually guaranteed to be awesome, but they’ve just all felt the same and I feel like I’ve seen everything they have to give us against each other
And now this finish means we’re going to get a fifth one because I guess they needed the IC belt off of Goto before he challenges Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Title… except that no one thinks Goto is going to win that match, anyway so you’re not really helping the match, and in the process you’re making Goto’s run with the IC belt short and having him lose it back to the same guy that he beat for it, essentially making both his title win and his two big wins over Nakamura completely meaningless in the long run.

The top of the card definitely delivered here, but the undercard felt like a HUGE waste of time. In particular, I found the Bullet Club vs. Okada, Yano, & Sakuraba match to be extremely frustrating. Why, exactly, did Okada not defend the title on one of these big Destruction shows? I figured the whole reason they took the belt off of Goto was so he wouldn’t have the belt when he got to challenge Okada, so why not give AJ his rematch on one of these shows, let Goto get the title shot at King of Pro Wrestling, and use these two shows and King of Pro Wrestling to build up a challenger for Power Struggle? Splitting the PPVs to ensure that all of the important matches get time is a great idea, but you need to make sure that you have enough important matches in order to make it worthwhile.

[cero2k]

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. Time Splitters- 8/10
Awesome match.
After the match, Roppongi Vice turned heel and beat up reDRagon, hitting Kyle with their finisher on one of the title belts.

isn't everyone from CHAOS heel anyway?

[Big Red Machine]

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. Time Splitters- 8/10
Awesome match.
After the match, Roppongi Vice turned heel and beat up reDRagon, hitting Kyle with their finisher on one of the title belts.

isn't everyone from CHAOS heel anyway?

I'm not even sure. The fans all seem to love Okada and Nakamura and Ishii, who are the top three guys in the stable, plus they always fight Bullet Club and Suzuki-Gun, so I assumed they were. The whole stable is completely pointless.