NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2019 preview

Sunday sees the third and final major stop on the NJPW Destruction tour as they head to Kobe. The show will be headlined by a match between Tetsuya Naito and Jay White for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.

Live on NJPW World featuring both English commentary and the full camera setup, Destruction in Kobe is scheduled to air Sunday, September 22, from the Kobe World Hall. The tour comes to its conclusion with the final night of the Young Lion Cup and a special singles match between Shingo Takagi and Hirooki Goto before the tour’s highlight, an IWGP Intercontinental Championship defense.

First up will be the finale to the Young Lion Cup where dojo leaders Shota Umino and Karl Fredericks are determined to see which dojo reigns supreme. The main event between Tetsuya Naito and Jay White for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship sees history in White’s favor. Every Destruction in Kobe that’s been headlined by the IC title has gone in the challenger’s favor.

Event info

Event: NJPW Destruction in Kobe 2019
Date: Sunday, September 22, 2019
Venue: Kobe World Hall — Kobe, Hyōgo
Start time: 3:00 a.m. Eastern/12:00 a.m. Pacific
Watch live: NJPW World

Yuji Nagata, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Alex Coughlin & Michael Richards

The young lions who have already completed their tournament and no longer have any chance of winning the Young Lion Cup will team with either Yuji Nagata or Manabu Nakanishi to close out their final day of the tour.

Young Lion Cup Tournament Match
Ren Narita (5-1) vs. Clark Connors (3-3)

Clark Connors comes into the final night of the 2019 Young Lion Cup in the ultimate spoiler role. He has nothing to wrestle for other than his pride but Ren Narita will want to both win and hope for his dojo classmate, Shota Umino, to lose in order for Narita to win the tournament.

Young Lion Cup Tournament Match
Shota Umino (5-1) vs. Karl Fredericks (5-1)

The final match of the 2019 Young Lion Cup comes down to a match between the lead members of both the Tokyo and L.A. Dojos. A win by Shota Umino will crown him as the tournament’s winner but Karl Fredericks will need to both win and have Ren Narita lose in order to take the tournament.

Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare

Toa Henare has spent the majority of the Destruction tour getting destroyed by the Bullet Club. Whether it be a package piledriver by Chase Owens or the grenade from Fale, Henare has constantly found himself eating the pin for his team against the Bullet Club. Henare will have one final night on this tour to make the statement that he’s not a stepping stone.

Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Rocky Romero

One of the most compelling stories of 2019 has been between Minoru Suzuki and Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger. These two have been attached at the hip ever since Liger announced that he’ll be retiring at the upcoming Wrestle Kingdom event. Suzuki has taken exception with the announcement, declaring that Liger should retire immediately. Destruction in Kagoshima saw Suzuki unmask the legend and pose with the mask in his mouth. This action has awoken Liger and brought him to another level.

KENTA, Guerrillas of Destiny, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo vs. Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Will Ospreay & Roppongi 3K

Destruction in Kagoshima saw the junior heavyweight team of Roppongi 3K pull off an upset win over the IWGP Tag Team Champions, the Guerrillas of Destiny. 3K will be tasked with repeating that upset, this time with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo, in tow.

The match also sets as a preview for October’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match between Will Ospreay and El Phantasmo. Ospreay hasn’t been able to get past ELP ever since his debut back in May. He’s taken two singles losses to ELP as well as several tag team defeats along the way. They are set to meet at King of Pro-Wrestling where ELP will have the chance to pick up three straight singles victories over the ace of the junior division.

Kazuchika Okada, Kota Ibushi & Robbie Eagles vs. SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI

A set of previews for upcoming singles matches. The first will be the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match between Kazuchika Okada and SANADA. The two are set to clash at King of Pro-Wrestling in October for their second title match of the year. Their 2019 series started with a meeting in the final of the New Japan Cup, a match won by Okada, who would go on to declare SANADA as his first challenger if Okada were to defeat Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Okada beat White and stayed true to his word by allowing SANADA to challenge him first.

The rematch would again result in an Okada victory but their third singles meeting came in the G1 Climax. The 6-0, undefeated Okada stepped in the ring with SANADA at 2-4, on the verge of elimination. The match came down to the wire as they nearly reached the 30-minute time limit before SANADA was able to capture his first ever singles victory over Okada. After the tournament, Okada made another title defense before this time being challenged by SANADA himself. The arc between these two is beginning to close as we inch closer to their fourth clash of the year.

Also featured in this match is a preview of Kota Ibushi and EVIL. Since winning the G1 Climax, Ibushi is required to defend his IWGP Heavyweight Championship contract against those who beat him during the tournament. He completed the first step by defeating KENTA during this Destruction Tour but his next obstacle before getting to headline Wrestle Kingdom is EVIL. Ibushi credits EVIL’s win to Ibushi’s ankle injury and has no hesitation about his odds of defending the contract.

Shingo Takagi vs. Hirooki Goto

As the newest heavyweight of NJPW, Shingo Takagi comes into this G1 Climax rematch against Hirooki Goto with a point to prove. Entering the G1 Climax as a junior heavyweight, Shingo finished the tournament with a 4-5 record, which was impressive enough for him to declare he’d be moving to the heavyweight division full time. His tournament ended with a win over Goto, making him the catalyst for Shingo’s confidence.

The loss to Shingo is what ultimately cost Goto from advancing to the G1 Climax final. With a win over Shingo, Goto would’ve tied with block winner, Jay White, and the tiebreaker would favor Goto since he defeated White on the opening day of the tournament. Goto will want to avenge the loss he took that bounced him out of the G1, nevertheless to a man who was ranked as a junior at the time.

IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Jay White

Jay White crushed the hopes of all Naito fans around the world when he eliminated Naito from the G1 Climax on the final day of B-Block. White advanced to the final where he lost to the tournament winner, Kota Ibushi. With neither man able to achieve their goal of winning the G1 Climax, White has turned his focus to Naito’s IC title.

There is another story brewing beneath the surface that sees Naito, White, Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr. all with the goal of claiming both the Heavyweight and IC championships to close out Wrestle Kingdom weekend. Naito will need to make history on this night before he can go on to make history in January.

This will be the fourth time the IWGP Intercontinental Championship has been featured in the main event of Destruction in Kobe. The three previous events all saw the show ended with a new champion being crowned. In both 2014 and 2015, Shinsuke Nakamura reclaimed the tile by defeating Bad Luck Fale and Hirooki Goto, respectively.

Naito was the man to continue that streak in 2016 when he beat Michael Elgin but this time he’ll need to destroy the streak if he wants a chance to leave Wrestle Kingdom weekend as a double champion.