Following the conclusion of NJPW’s G1 last month, the promotion now embarks on the road to Destruction. Today’s show was highlighted by Zack Sabre Jr. defending his NJPW World TV Championship against Ryohei Oiwa.
Oiwa has officially graduated from his Young Lion status and is now on loan to Pro Wrestling NOAH thanks to Kaito Kiyomiya, who was in his corner today.
The match began with Sabre and Oiwa trading strikes before Oiwa took Sabre outside the ring to throw him into the barricades. He went for a third throw, but Sabre reversed and threw Oiwa into the barricade instead. Unfortunately for Sabre, Oiwa bounced off the barricade and hit him with a shoulder block.
Back in the ring now, Oiwa ran into Sabre in the corner to hit him with a dropkick to the face. Sabre then outsmarted the young Oiwa, he drew him to the ring apron where he locked in an armbar on the apron. Once he released the hold he ran along the apron to hit Oiwa with a PK before beginning to focus on Oiwa’s left arm.
He trapped the arm in the barricade, stomped on it and even hit a brutal arm crank. Oiwa tried to get back into the match with some strikes, but Sabre caught the left arm and dropped it over his shoulder. The focus on the arm continued until Oiwa caught Sabre with a bodyslam, a back elbow and a running splash. He then hit two gut-wrench overhead suplexes, an arm drag neckbreaker and a German suplex.
Oiwa now went for a side suplex, but Sabre hit him with an uppercut, a kick to the arm and he then locked in one of his vicious submissions. He was squeezing Oiwa’s arms together and had a knee into his spine. Oiwa was able to make it to the ropes and Sabre came right back with a German suplex, but Oiwa was not phased by it. He popped right up to hit Sabre with a dragon screw and then locked in a figure-four leg lock.
Sabre celebrating his win. Credit: NJPW
Sabre grabbed the ropes to break the hold and Oiwa then hit him with a backdrop suplex. Oiwa was now focused on the knees of Sabre, but Sabre reversed a second dragon screw into an armbar. Sabre locked him into a brutal submission again, he had his foot on Oiwa’s back and pulled both arms together behind his back. Oiwa’s only option was to submit and Sabre retained his championship.
Following the match, Kiyomiya jumped in the ring and went nose-to-nose with Sabre possibly signifying he wants a title shot next.
Kiyomiya greets Sabre. Credit: NJPW
NJPW Road to Destruction Sept. 8 Results
YOH & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Just 5 Guys (DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Kanemaru won for Just 5 Guys by catching Taguchi in a figure four roll-up pinfall.
Winners: Just 5 Guys (DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Oskare Leube, Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata vs. Tomoaki Honma, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki
Narita took advantage of the young lion Leube and locked him in an abdominal stretch to earn the win. Following the match, Narita and Umino were trading forearms, and Narita knocked Umino onto the floor.
Winners: Tomoaki Honma, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki
Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. TMDK (Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls)
Haste and Nicholls isolated Yano and hit him with an assisted neckbreaker to get the win.
Winners: TMDK (Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls)
Yuto Nakashima, Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada vs. Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
This match saw no winner, as both teams ended up in a four-on-four brawl in the middle of the rings that the referee couldn’t break up. The war continued past the bell and the match was declared a no contest.
Winner: No Contest
Los Ingobernables de Japón (Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Callum Newman & United Empire (HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb)
Tsuji earned the victory for LIJ by hitting Newman with his signature spear.
Winners: LIJ (Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ryohei Oiwa — NJPW World TV Championship Match
Winner: Zack Sabre Jr. retains the NJPW World TV Championship
House of Torture (EVIL & SHO) vs. Just 5 Guys (SANADA & Taichi)
HoT with their stolen titles. Credit: NJPW
This battle has been brewing for some time now. During the G1, SHO stole Taichi’s KOPW title and EVIL stole the world championship from SANADA. House of Torture has been walking around like they have all this gold when those titles do not belong to them.
SANADA and Taichi wanted to take their titles back tonight, and they were hoping to do that while also getting a victory over House of Torture. However, the House of Torture went to their cheating ways. Dick Togo hit SANADA over the head with a steel chair, EVIL low blowed Taichi, SHO hit Taichi with his wrench and then EVIL hit SANADA between the eyes with his own championship.
EVIL then hit SANADA with Everything is Evil and secured another pinfall victory over the World Champion. Following the match, SHO hit Taichi with Shock Arrow and they continued their breath down on Just 5 Guys. EVIL and SHO once again left with the championships that they have never won.