Kobe

Destruction 2015 in Kobe

(2015/09/27)

1.       David Finlay & Jay White vs. Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka

Decent, yet totally forgettable opener. Nothing bad, it’s just that I forgot everything about the match five minutes after it ended.

**

2.       Manabu Nakanishi, Cpt. New Japan, Juice Robinson vs. Yuji Nagata, Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask

This fucking match… Jesus on a spit, just look at that Nakanishi team… Juice Robinson? Even Eddie Edwards looks more intimidating than him.

bad

3.       Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Rocky Romero, Beretta)

Dorada jobbed again, smfh… Awesome match, tho! Everything Ishii, Y-H and motherfucking HONMA did was great, and Dorada awed the fans with his crazy spots, that tornillo was crazy crazy good.

***1/2

4.       Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Matt Sydal vs. Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Kenny Omega)

Really super midcard match, fast-paced and very vivid, nonstop action. Sydal/Omega chemistry was great, their upcoming KOPW title match looks promising based on this one.

***3/4

~ Great hype video for Shibata/Naito! ~

5.       Tetsuya Naito vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Terrific brawl that totally lived up to my expectations. This was a true old school puroresu brawl, a tussle with two guys wallowing in mutual hatred, they hit each other pretty fucking hard. Shibata was particularly merciless and brutal, his kicks were producing those sluggish, numb, industrial sounds that made you think Naito would die. He clobbered him properly, all the cutoffs were so neat. But Naito was playing a different game here, his new Ingobernable shtick opened brand new horizons for him, as he finally perceived the power of being an asshole. Naito was a tremendous asshole here. He won the match in a true Rush manner, he spat on Shibata, and he also beat up a cameraman after the match, which led to Shibata continuing to beat him silly all the way to the backstage. Excellent match/angle.

****1/2

6.       Bullet Club (AJ Styles, Tama Tonga, Cody Hall) vs. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba

Finally a somewhat memorable AJ/Okada tag, fast-paced sprint loaded with action that served as great KOPW prelude, all the cutoffs and standoffs between them were quite doozy, Kobe totally ate it up. Yano was in rare form here, very funny and clever stuff from him, it’s fascinating that he always finds new ways to refresh the old gimmick. Killer midcard filler.

***1/2

7.       IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) vs. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) ©

DUD

8.       WK10 IWGP Heavyweight Title Contendership: Bad Luck Fale vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (G1w)

Great and simple match, with proper storytelling centered around Tana constantly trying to overthrow and slay the Bullet Club giant. Everything he did led to that one bodyslam to setup his High Fly Flow. Awesome match, another gem to add in Fale’s impressive collection.

****

9.       IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto ©

The ultimate Nakamura/Goto match, oh my, this shit was absolutely fantastic and ranks among very best Goto encounters ever. He’s never had a five star match in my book, but he did have some ****3/4s, so it’d be interesting to see where this one ranks. Probably Top 3. Yeah, this shit was THAT awesome. Goto was tremendous with his pumping rhythm and the way he sucked Shinsuke into his own pace made for such a comfortable ride, because Shinsuke wasn’t able to bore us with his by-the-numbers bits, no way, this was a Hirooki Goto show, which means manliness, hard smacks and surly escalations everywhere. There was a constant sense that someone could hit their finisher at any given time, which is a huge plus. This was smashing!

****3/4