BRM Reviews NJPW Road to Destruction 2019: Day 1 (dull)

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW Road to Destruction 2019: Day 1 (9/4/2019)- Tokyo, Japan

YOUNG LIONS LEAGUE MATCH: Alex Coughlin vs. Yota Tsuji- 5.25/10

YOUNG LIONS LEAGUE MATCH: Clark Connors vs. Shota Umino- 6/10
Intense.

HIROSHI TENZAN, YUYA UEMURA, & REN NARITA vs. MICHAEL RICHARD, KARL FREDERICKS, & SATOSHI KOJIMA- 6/10
This match occurred. It was fine. That’s really all there is to say, other than to ask if there is any real storyline reason why Tenzan and Kojima are on opposite sides? I don’t hate it, but I do think that if the two longest-tenured tag partners in the company- and possibly in the entire Eastern Hemisphere at this point- are going to suddenly be on opposite sides for an entire tour, it at least deserves a press conference where they announce that, just for sh*ts and giggles, they are each going to team with different groups of Young Lions every night of the tour and see which of them comes out of it with the most wins.

TOA HENARE, TOMOAKI HONMA, & BIRDS OF PREY (Robbie Eagles & Will Ospreay) vs. BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori, & Yujiro Takahashi)- 5/10
I love the “Birds of Prey” name. Bullet Club jump the bell on the babyfaces, but then they made this completely irrelevant by having the babyfaces immediately take control so they could shine up the Birds of Prey. After quickly doing that, Honma got tagged in so we could get the usual headbutt antics from Honma until him missing a headbutt causes him to get cut off, because he’s been having the same f*cking match, every single match, since 2015.
Stuff happened. Bullet Club won, which is baffling considering that the obvious place to go at the moment seems like Birds of Prey challenging for the Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.

CHAOS (Rocky Romero, TOSHI-HASHI, & Tomohiro Ishii) vs. BULLET CLUB (Jado & Guerrillas of Destiny)- 7.25/10
Bullet Club jumped the bell on the babyfaces. This was A LOT better than I was expecting, to the point being a clear match of the night. The babyfaces won, and thwarted a post-match attack as well.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, & ROPPONGI 3K vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, DOUKI, Lance Archer, & Zack Sabre Jr.)- 3.5/10
We quickly spill to the outside for the usual Suzuki-Gun bullsh*t. The match was rather dull. The babyfaces won when Taguchi rolled up DOUKI and the referee counted the pin even though DOUKI’s feet were in the ropes. It didn’t even look like the referee could see DOUKI’s shoulders but he counted the pin anyway.

BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Jay White, & Gedo) vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Tetsuya Natio, EVIL, & BUSHI)- 5/10
In this match, too, we quickly spilled to the outside for a beating by the heels, but at least there were no weapons used in this one. Bullet Club got the heat on BUSHI. LIJ came back and got the win when EVIL made Gedo tap out.

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto) vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Shingot Takagi & Sanada)- 7/10
Not much to say here other than that Sanada beat Goto with a flash pin, so watch out for that in his upcoming title match with Okada.



This was a disappointing show from New Japan. I know this is a “Road to…” show so I wasn’t expecting much going in, but I was at least expecting something memorable from the main event and got nothing of the short. You can’t count me out for the rest of this tour’s “Road to…” shows.