The DESTRUCTION tour mercifully comes to an end with BUSHI in the semi-main event. But we do get the continuation of Okada vs Tanahashi as they battle it out to see who will main event WK and for once the result is somewhat up in the air:
Results:
Yota Tsuji Drew with Yuya Uemara
Roppongi 3K (Sho & Yoh) Defeat Ren Narita & Shota Umino// Yoh pinned Ren Narita following Falcon’s Arrow
Tiger Mask & Jyushin Thunder Liger defeat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado// Tiger Mask pinned Kanemaru via a Clutch Hold
Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeat Ayato Yoshida, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe// Yuji Nagata pinned Yoshida with a back drop hold
Best Friends (Chuckie T & Beretta Defeat Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr)// Beretta pins Archer with a clutch hold
CHAOS (Jay White, YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay) Defeat Juice Robinson, David Finlay & Toa Henare// White hits Blade Runner on Henare for the win
Los Ingobernables De Japon (SANADA, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito) Defeat Suzuki- Gun (Taka Michinoku, Zack Sabre Junior & Minoru Suzuki)// EVIL beats Taka because EVERYTHING IS EVIL
KUSHIDA Defeat BUSHI// Back To The future from KUSHIDA leads to the win
Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada
Typical start from these two as they feel each other out. It escalates as Okada goes for a bit of a cheap shot and the two start to trade forearms. An over the top rope High Fly Flow sees Tanahashi start to clutch at his knee. Tana sells this knee like death to the point I thought it was legitimate. We see heel rainmaker Okada emerge as he targets the injured knee in a way that reminds me of a young lion targeting the older, weaker lion. At every opportunity, Okada locks in a submission and when Tana gets to the ropes he takes the full 4 seconds to keep it locked in. Tanahashi won’t stay down though and uses all of his veteran knowledge to try and take out Okada’s two knees. We progress to both men trying to gain a foothold and hit their signature offence. This is where their previous matches come into play as they both know each others moveset like the back of their hand and we get reversals of sling blades and rainmakers. Tanahashi knows that one rainmaker will put him away so he avoids it like the plague. Tanahashi goes up top but gets hit with a missile dropkick that hangs him in a tree of woe. Okada continues to destroy the knee and gets a tonne of crowd heat. Okada puts Tana up top but gets fought off. Tanahashi with a falling Hugh Fly Flow, High Fly Flow to a kneeling Okada, ONE MORE HE JUST NEEDS ONE MORE. Back up top and he gets the High Fly Flow for the win. Tanahashi finally beats Okada! GO ACE!
Post Match: Jay white comes out to lay out Tanahashi and presumably challenge for the briefcase. But then he attacks Okada, White goes to ringside for a chair and makes a point to go for Rocky Romero’s. Rocky said no but got thrown aside for his troubles. Back in and YOSHI HASHI runs down for the save, only to fall on the way, oh HASHI. White throws a chair at his head and again goes after Okada but Gedo is out to help his former client. BUT THEN GEDO TURNS ON OKADA and sides with Jay White. GEDO WARNS THAT A NEW ERA IS COMING. Everything has changed.
NJPW ends a disappointing tour on the highest of high notes as everything has changed after tonight. The hype for Fighting Spirit Unleashed might just go from 0-100.