Hirooki Goto To Challenge Yota Tsuji For IWGP Heavyweight Title At NJPW Destruction In Kobe
New Japan Pro-Wrestling has announced the first five matches for its upcoming Destruction in Kobe event on September 27. So far, the promotion has revealed three title matches, a special singles match, and a six-man tag team clash featuring the two men who shook the wrestling world to its core in the G1 Climax 36 final last weekend.
The only multi-man match announced so far is an absolute doozy, featuring the two men who just had one of the best matches of the decade, Ryohei Oiwa and Yuya Uemura, on opposite sides once again. Oiwa will be joined by his TMDK teammates Hartley Jackson and Kosei Fujita, while Uemura will team with Aaron Wolf and Taichi. While NJPW six-man tags usually take a back seat to the promotion’s singles and tag matches, this one will certainly have plenty of eyes on it.
Callum Newman will take on the returning Jeff Cobb in the only special singles match announced so far. The former United Empire heavyweight returned to New Japan after spending almost a year and a half in WWE, immediately making it clear that he wasn’t going to bend the knee or “kiss the crown”. Instead, he joined Gedo in Unbound Co. As of writing, this will be Cobb’s first singles match in NJPW since his return, and it should be a fun watch.
Fresh off his NJPW debut, Shun Skywalker will take on Konosuke Takeshita in a singles match for the NJPW WORLD Television Championship. Upon arriving in the promotion, Skywalker immediately joined House of Torture and set his sights on Takeshita. This will be the former Open the Dream Gate Champion’s first opportunity to win a championship in NJPW.
New Japan also announced that Gabe Kidd will defend his IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship for the first time during his second reign, this time against his former BULLET CLUB War Dogs ally, Drilla Moloney. Moloney earned his title opportunity after defeating Kidd in the G1 Climax. This will be Moloney’s second shot at the championship, with his first coming at Dominion in a three-way match against Shota Umino and Andrade El Idolo.
Finally, in what appears to be the main event of the show, Yota Tsuji will defend his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hirooki Goto. While the two have never competed against each other for the top title, they did meet in the final of the 2024 New Japan Cup, which Tsuji won. Since then, Goto has won their last two singles meetings, both in the G1 Climax.
If Goto is able to capture the title and become a two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, he will be the one to defend it against Ryohei Oiwa at King of Pro Wrestling in October.
Following his G1 Climax 36 victory, Ryohei Oiwa had the chance to discuss his critically acclaimed match with Yuya Uemura and the importance of having a variety of styles in professional wrestling. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the future of New Japan Pro-Wrestling as we enter the Road to Destruction as soon as we hear more.
