Earlier this week, New Japan announced the top matches for their September shows during their Destruction tour, plus the main events for the September 30th “Fighting Spirit Unleashed” show live from Long Beach, California that will likely air once again on AXS TV.
The big story is that the IWGP Jr. Championship is vacated due to the serious neck injury of Hiromu Takahashi, who is still in a Tokyo hospital. There will be two semi-final tournament matches on September 23 and September 30, with the winners facing off at King of Pro Wrestling on October 8 from Sumo Hall in Tokyo to determine the new champion.
On September 7th, The Golden Lovers face Tomohiro Ishii and Will Ospreay in the main event of a Road to Destruction show from Chiba.
On September 9th, Satoshi Kojima returns from injury as part of a 8-Man Tag main event on a Road to Destruction show from Chiba entitled “Blue Justice VI.” Kojima has been out since January with a knee injury.
On September 15th, its the first of the three Destruction PPVs from Hiroshima, headlined by Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the IWGP Title, plus The Firing Squad defend the NEVER 6-Man Tag Titles against Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson and David Finlay Jr.
On September 17th, its the second Destruction PPV from Bippu, headlined by Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki, plus Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi for the NEVER Title.
On September 23th, its the final Destruction PPV from Kobe, headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his G-1 Rights briefcase against Kazuchika Okada in another match of their historic rivalry, plus KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI in the first IWGP Jr. Title tournament semi-final match.
Finally on September 30th, its Fighting Spirit Unleashed from Long Beach, headlined by Juice Robinson vs. Cody for the IWGP US Title, plus Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll in the other IWGP Jr. Title tournament semi-final match and The Young Bucks vs. The Guerrillas of Destiny for the IWGP Tag Team Titles.