Best of 7 series gets underway
After its opening two nights in Korakuen Hall, the Road to Destruction continues on September 10 in Yuji Nagata’s home turf of Togane, Chiba. Nagata is always proud of carrying the Togane standard into his self-produced Blue Justice events every year, and this year the stakes are high when it comes to pride in himself and a generational trios team.
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Main event: Best of Seven Series Match 1- Yuji Nagata, Shota Umino & Master Wato vs Strong Style (Minoru Suzuki, Ren Narita & El Desperado)
Generational rivals collide over a seven-match series on the Road to Destruction, as the Strong Style team of Ren Narita, El Desperado, and Minoru Suzuki take on Yuji Nagata, Shota Umino, and Master Wato. Narita and Umino have been enemies and rivals ever since they debuted together. Narita’s frustration at not yet being able to beat Umino one on one stoked the flames, and when the two, together with Yota Tsuji, were labeled the Reiwa Three Musketeers, harkening back to the legendary trio that defined a 1990s boom period, gasoline was tipped on the fire. Their subsequent G1 contest ended in a thrilling but unsatisfying conclusion of a time limit draw, but the two men were not going to leave things be.
Toward the end of the G1 tour, tag action would see Narita bring his Strong Style teammates to the mix. The former NEVER Openweight 6-man Tag team Champions, Narita, and mentors Minoru Suzuki and El Desperado would soon be opposed by a fine choice of partners from the Roughneck Shota Umino. Yuji Nagata and Suzuki have been enemies bound by blood for 20 years, since the King returned to professional wrestling from the nascent MMA sphere back in 2003. El Desperado perhaps sees some of his younger self in Master Wato, a fact that has seen grudging respect born out of bitter hatred.
Every pairing of these six men has a history of hatred and heated battles. Together they’re set for a roller coaster ride of a seven-match series. Will this first meeting, in Nagata’s Togane backyard, see the Blue Justice team get off to a home win headstart? Or will Strong Style put Nagata in the losing column in his hometown for only the third time in his 31-year career?
6th Match: Just Five Guys (SANADA, Taichi, DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo)
After tag team action on the Road to Destruction kick-off and trios warfare on night two, night three of the tour sees a dual title preview of September 24 in Kobe and October 9 in Ryogoku between Just Five Guys and HOUSE OF TORTURE in eight-man action. With TAKA Michinoku available as an ally in the J5G corner, and HOUSE OF TORTURE having a notoriously small social circle, one would be forgiven for thinking that the numbers edge would give Just 5 Guys the advantage over their underhanded opponents. Such was not the case in Ryogoku at the G1 Climax final, however, as the night ended with a wrench to the face from SHO to