{"id":142696,"date":"2025-09-26T12:14:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=142696"},"modified":"2025-09-26T12:14:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:14:58","slug":"njpw-destruction-preview-9-28-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/09\/26\/njpw-destruction-preview-9-28-25\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW Destruction Preview (9\/28\/25)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NJPW Destruction is upon us, and it will be this Sunday at Kobe World Memorial Hall. The show starts at 4 p.m. JST\/3 a.m. ET live and direct on NJPW World.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From four originally slated title matches, this year\u2019s card will now have five. Here are the exciting matches to look forward to on Sunday:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>NJPW Destruction Match Card:<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Main event: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship &#8211; Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Ren Narita<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7th match: IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship &#8211; Gabe Kidd (c) vs. Shingo Takagi<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6th match: Yota Tsuji vs. David Finlay<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5th match: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship &#8211; Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Taiji Ishimori<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4th match: IWGP Tag Team Championship &#8211; Taichi &amp; Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Yuto-ICE and OSKAR<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3rd match: NEVER Openweight Championship &#8211; Boltin Oleg (c) vs. Don Fale<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2nd match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Great O-Khan<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1st match: YOH, El Desperado, YOSHI-HASHI, Yuya Uemura, &amp; Shota Umino vs. SHO, DOUKI, Dick Togo, Sanada, &amp; EVIL<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Narita and Sabre Finally Get to Settle Their Score<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ren Narita had a raring start in G1 Climax 35 in July when he scored pinfall wins over two reigning champions, one of them being the World Heavyweight champion himself, Zack Sabre Jr. After weeks of brawling at the end of their tag matches during the Road to Destruction tour, the two of them will finally get their hands on one another.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This time around, it will be in the main event with Sabre\u2019s title on the line. Can Souled Out and the House of Torture\u2019s tactics snatch the gold away, or will TMDK\u2019s Frontman remain the top dog of New Japan?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The winner will defend against G1 winner Konosuke Takeshita next month at King of Pro-Wrestling. Takeshita will surely be watching closely in anticipation of who will be his opponent.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Rampage Dragon Challenge War Ready<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shingo Takagi and Gabe Kidd are set to cross paths for the fourth time in their careers, this time for the IWGP Global Heavyweight crown. Takagi called out Kidd in the G1 Final last month, basically saying that if he doesn\u2019t plan on defending the title, he\u2019ll be more than happy to take it from him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That, of course, was a shot at Kidd returning to the ring after his knee injury that cost him his G1 campaign this year in AEW, instead of wrestling on the cerulean blue mat. The champion did not take this kindly and is sure to fire back in the ring when he meets Takagi again.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_142713\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-142713\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-142713 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/22-36-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic for NJPW Destruction 2025, happening on September 28, 2025.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/22-36-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/22-36-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/22-36-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/22-36-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/22-36-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-142713\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><b>Knockout Brothers Seek Tag Team Glory<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recently returned team of OSKAR and Yuto-ICE, now known as the Knockout Brothers (K.O.B.), finally get to prove themselves when they challenge for the IWGP Tag Team titles against Taichi and Tomohiro Ishii. This is the champions\u2019 first title defense after winning the belts from Great O-Khan and Callum Newman back in Dominion last June.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The last six champions didn\u2019t get past one title defense, something that Ishii and Taichi will look to break to stabilize the championships and the division. They will have to contend against a hungrier and younger team in K.O.B. to do so this Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Ishimori vs Takahashi, Now for the GHC Jr. Title<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hiromu Takahashi and Taiji Ishimori were slated to have a singles match on this card even before the former won the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title. After Ishimori snuck a win over Takahashi in a tag match last Wednesday, the champion demanded that the title be on the line this Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This marks the first time since 2004 that the title was defended in NJPW, where then champion Jushin Thunder Liger faced Kotaro Suzuki. This title match is a welcome addition to an already stacked card, with the winner scheduled to defend against Eita on October 11 in NOAH.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Oleg and Fale Collide<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boltin Oleg will defend the NEVER Openweight title for the second time against Don Fale. It will be the challenger\u2019s first singles title match since 2019, when he challenged for the old United States title.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Literally and figuratively, this is Oleg\u2019s biggest challenge in his career\u2019s maiden singles title run, but there is no doubt that he has the capability to take it on. Fale, on the other hand, will look to establish dominance for himself and H.o.T. by winning more gold for their faction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"s1\">Header photo \u2013 NJPW \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a> for more on NJPW Destruction and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can rewatch all NJPW events and plenty more tremendous wrestling content from New Japan Pro-Wrestling on <a href=\"http:\/\/njpwworld.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NJPWWorld.com<\/a>, The King of Sports Streaming.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NJPW Destruction is upon us, and it will be this Sunday at Kobe World Memorial Hall. The show starts at 4 p.m. JST\/3 a.m. ET live and direct on NJPW World. From four originally slated title matches, this year\u2019s card will now have five. Here are the exciting matches to look forward to on Sunday: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5576,"featured_media":142712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14,2192],"tags":[8965,189,1907,2942,172],"class_list":["post-142696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-njpw","category-wrestling","tag-gabe-kidd","tag-njpw-destruction","tag-ren-narita","tag-shingo-takagi","tag-zack-sabre-jr"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142714,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142696\/revisions\/142714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}