| Destruction in Kobe (2014) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Promotional poster for the event, featuring variousNJPW wrestlers | |||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||
| Date | September 21, 2014[1] | ||
| City | Kobe,Japan[1] | ||
| Venue | Kobe World Memorial Hall[1] | ||
| Attendance | 8,000[1] | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| Destruction chronology | |||
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| New Japan Pro-Wrestling events chronology | |||
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Destruction in Kobe (2014) was aprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV) event promoted byNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on September 21, 2014, inKobe,Hyōgo at theKobe World Memorial Hall.[1][2][3] The event featured ten matches, three of which were contested forchampionships.[1] It was the eighth event under theDestruction name and the final NJPW internet pay-per-view broadcast internationally byUstream.[4]
Destruction in Kobe featured tenprofessional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds andstorylines. Wrestlers portrayedvillains,heroes, orless distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[5]
Originally announced top matches of the event sawKushida defend theIWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship againstRyusuke Taguchi,Hiroshi Tanahashi andKatsuyori Shibata face off in a2014 G1 Climax rematch andBad Luck Fale make his first defense of theIWGP Intercontinental Championship against previous championShinsuke Nakamura.[6] Nakamura had defeated Fale during the 2014 G1 Climax, taking himself to the finals and eliminating Fale from the tournament.[7] On September 8, NJPW announced that a match betweenBullet Club'sDoc Gallows andKarl Anderson andChaos'Kazuchika Okada andYoshi-Hashi would be contested for the former'sIWGP Tag Team Championship, instead of being the non-title match it was first announced as.[8] This came as a result of Yoshi-Hashi leading Chaos to aten-man elimination tag team match win over Bullet Club on September 5, after which he challengedYujiro Takahashi to a match for hisNEVER Openweight Championship, while Okada added his own IWGP Tag Team Championship challenge to Gallows and Anderson.[9]
The event featured several matches in the ongoingstoryline rivalry between the Chaos and Bullet Clubstables, including the opening six-man tag team match, where Chaos'Alex Koslov,Rocky Romero andTomohiro Ishii defeated Bullet Club'sMatt Jackson, Nick Jackson and Yujiro Takahashi.[1][3] Also featured during the event wasToru Yano's rivalry with his former partnerTakashi Iizuka, which had also branched into a rivalry between Yano's new partnerKazushi Sakuraba and Iizuka'sSuzuki-gun stablemateMinoru Suzuki. During the event, the two teams faced off in a tag team match, where Yano cheated his way to a win over Iizuka.[1][3] The first title match of the event saw Ryusuke Taguchi defeat Kushida to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the second time in his career and first time in seven years,[10] becoming the 69th champion.[1][3] Following the match, Taguchi and Kushida shook hands, before they were attacked by the Suzuki-gun trio ofEl Desperado,Taichi andTaka Michinoku, building up anIWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match between Kushida andAlex Shelley, theTime Splitters, and El Desperado and Taichi atDestruction in Okayama.[1]
In the second title match, Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson made their sixth successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship against Chaos' Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi, after Yujiro Takahashi interfered to attack his upcoming NEVER Openweight Championship challenger Yoshi-Hashi.[1][3][11] The event also featured two big singles match between some of NJPW's top heavyweights. In the matches,Togi Makabe and his tag team partnerHiroshi Tanahashi defeatedHirooki Goto and his tag team partnerKatsuyori Shibata, respectively.[1][3] Following his win, Tanahashi announced he was ending his one-year-long self-imposed exile from theIWGP Heavyweight Championship picture and was now looking to get a shot at Bullet Club's reigning championA.J. Styles.[12] In the main event of the show, Chaos' Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale to regain the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, winning it for the record-setting fourth time.[1][3][13]
Dave Meltzer of theWrestling Observer Newsletter called the match between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata a "must-see", writing "[i]t crossed the line for me as far as stiffness goes, and kind of bugs me because Tanahashi is smart enough to know the pitfalls of that kind of a match and following it. But as far as what they did when it comes to doing a simulated fight, it was incredible".[14] The match was eventually given a rare five-star rating by Meltzer.[15]
On September 30,Ustream announced it had ended itspay-per-view service, making Destruction in Kobe NJPW's final event broadcast by its largest international internet pay-per-view provider.[16]