Shota Umino Returns to Action with a Win at NJPW Road to Destruction in Utsunomiya

By: Noah Leatherland

NJPW are back after the G1 Climax, taking the first steps down the Road to Destruction with an event in Utsunomiya. After suffering a concussion back in the opening bout of the G1, Shota Umino was back in action.

Umino teamed with YOSHI-HASHI and Tatsuya Matsumoto to take on a United Empire trio of HENARE, Great-O-Khan and Jakob Austin Young. He led his team to victory after hitting the Second Chapter on Young, securing the pinfall. In his post-match comments, Umino shared his determination to throw himself back in at the deep end.

After taking the summer off and lining up at the back of the pack, what should Shota Umino do? There’s only one thing, right? … I’m going to compete in every event in this series.

(Quotes translated via DeepL)

The main event was a preview for a pair of upcoming title matches. Boltin Oleg won the bout for his Hontai quartet over Unbound Co., helping both Hirooki Goto and YOH pick up some early momentum ahead of challenging Yota Tsuji and defending against Taiji Ishimori, respectively.

Here are the full results for NJPW Road to Destruction in Utsunomiya, courtesy of purolove.com:

• Masatora Yasuda def. Taisei Nakahara (7:08)
• DOUKI, SHO & Dick Togo def. El Desperado, Ryusuke Taguchi & Jado (8:50)
• Shota Umino, YOSHI-HASHI & Tatsuya Matsumoto def. HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young (10:49)
• Shingo Takagi & Jeff Cobb def. Callum Newman & Zane Jay (8:11)
• Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Satoshi Kojima def. Yuto-Ice, OSKAR & Gedo (10:16)
• Aaron Wolf, Yuya Uemura & Taichi def. Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita (9:47)
• Hirooki Goto, Boltin Oleg, YOH & Master Wato def. Yota Tsuji, Taiji Ishimori, Robbie X & Daiki Nagai (11:30)