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What's the story?
At tonight's NJPW: Destruction in Hiroshima show, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega marked his second successful title defense and his very first title defense in Japan by defeating Tomohiro Ishii in yet another instant classic encounter.
In case you didn't know...
Earlier this year, at NJPW: Dominion 6.9, Bullet Club leader Kenny Omega won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the very first time in his career when he defeated Kazuchika Okada in a historic 2 out of 3 falls match at the Osaka Jo-Hall and ended The Rainmaker's legendary 720-day reign.
Following Omega's historic title win, The Best Bout Machine marked his first successful title defense at this year's NJPW: G1 Specials in San Francisco, retaining the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a hard-fought win over fellow Bullet Club stablemate Cody Rhodes.
The heart of the matter
Tonight's NJPW: Destruction in Hiroshima event was yet another reason which proved why current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega is popularly known as 'The Best Bout Machine' in the Pro Wrestling.
Just 2 weeks removed from his hard-fought win over Pentagon Jr. at All In, tonight Omega was on course to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Title in what was only his second title defense since winning the belt at Dominion. And for his second title challenger, The Best Bout Machine had the uphill task of defeating 'The Stone Pitbull' Tomohiro Ishii, who following his recent win over Omega at the G1 Climax 28 earned his way to yet another shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Title.
Both Omega and Ishii are no strangers to each other, having competed against each other on four different occasions in an NJPW ring and the two men headed into this match with a perfect record of 2-2.
As expected, Omega and Ishii once again put together another absolute classic back-and-forth match, executing several high and risky manoeuvres throughout the contest and taking each other to the limit.
However, despite yet another resilient effort from Ishii, the CHAOS wingman wasn't able to capture the gold much like last year's G1 Specials at Long Beach when Omega became the inaugural IWGP US Heavyweight Champion defeating The Stone Pitbull in the finals.
What's next?
Following Omega's successful IWGP Heavyweight Title defense against Tomohiro Ishii, the former will now look forward to his next title challenger and as of right now, it remains interesting to be seen which NJPW star emerges to step forward and challenge Omega to a title match in the near future.
