The Destination 2024 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah). The event will take place on July 13, 2024, at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. This was the third annual event under the Destination name.
The event was headlined by Kaito Kiyomiya defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against the returning YOICHI. Another high-profile match, also included Naomichi Marufuji facing WWE's AJ Styles, the latter's return to Japan after nearly 7 years. As part of a partnership between NOAH and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1) promotion, the World Heavyweight Championship was also defended at the event with Akitoshi Saito facing his Team NOAH stablemate Go Shiozaki.
Two other other title matches were also announced for the show with Daga defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against AMAKUSA and HAYATA defending the GHC National Championship against Ulka Sasaki. The event also featured the last match of the Good Looking Guys (GLG) stable. Wrestlers from NOAH's partner promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) also appeared at the event.
The event aired live on AbemaTV online linear television service and CyberFight's streaming service Wrestle Universe.
Production[]
Backgorund[]
On January 1, 2024, at NOAH The New Year, Noah announced that they would promote the Destination 2024 at the Nippon Budokan on July 13, marking the third event of the year held in the Nippon Budokan. NOAH had previously made their return to the venue, after eleven years, on February 12, 2021 at the Destination 2021 ～Back to Budokan～, which became a annual event.
The event featured a special appearance by AJ Styles, who is set to wrestle for the first time in Noah against Naomichi Marufuji. The match will mark Styles's first match outside of WWE since 2016. On May 16, in a press conference, new CyberFight president Yasuaki Okamoto stated that one of his goals was to strengthen their relationship with WWE. Both WWE and NOAH air on ABEMA, which is owned by CyberFight parent company CyberAgent. WWE and NOAH have worked together in the past, with Shinsuke Nakamura making an appearance for NOAH at NOAH The New Year, where he faced The Great Muta in a winning effort, who retired later in the year. Afterwards, NOAH requested a similar match at the same venue, with Okamoto revealing that they got a "positive response" from WWE. Meanwhile, his opponent, Marufuji, was nominated by WWE, as it seemed the natural choice, due to his popularity in the United States. Coincidentally, Iyo Sky, also from WWE, will be taking part in CyberFight's partner promotion Marigold's Summer Destiny, which was held at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on the same day as Destination.
Storylines[]
Destination 2024 featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Kaito Kiyomiya, who defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship in the main event.
The Destination 2024 was main evented by Kaito Kiyomiya making his second title defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against the returning YOICHI. On June 16 at Grand Ship In Yokohama, YOICHI, made a surprise appearance from his excursion in the United Kingdom, after Kaito Kiyomiya had defeated Gabe Kidd to retain the GHC Heavyweight Championship, challenging the new champion to a title match, which he accepted. Afterwards, YOICHI attacked him, and promised to start the down of a new NOAH. As a response, Kiyomiya announced that their match would take place at Destination, with Kiyomiya vowing to humiliate him at NOAH's "best place".
Naomichi Marufuji, who faced AJ Styles
Also in the event WWE's AJ Styles facing Naomichi Marufuji. On June 12, during a CyberFight press conference, it was announced that a "major announcement" in collaboration with WWE would be taking place on June 16 at Grand Ship In Yokohama and a video from a "certain wrestler" would be released. At the eponymous event, Styles, appeared in a pre-taped vignette, annoucing that he would be facing Marufuji at Destination. Leading up to the event, Styles partners in WWE, The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) hinted that they would attack Marufuji before the event.
On May 4, 2024, at Wrestle Magic, AMAKUSA announced that he would make his return from injury in June. At Grand Ship In Yokohama, Daga had defeated Starboy Charlie to retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, AMAKUSA challenged the reigning champion to a title match, which he accepted.
Also at Grand Ship In Yokohama, following a tag team match, Ulka Sasaki challenged HAYATA to a title match for the GHC National Championship, which he reluctantly accepted. Afterwards, Sasaki went for a handshake, but HAYATA refused. He would later reveal that he wanted to challenge for the title, ever since his debut in January.
The event also featured the last match of Good Looking Guys (GLG), after the stable's leader Jake Lee decided to disband the stable at Grand Ship In Yokohama. Also on June 19, at Team NOAH's Limit Break 3, Akitoshi Saito challenged his Team NOAH stablemate Go Shiozaki to a rematch for Pro Wrestling Zero1's World Heavyweight Championship at Destination, after their title match on May 29, ended in a time minute draw.
Matches[]
| # | Matches | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | All Rebellion (Alejandro and Cristobal) defeated Ninja Mack and Junta Miyawaki and Hajime Ohara and Super Crazy | Three-way tag team match | 8:48 |
| 2 | Daiki Inaba, Masa Kitamiya and Manabu Soya defeated Kazuyuki Fujita, Takashi Sugiura and Shuhei Taniguchi | Six-man tag team match | 9:55 |
| 3 | Akira, Eita and Shuji Kondo defeated Ryohei Oiwa, Yoshinari Ogawa and Yu Owada | Six-man tag team match | 12:00 |
| 4 | Kenoh defeated Yuji Nagata | Singles match | 12:05 |
| 5 | Good Looking Guys (Jake Lee, Tadasuke and YO-HEY) defeated Good Looking Guys (Anthony Greene, Jack Morris and LJ Cleary) | Six-man tag team match | 13:44 |
| 6 | Go Shiozaki defeated Akitoshi Saito (c) | Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship | 15:00 |
| 7 | Ulka Sasaki defeated HAYATA (c) | Singles match for the GHC National Championship | 12:05 |
| 8 | AMAKUSA defeated Daga (c) | Singles match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship | 16:21 |
| 9 | El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno del Mal defeated Los Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf and Dragon Bane) | Tag team match | 13:43 |
| 10 | AJ Styles defeated Naomichi Marufuji | Singles match | 25:27 |
| 11 | Kaito Kiyomiya (c) defeated YOICHI | Singles match for the GHC Heavyweight Championship | 25:31 |
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