SAKURA GENESIS, New Japan’s traditional April blowout event, is now in the books.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2024 on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 6632.
Pre-show Match: Frontier Zone: Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat Chicharito Shoko, Takuro Niki & Ayako Yoshida. Oleg pinned Shoki after Kamikaze. The losing team were from the 2AW promotion in Chiba.
Match 1: Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado. Fujita pinned Taguchi with O’Connor Bridge.
Match 2; BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi beat Gedo & David Finlay. BUSHI pinned Gedo after Fable.
Match 3: DOUKI, Yuya Uemura & SANADA beat Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Uemura pinned Khan with Storm Clutch.
Match 4: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA and Francesco Akira & TJP in a 3-way, when Connors pinned KUSHIDA, to retain the titles. V1 for the champs.
Match 5: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Chase Owens & KENTA to win the titles. YOSHI-HASHI & Goto become the 102nd IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Goto pinned Owens after Shoto.
Match 6: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Sho beat Yoh by ref stoppage to retain the title. V1 for Sho. Stoppage came in less than 90 seconds due to a Yoh injury. Shoulder. Next up: Sounds like it’s between Fujita & DOUKI.
Match 7: Shota Umino & Jon Moxley beat Jack Perry & Ren Narita. Moxley pinned Narita after Death Rider.
Match 8: Shingo Takagi beat NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL to win the title. Takagi becomes the 44th NEVER Openweight Champion. Yoshinobu Kanemaru as referee and the usual H.O.T. antics weren’t enough. Next up: Gabriel Kidd.
Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito beat Yota Tsuji to retain the title. V2 for Naito. Next up: Moxley. Already set for 4/12 in the US, it now seems like it will be for the title.
The next event is Windy City Riot Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY as a PPV for $19.99 will begin at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET. This will be a live TV Asahi broadcast in Japan.
In other news, the participants for Beat Of The Super Junior 31 were announced today: Sho, Yoh, Hiromu Takahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi, El Desperado, Kevin Knight, BUSHI, Titan, TJP, Francesco Akira, DOUKI, Robbie Eagles, Taiji Ishimori, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Clark Connors, Drilla Moloney, Kosei Fujita, Blake Christian, Ninja Mack, HAYATA. There will be no repeat champion this year because 2023 winner Master Wato is out due to injury.
UPDATE: It’s now official. Naito-Moxley Friday is for the title.
