SAKURA GENESIS, New Japan’s annual spring blowout event, is in the books.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2025 exclusively on TV Asahi. You can also watch the pre-show match FOR FREE on YouTube. The NJPW WORLD TV Championship match will also be available FOR FREE at a later date.
The announced paid attendance was 6640.
Pre-show match: Katsuya Murashima beat Daiki Nagai.
Match 1: Yuya Uemura beat SANADA.
Match 2: Great-O-Khan beat NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo by countout to win the title. Khan becomes the 8th NJPW WORLD TV Champion.
Match 3: Shota Umino beat Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Match 4: NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Sho, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Ren Narita beat Taiji Ishimori, Drilla Moloney & Gabriel Kidd to retain the titles. Sho pinned Moloney after SANADA interference and a guitar shot. V1 for the champs.
Match 5: NEVER Openweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita beat Ryohei Oiwa to retain the title. V5 for Takeshita.
Match 6: Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito to win the titles. Newman & Cobb become the 108th IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Newman pinned Naito. So based on that Tokyo Sports report earlier this week about Naito…Destino es adios, NJPW?
Match 7: IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji beat EVIL to retain the title. V3 for Tsuji. Next up: If his wish is granted, Uemura.
Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Hirooki Goto beat David Finlay to retain the title. V3 for Goto. Next up: Umino. That match will happen on the previously announced next defense date of 4/11. That can’t sit well with Zack Sabre Jr. because had Finlay won the title ZSJ got the next shot.
The next event is WINDY CITY RIOT Friday in Chicago, IL. Live streaming on New Japan World as a PPV will begin at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET. The PPV is available for pre-order for $19.99 outside Japan. At this time there is no TrillerTV/FITE option for PPV viewing this time.
In other news, the full field for BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIOR 32 was announced during the event. This year’s Jr. Heavyweight showcase will have a field of 20 participants: El Desperado, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yoh, Master Wato, KUSHIDA, Kevin Knight, Ninja Mack, Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles, Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, Francesco Akira, Taiji Ishimori, Clark Connors, Sho, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Dragon Dia (Dragon Gate), MAO (DDT), Nick Wayne (All Elite Wrestling), TBA (which will be a wrestler from CMLL). Desperado is the defending tournament champion. The tournament starts on 5/10 and ends on 6/1 (13 total events).
