SAKURA GENESIS, New Japan’s traditional April blowout event, is now in the books. 5 title matches headlined the event with New Japan Cup winner SANADA going for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in the main event.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. The live broadcast was part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 6510. Depending on the seating configuration for the box and floor stats in the lower half of the venue, that’s between 40-55% of full capacity as they slowly ramp back up to normal. (The box seats normally sit between 2-6 people for sumo tournaments)
Match 1: Great-O-Khan, Toru Yano & Minoru Suzuki beat Yoh, El Desperado & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Yano pinned Tanahashi. This match’s participants were not announced until it began.
Match 2: Francesco Akira, Aaron Henare & Jeff Cobb beat Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Cobb pinned Sho after Tour of the Islands. Afterwards, Akira appeared to accept an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship challenge from JET SETTERS (KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight).
Match 3: DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi beat BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Kanemaru beat BUSHI with a Figure 4.
Match 4: El Phantasmo, KENTA & David Finlay beat Master Wato, Hikuleo & Tama Tonga. Phantasmo pinned Wato after CR 2. Afterwards, KENTA, Finlay & Taiji Ishimori suddenly turned on Phantasmo and beat him down. Could Phantasmo now be out of Bullet Club?
Match 5: IWGP Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone beat AZM & Hazuki in a 3-way by pinning AZM to retain the title. V1 for Mone. Next up: Mayu Iwatani. That match will happen at a major Stardom event later this month at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama.
Match 6: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. beat Shota Umino to retain the title. V4 for Sabre.
Match 7: Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto to win the titles. Aussie Open become the 98th IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Fletcher pinned Goto after Corealis.
Match 8: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi beat Robbie Eagles to retain the title. V3 for Takahashi.
Main Event: SANADA beat IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okadaa to win the title. SANADA becomes the 7th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Considering they also announced the 2023 G1 CLIMAX today (more on that below), now the questions are will Okada get another shot before then, and does this mean he is the favorite to 3-peat the G1 and perhaps get the main event and win it back at Tokyo Dome in 2024? SANADA follows up a New Japan Cup triumph by claiming the top prize for the first time in his career. Next up: It could be…Hiromu Takahashi!?! The current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion made the challenge to his former LIJ stablemate! But not necessarily so fast-Kanemaru stepped in to challenge Hiromu for the Jr. Heavyweight Championship first. To Be Continued…
The next event is CAPITAL COLLISION on 4/15 at Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, DC. Live streaming on New Japan World as a separate PPV in Japanese and on FITE as a PPV in English will begin at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT. The event costs about $22 on New Japan World and $19.99 on FITE but you can also get a discount bundle for $29.99 that also includes COLLISION IN PHILADELPHIA on 4/16 which will be a FITE-only PPV, no live broadcast on New Japan World. The events will also be available via STRONG On Demand on New Japan World in the coming months.
In other news, as noted above the 2023 G1 CLIMAX 33 Tournament was announced today, which officially begins the road to Tokyo Dome as the winner traditionally gets the main event spot and an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match on 1/4. The schedule is as follows:
7/15-Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kita Yell, Hokkaido
7/16-Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kita Yell
7/18-Yamagata Sports Center, Yamagata
7/19-Xebio Arena Sendai, Sendai
7/21-Aore Nagaoka, Niigata
7/23-Nagano Big Hat, Nagano
7/25-Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
7/26-Korakuen Hall
7/27-Ota City General Gym, Tokyo
7/30-Aichi Prefectural Gym, Nagoya
8/1-Takamatsu Gym, Takamatsu
8/2-Hiroshima Sun Plaza, Hiroshima
8/5-Osaka Prefectural Gym, Osaka
8/6-Osaka Prefectural Gym
8/8-Yokohama Budokan, Yokohama
8/9-Act City Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
8/10-Funabashi Arena, Chiba
8/12-Ryogoku Kokugikan
8/13-Ryogoku Kokugikan (Finals)
Much more on this to come as the tournament gets closer. I would expect further details and entries to be announced in June.
