Andrew’s NJPW Sakura Genesis Results & Match Ratings: 4.4.2021

An awkward card for NJPW’s Sakura Genesis has left many people sour, a new World Title belt and some questionable booking decisions have hurt NJPW’s overall appeal. Does Sakura Genesis help to turn a corner? Has Ospreay sacrificed enough to overcome Ibushi?

Beyond the main event, we get YOH’s return match as Roppongi 3k go for the Junior Titles, a new United Empire member and just…well a lot of tag matches. Let’s hope that some of the twists and surprises actually pay off tonight!

Ratings:

• Suzuki-Gun (Taichi, ZSJ & DOUKI) vs Bullet Club (Guerrillas of Destiny & Jado): ZSJ wins via European Clutch @10:10 – ** ½
• Bullet Club (KENTA, EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, Taiji Ishimori & Dick Togo) vs CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada): Yano wins via Head & Leg Capture Roll-Up @11:37- ** ½
• The United Empire (Great O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Aaron Henare) vs LIJ (SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito): Henare wins via Death Valley Driver @9:51 – ***
• Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Jay White & Bad Luck Fale: Tanahashi wins via High Fly Flow @10:05 – ***
• IWGP Junior Tag Team Titles: Roppongi 3k (SHO & YOH) vs Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c): YOH wins via Double Arm Brainbuster @20:48 – *** ¾ – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kota Ibushi (c) vs Will Ospreay: Ospreay wins via Stormbreaker @30:13 –*** ¾  – TITLE CHANGE!!!

Results:

Hiromu Takahashi comes out to greet the crowd, give a tiny update and then mostly run down the matches on the card that he cares about. His flamboyant spaz way of delivering his topics is entertaining; he could be reading off a McDonald’s menu and I feel it would still be entertaining. Yes, it’s also great to hear Hiromu refer to Ospreay as a cat again, bringing that reference full circle is pretty great.

Suzuki-Gun (Taichi, ZSJ & DOUKI) vs Bullet Club (Guerrillas of Destiny & Jado)

DOUKI and Jado started, DOUKI gets dropped outside and ganged up on. Jado takes a few shortcuts and works over the Junior in the mask, then Loa comes in and dominates. When Tama finally comes in he messes around a little too long allowing DOUKI to hit a Tornado DDT and tag in Taichi, who goes on a Iizuka style rampage. Greco Roman Throatholds for everyone!

Tama manages to slow Taichi’s choke strategy, then ZSJ and Loa come in. Loa runs over ZSJ and they have a fun interaction where Loa charges and ZSJ hits him with a European Uppercut, but Loa continues to push forward. This bulldozer moment was pretty cool, and then we get into a mass of humanity in the ring.

Tama tries to use the fingers, Taichi manages to get them back and drop Tama with them, but then Taichi gets laid out. Loa looks at the fingers like he wants a go with insanity, but ZSJ grabs him and hits the European Clutch to get the victory over Loa!

Looks like this sets up Dangerous Tekkers with a legitimate challenge again Guerrillas of Destiny. It’s also nice that the referee grabs the iron fingers and gives them to Chairman Sugabayashi. Dad just took the toys away from the kids. Tama and Taichi stop focusing on each other and start screaming at Sugabayashi and calling for him to comeback. It’s quite amusing and very anime.

Bullet Club (KENTA, EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, Taiji Ishimori & Dick Togo) vs CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada)

CHAOS continues their recent habit of starting the match in the aggressive heel fashion before the bell against Bullet Club. This leads to a bunch of tandem moves from Goto & HASHI, then we see the whole CHAOS crew come in and do the drum session on Dick Togo’s back, and take some fun at getting a few more shots in after the drum session.

Bullet Club regains a little control when everyone takes turns beating on HASHI and throwing him into an exposed corner. This allows for a little more interaction with HASHI and KENTA; continuing the Bo Staff love triangle. KENTA tries to introduce the weapon into the match, referee Kenta Sato stops things, HASHI grabs it while the ref and KENTA are jockeying, but he then just throws it out of the ring. This brings in Ishii and Yujiro, as well as most of the participants. CHAOS gets the better of all Bullet Club members and runs the locomotion attacks in the corner onto Yujiro.

The match continues to get crazy, back and forth, Togo has an opportunity to end the match against Yano after using the garrote, but Yano hits the Low Blow, then Low Blow’s EVIL, pulls out a blindfold to put over Dick Togo’s head as payback for the New Japan Cup shenanigans. So with the lights shut off, Yano hits an amateur roll-up and picks up the victory!

The NEVER 6 Man champs seem to approve the challenge, but Bullet Club takes a cheeky attack to snatch the Bo Staff back and KENTA runs off with it cradled in his arms.

The United Empire (Great O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Aaron Henare) vs LIJ (SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)

Henare being the surprise member is a little shocking, since most people thought it would be a Junior wrestler like Robbie Eagles to balance the faction, but Henare makes sense. Henare has been disillusioned for the last month or so, and when FinJuice didn’t really seem to care much about him, I guess that was when he broke.

This was a good match to show a new chapter in Henare’s career. O-Khan and Cobb looked great, set the pace for the group and the finish was really good. Henare dodged and countered SANADA’s attacks, SANADA got caught by Cobb, Cobb sends him on a Tour of the Islands, and then Henare hits a Death Valley Driver for emphasis, and picks up the pinfall.

After the match, the Empire dissects LIJ, and Henare’s new persona and the addition into the United Empire seems like it could be something.

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Jay White & Bad Luck Fale

Two generations of Bullet Club members face two generations of New Japan legends. Fale is one of the original Club members, the Underboss, and Jay White is one of the newest additions; so there’s something almost poetic about the generational parallel.

Jay and Kojima had their moments back and forth where Jay was disrespecting the Machine Gun Chops and a few other moves. Tanahashi seems like he was trying to make a point to Jay before accepting, since part of the narrative was that Tanahashi was afraid to put the NEVER on the line.

All in all, this was a solid set up match, things end with Fale trying to hit the Grenade on Tanahashi, but can’t pull it off. Jay gets dumped out, Kojima hits the Cozy Lariat on Fale, and then a High Fly Flow and we see dad team pick up the win!

After the match, Tanahashi grabbed Jay and put him in the Texas Cloverleaf, forcing Jay to tap to try and get the break. Tanahashi grabs the mic, speaks in English, saying he’s going to accept the challenge because Jay showed weakness. Refers to his Texas Clover Hold as the JTO – Jay Tapped Out.

IWGP Junior Tag Team Titles: Roppongi 3k (SHO & YOH) vs Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c)

RPG 3k have a new theme, and while I don’t like it at all, it’s not terrible. I just really prefer the Rocky Romero song.

This was a well-paced match which told a great story. YOH started the match, so Kanemaru and Despy took turns taking some shots at YOH’s surgically repaired knee. Every time there was a cheap shot or a clear out off the apron, they aimed for YOH’s knee. This was further exacerbated by Kanemaru’s constant attempts at the Figure Four, just to continue to rip and stretch that bad knee.

The near falls in this match actually made a lot of sense. Kanemaru hits Deep Impact, but SHO made the save, which allowed YOH to turn a Figure Four attempt into an Inside Cradle for 2. Then RPG 3k hit Strong X, which Despy comes in to make a save. But SHO grabs Despy and you hear Despy screaming at Kanemaru to fight back. But YOH hits a new move for his arsenal, and Roppongi 3k get the happy return win!

SHO did a great job helping YOH get over after his surgery while looking great, and Despy definitely looked to be on a different singles level than everyone, he was just a step short on helping Kanemaru retain. Well told story in the ring, just wish there was a normal build up to really enjoy the whole story telling aspect.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kota Ibushi (c) vs Will Ospreay

This match had some great viciousness early on. They traded blow for blow, and it was a great example of how similar and yet different their styles are. Ibushi tried to take more of a wrestling approach, where Ospreay relied more heavily on strikes. His Jumping Boot to send Ibushi flying, the Chelsea Grin, Rolling Elbows, all very well placed during the match. Hell, Ospreay even countered Ibushi’s Sole Butt by using the Rolling Elbow to dodge where the kick was going and catch him in the face. Though my favorite Ibushi move was when he hit the Chaos Theory, but used a Fisherman Suplex Hold instead of German. It was very cool and possibly an intentional Doug Williams reference.

Ibushi had a moment where it looked like we were going to get a bad botch when he jumped to the corner and lost a little balance before setting up for an assumed Frankensteiner or Spanish Fly. Ospreay pushed Ibushi off, hung him on the ropes, hit a gorgeous Shooting Star Press while Ibushi was draped. Then after Ibushi fell to the mat, another Shooting Star and that’s only a near fall. We got a call back when Ibushi did hit the Frakensteiner, but Ospreay flips through it and lands on his feet.

Ospreay goes for an Overhead Kick, and it looks like Ibushi was supposed to catch him for the Bastard Driver or Lawn Dart, but Ibushi couldn’t do it. Three separate attempts before they finally just gave up on the spot and Ibushi sold the back. If it wasn’t for the multiple attempts, it would’ve been more accepted as a sell, but that was a mess.

So in typical Ibushi fashion, a botch causes for some awkwardness in the match, Ibushi takes too long to slip out of the Stormbreaker and it looks weird. But thankfully, Ospreay ate two normal Kamigoyes, wouldn’t take the Exposed Kamigoye, hits a Flying Knee, the Hidden Blade and then Stormbreaker to win the match!

A great match really fell apart toward the end, mostly because of Ibushi. Surprising finish with Ibushi losing in the first official defense of the World title.

Ospreay calls out Okada wanting revenge from Wrestle Kingdom. But before Okada can speak, Shingo slides in and snatches the microphone. Shingo was the star of the verbal exchange mixing Japanese and English (very good English too). Shingo said since he beat Okada in the Cup he should be the first to challenge.

Shingo sweetens the pot by telling Okada that when he beats Ospreay for the title, Okada can get the first challenge. Okada accepts in his silence by handing the microphone to Ospreay for a decision. Ospreay tells Shingo “First Shingo! Then, Okada!” – and Okada seems more than okay with waiting a little bit longer.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Well okay, this was an odd show. Nothing was terrible, but 5 tag matches and 1 singles is not a card that really evokes intrigue or excitement. Was the generational build up tag interesting? Sure. Was the return of Roppongi 3k cool? Sure. Was the title match enough to make headlines? Yes.

I just don’t come out of this event more excited with New Japan. Ospreay has gotten better, which I’ve been very transparent with admitting. The fact that the next two big title matches will be some combination of Shingo Takagi/Kazuchika Okada/Will Ospreay is heavy potential for match of the year candidates.  However the reality of the card is that without the Intercontinental separated, and a US champion off in the middle of nowhere, the upper mid card seems lacking and pathetic.

Plus let’s not overlook the fact that missteps and clumsy aspects of the main event really hurt the potential/excitement of the build. If the match was a banger, then it would’ve ended the show on a higher point where the triple showdown would’ve been very cool.

Either way, an alright show, last two matches are worth watching; just don’t go out of your way if you don’t want to.