NJPW 52nd Anniversary Show/New Japan Cup/Sakura Genesis 2024.

[lostinube]

Will always love his theme.

 

[lostinube]

Yota wins and will face Naito at Sakura Genesis. Goto tried to do a Rainmaker on Yota which got reversed into a close-range Gene Blast and then the actual Gene Blast for the win.

Probably Takagi/EVIL for the NEVER title and SHO/YOH for the junior title then or on the Road To shows.

[Curt McGirt]

3 hours ago, lostinube said:

Yota wins and will face Naito at Sakura Genesis. Goto tried to do a Rainmaker on Yota which got reversed into a close-range Gene Blast and then the actual Gene Blast for the win loses again like always.

FTFY

The lesson here is never hope

[dragonzombie]

Ahahhaha

Spoiler

Gotoetty lost. 

 

[Evil Otto]

Spoiler

I applaud New Japan for realizing what they already have with Tsuji and for giving him something substantial to hang his hat on, being a NJ Cup winner.  Considering how loud the crowd was chanting for Yota, I think they made the right choice at this point in time.  I completely sympathize with those who supported Goto taking this, and I totally get why, but he once again does what he does best, and makes the other guy look truly great in an ultimately losing effort.  

Years from now, I think we will all look back at Hirooki Goto's overall body of work pretty fondly, and that may perhaps be the greatest compliment I could ever give a pro wrestler.  

 

[lostinube]

Full Sakura Genesis card has been released:

Naito vs Tsuji for the IWGP title

Takagi vs EVIL for the NEVER title

Mox/Shota vs Perry/Narita

YOH vs SHO for the junior title

Bishamon vs KENTA/Chase for the tag titles

KUSHIDA/Knight vs Akira/TJP vs Maloney/Connors for the junior tag titles

Finlay gets shunted all the way down to the 2nd match, teaming with Gedo against BUSHI and Hiromu.

Speaking of all the way down the card, ZSJ Jr/Fujita vs Taguchi/Despy opens.

Nemeth vs Tanahashi is postponed due to Tanahashi being old fat injured.

[lostinube]

Oh yeah, Umino is telling Perry that "It's clobberin' time."

 

[Curt McGirt]

6 hours ago, lostinube said:

old fat

I'm down for "oldfat" to be used as an adjective in regular conversation now.

[The Natural]

8 hours ago, lostinube said:

Full Sakura Genesis card has been released:

Naito vs Tsuji for the IWGP title

Takagi vs EVIL for the NEVER title

Mox/Shota vs Perry/Narita

YOH vs SHO for the junior title

Bishamon vs KENTA/Chase for the tag titles

KUSHIDA/Knight vs Akira/TJP vs Maloney/Connors for the junior tag titles

Finlay gets shunted all the way down to the 2nd match, teaming with Gedo against BUSHI and Hiromu.

Speaking of all the way down the card, ZSJ Jr/Fujita vs Taguchi/Despy opens.

Nemeth vs Tanahashi is postponed due to Tanahashi being old fat injured.

Ugh at that card.

[dragonzombie]

I love what Evil has done to the never belt.

[Lawful Metal]

That Goto v. Tsuji match fucking ruled.  The storyline about Goto's dad never approving of his son choosing pro wrestling and Goto wanting to take the belt to his father's grave to prove he made the right choice is so soul crushing.  I mean, it's the right choice for Tsuji to win, but holy cow what a brutal fate for poor old Goto. 

[Sublime]

OKhan and Tonga Loa’s KOPW match will be contested in a match that is three rounds the second of which will be an eel eating contest which is simply one of the best match stipulations ever. The other rounds are an iron man and a strap match but really the eating contest is where the action is at

[lostinube]

People were getting bent out of shape on twitter about the stips and it's like, chill out people. They're not even showing this show live on NJPW World. The only Road to show that will be aired live is the Korakuen show where LIJ EXPLODES and Naito gets to pin BUSHI.

[Curt McGirt]

HOT is officially Entertainment-FMW? 

[Sublime]

The only thing wrong with the KOPW stips is that the strap match is touch four corners rules. I love that they’re have an eating contest and the first round will be a lively ten minutes of Loa throwing bombs and OKhan being awesome people need to stop taking shit seriously (especially KOPW title matches they’re suppose to be fun and different for the most part)

[Teflon Turtle]

Exactly. It’s pro wrestling discourse on the internet, so I should know better. But, one of the most consistently tiring opinions to read concerning New Japan is stuff like that.

Fans complain that the matches go too long, are too indulgent, etc. Then when New Japan gives them something on the card that’s the exact opposite, or otherwise tries something different, they complain about that too.

It’s not a perfect promotion, and there are a ton of reasons why they’ve been up against it post-COVID. But my goodness. 

[lostinube]

Well, they didn't half-ass the LIJ vs LIJ tag (Naito kind of three-quarter assed it but the other three at least put in effort). And they even gave BUSHI the win over Hiromu.

The junior tag title match is now a Tornado tag title match.

[lostinube]

Oh yeah, they also announced the venues for the next G1. 19 dates in all. A bunch of first time venues. They will run the KDDI Hall in Yamaguchi so I might actually go to that show depending on how bad of a main event they decide to give us. They are opening in Osaka this time around and doing two days at the Kokusai Center in Fukuoka which means they will be running there four times this year (two for Dontaku and two for the G1).

https://www.njpw.co.jp/488176

Edited April 3 by lostinube

[lostinube]

Naito wins in a good match and the match with Moxley becomes a title match with Mox coming out to make the challenge.

Shingo should be the only person to wrestle HOT as only a DG guy can actually do overbooked run-ins well. He won the NEVER title and then Gabe Kidd came out and made the challenge while calling NJPW a joke, something that western fans will probably see as truth-telling. Post-show it looks like it'll also be Tsuji/Finlay and War Dogs/BUSHI & Hiromu.

Bishamon actually got a decent match out of the Chasing KENTAs and won the tag titles.

YOH screwed up his shoulder at the beginning of the match and the match got stopped. DOUKI and Kosei Fujita came out to kill time on the mic and challenge SHO, who stayed in character the entire time and mocked YOH.

BOSJ Line up was revealed.

https://www.njpw1972.com/174074

[Evil Otto]

Naito vs. Tsuji was tremendous.  There are only two rational ways to book this match.  Yota wins, or Naito wins but the match is fabulously good.  At least it didn't disappoint in either case.  

The junior tag 3-way was insane.  Well worth a watch.  

Kosei Fujita certainly seems like a star in the making.  

Gabe vs. Shingo should be a nasty one.  Looking forward to it.  

Jack Perry threw out some allusions to the Jacksons, but I'm guessing that still may be a bit further down the line.  

Overall, this was much more of a "feel good" show than recent events.  It was sorely needed.  

 

 

 

[The Natural]

Thank God the NEVER Openweight Championship is off EVIL and back on Shingo Takagi. Takagi never should have lost it in the first place to Tama Tonga at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18. Sucks YOH dislocated his shoulder and so early in the match.

[Teflon Turtle]

Card over-delivered for what it was, I thought. Not the most exciting Sakura Genesis lineup we’ve ever had, but I enjoyed everything.

Match of the night for me was probably the three-way for the Jr. Tag championships. Lots of crazy and unique spots. The antics from Drilla and Connors are growing on me. One particular spot that Moloney did with Kevin Knight had me laughing out loud. Don’t know if it’ll go down as an all-time classic match, but it had everything and I was quite entertained.

Felt terrible for YOH. He’s had a long injury layoff before, and the feeling of possibly staring down another surgery is not an enjoyable one. Especially since he’s had such a goofy persona over the last year, seeing the real frustration and emotional pain come out was tough to watch (and I don’t know what the usually great camera/direction crew was thinking trying to get a shot of the trainers attempting to legit pull YOH’s arm back in to socket). Here’s hoping that it’s something he can rehab and bounce back from quickly.

I liked the main event. It maybe didn’t move at the quickest pace at times, but a story was told. Tsuji has to be considered made after the NJ Cup run and this match; I feel his position at the front of his generation of wrestlers was solidified, even more than previously.
 

Also, I don’t know if I can talk about this main event without discussing Naito’s matches with SANADA earlier in the year. Lot of folks used those two matches as evidence that Naito was in really rough shape. And honestly, I didn’t entirely disagree with that assessment at the time. But, Naito hit all of his stuff in the match with Tsuji just fine. Between Tsuji and SANADA, Tsuji is the bigger and likely stronger of the two. It has led me to wonder in retrospect whether the problem really was SANADA not knowing how to take Naito’s signature offense/whether he didn’t have enough gas in the tank to do so in those matches, versus Naito being “washed” in the parlance of Reddit take dispensers.

Edited April 7 by Teflon Turtle

[Horangi]

Not a lot for me to add, I did enjoy the main event even though it was a bit slow at times. Tsuji I feel is made and doesn't need the big title win as much as say Umino would (similar to say Naito or Chono). My early guess is that Mox wins in Chicago --> Umino wins G1 and goes up against his mentor at the Dome. However if that was to happen, 2/3 of their non-Jr singles titles would be on foreigners who wont be on every major show so I'm probably wrong.

Gutted for YOH, hopefully he isn't out for too long. He seems unlikely for Super Juniors so I wonder who replaces him. Thought MUSASHI would have been a lock but I guess he's booked with All Japan?

My only other real thought is that I really wish one of the bigger companies (does not have to be New Japan even though I think he'd be a great fit and has history with Umino) would sign Ayato Yoshida, or at least book him regularly. He's really wasted in 2AW, and I worry he's just going to end up like Kengo Mashimo as a really talented wrestler who just never goes anywhere.

[John E. Dynamite]

When I saw some early, middling reviews for the show I checked out cagematch and saw the matchtime for SHO vs. YOH and I literally thought they were running the same angle they did when KUSHIDA got squashed by Hiromu and then went on to win BOSJ -> the title. I don't know why I made that weird assumption.

Fuck.