NJPW Sakura Genesis 2018

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

 

 

Spoilers Sakura Genesis (Jesus~!)

 

[EVA]

Ospreay and Marty saw the Switchblade/Hangman botch and thought, “We could do something twice as dangerous but on purpose.”

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

Okada hands down the best wrestler right now. What an epic again.

[hammerva]

I am sure Meltzer will be telling us for weeks that he planned to land on his neck that way and it is really just great selling

 

[Brian Fowler]

6 hours ago, Pete said:

That Spanish Fly took years off my life and I wasn't even in the fucking match. Ospreay might want to skip the Mania shows...

 

[Jiji]

The pop for Tanahashi's appearance after the main event was tremendous.

As usual, I agree with pretty much everything Beech said. The junior match was just about as good as they're capable of. My only complaint was if Ospreay was going to win, Marty shouldn't have emptied his arsenal quite so much at the end. His jumping stomps would've been a credible finish at that point.

Was it not Kenny's first right hand punch in his comeback that opened up Cody and not a kick? It made a really loud sound and he noticeably laid off on the follow up. Match felt like a teaser and it was a good idea to not go all out. It effectively set the table for the ROH PPV matches coming next Saturday. Even at ~70% Golden Lovers is pretty great though. The story was simple and effective with the heels constantly cutting off the faces with cheap double teams and then separating them, culminating with the table spot. 

Main event saw the two competitors' style mesh perfectly as Zack took 80% and that's only a bit more than what Okada normally gives. I like how they played up the Road To tag match with Zack pulling out of any chain wrestling where Okada could muss up his hair and embarrass him again. Then Zack worked a combination of defensive and offensive strategy but ultimately went for the more defensive target, the arm, and it didn't work. I remember reading a great review of the '94 Kawada/Misawa match picking apart that Kawada lost in the end because he was too defensive and the same can be said about ZSJ in this one. No Orienteering with Napalm Death attempt and he moved away from leg attacks about halfway through to zero in on the Rainmaker arm. Great match and it too didn't empty the barrel so they could meet again and the result could realistically differ. Oh! I forgot about how great that cutoff was after the first tombstone! That was amazing! He sold it as he applied the submission. 

The junior tag three way was just a match and I hope they don't run those anymore. LIJ/Suzuki-gun delivered again. 

[MapRef41N93W]

24 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

My only complaint was if Ospreay was going to win, Marty shouldn't have emptied his arsenal quite so much at the end. His jumping stomps would've been a credible finish at that point.

I agree. They went past the tipping point with the amount of abuse Scurll heaped on Ospreay's head and neck. The jumping stomps marked the point where I went from "it would be great if Ospreay still pulled this out" to "it would be stupid if Ospreay still pulled this out". (Actually, it might have been the kneeling piledriver a couple minutes earlier. But the stomps sealed it.) Still, it was a really good match overall.

My only gripe about the main event is that I wish Okada had ended it with a left-armed rainmaker. It's always a bummer when a match revolves around one wrestler weakening a body part to take away the opponent's finisher, only for the opponent to win with that finisher in the same way they always do. If Okada had switched to the left arm, it would have been perfect.

[Jiji]

Wait, did Zack go for Napalm Death and I missed it?! 

Also, everybody else is saying it was Omega's kick that opened up Cody, so I was wrong on that one too. 

[Jiji]

Is Tanahashi/Okada at Dontaku or will they leave it to Dominion? My guess is Dontaku sees Okada win and Suzuki successfully defend the title, setting up champion vs. champion. Thoughts on Gedo booking Suzuki to be the one to finally beat Okada? I don't know if I love it because you know that it'll almost assuredly be Okada winning the belt back. I know Omega is busy with the Lovers and Bullet Club stories, but it would be a shame for him not to get the title before too long, plus he and Okada have unfinished business. I suppose they could resume their feud after Okada regain the belt if he were to lose to Minoru. Right now, the only real credible threats feel like Suzuki, Naito, and Omega. Omega finally winning the belt from anybody other than Okada would feel an awful lot like Kawada winning the TC from Dr. Death instead of Misawa. 

[Ryan]

Trent? is your next champion, don't forget it. It could be awhile.

[Godfrey]

I think Okada/Sabre was pretty good but I don't think their styles mixed perfectly at all. I wasn't a fan of Sabre brushing off big moves to slap on submissions, even if he did sell a little as he did it. It makes sense if you hit a high impact move but taking a tombstone and immediately transitioning to offense looked silly. Actually, selling from both guys was little wonky all match. A nice change of pace though.

Ospreay's lucky he walked out of there. Ouch.

[Raziel]

50 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Is Tanahashi/Okada at Dontaku or will they leave it to Dominion? My guess is Dontaku sees Okada win and Suzuki successfully defend the title, setting up champion vs. champion. Thoughts on Gedo booking Suzuki to be the one to finally beat Okada? I don't know if I love it because you know that it'll almost assuredly be Okada winning the belt back. I know Omega is busy with the Lovers and Bullet Club stories, but it would be a shame for him not to get the title before too long, plus he and Okada have unfinished business. I suppose they could resume their feud after Okada regain the belt if he were to lose to Minoru. Right now, the only real credible threats feel like Suzuki, Naito, and Omega. Omega finally winning the belt from anybody other than Okada would feel an awful lot like Kawada winning the TC from Dr. Death instead of Misawa. 

I gotta think there's about a Zero chance Okada/Tanahashi to break the record isn't maining Dominion.  They'll do a tag setup and use Suzuki/Natio to anchor Dontaku.

[EVA]

That was definitely an Elgin-esque exercise in self-defeating match layout by Marty.  You just look like a dope when you go nuclear on a guy and still lose to his basic shit.

[Jiji]

24 minutes ago, Raziel said:

I gotta think there's about a Zero chance Okada/Tanahashi to break the record isn't maining Dominion.  They'll do a tag setup and use Suzuki/Natio to anchor Dontaku.

I feel the same way. However, it really does seem like they're building to Suzuki challenging Okada after/if he gets through Naito. Do they run with that after the G1? Would seem a bad place for Okada to drop the title and a wasted redemption story to tell with the G1. Do they do it in San Francisco? Hardly the place for that match in my opinion. Then that leaves Suzuki vs. Okada for the Dome. 

[Beech27]

I really don’t think Suzuki will be the guy to dethrone Okada, but I could make the case. Obviously he’s over, and his age could kinda work for him, since there’s no threat of a too-big win stunting his growth. He’s also never won the IWGP title, and doing so would put him alongside Takayama as the only men to hold it, the Triple Crown, and GHC. It hardly needs to be said how much sentiment could be attached to that. All this also means he could then drop it to pretty much anyone, who would still have the “Can they beat Okada?” question lingering. (Man, I just sorta talked myself into this.)

[Ace]

4 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I feel the same way. However, it really does seem like they're building to Suzuki challenging Okada after/if he gets through Naito. Do they run with that after the G1? Would seem a bad place for Okada to drop the title and a wasted redemption story to tell with the G1. Do they do it in San Francisco? Hardly the place for that match in my opinion. Then that leaves Suzuki vs. Okada for the Dome. 

Prevailing theory for SF is Okada vs Omega IV.

 

[Raziel]

My whole issue with Okada/Suzuki is MiSu's age pretty much locks that Gedo won't put the belt on him, but he's pretty much at a level above anyone else his age, and he should get one last run, but I'm not sold that they do it.  But I'm also getting hard pressed to think of another high profile Dome match sitting in the tank right now, given the growth that NJPW wants but avoiding Okada/Naito Dome Match 3.

[Jiji]

6 minutes ago, Beech27 said:

I really don’t think Suzuki will be the guy to dethrone Okada, but I could make the case. Obviously he’s over, and his age could kinda work for him, since there’s no threat of a too-big win stunting his growth. He’s also never won the IWGP title, and doing so would put him alongside Takayama as the only men to hold it, the Triple Crown, and GHC. It hardly needs to be said how much sentiment could be attached to that. All this also means he could then drop it to pretty much anyone, who would still have the “Can they beat Okada?” question lingering. (Man, I just sorta talked myself into this.)

There are a lot of echoes of Undertaker's streak and Suzuki absolutely fills the Brock role. They could obviously just bypass that and have the younger guy that would eventually beat Suzuki just beat Okada to get a more direct rocket up the ass (I've been watching too much DDT), unless the plan is to immediately go back to Okada. Or as you say, build up a big Okada challenge after Omega/Naito couldn't dethrone Okada previously.

Gedo is really good at this booking thing is the overall point I guess. He's also got an embarrassment of riches to play with that he's built up over the years. Suzuki's been indirectly calling out Okada for a while now and he's pretty much at his peak of consistency and high end matches. It's insane he's turning 50 this year.

[EVA]

Wrestling Dontaku has typically gotten second-tier world title matches of late, but they're also running two nights this year, and when they ran two nights in Sapporo in February, they had title match main events both nights.  Obviously, Suzuki/Naito could/will be one night, but there really aren't many good options to headline the other besides Okada/Tana.  Golden Lovers/LIJ could do it, but KES is lined up for that shot.  Maybe they can run back Omega/White, but otherwise Jay can't even carry a semi-main on his own at this point.  And LOL Goto.

[Raziel]

If Goto's next challenger wasn't Juice, it could be the NEVER belt, but both the NEVER and US belts don't have headlining matches upcoming.  It's possible they could run Okada/Goto vs. Tana/Juice as Night 1 Main and run Okada/White vs Tana/Finlay Night 2 to keep Okada and Tanahashi occupied, but Dominion is Summerslam to WK's Mania, so it's unlikely that they blow the big match before that, unless they use Dontaku and then run Okada/Suzuki at Dontaku with Suzuki-gun doing the weardown of Okada during tags in the back half of the BOSJ tour.

[Beech27]

If Cody wins this weekend, they could have Kenny get his win back in his home promotion as a main or semi-main at Dontaku. I know we’ve no reason to think New Japan would show ROH that level of deference, but Cody hasn’t actually brained Kenny or Kota yet, so I feel like that could be coming. (Or New Japan’s guy will just dunk on ROH’s guy.)

[Brian Fowler]

2 hours ago, MapRef41N93W said:

 

My only gripe about the main event is that I wish Okada had ended it with a left-armed rainmaker. It's always a bummer when a match revolves around one wrestler weakening a body part to take away the opponent's finisher, only for the opponent to win with that finisher in the same way they always do. If Okada had switched to the left arm, it would have been perfect.

I thought the way he did it was brilliant, throwing it almost as a body blow/shoulder block instead of a clothesline. After hitting it with his arm a couple times failed to generate as much impact as normal.

[Jiji]

Plus, as Beech said previously, Zack is a glass cannon. While he stood in there during the strike exchanges better than he usually does, he was still losing them after all the arm work. He's a heavyweight but not really a heavyweight when it comes to durability. It's pretty fascinating.

[Ace]

1 hour ago, Raziel said:

My whole issue with Okada/Suzuki is MiSu's age pretty much locks that Gedo won't put the belt on him, but he's pretty much at a level above anyone else his age, and he should get one last run, but I'm not sold that they do it.  But I'm also getting hard pressed to think of another high profile Dome match sitting in the tank right now, given the growth that NJPW wants but avoiding Okada/Naito Dome Match 3.

To be fair, of all the earlier generation guys, the only ones at MiSu's level are Nagata and Liger. Suzuki would be an excellent transition champion from Okada to somebody else.

 

[Jenalysis]

If you're going as well as Minoru is , and are as over, your age doesn't matter.   You could even do title vs title,  and then have Naito beat Minoru after a short reign.