NJPW Sakura Genesis is just a few days away and there are only a few shows left on the road to this event. The main event of Sakura Genesis will see Tetsuya Naito defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against his fellow LIJ member and 2024 New Japan Cup winner, Yota Tsuji.
As for today’s main event, Tsuji teamed up with BUSHI to defeat Naito and Hiromu Takahashi in some LIJ warfare.
Tsuji and Naito began the match with some chain wrestling and both men continued to reverse one another. With neither man getting the upper hand, BUSHI and Takahashi entered the match. Bushi hit Takahashi with a hurricanrana, but Tsuji and Naito pulled a man out of the ring. On the outside, Takahashi threw Tsuji into the barricade and Naito threw BUSHI, they then threw Tsuji and BUSHI into each other before double-teaming Tsuji. With Tsuji down, they turned their attention to BUSHI hitting him with a double back elbow.
Naito locked BUSHI into a head scissors submission, but Tsuji broke that hold with a kick to Naito’s face. Takahashi responded to Tsuji by sending him crashing outside the ring again, he then hit BUSHI with a sliding dropkick. BUSHI was in rough shape, but he battled back by catching Naito with a backstabber and tagged in Tsuji. He went after the Heavyweight champion with a big boot, a running splash and a strong shoulder tackle.
Naito with the tornado DDT. Credit: NJPW
However, Naito came back with an atomic drop and he then spit into the face of Tsuji, quite the symbol of disrespect to his stablemate. He followed that with the Combination to Tsuji and a neck breaker before tagging Takahashi back in. Takahashi landed a few forearms before running into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker from Tsuji. Bushi now hit Takahashi with a diving missile dropkick and a suicide dive to the outside. He followed that with a basement dropkick, driving Takahashi’s knee into the mat and locking in a figure-four.
Naito broke the hold and hit BUSHI with a dropkick to the back of the head, Tsuji hit Naito with a shoulder tackle, and Takahashi caught Tsuji with a missile dropkick. That was not all; BUSHI then hit Takahashi with a DDT, Naito gave BUSHI an enzigiri, Tsuji ran at Naito with a bicycle knee, Takahashi super kicked Tsuji and finally BUSHI gave Takahashi a Codebreaker. What an unreal sequence, all four men were down.
BUSHI Roll. Credit: NJPW
BUSHI and Takahashu were first to their feet, Takahashi hit BUSHI with a super kick before driving him into the corner with a Death Valley driver. He then connected with a Dynamite Plunger and Naito delivered a tornado DDT to Tsuji. With Tsuji out of the mix, Takahashi looked to hit BUSHI with a Time Bomb, but BUSHI slipped out and rolled Takahashi into the BUSHI Roll to get the upset victory!
NJPW Road to Sakura Genesis 04.03.24 Results
Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato vs. House of Torture (Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL)
Takahashi hit Kato with a lariat and the Pimp Juice to get the victory.
Winners: House of Torture (Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL)
Boltin Oleg, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Toru Yano vs. Just 5 Guys (TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA)
Uemura defeated Tiger Mask with a diving crossbody from the top rope.
Winners: Just 5 Guys (TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA)
El Desperado & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens)
With the referee looking away, Ishimori hit Desperado with a low blow and rolled him up to steal the victory.
Winners: Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens)
Gauntlet Match
Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA & Tomohiro Ishii vs. United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira & TJP)
Ishii hit Newman with a big clothesline and the Brainbuster to advance in the gauntlet.
Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Bullet Club War Dogs (Gedo, Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors)
Knight connected a spike DDT to Gedo to win the gauntlet for his team.
Winners: Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA & Tomohiro Ishii
At Sakura Genesis, Moloney and Connors will defend the Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles against Catch 2/2 and The Jetsetters. Knight proposed that they make this three-way into a tornado tag match and the other teams accepted.
Shingo Takagi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Kanemaru got the referee involved in the match and the referee was hit with an enzigiri. With nobody controlling this match, House of Torture rushed out to the ring and Takagi was facing a four-on-one beat down. Following the attack, the referee was brought back into the ring to count the three, but Takagi kicked out at two. This led to Kanemaru attacking the referee and getting disqualified. Kanemaru then put the referee shirt on and EVIL hit Takagi with an Everything is Evil before pinning him with Kanemaru counting. After all that, EVIL announced that when Takagi challenges him for the NEVER Openweight Championship on Saturday, Kanemaru will be the special guest referee.
Winner: Shingo Takagi via DQ
YOH & Shota Umino vs. House of Torture (SHO & Ren Narita)
Despite House of Torture’s constant cheating, Umino took Narita out with a tornado DDT and YOH hit SHO with the Direct Drive to get the victory.