Another day, another NJPW Road to Sakura Genesis show. We are now just five days away from Sakura Genesis, and today’s show was headlined by a Never Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship match. Strong Style, Ren Narita, El Desperado and Minoru Suzuki were defending against House of Torture members, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi and Evil.
The match had the special stipulation of no outside counts, we now head to Korakuen Hall.
Desperado and Takahashi kicked us off and after a shoulder block from Desperado, he tagged in Suzuki. Takashi was trying to battle Suzuki, but House of Torture ended up getting involved. Sho hit Suzuki with a chair and all six men were locked in a battle on the outside. Evil and Narita made their way into the stand, and Narita was thrown into a sign in the stands.
Sho was choking out Desperado with a chair, and Takashi was hitting Suzuki in his ribs with another chair. House of Torture was taking any advantage they could, and due to the no outside count rule the referee could do nothing.
Takahashi and Sho both had a foot on Suzki’s throat and they stepped down trying to choke him out, but Suzuki never goes down without a fight. They finally made it back into the ring and Suzuki was begging for all House of Torture had. Evil was hitting Suzuki with some electric chops, but every time Suzuki got right back up.
Suzuki was able to get Evil into a sleeper and headbutt Takahashi so he could finally tag in Narita. Then Dick Togo tried to get involved, so Narita dropped him with a belly-to-belly suplex. Narita and Desperado were then looking for Evil, and they found him hiding in the stands so Narita locked him into an abdominal stretch in the crowd. Narita then dragged Evil back to the ring and hit an arm-trapped suplex. He wanted the belly-to-belly next, but Evil raked his eyes and then threw him into an exposed turnbuckle.
The exposed steel did not bother Narita too much and he bounced back with a spinning heel kick to Sho before tagging Desperado in. However, Desperado did not get much in before being caught with a spear and then triple-teamed. Desperado got himself back into it by focusing on the knee of Sho, but then Togo got involved again hitting Suzuki with a cane and dropping him on the referee.
With the ref down, even Togo was joining in on the beat down of Desperado, Sho then hit him with the powerbreaker, but Desperado kicked out. Sho then grabbed the ref to distract him and Togo started choking Desperado with his wire. Suzuki was having none of that and jumped in the ring to take out all of House of Torture.
Sho was now isolated so Strong Style went to work, Desperado hit a spine buster and Narita and Suzuki each hit a PK. All three members of Strong Style then got a member of the House of Torture into a submission hold. However, Sho then got Desperado with a low blow and then hit Shock Arrow, but Suzuki broke the count at two.
Sho then wanted to use his wrench, but Narita stopped him and Desperado was able to hit Sho with Pinche Loco to retain the titles for Strong Style. Thank goodness that train wreck is over, House of Torture is by far the worst part of NJPW.
Road to Sakura Genesis April 3, 2023 Results
Oskar Leube & Tomohiro Ishii vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan)
Great-O-Khan made Leube submit with the modified abdominal stretch.
Winners: United Empire
Master Wato, Yoh & Tiger Mask vs. Just 5 Guys (Taka Michinoku, Douki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Master Wato got Michinoku in Vendaval and he had no choice but to tap out.
Winners: Master Wato, Yoh & Tiger Mask
Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Shota Umino vs. Bullet Club (Gedo, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo)
Taguchi isolated Gedo and locked him in Oh My & Garankle to get the victory.
Winners: Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Shota Umino
Chaos (Tomoaki Honma, Yoshi-Hashi & Hirooki Goto) vs. United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis)
Aussie Open has been racking up the wins and impressing everyone in NJPW, today was more of the same as they hit Honma with Corialis for the win.
Winners: United Empire
Los Ingobernables de Japón (Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs. TMDK (Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles & Zack Sabre Jr.)
After a great exchange, Naito got Fujita to submit with a Boston crab.
Winners: Los Ingobernables de Japón
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada vs. Just 5 Guys (Taichi & Sanada)
Sanada was looking to weaken Okada ahead of his title shot in this match, so he exposed the ground and dropped Okada with a piledriver before locking him into Skull End. Despite the viciousness of Sanada, in the ring, Tanahashi was able to roll up Taichi and steal the win. Okada and Tanahashi may have won, but Sanada has the advantage heading into Saturday.
