Csonka’s NJPW Sakura Genesis Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview the NJPW Sakura Genesis event. This is the latest big show, following the New Japan Cup and Strong Style Evolved. Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

The Young Bucks vs. Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi: The Bullet Club Civil War is in full effect, the Bucks are seemingly aligned with Cody, but if you’ve been following Being the Elite, not everything is sunshine and daisies. Owens has been on Team Kenny and even teamed a lot with Ibushi on the New Japan Cup tour. Yujiro also worked with Ibushi in multi-man tags, and is on the Tongan side of BC, and was watching Ibushi’s back while Kenny was away. There is not necessarily a beef between the teams, but this will be another small chapter in the Bullet Club Civil War. Will they work a regular match? Will there be issues post match? Or will it simply be the best team wins? I am interested to see how things play out and if anyone gets involved during or after that match. With the Bucks losing at Strong Style Evolved, this feels like a perfect match to give them a rebound win and a launching point to give them some momentum moving forward. WINNERS: The Young Bucks

Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Taichi & Iizuka: Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii were on a huge roll, picking up several wins in tags and multi-man tags, seemingly positioning them for a run at the tag titles. That was until they ran into the Killer Elite Squad during the New Japan Cup Tour. With the Killer Elite Squad picking up the big win, and following with another at Strong Style Evolved, the former champions are now primed to clash with LIJ and get revenge for their WrestleKingdom 12 loss. Taichi is a newly minted heavyweight and is searching for marquee wins after suffering losses to Tanahashi & Naito. While they are obviously huge names, he still lost but did put in very good and even great efforts. Taichi is much better off as a heavyweight, and again, he needs to start picking up wins. With Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii’s winning streak over, I think Taichi & Iizuka pick up the win here. Unfortunately with Iizuka in there, I don’t expect much quality wise, even with Ishii being awesome. WINNERS: Taichi & Iizuka

Never Openweight Six-Man Title Match: Champions Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale, & Tanga Loa vs. Michael Elgin, Togi Makabe, & Ryusuke Taguchi: The Never Openweight Six-Man Titles are such an odd thing, they either bounce around, or they feel c0pmpletely stagnant. Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale, & Tanga Loa have had the titles since New Year’s Dash, and I actually really love them having the titles, because infused properly, they could be a great prop in the Bullet Club Civil war. But Jado & Gedo do not like keeping the titles on anyone for all that long and with the champions going on three months with the titles; it, unfortunately, feels like time to change the titles, just to change the titles. But I really hope that I am wrong. This should be solid at the very least but could be good if everyone is motivated. WINNERS: Michael Elgin, Togi Makabe, & Ryusuke Taguchi

David Finlay, Juice Robinson, & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto, Jay White, & YOSHI-HASHI: This match is all about continuing the build to the upcoming Juice vs. Goto & Finlay vs. White title matches. Tanahashi is here to add some star power, and HASHI is likely here to take the fall. Finlay & Juice have been on a roll and delivering, while Tanahashi & Goto always work hard, I anticipate this being a fun match, and Finlay or Juice should pick up the win here over HASHI, to continue their momentum towards a title shot. This could be a good one. WINNERS: David Finlay, Juice Robinson, & Hiroshi Tanahashi

SANADA, EVIL, & Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, & Davey Boy Smith Jr: This is another match with clear goals, setting up a tag title match between LIJ & KES, as well as Naito vs. Suzuki, which has been teased since the New Japan Cup Tour. This match could be a real mixed bag, LIJ multi-mans tend to be really good and KES has been a lot of fun as of late, plus Suzuki murdering people is always fun. But there is the fear of way too much Suzuki-gun shenanigans ruining things and dragging the match down. Hopefully, that’s not the case, and we not only further the feuds, but also have a quality match while doing so. WINNERS: Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, & Davey Boy Smith Jr

IWGP Junior Tag Team Title Match: Champions Desperado & Kanemaru vs. Roppongi 3K vs. BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi: Unfortunately, I find the “IWGP junior tag team title” scene to remain a big mess. They were doing a good job of building to a Desperado & Kanemaru vs. BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi match on the New Japan Cup tour, which would have been perfectly fine, but then they started doing the Roppongi 3K post-match attacks and jumped right back to a triple threat instead of just a normal tag. Thier last triple threat was good, but felt lazy, and I think we’d be better off with a regular tag. This match may very well be good, but I find it nearly impossible to care about r invest in the division the way that they book it. And that’s a shame because there’s talent there. With the way that they book the division, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another title change here to pretend that they are booking stories in the division. TITLE RUNS FOR EVERYONE! WINNERS: BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Champion Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll: I’ve seen a lot of backlash over this match, largely because these two have faced off so often and all over the world. Also, the build was one quick angle at Strong Style Evolved. And I can understand the frustration due to that, and I can even agree with it. But I also think that we can agree that these two always have good to great matches, so at least we have that to look forward to. I really feel that it would be shortsighted to pull a title change here, Ospreay has a nice run going, and there’s really no reason to change the title, especially if they are hoping to run Ospreay vs. Mysterio in July. I am excited for the actual match, I think it’ll likely be great, but unfortunately, I do feel the booking of it comes off as lazy. WINNER: Champion Will Ospreay

Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Cody & Hangman Page: This is another chapter in the Bullet Club Civil War, the Golden Lovers picked up a huge win over the Bucks in an amazing match, at Strong Style Evolved. This angered Cody. He and Omega will be facing off at ROH Supercard of Honor, in a highly anticipated match, and this will also be a preview of sorts for that match. Page has been Team Cody all the way so far, and his most loyal soldier. This has a chance to be really good, Cody is locked in and delivering big time as the ultimate heel & master manipulator in this feud. I think this will be a great angle driven match, continuing whitish the best angle in wrestling right now, being told on three fronts, in ROH, NJPW, & Being the Elite. I have the feeling that at ROH Supercard of Honor, Page beats Ibushi and Cody beats Omega, so I believe that the Golden Lovers will pick up another big win here to keep their momentum as a team rolling. WINNERS: Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi

IWGP Title Match: Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: The rise of Zack Sabre Jr on the New Japan Cup Tour was expertly done, positioning his as a legit star, tapping out Naito, SANADA, Ibushi, & Tanahashi. He put together an overall tremendous set of matches and has also put together an amazing 2018 working all over the world. Kazuchika Okada is the current reigning and defending IWGP heavyweight champion and is looking to break and shatter all of the records involving that championship. With the two men involved, this obviously has the chance to be an excellent match, Sabre is red hot right now, and a win here would not only freshen things up but would officially coronate a new real top star for NJPW. Unfortunately for Sabre, the likelihood of him winning feels almost impossible; Okada is on an all-time run, delivering great matches, selling out venues, and breaking records. While Sabre has been built up extremely well, I just do not see NJPW pulling the title switch with all that they have invested in him. While I’d love for NJPW to throw us a curveball here, and it would be a big one, I’m not sure that Sabre is the right guy to beat him, despite the absolutely tremendous job they’ve done of building him. Again, Okada is on an all-time run, delivering great matches, selling out venues, and breaking records; and they want him to break them all so that he becomes the undisputed ace of the company. It should be a hell of a match, and if they are daring enough, a very different main event that takes Okada out of his usual element. I’m hyped for it. WINNER: Kazuchika Okada

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– Thanks for reading.

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