Tokyo sees five title match contracts signed
April 7 in Tokyo saw the final public press conference for Sakura Genesis, with contracts signed for each of Saturday night’s five championship matches, and final comments issued.
Watch Sakura Genesis live in English on NJPW World!
First to speak were competitors in the IWGP Women’s Championship three way between Mercedes Mon?, AZM and Hazuki. Hazuki would speak first, saying ‘there was a lot of talk after I suggested this three way,’ but that she would leave the audience convinced ‘about how exciting three way matches can be, how great women’s wrestling, and about Hazuki as champion.’
AZM thanked Mon? for calling her out to challenge and promised to add the IWGP Women’s Championship to her STARDOM High Speed belt, but chided ‘My name is A Zu Mi, not Ay Zee Em! Repeat after me!’
This drew the ire of Mon? who bit back that ‘I call it how I read it, and you’re lucky I spoke your name at all.’ Vowing to show both her challengers who the CEO is, se signed the contract and made a point of shoving AZM out the way for a photo shoot, leaving Hazuki as a third party that could easily steal the show and the gold.
Shota Umino would take NJPW World TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. to task during the next presser, as he spoke about the origins of the title some six months ago in Ryogoku. ‘This title was designed as one for the new generation of talent, but even though young American wrestlers have had shots, Japanese wrestlers haven’t. The title was supposed to be defended in small towns, places that might not get a championship match, but it hasn’t,’ Umino complained. ‘This title is about more than 15 minute time limits. The whole point of having different championships is so that wrestlers can feel “I want to do this, so I need that”. Without that none of the belts mean anything, they’re the same. I want to win the title and make a clear line of what the TV Championship should be’.
In response, Zack Sabre Jr. criticised Umino for ‘whinging,’ saying that this was his first singles championship in New Japan, and he had little intention of giving it up. Joking that ‘we have 15 minutes on the clock, but your entrance takes ten. So really you only have five minutes to try and beat me,’ ZSJ suggested that if Umino could beat him that he would hand over his ring jacket ‘and then you can have mine and Moxley’s, won’t that be nice’.
After some tense back and forth in the first two signings, the tag team championship presser was positively perfunctory, but with clear points made. Kyle Fletcher would state that though this was Aussie Open’s third title shot, it was their first in Japan ‘and we aren’t leaving, not getting on that plane without the IWGP tag Team Championships,’ before Mark Davis followed that ‘we’ve been waiting a long time to get revenge on Bishamon from December, and I’m looking forward to achieveing that.’
Bishamon had the pride of champions however. YOSHI-HASHI would state that ‘we beat the team that many said was best in the world on January 4, defended against TMDK, and then main evented with the titles at anniversary. We’ve taken the tag championships to a status they haven’t seen before, and that’s why we can’t stop now. We defended the NEVER 6 man championships nine times, so I want to make it ten with these.’ Hirooki Goto would quip that ‘it’s windy this weekend, but we’ll keep that going and blow Aussie Open away with a Bishamon Typhoon’.
Neither Robbie Eagles nor Hiromu Takahashi are ones to shy away from a chance to speak, and the junior heavyweight contract signing was comfortably the longest of the five. Eagles would state that while Hiromu’s achievements to date have been incredible, ‘who pinned you when you came back from your neck injury? Robbie Eagles. Who submitted you in MetLife Dome when you came back from a pec tear? Robbie Eagles,’. Eagles vowed to do so again Saturday, but Hiromu Takahashi was keen to show that damage done at Korakuen Hall earlier this week was not going to phase him.
Introducing himself as ‘Hiromu Takahashi, of the Legs of Steel,’ Hiromu would soon admit that he was his usual energetic self because of medical treatment. ‘Why didn’t I get this shot before the match instead of today? What if it wears off?’ Hiromu was joking and playing mind games with Eagles in equal measure, something that brought a rebuke from his challenger.
Eagles would say that fans were sick of Hiromu still holding a championship he was obsessed with defending with ‘quantity, not quality,’ promising that he would take the championship and renew it in gold before defending it in as many countries around the world as possible as champion. Setting himself as the international favourite in the face of Hiromu’s Japanese centric mindset, the challenger looked to take advantage of smaller, but determined support from the international Robbie faithful in Ryogoku.
That left the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, and SANADA and Kazuchika Okada. Cold Skull would confess that ‘Okada once called me his rival, but I don’t believe I was then,’ continuing ‘I will be tomorrow, and more. Okada is the absolute top in power, strength, skill, but when it comes to momentum and drive, SANADA has more than anyone.’
Okada would bite back that in the time since he called SANADA his rival in 2019, ‘we haven’t really tangled. That shows the difference in levels between us, and you’ll see that difference again tomorrow,’ acknowledging that ‘nobody wins the New Japan Cup without a level of skill,’ but that he felt nothing was different about his challenger since he joined Just5Guys.’
As SANADA ominously stated that people ‘hadn’t seen half,’ of the new horizons he promised, ‘they’ll see it all tomorrow,’ the main event contract was signed and official for Sakura Genesis Saturday.
Originally posted at Read More