#njsg

- I always figured that the helmet was ~magic~ and that’s how he could see out of it. ;) That said, he probably did get those scars by being careless and not following lab safety rules!

Well, now I changed my username to njsg to make it easier to say... so that’s that

The traditional Spring megacard has taken place, the first one since 2018. (2019′s was overtaken by G1 Supercard in New York, 2020′s cancelled due to the pandemic.) Hiromu Takahashi made a brief appearance before the first match as well. You can see it now on NJPWWorld, but, well... read on.

Sakura Genesis 2021 - 4/4/2021, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan (NJPWWorld)

Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] d. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club] (Sabre > Loa, European Clutch, 10:10)

Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. EVIL, KENTA, Yujiro Takahashi, Taiji Ishimori & Dick Togo [Bullet Club] (Yano > Togo, Urakasumi, 11:37)

Great O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & X (X = Aaron Henare) [United Empire] d. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] (Henare > SANADA, Streets Of Rage, 9:51)

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Satoshi Kojima d. Jay White & Bad Luck Fale [Bullet Club] (Tanahashi > Fale, High Fly Flow, 10:05)

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship: SHO & YOH [CHAOS] d. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] © (YOH > Kanemaru, Direct Drive, 20:48) - Desperado/Kanemaru fail their 1st defense - Roppongi 3K are the 65th champions

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay [United Empire] d. Kota Ibushi © (Stormbreaker, 30:13) - Ibushi fails his 1st defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - Ospreay is the 2nd champion

Immediately post-match, Jeff Cobb of the United Empire flattened Ibushi with a Tour Of The Islands. I expect there to be a grudge match there soon. Ospreay now holds two titles (including RevPro’s Undisputed British Heavyweight belt), and immediately called out Kazuchika Okada for his first defense, however Shingo Takagi interrupted that, and declared he wanted a shot at it. So, I guess it’s Shingo first, probably at Wrestling Dontaku, then presumably Okada at Dominion.

There is a lot to unpack here. After all the hemming and hawing on the part of both Kota Ibushi and New Japan Pro Wrestling about “becoming God,” unifying the titles, committing to an angle that clearly was not popular, the very first defense of the new title goes to Ospreay, whom Gedo and the bookers clearly like. However, between his antics both on social media, and #SpeakingOut, and the recent angle where he gave an OsCutter to Bea Priestley to show just how much he wanted the title that didn’t even go over well with the fans in attendance, this is a wrestler that has alienated a not-small chunk of the New Japan Pro Wrestling audience. It was clear that at some point, Ospreay was going to be IWGP champion. Nobody really expected it to be now, so soon after Ibushi won and unified the titles. This show was pretty United Empire-centric, however, so maybe we should have seen this coming. The fact of the matter is, NJPW have put their brand new main title on someone that legitimately repulses a portion of the NJPW audience.

The only real positive to take from this, is that historically, brand new IWGP champions generally (GENERALLY) have short first title reigns. Recent examples would include Tetsuya Naito, Jay White and EVIL. Historically, Big Van Vader, Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Shinsuke Nakamura and Masahiro Chono (his only reign, cut short due to injury) all had relatively short first reigns with few defenses. It’s the exceptions that you would expect, that have had more significant first reigns -- Antonio Inoki, Keiji Muto/Great Muta, Shinya Hashimoto, Kensuke Sasaki, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, AJ Styles, Kenny Omega. Kota Ibushi’s, frankly, is a little more inflated than it actually was, due to all the drama about unification, as well as the 2-night Wrestle Kingdom 15, making it seem longer than it actually was. I’m pretty sure Ospreay is not going to have a long reign, no longer than Dominion. They seem to be following the pattern of Tetsuya Naito c. 2016 with this storyline, so I expect Shingo to fall at Wrestling Dontaku (a la Tomohiro Ishii) with Okada once more winning this title at Dominion. 

To keep up with the United Empire line of thought, the new X member was Toa Henare (so @damascenocs​ was right again), although going back to being billed as Aaron Henare. (I can’t quite seem to locate when and where he quit going by “Aaron Henry” before going to Henare, and then Toa Henare.) There is kind of a gross subtext here, with Henare being a New Zealander, aka a former British colony, and reverting from a “more native” sounding name like Toa Henare to going by a “civilized, colonial name” in Aaron Henare. Like so many things with regard to Will Ospreay, there is a distinct lack of reading the room here. On the other hand, I don’t actually MIND Henare being part of this, they needed to do something with him after just spinning his wheels in opening tag matches and only ever getting wins over Young Lions for the last few years. He has a new finisher too, sort of a Fisherman’s Death Valley Driver, called Streets Of Rage, a name I confess I love. Post-match, O-Khan attacked Naito’s knee with a chair, so I fully expect this feud to go on for a bit.

In other news about new moves, YOH returned to in-ring action today teaming with SHO, and delivered the winning blow to get the IWGP junior tag belts back around RPG3K’s waists. This new move is called Direct Drive, looks like a butterfly brainbuster or DDT (maybe a bit like Death Rider?). YOH then immediately challenged El Desperado for the IWGP Juniorheavyweight title, which would be YOH’s first-ever I believe. I fully expected this scenario to happen, only with SHO instead. But hey, YOH is back and that’s good.

Post-match, Tanahashi put Jay White into a Texas Cloverleaf, but also finally accepted Jay’s challenge for the NEVER Openweight strap. A challenge has been made by a Bullet Club tandem (KENTA, Yujiro, Ishimori) for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man belts held by Ishii/Goto/YOSHI-HASHI. And finally, Taichi demanded NJPW return the Iron Finger from Hell, implying the office has confiscated it. Hmm.

It wasn’t all bad, but the bad taste left by Will Ospreay and the United Empire, after all the hoopla about the IWGP World Heavyweight title, shows this may in fact be a long year for New Japan Pro Wrestling.

New IWGP World heavyweight champion "the commonwealth kingpin" Will Ospreay