#road to sakura genesis
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MERCEDES MONÉ
NJPW Road to Sakura Genesis (April 8th, 2023)
Credit: yu0416LIJ
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Yota Tsuji and Tetsuya Naito
Road to Sakura Genesis, 03/04/2024
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my friend ellis @jonny-dykeville wants to get into njpw, and i thought id write her a little summary of whats been going on lately! im posting it here in case its useful for anyone who wants to get into nooj but finds it a little too confusing (understandable) or has stopped watching in the last couple years and now wants to get back into it
this will include a list of matches at the end from 2023 that i think were good and/or are important to storylines! this is accurate to the day im writing it which is 2023/05/15
LINKS TO BE UPDATED
The landscape of New Japan Pro Wrestling has changed enormously in the past couple of months. For example if you told someone a year ago that Kazuchika Okada would hold a non singles belt, theyd laugh in your face.
So how did we get here?
google doc version
Your current champions
Sanada beat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Sakura Genesis, and has since defended it against Hiromu Takahashi, the current junior heavyweight champion.
Hiromu won the belt at Wrestle Kingdom in a four-way match against Master Wato, El Desperado, and former champion Taiji Ishimori.
The IWGP women’s title was created last year and won by Kairi at Historic X-over. She lost the belt to Mercedes Moné, who was champion until Mayu Iwatani dethroned her recently.
Aussie Open hold the tag titles after defeating Bishamon, and they’ve gone on to win the Strong openweight tag team championships from the Motor City Machine Guns.
David Finlay is the NEVER openweight champion, bringing the belt back in to Bullet Club after Tama Tonga defeated Karl Anderson for it at Wrestle Kingdom.
Intergalactic Jetsetters (Kushida And Kevin Knight) finally ended the reign of Catch 2/2 (Tjp And Francesco Akira) as junior heavyweight tag team champions during the road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, thank god.
Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii are the NEVER openweight six man champions winning the titles from Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki And Ren Narita). If you think that sentence is insane, don’t worry I’ll explain whats happening.
Zack Sabre Jr became the inaugural NJPW World TV champion, winning the tournament at Wrestle Kingdom by defeating Ren Narita, and he’s had some incredible defenses since (you might’ve seen him on ROH).
the KOPW trophy graduated to a belt after El Phantasmo broke it, and Taichi is the current provisional champion having defeated Shingo Takagi for it.
Kenta lost the strong openweight championship to Hikuleo in the first defense of the belt in Japan, after winning it from Fred Rosser (with Juice interference).
at the time of writing this the Strong women’s title does exist but the tournament to decide its first owner has yet to be held (Resurgence may 21st).
Karl Anderson will pay for his crimes
Those who have been following me since november last year know that Suzuki-gun, a heel faction in NJPW led by Minoru Suzuki, has come to an end. I was inconsolable. There are multiple reasons for this happening, but the main one is Karl Anderson.
While Anderson is a member of Bullet Club, and in fall of last year was still the NEVER openweight champion, he is contracted to WWE and was on a handshake deal with NJPW, essentially promising he’ll appear at shows they book him for. There was a scheduling conflict with one of WWE’s saudi shows, and Anderson essentially ghosted the company not appearing for his title defense against Hikuelo, which meant I had to watch Yujiro Takahashi wrestle. anyway this all meant that New Japan lost faith in their freelancers, and because the majority of Suzuki-gun were on handshake deals, this meant the faction had to go. Their last match was on december 23rd (njpwworld) (bilibili link) and it was very emotional and beautiful, and I was incredibly sad.
Shota came back!
Shota Umino, who you may know as the protege of Jon Moxley, returned from excursion in the fall of last year. Young lions (NJPW trainees) are sent abroad to foreign promotions by the company to train and gather experience in different environments to Japan. Shota was in Britain for a time and he returned, challenging Will Ospreay for the US title he still held at the time. He lost but with this high profile title shot he joined the ranks of the young stars NJPWhas much faith vested in.
This also includes Ren Narita, who you may not know because he was never adopted by a mean american man. he was trained by Katsuyori Shibata, earning the nickname Son of Strong Style and wearing similar gear to Shibata as well. The company seems to be trying to set him up to be Shibata’s successor, and he wrestles a similarly, clean technical style.
A recent addition to their ranks is Yota Tsuji, whose return I will explain later.
The IWGP women’s title
Women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and NJPW are both owned by Bushiroad. Because of this last year there was a crossover between the two promotions, which saw the first mixed tag matches in an NJPW ring. Great show, you should watch it. (njpwworld link) (bilibili link)
For this event, the IWGP women’s championship was created and won by Kairi. Now I have some thoughts about how Stardom is already full of accomplished talented women, and putting a women’s match on the card once in a blue moon isn’t a win for women in wrestling and you should maybe try watching Stardom instead (guide on how to do that). But I digress. Regardless of whether or not this is pandering, every match for the belt was undoubtedly incredible and I will be linking them all in the rec section.
A brief Wrestle Kingdom aside
You fucking know what happened at Wrestle Kingdom I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. Kenny Omega returned and defeated Will Ospreay for the US title, and Okada won his beloved IWGP belt back from Jay White, starting him down the path of leaving NJPW.
What you might not know is what happened at Wrestle Kingdom Night 2, which confusingly was held some weeks later. Wrestle Kingdom traditionally is a show between NOAH and NJPW, so Night 2 saw the two promotions pitch their most popular wrestlers against each other. Okada was set to fight Kaito Kiyomiya in a tag team match, but he thought this challenge beneath him and attempted to murder Kiyomiya ruling the match a no contest.
Later in february, at Keiji Muto’s retirement show, Okada did have to face off Kiyomiya in a singles bout, despite his protests that he is not some cheap whore (his words not mine). That entire show is incredibly good but not extremely relevant to NJPW storylines, as crossover events usually are not. (njpwworld) (unoffical link)
After Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan holds New Year’s Dash and the New Beginning shows where they set up new storylines that will likely last the whole year. Jay White challenges Hikuleo to a loser leaves Japan match, because he blames him and his brothers (Guerillas of Destiny) for Bullet Club weakening and his loss at Wrestle Kingdom. He promptly loses this match. Bummer.
El Desperado refuses to accept that Suzuki-gun is over and joins Minoru Suzuki in defending Ren Narita from House of Torture’s dastardly attack, leading to the formation of their trios team; Strong Style. They then go on to defeat House of Torture for the NEVER openweight six man tag team titles. Now this is crazy but we dont have time to dwell on it because the other remnants of Suzuki-gun are also making moves that are considerably more insane.
Its time for: faction madness
There are a lot of factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling. like a lot. Every storyline is heavily driven by who is in what faction and where their allegiences lie. This might be confusing to you if you only watch AEW, a promotion where factions matter less than what Tony adds to commentary.
TMDK
Naturally ex-Suzuki-gun member and best technical wrestler in the known universe Zack Sabre Jr couldn’t simply remain in Hontai, the main body of New Japan where factionless members of the roster belong. Luckily he was a free agent for all of five seconds before his old australian buddies snatched him and his fresh tv championship up. TMDK, known as an australian faction despite a solid half not being from Australia, has suffered some losses in the past year. Jonah, their strongest member, a man who defeated even Kazuchika Okada, left Japan for WWE. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls, founding members of the faction and a tag team under the same name, have failed to succeed in winning Tag League in fall of last year. Safe to say, they needed a win. Zack has teamed with them during his time in NOAH, so it was only logical that he would return to his old friends. They even recruited a young lion, Kosei Fujita, who became the first young lion in a faction if you don’t count Hikuleo which was a slightly different situation. TMDK also includes Bad Dude Tito (or Big Teets) over in the States.
The addition of Zack really reinvigorated the faction. Shane and Mikey challenged and failed to defeat Aussie Open for the tag titles, and Robbie Eagles left Chaos for more australian pastures, joining the faction when he challenged Hiromu Takahashi for his championship. Robbie also lost but TMDK didn’t let these setbacks stop them from cutting the weirdest promos after every match and staunchly insisting Fujita (who they’ve nicknamed Big Fooj) will be the first young lion to win a championship.
United Empire
Will Ospreay is no longer the IWGP US heavyweight champion. After losing to Kenny Omega he threw a hissy fit and declared that he would give professional wrestling one more year. He also entered the New Japan Cup, a tournament for the right to challenge for the IWGP championship. Unfortunately in a match against his friend and stablemate Mark Davis (of Aussie Open and ass size fame) he injured his shoulder which put him out of action until about last week. He won the 1pw world title though, so he’s fine.
Other than that, the faction has been doing fairly well for themselves. After a titanic struggle against Bishamon, Aussie Open won the tag titles and have gone on to defend them against TMDK and somehow, Best Friends on AEW television. They also won the Strong tag titles, and Kyle Fletcher managed to botch a moonsault in both matches. You’ve definitely seen them even if you don’t watch NJPW, their schedule is insane and they have a banger of a match practically on a weekly average.
Also tag champions in the faction were Catch 2/2, who held the junior titles until fairly recently. They’ve had great defenses against YOH and his new tag partner, Lio Rush (more on that in a second) and Douki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. What you need to know about Catch 2/2 is that TJP is a PragerU weirdo and Akira is good albeit italian.
UE also includes Jeff Cobb, who you might’ve seen challenging for Kenny Omega’s US title on Dynamite. He is incredible I don’t have anything else to say. He also kind of thinks flat earthers have a point. He’s really good though.
Also in the faction are Aaron Henare, men’s rights weirdo who challenged and lost to Shingo Takagi for the KOPW belt and Great O Khan who is somehow the Revpro champion. He is notable for having a nice bow in his hair and screeching. The most recent recruit to the faction is Dan Moloney, who unfortunately is fairly unknown to me. He joined the faction as a junior heavyweight and subsequently entered the Best of Super Juniors Tournament, which I will explain later.
Chaos
I’ve previously described Chaos as Hontai 2.0, because that’s really what it is. Lead by Kazuchika Okada, Chaos was the original heel faction in NJPW, founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. Nowadays it is a loose collection of allegiances that confusingly includes the entire Best Friends faction in AEW. Yes, that includes Trent’s mum Sue. Since becoming faces, Chaos members regularly team with Hontai because it all doesn’t really matter.
Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at Battle in the Valley, and then asked him to tag together. They named themselves the Dream Team, and I only briefly pondered how well it ended the last time Tana teamed with a younger star. Anyways I’m sure this will go fine. They challenged Okada’s fellow Chaos members Bishamon for their tag titles they still held at that time, and sadly lost that match. They defeated the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita, and then once again failed to obtain gold in a 3-way match against the Motor City Machine Guns and Aussie Open (who won). After Okada lost his belt, they recruited Tomohiro Ishii, who doesn’t like Tanahashi and doesn’t want to team with him because he isn’t in Chaos. Despite this, they managed to defeat Strong Style for the NEVER openweight six man championships.
Bishamon I’ve covered sufficiently enough I think, they are the team of Hirooki Goto who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in professional wrestling and YOSHI-HASHI who used to be incredibly horrible and is less bad recently. They are fun and I like them.
YOH and SHO were a junior tag team in Chaos until SHO turned heel, joining Bullet Club. This left YOH in a sort of strange limbo, where he contemplated quitting wrestling and pursuing his more artistic ambitions (he is a musician and an artist). Rocky Romero, also a member of Chaos, got him and Lio Rush together to team for Junior Tag League, and they ended up winning the tournament! Although they failed to defeat catch 2/2 at Wrestle Kingdom, and Lio got injured, teaming with him seemed to bring YOH’s confidence back. He’s been wrestling slightly differently and with more self-assurence. The pair both separately challenged and lost to Hiromu Takahashi, two incredible matches that I will link below. Not even these losses brought YOH’s confidence down though, and he’s entered BOSJ alongside Lio although they are in different blocks.
Also members of Chaos are Rocky Romero, Best Friends (including Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Sue, and I think quite possibly Danhausen), Toru Yano who is kind of a funny little man, and Tomohiro Ishii.
Los Ingobernables de Japon
Led by Tetsuya Naito, the tweener group is more of a loose collection of talented individuals than your regular faction. LIJ has a policy of letting their members forge their own paths and create their own success, instead of letting them fall back on the power of the group.
Maybe the only exception to this rule is Hiromu Takahashi, who owes a lot of his success to the faction as well as his mentor Tetsuya Naito. Hiromu is very talented and has a very unique style both in his wrestling and his fashion sense. Unbiased corner ahead I like him a lot. He holds junior wrestlers in very high regard and recently organized the All Star Junior festival to showcase junior heavyweights from all around japan (njpwworld ppv) (vk link). He has a plush cat named Daryl. Hiromu is kind of the ace of the junior division right now, he is on his fifth title reign and is trying to defend the belt 12 times to beat the current defense record of 11 held by Minoru Tanaka. Currently he is 4 defenses into this streak, having defeated YOH, Lio Rush, Robbie Eagles and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Despite being champion he entered BOSJ, a tournament he’s won four times, three times in a row. If he wins, he’ll get to hand pick his opponent at Dominion.
I have no clue what to say about Tetsuya Naito. To quote my friend Jay, “it’s naito. he is an indescribable force of non-functional knees and the driest hair you've ever seen. he takes ten years to remove his entrance gear. he is naito”. You fucking know who Tetsuya Naito is.
This year, the main thing he’s done is defeating his mentor Keiji Muto at his retirement show in Febuary (njpwworld link) (vk link). He has a very hands off approach towards leading his group, sort of letting everyone figure their things out, which is why he didn’t really seem worried about his match against his stablemate Sanada in the New Japan Cup. You can imagine his surprise when Sanada not only defeated him but then declared that he would be leaving the faction, but more on that later. He also recently had a singles match against DOUKI, which was incredible.
Also members of LIJ are Shingo Takagi, winner of KOPW 2022 and former KOPW 2023 provisional champion, and also living legend. He made his name in Dragon Gate, a different japanese promotion you should also watch (I’m not at all being held at gunpoint by people whose names start with J), Bushi and Titan, who are both junior heavyweight luchadors I don’t know as much about as I should. They’re really good and they are both in BOSJ this year.
Bullet Club
Do I even need to explain. Don’t worry I will.
Jay White lost his loser leaves Japan match to Hikuleo, but there was hope. He promised Gedo he would go to America and wrestle on Strong and right his wrongs. So obviously he immediately lost a loser leaves New Japan match to Eddie Kingston, barring him from ever wrestling in a New Japan ring ever again. After weeks of radio silence, he showed up on Dynamite, forming Bullet Culb Gold (2 bullet 2 club) with Juice Robinson and you all know what happened after that.
It’s spring which means it’s Bullet Club infighting season. After Jay’s loss, his long time rival David Finlay waltzed into the ring all goth and angry, cutting a promo about how the japanese fans never appreciated him and he is an outsider wherever he goes. If this didn’t make it clear to you that he was the new leader, don’t worry it wasn’t clear to me or El Phantasmo either.
ELP was friends with Jay White, and made the rest of the Club agree that they will let Jay ride off into the sunset. A peaceful transfer of power is however impossible in Bullet Club, which is kind of a Stanford prison experiment for closeted gay men. It started bothering Phantasmo, that everyone in his faction so readily accepted Finlay as the new leader, like they weren’t fully behind Jay only a week ago. And anyone who questions the leader has to go.
Then came a months long game of gay betrayal chicken. Every postmatch, Phantasmo would assure Finlay that they were doing it for the club, refuse to too sweet the new leader, and the two slapping eachother in place of a tag. Meanwhile the faces in Hontai were increasingly more accepting towards ELP, Shota Umino even gave him one of his bracelets. The tension came to a boil at Sakura Genesis, where in a tag team match against Guerillas of Destiny and Master Wato, Phantasmo refused to commit the clubs usual heel antics and was brutally kicked out in response. Despite his close friendship with Taiji Ishimori and Kenta, both men readily betrayed him for David Finlay.
Phantasmo returned as a face to beat Finlay up after he defeated Tama Tonga for the NEVER belt, and the two have a title match set at Dominion.
As I mentioned Kenta and Taiji Ishimori are both members of Bullet Club, and Finlay recently recruited Clark Connors to be the clubs newest junior. He entered BOSJ alongside Taiji. Gedo, the head booker of NJPW is also a member of BC but he mainly stands ominously in the background and in kayfabe doesn’t have a massive role in storylines.
HOUSE OF TORTURE
I have to explain what’s going on here. Bullet Club has sort of a subesction? Called House of Torture. They’re only really part of BC in name only, and merch sales. Their thing is gratuitous cheating, if one HoT member has a match, the rest of them aren’t far behind making every match a handicap. Their members are EVIL, the leader of the group and former LIJ member, Yujiro Takahashi the incredible slow motion man whose joints creak audibly with every move, Dick Togo and SHO, who joined after betraying YOH and turning heel. SHO is actually pretty good but the presence of HoT at every match really ruins. Everything. I try not thinking about them.
JUST 5 GUYS
NOW baby. The reason I’m even writing this. The worst faction name in the history of pro wrestling. This faction is made of four ex-Suzuki-gun members and Sanada. Originally called Just Four Guys when Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI announced they would be forming a faction at New Year’s Dash. Taka made some baseless claims about how they will defeat everyone and change the landscape of New Japan. He also came up with their new catchphrase “You already die”. Commentary and everyone else immediately dismissed them as a joke that will last maybe a couple of months. Oh how wrong we were.
Initially, the group did not have much success. Douki and Uncle Nobu lost to Catch 2/2 in their title match against them, Taka kept getting pinned and they failed to deliver on their promises to destroy everyone who stood in their way.
Taichi, as their only heavyweight, entered the New Japan Cup. His first match was against Sanada, a man he’s had some history with when he was still tagging with Zack Sabre Jr as Dangerous Tekkers. Sanada was a man not really renowned for anything, he hasn’t seen any singles success since joining LIJ by helping Tetsuya Naito cheat, except for a US title run cut short with no defenses due to an injury. He had blonde hair and the best or the worst move in pro wrestling history, depending on if you ask my friend Ryan or me. He never hits a moonsault. I don’t think Naito even knew who he was.
Safe to say, absolutely no one expected Sanada to defeat Taichi, much less his superior Naito. What we expected the least is for him to announce he is leaving LIJ for Just 4 Guys, which was now to be renamed JUST 5 GUYS. With dark hair, a clean shaven face and soon, new gear as well, Sanada really found his footing among this motley crew, the way he never managed in his seven years during LIJ. He went on to blaze through the competition in the Cup, winning it and subsequently defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP world heavyweight championship. Absolutely no one has expected this to happen, ever. Yet somehow, it is also one of the coolest things to happen, ever.
His former faction members in LIJ mostly seemed to just sort of accept he left, except for Hiromu. He said while he understood Sanada’s reasons for leaving, he felt betrayed. Hiromu challenged Sanada to a match for the heavyweight championship. No junior heavyweight has been able to defeat the heavyweight champion in the history of the company, although this match is not the first of its kind.
When Sanada defeated Hiromu, the returning Yota Tsuji walked out into the ring and beat him up, held up the LIJ fist and carried Hiromu out of the ring. We don’t really know if this means he’ll be joining the faction, but it’s very likely, and the two have a match set at Dominion.
Obviously other stuff has happened but this is already 4000 words long and I still have things to explain to you.
Whats happening right now
As I’m writing this, the 30th Best of the Super Juniors is just beginning. BOSJ is a round robin style tournament, just like the G1 where wrestlers are divided into two blocks and everyone fights everyone in their block. Usually, the winners of the two blocks face off against each other to win the tournament, but this year, the winner of each block faces off against the person who came second in the other block, and the winners of those matches are the finalists. The winner has the right to challenge for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship at Dominion.
This year’s participants are as follows.
I think this is absolutely the perfect time to get int New Japan. The junior division is full of incredibly talented wrestlers who focus more on fast paced high flying style matches and every one of them is easy to watch and very entertaining. The entire tour will be broadcast with full english coverage.
How do I watch all of this
New Japan conveniently has a streaming service called NJPW world, membership is 999 yen per month. Dont forget to toggle it to english in the upper left corner! Most shows have english commentary and in my opinion it is pretty good commentary. Even if you don’t want to pay for the site, it has a schedule page (upper right corner) which even displays multiple timezones, and links to the card for every upcoming show.
The site also has some free content, for example the backstage comments after every show. Backstage comments are essentially short interviews with the wrestlers directly after every match, which makes for very fun adrenaline fuelled nonsense. Search backstage comment on the site, or check the njpwworld youtube channel. The videos always have subtitles, but it takes the transcribers time, subs are usually out a day after shows air.
PIRACY
In case you’d like to sail the high seas, you have a couple of options.
Watching show’s live I would recommend watchprowrestling.org for. They upload the shows and you can watch them live as well with a bit of delay.
If you’re looking for older stuff, you should try searching on bilibili (dont be intimidated by the language barrier, its quite easy to use) or this specific user on vk.com.
MATCHES TO WATCH
Title changes and defenses:
Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Hiromu Takahashi vs Master Wato vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Zack Sabre Jr vs Ren Narita FREE MATCH
Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii FREE MATCH
Zack Sabre Jr vs Shota Umino FREE MATCH
Zack Sabre Jr vs Tom Lawlor FREE MATCH
Zack Sabre Jr vs Jeff Cobb FREE MATCH
Catch 2/2 vs YOH and Lio Rush (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Catch 2/2 vs Intergalactic Jetsetters (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:35:08)
Hiromu Takahashi vs Lio Rush (njpwworld)
Hiromu Takahashi vs YOH (njpwworld) (unofficial link2:48:13)
Hiromu Takahashi vs Robbie Eagles (njpwworld)
Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld)
Kazuchika Okada vs Sanada (njpwworld)
Sanada vs Hiromu Takahashi (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Aussie Open vs Bishamon (njpwworld)
Aussie Open vs TMDK (njpwworld)
Aussie Open vs Motor City Machine Guns vs the Dream Team (Okada & Tanahashi) (njpwworld ppv)
Kairi vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)
Kairi vs Tam Nakano (njpwworld)
Kairi vs Mercedes Moné (unofficial link)
Mercedes Moné vs Kairi vs Hazuki (njpwworld)
Mercedes Moné vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)
Tama Tonga vs El Phantasmo (njpwworld)
Tama Tonga vs David Finlay (unofficial link)
Taichi vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:44:00)
Strong Style vs Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Hikuelo vs Kenta (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Story matches
Tetsuya Naito vs Sanada (njpwworld)
Jay White vs Hikuleo (njpwworld)
Jay White vs Eddie Kingston (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:04:00)
Bullet Club (David Finlay, Kenta, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado) & Master Wato (njpwworld link)
just fun
Mark Davis vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)
Mark Davis vs EVIL (njpwworld)
Tetsuya Naito vs DOUKI (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:11:32)
El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld ppv)
Shota Umino vs Tetsuya Naito (njpwworld)
Hiromu Takahashi vs Speedball Mike Bailey FREE SHOW
Taichi vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld)
#njpw#wrassle#yall this is nearly 5000 words please read it and watch njpw i worked so hard. for you to watch njpw. its so extensive#i explain literally everything
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got a new idea of mine I've added to my ever-growing list of tags on this blog! let me introduce the genesis generation au: my own personal post-canon naruto fix-it.
you want economies that don't run on child soldiers? genuine healthy redemption arcs? come get y'all juice!
now this has a few layers to it. the first is that it includes all of the more generous interpretations of characters and gives them chances to grow. both retroactively when considering the motivations and reasoning behind actions taken in canon, and then by taking the boruto series out back and shooting it in the head.
this includes sasuke uchiha, which is a pretty big deal for me, but while the dude is under house arrest with chakra-restraining seals because naruto he is a mcfucking traitor and war criminal just because you like him doesn't mean he should be forgiven to roam free, he is working through a redemption arc. one where he realizes his mistakes and sees a therapist and actually has a healthy relationship with naruto.
does it take him half a decade to get out of those restraining seals? absolutely. but he gets there.
sasuke does not, however, marry sakura. part of said redemption arc was him realizing he was thinking of her "love" for him as a cornerstone in his world that wouldn't change but it's not healthy or fair to use that as part of his stability. homegirl is also very busy being hokage and refuses to have a family if she won't be able to devote time to them.
you see, naruto becoming hokage in canon always pissed me tf off. he swans back in after three years on the road, becomes a war hero, and that suddenly makes him qualified to run the village?
meanwhile sakura has been the actual hokage's apprentice. she has learned how the job works. she knows konoha's people. she is naturally inclined towards all of the fiddly bits of ruling like infrastructure and organization and balancing funding.
ruling a village takes more than being good at fighting. naruto, after spending some time in village as a more mature person, both realizes that and also the fact that now that people respect him he doesn't even really want to be hokage anymore. the whole point was for him to be recognized and given positive attention. but he has that now, and it would be really unfair for him to try to aim for the position for such a self-centered reason.
instead, naruto becomes a diplomat. he gets to travel and build alliances, visit his friends, use talk no jutsu for trade deals. he has a team to help with hammering out the details of said trade deals, but he does apply himself to every aspect of the work as best he can and it's genuinely fulfilling.
naruto also takes on some sealing apprentices. the first one becomes renowned for inventing industrial and general non-militant seals, he is very proud of her! his second becomes infamous for being a creative, vindictive, and motivated nara. naruto is proud of him too!
there's also the whole raising the age of graduation for the academy, encouraging use of chakra for more than warfare, and transitioning to trade based economies instead of ones that run on child soldiers stuff. sakura drags konoha kicking and screaming into not normalizing atrocities with naruto at her side to spread the ideals far and wide, and the reforms make her despised amongst the elders too full of generational trauma and self righteousness to realize things can be better and beloved to everyone else.
this is what leads to the genesis generation title. sakura's year full of clan scions have all decided to contribute in their own ways to changing the world, and she encourages their fame to be more than as war heroes. hinata is credited with overhauling the hyuuga clan, they're now held up as an exemplar of how to move forward without losing the non-harmful aspects of traditions. rock lee has dedicated himself to fighting the discrimination against civilian born and disabled kids. on and on it goes.
eventually the title gets spread to beyond konoha, because the sand siblings deserve to be known as revolutionaries too for their contributions to a thriving suna. gaara, temari, and kankuro aren't considered "honorary" members of the genesis generation the way they kinda were with the konoha twelve: they are fully respected in their own rights. sakura makes damn sure of that.
the rest of the world was never fleshed out enough for me to pinpoint who else would be considered a face of the genesis generation, but with konoha as an example of how to thrive off of more than violence the model is being adopted by all of the young adults who want more for this world than how they were raised.
my hate for canonical konoha is a vicious thing of teeth and fiery fury, but that doesn't mean the village can't change for the better. this is how I can imagine the naruto world becoming someplace worth respecting.
#genesis generation au#naruto#sakura haruno#naruto uzumaki#sasuke uchiha#hinata hyuga#rock lee#sand siblings#shinobipinions
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taichi & sanada + public displays of affection in road to & sakura genesis 2023
#sanada#taichi#njpw gifs#njpwedit#njpw#taichi ishikari#seiya sanada#*gifs#cw: flashing#( some of my favorite moments )#( what if we touched tips and each other's butts )#( well mainly sana-yan doing the butt pats )#( taichi prefers head pats )#( taichi breaking out into tears when sanada says he's happy to be with j5g )#( weh... )
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top watches for september
from this month:
will ospreay vs naomichi marufuji, noah naomichi marufuji debut 25th anniversary show 09/17 — not only my favorite match of the month but my most anticipated one as well! i think it's always interesting to see ospreay be taken out of his usual pace and perform with more breathing room between spots (even if his snappier sequences are what drew me in initially). there are a lot of quiet moments in this match, mixed with that devoted eagerness that ospreay had while he was a junior. it's also a match that is able to tap into something very special thanks to the emotional padding behind it that i think ospreay's other big match from this month (vs yota tsuji) is unable to match
syuri vs mayu iwatani, stardom 5star grand prix day 14 09/03 — syuri is my favorite joshi to watch currently! she wrestles such a loud, hard-hitting style that still feels fresh in the technical scene and she has great in-ring chemistry with mayu here. mayu's reversal of the syu-sekai though... gah! a relatively short match and one of my favorites from the entire gp
bryan danielson vs ricky starks, no disqualification strap match, aew all out 09/03 — the singular non-puro match on this list, which should already give you an idea of how truly great it is. ricky has been a highlight on collision pretty much since it began airing, and the natural charisma that shined through there is ever-present in his recent matches. bloody, brutal, and better than the follow-up texas death rematch in terms of cohesion
zack sabre jr. vs ryohei oiwa, njpw road to destruction 09/08 — i was ecstatic to have boltin oleg in a high-profile match! ...and then it didn't happen. but worry not! oiwa stole the show. it definitely didn't feel as one-sided as it would've if it was oiwa pre-excursion pitted against zack. excited to see more from him
takayuki ueki vs baliyan akki, baka gaijin + friends vol. 8 09/20 — the mad doctor takes on akki, returning superstar of the show, after mecha mummy fails to drill a hole through harashima and is subsequently defeated. it's as silly as it sounds
back catalogue:
shinsuke nakamura vs the great muta, noah the new year 2023 — positively overwhelming presentation in terms of the entrances. misting as a metaphor for relatedness rather than corruption. unstoppable force meets immovable object, up until the object embraces the force. a sentimental finish that stuck with me
katsuyori shibata vs kazuchika okada, njpw sakura genesis 2017 — a holistically tactile bout full of sweaty contact and undying resolve. okada finds himself in the rare predicament of not being the fan favorite! practically impossible to look away during this one
pheromones (danshoku dieno & yuki iino) & shunma katsumata vs akito, kazuki hirata & yuya koroku, ddt sweet dreams! 2023 tour in shinjuku ~ fire! ~ — a typical pheromones match in that it contains loads of their trademark spots (synchronized striptease routines, dramatic jockstrap reveals, "accidental" ass to mouth action) however! this time shunma is there to act as their pup (which he is very much into). a must-watch for fans of public kink in wrestling
atsushi onita vs hayabusa, no ropes barbed wire current mine explosion time bomb deathmatch, fmw 6th anniversary show 1995 — hayabusa comes off as a trapped animal within onita’s environment, only delaying the inevitable with each move. feels and looks like a horror movie, with the counter droning on in the first half and the smoke wafting through the cage of barbed wire in the second. explosions galore!
shotaro ashino vs koji doi, wrestle-1 grand prix 2018 finals — this was my first exposure to ashino and let me tell you... he's so good. his entrance is fuel by metallica, he's cocky, he goes hard in the ring. i'm genuinely shocked he's not a bigger name internationally. nothing too extravagant aside from a few high-impact spots but worth a watch
#at first i wanted to make this into a substack series but it doesn't really warrant that. i tried to keep my thoughts short#monthly match recs
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I made a list of all the properties/things I'd want to cosplay from... it's a long list and not in any order. This is just a list of all the media and not who I'd cosplay. Might make a list of that later. Or if you really want to know a certain one go ahead and ask away.
ANIME:
Saint Seiya
One Piece
Inuyasha
Yu Yu Hakusho
Black Butler
Bungo Stray Dogs
Higurashi When They Cry
Trinity Blood
Witch Hunter Robin
Gunslinger Girls
Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective
Oh My Goddess
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Death Note
Beserk
Chainsaw Man
Monochrome Factor
Dark Gathering
Jojo Bizarre Adventure
Chimimo
Banana Fish
Zombieland Saga
Mob Psycho
Naruto
The Promised Neverland
Magi
Soul Eater
Osomatsu-San
Trigun
Assassination Classroom
Sailor Moon
Yugi-Oh
Digimon
Another
Cardcaptor Sakura
VIDEO GAMES:
Hades
Alice Maddness Returns
Dark Souls/Bloodbourne/Elden Ring
Mega Man
Sonic
Stardew Valley
Minecraft (MCYT)
Guilty Gear
Tekken
Mortal Kombat
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2
Metro Last Light
Hollow Knight
Skyrim
Monster Prom
Dragon Age
Rusty Lake series
Bad Dream series
Silent Hill
Resident Evil
Left 4 Dead series
When They Cry series
Littlewood
Sun Haven
Story of Season/Harvest Moon
Animal Crossing
Mario series
Sally Face
Saints Row
Corpse Party
Gregory Horror Show
Bully
No Straight Roads
Don't Starve
FNAF
CARTOON MOVIES/SHOWS:
Coraline
Xiaolin Showdown
South Park
Metalocalypse
SuperJail
Hell and Back
Fairly Oddparents
Danny Phantom
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi
My Life as a Teenage Robot
He-man
Ben 10
Generator Rex
Thunder Cats
Amazing World of Gumball
Star VS the Forces of Evil
Over the Garden Wall
Powerpuff Girls
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
Voltron
She-Ra
PODCASTS:
The Magnus Archives
Welcome to Nightvale
Malevolent
COMICS/MANGA:
X-Men
Batman
Flash
Scarlet Veronica
Jhonen Vasquez series (Invader Zim, JTHM, Squee, ect.)
Lenore the Dead Girl
Plastic Man
Deadpool
Moonknight
Sandman
Junji Ito Stories
Legal Drug/Drug & Drop
#cosplay idea#cosplay media list#I want to cosplay from so much#cosplay#future endeavors#too much to do#too little time#cosplay list
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Highlights of Shingo Takagi vs Aaron Henare NJPW Road To Sakura Genesis 2023
#Highlights#wrestling highlights#new japan pro wrestling#NJPW#njpw highlights#Shingo Takagi#aaron henare#Wrestling#puroresu#Sakura Genesis
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njpw only airing two of the road to sakura genesis shows..don’t they know i’m v emotionally fragile rn and i need to see zack or i’ll die
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Cody Rhodes, Phil Brooks, Sami Zayn, Grant, WWE & AEW Videos, Ryan Nemeth, Road to Sakura Genesis - Thursday's Latest News
http://dlvr.it/T52fKW
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MERCEDES MONÉ
NJPW Road to Sakura Genesis (April 8th, 2023)
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Also, does NJPW talent wrestle during day hours or night hours? Does every show have a name attached to it?
Locally speaking, sometimes the shows start in the late afternoon and other times they start in the early evening. For example, the March 30 show starts at 3 p.m. local time, but the March 31 show starts at 6 p.m. local time.
As for the show names, every show within a given sprint/tour falls under the same overarching umbrella (a tournament or the next marquee show, as stated in my previous answer). For example, all the shows from March 30 to April 4 are just presented as "Road to Sakura Genesis 2024."
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New Japan Cup semifinals preview
SANADA vs. Hirooki Goto - This is one of two semifinal matches in the New Japan Cup tournament. There is no time limit; there must be a winner. Whoever prevails will advance to the final on March 20; whoever wins that match earns an IWGP world title shot on April 6. Sanada won last year's Cup and is seeking his second in a row. Nobody has done that since Goto, who won the Cup in 2009, 2010, and 2012.
Both men received byes in the first round for their past Cup victories. Sanada went on to defeat YOSHI-HASHI and Jack Perry to get here. Goto, however, beat Chase Owens in the second round and then got another bye when David Finlay had to withdraw from the quarterfinals. (I'm still not sure what happened except he was hospitalized.)
I was really thinking Perry would upset Sanada to get here, so this matchup threw me a little. I'm still not expecting Sanada to win the tournament. But it's tough to believe Goto is going to be the one to take him out, or that Goto is going to headline the March 20 show. I'm very certain Goto won't go all the way, since his direction is clearly to chase the heavyweight tag title. So yeah, I think Sanada will win.
EVIL vs. Yota Tsuji - This is the other New Japan Cup semifinal; again, no time limit. The winner will face Sanada or Goto on March 20. Evil's NEVER title is not at stake during the tournament, but if Tsuji wins he'd likely get a title shot down the road.
Evil won the New Japan Cup in 2020, so like Sanada and Goto he received a first-round bye. With a shitload of help from House of Torture he got past Hikuleo and Shingo Takagi to get here. Tsuji is the only one left in the bracket who has wrestled in every round, defeating Jeff Cobb, El Phantasmo, and Ren Narita. He's also the only one left in the tournamnet under the age of 35, so I'm kinda pulling for him.
Tsuji already dealt with all of House of Torture's bullshit in the quarterfinals and came out alive. If he could do it again and set up a chance to win the NEVER title, that would be great, but it seems too good to be true. The strongest tournament final available here is Sanada vs. Tsuji, but I'm not sure either of them make sense challenging for the world title in April. So I think an Evil win is possible, but I'll cautiously pick Tsuji to advance.
Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Jeff Cobb & TJP & Francesco Akira - Naito, the IWGP world champion, is basically waiting to find out who his next challenger will be. Cobb and TJP were eliminated in the first round of the tournament. The others are all waiting for the Best of the Super Jr. in May/June. Bushi or Akira should probably lose the fall here.
Jack Perry & Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Shota Umino & YOH & El Phantasmo & Hikuleo - Perry, Yujiro, Narita, Shota, ELP, and Hiku are all out of the tournament. I think Yoh and Kanemaru have been fighting over the IWGP junior heavyweight title belt even though SHO (who is pretending to be too injured to compete) is the actual champion. They've already got a match set up for the 20th.
Shota has been trying for the whole tour to score a pinfall on Jack to justify another one-on-one matchup. I guess he could get that pin tonight to set up the match on the 20th. But they could just as easily not let Shota pin Perry until the 20th, to set up the match for Sakura Genesis on April 6. It's also possible the House of Torture team could pin Phantasmo or Hiku to set up a STRONG tag title match someday. So I think this could go either way.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & YOSHI-HASHI & Toru Yano vs. KENTA & Chase Owens & Gabe Kidd - Everybody in this match was eliminated from the New Japan Cup except 52-year-old Tenzan, who wasn't in the bracket. Yoshi, Kenta, and Owens are basically in a holding pattern until the tournament ends, so they can do a tag title match with Hirooki Goto. I guess Tenzan or maybe Yano has to lose here.
Great-O-Khan & Callum Newman vs. Tanga Loa & Rysuke Taguchi - Loa knocked Khan out of the tournament, so that's an issue, but everybody in this match didn't do so great this year. Well, except Taguchi, who wasn't in the tournament. I'd say that makes it obvious he has to lose, except Newman is pretty much a designated jobber in most of United Empire's tag matches.
Taichi & Yuya Uemura & DOUKI vs. Tomohiro Ishii & El Desperado & Togi Makabe - Taichi, Uemura, and Ishii all got eliminated in the first round of the tournament. Despy's a junior heavyweight and Makabe is part-time at this point. I'm not sure why Desperado is in this match when he's usually been programmed alongside Yoh and Shtoa Umino against House of Torture. It's possible they want to establish one (or both) of these trios ahead of the NEVER trios title tournament on April 14. But I wouldn't read too much into it. I feel like Douki should be past the point of doing the job in tag matches, but I'm not sure New Japan agrees, so let's assume he's taking the pin.
Zack Sabre Jr. & Mikey Nicholls vs. Boltin Oleg & Shoma Kato - Everybody except Kato, one of the Young Lions, was in this year's tournament. Of course, Oleg is also a Young Lion, so when you've got two established guys versus two developmental guys, that's a squash match. Sabre and Nicholls have to win.
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NJPW Road To Sakura Genesis Night Four Results (4/4): Kazuchika Okada And More
On April 4, New Japan Pro Wrestling continued NJPW Road to Sakura Genesis series with the fourth night of action from Twin Messe Shizuoka in Shizuoka, Japan.
Kazuchika Okada and other stars competed at the show.
The results, courtesy of Fightful, are as follows:
CHAOS (Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii) def. Yuto Nakashima & Oskar Leube
Strong Style (Minoru Suzuki, Ren Narita & El Desperado) & Hiroyoshi…
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The Anime Speedrun Gauntlet
Here's my (probably incomplete, definitely unfinished) list of anime I plan on watching with my friend. As she's not very well-versed in anime, she wanted to watch a variety.
The list is mainly what can be found (or at least one episode of which) can be found on a free streaming service or is already available to me. For example, most of these anime are available on Tubi, a couple on YouTube, one I can borrow from a library, and one that I already had a physical copy of.
The list of 29 anime in chronological order is below the cut!
Lupin the 3rd (1971)
Magical Angel Creamy Mami
Ranma 1/2
Kimagure Orange Road OVA
Yu Yu Hakusho
Sailor Moon
Ghost in the Shell
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Cardcaptor Sakura
Cowboy Bebop
InuYasha
Full Metal Panic!
Naruto
Cromartie High School
Tokyo Godfathers
Ouran High School Host Club
Ergo Proxy
Death Note
Toradora!
Hetalia
Hunter x Hunter
Daily Lives of High School Boys
The Devil is a Part-Timer!
Space Dandy
Sailor Moon Crystal
One-Punch Man
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
Pop Team Epic
Promare
If there's anything else I should add, please let me know! I gotta get this spreadsheet done at some point.
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i’ll tell you something for nothing what a fucking awful looking belt, and absolutely rubbish getting rid of the IWGP and IC titles for this.
two amazing lineage’s for THIS?
what is going on in NJ.
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Last Seen Blogs
myfairkuuorg
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