A few weeks ago — St. Patrick’s Day, if you celebrate — SANADA beat Tetsuya Naito in the 2023 New Japan Cup then left Naito’s Los Ingobernables de Japon faction to lead a new one with former members of Suzuki-gun: Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI. It was a shocking betrayal that got sort of funny when they named their group Just Five Guys. Within a week, SANADA got a glow-up then beat Mark Davis and David Finlay to win the whole Cup. Time flies when there’s a new top guy to make.
Tonight in Tokyo he was wrestling Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, a reward for winning the Cup but also an example of the complexities that arise when investigating what’s different between a top guy and just some guy. How so? Read on…
0. Ultimate Triad Match – KOPW 2023: Shingo Takagi [c] vs. Aaron Henare (4/2/23)
But first! A week ago. The second night of the 5-night Road to Sakura Genesis tour could have been just as unremarkable as the others, but it had three things going for it: Korakuen Hall, Oleg Botlin’s pro debut, and this massive bundle of pro wrestling greatness. It was for the King of Pro Wrestling trophy, which began as an unserious prop for Toru Yano to do comedy during COVID only for Shingo to win it and decide to have a shadow IWGP Title reign with the most epic title matches you’ve ever seen. Each KOPW match has a stipulation voted on by fans and tonight’s was the Ultimate Triad, where you have to beat your opponent three times. Beating your opponent even once in New Japan is pretty hard, so they went almost 40 minutes and for once I’m not going to complain about the runtime dragging because as these crazy bastards made everything count as they went from trying to win to beating the life out of each other.
Henare got the first fall from a grounded full nelson, then Shingo countered both a spear and step-up knee before he put Henare in a facelock and elbowed him into the second fall. Then they wrestled another 20 goddamn minutes. Shingo countered the Streets of Rage fisherman’s buster with a backslide to go up 2-1, then Henare quickly hit Streets of Rage to tie it up 2-2. Shingo finally hit a Last of the Dragon at about 35 minutes, but Henare kicked out and stood up. Shingo followed with three lariats, but Henare got up and absorbed a barrage of elbows before punching Shingo in the motherf’ing stomach. So Shingo punched back! They exchanged kicks; Henare hit a PK and Shingo hit a lariat then a headbutt and a lariat and WOOOOOO! Wrestling is just crazy man. Both went down; Shingo got up before the 10-count; Henare didn’t.
None of the falls or no-sells felt contrived, and as the battle continued they were so good at emoting both exhaustion over the fight and commitment to a win. And I’m not making that up. They did that. Through a combination of brawling, chairs, elbows, tackles, knees, headbutts, backslides and more — they did that. ****1/2
1. Grand Prix Winning Commemoration Special Six Man Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, El Desperado & YOH vs. Minoru Suzuki, Toru Yano & Great-O-Khan
The Sakura Genesis opener had a lot going for it, too: the way the teams were a mystery until theme songs hit, the passive-aggressive chemistry of Suzuki and Desperado, how everybody’s good time doing something a little different translated off the screen. Yano didn’t want to wrestle Tanahashi but O-Khan insisted, then Yano rolled Tanahashi up! The laughs! I had fun. ***1/4
2. Jeff Cobb, Aaron Henare & Francesco Akira vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO
New Japan has United Empire as the good guys but they’re still kind of pricks, while House of Torture are the bad guys and act like it but nobody really cares about them. All that was left then was the wrestling moves then, which took some time but did get pretty neat towards the end. Aaron Henare feels like a bigger deal post-Ultimate Triad match too. **3/4
3. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI
Naito spat on DOUKI early then delivered a whole great wrestling sequence with him, which gave the match a nice bow to wrap around the gift that is any coupling of Shingo/Taichi and BUSHI/Kanemaru. This had a double great gear sighting too, with a long purple tongue and flashing green eye on BUSHI’s entrance mask plus Kanemaru’s new all-silver boots. ***1/4
4. Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Master Wato vs. David Finlay, KENTA & El Phantasmo
Here was some wrestling from six guys either in search of a purpose or recently given one that everyone’s still figuring out. David was trying, ELP gave away swag, and KENTA wore a t-shirt that said “DAMN IT, FATTY!” Hikuleo takes a really nice bump over-the-top rope now, too. Finlay kicked ELP out of the Bullet Club after the match. **3/4
5. 3-Way Match – IWGP Women’s Title: Mercedes Moné [c] vs. AZM vs. Hazuki
Mercedes Moné’s first title challenge being Stardom High Speed Champion AZM seemed like heaven, except they added Hazuki and made the match a 3-way dance. And yet? Everything worked. Instead of feeling like a third wheel, Hazuki made herself a crucial part of this incredible match. They kept a fast pace bell-to-bell and it was the rare 3-way match that didn’t feel stupid or contrived, as they naturally just kept introducing more cool wrestling. Crazy wrestling. Complex, well-laid out and believably structured wrestling. With dives and MoneyMakers and Codebreakers and Code Reds; with even a few flubs that were entirely overcome by This Experience. ****1/4
6. NJPW World TV Title: Zack Sabre Jr. [c] vs. Shota Umino
Following a match that leaned on the spectacular, this match stayed grounded and folks – good wrestling comes in many forms. It was a rematch from the second round of the New Japan Cup, which was an excellent 25-minutes of grappling and limb work that stayed captivating all the way to Umino’s surprise win. Here the TV Title was on the line so Umino had to get the win in under 15-minutes, which put more urgency on everything as they put on another clinic in limb work and cradles and powering out of or keeping on holds and other assorted wrestling concepts. Umino went after the leg and ZSJ chose the arm; Umino’s expressions and ZSJ’s staggering added to the fun and in under 15 minutes they did a great job making another Umino win feel possible. ****
7. IWGP Tag Team Title: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [c] vs. Aussie Open
This was a rematch of last year’s World Tag League Finals, a good match wrestled before a quiet crowd that struggled to find a pulse. It wasn’t until a singles tournament that both Aussie Open guys seemed come to life in New Japan, as Mark Davis exceeded expectations all the way to the semi-finals of the New Japan Cup while Kyle Fletcher didn’t get far but made his case to be a NEVER Title strong boy in a tremendous match with Hirooki Goto. All continued to work well together here, but with a twist in the form of Fletcher bleeding all over himself.
See, because they already had the big Tag League match they dropped the feeling-out process: the first minute included Davis’ fatass tope and Fletcher’s Orihara moonsault, the latter of which landed his face somewhere it wasn’t supposed to and busted him open. It blessed the match with an unexpected story as Fletcher struggled to compete while also looking cool as hell with a bandage around his head and blood dripping down his face.
Bishamon brought the tag team structure and credibility. Even with Fletcher’s injury they felt more prepared, better, faster, stronger. With every big match YOSHI wrestles with more and more hilarious confidence too. When they started to play the hits though, the Aussies weren’t having it — they kicked away signatures and finishers then looked like stone cold killers as they dropped the death knell on Bishamon with double lariats, tossed YOSHI outside and hit double lariats again on Goto, then the Coriolis (double elevated pumphandle half nelson into a Death Valley Driver, says Puroresu System Wiki) to win the titles. Crowd noise helped, but it was mostly the blood. Great match. ****
8. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Hiromu Takahashi [c] vs. Robbie Eagles
I have a soft spot for Robbie Eagles because of a Cameo message he nailed for Captain Lou’s birthday a few years ago, which is just one more reason why you have to be skeptical when someone says they “liked” that “good” wrestling match. Not to discredit Eagles though, who always Shows Up when New Japan asks him to. Just like when he beat El Desperado for the IWGP Jr. Title a few years ago at Wrestle Grand Slam, Robbie stuck to the plan and stayed on message – similar to how he pulled off every ask of the Cameo, actually.
The plan was leg work to setup his Brad Miller Special submission that beat Desperado, while the message was the Brad Miller Special is a threatening weapon and also that, hey, this isn’t your heavyweight grandpa’s leg work! He did a chop block attack from the apron plus a pescado and springboard dropkick directly onto the Hiromu’s ailing leg ligaments. He also nailed a gorgeous somersault tope and had the crowd eating up a “Robbie Robbie Robbie” chant. But mainly he stayed on the leg, at least until Hiromu started dropping time bombs (and a poison rana off the top rope). ****
9. IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. SANADA
Kazuchika Okada has spent 2023 balancing an ascension to God-like status and dealing with all these god damn kids. So he’s still one of the best wrestlers in the world; he’s just been a little tired, that’s all. He started this defense with an almost casual pace, ticking off his signature offense including more stubborn attempts at making the Money Clip work. SANADA kept ducking the Rainmaker but otherwise struggled to get anything going until, after absorbing a boot to the face and running dropkick to the chest, SANADA simply stood up.
The crowd bought in as he continued to play the game where you try to go from some guy to the guy. SANADA’s back-to-back moonsaults had them convinced he was winning, as did a half-dozen other close calls all preceded by exhaustive callbacks to everything these two have ever done to win a match. There was a special mix of pain and vacancy in Okada’s face when he failed twice to hit a tombstone piledriver, the sort of look that can stay with the viewer until the very end. SANADA’s new DDT stayed an active threat too, right up to the end when he ducked one more Rainmaker and hit it to become the 6th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion (79th if you’re still following the IWGP Heavyweight Title lineage — still can’t believe they made a new World Title out of, like, boredom).
So in addition to the new finisher, friends, hair, and tights (those calves!), SANADA has a new championship – THE championship! It was the kind of sudden rebrand wrestling does from time to time, sometimes so well to the point you’re frustrated they don’t do it more often and sometimes so poorly that it reminds you why they don’t. Forcing a moment isn’t recommended but sometimes you do have to do something, and here by golly New Japan did. It was a stark contrast to WWE’s decision days earlier to not have Cody Rhodes beat Roman Reigns for the World Title at WrestleMania, an expected coronation of Cody as WWE’s top guy that might have cemented him as just some guy.
Did beating Okada make SANADA a top guy? Not really, to be honest. As far as making a younger challenger seem like a major deal, the efforts in the Ultimate Triad match from Shingo and Henare were a lot more than Okada and SANADA’s here. This was still pretty great, though instead of being something that “made” SANADA the greatness came from another inspired performance from New Japan’s (probably still) top guy. ****1/4
Happy Thoughts: Hot crowd, effort on the undercard, great title matches, shocker main event result… Sakura Genesis, two thumbs up. 4.0 / 5.0
