NJPW Sakura Genesis 2018: Results, Grades, and Analysis

NJPW Sakura Genesis 2018 is main evented by Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Sabre blew through his competition in the NJPW New Japan Cup, beating Tetsuya Naito, Kota Ibushi, SANADA, and finally Hiroshi Tanahashi. He defeated every single person by submission. Can he continue this win streak? Okada, on the other hand, will be defending his title for the 11th time, preparing to tie Hiroshi Tanahashi for the most title defenses in a reign. Okada has already beaten Shinya Hashimoto’s longest reign as champion. Now, Okada looks to tie the record of his greatest rival, Hiroshi Tanahashi, the Ace of NJPW.

Bullet Club (Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) (Bullet Club)

The show opens with war within the Bullet Club as The Bucks wrestled their first major heavyweight tag team match here. All four men shook hands at the start of the match, but The Bucks were then attacked by Chase and Takahashi. Chase and Yujiro showed some good teamwork in this one, but The Young Bucks are on another level.

Matt Jackson is wearing the weight belt that Cody bought him, and while Nick entered with it, he is not wearing it during the match. This directly play into the story in the Golden Lovers vs. Young Bucks match from Strong Style Evolved. It also plays into the story on Being the Elite, where Nick seems to be more on Kenny Omega’s side and Matt seems to be more on Cody’s. It isn’t too long before Matt gets the submission with the sharpshooter.

Result: The Young Bucks

Ratings: 2.75 stars out of 5

CHAOS (Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & Iizuka)

This match wasn’t anything special. The best worker in the match is Ishii. I’d even suggest Yano is better than Taichi. There was a lot of attempts at cheating, with Iizuka and Yano trying to out cheat each other. Yano got the win after a low blow and rolling up Iizuka. I expect Yano and Ishii might win some tag team gold before the year is out.

Result: CHAOS

Rating: 1.75 stars out of 5