NJPW Sakura Genesis 2025 Results

New Japan Pro-Wrestling presented the 2025 edition of Sakura Genesis from Ryogoku Sumo Hall on Saturday, April 5.

The main event of the show saw Hirooki Goto defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against New Japan Cup winner David Finlay. While Goto's children ended up in tears during their last singles match at King of Pro-Wrestling 2024, that wasn't the case at Sakura Genesis as Goto emerged victorious. The Chaos leader picked up the win after countering an Oblivion attempt into the Shouten Kai before he followed up with three GTRs dedicated to his children and the Goto Revolution for the pinfall victory.

Goto's next challenger was set up after the match as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion invited Shota Umino to the ring. Having defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi earlier in the evening, Umino walked out to a chorus of boos. Umino turned around upon hearing the boos but he ultimately entered the ring upon Goto's request and Hirooki Goto vs. Shota Umino for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title at Windy City Riot on April 11 was set.

While Goto was able to retain, there were two title changes at Sakura Genesis. Rumours have suggested WWE are interested in signing Jeff Cobb but he won gold at Sakura Genesis as Cobb and Callum Newman defeated Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi to win the IWGP Tag Team Championships. The United Empire team picked up the win following an Oscutter from Newman to Naito before a Vertical Suplex from Cobb for the win. Great-O-Khan also captured the NJPW World Television Championship from El Phantasmo, winning the belt via count-out after Phantasmo was unable to recover from being thrown through a pile of chairs at ringside.

SANADA also switched factions for the third time in two years as he defected from Bullet Club War Dogs to House of Torture during the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Title match pitting Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney, and Taiji Ishimori against Ren Narita, SHO, and Yujiro Takahashi. The match featured the typical House of Torture interference and SANADA entered the fray late. He teased hitting Ren Narita with a guitar, only to smash Drilla Moloney over the head with the weapon instead. This allowed House of Torture to retain as Narita hastily made the cover for the win.

This occurred after SANADA was defeated by Yuya Uemura in the opening contest and Uemura's win paid dividends as he was set up as a future challenger for Yota Tsuji's IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship.

Tsuji defended the belt against EVIL in the semi-main event of Sakura Genesis and he initially fooled House of Torture as EVIL began wrestling Yota's twin brother, Shota Tsuji, before the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion realised what had happened. EVIL still managed to dominate much of the match due to House of Torture interference, but Shingo Takagi eventually arrived to level the playing field. After Yoshinobu Kanemaru sprayed whiskey into EVIL's face by mistake, a Geneblaster from Tsuji was enough to secure the pinfall win. Post-match, Tsuji called out Yuya Uemura and they agreed to a future match.

All Elite Wrestling's Konosuke Takeshita was also in action at Sakura Genesis and he remained NEVER Openweight Champion with a win over TMDK's Ryohei Oiwa. The two talents impressed in their match and the New Japan crowd believed there could be a title change after Oiwa kicked out of a Brainbuster at one. It was not to be, though, and Takeshita secured the win with the Raging Fire soon after.

Full results from NJPW Sakura Genesis 2025:

• Yuya Uemura def. SANADA
• Great-O-Khan def. El Phantasmo (c) - NJPW World TV Championship
• Shota Umino def. Hiroshi Tanahashi
• House of Torture (Ren Narita, SHO, & Yujiro Takahashi) (c) def. Bullet Club War Dogs (Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney, & Taiji Ishimori) - NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships
• Konosuke Takeshita (c) def. Ryohei Oiwa - NEVER Openweight Championship
• United Empire (Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi) (c) - IWGP Tag Team Championships
• Yota Tsuji (c) def. EVIL - IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
• Hirooki Goto (c) def. David Finlay - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

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