On April 6th, New Japan Pro-Wrestling will head to the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo as they present it’s Sakura Genesis 2024 event. The main event of Sakura Genesis 2024 will see the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito defending his title against the New Japan Cup 2024 winner Yota Tsuji. This will be Naito’s second defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Title since winning it from SANADA at Wrestle Kingdom 18 of January 4th.
A press conference was held today as Naito and Tsuji came to face to face one last time before their huge title match on April 6th. Naito had praise for his challenger saying that Tsuji was “one, two, three steps ahead of his generation”. With his New Japan Cup 2024 win, Tsuji was called “clearly the best of everyone in NJPW except for myself” by Naito. It was also stated by Naito that it wasn’t too soon for Tsuji to win his first major title and hoped he was pushed to his limit by the challenger. Tsuji responded by saying he will push Naito to the limit and will win.
Yota Tsuji is highly considered to be the next superstar for NJPW. He has the opportunity to fill the void that was left by Kazuchika Okada when he departed for AEW. This will be the second attempt by Tsuji to become the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. He unsuccessfully challenged then champion SANADA back on June 4, 2023 at NJPW DOMINION.
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