Sakura Genesis 2018: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson, the Young Bucks, defeated Bullet Club's Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi in 9:23 to open Sakura Genesis 2018 at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. WrestleFile scored the non-title tag C+ / 6.5, a supporting mark on a nine-match April 1 show. The two Jackson brothers were teammates on the winning side; Owens and Takahashi were on the other side. Later Bullet Club members Cody and Hangman Page beat Omega and Ibushi in a separate marquee tag result, but that different pairing does not change the opener's participants. Neither tag result should be mistaken for Okada's heavyweight championship defense or Ospreay's junior singles title retention.

CHAOS teammates Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano defeated Suzuki-gun's Taichi and Takashi Iizuka in 7:42 in Sakura Genesis 2018's second match. WrestleFile graded this short two-on-two C / 6.3, below the major junior and heavyweight singles defenses of the late card. The winning CHAOS side was Ishii and Yano, not the separate CHAOS trio of Jay White, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI that later lost to Tanahashi, Finlay and Juice Robinson. This match was not for a documented IWGP or NEVER title. Identifying the distinct faction teams preserves the accurate April 2018 results without inventing a finishing hold or championship transfer.

Bullet Club's Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Bad Luck Fale defeated Michael Elgin, Ryusuke Taguchi and Togi Makabe in 11:20 to RETAIN the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship at Sakura Genesis 2018. The winning three entered as defending champions. WrestleFile graded the third match C+ / 6.9, while later championship defenses by Ospreay and Okada received stronger B+ grades. This retention concerned NEVER's six-man belts, NOT Suzuki-gun's distinct IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship contested in a three-way later on the same card. Each trio and the retained title type are necessary to keep the multi-division championship record accurate.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, David Finlay and Juice Robinson of Taguchi Japan defeated CHAOS's Jay White, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI in 9:18 at Sakura Genesis on April 1, 2018. WrestleFile scored this faction six-man C+ / 6.5. Tanahashi had two teammates, Finlay and Robinson, not Tomohiro Ishii; the losing CHAOS trio was White, Goto and YOSHI-HASHI. A different CHAOS tag pair of Ishii and Toru Yano had won the second match. The contest had no listed championship stake, while both Okada and Ospreay later successfully defended their separate IWGP singles titles. Recording exactly which CHAOS participants won and lost is useful for wrestler-linked archives.

Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. of Suzuki-gun defeated Los Ingobernables de Japón's Tetsuya Naito, EVIL and SANADA in 11:27 in the fifth Sakura Genesis 2018 contest. The three-on-three result drew WrestleFile's C+ / 6.5. The winners were Suzuki, Archer and Smith; the LIJ trio was on the losing side. Suzuki-gun would also appear in the following match when El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru retained the junior heavyweight tag belts against two challenger teams, but that was a different Suzuki-gun lineup with formal title stakes. Neither event should be described as a victory for all LIJ teams, and no additional championship transfer is documented through this six-man pairing.

El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated BOTH challengers, Los Ingobernables de Japón's BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi and Roppongi 3K's SHO and YOH, in 12:45 to RETAIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Sakura Genesis 2018's sixth bout was a three-team contest, not an ordinary two-team defense. WrestleFile gave it B- / 7.1. The incumbent Suzuki-gun duo survived two junior pairings and left as champions. Ospreay's separate IWGP Junior Heavyweight SINGLES retention against Marty Scurll occurred in the next match, while Bullet Club's NEVER six-man champions had also retained earlier. Keeping those distinct holders and correct participant groups prevents accidental multi-belt result swaps.

Will Ospreay defeated Marty Scurll in 30:44 to RETAIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Sakura Genesis 2018. WrestleFile rated their singles match B+ / 8.0, one of the strongest saved critical grades on April 1 alongside Okada's heavyweight main event. Ospreay was already the junior singles champion when he faced Scurll; the result did not crown a new champion. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru had just retained the separate IWGP Junior Heavyweight TAG titles in a three-way over LIJ and Roppongi 3K teams. The long Ospreay-Scurll singles defense is therefore both a priority replay and a distinct title lineage from the preceding tag bout.

Cody and Hangman Page defeated the Golden Lovers, Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi, in 23:52 in the penultimate Sakura Genesis 2018 matchup. The Bullet Club duo of Cody-Page was the winning team; Omega and Ibushi were the losing pair. WrestleFile graded this high-profile non-title tag B- / 7.4, below the two B+ singles title defenses by Ospreay and Okada but stronger than several opening faction contests. Omega and Ibushi's partnership is historically identifiable as Golden Lovers here, not the losing individual challengers in Omega's later October title three-way. No IWGP Heavyweight belt changed hands in this tag result; Okada was the reigning champion and later defended against Sabre.

Kazuchika Okada defeated Zack Sabre Jr. in 34:58 to RETAIN the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the Sakura Genesis 2018 main event at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. WrestleFile's B+ / 8.4 is the top individual bout mark on the nine-match card. Okada entered the ring as champion and left as champion; no April 1 title switch should be attached to the result. Will Ospreay had also defended the separate junior heavyweight singles title successfully against Marty Scurll, while Suzuki-gun's junior tag champions and Bullet Club's NEVER six-man holders survived their defenses. Cody and Hangman Page had defeated Golden Lovers in a distinct non-title tag immediately before this headliner. The title landscape remained with the listed incumbents.