NJPW presented its Junior Genesis card on Friday, featuring a marathon main event between El Desperado and Clark Connors in a Hardcore Match.
Desperado retained the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship in a contest lasting 37 minutes and 53 seconds in a violent match with a member of the War Dogs.
The match included spots with a barbed-wire chair, Connors being slammed off the turnbuckle through a table on the floor, and Desperado being cut open and whiskey poured on his cuts. After multiple Pinche Locos, Desperado retained his championship.
Afterward, CMLL’s Templario issued a challenge for the next shot at the Jr. Heavyweight Championship.
The co-main event saw a terrific tag match as Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita of TMDK retained the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight tag titles against Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X of the War Dogs.
Eagles and X were the standouts, with X executing several incredible sequences. Fujita had X placed in the Kami Special, but as Eagles attempted the Ron Miller Special on Ishimori, he was knocked into his partner to break the submission.
X landed a Poisonrana and the Execution on Eagles for a big near-fall. It was followed by a Magic Killer and the X Express (Spiral Tap) by the challengers for another near-fall on Eagles.
Eagles fought back and, with Ishimori subdued, landed the Trigger on X for the pin after 17 minutes and 41 seconds to retain the belts.
The TMDK members were challenged by YOH & Master Wato during their post-match speech.
NJPW returns on Saturday with its Sakura Genesis card from Sumo Hall, headlined by IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Hirooki Goto defending his title against New Japan Cup winner David Finlay.
JUNIOR GENESIS RESULTS:
*IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship – Hardcore Match: El Desperado © over Clark Connors
*IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles: Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita © over Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X
*Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Master Wato & YOH over David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney & Gedo
*Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji over EVIL & Dick Togo
*Jeff Cobb, Callum Newman & Jakob Austin Young over Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI
*Hiroshi Tanahashi over Ryusuke Taguchi
*MAO & Yuya Koroku over Ninja Mack & Katsuya Murashima
