NJPW Road To SAKURA GENESIS 2026 Tour Kicked Off In Ibaraki, Yota Tsuji and Callum Newman Clash in First Preliminary

By: Lewis Carlan

The New Japan Pro-Wrestling Road To SAKURA GENESIS tour kicked off on Mar. 28th at the Lily Arena MITO in Ibaraki. There was an announced crowd of 795 in attendance for the event.

The IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji and New Japan Cup Winner Callum Newman had their first preliminary match ahead of their championship clash on April 4th at SAKURA GENESIS 2026.

In the main event, Yota Tsuji teamed with his Unbound Co. unit members Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori, Robbie X & Daiki Nagai as they faced the United Empire team of Callum Newman, Jake Lee, Francesco Akira, Jacob Austin Young & Zane Jay.

Tsuji and Newman gave the fans a taste of what to expect on April 4th as they had a spirited exchange during the course of the 10 man tag team bout.

Robbie X had an incredible sequence of offensive moves that seemingly electrified the fans in attendance.

After a very competitive 10 man tag team bout, Tsuji ended the match after hitting a Gene Blaster on Zane Jay which was enough to give his team the victory after nearly fourteen minutes of action.

In the co-featured bout Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson defeated Yuto-Ice, OSKAR & Gedo. Sabre Jr. & Oiwa are set to challenge OSKAR & Yuto-Ice for their IWGP Tag Team Titles on April 4th at SAKURA GENESIS 2026.

Here are the full results for NJPW Road To SAKURA GENESIS 2026 on Mar. 28th courtesy of purolove.com:

• Masatora Yasuda defeated Tatsuya Matsumoto (7:44) with a crab hold.
• KUSHIDA defeated Taisei Nakahara (7:31) with a cross armbreaker.
• Yuya Uemura, Taichi & El Desperado defeated Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi (10:48) after Uemura’s Lions Shiny against Honma.
• Aaron Wolf, Toru Yano, YOH & Master Wato defeated Don Fale, SHO, DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (8:45) after a horizontal cradle by Yano against Kanemaru.
• Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Shota Umino & Oleg Boltin defeated Ren Narita, Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens & Dick Togo (9:54) after an STF by Umino against Togo.
• Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson defeated Yuto-Ice, OSKAR & Gedo (8:57) after a TM clutch from Oiwa against Gedo.
• Main Event: Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori, Robbie X & Daiki Nagai defeated Callum Newman, Jake Lee, Francesco Akira, Jacob Austin Young & Zane Jay (13:58) after Tsuji’s Gene Blaster against Jay.