Various: New NJPW World TV & IWGP Tag Champions Crowned at NJPW Sakura Genesis 2025, Shayna Baszler vs. Konami and Royce Issacs vs. Tavion Heights Set for GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII, Indies/Misc.

New NJPW World TV Title & IWGP Tag Champions Crowned at NJPW Sakura Genesis 2025

Saturday’s Sakura Genesis 2025 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling at the Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan featured two new champions crowned.

The first championship to change hands was Great-O-Khan defeating El Phantasmo to become the new NJPW World Television Champion. Khan had won by countout which under NJPW rules allows a title to change hands in this type of situation.

A 10 minute match where El Phantasmo went into his 5th #njpw TV title defense performing good sequences but Great-O-Khan connects a TTD through a chair outside of the ring leaving ELP completely KO and getting dethroned by count out #njSG pic.twitter.com/0poRL96AWU

— ERD Wrestling (@ERD_Wrestling) April 5, 2025

The second championship to change hands was United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Callum Newman) defeating Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi) to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions.

カラムが獲った‼️👏👏#njSG#njpw#unitedempire #ジェフ・コブ#カラム・ニューマン pic.twitter.com/E3sqQNULGl

— HIRO わかやま🦁4.5両国国技館参戦☀️ (@HIRO93280008) April 5, 2025

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Shayna Baszler vs. Konami and Royce Issacs vs. Tavion Heights Announced for GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII

Josh Barnett recently announced two new matches for the card of Game Changer Wrestling’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII event, which takes place on April 17th at the Pearl Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The first new match announced was a singles match of Shayna Baszler vs. Konami.

.@k_o_n_a_m_i_ said that her “Dream Match” is to face Shayna Baszler – dreams can come true although @QoSBaszler sees it a little differently…

KONAMI vs “The Queen of Spades” Shayna Baszler at Josh Barnett’s: Bloodsport XIII

Get your tickets NOW in the link in the comment… pic.twitter.com/gBySOmyUZP

— 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗 (@JoshLBarnett) April 4, 2025

The second new match announced was a singles match of Royce Issacs vs. Tavion Heights.

The No Quarter Catch Crew has a message for @RoyceIsaacs and Josh Barnett’s: Bloodsport XIII. pic.twitter.com/r4CbnKEN4e

— 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗 (@JoshLBarnett) April 5, 2025

Current card for GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII:

• Natalya vs. Miyu Yamashita
• Pete Dunne vs. Timothy Thatcher
• Leyla Hirsch vs. Jordan Blade
• Charlie Dempsey vs. Shinya Aoki
• Karmen Petrovic vs. Maika
• Karrion Kross vs. JR Kratos
• Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jonathan Gresham
• Shayna Baszler vs. Konami
• Royce Issacs vs. Tavion Heights

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Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Saturday’s Sakura Genesis 2025 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling at the Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan featured SANADA turning heel on Bullet Club War Dogs and joining House of Torture. Near the end of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, HoT started doing their usual cheating antics leading to War Dogs’ Clark Connors getting involved to try to stop them. This then led to SANADA coming out wearing goofy looking mega man red boots and a guitar in his hand. SANADA got into the ring and went up to SHO preparing to strike him with the guitar only to turn around and laid out Drilla Moloney instead. This led to SHO pinning Moloney to retain the titles for HoT. Following the match, SANADA unbuttoned his shirt revealing a HoT shirt underneath it.

Undisputed’s Justin Barrasso reported that former New Japan Pro Wrestling General Manager Michael Craven recently joined MMA promotion RIZIN Fighting Federation. Barrasso reported that Craven’s “primary objective with RIZIN will be similar to his role and responsibility with New Japan, expanding their international trajectory and diversifying its fan base.”

WrestleCon recently announced that Britt Baker will be making an appearance for the company at their WrestleCon Las Vegas convention on April 18-20 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pandemonium: Pro Wrestling announced that they have recently signed a sponsorship deal with Sony for their upcoming The House Always Win event on April 17th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

KnokX Pro announced that former AEW talent Miro will be making an appearance for the company at their events on April 16-18 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE and UFC parent company TKO Group is currently looking at expanding their sports portfolio with a potential deal with the NFL. This deal reportedly would be TKO working with the NFL to help create a new men’s and women’s flag football league. Meltzer reported that the idea is for the NFL to start professional flag football leagues and then get flag football introduced as an official Olympics sport for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California.

In a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, co-host Matt Hardy revealed that TNA Wrestling is currently working on plans to shoot footage at The Hardy Compound for a future show. Hardy stated “I think we are very very close to having another TNA shoot out here at the Hardy compound. Keep your eyes open and keep your ears open, sooner than later, the magic of the Hardy compound is going to return. As a very famous figure in the Broken Universe said, he said, ‘Welcome to the Hardy Compound where you do not know if it is reality or your imagination.’ Then he did his trademark laugh. I’m just gonna leave it at that.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Fightful’s In The Weeds podcast, Pro Wrestling NOAH talent Anthony Greene gave his thoughts about his brief stint in TNA in December of 2022 and the reason why he did not end up working more in the company. Greene stated “I got that call like a week before the show happened. I went down to Miami to do the tapings. I wrestled [Beast Mortos] and Mike Bailey in the same day. I thought me and [Mortos] went well, but me and Mike Bailey was incredible. We had a seven-minute X Division sprint style match. Everyone was really happy with it. Scott D’Amore was super happy with it. Dreamer, Gail Kim, everyone seemed please. Stayed in contact with them. A month later, I was on a plane to Japan to do a four and a half month tour (with NOAH). I got a text from Tommy Dreamer as I landed saying, ‘Are you available this Friday in Orlando?’ ‘No, I’m not. I’m in Japan until May.’ That’s kind of where the conversation ended at that point. Up until now, I’ve been full time with NOAH until December. I haven’t really had talks with anybody. December, when I got home, the first thing I did was went to the MLW taping in New York to show face and meet Court Bauer and MSL. That’s how this whole thing got rolling. All I needed was the opportunity to be in the United States long enough to have a chance to be in front of a national wrestling company and MLW happened to be the one I chose.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Absolute Intense Wrestling announced one new match for the card of their Gauntlet For The Gold 10 event on April 26th in Akron, Ohio:

• “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Haku