NJPW: Zack Sabre Jr. Wins MVP Award for Tokyo Sports Awards 2024, Templario to Replace HENARE for Strong Style Evolved 2024 Event, HENARE Knee Injury Update

Dec 10, 2024

Tokyo Sports Names Zack Sabre Jr. as MVP Award Winner for Tokyo Sports Awards 2024

Tokyo Sports recently announced their full list of winners for this year’s Tokyo Sports Wrestling Awards.

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Zack Sabre Jr. was announced to have taken the top award as their MVP of 2024.

This was the first time in Sabre Jr.’s career that he won the MVP award from Tokyo Sports.

NJPW won the most awards at three, followed by All Japan Pro Wrestling at two and Pro Wrestling NOAH, DDT Pro Wrestling, and Marigold at one each.

Full list of Tokyo Sports 2024 Wrestling Awards winners:

MVP: Zack Sabre Jr. (NJPW)
Best Match: Yota Tsuji vs. Hirooki Goto – NJPW New Japan Cup 2024 Finals (NJPW)
Women’s Grand Prize: Sareee (Marigold/freelancer)
Outstanding Performer: Yuma Anzai (AJPW)
Fighting Spirit Award: Kaito Kiyomiya (NOAH)
Technique Award: Shinya Aoki (DDT)
Best Tag Team: The Saito Brothers (Rei & Jun Saito) (AJPW)
Rookie of the Year: Boltin Oleg (NJPW)

Templario Announced as Newest Member of United Empire & Replacing HENARE for NJPW Strong Style Evolved 2024

As noted before, United Empire’s HENARE suffered a knee injury at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s World Tag League 2024 event this past Thursday in Nobeoka, Japan.

TJP provided an update on Monday announcing that CMLL talent Templario is the newest official member of his United Empire stable.

TJP also announced that Templario will be replacing HENARE for HENARE’s scheduled tag team match with Jakob Austin Young against Los Ingobernables De Japon (Hiromu Takahashi & Titan) at NJPW’s Strong Style Evolved 2024 event on December 15th in Long Beach, California.

BREAKING

Per Capitan @MegaTJP, United Empire has a brand new member- in @yosoytemplario!

Templario will replace HENARE in action in Long Beach SUNDAY!#njpw @cmll_oficial pic.twitter.com/XuV2OJJZvn
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) December 10, 2024

Current card for NJPW Strong Style Evolved 2024:

Pre-show: Strong Style Evolved match – Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay
Mina Shirakawa vs. Johnnie Robbie
Lio Rush vs. Hechicero
4-Way match – Clark Connors vs. KUSHIDA vs. Kosei Fujita vs. TJP
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi) vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Jack Perry
NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship – West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) (c)
NJPW Strong Openweight Championship – Ryohei Oiwa vs. Gabe Kidd (c)
NJPW Strong Women’s Championship – Hazuki vs. Mercedes Mone (c)
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi & Titan) vs. United Empire (Templario & Jakob Austin Young)

HENARE Knee Injury Status Update

As noted before, HENARE suffered a knee injury at NJPW’s World Tag League 2024 event this past Thursday and his IWGP Tag Team Championship with Great-O-Khan was officially vacated.

Great-O-Khan provided an injury update for HENARE on Monday on Twitter stating that HENARE had messaged him and told him that he will be undergoing surgery and is currently expected to be out of action for around a year.

“They have decided to relinquish the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
The moment I got injured I realized that this was serious.
A year is a long time. For better or worse, pro wrestling just keeps moving forward, so I don’t care if you feel frustrated or dislike me, but if that’s the case, then you must never forget your anger towards me!!

【報告】

IWGPタッグ王座を返上することにした。

怪我をした瞬間に「これは相当ヤバいレベルだ！」と理解った。こうなることも。

1年は長い。良くも悪くもプロレスはどんどん進んでしまうからヘナレの悔しさ、そして余のことが嫌いで構わんが、ならばその"余への"怒りを絶対に忘れるな！！ https://t.co/bj5mHqohHb pic.twitter.com/Zq0yUeTUau
— グレート-O-カーン (@Great_O_Khan) December 9, 2024