Heading to the L.A. Dojo was something Tsuji was not interested in.
After winning the 2024 New Japan Cup tournament, Yota Tsuji is headed towards challenging Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Sakura Genesis.
It’ll be the second one-on-one match between the Los Ingobernables de Japon members. The first came when Tsuji was a Young Lion in 2021 at Summer Struggle. Ahead of the title match, Tsuji was interviewed by NJPW1972.com. During the chat, he explained why he avoided NJPW’s L.A. Dojo during his excursion.
Tsuji gave an excuse to the company about his U.S. visa. He mentioned that a lot of the guys that came out of the dojo once wrestled the same and they came off as clones of Katsuyori Shibata. He feels if he would have went there, anything that made him an individual would’ve been killed off.
Absolutely, I would do all I could not to go there (NJPW L.A. Dojo). The company got in touch with me about renewing my U.S. visa, but I thought if I had a visa then they would send me to the L.A. Dojo. So I made up an excuse about not understanding the explanation and got out of it that way.
Back in the day, the L.A. Dojo guys took part in the Young Lion Cup, right? And they all wrestled the exact same way. I had no idea what made any of them different. All little clones of (Katsuyori) Shibata. I knew if I went there, anything that made me an individual would be killed off. Then all of those guys went on to join BULLET CLUB, right? I can’t speak about parenting, but I think that’s what happens when a parent is too strict, the kids go off the rails, heheh.
Tsuji was in action at the 3/31 Road to Sakura Genesis show in Hamamatsu, Japan and below are the results from that event:
- Jeff Cobb def. Shoma Kato
- Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA def. Clark Connors & Gedo
- Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, SANADA, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yuya Uemura) def. Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, El Desperado, Oleg Boltin & Tomoaki Honma
- BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori) def. Hirooki Goto & Tiger Mask
- HOUSE OF TORTURE (Ren Narita, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. Shota Umino, Togi Makabe & YOH
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji) def. United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira & TJP)
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) def. HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi)
- NJPW KOPW Championship — Rural Revitalization in Hamamatsu 2-out-of-3 Falls Match: Great-O-Khan (c) def. Tanga Loa (2-1)
