{"id":156146,"date":"2026-03-29T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=156146"},"modified":"2026-03-28T22:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:27:11","slug":"could-will-ospreay-ignite-a-new-feud-at-njpw-sakura-genesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/03\/29\/could-will-ospreay-ignite-a-new-feud-at-njpw-sakura-genesis\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Will Ospreay Ignite a New Feud at NJPW Sakura Genesis?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"s1\">NJPW\u2019s upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.njpw1972.com\/schedule\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sakura Genesis<\/a> event has received a huge boost. The Aerial Assassin himself, Will Ospreay, will be in action on April 4th at the Ry\u014dgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ospreay recently returned to AEW programming following a seven-month medical hiatus for neck surgery. The British star <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/03\/25\/aew-dynamite-results-and-live-updates-3-25-26-swerve-vs-omega-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">returned to action last week<\/a> with a victory over Blake Christian.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He is now set to challenge Jon Moxley at AEW Dynasty on April 12th, reigniting the feud that saw Ospreay written off television in August of last year. Before beating Christian, Ospreay attacked Moxley and the Death Riders at AEW Revolution earlier this month. The attack was launched shortly after Moxley had defeated Konosuke Takeshita to retain his AEW Continental Championship.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AEWDynasty?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#AEWDynasty<\/a><br \/>\n8e\/5p, HBO Max PPV<br \/>\nSunday 4\/12<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonMoxley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@JonMoxley<\/a> vs <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WillOspreay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@WillOspreay<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Moxley took Ospreay out for half a year at Forbidden Door 2025, and since returning at <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AEWRevolution?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#AEWRevolution<\/a>, the Billy Goat has been laser focused on revenge!<\/p>\n<p>See the grudge match of Mox vs Ospreay, SUNDAY 4\/12! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/X3pqAKqJ9R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/X3pqAKqJ9R<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AEW\/status\/2037250737030480365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But before Ospreay can seek further retribution against Moxley and his Death Riders, a trip to Tokyo beckons. The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion was in attendance at Wrestle Kingdom 20 in January, paying tribute to the retiring Hiroshi Tanahashi. But it wasn\u2019t to be a fleeting visit for Ospreay.<\/p>\n<p>The following day at New Year\u2019s Dash, he confronted Callum Newman, the succeeding leader of United Empire. Ospreay vowed to return to NJPW to help Newman lead the group once more. But despite Ospreay\u2019s best intentions, the confrontation was laced with tension.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, those tensions between the leaders have grown &#8211; especially in light of Newman\u2019s comments following his New Japan Cup triumph earlier this month. Newman stated in a post-Cup press conference that United Empire belonged to him now, suggesting that Ospreay might be phased out of the group upon return.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Ospreay Set for United Empire Reunion at Sakura Genesis<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Regardless of his authority in the group, Ospreay remains a member of United Empire &#8211; at least for now. And that is reflected in the nature of his first solely NJPW match in over two years. The Aerial Assassin will team up fellow United Empire members HENARE and Great-O-Khan to take on Yuya Uemura, Taichi, and El Desperado in six-man tag action. But it remains to be seen whether this is a genuine reunion or the basis for betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>As for Newman, he will be looking to take home NJPW\u2019s biggest prize in the main event. His New Japan Cup victory earned him a shot at IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji. And depending on the outcome of Newman and Ospreay\u2019s matches, Sakura Genesis could be the catalyst for an intriguing feud between the United Empire leaders.<span class=\"s2\" style=\"font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NJPW\u2019s upcoming Sakura Genesis event has received a huge boost. The Aerial Assassin himself, Will Ospreay, will be in action on April 4th at the Ry\u014dgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Ospreay recently returned to AEW programming following a seven-month medical hiatus for neck surgery. The British star returned to action last week with a victory over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5450,"featured_media":156172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4677,14,2192],"tags":[704,101],"class_list":["post-156146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew","category-njpw","category-wrestling","tag-sakura-genesis","tag-will-ospreay"],"modified_by":"Laci Schlatz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5450"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156146"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156175,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156146\/revisions\/156175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}