YOH suffers shoulder injury in NJPW Sakura Genesis title match

YOH suffered an apparent shoulder injury in an IWGP Junior Heavyweight title match at Saturday’s NJPW Sakura Genesis event.

While challenging his former Roppongi 3K tag partner SHO for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, YOH appeared to suffer a separated shoulder just 96 seconds into the contest. 

The referee was forced to call a stop to the match, and medical personnel attended to YOH in the ring. SHO was declared the winner and retained his title.

In what looked to be a hastily-called audible, DOUKI and Kosei Fujita came to the ring to shoot an angle with SHO, with Fujita attacking the champion while DOUKI left with SHO’s title belt. 

Earlier in the evening, NJPW announced the field for the Best of the Super Juniors 31 tournament, including SHO, YOH, DOUKI, and Fujita. With the injury, a replacement may be announced for YOH. The tournament kicks off on May 11, with this year’s finals taking place at Dominion on June 9. 

Our full report from Sakura Genesis is here.