Zack Sabre Jr. Wants To Lead NJPW Into A Bigger Future

January 25, 2025

IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. is determined to lead New Japan Pro-Wrestling into a brighter future.

In 2024, Sabre Jr. won the NJPW G1 Climax 34. He then defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. He kicked off 2025 by retaining the title against Shota Umino in the main event of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19. Sabre Jr. also defeated Ricochet at NJPW x AEW Wrestle Dynasty.

In an interview with NJPW’s website, Zack Sabre Jr. was asked to comment on his New Year’s Resolution for 2025.

“I wouldn’t be here without Japanese wrestling fans,” Sabre Jr. said. “Being in this position, I know how important it is to have been in the Tokyo Dome main event, and so my resolution is to lead New Japan into the future, and into a bigger future.

Zack Sabre Jr. On His Journey And His Future

During the interview, Sabre Jr. was also asked whether he felt the journey up to this point was too long. He stated that he had moved upwards with each year. Sabre Jr. looked forward to having a whole year as the top guy.

“I felt like I moved slightly upwards with each year. I’d always wrestled as a junior heavyweight, but I was in the G1 my first year, won the New Japan Cup in 2018, 2019 with the British Heavyweight title, 2020, tag titles with Taichi. Won best tag team three times, then 2022 New Japan Cup again, 2023 TV title and 2024 was 2024. So I’d always been just about in the main event ranks, but this has been the biggest opportunity of my career to show the world that I am the top guy, and I’m eager to spend a full year with the fans seeing that Zack Sabre Jr. is the top guy in NJPW.”

“I’ve wrestled in every Tokyo Dome card since I came to New Japan, but always lower down the card,” he continued. “This was the first time having a special entrance, stuff like that, but as I was waiting to go out I really did feel like, yeah I’ve been wanting this my whole career. So if anything the pressure now is that I know how incredible that feeling is and I don’t want that to be the only time. I want to be next year’s main event, or after that, and how many more Tokyo Dome main events do I have?”