Breaking Down The Numbers After Sakura Genesis 2023

SANADA’s victory at Sakura Genesis got me thinking about the championship legacy of L.I.J. and its two alumni. I did some digging, and the stats are rather staggering, showcasing L.I.J.’s exclusivity and how much the unit has relied on quality over quantity.

• L.I.J. has now produced 4 World Champions (Naito, EVIL, Takagi, and SANADA), with Naito and Takagi winning theirs as active members and EVIL and SANADA winning theirs almost immediately after defecting. This gives the faction a 57% rate of producing a World Champion.
• Going further into counting the Jr. Heavyweight Championship, this adds Hiromu and Bushi and brings the percentage of producing a top Singles champion to an astounding 86% for the unit. Titan’s current CMLL Welterweight Championship is prior to joining L.I.J., but it highlights the caliber of wrestlers brought into the stable.
• With SANADA’s victory over Okada, L.I.J.’s Founding Five (EVIL, Bushi, SANADA, Hiromu y Naito) have all claimed the top prizes in their respective divisions.
• Naito, Takagi, and SANADA have all beaten Kazuchika Okada to claim their first World Heavyweight Championships in NJPW.
• In perhaps the most convoluted statistic, EVIL is the most accomplished member/alumni with 13 different accomplishments, championships, and tournaments combined. SANADA’s New Japan Cup victory and World Championship victory has now put him in second place. As a member of L.I.J., he had tied Hiromu with 9 (Hiromu’s 5 Jr. Titles + 4 Best of Super Jrs. vs. SANADA’s 3 Tag Titles, 1 US Title, 3 Trios Titles, and 2 World Tag Leagues), but breaking from the stable has literally put him over the top as an individual. Naito would have this at 12, but 2 of his IC Title Runs were part of the Double Gold, which muddies the waters. Discounting those, Naito’s at 10 with SANADA tying and beating him with the NJ Cup and World Championship respectively.
• Speaking of Naito, he and SANADA both won their first World Titles soon after forming new stables. Naito had just laid the foundation of L.I.J. and SANADA had joined Just 5 Guys a mere 3 weeks prior to beating Okada. Very interesting parallel to them both “finding themselves” as a whole there.
• Every member of L.I.J. has been a tag team champion…except Hiromu. Hiromu has been singularly focused on the Jr. Heavyweight Division until an L.I.J. member has become World Champion. Hiromu would’ve challenged Naito in 2020 if not for the Pangea Pandemic, and he did challenge EVIL in 2020. SANADA’s victory in 2023 prompted another Hiromu challenge.

I think there’s argument to be made that L.I.J. is one of the most successful and strongest factions in pro wrestling today (Maybe in history?) from the sheer weight of accomplishments. It’s rare that a stable can produce more than one World Champion, and L.I.J. has managed four. For perspective, the Bullet Club (Styles, Omega, White) only breaks this number if you count “Hangman” Adam Page’s AEW Title + Adam Cole’s ROH Title. CHAOS breaks this if you count Nakamura despite being a World Champion prior to CHAOS even being a thought + if you consider Naito as being “produced” from CHAOS, but the separation from CHAOS to Naito winning his first World title is so great that it may as well not even be a factor.

Both stables also get dragged down numerically by members who aren’t hunting for a main Singles title and are there as part of sub-factions or tag-teams. L.I.J., as stated by Charlton, is truly a “cooperative of individuals” in that the members of the unit have all charted courses to being the top guys in their respective divisions, and it has almost always paid off.