New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the lineup for the Best of the Super Juniors tournament during Tuesday’s Road to Dontaku event.
The annual tournament begins Monday, May 13th and will run until Wednesday, June 5th with the finals taking place at Sumo Hall.
Below are the participants:
*Ryusuke Taguchi
*Tiger Mask
*Rocky Romero
*SHO
*YOH
*Will Ospreay, returning to the junior heavyweight division for this tournament
*Taiji Ishimori
*El Desperado
*Taka Michinoku
*Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*BUSHI
*Flip Gordon
*Titan
*Marty Scurll
*Dragon Lee, the current IWGP junior heavyweight champion
*Robbie Eagles
*Jonathan Gresham, this is a great selection
*Bandido
*Shingo Takagi
*X – a mystery participant
All the shows will stream on New Japan World and feature English language commentary.
Getting back into watching New Japan on a regular basis (after taking in G1 Supercard and getting a new laptop than can connect to my TV flawlessly), I’m even more pumped for tournaments like this. Trying to make it a habit to wake up for them.
It would be wild if Ospreay does this, but then moves on to G1 Climax to get across his Openweight nature. My pick to win BOSJ is Shingo, as I’ve been a fan going back, they seem to like him a lot, and he hasn’t taken a pin to my knowledge. He should break out as a singles star.
Have to assume that “X” is El Phantasmo, and I couldn’t be happier. I watched him work for years in front of crowds of 50-100 people and it was patently obvious that he was light years ahead of everyone else in this city. I’m ecstatic that his decision to gamble on himself and move to the UK has paid off so well.
Based on the preview clips, it definitely is. He’s set to debut at Wrestling Dontaku Night 2 on May 4, teaming with Ishimori against Dragon Lee & Ospreay.