NJPW reveals blocks for Best of the Super Juniors, Dragon Dia replaces Ryusuke Taguchi

Originally published at NJPW reveals blocks for Best of the Super Juniors

NJPW has released the block pairings for the upcoming Best of the Super Juniors tournament as well as a replacement for Ryusuke Taguchi.

The annual BOSJ tournament kicks off May 11 with twenty participants spread over two blocks.

Due to injuries sustained after a bicycle accident, Ryusuke Taguchi is unable to compete and will be replaced by Dragon Gate’s Dragon Dia. The 25-year-old has been wrestling since 2018 and has held the Open the Brave Gate title, the Open the Twin Gate title three times, and the Open the Triangle Gate title twice.

The A Block will feature El Desperado, Kevin Knight, BUSHI, TJP, Titan, Kosei Fujita, Blake Christian, Clark Connors, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and HAYATA.

The B Block includes SHO, Dragon Dia, KUSHIDA, DOUKI, Francesco Akira, Robbie Eagles, Taiji Ishimori, Drilla Moloney, and Ninja Mack.

The opening night of the BOSJ in Chiba on May 11 will feature the following matches
A BLOCK: El Desperado vs. Titan
B BLOCK: KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi
A BLOCK: TJP vs. Kevin Knight
B BLOCK: DOUKI vs. Taiji Ishimori
A BLOCK: Clark Connors vs. Blake Christian
B BLOCK: SHO vs. Drilla Moloney
A BLOCK: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kosei Fujita
B BLOCK: Robbie Eagles vs. Ninja Mack
A BLOCK: BUSHI vs. HAYATA
B BLOCK: Dragon Dia vs. Francesco Akira  

Obviously I hope for a full recovery from Taguchi (and it sounds like he’s a righteous dude for swerving to avoid hitting a dog), but this is a big upgrade in an already intriguing B block. Dia is super exciting to watch and having him and Mack in singles against the likes of Akira, Douki, and (if he’s in full-bore “motto” mode) could be tremendous. We might not be getting top shelf inter-promotional singles matches on the upcoming All Together shows, but there are some very exciting crossover junior matches on the table here.

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