New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the participants of their annual Best of Super Juniors tournament. The round robin tournament features 16 of the best junior heavyweights in wrestling. The tournament is set to begin on 5/18, with the finals airing on 6/4. The opening round and the finals will air live on NJPWWorld.com. The full Best of Super Juniors schedule will be in this week’s New Japan Pro Wednesday.
Correction: This article erroneously listed the tournament as beginning 5/19, instead of 5/18, and has been corrected.
Block A Participants
ACH- ACH is entering his second Best of Super Juniors tournament, after debuting at last year’s tournament. ACH went 3-4 in his debut tournament.
BUSHI- BUSHI is entering his sixth Best of Super Juniors tournament. He had a winning record of 4-3 in last year’s tournament, but a loss to KUSHIDA kept him out of the finals.
Flip Gordon- Ring of Honor’s Flip Gordon still isn’t ALL IN, but he will be making his Best of Super Juniors debut.
Taiji Ishimori- Bullet Club’s newest member is making his second Best of Super Juniors appearance. Ishimori’s last BoSJ was in 2010, where he had a winning record of 5-2, but was eliminated in the semi-finals by Prince Devitt.
Tiger Mask IV- Tiger Mask IV is entering his seventeenth Best of Super Juniors appearance. A two-time tournament winner, Tiger Mask won the 2004 and 2005 tournaments. Last year, Tiger Mask went 3-4, even earning a round robin win against last year’s winner, KUSHIDA.
Will Ospreay- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Ospreay is entering his third Best of Super Juniors appearance. After winning his debut tournament in 2016, Ospreay had a winning record of 5-2 and advanced to the finals, where he was defeated by KUSHIDA.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru- Representing Suzuki-gun, Kanemaru is one-half of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Entering his second, Best of Super Juniors tournament, Kanemaru had a winning record of 4-3 in last year’s tournament.
Yoh- Entering his second Best of Super Juniors, Yoh went winless in the 2015 tournament.
A Block pic.twitter.com/QBPZvgAYd7
— Will Ospreay • ウィル・オスプレイ (@WillOspreay) May 7, 2018
NEXT PAGE: Block B
