NJPW's 32nd Best of Super Juniors Results from Night 1 and Night 2

Ibrahim Malik

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NJPW's 32nd Best of Super Juniors Results from Night 1 and Night 2 image

The Best of the Super Juniors is an annual round robin tournament held in New Japan Pro Wrestling. As the Junior Heavyweight equivalent to New Japan's vaunted G1, it tends to see some of the best high-flying action anywhere in the pro-wrestling world.

It began in 1994 as the successor to the previous Top of the Super Juniors tournament, which had taken place between 1988 and 1993, and counts amongst its list of winners Finn Balor (2010, 2013), Ricochet (2014), and Will Ospreay (2016, 2019).

The format has altered some over the years, but in 2025 there are two blocks of 10 competitors each. Every wrestler faces every other wrestler in their block once, and the winner of each block will meet in the final on June 1st. The winner of each match receives 2 points, in case of a draw each man gets 1 point, and there are 0 for a loss. Head-to-head records break any ties at the end.

The first night of the 32nd annual tournament began Saturday May 10th at the YohaS Arena in Chiba, Japan. Night 2 took place on May 11th, emanating from the Miyagi Iwanuma City General Gymnasium in Iwanuma.

AEW's Kevin Knight (who did English-language commentary with New Japan's Chris Charlton for night 1) and Nick Wayne are both involved this year, along with competitors from CMLL in Mexico, as well as Japan's Dragon Gate and DDT. A couple of international freelancers round out the 20 names involved, truly showing off the best Junior Heavyweight talent from around the Globe.

The blocks are as follows:

Block A
Hiromu Takahashi - Record 4-time winner of the BOSJ (2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022).

Kosei Fujita - Former Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with Robbie Eagles. At 22, the second youngest entrant in the tournament, and surely the future of New Japan's Junior Heavyweight division.

Dragon Dia - Wrestles for Dragon Gate in Japan. Made his BOSJ debut last year, winning only 1 match.

Clark Connors - Washington native. Member of Bullet Club.

Ninja Mack - Freelancer. Works for NOAH, GCW, and others. Returning to the tournament for the second straight year.

Robbie X - Freelancer from the UK, notably of RevPro. Making his BOSJ debut.

Francesco Akira - Making his 4th BOSJ appearance, had to withdraw midway through last years tournament with injury.

 

Master Wato - Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with Yoh. Winner of the 2023 tournament.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Making his 8th appearance in the Best of the Super Juniors.

Kushida - Formerly of WWE's NXT. 2-time winner of the event in 2015 and 2017.

 

Block B
El Desperado - 2024 BOSJ winner. Current Junior Heavyweight Champion.

Nick Wayne - Of AEW. At 19, the youngest ever entrant into the Best of the Super Juniors.

Robbie Eagles - Former Junior Heavyweight Tag Champion with Kosei Fujita. The Australian has been a fixture of the tournament since 2019.

Mao - Wrestles for DDT in Japan. Tournament debut.

Ryusuke Taguchi - 2012 tournament winner. Longtime veteran turned comedy wrestler who often turns serious for these few weeks of the year.

Taiji Ishimori - 2018 and 2024 BOSJ runner-up.

Titán - CMLL performer who is a regular every year. Lost the 2023 final.

Sho - Former tag partner of Yoh, with whom he won the Junior Tag Titles before turning on him.

Kevin Knight - NJPW regular since 2020, also now signed to AEW.

Yoh - Junior Tag Champion with Master Wato, former tag partner of Sho.

 

Night 1

Nick Wayne d. Sho via pinfall in 10:43
Sho will next face his former tag team partner Yoh on Wednesday, while Wayne will face reigning 
Junior Heavyweight Champion, El Desperado, on the same show.

 

Dragon Dia d. Yoshinobu Kanemaru via pinfall in 10:51
Kanemaru will face Clark Connors on Wednesday, and Dragon Dia will face Master Wato.

 

Kosei Fujita d. Francesco Akira via pinfall in 12:03
Fujita will face 4-time winner Hiromu Takahashi on Wednesday's show, Akira will face Ninja Mack.

Hiromu Takahashi d. Kushida via submission in 13:03
Kushida next faces Robbie X this coming Wednesday, while Hiromu (who has gone on to win the tournament every time he has won his opening match) will face Kosei Fujita.

El Desperado d. Titán via submission in 14:10
Desperado will face Nick Wayne on Wednesday, while Titán will face Ryusuke Taguchi.

 

Night 2

Ninja Mack d. Robbie X via pinfall in 7:48
Ninja Mack will face Francesco Akira on Wednesday's show, Robbie X will face Kushida.

 

Mao d. Kevin Knight via pinfall in 9:34
Mao will next face Taiji Ishimori, while Knight will face Robbie Eagles.

 

Clark Connors d. Master Wato via pinfall in 10:35
Connors takes on Yoshinobu Kanemaru on the Wednesday show. Wato will face Dragon Dia.

Robbie Eagles d. Yoh via submission in 15:02
Eagles faces Kevin Knight on Wednesday, and Yoh will go face-to-face with former partner Sho.

Ryusuke Taguchi d. Taiji Ishimori via submission in 16:48
Next up for Tagushi on Wednesday's show is Titán, while Ishimori will face Mao.

 

Standings after opening weekend:

Block A
Nick Wayne - 2 points
Dragon Dia - 2 points
Kosei Fujita - 2 points
Hiromu Takahashi - 2 points 
El Desperado - 2 points
Titán - 0 points
Kushida - 0 points
Francesco Akira - 0 points
Yoshinobu Kanemaru - 0 points
Sho - 0 points

Block B
Ninja Mack - 2 points
Mao - 2 points
Clark Connors - 2 points
Robbie Eagles - 2 points
Ryusuke Taguchi - 2 points
Taiji Ishimori - 0 points
Yoh - 0 points
Master Wato - 0 points
Kevin Knight - 0 points
Robbie X - 0 points

Ibrahim Malik

Ibbi is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is living his best life in the UK, loving all sports, especially US sports. He is an NFL, NBA, MLB, tennis and pro-wrestling enthusiast. You can follow him at @quitrasslinme on X.