NJPW Best of Super Juniors 28 Discussion Thread

[Chris]

Best of the Super Jr. 28 Lineup Official
12 entrants in single block league

Entrants have been revealed for Best of the Super Jr. 28, which kicks off on November 13 in Korakuen Hall. 12 wrestlers will be part of the single block league, leading to the top two points scorers in the combined final along with World Tag League 2021 in Ryogoku Sumo Hall on December 15. The entrants are as follows:

El Desperado (5th entry, 2nd consecutive, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion)
Freshly crowned IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado will be looking to be the first champion since Prince Devitt in 2013 to win the Best of the Super Jr. trophy. After a gutsy and determined showing in last year’s final against eventual winner Hiromu Takahashi, Desperado would take advantage at Takahashi’s exit to injury in February, entering a three way for the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight tile and winning his first singles championship. Now in his second reign after defeating Robbie Eagles at Power Struggle, is Desperado’s hot hand enough to see him to his first BoSJ victory?

SHO (4th entry, 4th consecutive)
The Murder Machine makes his first BOSJ entry as a singles player, and also his first as part of BULLET CLUB’s HOUSE OF TORTURE. With SHO having aligned himself with the most underhanded elements of the club, it’s obvious that he will stop at nothing to gain victory in the tournament. SHO clearly has all the tools, together with a newfound aggression, to succeed on his own merits, but will his victories in the tournament instead be ill-gotten?

Hiromu Takahashi (6th entry, 3rd consecutive. 2018, 2020 winner)
Two time winner Hiromu Takahashi has to be one of the tournament favourites in 2021, but questions will loom over a ‘BoSJ curse’ for the Time Bomb. Both of his tournament victories have seen the trophy break either the same night or in the weeks following, and both have seen him pick up significant injuries in the ensuing months. In 2018, a tournament victory and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship win was followed by a devastating neck injury in San Francisco, while his 2020 victory and title win would see him vacate with a torn bicep in February of this year. After his return to in ring competition saw a hiccup in a failed challenge to Robbie Eagles in the MetLife Dome this September, will Hiromu be able to put the pieces together for his a Best of the Super Jr. hat trick?

YOH (4th entry, 1st in two years)
What mindset will YOH bring to the ring in this first BoSJ appearance since 2019? Last year, a torn ACL put paid to his participation, YOH eventually returning to the ring in April of 2021, but lacking a half step. After a string of losses, tag team partner and loyal friend SHO turned his back on their allegiance, and defeated his former partner in MetLife Dome this September. As SHO joined HOUSE OF TORTURE, YOH has not been seen or heard from since, and the physical and mental shape of the Stargazer will be subject to a lot of speculation.

Master Wato (2nd entry, 2nd consecutive)
Master Wato’s journey to the forefront in NJPW’s junior heavyweight division has not been entirely smooth over the last 18 months, but it has seen steady progress from the blue haired prodigy, and Wato will look to march ever further in BOSJ 28. Nothing would define reaching grand master status like a Super Junior trophy and a spot in the Tokyo Dome with IWGP Junior Heavyweight gold at stake. Can Wato get there?

El Phantasmo (2nd entry, 1st in two years. 2019, 2020 Super J-Cup winner)
El Phantasmo heads into his second BoSJ having won back to back Super J-Cups. The single elimination format of the J-Cup is a very different one to the marathon league of Best of the Super Juniors, but it’s safe to say ELP has all the tools to get the job done, whether that be through fair means or foul.

Ryusuke Taguchi (18th entry, 16th consecutive, 2012 winner)
The veteran entrant to BoSJ 28, Taguchi is the only competitor with more than ten years of Super Junior experience, and in fact with the exception of BUSHI has at least a ten year edge on any of his opposition. Not only does he know how to compete in the tournament, he knows how to win as well, with a 2012 victory, and a reputation for being in the running when the league reaches its final stages. Can King of Coach Taguchi once again reign in 2021?

Robbie Eagles (3rd entry, 3rd consecutive, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion)
The recently deposed IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Robbie Eagles will no doubt be gunning for El Desperado during this league, and their rubber match for 2021. Yet his campaign has the potential for much more than mere revenge. As this year saw the Sniper of the Skies make history as the first Australian IWGP, and then double champion, Eagles knows how to perform in high pressure spots, and could easily be booking his place in his second high profile Tokyo Dome match in a six month span.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru (4th entry, 1st in two years)
After a knee injury shortly before the start of last year’s Best of the Super Jr. put paid to Kanemaru’s entry, the Heel Master returns to BoSJ 28. While his New Japan career has seen him predominantly focus on the tag team ranks, the Heel Master is one of the most decorated junior heavyweights in Japanese history as both a singles and tag wrestler. Expect Kanemaru to remind the world just who he is starting this Saturday night.

Taiji Ishimori (5th entry, 4th consecutive)
2018 finalist Ishimori was high in the mix when it came to 2020’s Best of the Super Jr., and very much in the hunt until the final day of league action. After a failed challenge for the IWGP Junior heavyweight Championship during the Summer Struggle tour though, the Bone Soldier has been away from the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for close to a year. Fresh off some electric interactions with Lio Rush in the US, there is no doubt that he’s looking to be in the mix come Ryogoku on December 15.

BUSHI (9th entry, 6th consecutive)
Veteran tactician BUSHI is always a force to be reckoned with in Best of the Super Jr. competition. Now in his ninth BoSJ, a challenge for the vacant title back at Castle Attack this February has made BUSHI hungrier than ever for the gold he hasn’t held since the autumn of 2016.

DOUKI (3rd entry, 3rd consecutive)
Last but not least, DOUKI rounds out the 12 man field this year. After his debut in NJPW saw him as a last minute replacement for the injured El Desperado in 2019, DOUKI has made massive strides with each intervening tour, and each intervening tournament. Late this summer, DOUKI was the first opponent for the returning Hiromu Takahashi and sacrificed life and limb to push the Time Bomb to the very limit; if he goes as hard during BoSJ 28, we may see a surprise winner, and doubtless some classic matches.​

 

[Chris]

Best of the Super Jr. 28 night 1 (November 13) preview
12 man league kicks off Saturday night

A massive weekend of NJPW action kicks off Saturday night with Best of the Super Jr. 28. The 12 entrant league will see six group matches from a sold out Korakuen Hall!

Watch LIVE or in English on demand on NJPW World!

Main event: El Desperado vs SHO
Singles record: 1-1

At one win apiece, SHO and El Desperado have their third career singles match together in the main event in Korakuen Saturday, but the history between these two men goes far deeper. While SHO was still one half of Roppongi 3K, Desperado was massively critical of the duo, and only damned SHO with the faintest of praise. As SHO and YOH began to fall apart, it was appropriate that RPG3Ks last ever tag match was against El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru, with SHO leaving YOH to the wolves before attacking his former friend after the bell.

Now SHO has struck out and joined HOUSE OF TORTURE then, how will he shape up against the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion? The new harder edge of the Murder Machine will no doubt be an intriguing and violent pairing with Desperado. A clean fight is almost certainly out the window, but will SHO stand alone, or will he enlist help to make a statement win over the junior champ?

6th Match: YOH vs Hiromu Takahashi

An unknown quantity as a singles pairing, YOH hasn’t faced Hiromu Takahashi one on one since he was a Young Lion. Roppongi 3K and LIJ’s paths have crossed on more than one occasion, granted, but YOH seems to be a different man now that his relationship with SHO has been torn apart. Returning from over two months away at Power Struggle, YOH certainly seems determined, but will his focus on SHO on the final night of league action December 11 see him look too far past Hiromu tonight?

5th Match: Master Wato vs El Phantasmo

Another first ever singles match, El Phantasmo and Master Wato have only even met in tag team bouts three times before. The road to the Grand Master is a difficult one indeed, and Wato will be further tested by ELP tonight. Having won Super J-Cup the last two years, the Headbanga has been eager to get back into the BOSJ hunt for his second go-around, and is sure to be confident tonight, but will Wato make ELP pay the price for his arrogance?

4th Match: Ryusuke Taguchi vs Robbie Eagles
Singles record: 2-0 Eagles

Taguchi and Eagles face off for the third time in Best of the Super Jr. action in Korakuen. Both times they’ve faced before, it was at a stage where both men were on six points, in the middle of their campaigns, and both times Eagles has come out with the win. Now again, each man is on even footing, but right at the start of the campaign at zero. Will Eagles stay undefeated against the King Coach? Or, after Eagles lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight gold to El Desperado at power Struggle, will Taguchi take advantage of the Eagles’ stall?

3rd Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Taiji Ishimori
Singles record: 11-1-1 Kanemaru

Taiji Ishimori’s first Best of the Super Jr. this year arguably couldn’t be any harder for him. All the way until New Japan Cup 2020, Ishimori was living under the ‘Kanemaru curse’ of 12 singles matches in Pro-Wrestling NOAH and no victory over the Heel Master. Ishimori dispelled the curse to an extent in last year’s Cup, but still it lingered; in tag action, El Phantasmo and Ishimori have only been able to beat Kanemaru and El Desperado once, and their most recent IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reign was ended at Kanemaru and Despe’s hands. Will Kanemaru continue to eat Ishimori’s lunch at Korakuen, or can the Bone Soldier turn their rivalry around?

2nd Match: BUSHI vs DOUKI
Singles record: 1-1

BUSHI and DOUKI will wrestle the first Best of the Super Jr. 28 matchup this Saturday. DOUKI has long held BUSHI as an example of wrestlers who go on learning excurion to Mexico and don’t live the life or pay their dues in the country like he did on his independent career. It’s led to two heated BOSJ encounters, that were marks of how far DOUKI has progressed in his career; a win for BUSHI in 2019 led the Jet Black Deathmask to be confident heading into their BOSJ 27 closing encounter, only for DOUKI to pull out an impressive victory. Who gains the upper hand this year?

1st Match: Yuto Nakashima vs Ryohei Oiwa
Singles record: 0-0-2

Yuto Nakashima will hit the ring in Korakuen Hall, and on NJPW World screens for the first time since his debut match injury back in February. After Nakashima’s return to live events on October 31, he has wrestled Fujita to a pair of non televised time limit draws, and now wants to make up for lost time with his first career win.​

 

[Comrade Khan]

I stand with El Phantasmo

 

[Chris]

Updated N1 preview with the new graphics

 

[Kairi HoHo]

I guess my Weekend after a long work Week is going to be swamped with Wrestling hell yeah!

 

[Chris]

Best of the Super Jr. Night 2 (November 15) Preview
Junior tournament action continues Monday

After an action packed opening on Saturday November 13, Best of the Super Jr. 28 continues Monday night with six more tournament matches, as the early stages of the marathon tournament continue.

Watch live or in English on demand on NJPW World!

Main event El Desperado (0-1) vs Taiji Ishimori (0-1)
Singles record: 2-0 Desperado, BOSJ record: 1-0 Desperado

After losing in their opening bouts, El Desperado faces Taiji Ishimori in the main event. Ishimori has a lot of pent up frustration against Desperado; last year’s Best of the Super Jr. saw him head into the tournament as champion, but frequently labouring in the semi main event billing with Hiromu Takahashi’s matches on top. One year on and Desperado as champion is at the top of the bill for the second tournament night running, and is doing so with a 2-0 record against the Bone Soldier.

Ishimori’s frustrations with Desperado will only have been exacerbated by his first match in this year’s BOSJ. A countout loss to Despe’s tag team partner Yoshinobu Kanemaru meant the ‘Kanemaru curse’ for Ishimori was back in effect, and will likely throw him off somewhat tonight, as a winnable first match saw him come out with the L. After Ishimori came oh-so-close to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship during Summer Struggle, he now finds himself desperate to get his first career win over the masked rudo tonight.

Yet Desperado will be carrying a wounded neck and his own wounded pride to the ring Monday, after his opening night main event was marred by HOUSE OF TORTURE interference. As Desperado looks to put that opening night loss behind him, he’ll be bringing extra aggression to the ring this evening.

6th Match: Hiromu Takahashi (1-0) vs SHO (1-0)
Singles record: 2-1 Hiromu BOSJ record: 1-1

Last year’s Best of the Super Jr. saw SHO make tremendous strides. Though not a factor by the final of the tournament, SHO would see his first singles main event during the tournament, and emerged victorious to boot, against Hiromu Takahashi. That would open the door to SHO’s first IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship challenge in Hiroshima this February, a match that saw SHO fall short but push the Time Bomb hard.

Now, a much different SHO faces Takahashi, but it’s a man Hiromu has admitted to always sensing underneath his former fun loving Roppongi 3K persona. The rebooted Murder Machine looks to get another two points after a H.O.T start; the acronym being key as Yujiro Takahashi and Dick Togo both ran in to create SHO’s winning opportunity Saturday. As EVIL and Yujiro are yet to see their first travel days, Hiromu will have that possibility in the back of his mind, as he tries to finish SHO in the same efficicient way he picked off YOH in his own opener in under four minutes.

5th Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru (1-0) vs El Phantasmo (0-1)

Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Phantasmo meet for the very first time in singles competition tonight, but the two know one another very well indeed, and especially as far as 2021 is concerned. Kanemaru and ELP first tied up this year at New Year Dash, and a couple of days after Hiromu Takahashi raised questions about Phantasmo’s boot, the Heel Master was first to outright accuse the Headbanga of loading up his Sudden Death superkicks. Since then there has been a constant cycle of accusations, rebuttals and circumstantial evidence.

Will Kanemaru expose Phantasmo tonight in Korakuen, or might he just settle for two points? After picking up a significant win, albeit under shady countout circumstances against Taiji Ishimori in his league opener, confidence will be high for Kanemaru, as Phantasmo seeks to bounce back from a bruising flash pin loss to Master Wato.

4th Match: Master Wato (1-0) vs Robbie Eagles (0-1)
Singles record:1-1 BOSJ record: 1-0 Wato

After scoring a surprise win against the run of play against El Phantasmo Saturday, Master Wato looks to double up against Robbie Eagles tonight. A win for the blue haired prodigy would make it two years in a row for Wato over Eagles in Best of the Super Jr., after picking up a surprise win during last year’s league. Yet Eagles was eager to redress that balance, and did so during the Summer Struggle series this year. Eagles looks to regain control of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship gold in this tournament, but had a rough start to his BOSJ campaign after falling to a Taguchi Dodon on Saturday night. This is a key match for the former champion.

3rd Match: Ryusuke Taguchi (1-0) vs BUSHI (0-1)
Singles record: 3-2 BUSHI

The two most experienced tournament competitors in Best of the Super Jr. clash in the third match of the evening as Ryusuke Taguchi faces BUSHI. Both competitors are strong dark horse picks, and could very well be in the mix come the end of the league in mid-December. A win at this stage of the league could be key in making that happen though, and only one will get their hand raised. Can BUSHI overcome the disappointment of losing the first league match of the year? Can Taguchi build on his phenomenal start against Robbie Eagles?

2nd Match: YOH (0-1) vs DOUKI (1-0)
Singles record: 1-0 YOH

Tournament action kicks off tonight with YOH facing DOUKI. DOUKI has come a long way since his first singles meeting with YOH during his debut BOSJ. That improvement has seen him to two consecutive years of wins over BUSHI, with this year’s victory seeing him to the first two points of the whole league. Yet after a highly motivated YOH brought a ton of energy only to lose in under four minutes against Hiromu Takahashi, a burning desire to rewrite his narrative may make YOH more dangerous than ever, as DOUKI will certainly have his hands full.

1st Match: Ryohei Oiwa (0-0-1 this tour) vs Kosei Fujita ( – – this tour)
Singles record: 0-0-4

Young Lions Oiwa and Fujita face one another one on one for the first time since the Summer Struggle tour and their debut four match stretch. As Oiwa, Fujita and Yuto Nakashima continue to face off against one another in ten minute opening matches through the tour, can one of the three gain an upper hand, and pull off their first win?​

 

[Chris]

Here are the standings after N1:

• SHO 2 points (1-0)
• Hiromu Takahashi 2 points (1-0)
• Master Wato 2 points (1-0)
• Ryusuke Taguchi 2 points (1-0)
• Yoshinobu Kanemaru 2 points (1-0)
• DOUKI 2 points (1-0)
• El Desperado 0 points (0-1)
• YOH 0 points (0-1)
• El Phantasmo 0 points (0-1)
• Robbie Eagles 0 points (0-1)
• Taiji Ishimori 0 points (0-1)
• BUSHI 0 points (0-1)

 

[Kairi HoHo]

Alot of upsets on Day 1 including SHO beating Despy in the Main Event which I kinda figured considering he's just broken into the singles he needed that one more than ever to be considered worthy. Wato beat ELP which was a shocker too but with all the time New Japan put into hyping him as the next big star you gotta get them some wins for sure. Taguchi beat Eagles and I'm happy to see he was more business than the Comedy act which makes so not interested in his Matches at times. If he can stop the posing and just do it then I'll be fine with him being in the tourney. Even Kanemaru beat Ishimori another result I didn't expect but him jumping him before the Ring led to him having enough momentum for Ishimori never to get out of the blocks in that one. Despy vs Ishimori Day 2 oh boy one will fix their Sinking Ship the other will be ever so close to going to the bottom of the Ocean at 0-2. Day 2 will have the Tag Title/BOSJ apart of the same Show right?

 

[Chris]

Yeah not really a fan of a lot of those N1 upsets but its early so I know a lot will end up changing anyway

 

[Chris]

Updated standings after N2:

• SHO 4 points (2-0)
• Yoshinobu Kanemaru 4 points (2-0)
• DOUKI 4 points (2-0)
• Robbie Eagles 2 points (1-1)
• Taiji Ishimori 2 points (1-1)
• BUSHI 2 points (1-1)
• Hiromu Takahashi 2 points (1-1)
• Master Wato 2 points (1-1)
• Ryusuke Taguchi 2 points (1-1)
• El Desperado 0 points (0-2)
• YOH 0 points (0-2)
• El Phantasmo 0 points (0-2)

 

[Comrade Khan]

el phatasmo 0-2? im out

edit: losing to absolute jobbers too

 

[Kairi HoHo]

Ayo I'm downloading this Show as we speak and ELP 0-2 as well as Despy Witchcraft going on right now kiddos.

 

[Chris]

I think Gedo is on a SUBVERT EXPECTATIONS kick rn lol

 

[Kairi HoHo]

Day 2 watching and I gave Taguchi props for being more business rather than a performer doing a Kid's party then he goes back to the Comedy act vs Bushi. I can't blame him though he's getting stomped and damaged being put on his nuts during this Match.

 

[Kim Jong Umb]

The bone collector