NJPW Best of Super Juniors 31 - May 11th - June 9th, 2024

[Chris]

Best of the Super Jr. night 12 (May 31) full card, preview​

Last night of Block action

Friday May 31 sees the last night of Block action for Best of the Super Jr. 31. As two are set to advance from B Block into the final four Monday, the last group matches take place as well as bouts set to give a glimpse into Dominion June 9.

Watch live in English on NJPW World!
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Main event: Hiromu Takahashi (6–2) vs Taiji Ishimori (6–2)​

Singles record: 6–3 Hiromu

Winner advances

The tenth singles meeting between Taiji Ishimori and Hiromu Takahashi will be the main event in Korakuen Hall, with its winner guaranteed advancement to the final four.

There is a lot of history to draw from when it comes to these two combatants, but their first and last Best of the Super Jr. one on one encounters are perhaps the most telling. Both in headline spots, both in Korakuen Hall, both saw Hiromu Takahashi successful. In their first meeting, the 2018 finals, Hiromu was victorious to win his first BOSJ trophy, though weeks later, a fateful neck injury would put the Time Bomb on the shelf for close to 18 months.

Fast forward to 2023, when both met in a critical league night. Hiromu was victorious again, but not in the way he would have liked, as a neck injury sustained by Ishimori this time during the match necessitated a quick finish and a hollow win. Though Ishimori would come back to challenge Takahashi at Power Struggle later in the year, Hiromu getting the decisive win and bringing a sense of closure, still the BOSJ business that was left undone hung in the air.

Now, these two rivals that have forged two thirds of the ‘big three’ in NJPW’s junior heavyweight division for the last half decade will square off once more, but who takes a step toward the Dominion main event tonight?
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7th Match: DOUKI (5–3) vs Robbie Eagles (5–3)​

Singles record: 4–0 Eagles

DOUKI advances with a win and a Hiromu loss
Eagles is mathematically eliminated

DOUKI and Robbie Eagles are another pairing with considerable previous centered around four prior tournament enolucnters. It’s safe to say that DOUKI left a bad first impression on Eagles back in 2019, when during both men’s debut tournaments, a league match saw a DDT onto a steel chair that badly split Eagles open.

Despite the damage done, DOUKUI couldn’t come away with the win that night, nor in any of their other meetings. Tonight, the stakes are higher than in any of those bouts, as is the position both men find themselves in. For DOUKI, a career best year to date has been followed with a career best tournament performance, but all will be for nought if he loses to Eagles tonight. For Eagles, the Soul of PWA Champion has been determined to show the world that he and the Australian scene at large has had enough of being overlooked. Though frustration runs high, can he end the league with a win to spoil Japones Del Mal?
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6th Match: Ninja Mack (4–4) vs Drilla Moloney (4–4)​

Both men are mathematically eliminated

After Hiromu Takahashi pulled a rabbit out of the hat by rolling up Drilla Moloney in Numazu Tuesday, the War Dog is now out of contention, as is Ninja Mack, despite a win over Dragon Dia moving him to eight points. A last win is always key for those finishing BOSJ campaigns, and the chance to end on a positive win:loss record is one all competitors seek to take in the recency bias obsessed world of professional wrestling.
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5th Match: KUSHIDA (4–4) vs Dragon Dia (0–8)​

Both men mathematically eliminated

KUSHIDA was in the running in B Block right up to Numazu Tuesday night. Now his hopes of the final four are gone, but the strides he has made from 2023 to 2024 are remarkable, and with pride still strong, he seeks to end his campaign with one last victory.

Dragon Dia hasn’t gotten one first victory when it comes to singles action in NJPW, and has never been n contentio. Can Dia end his difficult debut BOSJ with a big result?
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4th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Shingo Takagi, Titan & BUSHI) vs United Empire (Callum Newman, HENARE & TJP)​

After their crucial league match on May 30, TJP and Titan meet again in six man action. Also on May 30, HENARE returns to the ring, and now takes on Shingo Takagi nine days before they battle over the NEVER Openweight Championship.
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3rd Match: TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr. & Kosei Fujita) vs BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors & Gedo)​

One year ago Kosei Fujita teamed with Robbie Eagles to face Clark Connors and Gedo, in a match where Fujita pinned Gedo and made a massive stride toward graduating from Young Lion status. Tonight a near rematch sees Fujita teaming with Zack Sabre Jr., as Fujita looks to end his tour on a similar high.
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2nd Match: Tomoaki Honma, Kevin Knight & El Desperado vs Boltin Oleg, HAYATA & Blake Christian​

Six man action sees the somewhat incongruous sight of Boltin Oleg in among junior heavyweight competition. Representing the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Champions, he may make himself a target of his opponents tonight with post BOSJ in mind.
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1st Match: Katsuya Murashima, Shoma Kato & Shota Umino vs EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi​

We kick things off with the return of Shota Umino and EVIL. After Umino came just short of Jon Moxley at Resurgence, it was EVIL that interrupted an emotional exchange between champion and chqallenger, before the King of Darkness delcared himself to be the true world champion. With EVIL and Moxley set to collide June 9 at Dominion, what happens between the Roughneck and King of Darkness in Korakuen?​

 

[Apoho Creed]

It's been a long freaking day at work hopefully I can get in this 28th Show and Dynamite back to back. Wrestling Gods keep me awake because outside of Despy vs TJP I wasn't impressed with the 26th Show.

Eagles looks pissed off and I can't blame him after the loss he took in his last BOSJ Show.

 

[Chris]

Douki did it



So Semi-finals should be Despy vs Douki and Ishimori vs TJP I believe

 

[Apoho Creed]

Douki did it



So Semi-finals should be Despy vs Douki and Ishimori vs TJP I believe

Good now I don't need to watch the past 2 Shows if that is the Finals from the two Blocks. Love both of those Semi-Finals.

 

[Chris]

Best of the Super Jr. 31 night 13 (June 3) preview​

Semifinal action in Korakuen Hall

After a drama packed three week stretch in Best of the Super Jr. 31, the field of 20 are now down to the final four. On June 3, we will find out who will advance to Osaka Jo Hall and the main event of Dominion to crown the 31st Best of the Super Jr. winner in the biggest final of tournament history.

Watch live in English on NJPW World!
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Main event: Best of the Super Jr. Semifinal- DOUKI vs El Desperado​

Singles record: 3–0 Desperado

The emotions will be as high as the stakes in our main event when DOUKI and El Desperado will collide for a spot in the Osaka finals.

In 2019, a broken jaw for El Desperado saw DOUKI get the surprise call up into Best of the Super Jr. competition and with it his NJPW debut. Staying in NJPW, DOUKI would be a part of Suzuki-Gun, and with common ground and experience in the independents in Mexico, plusd a shared love and passion for the game, Desperado became a bigger brother figure for DOUKI.

As all brothers do, fights happened, and with each battel they would have across BOSJ tournaments, Desperado seemed to bring an added aggression, trying to appraise DOUKI’s own progress, and through harsh disappointments and physical lessons, motivation to progress further. This year, progress has been greater than at any other point in DOUKI’s career as he makes it from the block phase for the very first time; and couldn’t ask for a better, or tougher opponent.

Desperado has been open about saying that DOUKI, at this point in his career and with the advances he has made thus far in 2024, needed to make the semfinals. That he has now done, but to go a step further he needs to score his first singles win over ‘hermano’ Desperado. DOUKI has already scored his first career wins over Hiromu Takahashi and Robbie Eagles this year- on the fifth anniversary of his fateful BOSJ debut, will he make the tournament’s biggest final? Or ten years on from his own BOSJ debut, will it be Desperado in the bright lights?
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7th Match: Best of the Super Jr. Semifinal- Taiji Ishimori vs TJP​

The other half of our double main event sees Taiji ishimori facing TJP. For all the similarities thes etwo men share as well travelled, welathy in experience junior heavyweights with a massive library of technical gifts at their disposal, this is the first ever singles meeting between the two. Indeed, even tag meetings have been limited to just wto encounters, in 2019 and 2021.

It’s a match fo unknown unknowns then, and the most dangerous for Ishimori may be the Aswang that lurks within TJP. The Filipino cryptid was a difference maker for TJP in his do or die bolock closer against Titan, and if TJP is able to summon that creature from within once more, it may make all the difference again. Yet TJP on his own is more than a technical handful even for the mastery of Ishimori to contain. Will it be ‘heavenly grace’, or a blood red haze that colurs one half of the Dominion main event?
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6th Match: Shota Umino, X, XX, XXX & XXXX vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (Ren Narita, Yujiro Takahashi, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dick Togo)​

EVIL took his impending IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match with Jon Moxley at Dominion to new ludicrous levels in Korakuen when he emerged witha replica championship belt once worn by Will Ospreay and proclaimed it to be the ‘real’ IWGP title. After declaring arbitrarily that it would be a lumberjack match for the title at Dominion, EVIL put the boots to Shota Umino and gloated that the Roughneck was the only possible ally Moxley had left. As if to prove the point, a ten man tag has been arranged for this evening, and Umino has no tag partners listed- could this be a sign of things to come and the immense odds Moxley has to deal with Sunday?
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5th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi) vs United Empire (Callum Newman & HENARE)​

One last preview for HENARE and Shingo Takagi before their fated clash over the NEVER Openweight Championship Sunday at Dominion will see bombs thrown in Korakuen Hall. Champion and challenger will be fighting hard to gain the upper hand before they fight tooth and nail for the title.
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4th Match: Dragon Dia, Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Los Ingobernables De Japon (Titan, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji)​

Eight man tag team action sees Dragon Dia, fresh off his first singles win in NJPW, teaming with the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Champions against Los Ingobernabels De Japon. The NEVER 6 man gold hasn’t been defended since the Dontaku tour, and might be atttractive targets for the LIJ side tonight- might someone make a move, or will the powerful and well seasoned champions seize the day?
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3rd Match: Just Five Guys (Yuya Uemura & TAKA Michinoku) vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan)​

Ahead of Yuya Uemura and Great-O-Khan’s KOPW2024 matchup at Dominion, the two tangle in a tag team preview in Korakuen Hall. Great-O-Khan’s impassioned speech at last week’s press conference may do much to shift the conversation heading into the bout, but will it be Uemura’s performance in Korakuen Hall that swings things back in his direction?
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2nd Match: TMDK (Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Gedo, Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors)​

A TMDK spot in the semifinals has eluded Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita, but individual wins over Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney, coupled with a three minute win over the team back during Super Jr. Tag League has given them a strong claim to the IWGP Junior Tag titles. This six man tag gives further cause to solidify that spot.
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1st Match: Shoma Kato, Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA vs Blake Christian, Ninja Mack & HAYATA​

Starting out the night, Six man tag team action will see Intergalactic Jet Setters Kevin Knight and KUSHIDA teaming up again as they and Shoma Kato take on the outsiders from the tournament representing ROH and Pro-Wrestling NOAH. The players in this one each share the disappointment of being close but no cigar when it comes to tonight’s semifinals, but after an invitation was floated by Clark Connors toward Kevin Knight on behalf of BULLET CLUB War Dogs, how might KUSHIDA be feeling reunited with his teammate?​