NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Block A Preview: Will Ospreay, and more

NJPW is gearing up for their first major Round Robin tournament of the year, the Best of the Super Juniors, which moves NJPW into it’s summer events.

The Best of the Super Juniors brings the best high fliers and smaller wrestlers together for a massive tournament that is sure to deliver many great matches. The tournament begins on May 18th, and ends on June 4th. The tournament will feature 16 wrestlers from all around the world, including a few that will make their Best of the Super Junior debuts this year. The 16 wrestlers are separated into two blocks, with 8 wrestlers each, and the winner of each block will face each other in the finals.

If you are unsure what a Round Robin tournament is, this is how it works: Each wrestler in their respective block must wrestle everyone once. Wins count as 2 points, draws as 1, and losses result in no points. After everyone wrestled each other once, the one with the most points wins the block and advances to the finals. This structure creates a bunch of very interesting matches that you would not normally see, and thus leaves us with an exciting few shows ahead. The winner of the tournament will be able to challenge Will Ospreay for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, provided that Ospreay doesn’t win himself. If Ospreay wins, he will be able to pick his own challenger.

The shows that will air live on NJPW World are as follows: May 18th, May 19th, May 22nd, June 3rd, and June 4th. All the other matches are put up on NJPW World via On Demand a few hours after the show ends. The show on May 18th will be live, and free for anyone if you are interested in checking out NJPW. The show starts 18:30 JST, 2:30 AM PDT, 5:30 AM EST, & 10:30 AM BST. The full card can be found here.

With that, let’s look at the competitors in the A Block. All 8 men bring something to the table, and will provide some very interesting matches. This also marks the first year in a very long time that Jushin Thunder Liger will not be competing in the tournament, sadly.