New Japan Pro Wrestling has two major tournaments every year. (Yes, they have way more than two tournaments every year, but there are two in particular that always come with a lot of hype and anticipation, and are the two most prestigious singles tournaments in the world.) Later this summer will be the G1 Climax, but kicking off on May 17, we’ve got the 24th installment of the Best of the Super Juniors.
The tournament runs from May 17 until June 3, and is the standard round robin format, with the participants divided into two blocks. New Japan has revealed the full field for the tournament, and it’s beyond stacked. It features five former BOSJ winners, including the last three years’ winners: Will Ospreay, Ricochet, and KUSHIDA.
The full lineup:
Block A
Jushin “Thunder” Liger
Ricochet
Will Ospreay
Dragon Lee
Taichi
Marty Scurll
TAKA Michinoku
Hiromu Takahashi
Block B
Tiger Mask IV
KUSHIDA
Ryusuke Taguchi
BUSHI
Volador Jr.
El Desperado
ACH
Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Obviously Block A is ridiculously stacked, as it’s guaranteed we’ll not only a Ricochet-Ospreay New Japan rematch out of it, but we’ll also get to see TAKA by god Michinoku take on the top junior heavyweights currently wrestling in the year 2017. There are some intriguing matchups over in Block B, to be sure, but Block A is the one that immediately raises your eyebrows.
Strap in, everybody. There will be flips, and dives, and much headscissoring. What a time to be alive.
