It’s that time of the year again! (No, not Christmas! Why would you think it’s Christmas?) It’s only May, which means it’s time for the annual New Japan junior heavyweight showcase: The Best of Super the Juniors tournament!
2016 is a big year for the New Japan junior heavyweights. Not only do we have the BoSJ tournament, but also the return of the Super J-Cup later in the year! The J-est of all cups! This year’s BoSJ kicks off on May 21 at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall, and finishes up with the final between the A & B Block winners at the Sendai Sun Plaza Hall in Miyagi on June 7.
Attack the Block
This year’s A & B blocks consist of a total of 14 competitors featuring talent from NJPW, ROH, and CMLL. Newbies to the tourney are IWGP Jr. Tag champ Matt Sydal, CHAOS’s newest member Will Ospreay (formerly Will Osplay for one glorious night), and token CMLL guy Volador Jr. For those unfamiliar with the BoSJ format, it is a round robin tournament with a win being worth two points, a draw one, and a loss zero. The top two point scorers of each block advance to the semi-finals, with the winners going on to meet in the finals.
Here are the complete blocks depicted as adorable chibi wrestlers by the equally adorable Tapla.
A Block
BUSHI
Gedo
Kushida
Kyle O’Reilly
Matt Sydal
Rocky Romero
Ryusuke Taguchi
David Finlay Jr.
B Block
Beretta
Bobby Fish
Jushin Thunder Liger
Ricochet
Tiger Mask IV
Volador Jr.
Will Ospreay
Chase Owens
Fighting Champion
For the first time in two years, the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight champion will take part in the event. Last year, a shot at Kenny Omega and his IWGP Jr. title were the prize for winning the tournament, a prize that went to current champion KUSHIDA. The previous year, reigning champion Kota Ibushi was focused on winning the NEVER Openweight title from Tomohiro Ishii, and so did not participate in the tournament.
Who’s Going to Win?
As with just about any tournament, I tend to place the competitors into three categories. FIrst, there are those who have absolutely no chance in super junior hell of winning. Next, you’ve got the Anything is Possibles who probably won’t win, but, well, anything is possible. Finally, the favourites to win. Here is my completely subjective look at which of competitors fall into which category.
No Chance in Super Junior Hell
Tiger Mask
Gedo
Ryusuke Taguchi
Jushin Thunder Liger
Chase Owens
David Finlay Jr.
Gedo may get some of the best crowd reactions, and he’ll certainly pick up a few wins, but the booker is not booking himself to win. 15 years ago, Tiger Mask would definitely be in with a shot. In fact, Tigey won back to back years in 2004 and 2005. However, 2016 Tiger Mask…no. Just no. Taguchi’s days as a serious contender seem to be over, though it wasn’t too long ago he was still in the mix. But I can’t see the 2016 Nakamura mimicking, hip-attacking Taguchi getting very far. Liger is an interesting one. It hurts to put him in such company, but he just came off the losing end of a program with KUSHIDA, so it’s doubtful he’ll win the tournament and get another shot at the champ this soon. Then again, he did say he wants another chance someday.
Anything is Possible
Volador Jr.
Beretta
Rocky Romero
Bobby Fish
Matt Sydal
Ricochet
Out of this group, Ricochet and Fish look to have the best chance. Fish in particular is coming in hot, recently defeating heavyweight Tomohiro Ishii for the ROH Television title at Global Wars. Ricochet is a former BoSJ winner and is always in with a chance, but in his current New Japan run, he’s been pushed more as a tag team with Sydal than a singles competitor. He and Sydal are the current jr. tag champs (this week anyway), so it doesn’t look like the right time for either of them to take the home the trophy.
Both of the now-injured Young Bucks would have had a decent chance, particularly with New Japan’s focus on keeping the Bullet Club strong and relevant. But like Sydal & Ricochet, and Romero & Beretta, they’re more involved with the jr. tag titles than the singles title. That being said, the jr. tag division is in dire need of a shake up, so seeing a guy like Romero branch out and have a run as a singles competitor would make for a welcome change of pace.
As for Volador Jr., the token CMLL guy never wins. But with Dorada gone, New Japan might be wanting a CMLL regular again. If Volador Jr. turns out to be that guy (not a good guy, not a bad guy, THAT guy!), he may start out strong by taking the whole tournament.
Favourites
Kyle O’Reilly
KUSHIDA
BUSHI
Will Ospreay
It’s one of these four whom I expect to take home the BoSJ trophy. Ospreay had a strong debut in his losing effort against KUSHIDA at Invasion Attack. It’s since been reported that Ospreay has signed a deal to become a New Japan regular. It’s for that reason I expect him to be booked strongly in his debut tournament, perhaps even going all the way, though it may be too soon for an Ospreay/KUSHIDA rematch.
BUSHI, with his trusty mist and Los Ingobernables around as back up, is in with a solid chance. BUSHI was KUSHIDA’s first challenger after Kush won the title from Kenny Omega at WrestleKingdom 10. The time might be right for another shot, particularly with Los Ingobernables being so hot right now and Naito on top of the heavyweight division.
KUSHIDA is fast becoming the new worldwide junior legend. While chances of winning the tournament two years straight are slim as we’ve seen with Tiger Mask, it can be done. And if anyone was going to do it again, it’s everyone’s favourite star junior, KUSHIDA. KUSHIDA is quickly running out of goals to achieve in the junior division. He has said that if he wins the BoSJ again, he wants to enter the G-1, like fellow juniors Prince Devitt and Kota Ibushi did before him. Even if he doesn’t become a 2-time winner, the return of the Super-J Cup gives KUSHIDA at least one more goal to achieve before making the possible move to the heavyweights.
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My personal choice to take out the 2016 BoSJ is the Irish Dragon of Redness (that’s what they call him, right?) Kyle O’Reilly. O’Reilly and KUSHIDA had one of the best matches of the year in the finals of the 2015 BoSJ tournament, a match which KUSHIDA ultimately won. But coming up short in 2015 is one of the main reasons he has such a good chance of winning in 2016.
There’s an interesting pattern in the BoSJ of the competitor winning the tournament after coming up short in the finals the previous year. For example, KUSHIDA won last year after losing to Ricochet in the 2014 finals. Ryusuke Taguchi won in 2012 after coming up short in 2011. Ibushi won in 2011 after coming up short in 2010. Prince Devitt won in 2010 after coming up short in 2009. Koji Kanemoto won in 2009 after he came up short in 2008. And surprise, Wataru Inoue won in 2008 after, you guessed it, coming up short in 2007!
Based on that booking, O’Reilly finds himself in an enviable position. More than that though, I’d love to see KUSHIDA and O’Reilly battling it out one more time for the junior title, and if it takes winning the BoSJ to get us there, so be it.
Key Matches
Most of the BoSJ shows will air live on NJPW World. The shows that aren’t live will be up on delay, so there’s no excuse for missing a single moment of action! If for some poor excuse for a reason you can’t see every match of the tournament, here are some key matches that I’m especially looking forward to that might be worth going out of your way to see.
May 21, Opening Night, Korakuen Hall
– KUSHIDA vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Um, f-yeah! Not a bad way to kick things off.
– Will Ospreay, Beretta & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Bobby Fish, Volador Jr. & Satoshi Kojima
Obviously not a tournament match, but holy hell this should be one heck of a show opener!
May 27, Korakuen Hall
– Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay
Can you just imagine the flips? This is going to have, like, all of the flips! Someone ask Steve Corino to make a flip counter asap!
June 5, Gunma
– Ricochet vs. Volador Jr.
Lucha flips.
June 6, Miyagi
– Volador Jr. vs. Will Ospreay
One of the most highly anticipated matches since the blocks were announced should be entertaining to say the least.
Obviously, there are going to be plenty of great matches that I haven’t mentioned here. Gedo seems to have a lot of fun in these tournaments and gets awesome crowd reactions. Liger is Liger, and given the right opponent on the right night he can still steal the show. And it’s refreshing to see guys like Romero & Beretta in singles matches rather than the usual tags.
Foreign Invasion
One question the BoSJ raises is where are all the Japanese junior stars? This year (and in 2015), only 6 of the 16 competitors are Japanese. Of those 6, KUSHIDA and BUSHI are the only “rising” stars of the division. Liger, while still great, is past his prime. Same goes for Tiger Mask and Gedo. Meanwhile, Taguchi has developed into a comedy act. KUSHIDA and BUSHI are the only two native stars who are serious contenders (maybe it’s the capitalised names).
If you look back over the years of the BoSJ, you can see the balance of native stars to foreigners slowly shift in favour of the latter. Now, is this by choice or necessity? I’m really asking you because I have no idea and would like to know. Is New Japan purposefully featuring more foreign talent over native talent, or are they just compensating for the lack of homegrown talent available?
Whatever the case may be, a balance is necessary. No-one is saying to stop bringing in foreigners. A variety of wrestlers and styles is essential for any promotion, and expected in a tournament of this kind. I’m just saying that as a fan of Japanese wrestling, when watching a Japanese wrestling tournament, I’d like to actually see, well, some Japanese wrestling.
This, however, is a discussion for another day. What we have in the 2016 BoSJ tournament is a highly international field consisting of legends, some of the best flyers on the scene today, great technicians, solid hands, green (and red) mist blowers, colourful characters, and Tiger Mask. I’m looking forward to some potentially phenomenal matches and a fun couple of weeks of wrestling.