YOH will attempt to earn his first-ever Best of the Super Juniors trophy this weekend.
The current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion secured first place in the B Block on Thursday night in Niigata, Japan, advancing him to the tournament’s grand finals on Sunday evening against Kosei Fujita.
YOH overcame Taiji Ishimori in the main event of today’s show, moving him to 12 points in the standings. While that’s the same number of points both El Desperado and MAO also finished with, YOH overcame them in head-to-head action, making him the winner in a tiebreak.
After coming close to a pinfall win with a Dragon Suplex, YOH put Ishimori away near the 16-minute mark with his Direct Drive finishing move. Had YOH lost in Thursday’s headliner, it would’ve been Desperado headlining Sunday’s card against Fujita instead.
YOH has a long list of credentials as a tag wrestler, including four different Super Junior Tag League trophies, but he has never won a major tournament as a singles act. That accomplishment could finally emerge just a few days from now, entering his second-ever BOSJ finals.
Fujita, emerging from the other side of the bracket, is looking for a BOSJ trophy in just his second-ever appearance in the tournament. The 22-year-old TMDK stand-out will meet YOH at the Ota City General Gymnasium this weekend in Tokyo.
Here are the results from Thursday’s card, as well as the final standings for both the B and A blocks.
NJPW Best of the Super Junior 32 Night 12 Results
- Dragon Dia, KUSHIDA & Ninja Mack def. Daiki Nagai, Masatora Yasuda & Shoma Kato
- Ren Narita, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi def. Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Toru Yano
- Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji def. Francesco Akira & Jakob Austin Young
- Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa def. Clark Connors, Gedo & Robbie X
- Kevin Knight def. Ryusuke Taguchi (Block B)
- Titan def. Nick Wayne (Block B)
- MAO def. SHO (Block B)
- El Desperado def. Robbie Eagles (Block B)
- YOH def. Taiji Ishimori (Block B)
B Block
- YOH (12)
- El Desperado (12)
- MAO (12)
- Kevin Knight (8)
- Titan (8)
- Robbie Eagles (8)
- Taiji Ishimori (8)
- SHO (8)
- Nick Wayne (8)
- Ryusuke Taguchi (6)
A Block
- Kosei Fujita (10)
- Master Wato (10)
- Hiromu Takahashi (10)
- Francesco Akira (10)
- Clark Connors (10)
- KUSHIDA (8)
- Ninja Mack (8)
- Robbie X (8)
- Yoshinobu Kanemaru (8)
- Dragon Dia (8)
