The finals of the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors are set with a repeat of last year’s finale.
For the second year in a row, Kosei Fujita and YOH will meet in the final of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament after winning their semi-final contests in Gunma.
Results:
- Best of the Super Juniors – Semi-final: YOH over Master Wato in 16:43
- Best of the Super Juniors – Semi-final: Kosei Fujita over Robbie Eagles in 18:42
- Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Jakob Austin Young & Zane Jay over Yota Tsuji, Taiji Ishimori, Robbie X & Daiki Nagai in 10:05
- Ren Narita, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro over Aaron Wolf, Toru Yano, KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi in 8:50
- El Desperado & Hyo over Daisuke Sasaki & Dick Togo in 6:20
- Jun Kasai & Nick Wayne over Titán & Gedo in 3:57
- Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson over Yuya Uemura & Masatora Yasuda in 7:29
- Valiente Jr. & Tatsuya Matsumoto over Tiger Mask & Taisei Nakahara in 7:27
Fujita finished second in Block A and drew Block B winner Robbie Eagles in the first semi-final match.
A crowd of 1,102 saw Eagles working over Fujita’s knee. Fujita made the rope to escape the Ron Miller Special and attempted to hit the Thrill Ride, but was blocked. Fujita returned fire and applied the Nemosu Special as a prelude to the climax, where he elevated Eagles onto his shoulders from a Chaos Theory setup but turned it into the Thrill Ride to make the cover and secure the win.
The two showed respect and exited the arena together.
The other side of the final was determined by Friday’s main event between Block A winner Master Wato and B Block runner-up, YOH. This match turned into a Hiroyoshi Tenzan tribute with both incorporating holds and strikes in honor of the soon-to-be-retired star.
YOH incorporated Mongolian chops into his offense and hit the Calf Branding. YOH had to fight through his chronic shoulder injury as he was caught in the Anaconda Vice by Wato and later hit by a TTD (Tenzan Tombstone Driver).
The tables turned as YOH applied the Anaconda Vice from a standing position before taking his foe to the mat. Wato rallied to his feet but was taken down with a reverse STO as YOH wrenches back on the Anaconda Vice and submits Wato.
The show ended with Fujita entering the ring for a face-off with YOH as they will meet in Sunday’s finale at Ota City Gymnasium in Tokyo.
Fujita beat YOH in last year’s final, and this will mark YOH’s third trip to a BOSJ Final, but he has yet to win.
