Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado - This is the final of the Best of the Super Jr. tournament, pitting the winner of A Block (Hiromu) against the winner of B Block (Despy). There is no time limit, and there must be a winner. The winner will receive a trophy and will presumably challenge to the IWGP junior heavyweight champion, Taiji Ishimori, at the Dominion show on June 12. Despy has never won BOSJ; Hiromu is seeking his third consecutive trophy and fourth overall.
Both Hiromu and Despy finished with 12 points (6 wins, 3 losses) in their blocks. Heading into the May 31 show, each of them was two points behind first place, and then they each beat the guy in first place to create a tie and win the tiebreaker all at once. (This is a pretty common trope in these round-robin tournaments.) Notably, Takahashi beat Ishimori, which should put him in title contention whether he wins this match or not.
Since Takahashi returned from excursion in 2016, these two have fought six times, and Despy currently leads the series 3-2-1. Arguably their most important clash was the 30-minute war in the 2020 BOSJ final, which Hiromu won. When they met again in the 2021 tournament, the fought to a draw. In Janaury 2022 they faced off in the Tokyo Dome, in what I expected to be a cake walk for Hiromu, but Despy came out on top. So despite being the ace of the junior division and a three-time BOSJ winner, Hiromu needs to prove he can still beat this guy.
My gut feeling is that it’s Hiromu’s time to shine and regain the junior title. But I thought that would happen in January and it just didn’t. Maybe they were saving it for now, or maybe they just want to push Desperado on top all year. If the goal is to establish Despy as a top junior, then they’ve done a great job. I didn’t give him any chance of winning the 2020 BOSJ final, and then I didn’t expect his epic performance in that match to lead to anything. But now I genuinely think this rematch could go either way
Kazuchika Okada & Tama Tonga & Toru Yano & Jado vs. Jay White & Doc Gallows & Taiji Ishimori & Gedo - Okada vs. White is the main event for the June 12 show. Also set for June 12 is Tonga vs. Karl Anderson, who was booked for this show (and probably this match) but had to withdraw due to COVID-19. Ishimori is waiting to find out who wins in tonight’s main event. Jado and Gedo used to be thick as thieves before Jado got kicked out of Bullet Club, so it’ll never be over between them.
It’s worth keeping an eye on Gallows. If Anderson is unable to make the June 12 show, his tag partner is the obvious choice to replace him. And if you want to set that up, having Gallows pin Tama here would be a simple way to do it. Otherwise, I don’t think anybody else in this match needs to score a pin. So I’m going with the Bullet Club team to win.
Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Taichi & DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku - Most of these guys aren’t doing anything, but Takagi and Taichi will meet on June 12 for Takagi’s KOPW 2022 trophy. The lack of direction for Naito is particularly curious, but I suppose they could run an angle here to give him a match on Dominion. Taichi, Naito, and Shingo shouldn’t get pinned here, but everybody else can, which means either side could easily win. Flip a coin on this one.
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & El Phantasmo vs. Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare - This is a preview of Fale & Owens vs. Cobb & Khan on June 12. Cobb and Khan did a run-in on an AEW show last week, so it looks like they’re already slotted for a program at Forbidden Door. Kinda thinking they should win all their matches until then, but you never know.
EVIL & SHO vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - During the BOSJ tournament, Kanemaru scored an upset on Sho that mathematically eliminated Sho from winning the block. So I guess the House of Torture wants revenge. I doubt this will set up a sustained Suzuki-gun/House of Torture feud, but I guess I wouldn’t mind if they did. I’m thinking Sabre submits Sho for the win.
Juice Robinson vs. Tomoaki Honma - Robinson’s IWGP United States title is not at stake. Honma’s a fun dude but he’s not exactly a top contender. It’s a little unusual for New Japan to book a champion in a non-title match with no build against a tomato can. I assume there’s a reason this is happening, but I can’t imagine what it is. Maybe Robinson’s just going to abuse Honma to establish his new heel persona in Bullet Club, so that someone can make the save and demand a title shot for June 12. Or…I guess Honma could just score an upset and issue that challenge himself. But if you’re betting on Honma to win, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato vs. TJP & Francesco Akira - Taguchi and Wato are the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team champions, but the title is not on the line in this match. In this case I assume they didn’t make this a title match because all four guys just got done with a long tournament, although to me that’s still a level playing field. During BOSJ, Taguchi won his match against Akira, but Wato lost his match to TJP. There’s really nothing else happening in the junior tag division, so I’m in favor of TJP and Akira winning to set up an inevitable rematch for the belts.
YOH & Robbie Eagles & Clark Connors & Titan vs. Wheeler YUTA & Ace Austin & Alex Zayne & El Lindaman - Yoh, Eagles, and Connors are all New Japan guys; Titan is from CMLL, which has a close alliance with NJPW. The other side is all outsiders, so it’s sort of an us vs. them kind of match. Yuta, Austin, and Lindaman all hold championships, so if any of them lose the fall I’d like to think it’s to set up an interpromotional title bout, but I shouldn’t count on things like that. Best guess is Zayne or Titan will lose.
I think it can be difficult to catch up on old NJPW feuds, so I put together a match guide for El Desperado and Hiromu’s singles matches, and the relevant promo and backstage commentary videos. I’ve linked both match commentary languages when available.
This doesn’t include their tag feud, just singles matches! And I’ve tried to keep my own commentary to a minimum for the sake of brevity.
