NJPW’s annual Best of the Super Juniors tournament began on Saturday with the promotion returning to Korakuen Hall to kick off its final tour of 2021.
All twelve participants in the round-robin style tournament were in action on Saturday that was highlighted by new IWGP junior heavyweight champion El Desperado sustaining a loss in the main event.
One week after defeating Robbie Eagles for the championship, El Desperado was defeated by SHO after more than twenty-five minutes. SHO scored the fall after executing his Shock Arrow maneuver and gaining two points on the opening night.
After the split of Roppongi 3K, SHO has aligned with EVIl and Yujiro as the ‘House of Torture’, a subdivision of The Bullet Club. The Trio recently became the NEVER Six-Man tag champions defeating Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI at Power Struggle last weekend in Osaka.
The rest of the tournament matches on Saturday saw Hiromu Takahashi, Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and DOUKI earn two points each with their respective victories.
The card kicked off with a non-tournament match between Ryohei Oiwa and Yuto Nakashima, who made their debuts over the past year and wrestled to a ten-minute draw.
Nakashima is 24-years old and had his first match this past February.
The Best of the Super Juniors will run alongside the World Tag League, which begins on Sunday. Both tournaments will culminate with the finals of each taking place on Sunday, December 15th at Sumo Hall.
Here are the results from Saturday’s card at Korakuen Hall in front of 696 fans (Courtesy: Purolove.com):
*Ryohei Oiwa and Yuto Nakashima fought to a 10:00 draw
*Best of the Super Juniors: DOUKI over BUSHI
*Best of the Super Juniors: Yoshinobu Kanemaru over Taiji Ishimori by count-out
*Best of the Super Juniors: Ryusuke Taguchi over Robbie Eagles
*Best of the Super Juniors: Master Wato over El Phantasmo
*Best of the Super Juniors: Hiromu Takahashi over YOH
*Best of the Super Juniors: SHO over El Desperado
