The Best of the Super Juniors tournament concluded on Friday with New Japan Pro Wrestling returning to Nippon Budokan.
For the fourth time in his career, Hiromu Takahashi is the winner of the tournament after defeating El Desperado in the final.
Takahashi, the A Block winner of the round-robin portion, won the match with a series of stunners that served as a prelude to the Time Bomb and Time Bomb II to keep Desperado down for the three-count.
The match eclipsed thirty minutes and was presided over by legendary figure Tatsumi Fujinami, who gave an address at the beginning of the contest.
This year’s win by Takahashi follows the previous tournament wins in 2018, 2020, and 2021.
Earlier in the round-robin portion, Takahashi defeated current IWGP junior heavyweight champion Taiji Ishimori. This sets the stage for Takahashi to challenge for the championship, which he has held four times.
Takahashi previously beat El Desperado to win the 2020 version of the Best of the Super Juniors. Earlier this year, Desperado defeated Takahashi on the first night of Wrestle Kingdom 16 at the Tokyo Dome when Desperado was still the IWGP junior heavyweight champion.
POST Wrestling’s Karen Peterson will have a complete review of the BOSJ Final card later today on the site.
