New Japan Pro Wrestling set chief matches for Power Struggle, brackets for annual Super Jr. Tag Tournament

With this year’s edition of King of Pro-Wrestling done and over with (check out our match recommendations from the show here), New Japan Pro Wrestling have announced the top matches for November 5’s Power Struggle in Osaka’s Edion Arena Osaka.

As expected, the main event for the evening will be a rematch we’ve been waiting for since the G1 Climax, with Hiroshi Tanahashi putting the IWGP Intercontinental Championship on the line against Kota Ibushi, and two other title matches have been added following the events of King of Pro-Wrestling.

Marty Scurll’s post-match challenge to freshly-crowned IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay has been made manifest despite Hiromu Takahashi’s obvious attempt to assert his claim, and after a hate-filled tag team match that saw Minoru Suzuki try to hogtie Toru Yano to the barricade and the Sublime Master Thief walk out with the physical belt, how could NJPW not make a title match?

Plus, the annual Super Jr. Tag Tournament is back, and the finals, as ever, will be held at Power Struggle. But with whom? Let’s list out this year’s field and then we’ll get to details on the tournament.

Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017

• ACH & Ryusuke Taguchi
• Dragon Lee & Titan
• Hirai Kawato & KUSHIDA
• Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask IV
• Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi)
• Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH)
• Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
• Suzuki-gun (Taichi & TAKA Michinoku)

Not a lot of surprises in the field, there, although it’s always nice to see the likes of Dragon Lee, Titan, and ACH back in a New Japan ring. Indeed, perhaps the one surprising thing here is an omission, as Bullet Club have no representatives in the tournament, with the Young Bucks missing their first Super Jr. Tag Tournament since coming to New Japan back in 2013. Although given how they had their bracket busted by ACH and Taiji Ishimori in the first round last year, maybe it’s understandable that they wouldn’t be interested in a repeat performance.

As far as the structure of the tournament goes, before we get to the finals at Power Struggle, the other rounds of the tournament will play out at the three Road to Power Struggle shows being held at Tokyo’s legendary Korakuen Hall this month, with quarterfinals on October 23 and 29, and the semifinals held on October 30.

The way the brackets are set up, we could see Suzuki-gun on Suzuki-gun violence in the semis, but New Japan have made sure to give us pyrotechnics in the first round as well, as Dragon Lee and Hiromu Takahashi continue their physics-defying feud in tag team form. So, enough talk, let’s round these cards up and get out of here, folks!

Road to Power Struggle (October 23, 5:30AM Eastern / 2:30AM Pacific)

• Bullet Club (Leo Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka
• ACH, Jushin Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi, & Tiger Mask IV vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
• Chaos (Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka)
• David Finlay, Juice Robinson, & Kota Ibushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuya Kitamura, & Togi Makabe
• Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL, SANADA, & Tetsuya Naito)
• Hirai Kawato & KUSHIDA vs. Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) (Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 Quarterfinals)
• Dragon Lee & Titan vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi) (Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 Quarterfinals)

Road to Power Struggle (October 29, 5:30AM Eastern / 2:30AM Pacific)

• Bullet Club (Leo Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson
• Chaos (Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka)
• Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Kenny Omega, & Marty Scurll) vs. Chaos (Beretta, Will Ospreay, & YOSHI-HASHI)
• Dragon Lee, Kota Ibushi, & Titan vs. Hirai Kawato, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & KUSHIDA
• Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero, SHO, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOH) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, & Tetsuya Naito)
• Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 Quarterfinals)
• ACH & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & TAKA Michinoku) (Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 Quarterfinals)

Road to Power Struggle (October 30, 5:30AM Eastern / 2:30AM Pacific)

• Winner of Hirai Kawato & KUSHIDA vs. Roppongi 3K vs. Winner of Dragon Lee & Titan vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 Semifinals)
• Winner of Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Suzuki-gun vs. Winner of ACH & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Suzuki-gun (Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 Semifinals)

Power Struggle 2017 (November 5, 4AM Eastern / 1AM Pacific)

• ??? vs. ??? (Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 Finals)
• Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Toru Yano (NEVER Openweight Championship)
• Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay (c) (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship)
• Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kota Ibushi (IWGP Intercontinental Championship)

There you have it, folks

Excited for the next round of New Japan shows or do you just want to hurry up and get to Wrestle Kingdom already, Cagesiders?