Historic winner, Impact champ joins Bullet Club at NJPW Best of the Super Juniors final

Friday’s New Japan Pro-Wrestling event at Nippon Budokan was headlined by the finals of the promotion’s Best of the Super Juniors 29 tournament. It was a rematch of the 2020 final, as Hiromu Takahashi took on El Desperado.

This latest Takahashi/Desperado clash started slow, selling how familiar the two are with one another. Once the pace picked up for the match’s final third, each man grew more frustrated with his inability to put his opponent away when they kicked out their big moves & finishers.

Finally, Takahashi escaped Desperado’s Pinche Loco to win with a sequence that ended with his Time Bomb and Time Bomb 2 maneuvers. The BOSJ victory is his third in a row and fourth all-time, both records.

After beating reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Taiji Ishimori in block action during the BOSJ, Takahashi will likely challenge him at New Japan’s Dominion show next weekend.

Elsewhere on the June 3 card, it was another eventful night for Bullet Club. Recent addition and new IWGP United States champ Juice Robinson was pulled from the match at the last minute due to appendicitis, but the group welcomed KENTA back from injury...

... and welcomed Impact X-Division champ Ace Austin to the fold...

It’s not clear when KENTA, who’s been sidelined since January’s Wrestle Kingdom, will return to the ring. After Jay White announced him as a surprise, that didn’t help Switchblade’s team beat his Dominion opponent IWGP World Heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada’s side in an 8-man tag. The Austin reveal did lead to a win for Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale & El Phantasmo over United Empire’s Jeff Cobb, Arron Henare & Great O-Khan.

Another return on the show set up a future challenge for Juice’s title, as Los Ingobernables de Japón’s SANADA appeared for the first time since a fractured orbital bone forced him to vacate the IWGP U.S. belt. With Robinson’s appendicitis, it’s not clear when that match will happen, however.

Thoughts on an eventful BOSJ final?