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Hiromu vs Desperado, KUSHIDA vs Scurll on May 22! KUSHIDA vs Hiromu, Ospreay vs Flip on June 3! Our highlights of the BOSJ group cards!

MAY.8.2018

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Hiromu vs Desperado, KUSHIDA vs Scurll on May 22! KUSHIDA vs Hiromu, Ospreay vs Flip on June 3! Our highlights of the BOSJ group cards!

◆ Best of The Super Junior 2019 : Tour schedule, Full lineup & Ticket sales info https://www.njpw1972.com/schedule/

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The May 22nd Korakuen card is one of the most stacked of the BOSJ’s first half. On top, it’s a match fans have been anticipating for quite some time as Hiromu Takahashi faces El Desperado. Hiromu went on a long foreign excursion from summer 2013 to late 2016, while Desperado debuted in January 2014, before joining Suzuki Gun and departing for NOAH from 2015 to 2017. Their paths finally crossed as Takahashi and BUSHI feuded with Desperado and Kanemaru this spring, and seemingly long held hatred and bitterness between the two surfaced. This looks to be a heated war as both are willing to put their bodies on the line to deal maximum damage.

In the semi main event on May 22, KUSHIDA faces Marty Scurll. These two were part of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship four way match back at Wrestle Kingdom, but ROH fans have seen the two battle each other several times. KUSHIDA and Scurll are both phenomenal technical masters, augmented in KUSHIDA’s case by some powerful strikes, and for Scurll, devious and legally questionable tactics. Will it be the Hoverboard Lock, or the Crossface Chickenwing that proves to be most effective?

Dragon Lee has often played for Taguchi Japan, but will have to face his coach on May 22. There’ll be no love lost between the two when they meet in group action, and nothing will be held back.

Korakuen will also see SHO face Chris Sabin. While they have encountered one another in ROH, this is their first match together in Japan. This could be a huge feather in the powerful SHO’s cap, or it could be that Sabin’s experience and veteran instincts win out.

June 3 will see Korakuen Hall host the last day of group action, and both A and B Blocks will have crucial deciding matches. The order of the card will remain undetermined until the group standings make the most crucial contests apparent, but regardless of order, the matches themselves look thrilling.

From A Block, two of the world’s best high fliers face off as Will Ospreay takes on Flip Gordon. Gordon’s fearless and devastating high flying offense has led him to be compared frequently to Ospreay throughout his young career. Now Gordon has the chance to test himself against the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. At 25 and 26, Ospreay and Gordon are sure to show us the present and future of junior heavyweight wrestling, as memories are bound to be turned to Ospreay’s groundbreaking BOSJ classics with Ricochet.

Another A Block highlight is YOH’s match against Taiji Ishimori. Ishimori has been a phenomenal junior heavyweight competitor for years across multiple promotions, and has even taken part in the BOSJ before. But when he clad the Bone Soldier mask and joined Bullet Club, he became the center of attention like never before. YOH, meanwhile, is a young, homegrown New Japan star, and will put that pride on the line against Ishimori.

Block A will also see the fierce veteran Tiger Mask take on the ever innovative ACH, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru and BUSHI pick up their tag team rivalry in a singles environment.

In B Block, it’s a war between arguably the two best Japanese junior heavyweights going as KUSHIDA and Hiromu Takahashi have their first singles match in quite some time. KUSHIDA was unsuccessful in his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship challenge at Dontaku but wants to reclaim the junior heavyweight summit as defending BOSJ winner. Hiromu for his part has been embroiled in tag team action for much of 2018, but both are driven to elevate the status of the junior heavyweight division at large and will stop at nothing to do so.

El Desperado will face Dragon Lee in B Block action. Lee proudly represents CMLL, but Desperado wears his lucha heart on his sleeve as well. There’s an interesting clash of wrestling cultures here as the two masked men collide.

Ryusuke Taguchi and Chris Sabin is another fascinating encounter. These two have faced each other several times, but as part of their famous tag teams, Taguchi with Prince Devitt as Apollo 55, and Sabin with Alex Shelley as Motor City Machineguns. How they’ll fare in singles action after years apart is definitely intriguing. Throw in the strength and speed of SHO against the cunning and chameleon like adaptability of Marty Scurll and you have an unmissable card.

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