NJPW BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS 32 NIGHT 11 RESULTS (5/27): Results from the final night of A Block action

NJPW BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS NIGHT 11 RESULTS
MAY 27, 2025
KIRAMESSE NUMAZU
SHIZUOKA, JAPAN
AIRED LIVE ON NJPW WORLD

The night’s action saw the climax of A Block, crowning the block winner. The preview tags all set up the B Block finale, with Robbie Eagles joining Walker Stewart on commentary for the five tournament matches.

(1) Yota Tsuji & Titan defeated Nick Wayne & Daiki Nagai via pinfall at 6:36. Tsuji pinned Nagai after a Gene Blaster.

(2) Yujiro Takahashi & Sho defeated Shoma Kato & Mao by pinfall at 4:18. Yujiro pinned Kato with Pimp Juice.

(3) Toru Yano & El Desperado defeated Hartley Jackson & Robbie Eagles by pinfall at 7:17. Yano caught Jackson with a backslide.

(4) Yoh & Tiger Mask defeated Gedo & Taiji Ishimori by submission. Yoh tapped out Gedo with the Anaconda Vice.

(5) A Block: Ninja Mack (8 points) defeated Dragon Dia (8) by pinfall at 10:10 with the shuriken kick. They worked a very intelligent match that had distinct phases: they opened with a long series of headlock and rollup exchanges and escapes, then Ninja Mack went to a more ground-based plan after apparently hurting his leg, then Dia had a spell in control where he did not focus on the leg at all, then they went back to a rollup sequence before ending with a missed Ninja Bomb and an attempted DD-DDT that was countered into the finishing kick. Both men would have benefited from having this sort of match before now, to show that they had that added dimension.

(6) A Block: Francesco Akira (10) defeated Kushida (8) by submission at 10:46 when he escaped the Hoverboard lock and turned it into a ground tarantula. The match started like a typical Kushida match, lots of arm work to control his opponent, but the pace picked up beautifully and the finish could have gone either way. Akira hit all his big moves before getting caught in the Hoverboard, but the escape and reversal was somewhat unexpected. I really enjoyed this match, combining mat work and impact moves and agility and some high-flying. The commentators mentioned the possibility of a five-way tie in the block at ten points, which I would call “highly unlikely” at best. In all likelihood, this was a dead rubber.

(7) A Block: Yoshinobu Kanemaru (8) defeated Master Wato (10) by submission at 8:33 with a figure four following a pre-match assault on the outside, a distraction by Sho that allowed Kanemaru to pepper Wato’s knee with a whisky bottle, and typical Kanemaru offence. Wato’s loss keeps things interesting for the last two matches, with that five-way tie still possible if Fujita and Robbie X win their matches. That said, this was just another example of House of Torture making everything worse as the match was entirely missable.

(8) A Block: Kosei Fujita (10) defeated Clark Connors (10) by submission at 13:32 with the Nemos Special. This played out nicely, but the finish became pretty clear when Connors dropped Wheel-San on Fujita’s back in the early going. From then it was always likely to be Fujita showing resilience and getting a surprise win. That said, they still entertained me on the way. This left the main event being a win-and-in for Hiromu, but with a loss the picture would get a lot more blurry. The ring announcer confirmed that Fujita would go through if Robbie X could pull off the upset of the tournament.

(9) A Block: Robbie X (8) defeated Hiromu Takahashi (10) by pinfall at 15:54 with the X Express. Well, they did it. They mentioned how unlikely it was that Fujita would be able to win the block, and now he has. Hiromu, ever the company man, gave Robbie X his best match of the tournament. I mentioned at the outset of the tournament that I thought Hiromu was unlikely to win it, as he seems destined to finally make his way to the heavyweight ranks. Robbie has steadily improved and become more watchable during the tournament, and if we could see more of this version I would be very happy.

Final thoughts: Once the blocks were announced, many people (including me) had Fujita penciled in as a big favourite. A Block was stacked, and all the big names were in contention on the final day, and indeed that five-way tie arguably contained the names you’d expect. Tonight’s tournament matches were, for the most part, the best matches of the tournament for all involved. I’m not sure if that’s a positive or not, especially for some of the visiting talent who would likely have drawn more attention if they had shown out to this degree early on.

The decision to basically book the whole tournament with parity has been a controversial one, but I think it makes a nice change to the usually predictable tournament format with at least one time-limit draw, at least one double DQ or count out, one person going winless until the last night, and so on. I can see the argument that nobody really seems to be head and shoulders above anyone else, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing in the short term. I would not want it to continue through multiple tournaments, and it’s fair to say that I hope B Block takes a slightly different path on Thursday, but I don’t see a problem with taking this route once to mix it up.

B Block has four potential winners, much like A Block: Yoh, El Desperado, Mao, and Sho. I think we can rule out Mao, as visiting talent rarely gets that much of a spotlight unless they are visiting from AEW. Sho I would also consider unlikely, given that it would be a repeat of the story we had from this show. My feeling is Yoh, but I have not been on a hot streak of predictions for this tournament.

We will be back on Thursday with the results from the B Block finale, and then on Sunday June 1 with the finals. As always, thanks for stopping by!