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BestoftheSuperJuniorsTrophy

The Best of the Super Juniors (often abbreviated BOSJ) is an annual professional wrestling tournament held by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), typically in May or June. The wrestlers in the tournament are typically junior heavyweight wrestlers from promotions all over the world. NJPW has held 22 Super Juniors tournaments. Two wrestlers have won the tournament three times, Jushin Liger and Koji Kanemoto, while only one wrestler has won the tournament in two consecutive years as Tiger Mask IV won the tournament in both 2004 and 2005. Liger is the wrestler who has participated in the most tournaments as he has wrestled in all tournaments except the 1995 and 2000 tournaments. His participation in the 2011 tournament marked his 20th Super Junior tournament.

History and format[]

The tournament was formed in 1988 by NJPW. It was originally called the Top of the Super Juniors. The tournament is a round-robin style tournament where a wrestler scores points. The winner, assuming they are not already the champion, receives an opportunity to wrestle for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship not long after the tournament is over.

In 1994, the tournament was renamed to the Best of the Super Juniors. Since 1996 the tournament has been divided into a two-block system used in many other puroresu tournaments. In this format the top two scorers in each block advance to the semifinals, at which point single-elimination rules take effect. During the round-robin portion, a win is worth two points, a draw is worth one, and a loss zero; all matches have a 30-minute time limit, though in the past it has been twenty minutes.

Tournament winners[]

Tournament Year Winner Total won
TOSJ 1988 1988 Shiro Koshinaka 1
TOSJ 1991 1991 Norio Honaga 1
TOSJ 1992 1992 Jushin Thunder Liger 1
TOSJ 1993 1993 Pegasus Kid 1
BOSJ I 1994 Jushin Thunder Liger 2
BOSJ II 1995 Wild Pegasus 2
BOSJ III 1996 Black Tiger II 1
BOSJ IV 1997 El Samurai 1
BOSJ V 1998 Koji Kanemoto 1
BOSJ VI 1999 Kendo Kashin 1
BOSJ VII 2000 Tatsuhito Takaiwa 1
BOSJ VIII 2001 Jushin Thunder Liger 3
BOSJ IX 2002 Koji Kanemoto 2
BOSJ X 2003 Masahito Kakihara 1
BOSJ XI 2004 Tiger Mask IV 1
BOSJ XII 2005 Tiger Mask IV 2
BOSJ XIII 2006 Minoru 1
BOSJ XIV 2007 Milano Collection AT 1
BOSJ XV 2008 Wataru Inoue 1
BOSJ XVI 2009 Koji Kanemoto 3
BOSJ XVII 2010 Prince Devitt 1
BOSJ XVIII 2011 Kota Ibushi 1
BOSJ XIX 2012 Ryusuke Taguchi 1
BOSJ XX 2013 Prince Devitt 2
BOSJ XXI 2014 Ricochet 1
BOSJ XXII 2015 Kushida 1
BOSJ XXIII 2016 Will Ospreay 1
BOSJ 24 2017 Kushida 2
BOSJ 25 2018 Hiromu Takahashi 1
BOSJ XXVI 2019 Will Ospreay 2
BOSJ XXVII 2020 Hiromu Takahashi 2
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