NJPW reveals YOH’s Best of the Super Juniors 31 injury replacement

NJPW has revealed YOH’s injury replacement for the Best of the Super Juniors 31 tournament. 

In a social media post early Friday, two-time BOSJ winner KUSHIDA was revealed as the substitute for the injured YOH. 

KUSHIDA notes in his video promo that he originally did not make the cut for this year’s BOSJ, but now he is stepping up and will go right for the trophy, and has cleared his schedule for May to take part in the tournament:

KUSHIDA won the BOSJ tournament in 2015 and 2017, and was the runner-up in 2014.

YOH is out of action after suffering a dislocated shoulder at Sakura Genesis earlier this month. NJPW announced Thursday that YOH also suffered damage to the labrum in the left shoulder as a result of the injury and would need to be replaced.

Block assignments have yet to be revealed for this year’s tournament which begins on May 11. The finals will take place at Dominion in Osaka-Jo Hall on June 9. 

The updated field: 

  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion SHO
  • Hiromu Takahashi
  • Ryusuke Taguchi
  • El Desperado
  • Kevin Knight
  • KUSHIDA
  • BUSHI
  • Titan
  • TJP
  • Francesco Akira
  • DOUKI
  • Robbie Eagles
  • Taiji Ishimori
  • Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • Clark Connors
  • Drilla Moloney
  • Kosei Fujita
  • Blake Christian
  • Ninja Mack
  • HAYATA