The grind of the 33rd Best of the Super Juniors
We are seven nights deep into the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 33 and the physical toll is starting to show on the cards. While the booking remains characteristically dense, the pace of these multi-day round-robin tournaments often leaves the middle block feeling like a slog. Watching back the Night 7 results from Kyoto, it is clear the roster is moving through the motions before the big-match intensity returns for the final weekend.
The issue isn't a lack of talent; it is the sheer repetition of these tag-heavy undercards designed to protect the tournament participants. When top-tier talent is hidden in glorified dark matches, the casual viewer checks out. That said, the technical work remains sharp. Masatora Yasuda and Daisuke Sasaki picking up a win over Tatsuya Matsumoto and Toru Yano via crossface continues to highlight the importance of submission counters in this year's block.
Mid-tournament lulls and structural flaws
Beyond the NJPW bracket, the wider Japanese scene has been busy throughout late May. The Hana Kimura Memorial Show, held at Korakuen Hall on May 23rd, served as a grim reminder of how small the live houses are getting. Only 487 fans attended. While the sentiment is high, the business reality is that these specialized memorial shows struggle to draw the kind of live crowds that sustained the scene even three years ago.
We are seeing this dilution across the board. The Global Tag League kickoff in Kyoto hit a mere 480 attendees. Even established promotions face a difficult pivot when they spread talent across too many simultaneous events. When you run a league and a tournament in the same week, something invariably gives. In this case, the match quality dipped in the early tag rounds where none of the stakes felt legitimate.
What to watch as the Super Juniors tighten
The leaderboard math is what matters now. We are approaching the point where the 737 fans in Kyoto get their money's worth because the points race finally forces the seniors out of their comfort zones. Ignore the tag fillers. Focus entirely on the singles bouts where the drop-off in effort from the first two nights has been most noticeable.
I expect the booking team to lean heavily into the desperate comeback arc. If a veteran takes another fall to a low-tier challenger in these next three days, they are definitively out of the finals. The logic is simple: if you aren't winning by Night 9, you are done. Keep an eye on the headliners who have been coasting in tag matches; they are hiding their fatigue to pull off one last high-impact sequence before the playoffs.
My prediction for the finals is a safe but technically sound bet. We see the main event spotlighting a major upset where a fresher, hungrier junior spoils the path for a heavily pushed veteran. It won't be pretty, and the fans won't enjoy seeing their favorites drop the title shot, but it is the only way to generate heat for the final, which I predict will end with a three-count finish following a surprise finisher reversal. Don't look for technical perfection; look for the desperation finish.
