Titan Maintains Winning Streak, Increases His A Block Lead at NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Day 5

By Noah Leatherland

The fifth day of NJPW Best of the Super Juniors took place in the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium, with a focus on A Block. With a win over Ryusuke Taguchi, CMLL’s Titan extended his lead, maintaining a perfect record and reaching 10 points.

Titan has been finding great success with his suite of submissions so far in the tournament. It proved to be a winning strategy once again in his fifth block match, making Taguchi tap out to keep hold of his leading position of A Block. The win adds a nice buffer to the luchador’s lead, now 4 points ahead of the field. Following the bout, Titan was nothing but complimentary of his opponent:

I absolutely love Taguchi’s style. He’s my favourite among Japanese wrestlers. He enjoys himself whilst putting a smile on the fans’ faces. But when it comes down to it, he gets the job done. In the ring, he puts on a real lucha libre show. He’s a man of great character and a true legend.

(Quote translated via DeepL)

With a good chunk of the tournament remaining, someone could still rise up and challenge Titan for the top spot in A Block. While Taguchi remains at 6 points after the loss, others in the field rose to 6 points with wins in Osaka. AEW’s Nick Wayne rose to 6 points with a quick win over Daiki Nagai. Jun Kasai joins him on 6 with a win over Robbie X. Kasai continues to bring even more extreme stylings to his block matches, with the stunts getting even grander against Robbie X.

Master Wato also finds himself on 6 points after a battle with Kosei Fujita in the main event. The Tsutenkaku German Suplex acted as the final blow Wato needed to put his rival away.

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors continues on May 23rd, with B Block taking the spotlight as we continue our path towards crowning a tournament winner. A Block will be back in action on May 24th in Kyoto.

Here are the full results for NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Day 5:

• Jakob Austin Young & Zane Jay def. Daisuke Sasaki & Masatora Yasuda (6:33)
• Hartley Jackson, Robbie Eagles & Ryohei Oiwa def. Tiger Mask, Toru Yano & YOH (7:36)
• El Desperado, Hyo & KUSHIDA def. Dick Togo, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (8:25)
• A Block: Nick Wayne [6] def. Daiki Nagai [0] (5:24)
• A Block: Titan [10] def. Ryusuke Taguchi [6] (7:31)
• A Block: Francesco Akira [4] def. Valiente Jr. [2] (9:34)
• A Block: Jun Kasai [6] def. Robbie X [4] (12:06)
• A Block: Master Wato [6] def. Kosei Fujita [4] (14:30)

Here are the updated A Block standings for NJPW Best of the Super Juniors:

• Titan – 10 pts
• Jun Kasai – 6 pts
• Master Wato – 6 pts
• Nick Wayne – 6 pts
• Rysuke Taguchi – 6 pts
• Francesco Akira – 4 pts
• Kosei Fujita – 4 pts
• Robbie X – 4 pts
• Valiente Jr. – 2 pts
• Daiki Nagai – 0 pts