Kosei Fujita Becomes Youngest BOSJ Winner In NJPW History

By Sam Palmer
Kosei Fujita Etsuo Hara/Getty Images

New Japan Pro Wrestling's annual Best of the Super Juniors tournament concluded on June 1, where former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Kosei Fujita ran out victorious in the final, becoming the youngest man in history to win the prestigious competition.

Fujita advanced to the finals after topping the hotly contested A block with ten points, the same amount of points as Hiromu Takahashi, Clark Connors, Master Wato, and Francisco Akira. However, eight of Fujita's ten points came from beating those four performers, meaning he topped the block thanks to his head-to-head record, with his other win coming against Dragongate's representative Dragon Dia. His opponent, YOH, topped the B block with 12 points, advancing ahead of DDT's representative MAO and last year's winner, current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado, on his head-to-head record as well.

After almost 30 minutes of action, it was "The Japanese Young Punk" who picked up the victory, winning the tournament at the age of just 22, beating the previous record held by current AEW star Will Ospreay who won the tournament at the age of 23 back in 2016.

Traditionally, the winner of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament would go on to face the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion at the Dominion event in Osaka-jo Hall, but that has not yet been confirmed. This is because after the event had ended, Fujita explained backstage that he wants to wait until current champion El Desperado has had his final singles match with deathmatch legend Jun Kasai, with that match set to take place at Korakuen Hall on June 24. Given that NJPW's annual G1 Climax tournament is just around the corner, it's currently unclear when Fujita will pick his moment, but it's clear he wants the champion at 100% when the time comes.

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