NJPW President Wants To "Trouble WWE," Best Of The Super Jr. Press Conference, Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Above is press conference from earlier today for the Best of the Super Jr. tournament, which will take place from May 18 until June 4. The round-robin styled tournament will feature the following wrestlers.
A BLOCK
* Will Ospreay
* Taiji Ishimori
* Tiger Mask IV
* ACH
* BUSHI
* Yoshinobu Kanemaru
* YOH
* Flip Gordon
B BLOCK
* KUSHIDA
* Chris Sabin
* Ryusuke Taguchi
* Hiromu Takahashi
* El Desperado
* Marty Scurll
* SHO
* Dragon Lee
- NJPW spoke with Hiroshi Tanahashi on who he thinks will win the Best of the Super Jr. tournament and his pick was Hiromu Takahashi.
"It's hard to call. Impossible. Whoever makes it to the end it'll be good; I think this is the best lineup in years," Tanahashi said. "Of all the entrants though, my pick is Hiromu. Back at [Wrestling Dontaku] I had all that encouragement, but still he showed more power and energy than me. He pulls the fans in, he's even great on social media. When it comes to getting motivated for his matches and really making the fans happy, Hiromu is the best. There might be people that rival him on pure ability, but he has that charismatic X factor that will make him win I think."
- As noted, New Japan Pro Wrestling has hired a new President, Harold Meij. At 54 years old, Meij (Dutch) will be the first NJPW President who is not Japanese. Previously, he held the role of CEO for TOMY, a Japanese toy company, and has lived in Japan for over 30 years. Meij began with TOMY in 2014 and took the company from its biggest loss year to the most profitable ever in 2017. In an interview (translation by Chris Charlton), Meij is looking to expand the company globally and said in three years he wants NJPW to bring in about $90 million in sales. In regards to WWE, "Long term, I want us to trouble WWE. If you just look at our product you'll see that's not out of the question."
Harold Meij's goals as NJPW President https://t.co/BKqS3qzqFc pic.twitter.com/wIXUeBZ49W
? chris charlton (@reasonjp) May 17, 2018
NJPW has a new President, and for the first time ever, he's not Japanese.
Harold Meij (54, Dutch) has lived in Japan for 30+ yrs, is English and Japanese fluent, and a fan of pro-wrestling. He left his role as CEO of Japanese toy company TOMY last year. https://t.co/sCPMXM6zj8
? Evan (@EvanDeadlySinsW) May 13, 2018