The former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion will be competing in the Best of the Super Juniors finals on June 5
th against an undefeated Shingo Takagi.
Ospreay had been on an impressive run throughout his stint on the Best of The Super Juniors tournament and his win over Ryusuke Taguchi has given him another chance to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. The former two-time champ is no stranger to winning the BOTSJ, as he’s previously won the 2016 tournament.
Ospreay is making it known that he wants the Junior Heavyweight division to headline the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom someday:
"There’s a big, big gap between the number of heavyweight main events and junior heavyweight main events on major cards. The last junior main event was in Dontaku, but before that, it’s maybe one a year. You can say the junior division doesn’t have the star power of an Okada, Tanahashi, Naito, but we can do it. We just need the ball. Now we have it.”
“We’re in Ryogoku Sumo Hall, and now we’ve found out that Jon Moxley has been sending all those ‘Time’s Up’ videos. That’s huge for us, because his following will be watching. The Jay White and Tanahashi match; their following will be buying tickets and NJPW World subscriptions to watch. But the main event is still going to be the Best of the Super Juniors final. So it’s our time to show that we can beat out those other attractions. You know, my mission, and I’m deadly serious right now, is to have a junior heavyweight main event in the Tokyo Dome. It’s easily possible. We have two events in the Tokyo Dome this year. There’s no reason why one of those shouldn’t be the junior heavyweights."
The Tokyo Dome will host Wrestle Kingdom 14 for two-days and the next day will be the 'New Year's Dash', which will also host the Tokyo Dome. Check Ospreay's full interview with New Japan
here.