Naruki Doi and Seigo Tachibana Headline ZERO1’s 2026 Tenkaichi Junior Tournament

ZERO1 unveiled the field for its upcoming 2026 Tenkaichi Junior Tournament this week, with the single-elimination competition set to kick off on September 21. The tournament will feature wrestlers from across the Japanese wrestling scene.

Perhaps the biggest name in the tournament for fans parachuting in is Dragon Gate legend Naruki Doi. The 45-year-old has had a busy summer, particularly in recent weeks, having recently competed in All Japan’s Zennichi Jr. Festival. He is one of two wrestlers to receive a first-round bye and will wrestle his first match on September 26 against the winner of an earlier clash between ZERO1 mainstay Bryan Ishizaka and Osaka Pro wunderkind Sho Mizuno.

The other wrestler to earn a first-round bye is Van Vert Jack, who made his professional wrestling debut at the age of seven and only recently began appearing in ZERO1 last year. He will challenge the winner of BJW’s Kosuke Sato, who lost his BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship last week after more than a year with the title, and Takuya Sugawara, who has held several titles in ZERO1 during his 20-plus-year career with the promotion and is the only wrestler in this tournament to have previously won it.

Elsewhere in the first round, Up Town’s Seigo Tachibana, who is also fresh off competing in All Japan’s Zennichi Jr. Festival, will take on 21-year-old Reiya Igarashi, while veteran Hide Kubota will face Yuki Toki.

ZERO1 has run the Tenkaichi Junior Tournament in almost every year since 2002, with the exceptions of 2003, 2014 and 2024. The inaugural tournament featured major names such as Low Ki and Frankie Kazarian and was won by Wataru Sakara. Subsequent winners have included Tatsuhito Takaiwa, who defeated Tomohiro Ishii in the 2004 final, Minoru Fujita, Masato Tanaka, Jonathan Gresham and Fuminori Abe, before joshi superstar VENY became the first woman to win the competition last year.

For more coverage from the tournament and everything surrounding ZERO1, WrestlePurists will keep you updated.