Either Tomohiro Ishii or Clark Connors is headed to Forbidden Door.
Ishii vs. Connors in an AEW All-Atlantic Championship qualifying match will take place at Tuesday’s New Japan Road show in Tokyo. The winner will advance to the four-way match at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door to crown AEW’s first-ever All-Atlantic Champion.
Ishii and Connors advanced to the qualifying match with victories at Monday’s New Japan Road Show. Ishii defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru, while Connors defeated Tomoaki Honma.
Miro, PAC, and either Malakai Black or Penta Oscuro will be the other three participants in the four-way match to crown the inaugural All-Atlantic Champion. On AEW Dynamite this Wednesday, Black and Oscuro are facing each other in a qualifying match.
Forbidden Door is being held at the United Center in Chicago this Sunday (June 26). Here’s the updated card for the pay-per-view:
Interim AEW World Championship match: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa defends against Toni Storm
IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay defends against Orange Cassidy
Four-way match to crown the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Champion: Miro vs. PAC vs. Malakai Black or Penta Oscuro vs. Tomohiro Ishii or Clark Connors
Winner-take-all match for the ROH Tag Team titles and IWGP Tag Team titles: FTR vs. The Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb vs. Roppongi Vice
Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
NJPW has revealed details regarding their qualifying match for the AEW All-Atlantic title four-way at Forbidden Door later this month.
The company announced that two qualifying matches will take place on the June 20 New Japan Road card in Korakuen Hall. Those two matches will have Tomohiro Ishii take on Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Tomoaki Honma facing off against Clark Connors. The winners of those two qualifying matches will then face off the following night at Korakuen Hall. The winner will then qualify for the four-way match at Forbidden Door on June 26 in Chicago.
AEW announced the All-Atlantic title on this past Wednesday’s edition of Dynamite. The first qualifying match took place on the show, with PAC defeating Buddy Matthews. Another qualifying match, Miro vs. Ethan Page, will take place on this week’s Dynamite. The final qualifying match will have Penta Oscuro face Malakai Black.
Forbidden Door, a joint card featuring talent from both AEW and NJPW, will take place June 26 at the United Center in Chicago. Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the interim AEW World Championship has been confirmed for the show.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including more on the death of Scott Hall, our weekly chat with Dave Meltzer talking the big stories in the new Observer up at wrestlingobserver.com, and then CLARK CONNORS joins us to talk his match with Filthy Tom Lawlor live this Sunday in St. Petersburg, FL! A fun show as always so check it out~!
NJPW Strong is holding their Strong Style Evolved tapings in Tampa, Florida on March 20th. Ahead of the show, I spoke with ‘Filthy’ Tom Lawlor who is defending the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship against Clark Connors in his eighth title defense.
Lawlor made his New Japan Pro Wrestling debut during the summer of 2020 on an episode of Lion’s Break Collision. However he kicked his wrestling career into high gear when he competed in the 2021 New Japan Cup USA tournament, defeating The DKC, Ren Narita, Hikuleo and Brody King to win the tournament and become the first inaugural Strong Openweight Champion.
“I think this has clearly been the best my professional wrestling career has ever been,” Lawlor said.
He has defended the title successfully against Chris Dickinson, Karl Fredericks, Satoshi Kojima, Ren Narita, Fred Rosser and Taylor Rust. As of this writing, he has held the title for over 328 days.
I asked Lawlor what it meant to him to be the first Strong Openweight Champion given that he is tasked with establishing the belt.
“I bust my ass to be honest,” Lawlor said. “I wrestle a really hard style and I am willing to take as much as I give out and I think that’s what New Japan is all about. And really I am lucky to have been given the opportunity. But once I got that ball, I wasn’t going to slow down. I am not the fastest guy, but I am willing to run through whoever is in front of me.”
Lawlor also expressed to me that while he takes everything he does in the ring very seriously, he’s also having a good time.
“I take all that stuff very seriously to a certain degree because I am having a blast, believe me. I try to make every match as good as it can be. I try to mix my style and not compromise what I think professional wrestling should be with what the other guy is gonna do.”
Additionally, I asked Lawlor what his interest is in regards to going to Japan and wrestling there.
“I have a deal with New Japan Strong, so I am very happy with where I am,” Lawlor said. “If I end up over in Japan, that’s cool. If not, then I am more than happy being here in the U.S.A. I am not an idiot, I read the news, I understand what’s going on overseas, I mean when there’s an entire month of flights not going into the country…I am more than happy being in the USA and being the face of New Japan Strong and being on the roster. I’d love to be over in Japan, I never got to fight over there, I haven’t had a chance to compete over there, I’ve been there but that’s my goal. and if it means I get to take the New Japan Strong belt over there and defend it, even better.”
Lawlor also explained how he sees New Japan Strong in a similar fashion as WWE’s developmental brand NXT, however with some exceptions.
“I like to equate New Japan Strong to NXT, for the New Japan audience. A lot of times guys just get stuck in NXT and right now if you look at NJPW Strong, we’re stuck there, but it’s a different situation. I think once I go over there, and some of the other guys from New Japan Strong go over there, you’re gonna see a lot more wrestlers in the U.S in the independent scene who want to be part of the New Japan Strong roster. I think you’re gonna see professional wrestlers take the same path that I am gonna take over there. “
One of the hot topics in wrestling right now is the concept of the ‘forbidden door,’ seeing companies work together and exchange talents for fans to experience never before seen matches, dream matches, and so on. I asked Lawlor who he would like to see walk through the forbidden door and step into the NJPW Strong ring. He brought up Bryan Danielson, saying he is someone he would love to face. Following Danielson, other names Lawlor wants to fight include Jon Moxley, Jonathan Gresham, and Josh Alexander.
Before we wrapped up our conversation, I also asked Lawlor about both his short and long term goals in pro wrestling.
“I’ll be 40 next year, which sounds kinda old, but physically I felt worse when I was doing MMA,” Lawlor said. “I was more beat up, so this is being a little easier on my body right now, and when I look at guys like Minoru Suzuki, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, these are guys who are in their fifties, and Suzuki is huge star over here he just had an awesome match with Hiromu Takahashi and you wouldn’t know that this is a guy in his fifties. So when I look at that I don’t think I’ve even come close to overstaying my welcome in the pro wrestling world, because I’ve only been here a few years. My long term goal is to still be wrestling when I am 55, traveling the world. In the short term, my goal is to take the NJPW Strong Openweight title to Japan and in the shorter term it’s to kick Clark Connors’ ass on Sunday at Strong Style Evolved.”
You can listen to the full conversation with myself and Tom Lawlor below.
This week’s New Japan Strong kicked off the most recent set of tapings from The New Beginning USA tapings in Seattle at Washington Hall, the home of super indie DEFY Wrestling.
ROH’s Ian Riccaboni joined Alex Koslov on commentary. Riccaboni, who has also appeared for both Impact Wrestling and GCW recently, was filling in for Kevin Kelly, who was overseas doing English broadcasting in Japan.
If you’ve seen the 2019 NJPW Super J Cup, which was also filmed in Washington, tonight’s production quality and overall look was similar.
Brody King defeated Yuya Uemura
The two stood face to face in the ring before the bell, King almost a full head over Uemura. There were lots of chants for King before things got started.
This was a good opener. King was on the offensive throughout most of this. He squashed Uemura with a senton early, later putting Ueumura in a seated abdominal stretch and clubbing him in the chest with his free arm as he stretched him out.
While Ueumura took a beating, he always wrestled with fire and attempted to come back. It was King who was just too much for the recently-graduated Young Lion.
Uemura would eventually connect with a string of moves to help him put King on the defensive. They traded big elbows, but Uemura landed a nice dropkick off the ropes soon after. He caught King with a running dropkick in the corner later and somehow put King down on the mat with a backdrop Saito suplex.
King answered back, locking Uemura in a bear hug and spiking him with a piledriver for two. Uemura slapped on a desperation armbar but King was close enough to the ropes to have the referee call for the break. He then put Uemura away with a big lariat and the Gonzo Bomb for the win.
King, who has been on a roll since last year, looked great, but so did Uemura who earned a chant of his own before he exited to the back.
Lio Rush & Rocky Romero defeated West Coast Wrecking Crew
The WCWC (Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson) were regulars in the Seattle area for DEFY before they got to NJPW, where they wrestled under the name The One Percent. As a result, the crowd sounded familiar with them.
There was lots of action in this one. WCWC jumped Romero & Rush before the bell. Rush and Nelson fought on the floor while Isaacs worked Romero over in the ring. They did stereo delayed suplexes next, one in the ring and one on the floor. Nelson used a gourdbuster and dumped Rush face first to the mat while Isaacs dropped Romero with a suplex in the ring. WCWC then ran back into the ring to do some flexing and posing for the fans.
Romero later landed some hard chops on Isaacs and the crowd was loudly behind him. Isaacs kiboshed that and kept working him over while Nelson began tearing the red ringpost pad from the turnbuckle in the corner “Toru Yano style” as Riccaboni put it.
Romero was finally able to swing out of Isaac’s grip with a tornado DDT and tag out to Rush. Isaacs tagged out Nelson, who caught a springboard moonsault from Rush upon entering the ring. Rush did an Asai moonsault to the floor onto Isaacs next and ran back into the ring for a flying frog crossbody attack (he did the froggy pump and a crossbody block, like Hiroshi Tanahashi does sometimes) onto Nelson.
A proverbial “house of fire,” Rush was. This kid has so much in-ring talent alone that it’s kind of crazy he’s not in a top spot somewhere.
Nelson caught Rush with flying double knees in the corner and tagged out to Isaacs. Rush landed an enzuigiri on Isaacs and tagged out to Romero, who ran wild from corner to corner with Forever Clotheslines on both Isaacs and Nelson.
WCWC took Romero out soon after, using a running knee-to-German suplex double team spot on Romero for two. They did a cool double team slingshot-to-powerslam for another two. The match began breaking down. Rush dove onto the floor with a tope suicida as we hit the ten minute mark.
Romero caught Isaacs coming off the ropes with a flying armbar, transitioning to a triangle choke and finally to an armbar on the opposite side. He grabbed Isaacs’ left leg for more leverage and pressure, which got Isaacs to ultimately tap out. This match had really good stuff from everyone involved.
WCWC beat up Romero after the match with a black kendo stick—a message from Black Tiger and Team Filthy to Romero, who has been feuding with the new Black Tiger since early in the year. Isaacs looked to the camera and told Black Tiger they had his back.
Romero and the new Black Tiger will finally have a singles match at the upcoming NJPW Strong: Rivals tapings this month.
— Riccaboni interviewed David Finlay and Juice Robinson. FinJuice were pissed and called out JONAH and Bad Dude Tito for sticking their noses in their business. Finlay and Robinson usually come off happy-go-lucky babyfaces, but this promo had an edge to it for sure.
The promo was short and to the point, covering all that’s happened between the four within the past month like when JONAH and Tito jumped Robinson after JONAH’s singles match against him at NJPW Strong: Nemesis. These two teams will also square off at NJPW Strong: Rivals this month.
Clark Connors defeated TJP
NJPW Strong has been slow cooking this mentor vs. mentee rivalry over the past two years or so. A video package broke down all the different stops along the way, starting with the aforementioned Super J-Cup 2019 all the way through Showdown 2021.
Connors, who comes from the Pacific Northwest, got a great reception before the match started. He slammed TJP into the corner and took his knee tape off. It’s business time. Connors next walked back to the corner and chopped the hell out of TJP, who was still reeling. He launched him with two very high angle German suplexes and went for a third before TJP escaped to the floor. Connors ran after him and pounced TJP over the guardrail onto the ring announcer’s table. This was great but also would have looked better if the lighting wasn’t so dark.
TJP locked Connors in a guillotine choke inside the ropes, his back facing the audience. He then planted him with a high back suplex with one grapevined leg for a two count. He put Connors in a chinlock for a while and the crowd got loud in support of Connors. TJP face washed him in the corner and I liked how Riccaboni said, “I don’t agree with this move” which is such an accurate take on the spot. It’s not illegal, yet there’s nothing sportsmanlike about it. Heavy boos rained down onto TJP.
Connors was able to gather up a burst of energy to catch TJP running off the ropes with a flying shoulder block. He dropped an elbow on to his former mentor just after the ten minute call sounded.
TJP tried springboarding off the ropes, but Connors caught him mid-air with a spear. Both were out for a while. TJP was back up first and gave Connors more disrespectful face washes as he pointed to those booing him in the crowd. He locked Connors in an armbar next, but Connors reversed it into a Mr. Gannosuke-style full nelson clutch. TJP escaped after grabbing the ropes for a break.
When TJP tried escaping to the floor again, Connors caught him with a spear while he was still on the apron which got the crowd to chant “this is awesome.”
Connors tried suplexing TJP back into the ring, but TJP countered and locked Connors in a triangle choke in the ropes. He let go and then dashed to the top rope to drop a flying knee across the back of Connors, who was still caught in the ropes. TJP then rolled Connors to the center and hit his Mamba Splash finisher for a really close two count. The crowd was steaming hot at this point.
TJP then hit a crazy looking cobra twist driver, but Connors kicked out at one. He landed a fireman’s carry-to-gamengiri kick but again, Connors kicked out after the count of one. If this were a video game, his spirit level would have been flashing like crazy at this moment.
TJP did a backslide followed by a modified scorpion deathlock, wrenching on Connors’ injured knee. Connors caught the ropes for a break and then rolled TJP up for two. They then knocked each other down after a double lariat. Referee Jeremy Marcus shouted at both to get back up. When both were, TJP went for a tornado DDT but Connors instead just launched the guy forward and he went flying, landing face first onto the mat. Connors climbed to the top but TJP stopped him, again wrenching on Connors’ injured shoulder.
Moments later, Connors connected with a Mamba Splash of his own. Connors flashed the LA Dojo sign at TJP, which the crowd enjoyed, and then used a big stacked power bomb on him for two. TJP flipped Connors off and Connors powerslammed him. Then, he put his former mentor TJP away with Catch and Kill, a backdrop suplex-to-power bomb, for the emphatic win in 18:19.
This was excellent and Connors’ best match on NJPW Strong of all time, and possibly even the best match of his career so far.
Final thoughts:
This show had a big time feel and delivered with three very good-to-great matches. Each is worth going out of your way to see, and each had a different flavor than the other. King vs. Uemura was a killer hard-hitting opener while the West Coast Wrecking Crew vs. Rush & Romero was top-tier tag team wrestling.
The main event wasn’t just Connors’ best match on the show but possibly also TJP’s as well. Actually, I can’t think of too many better TJP matches in the past few years than this one. Good on both of them for this ripper of a match.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and special guest Lance Storm is back with tons to talk about including all of the news, ratings, AEW Dynamite thoughts from Wednesday night and more.
Clark Connors then joins us to talk New Japan Pro Wrestling coming to Washington Hall in Seattle this Saturday for a big show!
A fun time as always so check it out at video.f4wonline.com! Click JOIN today!
NJPW has announced that Clark Connors has not been medically cleared following a COVID-19 diagnosis and will not take part in Thursday’s NJPW Strong Nemesis event as advertised.
The scheduled Connors and Jordan Clearwater vs. Chris Bey and Hikuleo tag match will now be the debuting Keita Murray and Clearwater vs. Bey and Hikuleo.
Connors and NJPW announced his COVID-19 diagnosis last Thursday, a day before Connors was scheduled to appear at LA Comic Con. In a statement, NJPW said that Connors was “experiencing mild symptoms, and has not had close contact with other wrestlers.” Connors wrote: “Thankfully, due to NJPW’s testing guidelines I was able to catch it early and isolate immediately. I am vaccinated so hopefully this will pass quickly.”
Thursday’s Strong taping will be held at the Vermont Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. Here is the lineup:
NJPW Strong Nemesis, Thursday, December 9, 7 p.m. Pacific time —
Jay White vs. Christopher Daniels
David Finlay vs. Jonah
Alex Zayne vs. Ariya Daivari
Brody King vs. Dave Dutra
Karl Fredericks & Kevin Knight vs. Bateman & Misterioso
TJP vs. The DKC
Eddie Kingston vs. Gabriel Kidd
Alex Coughlin vs. JR Kratos
Royce Isaacs vs. Lucas Riley
Juice Robinson vs. Bad Dude Tito
Keita Murray & Jordan Clearwater vs. Chris Bey & Hikuleo
“Sorry gang. I was really looking forward to meeting everyone at Comic-Con.
Thankfully, due to NJPW’s testing guidelines I was able to catch it early and isolate immediately. I am vaccinated so hopefully this will pass quickly. Again, sorry for my absence this weekend. Be well -CC”
Connors had been scheduled to appear at the NJPW Comic Con booth for a meet and greet on Friday, December 3 and a panel discussion with Jay White and Fred Rosser on Saturday, December 4. The company announced that Gabriel Kidd will take Connors’ place at the events.
NJPW went on to say that Connors’ status for the Thursday, December 9 NJPW Strong Nemesis taping in Los Angeles is subject to a negative COVID-19 test. Connors is currently scheduled to team with Jordan Clearwater against Bullet Club’s Chris Bey and Hikuleo on that show.
Connors received training from Lance Storm before joining NJPW’s LA Dojo and training further under Katsuyori Shibata. After wrestling for nearly three years as a Young Lion on NJPW events in Japan and the United States, it was announced on the May 14 episode of Strong that Connors had officially graduated from Young Lion status.
A singles match headlines this week’s NJPW Strong.
United Empire’s TJP will face Clark Connors in the show’s main event. The two have split their previous singles meetings 1-1.
Lio Rush will tag with Ariya Daivari in the second match on Strong. They will face the Bullet Club duo of El Phantasmo and Impact Wrestling’s Chris Bey.
In the opener, David Finlay and Juice Robinson will take on Yuya Uemura and LA Dojo’s Kevin Knight.
The New Japan Showdown episodes of Strong were taped on October 16 and October 17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the 2300 Arena.
Strong airs at 8 p.m. Eastern time this Saturday on NJPW World. The show will also be available on demand immediately following airing.
Here is Saturday’s full lineup:
NJPW Strong New Japan Showdown night three, Saturday, November 20, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World–
TJP vs. Clark Connors
Lio Rush & Ariya Daivari vs. El Phantasmo & Chris Bey
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Yuya Uemura & Kevin Knight
A tag team match will headline this week’s New Japan Showdown episode of NJPW Strong.
In the main event, Will Ospreay and TJP of The United Empire will tag against NJPW LA Dojo graduates Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors.
In the semi-main, Juice Robinson will be in singles competition against Bullet Club’s El Phantasmo.
In the opener, Robinson’s FinJuice tag partner David Finlay will team with Alex Coughlin and Yuya Uemura against Team Filthy’s JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs and Jorel Nelson.
The New Japan Showdown episodes of Strong were taped on October 16 and October 17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the 2300 Arena.
Strong airs at 8 p.m. Eastern time this Saturday on NJPW World. The show will also be available on demand immediately following airing.
Here is Saturday’s full lineup:
NJPW Strong New Japan Showdown night one, Saturday, November 6, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World–
Will Ospreay & TJP vs. Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors
Juice Robinson vs. El Phantasmo
David Finlay, Alex Coughlin & Yuya Uemura vs. JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
Tonight’s episode of NJPW Strong was described as an LA Dojo showcase, with a focus on each of the trainees. Karl Fredericks and Alex Coughlin were pushed as the show centerpieces. Trainer Katsuyori Shibata spoke in English about his trainees, basically hyping his guys up for tonight’s card.
TJP defeated the DKC via submission
The opener saw TJP take most of the first part of this match on offense, and it was mostly on the mat. The DKC came across as a competent grappler, though. He never felt like he was too far behind TJP. DKC caught TJP with a dropkick late, kicking off a short series of fiery comeback action. He has great babyface energy. TJP eventually tapped him with a modified STF/abdominal stretch submission. They shook hands afterward.
DKC said backstage that he’s in the gym and giving his best effort in his new path as a LA Dojo Young Lion under Shibata.
Fred Rosser and Ren Narita defeated Alex Coughlin and Kevin Knight
We saw some feistiness between Coughlin and Rosser before the bell. It was a simple way of drawing me into the match without any other context. Rosser and Knight were in together first and had a great exchange. Knight is super athletic. Rosser bullied Knight around before tagging out to partner Ren Narita, stomping over Knight a few times.
Knight and Rosser made a comeback midway through this after Narita got the better end of a beating from both Coughlin and later Knight. Knight at one point landed a beautiful high dropkick on Narita. It wouldn’t be hyperbole if I were to compare him with Okada’s. Some may even rate Knight’s higher. Go and watch for yourself.
Coughlin took Rosser out with a missile of a shoulder tackle. He later showcased his raw power by ragdolling the not-small-at-all Rosser, and later launching Narita with a deadlift backdrop suplex from hell.
Towards the end of the match, Rosser landed a powerful lariat on Knight, sending Knight spinning to the mat. Narita and Coughlin brawled on the floor as Knight and Rosser struggled for control on the top rope. Knight knocked Rosser off the turnbuckle and landed a high crossbody block, but Rosser held onto Knight while rolling through, reversing Knight’s momentum and lifting him into a double-knee gutbuster. Rosser pinned Knight after connecting with a running basement dropkick, picking up the win for him and Young Lion Narita.
Knight talked about how he’s taken a loss every single time he’s been in the ring, then said he “couldn’t do it.” Coughlin shared some words of support for his training partner and urged him to keep going. Knight said he’d keep training.
Karl Fredericks defeated Clark Connors
Tonight’s main event was between the hypothetical “best of the best” on NJPW Strong. Connors and Fredericks trained at the same time in the LA Dojo, alongside Alex Coughlin, but Fredericks won the Young Lions Cup in 2019, hence “graduating” from the dojo one year ahead of Connors, who would go on to win the Cup last year.
Things kicked into overdrive early on. After an even exchange between both on the mat, the action spilled to the floor. The bigger Fredericks at one point dove through the ropes, landing onto Connors with a tope suicida. They continued to brawl on the floor, with Connors suplexing Fredericks onto the floor.
Connors kept control on offense from the time he’d brought the fight back into the ring. The pace slowed, and Connors seemed to target Fredericks’ back and shoulder area, using a variety of both modified abdominal stretches and hard double-chops to the back of Fredericks.
Fredericks powered back from Connors’ control and threw some hard kicks to a seated Connors, then both continued exchanging hard shots for a short while.
At the ten-minute mark, Connors collided with Fredericks, sending him flying with a shoulder tackle. Towards the end, their exchanges got much faster, with one exchange ending with Fredericks picking Connors up and drilling him into the mat with a backdrop suplex. Fredericks dropped his jumping elbow drop on Connors before locking him into a crossface submission. Connors made it to the ropes for a break, then was able to lock Fredericks into a Boston Crab, the Young Lion signature. Fredericks was close to tapping but eventually made it to the bottom rope to break the hold.
Connors went to the top, assumedly for a super flying shoulder block, but Fredericks got up and knocked him dizzy with a jump enzuigiri kick to the face, then superplex’d him from the corner post into the ring.
Both looked exhausted and were slow to their feet by around 15 minutes into the match. The two then traded even harder elbows and slaps. Fredericks leveled Connors with a running basement kick, but Connors asked for more. Fredericks went for another kick, but Connors stood up and caught Connors with a snap powerslam. We saw a big spear from Connors next. The two then went back and forth, teasing finishers until Fredericks finally was able to plant Connors with Manifest Destiny, his version of an elevated DDT, and picked up the win.
Connors said he’d watched all of his matches on NJPW Strong and that he’s noticed he has grown since he’d gotten to NJPW. He also said he liked that announcer Kevin Kelly had been referring to Connors as a “wild rhino” that now, the Young Lion Clark Connors is dead. He’s now the “motherf**king” Wild Rhino”.
Final thoughts: This was a hell of a showcase. Everything was very good, but I thought both the tag team match and the main event stuck out in the best kind of way. The effort both Fredericks and Connors gave in tonight’s main event was comparable to any modern high-impact sport. Kudos to them for shining in the spotlight. Also, fans should keep their eyes peeled on both Fred Rosser and Kevin Knight as the show goes forward. Both are unique and could add a very interesting element to the show later in the year.
The Super J-Cup 2020 tournament will make its return next month.
During the announcement of this year’s Best of the Super Juniors 27 participants, the company also announced that they will be holding a Super J-Cup tournament next month in the United States. Eight wrestlers will compete in a single elimination tournament, with the winner being crowned this year’s J-Cup winner.
Like with previous J-Cup tournaments, some wrestlers will represent different promotions across the United States. Impact, ROH, and Game Changer Wrestling will all have representatives.
Notable talent included in this year’s tournament include ACH, who will make his tournament debut, and Lio Rush, who will make his debut for UWN Primetime Live this Tuesday. Chris Bey, representing Impact, will also participate, while Rey Horus will represent ROH.
The participants for this year’s tournament include:
TJP
ACH
Lio Rush
Chris Bey (Impact)
Rey Horus (ROH)
Blake Christian (Game Changer Wrestling)
Clark Connors (LA Dojo)
El Phantasmo (Bullet Club)
In last year’s tournament, El Phantasmo defeated Dragon Lee in the finals.
The show, which will take place on one night, will air live on December 12 on New Japan World.
NJPW’s Rocky Romero, NJPW Los Angeles dojo Young Lion Clark Connors, ROH’s Jonathan Gresham, and CMLL’s Soberano Jr. will be taking part in the Super J-Cup. There are three entrants left to be announced for the tournament.
TJP, Dragon Lee, SHO, Caristico, Ryusuke Taguchi, Taiji Ishimori, YOH, BUSHI, and Amazing Red are the other entrants that have been confirmed for the tournament thus far.
Jushin Thunder Liger is the producer of the Super J-Cup and will be wrestling in non-tournament action on all three nights.
The Super J-Cup will begin at the Temple Theater in Tacoma, Washington on Thursday, August 22. The second night is taking place at the San Francisco State University Student Life Event Center in San Francisco, California on Saturday, August 24. The tournament will then conclude at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California on Sunday, August 25.
