Karl Fredericks is out of tomorrow’s Super J Cup card.
The company reported this morning that Fredericks is injured and won’t be able to compete on tomorrow’s card. Fredericks wasn’t a part of the tournament, but was set to take place in a tag team match, teaming with Ren Narita against Hikuleo and KENTA.
As a result of the injury, Kevin Knight has replaced Fredericks in the match. Knight will be making his debut for the promotion, having previously participated in the September 2019 LA Dojo tryout.
The other tag match on the card will have Rocky Romero and Fred Rosser team up to take on JR Kratos and Danny Limelight of Team Filthy.
The rest of the card will feature the eight man, single elimination tournament. Clark Connors will take on Chris Bey, ACH will face TJP, Rey Horus will take on Blake Christian, and El Phantasmo will face Lio Rush in the opening round.
Hiromu Takahashi mentioned following his win at the Best of the Super Juniors 27 finals that he would like to face the winner of the Super J Cup tournament.
It’s the Super J-Cup edition of the Bryan & Vinny Show!
We all went to an absolutely great show in Tacoma, WA, Thursday with an incredible main event featuring Will Ospreay vs. Amazing Red and we’re here to tell you all about it since you won’t be able to watch it on New Japan World until at least September. We give you an in-depth look at the whole event from start to finish, plus a history of wrestling at the Temple Theatre and so much more.
Our normal Thursday night slate of talking to Granny and recapping WWF Superstars and NXT will happen this Sunday instead.
You can also watch the Tacoma Super J Cup recap at video.f4wonline.com. It’s a fun show as always so check it out~!
Considering the lineage and prestige that the name carries, the 2016 iteration of The Super J Cup has to be considered disappointing.
The two day event, which began on July 20th at Korakuen Hall and ended this past weekend at Ariake Collosseum, boasted a field which had potential to produce some classic matches. However, that never really materialized.
The biggest issue with Sunday’s show was that they overshot their target with the building they ran. New Japan learned that an all juniors show is just not ready to draw at that level yet and as a result, capacity was only half full. This made for a very dull atmosphere, a stark contrast to the G1 Climax finals one week earlier.
The other issue was the fact that Taichi was pushed to the semifinal, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to the finals. This was not the Taichi that tore the house down against Daisuke Harada and Taiji Ishimori in NOAH last year, but rather the one that comes handcuffed to all kinds of shenanigans which kill his matches. Kanemaru, since returning to NOAH, is one of the most uninspiring wrestlers in the world but as GHC Junior Champion, he provided a noteworthy scalp for IWGP Junior Champ and tournament winner, KUSHIDA.
The highlight of the show was The Young Bucks going up against old rivals The Motor City Machine Guns in a fantastic bout which overcame the echoes of the half empty arena and actually managed to get some big reactions.
Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley looked as good as ever, and showed they could still be an asset to any company in the world. The big story after the match was that the Bucks challenged for the heavyweight version of the tag titles, currently held by the Briscoes. This is somewhat of a landmark occurrence for New Japan which keeps the two weight classes very separate. That match goes down on September 22nd at Destruction in Hiroshima.
The lines of weight classes are being blurred elsewhere on the tour as reDRagon mix it up against heavyweights throughout, and Bobby Fish gets a NEVER title shot against Katsuyori Shibata. That is an openweight belt, but they haven’t had too many juniors challenge for it to this point. There are also rumours that reDRagon will be in the heavyweight tag league in December.
Here’s a rundown of this morning’s Super J-Cup, held live at Korakuen Hall:
Matt Sydal (ROH) defeated Kaji Tomato (Kaientai Dojo)
Tomato’s gimmick is, in fact, coming to the ring with tomato pom-poms that turn into plush tomatoes.
He showed some nice offense early. Sydal took control but Tomato came back with some good offense, including a really great cradle near fall. Sydal laid him out with a Meteora (that Tomato kicked out of in another good near fall) and pinned him with the shooting star press to advance.
Sydal wanted to shake hands after but Tomato refused, instead giving him his tomato plush. Sydal appreciated it, but gave it back.
Kenoh (Pro Wrestling NOAH) defeated Gurukun Mask (Ryukyu Dragon Pro Wrestling)
Crisp offense to start. Kenoh was the heel and took control of the match. He stands out and has good presence. Gurukun Mask came back with a crossbody to the floor but Kenoh came back with some on point offense.
Gurukun Mask escaped early from an ankle lock attempt but withstood punishment for a good while after a second one was applied. Kenoh’s kicks came off as particularly vicious. In fact, it looked pretty silly when Gurukun Mask tried to counteract them with his own and didn’t even come close to sounding effective.
Gurukun Mask hit Kenoh with a Celtic Cross and a top rope moonsault for a good near fall. Kenoh was able to hit a snap dragon suplex and a penalty kick for a great near fall. Kenoh finished it off with the Ragou (dominator position into a powerbomb) for the win. Turned into a really good match towards the end.
Taichi had an elaborate entrance where a woman in a mask similar to his danced around the crowd until he emerged. Milano Collection AT, doing commentary, was very interested in this couple and took photos.
Taichi stalled forever, refusing to take his outfit off, Desperado came in to cause mischief, etc. Aoyagi was distracted by Desperado and Taichi smashed a chair into his back.
As a gimmick/sidekick Taichi is good, but as a wrestler he’s just there, and they had a match with tons of interference and stalling for the first half. Not good.
Aoyagi took both out with a crossbody to the floor. It picked up towards the end as Aoyagi was good in his underdog babyface role. Taichi pinned him with a superkick. First half was really lame, but got better as the match progressed. Taichi got the win with a second superkick and a Last Ride powerbomb.
Jushin Thunder Liger (New Japan) defeated Eita (Dragon Gate)
Eita picked this show right out of the doldrums by laying out Liger with a huge senton to the floor. I think he busted his eye in the process.
Liger made a comeback and hit a powerbomb, then got him in the surfboard. Eita escaped with quick, agile offense. He stretched Liger with a double underhook submission for a while before Liger got his feet on the ropes.
Liger came back with a Shotei then pinned him with the brainbuster. Didn’t seem like the right finish at all as I’m not sure why Liger needs a win over Eita, but then remember who is hosting this. Still a very good sprint of a match.
Will Ospreay (Chaos) defeated Titan (CMLL)
This started off really great. Ospreay is trained in lucha so he fit in really well with Titan’s style and they had some great back and forth before Ospreay hit a shooting star press to the floor.
Titan came back with a huge springboard moonsault, laying out Ospreay. Ospreay went for an atomic drop, but Titan countered with a dragon screw in a cool spot. Ospreay came back with a flurry of great offense including a forearm, standing shooting star press, and a Phoenix splash from the middle rope for a near fall.
Ospreay hit a kick and a springboard cutter for the win. Very good.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Suzuki-Gun) defeated Bushi (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
This got wild as Bushi jumped Kanemaru and they brawled around the arena, going into the crowd. Bushi laid him out with a DDT and hit an amazing crossbody off a stairwell to the floor.
It’s funny because both are heels, and even though Bushi took a lot of this match, Kanemaru was the total heel and spent most of the match being worked on, though he did come back one or two times.
Bushi went to distract the referee, then went to mist Kanemaru, but he low blowed him and finished him with a brainbuster. It was kind of a weird match given the layout but Bushi looked great.
Ryusuke Taguchi (New Japan) defeated Daisuke Harada (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
Taguchi was in control, doing his comedy routine and working on Harada’s ankle. They had a pretty good match, full of good back and forth action. Harada laid out Taguchi at one point with a crazy looking Death Valley Driver.
They rolled around and traded ankle locks with one another in some great submission spots. Harada kicked out a Dodon, but didn’t kick out of a second.
Kushida (New Japan) defeated Taiji Ishimori (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
This started out slow but started to build up as time went on. They really laid it in, which got the crowd into the match big time behind Kushida. Ishimori went to the top rope but Kushida grabbed his arm. Ishimori fought back and hit what can be best described as a reverse Green Bay plunge then missed a 450 splash.
Kushida tried going for the Hoverboard Lock but Ishimori kept blocking. Kushida finally got it in, and after fighting it for a while, Ishimori tapped. Another good match.
The 8/21 tournament matches therefore are:
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Taichi
Kushida vs. Kenoh
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Will Ospreay vs. Matt Sydal
Final Thoughts: This was a weird show. There were no outright terrible matches on this card, and actually top to bottom, if you just look at workrate, this was a really solid show. But the booking just came off as super flat.
You’re looking at a second round where five out of eight guys are wrestling regularly for New Japan, and beyond that Taichi was a regular for years and has had plenty of matches with Liger, who I am already surprised enough beat Eita pretty clean in the middle.
You can also mention the other two outsiders are NOAH guys, but at least that kind of creates a fresh dynamic in some ways for the second round.
I expected a far more interesting, diverse second round is what I guess it boils down to. Not exactly the reaction I expected myself having upon the return of the Super J-Cup, but I guess in the end it’s New Japan’s tournament in more ways than one, isn’t it?
Just when you started to give up on HOPE, the optimistic attitude of mind which is the life-blood of Observer Live, NEVER FEAR!
It’s time again for the annual, arduous, infamous, more-than-famous, match-by-match, pick ’em, extravaganza that’s known as the Adam and Mike BIG CLIMAX SELECTION SHOW.
Without trying to figure it out beforehand, we go through every tournament match of the month-long, 19-show, survival of the fittest, and choose who we think will succeed in getting themselves into the final, which takes place on the final of three nights at Sumo Hall.
Plus, don’t worry, if you were hoping for Mike to bitch about people bitching about the J-Cup, there’s that too. As well as, um, cautious optimism when it comes to the rumored GM of the new Las Vegas NHL franchise. It’s the radio show that somehow got left unprotected in the audio expansion draft. It’s the Adam and Mike BIG AUDIO NIGHTMARE~!
In an effort to compete with WWE, New Japan owner Takaaki Kidani announced Thursday that the company will be bringing back the Super J Cup this year, a one-night junior heavyweight tournament that is clearly the company’s shot at WWE’s cruiserweight tournament on the WWE Network.
The Super J Cup, which has occurred five times previously, the most recent being in 2009, will take place on 8/21 at the Ariake Coliseum. New Japan, Ring of Honor, CMLL, Pro Wrestling NOAH, Dragon Gate, Suzuki-Gun, Zero-One and K-Dojo all will participate.
At today’s New Japan show at the Ota Ward Gym, NOAH president Naomichi Marufuji and K-Dojo’s Taka Michinoku appeared to say wrestlers from their companies would be competing.
They also announced the revival of the Tiger Mask television cartoon, which was a famous series in Japan during the 1970s. New Japan wrestlers will be characters in the new series which the company hopes will open up their audience more to kids. When making the annoucement, Kidani even made a remark that this is something WWE won’t be able to do.
