Tuesday, June 11, 2019

The Super J-Cup Is Coming to America

It's happening... in the States!
Graphics via NJPW
Smaller wrestlers didn't always have the cache that they have today. It took Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid blowing the doors off arenas in Japan in the '80s to get people to know what the smaller wrestlers could do on a larger stage. From there, puro promotions and then World Championship Wrestling started giving the junior heavyweights a bigger spotlight. Even before the creation of the Cruiserweight Championship, early WCW featured Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger, but the big watershed moment was the first Super J-Cup in 1994. Even though the NJPW cache back then didn't have the mainstream appeal in America that it does today, the people in charge of major companies, specifically WCW, took notice.

While NJPW isn't the only company that has done specifically the Super J-Cup tournament (1994, 2009, and 2016 are the only tournaments run under that company's banner), it is something because of that seminal first tournament is linked to the company. So it's no surprise that they're bringing it back. What is surprising is that it will be held in the United States:
Granted, with Best of the Super Juniors being the little-guy-G1 has served them well, so this tournament will be the New Japan Cup for junior heavies at best and probably a glorified exhibition at worst. That being said, the opportunity to see guys like Dragon Lee, Shingo Takagi, and Taiji Ishimori tangle with what I assume will be a select roster of American indie cruiserweights will be exciting. After all, wrestling is more about the show than it is the results when it's at its best. In addition with the standalone G1 show in Dallas on July 6, New Japan's American outreach is kicking into high gear. Personally, I'm excited.
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