The Return of Super J Cup

[Guest ligerbomb03]

Super Delphin’s promotion Osaka Pro Wrestling will host the fourth ever J-Cup tournament on 2/21/04 at the Osaka Castle Hall, which seats 16,000 fans and will be the biggest undertaking in the history of the promotion. We’ll have much more on this in the upcoming weeks, but expect it to be a major event, like the previous three J-Cups have been.

 

Source: http://www.1wrestling.com http://www.puroresufan.com

 

 

I think this is really great news, and cannot wait to see who will be competing this time around. I wonder if any J-Cup could top the one held in 94.

 

Who do you think will be participating in the upcoming tournament?

 

[Guest Coffey]

I'm curious to see what the final roster is myself. The past tournaments have been better than good.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

I havent seen the last one, but I doubt anything could top 94 and 95, but there are a lot of jr's I havent seen. Who is considered the top guy right now?

[Guest bort]

Its in Osaka pro so there will be a fair amount of wrestlers from that group in the tourny, ive only downloaded 1 osaka show so i cant say wheather thats a good or bad thing

 

i would hope that they would have a half osaka/outsiders ratio in the cup, i would like to see an american or 2 like American dragon or Low KI and a guy or 2 from CMLL and then someone like Liger or Heat from NJ

 

is Osaka friendly with most of the other groups

[Guest Coffey]

It people like American Dragon, Low-Ki, etc. get thrown into the mix, then I'm down. Truthfully, I'm ignorant to Osaka Pro.

 

Do you think anyone from the WWE would be allowed to partake? Someone like Funaki for example?

 

Also, what about people like Great Susuke & Tiger Mask IV? They are still around, right?

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Well it should be good as long as Super Delfin isn't booking himself as the winner.

[Guest One Trick Pony]

I doubt he wins. He's not the JJ/Lawler type.

[Guest ligerbomb03]

Osaka Pro announced what companies would be involved in the Super J Cup next year on it's Yomiuri TV show last night. NOAH and Toryumon Japan are the notable absentees, but other than that it is mostly as expected, with nearly every other above ground company in Japan participating!

 

- Osaka Pro

- New Japan

- All Japan

- ZERO-ONE

- World Japan

- Michinoku Pro

- Big Japan

- DDT

- Kaientai Dojo

- WEW

- WMF

- KAGEKI

 

SOURCE: http://www.puroresufan.com

 

 

No Toryumon involvement?

[Guest JebusNassedar]

Whoa, wait. World Japan has Juniors?

 

...

 

I swear, if one of the Maximo's gets in...

 

*ahem* Anyways.

 

From the companies given, I think that my dream list of competetors would be as follows (NoTE: I'm only choosing one from each listed promotion, because I dont quite know the format. I always assumed it was a 16 person tourney or something.):

 

Tsubasa: My current favorite from Osaka Pro tghat isnt Delfin., Impressive look and arsenal. But then again, Ebbesan's prolly going to get in.

 

Liger: I havent seen a J Cup without him, so I dont expect this to be any different, although I would personally prefer someone like Wataru Inoue or Heat. Maybe Takemura.

 

Kaz Hayashi: All Japan is a tricky choice, and I dont think Fuchi, god love 'im, can keep up with the hipper juniors.

 

Low Ki: We're going to assume that these feds can use gaijin junior competetors. If not, I have NO idea.

 

World Japan has juniors?

 

Hidaka: If Sasuke gets in, I'm probably going to throw a bigger hissyfit than I did when I saw Bull Buchanan in the AJPW Real World Tag League.

 

Homicide: Again, going on being able to use gaijin workers...

 

Poision Sawada JULIE: The only other person I can think of that might get in is MIKAMI, but I think JULIE has a tremendous character that needs exposure.

 

TAKA Michinoku: I cant think of any other K-Dojo standouts.

 

Um...I have no idea if WEW has juniors.

 

Onryo: Badass enough to warrent a second appearance. But who are the other choices? Garuda?

 

Asian Cougar: Simply because he's the only KAGEKI person I recognize.

 

And...yeah.

[razazteca 0]

I would like to see Dr Wagner Jr, Black Tiger, Shocker, Ulitmo Guerrero be in it. Is there any chance that any of these luchadores will be making the tourny?

[Guest trickstyle_360]

I'm pissed theres no Toryumon involvement as Toryumon is the best fuckin junior promotion in the world...but I digress, this will still be a strong J Cup with the surplus of talent out there these days in Japan. The 12 guys I would pick for the tourney are:

 

- Mikami(DDT): A lock to be in the J Cup, he's fantastic and getting his name out there really well. I don't know why anybody would pick JULIE though, now he's built like HHH, he ain't a junior now lol.

 

- Takehiro Murahama(Osaka Pro): Another lock to be in the tourney since he's the ace of Osaka Pro and Delfin would probably book him to the win the whole damn thing if he could, which i hope he doesn't.

 

- Ebessan(Osaka Pro): He's one funny motherfucker, and talented too. Probably jobbing out first round.

 

- Takemura(NJPW): A huge heel in NJPW, has done a good job of carrying Gedo and Jado in his stable.

 

- Naohiro Hoshikawa(Z-1): Have never seen a bad match with him, great timing with his kicks. Would probably job out to TMIV or somebody.

 

- Tiger Mask IV(NJPW): If he's in it, he'll win the whole thing and not Murahama.

 

- GENTARO(Freelance): He's getting his name out there since he left DDT, he's worked for Osaka Pro, AJPW, WEW and WMF as a freelancer.

 

- Tsubasa(Osaka Pro): Delfin wants to get his boys more noticed and Tsubasa is one of his best talents.

 

- Low Ki(Z-1/AJPW): Immensely popular, and J Cup always has a gaijin in it.

 

- Hi69(K-DOJO): Taka's best student and his influence in Hi69 is quite evident in Hi69's work.

 

- Katsumi Usuda(WJ): Was in the 2000 J Cup and is a pretty good technical wrestler. Will probably job out first round.

 

- Ikuto Hidaka(M-Pro): Great wrestler. Said to be heading to NJPW soon.

 

Notables:

- Asian Cougar(freelance)

- Taichi Ishikari(AJPW - pretty good for a rookie)

- Takeshi Sasaki(DDT/WEW)

 

Oh, and this year I don't think Liger, Sasuke, Delfin and the like will be in the tourney.It's been said there's gonna be like 4 or 5 non-tournament matches. I'm gonna assume those guys will be in those matches.

[Pegasus Kid 0]

- Osaka Pro

- New Japan

- All Japan

- ZERO-ONE

- World Japan

- Michinoku Pro

- Big Japan

- DDT

- Kaientai Dojo

- WEW

- WMF

- KAGEKI

I find it interesting that Toryumon has no involvement in this tournament. Who is running the day to day operations for this group?

 

With so many companies involved, I don't understand why they don't run a two day event like they did for Super J Cup 2000. Personally I could see them running a 32 man bracket or even 24 with eight byes easily with that kind of involvement. A 32 man bracket would be a far greater draw than 16 not only because of the sheer size of the event but because of the large diversity of workers.

 

My pick to win is Naomichi Marufuji.

[Guest JebusNassedar]

Well, in all actuality, I can see one logical explanation for the lack of Toryumon. The SupeR J cup is, after all, set up like a counsil, and I dont find it unreasonable that Ultimo resigned to go wrestle in WWE.

 

And you cant pick Marufuji to win. There is also no NOAH, which means no KENTA, which means no ratings.

[Guest trickstyle_360]

I think Delfin may have some heat with Ultimo or something, that may be why Toryumon isn't there.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

NO NOAH?!?!!! That sux.....