Back to the Super J Cup(s)

[Laz]

He might stand out more in DG than elsewhere, but the stuff I've seen (mostly from the last few years) has been pretty damn good.

[Robert S]

I had never heard of GOA before, looked into him and what the hell is Okinawa Pro Wrestling!? Looks like he worked there from 2008-2012, and looks like they ran shows practically every single day. A couple of the years he worked over 300 matches for them, once working over 365! Is this a fake fed? Do they set up in random parking lots to do a quick match with no ring and count that as a show? Who is documenting these 300+ yearly OPW shows!? I need to know more.

From what I remember Okinawa Pro was promoted by Super Delfin who of course also acted as the ace of the promotion.

[El-P]

Maybe YAMATO had not find himself yet. Didn't make a strong impression on me there.

 

Intermezzo

 

AKIRA & Jushin Thunder Liger & Kota Ibushi & Taichi vs Atsushi Aoki & Fujita Jr. Hayato & GENTARO & Jado

 

Well, this match pretty much sums up what was wrong with this J Cup. All these guys were eliminated in the first round, but very clearly Oaki, Fujita, Ibushi and Liger were better than most of the guys of made it. Even Gentaro would have fit the bill way better than YAMATO from what he's showing. So here you get the would-be-great roster of the J Cup second round having a very good eight man, with the young guys shining again. Jado kinda looks there. He really didn't bring anything to the Cup. AKIRA does look a bit of his age despite teh good work. Or it's the other way around. Anyway, this was fun and showed the broken promises of this edition. Damn, Ibushi already.

 

Final

 

Naomichi Marufuji vs Prince Devitt

 

Oh. Ok. So, MOTYC. And best final match since the original in 94. When Maru brings it, he does takes it to the next level, which I guess is the sign of a great worker. He's really a *creative* worker in the good sense (most of the time, not crazy about him using the spanish fly for instance), of the word. He actually may have been one of the first if not the first to use the ring space in different ways that had not been thought about before. Would be interesting to see when this kind of movements appeared (like following a guy running the rope). Swift matwork and crazy work. Seriously, this stuff where Maru jumps above the rope to the outside WITHOUT TOUCHING into a dropkick is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. And it's an offensive move, not just flippy-floppy wasted motion. Devitt is bringing it too, with that kind of Benoitesque kinda lack of charisma, although he's certainly way good looking. I totally feel that girl who wanted him to face-f/it's a really great match with a sense of escalation to a finish that looks like the finish and is the finish. Incredible, pre 2010's but totally 2010's junior match, state of the art. Devitt was on par, but Maru really was the star.

 

Ok, so a fantastic first round because of a great cast, two disapointing rounds because of poor booking I thought and a fantastic final which easily was the best since 1994. With better booking, this one would have been the best J-Cup ever I believe. The fact it was at Korakuen and not a big building made it seem less important, but it also gave the matches good heat in an era where a big building would have been half empty, so it was the right setting. Liger and Kanemoto looked excellent despite their age. The young generation of Aoki, Ibushi, Fujita and to a much lesser extent Taichi and Taguchi looked very promosing to say the least. Devitt, well, there's a reason why he's in WWE now. And Maru was the right guy to win and looked like the Ace in the final. Overall, can't put down a card with such a main event and first half. I'm glad I did this because I had not cared about junior wrestling in almost fifteen years, and it made me love it again.

 

Hey, there was a J Cup this year ? How convenient.

[Bierschwale]

This year's SJC was stupendously dull. Not without some good matches, but still. In some ways, I think that youth is a key component in the original J Cups. Almost everyone is under 30 or just about there and the older guys are more unique. This year, youth was almost a punishment. Just a drabness to everything. Not enough masked guys, not enough promotional diversity, not enough... color.

[El-P]

So there it is. There has been a J-Cup in 2016. It's quite cool that the concept still lives on and comes back every few years. Time for a new scene of juniors to develop and for already established ones to grow. This is New Japan putting this one on again, because, who else, really ? Korakuen Hall for a first round show only. It's kinda full and quite hot. Warms my heart.

 

First round

 

Matt Sydal vs Kaji Tomato

 

Sydal is super indy american pussy magnet. Tomato is a tomato. From K-Dojo. Only in Japan could this stuff could get over. He knows how to work too. And Sydal looks pretty hot. As a worker too. Hot opening match, much more competitive than you'd thought.

 

Gurukun Mask vs Kenoh

 

Gurukun has a cool fish-like mask. No idea where he comes from, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me he was some sort of Delphin protege. Anyway, Kenoh is a guy with a blond helmet and very hard kicks. Damn, this match gets good quick. Kenoh is kinda heelish with a second using a kendo cane or something. Funny how the match, after some hot sequences, basically stops so they can test their machismo by exchanging hard kicks. Anyway, excellent match.

 

Will Ospreay vs Titan

 

So, here's the infamous Will Ospreay of "Vader thinks you sucks" fame. Cool english style work. Titan has the exact same style as BUSHI. Was he the inspiration ? Damn, Ospreay has insane spots, but his selling is awful, going from a totally exagerated, coked up overselling of a figure four to not selling his knee one second to do flippy flops (which look great, but still). Good little match, but Ospreay needs to settle the fuck down.

 

Jushin Liger vs Eita

 

Not sure what Eita's character is, but he's got some. Oh shit, Eita is doing a tope con hilo while Liger is walking down to the ring, straight callback to the Hayabusa match in 94 ! How cool is that ? Classic veteran vs young hungry up and comer match. Liger has to slow the pace down and hit shoteis, but Eita actually work on his hand. Smart. Really good match, although for the first time in a J-Cup, Liger doesn't look like a *great* wrestler, just a really solid one. He's past 50, so there you go. Eita looks all kinda good.

 

Taichi vs Yuma Aoyagi

 

Taiji has evolved into a complete MMORPG character, all baroque and shit, with a super hot and slutty valet (probably a model/actress, as she clearly knows how to play a part). Aoyagi is either green or not too good. Or both. Taichi does all kind of heelish stuff, but the match never gets too good because of Yuma's subpar work and charisma. Should have been more of a squash.

 

BUSHI vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru

 

Kanemaru, haven't seen this guy since the early days of NOAH when he was setting their junior division on fire. He's older and grumpy. I like LIJ a lot, but haven't seen much more of BUSHI's than his tag work. He has some good stuff, but I resent his use of the code red, which is one of my least favourite spot. Didn't impressed me that much, while Kanemaru looks as good as he was more than ten years before. Good little heel vs heel brawling match. Surprised BUSHI did the job.

 

Ryusuke Taguchi vs Daisuke Harada

 

Taguchi was all fro and shit in the last Cup. He's been mostly in undercard half-comedy match during the G1, so no idea how he'd fare. Harada looks like a semi-power worker. Slower build than the other matches. But it does build to a really, really good match. Harada impressed me and Taguchi is still a good serious worker, and paying for it when he gets too cute. Hot finishing stretch but the finisher (code red ugly modification) was bad.

 

KUSHIDA vs Taiji Ishimori

 

So, KUSHIDA's gimmick is that he's Marty McFly. Okay. Why not. Work the arm on Taiji after a cool shoot-style matwork. Some nifty flying around, crisp execution and counters from both. Damn, this match gets really good despite a few awkward set-tups on the top ropes. KUSHIDA tries to get back to the arm from incredible acrobatic spots and Ishimori finds the way to fight this, being super quick himself. Well, they sure capped off this first round show by the best match.

 

Damn. This was maybe not as good overall as the last first round (no really great match), but still super good. Don't get the "bland" criticism. Tomato, BUSHI, Titan, Gurukun, TAICHI brought plenty of colour. There was diversity too (heeling, european style + insane flying, veteran vs youngster). Crowd was also super hot at points, especially in the main event. Clear winner of a show.

[El-P]

One month later, in a building too big to host this show, as seen by the many empty seats all over the place. Pretty sad. I guess the idea of running Korakuen in 2009 was the right one at this point. Juniors aren't a draw anymore.

 

There are a bunch of intermezzos too, which I don't care to get into.

 

Second round

 

Jushin Liger vs TAICHI

 

TACIHI's entrance is worth the price of admission alone. Bullshit & gaga match, with Liger punting TAICHI's minion Desperado but getting slapped by the hot-as-hell valet Miho Abe, who's better at her job than Lana or Maryse in WWE already. Not much in term of a match, as it ends with Liger being beat up and hold down far away from ringside while count-ount occurs. Odd to use Liger that way. But glad TAICHI gets a round more. Hopefully in a better match.

 

Kenoh vs KUSHIDA

 

So, KUSHIDA's thing is going for the arm, which is does in spades here while Kenoh has pretty creative, in a good way, stuff to counter him. Ok, this Kenoh is the revelation of the tournament thus far, he's stiff and quick and sells really well, while KUSHIDA is pretty impressive and focused himself. Excellent match again from those two guys which I wouldn't mind seeing more of. Crisp work leading to a logical finish with exciting action is the right formula.

 

Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Ryusuke Taguchi

 

Good, solid match with the usual funky ass, well, hips offense by Taguchi, mixing comedy taunt with actual work, while Kanemaru is grumpy as fuck. Taguchi clearly still has good work under his hood, while the old NOAH veteran keeps on looking solid as hell. Nothing extremely impressive in term of spots, but I take this solid match any day against...

 

Matt Sydal vs Will Ospreay

 

Ok, so it took me two matches to already be annoyed by Ospreay. If this guy is what is considered a state of the art worker, call me Vader, because Ospreay simply isn't any good. Yeah, he does some incredible athletic spots. And ? Shit setling, bad striking, exegerated facials, all style and no substance, and the creative spots already look transparent the second time around. He's a worst RVD for now. Sydal didn't help either. This was the pucture perfect *flippy-floppy indierrific* stuff I couldn't care less about. Blah.

 

More intemezzo with some luchadors who will hopefully clean the taste of this shit. Decent second round but Ospreay vs Sydal is everything wrong about indy wrestling mentality, while Liger was really wasted in a nothing match.

[gordi]

I'm kind of repeating myself but: Harada is really one of the most awesome people. Such a good guy, he had my back from the first time we met. I'm so proud of hiｍ and Kotoge. I got to watch them grow from Osaka Pro young boys to NOAH mainstays.

 

 

 

We once finished off a whole bottle of sake between the two of us:

 

 

 

That was after we had a pitcher-chugging contest. Him and Kotoge vs. Me and Ebessan:

 

 

 

 

 

So nice to see someone like him living his dream.

[superkix]

Amazing!

[El-P]

Good for Harada. Although, is NOAH in 2016 any bigger than Osaka Pro was in its days ?

 

Semi-finals

 

TAICHI vs KUSHIDA

 

More heeling and cheating by TAICHI, who does it well, including Abe preventing a dive to the outside, Sherri Martel style. He's also quite a solid worker who sells well and has dynamic offense when he wants. KUSHIDA focuses in the arm, as always, but has to rely on another trick to win the match since TAICHI's croonie is distracting the ref when he's actually getting a visual submission. Good little match, but not exactly worthy of a Super J Cup semi final. Speaking of which...

 

Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Matt Sydal

You know, Matt Sydal may be the instance of great athleticism being a negative, because he's just using it too much and not to the best effect. Very showy, but not stupidly indierrific like Ospreay was. Still, these two just didn't click. Kanemaru looked disinterested, using a lot of heeling tactics (which makes it too much at this point in one single J Cup card) and not doing that much. Match fell flat, didn't build to anything. Decent, but just nothing special.

Well, this J Cup did fell apart on this second card. The half-empty building ensures no heat at all, some interesting workers were dropped in the first few rounds (Eita, Ishimori, Kenoh) while Sydal, Ospreat and even Taichi, to be honest, made it too far. Junior wrestling in Japan in 2016 seems to have been contaminated by the worst aspect of US-indies work at this point. Damn, now the Young Bucks are next...

[El-P]

Well, maybe it's because they toned their post-modern act down, maybe it's because I used to focus on the wrong stuff, but I actually really liked Young Bucks vs Motor City MachineGuns. The Bucks were legit old-school heel tag team here, and with their funky offense and demeanor, they did remind me of the MX, indeed. Excellent match, and the best of the show along with KUSHIDA vs Kenoh. Death spots sold as death spots. Hey. Was I wrong all along on the Bucks ? Glorious tights too.

 

Final

 

KUSHIDA vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru

 

So, Kanemaru focuses on KUSHIDA's injured neck. Constant all-along selling by KUSH. Nice. Started solid, then actively built into a very good, even excellent match at points, with Kanemaru being all old and rugged. They did spam a bit of DDT's by the end, which I wasn't a fan of, especially after a dangerous spot on the apron, but KUSHIDA's snappy arm offense really works well into hot finishing stretches. More heeling and outside interferences, including by TAICHI, so I guess that was the style in vogue for this J Cup. KUSHIDA has been quite the most consistant worker of the bunch and delivered the two best matches, so It's only fitting he's given the win. He's a very good worker. Kanemaru is still quite solid.

 

Overall, despite an excellent first round and show at Korakuen Hall, this has to be the worst J Cup thus far. Too much indierriffic stuff from non-japanese workers (Ospreay, yikes), too heavy on heel matches, bad venue choice, and light on really good matches. Curious to see how things will evolve in the future, but junior pro-wrestling as a style is way less special today than it was twenty years ago because of the overall heavy-on-athleticism style that prevents everywhere. It takes special workers to carry the load of making it someone really different, and there's no such worker today it seems. If guys like Will Ospreay are the future of junior pro-wrestling, then it can't be any good. Yeah, I sound like Vader. Well, it's time, it's time to put this to rest.

[Laz]

Not wrong about the Bucks, necessarily, as they've definitely reined themselves in over the last two years. I'm thinking they're starting to realize how much more everything hurts as you get older and how one can maximize the gain of a spot via timing over insanity.