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Matt Talbot

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THE OUTSIDER'S EDGE
Super J Cup 2000

When you think of Super J Cup you think of the Ligers, you think of the Sasukes, the Dragons. You think of NJ and WAR and Michinoku Pro. Well for one thing WAR is out of business now. The other big point is that NJ is dropping out of the event this year. In fact, J Cup 2000 is setting up to be a vastly different show than most of the other ones. Let's look at the changes.

First, they have decided to split up the shows. They used to be a one day tourney to crown the champ. Now it is going to take place on two days. The first section of the tournament will be on April 1st in the Sendai City Gym in Miyagi. The second half will be on April 9th Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo. Thanks to Zach Arnold and ShootAngle.com for that information. How will this affect the Cup? Well it should lead to better matches. Before the wrestlers had to wrestle several matches in one day leading to fatigue and poorer showings as the day went on. Of course, "poorer" is still better than most matches in the history of Puroresu. The splitting will make sure that the wrestlers are rested up leading to better matches.

Another factor is the dropping of NJ out of the tournament. A lot of big names will not go due to this. I heard that Liger was trying to get wrestlers like TAKA and Benoit to go. Lack of support from the higher ups in NJ kept the juniors from going. This will have many effects on the J Cup. The drawing power of the NJ wrestlers will not be there. People will not be able to see Sasuke and TAKA and Benoit. This might be why the split up the show into two places. That way they can get the gate of a huge show without having to fill a huge show. They just have to fill two medium shows.

Another effect this will have will be that the style of the tournament will be different. See NJ juniors are not as much Cruiserweight in the American sense of the term. Sure they do high flying maneuvers and are relatively small, but put in a lot of psychological mat work. In America and lucha you see a lot of spotty highspots, which, IMO, is a lot cooler than a leg lock. So now with NJ out who do you have but MPro and Toryumon. Those are two Japan lucha feds. They wrestle in the lucha libre style. That means you have a wild tournament, but also a tiring one. Another reason why they might have had to split the days up. The lucha style is extremely strenuous to wrestle. It kills the knees and back to fly around like that. So if they split it up the wrestlers will have 8 days to rest up for the big matches later on. If it was in one day the matches would not be as good later on.

This is common in most tournaments. If you watch past J Cups or even the King of the DeathMatches you will notice that the opening matches are really not that good. Except for Mick's first match at KoDM, all the matches were not that hardcore. Look at J Cup 94 the opening bouts are a lot of mat work (like a lot!!). This was because people had to save energy for the final few matches. Well since it is split up this year, it means that people can work harder in the few matches meaning better wrestling action.

This will be the great first test of Toryumon. The J Cup has a long history of great matches, incredible finishes, and Sasuke totally screwing up the ending to one of the most overrated matches ever. Toryumon is a very new fed and will have to live up to this tradition. The fact that Toryumon's lucha style is not the traditional Japan junior style will change the tourney, perhaps angering purists. Naaahh, probably not as Toryumon will amaze. I think that they will pass this trial by fire. They have been on the rise ever since 99 or so and we will see if they can keep up their momentum. This could be the spark that starts the Toryumon powder keg. This could be the start of something new. Elevating stars is what the J Cup has been doing for a long time. Well now it can elevate a federation.

A lot of people have been looking at this J Cup as a step child to the other Cups. Just because it does not have the big name power of NJ it will be poor. People come on. For one thing the junior heavyweight title in NJ has been in a slump for a long time. While they do have the big names, so did WCW for a while there. Nobody can say that Hogan Piper, with all the big names, was a great match. Of course, Kanemoto Ohtani is nowhere close to Hogan Piper, but there are some similarities. With these guys out it will be a chance for new wrestlers to shine. You have to look at the glass as half full. People will be able to see the * as WING use to put it. Think about it. Pressure can either destroy a skyscraper or create a diamond. I am hoping for a diamond.

Anyway, if you have any comments, concerns, complaints, or questions, or just wanna chat about how the Niners went from 24 over to 3.4 under using all the wrong tactics then please email me at talboito@uclink4.berkeley.edu. I hope you enjoyed my analysis of the J Cup.

Matt Talbot
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