Jon Moxley and Kenta won’t be the only wrestlers to be released by WWE in 2019 and then go do a tournament tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling later the same year. Former Cruiserweight Champion TJP (aka TJ Perkins), who departed the industry giant in February, is now one of the first three competitors announced for NJPW’s 2019 Super J-Cup.
Since his time in WWE ended, TJP has been performing on the independent scene and in Impact Wrestling. Most of his best-known pre-Cruiserweight Classic work was in Impact, but he has a history in New Japan as well. He trained in NJPW’s first LA Dojo in the early 2000s (which Mikey Nicholls can verify is a good way to get some post-WWE NJPW bookings), wrestled for the company for a few years at the beginning of the century, and later returned to compete in the 2011 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. There’s no word yet if TJP will end up working for New Japan beyond his return for the Super J-Cup.
On Instagram, the former 205 Live wrestler responded to the announcement with a post captioned, “So crazy…what a dream come true!! I grew up on this tournament. 94 and 95 legitimately had the biggest impact on me getting into wrestling. I used to stay over at my friend @renes_tk house and watch the Super J Cups and re-create them on Fire Pro via disc swap PS1 mods…I’m so honored and blessed to be part of this!!”
Along with TJP, New Japan announced that former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and CMLL star Dragon Lee, as well as Sho, one half of Roppongi 3K, will wrestle in this year’s Super J-Cup. Jushin Thunder Liger will also wrestle on the tour, but not in the tournament. Flyers for the event passed out at the first night of the G1 in Dallas, TX, also featured Yoh, CMLL’s Carístico (fka Místico and the first Sin Cara), RevPro Cruiserweight Champion El Phantasmo, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay.
NJPW is calling this iteration of the tournament, the first to take place outside of Japan, “eclectic” and “international.” It will take place from August 22-25, 2019, consisting of three shows in Tacoma, San Francisco, and Long Beach. The company hasn’t announced how many other wrestlers will participate in the tournament, which has previously featured between eight and sixteen.
