With New Japan Pro Wrestling‘s new show in the United States, the first night of the G1 Climax tournament on July 6 in Dallas, less than a month away, the company announced their next American venture and the return of a prestigious tournament.
NJPW will have a three-show Super J-Cup tour on the West Coast later this summer, with the first show in Tacoma, Washington, on August 22, the second on August 24 in San Francisco, California, and the last on August 25 in a return to the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. You can find out more specific information in the promotional video below.
This will be the seventh Super J-Cup in twenty-five years. The first in 1994 took place over one night, was won by Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit), and is a tape-traders’ classic and many non-Japanese fans’ first exposure to Japanese wrestling. The tournament returned as a one-night affair in 1995 and 2004 and as a two-night event in 2000, 2009, and 2016. This upcoming iteration is not only the longest, but the first hosted outside of Japan.
The lineup and matches for the tournament have yet to be announced, but since NJPW had Jushin Thunder Liger announce the 2019 Super J-Cup at a press conference, it’s fair to assume he’ll be there. If he’s wrestling, there’s a chance he could win the tournament for a third time before he retires at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in January 2020.
