Super J-Cup (1995)

The concept of featuring the world's best junior heavyweights was conceived by Jushin Thunder Liger, leading to New Japan Pro-Wrestling producing the Super J-Cup in 1994 and bringing the best junior heavyweight wrestlers from various Japanese promotions as well as from United States, Canada and Mexico as well. The event held at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan was a huge success as the Sumo Hall was sold out with a crowd of 11,500. The event was a critical and commercial success and received favourable reviews from all the critics. The event also allowed many participants, including Jushin Thunder Liger, The Great Sasuke, Gedo and Wild Pegasus, to make a name for themselves and showcase their talents on a national level. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter rated the tournament final between Pegasus and Sasuke, a five-star match.[6] Although initially conceived as a one-time only event, the success of the 1994 Super J-Cup led NJPW to collaborate with Wrestle Association R to hold the event again and bring in some new junior heavyweights while also bringing some of the previous year's participants. WAR hosted the event at the previous year's venue Sumo Hall and Último Dragón produced the event while also participating in it.[7]

Famous luchadores Rey Misterio, Jr. and Psicosis were also brought in at the event to participate in a non-tournament "special attraction" match as a breather for the finalists, allowing them to take rest before the tournament final.[8]

Many participants from the previous year including Jushin Thunder Liger, Gedo, Shinjiro Otani, Masayoshi Motegi, Shinjiro Otani, El Samurai and previous year's winner Wild Pegasus returned from the previous year to participate while new additions were Damián 666, Dos Caras, Gran Naniwa, Hanzo Nakajima, Shoichi Funaki, Masaaki Mochizuki and Último Dragón.

Super J-Cup: 2nd Stage was a very successful event and managed to draw a crowd of 11,500 people at Sumo Hall, similar to the previous year's number. The show received critical acclaim but was not considered equivalent to the Super J-Cup: 1st Stage. However, Gedo's subsequent push to the final round and Gedo himself as a worker was not appreciated, which was considered by many critics, a major drawback for the event. Austin Skinner of Wrestling Recaps compared the previous year's tournament to be better than it but appreciated the event in its own right by stating "The whole thing is worth watching through at least once and if given the chance to do so, I highly suggest it to any fan of the first event. Even if you’ve never watched a Japanese wrestling event, I still suggest you give it a try" with "the matches themselves are worth it. If you only watch one match from this event, I suggest the either the Shinjiro Otani/Ultimo Dragon match or the Ultimo Dragon/Jushin Liger match, they are both just ridiculously good matches. The lack of suck names as The Great Sasuke and Super Delfin were made up by such names as Lionheart and Dos Caras this time around. The talent was there and the matches were pretty good. Unfortunately I think this tournament suffers from the sequel stigma. Either way you look at this event, the bracket was great and matches lived up to expectations."[3]

Kevin Wilson of Puroresu Central considered the quarter-final match of Jushin Liger and Gran Naniwa to be the best match of the show and Liger as the most valuable player of the event. He stated "it was a real test for the wrestlers to keep the crowd into it and also a test to their stamina and conditioning. The 1995 version of Gedo didn't help overall, I know it is the common complaint about this tournament but there is a good reason, he wasn't a bad wrestler but with a line-up like this tournament having him be the only one with four matches was going to effect the overall quality. Still a great tournament, and highly recommended."[8]

According to Scott Keith of 411Mania, the 1995 Super J-Cup was "a very fun show with some AWESOME wrestling" and "a definite recommendation", while criticizing Gedo's subsequent push as the runner-up of the tournament.[9]

TJ Hawke of 411Mania rated it an average event and gave it a score of 6 by reporting "Oddly enough, a show built around Gedo instead of The Great Sasuke and Wild Pegasus didn't make for a great sequel! Seriously, Gedo really destroys any chance this tournament had to living up to the original. There's nothing in this tournament that you really need to go out of your way to see, but it's still decently entertaining all the way through."[10]

Jake Metcalfe of 411Mania appreciated the event, calling it his "favorite show of all time" with "Five matches over 80% and a large portion of the rest all well above average… you can’t really turn your nose up at ratings like that. The thing with this tournament, and the thing that really takes it a notch up from the 1994 Super J Cup is the variety of the matches. My main problem with the 1994 J Cup is the fact that virtually all the matches follow a similar formula on that tape, but here, with a more free style of booking and more diverse base of talent, each match has just enough of a different theme to make them all worthwhile."[11]

According to Paul Cooke of Cross Arm Breaker, "1995 Super J Cup was a step down from the original, but still well received for matches like Ultimo Dragon vs. Shinjiro Otani and Ultimo Dragon vs. Jushin Liger. A non-tournament exhibition between Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Psicosis was labeled the show-stealer at the time."[12]