New Japan announces revival of the Super J Cup Tournament, confirms signings

This morning during the New Japan Cup, NJPW President Takaaki Kidani announced that the company will be bringing back the Super J Cup tournament. The timing is of course notable given the recent announcement by WWE of the Global Cruiserweight Series this summer. Like WWE, the tournament will feature performers from promotions all over the world, rather than just New Japan stalwarts.

For the tournament, representatives from New Japan, Dragon Gate, Ring of Honor, CMLL, Pro Wrestling NOAH, K-Dojo, and Zero-1 will participate.

The tournament itself will be one night only, airing on August 21st on New Japan World.

Given the date, this will seemingly not compete with WWE's Global Cruiserweight Series which will be taped in advance of a July air schedule, thus it is possible that performers may compete in both tournaments.

Other New Japan news from the show today saw multiple signings announced.

New Japan confirmed its 2 year contract with G1 standout and former ROH World champion Michael Elgin.

Additionally, Katsuyori Shibata finally, after years of working freelance, will wear the Lion Mark yet again for the first time since leaving the promotion at the end of 2004 and trying his hand at Mixed Martial Arts. He signed a one year contract today. Now that he has officially signed with New Japan, it seems likely that his ascent will continue in earnest and he will play a major role in attempting to fill the void left by the exodus of AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kota Ibushi.

Lastly, Rev Pro UK and PROGRESS standout "The Aerial Assassin" Will Ospreay confirmed his signing with New Japan and officially joined Kazuchika Okada's CHAOS stable. He will be challenging Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA at Invasion Attack on April 10th.