6/14 Miyagi Zaou Cho B & G Kaiyo Center
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Pentagon & Apache went Pentagon was DQ'd for fouling Tiger at 12:11.
Chaparrita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi beat Saya Endo & Malsera when Yagi made Malsera submit to her hizajujigatame at 13:35.

6/13 Fukushima
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Minoru Fujita beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Pentagon & Chad Collyer went Fujita pinned Collyer in his Dragon suplex hold at 14:16
Tiger Mask pinned Apache at 12:14..
Chaparrita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi beat Saya Endo & Malsera when ASARI pinned Malsera at 12:02.

6/11 Aomori Hirosaki Shi Kanai Taiiku Center
The Great Sasuke pinned Minoru Fujita at 21:15 to retain the NWA World Middleweight Title.
Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask beat Pentagon & Apache when Tiger Mask went over Apache at 8:58.

6/10 Iwate Nishine Cho
Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask & Minoru Fujita beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Pentagon & Chad Collyer when Fujita pinned Collyer in his Dragon suplex hold at 13:07.
In a P*MIX Grand Prix Tournament 1st round match, The Great Sasuke & Chaparrita ASARI defeated Apache & Mari Apache when ASARI pinned Mari at 16:09.

5/29 Saga Karatsu Shi Bunka Taiikukan
Tiger Mask pinned Chad Collyer in his Tiger suplex hold at 14:11.
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Apache when Sasuke pinned Apache in a zenpo kaitenebigatame (victory roll) at 12:20.
Jinsei Shinzaki pinned Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi at 14:28.
Chaparrita ASARI pinned Saya Endo with her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner at 10:05.

5/28 Fukuoka Yukahashi Shimin Taiikukan
The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask beat Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi & Chad Collyer when Tiger used his Tiger suplex hold on Collyer at 15:22.
Gran Hamada pinned Apache in his huracanrana.
Masaaki Mochizuki pinned Sasuke The Great at 9:47.

5/26 Miyagi Miyakonojo Shi Taiikukan
Tiger Mask successfully defended the Eirenpo Junior Heavykyu Senshuken, pinning Apache in a huracanrana at 11:43.
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada defeated Sasuke The Great & Chad Collyer when Hamada pinned Collyer at 13:01.
Jinsei Shinzaki pinned Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi at 13:29.
Chaparrita ASARI pinned Saya Endo with her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner at 9:23.

Wellington Wilkins, Jr. was arrested for smuggling a large quantity of narcotics into Japan and trying to sell them. This is offense is much more serious over there than it is in the U.S., and could easily spell the end of the 39-year-olds wrestling career in Japan. Back in 1995, Giant Baba was able to get Steve Williams off with a one year suspension, but Williams had a smaller quantity of drugs because as far as we know they were only for himself. Also, the influence Sasuke has doesn't even register a blip in comparison to the influence that Baba had.

5/25 Oita Takeda Shi Kinrosha Taiiku Center
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask beat Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi & Apache & Chad Collyer when Hamada got the pin at 16:16.
Chaparrita ASARI pinned Saya Endo at 11:01.

5/24 Miyagi Sadohara Cho Rittaiikukan
The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask beat & Masaaki Mochizuki beat Sasuke The Great & Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi & Chad Collyer when Tiger pinned Collyer at 20:33.
Chaparrita ASARI pinned Saya Endo at 11:13.

5/23 Kagoshima Kushira Heiwa Arena
The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask beat Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi & Chad Collyer when Tiger used his Tiger suplex hold on Collyer at 18:59.
Sasuke The Great & Apache defeated Gran Hamada & Mach Junji when Apache pinned Junji at 12:14.
Chaparrita ASARI pinned Saya Endo at 9:36.

5/7 Iwate
Tiger Mask pinned Minoru Fujita at 16:22.
Apache beat The Great Sasuke by ring out at 11:37.
Jinsei Shinzaki & Masaaki Mochizuki beat Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi & Chad Collyer when Shinzaki pinned Collyer at 12:53.

5/6 Aomori Mitsusawa Shi Sogo Taiikukan
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Masaaki Mochizuki beat Sasuke The Great & Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi & Apache when Hamada pinned Apache at 17:44.

4/30 Fukushima Hobara Cho Taiikukan
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask beat Sasuke The Great & Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi & Apache when Hamada pinned Apache in a huracanrana at 19:15.

4/29 Niigata Phase
The Great Sasuke & Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Hamada beat Tiger Mask & Minoru Fujita & Kazuya Yuasa when Sasuke pinned Yuasa at 22:48.
Masaaki Mochizuki beat Sasuke The Great by DQ in 8:49.
Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi pinned Chad Collyer at 10:58.

SUPER J-CUP 3rd. STAGE BEST 8 4/9 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan 8,058
Jushin Thunder Liger captured his second consecutive J-CUP, making New Japan 3 for 3 as Wild Pegasus won the first. Liger defeated Big Japan's MEN'S Teio in the quarterfinal, dropping him on his head with a suichoku rakka shiki no brainbuster at 7:32. In the semifinal, he beat host promotion Michinoku Puroresu's only remaining wrestler, 49-year-old Gran Hamada, at 10:02 with two of the said brainbusters then a shotei. In the final, he defeated Toryumon's brightest young star, 22-year-old CIMA, at 10:22 with two consecutive suichoku rakka shiki no brainbusters. Liger said he was interested in wrestling Tiger Mask & CIMA in New Japan rings, possible for the IWGP junior title, since they gave him the best fights in this tournament. Liger scolded Hashimoto for retiring because he lost. He said that he lost on the 4/7 Dome show as well, but he'd wasn't ashamed of losing and instead of quitting he would work hard to beat the heavyweight champion next time.
The big upset was Naoki Sano beating The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals with a migi high kick at 13:36. It's hardly that Sano isn't on the level where he can beat a Sasuke, but previously the bookers had always lost in the semifinal and Sasuke said he would retire from the J-CUP if he didn't win this year. Considering Michinoku had no one left but Hamada, who is hardly fresh talent, it was expected that Sasuke would either lose to CIMA in the semifinal or Liger in the final.
CIMA made it to the final by beating Onryu of Wrestle Yume Factory in the quarterfinal with his mad splash at 4:22. CIMA then scored his biggest win of the tournament, pinning Sano at 12:52 to postpone the long awaited Liger vs. Sano rematch.
The other tournament match was a quarterfinal where Gran Hamada beat Ricky Fuji at 7:34 with his nadare shiki no swing DDT.
The rest of the card were special matches. The big one was Tiger Mask & Minoru Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki & Shinya Makabe & Ricky Marvin beat Kendo Kashin & El Samurai & SUWA & Chabinger & Super Boy when Tiger pinned Super Boy at 17:18. Now that I've seen one of Marvin's matches from Japan, I know why they were so impressed with him. He has a world of potential and already appears to be a better flyer than Dragon Kid and almost anyone else.
Chaparrita ASARI retained the WWWA Sekai Lightheavykyu Senshuken when she used her sky twister press on Hiromi Yagi at 9:13.
In the opener, Abismo Negro used a modified version of the deadly martinete (piledriver) to pin El Oriental at 7:13.

In addition to the final 7 matches of the tournament, the following matches will also be on the SUPER J-CUP 3rd. STAGE show on 4/9 at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
AAA Presents: Oriental vs. Abismo Negro. This will be the opener. It will have some good flying and should be a pretty good match.
WWWA Sekain Superlightkyu Senshuken: Chaparrita ASARI vs. Hiromi Yagi. This comes on after the quarterfinal matches. This will probably have more flying and less submissions than their 12/11/99 match. In any case, it should be a very good match where Yagi makes ASARI look great.
Special 10 Man Tag Match: Minoru Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki & Tournament 1st Round Loser & Tournament 2nd Round Loser & Tournament 3rd Round Loser vs. Kendo Kashin & El Samurai & SUWA & Super Boy & Chabinger (Masayoshi Motegi). This comes on before the final. Motegi won't be rearing his ugly head, but we still can't get through a J-CUP without him. In spite of him, this could be awfully good because most of these guys have done (or still do) the big tag matches in Michinoku before, and a guy like Samurai can step right in and make anyone decent look like a real talent. Unless Kashin pretty much only works with Tanaka, he'll probably be will most likely be exposed because he won't be very familiar with the rest of the opposition. Hopefully Tiger Mask will be the first round loser since he's really good and Michinoku needs him to make a statement for himself since he's had the big push but wound up losing in the first round, not that losing to Liger is bad or anything.

SUPER J-CUP 3rd. STAGE 4/1 Miyagi Sendai Shi Taiikukan 4,159
Jushin Thunder Liger beat Tiger Mask in 12:13 with a migi shoda (right palm blow).So much for my idea about them doing longer matches, as this was the longest match of the show.
The Great Sasuke pinned Kaz Hayashi in his thunderfire powerbomb at 9:39.
Gran Hamada made Shinya Makabe submit to his udehishigigyakujujigatame (cross armbreaker) at 10:34.
The worst wrestler in the tournament, Onryu, upset the departing Curry Man in 5:57 with his Onryu clutch.
MEN'S Teio beat Katsumi Usuda with a tornado clutch at 9:36.
Naoki Sano pinned SUWA (subbing for injured Magnum TOKYO) in his Tiger suplex hold at 7:36.
Ricky Fuji beat Sasuke The Great in 4:48 when the ref stopped the match due to foul play by The Great.
CIMA pinned Ricky Marvin in his mad splash at 5:41.

This means the quarterfinal matches on 4/9 at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan will be
Liger (NJ) vs. Teio (BJ)
Hamada (Michinoku) vs. Fuji (FMW)
Sasuke (Michinoku) vs. Sano (Takada Dojo)
Onryu (Wrestle Yume Factory) vs. CIMA (Toryumon)

It appears that the final will be either Liger over Sasuke or Liger over CIMA. It would do a lot more long term good if the CIMA is in the final because he's already better than Sasuke even though he's either years younger and only been wrestling since 97, but that would mean the host promotion would be dropping both semifinal matches, which has never happened before and I don't see it happening again. The landscape is different this year with a J-CUP board instead of just one booker, and Dragon did a lot of work on this show, so it was hardly all Sasuke promoting. The thing is Dragon only sent two guys, while Sasuke had 5 (even though Curry Man is listed as Indonesia), so one would think that with the way things have gone to go for the buck over the future already, Liger is going to avenge his semifinal loss to Sasuke in 1994.

In addition to the seven tournament matches, the 4/9 J-CUP show will have a special 10 man tag match that will include former IWGP Junior champions El Samurai and Kendo Kashin. This will most likely go on before the final to give those guys a little rest.

3/26 Aomori Kenmin Taiikukan Sub Arena 472
Tiger Mask captured the Eirenpo (British Commonwealth of Nations) Junior Heavykyu Senshuken, pinning Curry Man in a Tiger suplex hold at 11:16.

3/25 Akita Shiritsu Ibarashima (?) Taiikukan 339
Curry Man (Christopher Daniels) defeated Minoru Fujita with an Indian clutch hold at 18:44. Daniels recently signed with WCW, so the big push he was getting here may come to an end soon.
Tiger Mask & Jody Fleisch beat The Great Sasuke & Pilota Suicida when Tiger KO'd with the deadly new Russian punch that he developed to use against Liger at the J-CUP. Sasuke might not be great at getting people to attend his shows, but at least he knows how to get a new finisher over.

3/22 Yamagata Mikawa Chomin Taiikukan 217
The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask beat Sasuke The Great & Curry Man & Jose Luis Feliciano when Tiger pinned Feliciano in a rounding body press at 14:52.

The winner of the J-CUP will get 5 million yen (a little more than $50,000) and the old WWF World Junior Heavyweight belt (this as nothing to do with current WWF, but is the belt that Fujinami won and New Japan used before the IWGP Junior). Sasuke kept staring at the prize money during the press conference and said he'd like to win it and then retire from the J-CUP.

3/20 Fukushima Shi ? Kinen Taiikukan Sub Arena 378 sellout
The Great Sasuke made Minoru Fujita submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 18:06.
Sasuke The Great & Super Boy & Curry Man beat Tiger Mask & Shiryu #2 & Jody Fleisch when The Great (Masao Orihara) beat Jody at 14:50 with "Masao Orihara."

3/11 Iwate Yahaba Min Sogo Taiikukan 805 sellout
The Great Sasuke made his seventh successful defense of the NWA Sekai Middlekyu Senshuken, forcing Tiger Mask to submit to a chickenwing facelock at 14:48.
Curry Man made his second successful defense of the Eirenpo (British Commonwealth of Nations) Junior Heavykyu Senshuken, pinning Jody Fleisch with his spice drop at 13:49.
Chapparita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi beat MIMA (Shimoda) & RIMA (some masked wrestler) when ASARI pinned MIMA in her Michinoku driver II at 14:47. I was thinking this might be the first time ASARI ever pinned Shimoda, but actually she pinned her with her sky twister press in 13:36 on 8/15/98. This was a first round match in the debacle known as Tournament Of Neo Stage 1998, but luckily for Shimoda this loss got her off the hook because had she won she would have had to put over The Thing They Call Bass.

The first round matches in the SUPER J-CUP on 4/1 will be:
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tiger Mask. Liger should win an excellent match.
MEN'S Teio vs. Battlarts rep (most likely Minoru Tanaka). If it's Tanaka then he'll win and it should be good to very good since Teio can go on the mat and should be motivated for once.
Gran Hamada vs. Shinya Makabe. Hamada will win and I don't think it will be anything special.
Ricky Fuji vs. Sasuke The Great. Fuji will go over in a match that could very easily suck.
The Great Sasuke vs. Kaz Hayashi. Sasuke will win, but they'll put on an aerial show and they might very well steal it.
Naoki Sano vs. Magnum TOKYO. I think Sano will win, but this is the toughest first round match to call. It's also hard to say how good it is because Sano is more of a solid 1990 style junior while TOKYO is a major spot machine. If Sano can figure out how to make TOKYO's spots have some meaning then it could be excellent, but if he plugs him into his regular match then TOKYO will be exposed and it'll only be good.
Onryu vs. Curry Man. Curry Man will win the the worst match of the first round.
CIMA vs. Ricky Marvin. CIMA will win, but I'm not sure what to think about the match quality because I've barely seen Marvin. I know this will have spectacular moves, but I'm not sure if they can put it all together. Knowing CIMA, he'll find a way to have one of the better matches no matter who he wrestles.

It was supposedly decided by lottery that Tiger Mask would face Jushin Thunder Liger in the first round of the SUPER J-CUP 3rd STAGE. Since they've split the tournament into two nights, they need some big matches the first night to get people to attend the show. Tiger has been pushed heavily by Michinoku in the last year, including winning the masked man world league and then beating Sasuke in a singles match, resulting in his assention to the #2 junior in the company behind The Great Sasuke. This match should have been the semifinal or the final because Liger is the top junior and Tiger is the guy the host promotion is giving the big push two, similar to Liger facing Gedo in the finals of 2nd. STAGE. This should be excellent and Tiger could win, but I really doubt that Liger would lose in the first round (or second for that matter), so it's more likely that Michinoku had to settle for just getting some publicity for their rising star. Speaking of which, Tiger is telling the media that he's working on a left hook or Russian punch as a countermeasure for Liger's famous shotei.
The Great Sasuke of the J-CUP executive committee (since it's not being booked by one person this year as it was in the past), said that they would like to make the J-CUP an annual event. If this one goes well then they'll probably shoot for next April.

3/4 Tokushima Shiritsu Taiikukan 2,000 sellout
The Great Sasuke & Jinsei Shinzaki & Magnum TOKYO beat CIMA & SUWA & Sumo "Daddy" Fuji Nichi when Shinzaki made Fuji submit to his gokurakugatame at 23:21.
Tiger Mask pinned Minoru Fujita at 15:29 after his new millennium suplex, which is a chickenwing facelock then a suplex.

3/2 Shiga Yasu Chomin Sogo Taiikukan 732 sellout
The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask & Gran Hamada & Magnum TOKYO beat CIMA & SUWA & Sumo "Daddy" Fuji Nichi & TARU when Tiger pinned TARU in his Tiger suplex hold at 18:49.
Masaaki Mochizuki pinned Minoru Fujita in his twister at 18:05.
MIMA & RIMA beat Chaparrita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi after MIMA used her deathlake drive on ASARI at 17:39.

3/1 Aichi Nagoya Shi Nakamura Sports Center 674
The Great Sasuke lost the match to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of his debut to Gran Hamada. Hamada got the win with an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 16:59.
CIMA & SUWA & Sumo "Daddy" Fuji Nichi & TARU beat Tiger Mask & Magnum TOKYO & Masaaki Mochizuki & Minoru Fujita when Fuji gave Fujita his nodowa otoshi at 16:39.
MIMA & RIMA beat Chaparrita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi after RIMA used an iconoclasm on ASARI at 16:55.

The participants in the SUPER J-CUP ~3rd STAGE~ are as follows:
The Great Sasuke (Michinoku Puroresu)
Gran Hamada (Michinoku Puroresu)
Tiger Mask (Michinoku Puroresu)
Sasuke The Great (Michinoku Puroresu)
defending champion Jushin Thunder Liger (New Japan)
Shinya Makabe (New Japan)
Ricky Fuji (FMW)
Onryu (Wrestle Yume Factory)
Kaz Hayashi (WCW)
Ricky Marvin (EMLL)
Curry Man (Independent)
Magnum TOKYO (Toryumon)
CIMA (Toryumon)
TBA (Battlarts)
TBA (Big Japan)
TBA (recommendation)

The bracketing of the 16-man tournament has yet to be determined. The main thing they are playing up is Liger vs. Sasuke, which makes sense because that's really the only match here that has a lot of drawing power (by junior standards).
So far the tournament doesn't have as much depth as the previous two, and that probably isn't going to change (I'm having nightmares of Motegi being the Big Japan representative). Onryu, Shinya Makabe, Ricky Fuji, and Sasuke The Not So Great are the major disappointments because these guys lack credibility and ability. The pleasant surprise is the inclusion of Kaz Hayashi, who hasn't been able to get back to Japan after he got a fairly good push in the summer of 1998 leading to putting Liger over in a IWGP Junior title match on 9/23/98. I was expecting more than two Toryumon wrestlers and Michinoku to inclue Minoru Fujita since he's become one of their best wrestlers. The first round probably won't be great, but the guys that aren't as good should mainly be weeded out, allowing the final night to be excellent.

The Great Sasuke will defend his NWA Sekai Middlekyu Senshuken (NWA World Middleweight Title) against Tiger Mask on 3/11 in Iwate Yahaba Min Sogo Taiikukan. Tiger won the 2nd mask world league in August and followed that up with a over Sasuke on 10/19/99, so he's a pretty strong challenger.

The locations for the SUPER J-CUP 3rd. Stage were announced. While the previous tournaments were done in one night, this years will be done in two. The first round of the 3rd J-CUP will take place on 4/1 in Miyagi Sendai Shi Taiikukan with tickets ranging from 10,000 yen to 3.500 yen. The "Best 8" to the final will take place on 4/9 at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan (location of the 1st and 2nd stages) with tickets ranging from 20,000 yen to 3,000 yen. Switching to two nights is definitely a good thing because the matches can be longer due to fatigue being less of a factor. In the previous tournaments, the main thing that kept the star ratings down (that sounds really funny since we haven't seen these kind of top to bottom shows since) was that several of the matches were 12 minutes or less.

The Great Sasuke will face Gran Hamada on 3/1 at Aichi Nakamura Sports Center in a match to commenorate the 10th anniversary of his debut. This will be their first singles match on Michinoku mats, which is really hard to believe considering the promotion has been around since 1993, but I can't say I remember them wrestling each other.

1/9 Miyagi New World Sendai Tennis Club 818 sellout
CIMA beat Minoru Fujita in the main event with his mad splash at 17:37. This match should be a good gauge of just how good these guys are. Both can make tag matches excellent, but singles is a lot tougher, although CIMA is such a good worker that he is capable of having very good singles matches on work alone. I just saw their 10/19 match from Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan. It was really tremendous action wise, pedal to the metal the whole way. The only problem was it was only 12:00. If they can work on the same level for the additional 5:37, and perhaps actually put over a few of the moves, they could have a match of the year candidate.
Great Sasuke & Gran Hamda defeated Tiger Mask & Masaaki Mochizuki by TKO in 20:32 when the ref stopped the match because Hamada had choked Mochizuki out.
Sumo Daddy Fuji got to last 14:41 before Jinsei Shinzaki nenbutsu powerbombed him (Buddhist prayer powerbomb).
MIMA (Shimoda) & LIMA (don't know whether this was Mita or not) beat Chaparrita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi when MIMA used her death lake drive on ASARI at 14:37. Obviously, this should have been worlds better than the typical ASARI match in Michinoku because she usually wrestles women like Tanny Mouse & Yuka Nakamura.

12/21 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,150 sellout
Michinoku finished up their tour with one of those Sasuke filled main events where known independent wrestlers dress up in Sasuke type outfits. The Great Sasuke & The Great Sasuke Dina & The Great Sasuke Tiger Multi Type beat Sasuke The Great & Masked Tiger Nisei (second generation) & NANIWA when The Great Sasuke made NANIWA submit to the manjigatame at 21:09.
The show was undoubtedly overshadowed by Sasuke's announcement that he plans to hold a the ~3rd STAGE~ of the Super J Cup sometime next year. The first tournament on 4/16/94 was hosted by New Japan (booked by Liger), while the second tournament on 12/13/95 was hosted by WAR (booked by Ultimo). Both of the previous one-night tournaments were among the best shows ever, so Sasuke will have to assemble a heap of talent from around the world to live up to the previous standard of awesomeness.

12/15 Gifu Sangyo Kaikan 1,204 sellout
Michinoku presented a lineup that was nothing special, but drew much better than they usually do. The main event saw The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Minoru Fujita beat Sasuke The Great & Masked Tiger Nidai (second generation) & NANIWA in 19:38 when Sasuke made NANIWA submit to the manjigatame (octopus hold).
The semifinal seems like the usual short, onse-sided win for Jinsei Shinzaki, as he made Chad Collyer in 9:27 with his gokurakugatame.
Neo Ladies sent two matches. Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue beat Yoshiko Tamura & Tanny Mouse when Kyoko pinned Tamura in 15:24 after something called nice Jackie. Also, Chaparrita ASARI beat Saya Endo with her sky twister press at 10:24.

12/14 Niigata Phase 365
Curry Man (Christopher Daniels) captured the vacant Eirenpo (British Commonwealth of Nations) Junior Heavykyu Senshuken when he pinned ever improving Minoru Fujita after his spice drop at 19:51. Curry Man is the 15th champion.

12/10 Aichi Nagoya Nakamura Sports Center 568
The Great Sasuke made his 6th defense of the NWA Sekai Middlekyu Senshuken (NWA World Middleweight Title), pinning Masaaki Mochizuki in his thunder fire powerbomb at 15:30. On the undercard, Minoru Fujita actually lasted 13:29 before Jinsei Shinzaki pinned him with the nenbutsu powerbomb (Buddhist prayer powerbomb).