NJPW Super J-Cup profiles: Ryusuke Taguchi, Jonathan Gresham

We’re taking a look at each competitor in this year’s Super J-Cup, hosted by NJPW and produced by Jushin “Thunder” Liger. The tournament takes place in Tacoma, WA on August 22 and San Fransisco and Long Beach, CA on August 24 and 25. The events will be available on njpwworld.com.

Ryusuke Taguchi

At age 40, Ryusuke Taguchi is the oldest entrant in this year’s Super J-Cup. What we can read from that fact alone is that there is a high-percentage chance that Taguchi will not make it to the finals, or even past the first round, which all depends on which Taguchi we get in Tacoma on the first night of the tournament.

Before he transitioned to the player-coach position he’s in now, Taguchi was a successful junior heavyweight during a dark period for the company, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship twice and the Junior Tag Team Championships six times, among other titles, and has once won the Best of the Super Juniors tournament since his debut in 2002. He was in a notably over junior team, Apollo 55, with Prince Devitt, now Finn Balor in WWE, as well as Funky Future with Ricochet even more recently.

But he’s a jokester now, and his signature running hip attack has been much less effective as of late. Does he have a serious chance at taking home the J-Cup? Not really, though Taguchi did have a good showing in this year’s BOSJ tournament, scoring 12 points with a 6–3 record, a better showing than most expected from the Funky Weapon, and had high-marked matches with El Phantasmo and Will Ospreay during the tour. He’ll take on ROH’s Jonathan Gresham in a first round bout in Washington on Night 1.

Jonathan Gresham

Gresham is one of the most overlooked wrestlers in the industry right now. At 31, he is well-traveled and has taken on top talents from promotions across the world before signing with ROH. His style is that of a catch wrestling warlock who can also whizz around the ring like his junior contemporaries if he feels like it. He impressed New Japan audiences on the BOSJ 26 tour this year, and although he finished with eight points at 4–5, he did score an emotional win over Tiger Mask in the tournament.

On returning to ROH in late June, Gresham had won a Pure Rules match over heavyweight Silas Young at the Best in the World pay-per-view, but ironically, Gresham had to resort to cheating to win, landing a low blow before wrenching back on an Octopus Hold that tapped Young out. This heelish behavior is new for the ROH Gresham who’s usually more of the sportsman-type. Will this new edge play any role into Gresham’s opening night J-Cup bout with Ryusuke Taguchi? Check back after Night 1.