On December 12th, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) presented the Super J Cup 2020 tournament. The one-night campaign would crown a new trophy winner the day after former three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, Best of the Super Juniors 25 (BOSJ 25), and Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) member “Time Bomb” Hiromu Takahashi won the BOSJ 27 trophy.
The third opening match to the single-elimination tournament saw Luchador Rey Horus take on “All Heart” Blake Christian in a contest to see who takes on defending Super J Cup 2019 and Bullet Club winner El Phantasmo or Lio Rush in the Super J Cup 2020 semi-finals.
The contest was far different than the first two matches in the one-night campaign, with Rey Horus displaying his Lucha Libre influenced offense against Blake Christian who brought forward his modern United States independent Junior Heavyweight style to the table.
Rey Horus was returning to the ring for the first time since February due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus, 2019) shutting down wrestling and international travel in Mexico for multiple months. Ring rust was not present, but it could have played a role in his preparation and what he could pull off throughout the tournament.
Blake Christian, who has become a regular on New Japan Strong showed his high level of potential as he was able to go move for move against the far more experienced Rey Horus, who despite the long layoff was able to display an array of offensive talent and skill.
However, Christian was able to gain the fall at the 12 minutes and 0 seconds mark with a Frog Splash in what is a major upset in the opening round of the Super J Cup 2020 tournament.
Christian came out of the match with a broken nose, which showed what he’s willing to go through to advance through the Junior Heavyweight ranks within NJPW.
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