Global Cruiserweight Series

[BamBamBunglow]

Zack Sabre Jr. and TJ Perkins. Hells yeah.

also, SPANKY!

[Duckman]

Shaping up to be a cracking tournament.  Looking forward to seeing Kota Ibushi in action.  And Tajiri is back too!

[Black Death]

Shaping up to be a cracking tournament.  Looking forward to seeing Kota Ibushi in action.  And Tajiri is back too!

my same thoughts when I saw the list ... Ibushi going to turn some heads , can not wait to see it

[! JDM The Professional !]

Hope Noam Dar does well. He's one of my favorite up and coming wrestlers.

What a brilliant lineup!

[BamBamBunglow]

Apparently Amazing Red and Will Ospreay were supposed to be in the tournament too, but are out for Injury (broken ankle) and being signed with NJPW respectively. Gutted, those two would have been epic additions!

[Duckman]

Will this be on at the same time as the Super J Cup in Japan this year?

[BamBamBunglow]

If it is, Fnord will cry.

Midas will break down his door after three days of not responding to texts to find Fnord merged into his sofa, eyes bloodshot, remote still in hand, and only able to communicate in the words "Maneuver", "Powerslam" and "LARIATOOOOOO!"

[Duckman]

LOL!  Yeah this FWL thing is becoming a ten man job.  My advice for Fnord, if you read this buddy, would be to drop OVW next season.  Let's be honest, no one gives a damn about OVW!

Also, G-1 starts in July as well.  God bless NJPW and their big tournaments - FWL points all round!

[BamBamBunglow]

LOL!  Yeah this FWL thing is becoming a ten man job.  My advice for Fnord, if you read this buddy, would be to drop OVW next season.  Let's be honest, no one gives a damn about OVW!

Also, G-1 starts in July as well.  God bless NJPW and their big tournaments - FWL points all round!

As a man who has Elgin, Nagata and Okada, I fully agree with this Might need to bulk it out by dropping Liger and picking up someone else though... Maybe Tenzan, if he's in this year. Have they announced the blocks yet?

[Drama Queen]

Yeah, sometimes I feel kinda bad about pushing for njpw to be included because of the extra work it puts on fnord

Then I look at the league tables and don't feel so bad

To bring it mildly back on topic, I'm not going to rush into signing any of these guys until I know more about the tournament format. Is it single elimination?

[BamBamBunglow]

Don't feel guilty, he gets to watch amazing wrestling

J-Cup, you mean? Was a bog standard, bracketed 16 man tournament. But as they haven't run it for about 6 years, who knows what may change?

[Duckman]

I believe the WWE tournament is single elimination.  Not a round robin style like Best of the Super Jnrs that just took place.

It'll be interesting to see who does well in this one, because I'd imagine the top performers and guys who get over with the live crowd will be signed up to NXT.  Especially if a good chunk of the current NXT roster will be coming up when the brands split.

I'd love it if they built it around Ibushi with a view to him coming to WWE full time, but I have my doubts he'll be looking for that kind of schedule after his neck injury.  Unless he's totally healthy and looking for a WWE run, in which case the tournament is his for the taking.

Sabre Jnr is such an awesome talent and being from the UK I'm a bit biased, but he's put on some amazing matches in the last year.  If Will Ospreay hadn't have done so well in NJPW, this guy would be the hottest talent from the UK.  They've got different styles and actually work really well together.  Sabre Jnr just got to have one of his bucket list matches against Kurt Angle and he's been very successful in PWG - I believe he's their current champ.

Cool to see Brian Kendrick getting paid back for having to train that dolt Eva Marie with a spot in the tournament.  I like the mix of new guys, indy stand outs, and old hands - will add good balance to the matches.

This'll have to be a pretty amazing tournament to top BOTSJ because that was just one incredible show after another with probably the most talked about match of the last few years with Ricochet v Ospreay.  But WWE have got a good blend of talent here and if the booking is the usual simple and logical stuff we get with NXT, this could be the start of an awesome annual tradition for WWE/NXT.

[Drama Queen]

How are they televising it? Is it all going to be on Nxt? Because that's only one hour a week, and unless they completely neglect the regular roster, I can only see them squeezing two matches each show.

[BamBamBunglow]

No info yet, but I'd assume that it'll get it's own network segment.

I reckon Cedric Alexander could go far in this. He needs a better name (CEDRIC?!?!) but he's a damn good cruiserweight with some US name value.

Gargano is gonna go far too, he's been nothing but great for NXT so far and recently built up quite well (as well as Ciampa), he's gonna put someone over REALLY well in the upper brackets.

I really, REALLY want TJ Perkins to go to at least the finals. Ignore his Manik time (ultimate in given chicken shit and expecting chicken salad), he's a phenomenal worker who deserves a decent shot.

However, odds are it's gonna be Ibushi Vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in the finals, I reckon. That has MOTY written all over it.

[Duckman]

DQ, this is the latest on the taping schedule from this week's Observer:

The tournament will start with a TV taping on 6/23 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL. It will continue with shows on 7/14 and 8/26, and the finals will air live on the WWE Network on 9/14. The matches will air on the WWE Network as part of ten weekly television shows airing at 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights, immediately after NXT.

Also this is very interesting:

Perhaps the biggest surprise is a wrestler named Gran Metalik, who is Mascara Dorada, one of CMLL's top stars. The fact that he's not using the Mascara Dorada name says he's coming in without CMLL's blessing. CMLL talent works indie dates on their own all the time but it's hard to say what the company's position would be. One would think Dorada would be someone WWE would want, although his style is very Lucha oriented and WWE doesn't do that. Another surprise is Akira Tozawa, one of Dragon Gate's top stars. What's notable is that Dragon Gate would be cooperating with both this tournament and its rival tournament, the Super J Cup, which New Japan is producing and debuting on 7/20 at Korakuen Hall.