This weekend, GCW and Jersey Championship Wrestling are bringing back the Jersey J-Cup, a legendary event in the indie pro wrestling scene.
The Jersey J-Cup 2023 will be held this Saturday at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, NJ. The first session begins at 2 p.m. with the first round, and the second session begins at 8 p.m. with the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals. The event will be broadcast live on FITE TV.
The following matches will take place in the first round of the Jersey J-Cup: Mike Bailey vs. Jonathan Gresham, Tony Deppen vs. Lio Rush, Arez vs. Komander, Starboy Charlie vs. Joey Janela, Billie Starkz vs. Charles Mason, Alec Price vs. Blake Christian, Jordan Oliver vs. Impact World Tag Team Champion & NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champion Alex Shelley, and more.
The tournament winner will be crowned the new JCW Heavyweight Champion.
The Jersey J-Cup, formerly known as the Chris Candido Memorial J-Cup Tournament, began in 2000 and continued until 2011, and then again in 2014. Previous winners include Bryan Danielson, AEW TNT & ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe, Homicide, Shark Boy, Amazing Red, Mike Quackenbush, AJ Styles, CM Punk, Colt Cabana, and ROH World Tag Team Champion Mark Briscoe, among others.
In the summer of 2015, JCW was renamed GCW. GCW CEO Brett Lauderdale recently spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso to promote Saturday’s big event, and he discussed the goal of the J-Cup’s return.
“We’re mixing together some very established stars at the top of their game with people who aren’t as well-known–yet,” Lauderdale said. “The J-Cup’s history is not to be slept on. Twenty years ago, it was the J-Cup that gave Super Dragon, CM Punk and Samoa Joe their first big platform on the East Coast. This is something that has a legacy, and we hope to restore it to the position it once had.”
Adam Abdalla, who co-owns JCW with Lauderdale, is Lauderdale’s collaborator on the J-Cup project. Abdalla commented on GCW and JCW reintroducing the J-Cup, stating that they hope to compete with other tournaments around the world.
“It’s been a nine-year hiatus, but the J-Cup was the signature East Coast event for the original iteration of Jersey Championship Wrestling, which was the predecessor to GCW,” Abdalla said. “Brett and his partners at the time eventually purchased the company and changed that into GameChanger Wrestling. When Brett and I purchased the IP of JCW two years ago and brought back JCW to be the East Coast sister promotion to GCW, the first thing we said we would do is bring back this tournament. We want to give some of the tournaments around the world a run for their money.”
Janela, who was born in Hazlet, NJ and is from Asbury Park, is overjoyed at the return of the J-Cup. Janela intends to deliver must-see moments whenever he enters the ring, and he’s excited to have home field advantage when he faces Starboy Charlie in the first round.
“I’m probably the most New Jersey of Jersey wrestlers of the past chunk of years,” Janela said. “There’s Liv Morgan, and she is excellent and she rides with Jersey on her back, but I am Jersey through-in and throughout. You will see me on a Monday down in Point Pleasant at the Tiki Bar drinking frozen margaritas and having a good time. I am a Jersey guy, so it’s great to be part of the Jersey J-Cup. It’s going to be the best of the best of independent wrestling. It’s going to be grueling for whoever makes it to the end, but it’s going to be an awesome day of wrestling.”
