After Dabba-Kato and the Meta-Four helped Noam Dar win back the Heritage Cup from Nathan Frazer on the Heatwave edition of NXT last night (Aug. 22), we were informed that an eight-man Global Invitational tournament would determine who will challenge Dar at No Mercy on Sept. 30.

Since entrants weren’t announced, speculation focused on who would be invited to compete in the tourney. No one spent much time weighing format options, because we assumed this would be a single elimination, bracket-style affair like almost all North American pro wrestling tournaments.

Well you know what they say about assumptions… they make an ass out of u and mption. And in this case, that’s because the folks on Shawn Michaels’ team are running a round robin tournament with time limits and scoring that’s similar to New Japan’s G1 Climax (and World Tag League and Best of the Super Juniors).

Megan Morant broke it down for us today on The Bump:

• Two groups with four wrestlers in each group in a round-robin style tournament.

• Matches have a 12-minute time limit.

• Pinfall and submission victories earn two points. A draw will earns each wrestler one point.

• The winner of Group A faces the winner of Group B on Sept. 26, and the winner of that match will challenge Noam Dar for the Heritage Cup on Sept. 30 at NXT No Mercy.

Still no word on who the eight participants will be (NXT’s Twitter says they’ll be announced online over the rest of the week), but this is a pretty exciting twist.

It’s not without risks, however. The British Rounds rules Heritage Cup matches are held under already makes those a tough sell for some. While the tournament won’t use those rules, adding another concept U.S. audiences aren’t super-familiar with could be another reason to tune these parts of Tuesday night shows out.

Sending tournament invites to some exciting names could counteract all of that, though.

Let us know what you think of the Global Heritage Invitational format, and who you think might take part, in the comments below.

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NXT Introduces Exciting New Format for Global Heritage Invitational Tournament

After an intense match between Dabba-Kato, the Meta-Four, and Noam Dar, the Heritage Cup has returned to Dar’s possession. However, the victory was short-lived as it was announced that an eight-man Global Invitational tournament would determine Dar’s challenger at the upcoming No Mercy event on September 30. The format of this tournament has taken the wrestling world by surprise.

Traditionally, North American pro wrestling tournaments follow a single elimination, bracket-style