Professional wrestling in Japan

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Rikidōzan is widely credited with kickstarting the popularity of professional wrestling in Japan following World War II
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Professional wrestling in Japan has existed for several decades. The first Japanese person to involve themselves in

Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Kenta Kobashi among others.[4] Throughout the years, several promotions have opened and closed, but a few have persisted to remain the most popular and thriving companies: New Japan Pro-Wrestling
is currently considered by many as the top promotion.

Professional wrestling style

Main article: Puroresu

stories told in Japanese matches are about a fighter's spirit and perseverance.[6]

Professional wrestling on television

Since its beginning, Japanese professional wrestling depended on

Giant Baba and his group, and Asahi for Antonio Inoki and his group. This arrangement continued after the JWA split into today's major promotions, New Japan and All Japan, led by Inoki and Baba respectively. In 2000, following the Pro Wrestling Noah
split, NTV decided to follow the new venture rather than staying with All Japan. Nowadays, however, mirroring the decline that professional wrestling in the U.S. had in the 1970s and early 1980s, NOAH's Power Hour and New Japan's World Pro Wrestling have been largely relegated to the midnight hours by their broadcasters.

The advent of

WOWOW
had a working agreement with Akira Maeda that paid millions to RINGS when he was featured, but eventually was scrapped with Maeda's retirement and the subsequent RINGS collapse.

In 2009, due to the bearish global economy, NTV cancelled all wrestling programming, including NOAH's Power Hour (lesser affiliates still air large cards), marking the end of a tradition going back to Rikidōzan.

Since 2014, various New Japan Pro-Wrestling live specials have been broadcast on AXS TV in the United States.[7]

Professional wrestling promotions

Main article: List of professional wrestling promotions in Japan

Relations with professional wrestling beyond Japan

Foreigners in Japanese circuits

Since its establishment, professional wrestling in Japan heavily incorporated foreigners (called

International Pro Wrestling was the first Japanese promotion to link into European circuits. It was through IWE that Frenchman André the Giant got his international reputation for the first time.[citation needed
]

In recent years, many of North America's most popular wrestlers, such as

shoot style competition in Japan, starting out in the UWF and later opened Pancrase with some other Japanese shootfighters.[citation needed
]

As a result of the introduction of lucha libre into Japan, major Mexican stars also compete in Japan. The most popular Mexican wrestler to compete in Japan is Mil Máscaras, who is credited with introducing the high-flying moves of lucha libre to Japanese audiences,[8] which then led to the style called lucha-resu, later embodied by Tiger Mask.

Foreign wrestlers from diverse backgrounds have earned huge followings, sometimes greater than those of Japanese top rosters in respective Japanese promotions they have wrestled in. American Stan Hansen, Indian Tiger Jeet Singh, Canadian Abdullah the Butcher, and British wrestler Dynamite Kid were among those cited as top foreign grapplers in a poll of Japanese fans:

Impressive "Gaijin" Wrestler Ranking[9]
Rank Wrestlers
1 United States Stan Hansen
2 United States Bruiser Brody
3 Canada Abdullah the Butcher
4 United States The Destroyer
5 Mexico Mil Máscaras
6 United States Hulk Hogan
7 France André the Giant
8 IndiaCanada Tiger Jeet Singh
9 United States Terry Funk
10
The Road Warriors

Japanese stars abroad

All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, as well as others, have also sent wrestlers to compete in the likes of the

The Great Muta and Jyushin Thunder Liger in WCW, as well as ECW which featured talent such as Hayabusa from Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and The Great Sasuke of Michinoku Pro Wrestling
.

Before the advent of cable television some Japanese wrestlers in the U.S. adopted names that often were inconsistent and often portrayed by more than one Japanese wrestler, such as "Tokyo Joe" (

Impact Wrestling (originally Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, or TNA) and Ring of Honor
rarely change their names.

Some joshi stars from AJW had wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s and 1990s, with The Jumping Bomb Angels and Bull Nakano known for being particularly successful.

Gaea Japan once had a working agreement with World Championship Wrestling in the mid-1990s, when the latter brought in wrestlers from Gaea to bolster the ranks of their then-fledgling women's division, with Akira Hokuto becoming the first and only WCW Women's Champion, and a WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship was even introduced and defended in Gaea shows.

Recent examples of Japanese wrestlers working in foreign promotions include

AEW Women's World Champion
.

See also

References

  1. ^ Svinth, Joseph (2000). "Japanese Professional Wrestling Pioneer: Sorakichi Matsuda". Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  2. ^ "Rikidōzan". Puroresu.com. 1995. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  3. ^ Great Hisa (2009-07-26). "The Great Hisa's Puroresu Dojo". Puroresu.com. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  4. ^ Wilson, Kevin. "Legends". Puroresu Central. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  5. ^ Tanabe, Hisaharu (1992-11-12). "Chono vs. Takada (one of the earliest reference to "puroresu" by Hisaharu Tanabe)". Google Groups. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  6. ^ a b c "Puroresu Dojo Introduction". Puroresu.com. 1995. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  7. ^ "AXS announces New Japan TV deal, official details, time slot, debut date and more". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. November 24, 2014. Archived from the original on November 28, 2014. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  8. ^ The Wrestling Gospel According to Mike Mooneyham Archived 2008-11-13 at the Wayback Machine [dead link]
  9. ^ Researched by Nikkan Sports. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  10. ^ "Hamada (TNA Roster)". TNA Official Website. Archived from the original on 2010-08-18. Retrieved 2010-08-28.

External links

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