japanese wrestling info
Alan Tam
pro-wrestling is very advanced. For people who are not familier with it,
I am going to give you a breaf introduction of the wrestling in Japan.
There used to be only two pro-westling federatoin in Japan.
One is famous for Antonia Inoki ( the guy who fought with Ali ).
The other one is famous for Giant Baba ( a tall guy ). As they aproach
their late forty, they almost retired wretling and lost influence on
the business. And the young ambitious wrestlers quits those federations
and set up new ones to pursue the wrestling style that they beleve in.
Then now, the number of wrestling corporation is around 6 or 7. Here
is description of those.
1 All Japan Wrstling - popular among wrestling fans because
the content of wrestling is so tough, exciting,
and powerful. They fetures relatively big Japanese
wrestlers and well-known American wrestlers.
main wresters:
Japanese- Jumbo Turuta, Misawa.
American- Stan Hansen, Steve Willams, Terry Goddy,
Danny Spaiby, Andre the Giant ,etc.
2 New Japan Wrestling - most well-known wrestling federatoin.
the content of wrestling is stylish, speedy.
They used to emphasize 'Dojo'( training place ) and
then generated a lot of talented strong wresters
such as Antonio Inoki, Tiger mask, Maeda. Even
Stan Hunsen, Hulk Hogan or Big van vader are trained
to be strong in Japan.
main wresters:
Japanese- Cyoshu Riki, Gyusin Thunder Riger,
Great Muta, Hashimoto.
American- Big Van Vader, Scott Norton, Ban Ban
Bigaro, Tony Home.
3 SWS - Newly set up with Tenryu Genichiro who
is one of the most popular wrester. He
quited All Japan to join SWS. SWS has
connection with WWF.
4 UWF - revolutionaly wrestling group. They
emphasize on serious real fight. Their rule are
different from other wrestlings. They emphasize on
karate kick, suplex and submission holds. They created
a boom among young people. The appearance of them
had big influence on wrestling style of other wrestling
group. In the middle of boom, they are disintegreted
to form three different pro-wrestling group because
of defference of opinions about their wrestlings.
The three groups are as follows.
4.1 Rings - Headed by Maeda who has been considered
the strongest guy in Japan. He invited
martial artists from Holland and U.S.
Now, he is the only wrestler over there.
The rest are Boxer, Karate man, Judo man.
4.2 UWF international
- Most of UWF member join this one. The
leader is Takada who just defeted a famous
American boxer in mixed match in Tokyo.
They clames that the pro-wrestling is
the strongest sport of all.
4.3 Fujiwara group
- They emphasize on old style wrestling.
Most of the time, they are wrestling
try to break each other's arms, legs, joints.
5 FMW - the leader is not strong guy, but his match
is so exciting. He does not mind dying in match.
The style of their match go very extream. They
introduced a lot of new ideas on wrestling environment.
They fight in wire with nails replaced with ropes.
The wire has electric current running and there are
small bomb along ropes. The match increased their
popularity a lot.
6 Universal - They emphasize on Mexican style wrestling.
they got a lot of air flying techniques.
In conclusion, Japan now got all kinds of pro-wrestling. The fan over
there are very lucky to have choices in watching wrestlings. Each
group are atractive, but they all lack super-star. I would recomend
you watch one of them if you have chance to do it. You will
see obvious difference in style from what you have been watching here.
Herb Kunze
> Then now, the number of wrestling corporation is around 6 or 7. Here
> is description of those.
>
> 1 All Japan Wrstling -
> is one of the most popular wrester. He
> quited All Japan to join SWS. SWS has
> connection with WWF.
Here's where the questions start. Word over here is that Tenryu has
left Super World Sports and started a new promotion called WAR a
couple of weeks ago. Most of the SWS regulars went with him as did
the WWF affiliation. He has a card in September with the top ten
stars of the WWF all appearing (main event: Tenryu vs. WWF champ).
Is SWS dead?
> 4 UWF - revolutionaly wrestling group.
> In the middle of boom, they are disintegreted
> to form three different pro-wrestling group because
> of defference of opinions about their wrestlings.
> The three groups are as follows.
> 4.1 Rings - Headed by Maeda who has been considered
> the strongest guy in Japan. H
> 4.2 UWF international
> - Most of UWF member join this one.
> 4.3 Fujiwara group
> - They emphasize on old style wrestling.
I understand the power plays and such that led to the formation of
Rings, UWFI and PWF, but the way you've presented them (counting
them all as one group) is a surprise. Are they really looked at as
being the same group??
> 5 FMW - the leader is not strong guy, but his match
> is so exciting. He does not mind dying in match.
You can say that again. Atsushi Onita has to be one of the best babyfaces
in the sport. I don't understand them, but his interviews where he's
bleeding profusely and crying and talking in a beggin voice are amazing.
> 6 Universal - They emphasize on Mexican style wrestling.
> they got a lot of air flying techniques.
This is the UWA from Mexico, which routinely does tours of Japan.
>
I'm curious why you ignored the women's wrestling groups. Certainly
All Japan Women puts on the best matches consistently of any
promotion in the world. And JWP has reformed, hasn't it?
You also didn't count NOW and WING. Any reason? Are they
unpopular enough to not warrant mention?
Something to think about for us North American fans. All the groups
except NOW, WING, and JWP, routinely sell out the 2-3000 seat venues
that they work. With ticket prices substantially more expensive than
here, that makes it easy for all these groups to survive.
Herb...
Joseph Avolio
>In article <1992Jul29.0...@ecst.csuchico.edu>, mu...@ecst.csuchico.edu (Alan Tam) writes:
>> 3 SWS - Newly set up with Tenryu Genichiro who
>> is one of the most popular wrester. He
>> quited All Japan to join SWS. SWS has
>> connection with WWF.
>
> Here's where the questions start. Word over here is that Tenryu has
> left Super World Sports and started a new promotion called WAR a
> couple of weeks ago. Most of the SWS regulars went with him as did
> the WWF affiliation. He has a card in September with the top ten
> stars of the WWF all appearing (main event: Tenryu vs. WWF champ).
> Is SWS dead?
>
New Japan trained wrestlers (George and Shunji Takano, Kenichi Oya,
Naoki Sano, Don Arakawa, etc.) working for SWS had disagreements with
Tenyru and decided to quit the promotion. They also took others
including Ishinriki, Kendo Nagasaki, Hiro Hatanaka, Apollo Sugawara,
Goro Tsurumi, Fumihiro Niikura, etc. and formed a new group, lead by
George Takano, which was initially called "Palaestra" and was later
changed to NOW (Network of Wrestling).
Yoshiaki Yatsu and Shinichi Nakano also left Tenyru's group so Tenyru
was left with Kabuki, King Haku, Ashura Hara, Ultimate Dragon, Samson
Fuyuki, Tatsumi Kitahara and Takashi Ishakawa as his top names.
Because of the nature of the break up, Tenyru felt the SWS name was now
tarnished and decided to change the name of the group, first to
"Revolution" and later to WAR (Wrestling and Romance).
The odd thing about this situation is the both groups are funded by the
same person, Hachiro Tanaka, who was the benefactor of SWS and also
owns PWF.
JoMosh