Professional wrestling in Japan has existed for several decades. The first Japanese person to involve themselves incatch wrestling (the basis of traditional professional wrestling) was formersumo wrestlerSorakichi Matsuda.[1] There were subsequent attempts before and afterWorld War II to popularize the sport in Japan, but these generally failed until the advent of its first big star,Rikidōzan, in 1951, who became known as the "father" of the sport. Rikidōzan brought the sport to tremendous popularity with hisJapanese Wrestling Association (JWA) until his murder in 1963.[2] Following his death, professional wrestling thrived, creating a variety ofpersonalities,promotions andstyles.[3] It has also created a mass of othercultural icons in Japan including:Antonio Inoki,Giant Baba,Jyushin "Thunder" Liger,Tiger Mask,Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta,Mitsuharu Misawa, andKenta 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.
Puroresu is the predominant style of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from theJapanese pronunciation of "professional wrestling", which is shortened to puroresu. The term became popular amongEnglish-speaking fans due to Hisaharu Tanabe's activities in the onlineUsenet community.[5][6] Growing out of origins in the traditionalUS style of wrestling, it has become an entity in itself. Japanese pro wrestling is distinct in itspsychology and presentation of the sport.,[6] with fewertheatrics; thestories told in Japanese matches are about a fighter's spirit and perseverance.[6]
Since its beginning, Japanese professional wrestling depended ontelevision to reach a wide audience. Rikidōzan's matches in the 1950s, televised byNippon TV, often attracted huge crowds to Tokyo giant screens. EventuallyTV Asahi also gained the right to broadcast JWA, but eventually the two major broadcasters agreed to split the talent, centering about Rikidōzan's top two students: NTV forGiant Baba and his group, and Asahi forAntonio 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 thePro 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'sPower Hour and New Japan'sWorld Pro Wrestling have been largely relegated to the midnight hours by their broadcasters.
The advent ofcable television andpay per view also enabled independents such as RINGS to rise.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 thebearish global economy, NTV cancelled all wrestling programming, including NOAH'sPower Hour (lesser affiliates still air large cards), marking the end of a tradition going back to Rikidōzan.
Since 2014, variousNew Japan Pro-Wrestling live specials have been broadcast onAXS TV in the United States.[7]
Since its establishment, professional wrestling in Japan heavily incorporated foreigners (calledgaijin) particularly North Americans to help popularise native talent. Rikidōzan's JWA and its successor promotionsAll Japan Pro Wrestling andNew Japan Pro-Wrestling were members of the American-basedNational Wrestling Alliance at various points, and used these connections to bring North American stars.International Pro Wrestling was the first Japanese promotion to link intoEuropean circuits. It was through IWE that FrenchmanAndré the Giant got his international reputation for the first time.[citation needed]
In recent years, many of North America's most popular wrestlers, such asSting,Hulk Hogan,Bret Hart,Dynamite Kid,Big Van Vader,Mick Foley,Eddie Guerrero,Chris Jericho,Kurt Angle,Rob Van Dam,Sabu,Mil Máscaras,El Canek,Dos Caras,El Solitario,Samoa Joe,AJ Styles,Bryan Danielson,CM Punk,Travis Tomko,Giant Bernard,Bill Goldberg,Chris Sabin,Low Ki,Brock Lesnar,Davey Richards,Chris Hero, and others have wrestled in Japan, whereas others such asStan Hansen,"Dr. Death" Steve Williams andKenny Omega spent much of their careers in Japan and thus are (or have been) better known there than in their homeland. (Omega has since become more recognized in both his homeland of Canada and the US through his involvement withAll Elite Wrestling.) Even injoshi puroresu, a few notable foreigners have found success wrestling forjoshi promotions, such asMonster Ripper,Madusa,Reggie Bennett, andAmazing Kong. The now defunctWorld Championship Wrestling had a strong talent exchange deal with New Japan,Ken Shamrock was among the first Americans to compete inshoot style competition in Japan, starting out in theUWF and later openedPancrase with some other Japanese shootfighters.[citation needed]
As a result of the introduction oflucha libre into Japan, major Mexican stars also compete in Japan. The most popular Mexican wrestler to compete in Japan isMil 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 byTiger 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. AmericanStan Hansen, IndianTiger Jeet Singh, CanadianAbdullah the Butcher, and British wrestlerDynamite Kid were among those cited as top foreign grapplers in a poll of Japanese fans:
| Rank | Wrestlers |
|---|---|
| 1 |  Stan Hansen |
| 2 | Bruiser Brody |
| 3 |  Abdullah the Butcher |
| 4 | The Destroyer |
| 5 |  Mil Máscaras |
| 6 | Hulk Hogan |
| 7 |  André the Giant |
| 8 |  Tiger Jeet Singh |
| 9 | Terry Funk |
| 10 | The Road Warriors |
All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, as well as others, have also sent wrestlers to compete in the likes of theUnited States,Mexico, theUnited Kingdom,Puerto Rico and so on. Usually, these talent exchanges are chances for puroresu stars to learn other styles to add to their own strengths, a tradition that started with Rikidozan himself between 1951 and 1953. Some of the more famous examples of these exchanges areHakushi inWWF,Masahiro Chono,The Great Muta andJyushin Thunder Liger inWCW, as well asECW which featured talent such asHayabusa fromFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and The Great Sasuke ofMichinoku 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" (Katsuji Adachi,Koji "Thunder" Sugiyama and Tetsunosuke Daigo), "Mr. Sato" (Akio Sato andAkihisa Mera) and "Great Togo" (Kazuo Okamura andHaruka Eigen). Some names and gimmicks of North American origin stuck to the wrestler and defined his in-ring personality permanently, such asHiro Matsuda,Killer Khan, Great Kabuki, Great Muta, Mr. Hito, andMr. Pogo. Japanese wrestlers sent toMexico, where thewrestling mask was the rule, adopted mask-based personae; examples were Osamu Matsuda becomingEl Samurai, Yoshihiro Asai becomingÚltimo Dragón, and Masanori Murakawa becomingGreat Sasuke. Despite the advent of cable television and the Internet, some Japanese wrestlers still adopt all-new ring names, particularly when they joinWWE, which trademarks ring names frequently. Recent examples includeMitsuhide Hirasawa asHideo Saito, Naofumi Yamamoto asYoshi Tatsu,Kana asAsuka,Kaori Housako asKairi Sane, andKenta Kobayashi asHideo Itami. A recent counter-example isShinsuke Nakamura, who continues to perform under his birth name in WWE. Japanese wrestlers who appear in other American circuits such asImpact Wrestling (originally Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, or TNA) andRing of Honor rarely change their names.
Somejoshi stars from AJW had wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s and 1990s, with TheJumping 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 onlyWCW Women's Champion, and aWCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship was even introduced and defended in Gaea shows.
Recent examples of Japanese wrestlers working in foreign promotions includeSatoshi Kojima inMajor League Wrestling,Kenta Kobashi,Go Shiozaki,Takeshi Morishima, andKenta inRing of Honor,Hirooki Goto,Masato Yoshino,Tiger Mask IV,Hiroshi Tanahashi,Kazuchika Okada,Seiya Sanada, andAyako Hamada[10] in TNA/Impact, Aja Kong,Dick Togo,Great Sasuke,Jinsei Shinzaki,Kaori Yoneyama, Manami Toyota and Mayumi Ozaki inChikara, Hideo Itami, Yoshi Tatsu,Kenzo Suzuki,Taka Michinoku, Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamura andKairi Sane inWWE, andAyumi Kurihara,Hiroyo Matsumoto andTomoka Nakagawa inShimmer Women Athletes.Riho andHikaru Shida have both becomeAEW Women's World Champion.
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