WAll Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, with many more joining the following year when JWA folded. From the mid-1970s, All Japan was firmly established as the largest promotion in Japan. As the 1990s began, aging stars gave way to a younger generation including Mitsuharu Misawa, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Kenta Kobashi, Gary Albright, Toshiaki Kawada, Mike Barton and Akira Taue, leading to perhaps AJPW's most profitable period in the 1990s.
WFighting Investigation Team Battlarts , more commonly referred to as simply Battlarts was a professional wrestling promotion based in Koshigaya, Saitama, Japan. The promotion was formed in 1996 by Japanese wrestler Yuki Ishikawa and featured all of the wrestlers from the Fujiwara Gumi promotion, who had abandoned the promotion in favor of Battlarts. They ran shows in the Tokyo area regularly from 1998 to 2002.
WCyberFight, Inc., known simply as CyberFight (CF), is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of the CyberAgent internet advertising company. CyberFight serves as an umbrella brand for two existing promotions: Pro Wrestling Noah and DDT Pro-Wrestling.
WDDT Pro-Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Its name stands for Dramatic Dream Team, which was the promotion's official name from 1997 to 2004. Founded in March 1997 by Shintaro Muto, but the promotion was eventually bought and managed by Shoichi Ichimiya until December 2005, when Sanshiro Takagi took over as the new president. In 2017, DDT was sold to CyberAgent. Takagi retained his position, while Takahiro Yamauchi took over as the new DDT director.
WDragon Gate Inc. operating as Dragon Gate Japan Pro-Wrestling and often referred to simply as Dragon Gate , is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion formerly known as Toryumon Japan. Most of Dragon Gate's wrestlers are graduates of the Dragon Gate Dojo or Último Dragón's Toryumon Gym, and thus the promotion is based on a junior heavyweight style with varying emphasis on high flying maneuvers, flashy technical grappling, and submission wrestling.
WFighting of World Japan Pro-Wrestling, frequently shortened to World Japan or WJ was a professional wrestling promotion formed in Japan in 2002 by former New Japan Pro-Wrestling employees Riki Choshu and Katsuji Nagashima, who also served as chairmen along with Tomohiro Ishii.
WFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their first show on October 6, 1989. In the late 1990s, FMW had a brief working agreement with Extreme Championship Wrestling, and as well had 14 DVDs released in the U.S. by Tokyopop. On March 4, 2015, FMW was resurrected under the name Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW . With the resurrected FMW not holding any events since 2018, Onita announced in 2021 that he would be starting Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion in which the promotion would specialize in exploding death matches.
WGanbare☆Pro-Wrestling , often abbreviated to GanPro, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 2013 as a sister promotion of DDT Pro-Wrestling. Although it originated as a special event by the parent company DDT, it has since become its own promotion. GanPro is promoted under the CyberFight banner as a sister promotion to DDT, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah.
WThe Global Professional Wrestling Alliance (GPWA) was a cooperative group of professional wrestling promotions and wrestlers from around the world. Formed in 2006, the group was founded by the professional wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa, the founder of Pro Wrestling Noah. It was led by president Yoshiyuki Nakamura, co-owner of Pro Wrestling Zero1. The organization folded in 2009.
WHustle was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion managed by Nobuhiko Takada. Hustle can be described as an industry experiment to market the sports entertainment style of professional wrestling in Japan.
WInoki Genome Federation (IGF) was a Japanese professional wrestling and mixed martial arts promotion founded by Antonio Inoki in 2007.
WThe International Wrestling Association of Japan, more commonly known as IWA Japan, was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion operating from 1994 to 2004 and again from 2010 to 2014. It was formed by Víctor Quiñones as a successor to the W*ING promotion, which was folding at the time as a rival to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), the pioneer of deathmatch wrestling in Japan and the only deathmatch promotion in Japan at the time. Most of the wrestlers jumped ship to Quiñones' new IWA Japan group. He found a sponsor in Tatsukuni "Kinroku" Asano, a business man who owned several restaurants in Tokyo and had bought and run several wrestling shows prior to IWA Japan.
WInternational Wrestling Enterprise was a professional wrestling promotion in Japan from 1966 to 1981. Founded by Isao Yoshihara, it was affiliated with the American Wrestling Association in the United States and also had tie-ins with promotions in Canada and Europe. In 1972, it became the first Japanese promotion to bring European wrestler André the Giant to the country. The promotion cooperated with All Japan Pro Wrestling and later, New Japan Pro-Wrestling; the three promotions later came together for an interpromotional event, organized by Tokyo Sports, held at Budokan Hall on August 26, 1979.
WThe Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance was the first professional wrestling promotion to be based in Japan. It operated from 1953 to 1973.
WKingdom, or Kingdom Pro Wrestling, was a Japanese shoot style professional wrestling promotion that held events in 1997 and 1998. It was considered a continuation of UWF International, having most of its former roster: Nobuhiko Takada, Yoji Anjo, Kazushi Sakuraba, Daijiro Matsui, Naoki Sano, Masahito Kakihara, Yoshihiro Takayama, Kenichi Yamamoto and Hiromitsu Kanehara.
WMichinoku Pro Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke in 1993. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rather in Morioka, Iwate. Since the promotion is primarily focused on the Lucha libre style of wrestling, many of their wrestlers don masks and special motifs as they compete in the ring. However, Michinoku Pro has accepted wrestlers from various styles and backgrounds over the years. In 2003, Sasuke left the running of the promotion to Jinsei Shinzaki.
WPancrase Hybrid Wrestling is a mixed martial arts promotion company founded in Japan in 1993 by professional wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. Masakazu Sakai currently serves as CEO of the company.
WPro Wrestling Land's End is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 2016 by Ryoji Sai.
WPro Wrestling Noah is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) ace Mitsuharu Misawa after he had led a mass exodus in which 24 of AJPW's 26 contracted wrestlers left the promotion to form Noah.
WPro Wrestling Zero1 , formerly known as Pro Wrestling Zero-One and Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max and often referred to simply as Zero1, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 2001. It was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from 2001 until late 2004 and briefly reaffiliated in 2011.
WReal Japan Pro-Wrestling (RJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling and martial arts promotion founded in 2005 by Satoru Sayama. It runs shows every two or three months, and feature both pro wrestling activities and a variety of martial arts bouts, like mixed martial arts, kickboxing and Seikendo-style competitions. It uses top wrestlers from other promotions as well as its own talent, and has had working agreements with Toryumon Mexico, Battlarts and Dradition.
WSuper World of Sports, more commonly known as SWS, was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion from 1990 to 1992. Its motto was "Straight and Strong".
WTokyo Pro Wrestling is the name of two unrelated Japanese professional wrestling promotions. Despite their common name, they did not share management, promotional style, or talent in any way.
WToryumon is a professional wrestling promotion that operated in Japan until 2004 and in Mexico, where it's called Toryumon Mexico. The promotion is owned and operated by Yoshihiro Asai, who is best known under the name Último Dragón. Tōryūmon is a coined word that means Fighting Dragon Gate. The word is coined after the homonym 登龍門 that literally means climbing up dragon gate and means gateway to success. The promotion was originally created to give graduates of the Último Dragón Gym a promotion to gain their initial in-ring experience in, it developed a major following and grew into becoming one of the hottest independent promotions in the country. The promotion would run for five years. On July 4, 2004, Último Dragón left the promotion and took the name and trademarks with him. The wrestlers and officials decided to adopt the name Dragon Gate and continue in the traditions of Toryumon. Since then Último Dragón has promoted Toryumon mainly in Mexico but also holds occasional shows in Japan.
WThe original Japanese-based Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion from 1984 to 1986, formed by wrestlers who had left New Japan Pro-Wrestling. It was a pioneer in the shoot-style of pro-wrestling, which emphasized realistic moves. It was revived as the Newborn UWF in 1988. Newborn UWF lasted until 1990. It was revived again in 1991 as Union of Wrestling Forces International, which in turn lasted until 1996.
WUnion of Professional Wrestling Force International, better known as UWF International, U-Inter, or simply UWFi, was a shoot style professional wrestling promotion in Japan from 1991 to 1996. The UWF international was the successor to the Newborn UWF that ran from 1988 to 1990, which itself was the successor to the original Universal Wrestling Federation. Although the matches were predetermined, the UWF-i was very convincing for its time, promoting a combat-based style featuring a mix of wrestling, submission grappling and kickboxing. In retrospect, UWFi, along with other shoot-style promotions, served as a precursor to mixed martial arts and to popular Japanese MMA promotions, particularly Pride FC. The promotion was also known for hiring dangerous shooters Lou Thesz, Billy Robinson and Danny Hodge as trainers and promoters of their product in order to establish legitimate credibility.
WWrestling International New Generations (W*ING) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion specialized in deathmatches.
WWrestling New Classic (WNC) was a Japanese puroresu or professional wrestling promotion, founded in April 2012 by Yoshihiro Tajiri. WNC was the follow-up promotion to Smash, which folded in March 2012.
WWrestling of Darkness (Organization) 666 , also referred to as 666 or Triple Six, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The promotion was founded in 2003 by Onryo and Qp-Crazy frontman The Crazy SKB.