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Greatest 18 Club
(NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority shares of the company. Naoki Sugabayashi has served as the promotion's Chairman since September 2013, while Takami Ohbari has served as the president of the promotion since October 2020. Owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, NJPW is the largest and longest-running professional wrestling promotion in Japan. It was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance at various points in its history. NJPW has had agreements with various MMA and professional wrestling promotions around the world, including WWE, World Championship Wrestling, American Wrestling Association, World Class Championship Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, WAR,Jersey All Pro Wrestling, UWFi, Ring of Honor, Pride Fighting Championships, and All Elite Wrestling. NJPW's bi ...
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Antonio Inoki
Muhammad Hussain Inoki (born ; February 20, 1943 – October 1, 2022) was a Japanese professional wrestler, martial artist, politician, and promoter of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. He was best known by the ring name , a homage to fellow professional wrestler Antonino Rocca. Inoki was a twelve-time professional wrestling world champion, notably being the first IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the first Asian WWF Heavyweight Champion – a reign not officially recognized by WWE. Inoki began his professional wrestling career in the 1960s for the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) under the tutelage of Rikidōzan. Inoki quickly became one of the most popular stars in the history of Japanese professional wrestling. He parlayed his wrestling career into becoming one of Japan's most recognizable athletes, a reputation bolstered by his 1976 fight against world champion boxer Muhammad Ali – a fight that served as a predecessor to modern day mixed martial arts. In ...
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Yuke's
Yuke's Co. Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka. It was established on 26 February 1993 by Yukinori Taniguchi. The company is best known for developing the ''WWE 2K, WWE'' video game series, based on the professional wrestling promotion WWE, of the same name, until 2018. History Founded in 1993, Yuke's was named after founder Yukinori Taniguchi's high school nickname. The first two games that the company developed were the platform game ''Hermie Hopperhead'' and the pro wrestling game ''Toukon Retsuden''. The latter title was a best-seller in Japan. Though Activision purchased the rights to publish the game in North America and began localization work, only the first game was localized, becoming ''Power Move Pro Wrestling'' with a different roster of wrestlers. Beginning in 2000, Yuke's began to develop wrestling games for THQ based on the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE). They were recommended to THQ by Syn Sophia, Aki, who had developed their own lin ...
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Pride Fighting Championships
PRIDE Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide.What is Pride?
, Official Pride site. Last retrieved December 5, 2006
PRIDE was owned by the (DSE). For the ten years of its existence, PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world. Pride broadcast its event ...
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Ring Of Honor
Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was sold to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. After a deal was struck in March 2022, ROH was officially sold to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) founder, co-owner, president, and CEO Tony Khan two months later. Throughout the 2010s, Ring of Honor was considered a major wrestling promotion in the United States, alongside WWE and Impact Wrestling. Under Sinclair Broadcast Group's ownership, ROH began talent-sharing deals with wrestling companies outside the U.S., expanded their television visibility through Sinclair's broadcast stations, and eventually established its own streaming service in 2018 called Honor Club. But as time went on and the industry saw the creation and subsequent rise of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), ROH would be seen as a smaller promotion ...
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UWFi
Union 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. The promotion also held kickboxing contests and, in rare instances, special shoot matches. 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 credibilit ...
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Jersey All Pro Wrestling
Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) was an independent wrestling promotion based in New Jersey, United States. History 1997 Jersey All Pro Wrestling was an independent wrestling promotion that was founded by "Fat" Frank Iadeavia and Angel Surita on April 19, 1997. This promotion was born out of a dream of "Fat" Frank and Angel. They wanted to take the promotion in a different direction than others. "Fat" Frank and Angel took a group of misfit wrestlers who were not used in other promotion for various reasons and booked them in a show on that night under the promotion name. During 1997, only two shows were run, Northern States Wrestling Alliance a precursor to JAPW, the wrestlers were friends who were not getting booked in other wrestling shows due to the politics in the New Jersey wrestling scene at that time. Also featured wrestlers like A-Train, and Alexander the Great who are better known as D-Von Dudley and Big Dick Dudley respectively. Other wrestlers like Rockin' Rebel and L ...
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WAR (wrestling Promotion)
Wrestle Association R (formerly known as Wrestle and Romance and abbreviated as WAR) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded and run by Genichiro Tenryu as the successor to Super World of Sports, and which lasted from 1992 to 2000. The promotion initially established as Wrestle and Romance in 1992, had very few regular contracted workers, instead most of the workers were either freelance or employed in other promotions. Because of this WAR ran many all-star cards. It had inter-promotional feuds against New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, the new Tokyo Pro Wrestling, and UWF International. WAR also continued, albeit in a loose fashion, SWS's old working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation, when they backed the WWF's first Japanese tour, in 1994. On July 28, 1995, WAR was renamed "Wrestle Association R" at a show held in the Korakuen Hall. In 1998, WAR cancelled contracts to the roster and began running fewer and fewer events due to T ...
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Impact Wrestling
Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promotion was initially known as NWA: Total Nonstop Action (''NWA-TNA'') and was associated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), though not an official member. In 2004, the promotion became known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), but it continued to use the NWA World Heavyweight and Tag Team championships as part of its agreement with the NWA. After the agreement ended in 2007, the company created its own TNA World Heavyweight and TNA World Tag Team championships. The promotion was purchased by Anthem at the beginning of 2017 and, in March of that year, was fully rebranded under its current name after its flagship, weekly television series. From its inception, the promotion had been considered the second-largest in the United ...
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World Class Championship Wrestling
World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), later known as the World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA) (1986–1991) was an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter Ed McLemore, by 1966 it was run by Southwest Sports, Inc., whose president, Jack Adkisson, was better known as wrestler Fritz Von Erich.Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.129) Beginning as a territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), it went independent in 1986 in a bid to become a major national promotion, but was unsuccessful in its attempts and eventually went out of business in 1990. Rights to the pre-1989 WCCW tape library belong to WWE (the post-1988 rights are owned by International World Class Championship Wrestling) and select episodes from 1982 to 1988 are available on the WWE Network. World Class Championship Wrestling experienced tremendous success from 1981-1985, shattering attendance recor ...
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American Wrestling Association
The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The territory was originally part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming an independent territory in 1960. History Early years Anton Stecher, brother and manager of former World heavyweight champion Joe Stecher, was a founding member of the NWA in 1948 and had promoted wrestling in Minneapolis since 1933 through his Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club. In 1952, he sold a one-third interest in the promotion to his son Dennis and Wally Karbo. Stecher died on October 9, 1954, and control of the promotion passed to Karbo and Dennis. Verne Gagne, an amateur wrestling champion, had become a well-known and popular wrestler nationally in the 1950s as a result of his appearances on the DuMont Network. He aspired to become NWA World Champion, but political sentiment ...
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World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territory Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) (which had aired its programming on TBS). For much of its existence, WCW was one of the top professional wrestling promotions in the United States alongside the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)), at one point surpassing the latter in terms of popularity. After initial success through utilization of established wrestling stars of the 1980s, the company appointed Eric Bischoff to executive producer of television in 1993. Under Bischoff's leadership, the company enjoyed a period of mainstream success characterized by a shift to reality-based storylines, and notable hirings of former WWF talent. WCW also gained attention for ...
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Professional Wrestling Promotion
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event (''see promoter''). Within the convention of the show, the company is a sports governing body which sanctions wrestling matches and gives authority to the championships and is responsible for maintaining the divisions and their rankings. In truth, the company serves as a touring theatre troupe, as well as event promotion body for its own events. The most prominent promotions in the United States are World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor (ROH), Major League Wrestling (MLW), and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The largest Mexican lucha libre promotions are Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Lib ...
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