Gaea Japan (trademarked as GAEA Japan) was a Japanese

women's professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called promotions. Some promotions are exclusively for wome ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

. GAEA's name comes from the Greek mythological goddess of the Earth, Gaea or

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthen ...

History

GAEA was founded in 1995 by

Chigusa Nagayo is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her mainstream popularity in the 1980s as a member of the tag team ''Crush Gals'' with long-time partner Lioness Asuka. She was the founder of the GAEA Women's Professional Wrestling organization ...

, a professional wrestler who achieved huge success in the 1980s with her tag team partner, Lioness Asuka, as the Crush Gals. GAEA's formation was first announced at a press conference held on August 24, 1994. Present at the event were charter members Nagayo, KAORU, and Bomber Hikaru. GAEA's first rookie auditions were also held on this occasion. Their rookie class included Meiko Satomura, Toshie Uematsu,

Chikayo Nagashima is a Japanese professional wrestler. She started her career in 1995, working for the Gaea Japan promotion, where she became a one-time AAAW Single Champion and a record five-time AAAW Tag Team Champion. She was also notably one of the four fou ...

, Sonoko Kato, Sugar Sato, Maiko Narita, Chihiro Nakano, and Makie Numao. On April 15, 1995, the new promotion held its first show. It was at Tokyo's

Korakuen Hall is a famous sports arena in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan, which has hosted many notable boxing, professional wrestling, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and Lethwei matches. History On April 16, 1962, the Korakuen Hall was officially opened with a c ...

and was called ''Memorial First Gong''. The event was a sellout and received good press. From this point on, GAEA held monthly shows at Korakuen and also occasionally went on the road to other Japanese cities. GAEA's reputation grew as a result of the acquisition of some well-known wrestlers and the organization of some very successful interpromotional shows. GAEA acquired highly respected freelance wrestler

Akira Hokuto is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known as . Career Born Hisako Uno, Hokuto became a professional wrestler in the wake of the enormous popularity of tag team the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka), and was responsi ...

on September 16, 1996 and Toshiyo Yamada on July 3, 1997. The promotion established a relationship with the Japanese hardcore promotion Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW) on July 29, 1995, and worked with the prominent American promotion

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 Nati ...

(WCW) in 1996. As a component of the relationship with WCW two GAEA wrestlers, Akira Hokuto and Toshie Uematsu, became the first WCW Women's Champion and WCW Women's Cruiserweight Champion respectively. GAEA's most famous storyline involved the reunion of 80's tag team sensations, the Crush Gals, in 2000. The Crush phenomenon in Japan was roughly akin to the American phenomenon of Hulkamania and the first appearance of the reunited partnership on May 14, 2000 at GAEA's fifth-anniversary show, drew the attention of the entirety of the Japanese press. On March 15, 2004, a weekly show with matches from GAEA started on The Wrestling Channel. On April 10, 2005, GAEA closed its doors for good with a farewell show at the Tokyo Korakuen Hall called ''Eternal Last Gong''. The promotion closed while still being profitable due to a combination of Nagayo's desire to retire, reliance on free agent wrestlers, and many of the original members being inactive or wanting to move on. On February 5, 2020, Nagayo announced a one-night return for GAEA on April 15, 2020 in Korakuen Hall.

Championships

GAEA established the two All Asia Athlete Women's (AAAW) titles (with AAAW being a play on the WWWA acronym of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's titles), a singles championship and a

tag team championship A championship or title in professional wrestling is a recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations. Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in predetermined rivalr ...

, on November 2, 1996. Originally, the singles belt was labeled "Heavyweight", while the tag team belts were labeled "Junior Heavyweight", but the weight class requirements were eliminated on May 31, 1998. The first AAAW Champion was GAEA founder Chigusa Nagayo. The belt was subsequently held by some of the most prominent Japanese women's wrestlers of the 1990s including Manami Toyota and Aja Kong. The AAAW Tag Team Championship was first held by Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato. Also, Uematsu's WCW Women's Cruiserweight Title was solely defended in GAEA after Uematsu won it in the United States until the title was abandoned after GAEA and WCW ceased their relationship. The AAAW Single Championship and AAAW Tag Team Championship were revived in 2022 by

's promotion Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling. The AAAW Single Championship was revived first, on January 10th 2022, with its first new champion being

Takumi Iroha is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling. She also competes in Seadlinnng, where she is a former Beyond the Sea Champion. Iroha was trained by Fuka Kakimoto and made her debut in April 2013 fo ...

. The AAAW Tag Team Championship was later revived, on May 1st 2022, with

Itsuki Aoki better known by her ring name Itsuki Aoki is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for her time in the Japanese promotions Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling Wave. Professional wrestling career Indepe ...

and

Rin Kadokura , better known by her ring name Rin Kadokura is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Wave where she is the current Wave Tag Team Champion in ther second reign. Prof ...

winning a tag league tournament and obtaining the revived tag titles.

Final champions

Alumni/notable guests

* Aja Kong *

* Amazing Kong *

Ayako Hamada is a Mexican professional wrestler. During her 20-year career, Hamada wrestled for various promotions, including All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, Gaea Japan and Pro Wrestling Wave in Japan, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Libr ...

* Carlos Amano *

* Chihiro Nakano *

Devil Masami Masami Yoshida (吉田雅美，born January 7, 1962) is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her appearances in All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, GAEA Japan and JWP Joshi Puroresu under the name Devil Masami. She is a member of the All ...

* Kaoru * Lioness Asuka * Meiko Satomura * Maiko Narita * Makie Numao * Manami Toyota * Mayumi Ozaki * Ran Yu-Yu * Sonoko Kato * Sugar Sato * Toshie Uematsu * Toshiyo Yamada

References

External links

{{Women's professional wrestling Japanese women's professional wrestling promotions Organizations established in 1995 1995 establishments in Japan Organizations disestablished in 2005 Gaea Japan