is a Japanese ''

joshi puroresu is the predominant style of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of , which is shortened to puroresu. The term became popular among English-speaking fans due to Hisaharu Tanabe's ac ...

'' or

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 ...

founded by Mayumi Ozaki. The promotion's full official name is . In addition to the contracted members of the roster, Oz Academy has also employed some of the top

freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...

s in all of ''joshi puroresu'', including

Ayumi Kurihara (born July 13, 1984) is a retired '' joshi puroresu '' wrestler. Professional wrestling career Kurihara entered training with the women's pro wrestling promotion AtoZ and then transferred to M's Style, where she learned the craft from well-kn ...

, Hiroyo Matsumoto,

Manami Toyota is a retired professional wrestler, best known for her work with the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion. She is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Following AJW's closure, she continued to work ...

and

Tomoka Nakagawa is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. After being trained by Taka Michinoku, she started her career in his Kaientai Dojo promotion in September 2004. After leaving Kaientai Dojo in 2007, Nakagawa briefly joined Ibuki, where she underwent ...

. The promotion has a television deal with Gaora.

History

While working in the Gaea Japan promotion in mid-90s, Ozaki formed the villainous Oz Academy

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

with

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 ...

, Rieko Amano and Sugar Sato, eventually opening a training school under the same name. Oz Academy eventually started promoting sporadic independent events, featuring members of the stable and Ozaki's trainees, with the first event held on June 21, 1998. Following the folding of Gaea Japan in 2005, Ozaki turned Oz Academy into a full promotion with a full schedule of approximately one to two events per month, while also recruiting veteran wrestlers Aja Kong,

Dynamite Kansai is a retired Japanese female professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . Career Chieko Suzuki was born on December 4, 1969, and was raised in Kyoto, Japan. In 1986 she auditioned for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), but wa ...

and

Sonoko Kato is a Japanese professional wrestler. She made her debut in April 1995, working for Gaea Japan, where she became one half of the inaugural AAAW Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. After becoming a two-time winner of the High Spurt 600 Tourn ...

to serve as the backbone of the promotion. Oz Academy remained without

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

for nearly nine years, before introducing the Oz Academy Openweight Championship in March 2007 and the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship in July 2008. Mayumi Ozaki has always been a focal point of Oz Academy events and storylines, with different variations of her original Oz Academy stable trying to dominate and keep themselves on top of the promotion. The stable has gone under many different names, including D-Fix, Ozaki-gun, Ozaki-gundan, and currently, Seikigun. At the end of each year, Oz Academy allows its fans to vote on different awards, including MVP of the Year, Singles Match of the Year and Tag Team Match of the Year, which are then presented to the winners at the "Best Wizard" award ceremony. Oz Academy is based in

Shinjuku, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...

and holds most of its events in

Shinjuku Face is an event hall located on the 7th floor of the Humax Pavilion Shinjuku complex, 1-20-1 Kabukicho, Tokyo, Japan. It mainly hosts mixed martial arts, boxing and professional wrestling events. Shinjuku Face has a capacity of approximately 60 ...

. The promotion itself considers the formation of the stable in 1996 as its starting point and celebrated its 20th anniversary on November 13, 2016.

Roster

Wrestlers

Non-wrestlers

Notable alumni

Notable guests

Akane Fujita is a Japanese voice actress from Shizuoka Prefecture. She is affiliated with Ken Production. After passing an audition in 2011, she made her debut as a voice actress in 2012, and she played her first main role in 2016. She is known for her roles ...

* Aoi Kizuki * Hikari Shimizu * Mika Iwata * Miyuki Takase *

Mochi Miyagi is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer. She previously had tenures with the Japanese promotions Ice Ribbon and Pro Wrestling Wave. Professional wrestling career Independent circuit (2010–present) As a freelance ...

Ram Kaicho is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for her tenure with the Japanese promotions Ice Ribbon and Wrestling of Darkness 666. Professional wrestling career Independent circuit (2006–2009) Ra ...

* Sawako Shimono *

Tae Honma is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for her tenure with the Japanese promotions Ice Ribbon and Actwres girl'Z. Professional wrestling career Independent circuit (2015-present) As a freelancer, ...

Tequila Saya Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (''Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican stat ...

* Totoro Satsuki * Yako Fujigasaki

Championships

Oz Academy Pioneer Championship

The is a is a

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

created and promoted by Oz Academy. The main characteristic of the title is that it can only be contested in three-way matches. There have been a total of four reigns shared between four different champions. The current champion is Momoka Hanazono who is in her first reign.

Title history

References

External links

*
Official blog
{{Women's professional wrestling Oz Academy 1998 establishments in Japan Japanese promotions teams and stables Japanese women's professional wrestling promotions Shinjuku Sports competitions in Tokyo Women's wrestling teams and stables