, nicknamed Zenjo (全女: 全 meaning "All", 女 meaning "Woman") was a ''

joshi puroresu is a Japanese term used for professional wrestling in and outside of Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of , which in Japanese is abbreviated to “puro” ( - “pro”) & “resu” ( - an abbreviation of “wrestling”). ...

'' (

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 Professional wrestling promotion, promotions. Some prom ...

)

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 ...

established in 1968 by Takashi Matsunaga and his brothers. The group held their first card on June 4 of that year. For close to 33 years it had a TV program on

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

called ''Women's Professional Wrestling''.

History

The All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Corporation, established in 1968, was the successor to the ''All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Association'', which had been formed in August 1955, to oversee the plethora of women's wrestling promotions that had sprung up in Japan following a tour in November, 1954, by

Mildred Burke Mildred Burke (August 5, 1915 – February 18, 1989) was an American professional wrestler. She is overall a three-time women's world champion under different incarnations and recognitions. Burke's heyday lasted from the mid-1930s to the mid-1 ...

and her World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA). These promotions included the ''All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Federation'', and the ''All Japan Women's Wrestling Club'', started in 1948, which was the first women's wrestling promotion in Japan. For a time the Club pushed female wrestling as a legitimate sport, booking sporting arenas. By the mid-1960s, the association had fallen apart, due to infighting between the member promotions, and female wrestling was relegated back to being a sideshow act in strip-tease theaters. In 1967, another attempt to organize the sport of women's professional wrestling was made with a new All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Association. This time

the Fabulous Moolah Mary Lillian Ellison (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007) was an American professional wrestling, professional wrestler, promoter and trainer better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah. She began her career working with promoter Billy ...

, the NWA Women's Champion, came across from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and traded her title with Yukiko Tomoe, to lend legitimacy to the promotion. The new Association broke up later that year. Finally, in 1968, Takashi Matsunaga, who had been the promoter for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Federation, formed the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Corporation (AJW) with his brothers Kenji, Kunimatsu and Toshikuni. The promotion held its first card on June 4, 1968, and got a television deal with

in the same year. In the fall of 1970, AJW, which had been contesting the American Girls' Wrestling Association Championship since the previous year, hosted Marie Vagnone, new holder of Mildred Burke's

WWWA World Single Championship The was the top singles women's professional wrestling championship in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) from 1970 until it closed in 2006. It was also known in ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' and other London Publishing wrestling magazines as ...

which had been revived in a WWWA tournament earlier that year in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. On October 15, 1970, in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Vagnone lost the WWWA title to Aiko Kyo, and AJW had a new world championship singles belt. The next year, AJW acquired the

WWWA World Tag Team Championship The World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA) World Tag Team Championship was the top doubles championship in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) from 1971 until it closed in 2005. During those years the title was held by many of the most famo ...

as well, when

Jumbo Miyamoto Jumbo (December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and then tr ...

and Aiko Kyo were made the first champions on June 30, 1971. During the early 1970s, AJW's championship booking was dominated by the traditional trading between a Japanese

face The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect th ...

and a foreign (usually North American)

heel The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower leg. Structure To distribute the compressive forces exerted ...

. The tag belt, for example, was traded fifty-six times between 1971 and 1975, each time between a Japanese team and an American team. This pattern began to change in 1975 with the new stardom of Mach Fumiake and

the Beauty Pair ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

(

Jackie Sato , better known as , was a Japanese professional wrestler. In the 1970s, while wrestling for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), she formed the tag team, the Beauty Pair, with Maki Ueda. Following in the steps of , the Beauty Pair was part o ...

and Maki Ueda). On March 19, 1975, Mach Fumiake won the WWWA Championship from Jumbo Miyamoto, breaking the pattern in the singles division. After that, only three non-Japanese women ever won the belt, the Canadian

Monster Ripper Rhonda Ann Sing (February 21, 1961 – July 27, 2001) was a Canadian professional wrestler. After training with Mildred Burke, she wrestled in Japan under the name Monster Ripper. In 1987, she returned to Canada and began working with Stamped ...

, on July 31, 1979, and March 15, 1980, the Mexican

La Galactica LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

, on May 7, 1983, and the American

Amazing Kong Kia Michelle Stevens (born September 4, 1977) is an American actress and semi-retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. She is best known for her time with TNA Wrestling under the ring name Awesome Kong. She also worked with Ring ...

, on June 4, 2004. On July 6, 1980, the promotion had enough popularity to run more shows throughout the country, which resulted in AJW splitting into two teams. Team A featured wrestlers such as

Jaguar Yokota (born July 25, 1961) is a Japanese professional wrestler and later wrestling trainer, who wrestled under the name . She is currently signed to World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana, where she is the leader of the CRYSIS stable. Yokota is widely consid ...

and Mimi Hagiwara while Team B featured Nancy Kumi, Lucy Kayama and Chino Sato. This lasted until June 1981. During the 1980s, AJW continued to feature extraordinarily talented and popular female wrestlers, including Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) Hall of Famers,

Bull Nakano is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional golfer better known as . She began competing in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) as a teenager under the ring name Bull Nakano. As a wrestler she was a villain, who often team ...

Devil Masami Masami Yoshida (吉田雅美，born January 7, 1962) is a retired 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 ...

Dump Matsumoto , better known by her ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler. She came to prominence as one of the leading female wrestlers in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) during the 1980s. The longtime leader of the Atrocious Alliance stable, ...

, and the Crush Gals (

Chigusa Nagayo is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her mainstream popularity in the 1980s as a member of the Crush Gals with long-time tag team partner Lioness Asuka. In 1995 she founded GAEA Japan and in 2014 created its successor Marvelous ...

and

Lioness Asuka is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by her ring name . She was one half of the Crush Gals professional wrestling tag team, along with Chigusa Nagayo, who are known for their mainstream popularity in the 1980s, and for be ...

). The feud between the pop culture sensations, the Crush Gals, and the heel stable, Gokuaku Domei, led by Matsumoto, was possibly the most popular angle in all of Japanese wrestling during the 1980s, bringing very high ratings to AJW's weekly television program which caused the show be aired during prime-time. This also resulted in record numbers of girls wanting to become wrestlers with the 1984 auditions having 2,000 candidates. Up until 1986, AJW had been the only major women's wrestling (''

'' or simply ''joshi'') promotion in Japan. Then, on August 17, 1986,

Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling; (In Japanese: ジャパン女子プロレス, also known as Original JWP) was a ''joshi puroresu'' (women's professional wrestling) promotion established in 1988. The first event took place on August 17, 1986. Histo ...

(JWP) was started, by former AJW stars Jackie Sato and Nancy Kumi, as well as

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

Rumi Kazama and others. As All Japan Women's popularity cooled off after the Crush Gals retired, the promotion's television show was moved to midnight. While AJW remained the top promotion through the early 1990s, due to talent including

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 ...

Aja Kong is a Japanese professional wrestler better known by her ring name . She currently makes appearances on the Japanese independent circuit and for Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW). She is the founder of the Arsion all-women professional wrestli ...

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

and

Kyoko Inoue is a Japanese female professional wrestler currently signed to World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana. She has held the WWWA World Single Championship three times, and is the first woman to win a men's title in Japan. Inoue is the founder of NEO J ...

, the number of ''joshi puroresu'' promotions kept increasing, with

Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling, also known as LLPW and currently as LLPW-X, is a Japanese independent women's professional wrestling promotion founded in 1992 by Rumi Kazama and Shinobu Kandori. History Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling split in 19 ...

and JWP forming in 1992 after the collapse of

. This created an unprecedented era of co-operation between the various companies which resulted in many inter-promotional shows including

Big Egg Wrestling Universe The Big Egg Wrestling Universe (known in Japan as ) was a professional wrestling event held by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) inside the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on November 20, 1994 and was attended by 32,500 fans. However, some sources ...

, the first ever all women's show at the

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium (whose former site is now occupied by the Tokyo Dome Hotel and a plaza for this stadium). In Japan, it is often us ...

. Competition increased again as Gaea Japan formed in 1995 and

JDStar JDStar (also spelt Jd') was a women's professional wrestling promotion based in Tokyo, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on th ...

formed in 1996 with both promotions having former All Japan Women's stars including

and

. 1997 would prove to be a nightmare year for All Japan Women as the owners of All Japan Women's went bankrupt after losing money in real estate, the stock market and other business ventures. Due to this, they lost 14 wrestlers from July to September 1997.

Etsuko Mita is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. She formed a successful tag team with her partner Mima Shimoda as '' Las Cachorras Orientales'' (Spanish for "The Oriental Bitches"; which was originally a trio with Akira Hokuto) and Toshiyo Yamad ...

Mima Shimoda is a Japanese professional wrestler, who is working for the Mexican professional wrestling promotion (CMLL) and Japanese promotion World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana. She is most well known for being half of Las Cachorras Orientales with Etsuko M ...

, Chaparita Asari,

Yoshiko Tamura is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. Tamura was trained by the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, made her debut in September 1994 and worked for the promotion for three years, winning the AJW Junior Championship, before t ...

and others left to form

NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling was a ''joshi puroresu'' (women's professional wrestling) professional wrestling promotion, promotion established in 1997 by Kyoko Inoue. The first event took place on January 9, 1998. NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestlin ...

Toshiyo Yamada is a retired Japanese female professional wrestler. In the 1990s, Yamada wrestled for the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling promotion (AJW). Professional wrestling career All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Early Career and Dream Orca (1987–1 ...

left for Gaea Japan.

Mariko Yoshida , better known by her ring name , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her work with the ARSION professional wrestling promotion, where she was also head trainer. Professional wrestling career Yoshida debuted for ...

Reggie Bennett Reggie Bennett (born January 24, 1961) is an American former professional wrestler. She is best known for her work in ''joshi puroresu'' organizations such as All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. Professional wrestling career Early career (1986� ...

, Yumi Fukawa and Rie Tamada left to form Arsion. In October 1997, the promotion's building which held the AJW office, the wrestler dormitories, the training area, the garage (where small events were sometimes held) and a restaurant where the younger wrestlers worked was handed over to creditors. In October, they also lost their television show on

which they later regained in July 1998. In 2002, AJW lost its television spot again and the promotion closed its doors in April 2005 after 37 years, making it the longest-running promotion in Japan up to that time (Men's promotions

New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional-wrestling promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV Asahi and Amuse Inc. owning minority shar ...

and

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Puroresu, Japanese professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on October 21, 1972, by Giant Baba after he left the Japanese Wrestling Association to create his own promotion. Ma ...

have since reached 50 years as of 2022). Promotion company Tajima Kikaku re-established "New" AJW in 2006, however they only acquired the rights to the promotion's name and logo from the Matsunaga family, not the titles. The talent was mostly borrowed from JWP Project and the cards were sporadic. In 2012 the "New" AJW stopped promoting cards.

Events

The most notable annual events in AJW were the ''

Japan Grand Prix The Japan Grand Prix was an annual professional wrestling tournament held by the promotion All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) to determine the number one contender for the promotion's highest achievement, the WWWA World Single Championship. T ...

'' and ''

Tag League the Best __NOTOC__ The was an annual professional wrestling tag team tournament, founded by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), which held it from 1985 to 2004 (with no tournament taking place in 1990). After the folding of AJW in 2005, the tournament wa ...

''. The ''Japan Grand Prix'' was held each summer, from 1985 to 2004, and was a tournament to determine the number one contender for the

, similar to the

G1 Climax The is a professional wrestling tournament held each August by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. Though it has sometimes been held as a single-elimination tournament, it is usually – and currently – held as a round-rob ...

Champion Carnival The is a professional wrestling tournament held by All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). The tournament is also known by the nickname and is sometimes abbreviated to CC. Created by AJPW founder Giant Baba, the tournament has been held annually since ...

seen in the men's promotions

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

and

, respectively. ''Tag League the Best'' was held each fall, also from 1985 to 2004, and was a tag team tournament. AJW also held several regular annual events during the 1990s. The first was ''Wrestlemarinpiad'', which was held in the fall or spring from 1989 to 1997, and for the last time in 2000. Also prominent was ''Wrestling Queendom'', held from 1993 to 1997, the first held in November and the rest in the end of March.

Championships

World Women's Wrestling Association

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling commission

International Wrestling Association

American Girls' Wrestling Association

Tournaments

AJW Hall of Fame

The AJW Hall of Fame had its first inducted class enshrined on November 29, 1998, at the

Yokohama Arena is an indoor arena located in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The capacity of the arena is 17,000 and was opened in 1989. The arena was modeled after US sports venue Madison Square Garden in New York City. It is a five-minute walk from the ...

Yokohama, Japan is the second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a population of 3.7 million in 2023. It lies on Tokyo B ...

. This was at AJW's 30th anniversary event. All but two members of the Hall of Fame (indicated with a †) were inducted at the initial ceremony.

Members

Rookie classes

Rookies by year

References

External links

*
Information about All Japan Women's

All Japan Women's title histories

{{Women's professional wrestling Japanese women's professional wrestling promotions Sports organizations established in 1968 1968 establishments in Japan Organizations disestablished in 2005