is a Japanese

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within ...

based in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

. The promotion was founded by

Super Delfin is a Japanese people, Japanese professional wrestler and politician who currently runs and wrestles for Kaisen Puroresu. He is better known by his stage name . He has been a member of the Izumi, Osaka, Izumi City Council since 2012. Professi ...

on March 4, 1999 following his departure from

Michinoku Pro Wrestling (originally known as North Eastern Wrestling) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke on October 1, 1992. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rathe ...

, and has been operated by

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

since July 2021. Commonly associated with the comedy wrestling and

lucha libre ''Lucha libre'' (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term for the style of professional wrestling originating in Mexico. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has develope ...

genres, Osaka Pro features a variety of

masked wrestlers A wrestling mask is a fabric-based mask that some Professional wrestling, professional wrestlers wear as part of their in-ring persona or gimmick (professional wrestling), gimmick. Professional wrestlers have been using masks as far back as 1915 ...

inspired by Osaka characters.

History

In January 1999,

announced that due to disagreements with

The Great Sasuke , best known under his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter and politician. He is the founder of Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW). Aside from professional wrestling, he is also a former Iwate Prefectural ...

regarding the direction of

, he would be leaving the promotion alongside several wrestlers and backstage personnel. On March 4, he officially founded Osaka Pro Wrestling (OPW) in his hometown of

. Starting April 29, OPW produced their first tour, the Spicy Series 1999. The first event took place at the

Namihaya Dome is an indoor sporting arena located in Kadoma city in the Osaka Prefecture of Japan. Construction was completed in early 1996. The primary architect was Mamoru Kawaguchi, founder of the firm Kawaguchi & Engineers. The dome is composed largel ...

now the Towa Pharmaceutical Ractab Domein Kadoma, Osaka and saw the team of Super Delfin, Masato Yakushiji and

Naohiro Hoshikawa is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. Hoshikawa competed extensively in Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Osaka Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Zero1 until he was forced to retire after suffering a career-ending brain injury in 2004. Hoshikawa als ...

defeat

Dick Togo , better known by his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestling, professional wrestler. Togo is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a member of House of Torture and a former member of Bullet Club. Togo has spent the major ...

Black Buffalo The black buffalo (''Ictiobus niger'') is a North American species of freshwater fish in the Catostomidae or sucker family.* . With a lifespan of up to 108 years, it is among the longest-lived of freshwater fish species. Found in the Mississipp ...

and Violencia. The promotion held a major flagship event called the

Osaka Hurricane Osaka Hurricane was the annual flagship professional wrestling event produced by Osaka Pro Wrestling between 2003 and 2012. The event was held during the month of February. The event was considered the biggest event of Osaka Pro. It was introduced ...

each year from 2003 to 2012 and also hosted the fourth edition of the

Super J-Cup The Super J-Cup is a periodically held professional wrestling tournament featuring junior heavyweight wrestlers from all over the world promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). This tournament differs from NJPW's annual Best of the Super Juni ...

in 2004, which was the second edition of Osaka Hurricane. In 2010 Osaka Pro started a close working relationship with American promotion Chikara. On March 1, 2014, Osaka Pro announced that it would fold on April 20, 2014 due to financial difficulties, after which all of its wrestlers would become

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 w ...

s. Osaka Pro later announced that the promotion would continue under new president Yuji Sakagami and wrestlers

Kuishinbo Kamen is a Japanese professional wrestler better known as , a masked clown character. Kuishinbo Kamen is Japanese for "Gluttonous Mask". For a while he was forced to give up the Kuishinbo Kamen character, instead he worked as "Super Robo K", a futuris ...

and

Takoyakida is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for his time in the Japanese promotion Osaka Pro Wrestling. A masked wrestler, Takoyakida is greatly influenced by ''lucha libre'', and because of this, he h ...

. The new Osaka Pro Wrestling lost many of the old one's key wrestlers as well as their home base of Nasci Hall Umeda, forcing them to employ a new tour format. In October 2021, it was announced that

had been appointed as the owner and president of OPW. He became president on July 30, and on August 26, he received a share transfer from former owner Yuji Sakagami. However, he remained under contract with

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 ...

(AJPW) for the rest of the year.

Roster

Notable alumni

Apple Miyuki (born June 14, 1985) is a female professional wrestler, who currently works for Ryukyu Dragon Pro Wrestling. She is better known under her previous ring name , under which she worked mainly for the Kaientai Dojo and Osaka Pro Wrestling promotio ...

(RDPW) *

Atsushi Kotoge (born October 18, 1985) is a Japanese people, Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a former one-time GHC Tag Team Champion, three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and rec ...

(

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

) * Azumi Hyuga (

JWP Joshi Puroresu , also known as or simply JWP, was a Japanese ''joshi puroresu'' (women's professional wrestling) professional wrestling promotion, promotion, founded in 1992 as a splinter promotion of Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. Celebrating its 25th anniversa ...

) *

Daigoro Kashiwa is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and referee best known for his time with the Japanese promotion Kaientai Dojo. Professional wrestling career Independent circuit (2001-2018) Kashiwa made his professional wrestling debut at ''Osaka Pro ...

(

Kaientai Dojo Active Advance Pro Wrestling (2AW) is a Professional wrestling in Japan, Japanese professional wrestling promotion and training facility originally owned and promoted by Taka Michinoku. The promotion places emphasis on a style of Professional wre ...

) *

Daisuke Harada (born November 13, 1986) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah. He’s a five-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and a six-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion. Harada is also known fo ...

(

) *

Gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...

( D-Gate) * Gami ( Wave Pro) * Hayata (

) *

Kaito Ishida (born December 19, 1995) is a Japanese people, Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler working for the Japan, Japanese professional wrestling promotion Gleat, where he is a current G-Rex Championship, G-Rex Champion in his second r ...

( D-Gate) *

Kanjyuro Matsuyama is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known for his ring name . He has worked in Toryumon and Michinoku Pro Wrestling, but is more famous for his long career in Osaka Pro Wrestling. Along with Kikutaro and Stalker Ichikawa, he is conside ...

* Kuuga *

Magnitude Kishiwada , better known under his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler. Career During high school, Fujita trained in artistic gymnastics, mixed martial arts and powerlifting, and years later, he showed interest in professional wrestling. For m ...

(''Freelancer'') *

Masamune was a medieval Japanese blacksmith widely acclaimed as Japan's greatest swordsmith. He created swords and daggers, known in Japanese as ''tachi'' and ''tantō'', in the Japanese sword#Classification by School, ''Sōshū'' school. However, many ...

(DES) *

Orochi Yamata no Orochi (ヤマタノオロチ, also written as 八岐大蛇, 八俣遠呂智 or 八俣遠呂知) is a legendary eight-headed and eight-tailed serpent that appears in Japanese mythology. Both the ''Kojiki'' and ''Nihon Shoki'' record the ...

(DES) *

Rising Hayato , better known by his ring name is a Japanese professional wrestler working for the Japanese promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling. Professional wrestling career Independent circuit (2016–present) Hayato started his professional wrestling career i ...

(

AJPW (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on October 21, 1972, by Giant Baba after he left the Japanese Wrestling Association to create his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, with many m ...

) *

Sawako Shimono is a Japanese retired professional wrestler best known for her tenure with various Japanese promotions, such as Pro Wrestling Wave, JWP Joshi Puroresu and Osaka Women's Pro Wrestling. Professional wrestling career Independent circuit (2004–20 ...

(''Freelancer'') *

(Okinawa Pro Wrestling) *

Tadasuke , known mononymous person, mononymously as is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a member of the Team 2000X Stable (professional wrestling), stable. He is best known for ...

Thunder Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...

Yuu Yamagata better known by her ring name is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for her tenure with the Japanese promotions Kaientai Dojo and Pro Wrestling Wave. Professional wrestling career Independent c ...

Staff

*Keigo Yoshino (Referee) *Naoki (Ring announcer) *Shinjiro Miyao (Ring announcer) *

(President and Owner)

Championships

Active

Inactive

Annual tournaments

Major events

References

External links

Official site
{{Professional wrestling in Japan Sport in Osaka Companies based in Osaka Prefecture 1999 establishments in Japan