Professional wrestling in Japan, or “puroresu”, is a popular wrestling sport. It had its boom years in the 1960s and 1970s, but is still very much enjoyed today.
Rikidozan and the early days
Puroresu started in Japan after World War II. It didn’t really take off until Rikidozan arrived. Rikidozan was a sumo wrestler born in Korea. In 1951, the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, or JWA, started. He was inspired by wrestling associations in the United States.
The first 10 years of proresu are dominated by Rikidozan. He helped set up virtually the entire wrestling industry. He was the first to compete internationally and began bringing international professional wrestlers to Japan to compete. Basically, it put Japan on the world map of professional wrestling.
In 1963, Rikidozan died at the age of 39. Although he had done a lot for puroresu in the last ten years, he died leaving many projects unfinished. It was decided that the JWA would continue with all the new talents that had emerged.
Rival camps
In the 1970s, there were many famous puroresu stars in Japan, including Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki. At this time, the JWA unit was beginning to break down. Both Baba and Inoki started their own wrestling organizations and entered fierce competition with each other. Giant Baba started All Japan Pro-Wrestling and Antonio Inoki started New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The following year, JWA went under.
Puroresu has always been less sophisticated than American professional wrestling, and Antonio Inoki has done a lot to try and elevate his status to a real form of wrestling. Throughout the 1970s, he attempted to elevate the sport’s legitimacy by fighting karate fighters, judo fighters, and boxers. In 1976 he fought Muhammad Ali in a fight that was highly promoted, but not well fought. With all the restrictions on what the fighters could and couldn’t do, it became a joke. Still, he tried to legitimize puroresu with his slogan, “civil rights por puroresu.”
Women in the ring
Women have always been active in wrestling in Japan. The All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling Association was started in 1955, but women’s wrestling in Japan really began to pick up speed in 1967, with the establishment of the Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling Association. In the early days of the AJW, Japanese wrestlers fought against wrestlers from other countries, to try and promote the fights. In 1975, Mach Fumiake won the WWWA Championship, and since then only 2 non-Japanese wrestlers have won it.
There were a number of great professional wrestlers in Japan during the 1980s and 1990s, including Jushin Luger, Manami Toyota, Lioness Asuka, and Akira Hokuto. With the dissolution of the major male wrestling federations, female wrestlers have taken the main stage. Today, women’s wrestling is much more popular in Japan than men’s wrestling. While male wrestling wrestlers have generally broken down into other fighting styles, female wrestlers tend to stay true to puroresu.
Puroresu today
As K-1 and other mixed martial arts gain popularity in Japan, the popularity of puroresu has been declining. This is also due to the gradual disintegration of Baba’s AJPW after his death, and the decline of the NJPW.
Although professional wrestling is not as popular as it once was in Japan, it still draws large crowds. As it has been mixed with other sports in the new hybrid fighting styles, it has lost some of its purity, but remains popular.