Tuesday, March 10, 2009

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling

Bull Nakano started with AJW at the age of 15

Established in 1968 by Takashi Matsunaga and his brothers, All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling was a joshi puroresu (women's professional wrestling) promotion.
The promotion held it's first event on June 4, 1968.
Also in 1968, they got a deal with Fuji TV. This was the first time joshi puroresu had been aired on TV in Japan.
AJW was the successor to the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Association, which had been formed in August 1955.
The AJW held several regular annual events like the Japan Grand Prix, Tag League the Best, Wrestlemarinpiad and Wrestling Queendom.
On November 29, 1998, The AJW Hall of Fame had its first inducted class enshrined at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.

Most of the major female stars of Japanese wrestling worked for AJW at one time or another including:

Lioness Asuka (joined in 1980)
Akira Hokuto (she quit High School and joined the AJW dojo, making her wrestling debut shortly before her 18th birthday)
Aja Kong (trained by AJW, and graduated as part of their class of 1986)
Devil Masami (member of the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame,inducted in 1998)
Dump Matsumoto (one of AJW's biggest stars in the 1980s)
Monster Ripper (debuted in AJW in 1979)
Chigusa Nagayo (one half of the Crush Gals with Lioness Asuka)
Bull Nakano (started training with AJW at the age of 15)
Jackie Sato (joined AJW in 1975)
Jaguar Yokota (defeated WWWA Champion Jackie Sato at the age of 19)

The AJW wrestling promotion closed it's doors in April 2005 after a 37 year run.

1 comment:

the soul of japan said...

Nice blog. Wish there was a way I could link up here. I love Japanese female wresttlers.

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