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.

The AJW Championship, Part 4

Saki Maemura, the last AJW Champion

Rumi Kazama beat Miho Wakizawa on May 26, 2001 in Tokyo for the title, then immediately vacated the belt. (?)
Then on July 27, 2001, Kayo Noumi defeated Miho Wakizawa to become the new AJW Champion.
Kayoko Haruyama defeated Kayo on September 26, 2001, and Kayo turned around on January 4, 2002 and beat her to take the title back.
Then the Championship was vacated.
Again.
This time so that Kayo could enter the October 20, 2002 tournament for the All Pacific Championship.
So on October 8, 2002, Miyuki Fujii defeated Mika Nishio to become the new champion.
Kaori Yoneyama beat Miyuki for the title on November 29, 2002 in Tokyo and Mika came back and beat Kaori for the title before...yes...vacating it again when she left AJW.
Then Sasori (Miyuki Fujii) defeated Saki Maemura for the title on June 19, 2003.
Hikaru won the title on February 15, 2003 and Saki Maemura beat her for the belt on January 3, 2004.
Saki was the last AJW Champion.
After 37 years, the promotion closed it's doors in April 2005.
During the title's run, no one held the belt more than twice.
The only ones to accomplish that were Lioness Asuka, Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe, Momoe Nakanishi and Kayo Noumi.

The AJW Championship, Part 3

Mima Shimoda

On September 18, 1993 in Omiya, Saitama, Mima Shimoda defeated Bat Yoshinaga to win the belt. Less than a year later, Mima gave up the title to concentrate on her tag team matches with Estuko Mita.
Kaoru Ito defeated Rie Tamada on May 4, 1994 in Toda, Saitama to become the new AJW Champion.
Then on June 30, 1995, Tomoko Watanabe won the belt, vacating it in early 1996.
Kumiko Maekawa defeated Chaparita ASARI on May 4, 1996 to take the title, then Rie Tamada beat her for the belt on November 21, 1996 and held it for a little over a year before she too vacated it in December 1997.
On December 12, 1997 Momoe Nakanishi defeated Sachie Nishibori to become the new champion.
Emi Motokawa won the belt on January 24, 1998 and in turn, Momoe Nakanishi took the title back on April 12, 1998. Due to the title defense limit, Momoe vacated the belt in 1999.
Nanae Takahashi defeated Miyuki Fujii on March 1, 2000, in Fukuoka, Fukuoka to become the new champion.
And Miho Wakizawa defeated Nanae Takahashi to become champion on September 17, 2000 in Tokyo.

To be continued.......

The AJW Championship, Part 2

On July 25, 1985, Bull Nakano defeated Mika Komatsu for the AJW Championship.
Yumi Ogura won the belt on January 28, 1988 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Then on July 10, 1988, Mika Komatsu took the title in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (?).
The title was then vacated and Erika Shishido beat Manami Toyota for the belt on March 19, 1989 back in Tokyo, Japan.
Reibun Amada won the title on August 24, 1989 in Tokyo, but the title was again vacated when Reibun retired in October, 1989.
Manami Toyota won the belt by defeating Mika Takahashi on November 18, 1989 in Matsuda, Kanagawa, Japan, but AGAIN the title was vacated on September 1, 1990.
Kyoko Inoue defeated Takako Inoue to take the title on October 2, 1990 in Yamagata, Yamagata, Japan.
But Takako turned around and beat Kyoko on April 29, 1991.
This was followed by the title being won by Mariko Yoshida, Sakie Hasegawa, Tomoko Watanabe and Kaoru Ito until the American Debbie Malenko won the belt on February 10, 1993 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan.
She held the title until it was...guess what?....yes vacated again, in 1993 because Debbie was injured and could not defend it.

The AJW Championship

The first ever AJW Champion, Rimi Yokota

I did an entry awhile back on the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship. It was the main title in the Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW).
But they had another title, the AJW Championship.
This title started in 1980 and ran until after the promotion closed in 2005.

The first ever AJW Champion was Rimi Yokota, better known as Jaguar Yokota. She won the belt in Tokyo on December 15, 1980, beating Nancy Kumi.
The title was vacated a few months later on March 7, 1981.
Devil Masami then defeated Tomoko Kitamura on May 9, 1981 to claim the title, and it was vacated again on April 7, 1982.
Lioness Asuka then defeated Masked Yu on July 19, 1982, becoming champion until she was defeated by Kaoru Matsumoto on January 8, 1983.
Asuka came back and beat Kaoru Matsumoto taking the title again till it was vacated yet again on January 18, 1984.
On February 28, 1984, Itsuki Yamazaki defeated Noriyo Tateno to win the belt, and she held it until it was vacated AGAIN on February 25, 1985.

To be continued.....

Miko Nishio

Miko Nishio is/was a Japanese female wrestler.
She was born on December 12 1981.
Miko made her pro wrestling debut on September 30 2000, wrestling Terashita.
She worked for AJW and the OZ Academy promotions in Japan.
While she was with AJW, she won the AJW Championship, but had to vacate it when she left AJW.
Due to an injury, she went to a valet role in Oz.

Here is a video of her wrestling Carlos Amano I found on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hTOPEoED7Y

Yuka Shiina

Yuka Shiina was a Japanese female wrestler.
I say was because she retired back in 2006.
Yuka wrestled for the NEO promotion for over ten years.
She also wrestled for AJW and IBUKI.

Here's a video on YouTube of Mariko Yoshida and Shuu Shibutani wrestling Yuka Shiina and Kyoko Kimura in Japan back in 2005.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6cj1ob1bvU

Manami Toyota - Part 2

However, the feud between Manami and Toshiyo Yamada was not yet over.
It reached it's climax on August 15th, 1992 at Korakuen Hall in a Hair vs. Hair match. The bout was a very dramatic one, but what made the event was what occurred after the match. Manami, even though she had won the match, did not want Toshiyo to get her head shaved, and had to be forcefully restrained by four preliminary girls, who eventually forced her back to the mat. In respect of the match conditions Toshiyo wanted her head shaved and went ahead with the stipulation.

Soon after this match the two women once again teamed up to win their first World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA) World Tag Team Championship in March 1992, defeating "Jungle Jack" (Aja Kong and Bison Kimura) in Tokyo. At AJW’s Dreamrush shown on November 26th, Manami and Toshiyo defended their WWWA Tag Team wrestling titles against Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki in a legendary two out of three falls match, which is considered one of the best wrestling matches ever.

In April of 1992 Manami furthered her singles career by defeating Kyoko Inoue on April 25th in Yokohama for the IWA World Women's Championship. Toyota defended that title eight times over the course of the next three years, before losing it to Reggie Bennett in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on May 15th, 1995.

At Dreamslam II, on April 11th, 1993 Manami and Toshiyo fought a rematch against JWP Project's Kansai and Ozaki in yet another highly-rated two out of three falls encounter. This time, however, Manami and Toshiyo were on the losing side, and Kansai and Ozaki got their revenge. The feud concluded at AJW’s St. Battle Final event, on December 6th, 1993, when Manami and Toshiyo regained their tag titles.

On August 24th, 1994 Manami once again squared off against Kyoko Inoue, and defeated her to unify the IWA and All Pacific Singles Championships. Manami’s run with the two titles was not to last very long, because on October 9th, 1994, Inoue gained a measure of revenge against Manami, when Kyoko and her partner Takako Inoue (no relation) won the WWWA Tag Team Championship from Manami and Toshiyo. Manami then vacated her All Pacific Championship, prior to her first WWWA Heavyweight Championship match against the monstrous Aja Kong at AJW’s Queendom III show, on March 26th, 1995. The match saw Manami reach the summit of AJW when she won and became the 39th WWWA Champion.

On May 7th, Manami defended her crown against arch-rival Kyoko Inoue at the Korakuen Hall, where the two fought to a 60 minute time limit draw. Despite piledrivers on the floor, German suplexes off the top rope, and multiple finishers, neither combatant was able to secure outright victory. Nonetheless, Manami retained, and the match was voted Match of the Year for 1995 in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The following month, Manami lost the WWWA Championship to former champion Aja Kong, on June 27.

Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue (May 7, 1995)