From: mura@ecst.csuchico.edu (Alan Tam)
Subject: japanese wrestling info
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 08:50:36 GMT

	It is well known among some people that the level of the Japanese
pro-wrestling is very advanced.  For people who are not familier with it,
I am going to give you a breaf introduction of the wrestling in Japan.

	There used to be only two pro-westling federatoin in Japan.
One is famous for Antonia Inoki ( the guy who fought with Ali ).
The other one is famous for Giant Baba ( a tall guy ).  As they aproach
their late forty, they almost retired wretling and lost influence on
the business.  And the young ambitious wrestlers quits those federations
and set up new ones to pursue the wrestling style that they beleve in.
Then now, the number of wrestling corporation is around 6 or 7.  Here
is description of those.


	1 All Japan Wrstling -  popular among wrestling fans because
			the content of wrestling is so tough, exciting,
			and powerful.  They fetures relatively big Japanese
			wrestlers and well-known American wrestlers. 
			main wresters:
			  Japanese- Jumbo Turuta, Misawa.
			  American- Stan Hansen, Steve Willams, Terry Goddy,
			             Danny Spaiby, Andre the Giant ,etc.

	2 New Japan Wrestling -  most well-known wrestling federatoin.
			the content of wrestling is stylish, speedy.
			They used to emphasize 'Dojo'( training place ) and
			then generated a lot of talented strong wresters
			such as Antonio Inoki, Tiger mask, Maeda.  Even
			Stan Hunsen, Hulk Hogan or Big van vader are trained
			to be strong in Japan.  
			main wresters:
			  Japanese- Cyoshu Riki, Gyusin Thunder Riger,
				     Great Muta, Hashimoto.
			  American- Big Van Vader, Scott Norton, Ban Ban
			 	     Bigaro, Tony Home.
	3 SWS  		      - Newly set up with Tenryu Genichiro who
				is one of the most popular wrester. He
				quited All Japan to join SWS. SWS has
				connection with WWF.

	4 UWF			- revolutionaly wrestling group.  They
			emphasize on serious real fight.  Their rule are
			different from other wrestlings.  They emphasize on
			karate kick, suplex and submission holds. They created
			a boom among young people.  The appearance of them
			had big influence on wrestling style of other wrestling
			group.  In the middle of boom, they are disintegreted
			to form three different pro-wrestling group because
			of defference of opinions about their wrestlings.
			The three groups are as follows.

		4.1  Rings 	- Headed by Maeda who has been considered
				  the strongest guy in Japan.  He invited
				  martial artists from Holland and U.S.
				  Now, he is the only wrestler over there.
				  The rest are Boxer, Karate man, Judo man.
		4.2  UWF international
				- Most of UWF member join this one.  The
				  leader is Takada who just defeted a famous
				  American boxer in mixed match in Tokyo.
				  They clames that the pro-wrestling is
				  the strongest sport of all.
		4.3 Fujiwara group
				- They emphasize on old style wrestling.
				  Most of the time, they are wrestling
				  try to break each other's arms, legs, joints.
	5	FMW	 	- the leader is not strong guy, but his match
			is so exciting.  He does not mind dying in match.
			The style of their match go very extream.  They 
			introduced a lot of new ideas on wrestling environment.
			They fight in wire with nails replaced with ropes.
			The wire has electric current running and there are
			small bomb along ropes.  The match increased their
			popularity a lot.
	6	Universal	- They emphasize on Mexican style wrestling.
				they got a lot of air flying techniques.

In conclusion, Japan now got all kinds of pro-wrestling.  The fan over
there are very lucky to have choices in watching wrestlings.  Each
group are atractive, but they all lack super-star.  I would recomend 
you watch one of them if you have chance to do it.  You will
see obvious difference in style from what you have been watching here.

 
	
				
 
			        	
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling