Destiny 7.29.07: Quick Guide To Puro (Summer 2007 Edition)

Hello there readers! Hopefully many of you are first time Destiny readers because I’m about to introduce you to the world of puro in the 2007 Edition of my very own “Quick Guide to Puro”. The idea behind this guide is to teach those of you who try and read a column about puro but get lost in translation and confused by the variety of unfamiliar terms. I understand that it can be hard to understand what myself or Matt Short of The Navigation Log are talking about a lot of the time without having experienced much puro. Well, hopefully that is all about to change. I decided to write this guide for fun, and because if it helps one person pursue an interest in Japanese pro wrestling, then it has done it’s job and I have done mine. I feel like I’m proselytizing here, but puro is my passion as far as wrestling goes, so is that really so bad? I hope you enjoy this lovely guide and by the time you finish reading this column you should know the meaning of the basic terms of puro and be able to effectively navigate puro DVD sellers sites and youtube to get exactly what you are looking for. So, without further adieu, I bring you the Quick Guide to Puro!

The Basics

The origins of puro go back as far as World War II. It wasn’t terribly successful at first, but within a decade and the rise of puro’s first star, Rikidozan, it began to take off and become successful. Under Rikidozan two of the biggest stars in this history of puro arose. They were Antonio Inoki and Shohei “Giant” Baba. Once Baba and Inoki had established themselves as major stars they branched off from the JWA, the promotion that made them stars, and started their own promotions mere months apart. Inoki would open New Japan Pro Wrestling and Baba would open All Japan Pro Wrestling, both in 1972. For the next 30 years, these two promotions would be the big two in Japan. The NOAH split happened in 2000, and within two years, NOAH had surpassed All Japan in popularity and at this point in time, is arguably the most popular promotion in Japan. Puro uses the same basic rules as wrestling in North America did at the time of the beginning of puro, except they allow a 20 count on the floor before a competitor is considered counted out.

Now, if you read that paragraph, which is about the most basic history a person could produce regarding puro, and were confused at any point, then this is the column for you. From here on, I’ll be defining different terms and giving brief histories of several wrestlers. Let’s start with the most basic term of all…

Puro – Puro is the shortest term used to describe professional wrestling, which is exactly what it means. The full Japanese term for professional wrestling is Purofesshonaru Resuringu, shortened often simply to puroresu and of course again to puro.

Joshi – Joshi puroresu is women’s professional wrestling. It started in the 1950’s but didn’t become popular until the late 1960’s with the birth of All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling. Joshi became very popular in Japan, even rivaling men’s professional wrestling in the early 1990’s. In 2004, joshi took a major blow when both of it’s top promotions (AJW & GAEA) folded, leaving the style with a small number of scattered promotions that saw a fraction of the popularity of the two that had folded. Some of the biggest stars of joshi have been Manami Toyota, Aja Kong, Lioness Asuka, Akira Hokuto, Bull Nakano, Devil Masami, Kyoko Inoue, Dynamite Kansai and many others.

Gaijin – By definition, gaijin means foreigner in Japanese. It refers to those who are from nations other than Japan. There are some gaijin, who are not considered gainjin wrestlers. Taiyo Kea of All Japan is not considered a gaijin even though he is Hawaiian-American. This is because he was trained and has wrestled his entire career under the banned of All Japan.

Strong Style – The primary wrestling style of popular puroresu. Strong style takes a more realistic approach and is often very stiff in execution. It features high impact attacks and focuses on the technical aspect of wrestling. There are American wrestlers who use the strong style, many of them work in the independent scene, but spend a lot of time wrestling in Japan, where knowledge of the strong style make working there much more possible. Two notable strong style wrestlers in America are Bryan Danielson of Ring of Honor and Sara Del Rey of SHIMMER. There are some who consider strong style to be a shoot style, which can be said of some wrestlers who have fought in Mixed Martial Arts fights on professional wrestling shows.

Promotions

JWA – Japan Wrestling Association was the first official puroresu promotion. Founded by Rikidozan in 1953, was the premier wrestling promotion in Japan for the next 19 years. It went under in 1973 after it lost it’s top two draws, Antonio Inoki and Shohei Baba when they each founded their own promotions.

AJPW – Founded by Shohei “Giant” Baba in 1972, All Japan Pro Wrestling quickly became one of the two top promotions in Japan. It remained in the top two until much of its roster left in 2000 with Mitsuharu Misawa to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. It exists today under the control of Keiji Mutoh. All Japan has been known for it’s incredibly stiff and realistic matches and lays claim to more ***** match ratings by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer than any other promotion in the world by a significant margin. All Japan also relied heavily on gaijin wrestlers. There was another All Japan brand called King’s Road that ran in early 2006, but was unsuccessful. Some of All Japan’s most recognizable stars have been; Mitsuharu Misawa, Stan Hansen, Steve Williams, Abdulla The Butcher, Toshiaki Kawada, Keiji Mutoh, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Jumbo Tsuruta, Satoshi Kojima and Giant Baba. Recommended if you like: WWE, TNA, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, or Chikara.

NJPW – New Japan Pro Wrestling is the most recognizable promotion in all of Japan. With Antonion Inoki having been the figurehead since his founding the company in 1972, New Japan has received a good amount of mainstream Japanese media attention. New Japan is also the only major Japanese promotion to incorporate a mix of Professional Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts. New Japan has also seen more success that any other promotion in Japan. They have managed to successful run the Tokyo Dome, one of the largest sports facilities in Japan since 1989, many years more than once. Earlier this year Antonio Inoki and Simon Inoki severed ties with New Japan, which has thus far led to a change in the company’s direction. Lock Up and WrestleLand are two of New Japan’s brands. The first focused on the in-ring product, while the other focuses on sports entertainment. Some of New Japan’s most recognizable stars have been; Masahiro Chono, The Great Muta, Hiroshi Hase, Shinya Hashimoto, Yugi Nagata, Tatsumi Fujinami, Jushin Thunder Liger, Scott Norton, Big Van Vader, Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kensuke Sasaki, Riki Choshu and Antonio Inoki. Recommended if you like: WCW, Old school NWA, TNA, WWE, Ring of Honor, or FIP

Pro Wrestling NOAH – Founded in 2000 by former All Japan wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa, Pro Wrestling NOAH started as a mass exodus from All Japan Pro Wrestling. Since its controversial beginning, NOAH has had increased successes passing All Japan in popularity by a good margin. In 2004 and 2005 they were able to run shows in the Tokyo Dome which drew surprisingly well considering the young age of the promotion. NOAH also has a working relationship with North American promotion Ring of Honor where NOAH wrestler Takeshi Morishima is currently ROH World Champion. NOAH also has a young lions brand called SEM. Some of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s most recognizable stars have been; Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Naomichi Marufuji, KENTA, Jun Akiyama, and Akira Taue. Recommended if you like: Ring of Honor, FIP, TNA

AJW – All Japan Women’s Wrestling was founded in 1968 and was the premier joshi puroresu promotion from 1968 until around 2000. Featuring very athletic matches, All Japan Women began to prove that women are just as capable as men in a professional wrestling ring. In the early 1990’s, AJW saw their popularity skyrocket to the point they were competing with All Japan and New Japan. In 1994 they held an event at the Tokyo Dome which featured one of the greatest joshi matches ever between Aja Kong and Manami Toyota. The years 1992-1994 saw some of the best wrestling in the world come from this promotion, however, when GAEA Japan opened its doors in 1995, things began to change. By the time the year 2000 rolled around, many of the top stars from AJW had left for GAEA leaving All Japan in a position they were never able to recover from before they folded in 2005. Some of AJW’s most recognizable stars were; Aja Kong, Lioness Asuka, Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, and Kyoko Inoue. Recommended if you like: SHIMMER: Women Athlete’s

GAEA – GAEA was founded by Chigusa Nagayo in 1995 and quickly became a major force in joshi puroresu. By 1998 they had acquired much of All Japan Women’s top talent and began to catch up to them in terms of popularity. By 2000 the heat was dead even, but by 2002, GAEA had surpassed All Japan Women’s popularity and had stolen most of their talent. While the quality of the matches in GAEA did not compete with the heyday of what AJW was doing, they still had the talent to put on tremendous shows. It didn’t take long before joshi as a whole was suffering and GAEA folded just days after AJW. Joshi has yet to recover from the loss of those two companies. Some of GAEA’s most recognizable stars were; Manami Toyota, Aja Kong, Mayumi Ozaki, Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura, Ayako Hamada, and Carlos Amano. Recommended if you like: SHIMMER Women Athlete’s, GLOW, WEW or WWE Women’s Division.

Toryumon/Dragon Gate – While Dragon Gate and Toryumon are not one in the same, they share the same history and talent. Toryumon Japan was founded in 1997 by Ultimo Dragon as a training school. It featured a high-flying style much like lucha libre. It became a promotion featuring the students of the school in 1999. The promotion had what many would consider great success for an independent promotion, but never managed to fully compete with the big three of New Japan, All Japan and NOAH, though it has come relatively close from time to time. In 2004, Ultimo Dragon parted ways with the promotion side of the operation and took the Toryumon name with him. The promotion was renamed “Dragon Gate” and it has run as a full-time promotion ever since. Some of Dragon Gate’s most recognizable stars have been; Ultimo Dragon, CIMA, SUWA, Magnum Tokyo, TARU, Shuji Kondo, Genki Horiguchi and Masaaki Mochizuki. Recommended if you like: TNA X-Division, Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Chikara, NWA Pro

BJPW – Big Japan Pro Wrestling is what is considered to be a “deathmatch” wrestling company. It was founded in 1995 by former All Japan wrestlers Kendo Nagasaki and Shinya Kojika. It was formed due to the boom happening at that time in this style of wrestling. To this day, Kojika still runs the company though Nagasaki has since left. Many fans of puro who follow Big Japan believe that it is the most passionate promotion in Japan today. They have some crazy match style including a Piranha Deathmatch that features a tank in the middle of the ring where to win, a competitor must hold their opponent in the tank for 10 seconds, OUCH! Some of Big Japan’s most recognizable stars have been; Kintaro Kanemura, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Kendo Nagasaki, Shinya Kojika, Necro Butcher, MASADA, and MENS Teioh. Recommended if you like: Old school ECW, IWA Mid-South, XPW or CZW.

BattlARTS A promotion formed in 1996, that ran in the Tokyo/Saitama area until 2001 and then ran occasionally since 2003. BattlARTS featured a shoot-style of wrestling and once ran a cross-promotional battle with Michinoku Pro. Some of BattlARTS most recognizable stars were; Mohammed Yone, TAKA Michinoku, Joe Malenko, Carl Greco, and Alexander Otsuka. Recommended if you like: Mixed Martial Arts

HUSTLE – A “big event” sports entertainment style promotion that runs shows periodically, but involved celebrities such as Hard-Gay. The shows draw well, but my impression of the promotion is that it shouldn’t be taken remotely as seriously as some take it. There really is no HUSTLE roster as they use freelancers, gaijin and celebrities to fill out their cards. Recommended if you like: WWE

IGF – The Inoki Genome Federation is the newest promotion in Japan having only run one show on June 29th 2007 called “Fighting Now Bom-ba-ye”. It started with a great deal of controversy when they claimed Brock Lesnar was the IWGP champion and worked for IGF. They called the title the “IWGP 3rd belt” and claimed that Lesnar was still champion because he never lost it. This caused a great amount of controversy, which actually led to the even garnering a great deal of media attention, giving hope for the promotions success. Some of the most recognizable names on the inaugural show were; Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Naoya Ogawa and Tadao Yasuda. Recommended if you like: New Japan, TNA, or Mixed Martial Arts

Michinoku Pro – Founded in 1993 by The Great Sasuke, Michinoku Pro is a lucha libre fans wrestling promotion, because it focuses a style similar to that seen in Mexico. It was the first promotion to base themselves outside of Toyko and was also known as Northeastern Wrestling. The operation of the company was left Jinsei Shinzaki while Sasuke focused on his duties in the Japanese Parlaiment. Some of Michinoku Pro’s most recognizable stars have been; The Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki, Dick Togo, Super Delfin, Minoru Fujita, and TAKA Michinoku. Recommended if you like: AAA or CMLL.

Osaka Pro – Osaka Pro is a modest but popular independent promotion out of Osaka. It was founded by Super Delfin in 1998. They gained popularity due to their high flying style that often incorporated aspects of lucha libre. Many of the wrestlers wear masks and have over the top gimmicks. They also rely heavily on comedy wrestling having employed Ebessan and Kuishinbo Kamen. Some of Osaka Pro’s most recognizable stars have been; Super Delfin, Tigers Mask, Billy Ken-kid, Big Boss Ma-Ga-Ma, and Black Tigers. Recommended if you like: Pro Wrestling Guirrilla, CMLL, AAA or Chikara.

Zero1-Max Named after the year it was founded, 2001, Zero1-Max became a part of the NWA. Founded by Shinya Hashimoto and Shinjiro Ohtani, the promotion had a healthy start. It relied heavily on relationships with other promotions and put on impressive lineups. Their wrestlers managed to hold titles in several other promotions while working for Zero1-Max including All Japan’s Triple Crown, held by Shinya Hashimoto. In 2004, Zero1-Max withdrew from the NWA and revived the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. Shinjiro Ohtani still runs the company, but it has suffered a significant decrease in popularity since Hashimoto gave him complete control in 2004. Hashimoto died in 2005. Some of Zero1-Max’s most recognizable stars have been; Steve Corino, Shinya Hashimoto, Shinjiro Ohtani, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Dick Togo, Low Ki, AJ Styles, Takao Omori, and Masato Tanaka. Recommended if you like: TNA.

UWF-I The Union of Wrestling Forces International was a shoot-based wrestling company founded in 1991. The matches were determined by a reverse points system and matches were won by submission or knockout. This style is often referred to as a “worked shoot”. Basically it was made to look like a real Mixed Martial Arts fight, but the results were pre-determined. UWF-I was some of the first Mixed Martial Arts to be seen by a wide audience and can be partially credited with influencing the MMA we see today. Some of UWF-I’s most recognizable stars were; Nobuhiko Takada, Yoshihiro Takayama, Gary Albright, and Dan Severn. Recommended if you like: Mixed Martial Arts like PRIDE and K-1.

FMW – Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling is arguably the most controversial wrestling promotion in the history of the world. The company was founded by Atsushi Onta in 1989. FMW paved the way for the popularity of hardcore wrestling worldwide. Many of the standard hardcore style matches that are seen like Explosing Barbed Wire matches were invented and first run by FMW. During the mid 1990’s, FMW managed a good deal of popularity, even managing to run Kawasaki Stadium shows from 1991-1996 in front of 30,000-40,000 reported fans. They had a working relationship during that time with North American promotion ECW. During the later part of the 1990’s, Onita took a step back in the company and was replaced by Shoichi Arai. Arai managed to run the company into the ground by hiring a booker who changed the promotion from a hardcore wrestling focus to a sports entertainment focus. This did not sit well for the fans. By this time Arai had accumulated over a million dollars in debt, much of which was owed to the Japanese Mafia, Yakuza. In 2001, Hayabusa slipped on the top rope in a match and was paralyzed thus continuing the spiral the company was taking. 2002 saw the end of FMW when Arai filed for bankruptcy. Three months later, because he was unable to pay his debts to Yakuza, Arai hung himself and willed the insurance money to Yakuza. Some of FMW’s most recognizable stars were; Masato Tanaka, Hayabusa, Mike Awesome, Atsushi Onita, Ricky Fuji and Megumi Kudo. Recommended if you like: Old school ECW, CZW, or IWA Mid-South

DDT – Dramatic Dream Team is a promotion founded in 1997 taking a direction of promoting sports entertainment similar to WWE and WCW. Despite being labeled as sleazy, they developed a solid following even securing a national cable TV show on Samurai TV and a contract to run Direct TV Pay Per Views. The style of wrestling is closer to a mix of lucha, strong style and comedy than the style of North American wrestling. They also have a title that is similar to the WWF Hardcore title that can be defended 24/7 and has been held by ladders, a monkey, a dog, celebrities and even Kitty-chan, a Hello Kitty doll. Some of DDT’s most recognizable stars have been; KUDO, Dick Togo, Nosawa, Toru Owashi, and Mikami. Recommended if you like: WWE, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Chikara, AAA or CMLL.

Other Promotions – Some other Japanese promotions are: Kaientai Dojo, Pancrase, U-Style, SWS, War, W*ing, and Big Mouth Loud.

Championships

IWGP – The International Wrestling Grand Prix is the governing body over titles in New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was founded in 1987 by Antonio Inoki. In 2007 when New Japan severed ties with Inoki, the IWGP remained legally as part of New Japan. However, Inoki used the IWGP title in his Inoki Genome Federation show, claiming their champion Brock Lesnar hadn’t lost the title in the first place. The IWGP title is currently held by Yugi Nagata.

GHC – The Global Honored Crown is the governing body over the titles in Pro Wrestling NOAH. There is a Heavyweight title, a Junior Heavyweight Title, Tag team and Junior Tag Team titles. There is also a lesser Hardcore and Hardcore tag titles that are defended in matches that can hardly be considered hardcore. The current GHC Heavyweight Champion is Mitsuharu Misawa.

Triple Crown – The Triple Crown is the top title in All Japan Pro Wrestling. It was created in 1989 when the PWF Heavyweight, NWA United National, and the NWA International Heavyweight were unified when Jumbo Tsuruta who was the NWA International Champion defeated Stan Hansen who held the other two titles. The three titles have remained unified since and all three belts are carried by the champion. The current Triple Crown Champion is Minoru Suzuki.

Open The Dream Gate – This is the top championship for Dragon Gate and was created when Ultimo Dragon left the promotion in 2004. CIMA was made the first champion and is also the current champion.

WWWA – This is the oldest and most prestigious women’s title in the world. It was also the original. The title was created in California under the promotion Women’s World Wrestling Association in 1937. Mildred Burke was the first champion who held the title for 19 years before it was vacated. It was revived 13 years later in California, but within two months it had made it’s way to Japan where it stayed. When All Japan Women closed down, the title remained, but only lasted for 1 more year. It was abandoned in May of 2006.

AAAW – The All Asia Athelete Women’s title was the primary title for GAEA. It was created in 1996 and lasted until GAEA folded in 2005. The final champion was Aja Kong.

KO-D – King of DDT is the name for the major titles in the DDT Promotion. It was created in 2000. The current Open-weight champion is Koo.

Important Figures

Rikidozan – Rikidozan is the father of puroresu. He was puroresu’s first star and the founder of it’s first promotion (JWA). Without Rikidozan, puroresu may have never achieved the level of success it did. He died in 1963 of peritonitis caused by being stabbed with a urine soaked blade by a Yakuza hitman.

Antonio Inoki – Antonio Inoki is the most recognizable figure in puroresu, even today. He’s the Japanese equivalent of Hulk Hogan. He became hugely popular wrestling for Rikidozans JWA, but when he split off to form New Japan Pro Wrestling, he took the popularity with him. His popularity allowed New Japan to quickly shoot to the top and stay there without question until 2006 He retired from the ring in 1998 after a match against Don Frye. He was still owner of New Japan, but eventually sold majority control to Yuke’s Corporation who has run it since. His son stayed on as acting president of the company, but now the both of them run Inoki Genome Federation in competition to New Japan.

Shohei “Giant” Baba – Giant Baba was one of the largest wrestlers in the world in his time in the ring, and the largest in Japan for periods of his career. He became a star as Antonio Inoki did wrestling for JWA, but soon after Inoki left, so did Baba, who formed All Japan Pro Wrestling. The promotion shot to the roof in popularity due to the participation of Baba and their TV deal with media powerhouse Nippon TV. He held the NWA World Championship in the early 80’s having defeated Ric Flair. The 1990’s saw him wrestle less often and focus more on All Japan. This would see them peak in popularity with stars such as Stan Hansen, Jumbo Tsuruta and Mistuharu Misawa. Baba’s last match was in 1998, but by the end of January 1999, Baba would die of cancer willing the company to his wife.

Keiji Mutoh – Keiji Mutoh, also known as The Great Muta is one of the most famous and recognizable puro stars competing today. He has had success in Japan and North America. He is also one of very few wrestlers to be successful and have long careers in both New Japan and All Japan. He is the current president of All Japan as well as one of its chief babyfaces.

Mitsuharu Misawa – Like Mutoh, Misawa is one of the most recognizable wrestling stars in Japan that is currently active. He started his career in All Japan where he wowed the wrestling world putting on some of the greatest matches in the history of the business against Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue and Kenta Kobashi. He led the All Japan split in 2000 and founded Pro Wrestling NOAH where he has been owner and top star ever since.

Other Terms to know

GAORA – A cable television channel in Japan that runs a lot of wrestling including All Japan, Dragon Gate, New Japan, and others. Gave a lot of indy promotions a lot of exposure.

G+ – Pro Wrestling NOAH has a television contract with G+ TV. Of the major wrestling shows, NOAH on G+ has the highest production value.

The All Japan Split – In 1999 when Giant Baba died he left All Japan Pro Wrestling to his wife. Mitsuharu Misawa was in change of booking the company at the time of Baba’s death, but Matoko Baba wanted to take the promotion in a new direction. Misawa became unhappy with her plans and decided to pack up and leave. What ended up happening was that all but two native All Japan wrestlers left All Japan on May 28th 2000 and followed Misawa to form NOAH. The two that stayed were Masanobu Fuchi and Toshiaki Kawada. Due to the exodus, All Japan lost its major broadcast TV contract with Nippon TV and they were faced with a severe shortage of talent. They ran fewer shows that were loaded from top to bottom with gaijin. All Japan struggled as a result and its popularity plummeted. Pro Wrestling NOAH on the other hand became very popular for a promotion in Japan in 2000 and has since surpassed All Japan and arguably New Japan in terms of popularity. It wasn’t until mid-2006 that All Japan’s future started to look favorable and their mild popularity is finally beginning to rise.

That’s All For Now

There you have it, my Quick Guide to Puro. There is so much more to cover, but I just want to put the basics out there so anybody interesting in checking out wrestling in Japan has a place to start in terms of finding their own way. I plan on adding to this in further editions, and would like your input. Anything you think I need to add? I’d love to know about it. I’m also planning on adding an “Important Matches” section the next time around. Send me feedback and criticism and ideas for next time at [email protected]. Until next time.