Mid 20th Century
38-421: Peter Pan ( ピーターパン , Pītā Pan ) is an annual Japanese professional wrestling event promoted by DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The event has been held since 2009 and aired domestically on Fighting TV Samurai and later as an internet pay-per-view (iPPV) on DDT's streaming service Wrestle Universe . Since 2019, the event has aired on AbemaTV . The event is usually held in summer and is DDT's biggest event of
76-441: A 75% stake in the company. This was followed the next month by the first major rebranding in company history. Pro Wrestling Noah not only changed their logo but also replaced the green mat with a white canvas. On July 26, 2019, Major League Wrestling announced a working agreement with Pro Wrestling Noah, which would include a talent-exchange agreement and content collaboration between the two promotions. On December 5, 2019, it
114-580: A tradition that started with Rikidozan himself between 1951 and 1953. Some of the more famous examples of these exchanges are Hakushi in WWF , Masahiro Chono , The Great Muta and Jyushin Thunder Liger in WCW , as well as ECW which featured talent such as Hayabusa from Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and The Great Sasuke of Michinoku Pro Wrestling . Before the advent of cable television some Japanese wrestlers in
152-501: A variety of personalities , promotions and styles . It has also created a mass of other cultural icons in Japan including: Antonio Inoki , Giant Baba , Jyushin "Thunder" Liger , Tiger Mask , Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta , Mitsuharu Misawa , and Kenta Kobashi among others. Throughout the years, several promotions have opened and closed, but a few have persisted to remain the most popular and thriving companies: New Japan Pro-Wrestling
190-488: A working agreement with Akira Maeda that paid millions to RINGS when he was featured, but eventually was scrapped with Maeda's retirement and the subsequent RINGS collapse. In 2009, due to the bearish global economy , NTV cancelled all wrestling programming, including NOAH's Power Hour (lesser affiliates still air large cards), marking the end of a tradition going back to Rikidōzan. Since 2014, various New Japan Pro-Wrestling live specials have been broadcast on AXS TV in
228-1666: A working agreement with World Championship Wrestling in the mid-1990s, when the latter brought in wrestlers from Gaea to bolster the ranks of their then-fledgling women's division, with Akira Hokuto becoming the first and only WCW Women's Champion , and a WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship was even introduced and defended in Gaea shows. Recent examples of Japanese wrestlers working in foreign promotions include Satoshi Kojima in Major League Wrestling , Kenta Kobashi , Go Shiozaki , Takeshi Morishima , and Kenta in Ring of Honor , Hirooki Goto , Masato Yoshino , Tiger Mask IV , Hiroshi Tanahashi , Kazuchika Okada , Seiya Sanada , and Ayako Hamada in TNA/Impact, Aja Kong, Dick Togo , Great Sasuke , Jinsei Shinzaki , Kaori Yoneyama , Manami Toyota and Mayumi Ozaki in Chikara , Hideo Itami, Yoshi Tatsu, Kenzo Suzuki , Taka Michinoku , Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kairi Sane in WWE , and Ayumi Kurihara , Hiroyo Matsumoto and Tomoka Nakagawa in Shimmer Women Athletes . Riho and Hikaru Shida have both become AEW Women's World Champion . Pro Wrestling Noah 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Pro Wrestling Noah ( プロレスリング・ノア , Puroresuringu Noa ) (stylised as Pro Wrestling NOAH )
266-589: Is Shinsuke Nakamura , who continues to perform under his birth name in WWE. Japanese wrestlers who appear in other American circuits such as Impact Wrestling (originally Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, or TNA) and Ring of Honor rarely change their names. Some joshi stars from AJW had wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s and 1990s, with The Jumping Bomb Angels and Bull Nakano known for being particularly successful. Gaea Japan once had
304-833: Is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion , founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa after he had led a mass exodus in which 24 of AJPW's 26 contracted wrestlers left the promotion to form Noah. Noah held its first shows in August 2000, and established the Global Honored Crown as the in-house governing body for its collection of championships. Throughout its 24-year history, Noah has had working relationships with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Ring of Honor (ROH), TNA (Formerly Impact Wrestling), Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), All Elite Wrestling (AEW), and Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW). In January 2020,
342-458: Is currently considered by many as the top promotion. Puroresu is the predominant style of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of "professional wrestling", which is shortened to puroresu. The term became popular among English-speaking fans due to Hisaharu Tanabe's activities in the online Usenet community. Growing out of origins in
380-468: Is something that Giant Baba had forbid. Noah also features a strong junior heavyweight division, which was something that AJPW had been relatively lacking in the 1990s due to lack of pushes for the younger stars (such as Yoshinobu Kanemaru , Kenta and Naomichi Marufuji , who quickly became Noah's junior aces). October 12, 2007 Baseball Magazine Sha, the publisher of Puroresu Shukan released Noah trading cards . The Wrestling Observer named Noah as
418-526: The Pro Wrestling Noah split, NTV decided to follow the new venture rather than staying with All Japan. Nowadays, however, mirroring the decline that professional wrestling in the U.S. had in the 1970s and early 1980s, NOAH's Power Hour and New Japan's World Pro Wrestling have been largely relegated to the midnight hours by their broadcasters. The advent of cable television and pay per view also enabled independents such as RINGS to rise. WOWOW had
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#1733084634527456-729: The UWF and later opened Pancrase with some other Japanese shootfighters. As a result of the introduction of lucha libre into Japan, major Mexican stars also compete in Japan. The most popular Mexican wrestler to compete in Japan is Mil Máscaras , who is credited with introducing the high-flying moves of lucha libre to Japanese audiences, which then led to the style called lucha-resu, later embodied by Tiger Mask . Foreign wrestlers from diverse backgrounds have earned huge followings, sometimes greater than those of Japanese top rosters in respective Japanese promotions they have wrestled in. American Stan Hansen , Indian Tiger Jeet Singh , Canadian Abdullah
494-658: The wrestling mask was the rule, adopted mask-based personae; examples were Osamu Matsuda becoming El Samurai , Yoshihiro Asai becoming Último Dragón , and Masanori Murakawa becoming Great Sasuke . Despite the advent of cable television and the Internet, some Japanese wrestlers still adopt all-new ring names, particularly when they join WWE , which trademarks ring names frequently. Recent examples include Mitsuhide Hirasawa as Hideo Saito , Naofumi Yamamoto as Yoshi Tatsu , Kana as Asuka , Kaori Housako as Kairi Sane , and Kenta Kobayashi as Hideo Itami . A recent counter-example
532-551: The 1950s, televised by Nippon TV , often attracted huge crowds to Tokyo giant screens. Eventually TV Asahi also gained the right to broadcast JWA, but eventually the two major broadcasters agreed to split the talent, centering about Rikidōzan's top two students: NTV for Giant Baba and his group, and Asahi for Antonio Inoki and his group. This arrangement continued after the JWA split into today's major promotions, New Japan and All Japan, led by Inoki and Baba respectively. In 2000, following
570-606: The Butcher , and British wrestler Dynamite Kid were among those cited as top foreign grapplers in a poll of Japanese fans: All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, as well as others, have also sent wrestlers to compete in the likes of the United States , Mexico , the United Kingdom , Puerto Rico and so on. Usually, these talent exchanges are chances for puroresu stars to learn other styles to add to their own strengths,
608-549: The U.S. adopted names that often were inconsistent and often portrayed by more than one Japanese wrestler, such as "Tokyo Joe" ( Katsuji Adachi , Koji "Thunder" Sugiyama and Tetsunosuke Daigo), "Mr. Sato" ( Akio Sato and Akihisa Mera ) and "Great Togo" ( Kazuo Okamura and Haruka Eigen ). Some names and gimmicks of North American origin stuck to the wrestler and defined his in-ring personality permanently, such as Hiro Matsuda , Killer Khan , Great Kabuki, Great Muta, Mr. Hito, and Mr. Pogo . Japanese wrestlers sent to Mexico , where
646-490: The US through his involvement with All Elite Wrestling .) Even in joshi puroresu , a few notable foreigners have found success wrestling for joshi promotions, such as Monster Ripper , Madusa , Reggie Bennett , and Amazing Kong . The now defunct World Championship Wrestling had a strong talent exchange deal with New Japan, Ken Shamrock was among the first Americans to compete in shoot style competition in Japan, starting out in
684-604: The United States. Since its establishment, professional wrestling in Japan heavily incorporated foreigners (called gaijin ) particularly North Americans to help popularise native talent. Rikidōzan's JWA and its successor promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling were members of the American-based National Wrestling Alliance at various points, and used these connections to bring North American stars. International Pro Wrestling
722-445: The best promotion in 2004 and 2005, as well as having the best weekly television show in 2003. On June 13, 2009, Misawa teamed with Go Shiozaki against Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith at Hiroshima Green Arena . After taking a belly to back suplex from Saito, Misawa lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital. He was pronounced dead in the hospital at 10:10 p.m. JST due to spinal damage . On June 27, 2009, Akira Taue
760-430: The company was purchased by CyberAgent , parent company of DDT Pro-Wrestling , with DDT's executives taking over Noah's operations and Noah's content appearing on DDT's streaming service Wrestle Universe . In January 1999, AJPW founder and promoter Giant Baba died, leaving the company in the hands of his widow Motoko Baba as owner and Misawa as president. However, disheartened with Motoko Baba's proposed direction for
798-479: The company, Misawa departed the promotion on May 28, 2000 to form a new promotion called Pro Wrestling Noah. All but two native stars ( Masanobu Fuchi and Toshiaki Kawada ) and eight gaijin ( Maunakea Mossman , Johnny Smith , George Hines , Mike Barton , Jim Steele , Mike Rotunda , Stan Hansen and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams ) followed Misawa. The promotion's name alludes to the Biblical story of Noah , in which
SECTION 20
#1733084634527836-489: The end of the year. On June 13, 2016, freelancer Go Shiozaki officially re-signed with Noah, three and a half years after his resignation from the promotion. On November 1, 2016, it was announced that Noah had been sold to IT development company Estbee, Co, Ltd. As a result, former AJPW president Masayuki Uchida took over as the new Noah president. On November 7, Estbee officially changed its name to "Noah Global Entertainment kabushiki gaisha ". On December 27, Noah announced
874-451: The fallout. On December 4, 2012, Noah released Kenta Kobashi from his contract, reportedly leading to Atsushi Aoki , Go Shiozaki , Jun Akiyama , Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru all announcing that they were not going to re-sign with the promotion after their own contracts expired in January 2013. On December 19, Noah confirmed that the five men had indeed refused to re-sign with
912-464: The first four months of 2017. On February 7, 2017, Noah announced a business alliance with American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which was extended in July, after TNA had been renamed Global Force Wrestling (GFW). In March 2017, Noah formed another partnership with Canadian promotion Border City Wrestling (BCW). On February 1, 2019, Noah was purchased by Lidet Entertainment, acquiring
950-574: The founding members of the United Japan Pro-Wrestling alliance, a joint effort to further develop professional wrestling in Japan through promotion and organization, with Seiji Sakaguchi being named as the chairman of the project. Similar to New Japan Pro-Wrestling's International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP), Noah has its own title governing body, the Global Honored Crown (GHC) system. Noah also holds annual tournaments to decide
988-416: The new head booker of Noah. On April 21, one of Noah's bigger stars, Takeshi Morishima , was forced to retire from professional wrestling due to issues with his blood. On December 24, 2015, Noah announced the signing of freelancer Katsuhiko Nakajima . Four days later, Noah announced the departures of Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste and Takeshi Morishima, following their contracts with the promotion expiring at
1026-424: The people and animals in the ark survive the flood and make a new beginning in the world, a story which was seen as a parallel to the wrestlers' departure from AJPW. Noah's original logo, an ark with a dove holding an olive branch, referred to this. Pro Wrestling Noah is essentially a continuation of AJPW's promotional system in the 1990s, with a slight leeway to allow wrestlers from other promotions to compete, which
1064-583: The promotion and would be wrestling their final matches for the promotion on December 23 and 24. The following month, all five men joined AJPW. Kobashi returned to wrestle his retirement match in a Noah ring on May 11, 2013, at Final Burning in Budokan . On May 12 at Noah's "New Chapter" show held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo , Akira Taue announced the signings of Daisuke Harada , Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste of The Mighty Don't Kneel (TMDK) as full-time members of
1102-509: The promotion. Taue also announced his retirement from in-ring competition to focus on his duties as the Chairman of the promotion and his retirement match would take place on December 7, 2013 at the Ariake Coliseum . On April 30, 2014, Noah's arguably biggest star and ace Kenta announced his resignation from the promotion to sign with WWE . In early 2015, NJPW wrestler Jado took over as
1140-514: The relocating of its offices from Ariake, Tokyo to Kanda-Misakichō due to Differ Ariake 's scheduled closing in June 2018. At the end of 2016, NJPW pulled all of its wrestlers, including the entire Suzuki-gun stable, from Noah with reports stating that the relationship between the two promotions had turned "extremely sour". Having lost the NJPW relationship, Noah's attendance numbers went down by 29% during
1178-593: The top wrestler or tag team in the promotion: Pro Wrestling Sem was the junior affiliate of Pro Wrestling Noah launched in 2006. Its name came from the biblical figure Sem , the eldest son of Noah. Sem was originally headed by Naomichi Marufuji and Kenta, acting as coaches for the rookie competitors. Mitsuharu Misawa's inspiration for the venture came from the German Westside Xtreme Wrestling promotion, where he wrestled in March 2005. The seats are limited to
DDT Peter Pan - Misplaced Pages Continue
1216-454: The traditional US style of wrestling, it has become an entity in itself. Japanese pro wrestling is distinct in its psychology and presentation of the sport., with fewer theatrics ; the stories told in Japanese matches are about a fighter's spirit and perseverance. Since its beginning, Japanese professional wrestling depended on television to reach a wide audience. Rikidōzan's matches in
1254-663: The year. Though DDT produced an event titled "Go! Go! Neverland! Peter Pan Summer Vacation" on August 15, 2004, it is not considered a part of the Peter Pan event series. [REDACTED] DDT Into The Fight [REDACTED] DDT Judgement [REDACTED] DDT Ultimate Party Japanese professional wrestling Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling in Japan has existed for several decades. The first Japanese person to involve themselves in catch wrestling (the basis of traditional professional wrestling)
1292-536: Was announced Noah and DDT would merge in a new company, CyberFight . Both companies would run as separate brands under the CyberFight banner. On November 19, 2021 Noah re-established its relationship with NJPW with Noah wrestlers being involved at the third night of NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 16 event, with a portion of proceeds donated to the Japanese Red Cross. On December 15, 2023, Noah was announced as one of
1330-702: Was announced that Noah and the Mexico-based International Wrestling Revolution Group had entered into a talent-sharing partnership. In January 2020, Noah was acquired by CyberAgent , parent company of DDT Pro Wrestling . DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi was named the President of Pro Wrestling Noah and Naomichi Marufuji the Vice President. Noah's events began airing on DDT's streaming service DDT Universe starting with Noah Global Jr. League 2020 on January 30. On July 27, 2020, it
1368-471: Was former sumo wrestler Sorakichi Matsuda . There were subsequent attempts before and after World War II to popularize the sport in Japan, but these generally failed until the advent of its first big star, Rikidōzan , in 1951, who became known as the "father" of the sport. Rikidōzan brought the sport to tremendous popularity with his Japanese Wrestling Association (JWA) until his murder in 1963. Following his death, professional wrestling thrived, creating
1406-419: Was named as Misawa's successor, taking over as President of Pro Wrestling Noah. Also in 2009, Noah lost their weekly television show on Nippon TV . In March 2012, it was revealed that Noah management had ties to a yakuza crime syndicate, which resulted in the promotion demoting General Manager Ryu Nakata and Counselor Haruka Eigen and enforcing new anti-yakuza protocols; Noah also lost its TV show as part of
1444-989: Was the first Japanese promotion to link into European circuits. It was through IWE that Frenchman André the Giant got his international reputation for the first time. In recent years, many of North America's most popular wrestlers, such as Sting , Hulk Hogan , Bret Hart , Dynamite Kid , Big Van Vader , Mick Foley , Eddie Guerrero , Chris Jericho , Kurt Angle , Rob Van Dam , Sabu , Mil Máscaras , El Canek , Dos Caras , El Solitario , Samoa Joe , AJ Styles , Bryan Danielson , CM Punk , Travis Tomko , Giant Bernard , Bill Goldberg , Chris Sabin , Low Ki , Brock Lesnar , Davey Richards , Chris Hero , and others have wrestled in Japan, whereas others such as Stan Hansen , "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Kenny Omega spent much of their careers in Japan and thus are (or have been) better known there than in their homeland. (Omega has since become more recognized in both his homeland of Canada and
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