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45-814: In November 2018, Japanese advertising company Lidet Entertainment began investing in various business ventures in the professional wrestling industry including Riki Choshu 's Power Hall show in December 2018. On January 29, 2019, Lidet Entertainment bought 75% shares of Pro Wrestling Noah , with the goal of transforming the promotion into the second largest promotion in Japan after New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). A year later due to Noah's financial struggles, Lidet Entertainment sold all shares of Pro Wrestling Noah to internet advertising company CyberAgent . Lidet's President Hiroyuki Suzuki wanting to continue to be involved with professional wrestling met with Kiyoshi Tamura several days after

90-771: A wrestler and went under his Korean name Kwak Gwang-ung. He ended the tournament with a record of one win and two losses, and was disqualified due to the penalty points system. When Yoshida returned to Japan, he became captain of the Senshu wrestling team in his fourth year at university and won the Freestyle and Greco-Roman 100 kg class tournaments at the All Japan Championship in 1973. Yoshida debuted in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in August 1974 against El Greco. In

135-465: A Japanese mother and Korean father. His father left Korea's Chūseihoku-dō for Japan in 1939 and worked as a garbage man for much of his life. Yoshida has said that he faced discrimination from teachers in elementary school due to his Korean heritage. He took part in baseball and judo as a teenager and after training in the judo department at Giyang Junior High School, he moved to the wrestling department of Yamaguchi prefecture's Sakurakaoka High School as

180-425: A Japanese promotion when he turned on Inoki and Fujinami in a six man tag match. Choshu spent the rest of the year feuding with Fujinami while attracting additional supporters to his faction, then known as New Wolves. Choshu was joined by Masa Saito , to provide a more senior rival for Antonio Inoki, along with Kuniaki Kobayashi and Gran Hamada, who would feud with Tiger Mask in the junior division. Strong Kobayashi

225-470: A barbed wire deathmatch in 2000. Choshu accepted and wrestled Onita in a deadly squash, where Choshu ended up winning. He then balanced wrestling and booking for NJPW, until his departure in 2002, stemming from the departures of Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima , among others, to AJPW, which caused his position of head booker taken away. After leaving NJPW, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling in 2003, which would later be changed to Riki Pro, after

270-655: A chair and injure his ribs, setting up Choshu as a babyface within the promotion he had invaded a year earlier. In April 1986, the Calgary Hurricanes, who were also members of Choshu's stable, invaded AJPW as a new faction setting up a three-way battle between Japanese factions that lasted throughout the Summer of 1986. In early 1987, Choshu left AJPW to return to NJPW, with some members joining him, others staying behind in AJPW, and others retiring. Upon returning to NJPW in 1987, Choshu

315-557: A hand by helping some of the foreign talent, mostly from the Tennessee area, get booked on their cards. In 1992, the UWFi introduced its first championship, the "Real Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship", which was won by Takada after a victory over top foreign antagonist Gary Albright . Lou Thesz acted as commissioner and lent his 1950s NWA World title belt to be used as the distinction for it. The theme of UWFi being "real pro-wrestling"

360-696: A long trip to the United States, leaving the New Wolves without a senior leader. Though the New Wolves had only lasted a few months, NJPW's business had doubled, setting the tone for the future of puroresu where Japanese vs Japanese rivalries within a promotion would become a booking staple. In June 1983, Choshu and former IWE faction member Animal Hamaguchi quit NJPW to form a breakaway promotion, but on July 1, 1983 they returned to NJPW TV as Ishin Gundan (Revolutionary Army) with Choshu and Hamaguchi immediately gelling as

405-463: A precursor to mixed martial arts and to popular Japanese MMA promotions, particularly Pride FC . The promotion was also known for hiring dangerous shooters Lou Thesz , Billy Robinson and Danny Hodge as trainers and promoters of their product in order to establish legitimate credibility. The promotion was founded on May 10, 1991, as a continuation of the UWF . The UWF-i featured most of UWF's roster, and

450-540: A site foreman, booker and part-time wrestler. Choshu once again left NJPW in 2010 and primarily worked in Tatsumi Fujinami ’s Dradition , as well as his own self-produced Power Hall events as a freelancer . Choshu was a second generation Zainichi Korean . He was naturalized in 2016. Mitsuo Yoshida was born Kwak Gwang-ung ( Korean :  곽광웅 ), the youngest of four children in Tokuyama , Yamaguchi Prefecture to

495-491: A special student. He eventually came in second place in the 73 kg class of the Nagasaki National Freestyle wrestling tournament, which attracted attention from university wrestling officials and he later enrolled at Senshu University School of Commerce on a wrestling scholarship. Yoshida joined the amateur wrestling team at Senshu University shortly after enrolling and was teammates with Mitsushi Hirasawa,

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540-610: A tag team. They were joined by Tiger Toguchi (Kim Duk), Killer Khan, and Kuniaki Kobayashi, who continued his feud with Tiger Mask (Sayama). In October, former olympian Yoshiaki Yatsu joined the group. NJPW did record business as Ishin Gundan vs Seiki Gundan (NJPW) continued to dominate booking through September 1984, when Choshu suddenly left, taking most of Ishin Gundan with him to form the Japan Pro-Wrestling (JPW) promotion that "invaded" All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). Choshu attended an AJPW event on November 1, 1984 where he

585-523: A team at start time. In 1995, rules were somewhat relaxed to allow pinfalls in order to allow for New Japan, WAR, and other non-submission-oriented wrestlers (such as Abdullah the Butcher ) to compete. In 2017 an American independent promotion , Paradigm Pro Wrestling , based in Jeffersonville, Indiana , revived the rules for its matches. Natives: Foreigners: The championship used

630-404: A team at start time. However, the points system was rarely referred to, as a wrestler or team losing points could still win by forcing his opponent to submit or by knocking him out. No pinfall counts were allowed, and no countouts were allowed (in practice, wrestlers never set foot outside the ring during the match). Similarly, six-man tag team matches occurred, but were rare, with 30 points given to

675-802: Is Katsuhiko Nakajima who is in his first reign. Most Gleat events are separated into the three brands G Prowrestling, Lidet UWF and Gleat MMA. Numbered "Gleat Ver." events air bigger cards featuring a mix of the three brands. Specials events such as "Gleat Ver.EX", "Gleat Ver.Mega" and "Gleat Ver.&" are held in larger venues and usually feature wrestlers from other wrestling promotions such as All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) or Pro Wrestling Freedoms . All events air live on Gleat's YouTube channel. Riki Choshu Mitsuo Yoshida ( 吉田 光雄 , Yoshida Mitsuo , born Kwak Gwang-ung ( Korean :  곽광웅 ; Hanja :  郭光雄 ), December 3, 1951) , better known by his ring name Riki Choshu ( 長州 力 , Chōshū Riki ) ,

720-766: Is a South Korean - Japanese retired professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and a booker . He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestlers for his work in the 1980s and 1990s and is known as the first wrestler to popularize the Sasori-Gatame , better known in English as the Scorpion Deathlock or Sharpshooter . After leaving NJPW in 2002, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ), but eventually returned to New Japan in October 2005 as

765-562: Is a professional wrestling championship owned and created by the Japanese company Lidet Entertainment and is currently disputed in the Gleat promotion. The main characteristic of the championship is that it can be defended and won only under UWF rules matches and in combat sports-based wrestling style bouts. As of December 1, 2024, there have been a total of three reigns shared between three different champions and one vacancy . The current champion

810-666: The G1 Climax , winning every single match in the tournament. In 1997, he won his third IWGP Tag Team title with Kensuke Sasaki . In January 1998, he retired from the ring; for his retirement match, he wrestled five matches in one night, winning four out of five matches, defeating Tatsuhito Takaiwa , Yutaka Yoshie , Jushin Thunder Liger and Kazuyuki Fujita , only to fall to his former tag team partner Takashi Iizuka . He would focus on booking matches for NJPW after that. Retirement did not last long, as Atsushi Onita challenged Choshu to

855-621: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship . On May 27, the match ended in a no contest, in which the title was held up. Fujinami won the rematch on June 24. In July 1989, he won his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Salman Hashimikov of the Soviet Union. The same month, he would also win his second IWGP Tag Team title with young up-and-comer Takayuki Iizuka . Two more IWGP Heavyweight title reigns would follow between August 19, 1990 and January 4, 1992. In August 1996, he won

900-549: The 2017 video game Yakuza Kiwami 2 , alongside Genichiro Tenryu , Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono and Tatsumi Fujinami. UWF International Union of Wrestling Forces International , better known as UWF International , U-Inter , or simply UWFi , was a shoot style professional wrestling promotion in Japan from 1991 to 1996. The UWF international was the successor to the Newborn UWF that ran from 1988 to 1990, which itself

945-727: The United National titlein the semi-main event under Baba versus Rusher Kimura. The Budokan show aired the next day on atwo-hour prime time TV special as the popularity of AJPW soared due to the popularity of Japanese vs Japanese storylines. Choshu's jump to AJPW had immediately shifted the balance of power from New Japan to All Japan, forever changing the booking style of All Japan, which had historically relied on Japanese vs foreigner rivalries but would go on to feature Japanese vs Japanese rivalries even after Choshu jumped back to New Japan in 1987. In January 1986, Jumbo Tsuruta turned heel, running in on several of Choshu's matches to attack him with

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990-463: The belt used by Lou Thesz as NWA World Champion during the 1950s. In 1995, Hudson Soft published a video game , Saikyō: Takada Nobuhiko (最強～高田延彦～) for the Super Famicom in Japan. Unlike most wrestling games, Saikyō was a linear fighting game , but moves such as suplexes counted for heavy scoring, like in the real-life promotion. Nobuhiko Takada was the only actual wrestler licensed as

1035-476: The company, shortly after Tanaka was given the UWF Rule Technical Officer executive role. In May, it was announced that Cima , El Lindaman , T-Hawk , and Issei Onitsuka would be leaving Oriental Wrestling Entertainment and Ryuichi Kawakami would be leaving Big Japan Pro Wrestling to join Gleat. Gleat also operates a developmental division, with Yu Iizuka, Soma Watanabe, and Takanori Ito being

1080-488: The condition that New Japan have full control over the booking of the interpromotional matches. Thesz, who saw New Japan as another gimmicky promotion, withdrew his support as a result and took the belt with him. For Choshu, it was an opportunity to get payback for Thesz and Takada's earlier derision of their wrestling style, and he was determined to show fans that the real stars were in New Japan. All of UWFi's stars mainly lost

1125-400: The early eighties, NJPW had run a very successful Japanese vs Japanese program pitting Inoki and NJPW wrestlers against Rusher Kimura and IWE wrestlers, who were actually employed by NJPW following the dissolution of IWE. In late 1982, NJPW Chairman and booker Hisashi Shinma decided to have Choshu turn heel and create a new faction. On October 28, 1982, Choshu became the first "traitor heel" in

1170-498: The failure of some of their big shows. He ran Riki Pro until 2005 when he returned to NJPW as a site foreman, booker and wrestler. In 2007, Choshu joined the Legend stable with Masahiro Chono , Jyushin Thunder Liger and AKIRA . Choshu also promotes an occasional series of events called "LOCK UP", which feature talent from New Japan and other promotions. New Japan supported this financially until 2008 before withdrawing. In 2012, Choshu

1215-611: The father of future NJPW wrestler Mitsuhide Hirasawa . In 1971, he won the All Japan Student Wrestling Championship in the 90 kg class. Thanks to his victory in the tournament, Yoshida was selected to represent Japan in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich , Germany. Officials however refused to let him compete for Japan on account of him being part Korean . Nevertheless, South Korea instead invited him to join their freestyle team and he represented South Korea as

1260-433: The heavyweight tournament. The combatants would start with 15 points each. Points would be lost for knockout attempts, being at a disadvantage during a hold, and/or for breaking a hold by grabbing onto the ring ropes with hand(s) and/or feet. The only way to win was by submission, knockout (count of 10) or a wrestler's points being reduced to 0. Tag team matches were allowed as well, with 21 points (instead of 15) given to

1305-580: The inaugural champions. The tournament was won by Bulk Orchestra ( Kazma Sakamoto and Ryuichi Kawakami ). On December 14, Gleat promoted its first mixed martial arts (MMA) event, Gleat MMA Ver. 0 . Gleat divides their roster based on its two wrestling sub-brands, G Prowrestling and Lidet UWF. Gleat also recognizes a third roster division, Gleat MMA – wrestlers affiliated to Gleat MMA have legitimate martial arts experience and may wrestle on either G Prowrestling or Lidet UWF events. The Lidet UWF World Championship ( LIDET UWF世界王座 , Ridetto UWF Sekai Ōza )

1350-410: The interpromotional matches, with the exception of Takada, who won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4, 1996. Kiyoshi Tamura had left UWFi before the feud in 1995, to join rival promotion, RINGS . In 1996, as the New Japan feud died down, UWFi formed an alliance with Genichiro Tenryu 's WAR . On August 17, 1996, Takada defeated Yoji Anjo at Tokyo's Meiji-Jingu Stadium . The damage to

1395-694: The main event pitting Noah's Sugiura-gun ( Takashi Sugiura , Kazuyuki Fujita and Kendo Kashin ) against Jun Akiyama , Shuhei Taniguchi , and Daisuke Sekimoto . The participation of Noah wrestlers on Gleat events would cease after Nosawa Rongai resigned from his positions at Gleat to focus on his role as Noah booker. Following the end of the Noah partnership, Gleat would see the participation of wrestlers from other Japan-based wrestling promotions, such as Sho from NJPW and Shinjiro Otani and Masato Tanaka from Pro Wrestling Zero1 . In February 2021, shoot style veterans Minoru Tanaka and Daijiro Matsui were signed by

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1440-508: The mid-1970s, he was sent to North America to gain experience. Wrestling under his real name (Mitsuo Yoshida, sometimes referred as "Mitsu"), he appeared in George Cannon 's "Superstars of Wrestling" promotion in Windsor, Ontario as a heel , managed by Superstar (or Supermouth) Dave Drasen. Choshu had a brief feud with the top fan favorite of Cannon's promotion, Luis Martinez. The ring name at

1485-470: The promotion was left with a lack of credible challengers to Takada's title, and interest in the promotion began to wane. After being overlooked several times over the years, Kazuo Yamazaki left to return to New Japan in July 1995. In 1995, Anjo and other UWFi bookers proposed co-promoting with New Japan Pro-Wrestling , as a potential solution to their financial problems. New Japan booker Riki Choshu agreed, under

1530-404: The promotion's credibility had already been done, however, and UWFi had its farewell card ("UWF FINAL") on December 27, 1996, at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall arena. Most of the UWFi roster formed Kingdom , which would promote a similar product on a smaller scale. Kingdom would have a presence at UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan in 1997, as Yoji Anjo would lose to Tank Abbott , while Kazushi Sakuraba won

1575-489: The promotion's inaugural trainees. In December 2021, Gleat announced a 12-man tournament would be held from January 26 to February 22, 2022 to crown the inaugural G-Rex Champion . The tournament and championship were won by El Lindaman. In July 2022, Gleat announced the creation of the G-Infinity Championship for its G Prowrestling brand. A four-team tournament was held from August 20, 2022, to August 24 to crown

1620-589: The sale of Noah. Suzuki later announced the formation of a new promotion, Gleat – it was additionally revealed that Kaz Hayashi and Nosawa Rongai would become the Gleat Chief Technical Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, respectively. Gleat promotes shows via its two sub-brands – G Prowrestling, a traditional puroresu brand, and Lidet UWF, a UWFi -inspired shoot style brand. Gleat held its inaugural event, "Gleat Ver. 0", on October 15, 2020, which aired on Fighting TV Samurai on October 22, with

1665-506: The time of debut was Mitsuo Yoshida (吉田 光雄), but from April 1977 after returning from overseas training, he adopted his famously known ring name Riki Choshu after Choshu (長州) in honor of the Choshu Forces , another name for his hometown Nagato . In the 4th World League match, which he participated in when he returned to Japan, he finished third with Nikolai Volkoff, behind winner Seiji Sakaguchi and runner-up The Masked Superstar . In

1710-736: The time), Masahiro Chono (NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the time), and The Great Muta (IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the time), in an effort to determine who was the true world champion. In 1993, Super Vader , the World Heavyweight Champion from the United States-based World Championship Wrestling , accepted Thesz and Takada's grandstand challenge, whereas the aforementioned champions were "too afraid" of Takada to face him. After Gary Albright quit UWFi to join All Japan and Vader left over money disputes,

1755-557: Was a part of the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan. After NJPW split ties with Takeshi Kitano over the December 27 Sumo Hall riot, Choshu slowly climbed back up into the main event picture. In June 1988, he won his first IWGP Tag Team Championship with Masa Saito , with whom he had also partnered during a brief stint in the American Wrestling Association (AWA). At the same time, he feuded with Tatsumi Fujinami over

1800-460: Was also added to the faction, but retired before wrestling for them. On January 2, 1983, Killer Khan also turned heel on Fujinami in a tag team match to join the New Wolves. The group continued to feud with NJPW for several months, with Choshu finally defeating Fujinami by count out on April 3, 1983 to win the International title. Three weeks later, Saito lost a loser leaves town match to cover for

1845-413: Was booked in a series of matches for LEGEND The Pro Wrestling and Dradition . On June 26, 2019, Choshu teamed with Tomohiro Ishii and Shiro Koshinaka in a six-man tag team match against Tatsumi Fujinami, Keiji Mutoh, and Togi Makabe. Fujinami's team won when Makabe pinned Choshu. In the post-match, Choshu officially announced his retirement from professional wrestling. Choshu appears as a gang member in

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1890-426: Was central to the promotion's image, and both Thesz and Takada would deride other Japanese promotions (particularly Takada's old promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling ) for being "fake", while claiming themselves to be legit. UWF-i, however, was no more legit than any other group at the time. Takada went so far as to challenge the champions of other major Japanese promotions ( Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW Triple Crown Champion at

1935-492: Was challenged by Genichiro Tenryu . Tenryu was second among AJPW's top Japanese stars, behind Jumbo Tsuruta, with Baba moving to more of an emeritus role. Choshu defeated Tenryu by count out in 9:21 on February 21, 1985 in the main event of a JWP show that was not televised, but is available via bootleg tapes. Tenryu continued as Choshu's main rival through the summer of 1985. On June 21, 1985, AJPW held their first show at Budokan in almost ten years with Choshu challenging Tenryu for

1980-568: Was led by Nobuhiko Takada , who was the top star and the face of the promotion. Other natives for the promotion included Kazuo Yamazaki , Yoji Anjo , Kiyoshi Tamura , Tatsuo Nakano, Yuko Miyato, Masahito Kakihara and kickboxer Makoto Oe. Vintage shooter Billy Robinson was used as head trainer for their gym (the UWFi Snakepit), and wrestling legends Lou Thesz and Danny Hodge occasionally served as trainers in their pursuit of old-school credibility. Former pro wrestler Shinji Sasazaki would lend

2025-472: Was the successor to the original Universal Wrestling Federation . Although the matches were predetermined, the UWF-i was very convincing for its time, promoting a combat -based style featuring a mix of wrestling , submission grappling and kickboxing . The promotion also held kickboxing contests and, in rare instances, special shoot matches. In retrospect, UWFi, along with other shoot-style promotions, served as

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