Mid 20th Century
155-665: Keiichi Yamada ( 山田恵一 , Yamada Keiichi , born November 10, 1964) , better known as Jushin Liger ( 獣神ライガー , Jūshin Raigā ) and later Jushin Thunder Liger ( 獣神サンダー・ライガー , Jūshin Sandā Raigā ) , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist , signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as a trainer. He is the longest-tenured member of the NJPW roster, having worked for
310-602: A Relevo CMLL match . Liger made his Canadian return after 18 years on May 25 and 26, 2007, in Mississauga, Ontario and competed in UWA Hardcore Wrestling. On night one he teamed with Puma and defeated the team of Último Dragón and Kazuchika Okada , after Liger hit the Liger Bomb on Okada. On night two, Liger teamed with Último Dragón and defeated The Murder City Machine Guns ( Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin ) after
465-565: A torneo cibernetico to advance to the finals of the 2011 Leyenda de Plata . On October 7, Liger was defeated in the finals of the tournament by Volador Jr. On October 24, Liger made his fourth successful defense of the CMLL World Middleweight Championship, defeating El Texano Jr. On November 18, Liger lost the title to Dragón Rojo Jr. , ending his reign at 564 days. Liger's three-month stint in CMLL ended on December 9, with
620-581: A cliffhanger and consequently All Star underwent a box office boom as hardcore fans turned up to live shows to see what happened next, and kept coming for several years due to careful use of show-to-show storylines. Headline matches frequently pitted Nagasaki in violent heel vs heel battles against the likes of Rocco, Dave 'Fit' Finlay , Skull Murphy and even Giant Haystacks or at smaller venues teaming with regular partner "Blondie" Bob Barrett to usually defeat blue-eye opposition. All Star's post-television boom wore off after 1993 when Nagasaki retired for
775-493: A professional wrestler . He was not accepted because he did not meet the height requirements the dojo had at that time. Yamada, determined not to give up his dream of becoming a professional wrestler, left for Mexico and began his training there. By his own account, he was almost starving while studying in Mexico, due to this NJPW officials who were visiting took pity on him and asked him to come back to Japan to train in their dojo. In
930-507: A school in Birkenhead, originally with Allmark and Dynamite as chief trainers, replaced in 2023 with Joel Redman . Redman also runs an affiliated wrestling school in Salisbury which runs its own trainee shows, both of these operating under the banner "ASW South". Dixon's daughter Laetitia is a popular ring announcer for the promotion and was married to Allmark until January 2022. In July 2022
1085-446: A " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to the platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of
1240-613: A Friday night residency there. All Star re-established old links with promoters in France, Germany, Japan and Calgary. All Star wrestlers were widely used to represent Britain by major American promoters, for example the Team UK in TNA 's 2004 X Cup which featured four All Star Wrestling regulars James Mason, Dean Allmark , Robbie Dynamite and Frankie Sloan. Mason would also guest on WWE Smackdown in 2008, defeating MVP . On April 24, 2010, ASW joined
1395-453: A Liger Bomb / Dragon Sleeper combo. Liger made his Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) debut in Los Angeles, California on January 30, 2010, as part of WrestleReunion 4 . He defeated El Generico via pinfall after a brainbuster. On May 22, 2010, Liger made his debut for American promotion Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW), losing to Homicide in the main event of the evening. He would return to
1550-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
1705-520: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
SECTION 10
#17328689681481860-513: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
2015-574: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
2170-423: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . All Star Wrestling All Star Wrestling ( ASW ), also known as Super Slam Wrestling ( SSW ),
2325-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
2480-726: A former six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion , won the Super J Cup twice (in 1995 and 2000), and was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1999. Liger also wrestled the opening match for the first January 4 Tokyo Dome Show in 1992. He is frequently cited as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. He was also inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2020 . Yamada had his retirement match at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 5, 2020, 35 years after his career began, and has since been working as
2635-414: A genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has a more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for
2790-654: A huge success. Yamada was given a superhero-like full body costume, resembling the superhero type featured in tokusatsu and anime programs. Yamada as "Jushin Liger" returned to NJPW on April 24, 1989, at the Tokyo Dome . In the character's debut match, he defeated Kuniaki Kobayashi at Battle Satellite in Tokyo Dome . He has also wrestled all the Black Tigers to date (from Mark Rocco in 1989 to Tatsuhito Takaiwa in 2009). The Liger character underwent changes in conjunction with
2945-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
3100-429: A losing effort. At New Century Dash, Liger teamed with Junji Hirata to defeat Shiro Koshinaka and Tatsuhito Takaiwa. On March 6, Liger won his second IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship by teaming with El Samurai to defeat Junior Stars. After winning the title, Liger teamed with Yuji Nagata to participate in the two-night Naeba Cup Tag Team Tournament, which they won by defeating El Samurai and Shiro Koshinaka in
3255-577: A loss against Último Guerrero. On July 5, 2013, during a New Japan event, Liger teamed with Hiroshi Tanahashi to defeat Tama Tonga and El Terrible for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship . They lost the title to Tonga and Rey Bucanero on September 14. Liger returned to CMLL on July 19, 2019, to participate on the Jushin "Thunder" Liger Mexican Retirement Show . At the event, Liger defeated Carístico , Negro Casas, and Último Guerrero in
SECTION 20
#17328689681483410-511: A match against The Great Muta . As the match progressed, Muta resorted to his underhand tactics that had become his style over the years. He tore at Liger's mask and eventually ripped it off, but Liger kept his face down on the mat. After grabbing a chair outside the ring, Muta entered the ring but before he could hit Liger with it, Liger stood up and revealed his face to be painted pale white with red writings and spit mist into Muta's face (another Muta trademark). He tore off his bodysuit and revealed
3565-754: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
3720-495: A modified version of his mask during the bout, one that did not have the pronounced horns attached or his hair flowing free from the top. Yamada resides in Fukuoka . Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling ) is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with
3875-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
4030-619: A non-title match to ROH World Champion Austin Aries via pinfall after a brainbuster. In May 2014, Liger returned to ROH as part of a tour co-produced by NJPW and ROH. On May 17 at War of the Worlds , Liger unsuccessfully challenged Adam Cole for the ROH World Championship. On March 27, 2015, Liger returned to ROH at the Supercard of Honor IX event, unsuccessfully challenging Jay Lethal for
4185-502: A painted chest, then proceeded to fight more aggressively the rest of the match, despite losing the match to Muta. The character debuted in the match against Muta was dubbed "Kishin Liger" by NJPW. Liger would revive the character sporadically, relying on bloody and evil tactics in a match, using mannerisms and imagery that differ from the person's normal ways. This gimmick also used many wrestling moves that were regulars in Muta's move set, such as
4340-497: A second time. However, the promotion kept afloat on live shows at certain established venues and particularly on the holiday camp circuit. Since the mid-1990s, the promotion has mainly been focussed on family entertainment. After the demise of Joint/RWS, All Star's chief rival on the live circuit was Scott Conway's TWA (The Wrestling Alliance) promotion, founded as the Southeastern Wrestling Alliance in 1989. By
4495-496: A set of rules and championships for the British professional wrestling scene . Four of the six current titles listed above were set up by the committee. All Star Wrestling hosted many other such championships in the past, some of which have since been moved to or revived by other promotions. These championships were established at later dates (but prior to the 1990s) for fields of competition (tag teams, women's wrestling) not envisaged by
4650-584: A successful title defense against Mad Bull Rex on March 9. He followed the success by winning the 1992 Top of the Super Juniors tournament in April, thus becoming the first competitor to win the tournament while holding the Junior Heavyweight Championship. Liger successfully defended the title against El Samurai at Over Heat Night before losing the title to Samurai on June 26. Liger failed to win
4805-518: A team of non-Mexican wrestlers. Liger was the last man eliminated from the match by winner Último Guerrero . Liger returned to CMLL in September 2009 for a longer tour, teaming with Okumura , Naito and Yujiro as La Ola Amarilla ("The Yellow Wave" in Spanish ). At the CMLL 76th Anniversary Show La Ola Amarilla defeated Team Mexico (Último Guerrero, Atlantis , Black Warrior and Héctor Garza ) in one of
Jushin Liger - Misplaced Pages Continue
4960-449: A three-way match. The following day, Liger was defeated by former WWE wrestler John Morrison in what was billed as an "International Dream Match". Liger finished his American tour by teaming with Mike Quackenbush to defeat Jigsaw and The Shard in the main event of the Chikara show. Liger returned to California in 2016, taking part in the 2016 Battle of Los Angeles . He was eliminated from
5115-479: A total of four points in the tournament and were thus eliminated. At The 2nd Judgement!!, the NJPW team of Liger, Minoru Tanaka and Shinya Makabe defeated Delfin, Takehiro Murahama and Tsubasa in a six-man tag team match. The following week, at Dream Win, Liger teamed with Tatsuhito Takaiwa against Kensuke Sasaki and Takashi Iizuka in a losing effort. At Wrestling World on January 4, 2001, Liger teamed with Manabu Nakanishi against Keiji Muto and Shinjiro Otani in
5270-424: A tournament to determine the #1 contender for the Junior Heavyweight Championship, which he won by defeating Owen Hart in the final on January 30. Liger received his title shot the following day against Naoki Sano, which Liger won to gain his second Junior Heavyweight Championship. Liger successfully defended the title against Pegasus Kid on March 19 before losing the title to Pegasus Kid in a rematch on August 19. At
5425-516: A trainer in the New Japan Dojo and as a commentator . Keiichi Yamada was born in Hiroshima on November 10, 1964. He was an amateur wrestler during his high school years. In his senior year, he lost to Toshiaki Kawada in the finals of a national championship tournament. After graduating high school in the early 1980s, he would apply to New Japan Pro-Wrestling 's (NJPW) dojo in the hope of becoming
5580-461: A trainer in the promotion's dojo and as a Japanese-language commentator for events on New Japan Pro-Wrestling World . Liger first worked with World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) on April 13, 1990, defeating Akira Nogami at the Wrestling Summit , an event co-produced by NJPW, WWF, and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). He returned to the company in 2015, defeating Tyler Breeze at
5735-497: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
5890-575: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
6045-537: A year-long reign. At Strong Style Symphony - New Japan Spirit, Liger teamed with The Great Sasuke to defeat Dr. Wagner Jr. and Kendo Kashin to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship . After failing to advance in the 1999 Best of the Super Juniors , Liger and Sasuke lost the tag team titles to Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa on July 13. At Jingu Climax , Liger and El Samurai unsuccessfully challenged Otani and Takaiwa for
6200-496: A year. In his return match, Liger teamed with El Samurai in a loss to Koji Kanemoto and Shinjiro Otani . Later that year, Liger participated in the 1995 Super J-Cup on December 13, in which he defeated Gran Naniwa in the quarterfinals, Último Dragón in the semifinals and Gedo in the finals to win the tournament. Liger defeated Koji Kanemoto to capture his record setting seventh IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling World on January 4, 1996. Liger successfully defended
6355-537: Is a British professional wrestling promotion founded by Brian Dixon in 1970 and based in Birkenhead , England. Founded as Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead in October 1970, it has also been known over the years as All Star Promotions and Big Time Wrestling . ASW tours theatres, leisure centres, town halls, holiday camps , and similar venues, many of which are the same locations that were used for televised wrestling in
Jushin Liger - Misplaced Pages Continue
6510-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
6665-463: The 2017 Best of the Super Juniors would be his last BOSJ tournament. He finished the tournament with a record of six losses and one win, which came in his last match against Taichi. At New Japan's 47th Anniversary Event, Liger was awarded a Junior Heavyweight Championship match against Taiji Ishimori after scoring a non-title victory over him the previous evening, however he failed to win the title losing via submission. The next day on March 7, 2019, it
6820-551: The Antonio Inoki 30th Anniversary Memorial Festival in Yokohama Arena event, Liger defeated Villano V to earn a Junior Heavyweight Championship shot against Pegasus Kid on November 1, which Liger won, thus winning his third Junior Heavyweight Championship in the process. During this time, Liger formed a faction called "Dragon Bombers" along with Tatsumi Fujinami , Shiro Koshinaka, Takayuki Iizuka and Black Cat and feuded with
6975-620: The Asian mist . On November 3, Liger teamed with Muta in the One Night Tournament by defeating El Samurai and Tatsumi Fujinami in the opening round but lost to Akira Nogami and Michiyoshi Ohara in the semifinals. At Wrestling World on January 4, 1997, Liger defeated Último Dragón to win the J-Crown, thus winning all the championships of the J-Crown including his record-setting eighth IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Liger successfully defended
7130-483: The British Mid-Heavyweight Championship which the promotion revived in 2002, 21 years after the death of previous champion Mike Marino . As the 2000s wore on, All Star reached new heights of activity not seen since the post-television boom of the early 1990s, reactivating many more old TV venues, and in the summer 2008 season revived the old tradition of wrestling shows at Blackpool Tower, with
7285-606: The CMLL World Middleweight Championship . Liger returned to CMLL in June 2010 for a long tour of the company. As the CMLL World Middleweight Championship he earned entry into the 2010 Universal Championship . On the August 6, 2010 Super Viernes show Liger won Block B by defeating Negro Casas, Héctor Garza and La Máscara to earn a spot in the finals. On the August 13, 2010 Super Viernes Liger defeated La Sombra to win
7440-673: The Invasion Tour 2011 , New Japan's first tour of the United States. Liger returned to the United States, making his debut for Extreme Rising on April 4, Pro Wrestling Syndicate (PWS) on April 5 and Chikara on April 6, 2013, all during the WrestleCon weekend in New Jersey. After the cancellation of the Extreme Rising event, Liger ended up taking part in another PWS event on April 4, during which he defeated Davey Richards and Tony Nese in
7595-467: The J-Crown tournament in which eight junior heavyweight titles were unified to create a singular crown. He participated in the tournament on August 2, where he defended his British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship against Último Dragón, with the latter's WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship simultaneously being defended. Liger went on to lose the match. On October 20, Liger competed in
7750-534: The NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn event on August 22. According to NJPW, WWE had approached them about bringing Liger in for the event as a special guest for the show. On March 16, 2020, it was announced that Liger would be inducted into that year's WWE Hall of Fame class. The 2020 Hall of Fame induction ceremony occurred in March 2021, with Liger sending in a video to accept the honor. Liger was supposed to appear in
7905-609: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
SECTION 50
#17328689681488060-575: The ROH World Television Championship . Liger returned to ROH the following May to take part in the ROH/NJPW co-produced War of the Worlds '15 and Global Wars '15 events. Liger returned to ROH on December 2, 2016, at Final Battle , where he was defeated by Silas Young . Liger returned to ROH on August 18, 2017, during their UK tour stop in London, which was co-promoted with NJPW, CMLL and
8215-762: The United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including a distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by
8370-620: The Young Lion Cup and got to the final of the tournament before being defeated by Shunji Kosugi. In the beginning of 1986, Yamada participated in the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship League but lost to Black Tiger . Yamada won the 1986 Young Lion Cup by defeating Tatsutoshi Goto in the tournament final on March 26. On July 19, 1986, Yamada faced Nobuhiko Takada in a losing effort in his first of many IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship matches. After winning
8525-1236: The Young Lion Cup in March 1986, he went on an excursion of Europe, where he wrestled for All Star Wrestling in England , under the name "Flying" Fuji Yamada. He won the World Heavy Middleweight Championship twice, once in September 1986 and once in March 1987, both times defeating "Rollerball" Mark Rocco and both times losing it back to him, the last of these four title changes being televised on ITV . Yamada would later visit All Star again in 1989, with tag partner Flying Funaki . During this period, he also worked for Orig Williams ' BWF, making appearances on Williams's Reslo wrestling show for Welsh-language TV channel S4C . He returned to Britain in 2014 to work once again for All Star Wrestling, this time under his masked Jushin Liger identity. Yamada went on an excursion in Canada , around May 1987, where he wrestled in Stu Hart 's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary under his real name. He also trained under Hart in
8680-433: The inaugural tournament on April 14, in which he defeated Hayabusa in the first round and Ricky Fuji in the quarterfinal but lost to The Great Sasuke in the semifinal. However, Liger rebounded with his participation in the 1994 Best of the Super Juniors , in which he scored twelve points to advance to the final where he defeated Super Delfin to win the tournament for the second time. Liger's sixth reign ended after he
8835-788: The "Thai Wrestling Alliance"). During this period, All Star's touring schedule generally consisted of monthly residencies at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon , the Victoria Hall in Hanley and the Colston Hall in Bristol as well as one or two tour stops each year in various town centre venues and a summer season at various Butlins resorts. A major storyline during these years was a long running feud between former tag partners Allmark and Dynamite, mostly over
8990-577: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
9145-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
9300-506: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
9455-411: The 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance the spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from
SECTION 60
#17328689681489610-547: The 2006 Lockdown show, a show where all matches took place inside a steel cage . Liger was unaware of this when first accepting the booking, backing out of the show when he heard about the steel cage, something in which he had never participated before, fearing it would have hampered his performance. TNA made Liger the captain of the NJPW team for the TNA 2006 World X Cup Tournament . As such he defeated Team Canada's Captain Petey Williams at Sacrifice on May 14, 2006. Liger
9765-440: The 2010 Universal Championship. On August 16, 2010, it was announced that Liger was one of 14 men putting their mask on the line in a Luchas de Apuestas steel cage match , the main event of the CMLL 77th Anniversary Show . Liger was the seventh man to leave the steel cage, keeping his mask safe. The match came down to La Sombra pinning Olímpico to unmask him. During the same tour, Liger also made his first successful defense of
9920-526: The 2010s, ASW would continue to bring in younger talent from popular UK promotions ( Insane Championship Wrestling , PROGRESS Wrestling , Revolution Pro Wrestling ) as well as veterans and international talent, such as Zack Sabre Jr. , Fit Finlay Junior , Dave Mastiff , Jack Gallagher , Noam Dar , Andy Wild, Kris Travis , Marty Scurll , Sweet Saraya , El Ligero , BT Gunn , Shinya Ishikawa , Harlem Bravado , Mark Haskins , Xia Brookside , Kay Lee Ray , Gangrel and Jay White . The promotion runs
10075-626: The All Star banner. At the end of 1988, Greg Dyke cancelled wrestling on ITV after 33 years. Whereas Joint dwindled downwards as a touring vehicle for Big Daddy (and later Davey Boy Smith ) before finally folding in 1995, All Star had played its cards well with regard to its two years of TV exposure, using the time in particular to build up the returning Nagasaki as its lead heel and establishing such storylines as his tag team-cum-feud with Rollerball Rocco and his " hypnotism " of Robbie Brookside . The end of TV coverage left many of these storylines at
10230-641: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
10385-485: The Blond Outlaws group. Liger successfully defended the title against Negro Casas at King of Kings and Akira at Starrcade in Tokyo Dome before vacating the title in order for new champion to be crowned in the 1991 Top of the Super Juniors . He advanced to the semifinals by scoring eight points and defeated Negro Casas in the semifinals but lost to Norio Honaga in the final. Liger unsuccessfully challenged Honaga for
10540-533: The CMLL World Middleweight Championship, defeating La Sombra on September 27. On January 4, 2011, at New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome event, Liger wrestled in a CMLL showcase match, where he and Héctor Garza were defeated by La Sombra and Máscara Dorada , when Sombra pinned Liger, setting up a CMLL World Middleweight Championship match for CMLL's Fantastica Mania 2011 show on January 22 in Tokyo, Japan . At Fantastica Mania Liger defeated La Sombra to retain
10695-409: The CMLL World Middleweight Championship. On May 3, Liger made his third successful defense of the title, defeating Máscara Dorada at New Japan's Wrestling Dontaku 2011 show. Liger returned to Mexico on September 15, 2011, announcing his intention of working as a technico for the first time during his run with CMLL. On September 30 at CMLL's 78th Anniversary Show , Liger defeated eleven other men in
10850-411: The Go Nagai anime progressing and its hero powering up. In January 1990, Liger was renamed "Jushin Thunder Liger", a name he continues to use to this day. Early in his career, Yamada's style mostly consisted of high flying. Years later, he started adapting more power moves and started focusing more on grappling and telling a story in the ring; part of this change was due to the fact that Liger had to reduce
11005-560: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, most notably against Owen Hart on June 10, 1988, and against Shiro Koshinaka on December 9, 1988. He would also take part in the first Top of the Super Juniors tournament where he earned 31 points, not enough to progress to the final. Within months of his second Canadian excursion, NJPW called him back, as they needed him for a gimmick based on an extremely popular anime superhero , Jushin Liger , created by manga artist Go Nagai . NJPW had done this previously with Tiger Mask , which had become
11160-702: The J-Crown against Shinjiro Otani, Koji Kanemoto, Masayoshi Motegi and The Great Sasuke. In May, Liger participated in the 1997 Best of the Super Juniors but failed to advance from the round robin stage. On June 6, Liger lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yuji Yasuraoka , thus leaving J-Crown with seven championships. Liger lost the J-Crown to El Samurai on July 6. At Final Power Hall in Tokyo Dome , Liger lost to Riki Choshu. On February 7, 1998, Liger defeated Shinjiro Otani to win his record-setting ninth IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He successfully defended
11315-589: The Junior Heavyweight Championship against El Samurai, Liger lost the title to Tatsuhito Takaiwa on July 20, 2000. Following the title loss, Liger began flirting with the heavyweight division after booker Riki Choshu decided to de-emphasize the junior heavyweight division (a costly decision that diminished its credibility), and Liger wrestled heavyweights without wearing the upper part of his bodysuit or his mask horns. In August, participated in his first G1 Climax tournament , in which he won only one match in his block against Tatsutoshi Goto on August 9. However, he lost
11470-559: The March 5 episode of World Pro Wrestling , Liger took on the IWGP Heayvweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto in a champion versus champion match, which he lost. On March 21, Liger made his fifth successful title defense of the Junior Heavyweight Championship against Black Tiger. He would conceptualize the Super J-Cup tournament specifically designed for junior heavyweights from all over the world and participated in
11625-430: The NJPW dojo, he trained alongside the likes of Keiji Mutoh , Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto . While continuing his training, he had his debut match in March 1984 at the age of 19, wrestling against Shunji Kosugi . He began studying various martial arts styles because he wanted to add something new and different to his wrestling style, which is how he learned his Abisegeri kick. In 1985, Yamada participated in
11780-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
11935-477: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
12090-613: The UK from the 1950s to the 1980s. ASW is the oldest active wrestling promotion in the UK and the longest-running British promotion in history, a record it has held since September 2013 when it eclipsed the 42 years and 11 months tenure of Joint Promotions (1952–1995). It is also the fourth oldest professional wrestling promotion still in existence in the world, after the Mexican promotion CMLL (founded 1933), WWE (founded 1963) and longtime US independent ECWA (founded 1967). ASW contributed to
12245-524: The UK's Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW). Liger teamed with Delirious and Místico to unsuccessfully challenge Dalton Castle and The Boys for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship . Liger made his debut for the U.S.-based Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion on October 23, 2005, as part of their Bound for Glory pay-per-view , losing to Samoa Joe. TNA advertised a match between Liger and Christopher Daniels for
12400-574: The Union of European Wrestling Alliances and recognised the European Heavyweight Championship . They hosted two title changes with Mikey Whiplash defeating Rampage Brown and James Mason defeating Whiplash. ASW hosted several of Mason's title defences before leaving the UEWA on 30 November 2013. In April 2014, ASW established a relationship with Japanese promotion Wrestle-1 . Throughout
12555-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
12710-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
12865-550: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
13020-412: The broader public. In the United States, wrestling is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as
13175-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
13330-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
13485-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
13640-461: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
13795-437: The company announced that their elder son, referee Joseph Allmark, would be taking over day-to-day operations on the road, while the elder Dixon moved to a back seat role from the company's Birkenhead office until his death in 2023, at which point Joseph Allmark took over full control of the company. Since 2024 he has been known as Joseph Dixon. The Mountevans committee was an independent committee which met in 1947 to establish
13950-559: The company in a purely office based capacity. The elder Dixon died 27 May 2023, leaving his grandson as sole proprietor. Brian Dixon, a referee and former head of the Jim Breaks Fan Club, established Wrestling Enterprises in Birkenhead during October 1970 initially as a vehicle for his girlfriend (and later wife) Mitzi Mueller, who was the British Ladies' Champion but had difficulty getting bookings from Joint Promotions. One of
14105-401: The company since his professional wrestling debut in 1984. Throughout his career, which spanned three-and-a-half decades, he wrestled over 4,000 matches and performed in major events for various promotions across the globe. Debuting under his real name for NJPW in 1984, he was given the gimmick of Jushin Liger in 1989, based on the anime series of the same name . Becoming Jushin "Thunder" Liger
14260-482: The company's earliest claims to fame was rebranding the wrestler Martin Ruane, formerly known as Luke McMasters, as new character Giant Haystacks . Originally called "Haystacks Calhoun", he was patterned after the similar American wrestler of the same name , about whom Dixon had read in imported American wrestling magazines. Haystacks would go on to achieve household fame in the UK after he moved to Joint Promotions in 1975 as
14415-468: The competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in
14570-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
14725-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
14880-544: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
15035-509: The featured matches on the show. The following week, at the 2009 Gran Alternativa show Liger unsuccessfully challenged for Último Guerrero's CMLL World Heavyweight Championship . He also failed to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Místico before returning to Japan in October 2009. On May 3, 2010, at Wrestling Dontaku 2010 , Liger defeated Negro Casas at a New Japan show in Fukuoka, Japan , to win
15190-570: The final two years of ITV 's regular televised wrestling programme in the UK in (1987 and 1988) and some ASW matches were included on VHS and DVD compilations and repeated as part of the World of Sport programming on The Fight Network until it stopped transmission in 2008. They were then repeated on the now defunct Men & Movies channel. In July 2022, Dixon bequeathed all road management duties to his grandson Joseph Dixon (aka Joseph Allmark,the son of wrestler Dean Allmark ), while continuing to lead
15345-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
15500-479: The following year, he saw unprecedented success in the junior heavyweight division when he won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship a record 11 times and set the record for its longest reign during his second reign, which lasted for 628 days. Liger was the first three-time Best of the Super Juniors tournament winner (a record eventually tied by Koji Kanemoto and Hiromu Takahashi ), is
15655-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
15810-455: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
15965-531: The inaugural WCW Monday Nitro , held at the Mall of America on September 4, losing to Brian Pillman. He returned to WCW in September 1995; he would go on to face many other opponents such as Chris Benoit , Dean Malenko , Rey Mysterio Jr. , and Juventud Guerrera , as well as unsuccessfully challenging Konnan for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship at Slamboree '96 . Liger
16120-457: The inclusion of former WWF World Champion Yokozuna on advertising posters over a year after he had died, the continued advertising of Davey Boy Smith months after his planned tour fell through and the use of a photo of the original WWF Kane to depict the tribute performer "Big Red Machine"), Conway cut his links with All Star and declared a promotional war. He began to promote his TWA as an alternative, featuring more serious wrestling (in much
16275-513: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
16430-492: The individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in a professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
16585-471: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
16740-487: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
16895-484: The late 1990s, many smaller British promoters were increasingly abandoning their British identity in favour of "WWF Tribute" shows, with British performers crudely imitating World Wrestling Federation stars. Although All Star never descended into a full-fledged 'tribute show', by the turn of the millennium, many of these tribute acts such as the "UK Undertaker" and "Big Red Machine" were nonetheless headlining All Star shows. Disaffected with this and other matters (such as
17050-498: The legendary " Dungeon ". His experiences there led him to refer to Hart as a "very, very tough man." Yamada returned to NJPW on August 19, 1987, against Nobuhiko Takada in a losing effort. Yamada debuted his Shooting Star Press in a match against Masakatsu Funaki, for which he had gotten the idea from reading the manga Fist of the North Star . Throughout 1987 and 1988, Yamada improved with each match, occasionally getting shots at
17205-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
17360-475: The mid-1980s All Star was running shows head-to-head with Joint Promotions and had its own TV show on satellite channel Screensport . When Joint's five-year extension on its monopoly of ITV wrestling expired at the end of 1986, All Star, along with the WWF, was also given a share of the televised wrestling shows for the two years 1987–88. The beginning of this period coincided with the return to full-time action for legendary masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki under
17515-421: The most part. Liger and Tiger won the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on June 16, 2012, at Dominion 6.16 , losing it to Forever Hooligans ( Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero ) on July 22. Liger's next shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship took place on May 3, 2016, when he unsuccessfully challenged Kushida for the title at Wrestling Dontaku 2016 . In May 2017, Liger announced that
17670-512: The premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain
17825-544: The promotion seven months later on December 10, when he defeated Azrieal, Bandido Jr., B-Boy , El Generico and Kenny Omega in a six-way elimination match to win the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship . The following day he would successfully defend the title against Mike Quackenbush . Liger would lose the title to Kenny Omega in his second defense on May 15, 2011, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , during
17980-714: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
18135-439: The purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise a bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether
18290-633: The rest of his matches and was eliminated from his block. On September 12, Liger teamed with Shinya Makabe and unsuccessfully challenged Junior Stars (Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka ) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Liger would then engage in matches against Osaka Pro Wrestling talent, defeating Super Delfin at Do Judge!! . In November, Liger participated in the G1 Tag League by teaming with Super Strong Machine . They won only two matches, scoring
18445-501: The same way as All Star had previously targeted Joint fans disaffected with Big Daddy). All Star duly adapted to meet the challenge, recruiting a new generation of wrestlers such as Dean Allmark and Robbie Dynamite and signing up such stars as "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson . The promotional war came to an abrupt end in 2003 when Conway relocated to Thailand , closing down the TWA (which he briefly tried to transplant to his new country as
18600-687: The scripting of these title changes was viewed as embarrassing for NJPW and the company chose not to acknowledge or release any information about the title changes. In turn, none of the Japanese sports media outlets reported the two title changes as well. New Japan did not recognize Guerrera's reign until 2007. Liger was also referred to as a 10-time champion until this time. On November 5, 2004, Liger debuted in Ring of Honor (ROH), headlining their back-to-back "Weekend of Thunder" shows. ROH selected Bryan Danielson as Liger's special opponent for that weekend. For Night 1,
18755-453: The semifinals and Kensuke Sasaki and Minoru Tanaka in the final. At Wrestling Dontaku , Liger and Samurai successfully defended their tag team championship against the Mexican challengers Dr. Wagner Jr. and Silver King . After that, Liger participated in the Best of the Super Juniors . He qualified for the final by winning all of his matches in his block and defeated Minoru Tanaka in the final to win
18910-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
19065-543: The stress he was putting on his body after undergoing brain tumor surgery in August 1996, which explained why he lost his match to Último Dragón in the first round of the J-Crown tournament. Upon debuting the Liger character, Yamada quickly became one of NJPW's top junior heavyweights, soon capturing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Hiroshi Hase on May 25, 1989, at Battle Satellite in Osaka. Liger successfully defended
19220-724: The tag team partner - and later the archenemy - of Big Daddy . During the late 1970s, Wrestling Enterprises held regular major shows at the Liverpool Stadium and organised a version of the World Middleweight Title after the previous version became extinct with the collapse of the Spanish wrestling scene c. 1975. This title continued until champion Adrian Street emigrated to America in 1981. Wrestling Enterprises also collaborated heavily with another independent promoter, former middleweight star Jackie Pallo . Neither promoter
19375-517: The team of Hiro Saito, Super Strong Machine and Norio Honaga in a six-man tag team match. On February 8, 1992, Liger defeated Norio Honaga in a title versus title match with Liger's WCW Light Heavyweight Championship and Honaga's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on the line. Liger claimed his record-setting fifth IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in the process and successfully defended both titles against Pegasus Kid on February 10. Liger continued his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reign with
19530-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
19685-413: The title against Kendo Kashin in his first title defense at Antonio Inoki 's retirement event. He participated in the 1998 Best of the Super Juniors tournament but failed to advance to the semifinals. Liger successfully defended the title against Koji Kanemoto, The Great Sasuke, Kaz Hayashi , El Samurai, Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Dr. Wagner Jr. before losing the title to Kanemoto on March 17, 1999, ending
19840-450: The title against Mark Rocco in his first title defense in the fifth round of a European Rounds match on July 12. He retained the title against Naoki Sano in his second title defense on July 13, which ended in a double knockout. This set up a rematch between the two on August 10, where Liger lost the title. At Super Power Battle in Osaka, Liger unsuccessfully challenged Sano for the title in a rematch. In January 1990, Liger participated in
19995-417: The title against Wild Pegasus , Masao Orihara and Black Tiger throughout the remainder of the year. Liger formed a partnership with Wild Pegasus to participate in the 1993 Super Grade Tag League but scored only four points in the tournament. Liger defeated Tiger Mask in a mask versus mask match at Battlefield on January 4, thus forcing Tiger Mask to unmask and reveal his identity as Koji Kanemoto. On
20150-565: The title against Black Tiger on February 3. At Battle Formation in Tokyo Dome , Liger lost the title to The Great Sasuke. Later that year, Liger participated in the 1996 Best of the Super Juniors , in which he qualified for the semifinals and defeated El Samurai in the semifinal but lost to Black Tiger in the final. At Sky Diving J , Liger defeated Dick Togo to capture the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship . Liger would later conceptualize
20305-474: The title at Tatsumi Fujinami's 20th Anniversary event, before defeating Honaga in a rematch to win his record-breaking fourth Junior Heavyweight Championship at Fighting Connection – Ultra-High And Mighty Declaration II . On July 4, Liger defeated Pegasus Kid in a mask versus mask match forcing the latter to unmask. Liger lost the title to Akira Nogami on August 9. At Super Warriors in Tokyo Dome , Liger teamed with Masashi Aoyagi and Akira Nogami to defeat
20460-513: The title at a house show in Atlanta, Georgia . He would hold onto the title for over two months, before losing it back to Pillman at SuperBrawl II . Liger left WCW in December 1992 after Starrcade , teaming with Erik Watts in a losing effort to "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Sting in a Lethal Lottery match. Upon his return to WCW in 1995, Liger had the distinction of appearing in the first match on
20615-434: The title in a rematch against Samurai on October 21. At Fantastic Story in Tokyo Dome , Liger defeated Último Dragón to capture his record setting sixth Junior Heavyweight Championship. Liger successfully defended the title against Dean Malenko on March 21. He participated in the 1993 Top of the Super Juniors in June, in which he scored twelve points but failed to advance to the quarterfinals. Liger successfully defended
20770-493: The titles. At Final Dome , Liger defeated Kendo Kashin to win his record-setting tenth Junior Heavyweight Championship. After exchanging the title with Juventud Guerrera in WCW, Liger returned to NJPW to retain the title against Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka before entering the 2000 Super J-Cup . Liger defeated Tiger Mask , Men's Teioh , Gran Hamada and Cima to win his second consecutive Super J-Cup. After successfully defending
20925-462: The tournament in the first round by Chris Hero . On November 30, 2002, Liger was booked as a replacement for a mixed martial arts match in the Pancrase organization against Minoru Suzuki due to his planned opponent, Kensuke Sasaki , being forced to pull out due to injury. In what would be Liger's only MMA match, he was beaten by Suzuki via rear-naked choke at 1:48 into the first round. Liger wore
21080-591: The tournament. At Dome-Quake, Liger and Samurai lost the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Jado and Gedo . From 2004 to 2007, Liger was the leader of the NJPW heel stable Control Terrorism Unit (CTU) along with Hirooki Goto , Minoru Tanaka , Black Tiger IV , Gedo , Jado , Prince Devitt and briefly James Gibson . On July 30, 2006, Liger revived the Kishin Liger gimmick and faced off with rival Bad Boy Hido in NJPW. The story
21235-505: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
21390-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
21545-553: The two faced each other in a singles match, with Liger winning the highly competitive bout after a super brainbuster. On November 6, 2004, Night 2 would see a "dream tag-team" match in the main event. Liger chose then-ROH Champion Samoa Joe as his partner, and Danielson selected Low Ki for his side. Liger again came out on top, pinning Danielson with a Liger Bomb to win the match. On January 29, 2010, at ROH's debut show in Los Angeles, California as part of WrestleReunion 4 , Liger lost
21700-405: The venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as a performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in
21855-528: The video game WWE 2K22 , however was cut short from the game. This can be seen when using an SDB editor, where strings were left which reveals the plans to put Mysterio vs. Liger at WCW Starrcade '96 Liger made appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) during the 1990s. He made his debut in December 1991. He feuded with Brian Pillman over the WCW World Light Heavyweight Championship . He defeated Pillman on December 25 for
22010-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
22165-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
22320-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
22475-440: Was able to gain a slice of ITV coverage however, as the 1981 contract renewal negotiations resulted in a five-year extension on Joint Promotions' exclusive monopoly of ITV wrestling. By the early 1980s there was increasing dissatisfaction among both fans and wrestlers with the direction of Joint Promotions (which was increasingly centred on Big Daddy ), which resulted in a steady flow of top UK talent into All Star Wrestling (as it
22630-609: Was announced that Liger will retire on January 5, 2020, at Wrestle Kingdom 14 . Kishin Liger returned again on September 22, 2019, at Destruction in Kobe, when Minoru Suzuki removed Liger's mask. Kishin would spit mist into Suzuki's face and attempt to stab him with a spike, before giving chase to Suzuki while attacking officials, young lions, and Hiroshi Tanahashi in his pursuit. Liger retired on January 5, 2020, after he and Naoki Sano were defeated by Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee . Following his retirement, Liger remains in NJPW, serving as
22785-488: Was by then renamed) and away from Joint and the TV spotlight. Title-holders such as World Heavyweight Champion Mighty John Quinn, rival claimant Wayne Bridges, British Heavyweight Champion Tony St Clair, World Heavy-Middleweight Champion Mark Rocco , British Heavy-Middleweight Champion Frank 'Chic' Cullen and World Lightweight Champion Johnny Saint all defected to All Star taking their titles with them, as did many non-titleholders. By
22940-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
23095-456: Was eliminated in the X-Cup Gauntlet later that night and Team Japan was unable to gain any points in the match. This has led to Team Canada winning the tournament, with Team Mexico as runners up. In 2007 Liger made a short visit to Mexico, working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), NJPW's Mexican associate. He took part in the 2007 CMLL International Gran Prix as the captain of
23250-404: Was forced to vacate the title due to fracturing his left ankle in a tag team match on September 24, where he teamed with Riki Choshu in a loss to Keiji Mutoh and Wild Pegasus in a losing effort. His title reign ended at 628 days, marking it the longest IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reign in history. Liger returned to NJPW after recovering from his injury on August 11 after missing nearly
23405-477: Was met with controversy around late-November/early-December 1999 while wrestling a short tour in WCW as the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion when he lost the championship on an episode of Monday Nitro to Juventud Guerrera via a blow to the head from a tequila bottle. Liger regained his title the following week from Psicosis , who was substituting for Guerrera because he broke his arm. However,
23560-591: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
23715-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
23870-765: Was that Hido had cut a piece of Liger's hair and Liger vowed revenge, so he transformed into Kishin Liger. Liger won the match with a brainbuster onto a steel chair. Liger's next appearance as Kishin Liger took place in June 2012 and was brought on by Taichi tearing his mask to pieces. CTU was disbanded in August 2007, when Liger decided CTU would disband while at the top of NJPW, Liger would then join Masahiro Chono's Legend stable. The Legend stable would disband in February 2010, after Chono, Choshu and Akira's departures. Since then, Liger has mainly teamed with fellow veteran Tiger Mask, remaining outside of championship contention for
24025-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
#147852