Mid 20th Century
128-464: Satoshi Kojima ( 小島 聡 , Kojima Satoshi , born September 14, 1970) is a Japanese professional wrestler . He is signed to both New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is the current MLW World Heavyweight Champion in his second reign and a former one-time MLW World Tag Team Champion . He also makes appearances for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and American Promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Considered to be one of
256-446: 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
384-604: A " shoot ". Later on, many wrestlers became interested in promoting this more realistic style of professional wrestling and in 1984, the Universal Wrestling Federation was formed. The UWF was a professional wrestling organisation that promoted the shoot and strong styles of wrestling. While predetermined, the UWF featured effective and practical martial arts moves, which were applied with force. The organization would even host some legitimate mixed martial arts fights, where
512-405: A War Chamber match. At War Chamber II , Kojima successfully defended his title against Bad Dude Tito . At Aztecha Lucha , Kojima teamed up with Shigeo Okumura, calling their team, CozyMax. Together, they defeated The Second Gear Crew (Matthew Justice and 1 Called Manders) to win the vacant MLW World Tag Team Championship . Kojima also became a double champion in the process, the first to hold both
640-413: 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
768-520: 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
896-513: 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
1024-574: 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
1152-460: A considerable influence on the sport of mixed martial arts. Prior to the emergence of the current sport of shoot wrestling, the term was commonly used in the professional wrestling business, particularly in the United Kingdom , as a synonym for the sport of catch wrestling . Shoot wrestling can be used to describe a range of hybrid fighting systems such as shootfighting , shoot boxing and
1280-408: A decision match to regain the newly vacated title. On October 8 at King of Pro-Wrestling , Kojima and Tenzan lost the title to K.E.S. ( Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lance Archer ). From November 20 to December 1, Tencozy took part in the round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League . The team finished with a record of four wins and two losses, winning their block and advancing to the semi-finals of
1408-546: 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 . Shoot style Shoot wrestling is a Japanese hybrid grappling style and combat sport . Shoot wrestling incorporates techniques from various wrestling , submission grappling , kickboxing and karate styles. It
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#17328691896081536-410: 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
1664-638: A few companies have been promoting shoot-wrestling events. GLEAT is a Japanese promotion founded in 2020 by LIDET Entertainment consists of former Pro Wrestling NOAH officials. The "Lidet UWF" is a sub-brand which has UWF-style matches. Game Changer Wrestling —an American New Jersey –based promotion—promotes shoot-style wrestling events known as the GCW Bloodsport . The events counted with former MMA and shoot-inspired pro wrestlers such as Minoru Suzuki , Josh Barnett , Matt Riddle and Dan Severn . Shoot wrestling branched into several sub disciplines after
1792-414: 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
1920-572: A lariat after a match, where he and Kota Ibushi had defeated Tanahashi and Prince Devitt . On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome , Kojima lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Tanahashi. On January 30 Kojima defeated Togi Makabe to earn a rematch with Tanahashi. Meanwhile, the newly renamed Kojima-gun expanded to include Taka Michinoku and Nosawa Rongai , who in turn used his connections to get MVP to also join
2048-405: 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
2176-754: 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
2304-501: A match against Kojima at All Out . At the event, he lost to Moxley. On June 25 at Forbidden Door , Kojima competed in the Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament , losing to CM Punk in the quarterfinals of the tournament. On April 30 at Majestic 2022, Kojima was revealed to be Naomichi Marufuji 's mystery partner against Kinya Okada and Yoshiki Inamura which Kojima and Marufuji won. Kojima then challenged Go Shiozaki for
2432-465: A member of the gang Justis in the 2016 video game Yakuza 6: The Song of Life . He also appears in the game Fire Pro Wrestling World as a playable character. Kojima has a daughter. Professional wrestler 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
2560-440: 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
2688-403: A one-night return to AJPW, wrestling his first match for the company in five years. He defeated Suwama in the match, but was left with a bad aftertaste due to the win coming as a result of a pre-match attack on Suwama by Joe Doering . After sitting most of 2018 out with an ACL injury, Kojima returned and teamed with Tenzan in the 2018 World Tag League , earning 10 points. Kojima would then enter
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#17328691896082816-574: A record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals. In late 2014, Kojima began making appearances for Pro Wrestling Noah, which culminated in him unsuccessfully challenging Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Heavyweight Championship on January 10, 2015. On March 21, Kojima unsuccessfully challenged Hiroyoshi Tenzan for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. From July 23 to August 15, Kojima took part in
2944-407: A singles match. The two had a rematch on August 1 during the first day of the 2011 G1 Climax , where Kojima managed to pick up the win. Kojima managed to win five more matches in the tournament, but a loss to former partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan on the final day eliminated him from the running for a spot in the finals. After the tournament Kojima was sidelined indefinitely with an eye injury suffered during
3072-569: A stiffer and more realistic wrestling style. Their students left NJPW to form the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) in 1984, pioneering in the new style. Shoot wrestling was popular in Japan from the 1980s until the mid-1990s, fading from popularity due the demise of the leading shoot-style promotion UWFi in 1996 and the simultaneous rise of mixed martial arts (MMA) in Japan. Most shoot wrestlers started to migrate to MMA or back to more theatrical forms of professional wrestling. Shoot wrestling had
3200-601: A student of full contact karate, kodokan judo, and sumo . Yoshiaki Fujiwara was already a black belt in judo, while Satoru Sayama had studied Muay Thai with Toshio Fujiwara and went on to study sambo with Victor Koga . This would eventually lead to the added influences of karate, Muay Thai and judo to the wrestling style. One of Gotch's students, Antonio Inoki, hosted a series of mixed martial arts -style wrestling matches in which he pitted his " strong style professional wrestling" against other martial arts in an attempt to show that professional wrestling and shoot wrestling were
3328-538: A tag team on December 4, defeating CHAOS members Hideo Saito and Takashi Iizuka . On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome , Kojima and Tenzan defeated Bad Intentions ( Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson ) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the third time. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012 , Kojima and Tenzan lost the title to Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano in their third defense. On July 22, Kojima and Tenzan defeated Iizuka and Yano in
3456-476: A three-way match, which also included The IronGodz ( Jax Dane and Rob Conway). In December, Tencozy made it to the finals of the 2013 World Tag League , defeating K.E.S. in the semi-finals, before losing to Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. During the tournament, Kojima pinned Rob Conway, which led to him challenging him to a rematch for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. On January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome , Kojima defeated Conway to become
3584-662: A title match. At SuperFight 2024 , Kojima defeated Kane to win the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, 22 years after first winning the title. Kojima also became the first 2-time World Heavyweight Champion in the promotions history. At Intimidation Games , Kojima successfully defended his title against Minoru Suzuki . At War Chamber , Kojima team up with The Second Gear Crew ( Matthew Justice and 1 Called Manders ) and Shigeo Okumura , as Team MLW. Together, they defeated World Titan Federation ( Tom Lawlor , Davey Boy Smith Jr. , Richard Holliday , and Josh Bishop) in
3712-497: 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
3840-477: A unique finish designed to fool fans in attendance. The idea was to make it look like the match was going to end in a 60-minute time limit draw. However, with just seconds before the match would be declared a time limit draw, Tenzan, who was known to have a legitimate back injury, could not continue, resulting in Kojima being declared the winner and becoming the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. NJPW officials had come up with
3968-575: 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
Satoshi Kojima - Misplaced Pages Continue
4096-410: 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
4224-510: Is that percussion techniques are basically prohibited and are often practiced as mixed martial arts performed by amateurs. Professional wrestler Satoru Sayama , a student of Antonio Inoki , founded Shooto in 1985 with the goal creating a sport that revolved around a realistic and effective fighting system. Shooto is focused on all aspects of fighting: striking , stand-up grappling and ground fighting . Practitioners are referred to as shooters or shootists . An early term for MMA, based on
4352-418: Is usually not seen by amateur wrestlers and mixed martial arts fighters, is attractive and is now a successful door for mixed martial arts fighters. In addition, joint levers and chokes are considered fouls unless they lead to a fall, but in combat wrestling a fall does not result in victory (it will be a point at judgment). If a wrestler taps from joint blocks or throttling, a winner is declared. The basic rule
4480-569: The 2015 G1 Climax , where he finished with a record of three wins and six losses. On March 19, 2016, Kojima unsuccessfully challenged Katsuyori Shibata for the NEVER Openweight Championship . On July 3, Kojima teamed up with Matt Sydal and Ricochet to defeat The Elite ( Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship . Afterwards, Kojima backed out of
4608-736: The 2016 G1 Climax and gave his spot to Hiroyoshi Tenzan to give his longtime tag team partner one final chance to win the tournament. On August 14, Kojima unsuccessfully challenged Jay Lethal for the Ring of Honor (ROH) World Championship . On September 25, Kojima, Ricochet and Sydal were stripped of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship due to Sydal failing to make a scheduled title defense at Destruction in Kobe because of travel issues. That same day, Kojima and Ricochet, now teaming with David Finlay , defeated Adam Cole and The Young Bucks to regain
4736-649: The GHC Heavyweight Championship after Shiozaki won the vacant title after defeating Kaito Kiyomiya in the main event. At CyberFight Festival 2022 , Kojima defeated Shiozaki to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the first time and became the fourth Japanese wrestler to win all the major Heavyweight titles in Japan, having also won the IWGP Heavyweight and Triple Crown Heavyweight Championships in his career. In January 2024, Kojima returned to MLW to challenge World Heavyweight Champion, Alex Kane to
4864-548: The MLW World Tag Team Championship against Los Depredadores (Magia Blanca & Rugido). On the May 20, 2021, episode of Impact! , a video package aired promoting Kojima arriving to Impact Wrestling as part of a partnership between Impact and NJPW. On the following week's Impact! , Kojima made his debut confronting Violent by Design where he challenged VBD member Joe Doering to a match at Against All Odds . At
4992-609: 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
5120-706: 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
5248-567: The World's Strongest Tag Determination League defeating Kohei Suwama and RO'Z in the finals when Kojima used a lariat on RO'Z. The duo next faced Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh at NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom in Tokyo Dome . They lost when Chono forced Tenzan to submit. In July 2007, Kojima shocked the All-Japan Army when he betrayed them and joined the Voodoo Murders , where he was quickly made
Satoshi Kojima - Misplaced Pages Continue
5376-458: The " U-Kei " ("U-Group" or "U-Class"). Shoot wrestling itself was popular until the mid-90s due the demise of the UWFi in 1996 and the simultaneous rise of mixed martial arts in Japan led to a sharp decline in popularity. Most shoot wrestlers started to migrate into MMA— Fighting Network RINGS itself became a full MMA promotion—or back to more theatrical forms of professional wrestling. Currently,
5504-562: The "Beast Combination". After picking up three wins and one loss in their first four matches, Kojima and Makabe were defeated by the Billion Powers (Hirooki Goto and Hiroshi Tanahashi) on November 4, causing them to narrowly miss advancing to the semi-finals of the tournament. Kojima and Tenzan faced each other yet again on November 12 in a match, which was won by Tenzan. Afterwards, the former tag team partners came together to fend off an attack from CHAOS . Tencozy wrestled their return match as
5632-577: 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
5760-400: 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
5888-506: 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
6016-411: 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
6144-499: The 2010 G1 Climax tournament. His return match took place on August 6, 2010, when he teamed up with El Samurai in a tag team match, where they were defeated by Hirooki Goto and Ryusuke Taguchi . In the round robin stage of the tournament Kojima won five out his seven matches and won his block to advance to the finals, where, on August 15, he defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win G1 Climax. On October 11 Kojima defeated Togi Makabe to win
6272-546: The 2019 New Japan Cup where he was eliminated in the first round by long time rival Minoru Suzuki . Kojima and Tenzan entered the 2019 World Tag League and finished with 6 points, not making the finals. Kojima would enter the 2020 New Japan Cup , however was eliminated in the first round by eventual winner EVIL . In December 2020, after Juice Robinson sustained an eye injury, Kojima would replace him and challenge KENTA for his IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Right to Challenge briefcase at Wrestle Kingdom 15 . At
6400-641: 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
6528-452: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the second time. On December 11 Kojima made his first successful defense of the title, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura . On December 14 Kojima announced that he was starting his own stable, tentatively named Kojima Office, and named Taichi , who had accompanied him to the ring for his Nakamura match, its first member. Kojima turned heel on December 23, when he hit his number one contender Hiroshi Tanahashi with
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#17328691896086656-491: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Triple Crown Championship, and NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship (the other two being Keiji Mutoh and Shinya Hashimoto ), and is an overall eight-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions . As a team, he and Hiroyoshi Tenzan are six-time IWGP Tag Team Champions and became the first team to win G1 Tag League and World's Strongest Tag Determination League in
6784-428: The IWGP Tag Team Championship from K.E.S. in a four-way match, which also included Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano, and Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man , starting Kojima's sixth reign as champion. From August 1 to 11, Kojima took part in the 2013 G1 Climax . where he finished second to last in his block with a record of four wins and five losses. However, a victory over reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada on
6912-568: The Indian system of exercises using push-ups, neck exercises, yogic breathing exercises and "Hindu squats" for conditioning. Gotch attained legendary status in Japan, earning the nickname God of Wrestling. In the 1970s he taught catch wrestling-based hooking and shooting to the likes of Antonio Inoki , Tatsumi Fujinami , Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Satoru Sayama , Masami Soranaka, and Akira Maeda . Most of these professional wrestlers already had backgrounds in legitimate martial arts. Masami Soranaka had been
7040-559: The January 2, 2003 edition of AJPW TV Williams aggressively slapped Kojima in the corner of the ring during the New Year's Battle Royal before being eliminated, which Kojima went on to win. In January 2003, Williams and his partner Mike Rotunda defeated Kojima and his team three times in tag-team house show matches, but Williams ultimately left AJPW after its sale finalized. As a result a singles match between Williams and Kojima heading into 2003 never materialized. Kojima would later hold both of
7168-591: The March 23, 2002 edition of AJPW TV, Williams surprise attacked and suplexed Kojima when Kojima was cutting a promo on Tenryu. Kojima later turned babyface by December 2002, where on the December 6, 2002 pay-per-view Kojima and Taiyo Kea won the Real World Tag League of that year. Williams would watch the celebration somewhat jealously while reluctantly shaking Kojima's hand, looking down at the title on his shoulder. On
7296-543: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship. On May 25 at Back to the Yokohama Arena , Tencozy successfully defended the NWA World Tag Team Championship against Brisco and Conway and K.E.S. in a three-way match. The following week, Kojima returned to the United States to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. After successful defenses against Jeremiah Plunkett, Damien Wayne and Houston Carson, Kojima lost
7424-520: The NWA World Tag Team Championship. On April 6 at Invasion Attack 2014 , Tencozy defeated The IronGodz to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Six days later, during New Japan's trip to Taiwan , Kojima made his second successful defense of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Rob Conway. The following day, Tencozy also successfully defended the NWA World Tag Team Championship against The IronGodz. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2014 , Kojima defeated Wes Brisco for his third successful defense of
7552-408: 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
7680-477: 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
7808-475: The Triple Crown to Taiyō Kea . Three days later it was revealed that Kojima would return to New Japan to compete in the 2006 G1 Climax , where he would go to lose in the finals against former tag team partner and rival Hiroyoshi Tenzan. In October 2006 it was announced that Tencozy would reform for the upcoming World's Strongest Tag Determination League tournament. On December 2, 2006, the reformed Tencozy won
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#17328691896087936-434: The UWF wrestlers were able to test their shoot wrestling techniques against fighters with other styles, mimicking Inoki's own exploits. However, internal conflicts between the wrestlers soon resulted in a breakup of the company. After the breakup of the original Universal Wrestling Federation, shoot wrestling branched into several disciplines. One of the first top stars to leave was " Tiger Mask " Satoru Sayama in 1985, he
8064-583: The World Heavyweight and World Tag Team titles at the same time. At Fury Road , Kojima successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against 1 Called Manders. At Battle Riot VI , Kojima successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against former World Heavyweight Champion, Tom Lawlor. Kojima, along with fellow NJPW wrestlers Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito and Toru Yano, appears as
8192-401: 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
8320-418: 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
8448-550: 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
8576-444: The breakup of the original Universal Wrestling Federation. The main forms and revivals are listed below. Combat wrestling, also known as "MMA without strikes" is a shoot wrestling variation founded by Kiguchi Dojo. Doojo, a former wrestler, incorporated classic wrestling rules in his sport. Famous mixed martial artists also participate in the tournament and a tournament is also held throughout Japan. Even matchmaking, which
8704-412: 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
8832-424: 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
8960-418: 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
9088-423: 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
9216-508: 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
9344-633: The company's tag team titles, the World Tag Team Championship twice. On February 16, 2005, he won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship , AJPW's unified heavyweight championship from Toshiaki Kawada . Only four days later he won NJPW's heavyweight championship, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship , from his former tag team partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan in a cross-promotional double title match. The match had
9472-468: 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
9600-540: 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
9728-1057: The dojo. Kojima entered the NJPW Dojo in February 1991. He debuted as a wrestler on his 21st birthday in a match against future tag team partner Hiroyoshi Yamamoto (later to be known as Hiroyoshi Tenzan). In 1994 he defeated Manabu Nakanishi in the Young Lions Cup finals, winning the tournament. In the end of that year he went to Europe, including a spell in Orig Williams ' British Wrestling Federation as face-painted Suzuki Karimoto (including appearances on Williams 's Welsh language TV wrestling show on S4C , Reslo and for Brian Dixon's All Star Wrestling as heel Mean Machine, and returned to NJPW in January 1996. When he returned, he formed The Bull Powers with Nakanishi, who had returned from WCW. In May 1997 he defeated Riki Choshu and Kensuke Sasaki with Nakanishi to become an IWGP Tag Team Champion for
9856-405: 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
9984-564: The event, Kojima lost to Doering. On the June 24 episode of Impact! , he teamed up with Eddie Edwards to face VBD members Doering and Deaner for the Impact World Tag Team Championship , but failed to win. The following week on Impact! , he teamed up with Jake Something to defeat Brian Myers and Sam Beale, in what would be his final match in the company. On the August 25, 2021, episode of Dynamite , Jon Moxley announced
10112-454: The event, Kojima lost. Kojima then began a feud with Will Ospreay culminating in a No Disqualification Match at The New Beginning in Nagoya , where Ospreay would defeat Kojima. Kojima entered the 2021 New Japan Cup , but was eliminated in the first round by Jeff Cobb . On June 28, 2017, Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) announced that Kojima would be making his debut for
10240-597: 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
10368-435: The final day of the tournament earned Kojima a shot at the title. The title match between the two took place on September 29 at Destruction and saw Okada retain his title. Following the match, Kojima was sidelined with a dislocated shoulder and was expected to miss two months of in-ring action. Kojima returned to the ring on November 9 at Power Struggle , where he and Tenzan lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship back to K.E.S. in
10496-565: The finish, which was designed to look like a "mistake", having agreed with AJPW that it would be better if Kojima won the match, but not wanting the match to end in a standard pinfall or submission. On May 14, 2005, Tenzan won the IWGP title back, but not the Triple Crown. Upon joining AJPW, Kojima began to use the Great Koji (copying The Great Muta) and Great Kosuke (copying The Great Sasuke ) personas for special matches. On July 3, 2006, Kojima lost
10624-470: 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
10752-510: The first time. At the end of 1998 he joined nWo Japan , by Keiji Mutoh 's leadership. Kojima and Tenzan (known together as Tencozy , a portmanteau of their last names) formed a tag team and ended up holding the IWGP Tag Team title together twice. On September 26, 2002, Kojima defeated Jerry Lynn to win the vacant MLW World Heavyweight Championship in New York. Kojima successfully defended
10880-610: 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
11008-455: 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
11136-476: The greatest Japanese professional wrestlers of the 21st century and of all-time, he was the first wrestler to hold NJPW's IWGP Heavyweight Championship and AJPW's Triple Crown Championship simultaneously, the fourth to win the three major heavyweight championships in Japan with the Triple Crown Heavyweight, IWGP Heavyweight, and Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship , and one of three wrestlers to hold
11264-614: The group's co-leader along with TARU . Soon after joining, Kojima and TARU won the World Tag Team Championship from Toshiaki Kawada and Taiyō Kea. Kojima left the group in 2008 after returning from injury to side with his sworn friend Hiroyoshi Tenzan and to feud with the alliance of Great Bash Heel (Tenzan's former group) and the VooDoo Murders. In 2008, Tenzan and Kojima became the first tag team to ever win G1 Tag League and World's Strongest Tag Determination League in
11392-453: The group. Kojima received his rematch for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on February 20 at The New Beginning , but was again defeated by Tanahashi. After Kojima was defeated by Togi Makabe on May 3, Taichi and Taka Michinoku turned on him and named the returning Minoru Suzuki as their new leader, while Kojima himself formed a new partnership with Makabe and MVP, who left the stable after Suzuki took over. On July 18, Suzuki defeated Kojima in
11520-513: 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
11648-492: 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
11776-471: 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
11904-487: 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
12032-466: The latter, a few wrestlers such as Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki , dissatisfied with Fujiwara's turn to lucha libre -inspired style and lack of focus in fighting skills, founded Pancrase in 1993, a company which used shoot-wrestling rules but promoted real unscripted fights. The multiple successors and organizations inspired by the UWF range from professional wrestling, to MMA and even standalone martial arts styles, they are collectively known as
12160-447: The match with Tenzan. On September 19, it was announced that Kojima had signed a contract with New Japan to become an official member of the promotion's roster. Kojima then announced that he would make his return on October 10 at Destruction '11 and challenged former partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan to be his opponent that day. Kojima would end up defeating Tenzan in his return match. In the 2011 G1 Tag League , Kojima teamed with Togi Makabe as
12288-498: 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
12416-648: The new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. The following day, Tencozy unsuccessfully challenged The IronGodz for the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Conway pinning Kojima following a low blow. On February 9 at The New Beginning in Hiroshima , Kojima made his first successful defense of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Big Daddy Yum-Yum. Two days later at The New Beginning in Osaka , Tencozy defeated Yum-Yum and Michael Tarver to earn another shot at
12544-512: 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
12672-595: The promotion in the 2017 International Gran Prix . He was eliminated from the torneo cibernetico on September 1 by Último Guerrero . Kojima also took part in an event held by the Lucha Memes promotion on September 3, losing to Hechicero . On May 24, 2024 he returned to the CMLL as part of the CozyMAX (Okumura) tag team, they lost against Los Depredadores (Magia Blanca & Rugido). On May 28, 2024 they made their first defense of
12800-714: 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
12928-439: 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
13056-504: The renowned catch wrestler Billy Riley in Wigan . The gym was the centre of learning submission wrestling as practiced in the mining town of Wigan, popularly known as catch-as-catch-can wrestling. It was here that Karl Gotch honed his catch wrestling skills. Karl Gotch also travelled to India to practice the wrestling form of Pehlwani ; later on he would propagate the exercises using the "Hindu mace" (large clubs) and would go on to incorporate
13184-459: The same year. He and Tenzan are also former NWA World Tag Team Champions . Between the NWA, AJPW, NJPW, and Noah, Kojima has held 20 total championships. Like many Japanese wrestlers, Kojima has a background in judo, but he chose not to continue the sport when he went to college. He got his start loading trucks for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and after some months of persuasion finally convinced head trainer Animal Hamaguchi to accept him into
13312-562: The same year. Later he started his 1st stable named F4 ( F riend F ight F an and F uture) with young proteges YAMATO and KAI . A 4th member in Zodiac joined later in 2009. On September 26, 2009, a few days after his 39th birthday Kojima lifted the All-Japan Triple Crown off of Yoshihiro Takayama , returning the titles to All-Japan and winning them for the 2nd time. He lost the title on March 21, 2010, to Ryota Hama . Kojima's AJPW page
13440-466: The sport's later stages. Karl Gotch is one of the most important figures in the development of shoot wrestling. Karl Gotch would begin his journey into wrestling in the German and North American professional wrestling circuits, where Gotch found moderate success. However, it was in his tours of Japan that the early formations of shoot wrestling took place. Gotch was a student of the " Snake Pit " gym, run by
13568-440: 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
13696-456: The strongest fighting disciplines. Inoki would go on to teach these fighting techniques to a new generation of wrestlers in the dojo of his professional wrestling promotion, New Japan Pro-Wrestling . These matches eventually culminated into the Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki . While the previous matches were predetermined, Ali and Inoki could not agree on the terms of the match and it turned into
13824-573: The styles of mixed martial arts done in the Shooto , Pancrase and RINGS promotions. Organizations, promotions and gyms with origins in shoot wrestling are referred as the " U-Kei ". Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Historically, shoot wrestling has been influenced by many martial arts, most influential of them being catch wrestling , but also freestyle wrestling , Greco-Roman wrestling , and then sambo , karate , Muay Thai and judo in
13952-426: 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,
14080-420: The theatrical elements and acrobatics, looking more similar to an actual, unscripted fight. The name "shoot wrestling" comes from the professional wrestling term " shoot ", which refers to any unscripted occurrence within a scripted wrestling event. The first wave of shoot wrestlers were students of Antonio Inoki and Karl Gotch from New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), two wrestlers which already were advocates of
14208-472: The title back to Rob Conway on June 2 in Las Vegas . Upon his return to Japan, Kojima and Tenzan successfully defended the NWA World Tag Team Championship against K.E.S. on June 21 at Dominion 6.21 . After four successful title defenses, they lost the title to K.E.S. in a rematch on October 13 at King of Pro-Wrestling . The following month, Tencozy took part in the 2014 World Tag League , where they finished with
14336-550: The title five times in both MLW and All Japan Pro Wrestling . Kojima held the championship for a then record 267 days, before losing the title to Mike Awesome on June 20, 2003. In January 2002, in opposition to Antonio Inoki focusing the IWGP title on unreliable shoot style wrestlers such as Kazuyuki Fujita and Tadao Yasuda , as well as Inoki debuting his controversial "Inokiism" era where NJPW relied heavily on MMA shoot match crossovers, Kojima left NJPW with his mentor Keiji Mutoh , and joined All Japan Pro Wrestling where he
14464-572: The tournament. On December 2, Tencozy was eliminated from the tournament in their semi-final match by Sword & Guns (Hirooki Goto and Karl Anderson). On December 9, Kojima made a rare appearance for Pro Wrestling Noah , unsuccessfully challenging Takeshi Morishima for the GHC Heavyweight Championship . On April 7, 2013, Kojima unsuccessfully challenged visiting Rob Conway for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at New Japan's Invasion Attack event. On May 3, Tencozy regained
14592-505: 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
14720-471: 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
14848-448: The vacant title. They lost the title to Los Ingobernables de Japón ( Bushi , Evil and Sanada ) in a four-team gauntlet match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2017. On March 6, Tencozy defeated Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the sixth time. They lost the title to War Machine ( Hanson and Raymond Rowe ) on April 9 at Sakura Genesis 2017 . On August 27, 2017, Kojima made
14976-405: 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
15104-535: 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
15232-420: 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
15360-425: 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
15488-488: 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
15616-559: Was dissatisfied with the UWF's internal politics and decided to follow his dream of founding his own martial art discipline. He combined his knowledge of shoot wrestling and other martial arts to create a legitimate fighting style which he later named " Shooto ", holding the first amateur event in 1986 and first professional event in 1989. Nobuhiko Takada and his supporters went to found UWF International , Akira Maeda founded Fighting Network RINGS while Yoshiaki Fujiwara went to found Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi ("Fujiwara family"), in
15744-590: Was finally able to receive the push of a top star. One of Kojima's early feuds in AJPW was against "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Mike Barton (Bart Gunn) , who as AJPW loyalists didn't take kindly to Kojima's and Muto's "invasion" of the company. Kojima also fought against Genichiro Tenryu at this time, who would also become an AJPW loyalist. In promos throughout 2002, Steve Williams often mentioned Satoshi Kojima as someone he would like to beat. Kojima and Williams would cross paths multiple times in tag-team matches, where on
15872-719: Was particularly inspired and influenced by catch wrestling , a form of wrestling with submissions that was the predominant style of professional wrestling in the 19th and early 20th century, at the time a competitive sport and not yet predetermined. Shoot wrestling originated in Japan's professional wrestling circuit ( puroresu ) of the 1970s, particularly stemming from the influence of wrestlers Karl Gotch , Lou Thesz and Billy Robinson , all who had an enduring popularity in Japan due to their serious submission wrestling style. Professional wrestlers of that era attempted to use more realistic or even "full contact" moves in their matches to increase their excitement, diminishing or eschewing
16000-636: 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
16128-415: 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
16256-501: Was taken down soon before he agreed to compete in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's 20th annual G1 Climax . It is reported that he was plagued with an arm injury that required surgery and needed time off to heal. AJPW then refused to discuss re-signing Kojima until he was healthy. It has been reported Kojima was not pleased with this and began entertaining other possibilities. Kojima returned to New Japan in August 2010 to take part in
16384-417: 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
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