Misplaced Pages

#951048

130-610: The promotion shares its name with a series of professional wrestling events run by AJPW, K-1 and Pride Fighting Championships in the first half of the 2000s, but it is not considered a direct continuation of that project. On April 1, 2020, Wrestle-1 ceased operations. On November 1, 2012, IT company Speed Partners bought 100% of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) shares from main shareholder Keiji Mutoh and his business partners for ¥ 200 million. In late May 2013, Speed Partners president Nobuo Shiraishi fired AJPW president, Mutoh's longtime right-hand man Masayuki Uchida, and took over as

260-459: A gi top, gi pants, wrestling shoes, kneepads, elbow pads, or ankle supports, and masks at their own discretion, though each was checked by the referee before the fight. Matches could be won via: Pride Fighting Championships considered the following to be fouls: In the event that a fighter was injured by illegal actions, then at the discretion of the referee and ring doctor, the round would attempt to be resumed after enough time had been given to

390-444: A match against boxing world-champion Muhammad Ali , since neither fighter could agree on who would be the loser, the match evolved into a shoot (i.e. real) fight between the two contestants, eventually resulting in a draw. The match against Muhammad Ali, as well the other heterogeneous style bouts inspired a lot of Inoki's students. They left NJPW and founded a new company named Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), which promoted

520-556: A "true" world championship that would be recognized on three continents. On August 9, Mutoh revealed the promotion's official logo and a partial card for the inaugural event. Also announced was a sponsorship deal with the Ezaki Glico confectionery company, with its sales department and product manager Hiroki Kuwabara signed to Wrestle-1 as a conditioning coach . Wrestle-1 Hataage Sen ( WRESTLE-1旗揚げ戦 , Wrestle-1 Hataage Sen , literally translated "Wrestle-1 Raising an Army Competition")

650-637: A 30-minute preview show, live on its channels. On July 30, Mutoh met with Jeff Jarrett in Nashville, Tennessee , United States to discuss a possible working relationship between Wrestle-1 and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Jarrett was later announced as a participant in Wrestle-1's October 6 event. Mutoh later also revealed that he wanted to form partnerships with promotions in Europe and Mexico, specifically mentioning Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA), and create

780-545: A PPV service for its ExpressVu television provider known as Vu! in 1999. Home Theatre was later acquired by Shaw Communications ; after gaining permission to operate nationally, it re-branded as a white-label PPV known internally as Shaw PPV in December 2007. In 2014, due to Bell Media 's majority ownership of Viewers Choice because of its acquisition of Astral, and because both Bell and Rogers now ran their own in-house PPV operations (Vu! and Sportsnet PPV ), Viewers Choice

910-417: A cap on what we can make. But the promoters and fighters insist on pay-per-view because that's where their greatest profits lie." "It's a big problem," Greenburg continues. "It's getting harder and harder to put fighters like Manny Pacquiao on HBO World Championship Boxing. If Floyd Mayweather beats Oscar, he might never fight on HBO World Championship Boxing again. But if HBO stopped doing pay-per-view,

1040-522: A contract to officially become part of the promotion's roster effective October 1. On October 6, Wrestle-1 held its first event in Korakuen Hall in front of a sold-out crowd of 1,750. On October 18, Mutoh announced his semi-retirement from in-ring action, saying that in the future he would be concentrating on running Wrestle-1. The following month saw the continuation of a working relationship between Wrestle-1 and TNA, with A.J. Styles coming in to defend

1170-720: A deal to acquire all assets of Pride Fighting Championships from Dream Stage Entertainment after Pride 34: Kamikaze in a deal reportedly worth USD$ 65 million, though the figure was not publicly disclosed. Managing the assets under the newly created Pride FC Worldwide Holdings, LLC, including their video library and the contracts of the fighters currently on the Pride roster, the new management company had originally planned to continue to promote Pride events in Japan and keep to its previously announced schedule. Lorenzo Fertitta announced they planned to operate Pride separately from Zuffa's two MMA brands,

1300-468: A gross revenue of $ 222 million. In October 2016, it was reported that 42% of the UFC's "content revenue" in 2015 came from pay-per-view buys, followed by U.S. and international media rights. In 2018, UFC 229 would pull an all-time record for the promotion, with estimates indicating that the event attracted nearly 2.4 million buys, breaking the 1.65 million buy record set by UFC 202 . In March 2019, as part of

1430-401: A joint venture of Astral Media , Rogers Communications , and TSN . Western International Communications operated a separate service in the west initially known as Home Theatre; it was later rebranded as Viewers Choice under license. Viewers Choice Canada was a partner in a French-language PPV service known as Canal Indigo , which is now entirely owned by Videotron . Bell Canada launched

SECTION 10

#1732880510952

1560-478: A larger contract with ESPN for media rights in the United States, it was announced that future UFC pay-per-views will only be sold to subscribers of the network's streaming service ESPN+ . Professional wrestling has a long history of running pay-per-view events. WWE (then WWF) launched its first pay-per-view event in 1985 with its annual flagship event WrestleMania and has run numerous others throughout

1690-561: A middleweight in 2005, and an openweight in 2006. In 2006 DSE announced it would showcase Pride alongside the Ultimate Fighting Championship, North America's largest MMA event, and would be integrating their fighters, including Wanderlei Silva and Kazuyuki Fujita , at a UFC MMA show in November. However, Dana White , speaking on behalf of Zuffa then commented that the announced bout between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva

1820-481: A new project named "Wrestling Camp", headed by Kaz Hayashi and former wrestler American Balloon, with the goal of recruiting more foreign wrestlers for the promotion. On March 30, 2016, Wrestle-1 held a show to celebrate the conclusion of the first term of the Puroresu Sōgō Gakuin, while also announcing the graduation of Hana Kimura , Jun Tonsho, Reika Saiki and Seigo Tachibana. With two women graduating from

1950-580: A non-scripted shoot wrestling promotion, Vale Tudo Japan , a Vale Tudo tournament organized in 1994 by Satoru Sayama based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Brazilian Vale Tudo and Kingdom , founded in 1997 as a successor to the UWFi. Pride was also influenced by the wild rise of K-1 , a kickboxing promotion founded in 1993 which became very popular in Japan for its huge and action-packed tournaments. Pride Fighting Championships

2080-562: A press conference, where it was announced that the two sides had decided to amicably part ways when Sanada's contract with the promotion would expire two days later, so he could continue working in the United States full-time as a freelancer. Later that month, it was announced that Wrestle-1 would be teaming up with American Pro Wrestling Alliance (APWA) to hold their first tour of the United States, holding five shows in Pennsylvania , West Virginia , North Carolina and Georgia , including one at

2210-471: A realistic style of pro-wrestling that eschewed the most theatrical elements of wrestling and resembled closer to an actual fight, but it was still predetermined. This style would become known as " Shoot Wrestling ". The UWF closed in 1990 and was succeeded in 1991 by the UWFi , which became one of the top professional wrestling promotions in Japan, as their brand of shoot wrestling proved to be exceedingly popular with

2340-414: A series of events entitled "Bushido". With the focus on lighter combatants, two weight classes, lightweight and welterweight, were formed at 73 and 83 kg respectively. After Pride Bushido 13, it was announced that the series would end and these weight classes would transfer to main Pride shows. In 2005, Pride Bushido staged welterweight and lightweight Grands Prix. Two eight-man brackets were set up and

2470-463: A single-elimination tournament featuring 21 participants and taking place between August 2 and 30. The tournament was billed as the Wrestle-1 equivalent of New Japan Pro-Wrestling 's G1 Climax . On August 3, Wrestle-1 announced the establishment of Puroresu Sōgō Gakuin ("Pro wrestling comprehensive school "), where Akira, Hiroshi Yamato, Kaz Hayashi, Shuji Kondo and Yasufumi Nakanoue would train both men and women in six-month-long terms. Graduates from

2600-933: A streaming service. Per nations with Pay-Per-View or PPV system in South América: In Argentina , Torneos y Competencias is a producer and sports events organization that are broadcasts live main matches of Argentine Soccer in four categories on TyC Sports , TyC Max (six channels), TyC Sports 2, TyC Sports 4 and TyC Sports 5. In Brazil , in the soccer main matches of Serie A (Six games per matchday) and Serie B (Four games per matchday) in two categories of Brazilian Soccer are broadcast live on Premiere FC and SporTV . The Serie C Championship are broadcast live on SporTV with two games per matchday in Pay TV. In other sports are broadcast live on NBB TV (Exclusive channel of Brazilian Basketball League in Premium system). In Chile ,

2730-413: A success that Viacom themed its annual report for that year around it. Viacom marketing director Pat Thompson put together the fight, and subsequently put together additional PPV fights, wrestling matches, and even a televised Broadway play. After leaving Viacom, Thompson became head of Sports View and produced the first pay-per-view football game on October 16, 1983: a college football game between

SECTION 20

#1732880510952

2860-552: A television broadcast signal. The field tests conducted for Phonevision lasted for 90 days and were tested in Chicago , Illinois . The system used IBM punch cards to descramble a signal broadcast during the broadcast station's " off-time ". Both systems showed promise, but the Federal Communications Commission denied them the permits to operate. Telemeter , an experimental coin-operated pay-per-view service, had

2990-663: A trial run in Los Angeles in 1952 and Palm Springs, California from 1953 to 1954, featuring first-run movies and live sporting events, until a lawsuit from a local drive-in and other issues forced it to shut down. The service then set up an experimental run in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke , Canada in 1959, free from American antitrust laws and outside of the FCC 's juridiction. Programming initially consisted essentially of first-run movies and fictional series. In 1961, Telemeter signed deals with

3120-614: A women's match, featuring wrestlers such as Ryo Mizunami and Shuu Shibutani from Pro Wrestling Wave , Koharu Hinata, Makoto and Syuri from Wrestling New Classic , Hikaru Shida , Maki Narumiya , Risa Sera and Tsukasa Fujimoto from Ice Ribbon , and freelancers Akino and Hiroyo Matsumoto . Wrestle-1 sought to introduce an "openweight division", where its wrestlers would not be typecast as heavyweights or junior heavyweights , like in most Japanese promotions, but would be able to interact with each other across weight limits. On September 24, Wrestle-1 announced that Seiya Sanada had signed

3250-421: Is Kenda Perez . Pride Fighting Championships released two licensed video games during its time in business, as well as being featured in an Ultimate Fighting Championship game in 2012. Pride's rules differed between main Pride events and Bushido events. It was announced on November 29, 2006, that Bushido events would be discontinued. Pride matches consisted of three rounds; the first lasted ten minutes and

3380-497: Is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guide , an automated telephone system, or through a live customer service representative . There has been an increasing number of pay-per-views distributed via streaming video online, either alongside or in lieu of carriage through television providers. In 2012,

3510-775: Is broadcasting martial arts events organized by the world's most prominent fighting organizations, such as the UFC , K-1 , HBO Boxing , Dream, Glory WS, World Series of Boxing etc. and its pay-per-view service covers the Balkans region. Sky Deutschland , accessible in Germany, Austria and partially in Switzerland, provided nine PPV-Channels called "Sky Select", where their regular Pay-TV customers can see movies or various sports events such as boxing or soccer. As of 1. October 2020 only sport and wrestling events remained on PPV as movies were changed towards

3640-491: Is now considered to be their first openweight grand prix. Held across two events, Pride Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round featured first round bouts and Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals featured the quarter-finals, semi finals and final. The concept was brought back in 2003, with a middleweight grand prix. Held across two cards, Pride Total Elimination 2003 featured the first round of the Grand Prix and Final Conflict 2003 featured

3770-968: The Mixed Martial Arts Unified Rules of Combat , as introduced by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, and adopted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in order to receive state sanctioning. Pride's rules differed from the Unified Rules of Combat in the following ways: At the announcement on March 27, 2007, that the Fertittas were purchasing Pride, it was stated that all future Pride events (after Pride 34) would be held under unified rules, eliminating 10-minute opening rounds, ground knees, stomps and more, though there were no more Pride events held to use these rules. Events typically begin with

3900-593: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom , which prevented any attendance of the matches). However, the matches proved unpopular, with team supporters' groups urging fans to make donations to charity instead, and the Premier League announcing that it would allocate the extra matches among its existing rightsholders (TNT and Sky, as well as Amazon Prime Video and BBC Sport , with some on free-to-air TV) through at least

4030-519: The Grand Prix tournaments—and fighters would often matched with opponents from wildly different weights. Including the frequent promotion of "technique vs size" freakshow fights . Pride also had the Grand Prix , one-night single-elimination tournaments with multiple fighters. The PRIDE ruleset was also more permissive then the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts , permitting soccer kicks , stomps and knees to downed opponents, body slams directly in

Wrestle-1 - Misplaced Pages Continue

4160-547: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Seiya Sanada on November 16 and Jay Bradley and Rob Terry working the entire tour from November 16 to December 1. Meanwhile, Andy Wu also made his return from his seven-month Mexican excursion, making his debut for his new home promotion on November 16. During the event, Wrestle-1 announced its first ever event at Ryōgoku Kokugikan, set to take place on March 2, 2014. Mutoh later announced that this would mark only

4290-558: The Thomas & Mack Center in Paradise, Nevada , and was the first Pride event to be held outside Japan. On June 5, 2006, the Fuji Network announced that they were terminating their television contract with Pride Fighting Championships effective immediately due to a breach of contract by DSE. This left Pride with only SKY PerfecTV , a pay-per-view carrier, as a television outlet in Japan, and

4420-566: The Toronto Argonauts football team and the Toronto Maple Leafs to broadcast away games; wrestling was also featured. Some original programming, such as a 1962 Bob Newhart stand-up comedy special, thought to be the first filmed pay-per-view television special were produced at Telemeter's Bloor Street studio and several Broadway shows and an opera performance were also broadcast. At its peak, 5,800 households were subscribed but

4550-515: The University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama from Birmingham , Alabama . Sports View played a role in building pay-per-view networks, and became the early pioneer in developing TigerVision for Louisiana State University , TideVision for Alabama and UT Vol Seat for Tennessee. Sports View also produced the Ohio State - Michigan football game for pay-per-view in November 1983. In 1985,

4680-474: The domain name payperview.com, which redirects to the WWE Network website. With the rise of direct broadcast satellite services in the 1990s, this meant more services exclusively for DBS users appeared. DirecTV had Direct Ticket (which, in addition to movies and special events, also included PPV sports packages, most notably NFL Sunday Ticket ), while Dish Network had Dish On Demand . PrimeStar , on

4810-399: The theme music entitled PRIDE , composed by Yasuharu Takanashi , with each fight ending with the music entitled Victory , also composed by Takanashi. In addition to their main, "numbered" events, Pride have staged other series of events for different purposes. The Pride GP (Grand Prix) is the name of a series of tournaments held by Pride. In addition to a money prize, a championship belt

4940-460: The "Wrestle-1 Alliance", a promotional partnership with multiple U.S.-based wrestling companies. On February 29, 2020, Wrestle-1 announced that they would be holding their final event on April 1, with all members of the roster being released from their contracts the day prior. In the last card, on April 1 (with no attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic ), Manabu Soya won a 30-man battle royal, last eliminating Akira . Keiji Muto participated in

5070-411: The "world's best fighter". The tournament was held over the course of two events, with sixteen fighters competing in an opening round and the eight winners returning three months later for the final round . The second round of the tournament marked the first time Pride was broadcast in the United States and featured American fighter Mark Coleman winning the tournament by defeating Igor Vovchanchyn in

5200-608: The 1960s and 1970s, with " The Rumble in the Jungle " fight drawing 50   million buys worldwide in 1974, and the " Thrilla in Manila " drawing 100   million buys worldwide in 1975. Closed-circuit television was gradually replaced by pay-per-view home television in the 1980s and 1990s. The Zenith Phonevision system became the first home pay-per-view system to be tested in the United States. Developed in 1951, it used telephone lines to take and receive orders, as well as to descramble

5330-498: The 325,000–450,000 range. Pay-per-view fights in that range almost always generate more money for the promoter and fighters than HBO wants to pay for an HBO World Championship Boxing license-fee. In May 2007, the junior middleweight boxing match between Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. on HBO PPV became the biggest-selling non-heavyweight title fight, with a little more than 2.5 million buyers. The fight itself generated roughly $ 139 million in domestic PPV revenue, making it

Wrestle-1 - Misplaced Pages Continue

5460-609: The EWP title from Leon Van Gasteren, Masakatsu Funaki the Zero1 title from Kohei Sato and Seiki Yoshioka the ASW title from Dean Allmark . The following day, Seiya Sanada announced he had agreed to a contract with TNA, which meant that he would continue to spend most of his time in the United States, occasionally returning to take part in Wrestle-1's larger events. Sanada remained with TNA until April 2015. Meanwhile, Seiki Yoshioka left for an extended tour of

5590-504: The Japanese public. The main attraction and most popular star of the UWFi was Nobuhiko Takada . The other precursors of Pride were the Japanese mixed martial arts competitions and shoot style pro wrestling promotions Shooto , a self-styled hybrid martial art organization founded in 1985 by former shoot wrestler "Tiger Mask" Satoru Sayama , Pancrase founded in 1993 by wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki attempting to create

5720-559: The Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite , held in August 2002, as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003 . With its origins in Japanese professional wrestling , PRIDE was known for its focus on spectacle and entertainment. Events were proceeded with opening ceremonies and fighters had elaborate entrances. There was no formal weight classes—except for championship belt bouts and

5850-602: The Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997, and organised by Hiromichi Momose, Naoto Morishita and Nobuyuki Sakakibara from KRS (Kakutougi Revolutionary Spirits) promotion, attracted 47,000 fans, as well as Japanese mass media attention. The success of the first event enabled its promoters to hold a regular series of mixed martial arts events, and a year later in 1998, to promote a rematch between Takada and Gracie. With K-1 enjoying popularity in Japan, Pride began to compete with monthly showings on Fuji Television , as well as pay per view on

5980-777: The UFC and WEC , planned on having occasional crossover shows and matches, pitting fighters from Pride against fighters "from the UFC," using the metaphor of the AFL-NFL merger to compare the situation. Subsequent remarks by Zuffa spokesperson Dana White however cast doubt as to what the new owners would actually do with Pride. After the sale officially closed on May 25, 2007, White remarked that he planned on bringing Pride's biggest names into UFC competition instead of keeping them in Pride and that they were still deciding on what to do with Pride itself. In later comments made in August 2007, White expressed doubt that Zuffa can resurrect Pride in Japan, claiming, "I've [ or , we ] pulled everything out of

6110-564: The United Kingdom with ASW, during which he lost the British Light Heavyweight Championship back to Allmark. On July 21, Wrestle-1 announced the creation of its first own title, the Wrestle-1 Championship , with the inaugural champion being determined in a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament taking place between September 21 and October 8. On August 8, Wrestle-1 announced that Manabu Soya had signed with

6240-486: The brand name "Wrestle-1 Starting Point", which were intended to showcase the promotion's younger wrestlers. On March 6, Minoru Tanaka won the tournament to become the inaugural Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Champion. Also in May, it was reported that the relationship between Wrestle-1 and TNA had come to an end. Seiya Sanada remained in the United States, working on the local independent circuit . In March 2015, Wrestle-1's management

6370-582: The cable industry adopted satellite technology and as flat-rate pay television services such as Home Box Office ( HBO ) became popular. While most pay-per-view services were delivered via cable, there were a few over-the-air pay TV stations that offered pay-per-view broadcasts in addition to regularly scheduled broadcasts of movies and other entertainment. These stations, which operated for a few years in Chicago, Los Angeles and some other cities, broadcast "scrambled" signals that required descrambler devices to convert

6500-497: The channel DigiGold. In France , launched in the late 1990s, Canalsat (Ciné+) and TPS (Multivision) operate their own pay-per-view service. While CanalSat holds the rights to live soccer matches for France's Ligue 1, TPS had the rights for Boxe matches. In 2007, Multivision service ceased by the end of TPS service which merged with Canalsat. Nowadays, Ciné+ is the only existing pay-per-view service in France. In Croatia , Fight Channel

6630-419: The class, Keiji Mutoh teased the possibility of starting a women's division in Wrestle-1. On May 4, AJPW president Jun Akiyama made a surprise appearance for Wrestle-1, facing off with Keiji Mutoh with the two agreeing to a tag team match against each other on August 11. On June 28, Wrestle-1 announced that Akira, Minoru Tanaka, Ryota Hama, Tajiri and Yasufumi Nakanoue would all be leaving the promotion following

SECTION 50

#1732880510952

6760-505: The creation of the Wrestle-1 Tag League in the fall and Wrestle-1 Cruiser Festival in the winter. On September 2, Sanshiro Takagi resigned from his advisory role in Wrestle-1. It was stated that the company would continue to have a friendly relationship with Takagi's DDT promotion. On January 17, 2018, Wrestle-1 established a working relationship with Booker T 's Reality of Wrestling (ROW) promotion. In 2019, Wrestle-1 established

6890-618: The debut of another former AJPW worker, Taiyō Kea . The following day, it was announced that Sanada would be leaving Wrestle-1 to work for TNA indefinitely. Also in March, Wrestle-1 relocated their offices from Minami-Azabu, Minato, Tokyo to Hyakunincho, Shinjuku, Tokyo to their own four-story building called "GEN Sports Palace", which also includes the promotion's dojo. In April, Wrestle-1 established two more international relationships with British promotion All Star Wrestling (ASW) and German promotion European Wrestling Promotion (EWP). As part of

7020-503: The defunct Pride organization. Pride has its roots on Japanese Professional wrestling ( Puroresu ). In the 1970s, Antonio Inoki rose to pronominance in Japan by founding New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and introducing his own style of wrestling he dubbed "Strong-style", derived from training in Karate and Catch-As-Catch-Can , an earlier style of legit Professional wrestling and submission grappling , taught by Karl Gotch . This style

7150-684: The discontinuation of its Bushido events, with the intention of integrating the matches from lighter weight classes, mainly featured in Bushido, into regular Pride events. Pride also announced that future Grand Prix tournaments would take place on a four-year weight class cycle, with one Grand Prix per year. The first expected one, a lightweight Grand Prix, ended up being cancelled. On Tuesday, March 27, 2007, Pride executives Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Nobuhiko Takada announced that Station Casinos Inc. magnate Lorenzo Fertitta, co-owner of Zuffa and its subsidiary MMA production Ultimate Fighting Championship, had made

7280-518: The end of 2020, as it had done during the conclusion of the previous season. In Canada , most specialty television providers provide pay-per-view programming through one or more services. In all cases, prices typically range from around C$ 4.99 (for movies) up to $ 50 or more for special events. Initially, there were three major PPV providers in Canada; Viewers Choice operated in Eastern Canada as

7410-490: The event as a color commentator . Wrestle-1 began running regular tours right after Hataage Sen; the first tour ran until September 22 and the second from October 6 to 14. Many of the outsiders taking part in the inaugural event became regular members of the Wrestle-1 roster with the exception of Bob Sapp , Fujita Hayato , Katsuyori Shibata , Kazushi Sakuraba and Masaaki Mochizuki . Though Wrestle-1 also did not have regular female wrestlers on its roster, each event included

7540-458: The event, though Mutoh stated that TNA wrestlers would not be taking part in the event. The event aired in Japan on Gaora and internationally on internet pay-per-view (iPPV) through Niconico and Ustream . Tickets to the 2,500-seat arena were sold out the day they went on sale. Sports journalist Dave Meltzer wrote that this, coupled with AJPW's recent decline in attendance numbers, showed that "fans are taking Muto's [ sic ] group as

7670-459: The event. In fact, Duprée, who took part in the main event, was still officially AJPW's reigning Gaora TV Champion at the time of the event. Duprée returned the title belt to AJPW three days after the event. Bob Sapp , who had appeared in several of the old Wrestle-1 events, made an appearance in a tag team main event with Mutoh. Kenta Kobashi , who had the previous March announced that he would be joining AJPW following his retirement in May, worked

7800-781: The exclusive rights of Chilean Soccer are owned by TV Fútbol and broadcast live on a channel called Canal Del Fútbol ( The Soccer Channel ), also known CDF . Sports Field S.A. has exclusive rights to games on the Chilean professional basketball league, which are broadcast live vía CDO (Premium Signal). In Paraguay , the Teledeportes producer business have exclusive rights to broadcast live main matches of Paraguayan Soccer in four categories vía Tigo Max and Tigo Sports. Teledeportes have live broadcast of Paraguayan Basketball League broadcast Tuesday at 9:00 pm on Tigo Sports (K.O 21:15) and Wednesday at 8:55 pm on Tigo Max (K.O 21:10). In Uruguay ,

7930-407: The expansion of pay-per-view "the biggest economic issue in boxing", stating "I can't tell you that pay-per-view helps the sport because it doesn't. It hurts the sport because it narrows our audience, but it's a fact of life. Every time we try to make an HBO World Championship Boxing fight, we're up against mythical pay-per-view numbers. HBO doesn't make a lot of money from pay-per-view. There's usually

SECTION 60

#1732880510952

8060-591: The experiment was not a success and shut down operations on April 30, 1965 with only 2,500 subscribers. One of the earliest pay-per-view systems on cable television , the Optical Systems-developed Channel 100 , first began service in 1972 in San Diego , California through Mission Cable (which was later acquired by Cox Communications ) and TheaterVisioN, which operated out of Sarasota , Florida . These early systems quickly went out of business, as

8190-503: The expiration of his contract. On September 18, Wrestle-1 announced a new sub-promotion Pro-Wrestling A.C.E. (Academy, Challenge, Entertainment), which was made up of rookies from their wrestling school. On December 20, Kai announced he would be leaving Wrestle-1 and becoming a freelancer at the end of the year. On January 8, 2017, Wrestle-1 announced the creation of a new title, the Wrestle-1 Result Championship , meant for

8320-458: The expiration of their contracts two days later. On August 11, Wrestle-1 presented an interpromotional six-man tag team match, which saw AJPW president Jun Akiyama take on former AJPW president Keiji Mutoh. In the match, the AJPW trio of Akiyama, Naoya Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi was victorious over the Wrestle-1 trio of Mutoh, Koji Doi and Kumagoro. On August 31, Kazma Sakamoto also left Wrestle-1 following

8450-476: The fight. A major pay-per-view event occurred on September 16, 1981, when Sugar Ray Leonard fought Thomas "Hitman" Hearns for the World Welterweight Championship . Viacom Cablevision in Nashville , Tennessee – the first system to offer the event – saw over 50 percent of its subscriber base purchase the fight. Leonard visited Nashville to promote the fight, and the event proved such

8580-407: The fighter to recover. Once the fight started again the fighters would be placed in the exact position when the referee called the time out. If the match could not be continued due to the severity of the injury then the fighter who perpetrated the action was disqualified. Pride made special provisions for fights between fighters of different weight classes or fighters with a large weight difference in

8710-524: The final round. Pride would gain a fervent fanbase in the US, boosted by a highlights deal with Fox Sports Networks and regular DVD releases of Pride shows including older cards that were not initially screened outside of Japan. English-language commentary for Pride was provided by Stephen Quadros or Mauro Ranallo , with Bas Rutten or Frank Trigg providing analysis. In August 2002, Pride teamed up with Japan's leading kickboxing and fight promotion, K-1, and held

8840-546: The finals of the sixteen-man tournament to become the inaugural Wrestle-1 Champion. The relationship between Wrestle-1 and TNA continued on October 12 with eleven Wrestle-1 wrestlers taking part in TNA's Bound for Glory event in Korakuen Hall. On November 1, Wrestle-1 held an event at Ryōgoku Kokugikan celebrating Keiji Mutoh's 30th anniversary in professional wrestling. The main event of the show saw Mutoh defeat Masayuki Kono to become

8970-463: The first lasting ten minutes and the second lasting five. Intermissions between each round remained two minutes long. Pride used a five-roped square ring with sides 7 m in length (approximately 23 ft). The same was used at Pride: Bushido events. Pride allowed fighters latitude in their choice of attire, but open finger gloves, a mouthguard and a protective cup were mandatory. Fighters were allowed to use tape on parts of their body or to wear

9100-406: The first of four events Wrestle-1 intended to run at Ryōgoku Kokugikan in 2014. On January 12, 2014, Manabu Soya , who had resigned from AJPW the previous month, joined Wrestle-1 as a freelancer, taking the role of an on-screen matchmaker , while recovering from a recent shoulder surgery. On January 26, Wrestle-1 held its first tryout, which resulted in three men being accepted to begin training at

9230-501: The first pay-per-view boxing card held in Puerto Rico . Pay-per-view has provided a revenue stream for professional wrestling circuits such as WWE , Impact Wrestling , All Elite Wrestling (AEW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Ring of Honor (ROH) and Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA). WWE chairman and chief executive officer Vince McMahon is considered by many as one of the icons of pay-per-view promotion. McMahon owns

9360-406: The first pay-per-view cable channels in the United States – Viewer's Choice (now In Demand ), Cable Video Store , First Choice and Request TV – began operation within days of each other. Viewer's Choice serviced both home satellite dish and cable customers, while Request TV, though broadcasting to cable viewers, would not become available to satellite subscribers until the 1990s. First Choice PPV

9490-438: The former ECW Arena , between June 23 and 28. However, on June 19, the tour was canceled with APWA citing a sponsor pulling out due to miscommunication between the two promotions as the reason. That same day, Wrestle-1 announced that Masakatsu Funaki would be leaving the promotion following his contract expiring on June 30. Meanwhile, Tajiri would only work sporadic Wrestle-1 events from July onwards. On June 26, Wrestle-1 announced

9620-537: The head ("spiking"), and allowed more fighting outfits, including wrestling shoes and keikogis . Matches were done in a boxing-style roped ring and went for an opening ten minute round followed by two rounds of five minutes. In 2006, DSE started to have financial issues, as a scandal revealing ties between the company and yakuza resulted in the end of multiple lucrative contracts with Japanese broadcasters. In March 2007, DSE sold Pride to Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III , co-owners of Zuffa , which, at

9750-444: The inaugural 2000 Grand Prix, tournament dates with only one round would adhere to normal Pride or Pride Bushido rules. For tournament dates that held two rounds, a fight had a 10-minute first round, followed by a two-minute rest period for the fighters, and then a five-minute last round. The 2000 Finals held a 90-minute contest between Kazushi Sakuraba and Royce Gracie . Gracie had requested that there be no judging and no limit to

9880-546: The label suggests, Wrestle-1 is considered more entertainment based than the traditional AJPW. The press conference was also attended by Funaki, Hama, Hayashi, Kai, Kondo, Kono, Nakanoue, Tanaka and Yamato. Andy Wu would also join the promotion, once he returned from an excursion to Mexico , along with trainees Brian Ishizaka, Daiki Inaba and Seiki Yoshioka , ring announcer Makoto Abe and referees Daichi Murayama and Daisuke Kanbayashi. The promotion announced its inaugural event for September 8, 2013, at Tokyo Dome City Hall . At

10010-889: The late 1980s when companies such as Viewer's Choice, HBO and Showtime started using the system to show movies and some of their productions. Viewer's Choice carried movies, concerts and other events, with live sporting events such as WrestleMania being the most predominant programming. Prices ranged from $ 3.99 to $ 49.99, while HBO and Showtime, with their event production legs TVKO and SET Pay Per View, would offer championship boxing matches ranging from $ 14.99 to $ 54.99. ESPN later began to broadcast college football and basketball games on pay-per-view through its services ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court , which were eventually sold as full-time out-of-market sports packages . The boxing undercard Latin Fury , shown on June 28, 2003, became ESPN's first boxing card on pay-per-view and also

10140-668: The loss of the substantial revenues from the Fuji deal threatened its sustainability. Dream was surrounded by speculation in the Japanese media, especially in the Japanese tabloid Shukan Gendai , that it may be a front for the notorious yakuza crime organization. Dream responded to the loss by stating they will continue with their schedule as currently planned, including an event in Las Vegas, Pride 33: Second Coming which took place on February 24, 2007, Pride's second event outside Japan. In late 2006, DSE hinted at plans for Mike Tyson to fight in

10270-584: The match prior to the main event, teaming with Hayashi, Kono and Kondo in a losing effort against Ashino, Inaba, Doi and Kuma Arashi, but did not participate in the battle royal. Pride Fighting Championships PRIDE Fighting Championships ( Pride or Pride FC , founded as KRS-Pride ) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company . Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. PRIDE

10400-927: The most lucrative prizefight of that era. The record stood until 2015 before it was broken by Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao in a fight dubbed as the "Fight of the Century" on May 2, 2015, which generated 4.6 million ppv buys and a revenue of over $ 400 million. The leading PPV attraction, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has generated approximately 24 million buys and $ 1.6 billion in revenue. Manny Pacquiao , ranked second, has generated approximately 20.1 million buys and $ 1.2 billion in revenue. Oscar De La Hoya , has "sold" approximately 14 million units in total, giving $ 700 million in domestic television receipts and stands third. In fourth place in buys, Evander Holyfield has achieved 12.6 million units ($ 550 million); and at fifth, Mike Tyson has reached 12.4 million units ($ 545 million). Ross Greenburg, then president of HBO Sports, called

10530-404: The new "yellow card" system of purse deduction. Also in 2003, Pride returned to the tournament format, with a middleweight grand prix spanning two events, Pride Total Elimination 2003 and Final Conflict 2003 . The format was expanded to three events in 2004, adding Critical Countdown 2004 as the second round. Pride would go on to hold annual tournaments, a heavyweight tournament in 2004,

10660-541: The newly formed satellite television channel SKY PerfecTV . Following the fourth event, the series was taken over by the Dream Stage Entertainment , formed by the members of the dissolved KRS, and it was accordingly renamed as the Pride Fighting Championships, with Morishita as its first chairman. In 2000, Pride hosted the first Pride Grand Prix , a two-part openweight tournament held to find

10790-635: The number of pay-per-view boxing events significantly increase and currently all of the UK's top fights are only available via pay-per-view. Broadcasters (most notably PremPlus ) have abandoned their aspirations to introduce PPV into other sports markets following poor interest from the public. In October 2020 during the 2020-21 season , the Premier League experimented with PPV telecasts of football matches not selected for broadcasts by its main rightsholders (which are usually blacked out 3:00 p.m. kickoffs, amid

10920-553: The number of rounds. Sakuraba agreed to fight under these rules, and the contest went to a total of 90 minutes of fighting, after which Gracie's corner threw in the towel due to damage to Gracie's legs. Sakuraba advanced to the next round, fighting a fifteen-minute first round against eventual runner up Igor Vovchanchyn , after which Sakuraba's corner threw in the towel citing his exhaustion. With Pride's numbered shows and Grands Prix focused on heavier fighters, in October 2003, Pride started

11050-539: The organization's New Year's Eve show . Tyson was to face a Pride fighter under boxing rules. Since Tyson is not allowed to fight in Japan because of his criminal record, Pride wanted to stage the fight in an alternate country, possibly Macau, China . The fight would be broadcast live on large television screens in the Saitama Super Arena , where the regular mixed martial arts bouts were held. The fight did not occur, however. On November 29, 2006, Pride announced

11180-1014: The other hand, utilized pre-existing services like Viewer's Choice and Request TV (as it was owned by a number of major cable providers), though promotional material bannered all PPV services under the name of PrimeCinema . In 2006, HBO generated 3.7 million pay-per-view buys with $ 177 million in gross sales. The only year with more buys previously, 1999, had a total of 4 million. The former record fell in 2007 when HBO sold 4.8 million PPV buys with $ 255 million in sales. BY 2014, HBO had generated 59.3 million buys and $ 3.1 billion in revenue since its 1991 debut with Evander Holyfield-George Foreman. 1999 differed radically from 2006: 1999 saw four major fight cards: De La Hoya-Trinidad (1.4 million buys), Holyfield-Lewis I (1.2 million), Holyfield-Lewis II (850,000) and De La Hoya-Quartey (570,000). By contrast, only one pay-per-view mega-fight took place in 2006: De La Hoya-Mayorga (925,000 buys). Rahman-Maskaev bombed with under 50,000. The other eight PPV cards that year all fell in

11310-674: The popular video sharing platform YouTube began to allow partners to host live PPV events on the platform. Events distributed through PPV typically include boxing , mixed martial arts , professional wrestling , and concerts. In the past, PPV was often used to distribute telecasts of feature films, as well as adult content such as pornographic films , but the growth of digital cable and streaming media caused these uses to be subsumed by video on demand systems (which allow viewers to purchase and view pre-recorded content at any time) instead, leaving PPV to focus primarily on live event programs and combat sports. The earliest form of pay-per-view

11440-448: The press conference, Mutoh stated that Wrestle-1 was open to working with other promotions and that he was looking to use Taiwan as a stepping stone towards an Asian and eventually global expansion. Mutoh also stated that he was open to the idea of having a women's division in Wrestle-1. On July 26, the Gaora television station announced that it would broadcast the inaugural event, as well as

11570-477: The promoters would simply do it on their own [like Bob Arum did with Cotto-Malignaggi in June 2006] or find someone else who will do it for them." Former HBO Sports President Seth Abraham concurs, saying, "I think, if Lou (DiBella) and I were still at HBO, we'd be in the same pickle as far as the exodus of fights to pay-per-view is concerned." The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts promotion,

11700-656: The promotion following a June 30 event in Ryōgoku Kokugikan , which marked the official end of the eleven-year-long "Mutoh All Japan". On July 10, Mutoh held a press conference to announce the foundation of his new promotion, named "Wrestle-1". Mutoh got the name from a series of professional wrestling events that were produced by his AJPW, K-1 and Pride Fighting Championships between 2002 and 2005. Wrestle-1 continues Mutoh's brand of "Pro Wrestling Love", which he had launched after taking over AJPW in 2002. Mutoh dubbed Wrestle-1's style of puroresu "Fighting Entertainment". As

11830-526: The promotion's dojo the following April. On January 30 it was announced that the March 2 Ryōgoku Kokugikan event would feature a "Wrestle-1 vs. TNA" theme with thirteen wrestlers coming in to represent the American promotion in addition to Rob Terry, who had remained with Wrestle-1 since the past November. Jeff Jarrett, the original man behind the Wrestle-1-TNA relationship, had since parted ways with TNA and now

11960-592: The promotion's new president himself effective June 1, which led to Mutoh resigning as the chairman of the board and leaving the promotion. For the next weeks, Mutoh attempted to buy back his shares of the promotion from Speed Partners, but eventually gave up the attempt before the end of the month. During the rest of June, Masakatsu Funaki , Kaz Hayashi , Shuji Kondo , Ryota Hama , Hiroshi Yamato , Masayuki Kono , Koji Kanemoto , Minoru Tanaka , Yasufumi Nakanoue , Kai , Seiya Sanada , and Andy Wu all announced their resignation from AJPW out of loyalty to Mutoh and left

12090-454: The promotion's younger wrestlers. On March 27, Wrestle-1 announced it was undergoing a change in management on April 1 with Keiji Mutoh moving on to the role of representative director, while Kaz Hayashi would become the new president. Also, Shuji Kondo takes over as the new executive vice president, while Sanshiro Takagi moves from being the CEO to the role of an advisor. On June 14, Wrestle-1 announced

12220-553: The promotion, ending his days as a freelancer. On September 22, Wrestle-1 announced the creation of the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship with the inaugural champions being determined in a round-robin tournament taking place between November 15 and 30. On September 25, Wrestle-1 and Pro Wrestling Zero1 announced that the two promotions would be coming together to hold three joint shows at Shinjuku Face between November 5 and 7. On October 8, Masayuki Kono defeated Kai in

12350-431: The quarter-finals and semi finals were held at Pride Bushido 9 , along with an alternate bout in each bracket. The finals were held at Pride Shockwave 2005 , with the winners subsequently being crowned as champions for their division. A sixteen-man welterweight grand prix was held in 2006. In 2002, Pride launched The Best , a series of shows featuring up-and-coming fighters, using an eight-sided roped ring. However, after

12480-463: The real future of All Japan rather than All Japan". The event featured outside participation from several freelancers as well as wrestlers from Big Japan Pro Wrestling , Dragon Gate , Michinoku Pro Wrestling , Pro Wrestling Zero1 and World Wonder Ring Stardom . Koji Kanemoto, René Duprée , Seiya Sanada and Zodiac , who were with AJPW prior to Mutoh's departure, but had not announced their affiliation with Wrestle-1, made surprise appearances during

12610-693: The relationship was handled by Bob Ryder and John Gaburick on the Americans' side. On March 2 at Kaisen: Outbreak , three TNA titles were defended as part of Wrestle-1's first Ryōgoku Kokugikan event. While Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo failed to capture the TNA World Tag Team Championship and Kai the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Seiya Sanada defeated Austin Aries to become the new TNA X Division Champion . The event also saw

12740-621: The relationship, EWP wrestlers Ecki Eckstein and Leon Van Gasteren worked a tour with Wrestle-1 from April 27 to May 4, with Van Gasteren successfully defending the EWP Intercontinental Championship against Hiroshi Yamato on the final day. On June 18, Wrestle-1 held a press conference to announce that effective July 1 the promotion would be joined by Akira , Jiro Kuroshio , Koji Doi, Rionne Fujiwara, Tajiri and Yusuke Kodama , after their previous promotion Wrestling New Classic went inactive following June 26. On July 1, Wrestle-1

12870-405: The results of their recent contract negotiations with their wrestlers. 21 wrestlers had signed new contracts, including freelancer Kazma Sakamoto who in the process made Wrestle-1 his new home promotion, while Rionne Fujiwara became the second wrestler to leave the promotion following his contract expiring at the end of the month. On July 13, Wrestle-1 announced the first " Wrestle-1 Grand Prix ",

13000-420: The same weight class. The lighter fighter was given a choice of whether or not to permit knees or kicks to the face when in the "four points" position in the following cases: PRIDE BUSHIDO were a series of PRIDE events with a special ruleset. The word BUSHIDO translates from the Japanese language as "the way of the warrior." More specifically, the term refers to the principals and moral code that developed among

13130-506: The samurai (military) class of Japan. BUSHIDO provided flexibility for more experimental fight card formats, such as "team" competitions pitting country versus country, or fight team versus fight team. BUSHIDO also gave an opportunity to up and coming fighters to prove themselves through matches with a special ruleset, known as "Challenge Matches." There were a few minor differences from main Pride events: Some states' athletic commissions require mixed martial arts events to modify rules to match

13260-586: The school are not automatically signed to Wrestle-1 and are free to join other promotions. The school's first term started two months later. On August 30, Wrestle-1 announced it was reviving two inactive titles on October 9; the UWA World Trios Championship and the F-1 Tag Team Championship, the latter being a comedy title Mutoh created in AJPW in 2006 for teams made up of a wrestler and an impressionist . On October 27, Wrestle-1 announced

13390-587: The second Wrestle-1 Champion. On November 30, Team 246 (Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo) won the First Tag League Greatest to become the inaugural Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champions. On February 25, 2015, Wrestle-1 announced the creation of a cruiserweight division and a new third title, which was on March 9 officially named the Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship . Starting on April 11, Wrestle-1 began holding shows at their dojo under

13520-449: The second and third each lasted five minutes. Intermissions between each round were two minutes long. In Pride events held in the United States, NSAC Unified MMA rules were used: non-title matches consisted of three five-minute rounds and title matches consisted of five five-minute rounds, both with 60-second intermissions between rounds. When two rounds of a Grand Prix took place on the same night, Grand Prix bouts consisted of two rounds,

13650-462: The semi-finals and final. Subsequent middleweight, heavyweight and openweight grands prix had taken place across three events when, in 2004, Critical Countdown was introduced for second round bouts. Both Critical Countdown and Final Conflict had a mix of Grand Prix and non-Grand Prix matches. In 2007, it was announced that Pride would hold only one Grand Prix a year and it would rotate between each of their four established weight classes. Except for

13780-411: The semi-finals to Quinton Jackson (Jackson subsequently lost to Silva by technical knockout in the finals.) Pride continued to enjoy success, holding roughly ten events per year, and even out-drawing rival K-1 at the annual New Year's Eve show Pride Shockwave 2005 . On October 21, 2006, Pride held its first MMA event in US, Pride 32: The Real Deal took place in front of an audience of 11,727 at

13910-623: The service had 2.12 million subscribers. Since the beginning of 2022, WWE has ceased using the term "pay-per-view" and replaced it with "Premium Live Events" in promotional materials, to emphasize their carriage via subscription platforms. WWE had also begun to phase out WWE Network in some markets in favor of agreements with existing streaming services, including its U.S. agreement with Peacock . Other major organizations such as World Championship Wrestling , Extreme Championship Wrestling , TNA , Ring of Honor , and All Elite Wrestling have also run pay-per-view events. In 1999, Woodstock 1999

14040-697: The signal into standard broadcast format. These services were marketed as ON-TV . The first home pay-per-view cable television broadcast was the Floyd Patterson vs. Ingemar Johansson rematch in 1960, when 25,000 TelePrompTer subscribers mailed $ 2 to watch Patterson regain the heavyweight title. The third Patterson–Johansson match in 1961 was later viewed by 100,000 paid cable subscribers. Muhammad Ali had several fights on early pay-per-view home television, including Cassius Clay vs. Doug Jones in 1963, and Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay which drew 250,000 buys on cable television in 1964. Professional boxing

14170-516: The third show in October 2002, the series was discontinued. The concept was later refined into the Pride Bushido events. When Zuffa LLC bought Pride, it moved to unify the Pride middleweight and welterweight titles with its own light-heavyweight (205 lbs) and middleweight (185 lbs) titles. Dan Henderson, who held both the Pride middleweight and welterweight belts at the time of the Zuffa buy-out,

14300-453: The time, owned the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While remaining as legally separate entities with separate managements, the two promotions were set to cooperate in a manner akin to the AFL-NFL merger . However, such an arrangement did not materialize, and in October 2007, Pride Worldwide's Japanese staff was laid off, marking the end of the organization as an active fight promoter, while

14430-539: The top and most popular fighters were brought to the UFC. As a result, many of the Pride staff left to form a new organization alongside K-1 parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group . That new organization, founded in February 2008, was named DREAM . In 2015, Pride's co-founder and former president Nobuyuki Sakakibara established Rizin Fighting Federation in Japan with the same philosophy and ambition as for

14560-574: The trick box that I can and I can't get a TV deal over there with Pride. I don't think they want us there. I don't think they want me there." On October 4, 2007, Pride Worldwide closed its Japanese office, laying off 20 people who were working there since the closing of DSE. The final Pride events have been released on DVD under the Pride Worldwide label. Past fights from Pride are shown on Best of Pride Fighting Championships . The program premiered January 15, 2010, on Spike TV . The program's host

14690-500: The world's biggest fight event, Shockwave (known as Pride/K-1 Dynamite!! in Japan), which attracted over 71,000 fans. On January 13, 2003, the Pride MMA production was thrown into turmoil when DSE president Naoto Morishita was found dead hanging by his neck in his hotel room, apparently after his mistress told him she wanted to end their affair. One of the stories go that Fedor Emelianenko

14820-429: The years. Although it still offers its events via traditional PPV outlets, they have also been included at no additional charge as part of a larger, subscription-based streaming service known as WWE Network . The service also includes original programming (such as documentary-style series and other wrestling programs) and an on-demand archive of events and television episodes from WWE's library. Following WrestleMania 34 ,

14950-491: Was closed-circuit television , also known as theatre television , where professional boxing telecasts were broadcast live to a select number of venues, mostly theaters, with Arenas , Stadiums , Convention centers , and Schools being less often used venues. Where viewers paid for tickets to watch the fight live. The first fight with a closed-circuit telecast was Joe Louis vs. Jersey Joe Walcott in 1948. Closed-circuit telecasts peaked in popularity with Muhammad Ali in

15080-411: Was Wrestle-1's inaugural event, which took place on September 8, 2013, at Tokyo Dome City Hall. On August 9, Wrestle-1 released the first partial card for the event, which revealed only the Wrestle-1 signed workers taking part in the event, but none of their partners or opponents. The event featured a women's match and the Japanese in-ring debut of Daiki Inaba. None of the other workers were revealed before

15210-498: Was a relative newcomer to the PPV market. However, the promotion experienced a surge in popularity in the mid-2000s, credited initially to the popularity of an associated reality show on the cable channel Spike , The Ultimate Fighter . UFC 52 —the first UFC event since its premiere, broke the promotion's record with almost 300,000 buys (in comparison to 250,000 for UFC 5 ). PPV numbers escalated further in 2006, with its events taking in

15340-450: Was also joined by Hiroki Murase, a freelancer who had started his career with WNC in January 2013. Wrestle-1's second Ryōgoku Kokugikan event, Shōgeki: Impact, took place on July 6 and featured matches for ASW's British Light Heavyweight Championship , EWP's Intercontinental Championship, TNA's World Tag Team Championship and Zero1's World Heavyweight Championship with Hiroshi Yamato capturing

15470-567: Was available on Rogers Cablesystems in the United States and Canada . After Paragon Cable acquired the Rogers Cablesystems franchise in San Antonio , Texas , First Choice continued to be carried until Time Warner Cable bought Paragon in 1996. In the United States, pay-per-view broadcasters transmit without advertisements, similar to conventional flat-rate pay television services. The term "pay-per-view" did not come into general use until

15600-591: Was beaten in two unification bouts, first to Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson in September 2007 and then to middleweight Anderson Silva in March 2008. The titleholders below were those who held the titles on April 8, 2007, the date of the last Pride FC promoted show. An asterisk (*) indicates that the tournament was also a title fight. The following fighters have won a tournament or championship titles or were high contenders in Pride. Some have competed in different weight classes. Pay-per-view Pay-per-view ( PPV )

15730-797: Was broadcast via PPV from Rome, New York for people who wanted to attend but could not. The cameras were a cause of the downfall of the event. In 2015, PPV broadcasts of the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead tour set a record for buys for a music event, with over 400,000. Viewers in the United Kingdom and Ireland can access pay-per-view via satellite, cable and over-the-internet television services, mainly for films, boxing, mixed martial arts and American professional wrestling via services such as Sky Box Office and TNT Sports Box Office . Recent years has seen

15860-473: Was given to the winner of each tournament, though this belt only denoted the tournament winner and would never be defended. However, Pride's Shockwave 2005 event crowned not only the welterweight and lightweight tournament champions, but also Pride's inaugural welterweight and lightweight champions. Of note is the amount of past and future champions that would participate in these tournaments. In 2000, Pride held their first Grand Prix. With no weight limits, it

15990-546: Was held at gunpoint to resign with Pride Nobuyuki Sakakibara later assumed the presidency, later joined by Takada as a general manager. In 2003 Pride introduced the Bushido series of events, which focused mainly, but not exclusively, on the lighter weight classes of lightweights and welterweights. The Bushido series also stressed a faster pace, with bouts consisting of only one ten-minute round and one five-minute round, as well as quicker referee intervention of stalling tactics, using

16120-495: Was hit with several resignations, which led to Mutoh offering DDT Pro-Wrestling president Sanshiro Takagi a job in his promotion's management. On May 5, Takagi was officially revealed as Wrestle-1's new chief executive officer (CEO). His goal was to make Wrestle-1 more profitable by getting sales up and increasing the number of shows. There were no plans for Takagi to start wrestling for Wrestle-1 or for Wrestle-1 and DDT to exchange talent. On May 13, Wrestle-1 and Seiya Sanada held

16250-472: Was initially conceived of in 1997, to match popular Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada with Rickson Gracie , the purported champion of the Gracie family of Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners, who gained popularity in Japan after winning the 1994 and 1995 Vale Tudo Japan tournaments and brutally defeating UWFi pro wrestler Yoji Anjo in a dojo storm at Rickson's gym in Los Angeles . The event, held at

16380-410: Was largely introduced to pay-per-view cable television with the " Thrilla in Manila " fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in September 1975. The fight sold 500,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO. There was also another major title fight aired on pay-per-view in 1980, when Roberto Durán defeated Sugar Ray Leonard . Cable companies offered the match for $ 10, and about 155,000 customers paid to watch

16510-519: Was more realistic, using full contact strikes and a lot of kicks, as well as realistic grappling moves from his Catch Wrestling training. Inoki promoted professional wrestling as a legit and real combat sport and the "strongest" fighting style, and to prove it he fought worked (i.e. predetermined) matches against fighters from other martial arts and combat sports, such as judo , kickboxing , sumo and karate , known as "heterogeneous combat sports bouts" ( Ishu Kakutōgi Sen ; 異種格闘技戦). In 1976 Inoki fought

16640-406: Was owned by the holding company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE). For the ten years of its existence, PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world. Pride broadcast its event on Japanese pay-per-view and free-to-air television for millions of spectators in Japan, holding large events in sports stadiums, including the largest live MMA event audience record of 91,107 people at

16770-696: Was shut down. In Romania , cable communications operator UPC Romania has notified the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) on the intention to introduce in January, February 2014 at the latest, an on-demand audiovisual media service called Agerpres. According to the manager of UPC Romania-owned Smaranda Radoi UPC, will allow customers to watch movies on demand or live events; as well as broadcasts of performances, concerts and sporting events. In November 2008, pay-per-view made its debut in Albania through Digitalb on terrestrial and satellite television, with

16900-400: Was unlikely to happen because "the Japanese are very hard to do business with". This statement was likely due to the failure of previous attempts between Zuffa and DSE to organize a fighter exchange agreement. Specifically after entering Liddell in Pride's 2003 middleweight tournament, which was also with the intention of Liddell eventually fighting Silva, which fell through when Liddell lost in

#951048