A Brief History of Puroresu: 1950s-2000s

A Brief History of Puroresu

“Puroresu” essentially refers to the professional wrestling business in Japan, the term itself a Japanization of “pro-wrestling” to “pro-wres.” This thumbnail sketch of the history of puroresu in Japan focuses on mainstream professional wrestling and the major promotions; there will not be a discussion of independent promotions, hardcore deathmatch wrestling, lucha-inspired wrestling, or shoot-wrestling. Primarily, the focus will be on the emergence of New Japan and All Japan (and later NOAH) as the main rival powers, as well as events in the 21st century that have culminated, for better or worse, with New Japan becoming the dominant force in the industry, expanding into Western markets with unprecedented scale and success. Puroresu has changed a great deal since its popularization in Japan just around sixty years ago, and no doubt it will continue to do so going into the near future. Puroresu has shown nothing lasts forever.

1950s-1960s: The Rikidozan Era

Rikidozan was not the first Japanese professional wrestler but he was the first famous one. A Korean immigrant to Japan born in 1924, he started out as a sumo wrestler and made a name for himself in the sport with an overall record of 135-82. He quit sumo in 1950, at least partly because Japanese society discriminated against him as a Korean. Ironically, when he debuted as a professional wrestler, it was Japanese nationalism that propelled him and the business into the spotlight. Japanese patriotism has long been a part of the national culture, and with Japan defeated and occupied by the U.S. after WWII, Rikidozan benefited from public resentment. He developed a formula of going up against Western wrestlers like Lou Thesz and Freddie Blassie, sublimating “East versus West” into a literal fight between men. Naturally, “the East” won, at least in the ring.

Rikidozan founded his own promotion, Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA), in 1953. He had several students, among them Kanji “Antonio” Inoki and Shohei “Giant” Baba. Both men grew up in the hard, austere society that was post-WWII Japan. Inoki was a natural athlete and excelled in sports in school, whereas Baba was gifted with imposing height (standing around 6’10”) and played minor league baseball as a pitcher. Both men debuted in 1960 and found success as a tag team, winning the NWA International Tag Team Championship later in the decade. They both also went on learning excursions abroad, something that would become a rite of passage for future generations of Japanese wrestlers. Inoki and Baba then were still promising young talents; more senior than them (but still less famous than Rikidozan) was Michiharu Toyonobori, also a sumo wrestler-turned-professional wrestler. He was Rikidozan’s de facto heir.

After the success of JWA, Rikidozan became heavily involved in the Japanese nightlife, acquiring several clubs and hotels for himself. It was through these connections that he became involved with the Yakuza. Whereas the United States government was cracking down hard on organized crime in the U.S. at this time, the Japanese government was not; in fact, organized crime syndicates (known collectively as the Yakuza in Japan) were tolerated and even collaborated with public and private enterprise. (It is only in the last few decades that the Japanese government has started to truly crackdown on the Yakuza.) Traditionally, seedy forms of entertainment – such as prostitution, gambling, nightclubs – have been the domain of the Yakuza; professional wrestling is no exception. Yakuza money has been linked not just to smaller, independent wrestling promotions but also to PRIDE, formerly the premier mixed martial arts organization in Japan, as well as puroresu promotions large and small. (Funnily enough, New Japan wrestlers recently cameoed in a popular video game series known as Yakuza in the West, which fits neatly into the romanticizing of the Yakuza into Japanese pop culture.)

In December 1963, Rikidozan was partying at a club in Tokyo when a Yakuza member named Katsuji Murata stabbed him with a knife. Whether the stabbing took place over a disagreement between the two men or whether it was somehow related to “Yakuza business” is unclear. What is clear is that Rikidozan died shortly afterward. Without Rikidozan, the JWA went into decline, facing stiff competition from new rival promotions like International Wrestling Enterprise (IWE), which not only had its own stars (including the Rikidozan-trained Kintaro Ohki) but also its own title, the IWA World Heavyweight Championship. The JWA used titles belonging to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the primary governing body of the old U.S. territory system. The JWA leadership decided to gamble on Baba as the new ace of the promotion, much to the chagrin of Inoki, who felt that he was the better all-around athlete.

In 1966, due to political intrigue, Toyonobori was expelled from the JWA and so he founded Tokyo Pro Wrestling as a new promotion. This set a precedent in puroresu that has continued to this day; due to backstage disagreements, wrestlers will often go freelance or start their own promotion. In this instance, Inoki followed Toyonobori, hoping to make his name for himself as its star, but the promotion struggled and soon became dependent on hosting shows with IWE support. Inoki returned to JWA the following year, but the reunion would not last long. Inoki would be fired after trying to stage a coup at JWA and leave to form his own promotion. Baba would follow suit.

1970s-1980s: Harmonious Coexistence

After quitting the JWA, Inoki and Baba founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro-Wrestling, respectively, both in 1972. For a long time, New Japan and All Japan followed the JWA tradition of bringing in prominent Western wrestlers and other athletes, with the native talent (i.e. Inoki or Baba) winning the day. In significant ways, however, they also diverged. All Japan, for example, kept up a relationship with the NWA and thus became influenced by the more dramatic match styles of traditional U.S. wrestling, with emphasis on psychology and storytelling. In New Japan, by contrast, Inoki underlined technique and athleticism. On the first New Japan card, he wrestled the legendary Karl Gotch, who also acted as a booker and trainer for the promotion during this period. Gotch (whose real name was Charles Istaz) was an accomplished wrestler with backgrounds in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. Together, Inoki and Gotch produced what is popularly referred to as “strong style” wrestling. The term should not be confused with “working stiff” – that is, putting full force behind moves – as that is both impractical and dangerous for any wrestler. Rather, it meant a different sort of storytelling in the ring, with the opponents earning their victories through demonstrations of strength, stamina, and fighting spirit. Unlike other styles, where the story of the match may take precedence over performance, the credibility of the performance is just as important (if not more) in the traditional “strong style.”

Inoki sought to assert the legitimacy of his “strong style” wrestling publicly and challenged various athletes in martial arts and combat sports to exhibition fights. In 1976, he won international attention by fighting boxing legend Muhammad Ali at the Nippon Budokan. Although the match was poorly received, it would become a precursor to mixed martial arts. Meanwhile, New Japan had brought over some star talent from JWA, such as Tatsumi Fujinami (innovator of the dragon sleeper and the dragon suplex), Osamu Kido, and Kotetsu Yamamoto, and was also producing new top tier talent (thanks in no small part to Gotch) like Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Riki Choshu. Finally, the North American wrestlers were also some of the most famous from the period, with the likes of Bob Backlund, Dick Murdoch, and Hulk Hogan featuring.

New Japan also distinguished itself by bringing more attention to its junior heavyweight division. In 1981, to appeal to a younger audience, the promotion gave Satoru Sayama, a martial artist, the gimmick of a character from a Japanese cartoon called Tiger Mask. The idea of a cartoon character wrestling on the same card as “strong style” wrestlers seemed ludicrous, but Sayama was such a gifted worker that the character became popular with children as well as discerning wrestling fans. With famous matches against other outstanding junior wrestlers like Kuniaki Kobayashi and the Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask opened the door for gimmicks that went beyond the credible into the incredible. While definitely more a martial artist than a luchador, the gimmick opened the door for lucha libre to enter Japan, thanks to pioneers like Gran Hamada and Ultimo Dragon.

With so much talent and such large personalities, it is not surprising that New Japan also struggled with internal politics. In 1984, Fujiwara, Sayama, and several other wrestlers – including a young, hot-blooded Akira Maeda – quit New Japan and started their own promotion, Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). These wrestlers felt that professional wrestling, even that of the “strong style,” was not realistic enough, and sought to put on matches that were basically scripted mixed martial arts matches. Another Gotch protégé, Kido, also joined the group. However, the UWF soon broke down after Sayama and Maeda had a bitter falling out; allegedly, Sayama wanted to emphasize striking while Maeda wanted to highlight grappling. There was also the fact that Sayama as booker pushed himself while Maeda tended to lose. After the UWF folded, its members mostly returned to New Japan, setting up a very successful “invasion” angle. Choshu too would briefly leave New Japan before returning to it later.

In All Japan, Baba had struck gold with two heavyweight students: Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu. Both men would hone their craft with Dory and Terry Funk in the United States, and the Funks themselves (along with Mexico’s Mil Mascaras) would make history by breaking the “gaijin barrier,” becoming hugely popular fan favorites despite being foreigners. They were just two names among other famous North American wrestlers -- Stan Hansen, Kerry von Erich, Bruiser Brody, Rick Martel, and more – fed into Japan through the NWA territory pipeline. In terms of native talent, All Japan absorbed some names from other, smaller promotions – such as Ashura Hara and Yoshiaki Yatsu – but this reliance on North American wrestlers held back other Japanese wrestlers, who would not get a chance to shine until the 1990s began.

1990s-2000s: Puroresu Revolution

New Japan and All Japan faced two problems in the 1990s. The first was time. Inoki, Baba, and the other wrestlers of their generation were starting to reach retirement age, meaning they could no longer be counted on to carry their promotions no matter what. Therefore, puroresu faced a dip in popularity as fans feared a future without the usual familiar names and faces. The second problem was the changing nature of professional wrestling in the U.S., with the NWA territories on the decline and televised events in the mold of the WWF becoming the norm. With less foreign talent to depend on, Japanese promotions had to concentrate entirely on making their own native stars.

Both promotions had already started doing this, but in 1990, All Japan was hit by the defection of Tenryu along with Yatsu, the Great Kabuki, Kodo Fuyuki, and others. Megane Super, an eyeglasses manufacturer, had stolen Tenryu away to be the headliner of their own promotion, Super World Sports (SWS). In 1992, however, the economic bubble in Japan popped, and SWS soon went defunct in the recession. In the meantime, All Japan pushed young talent who would become some of the biggest heavyweight names in the business: Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Kenta Kobashi. Baba intentionally depicted their development as wrestlers as part of the promotion’s storyline, slowly but surely getting themselves over established veterans like Tsuruta, Hansen, and Baba himself. All Japan in the 1990s became known as “King’s Road,” with the “road” being the young wrestlers’ path of development. Getting one young star over as an ace in pro-wrestling is difficult; not only does the wrestler need to have the right look and skill, fans must accept them. In this case, all four men were huge successes, with Misawa and Kawada the standout singles wrestlers.

New Japan had three young aces rather than four: Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono, and Shinya Hashimoto. All three men graduated from the New Japan dojo in 1984 and would even compete as the “Three Musketeers” while on a learning excursion in Puerto Rico; that name would refer to them collectively as the new generation in New Japan. In 1991, the promotion started the tradition of the G1 (Grade One) Climax tournament (named after the horse race) – as well as the custom of using the tournament to spotlight young talent. Chono, Mutoh, and Hashimoto finished first, second, and third, respectively (the final being a 30-minute epic bout between Chono and Mutoh). Also, since New Japan did not have a “closed doors” policy, Mutoh, Chono and other wrestlers frequently appeared on episodes of WCW in the U.S. through a deal with the NWA, gaining widespread exposure. (Chono would even join the famous NWO stable and try to bring the concept to New Japan as “Black Japan,” but not the same success.)

Also, in the 1990s, New Japan sought to recreate the Tiger Mask phenomenon by introducing a high-flying wrestler based on a Japanese cartoon superhero, Jushin Liger. The Tiger Mask gimmick had been sold (Misawa using it for a while in All Japan), but the Liger character was even more cartoonish, with a head-to-toe bodysuit and mask. The man behind the mask, Keiichi Yamada, turned the character into a sensation with his daredevil moves and aerial acrobatics. Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa also earned a deserved reputation as a fearsome junior tag team, while singles wrestlers like El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto (the third Tiger Mask) also stood out from the rest. Compared to All Japan, New Japan tended to highlight their juniors more often.

In the 2000s, fortunes would change drastically for both promotions. While the UWF died a quick death in the 1980s, the idea of “shoot wrestling” and scripted combat sports continued to live on, and the 1990s saw actual mixed martial arts enter the Japanese mainstream through promotions like Pancrase and PRIDE Fighting Championships. (In the U.S., the Ultimate Fighting Championship was also getting off the ground, although with more controversy than popularity initially.) As “real” MMA became more popular than “fake” wrestling, Inoki believed the solution was to repeat his campaign in the 1970s to prove that “strong style” wrestling was just as valid as any martial art. Consequently, New Japan wrestlers were pressured to fight in MMA fights, some put on by Inoki himself while martial artists like Naoya Ogawa, Ken Shamrock, and Kazuyuki Fujita were given substantial pushes. This had the effect of enhancing outsider talent at the expense of burying wrestlers who had come up through the New Japan dojo. In the 2005 G1 Climax, for example, Fujita won every match in his block over seven other wrestlers who were mostly all products of the New Japan system. Yuji Nagata, meanwhile, a New Japan star with an amateur wrestling background, suffered two quick losses in 2001 and 2003 respectively at events put on by Inoki. Although Nagata faced world class opposition (Mirko Crop Cop and Fedor Emelianko), such lopsided losses nevertheless damaged his perceived credibility. A key thing for any professional wrestler is “protecting” their image; if they cannot win a “real” fight, this hurts their credibility.

In 2000 one of New Japan’s “Musketeers,” Hashimoto, was fired from the company. Allegedly, Inoki was unhappy with Hashimoto, who did not have a naturally athletic physique, and at a Tokyo Dome Show in 1999, he instructed Ogawa, an Olympic judoka, to “shoot” on Hashimoto – in other words, to fight him for real. Hashimoto, expecting a worked match, was genuinely attacked, and the match degenerated into a brawl, with NJPW wrestlers swarming the ring and attacking Ogawa’s cornermen. To this day, debate persists as to whether this incident was staged, real, or some combination; the intention may have to sell Ogawa as a villain rather than to hurt Hashimoto. Regardless, the incident upset many fans because it made Hashimoto look weak, and though he finished the angle with Ogawa, Hashimoto left soon afterwards. He formed his own promotion in 2001, Pro-Wrestling ZERO-1, which would also become affiliated with the NWA. Otani and Takaiwa would defect soon afterwards to the new promotion. Hashimoto suddenly died from a brain aneurysm in 2005 (just after his 40th birthday), Otani would take over control over ZERO-1 afterwards, and although the promotion is still in existence, it has never risen above the status of an minor independent company.

In 2005 the obsession with MMA in New Japan reached critical mass. Inoki put the main heavyweight title in New Japan, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, on former WWE star Brock Lesnar, who in many ways embodied (and still does) the controversy of “real” athletes in professional wrestling. Lesnar, a physical monster, had been an instant sensation in the WWE, but his attitude toward the wrestling business was mercenary. This soon showed, as Lesnar avoided defending the title until New Japan stripped him of it, although Lesnar retained ownership of the actual belt itself until 2007. (At present, Lesnar is routinely criticized by U.S. wrestling fans for only sporadically defending the WWE Universal Championship and enjoying a high profile for the same reason.) The incident with Lesnar was the last straw, as the “MMA plunge” had not paid off. Inoki was bought out of New Japan by a video game developer, Yuke’s, later that year.

All Japan, despite the glory of the 1990s, entered the 2000s dealing with an existential crisis. Baba died from cancer in 1999, and although Misawa was meant to take over as booker, actual financial control over All Japan passed to Baba’s widow, Mokoto, with whom Misawa did not get along. The conflict came to a head in the summer of 2000 when Misawa – with almost all the All Japan roster – left the promotion and started their own, Pro-Wrestling NOAH. Of the four young stars, only Kawada remained with All Japan. Kawada did his best, along with Tenryu and Hansen, to keep All Japan alive; they soon received surprising help. In 2002, Mutoh unexpectedly jumped from New Japan to All Japan, along with heavyweight Satoshi Kojima and junior heavyweight Kendo Kashin. Mutoh, like Hashimoto, had also not taken to the “MMA era” of New Japan in this period, and at All Japan soon became the power behind the scenes. He ushered in an era of “Puroresu Love!” with an emphasis on showmanship and fun, in contrast to the more typical deadly earnestness of New Japan’s strong style or the epic matches which, thanks to the exodus of talent, was now the main hallmark for Pro-Wrestling NOAH. Mutoh brought in U.S. wrestler Joe Doering and groomed Kohei Suwama to become the next All Japan ace. He was also helped by an influx of junior talent who left the Toryumon promotion when it was reborn as Dragon Gate.

While not quite as imperiled, New Japan faced a problem too: Hashimoto and Mutoh were gone, and Chono was only getting older. The promotion turned into its next generation, the standouts being Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Katsuyori Shibata. Nakamura and Shibata had both dipped their toes into MMA and found success. In Shibata’s case, he left the promotion to pursue the sport full-time, working as a freelancer and in shoot-style promotions. While Tanahashi would go on to become the next ace of New Japan, thanks in large part to a handsome appearance, Nakamura relied on his charisma and stage presence. He named himself the “King of Strong Style,” but in truth at this point post-Inoki Japan was gravitating away from the conventional stress on technical wrestling and muscularity and more on U.S.-style theatrics and “sports entertainment.” New Japan was still in a rebuilding phase, however, and other than the rivalry between Tanahashi and Nakamura, the promotion lacked huge drawing power.

For most of the 2000s, the premier promotion for quality wrestling in Japan was easily Pro-Wrestling NOAH. The work done in the 1990s had built an international fan base that meant fans had no problem following Misawa, Taue, Kobashi, Akiyama, and the other All Japan stars to the upstart promotion. NOAH also took most of the junior talent from All Japan, and the new platform finally gave the likes of Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Naomichi Marufuji, and KENTA to shine. The roster was filled out by popular freelancers like Yoshihiro Takayama and Kensuke Sasaki as well as North American wrestlers like Mike Awesome and Bison Smith. Kenta Kobashi was by far the most popular wrestler second only to Misawa himself, and had a truly memorable title reign as the GHC Heavyweight Champion in NOAH during the early days of the company.

NOAH did have one problem though: it had no up-and-coming heavyweight talent. An attempt to turn wrestlers like Takeshi Rikio and Takeshi Morishima into future aces failed, and before long, NOAH was forced to put its heavyweight title on popular juniors like Marufuji and KENTA to keep the fans happy. Go Shiozaki was the only man to graduate from the NOAH dojo in 2003, and the high training standards were a part of the promotion’s problem of growing new stars. Shiozaki only flopped as an ace, and when Misawa tragically died in the ring in 2009, it represented the end of an era.


2010s: Okada and the New Japan Empire
Kazuchika Okada started out as a junior heavyweight and was trained by one of the pioneers of lucha libre in Japan, Ultimo Dragon, as a student at his gym in Mexico. Okada, despite being 6’3”, had a very skinny physique, and in his appearances in independent promotions in his early career, there appeared few signs of the incredible charisma Okada would become known for. After moving on to New Japan’s dojo, he was repackaged as a heavyweight and sent to the U.S. to gain experience. At the time, New Japan had a relationship with TNA, so Okada joined its roster, but was tragically underused and ignored (so much so that TNA later explicitly apologized to Okada to repair relations with New Japan). Nevertheless, his exposure to the U.S. sports entertainment style inspired him to create a larger-than-life character to connect with the fans. In 2012 he debuted the “Rainmaker” persona as a cocky but entertaining villain, becoming so popular with the fans that they loved him despite his arrogance. Okada had a series of well-received matches with Tanahashi and Nakamura (before the latter signed an exclusive contract with WWE in 2016). He has also won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship multiple times and headlined multiple January 4 Tokyo Dome shows – the Japanese equal of WrestleMania – despite being just 30 years old.

Okada was not the only major thing to happen for New Japan in 2012. In January the promotion was purchased by Bushiroad, a successful cards game company. Almost immediately thee promotion focused on attracting a larger audience outside Japan, first offering pay-per-views through online streaming and more recently launching a streaming site for New Japan events. Additionally, the company has cross-promoted and toured with numerous promotions based in North America and Europe. In 2018 the company named its first non-Japanese president, Harold Meij. Style-wise as well, New Japan has dome a complete 180 from emphasizing realism toward a more WWE-like “sports entertainment” approach, with match interruptions, storylines, and so on.

Okada was a sign of the changing times; so too was the Bullet Club, formed in 2013. The all-gaijin stable was founded by Irish wrestler Prince Devitt (Finn Balor in WWE) along with Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga, and Bad Luck Fale. The Young Bucks, the junior tag team of Matt and Nick Jackson, would soon follow. The stable clearly took inspiration from the WCW’s NWO (complete with black-and-white t-shirts and “Too Sweet” hand gestures) but the talent of the wrestlers and their chemistry as real-life friends made them likable to fans in Japan as well as the West. After Devitt left to the WWE, A.J. Styles took over as the Club’s leader in 2014 before signing with the WWE as well. In 2016, Club leadership passed to Kenny Omega, one of New Japan’s top gaijin stars ever.

Omega had started out in the North American wrestling scene before coming to Japan in 2008 to wrestle one of his favorite wrestlers, Kota Ibushi. The two men had a memorable feud and created an even more memorable tag team called “The Golden Lovers” in the Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) promotion before both he and Ibushi moved to New Japan in 2014. Since then, Omega has become a regular in the New Japan main event scene and the most popular gaijin in Japan since the Funks.

Many fans like the spectacle and storytelling of the New Japan era, and its expansionist efforts have proved successful. Naturally, some fans worry about the heavy presence of non-Japanese wrestlers eclipsing Japanese talent, interference by “authority figures” and other elements of the WWE style, and so on. New Japan is undeniably going through a golden period, but some wonder if it has lost connection with its roots.


All Japan had some success under Mutoh, getting a TV deal with the GAORA network, but in May 2012 scandal hit the company when TARU, leader of All Japan’s main heel stable, beat another wrestler into a coma backstage. Mutoh took responsibility and resigned. In 2013 Kobashi, Akiyama, and several others would jump back to All Japan to NOAH. Meanwhile, Mutoh had sold his shares in the company to an IT company called Speed Partners, whose president suddenly seized control of All Japan. Mutoh split from the company, taking several wrestlers with him, to start a new promotion, Wrestle-1. The Baba family pulled out as well, forcing All Japan to find new sponsors. The company still runs shows, but as a major minor promotion than as a minor major one.

Right now, New Japan is clearly the most dominant promotion in Japanese pro-wrestling and is only getting stronger as it grows its following overseas. This ascendancy, however, went along with the fading of the two other major promotions. Nothing lasts forever, though, and just as things have changed dramatically in just a few decades, who can say what the future holds?