External links
-
Media related to 1985 in professional wrestling at Wikimedia Commons
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| +... |
1985 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.
These promotions held notable events in 1985.
| Promotion Name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| All Japan Pro Wrestling | AJPW |
| All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling | AJW |
| American Wrestling Association | AWA |
| Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre | EMLL |
| Florida Championship Wrestling | FCW |
| Lutte Internationale | Lutte |
| National Wrestling Alliance | NWA |
| New Japan Pro-Wrestling | NJPW |
| Pacific Northwest Wrestling | PNW |
| World Class Championship Wrestling | WCCW |
| World Wrestling Council | WWC |
| World Wrestling Federation | WWF |
| Accomplishment | Winner | Date won | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan Grand Prix 1985 | Lioness Asuka | June 25 | |
| Rookie of the Year Decision Tournament | Akemi Sakamoto | ||
| Tag League the Best 1985 | Bull Nakano and Dump Matsumoto | October 10 |
| Accomplishment | Winner | Date won | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bunkhouse Stampede | Dusty Rhodes [17] [7] | December 28 |
| Accomplishment | Winner | Date won | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| King of the Ring | Don Muraco | July 8 | |
| The Wrestling Classic | Junkyard Dog | November 7 |
Incoming champion – Hulk Hogan | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No title changes | ||||
Incoming champion – Greg Valentine | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 6 | Tito Santana | House show | It was a steel cage match | |
Incoming champion – Antonio Inoki | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No title changes | ||||
Incoming champion – The Cobra | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 20 | Hiro Saito | House show | ||
| July 28 | The Cobra | House show | ||
| October 31 | Abandoned | N/A | ||
Incoming champion – Tatsumi Fujinami | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 19 | Vacant | N/A | ||
| October 31 | Vacant | N/A | ||
(Title reactivated) | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 24 | Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura | House show | ||
| October 31 | Deactivated | N/A | ||
(Title created) | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 18 | Dino Bravo | House show | ||
Incoming champions – Velvet McIntyre and Desiree Petersen | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1 | The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai and Judy Martin) | Live event | ||
Incoming champion – Wendi Richter | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 18 | Leilani Kai | The War to Settle the Score | ||
| March 31 | Wendi Richter | WrestleMania I | ||
| November 25 | The Masked Spider Lady (Fabulous Moolah) | Live event | ||
| Incoming champions – The North-South Connection (Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch) | ||||
| Date | Winner | Event/Show | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 21 | The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) | House show | ||
| March 31 | The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff | WrestleMania I | ||
| June 17 | The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) | Championship Wrestling | It aired on tape delay on July 13. | |
| August 24 | The Dream Team (Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine) | House show | ||
Media related to 1985 in professional wrestling at Wikimedia Commons
Yoshihiro Tajiri is a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter primarily known under the ring name Tajiri, he has also competed under his real name as well as under the names Aquarius and Kikkoman and briefly worked as the masked character Tigre Blanco.
Keiko Aoki is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional golfer better known as Bull Nakano. She began competing in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) as a teenager under the ring name Bull Nakano. As a wrestler she was a villain, who often teamed with her mentor Dump Matsumoto. In Japan, she held several of AJW's singles and tag team championships. After being phased out by the company in the early 1990s, she traveled to North America, where she first competed in Mexico's Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), becoming its first World Women's Champion. In 1994, she made her way to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where she had feuded with Alundra Blayze over the WWF Women's Championship. After holding the title once, she also competed in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1998, Nakano began competing as a professional golfer, and in 2006, she joined a tour with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). She was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame on 2001 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2024.
In professional wrestling, Cruiserweight is a weight class but also a term for a fast-paced, aerial-based style of performer. The term was first coined in the United States in 1996 by World Championship Wrestling. Prior to this, the terms "Light Heavyweight" and "Junior Heavyweight" were more commonly in use. The older term Junior Heavyweight is still favored in Japan, where many titles for lighter-weight competitors are called Junior Heavyweight titles. Prominent titles include New Japan Pro-Wrestling's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, and All Japan Pro Wrestling's World Junior Heavyweight championships.
The Triple Crown is an accomplishment recognized by various professional wrestling promotions. It is a distinction made to a professional wrestler who has won three of a single promotion's championships; specifically, a world championship, another singles championship, and a tag team championship. Promotions to officially recognize Triple Crown winners include WWE, All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and Ring of Honor (ROH) as well as the defunct promotions World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and Lucha Underground.
Fergal Devitt is an Irish professional wrestler. As of May 2014, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Finn Bálor. He is a member of The Judgment Day stable.
Trevor Dean Mann, known by his ring name Ricochet, is an American professional wrestler. As of August 2024, he is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is best known for his tenure in WWE from 2018 to 2024, where he is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion, WWE United States Champion, NXT North American Champion, the 2019 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winner, and the inaugural WWE Speed Champion.
Máscara Dorada is the ring name of a Mexican luchadorenmascarado currently working for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and on the independent circuit. He also regularly performs on the weekly shows of Ring of Honor, AEW's sister promotion under the ring name Metalik. He is best known for his time in WWE where he performed under the ring name Gran Metalik, as a member of Lucha House Party.
John Anthony Nicholas Gargano is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand and is one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with Tommaso Ciampa in their second reign. Gargano is best known for his time in NXT, where he became the first-ever NXT Triple Crown winner by winning the NXT Championship once, the NXT North American Championship a record three times, and the NXT Tag Team Championship once. His popularity and success in NXT led him to be given the moniker "The Heart and Soul of NXT".
Alipate Aloisio Leone, better known by his ring name Tama Tonga, is a Tongan-American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown. He is the nephew and adopted son of professional wrestler Haku.
Anthony Nese is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He also appears for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor, where he is a member of The Premier Athletes stable. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he is a former one-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion.
Shane Veryzer, known by his ring name Shane Haste, is an Australian professional wrestler. He works for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a member of The Mighty Don't Kneel (TMDK).
Christopher Girard is an American retired professional wrestler signed to WWE as a coach at the Performance Center as well as a producer for NXT, having previously performed on said brand under the ring name Oney Lorcan. He is a former NXT Tag Team Champion with Danny Burch. He has worked frequently for independent promotions including Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Top Rope Promotions (TRP), and Chaotic Wrestling (CW) under the ring name Biff Busick. He is a one-time CZW World Heavyweight Champion. In addition, he has appeared in notable independent promotions like Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), Evolve, and Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA).
Ariya Daivari is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Ari Daivari and is a member of The Premier Athletes stable. He also works as a coach for the promotion. Daivari is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed in the now-defunct Cruiserweight Division. He has also performed for Ring of Honor (ROH), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and has made brief appearances for Global Force Wrestling and Impact Wrestling's project Ring Ka King.
The American professional wrestling promotion WWE has maintained several men's and women's tag team championships since Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1963 to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which was later subjected to various name changes, including World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)—in April 2011, the company ceased using its full name and has since just been referred to as WWE. The first men's tag team title, the Northeast version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, preceded the company's creation, as it was established in 1957 for CWC as a version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, while the first women's tag team title, the WWF Women's Tag Team Championship, was established in 1983. Whenever the WWE brand extension has been implemented, separate tag team championships have been created or allocated for each brand.
The NXT Cruiserweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship that was created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. Before its retirement, it was defended across the NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live brand divisions, which were developmental territories for WWE. During its short tenure, it was the promotion's only championship with a weight limit, wherein only wrestlers 205 lb and under—designated as cruiserweights—could compete for the title.
1995 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.
1994 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.
1992 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.
1984 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.