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All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, nicknamed Zenjo was a joshi puroresu promotion established in 1968 by Takashi Matsunaga and his brothers. The group held their first card on June 4 of that year. For close to 33 years it had a TV program on Fuji TV called Women's Professional Wrestling.
Erika Shishido is a Japanese professional wrestler better known by her ring name Aja Kong. She is the founder of the Arsion all-women professional wrestling promotion and has won several championships in both singles and tag team divisions throughout her career, primarily while with All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling.
Manami Toyota is a retired professional wrestler, best known for her work with All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW). She is widely considered to be one of the greatest female professional wrestlers of all time.
Chieko Suzuki is a retired Japanese female professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Dynamite Kansai.
Mayumi Ozaki is a Japanese professional wrestler. She is currently working for Oz Academy.
Tomoko Kitamura is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by her ring name Lioness Asuka. She was one half of the Crush Gals, along with Chigusa Nagayo, who are known for their mainstream popularity in the 1980s, and for being one of the most successful women's tag teams of all time.
Toshie Uematsu is a female Japanese retired professional wrestler best known for her popularity in the 1990s and 2000s. She was one of the members of the first class of wrestlers trained by Chigusa Nagayo when Nagayo formed the GAEA Japan promotion. Uematsu finished her career in 2012, working for the Pro Wrestling Wave promotion. After her retirement, Uematsu continued working as a trainer for Pro Wrestling Wave.
Masami Yoshida is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her appearances in All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, GAEA Japan and JWP Joshi Puroresu under the name Devil Masami. She is a member of the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, being inducted in 1998.
The Rikidozan Memorial Show was a professional wrestling event held in 1996, and again in 2000, as a tribute to "the father of puroresu," Rikidozan. Both shows were considered major events in Japan and had involvement from virtually every major wrestling promotion at the time. The first show was held in Yokohama, Japan at the Yokohama Arena on June 30, 1996, with 16,000 in attendance. The show featured interpromotional matches of wrestlers from All Japan Pro Wrestling, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, IWA Kakutoshijuku, International Wrestling Association, Japan Pro Shooting, Kitao Dojo, Michinoku Pro, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Professional Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, Samurai Project, UWFi, Wrestle Association R and joshi promotions GAEA Japan, JWP Joshi Puroresu and Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling. In the main event, Genichiro Tenryu (WAR) and Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW) defeated Koki Kitihara (WAR) and Riki Choshu (NJPW) in a tag team match. On the undercard, Keiji Mutoh & Kensuke Sasaki defeated Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata and a "PWFG vs. UWFI" match between Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Yoji Anjoh resulted in a double-countout.
The Plum Mariko Memorial Show was an annual professional wrestling event held in 1997 and 1998 in memory of Plum Mariko featuring representatives from joshi promotions All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, J'd, JWP Joshi Puroresu, Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling and NEO as well as puroresu promotions Big Japan Pro Wrestling, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, IWA Japan and Yoshiaki Yatsu's Super Pro Wrestling Federation. The first show was held in Tokyo, Japan at the Ota Ward Gym on October 30, 1997, and was attended by 2,500 fans. The main event featured Cutie Suzuki and Dynamite Kansai defeating Mayumi Ozaki in a "handicap" match. On the undercard, AJW's Kaoru Ito and Nanae Takahashi defeated Kumiko Maekawa and Momoe Nakanishi and FMW's Crusher Maedomari defeated Kaoru Nakayama.
Etsuko Mita is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. She formed a successful tag team with her partner Mima Shimoda as Las Cachorras Orientales and Toshiyo Yamada as Dream Orca. She is credited as the innovator of the Death Valley Driver. Mita retired on November 1, 2009, defeating former tag team partner Makoto in her final singles match and teaming with Mima Shimoda in a loss against Kyoko Inoue and Nanae Takahashi in her final tag team match.
Yoshiko Tamura is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. Tamura was trained by the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, made her debut in September 1994 and worked for the promotion for three years, winning the AJW Junior Championship, before taking part in a mass exodus led by Kyoko Inoue and following her to the newly founded NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling promotion. Recognized as the "Ace" of NEO, Tamura performed with the promotion from its first event to the last, in the process becoming its most accomplished wrestler, winning the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships a record seven times and the NEO Tag Team Championship three times. All in all, Tamura held the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships for 2,074 days and successfully defended them 38 times. After being inducted into the NEO Hall of Fame, Tamura ended her sixteen-year career on December 31, 2010, retiring at the end of NEO's final event.
Kaori Yoneyama is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working as a freelancer on the Japanese independent circuit. Yoneyama started her career in 1999, working with the JWP Joshi Puroresu promotion. During the following years, she became a one-time JWP Openweight Champion, a one-time JWP Junior Champion, a five-time JWP Tag Team Champion, a one-time Pure-J Openweight Champion and a three-time Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Champion. Notable titles she has held outside of JWP include All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's AJW Championship and AJW Tag Team Championship, Ice Ribbon's International Ribbon Tag Team Championship and NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling's High Speed Championship. In July 2011, Yoneyama announced that she would be ending her twelve-year career the following December. After a retirement tour, which took Yoneyama not only across the Japanese independent circuit, but also to the United States, she announced during her retirement ceremony that she had changed her mind and decided to continue her career. In January 2013, Yoneyama quit JWP to become a freelancer, working for promotions such as Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling, Oz Academy, Union Pro Wrestling and World Wonder Ring Stardom.
JWP Joshi Puroresu, also known as JWP Project or simply JWP, was a Japanese joshi puroresu promotion, founded in 1992 as a splinter promotion of Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. Celebrating its 25th anniversary at the time of its folding in 2017, JWP was the oldest joshi puroresu promotion in Japan and its Openweight Championship was the oldest championship in all of joshi. Command Bolshoi, who had worked for the promotion since the beginning, served as the final president of JWP. The promotion's slogan was "Pure Heart, Pure Wrestling".
Yumiko Hotta is a Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. Hotta was trained by and started her career in the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion in June 1985. She worked for the promotion until 2003, becoming a three-time WWWA World Single and WWWA World Tag Team Champion. In June 2003, Hotta took over the Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion promotion and renamed it Major Girl's Fighting AtoZ. Under Hotta's leadership, the promotion lasted only three years, before folding in 2006, after which Hotta became a freelancer. In January 2011, Hotta joined the new Universal Woman's Pro Wrestling Reina promotion, but just sixteen months later she announced that the promotion was folding. Afterwards, she affiliated herself with the World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana promotion, becoming the leader of the villainous Bousou-gun stable. She resigned from Diana in July 2016 to once again become a freelancer. Since 1995, Hotta has also fought several mixed martial arts matches, mostly at events put together by joshi puroresu promotions.
Mima Shimoda is a Japanese female professional wrestler, who is working for the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Japanese promotion World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana. She is most well known for being half of Las Cachorras Orientales with Etsuko Mita.
Tomoko Miyaguchi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Ran Yu-Yu. Best known as a tag team wrestler, Yu-Yu held the JWP Tag Team Championship a record seven times, the Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Championship three times, the AAAW Tag Team Championship and the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship twice each and the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship and Wave Tag Team Championship once each, but also excelled in singles competition, most notably winning the JWP and Oz Academy Openweight Championships. She finished her 18-year career on December 9, 2012.
The Tag League the Best was an annual professional wrestling tag team tournament, founded by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), which held it from 1985 to 2004. After the folding of AJW in 2005, the tournament was adopted by its one-time rival and later associate promotion, JWP Joshi Puroresu, which held it annually from 2011 to 2016.
Las Cachorras Orientales(in Japanese: ラス・カチョーラス・オリエンタレス), frequently styled as LCO, were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Etsuko Mita and Mima Shimoda. The team's name is Spanish for "The Oriental Bitches". The team was created in 1992 and wrestled in multiple Japanese women's wrestling promotions. The group was well known for using painted steel chairs and guardrails on opponents.
Keiko Aono is a Japanese retired professional wrestler best known for her tenure with the defunct Japanese promotions JWP Joshi Puroresu, Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling and World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana.
References
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- 1 2 3 "History Of Joshi". The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (archive available from Joshi Fans). Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 "All Japan Women Commercial Releases 1994". K & D's Matchlists. Retrieved 2011-07-17.