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| Acronym | GAEA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 |
| Defunct | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Founder(s) | Chigusa Nagayo |
| Owner(s) | Yuka Sugiyama Chigusa Nagayo |
| Successor | Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling |
Gaea Japan (trademarked as GAEA Japan) was a Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion. GAEA's name comes from the Greek mythological goddess of the Earth, Gaea or Gaia.
GAEA was founded in 1995 by Chigusa Nagayo, a professional wrestler who achieved huge success in the 1980s with her tag team partner, Lioness Asuka, as the Crush Gals. [1]
GAEA's formation was first announced at a press conference held on August 24, 1994. Present at the event were charter members Nagayo, KAORU, and Bomber Hikaru. GAEA's first rookie auditions were also held on this occasion. Their rookie class included Meiko Satomura, Toshie Uematsu, Chikayo Nagashima, Sonoko Kato, Sugar Sato, Maiko Narita, Chihiro Nakano, and Makie Numao. [2]
On April 15, 1995, the new promotion held its first show. It was at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall and was called Memorial First Gong. [2] The event was a sellout and received good press. From this point on, GAEA held monthly shows at Korakuen and also occasionally went on the road to other Japanese cities.
GAEA's reputation grew as a result of the acquisition of some well-known wrestlers and the organization of some very successful interpromotional shows. GAEA acquired highly respected freelance wrestler Akira Hokuto on September 16, 1996, and Toshiyo Yamada on July 3, 1997. The promotion established a relationship with the Japanese hardcore promotion Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW) on July 29, 1995, and worked with the prominent American promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1996. As a component of the relationship with WCW two GAEA wrestlers, Akira Hokuto and Toshie Uematsu, became the first WCW Women's Champion and WCW Women's Cruiserweight Champion respectively.
GAEA's most famous storyline involved the reunion of 80's tag team sensations, the Crush Gals, in 2000. The Crush phenomenon in Japan was roughly akin to the American phenomenon of Hulkamania and the first appearance of the reunited partnership on May 14, 2000, at GAEA's fifth-anniversary show, drew the attention of the entirety of the Japanese press.
On March 15, 2004, a weekly show with matches from GAEA started on The Wrestling Channel.
On April 10, 2005, GAEA closed its doors for good with a farewell show at the Tokyo Korakuen Hall called Eternal Last Gong. The promotion closed while still being profitable due to a combination of Nagayo's desire to retire, reliance on free agent wrestlers, and many of the original members being inactive or wanting to move on. [3]
On February 5, 2020, Nagayo announced a one-night return for GAEA on April 15, 2020, in Korakuen Hall.
GAEA established the two All Asia Athlete Women's (AAAW) titles (with AAAW being a play on the WWWA acronym of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's titles), a singles championship and a tag team championship, on November 2, 1996. Originally, the singles belt was labeled "Heavyweight", while the tag team belts were labeled "Junior Heavyweight", but the weight class requirements were eliminated on May 31, 1998. The first AAAW Champion was GAEA founder Chigusa Nagayo. The belt was subsequently held by some of the most prominent Japanese women's wrestlers of the 1990s including Manami Toyota and Aja Kong. The AAAW Tag Team Championship was first held by Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato. Also, Uematsu's WCW Women's Cruiserweight Title was solely defended in GAEA after Uematsu won it in the United States until the title was abandoned after GAEA and WCW ceased their relationship.
The AAAW Single Championship and AAAW Tag Team Championship were revived in 2022 by Chigusa Nagayo's promotion Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling. The AAAW Single Championship was revived first, on January 10, 2022, with its first new champion being Takumi Iroha. The AAAW Tag Team Championship was later revived, on May 1, 2022, with Itsuki Aoki and Rin Kadokura winning a tag league tournament and obtaining the revived tag titles.
| Championship | Last Champion(s) | Previous | Date Won | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAAW Single Championship | Aja Kong | Meiko Satomura | April 3, 2005 | Yokohama, Japan |
| AAAW Tag Team Championship | Ran Yu-Yu & Toshie Uematsu | Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota | April 3, 2005 | Yokohama, Japan |
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.
Hisako Sasaki ; is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known as Akira Hokuto.
The World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Women's Heavyweight Championship was a title for the women's professional wrestling division in World Championship Wrestling. It lasted from 1996 until 1998, when it was abandoned. It is not to be confused with prior women's titles recognized by the promotion.
Chigusa Nagayo is a retired Japanese professional wrestler best known for her mainstream popularity in the 1980s as a member of the Crush Gals with long-time tag team partner Lioness Asuka. She was the founder of the GAEA Japan promotion. Nagayo is often regarded as the most popular and one of the greatest and most influential female wrestler of all time.
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.
Mayumi Ozaki is a Japanese professional wrestler. She is currently working for Oz Academy.
The World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Women's Cruiserweight Championship was a singles women's professional wrestling championship in World Championship Wrestling for smaller women. It was created as a joint venture between WCW and GAEA Japan. The weight limit for the women's cruiserweight division was 130 lb. The first champion was crowned in a four-woman tournament that began on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro on March 31, 1997 and concluded on April 7, 1997. Since the tournament final was only shown on WCW Main Event, and the results were never mentioned on WCW television again, it is speculated that the title was created solely to be used by the GAEA promotion in Japan. In fact, the title was defended and changed hands twice in Japan before being abandoned in early 1998.
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.
Meiko Satomura is a Japanese professional wrestler. She is currently signed to the American promotion WWE, where she performs on the NXT brand and the Japanese promotion Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling. She is a former one-time NXT UK Women's Champion.
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.
The AAAW Single Championship or AAAW Championship is a women's professional wrestling championship formerly contested in the Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion Gaea Japan until 2005 after the promotion was closed down. Originally a heavyweight championship, the weight class was dropped in 1998, making it an openweight title. On March 12, 2021 it was announced that the AAAW Singles Championship would be revived, along with the AAAW Tag Team Championship, at the GAEAISM show on April 29. It was revived in January 2022 and began being sanctioned by Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling ever since.
The AAAW Tag Team Championship is a women's professional wrestling championship formerly contested in the Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion Gaea Japan. The title which was originally known as the AAAW Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship before weight classes were dropped in 1998, was abandoned when GAEA closed in 2005. It was revived in May 2022 and began being sanctioned by Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling ever since.
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.
Kaoru Maeda is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name KAORU. Billed as the "Original Hardcore Queen", Kaoru is known for her wrestling style, which combines high-flying with hardcore wrestling. Trained by the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, Maeda worked in both Japan and Mexico in the late 80s and early 90s, before making her breakthrough in the Gaea Japan promotion, where she most notably was a founding member of the D-Fix stable. After the folding of Gaea Japan in 2005, Maeda became a freelancer, though closely affiliating herself with the Oz Academy promotion. After returning from a three-year-long injury break in March 2014, Maeda resumed working as a freelancer, before signing with the new Marvelous promotion in January 2015.
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.
Chikayo Nagashima is a Japanese professional wrestler. She started her career in 1995, working for the Gaea Japan promotion, where she became a one-time AAAW Single Champion and a record five-time AAAW Tag Team Champion. She was also notably one of the four founding members of the Oz Academy stable. Following the folding of Gaea Japan in 2005, Nagashima affiliated herself with Oz Academy, now a full-time promotion, where she has become a three-time Oz Academy Tag Team Champion and a one-time Oz Academy Openweight Champion, holding the record for the longest reign in the title's history. Nagashima remained with Oz Academy until August 2015, after which she became a freelancer.
Rieko Amano is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name Carlos Amano. Amano made her debut for JWP Joshi Puroresu in December 1994 and early on began also making appearances for the Gaea Japan promotion, where she most notably became one of the four founding members of the Oz Academy stable. Amano joined Gaea Japan full-time in 2002 and remained with the promotion until its folding in 2005, becoming a one-time AAAW Tag Team Champion. Afterwards, Amano began working for Oz Academy, now a full-time promotion, where she went on to become a two-time Oz Academy Openweight Champion and a three-time Oz Academy Tag Team Champion. Amano retired from professional wrestling in August 2014.
Sonoko Kato is a Japanese professional wrestler. She made her debut in April 1995, working for Gaea Japan, where she became one half of the inaugural AAAW Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. After becoming a two-time winner of the High Spurt 600 Tournament, Kato's career came to a halt following multiple injuries. After being sidelined for five years, Kato returned to the ring in October 2006, following the folding of Gaea Japan, and found a new home in the Oz Academy promotion, where she is a former two-time Oz Academy Openweight Champion and currently a six-time Oz Academy Tag Team Champion. Kato has also wrestled in the US for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and in Mexico for Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA).
Takumi Iroha is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling. She also competes in Seadlinnng, where she is a former Beyond the Sea Champion.
Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling often abbreviated simply as Marvelous is a Japanese joshi puroresu or women's professional wrestling promotion based in Chiba, Japan. It was founded by Chigusa Nagayo in 2014.
Archived Official Website at the Wayback Machine (archived August 16, 2000)
