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Keiichi Yamada, better known as Jushin Liger and later Jushin Thunder Liger, is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is the longest-tenured member of the NJPW roster, having wrestled for the company since his debut in 1984 until his retirement in January 2020. Throughout his career, which spanned three-and-a-half decades, he wrestled over 4,000 matches and performed in major events for various promotions across the globe.
Masanori Murakawa, best known under his ring name The Great Sasuke, is a Japanese professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter and politician. He is the founder of Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW). Aside from professional wrestling, he is also a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly legislator. He has wrestled in Japan and in the United States in various professional wrestling promotions. He is said to have an incredible tolerance for pain, mainly in reference to the injuries he has had including a cracked skull on two occasions.
Shinjiro Otani is a semi-retired Japanese professional wrestler and the current acting president of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). He is currently inactive from pro-wrestling competition due to a cervical spine injury sustained in April 2022. A product of the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) dojo, Otani is best known for his longtime association with Zero1, a promotion he founded in 2001 along with Shinya Hashimoto.
The WCW Light Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship that was contested in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) between 1991 and 1992. Conceived in 1991, the championship was first awarded as the result of a single-elimination tournament; its subsequent lineage ended when the final champion Brad Armstrong was stripped of the title due to injury. A second tournament to decide Armstrong's successor was announced, but never took place. The title was held by four different champions; the inaugural champion Brian Pillman was the only wrestler to win it on more than one occasion.
The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Created in 1943, the title is competed for by junior heavyweight wrestlers.
Minoru Tanaka, also known by the ring names Heat and the mononymous Minoru, is a Japanese professional wrestler, shoot wrestler and mixed martial artist. He is currently signed to Gleat, predominantly performing in its G Prowrestling and Lidet UWF divisions; he also serves as Gleat's UWF Rules Technical Officer.
Wrestle Association R was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded and run by Genichiro Tenryu as the successor to Super World of Sports, and which lasted from 1992 to 2000. The promotion initially established as Wrestle and Romance in 1992 and had very few regular contracted workers; instead most of the workers were either freelance or employed in other promotions. Because of this WAR ran many all-star cards. It had inter-promotional feuds against New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, the new Tokyo Pro Wrestling, and UWF International. WAR also continued, albeit in a loose fashion, SWS's old working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation, when they backed the WWF's first Japanese tour, in 1994.
Osamu Matsuda is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and is better known by his stage name El Samurai.
The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world junior heavyweight championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. Only wrestlers under the junior heavyweight weight-limit may hold the championship. NJPW currently controls two junior heavyweight championships: the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The weight-limit for the title is 100 kg (220 lb). The current champion is Sho, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating El Desperado at The New Beginning in Sapporo on February 23, 2024.
Kōji Kanemoto is a Japanese professional wrestler of Zainichi Korean descent. He has previously worked with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling. He is currently a freelancer.
Tatsuhito Takaiwa is a Zainichi-Korean professional wrestler. Takaiwa is one of the more well-traveled junior heavyweights in Japan, having wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and Pro Wrestling Zero1, as well as making special appearances in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah.
The British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship that although being created in England, was most notorious in Japan.
Yuji Yasuraoka is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Wrestle Association R, where he became a one-time Tenry Project International Junior Heavyweight Champion and a four-time Tenryu Project International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.
Wrestling World 1997 was a professional wrestling event co-produced by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) promotions. It took place on January 4, 1997 in the Tokyo Dome. Officially, the show drew 62,500 spectators and $5,000,000 in ticket sales. The show featured 12 matches, including four matches that were promoted jointly with the BJW promotion and presented as a rivalry between the two promotions. The show featured 12 matches in total, including three title matches, two of which saw new champions crowned.
Super J-Cup: 1st Stage was the first Super J-Cup professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on April 16, 1994, at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The tournament featured fourteen junior heavyweight wrestlers and was created by Jushin Thunder Liger and was the first NJPW event to feature only junior heavyweight wrestlers. The event received critical acclaim and commercial success, leading to Japanese promotions hosting more editions of the tournament, leading to the event being renamed the Super J-Cup: 1st Stage in later years.
Super J-Cup: 2nd Stage was the second Super J-Cup professional wrestling tournament, it was hosted by Wrestle Association R and produced by WAR wrestler Último Dragón. The tournament was held to determine the top junior heavyweight of the world for that year. The event took place on December 13, 1995, at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Like the previous year, the 1995 event brought in wrestlers from the promotions from all over the world including previous year's host New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), Social Progressive Wrestling Federation (SPWF), Wrestle Association R (WAR) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).
Super J-Cup: 3rd Stage was the third Super J-Cup professional wrestling tournament, it was hosted by Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW). The tournament was a single-elimination tournament of four rounds and was a two-night event featuring junior heavyweights from various Japanese promotions. The first round of the event was held on April 1, 2000 at Sendai City Gymnasium in Sendai, Japan and the final three rounds were held on April 9, 2000 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan, which had been the site for the previous two tournaments. This event marked the first time that the Super J-Cup was held at an additional venue rather than Sumo Hall.
The Skydiving-J was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on June 17, 1996 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. The event was notable for revolutionizing junior heavyweight wrestling in NJPW and Japanese wrestling history. The event aired on television on TV Asahi on July 6, 1996. All of the matches contested at the event were junior heavyweight championship matches from different promotions from Japan. This was a very significant event in the revolution of junior heavyweight wrestling as title defences from various promotions at the event would result in the unification of various junior heavyweight championships to create the J-Crown.
Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome was a two-night professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4 and 5, 2020, at the Tokyo Dome, in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 29th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the 14th promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name; it was also the first time the event was held over two days, instead of taking place solely on January 4.
Final Dome was a major professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took place on October 12, 1999 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan and was televised live on TV Asahi.
