 Logo of Super World of Sports | |
| Acronym | SWS |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 1990 |
| Defunct | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Tokyo, Japan |
| Split from | All Japan Pro Wrestling |
| Successor | Wrestle Association R Social Pro Wrestling Federation Network of Wrestling Pro Wrestling Crusaders |
Super World of Sports, also known as Super World Sports or simply as SWS, was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion from 1990 to 1992. Its motto was "Straight and Strong".
In April 1990, Genichiro Tenryu, one of the top stars of All Japan Pro Wrestling, left the company to become a spokesmodel for Megane Super, whom were one of the best-known makers of eyeglasses in Japan at the time. However, the company decided to instead used him as the launching pad for a new pro-wrestling circuit, which Megane Super executive Hachiro Tanaka named Super World of Sports.
With his backing, Megane Super began throwing money offers around to build up their roster. Yoshiaki Yatsu, Ashura Hara, Shunji Takano, The Great Kabuki, Hiromichi Fuyuki, Tatsumi "Koki" Kitahara, Masao Orihara, Isao Takagi (the future Arashi), and referee Hiroyuki Umino joined in from All-Japan. But SWS would attract New Japan Pro-Wrestling talent as well, including George Takano (the former Cobra), Naoki Sano, Hisakatsu Oya, Akira Katayama, former superstar yokozuna (grand champion in sumo wrestling) Koji Kitao, and Stampede Wrestling powerhouse Dino Ventura (605 lb bench press) who had extraordinary MMA and technical wrestling skills. Because of this, fans, wrestlers, and administrators of other Japanese promotions criticized SWS as being a "money puroresu" (Megane Super being the money mark) because of the way wrestlers flocked to it. The feeling was compounded when in October, SWS signed a working relationship contract with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, for interpromotional purposes.
The SWS/WWF co-promotion produced several cards, including two shows at the Tokyo Dome. The events took place on March 30, 1991, and December 12, 1991 [1] (The March show saw a near-shoot between former sumos Kitao and Earthquake; Kitao was fired for subsequently cutting a shoot promo exposing the business afterwards). SWS also had a small agreement with two smaller Japanese federations, Gran Hamada's Universal Lucha Libre and Yoshiaki Fujiwara's Fujiwara Gumi (shoot-style wrestling), which provided alternative matches and opponents to the cards.
SWS's peak coincided with the general Japanese economic downturn of the early 1990s, though AJPW and NJPW continued to do good business during that period. Along with criticism of the wrestlers for selling out their original promotions, which was still fairly rare at that time, SWS was also hampered by the lack of Japanese vs Japanese rivalries, which had become a staple of NJPW and AJPW booking since the mid-eighties. Tenryu mainly battled foreigners such as Hogan and Flair since none of the other Japanese wrestlers in SWS were positioned as being at or near his level. As Megane Super began withdrawing its support, the company began running fewer cards, and in May 1992 Yatsu withdrew. On June 19 1992, SWS held its final card at Nagasaki International Gym. The promotion's talent split into the following federations: Yatsu's SPWF; Tenryu's new promotion, WAR, including Hara, Fuyuki, Kitahara; NOW, including Kendo Nagasaki, and PWC, including the Takano brothers and Takagi.
Unlike many wrestling promotions, SWS had a wrestling roster that was divided into three stables, reminiscent of the sumo heya system. Revolution was mostly AJPW alumni, Palaestra was mostly NJPW alumni, and Geki Dojo were neutrals led by a heel manager, KY Wakamatsu. Yoshiaki Yatsu, who defected from AJPW three months after Tenryu, was added to Geki Dojo to give the group a senior level star.
Revolution | Geki Dojo | Palaestra
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SWS never had a Heavyweight Championship.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||
| 1 | Naoki Sano | December 12, 1991 | SWS/WWF SuperWrestle | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 190 | Won a tournament to become the SWS/Japanese representative and then defeated WWF representative Rick Martel to become the inaugural champion. | [2] |
| — | Deactivated | June 19, 1992 | — | — | — | — | Title retired when SWS closed. | [2] |
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific team—reign numbers for the individuals are in parentheses, if different |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||
| 1 | Yoshiaki Yatsu and King Haku | February 14, 1992 | Live event | Kyoto, Japan | 1 | 62 | Defeated Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara in a tournament final to become the first champions. | [3] |
| 2 | George Takano and Shunji Takano | April 16, 1992 | Live event | Minamiashigara, Japan | 1 | 1 | [3] | |
| 3 | The Natural Disasters (Earthquake John Tenta and Typhoon) | April 17, 1992 | Live event | Yokohama, Japan | 1 | 1 | [3] [4] | |
| 4 | Yoshiaki Yatsu and King Haku | April 18, 1992 | Live event | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 62 | [3] | |
| — | Deactivated | June 19, 1992 | — | — | — | — | Title retired when SWS closed. | [3] |
Genichiro Shimada, better known as Genichiro Tenryu is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling. "Tenryu" was his shikona. He had two stints with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he spent the majority of his career while also promoting Super World of Sports (SWS), Wrestle Association R (WAR) and Tenryu Project. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. At the time of his retirement, professional wrestling journalist and historian Dave Meltzer wrote that "one could make a strong case [that Tenryu was] between the fourth and sixth biggest native star" in the history of Japanese professional wrestling.
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