Leon Allen White, better known by his ring names Big Van Vader or simply Vader, was an American professional wrestler and professional football player. Throughout his career, he performed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH) during the 1990s and 2000s. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest super-heavyweight professional wrestler of all time.
BattleBowl was a one-time professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The show took place on November 20, 1993, at the Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Florida. The event featured only the "BattleBowl Tournament", where the first round consisted of eight tag team matches where the teams were drawn at random in a "Lethal Lottery". Members of the winning teams would advance to the BattleBowl battle royal main event. Vader, who was already the WCW World Heavyweight Champion at the time of the show, received a ring for winning the tournament.
John Stanley Hansen II, best known as Stan "the Lariat" Hansen, is an American retired professional wrestler.
Genichiro Shimada, better known as Genichiro Tenryu is a retired Japanese 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. 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.
Kensuke Sasaki is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, and founder of the now-defunct wrestling promotion Diamond Ring.
Tatsumi Fujinami is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to WWE on a legend's contract. Fujinami is most well known for his long tenure with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a six-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. He was famously nicknamed "The Dragon", and is credited for inventing the dragon sleeper and the dragon suplex.
Tomomi "Tommy" Tsuruta, better known by his ring name Jumbo Tsuruta, was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) for most of his career, and is well known for being the first ever Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, having won the PWF Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National Championship, and the NWA International Heavyweight Championship, and unifying the three titles. He is also known for being one-half of the first World Tag Team Champions with Yoshiaki Yatsu, having won the NWA International Tag Team Championship and the PWF Tag Team Championship, and unifying the two titles.
WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling is a professional wrestling video game published by FCI, Inc. for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. The third World Championship Wrestling (WCW) video game, it is named after the pay-per-view SuperBrawl. It was the only WCW game to be released on the Super NES, and the last to be produced by FCI, Inc. A Sega Genesis version was planned but never released.
WCW vs. the World is a professional wrestling video game for the PlayStation video game console. It was the first game developed by The Man Breeze to be released outside Japan, and is an American localization of their Japanese game Virtual Pro Wrestling, the first game in the Virtual Pro Wrestling series. WCW vs. the World marks the first World Championship Wrestling video game released during its rise amidst the Monday Night Wars.
The Road Warriors, also known as the Legion of Doom, were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Road Warrior Hawk and Road Warrior Animal. They performed under the name "The Road Warriors" in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the name "Legion of Doom" (LOD) in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Under either name, their gimmick was the same – two imposing wrestlers in face paint. For brief periods, other wrestlers were added as stand-in partners for both men. In Japan in the 1990s, Kensuke "Power Warrior" Sasaki often teamed with Hawk and Animal, separately and together, while in WWE were joined by Ahmed Johnson and Droz in the 1990s and Heidenreich in the 2000s. The team also had three managers: Sunny in the 1990s, Christy Hemme in the 2000s, and Paul Ellering, the manager associated with the original team.
The Miracle Violence Connection was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy.
Wrestle Kingdom 2: Pro Wrestling Sekai Taisen is a professional wrestling video game for the PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to Yuke's Wrestle Kingdom.
Starrcade '93: 10th Anniversary was the 11th annual Starrcade professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling. It took place on December 27, 1993, from the Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. This was the first Starrcade to feature Ric Flair since the Starrcade in 1990.
Heigo Hamaguchi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Animal Hamaguchi. During his career he was recognized as a talented tag team wrestler despite his relatively small size for a heavyweight, and today he is recognized as a trainer in both professional and amateur wrestling. He is the father of freestyle wrestler Kyoko Hamaguchi.
Wrestling Dontaku 1993 was the first Wrestling Dontaku professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on May 3, 1993, in Fukuoka, Fukuoka at the Fukuoka Dome. As part of working relationships between NJPW and American promotions World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF), WCW's Sting and WWF's Brutus Beefcake, Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart took part in the event. Professional wrestlers from Japanese promotion Wrestle and Romance (WAR) also appeared at the event.
The Champion Carnival is a professional wrestling tournament held by All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). The tournament is also known by the nickname Haru no Saiten and is sometimes abbreviated to CC. Created by AJPW founder Giant Baba, the tournament has been held annually since 1973 and is the longest-running singles tournament in professional wrestling, while also ranking as the most prestigious event in the AJPW calendar. It is considered a successor to the World League, held by Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) between 1959 and 1972, predating the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) G1 Climax tournament by a year.
The 1995 Slamboree was the third Slamboree professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It took place on May 21, 1995 from the Bayfront Arena in St. Petersburg, Florida. Eric Bischoff filled in on commentary for Tony Schiavone at this event; Schiavone took time off to undergo neck surgery. Wahoo McDaniel, Angelo Poffo, Terry Funk, Antonio Inoki, Dusty Rhodes, Gordon Solie and Big John Studd were inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame during the show, which also marked Solie's final appearance on a wrestling broadcast following an announcing career dating back to the 1950s. Solie had declined induction into the Hall of Fame because of the presence of Poffo, whom he considered unworthy of the honor but who was included because of the influence of his son, top WCW star Randy Savage. After being surprised on air by the induction, Solie left WCW. The event also saw the last WCW PPV for ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta, who still appeared in TV tapings for the next month before being replaced.
The Greatest 18 Club Championship was a championship created and promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
The Wrestling Summit was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event that was produced and scripted collaboratively between the US-based World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and the Japanese All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotions. The joint venture show took place on April 13, 1990 in the Tokyo Dome, in Tokyo, Japan and reportedly drew 53,742 spectators. The event was the only time the three promotions produced a joint show, although NJPW and WWF had previously worked together in the 1970s and '80s.
