Pro wrestling in Japan
 

I dont watch much Japanese wrestling and I have a few questions. How many major promotions are there in Japan? In Mexico the main ones are AAA and CMLL, and a few minor promotions. I noticed alot of wrestlers compete in diffrent companies, are wrestlers able to work in any company or do certain ones have working relationships?

I do not know too much about it I'll pass along what little I do know.

The big ones are

New Japan Pro-Wrestling
All Japan Pro Wrestling
Pro Wrestling NOAH
Inoki G-Nome(spelling) Federation

There is one or two more big 'ish ones. Masato Tanaka wrestles for one of them I believe.

I know New Japan Pro Wrestling has agreements with Pro Wrestling NOAH and some other Japanese wrestling promotions, TNA, AAA, CMLL and do inter promotional matches on occasions.

Pro Wrestling ZERO 1
and some promotion called HUSTLE

are the others i could not think of

I don't think Inoki's is big.

In fact, the only one I would call big at this point, is New Japan. All Japan has been shit for years, and Noah isn't the same without Misiwa, and with Kobashi held together with scotch tape. Should have pushed Akiyama properly all these years.

Ouch, while I can agree that the atmosphere had certainly changed after the death of Misawa (in my opinion pro wrestling in general lost a great man that day) NOAH still has many talented competitors, KENTA and Marufuji come to mind, along with many others. Also, Kobashi is still one of the toughest men in the world, scotch tape be damned!

Honestly, NOAH is probably the one I watch the most, though I do catch matches from both NJPW and Hustle from time to time. Hard to say which I feel is the biggest (i.e. the WWE of Japan) but I'm guessing it's NJPW as it's had the most coverage here in the states.

Oh, and to answer Roller's question: I think the guidelines for appearing on different promotions may be pretty lax since I've seen wrestlers like Liger appear multiple times on more than one of them. But I can't say for certain.

DDT is pretty big.

I saw one of Matato's recient matches and WOW, I bearly recognized him (in a good way). He use to be kinda pudgy in ECW but now he's cut and ripped. What would be considered a major promotion in Japan. Most of us consider a major promotion in America one that has a national weekly TV show, has monthly PPVs is that the same in Japan?

Not really. They have a tour based system in Japan.

Also, I think wrestling as a whole is covered more on television over there.

Speak to this guy...http://www.tpww.net/forums/member.php?u=14759

NJPW is the only "big" company over there right now. NOAH is the de facto second. They aren't bad by any means, and have great talent, but they aren't drawing in huge numbers anymore. Still, they're getting by.

AJPW or Dragon Gate is probably third, but I heard Dragon Gate's business is dropping too. Inoki's company is more like a UFC type thing, in the sense that it only does occasional shows, and as far as I know, it doesn't "tour" like a wrestling company does. IE, NOAH, NJPW, etc, they have house shows, where INoki's thing is essentially only the occasional "ppv" type show.

Yeah, he looks to be in phenomenal lean shape.

I still have no idea how he does not have MASSIVE brain trauma though when you consider how many unprotected UBER hard chair shots he's taken to the cranium.

Homer Simpson Syndrome.

Take it away DLVH84