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149-748: Nakajima began training professional wrestling with the Major Girl's Fighting AtoZ promotion at the age of 16 in 2005 and made her debut on January 3, 2006, facing fellow rookie Mika Mizunuma in Korakuen Hall . During her first months in the business, Nakajima wrestled several other matches against Mizunuma, including a "Best of Three" match series in February and a singles rematch on March 18 in Korakuen Hall, which Nakajima went on to win. Nakajima and Mizunuma also wrestled against each other at

298-415: A battle royal to earn her way back into the semifinals of the tournament. On July 16, Ohata was eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Ryo Mizunami . On July 27, Black Dahlia and rival group White Tails wrestled to a draw in a five-on-five gauntlet match , from which Ohata was eliminated after wrestling Mio Shirai to a ten-minute time limit draw. Afterwards, Ohata blamed her stablemates in

447-618: A mask and the ring name Yapper Man #3 ( ヤッペーマン3号 , Yappēman San Gō ) . In the past, she has also made appearances for American promotion Shimmer Women Athletes , where she is a former Shimmer Tag Team Champion . In January 2006, Ohata relocated from her hometown of Sendai to Tokyo , in order to begin training professional wrestling under Mariko Yoshida at the dojo of the JDStar promotion . On October 25, 2006, Ohata passed an audition held in front of Yoshida, JDStar owner Rossy Ogawa and booker Daisuke Kobayashi and graduated from

596-446: A " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to the platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of

745-516: A 196-day reign, she lost the titles to Hiroyo Matsumoto on December 21 at an event held by the Ibuki promotion. On February 21, 2009, Nakajima, teaming with Toujyuki Leon , received her first shot at the JWP Tag Team and Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Championships , but the two were defeated by the defending champions, Keito and Yumiko Hotta . On April 19, Nakajima was defeated by Saki Maemura in

894-527: A Wrestling Marvelous of the Future (WMF) event on March 27, with Nakajima picking up the win. However, Nakajima's run with AtoZ ended abruptly, when the promotion folded following a May 3 event in Korakuen Hall. While still affiliated with AtoZ, Nakajima made her debut for JWP Joshi Puroresu on April 30, 2006, when she faced Kaori Yoneyama in a losing effort. Following the folding of AtoZ, Nakajima began working regularly for JWP, starting on May 21. However, she

1043-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over

1192-532: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so

1341-519: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to

1490-585: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from

1639-718: A chance to reach the finals. They were, however, eliminated after wrestling Command Bolshoi and Kyoko Kimura to a twenty-minute time limit draw. This led to a match on April 20, where Nakajima made her second successful defense of the JWP Openweight Championship against Kimura. Nakajima continued her reign with successful title defenses against Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling representative Dash Chisako on July 13, Leon on September 15, and Hanako Nakamori on October 26. After her win over Nakamori, Nakajima nominated Ice Ribbon's ICE×∞ Champion Tsukasa Fujimoto as her next challenger. Fujimoto later answered Nakajima with

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1788-408: A cover of Rebecca 's song Friends , which was also their entrance theme as a tag team. Professional wrestling Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling ) is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that

1937-582: A cute babyface , January 2011 saw Ohata undergo a character overhaul, when she turned heel and came together with Bambi, Hiren and Yumi Ohka to form the Black Wave stable . On February 14, the group was renamed Black Dahlia, after the 1947 murder case , with Ohata positioned as the de facto leader. In July, Ohata made it to the finals of the Catch the Wave tournament, before losing to Kana . During

2086-493: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Misaki Ohata Misaki Oishi ( 大石 美咲 , Ōishi Misaki , born January 5, 1989) , better known by her maiden name Misaki Ohata ( 大畠 美咲 , Ōhata Misaki ) ,

2235-405: A draw in their opening round-robin match. After wins over Apple Miyuki and Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru and Wave Tag Team Champions Gami and Tomoka Nakagawa, Ohata and Fujimoto finished their round-robin block with five points, winning their block and advancing to the finals of the tournament. On November 16, Ohata and Fujimoto defeated Shuu Shibutani and Syuri to win the 2012 Dual Shock Wave and earn

2384-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers

2533-414: A genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has a more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for

2682-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have

2831-799: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned

2980-609: A match on April 29 in Aya Yuki's home promotion, NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling, where Nakajima successfully defended the JWP Junior Championship against her. During the summer of 2007, Nakajima also took part in JDStar's League Princess tournament. The tournament concluded on June 17, when Nakajima defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Yuri Urai in a three-way Dogfight final to not only win the tournament, but to also become

3129-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to

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3278-468: A nomination of her own, leading to JWP and Ice Ribbon announcing a double title match for December 28 at Korakuen Hall . First at Ribbon Mania 2014 , Ice Ribbon's biggest annual event, Fujimoto would defend the ICE×∞ Championship against Nakajima and six hours later at JWP–Climax 2014 , JWP's biggest event of the year, Nakajima would defend the JWP Openweight Championship against Fujimoto. Meanwhile,

3427-677: A rematch to become the new Wave Tag Team Champions. On October 9, Ohata and Mizunami became double tag team champions, when they defeated Hiiragi Kurumi and Tsukushi at an Ice Ribbon event for the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship . On December 29, Ohata won her third Zan1 tournament, which granted her the right to challenge for the Wave Single Championship, which had been won by her tag team partner Ryo Mizunami earlier that same day. On January 28, 2017, Ohata and Mizunami lost

3576-463: A representative of Bousou-gun. Back in JWP, Nakajima entered a storyline, where Kana began professing her love for her, even naming Nakajima the next challenger to her JWP Openweight Championship. On December 15, Nakajima defeated Kana to regain the JWP Openweight Championship. That same evening, Nakajima won her second JWP MVP award in a row, while her match with Kana that same day was named the 2013 Match of

3725-576: A shot at the JWP Tag Team and Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Championships, but were unable to dethrone the defending champions, Emi Sakura and Kaori Yoneyama. On June 24, Nakajima and Katsu made their debuts for the Reina X World promotion, losing to La Malcriada and Zeuxis in the main event of the evening. Nakajima and Katsu picked up their first Reina X World win at the following event on July 7, when they defeated Micro and Puchi Tomato. Through JWP's working relationship with Ice Ribbon, Nakajima returned to

3874-528: A shot at the Wave Tag Team Championship. On November 27, Ohata and Fujimoto defeated Gami and Tomoka Nakagawa to win the Wave Tag Team Championship. Ohata and Fujimoto made their first successful title defense on December 16 against 1st Impact ( Makoto and Moeka Haruhi). Later that same day, Ohata earned the fourth and final spot in the upcoming Wave Single Championship tournament , after finishing two points ahead of Mio Shirai at

4023-455: A singles match, which was won by Ohata. Following the win, Ohata announced that she had signed with the Zabun production company, effectively making Pro Wrestling Wave her new home promotion and officially ending her freelancing days. On September 25, Ohata entered the 2012 Dual Shock Wave tournament with her handpicked partner Tsukasa Fujimoto, with the two wrestling Ayako Hamada and Kana to

4172-446: A singles match. Following the match, JWP sidelined Nakajima from in-ring action due to "poor health". On May 31, Nakajima officially quit JWP and three days later announced her retirement from professional wrestling, however, keeping the door open for a possible return down the road. After remaining inactive for two and a half years, Nakajima made a surprise return to JWP on December 23, 2011, announcing that she would be making her return

4321-401: A six-woman tag team main event. On September 13, Ohata and Shirai made their second successful defense of the Wave Tag Team Championship against Hiroyo Matsumoto and Ryo Mizunami. On September 20, Ohata and Shirai relinquished the Wave Tag Team Championship at the end of Shirai's retirement event. Ohata then formed a new tag team named "Avid Rival" with Ryo Mizunami in an attempt to regain

4470-423: A tag team match by Haze and Tomoka Nakagawa. At the following day's tapings of Volumes 31 and 32 , Ohata was defeated in singles matches by Cheerleader Melissa and Sara Del Rey , respectively. Ohata returned to Shimmer five months later on September 11, defeating Portuguese Princess Ariel and losing to Nikki Roxx at the tapings of Volumes 33 and 34 . The following day on Volumes 35 and 36 , Ohata

4619-500: A thirty-minute time limit draw. On February 17, Ohata was eliminated from the Wave Single Championship tournament in her first round match by Yumi Ohka. On April 21, Ohata and Fujimoto lost the Wave Tag Team Championship to Kana and Mio Shirai in their fourth title defense. From May 6 to June 19, Ohata took part in the round-robin portion of the 2013 Catch the Wave , finishing with a record of two wins, two draws and two losses. On June 28, Ohata defeated Kagetsu and Ryo Mizunami in

Arisa Nakajima - Misplaced Pages Continue

4768-419: A thirty-minute time limit draw. From May 11 to July 4, Ohata took part in the round-robin portion of the 2014 Catch the Wave tournament, finishing with a record of three wins, two draws and one loss, advancing to the knockout stage after a win over Mio Shirai in their final round-robin match. On July 27, Ohata first defeated Tsukasa Fujimoto in the first round and then Yumi Ohka in the semifinals to advance to

4917-408: A three-minute exhibition match. Nakajima wrestled her official return match on October 18 at a World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana event. During a tag team match, where she and Kyoko Inoue faced Yumiko Hotta and Mask de Sun, Nakajima turned on Inoue and joined Hotta's Bousou-gun stable, vowing to show her violent side in the future. Following the turn, Nakajima began making regular appearances for Diana as

5066-423: A three-way playoff match to claim third place in her block and advance to the knockout stage of the tournament. On July 15, Ohata first defeated Tomoka Nakagawa in the first round, then Yuu Yamagata in the semifinals and finally JWP Joshi Puroresu representative and JWP Openweight Champion Arisa Nakajima in the finals to win the 2013 Catch the Wave. As a result of the win, Ohata became the number one contender to

5215-405: A tournament for the vacant JWP Junior Championship , defeating Hanako Kobayashi in her first round match. The tournament continued on December 12, when Nakajima defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto in her semifinal match. Finally, on Christmas Eve, Nakajima defeated Ice Ribbon representative Aoi Kizuki in the finals to become the new JWP Junior Champion. JWP's year ended with the promotion naming Nakajima

5364-503: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in

5513-586: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point

5662-452: Is a Japanese retired professional wrestler . She is best known for her work while signed to the Zabun production company and its two promotions; Pro Wrestling Wave and Osaka Joshi Pro Wrestling. She is a former one-time Wave Single Champion and a three-time Wave Tag Team Champion . She also works behind the scenes as Zabun's human resources director . She also made regular appearances for Michinoku Pro Wrestling , where she performed under

5811-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted

5960-575: The Beyond the Sea Tag Team Championship . Nakajima and Sasamura vacated the title on February 28, 2019, after Sasamura was sidelined with a leg injury. On March 20, Nakajima and Sae defeated Himeka Arita and Miyuki Takase to win the vacant Beyond the Sea Tag Team Championship. The duo held the championship until April 28, when they lost the title to Himeka Arita and Miyuki Takase. On September 18, Nakajima defeated Takumi Iroha to win

6109-680: The Japan Expo in France . On May 31, 2009, Ohata defeated Dash Chisako at Ibuki #29 to become the number one contender to the JWP Junior and Princess of Pro-Wrestling Championships . Later that same day, Ohata defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto to win the titles. On July 12, Ohata made her first successful title defense, defeating Io Shirai at Ibuki #30 . On November 8 at Ibuki #32 , Ohata unsuccessfully challenged Emi Sakura for Ice Ribbon's ICE×60 Championship . On December 20, Ohata lost

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6258-624: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In

6407-776: The United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including a distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by

6556-495: The performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain

6705-584: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in

6854-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in

7003-509: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide

7152-411: The 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance the spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from

7301-542: The 2006 Newcomer of the Year. Before the end of the year, Nakajima made her first successful defense of her newly won title, when she defeated Mai Ichii at a NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling event on December 31. On April 8, 2007, Nakajima entered the Discover New Heroine Tag Tournament, teaming with JWP Openweight Champion Azumi Hyuga. In their first round match, Nakajima and Hyuga defeated

7450-653: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike

7599-624: The Beyond the Sea Single Championship. On November 2, Nakajima successfully defended the title in a Hair vs. Hair match by defeating the inaugural champion Takahashi, forcing her to shave her head. On July 13, 2020, Nakajima lost the title to Yoshiko , ending her reign at 299 days with four successful title defenses. On October 3, Best Friends won the Beyond the Sea Tag Team Championship, when Fujimoto and Nakajima defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Yoshiko. On November 27, Best Friends lost

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7748-601: The Daily Sports Women's Tag Team and JWP Tag Team Championships to Hanako Nakamori and Kyoko Kimura in their fourth title defense. After four successful title defenses, Best Friends lost the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship to Hiiragi Kurumi and Tsukushi on September 19. On October 9, Nakajima lost the JWP Openweight Championship to Kyoko Kimura in her third defense. On November 3, Nakajima defeated Kimura to win

7897-662: The Fighting Spirit award. On February 11, 2008, Nakajima entered a tournament to determine the number one contender to the JWP Openweight Championship. After winning only one of her four round-robin stage matches, Nakajima failed to advance to the finals of the tournament. On June 8, Nakajima defeated Tyrannosaurus Okuda at a JWP event to regain the JWP Junior and Princess of Pro-Wrestling Championships. Nakajima made her first title defense on October 12, defeating Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling representative Ryo Mizunami. After

8046-519: The Ice Ribbon event, Nakajima and Shida defeated Hamuko Hoshi and Kayoko Haruyama to advance to the JWP event, where they defeated Command Bolshoi and Hikari Minami in their semifinal match, which went to an overtime after an original fifteen-minute time limit draw. However, in the finals of the tournament later that same event, Nakajima and Shida were defeated by the team of Hanako Nakamori and Maki Narumiya . In August, Nakajima became one of

8195-500: The JWP Junior and Princess of Pro-Wrestling Championships to Ryo Mizunami at a Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling event. In early 2010, Ibuki ceased its operations, after which Ohara began working as a freelancer on the Japanese independent circuit. However, until August 2012 she remained affiliated with Ibuki's production company, S Ovation, through which she, Hiroyo Matsumoto and Tomoka Nakagawa produced their own independent events under

8344-416: The JWP Openweight Championship for a record-tying fourth time. Following the win, Nakajima announced her resignation from JWP, effective December 28. On December 28, Nakajima lost the JWP Openweight Championship to Hanako Nakamori in her final match under a JWP contract. On January 26, 2017, Nakajima wrestled her first match as a freelancer for Seadlinnng , losing to the promotion's founder Nanae Takahashi in

8493-415: The JWP Openweight Championship for the first time. Afterwards, the bloody champion, thirteen years younger than her opponent and the second youngest JWP Openweight Champion in history, announced that she wanted to defend the title against wrestlers from her own generation. Three days later, Nakajima was named JWP's MVP of 2012, while her and Bolshoi's tag team title match with Sakura and Yoneyama from August 19

8642-578: The JWP Openweight Championship for the third time. On June 24, Nakajima made her American debut for Shimmer Women Athletes , defeating Nicole Matthews at Volume 81 . The following day on Volume 82 , Nakajima challenged Madison Eagles for the Shimmer Championship , losing by disqualification when Eagles was attacked by Viper . Nakajima ended her Shimmer tour on June 26 by defeating Rhia O'Reilly on Volume 84 and Shazza McKenzie on Volume 85 . On August 14, Nakajima and Fujimoto lost

8791-555: The JWP Seikigun, represented by Nakajima, Bolshoi, Kayoko Haruyama and Manami Katsu, were defeated in an eight-woman captain's fall elimination tag team main event by Emi Sakura's and Kaori Yoneyama's new Heart Move Kei Reform (HMK) stable , which in addition to the two also included Hanako Nakamori and Morii. Nakajima was the only JWP representative not eliminated from the match. On October 28, Nakajima and Bolshoi successfully defended their titles against Nakamori and Morii. Following

8940-407: The JWP Tag Team and Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Championships. On December 28, Nakajima first unsuccessfully challenged Fujimoto for the ICE×∞ Championship at Ribbon Mania 2014 , before defeating her for her sixth successful defense of the JWP Openweight Championship at JWP–Climax 2014 . The following day, Nakajima was named JWP's MVP for the third year in a row, while her title defense against Leon

9089-487: The JWP duo. On November 18, Nakajima lost the JWP Junior and POP Championship to Okuda in the main event of a Sendai Girls' event. The year ended with JWP's fifth Junior All Star event, during which Nakajima teamed with Hanako Kobayashi and Hiroyo Matsumoto to defeat Okuda, Aoi Kizuki and Aya Yuki in a main event "Best of Juniors" match. The year ended with Nakajima being named the MVP of JWP's Junior division, while also being given

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9238-761: The JWP promotion, forming the Shishi no Ana stable, later renamed Labradorite, with Leon and Hanako Nakamori. On October 29, Ohata returned to Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling under the ring name Miyako Morino ( 杜野 都 , Morino Miyako ) , a play on the nickname of the city of Sendai, the "City of Trees" ( 杜の都 , Mori no Miyako ) . Morino was billed as Ohata's triplet sister. On October 27, Ohata as Miayko Morino, Dash Chisako , Hiren, Kagetsu, Meiko Satomura, Ryo Mizunami and Sendai Sachiko won Sendai Girls' Joshi Puroresu Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament, where different joshi promotions battled each other. She wrestled regularly for Sendai Girls' until July 29, 2013, when she left

9387-711: The July 16 event, which would also turn out to be JDStar's final event. In Ibuki, which had the goal of introducing the next generation of joshi stars to the world of professional wrestling, Ohata underwent further training under Yoshida alongside the likes of Hiroyo Matsumoto, Ray and Tomoka Nakagawa , while also forming the tag team Seven Star Sisters (3S) with Matsumoto. During late 2007 and early 2008, Ohata also began making appearances for various independent promotions , including Ice Ribbon , JWP Joshi Puroresu , Oz Academy , Pro Wrestling Wave and Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling . In July 2008, Ohata represented Ibuki at

9536-593: The NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling duo of Nagisa Nozaki and Yuki Miyazaki. On April 15, Nakajima and Hyuga first defeated Ayumi Kurihara and Yoshiko Tamura , also representing NEO, in their second round match and then the Passion Red team of Nanae Takahashi and Natsuki☆Taiyo in the semifinals. Later that same event, Nakajima and Hyuga were defeated in the finals of the tournament by the team of Aya Yuki and Misae Genki. The loss led to

9685-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from

9834-488: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into

9983-559: The Wave Single Championship, held by rival Yumi Ohka. Ohata received her title shot on August 25, but was defeated by Ohka. Also in August, Ohata was promoted to the backstage role of a human resources director within Zabun. Afterwards, Ohata reunited with Mio Shirai under the team name "Plus Minus Zero 2013" for the 2013 Dual Shock Wave . However, after the team lost three of their first four matches, they were, per pre-tournament stipulations, instantly eliminated and not allowed to finish

10132-433: The Wave Tag Team Championship to Over Sun (Yuki Miyazaki and Yumi Ohka) in their third defense. Afterwards, Ohata announced that she would challenge Mizunami for the Wave Single Championship on February 11. Mizunami ended up retaining the title in the match. On March 26, 2017, Ohata and Mizunami lost the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship back to Kurumi and Tsukushi in their fourth defense. In June, Ohata made it to

10281-413: The Wave Tag Team Championship. They entered the 2015 Dual Shock Wave tournament, contested for the vacant title, but were defeated in the semifinals on October 18 by Kayoko Haruyama and Tsubasa Kuragaki . On December 23, Ohata and Mizunami received another shot at the title, now held by Ayako Hamada and Yuu Yamagata, but were defeated. On August 7, 2016, Ohata and Mizunami defeated Hamada and Yamagata in

10430-518: The Year. Prior to the title win, Nakajima had agreed to a double title match with World of Stardom Champion Io Shirai on the condition that she could regain the JWP Openweight Championship. The day after her title win, the match, where both titles would be on the line, was made official for World Wonder Ring Stardom 's year-end event on December 29. The match ended in a thirty-minute time limit draw, meaning that both champions retained their titles. Meanwhile, Nakajima continued her rivalry with Kana, with

10579-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight

10728-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that

10877-561: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As

11026-592: The banner of "Joshi 4 Hope". After only making few appearances per year for Pro Wrestling Wave since 2007, Ohata began working for the promotion more regularly in late 2009. On December 23, 2009, Ohata teamed with Moeka Haruhi to defeat Io and Mio , the Shirai sisters, for the TLW World Young Women's Tag Team Championship. They would hold the title for six months, before losing it to Bambi and Basara on July 4, 2010. Having worked her entire career as

11175-412: The broader public. In the United States, wrestling is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as

11324-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who

11473-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards

11622-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling

11771-512: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about

11920-468: The competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in

12069-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine

12218-492: The defending champions, Las Aventureras (Ayako Hamada and Yuu Yamagata). On November 20, Ohata combined her two tag teams with Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto to form a trio named Kuros for a 6-Person Tag Tournament. In their first round 20-minute Point Dash match , the three defeated Meat Tech (Hiroyo Matsumoto, Ryo Mizunami and Sawako Shimono) 5–4, following a sudden death round. On November 27, Kuros defeated Classic Gohan (Cherry, Mika Iida and Shuu Shibutani) to advance to

12367-505: The dojo, eventually becoming the dojo's final graduate. She made her professional wrestling debut on December 10, 2006, facing Hiroyo Matsumoto in a losing effort. Ohata's career started with a losing streak, typical for a rookie in Japanese professional wrestling, which ended on April 30, 2007, when she defeated Kaori Ohki. On June 18, JDStar, which had recently been battling financial difficulties, announced that Ohata would be transferring over to Mariko Yoshida's Ibuki promotion following

12516-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and

12665-499: The end of the Zan-1 tournament, a three-round tournament, which included a battle royal, a rock-paper-scissors round and a fan vote. Ohata's and Fujimoto's second successful title defense took place on December 23, when they defeated Naniwa☆Bonjo Venus (Apple Miyuki and Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru). Ohata and Fujimoto made their third successful title defense on January 4, 2013, when they wrestled Shidarezakura ( Hikaru Shida and Yumi Ohka) to

12814-603: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to

12963-515: The finals of the 2017 Catch the Wave , before losing to Rina Yamashita. On October 9, Ohata defeated Yamashita to win the Wave Single Championship for the first time. She lost the title to Yumi Ohka on December 29. On April 10, 2010, Ohata made her American debut for the Shimmer Women Athletes promotion, defeating Daizee Haze on Volume 29 . Later that same day on Volume 30 , Ohata and Jamilia Craft were defeated in

13112-511: The finals of the 2013 Catch the Wave, where she was defeated by Misaki Ohata. Back in JWP on July 28, Nakajima defeated Command Bolshoi to not only make her third successful defense of the JWP Openweight Championship, but to also win the CMLL-Reina International Championship . On August 18, Nakajima lost the JWP Openweight Championship to Kana in her third title defense, ending her reign at 237 days. Following

13261-415: The finals of the 2014 Catch the Wave, where she was defeated by Hikaru Shida. On September 15, Ohata and Mio Shirai unsuccessfully challenged Sakuragohan (Mika Iida and Kyusei Sakura Hirota) for the Wave Tag Team Championship, which also forced them to start the upcoming 2014 Dual Shock Wave from the first round. On September 23, Ohata and Shirai defeated Tsukasa Fujimoto and Yumi Ohka in the first round of

13410-426: The finals of the tournament, a captain's fall match , where they were defeated by Revolucion Yoko Hatanaka (Gami, Kyoko Kimura and Tomoka Nakagawa). Following the tournament, Kuros remained together as a three-woman stable. On December 15, Ohata won her second Zan1 tournament, earning another shot at the Wave Single Championship. Ohata received her title shot on January 26, 2014, but her match with Yumi Ohka ended in

13559-762: The finals. On April 14, Nakajima defeated Yumiko Hotta in a No Holds Barred match for her second successful defense of the JWP Openweight Championship, avenging a tag team match loss against the World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana representative from a month earlier. On April 25, Nakajima made her debut for Wrestling New Classic (WNC), taking part in a seven-way match for the WNC Women's Championship . The match, which also included Command Bolshoi, Kayoko Haruyama, Nikki Storm and Syuri , ended when Lin Byron pinned defending champion Makoto to become

13708-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In

13857-439: The first time in her career. Back in JWP on May 5, Nakajima's friendship with Kana exploded into a storyline rivalry between the two, when Kana submitted Nakajima at the end of a heated tag team match. Post-match, Nakajima and Kana came to blows, before being separated by other JWP wrestlers. This new rivalry also led to matches between Nakajima and Kana in other promotions, including Osaka Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Wave . In

14006-456: The following year. Nakajima wrestled her return match on April 22, 2012, at JWP's 20th anniversary event, where she teamed with her former Hysteric Babe partner Sachie Abe in a losing effort against the team of Hanako Nakamori and Misaki Ohata. Nakajima then formed a tag team with Manami Katsu and picked up her first win since her return on May 20, when the two defeated Leon and Rabbit Miu in a tag team match. On June 17, Nakajima and Katsu received

14155-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as

14304-460: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself

14453-526: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with

14602-492: The individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in a professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from

14751-480: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore

14900-496: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by

15049-607: The key members of the JWP Seikigun ("regular army"), during the promotion's storyline rivalry with Emi Sakura and Kaori Yoneyama, representing the Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling promotion. After being defeated by Sakura in a singles match August 12, Nakajima and fellow Seikigun member Command Bolshoi defeated Sakura and Yoneyama on August 19 to win the JWP Tag Team and Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Championships. Nakajima and Bolshoi made their first successful title defense on September 9, defeating Leon and Ray . On October 7,

15198-444: The latter promotion, Nakajima entered the 2013 Catch the Wave tournament on May 15, defeating Shuu Shibutani in her first round-robin match. Nakajima finished her round-robin block on June 19 with a record of two wins, three draws and one loss, suffered against Mio Shirai , and advanced to the knockout stage. On July 15, Nakajima first defeated Shuu Shibutani in her first round match and then Syuri in her semifinal match to advance to

15347-423: The loss of her title, Nakajima began portraying a darker, brooding persona and while she talked about a possible rematch with Kana, she went on a losing streak against Kazuki and Leon. On September 29, Nakajima returned to WNC, however, her match with Makoto had to be ended early, when she dislocated her right shoulder and had to be rushed to a hospital. Nakajima returned to the ring on October 14, wrestling Bolshoi in

15496-581: The main event, where HMK member Emi Sakura captured the JWP Openweight Championship from Kayoko Haruyama, Nakajima entered the ring and made a challenge for the title. On November 11, Nakajima defeated Morii and Nakamori in a four-woman tournament to become the number one contender to the JWP Openweight Championship. En route to the title match, Nakajima was pinned for the win by Kaori Yoneyama in an eight-woman captain's fall elimination tag team main event between JWP and HMK on December 2. On December 24, Nakajima capped off her return year by defeating Emi Sakura to win

15645-639: The main event. After the match, Nakajima stated that she would not give up until she defeated Takahashi and offered to join Seadlinnng, which was accepted by Takahashi. On October 3, 2018, Nakajima participated in an eight-woman single-elimination tournament to crown the inaugural Beyond the Sea Single Champion , as she advanced to the finals where she was defeated by Takahashi on November 1. On December 13, Nakajima, alongside Ayame Sasamura, defeated Borderless (Rina Yamashita and Yoshiko ) to win

15794-455: The match, specifically Yumi Ohka, for Black Dahlia not winning the match, noting that they were all in their thirties. She then recruited the 24-year-old Mio Shirai to the stable; Shirai, however, announced that she would also remain a member of White Tails. The two groups then agreed that the stable which would manage to draw fewer people to their self-produced Wave event, which would take place August 7 and 8, would disband. The Black Dahlia event

15943-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in

16092-553: The new Ice Ribbon promotion. During a JWP event on August 6, both Nakajima and Abe announced that they had signed with the promotion, becoming full-fledged members of its roster, with Nakajima becoming the first JWP wrestler born in the Heisei period . Afterwards, Abe left Nakajima to reform her old JDStar tag team "The☆Wanted!?" with Kazuki . After a series of losses, Nakajima finally picked up her first JWP win on September 3, when she defeated Yuri Urai. On November 26, Nakajima entered

16241-535: The new Princess of Pro-Wrestling (POP) Champion . As this was one of JDStar's final ever events, the POP Championship was effectively unified with the JWP Junior Championship and the two titles were defended together for the next ten years. On August 5, Nakajima made her third successful defense of the JWP Junior Championship and her first successful defense of the POP Championship by defeating Aoi Kizuki. Nakajima followed that up by also successfully defending

16390-470: The new champion. On April 29, Nakajima took part in World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana's second anniversary event, teaming with Command Bolshoi in a tag team match, where they defeated Megumi Yabushita and Piyota Mask. Later in the semi-main event, Nakajima interfered in a WWWD Tag Team Championship match, helping Keiko Aono and Yumiko Hotta defeat Kaoru Ito and Tomoko Watanabe for the title, aligning herself with Hotta's Bousou-gun stable and turning heel for

16539-497: The next few months, Black Dahlia was joined by Ayako Hamada , Cherry, and Hanako Nakamori, with Apple Miyuki , A★YU★MI , Kyoko Kimura , Moeka Haruhi, and Nagisa Nozaki making one-time appearances as members of the stable. On September 4, Ohata teamed with Mio Shirai in the Dual Shock Wave 2011 tournament, which was used to determine the first ever Wave Tag Team Champions , but the team, billed as "Plus Minus 0",

16688-422: The promotion on July 11, wrestling the promotion's top champion, ICE×60 Champion Hikaru Shida , to a ten-minute time limit draw. Afterwards, the two agreed to team up in the upcoming JRibbon Natsu Onna Kettei Tournament , a JWP staple, which was this time co-produced by JWP and Ice Ribbon. The tournament took place over two "JRibbon" events on July 28; an afternoon Ice Ribbon event and an evening JWP event. During

16837-717: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During

16986-464: The promotion's founder Great Sasuke for the win in a six-person tag team match, where the three Yapper Men faced Sasuke, Aja Kong and Jinsei Shinzaki . On November 29, 2013, Ohata made her debut for Wrestling New Classic (WNC), teaming with Mio Shirai to defeat Makoto and Miyako Matsumoto in a tag team match. Ohata became engaged to fellow professional wrestler Makoto Oishi on May 27, 2018. She married Oishi in January 2019. Their first child

17135-583: The promotion, in storyline, to find her sister in the Galápagos Islands . On October 7, 2011, Ohata took part in Mil Máscaras ' Japanese debut's 40th anniversary event, where she unsuccessfully challenged A☆YU☆MI for the X–LAW Women's Championship. In January 2012, Ohata began working for Zabun's secondary promotion and Pro Wrestling Wave's sister promotion, Osaka Joshi Pro Wrestling, under

17284-481: The promotion, much to the dismay of Bolshoi. On February 17, Nakajima made her first successful defense of the JWP Openweight Championship against Kayoko Haruyama, avenging the pinfall loss from the tag team title match. In March, Nakajima and Bolshoi took part in the 2013 Tag League the Best , defeating Leon and Neko Nitta on March 3, before losing to Hanako Nakamori and Morii on March 31, as a result failing to qualify for

17433-439: The purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise a bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether

17582-430: The ring name Misaki Glico ( 三崎グリ子 , Misaki Guriko ) , a character named after the local Ezaki Glico confectionery company. In June 2012, Ohata began making sporadic appearances for Michinoku Pro Wrestling under a mask and the ring name Yapper Man #3 ( ヤッペーマン3号 , Yappēman San Gō ) , the "naughty little sister" of Yapper Man #1 and Yapper Man #2 . In her debut under the character on June 3, Ohata pinned

17731-463: The second annual One Day 6-Person Tag Tournament, defeating Cherry, Meari Naito and Shuu Shibutani in the finals and, as a result, earned the right to produce the December 14 Wave event. In early 2015, Ohata and Shirai received two shots at the Wave Tag Team Championship, but were both times defeated by the defending champions, Ayako Hamada and Yuu Yamagata. Finally, in the third title match between

17880-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For

18029-599: The storyline between Nakajima and Kana resurfaced in the Reina Joshi Puroresu promotion, the former Reina X World, where Kana, the promotion's consultant, named Nakajima her partner for a tournament for the vacant Reina World Tag Team Championship . On November 20, Nakajima and Kana first defeated Eri and Haruka Kato and then Lin Byron and Syuri to win the tournament and become the new champions. On December 7, Nakajima came together with Hanako Nakamori to unsuccessfully challenge Command Bolshoi and Kyoko Kimura for

18178-436: The team of Gami and Tomoka Nakagawa. On May 4, Ohata entered the 2012 Catch the Wave tournament, where she wrestled in a round-robin block made up of members of Black Dahlia. After wins over Hanako Nakamori and Cherry and a loss against Tsukasa Fujimoto , Ohata was defeated by Yumi Ohka on June 17 and, as a result, failed to advance from her block. However, on July 1, Ohata defeated eleven other eliminated competitors in

18327-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,

18476-526: The title against the Knight Dynasty ( Britani Knight and Saraya Knight ). The following day, Ohata and Matsumoto successfully defended the title against Pretty Bitchin' (Nikki Roxx and Portuguese Princess Ariel) on Volume 39 , before losing it to Daizee Haze and Tomoka Nakagawa on Volume 40 . Four years later, Ohata returned to Shimmer on April 11, 2015, defeating Nicole Savoy as part of Volume 72 . Later that same day on Volume 73 , she

18625-491: The title to the team of Sareee and Yoshiko. On January 23, 2021, Nakajima alongside Takahashi defeated the team of Sareee and Yoshiko to win the Beyond the Sea Tag Team Championship. On April 21, 2024, Nakajima announced her retirement set for August 23rd. On August 23, 2024, in her retirement match, Nakajima teamed with Tsukasa Fujimoto losing to Hiroyo Matsumoto and Hanako Nakamori after being pinned by Matsumoto. In December 2015, Nakajima and Tsukasa Fujimoto released

18774-408: The titles against Misaki Ohata on October 21. During the second half of 2007, Nakajima started an interpromotional storyline rivalry with Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling 's Tyrannosaurus Okuda . One early notable match in the rivalry saw Nakajima and Okuda team up with their respective mentors, Azumi Hyuga and Meiko Satomura , in a tag team match at a Sendai Girls' event on October 5, which was won by

18923-399: The tournament. Despite their quick elimination, Ohata and Shirai were placed in a number one contenders match to determine who would get to challenge for the Wave Tag Team Championship after the tournament winners, and on October 30, defeated Muscle Venus (Hikaru Shida and Tsukasa Fujimoto) to earn the title shot. Ohata and Shirai received their title shot on November 9, but were defeated by

19072-423: The tournament. On October 1, Ohata and Shirai defeated Dynamite Kansai and Fairy Nipponbashi to advance to the semifinals of the tournament, where, later that same event, they wrestled Kyoko Kimura and Tomoka Nakagawa to a fifteen-minute time limit draw. Ohata was then defeated by Kimura in an overtime singles match and, as a result, both she and Shirai were eliminated from the tournament. On November 26, Kuros won

19221-519: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by

19370-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it

19519-479: The two forming a dysfunctional tag team for the 2014 Tag League the Best . On February 25, Nakajima wrestled her first deathmatch , booked by Kana as part of her independent Kana ProMania event, where she and Jun Kasai were defeated by Ayako Hamada and Ryuji Ito . Despite their issues with each other, Nakajima and Kana entered the final day of the round-robin portion of the Tag League the Best on March 2 with

19668-518: The two stating that their goal was to become the top tag team in all of joshi puroresu . On October 17, Best Friends defeated another JWP/Ice Ribbon team of Aoi Kizuki and Kayoko Haruyama to win the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship . On December 27, Best Friends won two more titles, when they defeated the Jumonji Sisters (Dash Chisako and Sendai Sachiko ) for the Daily Sports Women's Tag Team and JWP Tag Team Championships. Following

19817-419: The two teams, Ohata and Shirai defeated Hamada and Yamagata on March 15 to become the new Wave Tag Team Champions. They made their first successful title defense on April 19 against Kaho Kobayashi and Tsukasa Fujimoto. On August 20, Kuros produced their final independent event, before the stable's dissolution, where Ohata, Fujimoto and Shirai defeated Chikayo Nagashima , Kayoko Haruyama and Meiko Satomura in

19966-405: The venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as a performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in

20115-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of

20264-624: The win, Nakajima turned on JWP and Command Bolshoi and joined JWP Openweight Champion Mayumi Ozaki 's villainous Seikigun stable, based in the Oz Academy promotion. This led to a match on January 10, 2016, where Nakajima unsuccessfully challenged Sonoko Kato for the Oz Academy Openweight Championship . Nakajima turned on Ozaki and Seikigun on March 20, stating that she would bring the JWP Openweight Championship back to JWP. On April 3, Nakajima defeated Ozaki to win

20413-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked

20562-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling

20711-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in

20860-412: Was defeated by Heidi Lovelace . The following day on Volume 74 , Ohata teamed with Hiroyo Matsumoto, Kellie Skater and Tomoka Nakagawa in an eight-woman tag team match, where they were defeated by Aja Kong , Dynamite Kansai, Kyoko Kimura and Mayumi Ozaki . Ohata finished her weekend by defeating LuFisto later that same day on Volume 75 . In September 2010, Ohata began working regularly for

21009-615: Was defeated by Mercedes Martinez and picked up a win over Kellie Skater . On March 26, 2011, Ohata returned for her third visit with Shimmer, when she teamed with Hiroyo Matsumoto to defeat the Canadian NINJAs ( Nicole Matthews and Portia Perez ) for the Shimmer Tag Team Championship on Volume 37 . Later that same day on Volume 38 , the Seven Star Sisters successfully defended

21158-430: Was eliminated in their first round match by Gami and Tomoka Nakagawa. After the conclusion of the tournament, Ohata and Shirai received the first shot at the new champions, Ayumi Kurihara and Kana, but were defeated in their title match on December 11. On April 30, 2012, Ohata and Black Dahlia stablemate Hanako Nakamori were put in a match to determine the new Wave Tag Team Champions, there they were, however, defeated by

21307-467: Was headlined by an eight-woman tag team match between the stable's two generations. In the match, Ohata teamed with Apple Miyuki, Hanako Nakamori and Mio Shirai against Ohka, Ayako Hamada, Bambi and Cherry, pinning Ohka for the win after hitting her with the stable's signature whip. White Tails ended up winning the battle for attendance 201–191, forcing Black Dahlia to disband. Ohata and Yumi Ohka faced off on August 26 at Wave's fifth anniversary event in

21456-559: Was named the Match of the Year. On January 6 at JWP's first event of 2013, Nakajima and Bolshoi lost the JWP Tag Team and Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Championships to Kayoko Haruyama and Tsubasa Kuragaki , with Haruyama pinning Nakajima for the win. On January 27, the storyline rivalry between HMK and JWP was blown off, when Hanako Nakamori, Kaori Yoneyama and Morii were defeated in a six-woman tag team match by Nakajima, Bolshoi and freelancer and AtoZ alum Kana , whom Nakajima had invited to

21605-619: Was named the Match of the Year. On February 25, 2015, at Kana's KanaProMania: Advance event, Nakajima and Kana lost the Reina World Tag Team Championship to Hikaru Shida and Syuri. On April 5, Nakajima's sixteen-month reign as the JWP Openweight Champion came to an end, when she was defeated by Kayoko Haruyama in her seventh title defense. In June 2015, Nakajima formed a tag team named Best Friends with Ice Ribbon wrestler Tsukasa Fujimoto, with

21754-650: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before

21903-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted

22052-498: Was still officially without a home promotion, working freelancer for various promotions, often teaming with fellow AtoZ alum Sachie Abe as the tag team "Hysteric Babe". In JWP, Hysteric Babe teamed only once, on July 16, when they were defeated by Ran Yu-Yu and Toshie Uematsu in a match to determine the number one contenders to the JWP Tag Team Championship . In August, Nakajima made several appearances for

22201-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among

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