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151-496: Shirai made her professional wrestling debut on March 4, 2007, alongside her younger sister, with the two adopting the ring names Mio and Io Shirai , respectively ("Shirai" being Japanese for "Purple Thunder"). While both of the sisters initially kept much of their private lives, including their real names, a secret, Io's real name was released by Japanese authorities in May 2012 as Masami Odate ( 大館 昌美 , Ōdate Masami ) . Mio, on

302-527: A Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) show, under the name Morfo . Later on his ring name was changed to "Jimmy Boy" and he was teamed up with Billy and Vangelis to form a Boy band inspired group called Los Spice Boys . At Triplemanía VII Jimmy Boy, Billy and Vangelis defeated Los Payasos (Coco Amarillo, Coco Rojo and Coco Verde) in one of the undercard matches. At the 2000 Guerra de Titanes event Los Spice Boys lost to Los Vatos Locos ( Espiritu , Nygma , Picudo and Silver Cat). In 2001 his gimmick

453-537: A feud with male wrestler Ken Ohka. On July 10, Shirai defeated Ohka to win the SGP Global Junior Heavyweight Championship, afterwards declaring herself Ohka's master. On July 23, Triple Tails held a press conference to announce that, following the group's third self-produced event on September 18, Io was leaving the stable in order to pursue a singles career. On August 21, Triple Tails made its debut for Oz Academy , defeating

604-410: A hardcore match . After the match, when Kito continued to profess his love for Shirai, he was attacked by IWA Japan wrestler Keizo Matsuda. During the following months, Shirai repeatedly cost Kito matches against Matsuda and his colleagues, but still could not get him to leave her alone. After the break up of Triple Tails, Shirai continued making semi-regular appearances for Osaka Pro Wrestling, forming

755-446: 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

906-630: A 30-minute time limit draw in the main event. On November 23, Shirai and Kana defeated Ayako Hamada and Shuu Shibutani in the finals to win the Osaka Joshi Pro Wrestling Tag Team Tournament. In December 2011, Shirai made her American debut, when she took part in Chikara 's JoshiMania weekend. On December 2 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , Shirai teamed with Mayumi Ozaki in a losing effort against

1057-622: A Best of 5 Series match. On February 21, 2015, Drago unsuccessfully challenged Prince Puma for the Lucha Underground Championship after Hernandez' interference cost him the match. As a result, Drago was in storyline forced to leave Lucha Underground. Drago returned on the June 10 episode, agreeing to put his mask on the line for another shot at being allowed to remain in Lucha Underground. Drago went on to win

1208-501: A Pro Wrestling Wave event, White Tails and Black Dahlia wrestled to a draw in a five-on-five gauntlet match , from which Shirai was eliminated after wrestling Black Dahlia leader Misaki Ohata to a ten-minute time limit draw. Afterwards, Shirai agreed to join Black Dahlia at the request of Ohata, who was trying to bring down the average age of her group, but also wanted to remain a member of White Tails. The two groups then agreed that

1359-620: A Pro Wrestling Wave event, where they were defeated by Hikaru Shida and Yumi Ohka. Also in December, Shirai was in the running for Tokyo Sports ' Joshi Puroresu Grand Prize, awarded to the joshi wrestler of the year, but was ultimately defeated in the voting process by Yuzuki Aikawa . On December 31 at RibbonMania 2012 , Shirai lost the ICE×60 Championship to Maki Narumiya in her third defense, ending her reign at 99 days. On January 13, 2013, Shirai received her first shot at

1510-624: A Union Pro event to unsuccessfully challenge Io and Nosawa Rongai for the Americas World Mixed Tag Team Championship. At a Pro Wrestling Wave event on February 1, Ayumi Kurihara, Mika Iida and Shuu Shibutani joined forces with Shirai and Kana, turning Triple Tails.S from a tag team once again into a stable. The following month, the stable was renamed White Tails, in reference to Wave's top villainous alliance, Black Dahlia. On February 11, Shirai began working regularly for Oz Academy, defeating Hiroyo Matsumoto ,

1661-413: 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

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1812-532: 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

1963-519: 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

2114-585: 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

2265-480: 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 . Gato Eveready Víctor Manuel Soto Flores (born July 23, 1975) is a Mexican Luchador or professional wrestler known by his ring name Drago . He

2416-410: 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

2567-414: 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

2718-494: A label of Attackers . In September 2012, Shirai released a gravure DVD titled Iroha Kitsune / Murasaki Kaminari Mio ( いろは狐／紫雷美央 ) . On December 8, 2012, Shirai and Kana released another DVD with a similar theme, titled Sadistic Tails . In September 2015, Shirai announced she was getting married the following month. Shirai later revealed her fiancé as professional wrestler Tank Nagai . The wedding ceremony took place on October 16, 2015. On December 31, 2016, Shirai announced she

2869-405: 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

3020-678: A masked character sponsored by the Eveready Battery . Originally another wrestler worked under the mask but Alan took over in the spring of 2008 and plays the character to this day, while occasionally working as Alan as well. Soto's first verified appearance as Gato Eveready came at AAA's 2008 Reina de Reina show, teaming with Aero Star , El Ángel and Pegasso in a loss to Los Piratas ( Pirata Morgan , Pirata Morgan, Jr. El Hijo de Pirata Morgan and Barbe Roja). As Gato Eveready Soto often teams up with members of group Real Fuerza Aérea , although he has not yet officially been announced as

3171-799: 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

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3322-725: A match also contested for the ICE×∞ Championship. On August 9, as part of her road to retirement, Shirai was set to face male wrestler Minoru Suzuki at a Wave event. Before the start of the match, Suzuki announced he was putting his GHC Heavyweight Championship on the line in the match, before going on to defeat Shirai to retain the title. On August 17, Shirai and Tsukushi lost the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship to Nekoka Tag (Leon and Neko Nitta) in their third defense. Three days later, Kuros produced their final independent event, before

3473-473: A member of the group. On October 24, 2008 Gato Eveready was one of thirteen men participating in the annual Copa Antonio Peña tournament at the 2008 Antonio Peña Memorial show but was eliminated by Histeria in the first match of the Copa . In 2009 Gato Eveready has spent most of his time losing to Los Psycho Circus ( Murder Clown , Monster Clown and Psycho Clown ) in random six-man tag team matches or in

3624-573: A member of the villainous Seikigun, in her return match to the promotion. On February 26, Shirai was defeated by Seikigun leader Mayumi Ozaki in a tryout match and afterwards agreed to join her stable, noting that they "had a lot of things in common". Back in Smash, the hostilities between Shirai and Takuya Kito ended after Kito led a four-man team to a final victory over a team of IWA Japan wrestlers, which led to Shirai and Kito teaming together and defeating Aki Shizuku and Koji Doi on March 14 at Smash.Final ,

3775-418: A new championship trio with Pindar and Vibora . The series was discontinued after season finale, Ultima Lucha Cuatro . On August 28, 2015, Drago made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) by entering the 2015 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, losing to Pentagón Jr. in his first round match. Drago made his debut for another American promotion, Chikara , when he, Aero Star and Fénix entered

3926-440: 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

4077-655: A partnership with male wrestler Hayata , whom she would refer to as her "big brother". The two also went on to team together in Pro Wrestling Wave. On October 19, Shirai lost the SGP Global Junior Heavyweight Championship to Cherry. Initially, Shirai announced that she was leaving Union Pro following her loss, but eventually came back to form a partnership with Ken Ohka, who had now accepted his role as her inferior. Meanwhile, Shirai and Kana also continued to produce their own events; Triple Tails.S' first show took place on November 2 and saw Shirai wrestle Toshie Uematsu to

4228-476: A press conference to announce that on September 11 she would be producing her own event at Shinjuku Face under the banner of "M.I.O" (Mission in Odate), which would feature her wrestling her first deathmatch . On August 31, Shirai defeated Ladybeard to become the new Union FTE World Champion. On September 11, Shirai wrestled twice during her first M.I.O event; first she defeated Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto in

4379-496: A press conference with the heads of Ice Ribbon, Oz Academy, Pro Wrestling Wave and Union Pro to announce that she had signed an unprecedented four-way contract with the promotions and was now officially affiliated with all four of them. As a signing gift, Shirai was given the right to book Oz Academy's March 2 event. She punished Seikigun's rivals Chikayo Nagashima, Hikaru Shida, Kagetsu and Sonoko Kato by placing them in unfavorable matches, named stablemates Mayumi Ozaki and Yumi Ohka

4530-623: A referee for the promotion, she would also take over the Puroresu Circle training duties. In August 2020, Shirai wrestled a few matches for Ice Ribbon filling in for Nao Ishikawa who had to have ovarian surgery and could not compete. In 2008, Shirai appeared with fellow wrestlers Kayo Noumi and Takako Inoue in The Brute Educational Institution ( 野獣学園 , Yajū Gakuen ) , a video with lesbian discipline and catfight themes, released by Attack Zone,

4681-465: A referee under the ring name Mio, written in Roman script and stylized in all capital letters. She made her debut in the role at Ice Ribbon's RibbonMania 2015 on December 31. In January 2016, Shirai began refereeing matches also for both Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling Wave. On August 16, it was announced that Shirai was officially joining Ice Ribbon's staff on September 1. In addition to continuing to work as

Mio Shirai - Misplaced Pages Continue

4832-468: A rivalry in Union Pro with Cherry, attempting to reveal her true age, a secret Cherry had managed to keep for her whole career. On March 18, Cherry defeated Shirai in a match, where she would have had to reveal her age, had she been defeated. A rematch, with an added stipulation that Shirai would have to remove all of her makeup if she lost, was scheduled for May 4, however, Shirai was forced to pull out of

4983-590: A series of five matches against Hikaru Shida, Ryo Mizunami, Yumi Ohka, Misaki Ohata and Asuka, drawing with Shida, defeating Asuka and losing the other three. On September 18, Shirai wrestled her final match for Oz Academy, where she was defeated by Mayumi Ozaki. Her final Ice Ribbon match took place the following day, when she wrestled a series of twelve one-minute matches against the entire roster. On September 20, Shirai produced her fifth M.I.O event in Korakuen Hall, which also served as her retirement event. During

5134-530: A six-woman tag team match. On October 18, 2010, Shirai, working under the ring name Kitzune Nanoko, made her debut for AAA in Puebla , Mexico , where she teamed with Alissa Flash to defeat Cynthia and Esther Moreno in a tag team match. In Mexico, both Shirais worked under cat-like masks they would only wear for their entrances in Japan. On October 31, Shirai was renamed Kaguya, while her debuting little sister

5285-565: A storyline where Exotico Pimpinela Escarlata made several advances towards him. In February 2011 Soto's ring name was simplified to El Gato , after Eveready Battery ended their sponsorship deal with AAA. On April 20, 2011, Soto debuted under a new character Drago and was given a major push as a face fighting for AAA in the war against La Sociedad and Los Bizarros . Drago then joined forces with La Parka , Dark Cuervo, Dark Espíritu and Dark Ozz to form El Inframundo ("The Underworld"). On December 16 at Guerra de Titanes , Vampiro became

5436-514: A tag team match and afterwards stole Faby's AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship and Mari's AAA Reina de Reinas Championship belts. On November 15, the Apaches and Cynthia Moreno defeated Kaguya, Oyuki and Sexy Star in a six-woman tag team match. A week later, Kaguya, Oyuki and Jennifer Blake defeated Moreno and the Apaches in another six-woman tag team match. This would turn out to be Kaguya's and Oyuki's final AAA appearance, which resulted in

5587-549: A tag team match, where they defeated Kana and Syuri. In early July, Shirai and Kana took part in the 2012 Japan Expo in Paris , France . On July 30, Shirai regained the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship by pinning Gorgeous Matsuno in a four-way tag team match. However, immediately afterwards Shirai was pinned for the title by the special guest referee of the match, Gentaro . On July 27 at

5738-559: A three-way match between the Kuros members and then, in the main event, teamed with Isami Kodaka and Maki Narumiya in a six-person "Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch", where they were defeated by Mayumi Ozaki, Shuu Shibutani and Yuko Miyamoto . On September 15, Shirai and Misaki Ohata unsuccessfully challenged Sakuragohan (Mika Iida and Kyusei Sakura Hirota ) for the Wave Tag Team Championship, which also forced them to start

5889-433: A three-way match, which also included Tsukasa Fujimoto. On February 13, Shirai and Ken Ohka entered a storyline in Union Pro, where the two were forced out of the promotion, after Ohka was defeated by Keisuke Ishii in a " Loser Leaves Union match ". However, the two reappeared at the end of event, now working under balaclavas and the ring names "Nazo Fukumen A" and "Nazo Fukumen B" in order to be able to continue working for

6040-503: 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

6191-586: 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

Mio Shirai - Misplaced Pages Continue

6342-412: A while. After a few months Decnis decided to join a group called Guapos VIP , leaving Alan alone. Once the storyline with Billy Boy ended Alan turned tecnico (good guy or Face ) and formed a new Barrio Boys group. Alan began teaming with Kevin , Javi and Ricky. The team only worked in opening matches and soon after Alan left the group altogether. In 2008 Victor Soto began working as Gato Eveready ,

6493-410: 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

6644-536: Is known for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide , where he is the former AAA Latin American Champion . Currently working as Dios del Inframundo , Flores has worked as Drago as Gato Eveready or simply El Gato under which he was an unofficial member of the wrestling group Real Fuerza Aérea , and as Alan in the group called Los Barrio Boys . Victor Soto made his professional wrestling debut in April, 1998 on

6795-591: The 2012 Catch the Wave tournament. On June 8, in her second match in the tournament, Shirai defeated Ayumi Kurihara, and in doing so also won DDT Pro-Wrestling 's Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship . Two days later, Shirai lost the title to Hiroyo Matsumoto in the first round of a tournament to determine the number one contender to the Oz Academy Openweight Championship . On June 22, Shirai returned to WNC, when she teamed with Makoto in

6946-688: The 2015 King of Trios tournament as "Team AAA". They defeated the Gentleman's Club ( Chuck Taylor , Drew Gulak and The Swamp Monster) in their first round match. The following day, Team AAA defeated the Nightmare Warriors ( Frightmare , Hallowicked and Silver Ant ) to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. On September 6, Team AAA first defeated reigning King of Trios winners, the Devastation Corporation (Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch and Max Smashmaster), in

7097-712: The Mexican National Atómicos Championship . The team had one successful title defense, defeating Hator, Monje Negro, Jr., El Potro and Ben Hur on April 6, 2003 On July 18, 2003 the team lost the Atómicos title back to Los Vatos Locos but would regain them under a month later when they defeated Los Vatos Locos on August 8, 2003. Sevilla and Los Barrio Boys successfully defended the Atómicos title against Los Exoticos ( Pimpinela Escarlata , May Flowers, Polvo de Estrellas and Sexy Francis) on October 26, 2003. Their second, and final run with

7248-624: 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

7399-776: 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

7550-584: 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

7701-400: 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

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7852-509: 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

8003-411: 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

8154-590: The All Asia Tag Team Championship from Aoki and Suzuki. On April 19, 2014, Drago and Apache lost the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship to Pentagón Jr. and Sexy Star . On June 14, Drago won AAA's 2015 Alas de Oro . In early July 2023, Drago made a special appearance at an independent event under his new name as Dios del Inframundo confirming his departure from AAA. In August 2014, Drago

8305-653: 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

8456-607: The International Ribbon Tag Team Championship against the Lovely Butchers ( Hamuko Hoshi and Mochi Miyagi) as part of Ice Ribbon's ninth anniversary week. On July 4, they made their second successful defense against Orange Happies (Aoi Kizuki and Kayoko Haruyama) with Shirai pinning ICE×∞ Champion Kizuki for the win, setting up a future double title match for both the ICE×∞ and Union FTE World Championship. On July 19, Shirai and Mayumi Ozaki defeated Kagetsu and Kaho Kobayashi to win

8607-503: The International Ribbon Tag Team Championship. Shirai and Ohata made their first successful title defense on April 19 against Kaho Kobayashi and Tsukasa Fujimoto. On May 9, the third M.I.O event featured Shirai retiring her Kaguya character, following a time-limit draw with Ayako Hamada. On June 7, Shirai defeated Akino with help from her Seikigun stablemates to win the Oz Academy Openweight Championship for

8758-663: The Mexican National Atómicos title ended on August 20, 2004 when they were defeated by The Black Family ( Chessman , Ozz , Cuervo and Escoria , ending their combined reigns at 606 days in total. On December 5, 2004 Los Barrio Boys won a four-way match against The Black Family, Los Kumbria Kids and Los Espantapajaros at Guerra de Titanes . By 2007 Los Barrio Boys feud with Gran Apache led to both Alan and Decnis turning against Billy Boy, attacking him and turning Rudó (bad guy or Heel in wrestling terms). Alan and Decnis even sided with Gran Apache for

8909-408: 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

9060-488: 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

9211-509: The Nazo Fukumen storyline was concluded, when first Kaori Yoneyama unmasked Nazo Fukumen B as Shirai during a mixed tag team match and later in the main event, Nazo Fukumen K, KJ and P lost to Union Seikigun ( Isami Kodaka , Madoka and Seiya Morohashi) in a three-on-three hardcore elimination match. Post-match, the now unmasked Hiroshi Fukuda apologized for the stable's past actions and both he and Shirai were welcomed back to Union Pro by

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9362-700: The Oz Academy Openweight Championship from Akino. Shirai also failed to win gold on two occasions in another one of her new home promotions, Ice Ribbon, unsuccessfully challenging Cherry for the Triangle Ribbon Championship on March 1 and Muscle Venus for the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship alongside Miyako Matsumoto on March 9. On March 23, Shirai also failed to win the Union FTE World Championship from Cherry. On May 15, Shirai and Kana produced Triple Tails.S' final independent event before officially dissolving

9513-411: The Oz Academy Openweight Championship in a match, where she was defeated by the defending champion, fellow Seikigun member Chikayo Nagashima . On January 30, Shirai entered a tournament contested for the vacant Triangle Ribbon Championship , defeating Aoi Kizuki and Hikaru Shida in her first round three-way match. On February 11, Shirai was defeated in the finals of the tournament by Miyako Matsumoto in

9664-542: The Oz Academy Tag Team Championship, meaning that Shirai now simultaneously held titles in all four promotions she was signed to. On July 26, Shirai returned to Stardom to wrestle what was billed as the Shirai sisters' final match together, where Mio and Io defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Mayu Iwatani . On July 29, Shirai lost the Union FTE World Championship to Aoi Kizuki in her first defense in

9815-600: The Shirai sisters formed the Triple Tails stable with fellow freelancer Kana, defeating Ayumi Kurihara, Hikaru Shida and Yoshiko Tamura in their first match together at a NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling event. As a result, the Shirais received a shot Kurihara's and Tamura's NEO Tag Team Championship on July 4, but were defeated by the defending champions. Triple Tails returned to its winning ways on August 29, by defeating Asami Kawasaki , Hikaru Shida and Nagisa Nozaki in

9966-466: The Shirai sisters won their first championship by defeating Moeka Haruhi and Tomoka Nakagawa in a tournament final to become the first TLW (Totally Lethal Wrestling) World Young Women's Tag Team Champions. Despite its name, the championship was owned and promoted by Pro Wrestling Wave. From July to November, the Shirais spent four months working for the Ice Ribbon promotion. On November 12, 2009,

10117-460: The Shirais entered Pro Wrestling Wave's Captain's Fall Six Person Tag Team Tournament, teaming with Gami, but the trio was defeated in their first round match by Ran Yu-Yu , Ryo Mizunami and Toshie Uematsu. However, the trio earned their way back into the tournament by defeating Misaki Ohata , Moeka Haruhi and Yumi Ohka in a consolation match later that same day. On November 25, the Shirais and Gami first defeated Bullfight Sora, Cherry and Kaoru in

10268-540: The Union Fly to Everywhere (FTE) World Championship, despite outside interference from Nazo Fukumen A and Nazo Fukumen P. On April 21, Shirai and Kana defeated Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto to win the Wave Tag Team Championship , bringing Triple Tails.S its first title. On June 9, Shirai picked up a major win by pinning the reigning JWP Openweight Champion Arisa Nakajima during the 2013 Catch

10419-478: The Wave tournament. Despite the win, Shirai failed to advance from her round-robin block, finishing with a record of three wins and three losses. On July 7, Shirai and Kana made their first successful defense of the Wave Tag Team Championship against Kyusei Sakura Hirota and Tsukasa Fujimoto. On July 12, the White Tails stable produced their final event before the group's dissolution, during which Shirai defeated

10570-649: The Wave Single Championship and the Revolution Championship Wrestling (RCW) Women's Championship, but the match ended in a thirty-minute time limit draw, resulting in Shida retaining her titles. Two days later, Shirai made a surprise appearance for World Wonder Ring Stardom , confronting her sister Io and challenging her to a match at the second M.I.O event on February 14, 2015. On December 28 at Ice Ribbon's biggest event of

10721-543: The Wave Tag Team Championship, but were both times defeated by the defending champions, Las Aventureras (Ayako Hamada and Yuu Yamagata ). A third title match between the two teams took place on March 15 and saw Shirai and Ohata become the new champions. Immediately afterwards, Shirai announced she was cashing in her Zan1 shot at the Wave Single Championship, held by Hamada, but was defeated in that title match. Six days later, Shirai won another tag team title, when she and Tsukushi defeated .STAP (Maki Narumiya and Risa Sera ) to win

10872-401: 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

11023-418: 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

11174-561: 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

11325-412: 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

11476-512: The business, including Ibuki, Pro Wrestling Wave , JWP Joshi Puroresu , and Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling . On October 19, 2008, Mio and Io made their debuts for one of Japan's largest professional wrestling promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), wrestling in a match, where they defeated the team of Kyoko Kimura and Mikado. From January to March 2009, the Shirais also made several appearances for another large promotion not usually known for female wrestling, Pro Wrestling Zero1 . On April 29,

11627-424: 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

11778-418: 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

11929-423: 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

12080-461: 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

12231-468: 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

12382-540: 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

12533-519: The development of Los Barrio Boys over the years. On September 16, 2001 Los Barrio Boys made their first major show appearance as they wrestled the team of Milano Collection AT , Nitohei Oyanagi and Yasushi Tsujimoto to a draw at Verano de Escandalos . A few months later Los Barrio Boys teamed with Ice Cream to defeat Los Diabolicos and Police Man in the opening match of Guerra de Titanes . On December 12, 2002 Los Barrio Boys teamed up with Oscar Sevilla to defeat Los Vatos Locos to win

12684-470: The duration of the tour. On April 30 at Smash.16 , Triple Tails was defeated in a six-woman tag team match by Makoto, Serena and Syuri . On May 3 at Smash.17 , the Shirai sisters were defeated in a tag team match by Hikaru Shida and Syuri. Triple Tails' second event took place on May 8 and saw Mio, Io and Kana defeat Akino , Kagetsu and Syuri in a main event six-woman tag team match. In June, Mio began wrestling regularly for Union Pro Wrestling , starting

12835-405: 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

12986-424: The entire month, scoring singles victories over Riho and Hamuko Hoshi and a tag team victory over Hikaru Shida, Shirai was named the number one contender to Shida's ICE×60 Championship , Ice Ribbon's top title. On September 23 at Ribbon no Kishitachi 2012 , Shirai defeated Shida to win the ICE×60 Championship, her first major joshi title. Following her win, Shirai turned down Miyako Matsumoto 's challenge for

13137-504: The event, Shirai wrestled three matches. First she teamed with Aoi Kizuki in a tag team match, where they defeated Mayumi Ozaki and Yumi Ohka with Shirai pinning Ozaki for the final win of her career. Then she wrestled the final singles match of her career, where she was defeated by Isami Kodaka. Finally, she wrestled in a six-woman tag team main event, where she, Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto were defeated by Hiroe Nagahama, Risa Sera and Tsukushi, who pinned her to end her career. Following

13288-603: 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

13439-584: The first night of Ultima Lucha, Drago defeated Hernandez in a Believer's Backlash Match. At the season two Ultima Lucha on January 31, 2016, Drago, Aero Star and Fénix defeated Jack Evans , Johnny Mundo and P. J. Black to win the Lucha Underground Trios Championship . On May 7, Drago turned on Aero Star and Fénix and turning heel and took the Lucha Underground Trios Championship to form

13590-470: 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

13741-489: The first three positions in the tournament with Ohata, the winner of the two previous Zan1s, coming in second and Fujimoto third. On January 24, 2015, Shirai made her second successful defense of the Union FTE World Championship against Aoi Ishibashi. On February 14, her 27th birthday, Shirai presented the second M.I.O event in Shinjuku Face, which saw her lose to her sister Io in a main event singles match. This marked

13892-452: The first time in three years that the two sisters had wrestled in the same match. Two days later, Shirai held a press conference, where she announced that she would be retiring from professional wrestling due to issues with her neck, wrestling her final match at the fifth M.I.O event on September 20. On March 1, Shirai lost the Union FTE World Championship to Cherry in her third defense. In early 2015, Shirai and Misaki Ohata received two shots at

14043-402: The first time. After the match, Shirai confronted Akino's MK4 stable and proclaimed that she would relinquish the title if she ever lost to any member of the stable. Later that same day, Shirai faced Oz Academy Tag Team Champion and MK4 member Kaho Kobayashi in a non-title match at an event co-produced by Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling Wave. Following outside interference from Tomoka Nakagawa, Shirai

14194-610: 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

14345-460: 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

14496-492: The group Triple Tails.S and continued wrestling together as a tag team. However, in Smash, Mio and Kana were broken apart following Io's departure, with Kana being preoccupied with the Smash Diva Championship and Mio entering a storyline with Takuya Kito. The storyline involved Kito repeatedly professing his love for Mio, who refused to return the affection. On September 8 at Smash.21 , Shirai defeated Kito in

14647-526: 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

14798-492: 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

14949-480: 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

15100-496: 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

15251-625: The masked Akino, in a tag team main event. Back in Ice Ribbon, Shirai formed a new partnership with rookie Rutsuko Yamaguchi. On August 25, Shirai and Yamaguchi defeated BBA38 (Cherry and Meari Naito) to become the number one contenders to the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship . They received their title shot on September 22, but were defeated by the defending champions, Muscle Venus (Hikaru Shida and Tsukasa Fujimoto). The following day in Union Pro,

15402-439: The match, Shirai and Ohata relinquished their Wave Tag Team Championship. On October 4, 2015, Shirai returned to Union Pro to take part in the promotion's final event before folding, accompanying Ken Ohka and Shinichiro Tominaga to a three-way tag team match, where they were defeated by Men's Teioh and Sagat and which also included Kengo Ohka and Madoka. On December 15, 2015, it was announced that Shirai would start working as

15553-411: The match, after suffering a nasal fracture at an Oz Academy event five days earlier. Shirai ended up managing her replacement, Emi Sakura , to a win, after interfering in the match; as a result, Cherry was forced to reveal that she was born May 14, 1974. Shirai, working with a nose protector, returned to the ring on May 29 at a Pro Wrestling Wave event, losing to Syuri in her first round-robin match in

15704-500: The match, defeating Cage , Hernandez and King Cuerno to retain his mask and become the number one contender to the Lucha Underground Championship. However, next week, Drago lost his opportunity against Mil Muertes after an interference from Hernandez. Soon after, Drago faced Hernandez and won via disqualification, before a rematch between the rivals would be announced for the upcoming Ultima Lucha event. At

15855-498: 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

16006-586: The new leader of El Inframundo , replacing La Parka, who had recently turned rudo and joined La Sociedad . On July 19, 2013, Drago and Faby Apache defeated Halloween and Mari Apache for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship . On August 11, Drago and fellow AAA worker Argenis made their debuts for All Japan Pro Wrestling in Tokyo , defeating Kenso and Sushi in a tag team match. Even before their first match in

16157-598: The newest member of Makoto's Shiritsu Puroresu Gakuen ("Private Wrestling School") stable. Shirai, however, quickly established that she was not on the same page as Makoto, announcing that she was bringing Misaki Ohata with her to confront the "wimps" in charge of the school. Shirai's WNC return match took place on November 29, when she and Ohata defeated Makoto and Miyako Matsumoto in a tag team match. On December 27, Shirai and Kana announced they were disbanding Triple Tails.S, with their final self-produced independent event taking place in early 2014. On January 22, 2014, Shirai held

16308-487: The number one contenders to the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship and gave herself a shot at the Oz Academy Openweight Championship. Meanwhile, Shirai also earned another shot at the Union FTE World Championship, challenging Cherry after her first match under a Union Pro contract on February 11, where the two defeated Kaori Yoneyama and Sareee. On March 2, Shirai failed in her attempt to capture

16459-403: The other hand, has managed to keep her real name a secret. In their debut match, the Shirai sisters teamed with Toshie Uematsu to face the trio of Erika Ura, Nozomi Takesako and Yuri Urai. Starting their careers as freelancers , the Shirai sisters represented Team Makehen, a stable made up of wrestlers trained by Tomohiko Hashimoto, in several independent promotions during their first year in

16610-432: The partnership, which featured a main event tag team match, where Shirai and Kayoko Haruyama were defeated by Kana and Arisa Nakajima. From May 5 to July 4, Shirai took part in the round-robin portion of the 2014 Catch the Wave tournament, finishing with a record of two wins, one draw and three losses, failing to advance from her block after losing to Misaki Ohata in their final round-robin match. On August 1, Shirai held

16761-512: The premise that 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

16912-527: The promotion held its first women's match in years, where she was defeated by Akino. Six days later, Shirai made her debut for the AJPW splinter promotion Wrestle-1 , defeating Bambi in a singles match. In late 2013, Shirai formed a new cross-promotional three-woman stable named Kuros with Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto. After not appearing for the promotion for thirteen months, it was announced on October 31 that Shirai would be returning to Wrestling New Classic as

17063-717: 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

17214-534: The promotion's final event before ceasing its operations. Afterwards, Shirai continued working for Smash's follow-up promotion, Wrestling New Classic , teaming with Kana to defeat Makoto and Syuri at the promotion's first event, Before the Dawn , on April 26. After the match, Shirai sided with Makoto and against Kana, when she was verbally assaulting her defeated opponent. Taking Makoto under her wing, Shirai began referring to her as her sister. In early 2012, Shirai started

17365-401: The promotion's official representative Naomi Susan. Shirai then entered a storyline built on the relationship between Union Pro and AV company IdeaPocket . Picking up wins over the likes of Hiroshi Fukuda, Masayuki Mitomi and Menso～re Oyaji , Shirai earned the right to collaborate with AV actresses such as Rika Seibi, Ryu Mizusaki and Tsubasa Amami. On October 20, Shirai returned to AJPW, when

17516-631: The promotion, Drago and Argenis were named the number one contenders to the All Asia Tag Team Championship , held by Burning members Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki . In the build-up to the August 25 title match, Drago and Argenis began working against the Burning stable, defeating Aoki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru on August 14 and Suzuki and Kanemaru on August 16. On August 25, Drago and Argenis failed in their attempt to capture

17667-497: The promotion. Shirai and Ohka were later joined by several other Union Pro wrestlers under Nazo Fukumen masks, including Shota as Nazo Fukumen C, Gabai-Ji-chan as Nazo Fukumen G, Kengo Mashimo as Nazo Fukumen K, Seiya Morohashi as Nazo Fukumen M, and Hiroshi Fukuda as Nazo Fukumen P. On February 17, Shirai entered the Wave Single Championship tournament as a late replacement for an injured Ayumi Kurihara, but

17818-439: 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

17969-488: The semifinals and then Ayumi Kurihara , Kana and Shuu Shibutani in the finals to win the tournament. On December 23, the Shirais lost the TLW World Young Women's Tag Team Championship to Misaki Ohata and Moeka Haruhi. On June 9, 2010, Mio entered the 2010 Catch the Wave tournament. After two draws and two losses, Shirai finished last in her block and did not advance in the tournament. On June 19, 2010,

18120-595: The semifinals and then Bullet Club ( A.J. Styles , Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson ) in the finals to win the 2015 King of Trios. On July 2, 2017 Drago and El Hijo del Fantasma represented AAA at Impact Wrestling 's Slammiversary XV show, the team lost to The Latin American Xchange (Ortiz and Santana), who successfully defended the Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Championship and GFW Tag Team Championship in

18271-442: The soon-to-retire Ayumi Kurihara in a singles match. Three days later, Shirai and Kana lost the Wave Tag Team Championship to Shidarezakura (Hikaru Shida and Yumi Ohka) in their second defense. On July 27, Shirai made another appearance as Kaguya for Pro Wrestling Wave, when she took part in a match, where Ayumi Kurihara retired her masked A☆YU☆MI persona. Replacing an injured Ray , she teamed with Leon to defeat A☆YU☆MI and noki-A,

18422-405: 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. Shirai performed on both the Black Dahlia and the White Tails event and afterwards remained with White Tails, which won the battle for attendance 201-191, forcing Black Dahlia to disband. Also in August, Shirai returned to Ice Ribbon. After remaining undefeated for

18573-475: The stable's dissolution, where Shirai, Fujimoto and Ohata defeated Chikayo Nagashima, Kayoko Haruyama and Meiko Satomura in a six-woman tag team main event. On August 23, Shirai lost another one of her tag team titles, when she and Mayumi Ozaki were defeated by Kagetsu and Kaho Kobayashi in a rematch for the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship. That same event, Shirai received a shot at the Oz Academy Openweight Championship, immediately after Sonoko Kato had won it, but

18724-440: 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

18875-422: The storyline with the Apaches being dropped without a conclusion. Upon the Shirais' return to Japan, Triple Tails made its debut as a unit for Pro Wrestling Wave on December 19, defeating Cherry, Gami and Tomoka Nakagawa in the six-woman tag team main event. On January 29, 2011, the Shirais made their debuts for Smash , when the Triple Tails stable attacked Yusuke Kodama and Makoto after their matches, with

19026-541: The team of Ayako Hamada and Cherry. The following day in Everett, Massachusetts , Shirai was defeated by Ozaki in a singles match. On the third and final night of the tour in Manhattan, New York , Shirai, Aja Kong and Tsubasa Kuragaki defeated Hanako Nakamori, Manami Toyota and Sawako Shimono in a six-woman tag team match. On January 3, 2012, Shirai returned to the ring with her sister, when she teamed with Ken Ohka at

19177-426: 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,

19328-520: The title and stated that she instead wanted to defend it against Tsukasa Fujimoto , whom she dubbed "the face of Ice Ribbon". On October 28 at 2012 Yokohama Ribbon III , Shirai defeated Fujimoto for her first successful defense of the ICE×60 Championship. On November 27, Shirai once again worked under her masked Kaguya persona, when she took part in the 2012 Reina de Reinas tournament, co-produced by Pro Wrestling Wave and AAA in Tokyo 's Korakuen Hall . After defeating Faby Apache in her opening match, Kaguya

19479-519: 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

19630-644: The trio being both times chased out of the ring by Tajiri . On February 13, Triple Tails produced its first own event, where the Shirai sisters wrestled male tag team Momo no Seishun Tag ( Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada ) in a losing effort. On February 25, the Shirais made their Smash in-ring debuts at Smash.14 , where they teamed with Kana to defeat Ken Ohka, Tajiri and Yoshiaki Yago in an intergender six-person tag team match. In March, Triple Tails took part in Osaka Pro Wrestling 's Spring Samba Series, going undefeated in six-person tag team matches for

19781-408: The trio of Ayumi Kurihara, Hiren and Yumi Ohka. On September 14, Triple Tails defeated Cherry, Moeka Haruhi and Shuu Shibutani in the group's final Pro Wrestling Wave appearance. Four days later, Triple Tails defeated Dash Chisako , Ryo Mizunami and Sendai Sachiko at their third self-produced event in the group's final appearance together. After Io's departure from Triple Tails, Mio and Kana renamed

19932-471: 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

20083-417: The upcoming 2014 Dual Shock Wave from the first round. On September 23, Shirai and Ohata defeated Tsukasa Fujimoto and Yumi Ohka in the first round of the tournament. On October 1, Shirai and Ohata 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

20234-405: 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

20385-535: 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

20536-420: 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

20687-401: The year, Ribbon Mania 2014 , Shirai made her first successful defense of the Union FTE World Championship against Tsukushi . Later that same day, Shirai won the fan vote portion in the third annual Zan1 tournament, securing her overall win in the multi-stage tournament involving the entire Pro Wrestling Wave roster and earning her a rematch with Shida for the Wave Single Championship. Kuros took

20838-425: 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

20989-500: Was announced as one of five AAA wrestlers to star in Lucha Underground , a new American television series on El Rey . Drago debuted on the third episode on November 12, losing a three-way main event involving Pentagón Jr. and winner Fénix . Over the following weeks, Drago feuded with King Cuerno . On January 21, 2015, Cuerno defeated Drago in a Last Man Standing match, ending their feud. Then, he defeated Aero Star in

21140-488: 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

21291-400: Was changed to Alan and he was made part of a group called Los Barrio Boys along with Billy Boy (formerly known as "Spice Boy" Billy) and Decnis . The team worked extensive storyline feuds with Los Diabólicos (Ángel Mortal, Mr. Condór and Marabunta) and with AAA trainer Gran Apache to help the young team improve their in-ring skills, especially the storyline with Gran Apache would shape

21442-439: Was defeated by the new champion. On September 13, Shirai and Ohata made their second successful defense of the Wave Tag Team Championship against Hiroyo Matsumoto and Ryo Mizunami. As her retirement drew closer, Shirai wrestled her final match for Union Pro on September 15, where she and Ladybeard were defeated by Gentaro and Kyoko Kimura. The following day, Shirai worked her final Pro Wrestling Wave event, during which she wrestled

21593-425: Was defeated in the finals of the tournament by the reigning AAA Reina de Reinas Champion, Sexy Star. The following day, Shirai made her second successful defense of the ICE×60 Championship against Neko Nitta. After several months of inactivity, Shirai and Kana announced on December 5, a week following Kana's departure from WNC, that they were restarting Triple Tails.S. The team's return match took place on December 16 at

21744-457: Was eliminated in her semifinal match by Kana. On February 24, Triple Tails.S held its first self-produced event in nine months, which saw Shirai and Kana wrestle Arisa Nakajima and Ayako Hamada in a main event tag team match. On March 29, Shirai, along with Hiroshi Fukuda, was named the official commentator for Union Pro's internet broadcasts. On April 5, Shirai made her in-ring debut as Nazo Fukumen B, unsuccessfully challenging Kaori Yoneyama for

21895-523: Was given the ring name Oyuki. In their first match under the new names, Kaguya and Oyuki teamed with Yuriko in a six-person tag team match, where they were defeated by Cynthia Moreno, Gato Eveready and Mari Apache . During their stay in AAA, Kaguya and Oyuki became associates of the La Legión Extranjera (Foreign Legion) stable. On November 7, Kaguya and Oyuki defeated Faby and Mari Apache in

22046-439: Was pinned by Kobayashi and, as a result, relinquished the Oz Academy Openweight Championship, ending her reign at only four hours and two minutes. On June 17, Shirai won yet another title, when she defeated Hibiscus Mii to regain the Union FTE World Championship. The fourth M.I.O event took place on June 19 and saw Shirai lose to Arisa Nakajima in the main event. On June 24, Shirai and Tsukushi made their first successful defense of

22197-426: Was pregnant with the couple's first child. She gave birth on June 18, 2017.. She is a fan of musician Ryuichi Sakamoto . 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

22348-650: 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

22499-415: 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

22650-417: 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

22801-404: 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 Wave's 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. On December 21, Shirai challenged Hikaru Shida for both

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