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Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Acronym	BJW
Founded	March 16, 1995
Style	Deathmatch Strong style
Headquarters	Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Founder(s)	Shinya "Great" Kojika Kendo Nagasaki
Owner(s)	Eiji Tosaka
Predecessor	Network of Wrestling

Big Japan Pro Wrestling (大日本プロレス, Dai Nihon Puroresu) (BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests.

History[edit]

Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasaki, during the boom period for Deathmatch wrestling in Japan. Kendo Nagasaki left in 1999; Shinya Kojika is still president of the company to date.

The promotion followed in the footsteps of organizations such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING), and the International Wrestling Association of Japan (IWA Japan), who helped popularise a hard-hitting, violent and bloody style of wrestling known as the Deathmatch, or in more recent years, "hardcore" wrestling. These matches are usually weapon filled, using both "conventional" weapons (such as chairs and tables), as well as "extreme" weapons not usually seen in mainstream wrestling, and previously unused in wrestling at all. These weapons include but are by no means limited to, nails, thumbtacks, fire, and fluorescent light tubes. Barbed wire is also often used liberally in these matches, sometimes wrapped around other weapons, laid on the floor surrounding the ring, wrapped around the ring ropes, or even replacing the ropes altogether. In its early years, BJW was unable to directly compete with the budgets of its competition. This led to the innovation of several unique gimmick matches, many of which helped hide its monetary shortcomings. These include:

• Circus Deathmatch - above the ring is a scaffold and under that scaffold, there is a type of circus net made of barbed wire. When a wrestler falls off the scaffold the barbed wire spider net is there to "catch" the wrestlers. After a wrestler, or a team of wrestlers, has been thrown into the net it is cut down and the match continues to a pinfall.
• Piranha Deathmatch - Barbed wire boards are placed in the corners. In the middle of the ring, there is a tank full of Piranhas. To win you must hold your opponent in the tank for ten seconds.
• Scorpion Deathmatch- This match is similar to the Piranha Deathmatch, but with cacti replacing barbed wire boards and a tank full of scorpions rather than piranhas.
• Crocodile Deathmatch - Two wrestlers compete in a non-specific death match. The loser of the match must then go on to wrestle a crocodile. This type of match has only been performed once, between Shadow WX & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga.
• Fire Stone Deathmatch - Electrified space heaters wrapped in barbed wire surround the ring both outside and inside, and the match is won by pinfall.
• Big Japan W*ING Crisis Big Born Deathmatch (also known as "Crisis Big Born Deathmatch") - A match that combines several different deathmatch types. The match begins on a scaffold above a barbed wire net over a ring. The ring itself is surrounded by cacti, fire stones (electric space heaters wrapped in barbed wire), and dry ice. Thumbtacks are scattered in the ring. In the middle of the ring is a tank of scorpions. Various weapons including light bulbs, light tubes, baseball bats, drills, buzzsaws, and swords are permitted. The match is fought with all members of two teams active at the same time under hardcore street fight rules. When all the wrestlers have fallen into the barbed wire net, the next phase of the match begins. The barbed wire net is removed and the match continues. Wrestlers leave and win the match by submission, by having their head put in the scorpion tank for ten seconds, or by passing out.
• "Ancient Way" Death Match - Both fighters wrap their hands in hemp rope, which is then coated in honey and dipped in broken glass to make them deadly weapons.

Away from the Deathmatches, BJW also has had well-established normal wrestling titles. On February 3, 1998, Yoshihiro Tajiri won a one-night-only 8-man tournament in Tokyo to crown BJW's first World Junior Heavyweight Champion. This match showed a distinct departure from the violent matches BJW is known for. The company also has had a World Heavyweight Championship, a World Women's Championship, a World Tag Team Championship, and a World 4-Man Tag Team Shuffle Championship. Although the World Tag Team and Deathmatch, titles are the only ones still active.

Currently, the BJW roster is split into "Deathmatch BJ", "Strong BJ" and "Strong J". The deathmatch workers wrestle for the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship, the non-deathmatch heavyweight workers for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship, and the junior heavyweight workers for the BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Big Japan Pro Wrestling Core[edit]

Big Japan Pro Wrestling Core (BJW Core) is a video-on-demand service owned by Big Japan Pro Wrestling. In November 2017, BJW announced "Big Japan Pro Wrestling Core", a new worldwide video-on-demand site for the promotion's events. The service features matches from the promotion's archives, dating back to 1995. The service has a current monthly subscription price of ¥888. In December 2018, BJW announced that the service would shut down at the end of the year, with plans to relaunch in February 2019 using a new service provider.^[2][3] The service was then reactivated.

Working relationships[edit]

Big Japan has had interpromotional feuds with both New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). These were both kayfabe feuds that were done to generate more income for both companies. During late 1996 and early 1997, BJW agreed with NJPW. Being a relatively new promotion, BJW needed mainstream publicity. NJPW agreed to a feud, which would allow Big Japan wrestlers to appear in their company and use New Japan's popularity to give exposure to their company. In return, Big Japan agreed to lose the feud and the majority of the interpromotional matches, therefore strengthening the New Japan brand. The situation provided an interesting clash of wrestling styles, as NJPW often favored a strong style of competition. The two promotions held Wrestling World 1997, the biggest event during the interpromotional feud and the fifth January 4 Tokyo Dome Show. In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, BJW competed against CZW. CZW was a relatively new American promotion at the time, and also largely focused on an extreme style of wrestling. Wrestlers feuded in both companies having matches in the United States and Japan. During the CZW feud, top star Tomoaki Honma departed the company to become a freelancer.

In 2008, BJW entered into a working relationship with Chikara. In October 2008, several BJW wrestlers went to America and faced Chikara in The Global Gauntlet. BJW did well, winning the best of five series on night one, but narrowly lost the Global Gauntlet match on the second night. In 2009, BJW hosted Chikara's inaugural Japanese tour.

In 2011, BJW established a three-way working relationship with CZW and German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), which led to the creation of the World Triangle League tournament. The working relationship ended in 2015.^{[citation needed]}

BJW has also had a long working relationship with the Union Pro Wrestling promotion, which has included BJW workers holding titles in Union Pro and vice versa. The relationship ended in 2014 when UPW shut down.

On December 15, 2023, BJW was announced as one of the founding members of the United Japan Pro-Wrestling alliance, a joint effort to further develop professional wrestling in Japan through promotion and organization, with Seiji Sakaguchi being named as the chairman of the project.^[4]

Roster[edit]

Deathmatch BJ[edit]

Strong BJ[edit]

Strong J[edit]

Freelancers[edit]

Staff[edit]

Notable alumni/guests[edit]

Male[edit]

Female[edit]

CZW Warriors (2000–2002)[edit]

A derivation of this stable also appeared in Fire Pro Wrestling Returns as the Mad Gaijins, which consisted of Mad Man Pondo and 2 Tuff Tony.

Championships[edit]

As of July 3, 2024.

Current[edit]

This is a list of championships promoted by the company. Some of them are not created by it.

Championship	Current champion(s)		Reign	Date won	Days held	Location	Notes
BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship		Hideyoshi Kamitani	2	April 14, 2024	80+	Sapporo, Japan	Defeated Yuki IshikawaatBJW New Standard Big "B" ~ Feelin' Come 2024.
BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship		Yuya Aoki	1	May 4, 2023	426+	Yokohama, Japan	Defeated Yuji OkabayashiatBJW Endless Survivor ~ Infinity Independent.
BJW Tag Team Championship		Hideyoshi Kamitani and Isami Kodaka	1 (5, 5)	June 9, 2024	24+	Tokyo, Japan	Defeated Crazy Lovers (Masashi Takeda and Takumi Tsukamoto) at BJW.
BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship		Kota Sekifuda	2	May 4, 2024	60+	Yokohama, Japan	Defeated Ender Kara at BJW Endless Survivor ~ Beyond The Milestone'.
Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team Championship		Daisuke Sekimoto, Kazumi Kikuta and Yasufumi Nakanoue	1 (6, 3, 10)	May 26, 2024	38+	Nagoya, Japan	Defeated Kankuro Hoshino, Kengo Takai and Kenta Kosugi at BJW Death Market 79.

Other promoted[edit]

Championship	Current champion(s)		Reign	Date won	Days held	Location	Notes
All Asia Heavyweight Championship		Daimonji So	1	June 6, 2023+	393+	Yokohama, Japan	Defeated Dylan James to win the reactivated title.
UWA World Tag Team Championship		Tomato Kaji and Kota Sekifuda	1 (1, 1)	March 10, 2024+	115+	Osaka, Japan	Defeated Speed of Sounds (Tsutomu Oosugi and Hercules Senga) at BJW Osaka Surprise 71 ~ Shiko Blue Emperor's Camp.

Defunct[edit]

Formerly promoted[edit]

Tournaments[edit]

BJW also holds annual tournaments to decide the top wrestler or tag team in the promotion:

Broadcasters[edit]

Domestic:

• Fighting TV Samurai
• Nico Nico Douga

Worldwide:

• BJW Core

See also[edit]

• Professional wrestling in Japan
• List of professional wrestling promotions in Japan
• Fire Pro Wrestling Returns

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Media related to Big Japan Pro Wrestling at Wikimedia Commons