| Big Japan Pro Wrestling | |
| Acronym: | BJW |
| Established: | March 16, 1995 |
| Location: | Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Founder: | Shinya "Great" Kojika Kendo Nagasaki |
| Owner: | Eiji Tosaka |
| Predecessor: | Network of Wrestling |
(BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests.
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:
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 (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 . 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.[1] [2] The service was then reactivated.
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.
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.[3]
| width=20% | Ring name | width=20% | Real name | width=30% | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdullah Kobayashi | Yōsuke Kobayashi | ||||
| Hideyoshi Kamitani | Hideyoshi Kamitani | BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Champion | |||
| Jaki Numazawa | Naoki Numazawa | ||||
| Kankuro Hoshino | Naotake Hoshino | ||||
| Kazumi Kikuta | Kazumi Kikuta | ||||
| Masaya Takahashi | Masaya Takahashi | ||||
| Ryuji Ito | Ryuji Ito | ||||
| Yuki Ishikawa | Yuki Ishikawa |
| Ring name | Real name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Daichi Hashimoto | Daichi Hashimoto | |
| Daisuke Sekimoto | Daisuke Sekimoto | Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team Champion |
| Hideyoshi Kamitani | Hideyoshi Kamitani | |
| Kazumi Kikuta | Kazumi Kikuta | Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team Champion |
| Kazumasa Yoshida | Kazumasa Yoshida | |
| Ryota Hama | Ryota Hama | |
| Takuya Nomura | Takuya Nomura | |
| Yasufumi Nakanoue | Yasufumi Nakanoue | Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team Champion |
| Yuichi Taniguchi | Yuichi Taniguchi | |
| Yuya Aoki | Yuya Aoki | BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion |
| width=20% | Ring name | width=20% | Real name | width=30% | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kazuki Hashimoto | Kazuki Hashimoto | ||||
| Kota Sekifuda | Kota Sekifuda | BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship | |||
| Kosuke Sato | Kosuke Sato | ||||
| Tatsuhiko Yoshino | Tatsuhiko Kimura | ||||
| Yuki Morihiro | Masaki Morihiro | Referee |
| width=20% | Ring name | width=20% | Real name | width=30% | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Wu | Andy Wu | ||||
| Banana Senga | Banana Senga | ||||
| Barahman Kei | Kei Sato | ||||
| Barahman Shu | Shu Sato | ||||
| Chicharito Shoki | Chicharito Shoki | 2AW | |||
| Daijyu Wakamastu | Daiki Wakamatsu | 2AW | |||
| Ender Kara | Ender Kara | ||||
| Fuminori Abe | Fuminori Abe | ||||
| Hiroyuki Suzuki | Takayoshi Suzuki | NiigataWakashishi Kikusui Cup Champion | |||
| Isami Kodaka | Isami Kodaka | Basara | |||
| Kohei Sato | Kohei Sato | ||||
| Koju Takeda | Takeda Koju | 666 | |||
| Leyton Buzzard | Leighton Buzzard | ||||
| Masashi Takeda | Masashi Takeda | BJW Tag Team Champion | |||
| Minoru Fujita | Minoru Fujita | ||||
| Michio Kageyama | Michio Kageyama | Team Certified Drazeger Champion | |||
| Rekka | Rekka | ||||
| Satsuki Nagao | Souki Nagao | Zero one | |||
| Shigehiro Irie | Shigehiro Irie | ||||
| So Daimonji | Takashi Daimonji | Lan's EndAll Asia Heavyweight Championship | |||
| Takumi Tsukamoto | Takumi Tsukamoto | BasaraBJW Tag Team Champion | |||
| Tempesta | Tempesta | ||||
| Tomato Kaji | Kaji Tomato | ||||
| Tsutomu Ohsugi | Tsutomu Osugi | ||||
| Yuko Miyamoto | Yuko Miyamoto | 666 | |||
| Yusaku Ito | Yusaku Ito |
| width=20% | Ring name | width=20% | Real name | width=30% | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daikokubo Benkei | Kazumi Kotani | Retired wrestler | |||
| Eiji Tosaka | Eiji Tosaka | Announcer Owner | |||
| Frank Atsushi | Atsushi Ohashi | Referee | |||
| Great Kojika | Shinya Kojika | Chairman Occasional wrestler | |||
| Mac Takeda | Hiroki Takeda | Referee | |||
| Ryohei Nakatani | Ryohei Nakatani | Referee | |||
| Ryuji Yamakawa | Seiji Yamakawa | Retired wrestler Makes occasional appearances | |||
| Yuji Kumawaka | Yuji Kumawaka | Announcer | |||
| Yuji Shindo | Yuji Shindo | Announcer |
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.
As of, .
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 | + | Sapporo, Japan | Defeated Yuki Ishikawa at BJW New Standard Big "B" ~ Feelin' Come 2024. | |||
| BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship | Yuya Aoki | 1 | + | Yokohama, Japan | Defeated Yuji Okabayashi at BJW Endless Survivor ~ Infinity Independent. | |||
| BJW Tag Team Championship | Masaya Takahashi and Sagat | 1 | + | Tokyo, Japan | Defeated Hideyoshi Kamitani and Isami Kodaka at BJW. | |||
| BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship | Kota Sekifuda | 2 | + | 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 | + | Nagoya, Japan | Defeated Kankuro Hoshino, Kengo Takai and Kenta Kosugi at BJW Death Market 79. | |||
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days held | Location | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Asia Heavyweight Championship | Daimonji So | 1 | + | + | Yokohama, Japan | Defeated Dylan James to win the reactivated title. | ||
| UWA World Tag Team Championship | Tomato Kaji and Kota Sekifuda | 1 | + | + | Osaka, Japan | Defeated Speed of Sounds (Tsutomu Oosugi and Hercules Senga) at BJW Osaka Surprise 71 ~ Shiko Blue Emperor's Camp. | ||
| Championship | Final champion(s) | Date won | |
|---|---|---|---|
| BJW Heavyweight Championship | Men's Teioh | ||
| BJW Women's Championship[4] | Kaori Yoneyama | ||
| BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1998–2002) | Homicide | ||
| BJW 8-Man Scramble Championship | Kiyoko Ichiki |
| Championship | Last champion(s) | Date won | |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMW/WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship | Saburo Inematsu & Ryuichi Sekine | ||
| Sakatako Intercontinental Tag Team Championship | Abdullah Kobayashi & Takayuki Ueki |
See main article: List of Big Japan Pro Wrestling tournaments. BJW also holds annual tournaments to decide the top wrestler or tag team in the promotion:
| Tournament | Latest winner(s) | Date won | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daichi Hashimoto | April 26, 2020 | ||
| Isami Kodaka | April 14, 2019 | ||
| Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani | October 20, 2020 |
Domestic:
Worldwide: