What the fuck is that? Well, let me explain. Puroresu is short for "professional wrestling." However, the way this would be pronounced in Japanese, as their language, or raguragu greatly differs from ours, is "purofesshonaru resuringu."
Puroresu also deserves its own name, as it differs greatly from its American cousin. For instance, if you were to tell a person here in the US that you were a fan of the sport of professional wrestling, that person's first instinct is going to be to think of the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment, and laugh you out of the room for referring to it as a "sport." However, things are much different in Japan. The style is like nothing you have, or ever will, see on WWE television. Even those wrestlers on the WWE roster who have come from Japan have been forced to change their style, slow down, and loosen up their contact. In Japan, puroresu is very fast-paced, high-impact, technical sport. And yes, it is looked upon as a sport in the country. Not that they don't know it's choreographed, but they understand that it's no joke, it's painful, it takes tremendous skill and memory to pull off, and they appreciate the real life competition that is occurring before their eyes: the competition for spot, position and money.
Puroresu can refer to many different styles too. For instance, organizations like Pro Wrestling NOAH, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Zero-1 are known as Strong Style, as they incorporate techniques such as mixed martial arts into the wrestling style, and the story lines are rarely over the top, but are based more on the fighter's spirit. There is also King's Road, which has been adopted by All Japan Pro Wrestling, which is slightly more like American style wrestling, where the story lines are a bit over the top, and while Strong Style in-ring action is incorporated, you're much more likely to find Geijins in this style, as other styles, such as the American/WWE/WCW type of wrestling is accepted as well.
Japan was also the innovator of a new style called The Wrestling Opera, which was first attempted by a now defunct company called HUSTLE, operated by Nobuhiko Takada. The HUSTLE stories were far more over the top than anything the US had tried yet. One might say, "Come on! Remember when The Undertaker was locked in a coffin by Yokozuna, but then rose out of the casket, hovered over the arena, above the Titantron, and then rose through the roof top, ascending into the sky for whatever reason?" Well, is that really half as over the top as a company that is based on a former general assembling a group of mad monsters to destroy pro wrestling, and it's only up to the HUSTLE ARMY to save it from this demonic attack? I mean, Yinling, before she was Yinling Sama, was impregnated by Tajiri's green mist to the eyes, and gave birth a month later to the 500 pound, 7' tall Akebono, after which known as Bono Chan. In the end, HUSTLE was fun, but it just wasn't what the Japanese wanted to see. Though the wrestling was often incredible, the stories were not the traditional fighting spirit stories that brought Japan out of its depression after WWII with the spirit and resiliency of Rikidozan polishing off American and European Gaijins, one after another.
General structure
Matches are held between two or more sides ("corners"). Each corner may consist of one wrestler, or a team of two or more. Most team matches are governed by tag team rules (see below). One notable difference from North American and, in recent years, European professional wrestling is that puroresu rarely has matches between more than two parties.
The match is won by scoring a "fall", which is generally consistent with the analogous concept in other countries:
Fall, the Japanese equivalent of pinning an opponent's shoulders to the mat for the referee's count of three.
Give up, or submission victory, which sees the wrestler either tap out or verbally submit to their opponent.
Knockout, the failure to regain composure at the referee's command
Ring out, the failure of a party to return to the ring at the referee's command, which is determined by a count of twenty, double the time most other companies generally allow.
Disqualification, the act of one wrestler breaking the rules.
Additional rules govern how the outcome of the match is to take place. One such example would be the Japanese version of the Universal Wrestling Federation, as it does not allow pinfall victories in favor of submissions and knockouts; this is seen as an early influence of mixed martial arts, as some wrestlers broke away from traditional wrestling endings to matches in favor of legitimate outcomes. Another example is that most promotions disallow punches so a lot of wrestlers utilize open handed strikes and stiff forearms; this rule was also applied in the early stages of Pancrase.
JOSHI
Puroresu done by female wrestlers is called joshi puroresu or joshi puro for short. (女子プロレス). Female wrestling in Japan is usually handled by promotions that specialize in joshi puroresu, rather than divisions of otherwise male-dominated promotions as is the case in the United States (the only exception was FMW, a men's promotion which had a small women's division, but even then depended on talent from women's federations to provide competition). However, joshi puroresu promotions usually have agreements with male puroresu promotions such that they recognize each others' titles as legitimate, and may share cards. Promotions such as HUSTLE and Yoshihiro Tajiri's newer promotion SMASH not only have women on the same cards as men, but often, men and women compete with one another in one on one matches, or tag team style matches.
All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling was the dominant joshi organization from the 1970s to the 1990s. AJW's first major star was Mach Fumiake in 1974, followed in 1975 by Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda, known as the "Beauty Pair". The early 1980s saw the fame of Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami, major stars of the second wave of excellent workers who took the place of the glamour-based "Beauty Pair" generation. That decade would later see the rise of Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka, known as the "Crush Gals", who as a tag team achieved a level of unprecedented mainstream success in Japan, unheard of by any female wrestler in the history of professional wrestling all over the world. Their long running feud with Dump Matsumoto and her "Gokuaku Domei" ("Atrocious Alliance") stable would become extremely popular in Japan during the 1980s, with their televised matches resulting in some of the highest rated broadcasts in Japanese television as well as the promotion regularly selling out arenas.
It was during the 1990s that joshi puroresu attracted much critical acclaim internationally, and several classic matches during these era competed by select joshi wrestlers were awarded 5-stars by the American wrestling publication Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Notable joshi wrestlers of the 1990s include Manami Toyota, Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Megumi Kudo, Shinobu Kandori, Kyoko Inoue, Takako Inoue, Dynamite Kansai, and Mayumi Ozaki.
Primary differences between joshi and American women's wrestling is the depiction of women in a non-sexualised way and that often the audience at joshi promotions will have a large proportion of female fans. Female wrestlers with natural beauty, such as Mimi Hagiwara, Takako Inoue or Megumi Kudo may show off their beauty in non-wrestling related media, such as photo books, where they are treated no different from diva idols.
