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King Tonga
Tonga Uliuli Fifita (born February 10, 1959) is a Tongan professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) under the ring name Haku and his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Meng. Making his debut in 1978, Fifita also wrestled under the names King Tonga and King Haku while wrestling for the WWF. Fifita appeared on multiple pay-per-view events for the WWF and WCW and is a former WWF World Tag Team Champion. Sumo wrestling career Growing up on the main island of the South Pacific island-kingdom of Tonga, Fifita attended Tonga College, where he played rugby union. At the age of 15, he was part of a group of six teenagers and young men sent by the king of Tonga to Japan to study Sumo. Sione Vailahi, who would later become better known as pro-wrestler " The Barbarian", was also a part of this group. After moving to Japan in 1974, he competed under the shikona (sumo name) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WWC Puerto Rico Championship
The WWC Puerto Rico Championship is the secondary professional wrestling championship that is defended by the World Wrestling Council based in Puerto Rico. The title was created in January 1974 and, as its name suggests, is defended exclusively within Puerto Rico. Overall, the title has been possessed by seventy-five different wrestlers throughout the title's existence. The first champion was José Miguel Pérez, who was billed as champion upon the title's creation. He also holds the longest reign, at 426 days. Invader I holds the record for most reigns at 12. Belt designs The belt and its design have been changed several times for a number of reasons. The location represented in the title's name has changed twice, both times in unofficial fashion after being rechristened and modified by its current holder in under to sell a villainous persona. During Fidel Sierra's second reign, which began on June 2, 2001, and lasted for three months, he defended the title under the name of "C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WWF World Tag Team Champion
The World Tag Team Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two male tag team championships for WWE's main roster, along with the WWE Tag Team Championship on SmackDown. The current champions are The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods), who are in their record fifth reign as a team. Individually, it is the fifth reign for Woods and the record seventh for Kingston. They won the title by defeating The War Raiders (Erik and Ivar) on night one of WrestleMania 41 on April 19, 2025. The championship was originally established as the WWE Tag Team Championship on October 3, 2002, and the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit were the inaugural champions. It was introduced for the SmackDown brand as a second title for tag teams in the promotion to complement WWE's original World Tag Team Championship, which became exclusive to Raw. Both titles were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takashi Ishikawa
is a Japanese former professional wrestler and sumo wrestler from Fujishima, Higashitagawa District, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Sumo wrestling career He played baseball up to junior high school, but at Sakata Minami High School he switched to sumo and won the high school section of the National Sports Festival. He was an amateur sumo champion while at Nihon University, winning the All Japan Sumo Championships and the amateur ''yokozuna'' title. From 1975 to 1977 he was a sumo wrestler with the Hanakago stable and used the fighting name of , which had also been his stablemaster's fighting name. He reached a highest rank of maegashira 4, but was forced to retire at the age of 24 after complications with diabetes. Professional wrestling career All Japan Pro Wrestling (1977–1988) After retiring from sumo, Ishikawa decided to become a professional wrestler and joined All Japan Pro Wrestling. Giant Baba sent him to Pat O'Connor for training. After training, he was sent to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genichiro Tenryu
, better known as is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling. "Tenryu" was his ''shikona''. He had two stints with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he spent the majority of his career while also promoting Super World of Sports (SWS), Wrestle Association R (WAR) and Tenryu Project. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. At the time of his retirement, professional wrestling journalist and historian Dave Meltzer wrote that "one could make a strong case hat Tenryu wasbetween the fourth and sixth biggest native star" in the history of Japanese professional wrestling. Sumo wrestling career As a sumo wrestler, Tenryu was ranked as a '' sekitori'' for 27 tournaments, 16 of them in the top ''makuuchi'' division. His highest rank was '' maegashira'' 1. Upon the dea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Professional Wrestling In Japan
Professional wrestling in Japan has existed for several decades. The first Japanese person to involve themselves in catch wrestling (the basis of traditional professional wrestling) was former sumo wrestler Sorakichi Matsuda. There were subsequent attempts before and after World War II to popularize the sport in Japan, but these generally failed until the advent of its first big star, Rikidōzan, in 1951, who became known as the "father" of the sport. Rikidōzan brought the sport to tremendous popularity with his Japanese Wrestling Association (JWA) until his murder in 1963. Following his death, professional wrestling thrived, creating a variety of personalities, promotions and styles. It has also created a mass of other cultural icons in Japan including: Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, Jyushin "Thunder" Liger, Tiger Mask, Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Kenta Kobashi among others. Throughout the years, several promotions have opened and closed, but a few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asahiyama Stable
was a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Isegahama ''ichimon'' or group of stables. It had a long history. It closed its doors in January 2015, and its staff and wrestlers transferred to other stables. History In its active period, Asahiyama stable was one of the oldest continually-running stables in sumo, dating back to 1896. At the time of its closing it was the only stable still in existence that could trace its lineage back directly to the days of the once-rival Osaka sumo organization where it had a strong base, producing the 28th ''yokozuna'' Ōnishiki Daigorō in 1918. During the 1970s the stable was home to six Tongan wrestlers (including Sione Vailahi and Tonga Fifita) recruited by former ''maegashira'' , but when he died in 1975 they were caught up in a succession dispute between former ''maegashira'' and the man who eventually became the new head, former ''komusubi'' Wakafutase. They sided with Futaseyama's widow, who preferred Ryūō to take over, and were ulti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan Sumo Association
The , officially the ; sometimes abbreviated JSA or NSK, and more usually called Sumo Kyōkai, is the governing body that operates and controls Professional sports, professional sumo wrestling, called , in Japan under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Concretely, the association maintains and develops sumo traditions and integrity by holding honbasho, tournaments and . The purposes of the association are also to develop the means dedicated to the sport and maintain, manage and operate the facilities necessary for these activities. Therefore, the JSA operates subsidiaries such as the Kokugikan Service Company to organize its economic aspects, the Sumo School to organize training and instruction or the Sumo Museum to preserve and utilize sumo wrestling records and artefacts. Though professionals, such as rikishi, active wrestlers, gyōji, referees, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Professional Sumo Divisions
Professional sumo as administered by the Japan Sumo Association is divided into six ranked divisions. Wrestlers are promotion and relegation, promoted and demoted within and between these divisions based on the merit of their win–loss records in official tournaments. For more information, see ''kachi-koshi'' and ''make-koshi''. Wrestlers are also ranked within each division. The higher a wrestler's rank within a division is, the general level of opponents he will have to face becomes stronger. According to tradition, each rank is further subdivided into East and West, with East being slightly more prestigious, and ranked slightly higher than its West counterpart. The divisions, ranked in order of hierarchy from highest to lowest, are as follows: ''Makuuchi'' , or , is the top division. It is fixed at 42 wrestlers who are ranked according to their performance in previous tournaments. At the top of the division are the four ranks of "titleholders", or "champions" called the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shikona
A is a sumo wrestler's ring name. The tradition of ring names in sumo dates back to the Muromachi period and established itself during the Edo period, where they were used as a means to hide the identities of the . Given by the master to his disciple, this pseudonym doesn't follow any fixed rules, but is chosen in accordance with numerous influences, drawing its kanji, characters from the wrestler's inspiration or family, from the history of his stable or even from the master's own name. History Sources attesting to the use of pseudonyms by wrestlers and other martial artists date back to the mid-1500s, during the Muromachi period. During the period of peace established under the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan experienced an unprecedented period of vagrancy for many samurai who had lost their social standing with their previous masters, who had been deposed or killed so that the shogunate could assert itself. These masterless samurai, called , could not engage in any activity under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Barbarian (wrestler)
Sione Havea Vailahi (born 6 September 1958) is a Tongan professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, The Barbarian. He is best known for his various stints with Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and for being a part of tag teams the Powers of Pain with The Warlord and the Faces of Fear with Meng. His first national exposure was in the NWA territory Jim Crockett Promotions, where the Powers of Pain held the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship until they departed the company in 1988 and joined WWF, where they competed in the tag team division until the team was quietly split in 1990. Barbarian then competed as a singles wrestler until departing in 1992 and returning to WCW, where he became one-half of the final WCW United States Tag Team Champions with Dick Slater. During this time, Barbarian challenged Ron Simmons for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Halloween Havoc 1992. He left WCW ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sumo
is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by throwing, shoving or pushing him down). Sumo originated in Japan, the only country where it is practised professionally and where it is considered the national sport. It is considered a ''gendai budō'', which refers to modern Japanese martial arts, but the sport has a history spanning many centuries. Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, from Shinto. Life as a wrestler is highly regimented, with rules regulated by the Japan Sumo Association. Most sumo wrestlers are required to live in communal sumo training stables, known in Japanese as ''Heya (sumo), heya'', where all aspects of their daily livesfrom meals to their manner of dressa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
