Active Advance Pro Wrestling (2AW) is a

Japanese professional wrestling 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 subsequ ...

promotion and training facility originally owned and promoted by

Taka Michinoku (born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring name (stylized as TAKA Michinoku), is a Japanese professional wrestling, professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. He primarily appears for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is a me ...

. The promotion places emphasis on a style of

puroresu is a Japanese term used for professional wrestling in Japan, professional wrestling in and outside of Japan. The term comes from the Gairaigo, Japanese pronunciation of , which in Japanese is abbreviated to “puro” ( - “pro”) & “resu” ...

that combines high-flying, technical wrestling, and martial arts. The promotion was originally called Kaientai Dojo (or K-DOJO for short). This style was largely contributed to by Taka Michinoku and is gaining popularity in Japan and abroad. K-DOJO is also heavily influenced by American-style wrestling and places a large amount of importance on presentation. For instance, each Club-K 3000 show that K-DOJO runs is equipped with a large screen near the entrance gate, similar to the Titantron, where a short introductory vignette is played during each wrestler's entrance and where the crowd can follow the action on-screen. They had a home building that doubles as their training facility, Chiba Blue Field, where all of their Club-K 3000 shows were held; in December 2011, the building was bought by the joshi pro-wrestling promotion Universal Woman's Pro Wrestling Reina, but K-Dojo continues to run shows from the renamed Reina Arena. On April 1, 2013, the arena was again renamed Blue Field.

History

Kaientai Dojo originated in 2000 as a small wrestling school in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

run by Taka Michinoku. After Taka returned to Japan in 2002, he established the Japanese branch of Kaientai Dojo, which would soon become a wrestling promotion. The small federation grew over the years and is now an independent league that runs as a promotion, wrestling school, and talent loan organization to various other leagues such as

AJPW (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on October 21, 1972, by Giant Baba after he left the Japanese Wrestling Association to create his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, with many m ...

, Dragon Gate and

Michinoku Pro (originally known as North Eastern Wrestling) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke on October 1, 1992. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rather ...

. Until recently, K-DOJO was separated into two distinct sides, GET and RAVE, which ran separate shows but often joined together during large shows and tours. GET was led by Taka Michinoku while RAVE's leader was

Hi69 is a Japanese professional wrestler better known by his ring name Hi69 (pronounced as Hiroki). He is currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah. Since debuting in 2000, Tanabe has frequently worked for Kaientai Dojo, Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Ap ...

. After Hi69's departure, Taka Michinoku became commissioner of RAVE, and 296 became commissioner of GET. On April 22, 2007, RAVE ran its last show; the two brands merged and now run joint shows. A particular aspect of K-DOJO is that it is one of the few wrestling promotions to feature both men and women. Women can wrestle in the same ring as men, either during mixed tag matches or even singles matches. Also, they can challenge for championship belts, something that would be unheard of in most wrestling promotions. In November 2018, it became known that Taka Michinoku had an eight-year-long extramarital relationship with a woman. After this scandal, the promotion fired him and sanctioned him for one year without payment. In April 2019, the promotion announced that they were rebranding as Active Advance Pro Wrestling (2AW for short). This came as the company attempted to rebrand itself after the Taka Michinoku scandal, also changing its colors to black & white. That same night, young wrestler Ayato Yoshida won the Strongest-K Championship, symbolically leading the company into the future. On January 10, 2020, it was announced that 2AW is now part of the

Allied Independent Wrestling Federations An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

as their Japanese affiliate.

Roster

Championships

Current

Formerly promoted

Annual tournaments

References

External links

2AW Official Site (Japanese)K-DOJO Official Site (Japanese) K-DOJO Fan Site (English)
{{Professional wrestling in Japan Professional wrestling schools 2002 establishments in Japan Dōjō