Kingdom Professional Wrestling

Japanese professional wrestling promotion

This article is about a professional wrestling promotion. For the professional wrestling stable, see The Kingdom (professional wrestling).

Kingdom Professional Wrestling

Founded| 1997
Defunct| March 1998
Style| Shoot style
Headquarters| Tokyo, Japan
Founder(s)| Former UWFi wrestlers
Predecessor| UWF International
Successor| Pride Fighting Championships
Kingdom Ehrgeiz

Kingdom, or Kingdom Professional Wrestling, was a Japanese shoot style professional wrestling promotion that held events in 1997 and 1998. It was considered a continuation of UWF International, having most of its former roster: Nobuhiko Takada, Yoji Anjo, Kazushi Sakuraba, Daijiro Matsui, Naoki Sano, Masahito Kakihara, Yoshihiro Takayama, Kenichi Yamamoto and Hiromitsu Kanehara.

Several wrestlers began pursuing mixed martial arts during their time at the promotion, most notably Kazushi Sakuraba who won the UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan heavyweight tournament representing Kingdom. The promotion is also a predecessor to the Pride Fighting Championships, which held their first event towards the demise of Kingdom. With the rise of mixed martial arts, Kingdom held legitimate shoot fights in their events.

## History

[edit]

Kingdom's popularity did not reach or surpass that of the UWF International. Attempts to rectify this by using talent from other shoot-style promotions including Battlarts did little to help, and it seemed that in the eyes of the Japanese fans the era of shoot style wrestling had ended. As a result, Kingdom would go out of business in March 1998.

In the aftermath, Matsui, Sakuraba, Sano and Takada focused on competing for mixed martial arts promotion Pride as part of the Takada Dojo camp. Yamamoto and Kanehara jumped to Rings, which had been a splinter promotion formed from the UWF much like UWF International had been. Meanwhile, Kakihara and Takayama joined All Japan Pro Wrestling as free agents, while Anjo dabbled in K-1 before later reappearing in All Japan Pro Wrestling and Dream Stage Entertainment's Hustle as "Commander Anjoe".

A former trainee of the Kingdom dojo, Hidetada Irie, who debuted at Kingdom's final event,[1] formed a successor promotion called "Kingdom Ehrgeiz", with himself as the top star. The promotion, however, is very obscure and only promotes cards periodically.

## See also

[edit]

* Japan portal

* Professional wrestling in Japan

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Kingdom Results". Cagematch.net. Retrieved May 19, 2020.

## External links

[edit]

* KINGDOM history, stats, results, & more

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Professional wrestling in Japan

Active promotions

Major promotions|

* All Japan Pro Wrestling
* CyberFight
* DDT Pro-Wrestling
* Pro Wrestling Noah
* Dragongate
* New Japan Pro-Wrestling

Women's|

* CyberFight
* Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling
* World Wonder Ring Stardom

Independent promotions|

* Active Advance Pro Wrestling
* Big Japan Pro Wrestling
* Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion
* Dradition
* Ganbare☆Pro-Wrestling
* Gleat
* Lidet UWF
* G Prowrestling
* Kyushu Pro-Wrestling
* Michinoku Pro Wrestling
* Osaka Pro Wrestling
* Pro-Wrestling Basara
* Pro Wrestling Freedoms
* Pro Wrestling Land's End
* Pro-Wrestling Shi-En
* Pro Wrestling Zero1
* Professional Wrestling Just Tap Out
* Strong Style Pro-Wrestling
* Tenryu Project
* Tokyo Gurentai
* Wrestling of Darkness 666

Women's|

* 2point5 Joshi Pro Wrestling
* Actwres girl'Z
* ChocoPro
* Dream Star Fighting Marigold
* Ice Ribbon
* Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling
* Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling
* Oz Academy
* Pro Wrestling Wave
* Pure-J
* Reina Joshi Puroresu
* Seadlinnng
* Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling
* World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana

Governing bodies and
interpromotional alliances|

| Legitimate|

* Asia-Pacific Federation of Wrestling
* United Japan Pro-Wrestling
* United Wrestling Network

|

Storyline|

* AWA
* International Wrestling Grand Prix
* Global Honored Crown
* New Wrestling Alliance
* Pacific Wrestling Federation

Defunct promotions

Major promotions|

* Fighting Network Rings
* Hustle
* Inoki Genome Federation
* International Wrestling Enterprise
* Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance
* UWF International
* Wrestle-1

Women's|

* All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
* Gaea Japan
* Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling

Independent promotions|

* Apache Pro-Wrestling Army
* Battlarts
* Diamond Ring
* Fighting of World Japan Pro Wrestling
* IWA Japan
* Japan Pro-Wrestling
* Kingdom
* Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi
* Smash
* Super World of Sports
* Tokyo Pro Wrestling
* Toryumon Japan
* Universal Lucha Libre
* Universal Wrestling Federation
* W*ING
* WAR
* Wrestling New Classic

Women's|

* Arsion
* JDStar
* JWP Joshi Puroresu
* NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling
* WNC-Reina

Governing bodies and
interpromotional alliances|

* AWA Superstars of Wrestling
* Global Professional Wrestling Alliance

* Attendance records
* Professional wrestling at the Tokyo Dome
* Puroresu
* Rikidōzan

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