Big Japan Pro Wrestling
 |
|
| Acronym | BJW |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 |
| Style |
Deathmatch Strong style |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Founder(s) | Shin'ya Kojika Kendo Nagasaki |
| Owner(s) | Eiji Tosaka |
Big Japan Pro 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 organisations such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) 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 it early years, BJW was unable to directly compete with the budgets of its competition. This led to the innovation of a number of 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 titles and Deathmatch titles are the only ones still active.
Currently, the BJW roster is split into "Deathmatch BJ" and "Strong BJ". The deathmatch workers wrestle for the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship and the non-deathmatch workers for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship.
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