Pro Wrestling SEM
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| Founded | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Style | Ark Style |
| Headquarters | Misakichō, Tokyo, Japan |
| Founder(s) | Mitsuharu Misawa |
| Parent | Noah Global Entertainment |
| Founded | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Japan |
Pro Wrestling Noah (プロレスリングノア Puroresuringu Noa) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling legend Mitsuharu Misawa.
In January 1999, All Japan founder and promoter Giant Baba died, leaving the company in the hands of his widow Motoko Baba as owner and Misawa as president. However, disheartened with Motoko Baba's proposed direction for the company, Misawa departed the promotion on May 28, 2000 to form a new promotion called Pro Wrestling Noah. All but two native stars (Masanobu Fuchi and Toshiaki Kawada) and two gaijin (Stan Hansen and Maunakea Mossman) followed Misawa. The promotion's name alludes to the Biblical story of Noah, in which the people and animals in the ark survive the flood and make a new beginning in the world, a story which was seen as a parallel to the wrestlers' departure from All Japan. Noah's promotional symbol, an ark with a dove holding an olive branch, refers to this.
Pro Wrestling Noah is essentially a continuation of All Japan's promotional system in the 1990s, with a slight leeway to allow wrestlers from other promotions to compete, which is something that Giant Baba had forbid. Noah also features a strong junior heavyweight division, which was something that All Japan had been relatively lacking in the 1990s due to lack of pushes for the younger stars (such as Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kenta and Naomichi Marufuji, who quickly became Noah's junior aces).
The Wrestling Observer named Noah as the best promotion in 2004 and 2005, as well as having the best weekly television show in 2003.
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