tigeraid 0 Report post Posted August 20, 2006 This could be verrrrrrrrrrry big: Today's Tokyo Sports had a big story about the apparent formation of a new "association" that will unify a sector of the pro wrestling community called something like the Global Pro-Wrestling Association (GPWA). FOS president, Yoshiyuki Nakamura, seems to be the brains behind it, and has Misawa's support and that of other promotions. The association will have many aims, such as avoiding performance wars between the members, making pro wrestlers (in the association) get licenses, holding joint tryouts for newcomers then I guess sharing them out, supporting retired wrestlers, and possibly holding small scale joint shows (ala Differ Cup). Promotions/offices who look likely to accept membership are: - NOAH (Misawa may be the first chairman) - ZERO1-MAX - IWA Japan - El Dorado - ROH - World-1 - DDT - EWA - Kensuke Office - Kaientai Dojo - Takayama Office - WLW - BIG MOUTH LOUD Promotions who have refused or weren't mentioned at all... - New Japan (outright refusal by Chono and Sugehayashi, but Sugehayashi said NJ won't oppose it) - All Japan - DSE/Hustle - Dragon Gate - Muga World - Big Japan - Riki Pro - Apache Army There was an attempt to unify indies in the past called "FFF". Whether this succeeds or fails is anyone's guess, but right now its lacking some big support, with NOAH the only big promotion involved. The marketing and talent exchange possibilities are endless. Shibita Vs Danielson? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hunter's Torn Quad 0 Report post Posted August 20, 2006 I really hope this comes through. Something like this could be of great benefit to wrestling, not just in Japan but on a worldwide basis. Japanese wrestling as a whole has been on shaky ground for quite some time, mostly due to the most visible group, New Japan, having a terrible last few years, and this could be the very thing to kickstart Japanese wrestling back into gear. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GODSON 0 Report post Posted August 20, 2006 Don't these promotions do talent exchanges with each anyway? What's going to be different? It seem like this will only have an impact on the Puro scene. ROH and WLW is the only US companies and they already have a strong relationship with NOAH and ROH have DG also. Where is the lucha libre? Unless they have a GPWA weekly wrestling tv show, I don't think this will be a big deal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Connzilla Report post Posted August 22, 2006 I didn't IWA Japan was still around. Are they still a blood and guts group or did they go the FMW route and started focusing more on sports entertainment? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dubq 0 Report post Posted August 25, 2006 This is hilarious to me as I've been running an efed called the GPWA (Global Pro Wrestling Alliance) since 1996. www.gpwa.ca Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tigeraid 0 Report post Posted August 29, 2006 This is hilarious to me as I've been running an efed called the GPWA (Global Pro Wrestling Alliance) since 1996. www.gpwa.ca ahhhh, so that's you. First thing I found when I tried to google it a few days ago. So, you gonna sue for $USD1bil? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dubq 0 Report post Posted August 29, 2006 This is hilarious to me as I've been running an efed called the GPWA (Global Pro Wrestling Alliance) since 1996. www.gpwa.ca ahhhh, so that's you. First thing I found when I tried to google it a few days ago. So, you gonna sue for $USD1bil? Heh, I can only imagine how fast that would be laughed out of court. I'm totally behind the idea of a real-life GPWA, to be honest. As long as they don't pull a WWE-stylized shitting on and shutting down of related efeds. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Connzilla Report post Posted September 12, 2006 Credit - http://wideworldwrestling.blogspot.com/ GPWA Announcement Tomorrow There will be an announcement made tomorrow regarding the status of the Global Pro Wrestling Association where it is expected that the announcement will be that the formation of this organization will be a go. Mitsuharu Misawa will be the Chairman and Yoshiyuki Nakamura will be his right hand man in the GPWA that will have support from almost every organization in Japan except All-Japan, New Japan, and a couple of others. Nakamura said that with there being so many groups in Japan right now the business has become too diversified and that the GPWA will bring most of these groups together where they will showcase the best talent in each promotions against each other with the hope that it would be a boost to the popularity of wrestling in Japan. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dubq 0 Report post Posted September 12, 2006 God I hope this means a widespread TV deal for Japanese wrestling in North America. I'm sick of having to order everything on DVD and/or download it from the net. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Connzilla Report post Posted September 13, 2006 Credit: http://wideworldwrestling.blogspot.com/ GPWA Becomes Official GPWA Chairman Mitsuharu Misawa & Director Yoshiyuki Nakamura held a press conference today at Differ Ariake with Kiyoshi Asano (IWA)/Kensho Kawabata (El Dorado)/Kazunari Murakami (BML)/Shinjiro Otani (Z1)/Sanshiro Takagi (DDT)/TAKA Michinoku (K-DOJO) in attendance and Misawa announced that the first GPWA show will be held on 11/14 at Korakuen Hall and will be broadcast on NTV on tape delay and live on G+. Misawa said that that the promotions they have deals with overseas (EWA/ROH/WLW/World-1) will also send talent to make this card a “gold card” for the debut of the promotion. Freelancers working GPWA are the following Takaku Fuke/Kikutaro/Shiro Koshinaka/Mazada/NOSAWA/Minoru Suzuki/Yoshihiro Takayama/Tadao Yasuda. Misawa also said that the profits from this show will be pooled into a fund for the maintenance of GPWA and it’s employees along with the formation of a GPWA Dojo to train new talent. Misawa said that it’s disappointing that All-Japan/Dragon Gate/HUSTLE/New Japan won’t be involved but Nakamura said that he has been in talks with every one of those groups and they just wouldn’t join up at the moment. Nakamura said though that he hopes that they would assist GPWA in the future and he thinks that GPWA will survive without them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GODSON 0 Report post Posted September 13, 2006 Credit: http://wideworldwrestling.blogspot.com/ GPWA Becomes Official GPWA Chairman Mitsuharu Misawa & Director Yoshiyuki Nakamura held a press conference today at Differ Ariake with Kiyoshi Asano (IWA)/Kensho Kawabata (El Dorado)/Kazunari Murakami (BML)/Shinjiro Otani (Z1)/Sanshiro Takagi (DDT)/TAKA Michinoku (K-DOJO) in attendance and Misawa announced that the first GPWA show will be held on 11/14 at Korakuen Hall and will be broadcast on NTV on tape delay and live on G+. Misawa said that that the promotions they have deals with overseas (EWA/ROH/WLW/World-1) will also send talent to make this card a “gold card” for the debut of the promotion. Freelancers working GPWA are the following Takaku Fuke/Kikutaro/Shiro Koshinaka/Mazada/NOSAWA/Minoru Suzuki/Yoshihiro Takayama/Tadao Yasuda. Misawa also said that the profits from this show will be pooled into a fund for the maintenance of GPWA and it’s employees along with the formation of a GPWA Dojo to train new talent. Misawa said that it’s disappointing that All-Japan/Dragon Gate/HUSTLE/New Japan won’t be involved but Nakamura said that he has been in talks with every one of those groups and they just wouldn’t join up at the moment. Nakamura said though that he hopes that they would assist GPWA in the future and he thinks that GPWA will survive without them. I wonder why HUSTLE,Dragon Gate,All Japan and New Japan is not joining, oh yeah this is NOAH way of saying we want to control everybody. THis GPWA looks like NOAH and friends instead of a real alliance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Connzilla Report post Posted September 22, 2006 Credit http://www.world1wrestling.com/news20060915.shtml GLOBAL PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING ALLIANCE! Today the leaders of some of the most recognizable wrestling promotions in Japan officially announced the birth of the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance (GPWA). Pro Wrestling NOAH's CEO Mitsuharu Misawa was inaugurated as the first Chairman of the new alliance, with ZERO1-MAX's Yoshiyuki Nakamura announced as the company's President a position he hold also in FIRST ON STAGE. At the Press Conference, Misawa commented that currently in Japan there are more than 30 companies running at the same time, but everywhere the management of all companies is "painful." With the GPWA, the promotions involved will all share the same training facilities and coordinate their event schedules so the don't run against each other and split the wrestling fan base. Nakamura said NOAH will be the flagship since they're currently the best managed in the country. The following eight Japanese companies are official members and their representatives: IWA-JAPAN (Tatsukuni Asano) El Dorado (Noriaki Kawabata) KAIENTAI DOJO (TAKA Michinoku) Kensuke Office (Hisako Sasaki) ZERO1-MAX (Shinjiro Otani) Dramatic Dream Team (Sanshiro Takagi) BIG MOUTH LOUD (Kazunari Murakami) NOAH (Mitsuharu Misawa) And the Foreign Companies in the alliance: EWA (Chris Raaber) ROH (Cary Silkin) WLW (Harley Race) WORLD-1 (Steve Corino) And the following freelance wrestlers have said they will participate: Kikutaro (freelance) Shiro Koshinaka (freelance) Minoru Suzuki (Pancrase) Yoshihiro Takayama (Takayama Hall) NOSAWA (freelance) Takaku Fuke (Pancrase) MAZADA (freelance) Tadao Yasuda (freelance) "Future standardized organization simplifies the participation of the various promotions," said Misawa, " and it assures the spread and revival of worldwide wrestling..." Simply stated, the concept is to form an alliance that will keep the promotions from stepping on each other toes and fostering and environment of cooperation rather than competition. And to sometimes put on "Super Shows" where all the promotions will send fighters to compete representing their own companies under the GPWA banner. The first show was announced for 11/14, though the fighter participations and details are undecided but it will be televised. In addition the logo of the company was introduced and as you can see above is a representation of a wrestling ring with red and blue corners but with a globe stretched from side to side to show the "love and courage all people of the world express via their admiration of pro wrestling." I knew it is the same information I posted Above but this had the logo and I thought I should post that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hunter's Torn Quad 0 Report post Posted November 14, 2006 Global Pro-Wrestling Association "~REALIZE~" November 14, 2006 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1. NOAH vs. Zero-One Max: Taiji Ishimori, Atsushi Aoki & Ippei Ota vs. Ikuto Hidaka, Osamu Namiguchi & Shota Takanishi (15:00) went to a time limit draw. 2. Kikutaro, Katsunari Kishi & Muneki Sawa beat Kappa Kozo , Manabu Hara & Tsutomu Hirayanagi (15:04) when Kishi pinned Kozo with a Backslide. 3. Offer Match: El Blazer, Jumping Kid Okimoto & Milanito Collection AT beat Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei & Manjimaru (11:45) when Blazer pinned Manjimaru with the Lightning Struck. 4. Offer Match: JOE, Yasu Urano, Mr. X & Mike Lee Jr. beat Yuji Hino, SUPER-X, Saburo Inematsu & Yuu Yamagata (16:42) when Joe pinned SUPER-X following an Avalanche Brainbuster. 5. Offer Match: Danshoku Dino & Kota Ibushi beat KUDO & Daichi Kakimoto (15:12) when Ibushi pinned Kakimoto with the Phoenix Splash. 6. Yoshihiro Takayama, Minoru Suzuki & NOSAWA Rongai beat Takeshi Morishima , Kohei Sato & Shuhei Taniguchi (22:10) when Takayama submitted Taniguchi with a Chickenwing Armlock. 7. Go Shiosaki NOAH, Katsuhiko Nakajima Kensuke Office & Takuya Sugawara beat Ryouji Sai Zero-One Max, HARASHIMA DDT & KAZMA (22:37) when Shiosaki pinned KAZMA with a Moonsault press. - This was the first official event of the GPWA. - Official attendance hasn't been released at the moment, other than the papers saying it was "almost no-vacancy". Misawa was interviewed about the concept of the GPWA, and said that one of its key meanings is to properly elevate the younger wrestlers, and reiterated that official GPWA dojos would be opened in the future. - Sugawara appearently hurt his left knee in the match. Although I don't know if it's legit or not. Shiosaki hit KAZMA with a Lariat, followed by the Moonsault press for the win. Kikutaro thanked the fans for their attendance, and appealed to outside wrestlers to join the GPWA. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wyld Cannon 0 Report post Posted November 14, 2006 Does Takayama really have an office where he works on the Takayama Budget and has a Takayama Christmas Party? But seriously, does he really have his own company? I vaguely remember the Kensuke Office actually running a few small shows under the "company" banner. Now i'm just daydreaming that japan has The Takayama Office right after My Name is Toshiaki on thursday nights. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
