When Joshi Ruled the 90s, Then Collapsed

In the span of just five years, Japan’s women’s wrestling went from dominating prime-time television and filling the Tokyo Dome with 42,500 fans to complete obscurity. All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW) ruled the country in the early 1990s. Its athletes were household names, its matches ranked among wrestling’s finest, and the entire landscape seemed destined for international dominance. Then something broke. By 1997, the industry’s biggest stars fled their posts, TV networks abandoned the product, and the promotion that started it all filed for bankruptcy. What happened to destroy one of wrestling’s most innovative movements? The answer lies in a web of poor decisions, structural flaws, and one costly disaster that nobody saw coming.

1990s Joshi Wrestling Dominated Japan: How Massive Was the Boom?

During its peak, joshi puroresu was red-hot. The 1990s joshi boom centered on All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, a pioneering all-women’s promotion that had dominated the genre since the 1970s. AJW’s wrestlers became household names in Japan, known for athleticism that pushed the boundaries of pro wrestling.

In 1994, AJW even staged an all-women’s mega-show at the Tokyo Dome – an achievement once unimaginable – drawing over 42,000 fans. This era produced some of the most acclaimed matches in wrestling history, and for a moment, it seemed joshi wrestling might attain lasting mainstream status.

However, by the end of the 1990s, the landscape had changed dramatically. AJW fell into financial ruin, media coverage evaporated, and a once-unified fanbase splintered. New promotions like GAEA Japan, JWP, and ARSION emerged from AJW’s shadow, but the industry’s overall profile sharply declined. Despite its innovations, 1990s joshi failed to sustain its mainstream momentum or break out internationally.

The 1980s Foundation That Built the Joshi Wrestling Phenomenon

Conceptually, women’s professional wrestling in Japan dates back to the 1950s, but it was All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (AJW), founded in 1968, that truly established the genre.

By securing a television deal with Fuji TV in 1968, AJW brought joshi into Japanese living rooms and built a national following. Later, in the 1970s, AJW produced the first female wrestling pop stars – the Beauty Pair (Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda) – who not only headlined shows but also released hit pop songs to adoring fans. This idol crossover formula proved wildly successful. By the early 1980s, AJW’s wrestlers were both athletic competitors and teen idols, captivating a core audience of schoolgirl fans.

The 1980s joshi boom reached its apex with the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka), a babyface tag team whose popularity in Japan was often compared to Hulk Hogan’s in 1980s America. Their feuds (especially against the villainous Dump Matsumoto) became a pop culture sensation, drawing fanatic reactions and leading AJW’s weekly TV program to skyrocket in the ratings.

At one point, AJW’s show was so popular it moved from late-night to a prime-time broadcast slot, a rarity for wrestling in Japan. Live events routinely sold-out major arenas.

In 1985, AJW’s annual rookie auditions attracted 2,000 teenage girls vying to join the promotion’s dojo, evidence of the phenomenon’s inspirational reach.

The ‘Retire by 26’ Rule: How AJW’s Strict Policy Created Competition From JWP and Beyond

AJW’s success was built on a strict system that would later prove double-edged. Management enforced a "retire by age 26" rule, reflecting a belief that women wrestlers should exit before becoming too old to appeal to the teenage fanbase. This policy forced stars to bow out at their peak of popularity. Nagayo herself was compelled to retire in 1989 at age 24.

The promotion’s management viewed mandatory retirement at 26 as essential to maintaining the roster’s youth and marketability. However, this harsh requirement meant wrestlers were forced to leave their careers when most performers (male or female) were still in their prime earning years and at the height of their experience.

The short careers kept the roster young and relatable, but also cut off many stars in their prime, creating boom-bust cycles in popularity.

Meanwhile, the late 1980s saw the rise of rival promotions. In 1986, Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (JWP) was founded by ex-AJW wrestler Jackie Sato and others, providing an alternative home for women who still wanted to wrestle after aging out of AJW. JWP’s roster included talent like Devil Masami and Shinobu Kandori, and it positioned itself as a grittier alternative to AJW’s glossy idol image. Though AJW remained the industry leader, competition increased.

By 1990, multiple joshi groups existed (JWP, Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling/LLPW, and others), setting the stage for both collaboration and rivalry in the decade ahead.

Dream Slam Supercards: When Joshi Promotions United for Ambitious Events

A new golden generation of AJW wrestlers emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, rejuvenating the product after the Crush Gals era.

Exceptional talents like Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Bull Nakano, and Kyoko Inoue rose to prominence. These women combined high-end athleticism, innovative ring styles, and hard-hitting "strong style" physicality, earning critical acclaim as possibly the best workers in wrestling during that time. By 1992, AJW was entering what many consider its peak period, powered by this talent influx and a bold new approach to business: inter-promotional "dream" shows.

For decades, Japanese wrestling promotions (men’s and women’s alike) seldom cooperated, but financial pressures and fan demand led to unprecedented partnerships in the joshi world. AJW, still the top company, invited its rivals to participate in blockbuster cards where "champion vs. champion" and "dream match" scenarios could play out. The result was a series of supershows that showcased the best of all organizations, creating a thrilling sense of an all-star universe.

The first major event of this kind, All-Star Dream Slam in April 1993, featured AJW champions facing off against JWP, LLPW, and FMW’s women’s division in a loaded card at Yokohama Arena. The show drew 16,500 fans and was voted the "Best Major Wrestling Show" of 1993 by Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers.

The inter-promotional experiment continued to bear fruit. A sequel supercard, Dream Slam II, and other collaborative events kept fan excitement high. The culmination was Big Egg Wrestling Universe on November 20, 1994 – AJW’s 25th anniversary extravaganza, held in the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome. It was the first (and to date, only) all-women’s pro wrestling show in the Dome, and it broke the all-time record for biggest women’s wrestling show, selling 42,500 tickets.

The event was a marathon 10+ hour spectacle featuring talent from AJW, JWP, LLPW, and the upstart GAEA Japan, among others. Even the WWF participated, as Bull Nakano defeated WWF women’s champion Alundra Blayze (Madusa) in front of the huge Dome crowd, a rare WWF title change on Japanese soil. The sheer scale and cooperation of Big Egg impressed media. AJW’s president proudly declared women’s wrestling had achieved a historic milestone, while fans witnessed marquee bouts once thought impossible.

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Manami Toyota and Aja Kong Led Joshi Wrestling to Its Technical Peak in the Mid-1990s

Critically, 1990s joshi set new standards for in-ring excellence. Wrestlers like Manami Toyota delivered performances that wrestling journalists ranked among the year’s best against any gender. Toyota’s matches in 1995 alone, for example, earned multiple five-star ratings and end-of-year awards in the Observer polls.

The style was fast-paced, innovative, and physical – years ahead of what most American women’s wrestling was showcasing at the time. As Madusa (Debrah Miceli), who wrestled in AJW in the early ’90s, recalled in an interview with The Ringer:

"They’re brutal. They kicked my *** for a whole year… I have so much respect for them. They helped hone my craft to become who I am today. I think that my style was ahead of its time – my style of wrestling is today’s women’s style."

In other words, AJW’s ’90s output was not only popular in Japan but also highly influential on the global women’s wrestling evolution.

By the mid-1990s, joshi puroresu had reached a pinnacle. AJW still led the pack, but other promotions were making their mark. JWP, reborn in 1992 as the JWP Project after the original group dissolved, boasted stars like Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki who delivered classic matches (often against AJW counterparts). LLPW, formed the same year under Shinobu Kandori, offered a more martial arts-infused style and participated in inter-promotional rivalry.

In 1995, Chigusa Nagayo – the former Crush Gal – came out of retirement to found GAEA Japan, bringing veteran star power and eventually training a new generation (like a young Meiko Satomura). By 1997, Aja Kong and others, having left AJW, would create Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION, a promotion emphasizing technical and "hybrid" style matches.

Needless to say, the mid-’90s presented a rich tapestry of joshi organizations. For a time, cooperative supercards and healthy competition coexisted, and fans were treated to dream match-ups across company lines. Joshi wrestling had never been more acclaimed or ambitious.

August 1997: When AJW’s Top Stars Left and Fuji TV Pulled the Plug – The Collapse of 1990s Joshi Wrestling

Despite a vibrant exterior, 1990s joshi wrestling was undermined by structural and business issues. AJW’s management and business model in particular had serious flaws that became more pronounced as the decade progressed.

The Matsunaga family, who owned AJW, ran the promotion in a traditional, insular manner. Their approach succeeded in the short term – maintaining strict control over talent and presentation – but proved ill-suited to adapt to changing economic conditions.

In the mid-1990s, the Matsunagas made a series of ill-fated financial ventures outside wrestling, including speculative real estate investments and even a Tokyo restaurant chain.

When Japan’s economy entered a downturn in the late 1990s, these side businesses collapsed, dragging AJW down with them.

The problems came to a head in 1997, which would be a nightmare year for AJW. That year, the promotion declared bankruptcy, unable to pay off debts accrued from the failed investments.

As funding dried up, wrestlers suddenly stopped receiving paychecks, prompting an exodus of top talent.

Over the summer of 1997, 14 wrestlers quit AJW, including many of its biggest stars. Among those leaving included WWWA Champion Kyoko Inoue and the popular tag team LCO (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda), who departed to form a new group (NEO Ladies); Toshiyo Yamada (one of AJW’s 1990s stalwarts), who jumped to GAEA Japan; and AJW icon Aja Kong, along with Mariko Yoshida, Reggie Bennett, and others, who founded ARSION in early 1998.

Almost every marketable main-eventer not under the Matsunaga family ties left the sinking ship.

The talent exodus had a cascade effect. AJW’s television partner, Fuji TV, canceled the promotion’s weekly TV slot in October 1997, once the top stars – and, consequently, viewers – were gone. That same month, AJW was forced to hand over its famed dojo headquarters to creditors, including the office, training gym, dormitories, and even the small arena space they used for events. The company’s physical and financial infrastructure was gutted.

Although AJW managed to continue promoting on a much smaller scale and did regain a late-night Fuji TV timeslot in mid-1998, it was a shell of its former self after 1997.

The Death That Changed Everything: How Plum Mariko’s Tragedy Exposed Joshi Wrestling’s Fatal Flaws

Beyond mismanagement, broader structural issues contributed to joshi’s decline. One was the aging and turnover of the fanbase. AJW’s core audience in the 1970s-80s had been young girls, but by the 1990s, those original fans had grown up. In the 1980s, the promotion could count on a fresh influx of teen fans drawn by idol-like stars, but in the 1990s, not so much anymore. When AJW’s product shifted toward pure athleticism (and away from pop idol presentation), it attracted die-hard wrestling enthusiasts but fewer casual mainstream fans.

By the late 1990s, far fewer young women were auditioning to become wrestlers. The talent pipeline was drying up just as existing stars either retired or left for new promotions.

Another issue was the physically punishing style of joshi wrestling, which, while thrilling, took a heavy toll on the performers. Careers were often short not just because of arbitrary age limits, but due to injuries and burnout.

In a tragic illustration, August 15, 1997, saw the death of 29-year-old Plum Mariko (real name: Mariko Umeda) of JWP due to head injuries sustained in the ring – the first in-ring fatality in Japanese wrestling history.

Mariko had been wrestling with severe concussion-related issues, accumulating brain trauma from years of taking hard bumps and executing high-impact offense. The true catalyst came during a tag team match against Mayumi Ozaki and her partner, when Mariko took a Ligerbomb, a devastating suplex variation, that triggered a catastrophic event in her brain. A pre-existing brain abscess, likely formed from the cumulative effect of repeated head trauma over her wrestling career, ruptured during the move. She went into a coma immediately and never regained consciousness.

The tragedy was particularly haunting because it appeared preventable. Medical experts who examined her case later determined that had Mariko been properly evaluated by a physician before entering the ring that night, the severity of her condition might have been detected. Instead, she was cleared to compete despite the ticking time bomb in her skull.

JWP, like most joshi promotions of that era, operated without the stringent medical protocols that would become standard decades later. Wrestlers were expected to work through injuries, to push through pain, to embody the fighting spirit that defined joshi wrestling. That culture of toughness, while creating some of the most compelling matches in wrestling history, also created an environment where a 29-year-old woman with a serious neurological condition was allowed to step into the ring.

The incident sent shockwaves through the industry and cast a harsh light on the intense demands placed on the women. Mariko’s death wasn’t just a tragedy; it was an indictment of an industry that valued the show over the safety of its performers.

For weeks, Japanese wrestling fans grappled with the reality that one of their favorite athletes had died doing what she loved, in an industry that hadn’t given her adequate protection. The incident became a watershed moment, forcing uncomfortable conversations about whether the hard-hitting style that made joshi wrestling legendary was sustainable or quietly consuming its talent.

While joshi wrestlers were celebrated for their toughness, the combination of physical strain and limited financial reward (women were typically paid far less than top male stars) made it hard to retain veterans in the long run. Mariko’s death underscored a cruel irony: the very qualities that made joshi wrestlers so respected, their willingness to sacrifice their bodies, their commitment to the art, were ultimately what destroyed the industry’s ability to sustain itself.

Finally, marketing and international outreach limitations hampered any global expansion. At their height, AJW and its peers focused almost entirely on the Japanese market. Little effort was made to market the product abroad or provide English-language content. Thus, while Western hardcore fans traded VHS tapes of AJW’s classics – spreading joshi’s reputation in niche circles – the lack of a sustainable international strategy meant there was no real revenue or audience growth outside Japan.

In the mid-1990s, AJW did send talent to American promotions, such as AJW alumni like Bull Nakano and Aja Kong having brief runs in the WWF and WCW, but these were one-off arrangements.

The mainstream American wrestling world in the 1990s was not ready to fully embrace joshi talent. The WWF, in fact, scrapped its women’s division entirely in 1996 despite having the likes of both Bull Nakano and Aja Kong on hand. As a result, the joshi boom remained a domestic phenomenon. When the Japanese market cooled and media support vanished, there was no overseas fanbase to sustain the business.

When Media Coverage Vanished: How the Loss of TV and Print Support Ended the Joshi Boom

The decline of 1990s joshi wrestling was hastened by a total collapse in media exposure.

In the 1980s, AJW enjoyed broad mainstream media coverage – from high TV ratings on Fuji TV to feature stories in sports newspapers like Tokyo Sports – which fueled its popularity. By the late 1990s, that exposure had dwindled to almost nothing. AJW’s long-running weekly television program, once a prime-time hit, was first relegated to a midnight placement by the early 1990s and then canceled altogether in 1997 amidst the company’s turmoil.

Other joshi promotions, meanwhile, struggled to get any TV time beyond local cable channels. Without regular television, it became difficult to attract new fans or sponsorships.

Print media followed a similar trajectory. Publications like Weekly Pro Wrestling (Shūkan Puroresu) and Tokyo Sports had extensively covered the joshi boom, running cover stories on stars like Manami Toyota or Aja Kong during the peak years. But as business declined, joshi received less coverage. By the 2000s, it was often reduced to a footnote in mainstream wrestling magazines. The end of AJW’s TV deal also symbolized to the public that the women’s wrestling boom was over, a key pillar of legitimacy had fallen.

As media attention evaporated, so did mainstream sponsorships and advertising. In earlier years, AJW had secured corporate sponsors for big events and sold extensive merchandise. Late 1990s joshi groups, however, lacked the visibility to court major sponsors.

The audience had also contracted severely. Whereas AJW in 1993–94 could pack arenas with 10-16,000 fans and even a Dome with 40,000+, by 1998, the largest joshi shows drew on the order of only a thousand spectators or fewer.

The fragmentation of the scene amplified the media collapse. When AJW was the only game in town, it commanded media focus. From 1997 onward, the joshi talent pool was split across numerous tiny promotions (GAEA, ARSION, JWP, LLPW, NEO, JD Star, and others), each fighting for scraps of attention. No single promotion had the resources or star power to recapture AJW’s former publicity.

GAEA Japan perhaps came closest – in the late 1990s, GAEA gained a TV slot on a satellite network and was fronted by the legendary Chigusa Nagayo, which kept it relatively prominent among hardcore fans. Nagayo even orchestrated a high-profile interpromotional rivalry in 2001 between GAEA and the remnants of AJW in a storyline dubbed "GAEA vs. AJW" that served as AJW’s swan song. Yet these efforts reached only a fraction of the audience of the early 90s boom.

By the early 2000s, women’s wrestling in Japan was largely invisible to the casual public. Mainstream media had moved on, and the once-bright spotlight of prime-time TV was long gone.

Multiple Promotions, No Star: How Fragmentation Between GAEA, ARSION, and JWP Fractured Joshi’s Audience

The collapse of AJW as an economic force in 1997 effectively brought the joshi boom to an end. AJW would continue on in a diminished capacity for a few more years, finally closing its doors in April 2005 after a 37-year run.

Among the most prominent successors was GAEA Japan, founded by Chigusa Nagayo in 1995. GAEA briefly became the top joshi promotion after AJW’s decline, showcasing a mix of veterans (Nagayo herself, and later Aja Kong) and rising talents like Meiko Satomura. It even collaborated with WCW in the United States to feature joshi matches on American television. Yet despite its ambition, GAEA remained a cult favorite rather than a mainstream player.

Nagayo envisioned an international franchise model – such as GAEA USA, GAEA Europe, GAEA Korea – but the promotion lacked the capital to scale globally. It folded in 2005, coinciding with AJW’s closure, marking the end of an era.

Other former AJW collaborators also continued, though on a smaller scale. JWP, relaunched in 1992 as JWP Joshi Puroresu, retained a loyal fanbase and emphasized pure wrestling quality. LLPW, under Shinobu Kandori, leaned into shoot-style wrestling and dabbled in MMA crossover bouts. Both groups survived into the 2000s, but were relegated to local halls and limited TV exposure.

JWP would eventually rebrand as Pure-J in 2017, but never regained the national prominence it had flirted with in the early 1990s.

New ventures tried to inject fresh energy. In 1998, Aja Kong and former AJW booker Rossy Ogawa launched ARSION, a promotion that emphasized technical mat wrestling and lucha libre influences. Early stars like Mariko Yoshida and Ayako Hamada brought critical acclaim, but internal issues soon followed. Kong left in 2001, and the company was rebranded as AtoZ in 2003 before ultimately dissolving in 2006.

Reflecting on the lessons of AJW’s downfall, Ogawa would later co-found Stardom in 2010, a modern joshi promotion consciously designed to avoid the same structural mistakes.

Smaller promotions like NEO Ladies (founded by Kyoko Inoue in 1997) and JD Star (launched in 1996) also filled the vacuum. NEO combined serious wrestling with comedic elements, while JD Star experimented with an "idol wrestler" model, grading talent on both in-ring skill and appearance.

By the mid-2000s, the profile of joshi wrestling had sunk to its lowest in decades. Where once women filled stadiums and topped TV ratings, most shows now took place in small community halls for a few hundred fans. It wasn’t until the 2010s, with the rise of new promotions like Stardom and Tokyo Joshi Pro, backed by modern marketing, streaming platforms, and corporate sponsors, that joshi wrestling began to slowly rebuild its audience.

From Inspiration to Blueprint: How 1990s Joshi Wrestling Shaped Modern Women’s Wrestling Worldwide

The 1990s joshi wrestling boom remains a singular chapter in wrestling history – a time when a women’s promotion in Japan not only achieved mainstream national popularity but also produced a revolutionary in-ring product that many argue was years ahead of its time.

All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling was the nucleus of this phenomenon. Its booking and training system created a conveyor belt of world-class performers who captivated crowds with athletic feats and dramatic storytelling on par with the very best in the sport. The boom’s legacy includes classic events like Dream Slam and Big Egg Universe that are still celebrated by fans and historians, and matches from the era continue to rank among the greatest of all time.

The influence of the 1990s joshi stars can even be seen in today’s wrestling – from the hard-hitting style of modern women’s bouts to the fact that top Western women wrestlers often cite legends like Manami Toyota or Aja Kong as inspirations.

Yet for all its trailblazing success, the joshi golden age failed to maintain a sustainable trajectory. The very factors that drove its rise contained seeds of decline: a business built on youth appeal that struggled as the audience aged, a tradition of early retirement that abruptly removed top stars, and a parochial management that expanded too quickly outside its core competency and faltered financially. When combined with the economic slump of late-1990s Japan and increased competition (both inside and outside wrestling), these issues proved insurmountable.

The collapse of AJW in 1997 symbolized the end of an era. With it went the centralized platform that had kept women’s wrestling in the spotlight. No other promotion could step up to that role in the immediate aftermath, and mainstream attention moved on. Internationally, the joshi boom left an undeniable influence but little direct footprint. There was no global expansion or lasting overseas partnership to carry the torch once the Japanese market cooled. In essence, the 1990s joshi scene burned bright, but burned out just as quickly.

In retrospect, the rise and decline of 1990s joshi wrestling is an inspiring tale. It showcased the heights of which women’s wrestling is capable, given the right talent and platform. The era’s top performers shattered preconceived limits, proving that women could headline major arenas and earn equal respect for their craft. The joshi boom also taught hard lessons about the importance of long-term planning, talent retention, and adaptation to market changes.

Ultimately, the 1990s joshi boom holds a permanent place in wrestling history as a golden age of innovation and excitement. Its lasting influence can be seen in how women’s wrestling worldwide has evolved: many techniques and match styles popular today were pioneered in AJW rings, and a number of ’90s joshi veterans later mentored younger generations around the globe. While the boom didn’t result in a continuous global empire for joshi puroresu, it left behind a rich legacy of matches, stars, and inspiration.

As the mainstream wrestling world gradually comes to appreciate women’s wrestling on equal footing, one can trace a line back to 90s joshi – a time when a group of immensely talented Japanese women briefly conquered their domestic spotlight and set a standard that, in some ways, is still being chased today.

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