Foreigners in Japanese circuits Since its establishment, professional wrestling in Japan heavily incorporated foreigners (called
gaijin) particularly North Americans to help popularise native talent. Rikidōzan's JWA and its successor promotions
All Japan Pro Wrestling and
New Japan Pro-Wrestling were members of the American-based
National Wrestling Alliance at various points, and used these connections to bring North American stars.
International Pro Wrestling was the first Japanese promotion to link into
European circuits. It was through IWE that Frenchman
André the Giant got his international reputation for the first time. In recent years, many of North America's most popular wrestlers, such as
Sting,
Hulk Hogan,
Bret Hart,
Dynamite Kid,
Big Van Vader,
Mick Foley,
Eddie Guerrero,
Chris Jericho,
Kurt Angle,
Rob Van Dam,
Sabu,
Mil Máscaras,
El Canek,
Dos Caras,
El Solitario,
Samoa Joe,
AJ Styles,
Bryan Danielson,
CM Punk,
Travis Tomko,
Giant Bernard,
Bill Goldberg,
Chris Sabin,
Low Ki,
Brock Lesnar,
Davey Richards,
Chris Hero, and others have wrestled in Japan, whereas others such as
Stan Hansen,
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams and
Kenny Omega spent much of their careers in Japan and thus are (or have been) better known there than in their homeland. (Omega has since become more recognized in both his homeland of Canada and the US through his involvement with
All Elite Wrestling.) Even in
joshi puroresu, a few notable foreigners have found success wrestling for
joshi promotions, such as
Monster Ripper,
Madusa,
Reggie Bennett, and
Amazing Kong. The now defunct
World Championship Wrestling had a strong talent exchange deal with New Japan,
Ken Shamrock was among the first Americans to compete in
shoot style competition in Japan, starting out in the
UWF and later opened
Pancrase with some other Japanese shootfighters. As a result of the introduction of
lucha libre into Japan, major Mexican wrestlers also compete in the country. The most popular Mexican wrestler to compete in Japan is
Mil Máscaras, who is credited with introducing the high-flying moves to Japanese audiences, which then led to the style called
lucha-resu, later embodied by
Tiger Mask. Foreign wrestlers from diverse backgrounds have earned huge followings, sometimes greater than those of Japanese top rosters in respective Japanese promotions they have wrestled in. American
Stan Hansen, Indian
Tiger Jeet Singh, Canadian
Abdullah the Butcher, and British wrestler
Dynamite Kid were among those cited as top foreign grapplers in a poll of Japanese fans:
Japanese stars abroad All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, as well as others, have also sent wrestlers to compete in the likes of the
United States,
Mexico, the
United Kingdom,
Puerto Rico and so on. Usually, these talent exchanges are chances for puroresu stars to learn other styles to add to their own strengths, a tradition that started with Rikidozan himself between 1951 and 1953. Some of the more famous examples of these exchanges are
Hakushi in
WWF,
Masahiro Chono,
The Great Muta and
Jyushin Thunder Liger in
WCW, as well as
ECW which featured talent such as
Hayabusa from
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and The Great Sasuke of
Michinoku Pro Wrestling. Before the advent of cable television some Japanese wrestlers in the U.S. adopted names that often were inconsistent and often portrayed by more than one Japanese wrestler, such as "Tokyo Joe" (
Katsuji Adachi,
Koji "Thunder" Sugiyama and Tetsunosuke Daigo), "Mr. Sato" (
Akio Sato and
Akihisa Mera) and "Great Togo" (
Kazuo Okamura and
Haruka Eigen). Some names and gimmicks of North American origin stuck to the wrestler and defined his in-ring personality permanently, such as
Hiro Matsuda,
Killer Khan, Great Kabuki, Great Muta, Mr. Hito, and
Mr. Pogo. Japanese wrestlers sent to
Mexico, where the
wrestling mask was the rule, adopted mask-based personae; examples were Osamu Matsuda becoming
El Samurai, Yoshihiro Asai becoming
Último Dragón, and Masanori Murakawa becoming
Great Sasuke. Despite the advent of cable television and the Internet, some Japanese wrestlers still adopt all-new ring names, particularly when they join
WWE, which trademarks ring names frequently. Recent examples include
Mitsuhide Hirasawa as
Hideo Saito, Naofumi Yamamoto as
Yoshi Tatsu,
Kana as
Asuka,
Kaori Housako as
Kairi Sane, and
Kenta Kobayashi as
Hideo Itami. A recent counter-example is
Shinsuke Nakamura, who continues to perform under his birth name in WWE. Japanese wrestlers who appear in other American circuits such as
Impact Wrestling (originally Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, or TNA) and
Ring of Honor rarely change their names. Some
joshi stars from AJW had wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s and 1990s, with The
Jumping Bomb Angels and Bull Nakano known for being particularly successful.
Gaea Japan once had a working agreement with World Championship Wrestling in the mid-1990s, when the latter brought in wrestlers from Gaea to bolster the ranks of their then-fledgling women's division, with Akira Hokuto becoming the first and only
WCW Women's Champion, and a
WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship was even introduced and defended in Gaea shows. Recent examples of Japanese wrestlers working in foreign promotions include
Satoshi Kojima in
Major League Wrestling,
Kenta Kobashi,
Go Shiozaki,
Takeshi Morishima, and
Kenta in
Ring of Honor,
Hirooki Goto,
Masato Yoshino,
Tiger Mask IV,
Hiroshi Tanahashi,
Kazuchika Okada,
Seiya Sanada, and
Ayako Hamada in TNA/Impact, Aja Kong,
Dick Togo,
Great Sasuke,
Jinsei Shinzaki,
Kaori Yoneyama, Manami Toyota and Mayumi Ozaki in
Chikara, Hideo Itami, Yoshi Tatsu,
Kenzo Suzuki,
Taka Michinoku, Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamura and
Kairi Sane in
WWE, and
Ayumi Kurihara,
Hiroyo Matsumoto and
Tomoka Nakagawa in
Shimmer Women Athletes.
Riho and
Hikaru Shida have both become
AEW Women's World Champion. ==See also==