Smash (professional wrestling)

Smash

Founded	February 2, 2010
Defunct	March 14, 2012
Style	Puroresu Professional wrestling
Founder(s)	Yoshihiro Tajiri
Owner(s)	Quantum Jump Japan Co. Ltd.

Smash was a Japanese puroresu and combat sports promotion, founded in December 2009 following the folding of Hustle. In the fall of 2009 Hustle ran into financial problems that led to several show cancellations. After a planned restructuring and restarting of the promotion failed, a number of officials and wrestlers decided to start a new project. Smash held its first show on March 26, 2010.

Smash promoted three divisions: professional wrestling, mixed martial arts and kickboxing. The professional wrestling branch is led by Yoshihiro Tajiri, while Akira Shoji is responsible for the MMA branch. Yuji Shimada leads the overall supervision of the whole project. Since 2010 Smash has had an active exchange of wrestlers with the Finnish Fight Club Finland promotion.

In April 2011, it was announced that Deep and the MMA division of Smash had formed an amateur promotion named the Japan MMA League (JML).^[1]

On February 10, 2012, Smash announced that the promotion would be folding after its March 14 event, following a disagreement between Tajiri and financial backer (Quantum Jump Japan CEO) Masakazu Sakai.^[2][3] On April 5, 2012, Tajiri announced the follow-up promotion to Smash, Wrestling New Classic, which would hold its first event on April 26.^[4][5] On June 1, 2012, Sakai and his Smash backers bought Pancrase, officially incorporating Smash's MMA division into the promotion and re-affirming the partnership with Deep in JML.^[6][7][8]

Roster

Smash Seikigun AKIRA Jiro Kuroshio Koji Doi Lin Bairon Makoto Syuri TAJIRI Yoshiaki Yago Yusuke Kodama Fight Club Finland Hajime Ohara Jessica Love StarBuck

Triple Tails.S Kana Mio Shirai Unaffiliated Aki Shizuku Dave Finlay Genichiro Tenryu Mentallo Takuya Kito Tomoka Nakagawa Último Dragón YO-HEY

Notable guests

Akira Shoji Atsushi Kotoge Ayumi Kurihara Big Boy Bushwhacker Luke Williams Cherry Chii Tomiya Daisuke Harada El Samurai Emi Sakura Eugene FUNAKI Gabriel Antonic Gypsy Joe Hikari Minami Hikaru Shida Io Shirai Isami Kodaka Jun Kasai Jushin Thunder Liger Kaori Yoneyama KAORU Kaz Hayashi KENSO KUSHIDA Leatherface Meiko Satomura Michael Kovac

Minoru Suzuki Mitsuo Momota Mochi Miyagi Murat Bosporus Nagisa Nozaki Nanae Takahashi Nunzio Prince Devitt Riho Rob Raw Sabu Sayaka Obihiro Scotty 2 Hotty Serena Sugar Dunkerton Super Crazy Taka Michinoku Takao Omori Takashi Iizuka Tatsumi Fujinami Tetsuya Naito Tommy Dreamer Toshie Uematsu Tsubasa Kuragaki Tsukasa Fujimoto Tsukushi VENENO Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Championships

Championship	Final Champion(s)	Date won	Previous Champion(s)
Smash Championship	Dave Finlay	November 24, 2011	StarBuck
Smash Diva Championship	Syuri	February 19, 2012	Kana

See also

• Professional wrestling in Japan

References

1. "Deep&Smash Produce JML2011 "Japan MMA Leage"". Deep. April 2, 2011. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
2. "【※重要】 「Smash」第１章活動休止のお知らせ". Smash (in Japanese). February 10, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
3. Caldwell, James (February 10, 2012). "Japanese promotion shutting down". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
4. プレ旗揚げ戦決定！. Wrestling New Classic (in Japanese). April 5, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
5. "Ｔajiri新団体発表「若手を海外に」". Nikkan Sports (in Japanese). April 6, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
6. "パンクラスがSmashに経営権譲渡　「世界標準」へケージ導入も". Sports Navi (in Japanese). Yahoo!. June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
7. Sakai, Masakazu (June 1, 2012). "Smashからのお知らせ". Smash (in Japanese). Retrieved June 1, 2012.
8. パンクラスの"世界標準"化計画. Pancrase (in Japanese). June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2012.

External links

• Official website