Pro Wrestling Noah

Pro Wrestling Noah (プロレスリングノア, Puroresuringu Noa) is a major Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling ace Mitsuharu Misawa.

History

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).

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling (colloquially abbreviated to pro wrestling or wrestling) is an athletic form of entertainment based on a fictionalized, highly exaggerated portrayal of a combat sport. Taking the form of live events held by touring promotions, it portrays a unique style of combat based on a combination of adopted styles, which include classical wrestling, catch wrestling and various forms of martial arts, as well as an innovative style based on grappling (holds/throws), striking, and aerialism. Various forms of weaponry are sometimes used.

The content including match outcomes is choreographed and the combative actions and reactions are executed in special manners designed to both protect from, yet simulate pain. These facts were once kept highly secret but are now openly declared as the truth. By and large, the true nature of the content is ignored by the performing promotion in official media in order to sustain and promote the willing suspension of disbelief for the audience by maintaining an aura of verisimilitude. Fan communications by individual wrestlers and promotions through outside media (i.e. interviews) will often directly acknowledge the fictional nature of the spectacle.

Noah

In the Abrahamic religions, Noah (/ˈnoʊ.ə/), or Noé or Noach (Hebrew: נֹחַ,‎ נוֹחַ, Modern Noaẖ, Tiberian Nōăḥ; Syriac: ܢܘܚ‎ Nukh; Arabic: نُوح‎ Nūḥ; Ancient Greek: Νῶε), was the tenth and last of the pre-flood Patriarchs. The story of Noah's Ark is told in the Torah in the Genesis flood narrative. The biblical account is followed by the story of the Curse of Canaan.

Besides the Book of Genesis, Noah is also mentioned in 1st Chronicles, Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Isaiah, Ezekiel, the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke, the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1st Peter and 2nd Peter. He was the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including the Quran (Sura 71).

Biblical account

The primary account of Noah in the Bible is in the book of Genesis.

Noah was the tenth of the pre-flood (antediluvian) Patriarchs. His father was Lamech and his mother is unknown, but is thought to be either Adah or Zillah, wives of Lamech. When Noah was five hundred years old, he begat Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 5:32).

Tag team

Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name and identity.

In most team matches, only one competitor per team is allowed in the ring at a time. This status as the active or legal wrestler may be transferred by physical contact, most commonly a palm-to-palm "tag" which resembles a high five.

The team-based match has been a mainstay of professional wrestling since the mid twentieth century, and most promotions have sanctioned a championship division for tag teams.

The term "tag team" has since become used in common parlance to describe two or more people who alternate or cooperate in participation in an activity, and "tag-teaming" to describe the act of alternating with an ally, e.g. a couple tag-teaming in an argument with another person.

Wrestling

Wrestling is a combat sport involving grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two (occasionally more) competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position. There are a wide range of styles with varying rules with both traditional historic and modern styles. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into other martial arts as well as military hand-to-hand combat systems.

The term wrestling is attested in late Old English, as wræstlunge (glossing palestram).

History

Wrestling represents one of the oldest forms of combat. Literary references to it occur as early as in the Iliad, in which Homer recounts the Trojan War of the 13th or 12th century BC. The origins of wrestling go back 15,000 years through cave drawings in France. Babylonian and Egyptian reliefs show wrestlers using most of the holds known in the present-day sport.