On April 2, 1995, twenty-five years ago this month, Japanese wrestling magazine Weekly Pro Wrestling presented Bridge of Dreams, a massive showcase of the best of Japanese wrestling at the time. It was held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, and sold out with 60,000 in attendance. It was a massive gesture of goodwill, as Weekly Pro Wrestling managed to secure the top stars from nearly every Japanese promotion at the time. Originally scheduled with eight promotions taking part, due to interest, it ballooned to 13 companies being represented: All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW), Fighting Network Rings (RINGS), Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling (FMW), Go Gudan, International Wrestling Association of Japan (IWA), JWP Joshi, Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling (LLPW), Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), Pancrase, Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, and Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFI). Due to so many different promotions with so many different TV contracts, the event was largely unseen for years, with only bootlegs available. On Wednesday, the entire six-hour event was uploaded onto YouTube. Featuring the top wrestlers from each promotion, it remains one of the biggest star power events in pro wrestling history.
The full card for Bridge of Dreams:
- JWP: Candy Okutsu, Dynamite Kansai, Fusayo Nochi & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Cutie Suzuki, Devil Masami, Hiromi Yagi & Mayumi Ozaki
- LLPW: Ultimate Fight Rules: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito
- AJW: Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs. Blizzard Yuki & Manami Toyota
- Go Gudan: Go Gudan Interplanetary Championship: Ryuma Go vs. Uchu Maijin Silver X
- IWA: Barbed Wire Board & Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Bunkhouse Death Match: Leatherface, Shoji Nakamaki & Terry Funk vs. The Headhunters (Headhunter A & Headhunter B) & Cactus Jack
- Fujiwara Gumi: Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco & Don Arakawa
- MPW: Gran Naniwa, Super Delfin & TAKA Michinoku vs. SATO, Shiryu & The Great Sasuke
- RINGS: Fighting Network Rings Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman
- UWFI: UWFI Rules: Billy Scott, Masahito Kakihara & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Gary Albright, Gene Lydick & Kazuo Yamazaki
- FMW: No Ropes Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match: Great Nita (Atsushi Onita) defeats Pogo Daiyo
- AJPW: Akira Taue, Johnny Ace & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa & Stan Hansen
- NJPW: Shinya Hashimoto defeats Masahiro Chono
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttH0S2s5Zww
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