Japanese professional wrestling promotion
Kakuto Tanteidan Battlarts (格闘探偵団バトラーツ, Kakutō Tanteidan Batorātsu, "Fighting Detectives Battlarts" or "Fighting Investigation Team Battlarts"), more commonly referred to as simply Battlarts (also stylized as BattlARTS) was a professional wrestling promotion founded in 1996 by Yuki Ishikawa following the mass exodus he led from Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi (PWFG) amidst the financial struggle that ultimately led the company to fold. The initial promotion's roster was composed of the entire PWFG roster that did not depart for Pancrase, thus making Battlarts a direct successor to PWFG.
The promotion ceased operations in 2011.
History
The promotion was formed in 1996 by Japanese wrestler Yuki Ishikawa and featured all of the wrestlers from the Fujiwara Gumi promotion, who had abandoned the promotion in favor of Battlarts. They ran shows in the Tokyo area regularly from 1998 to 2002.
Even though Battlarts' style was based on shoot wrestling, the promotion often cooperated with other shoot style and mixed martial arts promotions, including Fighting Network RINGS, Kingdom, Michinoku Pro and Big Japan Pro Wrestling, therefore matches sometimes resembled more traditional pro wrestling matches. The biggest co-promotion occurred on October 17, 1999, when Battlarts and The Great Sasuke's Michinoku Pro Wrestling presented "Michinoku Pro vs. Battlarts", which was headlined by a tag match pitting the owners of both promotions (Great Sasuke and Ishikawa) against Jinsei Shinzaki and Alexander Otsuka.
The promotion ceased running regular shows and events in 2001 due to "management aggravation". Battlarts eventually began to run monthly shows mainly in Tokyo, Saitama, and Shizuoka Prefecture, often co-promoting with Daisuke Ikeda's Fu-ten, Kiyoshi Tamura's U-STYLE and Satoru Sayama's Real Japan Pro Wrestling promotions. On September 14, 2008, at a press conference with Yuki Ishikawa and Shinjiro Otani Battlarts announced a working agreement with Pro Wrestling ZERO1.
It was revealed in late December 2010 that Battlarts would be closing their doors sometime in 2011.[1] The promotion held its final event on November 5, 2011.
