- On April 8, 1988, the formation of the second UWF was announced by President Shinji Jin. The company was started shortly after Akira Maeda was fired by New Japan Pro Westling due to his infamous shoot kick on Riki Choshui. Also quitting NJPW to join the new company were Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Yoji Anjoh, and Tatsuo Nakano. Ownership of the company was publicly said to be split evenly between Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Shinji Jin, and ??? Suzuki (a non-wrestler). Early in 1989, Yoshiaki Fujiwara would also leave NJPW for the UWF and brought Masakatsu Funaki and Minour Suzuki with him.
- Much like the original UWF, internal problems borught about its downfall. In October 1990, Jin wanted several UWF wrestlers to appear on a show promoted by Super World Sports, a traditional pro wrestling company. Jin felt obligated to do so to help SWS founder Hachiro Tanaka (owner of Megane Super Optical) due to Tanaka sponsoring the 1989 Tokyo Dome show and having paid the penalty fees when Funaki and Suzuki jumpred from NJPW. Maeda was strongly against this move because he didn't want UWF wrestlers appearing on a show with "fake" wrestlers.
- At about the same time, Maeda asked Jin for access to the company books. The request was rejected and Maeda was suspended due to his public opposition to the SWS deal. In December 1990 all the wrestlers had sided with Maeda, Jin fired them, closed the company, declared that the UWF name could no longer be used, and a December 29 Tokyo Dome show was cancelled.
- In 1991, three promotions would be started by the former UWF wrestlers. Maeda founded RINGS. Takada started UWFI along with Yamazaki, Anjoh, Nakano, Kiyoshi Tamura, Masahito Kakihara, and Shigeo Miyato. PWFG was formed by Fujiwara, Suzuki, and Funaki.
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