This is a new feature that I’m trying out since I watch a lot of joshi wrestling and wanted to write something about it. I might change up the format going forward depending on how I feel, but for now I’ve gone with a highlight from this month, and then a more general recap of what I’ve been watching. As I was writing this the news about Kris Wolf retiring came out, but I’ll cover that in detail in next month’s article.
Highlight
This month I want to highlight ASUKA, formerly of Pro-Wrestling WAVE, but now distinguished from the WWE wrestler by her kanji (朱崇花) and her name being capitalised in English. She also has the distinction of being the first openly transgender wrestler in Japan. She had a strong 2018, winning WAVE’s top title, the Regina di WAVE Championship, in August, and continued that momentum into January. She first announced her departure from WAVE to become a freelancer, appeared in numerous promotions throughout the month, and then won the DDT Ironman Heavyweight Championship in an eight man battle royal, just days after Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the controversial law that requires transgender people to be sterilised before seeking to legally change their gender (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/01/25/national/crime-legal/japan-supreme-court-rules-requiring-surgery-change-legal-gender-currently-constitutional/#.XFnx2M9KiuU). ASUKA was interviewed by the Japanese magazine LGBTer in 2017 (https://lgbter.jp/asuka2/#agenda9), in which she talked about being an example for other members of the LGBTQ community in a similar situation to her, and her title victory coming in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling felt even more significant.
The Ironman Battle Royale itself was a hilarious match, which showed off ASUKA’s power and skill as the only woman in the match. Based on comments at the show it seems like there are plans to utilise ASUKA in DDT going forward, which should be exciting, at the very least to watch her defend the Ironman Title. As well as winning the Ironman Title, ASUKA also competed in Seadlinnng, YMZ, Wrestle-1, and on the Gami Libre show at the start of January. ASUKA and Hana Kimura are currently competing as a tag team in Wrestle-1 known as FloÜrish, and they picked up their first win since naming themselves over the team of Miyuki Takase and Saki at the end of January. In her matches in Seadlinnng ASUKA racked up a couple of wins in tag team matches against Nanae Takahashi, which suggests that she will probably be a future opponent for Nanae’s Beyond the Sea Championship. ASUKA is still only 20, and only debuted in 2015, so the sky really is the limit for her, and now that she’s a freelancer I would expect to see her raise her profile even further during 2019.
Recap of the Month
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling started off the year with their January 4th show at Korakuen Hall, which drew a very strong gate of 1,381 fans. The whole show was good, with a fun undercard and a very strong final three matches. Reika Saiki really shone in a singles match against Meiko Satomura, and Miyu Yamashita continued to demonstrate why she’s the ace of the promotion as she defended her Princess of Princess Title in the main event against Maki Itoh. My personal favourite match of the night was the Tag Team Title match, which saw former partners Yuka Sakazaki and Shoko Nakajima face each other in an emotional match. Sakazaki and her current partner Mizuki picked up the win, but Nakajima and partner Riho looked great in the loss. In subsequent shows Reika Saiki and Marika Kobashi won a match to establish themselves as number one contenders to the Tag Team Titles, which they will challenge for at the February 23rd show in Shinjuku.
Recommended Match: Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki vs. Shoko Nakajima and Riho, 1.4 Korakuen Hall Show
Stardom held two big shows in January, the first being their 8th Anniversary show at Korakuen Hall on January 14th, then a show at Edion Arena in Osaka on January 27th. Both shows were headlined by World of Stardom Title defences (which hasn’t been a given on recent shows) as Kagetsu defeated Jungle Kyona and Hazuki. The match against Hazuki was one of my favourite matches of the year, and both Oedo Tai members threw everything they had at each other in the main event in Osaka. The other two notable matches of January saw Momo Watanabe defeat Tam Nakano in a really good Wonder of Stardom Title match at Korakuen Hall, and then the team of Momo and Utami Hayashishita defeated Jungle Kyona and Natsuko Tora in Osaka to retain the Goddess of Stardom Tag Team Titles. Utami made her mark at the Korakuen Hall show by defeating Viper to win the SWA Title and the EVE International Title, which made her a quadruple champion. Oedo Tai also announced a new member would be debuting in February, which has set the promotion alight with speculation as to whether the newcomer will be a freelancer or a traitor from within. Coming off a year in 2018 when they drew over 30,000 fans (the first joshi promotion to do this in 15 years) Stardom had a strong January, drawing 3,123 fans across eight shows.
Recommended Match: Kagetsu vs. Hazuki, Stardom 8th Anniversary in Osaka, 27/1
Ice Ribbon held the very last joshi show of 2018, Ribbonmania on December 31st, and drew 1,179 fans for their annual finale. The show (although technically not in January) was very good top to bottom, finished off by three strong matches between Risa Sera and Hikaru Shida, Lovely Butchers and Gekokujo Musume, and Tsukasa Fujimoto and Maya Yukihi. Fujimoto, fresh off winning the Joshi Grand Prix award in the Tokyo Sports 2018 Wrestling Awards, wasn’t able to defend her Ice Infinity Championship against the challenge of Yukihi, who beat her in a very good main event. Ice Ribbon run a lot of smaller shows, many of which don’t make tape, but one that did in January was the amazingly titled “Frank Sisters Produce: I Like Frank More Than Two Bowls of Rice”. This show featured an already legendary tag match of Maya Yukihi and Tae Honma vs. Hamuko Hoshi and Tsukasa Fujimoto, which involved a hot dog eating contest during the wrestling match. Although Fujimoto tapped out Honma, Yukihi and Honma won the moral victory after eating 22 hot dogs to Hoshi and Fujimoto’s 18.
The other major Ice Ribbon related news this month was the fallout from Tsukasa Fujimoto being caught kissing Andreza Giant Panda at the Tokyo Sports Awards. Andreza got into a lot of trouble with his wife, and Tsukka didn’t necessarily help matters by saying she was willing to fight Mrs. Giant Panda. Maya Yukihi stepped in to administer some compliance training, and things seem to have settled down, for now.
Recommended Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Maya Yukihi, Ribbonmania 2018, 31/12
Seadlinnng ran the excellently titled “Let’s Get d!!!2019” show in Korakuen Hall on January 20th, drawing a decent 770 fans. The main event saw Nanae Takahashi victorious in the first defence of her Beyond the Sea Championship in a defence against Yoshiko, and Arisa Nakajima and Ayame Sasamura defended the Beyond the Sea Tag Team Championship successfully against Yumiko Hotta and Miyuki Takase. Since Seadlinnng shows take a long time to air, this one still hasn’t been broadcast, but the highlights of the tag match on Breaking Battlemen look good, especially since Ayame was busted open and finished the match with a face full of blood.
Recommended Match: Arisa Nakajima and Ayame Sasamura vs. Yumiko Hotta and Miyuki Takase, Let’s Get d!!!2019, 20/1 (when it finally airs)
Marvelous continued their policy of sending their wrestlers to almost every promotion under the sun this month, making appearances on shows including Sendai Girls, Seadlinnng, Diana, and Eagle Pro Wrestling. Marvelous also ran two of their own shows, one in Nagoya and one in Shinkiba, and the Shinkiba show has been uploaded to their streaming service. It featured a really great main event of Mei Hoshizuki and Tsukasa Fujimoto going against Mikoto Shindo and Yoshiko. Hoshizuki got her first win by pinning her fellow rookie Shindo, and you could clearly see how much it meant to her. The Marvelous rookies are all fantastic, but Hoshizuki and Shindo really stand at the top of that class right now. Fan favourite Mio Momono tore her ACL in December, and underwent surgery this month, so she was in the hospital for quite a lot of January, but she’s now been discharged and is rehabbing. Hopefully she’ll be back in the ring at some point this year.
Recommended Match: Mei Hoshizuki and Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Mikoto Shindo and Yoshiko, 28/1 Shinkiba Show
Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling started off the month collaborating with the Fight Clup Pro event in Tokyo, which I’ve heard good things about. Beauty Bear, the team of Mika Iwata and Chihiro Hashimoto, are the current Sendai tag team champions and they’ve been having some great matches recently (they faced Millie Mckenzie and DASH Chisako at FCP). Hashimoto also had an excellent singles match against Sareee at the January 6th show in Shinjuku, the same show that saw Millie Mckenzie win the Sendai Girls’ Junior Title from Ayame Sasamura. January also saw the departure of Cassandra Miyagi, who changed her name to Andras Miyagi going forward. A lot of speculation has emerged that Miyagi might be the new member of Oedo Tai (although personally I’m leaning towards internal treachery).
Recommended Match: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee, 1/6 Shinjuku FACE show
Oz Academy continued their ability to draw big gates this month, when they drew over 1,000 fans to a show in Okinawa that featured a main event of Aja Kong, Kaori Yoneyama, and Hikaru Shida vs. Mayumi Ozaki, Saori Anou, and Yumi Ohka. Unfortunately Oz Academy also suffers from a slower broadcast schedule, so only one of the January shows has aired so far, but the main focus this month has been on a number one contender’s tournament for Hikaru Shida’s Openweight Title. The semi-finals set for the beginning of February are Mayumi Ozaki vs. Maya Yukihi and Kaori Yoneyama vs. Sonoko Kato, which I hope means we might get Yoneyama in the final.
Recommended Match: Aja Kong, Hiroyo Matsumoto, and Kaori Yoneyama vs. Maya Yukihi, Saori Anou, and Yumi Ohka, 6/1 Every Little Step
Pro-Wrestling WAVE went on hiatus at the end of December, so haven’t had any matches this month, although a lot of their talent has continued to work in other promotions. I included them because they made some big announcements at the beginning of the month, including the fact that ASUKA and Rina Yamashita are leaving the promotion; Sakura Hirota, Nagisa Nozaki, and Yuki Miyazaki are signing full-time with WAVE; and going forward the promotion will not be featuring freelancers. It’s clearly an interesting time for WAVE, who reportedly were struggling with finances before the hiatus, so hopefully they are able to stabilise before they relaunch in April.
Quick Hits
Wrestler of the Month: Momo Watanabe
Show of the Month: Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling 1.4 2019
Tag Team of the Month: Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki
Match of the Month: Mei Hoshizuki and Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Mikoto Shindo and Yoshiko
Favourite Twitter Banter: Natsu Sumire (@SMR_sptmber_luv)
And finally, some of the Ice Ribbon roster appeared in a choose your own adventure love story, representing the main protagonist’s emotions. Giulia is happiness, Mochi Miyagi is doubt, Maya Yukihi is sadness, and Tsukasa Fujimoto is anger. Depending on what options you choose you can make Tsukka attack everyone with a kendo stick. It’s a lot of fun.
