Highlights
Two things I want to highlight this month, which bookended wrestling in March. First, the match between Momo Watanabe and Jungle Kyona that took place on March 3rd, and was my favourite match of the year up till that point. Momo challenged Kyona for a Wonder of Stardom title defence, which if Momo won would take her to twelve defences, setting a new defence record for the belt. Momo Watanabe has probably been the most consistently outstanding wrestler this year and Kyona is low-key excellent, so on paper this match had a lot of promise. On top of that, this title match was in Kyona’s hometown of Nagoya, and Kyona and Momo have a long history together. Momo was Kyona’s opponent in her debut match (which Kyona won) and then the two were a tag team together, until Momo turned on Kyona to join Queen’s Quest. This match was absolutely fantastic, with both women throwing everything they had at each other, including a Muscle Buster from Kyona, and the Nagoya crowd was hot for everything that Kyona did. Ultimately Momo got the win, which was heart-breaking for Kyona (even though I never really expected her to win) and moved ahead of Io Shirai’s record of defences for a single title reign.
The second highlight of March come on March 31st, when Ice Ribbon ran their March show at Korakuen Hall. The match was headlined by an ICEx∞ title match between Maya Yukihi and Tsukushi, but arguably the biggest match was between Tsukasa Fujimoto and Tintin, the wife of Andreza Giant Panda who it was alleged Fujimoto had been having an affair with. The affair began at the 2018 Tokyo Sports Wrestling Awards when Fujimoto won the Joshi Grand Prize and was photographed giving Andreza a kiss. The story of the affair rumbled on for a few months, until Tintin came out and said that she was going to make her wrestling debut and challenged Fujimoto to a match. Despite maintaining her innocence, Tsukasa agreed to the match for the Korakuen Hall show. This match was amazing, an absolute masterclass by Fujimoto at pacing and selling a match against her giant panda opponent, and she fully leant in to her heel persona for this match. Tsukasa hit a devastating looking double footstomp from the top to Tintin, but then Andreza to the ring and headbutted Fujimoto to try and help Tintin. Tintin gained a measure of justice by hitting Andreza and knocking him out of the ring, but finally Tsukasa picked up the win after hitting her Ocean Cyclone Suplex. She then ended her feud with Tintin by telling her that she hadn’t been having an affair, but had actually been helping Andreza to plan a surprise for Tintin’s 4th birthday, which was the day of the show. Andreza and Tintin’s son Raja came to the ring with flowers for his mother, and the Panda family hugged it out with Tsukasa to end the match. This match already went viral online, but it is absolutely worth seeking out if you haven’t already seen it.
Recap of the Month
Ice Ribbon’s March show was an all-round excellent show, with a strong card from top to bottom. Some of my favourite matches included Giulia taking on Miyuki Takase in a strong singles match, a hardcore match between the teams of Risa Sera and Akane Fujita against Himeka Arita and Hiragi Kurumi, the six woman number one contender match between Lovely Butchers, Makoto and Miyako Matsumoto, and Yoshiko and Tequila Saya, and the main event between Yukihi and Tsukushi. Despite Tsukushi putting up a good fight, Maya Yukihi emerged victorious in the main event, and next Risa Sera and Maya face Miyako Matsumoto and Makoto for the tag team titles. The next challenger for Maya Yukihi’s ICEx∞ title hasn’t been announced yet, but I imagine that it’s quite possible that Risa Sera might be near the top of the list, especially if Azure Revolution drop the titles. Ice Ribbon drew 938 fans to Korakuen Hall, obviously helped by the draw of the big Tintin vs. Fujimoto match, and the promotion is really having a very strong 2019 so far.
Recommended Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tintin, Ice Ribbon March 31/3
Stardom opened the month with a very strong showing by Momo and Jungle, and closed the month with a Korakuen Hall show that featured a number of good title matches. Kagetsu defended her World of Stardom title in one of her best title defences in recent memory against Goya Kong, Mayu Iwatani defeated Natsuko Tora in a really good Women of Honor title match, and Hazuki continued her run of good High Speed Title defences against Xia Brookside. Probably the biggest news to come out of that show however, was Momo Watanabe defeating Andras Miyagi in another white belt defence and then challenging her tag team partner Utami Hayashishita. Utami and Momo is the most protected match in Stardom so far, since they have been tagging together and they’re in the same faction (spoiler alert because it already happened and I’ll cover it in more detail next month, but it was good). Stardom’s focus was mostly on their New York show that took place during Wrestlemania week, which I recapped here (http://prowrestlingjournal.com/index.php/2019/04/08/stardom-american-dream-2019-review-5-4-19/), but also looking ahead to the draft that takes place on April 14th.
Recommended Match: Momo Watanabe vs. Jungle Kyona, Stardom World in Nagoya 3/3
Seadlinnng delivered an excellent Korakuen Hall show on March 20th, which was headlined by a great match between Nanae Takahashi and Asuka. Nanae successfully defended her Beyond the Sea title again, but Asuka really looked good in defeat, especially doing a moonsault off the Korakuen Hall stairwell into the crowd. Arisa Nakajima and Sae won the tag team titles that had been vacated by Nakajima and Ayame Sasamura due to injury, and continued the feud between Seadlinnng and Actwres Girl’z by beating Miyuki Takase and Himeka Arita. That feud also extended to Saori Anou requesting that Yoshiko challenge her for the Actwres Girl’z title, although Yoshiko was not very interested in her request. Seadlinnng’s High Speed division also continues to impress, especially the rookie team of Marvelous’ Mei Hoshizuki and Gatoh Move’s Mei Suruga.
Recommended Match: Nanae Takahashi vs. Asuka, Luckiest 2019 20/3
Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling showcased some excellent matches this month, highlighted by Chihiro Hashimoto defending her World Title against Sakura Hirota, but also including some fun tag team matches between Manami Katsu and Sareee against Meiko Satomura and Mei Suruga, and then DASH Chisako and Hiroyo Matsumoto against Hikaru Shida and Mika Iwata. DASH and Hiroyo announced that the name of their new team is Reiwa Ultima Powers, named after the new imperial reign name that will come into effect at the end of March, and hopefully they will get a chance to go up against Beauty Bear for the tag team titles in the near future. Outside of the promotion Satomura, Hashimoto, and DASH had an excellent six man tag match against All Out in DDT (Konosuke Takeshita, Akito, and Yuki Iino) where they won the DDT trios tag titles.
Recommended Match: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sakura Hirota, Shinjuku FACE 11/3
Marvelous ran one of the most surreal shows in March when Mio Momono, who is currently out with an ACL injury, produced her own show at Shinkiba 1st Ring. All the matches were excellent, but my personal favourites were a tag match between the “old lady” team of Tae Honma and Miyuki Takase and the “baby skinz” team of Mikoto Shindo and Mei Hoshizuki, as well as the match between Zap-T and “Tomoko Watanabe” (played by Sakura Hirota, since Tomoko Watanabe is also Zap-T). Based on this showing Mio should be given the book more often by Chigusa Nagayo, because this show was hilarious.
Recommended Match: Miyuki Takase & Tae Honma vs. Mikoto Shindo & Mei Hoshizuki, Mio Momono Produce 18/3
I didn’t see as much Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling as I would have liked in March, but there was a fun show at the end of March at Hakata Star Lanes to commemorate the building before it gets demolished. Miyu Yamashita defended her Princess of Princess title against the former champion Yuka Sakazaki in a good match, and there was an excellent tag team match between Aja Kong and Shoko Nakajima against Hikari Noa and Mika Iwata. Nakajima is one of the best wrestlers on the TJPW roster, but Hikari Noa has all the makings of a future star, and she looked great in this match.
Recommended Match: Aja Kong & Shoko Nakajima vs. Mika Iwata & Hikari Noa, The Sparkling Girl Will Fly to Hakata 31/3
Wrestler of the Month: Tintin
Show of the Month: Ice Ribbon March 31/3
Tag Team of the Month: Mei Hoshizuki and Mei Suruga
Match of the Month: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tintin
Galaxy Brain Booker of 2019: Mio Momono
