The month of May started off with an extended run of Golden Week holidays as Emperor Akihito abdicated and his son took the throne to start the Reiwa Period. Almost every wrestling company ran a lot of matches over Golden Week, which meant there were lots of joshi shows to recap this month. Ice Ribbon held the first joshi show of the Reiwa Period, and Maya Yukihi became a triple crown champion by winning the Triangle Ribbon title from Banny Oikawa. Later in the month she defended the Icex∞ title against Giulia in Osaka, and Tequila Saya challenged her for a match in June. Ice Ribbon also started a tag team tournament made up of teams in which one person had previously held a title and one hadn’t – the finals are between Suzu Suzuki and Risa Sera (Bike Club) against Akane Fujita and Asahi (Orange Sunrise). The winner will get a wish granted.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling also saw a title change at the start of May when Shoko Nakajima defeated Miyu Yamashita for her Princess of Princess title. Nakajima then defended the title against Thunder Rosa, while Yamashita lost the Shine Championship back to Allysin Kay. At the end of the month the Tokyo Princess Cup began and Miu Watanabe pulled off the upset of the first day by defeating Nodoka Tenma. In the other matches Rika Tatsumi defeated Unagi Himawari, Natsumi Maki defeated Noa Hikari, and Nakajima defeated Yuki Kamifuku. The tournament continues in June and finishes on July 7th.
Stardom had the third title change of Golden Week, when Kagetsu lost her World of Stardom title to Bea Priestley at Shinkiba 1st Ring. Title changes continued at the May Korakuen Hall show when Arisa Hoshiki defeated Momo Watanabe to end her record setting Wonder of Stardom title run. Although Bea announced that she will be moving to Japan later this year, given her AEW ties it does seem like this solidifies the white belt as the de facto top title in Stardom. Tokyo Cyber Squad captured their first titles when they defeated STARS for the Artist of Stardom trios titles at Korakuen, and then challenged Oedo Tai to a match in June. The month ended with Konami’s homecoming show in Fukuyama, which was main evented by an excellent match between Kagetsu and Konami.
Marvelous held their third anniversary show on May 12th, which unfortunately hasn’t made it onto their streaming service yet, probably because they are keeping it for DVD sales. Takumi Iroha defeated Yoshiko to earn a shot at Nanae Takahashi’s Seadlinnng Beyond the Sea title, which she won on May 29th. That match has still to make tape, but it sounds like it was excellent. [Update – it made tape and it was amazing]. Chigusa Nagayo also made an announcement at the anniversary show that she was looking to put together an all-star joshi show in 2020, and hoping that other promotions would join her.
Tag team titles changed hands in both OZ Academy and Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling in May. First, the Seikigun team of Maya Yukihi and Saori Anou defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Kaori Yoneyama in OZ Academy, then Millie Mckenzie and Charlie Evans defeated Chihiro Hashimoto and Mika Iwata on their first defence in Sendai Girls’. Sendai Girls’ has been putting on some great matches this year, but their booking is really questionable (not the defeat so much as the fact that Hashimoto and Iwata hadn’t defended their belts at all since winning them). DASH Chisako and Hiroyo Matsumoto laid down a challenge for the Sendai tag titles after the match, and Sareee and Hashimoto set up a double title match for the June show in Niigata, after Sareee defeated Aja Kong for the Diana world title earlier in the month.
In Pro Wrestling WAVE the Catch the Wave tournament continued, although basically none of it will be shown unless the WAVE Network returns. Currently the blocks are all still in play – Yuu and Miyuki Takase lead the Power Block with 3 points, but Ryo Mizunami and Yuki Miyazaki are just behind on 2 points; Yumi Ohka, Nagisa Nozaki, and Hikaru Shida are all tied on 2 points in the Visual Block; Sakura Hirota, Takumi Iroha, Rin Kadokura, and Mika Iwata are all tied on 2 points in the Technical Block. In the Young Block HIRO’e is out in front on 4 points, and just needs one more win to guarantee victory.
All Elite Wrestling held their first Pay Per View at the end of May, and featured a joshi exhibition match between Emi Sakura/Aja Kong/Yuka Sakazaki against Riho/Ryo Mizunami/Hikaru Shida. The match seemed to receive positive reviews, despite a timekeeper error, and hopefully AEW will be a positive way for Japanese talent to get more recognition and earn more going forward. Anyone who enjoyed Emi Sakura and Riho should check out Gatoh Move, the promotion that Emi Sakura runs, which is now uploading lots of matches on YouTube with English commentary.
Recommended Matches
Banny Oikawa vs. Maya Yukihi vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto – Ice Ribbon 1/5
Banny was previously a referee for Ice Ribbon and won the Triangle Ribbon championship at RibbonMania at the end of 2018. She made her debut in this match after Yukihi challenged her for the title, and Tsukka rounded out the numbers (the Triangle Ribbon title is always defended in triple threat matches). Banny debuted with a pair of bunny ears and a Gundam inspired costume, and she showed some innovative bunny kicks in the match. Maya and Tsukka took turns being mean to Banny, but she came close to winning with some impressive double bridging pins. This triple threat worked really well since Banny being a rookie meant that it made sense for her to be slightly less involved than a normal one on one match. Maya made Banny tap out to become a triple crown champion – now she holds the Icex∞ title, the tag titles, and the Triangle Ribbon title.
Risa Sera vs. Suzu Suzuki – Ice Ribbon, 1/5
Suzuki first got interested in wrestling when she saw a deatmatch in her hometown, and Risa Sera became her idol because she competes in deathmatches, so she had been requesting this match since she debuted in Ice Ribbon. Suzu’s gimmick is based around the fact that just before she was set to debut last year she was injured while riding her bike, which delayed her debut. Now in her matches she “rings the bell on her bike” (chirin chirin) before doing a corner tackle. This was a really great veteran vs. rookie match, with Suzuki showing all the fire and fighting spirit that has typified her career so far. There were lots of great parts to the match, but the highlight might have been when Suzuki ran Sera over with her bike, while Ai Hara on commentary cried that there was a traffic accident happening. Sera managed to outlast all of Suzuki’s offence and won after a double diving knees, but she was clearly impressed by Suzu’s efforts. Highly recommended.
Natsumi Maki & Noa Hikari vs. Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki – TJPW, Yes! Wonderland! 2019 2/5
The team of Pandemic Boo Boo (Maki and Hikari) took on Magical Sugar Rabbits (Sakazaki and Mizuki) for the Tokyo Princess Tag Titles. Maki and Hikari are a good, but relatively new tag team, and they struggled a bit against the champions who had been on a run of 5 successful defences coming into this match. Sakazaki and Mizuki are such a smooth tag team that it’s always enjoyable to watch them. Hikari is one of the Up Up Girls, and she’s improved a huge amount since her debut, but she was targeted by her opponents for most of this match. Pandemic Boo Boo got some near falls, but finally a Cutie Special on Hikari followed by a Magical Magical Girl Splash was enough to secure a win for the champions. After the match Neo Biishikigun came out to express their interest in the tag team titles.
https://www.ddtpro.com/universe/videos/6335
Shoko Nakajima vs. Miyu Yamashita – TJPW, Yes! Wonderland! 2019 2/5
This was a title match for the Princess of Princess title, which Yamashita had held since January of 2018 in an imperious title reign. She had defeated ten challengers on the way to this match, whereas Nakajima had failed in her previous attempts to win the belt. This match differed from a lot of the previous Yamashita title matches in that Nakajima didn’t try to match her in an epic match, which most of her other opponents did. Rather this match was scrappy, and Nakajima just refused to stay down, despite everything Yamashita threw at her. It’s worth noting that Nakajima dodged the normally lethal Crash Rabbit Heat, and finally hit a locomotion Northern Lights suplex to beat the Mega Champ. A really emotional win for the Big Kaiju. Admittedly there were a couple of botches, but they didn’t take me out of the match.
https://www.ddtpro.com/universe/videos/6335
Tsukushi vs. Mei Hoshizuki vs. Miyuki Takase – Seadlinnng, Golden Go! Go! 2/5
The Seadlinnng high speed division is the best in wrestling at this point in time, and Tsukushi and Hoshizuki are regulars of the division. Takase Miyuki is one of my favourite wrestlers right now too so this match was set up to be excellent, and fully delivered. Takase had the power advantage, but Tsukushi and Hoshizuki were able to keep her on the back foot with their speed. Another key component of the Seadlinnng high speed matches is the referee Natsuki Taiyo, who got involved in several fights with Takase over her treatment of the two younger wrestlers. Tsukushi got the win with an intricate bridging pin on Hoshizuki.
Suzu Suzuki & Miyuki Takase vs. Rina Shingaki & Asahi – Ice Ribbon P’s Party 27 2/5
P’s Party is the Ice Ribbon sub brand for younger wrestlers, which allows the Ice Ribbon rookies to get more time in the ring. Several storylines going on in this match – Suzuki and Asahi are rookie rivals, and Asahi is desperate to get a win over Suzu; Takase wanted to join in Suzu’s “chirin chirin” bicycle taunts (which she was having none of). Rina Shigaki rounded out the match, a very good wrestler from K-Dojo. Despite not always being on the same page Takase and Suzuki managed to win this match, Takase’s power proving to be a bit too much for Asahi and Shingaki. After the match she gave Suzu some hand bells which seemed to patch things up.
Miyako Matsumoto vs. Makoto – Ice Ribbon, 3/5
Following their loss to Azure Revolution in April Miyako challenged Makoto to a “loser leaves Ice Ribbon” match. From the beginning Miyako was treated very unfairly by the rest of the Ice Ribbon roster, who did nothing to help her and gave her the traditional retirement series of dropkicks from the entire roster. Makoto dominated this match, just beating up on Miyako with big kicks, although Miyako did come close to pinning her with a Miyacoco Clutch. Ultimately however, Makoto won, and to add insult to injury she did it with a Miyacoco Clutch of her own. Hopefully the Ice Ribbon roster felt suitably ashamed at Miyako’s tearful farewell. Thankfully she was reinstated later in the month by intervention of Manami Toyota and one of Ice Ribbon’s sponsors.
Costume Change Battle Royal – Stardom, STARS Produce Golden Week Show 3/5
The annual costume change battle royal is a highlight of Stardom’s Golden Week shows. Some of the best costumes were Natsuko Tora as Utami Hayashishita, Utami as her dad, Arisa Hoshiki as Bea Priestley, Kagetsu as Arisa Hoshiki, and Konami as Kagetsu. Natsu Sumire came to the ring as yankee Saki Kashima, which enraged Saki and she immediately eliminated her. Mayu Iwatani as Starlight Kid won the match for STARS.
https://www.stardom-world.com/set/363/contents/362?fcid=1
Kagetsu vs. Bea Priestley – Stardom, Queen’s Quest Produce Golden Week Show 4/5
This World of Stardom title match was extremely controversial since the result, that Bea Priestley beat Kagetsu for the title, came out before the match was uploaded. Match result aside, this was a good match – probably Bea’s best match in Stardom to date – as Kagetsu bumped like a madwoman to make Bea look powerful. Bea won this match with the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex (although she announced that her move will be renamed the Queen’s Landing after the match) and then announced that she will be joining Stardom full time this summer. A draw here and a Bea win at a Korakuen Hall show down the line would probably have been more palatable than this seemingly random title change at a Shinkiba 1st Ring show.
https://www.stardom-world.com/set/365/contents/364?fcid=1
Maika vs. Mima Shimoda – TakaTaichi Mania 2, 7/5
Maika is one of TAKA Michinoku’s rookies in his new promotion Just Tap Out, which he established following his split with K-DOJO. She made her debut at TakaTaichi Mania against former AJW wrestler Mima Shimoda, with red gear that looked almost identical to Utami Hayashishita. The similarities didn’t stop there, since Maika also has a background in judo, and she put that to good use in this match. It was notable that Maika went on to win her debut match against Shimoda, and with Just Tap Out holding their first show in July she could be destined for big things.
Meiko Satomura, DASH Chisako, and Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Saki Akai, Asuka, and Hikaru Shida – DDT, Dramatic Dream Tarekatsu 11/5
Saki Akai led a team to take on the Sendai Girl’s Pro Wrestling KO-D 6 (Wo)Man Champions. This was an excellent match, and all six women were at their best in the ring, delivering fast team moves and counters. I like these sort of matches because it allows the wrestlers involved to combine in really fun ways, and recently we haven’t seen much interaction between Akai or Asuka and Sendai Girl’s. The only complaint was that the camera was really tightly focused on this match, which meant that some of it was hard to follow. Hashimoto looked like a beast in this match, but Satomura got the pin on Saki Akai for the successful defence. After the match All Out challenged the Sendai Girls’ team to a set of singles matches.
Seikigun (Maya Yukihi & Saori Anou) vs. Beast Friends (Kaori Yoneyama & Hiroyo Matsumoto) – OZ Academy, Something is Happening Tonight 12/5
This match for the OZ Academy tag team titles came about after Mayumi Ozaki won the Openweight Title and challenged Beast Friends on behalf of her stable. This match centred around Seikigun henchman Police being the referee, which was the condition that Ozaki laid down in order for there to be no seconds for either team at ringside. Initially Police called the match down the middle, but it didn’t take long for him to revert to his usual tricks of throwing chairs at Yoneyama, and letting Seikigun get away with cheating. By the end of the match Police was fast counting for Seikigun and slow counting Beast Friends’ pins, until Anou accidentally sprayed mist in his face. Matsumoto almost forced Police to count three for Yoneyama, but in the end Police hit a Shining Wizard on Yoneyama, and a buzzsaw kick from Yukihi finished her off.
Yuu vs. Miyuki Takase, Pro Wrestling WAVE, Weekday Wave 14/5
This was a match in the Power Block of the Catch the Wave tournament, and it really lived up to its name as Yuu and Takase spent the first five minutes of the match viciously chopping each other to death. This was probably my favourite Yuu match since she left TJPW last year, and Takase is always fantastic. Neither wrestler wanted to lose here, with Yuu using her superior power to try and put Takase down, but The Phoenix of Osaka refused to be overawed. Ultimately this went to a fifteen minute time-limit draw that left neither wrestler happy. Highly recommended as the one Wave show from May.
Momo Watanabe vs. Arisa Hoshiki – Stardom, Gold May 16/5
This was one of my favourite matches of the year so far, as the Cinderella Tournament winner Arisa Hoshiki challenged Momo Watanabe for her Wonder of Stardom title. Momo won the title almost exactly one year ago, and racked up wins in rather inevitable fashion as she set the record for the most defences. This was another title match that differed a bit from the regular epic style matches Momo has been having. Arisa’s offence is all designed around striking fast and out of nowhere, which allowed her to catch Momo when she was off her guard. The turning point came when Momo hit a Peach Sunrise, but Arisa was able to get a foot on the ropes to break up the pin. Arisa finally hit two rapid fire Brazilian Kicks to put Momo down for the three count. I think this was a good time to go with a new champion – Arisa is a main event star in the making, and Momo can move on to new challenges (plus she still has the tag belts with Utami).
https://www.stardom-world.com/set/396/contents/395?fcid=1
Takumi Iroha & Sareee vs. Rin Kadokura & Kaoru Ito – Marvelous, 20/5
This was the main event of the May 20th Marvelous show at Shinkiba 1st Ring, featuring two Marvelous-Diana teams. The team of Iroha and Sareee feels overpowered, but Kadokura and Ito put up a good fight. Rin often feels like she gets overlooked in Marvelous because of the brilliance of everyone else there, but she’s great. This was a fun tag match that involved a lot of stiff kicks and forearm strikes (mainly from Sareee), and ended with a big uranage from Sareee to finish off Kadokura.
https://freshlive.tv/marvelous/268298
An Chamu vs. Mei Suruga – Gatoh Move, 21/5
I will admit to being a late comer to Gatoh Move, but recently they’ve been uploading lots of matches to YouTube with English commentary, so now I have no excuse. Gatoh Move mostly holds their shows at Ichigaya Chocolate Square, a renovated former dental surgery, and their ring is a mat on the floor without ropes. This leads to some really inventive matches, and some very creative wrestling. The story of this match was that Mei Suruga is a very popular rookie, but an An Chamu match has the most views on the Gatoh Move YouTube channel, so Mei was mad. Both wrestlers made a point of playing up to the camera in between hitting moves, trying to appeal to the YouTube viewers. Mei finally managed to pin Chamu to claim victory in this match. If you liked Emi Sakura and Riho at Double or Nothing you should definitely watch Gatoh Move (but you should do that anyway because it’s really good).
Yuka Sakazaki & Aja Kong & Emi Sakura vs. Riho & Ryo Mizunami & Hikaru Shida – AEW, Double or Nothing 25/5
This match makes the highlight list simply for seeing six of the best joshi wrestlers given the platform to perform in the US in front of 13,000 fans. I’m ambivalent about a lot of things AEW is doing, but if they give joshi wrestlers a platform to become more popular and get paid then that can only be a good thing. This match was one of the best on the show, with standout performances by Emi Sakura and Riho. Hikaru Shida picked up the win for her team, and we will surely see a lot more from her going forward since she signed with AEW earlier this year.
Maya Yukihi vs. Giulia – Ice Ribbon, Osaka Ribbon 25/5
This was a match for the Icex∞ title, that came about when Giulia challenged Maya after her successful defence against Tsukushi in March. Giulia is only about a year and a half into her wrestling career, but she’s a future star in Ice Ribbon, and showed how good she’s become in this match. Her matwork and submissions are particularly good, and she has a great manjigatame. Maya has also been an excellent champion this year, and this match was no different. She went head to head with Giulia’s submissions, and then brought her own devastating kicks and strikes. Maya finally won with a savage looking Tiger Driver that dropped Giulia right on her neck. Next up for Maya is Giulia’s tag team partner Tequila Saya. Worth going out of your way to watch this entire show.
Hazuki vs. DEATH Yama San. – Stardom, Shining Stars 25/5
Hazuki’s excellent run with the High Speed title might have been flying slightly under the radar given Momo Watanabe’s record setting Wonder of Stardom title run, but this match is worth going out of your way to watch. Yoneyama, who is a former High Speech champion herself, became DEATH Yama San. after joining Tokyo Cyber Squad in the Stardom draft. Yoneyama really brought it in this match, and she had great chemistry with Hazuki. She rarely gets to shine in Stardom, but she’s still performing at a really high level. Hazuki defended her belt successfully, and following the match she was challenged by Saki Kashima.
https://www.stardom-world.com/set/426/contents/430?fcid=1
Konami vs. Kagetsu – Stardom, Konami Homecoming Show 26/5
Konami beat Kagetsu in last year’s 5 Star Grand Prix, but never got a World of Stardom title shot before Kagetsu lost the belt to Bea Priestley, so she challenged Kagetsu to a singles match at her Homecoming Show. This was one of the best matches of the year – Konami and Kagetsu are two of the best workers in Stardom right now, and they have really good chemistry together. Since Konami was the hometown hero in this match Kagetsu went fully heel and employed all of her underhand tactics to try and beat Konami. The match finally ended in a time limit draw, although Kagetsu did hit an Ebisu Drop and an Oedo Coaster just before time expired. Hopefully Konami and Kagetsu get to fight again, because this match was excellent.
https://www.stardom-world.com/set/432/contents/436?fcid=1
Noa Hikari vs. Natsumi Maki– TJPW, Tokyo Princess Cup Opening Matches 28/5
The Tokyo Princess Cup started at the end of May, and the first round saw both members of Pandemic Boo Boo face each other in an excellent match. Going into this match Hikari was the underdog, but her fellow Up Up Girl Miu Watanabe defeated Nodoka Tenma on the same night to give her some hope that she might pull off an upset. Maki controlled the early going, but Hikari had some really impressive stretches during the match where she really hit her tag team partner as hard as she could. There was to be no upset win here, but Hikari looks like she is a star in the making. Natsumi Maki is a dark horse to win the whole tournament.
https://www.ddtpro.com/universe/videos/6727
Nanae Takahashi vs. Takumi Iroha – Seadlinnng, Stay Tune 2019 29/5
This match was for the Beyond the Sea title – Iroha won the right to challenge by defeating Yoshiko at Marvelous’ 3rd Anniversary show. This was an absolutely amazing match, with both women absolutely throwing everything they had at each other. Before the match I fully expected Nanae to win, and there was a sense of inevitability that the longer this match went on the more likely she was to retain. Iroha hit a Running Three, her finishing move passed on to her from Chigusa Nagayo, and Nanae kicked out. But Nanae was never able to hit her own finisher, the One Second Ex, and finally Iroha hit a second Running Three to pin Nanane to win the Beyond the Sea title. After the bell rang all the Marvelous rookies at ringside cheered wildly as Iroha was given the title, and Nanae thanked her for a great match until Arisa Nakajima came down and kicked her in the face before challenging Iroha. This was one of the best matches of the year, but the rest of the Seadlinnng show was also great – Arisa Nakajima vs. Asuka, The Beginning vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto and Amazon, Yoshiko and Makoto vs. Mikoto Shindo and Ryo Mizunami, Mei Hoshizuki vs. Mei Suruga vs. Maria, and Sae vs. Yuna Mizumori. Go out of your way to watch it if you can.
Quick Hits
Wrestler of the Month: Arisa Hoshiki [Update: Takumi Iroha]
Match of the Month: Konami vs. Kagetsu [Update: Nanae Takahashi vs. Takumi Iroha]
Show of the Month: Ice Ribbon 1/5 [Update: Seadlinnng Stay Tune 2019 29/5]
Tag Team of the Month: Risa Sera and Suzu Suzuki (Bike Club)
Feud of the Month: An Chamu vs. Mei Suruga
