{"id":12107,"date":"2019-04-11T19:54:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T18:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=12107"},"modified":"2019-04-11T20:00:42","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T19:00:42","slug":"this-month-in-joshi-wrestling-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/11\/this-month-in-joshi-wrestling-march\/","title":{"rendered":"This Month in Joshi Wrestling &#8211; March"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two things I want to highlight this month, which bookended\nwrestling in March.&nbsp; First, the match\nbetween Momo Watanabe and Jungle Kyona that took place on March 3<sup>rd<\/sup>,\nand was my favourite match of the year up till that point.&nbsp; Momo challenged Kyona for a Wonder of Stardom\ntitle defence, which if Momo won would take her to twelve defences, setting a\nnew defence record for the belt.&nbsp; Momo\nWatanabe has probably been the most consistently outstanding wrestler this year\nand Kyona is low-key excellent, so on paper this match had a lot of\npromise.&nbsp; On top of that, this title\nmatch was in Kyona\u2019s hometown of Nagoya, and Kyona and Momo have a long history\ntogether.&nbsp; Momo was Kyona\u2019s opponent in\nher debut match (which Kyona won) and then the two were a tag team together,\nuntil Momo turned on Kyona to join Queen\u2019s Quest.&nbsp; This match was absolutely fantastic, with\nboth women throwing everything they had at each other, including a Muscle\nBuster from Kyona, and the Nagoya crowd was hot for everything that Kyona\ndid.&nbsp; Ultimately Momo got the win, which\nwas heart-breaking for Kyona (even though I never really expected her to win)\nand moved ahead of Io Shirai\u2019s record of defences for a single title reign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second highlight of March come on March 31<sup>st<\/sup>,\nwhen Ice Ribbon ran their March show at Korakuen Hall.&nbsp; The match was headlined by an ICEx\u221e\ntitle match between\nMaya Yukihi and Tsukushi, but arguably the biggest match was between Tsukasa\nFujimoto and Tintin, the wife of Andreza Giant Panda who it was alleged Fujimoto\nhad been having an affair with.&nbsp; The\naffair began at the 2018 Tokyo Sports Wrestling Awards when Fujimoto won the\nJoshi Grand Prize and was photographed giving Andreza a kiss.&nbsp; The story of the affair rumbled on for a few\nmonths, until Tintin came out and said that she was going to make her wrestling\ndebut and challenged Fujimoto to a match.&nbsp;\nDespite maintaining her innocence, Tsukasa agreed to the match for the\nKorakuen Hall show.&nbsp; This match was\namazing, an absolute masterclass by Fujimoto at pacing and selling a match\nagainst her giant panda opponent, and she fully leant in to her heel persona\nfor this match.&nbsp; Tsukasa hit a\ndevastating looking double footstomp from the top to Tintin, but then Andreza to\nthe ring and headbutted Fujimoto to try and help Tintin.&nbsp; Tintin gained a measure of justice by hitting\nAndreza and knocking him out of the ring, but finally Tsukasa picked up the win\nafter hitting her Ocean Cyclone Suplex.&nbsp;\nShe then ended her feud with Tintin by telling her that she hadn\u2019t been\nhaving an affair, but had actually been helping Andreza to plan a surprise for\nTintin\u2019s 4<sup>th<\/sup> birthday, which was the day of the show.&nbsp; Andreza and Tintin\u2019s son Raja came to the\nring with flowers for his mother, and the Panda family hugged it out with\nTsukasa to end the match.&nbsp; This match\nalready went viral online, but it is absolutely worth seeking out if you\nhaven\u2019t already seen it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">How is Ice Ribbon out here redefining what pro wrestling is and they still don&#39;t have a streaming service??? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/iceribbon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#iceribbon<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vq8H4v2ZfU\">pic.twitter.com\/vq8H4v2ZfU<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Death by Arisa Nakajima (@twf87) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/twf87\/status\/1112862308408033280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 1, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recap of the Month<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ice Ribbon\u2019s<\/strong> March show was an\nall-round excellent show, with a strong card from top to bottom.&nbsp; Some of my favourite matches included Giulia\ntaking on Miyuki Takase in a strong singles match, a hardcore match between the\nteams of Risa Sera and Akane Fujita against Himeka Arita and Hiragi Kurumi, the\nsix woman number one contender match between Lovely Butchers, Makoto and Miyako\nMatsumoto, and Yoshiko and Tequila Saya, and the main event between Yukihi and\nTsukushi.&nbsp; Despite Tsukushi putting up a\ngood fight, Maya Yukihi emerged victorious in the main event, and next Risa\nSera and Maya face Miyako Matsumoto and Makoto for the tag team titles.&nbsp; The next challenger for Maya Yukihi\u2019s ICEx\u221e title hasn\u2019t been announced yet, but I imagine that it\u2019s quite\npossible that Risa Sera might be near the top of the list, especially if Azure\nRevolution drop the titles.&nbsp; Ice Ribbon\ndrew 938 fans to Korakuen Hall, obviously helped by the draw of the big Tintin\nvs. Fujimoto match, and the promotion is really having a very strong 2019 so\nfar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recommended Match: <\/strong>Tsukasa Fujimoto\nvs. Tintin, Ice Ribbon March 31\/3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Stardom <\/strong>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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Utami and Momo is the most protected match in Stardom so far, since they have been tagging together and they\u2019re in the same faction (spoiler alert because it already happened and I\u2019ll cover it in more detail next month, but it was good).\u00a0 Stardom\u2019s focus was mostly on their New York show that took place during Wrestlemania week, which I recapped here (<a href=\"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/08\/stardom-american-dream-2019-review-5-4-19\/\">http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/08\/stardom-american-dream-2019-review-5-4-19\/<\/a>), but also looking ahead to the draft that takes place on April 14<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recommended Match: <\/strong>Momo Watanabe vs. Jungle\nKyona, Stardom World in Nagoya 3\/3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Now on <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/q8dHnF58vW\">https:\/\/t.co\/q8dHnF58vW<\/a> from yesterday in Nagoya, it&#39;s the main event!<br>Momo Watanabe defends the Wonder of Stardom title vs hometown hero Jungle Kyona! Only on Stardom World! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wJWMeuwtau\">pic.twitter.com\/wJWMeuwtau<\/a><\/p>&mdash; We Are Stardom (@we_are_stardom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/we_are_stardom\/status\/1102268784000159744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 3, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Seadlinnng <\/strong>delivered an excellent Korakuen Hall show on March 20<sup>th<\/sup>, which was headlined by a great match between Nanae Takahashi and Asuka.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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\u2019z by beating Miyuki Takase and Himeka Arita.&nbsp; That feud also extended to Saori Anou requesting that Yoshiko challenge her for the Actwres Girl\u2019z title, although Yoshiko was not very interested in her request.&nbsp; Seadlinnng\u2019s High Speed division also continues to impress, especially the rookie team of Marvelous\u2019 Mei Hoshizuki and Gatoh Move\u2019s Mei Suruga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recommended Match: <\/strong>Nanae Takahashi vs.\nAsuka, Luckiest 2019 20\/3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">ASUKA continuing the tradition of moonsaulting off the Korakuen stairwell <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SEAdLINNNG?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SEAdLINNNG<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2EMuUUaYoO\">pic.twitter.com\/2EMuUUaYoO<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Death by Arisa Nakajima (@twf87) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/twf87\/status\/1109251195644723202?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 23, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sendai Girls\u2019 Pro Wrestling <\/strong>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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recommended Match: <\/strong>Chihiro Hashimoto vs.\nSakura Hirota, Shinjuku FACE 11\/3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FJXcIFyhrGQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent&#038;enablejsapi=1\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Marvelous <\/strong>ran one of the most surreal shows in March when Mio\nMomono, who is currently out with an ACL injury, produced her own show at Shinkiba\n1<sup>st<\/sup> Ring.&nbsp; All the matches\nwere excellent, but my personal favourites were a tag match between the \u201cold\nlady\u201d team of Tae Honma and Miyuki Takase and the \u201cbaby skinz\u201d team of Mikoto\nShindo and Mei Hoshizuki, as well as the match between Zap-T and \u201cTomoko\nWatanabe\u201d (played by Sakura Hirota, since Tomoko Watanabe is also Zap-T).&nbsp; Based on this showing Mio should be given the\nbook more often by Chigusa Nagayo, because this show was hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recommended Match: <\/strong>Miyuki Takase &amp; Tae\nHonma vs. Mikoto Shindo &amp; Mei Hoshizuki, Mio Momono Produce 18\/3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I didn\u2019t see as much <strong>Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling <\/strong>as I would have liked in March, but there\nwas a fun show at the end of March at Hakata Star Lanes to commemorate the building\nbefore it gets demolished.&nbsp; Miyu\nYamashita defended her Princess of Princess title against the former champion Yuka\nSakazaki in a good match, and there was an excellent tag team match between Aja\nKong and Shoko Nakajima against Hikari Noa and Mika Iwata.&nbsp; Nakajima is one of the best wrestlers on the\nTJPW roster, but Hikari Noa has all the makings of a future star, and she looked\ngreat in this match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recommended Match: <\/strong>Aja Kong &amp; Shoko Nakajima\nvs. Mika Iwata &amp; Hikari Noa, The Sparkling Girl Will Fly to Hakata 31\/3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u25cb\u30bb\u30df\u30d5\u30a1\u30a4\u30ca\u30eb\u3000\u30a2\u30b8\u30e3\u30fb\u30b3\u30f3\u30b0\uff06\u4e2d\u5cf6\u7fd4\u5b50\u3000vs\u3000\u5ca9\u7530\u7f8e\u9999\uff06\u4e43\u84bc\u30d2\u30ab\u30ea<br>\u201c\u4e16\u754c\u306e\u8d85\u7363\u201d\u30a2\u30b8\u30e3\u30fb\u30b3\u30f3\u30b0\u3068\u201c\u5168\u95771.47\u30e1\u30fc\u30c8\u30eb\u306e\u5927\u602a\u7363\u201d\u4e2d\u5cf6\u7fd4\u5b50\u304c\u30bf\u30c3\u30b0\u3092\u7d50\u6210\uff01\u8fce\u3048\u8a0e\u3064\u306f\u4ed9\u5973\u304b\u3089\u30b2\u30b9\u30c8\u53c2\u6226\u306e\u5ca9\u7530\uff06\u30d2\u30ab\u30ea\uff01<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QvzzGOl2Hr\">https:\/\/t.co\/QvzzGOl2Hr<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ddtuniverse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ddtuniverse<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/tjpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#tjpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/OZ%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AB%E3%83%87%E3%83%9F%E3%83%BC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#OZ\u30a2\u30ab\u30c7\u30df\u30fc<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/%E4%BB%99%E5%A5%B3?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#\u4ed9\u5973<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/isQLSOvjNh\">pic.twitter.com\/isQLSOvjNh<\/a><\/p>&mdash; DDT UNIVERSE\u3010VIDEOS\u3011 (@ddtuniverse) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ddtuniverse\/status\/1112254461601148928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 31, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Wrestler of the Month: <\/strong>Tintin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Show of the Month: <\/strong>Ice Ribbon March 31\/3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tag Team of the Month: <\/strong>Mei Hoshizuki and Mei\nSuruga<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Match of the Month: <\/strong>Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tintin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Galaxy Brain Booker of 2019: <\/strong>Mio Momono<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Highlights Two things I want to highlight this month, which bookended wrestling in March.&nbsp; First, the match between Momo Watanabe and Jungle Kyona that took place on March 3rd, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,881,880,22,641,377],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-joshi-reviews","category-joshi-wrestling","category-reviews","category-stardom","category-tokyo-joshi-pro"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-39h","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Screenshot-2019-02-06-at-17.11.51-e1549512435862.png?fit=450%2C73&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12107"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12116,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107\/revisions\/12116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}