Many people in the United States every year get together with their friends to play fantasy football, baseball, basketball, hockey or many other sports, but really there isn’t anything comparable for pro wrestling, and that’s simply not right! With that in mind I, Justin Stein took it upon myself to put together a Fantasy Joshi Wrestling League with its own point system and all.

Sure, it’s a lot of leg work putting stats in one by one by myself, but since I’m kind of a numbers guy, it’s fun for me. Plus, it’s a chance to play in a fantasy league for the type of wrestling that I enjoy the most.

First let’s explain the points system and give you a general outline of the league. This league has ten teams in it, with rosters of fifteen wrestlers each, along with an Injured Reserve spot for a wrestler who will be out for a while.

Kouki Amarei would be an example at the moment since she’s not due back until May. The scoring period is from the first of January, all the way through the end of the year, which means that it will be a long game, but the wrestlers chosen in the draft won’t be the only ones you have access to, because trades, pickups and drops will be allowed as well.

The points given to the wrestlers are as follows: 3 points will be given to a wrestler who wins a singles match. 2 points will be given to the winner of a multi-person singles match, so think of a 3 way or 4 way, or hell even a battle royal. 2 points will be given to the winner of a tag team match. 1 point will be given to a wrestler who draws with another wrestler. A wrestler who wins a championship will be awarded 10 points! A wrestler who defends their championship will be awarded 5 points! Finally, a wrestler who wins a tournament that is not a one night title tournament will be awarded 10 points! This point system will award wrestlers who work many matches, and are booked rather strongly, as well as wrestlers who will be in the title picture for the upcoming year.

While doing a test run based off of last year’s results up to December 10th, Maika was at the top, but closely followed by the likes of SAKI and YUU, so really anything is possible.

With the general rules and points system broken down, let’s move onto the teams. Obviously I created this so I could participate, but I wanted to make sure that there were many minds in the league who are not only knowledgeable about joshi pro wrestling, but would also be willing to have fun with it all, without getting overly serious with it. First, I turned to my fellow members of RESURA, and I was quite thrilled with the response! Ryan Dilbert, Fernando Ibarra and Dave Coumans were all willing to jump in and give it a shot.

After that, I started reaching out to various content creators in the joshi wrestling space, and was able to get quite a few names I’m sure that you’ll know. We will have “Mr. Joshi” Scott Edwards joining the league, and it will be interesting to see if his expertise will guide him to victory. Both Dylan and Alex from the Stardom Quest Gold podcast who both enjoy not only the two big companies that they regularly cover in STARDOM and Marigold, but also many of the independent companies out there. One of the voices that you may hear with Dylan every month on the No Limit Wrestling show, and someone who is also very knowledgeable of the Japanese wrestling scene Xavi will also be joining the league.

There were then two spots left, and with that I reached out to a man who creates many of the awesome images that you see on RESURA and someone who really enjoys watching all wrestling, but especially joshi wrestling with that being Hart Editing. Finally with the last spot, I reached out to PlugPedro who has been on quite a few podcasts with the rest of the league and has his own podcast called The Outlet where he covers all Japanese wrestling, but truly has a love for all things joshi puroresu.

With the league membership set, it was time to bring everyone together for the big live draft via Discord. Obviously having 10 guys from not only around the country, but the world with two of our members being overseas, it was tough to find a good time for everyone, because of that our two overseas friends had to submit lists of who they’d like to pick ahead of time, but that randomness added to the fun. The draft was finally set for January 10th, and let me tell you, it was quite fun to see so many fans of the product making smart picks while also razzing each other for picking the wrestlers that they wanted to pick next. The enjoyable banter between friends that you’d get during a fantasy football draft, was there in spades, but instead we were talking about the best wrestling of all, Japanese women’s professional wrestling.

I’m sure you’d like to know who’s on what team and where they were picked right? Well I got you covered!

ROUND ONE

The draft order was determined by a number randomizer, and Ryan Dilbert with his team “God’s Sigh” was the lucky one to come away with the first overall pick. It should be no surprise that after the Tokyo Sports award win, and overall fanfare that she has this past year the first overall pick was none other than Sareee. I’m sure it hurt Scott deep down that he couldn’t draft someone who employs him like Sareee, but it wasn’t meant to be this time.

The second overall pick went to Xavi with his team named “Rebel X Run.” There were a lot of ways to go with the pick, and he chose to go with one of his favorites and a wrestler who is always booked very strong in Chihiro Hashimoto. The first two picks were very strong, but the only worry would be that they wouldn’t wrestle enough matches or win enough titles this upcoming year, but that was still left to be seen.

The third overall pick went to Dylan Murray from Stardom Quest Gold and his team was named the “Mad Dog Military.” He decided to go with someone who very recently became a champion, and someone who is poised to have a big year in Stardom in Starlight Kid. You can never go wrong with picking someone from the upper card of Stardom in the early picks, because you know that they will wrestle over one hundred matches in the coming year, and they will probably come out as the winner more times than not. The fourth overall pick went to Scott Edwards from the 5 Star Joshi Pod, Fightful, RESURA and more. With him being probably the most prevalent name in joshi coverage over here in the states, everyone was wondering who he’d pick, but in reality it shouldn’t have been a surprise with who was left. He’s gone on record multiple times saying that Mayu Iwatani is the greatest joshi wrestler ever, and that’s why it was easy for him to pick her at number four!

At number five it was none other than myself with my team named “Oedo Tai,” because I fully believe in the mantra of doing my half assed best. I felt like many of the others were picking their favorite wrestlers with these first round picks, and it makes sense to want to have a strong “ace” of your team, so I went with my favorite wrestler and chose the “Wild Heart” Hazuki. It might have been a bit of a stretch considering STARDOM’s track record of not wanting to put a singles title on her, but I have hope that this will be the year that changes. Plus, it’s nice to think of her being back in Oedo Tai.

As you can see, the draft was off to a strong start and it was going to continue from there with the sixth overall pick going to Alex Richards from Stardom Quest Gold with their team named “Alex’s Warbitches.” Obviously, they’re a big fan of Thekla right? Unfortunately they are one of the two members of the league who live overseas, so doing the draft live for them would have made them have to get up at 4am, and that’s just not realistic to ask for. They submitted a giant list to me before the draft and at number one on their list was none other than Mayumi Ozaki, the head of OZ Academy.

Everyone else in the draft room was rather surprised with how far out in left field the pick was, but you gotta respect Alex for sticking with the joshi wrestlers who they love, and in all honesty Ozaki is usually good enough to hold a few titles every year. We’ll just have to see if she wrestles enough matches to rack up enough points.

Next up, for the seventh overall pick we had RESURA’s Dave Coumans with his team named “TCS 4 Life,” who is the second member of the team who lives overseas and had to submit a list before the draft of who he was most interested in. With the seventh pick in the draft he chose the newly crowned NXT Women’s Champion Giulia, which will be an interesting pick, because sometimes WWE doesn’t use their wrestlers enough to get a lot of points, but with her currently holding a title, maybe they’ll use her more than usual on weekly TV.

Up at number eight was none other than the host of The Outlet PlugPedro with his team named the “Outlet Wolfpack.” There were still a lot of great wrestlers out there to pick, and he went with one of his favorites and someone who has been making quite a bit of noise over the past few months in Stardom-Momo Watanabe. Will this be the year where STARDOM puts a singles title back on Momo finally? Pedro definitely hopes so!

At number nine, we have the lead graphics designer of Bodyslam.net and the main man of graphics here for RESURA, Hart Editing with his team named “Fart Editing.” Hart had a different Watanabe on his mind, and went with the recently defeated, former TJPW Princess of Princess champion Miu Watanabe. She had a pretty good title run last year, so it will be interesting to see if TJPW keeps her right around that title this year as well.

Finally, it was time to round out the top ten picks with Fernando Ibarra and his team named “Casa Royale.” A lot of very strong wrestlers had already been chosen, but there were a lot of options he could go with, plus with this being a snake draft, he actually had two picks in a row. With this first round pick though, he decided to go with the “Genius of the Sky” Iyo Sky, someone who is immensely talented, but sadly isn’t always in the title scene in WWE like she probably should be. Much like Giulia, you have to hope that WWE will be willing to use her effectively enough to score many points.

ROUND TWO

Like I mentioned before, this was a snake type draft, so up first in the second round was Fernando once again, and he didn’t leave us waiting for long as he decided to choose the “ace” of TJPW Miyu Yamashita. After that, Hart Editing decided to go with the passionate one herself Nanae Takahashi. Sure, she’ll be retiring later this year, but you might as well get points while you can with her.

With the third pick of the second round Pedro selected newly crowned Marigold World Champion Utami Hayashishita. With the fourth pick of the second round Dave selected the enigmatic VENY. Going fifth in the second round was Alex and they selected Manami Katsu who very recently won the ICEXInfinity Championship in Ice Ribbon, so she’s off to a hell of a start.

At the start of the second half of the second round, I decided to select the current World Of Stardom Champion Saya Kamitani, banking on the fact that she’ll have a long reign with the title as a strong heel champion. Picking at number seven in this round was Scott, and he decided to select the super rookie of Marigold Seri Yamaoka. While it did feel a bit early for that pick, you never know how Rossy is going to book a talent he’s excited for, so she could be wearing gold before you know it.

With the eighth pick of the second round was Dylan and he chose Saori Anou, someone who is booked rather strongly in Stardom, and also still takes bookings outside of the company as well. At number nine was Xavi and he decided to choose the newly crowned United National Champion in Marigold, Mai Sakurai.

Rounding out the second round was Ryan and maybe to his surprise, the strongly booked Maika was there for him to pick. When I tallied up the points for last year as a test run, Maika led all other joshi wrestlers, so maybe that second round pick was going to prove to be a steal when the league finishes up at the end of the year.

ROUND THREE

Now that we’re through the first two rounds, we’re gonna speed things up a little bit.

Ryan started off round three by picking “Aniki” Ryo Mizunami. Xavi then chose Mio Momono from Marvelous, followed by Dylan choosing MIRAI from Marigold. Scott went with AZM followed by myself picking the menace Momoka Hanazono. Going sixth was Alex and they chose Mari from Actwres girl’Z, followed by Dave choosing Nagisa Nozaki. Pedro decided to choose Miku Aono, Hart chose Maria from Marvelous, and finally Fernando chose the apple goblin known as Mei Suruga.

ROUND FOUR

Fernando started off round four selecting Mika Iwata, and after that Hart chose Maria’s partner in crime Riko Kawahata. Pedro went with the newly crowned TJPW International Princess Champion Suzume, with Dave then selecting the greatest Future of Stardom champion in history Rina. Alex chose the legend Aja Kong, followed by myself selecting the second half of the tag team Daisy Monkey Arisu Endo.

Scott selected the new Marigold SuperFly Champion Victoria Yuzuki, and Dylan followed that with Hanan. Xavi decided to select SAKI and the fourth round was finished with Ryan selecting Syuri which made total sense because of the name of his team “God’s Sigh.”

ROUND FIVE

Round five began with Ryan selecting Chi Chi which could be quite the pick if her star continues to shine this upcoming year. Xavi went with Makoto, a dependable indie wrestler, followed by Dylan selecting the current High Speed Champion of Stardom Mei Seira. Scott selected Suzu Suzuki, and I followed that up with selecting Tam Nakano, bringing her back to Oedo Tai.

Alex then chose YuuRI, followed by Dave picking indie standout Unagi Sayaka. Pedro stepped up to the proverbial podium and selected Mizuki from TJPW, followed by Hart picking Manami from Sendai Girls. Finally to end the round, Fernando selected everyone’s favorite bear enthusiast Koguma. With the top five rounds down, I’ll start simply listing the picks for the remaining rounds.

ROUND SIX

ROUND EIGHT

ROUND NINE

ROUND TEN

ROUND ELEVEN

ROUND TWELVE

ROUND THIRTEEN

ROUND FOURTEEN

ROUND FIFTEEN

THE DRAFTED TEAMS

Sareee
Maika
Ryo Mizunami
Syuri
Chi Chi
Rika Tatsumi
Natuski
ACT Yasukawa
Haruka Umesaki
Emi Sakura
Shoko Nakajima
Jaguar Yokota
Natsuko Tora
ZONES
Pom Harajuku

Analysis – Overall, Ryan drafted quite a strong team, especially at the top of the draft. I don’t think any team would want to see Sareee, Maika, Ryo Mizunami and Syuri standing across the ring from them in a real pro wrestling match. As you move down the roster there’s a few of the more strongly booked wrestlers from Actwres girl’Z including their current AWG champion, so hopefully they will be able to score some points. Unfortunately Haruka Umesaki is currently injured at the time of this writing, but luckily there is an injured reserve spot available for that type of thing, meaning that he can get another wrestler to replace her while she’s away.

Quote From Ryan About His Team – “With the first pick in hand, I had to go for the absolute beast in Sareee. I knew I’d get points for all kinds of championship defenses as she’s become a belt collector across the joshi scene. Then once my turns came around from that point, I tried to focus on snagging more champs or wrestlers I think might win gold in 2025. Chi Chi, Mizunami, Natsuki, and Pom are all already titleholders even though some of those titles aren’t exactly household names. Maika is sure be in the mix for one of STARDOM’s two dozen or so championships. I have a feeling Nakajima (with Hyper Misao) will win this year’s Max Heart tourney and unseat Maki Itoh and Miyu Yamashita as TJPW tag champs.“

Analysis – Xavi had probably one of the best drafts when you look at last year’s points total for the wrestlers on his team. Other than someone like Mima Shimoda who simply doesn’t wrestle often enough, a lot of his wrestlers not only wrestle often, but also win enough to score a lot of points. When tallying up last year’s points, SAKI finished second, and Makoto finished in fourth, so we’ll have to see if they can follow up with an equally as successful year.

Quote From Xavi About His Team – “Rebel X Run lives up to the name. Went the route of drafting mainly a bunch of wrestlers I like instead of thinking logically, but not completely throwing it away. Hash is about to lead a big year for SENJO so she felt like the natural choice to lead things. Have a lot of champions on the roster, and some wrestlers who just win quite often. Ultimately, I think the freelancers and veterans in smaller companies are gonna be the key for this team racking up a bunch of points.“

Analysis – Dylan’s team is very strong through the first ten rounds. Starlight Kid and Saori Anou will both get him a lot of points I believe, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see MIRAI wearing gold by the end of the year in Marigold. Hanan and Mei Seira are two of the strongest young wrestlers in STARDOM currently, and Kaori Yoneyama works everywhere, so she’ll have the opportunity to win a lot of matches as the year goes on.  Kizuna will be out for a few months with her back issue, so he should look to replace her while she’s out, but overall Dylan’s team should score quite a few points this year.

Quote From Dylan About His Team – “Mad Dog Military lives up to its name by featuring a colorful yet intimidating band of pro wrestlers. With half the picks coming by design with divinity in mind and the other half coming strictly based on vibes, my core picks are projected to wrestle full time schedules alongside strong wrestlers that will (hopefully) result in plenty of wins for the Mad Dogs. Plus, with wrestlers like Sakura Hirota and Ruaka in the mix, morale will be high even when if wins aren’t necessarily rolling in for the entirety of the season.“

Analysis – Scott definitely is looking at the future with his team considering the ages of four of his first five picks. Taking Mayu is never a bad idea, because even when she’s not doing much in STARDOM she still always has one of the better winning percentages each year since she’s their Icon. Taking Seri second was somewhat surprising, but a lot of people see similarities to Utami’s rookie year in Stardom with Seri, and Scott must believe that she’ll be booked just as strongly. Overall, from start to finish he put together a good roster, with his fourteenth and fifteenth picks being more of a vibe pick than one that will score a lot of points most likely. Obviously we’d all love to see Yota and NORI wrestle more, but will they this year? We’ll have to wait and see!

Quote From Scott About His Team – “Draft Mayu Iwatani and let everything play out. That’s they way it is and will always be for anything I do. It worked out once again. The rest of the roster is heavily focused on the future with a few others thrown in for fun. Seri Yamaoka proves that, going in the second round because I’m a bit of a psycho — but that’s the beauty of The Icon & Friends. It’s all about the vibes and a good time — which I think I nailed. If I win, great. If I lose, at least I had fun with the GOAT leading the way.“

Analysis From Myself About My Team – Honestly there were probably stronger picks points wise than Hazuki for when I picked her at number five, but I felt it was important to pick my favorite wrestler, and I was afraid she wouldn’t make it back to me if I didn’t pick her there. I believe that she’ll finally win the white belt after challenging for it so many times in the past.

With Kamitani having the red belt and WAVE’s title at the moment, she should be able to earn some extra points for defending her title, and with her popularity, I think STARDOM will choose to book her pretty strongly this year. Momoka works in a lot of promotions, so she should earn some points, and Arisu Endo is one of the best young wrestlers in TJPW, and someone I believe could win a singles title this year. Getting Tam in round five was kind of surprising to me, but I won’t complain that’s for sure!

A lot of my other picks are mainly indie wrestlers who take a lot of bookings, so I hope that they will be able to win some titles and get me a lot of points as the year goes on. I also know that I need to put Kouki Amarei on the IR since she’ll be out until at least May, but once she’s back, I’m sure she’ll be back to her strong booking that she had last year as one of Marigold’s stars. All in all, I’m pretty happy with the mix of my team.

Analysis – Alex definitely had the most interesting draft out of everyone, but the plus side is that it seems that they decided to pick a lot of wrestlers they enjoy watching, which means that they may enjoy the matches more knowing they are winning points when their wrestlers win.

Ozaki is a strong pick mostly for title wins and even though she’s older, it’s possible that she’ll work enough dates to get them some points. Katsu just won a title, Mari is a current title holder YuuRi is normally booked quite strong in places like Ice Ribbon, and DASH Chisako is always up in the thick of things in Sendai Girls. Yuki Arai being an eighth round pick might be quite a steal as she’s always been booked very strong in TJPW, and with her graduating from her idol group to do wrestling full time, it’s possible that the Princess Of Princess Championship could be in her future.

Quote From Alex About Their Team – “I tried to pick a mix of proven winners and more prolific wrestlers. Talents from Ice Ribbon and PURE-J will hopefully inflate their totals through consistency of schedule while I went with the veterans like Tsubasa as they don’t lose a lot and can often be found on smaller independent shows racking up wins.

While I may ultimately lack in title winners, there’s always a chance that Ozaki/Leon can claim gold this year to move them ahead of the pack.”

Analysis – Dave had to submit a list to me before the draft of wrestler’s he’d like to pick, and because of the list not being quite long enough, his last four picks were all based off of the highest available wrestler left from my 2024 standings, which honestly isn’t a bad thing. Someone like Kakeru, Cherry, Miyazaki and Yanagawa are known for taking bookings around the joshi indie scene, so all of them could end up getting quite a few points for him even as late round picks.

Giulia is currently a champion in NXT, and if she’s used properly, she should get quite a few defenses under her belt which will score quite a few points. VENY and Unagi Sayaka work in a lot of different places, and normally are booked pretty strong, and someone like Mina Shirakawa could end up being pushed quite hard this year, especially if she intends to stay in Japan rather than heading over to the states full time.

All in all, Dave’s team could surprise some people.

Quote From Dave About His Team – “As a huge fan of the late great Hana Kimura, Tokyo Cyber Squad should live forever! Her message should live forever! Her legacy should live forever! And this team I put together should be able to carry that legacy.

I have got a bunch of rebels and renegades who seemingly have little in common. But that’s just what Tokyo Cyber Squad was all about: you are great the way you are.

My top three picks each have a strong connection to Hana. Giulia was her biggest rival, but had so much in common with the Dangerous Flower. VENY was her best friend and continues her legacy. And Rina was always Little Hana, and now that she’s grown up she reminds me of her beloved mentor in so many ways. Each of these three should have an amazing year. If only because they are wonderful people that definitely deserve it.

As for some of the rest of my team: Unagi Sayaka would definitely not look out of place in the original TCS. Great to put her on a team with Mina Shirakawa again. Azusa Inaba has formed a great team with Rina. Honoka and Yuuki Mashiro are amazing youngsters with bright futures. And Nagisa Nozaki reminds me of Hana in her style and looks in so many ways.

At first glance, my team may seem like a group of people that doesn’t really fit together. But when you look closely, they have a lot of similarities. Just like the original TCS. Everybody’s different, everybody’s special. That is Tokyo Cyber Squad. YES SIR!”

Analysis – Honestly Pedro’s team might be one of the strongest in the league when you look at it from top to bottom. The only thing that could cost him is some of his wrestlers not wrestling enough matches like Takumi Iroha, Sakura Mizushima and Kaoru Ito.

Right now, he has a great mix of current and former champions, and there’s no doubt that getting Utami in the second round was quite a present considering in most drafts she’d probably go in the top five. It will be interesting to see if STARDOM continues putting Momo into title opportunities only to lose them, or if they will finally give her the ball to run with, but if they do, Pedro’s team will be scoring a lot of points!

Quote From Pedro About His Team – “The Outlet Wolfpack is a team I put together with the future of 2025 in mind.

Momo being my top pick was purely because she is my favorite, but also, she looks due to have another great year, just like the last. After her, my picks consisted of brand new champions, and people due for a good year in terms of current storylines and booking changes in the joshi scene. Utami, Suzume, and Mizuki will lead the group to great success, being brand new champs with a path to make big strides for the squad as a whole.

Most of the team has the power to truly make the most of their matches, time, and potential points. As a team, they will all attempt to maximize their standings in the joshi scene and put on the best work rate matches possible. Many of these people are crowd favorites and usually make me happy anytime they lock up.“

Analysis – Hart definitely had an interesting draft. You can’t go wrong with picking Miu first, and having someone like Nanae or Meiko even before they both retire later this year isn’t a bad strategy as I’m sure both will be booked quite strongly.

Luckily with drops being allowed, they will be able to bank their points and bring in new talent to replace them later on in the year. He’s also definitely banking on Magenta to get some tag team gold, whether that’s in Marvelous or somewhere else. Having Tsukasa Fujimoto on the team isn’t a bad idea, but it’s hard to tell how long she’ll be away on her current hiatus. If AEW chooses to finally use Yuka to the best of her ability, she could score quite a few points as a fifteenth round pick.

Quote From Hart About His Team – “The former Scott Edwards stan; current Scott Edwards enemy. I have joined this fantasy league for one reason and one reason only: to destroy my friends and former idols.

I once looked up to so many people in this league only to find out I am much smarter than them and have better taste than everyone; and yet I have been invited on zero podcasts. I will show everyone that I am the most knowledgeable joshi fan in wrestling media. Everyone will be made a fool; while I reap the rewards of the mystery prize.“

Analysis – Fernando put together a pretty sneaky good team in my opinion. Sure Iyo is a bit of a dangerous pick for the first round, only because you never know how much WWE will use her, but if they put a title on her again, she’ll definitely score some points.

Out of all of the teams, Fernando probably has the best depth, where any number of wrestlers could score him a lot of points. Right now Ibuki Hoshi might be a little light since she’s supposed to go back on hiatus after having her child, but there’s a good chance that once she’s back, she’ll regain the ICEXInfinity Championship. Wakana could end up getting a big push this year as she’s one of TJPW’s most popular wrestlers both in Japan and overseas, so that fifteenth round pick could come in pretty clutch for him.

All in all, a very good draft from Fernando!

Quote From Fernando About His Team – “Selecting those who entered “Casa Royale” was as easy as being an Ice Ribbon fan in 2025.  Lots of girls I like were denied access because of their win rate (Raku) and even the number of matches I think they will have in the year (Asuka). 

I managed to draft some of the top joshi talent in the world like Iyo Sky, Miyu Yamashita and Mei Suruga, and main eventers in their home promotions like Mika Iwata and Ayano Irie. Stardom’s Natsupoi, Koguma and Saki Kashima wrestle tons of matches a year, which is why I would’ve liked to pick more independent talent who will also help my team with that, but Tae Honma and Yuko Sakurai will do fine. Both veterans and rising talents will represent “Casa Royale” with pride.”

Well with all of the teams covered now, it’s time to let the wrestling happen and I’ll be back next month to update you on the points standings, and any possible roster moves like trades, pickups or drops that have happened.

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you all for reading this and investing yourself in this league. I’d also like to extend a thank you to everyone who is participating in this fantasy league. I wasn’t sure if many people would be all that interested, but luckily for me, quite a few people were. It will definitely be an interesting year ahead of us. Please reply on X with who you think drafted the best team, or the worst team. As always, it’s more fun when more people get involved, and discussions can happen.

Also, please take a look at the sns for the members of the league and show your support to them.