By: Jeff Brown

Photos: Masahiro Kubota

Just Tap Out was in Yokohama with an afternoon of hard-hitting action at Yokohama Nigiwai-za, and the venue was full of eager fans ready to witness the various strikes and submissions that are the calling card of JTO. There were two shows, a joshi and later in the day a men’s; this review will cover the afternoon joshi event.

The tag champions were in action, the JTO Girls champion, while the Queen of JTO, Sumika Yanagawa, was in the main event defending her championship. The following are some impressions from the afternoon at ringside for JTO. 

Kira Ann vs. Mizuha

Mizuha began targeting Kira’s leg right away, which makes sense as she is a kicker and she is much taller, so it eliminates her height advantage. Kira fires off penalty kicks and then does an AA on the apron before throwing Mizuha into the ring post.

Back in the ring, Kira Ann gets her road cone and knocks out the referee; she then bodyslams Mizuha onto the cone. This is the focal point for Kira now as she places it on Mizuha’s head before kicking it off. Mizuha gets a hold of the cone and uses it as a horn to stab Kira before getting into a forearm battle.

JTO roster members put an emphasis on the fundamentals with a focus on strikes and submissions. Mizhua has about a year of experience and is pretty far along already. Kira gets the advantage and lands a double knee drop off the second rope to win. The ever-unpredictable wildness of Kira helped start the show off with a bang.

HisokA vs. Big Haruka

HisokA was in trouble early as Haruka used her size advantage to control the pace of the match. HisokA has nice ground technique with variations of arm bars. HisokA lays in some mounted punches but gets admonished so she makes Haruka punch herself. She has a mean streak that is heelish, which was on display as she viciously targeted Haruka’s arm with double foot stomps.

Haruka gets things going with some wheel kicks, but her arm was giving her problems as she gets caught in a triangle choke and tries to powerbomb out of it. HisokA rolls through the powerbomb attempt and forces Haruka to get to the ropes. Haruka comes alive and hits a Famouser and then a dragon sleeper that she turns into a slam before making HisokA tap out. Two young talents are having a nice match.

Live clarinet performance from Enju, who is also a JTO trainee, who promotes herself as Dynamite Clarinet Performer.

Aoi, Tomoka Inaba vs. rhythm, Azusa Inaba

JTO Girls Champion versus the JTO Girls Tag Team Champions. The Inaba sisters squared off, and Azusa got a knee bar. Rhythm went for a penalty kick and instead hit an eye poke; she is very mischievous and provides a bit of comedy to the shows.

Aoi has a main-event presence while just standing on the apron. She has a very scrappy offensive approach with a punk rock look, and her matches feel like fights. In a way, she is reminiscent of Act Yasukawa in her early days, with her attitude and ability to endure massive punishment and own the room due to her connection with the audience. Aoi can be deliberate and measured, though, such as when she was working over rhythm’s arm.

Rhythm got in a slap and started to fight back; she is a strong character, even if she is a bit unrefined. That’s okay, as time will take care of those kinds of issues, and she is improving. The Inaba sisters know each other well, obviously, and have no problem just beating on each other. Azusa hit Aoi with a series of wicked knee strikes to the head. Aoi counters and wraps up Azusa for the three-count.

Sumika Yanagawa vs. Misa Kagura – Queen of JTO Championship

Being a Queen of JTO title match, it was held under JTO rules, which include losing points for rope breaks or leaving the ring but can also be won via submission or knockout, similar to UWF rules.

Sumika has gained so much confidence; she worked very hard to get to this place in her career, in JTO and being a frequent visitor of Ice Ribbon.

Things start off tense with a stare down followed by hair pulling; they have history together and are even former International Ribbon Tag Team champions as 1111. The back-and-forth nature has the urgency and tension of a title fight. Not only is Sumika more sure of herself, but she also has a temper and very expressive facial features and intense eyes. Misa is a great challenger with her brutal lariats that have a thud when she hits them. The confidence of Sumika is also noticeable because nowadays she just goes for it with her head kicks.

The final stretch has a lot of fantastic counters out of submissions. Sumika gets a bridging double arm submission to tap out Misa and retain the Queen of JTO title. After the match, she calls out Tomoka.

A very fast-moving show, and with only four matches, it was all killer and no filler. JTO has a small but impressive roster that often visits other companies so they can gain experience and become well-rounded. However, it should be said all the knowledge gained is brought back and is making for a really unique company that is definitely worth checking out. 

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