Ryan:
When I stepped into my Vegas hotel after midnight, I walked right past the neon slot machines and cut through the walls of cigarette smoke to go straight to bed.
I needed my rest. I was going to need the energy for all the hollering I was going to be doing while seeing joshi wrestling up close and personal.
My dream trip has long been to stay in Japan for weeks and catch every joshi show I can. Vegas is a hell of a lot closer. So while it’s far from my favorite city, I was psyched to be able to see Momo Watanabe, Wakana Uehara, and Riko freaking Kawahata from mere feet away.
To boot, I was going to get to most of it alongside fellow RESURA contributor, Justin Stein, the man behind the Joshi Wrestler Index and the Joshi Top 100. Fandom is more fun with friends.
The STARDOM card was underwhelming on paper without Mayu Iwatani and Saya Kamitani and only one singles bout. Still, this would be my first time seeing the promotion live. Even if Momo was booked against Top Dolla, I was going to be in heaven seeing her launch those famous kicks from mere feet away.
I’d seen TJPW in LA in 2023, but that was two years ago and I was super glad to be able to attend another of their shows live. While STARDOM put together a house show-level card, TJPW went big with four title matches and a main event with MOTY potential.
Marvelous coming to the U.S. was a major bonus. What a wonderful surprise treat. I’m a huge Takumi Iroha fan and a great appreciator of Senka Akatsuki. Plus, they had Syuri and Masha Slamovich on the card. Screw WrestleMania; this was going to be the highlight of the week for me.
I would have gladly plopped down for tickets for the second STARDOM show, but they unwisely booked it at essentially at the same time as TJPW. And honey, I ain’t missing a chance to see my teej. I had to leave too early to check out the TJPW x GCW x DDT show, but I did want to round out my joshi in Vegas experience with another event. I went with Deadlock Pro because they booked both Takumi and Magenta. You had me at Takumi but one of the best tag teams on the joshi scene made that a no-brainer move for me.
Overall, just about everything delivered. My only complaints are airline related. Someone please remind me next time that Spirit just isn’t worth the lower price. The wrestling kicked ass and I was beaming after meeings some of my new faves.
Justin:
Going to Las Vegas for anything other than gambling your money away probably seems quite weird to most, but for me the most important thing was going there to see the joshi pro wrestling that I love without having to fly to Japan. While I can admit that there’s nothing like seeing a show in Japan itself, seeing many Japanese promotions come together for WrestleMania weekend was truly a godsend for fans like me from around the world.
My original itinerary was for five shows in total that I had already bought tickets for, with three of them being on Thursday. I purposely made sure that I’d be arriving in Vegas during the evening of Wednesday the 16th, because I knew I’d need plenty of sleep before a long day of wrestling the next day.
For Thursday, the three shows I had tickets for were STARDOM, SPARK and Marvelous, which meant I’d be locked into wrestling from noon Pacific time until about 1 am. For me, that day was the most important one because I’d get to see a lot of various joshi talents, and really the only ones missing would be the TJPW roster who I’d be seeing the day after. STARDOM’s card wasn’t the most exciting on paper, but I knew that the STARDOM wrestlers were going to work hard to provide entertainment for their overseas fans because they always do. SPARK was an interesting card that had a few STARDOM wrestlers on it, but also sprinkled in a few others like Aja Kong, Kyoko Inoue, SAKI, and Ram Kaicho who is one of my personal favorites. Marvelous was a chance for me to see quite a few wrestlers who I don’t watch regularly because of lack of time, but ones that I respected and knew were very talented like Takumi Iroha, and the tag team Magenta.
The day after, I had tickets for TJPW which is always one of the most fun shows of a WrestleMania weekend, and they truly brought it with the card they had put together putting four title matches on it. It was also a chance to throw some streamers into the ring because of some nice folks who have brought some for each wrestler over the past two years that I’ve gone to Mania weekend. I was a bit sad that I had to miss STARDOM’s second show because of it running at the same time as TJPW, but I wasn’t going to give up on TJPW, especially since they announced their show much earlier. I had thought about going to Joey Janela’s Spring Break after TJPW, but decided against it since I was a bit tired, and after seeing how that show went, I’m kind of glad I didn’t go, even if there were two cool joshi related matches on the card.
On Saturday, I had WrestleCon which was a chance to meet some of the STARDOM talents I didn’t get to meet at the SPARK show, along with a few others who were making appearances at the convention, and after that I went to the TJPWxDDTxGCW show that I had bought tickets to prior that had a really weird card, but that’s kind of too be expected with the companies that it included. Unfortunately, that show ran into a bit of WrestleMania night one, but since I wasn’t planning to go to the show itself, I was instead able to hang out with some friends at a watch party to catch the parts of the show that I could.
I wasn’t planning on going to any more shows, but after WrestleMania night one concluded, my friend dragged me to The Clusterfuck, where I was quite surprised to see a few joshi talents in the big crazy match. On Sunday, I only had WrestleCon in the morning to finish up those STARDOM meet and greets, and then a watch party for Mania itself, but after watching so much wrestling the days before, it was kind of nice to relax a bit before heading home on tuesday.
I knew that Ryan here was going to a lot of the same shows as me, but I didn’t realize just how much time we’d get to spend together to bond and talk about the amazing joshi pro wrestling that we both love. It definitely gave me some fire to really put in more work to try to write more for RESURA, and hopefully you’ll all continue to tune into what we have cooked up.
STARDOM American Dream in Sin City
Justin:
Like I said before, the card itself for STARDOM American Dream in Sin City wasn’t the greatest thing on paper, but we were getting the chance to see a few preview tags before the big show on the 27th. I had gotten there pretty close to bell time, so I didn’t have a lot of front row seats to pick from since the seats weren’t assigned, you just picked them from whatever row you had on your ticket. I ended up on one of the corners closest to the entrance ramp, which meant I had a bit of a rough view of the ring, but it was still enjoyable just to be that close to the action. Getting to see the likes of AZM and Starlight Kid in the ring against each other is always a treat, and for me they didn’t disappoint even if you could tell that SLK is a bit hampered by her current injury.
Ram was great as usual, offering her great blend of comedy and entertaining wrestling skills, and Mazzerati was able to fit into the match perfectly, while getting to do a few spots to show off for the crowd. The second match included an indie talent that I hadn’t seen before in Airica Demia and she tagged with Unagi Sayaka who I was excited to see on the card since I hadn’t gotten to see her perform live even while in Japan. Those two fit well together with their vibe, but they didn’t fit better together than Suzu and Jody Threat who seemed like they were two peas in a pod. The match was pretty hard-hitting, and it was pretty great gettin to see Suzu wrestling in America where I think she’d be well liked if she was a regular on the scene here.
The third match had some PPV implications as we’d get to see Wing Gori take on Hazuki and her partner for the day Kelsey Heather. I had heard of Kelsey before, but I’m not sure if I had ever seen her actually wrestle until that day. I feel like she played her part well, but the real meat and potatoes of the match was the tension you could easily feel anytime the STARS stablemates were in the ring against each other. Hazuki did a great job guiding Kelsey through the match at times, and adding the fire we expect from the Wild Heart anytime she was tagged into the match. It was also pretty cool that when Hazuki made her entrance she saw my Hazuki shirt I was wearing and pointed it out before giving me a thumbs up with a smile. While I’m not sure it was fully publicized, one of the cool things about where I was sitting is that in the second row next to me, Bozilla and her dad were sitting there watching the action. It was kind of fun to hear the two speaking in German for the most part as they sometimes called spots that would happen in the ring before it even happened. I’m not sure if Bozilla is going to end up doing any dates with STARDOM in the future, but considering the fact that she made sure to introduce herself to many on the roster and Taro himself, I could definitely see it happening.
The next match involved two of the most over talents of the day with Mina Shirakawa teaming with HANAKO and Momo Watanabe teaming with Natsuko Tora. There were dueling chants during the match for both Mina and Momo, and the two seemed to have fun with it, even though Momo was still trying to play the cool heel by not accepting the love from the crowd. Natsuko also seemed to have fun beating up on Mina while getting the crowd to chant along. It was a pretty good match, but nothing spectacular for one of Mina Shirakawa’s last matches in the promotion.
Next, we got to see one of the best in the world in Syuri team up with Vipress, who I had seen a few times before, taking on Konami and someone who was new to me, Kalientita. While I think we’ve all seen plenty of Syuri and Konami violence against one another, it was quite fun to see them kick the hell out of each other. Vipress did her thing just fine, but Kalientita was the really impressive one to me as someone who I hadn’t seen before. Apparently she was trained by FUNAKI, and you could see some good basics out of her along with quite a bit of charisma that will take her far in the business. I hope she’ll get a chance to go over to Japan for at least half a year, because I think it will do her good to mix it up with the great STARDOM roster night in and night out.
The main event was Maika vs Thekla in a match that had been built in Japan, but was given to us here in America because they needed something with some consequence to main event that day. Thekla’s style of wrestling works so much better in America, because she loves to run her mouth while she’s beating up her opponent, which then makes the crowd want to see her get beaten up even more. Maika worked well as the hero of the match, taking a beating at first, before eventually coming back to put the bad girl down for the count. It was also fun for the crowd to get to see the chaos that comes with a big H.A.T.E. match where the seconds end up making themselves known during the match with interference to keep the playing field from truly being level. Seeing Maika and Thekla embrace in the end was a night bookend for the show, and Maika sent us off with a few words in the ring with a little bit of help from her faction-mate Mina Shirakawa.
The show wasn’t fantastic by any means, but it was enjoyable enough, and it left me looking forward to the next show that day which was going to be happening a few hours later.
Ryan:
As usual for STARDOM, everything on the card was solid or better. Even during the post-Rossy transition, the promotion remains impressively consistent with in-ring quality.
Veil Pavilion hosted this show with white antler chandeliers hovering over the excited fans and a casino beeping and blinking just outside the room.
Seeing a wrestler like Momo Watanabe live is a treat because those kicks are so much louder in person. Like fireworks going off right at your feet.
The clear highlight was the main event. While not a classic by any stretch, Maika vs. Thekla told a clear, engrossing story. The Toxic Spider used underhanded technique and an assist from her H.A.T.E. crew to gain the advantage over the bigger Maika and then proceeded to be a punishing pest the rest of the way. The bout came complete with a suplex on the steel entrance ramp and an aggressive, emotional embrace between the two former Donna Del Mundo members after the bell.
This easily outdid my modest expectations and was a don’t-sleep-on-me match from Thekla.
Spark Joshi Lady Luck
Ryan: As much as we had to bounce around the city in Ubers, it was great to have two shows in the same venue back to back. SPARK Joshi rocked the Veil Pavilion right after STARDOM did.
The Spark theme song, as my preteen daughter would say, is a bop.
What an impressive lineup they put together. Aja Kong, Kyoko Inoue, AZM, Momo Watanabe, Syuri, Starlight Kid, and Hazuki? We were living good!
The standout match was definitely Hazuki facing Lena Kross for the vacant Spark Joshi World Championship. Kross is so damn good at being the bully; Hazuki is a top-notch babyface. They paired super well together.
Seeing Hazuki get a title win while sitting right next to huge Hazuki fan in Justin made the moment even better.
Justin:
Last year, I had the opportunity to see my first SPARK Joshi show in Philadelphia when they ran during WrestleMania weekend, and this year I was back again to see what they had cooked up for us. SPARK has always been an exciting concept for an American-based joshi pro wrestling fan like me who enjoyed years of buying SHIMMER DVD’s to see some of the best women’s wrestling in the world. Having joshi wrestlers brought to the US is something I appreciated as a fan, and whenever I have a chance I want to support that.
Unfortunately, SPARK only had 2 shows last year if I’m not mistaken with one of those being in Japan itself, so they weren’t as prevalent as I had hoped, but this year they seem to be doing their best to come back with a vengeance. The overall card wasn’t the most exciting, much like STARDOM before it, but there were a few interesting match-ups, and the opportunity to see some fun clashing of styles. The opening 4-way was good while it lasted, getting to see two former Queen’s Quest members in AZM and Momo throw down which is always exciting. It was also a chance to see Brittany Blake who I had seen in the past, and Joseline Navarro who is from Ohio which means I’ve seen her quite a few times at local shows in the area. Last year, she really shined in the match she had on the SPARK card, and this year was no different.
The legendary tag team of Aja Kong and Kyoko Inoue took on the team of Maya World and Nightshade to school in their match where the legends gave the younger talent a bit but ended up being too much for them in the end. Anytime you get to see wrestling royalty like that live, you have to cherish it really.
Jada Stone has been on my radar since last year’s SPARK show, and she’s continued to put on great matches during her time in TJPW after the fact. Seeing her tag with Starlight kid was a lot of fun since both of them wrestle at a quick pace and happen to be quite creative inside of the squared circle. On the other side of the ring was Syuri who is an absolute monster in there tagging with Zoe Lucas who will always be someone I go out of my way to see because of her time in Tokyo Cyber Squad. Everyone played their parts well in the match, and honestly this was probably my second favorite match of the show. Zoe looked quite at home there with the STARDOM talents, and I hope that she gets the chance to go back over to Japan in the near future to pick up where she left off back in the day.
After that was a trio of title matches, first starting with the SPARK Pacific Championship where the champion Ram Kaicho took on Vert Vixen. Vert is someone that I’ve seen quite a bit over the past few years, and someone who is always quite impressive. For whatever reason she hasn’t found herself with a contract with a bigger company yet, but she seems poised to get one sooner rather than later. Her and Ram worked a good match with her leaning into more heel tendencies against the much smaller babyface Ram. Even though Ram worked hard, she couldn’t overcome Vert, and she ended up dropping the title. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that Ram won’t be coming to America anymore, because she’s gotten over quite well with the American fans since she’s a little ball of charisma. It’s a big win for Vert as she’ll get to defend her title in her home state of Texas during the next SPARK show on AEW All In weekend.
After that, SAKI defended her SPARK Atlantic championship against Dani Mo, who has been working hard on the indies for quite some time, but hasn’t been put in a lot of big title opportunities from what I’ve seen. The two wrestled a pretty good match, though it felt a bit slow at times. SAKI is a really good wrestler, but I feel she lacks a bit of the charisma or excitement that some of the other joshi talents bring to the table so maybe that’s why the match wasn’t super exciting, and it probably also didn’t help that they tried to do an interference angle like they had done for the match right before it that was then thwarted by the owner of the company, CB. Hopefully the next defense for SAKI will be against an opponent I can get a little more excited about.
The main event of the evening was the match I was most looking forward to ahead of time on that day, because it was an opportunity for my favorite wrestler Hazuki to win some singles gold after so long. She had a tough test ahead of her though with Lena Kross who is honestly just as tall, if not taller than I am. The two wrestled the type of match you’d expect with the bigger wrestler getting most of the offense and Hazuki being much smaller having to fight from under. Some of the bumps that Hazuki took were absolutely nasty, but she continued to show the fight and the first that you’d expect from her as she wouldn’t stay down for the 3 count. This match should not only show STARDOM management that they should give Hazuki the white belt sometime this year, but also that they should look to bring in Lena Kross for some matches from time to time when she’s in Japan for Sendai Girls because she’s ultra talented, and would get over great with the fans. At the end of the day, Hazuki was able to hit enough offense to then follow it up with a Hazukistral Cradle for the win, which was a great moment for not only me, but many of the fans in attendance. In both of those two shows Hazuki was one of the most popular talents on the card based on crowd noise, so having her get the big victory there was a big deal for SPARK. Hopefully this means we’ll get to see Hazuki in America at least a few times during the year, but I won’t hold my breath since SLK had that same title last year, and eventually gave it up because the company didn’t run any shows for her to defend it on.
SPARK was an enjoyable experience with a great ending which left me energized looking forward to the Marvelous show later that night.
Marvelous
Justin:
After seeing two fun shows earlier in the day, we had a bit of time to relax and get some dinner before it was time for me to see my first-ever Marvelous show live. Instead of the cool venue we were at earlier in the day for the double header of joshi action, this time we found ourselves at The Meet Las Vegas where West Coast Pro, DPW and quite a few other prominent indie companies were calling home for the two days. It was a cool little venue for pro wrestling, and I think the somewhat small size of the room really helped when it came to the amount of crowd noise that could be generated by around 300 people.
The card wasn’t stacked per say, but there were many talents who I’d be seeing wrestle live for the first time on this show, so the excitement was quite high for both myself and Ryan.
The night started off with an introduction to the members past and present of Marvelous who all came out with their Marvelous tracksuits which was a really cool touch. It also really helped to put into perspective how many great talents from overseas they’ve brought over to Japan to help sharpen their skills and get that taste of wrestling in Japan.
The first match on the card was a scramble made up of talents who attended a tryout with Marvelous the day before for an opportunity to be on the card. All six of the competitors put in a pretty good performance, but you could tell B3CCA and Amira were the class of the field. You could also tell that the crowd itself was quite energized with their reactions to many of the rough landings that the competitors took during the match. After that there was a six man tag match that I wasn’t super interested in going in, but everyone impressed during the match, making it another fun way to get the crowd more hyped for the matches that would follow.
While I’ve always thought of Marvelous being a joshi company, I always tend to forget that they also bring male talents over to work with a few people that they have on their roster.
With that out of the way, we moved onto the first singles match of the night with the fan favorite Rina Yamashita taking on the ever impressive Maya World. Maya definitely took the opportunity against the veteran to show her stuff, no doubt looking to impress Chigusa Nagayo, and Rina did a great job giving her spotlight moments, while also adding in her brand of comedy to make the crowd smile during the match. Rina bribing the official to let her use weapons only to have her end up taking the bump onto the weapons was definitely a highlight of the match for me.
After that was a bit of a proving ground match where Ai Houzan the still young member of the Marvelous roster took on the powerhouse Masha Slamovich who had one of the most busy schedules out of everyone in Vegas that weekend. Much like the two matches coming up later, they told a good story of struggle by the young wrestler against the veteran who was much stronger than they were. Seeing that struggle made the crowd want to cheer them on, and when Ai Houzan started her dropkick symphony against Masha, everyone got to their feet to try to support her even though we knew, at the end of the day, that she wasn’t going to win. Masha played her part as the monster perfectly executing her hard striking technique without much trouble.
Next. we had a trios match with Unagi Sayaka, Nightshade, and Sandra Moone on one side of the ring, taking on Riko Kawahata, Maria and Sadie Gibbs on the other side. This match wasn’t super long, but each talent got a chance to get their stuff in against the other team. Sadie Gibbs is always impressive on an athletic level, so this match really fit her well. I just hope that she can continue to build herself up to having great singles matches in the future, because she could truly be a star. Magenta was great to see live with their fun dance as they entered and their great moveset while inside of the ring. Maria has always been someone I’ve been high on because she brings the intensity in most of her matches that can only be rivaled by very few. Once again I got to see Unagi wrestle which was a lot of fun as she made sure to bring out the elastic band which is a spot I’ll never get tired of seeing. Sandra and Nightshade did well in there as well but they didn’t have a big time spot that I can remember off hand.
After that was my match of the night, and possibly match of the weekend, not because of the many amazing moves that were done in it, but because of the simple, but effective story they told during it. Aja Kong, the legendary monster of joshi wrestling took on one of the best rookies in all of joshi in Senka Akatsuki in a match where we knew the result, but that didn’t make us believe any less in the superstar of the future. When Senka made her entrance, the crowd was quite loud in their applause, but that applause was quite similar a moment later when Aja Kong came out to a song I’m not used to hearing. I’m always looking forward to Electric Eye playing on the speakers but the song Aja came out to was a song that sounded like an old school theme that she would have came out to back in the day, which made the moment that much cooler. Once both participants were in the ring and the match began, Senka did her best to show her power to Kong, but Aja wasn’t having it. Eventually, Senka got leveled, but the fire still burned bright within her. After getting out of the way of an Aja elbow drop, Senka was able to take down the monster, but as soon as she went for her signature shoot pin, the longtime veteran was smart enough to turn over onto her belly to thwart the rookie’s plan. Eventually, Senka was able to hit Aja with a body slam that shocked everyone, but once again before she could go for the pin, Aja turned over to stop her. The crowd was at a fever pitch, wanting to see the rookie try to hold the beast down, but Aja wasn’t willing to give them what they wanted. After a little offense of her own, Aja took down Senka and attempted to go for a pin of her own, but Senka, with every bit of her body made sure that Aja couldn’t even pin down both of her shoulders knowing full well that if her two shoulders touched the mat, it was all over. That struggle that lasted at least 15 or 20 seconds got the entire crowd up to their feet making the most noise I had probably heard all weekend.
Obviously, shortly after that, Aja picked up the win, but once again it was a star-making performance from Senka that had the crowd wanting more. An absolute master class for a five- minute match.
With the crowd still wound up from the match before, it was time for the other new rookie of Marvelous Sora Ayame to try to pass her test against the “Native Beast” Nyla Rose. Right away, Nyla tried to intimidate Sora, and while she seemed to be affected by it before the match, she walked up to Nyla to start the match asking for a test of strength which caught the crowd off guard, but also got them to cheer on the guts shown by the rookie. This match didn’t quite have the highlights of the match before it, but Sora put in a great effort to try to overcome the much bigger opponent. Nyla was great as the monster heel, talking to fans and Sora herself during the match as she beat her down.
All in all, I’d say that all three matches that involved their younger roster members did a great job at making them look like future stars even in defeat.
The last match of the night was the big main event, and my third time seeing Syuri wrestle that day. Sure, every match she had was a tag match on that first day, but it’s not like she was doing nothing during those matches. She had hard-hitting highlight moments in each match. Her partner for the match was the ultra talented Zara Zakher who had been very impressive during her stints in TJPW, and someone who would be very much at home in a big Japanese tournament like the 5 Star for instance. On the other side of the ring was the Ace of Marvelous Takumi Iroha, one of the best in the business tagging with Johnnie Robbie a LA Dojo graduate who has been an impressive prospect for quite some time even though she dealt with a major injury last year. A match with this much talent lived up to any hype you’d have for it with each wrestler getting to mix it up with both of their opponents at one time or another.
The true highlight of the match was the times we got to see Syuri and Takumi mix it up though, because they are two of the best in the biz, and they showed it with their awesome striking exchanges. The match truly had a big-fight feel, and even though we had a winner at the end of the match, it left all of us wanting more in the end which is truly all you can ask for.
From top to bottom, the Marvelous show was my favorite of the entire WrestleMania week, and everyone who was a part of it should be very proud of themselves. It also made me want to try to go to a Marvelous show or two the next time I find myself in Japan.
Ryan:
An 11 pm (1 am on my internal clock) start time be damned, fans filled the MEET Vegas building with whirring noise. They made it clear how much they appreciated Marvelous traveling this far.
This roster got some of the biggest reactions I heard all week, especially Senka Akatsuki, who was over like gangbusters.
Rina Yamashita and Maya World had a solid plunder match. Masha Slamovich and Ai Houzan put on a foot-on-the-gas match that shouldn’t be overlooked. The card also featured Unagi, Nyla Rose, Magenta, and the other great Marvelous rookie Sora Ayame.
Senka vs. Aja Kong was my most anticipated match of the whole week and holy hell did it deliver. I don’t know how it came across on TV, but the crowd was raucous for everything did. She inspired with her toughness. And then fired back against the bullhead Kong with fighting spirit that radiated out of the ring.
If it wasn’t obvious by now, she’s going to be a star with a capital S.
In the main event, Takumi Iroha teamed with California indie star Johnnie Robbie while Syuri paired with The Petite Powerhouse Zara Zakkher. The Takumi-Syuri exchanges sizzled. Their back-and-forth kick battle still echoes in my brain. These two need another singles match, stat!
TJPW has a special place in my heart and put on an excellent show, but this was the best overall event for me. And that’s saying a lot considering how tired my old ass was by the end of it.
TJPW Live in Vegas
Ryan:
Sitting on a velvet chair next to a friend, colored streamers at the ready, I was in my happy place. TJPW remains my favorite promotion going. Sendai Girls and STARDOM often eclipse them in match quality, but no one is topping them on vibes. That was on display here from Raku wielding a pillar as a weapon to Miy Watanabe pressing her face into someone’s camera lens.
Suzume and Miyu (Jada Stone and Masha Slamovich) both had opponents who suited them and brought out their best. Both of those title tilts hit the mark, Suzume and Stone giving us great athleticism while Miyu vs Masha was a battle of power and will. Throw in some fun antics in the TJPW tag title match between Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima against Ober Eats (Yuki Kamifuku and Wakana Uehara), and the show felt well-rounded and satisfying.
Then Miyu vs. Mizuki brought it home with a banger of a main event. Smart choice to put these two stars on top given both their big-match ability and their history against each other. This wasn’t some non-essential DLC content for Western fans; this was a continuation of the main quest.
Thankfully, I don’t have to wait until next WrestleMania to see these memorable characters again. TJPW is coming to Texas in July, and I am all over that. See you rascals there.
Justin:
TJPW is one of my favorite companies because it mixes the fun aspects of wrestling along with the hard-hitting action quite well. There might not be as many five-star matches as you’d see in STARDOM for instance, but they still put on great matches that could rival many other company’s’ matches. On paper, the best show of the week for a joshi promotion was this TJPW show because we were getting four championship matches, and it was the least “house show” like card.
The Pearl at the Palms is a beautiful venue that is way too nice for a company like GCW to run, but I wasn’t going to complain when I got there and saw the awesome setup that they had for the TJPW roster to perform on. Also this venue had by far the most comfortable steel chair seats I’ve ever sat in, so I was very comfortable in my second row seat.
The event started like so many before with the Up Up Girls coming out to perform their awesome song “Upper Kick” which I will always want to move my body to anytime I hear it. It’s also the same song that they did last year, but unfortunately only Miu and Raku went to Philly, where this time we had Miu, Raku, and Shino to perform the song. The song did a great job to get the crowd fired up and prepped for a fun show that they had planned for all of us in attendance. There was a husband and wife I believe who once again brought paper tape for each wrestler and they shared it with many of the fans around ringside so that we could partake in the wonderful tradition of throwing it towards our favorite members of the TJPW roster.
Honestly. if I wanted to deal with it, I probably would have gotten paper tape for quite a few of the roster members, but I held myself to only Shino Suzuki who was in America for the first time, and Suzume who is my favorite on the roster.
The show itself started with Yuki Arai taking on Arisu Endo in what was a solid singles match, but nothing spectacular. It was Yuki Arai’s first time in America so she seemed to enjoy the cheers of encouragement from the crowd, even though from what I could tell Arisu Endo was quite a bit more popular with the people in attendance.
The next match was a six-person tag that involved both members from TJPW and independent talents which made for some interesting teams. Ram Kaicho, Viva Van, and Yuki Aino picked up the victory against Rika Tatsumi, Shino Suzuki and Vert Vixen in a fun little tag match that involved Shino attempting to give someone a tour of the turnbuckles like she does in Japan, but instead changing the locations to places local to Las Vegas. Hearing her say the words “Bellagio Fountains” was quite a treat and a cute moment before her move was reversed.
After that, we once again saw Zara Zakher in a TJPW ring tagging with the ever popular Maki Itoh to face off against Max The Impaler and Raku who was taking the place of Pom Harajuku who unfortunately couldn’t make the trip due to a visa issue. The match went about how you’d expect, and in the end Max’s team lost with Raku being at fault meaning that Max decided to drag Raku to the back in a fit of anger.
From there we then started the quartet of title matches with Suzume taking on Jada Stone in a rematch from a few months ago for the International Princess championship. This match not only lived up to their prior title match against each other, but I truly believe it surpassed it. It might just be my bias from seeing it live, but both women put in one hell of an effort to put on a great match that got the crowd to bite on quite a few near-falls. I hope that Jada gets quite a few more opportunities in TJPW, because she’s a great addition to their wonderful roster. After that we had the tag team champions Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima taking on the team of “Ober Eats” Yuki Kamifuku and Wakana Uehara. Obviously the crowd in attendance had seen what Wakana had been posting on Twitter about wanting all of the Wakana fans to show up and shout out her name to the heavens because there were a ton of people showing their support throughout the match by shouting her name. In all honesty, everyone in this match was very popular with the crowd and there were quite a few times where it seemed that the challengers could possibly pull the upset, but in the end the champions were too much for them. I do think in the future “Ober Eats” will end up winning the Tag Team Championship which makes me happy for Kamiyu since she’s one of the best in the company in my opinion and I don’t think enough people give her the credit she deserves for her in-ring work.
After that we had the big singles match that many of us were looking forward to, especially when the TNA Women’s championship was added to it a few days before with Masha Slamovich taking on Miu Watanabe. In my personal opinion, the most exciting wrestler on the TJPW roster is Miu Watanabe, because she can do so many impressive things in the ring while also wearing a giant smile on her face 75 percent of the time. I didn’t have any true belief that Miu was going to pick up the victory against Masha, but it is a pretty big deal that TNA was ok with her putting the title on the line because if something sudden where to happen like an injury or a miscount for instance, that meant that TNA was ok with the prospects of Miu being their champion, at least until they could get something else figured out. That’s a pretty big vote of confidence from a pretty big US based company. The match itself was good with both of the competitors hitting each other very hard, but in the end, Masha was too much for Miu to handle and she picked up the victory.
From there it was time for the main event of the show, which was a big match that normally they’d save for a big show in Japan, but instead they were giving it to us here in America, and for that I am appreciative. The Princess of Princess champion Mizuki taking on the Ace of TJPW, the Pink Striker Miyu Yamashita is a match that holds a lot of weight in the company with the storied history of both competitors in a TJPW ring. While there’s no doubt that Miyu Yamashita has been taking more dates overseas, she’s still the company’s ace and she proved why in this match as she pushed Mizuki as much as she could trying to take back the championship that she’s held more than anyone else in TJPW history.
Ultimately though, Mizuki proved that she had what it took to withstand the punishment from Miyu and after hitting a Whirling Candy which is so cool to see live, she was able to finish Miyu with her Cutie Special to pick up the victory.
After the show, Mizuki addressed the crowd in her somewhat limited English, and eventually got the entire roster for the show out into the ring for everyone in the crowd to be able to take a picture of them. TJPW has such a wonderful energy to it, and you truly get to feel it when you go to see their show live. While I didn’t feel as much excitement for this show as I did for the Marvelous show, I think that is partially because I was seeing quite a few wrestlers for the first time live, and there’s always an extra bit of excitement when that’s the case. TJPW put a great foot forward with this show, and I’m happy to see them going all in for the Texas shows later on this year, because I do think their brand of wrestling can be quite popular here in America even with casual fans.
Meet and Greets:
Ryan: Aja Kong is easily the most intimidating person I’ve ever met. Going in for a pic with her felt like standing next to a jaguar without knowing the last time it ate. I fumbled the signed 8×10 she handed back to me and stuttered the little Japanese I knew. 10/10 experience.
Unagi Sayaka had a merch table set up in between the STARDOM and Spark shows. I confused the hell out of her by looking at the caps she was selling and asking “Where is it?” instead of “Wow much is it?” like I was trying to do. Hopefully the embarrassment/redness on my face didn’t show up in the pics we took.
Wakana Uehara’s energy radiated across the table. She complimented my Japanese and seemed genuinely delighted that I was making the effort, poor pronunciation and all.
I found myself starstruck with Yuki Arai. She has such a big presence. I hope she realizes my stilted conversation with her was a result of me being awestruck, not aloof.
I also bought a T-shirt from Yuki Kamifuku and chatted with her for a sec. She’s cool. Nuff said.
I do like having the signed photos and the pic with them but that brief interaction you get with them is where you really get your money’s worth. Seeing a star in the flesh. A quickly friendly exchange. Expressing how much you appreciate their work. A core memory made.
Justin:
I took part in many meet and greets this year because ultimately the little bit of time you get to spend with the joshi talent at these events is something more than you normally get if you were to go to a show in Japan. In Japan, if you went to a STARDOM meet and greet where a picture could be taken of you with the wrestler, you’re forced into sitting in a chair next to them sitting in a chair where there’s a decent amount of room between the two, but here at WrestleCon, for instance, you were able to stand right beside them and do a pose or two while you had head referee Daichi or someone else taking the picture of you. It’s truly a special thing.
At the SPARK Joshi show, I pre-purchased all five STARDOM meet and greets and had even purchased the Mina Shirakawa one as well before it was quickly refunded by that night when she got pulled from the card. Things were a bit wild when it came to forming lines and such for the SPARK meet and greets, but eventually the fans were able to form the five different lines to meet the STARDOM talents. The first person I met was Momo Watanabe who seemed very comfortable in this type of setting, even mentioning that I needed to get myself a H.A.T.E. shirt since I was wearing a Hazuki shirt at that moment in time.
Next I moved over to meet Hazuki who was seated beside Momo. I was somewhat nervous because I had purchased a Curious George shirt for her since I knew she was a fan of the character based on many of the things she posts on social media. I wasn’t sure if they were going to be allowed to accept gifts or not, but as soon as I walked up her smile shined bright as she saw my Hazuki shirt and the shirt I was gifting her. She opened up the shirt and said “George” in a somewhat excited manner, and the person taking the photo asked her to hold it up so that we could take a picture together which was a really cool moment. The meet and greet details said that they wouldn’t be personalizing the autographs, but she asked my name after that and I had to try to spell it out to her since I didn’t have my phone at the ready with a picture of my name spelled out. It was a cool moment that I won’t soon forget, especially after seeing her post a picture of her wearing the shirt after the fact.
After that, I met AZM who I had the chance to meet last year as well, and as always she was fun to interact with even for that short time as she seems pretty confident in her English skills at this point in time. After that was Syuri who is one of the quietest joshi wrestlers I’ve ever met but also very kind. She was another one who I had met last year in Philly, along with the last person I met during that meet and greet which was Starlight Kid. Starlight Kid had the biggest line out of the STARDOM wrestlers available for that signing by far, and it shouldn’t be a surprise considering the charisma that exudes from her at any given time.
Other than STARDOM meet and greets, I met Ram Kaicho because I always have to at least buy a portrait from her and a two shot anytime I see her on a show, Lena Kross who is very impressive to see in person because of her height, and after the show Zoe Lucas who happened to know my name before I even gave it to her from my time spent as a part of her patreon for the past few years. I would have met Unagi, but she had packed up by the time I had gotten done with the STARDOM meet and greets, so maybe next time.
Let’s fast forward to after the TJPW show where the entire roster was available for autographs and pictures with the talents just like they would be in Japan, the only difference is that you had the ability to take the picture with them, instead of only getting to take a picture of them like you would in Japan. Instead of having to pay the wrestlers ourselves this year, they instead had a table set up with everyone’s portraits so you could buy them ahead of time which sped things up a bit. Last year, I did my best to get an autograph from every single roster member of TJPW, but this year I kept it down to seven. Those seven were Yuki Kamifuku, Arisu Endo, Suzume, Shino Suzuki, Wakana Uehara, Miu Watanabe, and Yuki Arai.
Shino and Arai were important for me to get because I hadn’t had a chance to meet either of them in America or in Japan yet. The rest I had met before, but were all personal favorites of mine. When meeting Kamiyu I introduced myself as her Ohio friend since she went to high school in Ohio for two years back in the day, and I’ve told her online when we’ve spoken in the past that I wanted to get her booked in Ohio so she could go back to her old stomping grounds. Kamiyu is always one of the coolest people you can meet because she’s so nonchalant and chill that it doesn’t feel like you’re meeting one of your favorite famous wrestlers.
Both Arisu and Suzume liked the Suzume shirt I was wearing that day that I had purchased online, and it made me happy to hear that they had noticed it, especially since Suzume is my favorite wrestler in TJPW. Shino was a fun interaction because she had a LINE chat set up on her phone with some general questions that were translated into English so she could try to converse with the fans. A lot of responses didn’t seem to be understood, but the fact that she made the effort was appreciated.
Wakana Uehara is always a great person to meet because she has a personality that makes everyone feel like she’s their friend. She’s very easy to talk to, especially about food. She’s also always more than willing to do whatever pose you want as well which includes making a hand heart with you. From there I moved on to Miu Watanabe who had a pretty big line as one of the biggest fan favorites on the roster. The chat was quite short, but enjoyable as Miu always has a smile on her face anytime she’s interacting with the fans.
The last wrestler I went to meet was Yuki Arai who probably had the biggest line overall for that meet and greet. It was interesting to see quite a few Japanese fans who were also very excited to meet her, possibly from being a fan during her idol days. I don’t think Yuki knew a lot of English, but that’s ok, she was kind, and I gave her my phone to take a selfie of us together since she’d be far better at it than I would be.
The next day was my first day of WrestleCon because of it being the start of STARDOM’s meet and greets at the convention. While I was able to meet five of the roster members at the SPARK show, there were still quite a few that I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet yet up until that point, and I wanted to rectify that. After getting through the line to get my wristband for entry, it was still too early to do the first STARDOM meet and greet of the day, which for me was Suzu Suzuki. I walked through the main hall and spotted Mina Shirakawa, one of the favorite wrestlers I met last year at WrestleCon as she’s every bit as bubbly and fun to talk to as you’d expect from her in ring personality. After standing in line with some fellow joshi fans for about 20 minutes I finally had the chance to meet her, and once again she was a joy to talk to. Her infectious energy is contagious, and even if you were having a horrible day, she’d end up making you smile. From there, I moved onto one of the side rooms from the main hall to where STARDOM had their stuff set up. They were scanning people’s QR codes ahead of time and then giving us physical tickets to turn in for our meet and greet sessions with the talent. It was honestly a pretty good system that they had also used last year as well.
Suzu was the first to meet, and she was very cool, but maybe somewhat limited in her English. We exchanged a few words and took a couple of pictures together, but that was about it. After a bit of time, had passed the next two STARDOM wrestlers came into the room for their meet and greets with one of them being my personal favorite Hazuki. I hadn’t planned on meeting her again ahead of time, but made the decision that morning that I wanted to pay the money to see her again. This time she was in full gear and had her newly won SPARK Joshi World championship that she was letting each person hold for their pictures with her. While she was signing the portrait, I told her that I believed that this would be the year when she finally wins the Wonder of Stardom championship, and she replied back to me “that’s my belt.”
Hazuki was a wonderful person to meet, and even though she can be an absolute demon in the ring, she can be one of the nicest people outside of it. From there I moved onto the next room that had some of the biggest wrestling stars of all time in it with Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Teddy Long, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Mike Tyson. Tucked in between these stars was a table with Minoru Suzuki who is always cool to meet, and Chigusa Nagayo a legend in her own right that any fan of joshi wrestling would want to meet. There weren’t any meet and greet opportunities after the Marvelous show, but they did say that some of the members would be with Chigusa if you went to meet her at WrestleCon. Along with a few fellow fans we walked up towards her table and asked the man collecting money if we could meet Chigusa and the two Marvelous talents that were with her that day in Riko Kawahata and Senka Akatsuki. He told us that the Marvelous girls wouldn’t sign anything since they had nothing there to sign, but we could get an autograph with Chigusa and then a picture with the entire group. A few people decided to only get the picture, but I also wanted the autograph and paid the full price to get it all. Everyone was very kind, especially Chigusa herself who made sure to shake each person’s hand and thank them for their support which was a nice touch.
After that I headed back to the main hall where Megan Bayne was signing and stopped to get an autograph from her. She was super chill to talk to. I made it known that I really enjoyed her time in STARDOM which she seemed to be very fond of, and even mentioned wanting to go back again soon. From there it was time to get back to the STARDOM area as I had a meet and greets purchased for both wrestlers involved with that last hour, Hanan and Saya Iida. It’s pretty crazy seeing just how short Saya Iida is, but her physique is absolutely incredible. I told her that I appreciated the hard work she did to put on so much muscle which seemed to make her happy, but other than that there wasn’t a lot said.
One thing that was fun to see before I had gotten up to meet Hanan was that Mariah May and Zoe Lucas had snuck in to meet Hanan which ended up making her cry tears of happiness. It was well documented in the past how close Hanan and Mariah May had gotten when Mariah was in Japan, but apparently she had a lot of love for Zoe as well which was great to see. There wasn’t a lot said between me and Hanan other than that I was hoping that her sisters Rina and Hina had the chance to make the trip next time because it would be fun to see all three sisters stateside for a little vacation like this.
With that finished, it was time for me to get to the only show I had tickets for at that moment which was the TJPWxDDTxGCW show. After that show I only went out of my way to get two meet and greets that I wasn’t able to get the day before. Maki Itoh was busy after the TJPW show since she had another booking, but this time she was there to sell some merch, and she’s always fun to interact with. The other person wasn’t a joshi, but someone who I love all the same, and that was Antonio Honda, one of my favorite people to watch in both ChocoPro and in Baka Gaijin.
On Sunday I was back to WrestleCon again for the rest of the STARDOM meet and greets that I had purchased ahead of time. The first one to start the day off was Natsuko Tora who I haven’t always loved over the years, but always respected at least. Natsuko seemed very at ease with the fans, a much different personality than she shows during the matches for sure. We exchanged a few words and when I was handed my phone back she looked at it like she was trying to see something in particular. I was confused at first, but when she saw my phone case a smile grew and she told me that she had been playing the latest Like A Dragon game since my phone case was of Kiryu for the games. From there we spoke about the Like A Dragon games a minute or so before I was sent on my way with autograph in hand. It was a pleasant experience that I didn’t quite expect going in.
From there, I went back to the main hall where Chigusa Nagayo was this time, and once again she was joined by her Marvelous colleagues but this time it was a different group of wrestlers. There stood Takumi Iroha, Maria and Sora Ayame, and instead of getting the signature, I opted just for the photo with the entire group of them which was another cool experience. Once again Chigusa showed gratitude for my support and I told her that I really enjoyed the Marvelous show which seemed to make her happy.
The next STARDOM member to meet was Konami who I had met last year at SPARK Joshi, but wanted to meet again. Konami isn’t always the most entertaining wrestler to watch because her motivation seems to be lacking at times, but she’ll always be a wrestler I look forward to seeing because of her ties to Hana and Tokyo Cyber Squad back in the day that will always hold a special place in my heart. She’s another one who may be a heel, but has been pretty cheerful the two times I’ve met her.
During my time at WrestleCon on both days, I had a chance to spend some time with Matt and Rob from The Stardom Cast along with String6Splash who does Red Belt Radio covering all things STARDOM on YouTube and it was great to pick their brains while talking about the great joshi pro wrestling that we all love.
After a bit of waiting it was finally time for the last meet and greet of the day for me which was Maika and HANAKO. HANAKO was the first one I met, and it’s quite impressive just how tall she is. I think I might have been slightly taller, but not by much. I asked her if she had enjoyed any delicious food while there, and she mentioned In & Out which I found out later that she had the day before with Maika and Megan Bayne. I think the one-month excursion that HANAKO did last year helped her feel pretty at home around all of us international fans. After that, I moved over to meet Maika who always has a fun disposition about her. She seems like the type of person you could talk to about just about anything while throwing back a beer or two. I posed her the same question that I had asked HANAKO and she came back with the same answer. I tried to explain to her what “greasy” meant when talking about the burgers at In & Out, and eventually landed at “unhealthy but delicious” which she seemed to understand. All in all, an enjoyable person to interact with.
With that, my meet and greets were done for the trip, and all of them were special in their own ways.
DPW Title Fight in Vegas
Ryan: I watch such little men’s wrestling that it’s often startling to see how big the dudes are. You go from watching Shino Suzuki to seeing Black Taurus trudge past and the wires in your brain get all crossed.
The DPW crowd was focused and hyped. They ate up everything, joshi and otherwise.
Magenta vs. Masha Slamovich and Queen Aminata was excellent. Intense. A believable struggle. Nasty throughout.
There’s something special about wrestlers who can sing and dance like pop stars before the bell and then flip on their ass-kicker switch once the action begins. Maria and Riko Kawahata are two of the best on the scene at that.
Iroha vs. Dani Luna wasn’t my favorite bout of the week. The 10-minute time limit did create extra drama, but the match never felt like it hit its peak. Still, I was thrilled to get my second dose of Takumi and be close enough to her to get kicked in the head if she so chose.
I ducked out after this one. No disrespect to Mad Dog Connelly and the rest of the DPW crew intended. I needed to eat and rest and decompress from all these constant stimuli.
WrestleMania week was the funnest. I walked away from it with a full heart and a luggage full of merch. Now, real life awaited. Boo.
TJPW x DDT x GCW
Justin:
This one is going to be a bit shorter just because it was such a randomly put together card full of matches that were interesting to say the least.
Before the weekend began, I was a bit worried that a lot of the TJPW talents weren’t going to have the ability to have a second match during their trip, but luckily at the last minute that added a big 10-woman tag that did a good job at giving the fans a nice splash of TJPW fun to start the show.
After that we had an intergender tag match that involved Rika Tatsumi tagging with Antonio Honda to take on Kidd Bandit and Shota. They worked a good comedic match with Honda of course getting to tell his hilarious story. Kidd Bandit was quite impressive in this one. The next match that involved a joshi wrestler was the tag team of “Ober Eats” Yuki Kamifuku and Wakana Uehara, taking on Brooke Havok and Sandra Moone. It was a pretty short match where each wrestler got to get a few of their moves in, but it lacked a lot of the drama that you’d normally get from a match with some stakes to it. It was still fun to see Kamiyu and Wakana tag together again, though.
The match after that was a very random six-person tag match that Shoko Nakajima was a part of. She didn’t do a ton in the match, but when she had a chance to beat up the guys on the heel team the crowd definitely got loud in their support of her. The crazy team of Manders and Maki Itoh taking on Microman and Yukio Naya was just as much of a trainwreck as you could expect, but I say that in the best way possible. Itoh to me is always entertaining, and this match was no exception. It was also quite funny that Yukio Naya didn’t want to actually hit Maki Itoh, so he instead just tried to scare her to death. Also seeing Maki Itoh mime her way through singing “Wanted Dead Or Alive” by Bon Jovi was pretty amazing.
Finally the main event, at least when it comes to joshi related matches, was Konosuke Takeshita and Masha Slamovich taking on Shinya Aoki and Miyu Yamashita. The match itself was good, and seeing Takeshita challenge Yamashita to try to take him down with strikes was a fun moment to witness live. If the rumors are true and Takeshita is married to Yuka Sakazaki, I’m sure there’s been many talks between Yamashita and Takeshita over the years and it showed with their chemistry in the match. The show itself was fine for the crazy matches they put forth, but nothing spectacular that I’d say anyone absolutely HAS to watch.
The Clusterfuck
Justin:
I wasn’t originally planning to go to this show, but my friend who was there got me a comped ticket, so I went anyway. The show itself started a bit late, but with it only having two matches you figured it would go pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, the Clusterfuck match itself keeps going and going, but luckily for all of you, I mostly just have to cover the beginning moments of the match. At the start of the match they went over the rules, and then announced that the wrestler who drew number one would be coming out. To the crowd’s surprise it was not just one wrestler but three as all three of the Up Up Girls; Miu Watanabe, Raku, and Shino Suzuki came out performing “Upper Kick” again for everyone in attendance. Eventually they were interrupted by Kerry Morton who talked his trash before getting beaten up and tossed out by the three Up Up Girls.
After that B3CCA made an appearance singing her own entrance theme before attacking the TJPW trio. Zayda Steel then made her entrance to B3CCA out to even the odds. Shortly after that all three Up Up Girls were eliminated, and from there we have to move onto later in the match where Unagi Sayaka made her entrance into the match. Unagi didn’t spend a ton of time in the match before being dispatched, but the crowd seemed to be into what she brought to the table at least.
In the end ,Brodie Lee Jr won the match by taking out both Joey Janela and Megan Bayne to end it all which was a fun way to end such a long and crazy match. A fun show, but considering how tired I was at the time, one that was a bit hard to get through towards the end.
RESURA 