For basketball fans, March is a glorious time. It’s tournament season, baby! The best men and women’s teams battle through their bracket to crown a new champion.
Joshi wrestling devotees, meanwhile, get those same thrills throughout a bigger chunk of the calendar. Tournament season for fans of STARDOM, TJPW, Marigold, etc. happens in January, July, October, you name it.
The Cinderella tourney. The Dream Star. The Princess Cup. These are key events with clear stakes, big rewards awaiting the winners, and reliably great in-ring action. Audiences are eating good.
What follows is a guide to the major tournaments across the joshi scene. For newer fans or those who only follow one promotion and are looking to expand their horizons. Read on for a breakdown of these events including the format, the time frame in which they happen, what awards the victors receive, and more.
Futari Wa Princess Max Heart
Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling
January through February
Single-elimination
Recent winners: Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku (2026), Hyper Misao & Shoko Nakajima (2025), Arisu Endo & Suzume (2024)
TJPW gets each year started with a dedicated focus on its tag team division.
Around 10 duos meet in this single-elimination tournament. There are four rounds of matches including the final. The winner gets a pair of sizable trophies as well as a crack at the Princess of Princess Tag Team Championship.
The quality of the bouts and the prestige of the event have both increased over the years for this young event. It’s only been around since 2021, and as it has gone on, it has been presented as more and more of a big deal.
How good the whole thing is each year depends on the state of the tag division. When TJPW has more established teams in the mix, it makes for a better tourney. When the promotion has to fill the field with more random pairings, it’s just not as much of a safe bet.
There have been no repeat winners to this point, but both Daisy Monkey and Kyoraku Kyomei (Hyper Misao & Shoko Nakajima) have been mainstays in the event.
Cinderella
STARDOM
March or April
Single-elimination
Recent winners: Hanan (2026), Sayaka Kurara (2025), Hanan (2024), MIRAI (2023)
This is STARDOM’s way to launch a rising star. The wrestling version of a debutante ball.
Should an up-and-coming wrestler make their way through the single-elimination tournament, they pose in the ring with a fancy gown and are granted a wish (read: championship match of their choice).
It was once a one-day event, but a lot has changed about the thing over the years. The field has gotten bigger, making it impossible to wrap everything up on a single show. Since 2015, the number of participants has fluctuated big time, going from as little as 14 wrestlers to as many as 36.
Now the whole thing plays out over the course of a handful of shows.
Hanan’s triumph this year has her join Mayu Iwatani and MIRAI as the only repeat winners. The full list of victors is an impressive one, including the likes of Giulia, Arisa Hoshiki, and Saya Kamitani. Whether the winner goes on to take the title in their “wish match” or not, the tourney is a clear sign of their shift up the STARDOM ladder.
The Cinderella has had plenty of exciting matches since its inception in 2015, but the action isn’t nearly as good as the 5STAR. In part, that’s because there are fewer matches and because the field isn’t as stacked. The title matches the Cinderella winners earn have been reliably entertaining, though.
As a bonus, the press conference leading up to this is a place for guaranteed drama and standout fashion. The participants rock all kinds of fun outfits and regularly talk massive trash to each other. There is always a highlight to come out of these.
Catch the WAVE
Pro Wrestling WAVE
May through July
Round-robin
Recent winners: Cohaku (2025), Saya Kamitani (2024), ASUKA (2023)
If you are locked in for the Catch the WAVE, then we’re probably going to be friends. This one is for the sickos.
This is a lower-level event than the 5STAR or even the brand-new Dream Star. It’s a showcase of independent joshi, freelancers, and workhorses toiling under less than bright lights.
Catch the WAVE, however, has a long history. It’s been around since 2009. In that time, it’s had some big names emerge as the winner including Suzu Suzuki, Saya Kamitani, and Rina Yamashita. Fans who primarily watch American wrestling will recognize two names in the list of early tourney winners: Kana aka Asuka and Hikaru Shida.
The format is round-robin style with wrestlers competing in various blocks. Often, the blocks are themed, and WAVE tends to have fun with them. We’ve seen blocks of powerhouses, young wrestlers, hardcore wrestlers, or comedy acts. This adds a unique flavor from year to year.
Thanks to the small size of WAVE’s roster, the promotion has to bring in a lot of outsiders and freelancers. That’s being even more true of late with more folks from STARDOM joining the fun.
The field has shifted from year to year, often having between 16 and 20 wrestlers go at it, but they upped it to 36 in 2025.
Be it a WAVE star like Yumi Ohka or an outsider like Saya Kamitani, who wins the whole thing, they get the honor of being dubbed Nami Onna or “Wave Woman” and they take home ¥1,000,000. The company also presents tournament awards after the event such as Best Bout Award and Best Performance Award.
Princess Cup
Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling
July through August
Single-elimination
Recent winners: Miu Watanabe (2025), Ryo Mizunami (2024), Miyu Yamashita (2023)
This is not only TJPW’s top tournament but a key source for its major storylines. Failure in the event can be fuel for future years. Winning can change a wrestler’s trajectory. Even a strong performance in a losing effort can create real momentum a la Yuki Aino in 2024.
The winner earns a title match for the Princess of Princess Championship to go along with the pride and glory of being the last woman standing.
It’s a single-elimination style tourney with around 14 to 18 wrestlers competing. That equates to four or five rounds including the final bout.
Reliably, we get some standout matches in the middle rounds every year. And there’s been a TJPW match-of-the-year contender somewhere along the way of late.
To this point, only Mizuki (who won consecutive cups in 2019 and 2020) and Yuu have won the tournament more than once. And going back a few years, Shoko Nakajima was a fixture in the finals, getting to the last match five times in a seven-year span.
The quality of the matches and the success of the winners to go along with the fact the Princess Cup has been around since 2014 makes it an increasingly prestigious event.
5STAR Grand Prix
STARDOM
Late summer
Round-robin
Recent winners: Momo Watanabe (2025), Maika (2024), Suzu Suzuki (2023)
The gold standard of joshi tournaments. The biggest, the best, the most prestigious.
The 5STAR is an absolute gauntlet. Wrestlers are placed into blocks and battle each and every wrestler in that block to make it out to either a playoff or the final depending on the size of that field.
That has shifted over the years. In the past, the number of participants has been in the teens, but STARDOM has ballooned that number of late. In 2025, eventual winner Momo Watanabe was one of 32 wrestlers competing.
Each match aside from the final has a 15-minute time-limit, so there’s often a faster, more urgent pace than some STARDOM bouts. Wrestlers get two points for a win, one point for a draw, and nothing for a defeat.
A big crown and trophy awaits the victor as well as a championship match. For the most part, that means a shot at the World of STARDOM Championship, but some winners have gone for other gold like Io Shirai going after the Goddess of STARDOM title in 2014 and Mayu Iwatani choosing the white belt in 2018.
Reliably, the 5STAR gives us some of the best matches of the year. That includes quick sprints and back-and-forth draws. The final is often great and almost always memorable.
The tourney has its own awards similar to the STARDOM Year-End awards, for outstanding performance, best match, etc. That, along with the length of the event, and all the storylines that weave throughout, the 5STAR feels like a season within a season for the promotion.
For fans just getting into STARDOM, this is a great place to start. The majority of the roster will be involved. The quality of the wrestling will be high. And you’ll be thrust into the narratives and rivalries that shape the company.
Dream Star Grand Prix
Marigold
August to September
Round-robin
Recent winners: Miku Aono (2025), Utami Hayashishita (2024)
Rossy Ogawa’s approach to building Marigold has been to mirror a lot of the things he did with STARDOM. This tournament is no exception. It’s essentially a remake of the 5STAR.
It has the same time limit and points system, and it employs the two-block system that the 5STAR began with.
But like with everything related to Marigold, this tourney is young. It’s only been held twice. So, while there’s buzz and novelty running through it, the event doesn’t nearly have the same cachet as more established ones.
In both years, 16 participants went at it, battling foes in either the Dream League or the Star League. The winners went on to challenge for the Marigold World Championship after receiving a trophy and a band of flowers to wear in celebration.
The in-ring action quality has been high thus far. Marigold’s roster has its share of less experience talents, so there’s some rawness on display at times, but overall, the Dream Star has been entertaining. And it has felt big despite its youth.
Following in STARDOM’s footsteps, Marigold hands out tournament awards after the event, prizes for best match fighting spirit and such.
Like the promotion itself, it’s exciting as a fan to get in on the ground floor, so to speak. We are watching the very early history of a company. The story of what the Dream Star will be is being told. We can be right there for all of it.
Goddess of Stardom Tag League
STARDOM
October through November or December
Round-robin
Recent winners: Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara (2025), Hanan & Saya Iida (2024), Maika & Megan Bayne (2023)
STARDOM’s tag tournament doesn’t have nearly the status of the 5STAR, but it’s usually a good time for fans of tag team wrestling.
This is contested under a block system with the usual two points for a win and one point for a draw. The field has been around 14 to 16 teams in recent years. That adds up to a lot of matches some of which are very skippable. But there’s usually one hot team charging through it all who becomes the central figure of the event.
The prize for surviving this long series of battles? The winners are gifted a set of silver rings as well as the right to challenge for the STARDOM tag titles. To this point, there have been no repeat winners as teams, but wrestlers like Momo Watanabe and Kairi Hojo have won it twice with two different partners.
The Tag League has been around since 2011 and has had big names like Thunder Rock and FWC win the whole thing, so there’s definitely some built-in prestige, even if it’s clearly lower on the company hierarchy than some other events.
Jaja Uma Tournament
Sendai Girls
Date varies
Single-elimination
Recent winners: Senka Akatsuki (2025), ZONES (2024), Haruka Umesaki (2021)
Many joshi companies do a tournament similar to this one, but Sendai Girls has the most intriguing version. It’s an event where up-and-comers and rookies face off in single-elimination action. Winning is a launchpad for these fresh faces.
It’s not been the most consistent tourney in a number of ways. For one, the number of participants has varied, featuring anywhere from seven to 12 wrestlers. It’s not contested on the same time of year from event to event. Plus, Sendai Girls will sometimes just skip years and not do the thing at all.
That’s a shame as it is usually an intriguing look at rising talent. The in-ring action isn’t likely to go in your Match-of-the-Year notebook, but it’s solid wrestling and a way to discover new faves. Just look at that list of recent winners.
Hopefully, Senjo commits to doing this event year in and year out. The scene is better off with a stage like this as a regular part of the calendar.
Twin Star Cup
Marigold
December
Single-elimination
Recent winners: Seri Yamaoka & Shinno (2025), Mai Sakurai & MIRAI (2024)
Go back to the section on the Dream Star. Much of it applies here. Like that tournament, this is two years in and has just started to build its store of prestige but has shown strong potential early on.
But where the Dream Star follows the same format as the 5STAR, the Twin Star Cup doesn’t ape what the STARDOM Tag League does. Instead, it opts for a single-elimination format with a 15-minute time limit for each bout. That makes it a shorter, tauter event. Every match is important in a win-or-go-home structure.
Last year, Marigold fielded 10 teams for the tourney and went with eight for the inaugural event in 2024.
For fans, the timing works out well. This is a nice way to cap off the year before all the major shows that happen at the end of December and the always busy start of January. Then tag team wrestling aficionados can follow this up with the Max Heart.
As Marigold’s roster gets stronger and the power of the tournament’s name increases, this is going to be a key event on the joshi calendar.
RESURA 