No wrestling promotion can live off of one performer forever. No matter how bright one star shines, the spotlight must be prepared for the next.
On the chocolate mat inside Ichigaya, Mei Suruga is ChocoPro’s unquestioned top star. The bright and shining prodigal child of Emi Sakura has reigned supreme for years. But the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. It’s long been felt that the first true student of Mei’s was set for great things, and that was realised at ChocoPro #511: The Promised.
Miya Yotsuba stood tall, claiming the Super Asia Championship from Rina Yamashita, the woman who had bested Miya’s teacher Mei over six months prior and had served as both an inspiration and a rival for ChocoPro’s Lucky Charm.
It was a showdown that had felt inevitable for a while after she had tried and failed to stand against one of the true stars of the joshi independent scene back in late 2024. Yotsuba’s growing strength needed to be forged in the fires against a true brute like Yamashita; then and only then could she truly be fit to be champion. It was the crowning moment after years of hard work for Miya, who had felt like an inevitable champion in the making but still needed to live up to those expectations.
And she could not have met those expectations at a more opportune time. For as strong as ChocoPro has been over the past year, this victory has come at a crucial turning point in the company’s life.
Let’s consider the full breadth of the ChocoPro trainees in recent years outside of Miya Yotsuba. Her younger sister Nonoka Seto last wrestled on May 5th, 2025 – and while she went on an extended hiatus rather than an outright retirement and is still clearly close with everyone, it’s not clear whether she will ever return. Erii Kanae is a steady hand but has had her early development hampered by injuries. Hiromi Kaho is a great prospect, but due to her young age it will be years until she’s going to be someone they actively lean on (like the two new trainees formally introduced at The Promised), and then there’s Hiyori Yawata…
Hiyori over the past eight months felt like ChocoPro’s secret weapon – an unchained ball of personality that upended the balance of the established roster with her eagerness. She was still growing as a wrestler, but her character work made her an integral part of the weekly shows and she was gaining confidence on the mat. It felt like as long as Miyu and Hiyori were progressing, ChocoPro’s future was set.
Yet Hiyori’s future wasn’t as secure as it seemed. As quickly as she seemed to soar, she kept flying – announcing that she was graduating from both ChocoPro and pro wrestling to pursue work outside of the industry. Hiyori’s wrestling story would end up looking much like Lulu Pencil’s: it was short and incredibly memorable, but it was a side-story in the grander part of her life.
What that means is that Miya Yotsuba stands as ChocoPro’s only real established homegrown talent since the remaining members of the Fourth Generation: Chie Koishikawa, Sayaka, and Tokiko Kirihara, who had all debuted back in 2019.
Yotsuba always felt like someone destined for success on the chocolate mat, but it felt more and more integral that she reach that potential as time went on. Like any promotion, ChocoPro needed new talent to step up and provide fresh faces at the top of the card.
She was the perfect fit too, having grown into an utterly unique wrestler for the roster. She wrestled a bruising style like Sayaka but quickly built up more of a power base, separating her from the unassuming hard hitter. She could get loud and in your face, but she wasn’t always ‘on’ like Chie Koishikawa, instead using it more like a switch when getting truly fired up. This also made it easy for her to play the face for more boisterous characters like Mei Suruga, or when going up against the guys in power battles.
The early potential was cultivated from the start. While it could have just been Mei’s excitement surrounding her first true student (as opposed to the Fourth Generation who she helped train but were still students of Emi’s), it was clear from the start that she had a lot of belief in Miya.
The booking too demonstrated that. Not necessarily in wins and losses, but in opportunities. Whenever they ran an in-ring show (their equivalent of a ‘big event’), Yotsuba rarely had a run-of-the-mill match. Her debut match saw her face Emi Sakura. From then she would have singles matches against Mochi Natsume (x2), Kaori Yoneyama, SAKI, Ryo Mizunami, Mei Suruga, a win against Chie Koishikawa, Mizuki, VENY and Rina Yamashita, with just two tag matches spliced in between that impressive run of special singles matches in the first two years of her career.
It’s hard not to look at the list of names above and feel like they were doing anything but giving her every chance to learn under the best conditions. They could have tried to rush her into a top position, throw her into the fire – but she wouldn’t get shot at the Super Asia title for nearly another year after this growing period. They let her steadily blossom into to flower she was becoming and find her voice in and out of the ring.
A big part of that was the pairing with Pro Wrestling Evolution member Soy. An honorary member of the ChocoPro roster with how often she’s there, Soy quickly fit in with the whole group, but she and Miya in particular began to form a bond, firing each other up with their voices and their forearms whenever they were paired together. The MiyaSoy team soon became set in stone, and helped Yotsuba better define who she was as a performer once she had stepped beyond the broad strokes of a lovable underdog rookie.
The duo even managed to win the Asia Dream Tag Titles together when they knocked off the formidable Bellflower duo of Makoto and Sayaka, cementing MiyaSoy as one of the premier teams in the company. Even if the reign was short lived, it gave her a taste of what it was like to be champion, and that was something she needed more of.
Miya had grown through 2025, and at the start of 2026 felt well and truly like she was being primed for a title challenge. The pairing with MiyaSoy had firmly establish Yotsuba’s personality and style. Time had been invested in limit testing her power so that she could still go blow to blow with any of the men who stepped up to her and she was even throwing them around – a rarity for the women standing on the chocolate mat.
Miya Yotsuba had grown into a viable name who could challenge for the top title. The one thing she really lacked was a statement victory. All of the special singles matches she had wrestled had been there to develop her, not necessarily get her over the hump.
That all changed at ChocoPro #505: Choco Museum on February 25 when she faced Emi Sakura. The founder of the company, who was off back to back in ring main events against Baliyan Akki and a Super Asia Championship challenge against Rina Yamashita.
While it wasn’t an outright squash, Miya Yotsuba more or less dissected her boss, keeping the 30+ year veteran on the back foot for most of the match and not letting herself get taken out of the match when Emi used her more devious tactics to try and swing the match back her way. It’s hard to remember Emi Sakura being beaten in such a convincing manner in a long time, and it was all about presenting Yotsuba as being ready for the final step. That night she would step up and challenge Rina Yamashita for the Super Asia title after she defeated Choun Shiryu.
The turning point for Miya seemed to come from the chance to take an overseas excursion. It wasn’t a long one – just a single week alongside Emi, Mei, and Akki as part of the second set of tapings for Indian promotion WXM. But like many others who step beyond their country’s borders for the first time, Yotsuba seems to have come back with a new lease on life and a surge of energy behind her.
The Miya before that tour – for all her improvements – couldn’t have run roughshot over Emi Sakura like she did. It wasn’t the kind of performance born just through skill alone, but from someone wrestling with more inner freedom, confidence, and self-belief.
“Overseas is amazing! Sakura-san was there too, but I’m the one who made it mine.”
Miya Yotsuba, Chocopro #505: Choco Museum post-show comments.
This was the Miya Yotsuba ChocoPro had been waiting for. The Lucky Charm Emi and Mei had seen in the girl from Hiroshima from the beginning when she first stepped foot on the chocolate mat, and had been steadily preparing for the center spotlight.
Now she wanted to make the Super Asia Championship hers. It’s just that the final step was also perhaps the hardest. She would have to overpower someone stronger than her. Enter a bruising battle with an accomplished deathmatch wrestler. Miyu had been chasing Yamashita since August 2024 when they first met at Korakuen Hall in a six-person tag, and then a month later when she faced off one on one. Yotsuba later reflected that in those moments the championship she was now going for felt so far away from her in those moments.
Now as they squared off with the title on the line, you could see Miya’s expression change after their first lockup – a realisation of the kind of power she was going to have to overcome. And for much of the early game she couldn’t out-muscle Yamashita. Several times she had to call upon the kinds of trickery you’d expect from her teachers Emi and Mei: be it pulling the champion’s hair or a sneaky drop down of the ropes to send Rina tumbling over.
What she did manage to do though was endure the power game, and slowly but surely Rina’s advantage started to be nullified as it turned into a more even fight. It still felt like Yotsuba had to land three hits for every one of Yamashita’s, but it began to feel possible. Then, after a powerslam and a couple of Miya Hammers, it was enough – just enough, to keep the champion down for three.
Afterwards, an emotional Miya said everything you’d want to hear her say with the top title around her waist. She won, but she wasn’t going to rest on her laurels. She intended to keep growing, and in the process lead ChocoPro to bigger heights.
“I went to India on tour and I felt the energy there, it moved me. That’s why I want to get stronger and make ChocoPro bigger. I’ll build a ChocoPro that won’t lose to India or anywhere in the world. I want to make ChocoPro the center of the world! I’m going to the UK! I’m going to Canada! I’ll go all over the world and make ChocoPro bigger and bigger! So don’t you dare take your eyes off of Miya Yotsuba and ChocoPro!”
Miya Yotsuba, #ChocoPro 511: The Promised post-show comments
Becoming champion is the culmination of a dream and a journey, but the reality quickly set in that it’s really only the start of a whole new adventure. That became all too real when HARASHIMA hinted at challenging her for the title.
Still, Yotsuba seems prepared to approach being the company’s top champion with the right mindset. It’s not a position to be accepted lightly. As ChocoPro moves forward into a new era, it makes sense to put their faith in their Lucky Charm.
And they need her now more than ever. There’s a big gap between those from the Fourth Generation and beyond and those who are still in their early days. Miya Yotsuba stands as the bridge between these two eras right now, a stabilising force that the company can safely build around for years to come.
Whatever comes next, Miya will take it head on like she always does.
RESURA 