Super Golden is a new recurring column highlighting standout performances from joshi wrestlers. It will feature shining stars from across the joshi scene—STARDOM, Sendai Girls, and beyond. The nominees could be big names or up-and-comers. Whoever puts their mark on the month.
Senka Akatsuki (Marvelous)
Senka was everywhere this month, and it was glorious.
In one of her standout matches of the year, Senka took on Miyu Yamashita at the Marvelous 10th anniversary event. This was a personal dream match of mine where I was thrilled to see how their styles meshed.
Yamashita dominated, playing the killer role expertly. That left Senka to provide the heart and guts of the bout. They told a simple, effective story, one you’d expect from these two. Please somebody revisit a year or two from now when Senka’s even better.
Akatsuki also defended the Sendai Girls Junior Championship defense on May 10 against the woman she beat for the belt—YUNA.
This title clash featured good pacing and maintained its intensity. The work was solid with plenty of hard strikes. As we saw on this Sendai Girls show, Senka brings out YUNA’s best.
During a busy month, Senka teamed with Spike Nishimura against Sareee and Takumi Iroha at the Tenryu Project Bridge Of Dreams show. She also partnered with YUNA to face Miku Kanae and Stephanie Maze at the May 22 Sendai Girls show. Both of these were solid outings.
Senka’s highlight of May, though, came against her forever rival: Seri Yamaoka.
The two met on May 23 at Marigold’s Shine Forever event. This was a show-stealer with lots of
lots of tense mat wrestling. The bout seemed to grow more dramatic and bigger as it went along. These two always click together and there’s an undeniable spark between them.Thankfully, we have years and years worth of this rivalry to go.
Chi Chi (Pro-Wrestling Evolution)
May was further proof that Chi Chi is a key part of the joshi scene. She worked a variety of shows and was consistently a standout.
Joshi’s Barbie girl took on Chihiro Hashimoto at Senjo Battle Cry, showing off as much toughness as she did flamboyance. Chi Chi nailed a sweet superkick and she executed an impressive bridge to push Big Hash off her.
The action was often grounded and built around mat wrestling, and Chi Chi held her own in the technical department against a former amateur wrestler.
Chi Chi was the star of tag action where she teamed with Komomo Minami against Seri Yamaoka at Yuuka Yamazaki at Marigold Shining Attack. For one, Chi Chi’s kick game was excellent. She peppered everyone with stylish strikes. And she had strong chemistry against both opponents. She helped make this midcard matchup the must-watch part of the program.
Over the course of the month, Chi Chi had more than 10 matches, working everywhere from OZ Academy to Strong Style Pro-Wrestling. That included an Evolution Strong Women’s Championship defense against Sumika Yanagawa, a match where she teamed with Senka to face Takumi Iroha and Utami Hayashishita at the Ito Dojo in Shin-Kiba show on May 17, and battling alongside Mio Momono to collide with the AAAW tag champs Nightshade and Nyla Rose at the Tiger Mask 45th anniversary show.
Promotions continually called her number and each time out she was fun to watch. As one would expect. She’s grown into one of the more reliable talents around.
Ema Maishima (STARDOM)
Rookie Ema Maishima was a part of some of the better undercard matches of the month. She had the challenge of trying to shine while wrestling next to and against top-notch talent, but she kept meeting it.
Her best match in May came at the STARDOM Queen’s Dynasty show. Maishima and AZM teamed up against Hazuki & Koguma.
For a lot of the contest, she was the one taking the punishment from FWC. Her strong selling elevated the action. At one point, she looked like she’d been legit knocked out from one of Hazuki’s kicks. Maishima would then get to fight back with flashes of fiery offense and this where she most shows flashes of how good she’s going to be.
She boasts an exuberance, a passion’that helped her hold her own in there against three great tag wrestlers.
A few days later, Ema Maishima and Starlight Kid wrestled Ranna Yagami and Tomoka Inaba at Korakuen Hall. This bout had a similar makeup to the aforementioned one with Ema’s partner doing a lot of the heavy lifting and she having to make her mark by way of flailing, screaming, charging back. Her dramatic skills were on full display as she desperately tried to escape Inaba’s submission hold.
Fun stuff on both nights.
May also saw Ema compete in several tag bouts with Neo Genesis in addition to a three-way clash with fellow up-and-comers Matoi Hamabe and Anne Kanaya in Kochi. That midcard match was worked at a good pace and pretty entertaining for being just about eight minutes long.
Ema Maishima remains a rising star to keep an eye on as this month’s output showed.
Haruka Umesaki (Diana)
Man, it’s great to see Haruka Umesaki busy and kicking butt now that the Diana Ace is healthy again.
At Aja Kong’s big 40th anniversary show, Haruka, Itsuki Aoki and Kakeru Sekiguchi battled the super team of Chihiro Hashimoto, Syuri, and Takumi Iroha. To no one’s surprise, this turned out to be the best match of the show, and Haruka was a big part of that. She thrived in there against Hashimoto with big strikes and a bad attitude, making the idea of a singles match between them a super appealing one.
Elsewhere in the month, Umesaki teamed up with Mika Iwata and Miyuki Takase against
Hiroyo Matsumoto, Rina Yamashita, and ZONES at OZ Academy’s Bloom, Pray at Gunma show. She wrestled a Catch the Wave tournament match, three Gokigen Pro bouts, and a Diana World Championship defense versus Miran. In all of it, Umesaki brought her trademark blend of grace and nasty dog-fighting.
Now, a double champ, the Diana world titleholder capped off the month with a Diana tag title defense (with Unagi Sayaka) against Nanami Hatano and Rina Amikura. Diana is making damn sure she’s in the spotlight many times over. As they should.
RESURA 