Anyone who knows me personally knows that I absolutely love listening to podcasts about things that I love, whether that’s in the car as I’m running errands, or surviving another night at my job. Having someone talk about something you love puts you in a positive mood especially if you can feel their own appreciation for the subject is as strong as your own.
When it comes to Japanese women’s professional wrestling, otherwise known as ‘joshi’, there are actually quite a few podcasts both in audio form and video form that are trying to spread the good word about the best wrestling in the world. Today, I’m going to go ahead and introduce you to some that you may or may not already know. I know it’s not for everyone obviously, but I am hopeful that by spreading the word about these podcasts that you’ll find a new one to enjoy, and even possibly learn from as well.
Keep in mind that what I say about each podcast will have both facts and opinions within it. I’ll state the facts about what they cover, how you can listen, and stuff like that, but I’ll also give you my personal thoughts on their podcast as well. What you do with that information is up to you, but I do hope that it helps. With all that said though, let’s get started.
Joshi’ing Around Weekly
In my opinion, Joshi’ing Around Weekly is the most complete podcast you can listen to if you’re looking to hear about the entire joshi wrestling scene. They talk about the biggest promotions like STARDOM, TJPW, Sendai Girls, and Marigold, while also making sure to shine a spotlight on the smaller promotions in their patented “Indie Zone” segment towards the end of their show where they will rattle off what happened in places like DIANA, Actwres girl’Z, or OZ Academy to name a few. The two hosts of the podcast, Eric and Tim, are both quite knowledgeable about what’s going on in the overall joshi scene, with Eric especially watching an incredible amount of matches each week both in joshi and puro to stay up to date on everything going on. He also puts in the work to translate and cover the many interviews that happen in ShuPro, and the web blogs that go with it.
The only real drawback to this type of coverage is
that most of their episodes are around five hours in length, but since it’s only once a week, you can choose to break it up if you want. I can personally say that the five-hour runtime isn’t a drawback for me, but not everyone has the kind of downtime that I have to enjoy a podcast that runs so long, so I’m just being empathetic to those who don’t. They are overall very positive about a lot of what goes on weekly in the joshi scene, as they talk about matches they enjoy, and stories that pique their interests. While they do have some negative takes at times, or certain wrestlers they aren’t a fan of, they usually choose not to dwell on it too long, and instead try to turn it into a bit of an inside joke between each other and their listeners. I feel like it’s a good way to handle things personally.
You can find them on the Social Suplex Network of podcasts on most of the popular podcasting platforms, and you can find stuff that both of them write in the monthly-ish Social Suplex Newsletter that does it’s best job to cover the entire spectrum of the pro wrestling scene which obviously includes joshi as well.
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Cult Of Joshi
I always appreciate a wrestling podcast that has someone on it who can speak as someone who’s been in the business before, because their takes on things can kind of open up your mind to something that you may not have thought of before. With Cult Of Joshi, you get a female perspective that is always quite positive from the host Rajja, and you get the perspective of someone who’s been in the business with the co-host John. Both of them love pro wrestling as a whole, but they especially love women’s pro wrestling, whether that be in Japan or anywhere else in the world.
With the Cult Of Joshi podcast you’ll get not only updates from a lot of the bigger promotions in the joshiverse, with in depth coverage of the shows match by match, but you’ll also get to hear them talk about the positive things happening in the women’s division of AEW if that’s something you’re interested in. Since I am an AEW fan as well, I can appreciate that, but not all predominant joshi fans may. You’ll also get some old road stories from John as he talks about things that have happened to him or around him in the business which is topical most of the time at least. The biggest thing is that you can feel just how much they appreciate what the wrestlers go through inside of the squared circle, and they simply want to let others know why they should seek out this awesome wrestling, which is something I really vibe with.
You can find their podcast on most podcasting platforms, along with their video content on YouTube which is mostly the same at the moment at least. I believe they do plan to expand their video content in the future though.
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Tokyo Joshi Pod
If you’re someone who really enjoys TJPW and their brand of entertaining, fun-loving wrestling then there’s no better podcast to listen to than the Tokyo Joshi Pod because TJPW is the one and only focus of it! The host Andy Zike is an incredibly positive person, who will walk you through each of TJPW’s weekly shows, whether the event is big or small, while giving you context to the wacky things you may see on your screen while watching a TJPW show. He also makes it a habit to preview the shows coming up that next week ahead of time so that you’re ready for what’s to come as long as the information is out there.
Every Friday morning, you’ll know that there’s another episode coming your way, which makes it easy to plan for, and the fact that every episode comes in at around an hour or so makes it pretty easy to listen to even if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. Towards the end of each episode he will also go over some of the matches that TJPW alumni have had over that past week, especially if it’s something noteworthy like a title match for instance. You can tell how much he loves TJPW and its wrestlers both present, as well as past, which should help keep yourself in a positive headspace as you listen to what he has to say.
The host Andy also makes appearances on other podcasts that we’ll cover later on including Talk Joshi and Red Belt Radio, so if you’re looking for more of his positive words, you can find them there as well.
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Scott E. Wrestling’s 5STAR News + Reviews
Scott Edwards, also known as Scott E. Wrestling has been one of the bigger names in covering joshi pro wrestling for English speakers for quite a few years now, and he doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon! Each week, Scott jumps onto YouTube at least once to cover the biggest shows or news in the joshi wrestling scene, and he always gives his detailed thoughts whether they are positive or negative about what is happening in it. That’s one of the things that I appreciate about his coverage of the sport because he tells you what he truly thinks, but he’s not unfair about it one way or the other; he simply tells it like it is. He’s also one of the more plugged-in English speakers in the joshi world with his contacts to Sareee, and various other organizations through his work with Fightful. He’s had the opportunity to interview quite a few talents, though most of those are written through Fightful rather than something you’ll find on his channel itself.
This year, Scott has turned a bit of a new leaf by starting to enjoy TJPW more, which is something a lot of us gave him crap about in the past since he likes more of the hard-hitting action rather than a comedy-centered match, and it’s been enjoyable hearing him talk so positively about a promotion that feels like it’s on the rise at the moment. His bread and butter is both STARDOM and Marigold, but he’s also been covering a lot of the bigger shows of Sendai Girls as well. You know that anytime something very noteworthy happens, that you’ll get his thoughts on it without having to wait too long, and that’s something that I can appreciate as a loyal listener.
When it comes to YouTube content in particular that covers joshi pro wrestling, I don’t think there’s anyone better at it than Scott personally. While I personally would rather him put his stuff up on Spotify along with YouTube, I understand why he chooses to do things the way he does, because if you’re ever going to make money on YouTube, you’ll need to have as many views there as possible and by breaking it up, you’re cutting down the amount of views you may get. The good thing is that at least he makes it worth it.
Stardom Quest Gold
Stardom Quest Gold was a podcast that I’d look forward to each week because they’d go very in-depth with both STARDOM and Marigold, covering each show match by match, giving their thoughts about each one in the process. While the podcast is still quite good, it’s changed a bit over the past year or two, where now they don’t cover any STARDOM shows that aren’t a Korakuen or a PPV, but they still do cover all of the Marigold shows whether a lot happens or not. While I can’t blame them for not wanting to have weeks where they have to cover eight or more shows in depth, for me, it’s a bit of a drawback because I enjoyed how well thought out their takes were on the wrestling that they watched.
Now when you listen to Alex and Dylan, you’ll normally get both positive and negative thoughts about both companies between the two of them with Alex being more on the side of STARDOM and Dylan being more of a Marigold supporter, though neither are completely unfair in their takes on the other promotion. While some may not like that as much, I honestly don’t mind it because I grew up watching shows on ESPN where two people would practically battle to the verbal death to defend whatever topic they were talking about, while the other tried to explain why they were wrong. Their style on this podcast isn’t quite as adversarial, but it does give you a bit of something different than most podcasts where the hosts will normally agree with each other on most takes. That can sometimes be a bit grating especially when you, yourself, don’t agree with the take.
If you’re looking for a podcast that covers mostly just STARDOM, along with Marigold and you only have about an hour or two to spend listening to a podcast, then this one might be perfect for you! You can find this podcast as a part of the 5 Star Network.
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World Of Joshi Network
The next entry will cover multiple podcasts all under one network, ran by the guys of one of the OG joshi podcasts The Stardom Cast. You get not one, not two, but three joshi themed podcasts on their feed, and on top of that, they are now covering Pro Wrestling EVE in the UK after each of their shows if you’re looking to get into that promotion as well. The biggest show that they have is the original of course, which is The Stardom Cast that features Rob Goodwin, someone who’s been following the promotion for a long time, and has even written multiple books about it. His co-host is Matt Turner, someone who’s been in the wrestling business for many years who can give his thoughts about things as someone who truly understands the art more than most. You can feel how much both of them love STARDOM as you listen to them talk about the promotion for around two hours each week, and their coverage of the matches is very deep, going spot by spot through them most of the time. They also usually do live post shows for the biggest STARDOM events later on the day it happened as they want to converse not only between themselves about what they watched, but also hear what the fellow fans from around the world think about what they just saw. Honestly, I think it’s a good way of going about it.
The second podcast on the network is The Marigold Standard, a Marigold exclusive show that covers that promotion just as closely as they cover STARDOM with the STARDOM cast. This podcast also features both Rob and Matt as they try to wave the flag of Marigold who’s been struggling a bit over this past year. Overall, they keep things quite positive which is important, but they are also willing to let you know when something happens they don’t really agree with. Usually this podcast runs for about two hours much like The Stardom Cast, so if you’re looking for in-depth coverage of the proverbial golden gardens, you’re going to get it here.
The third of their podcast family is Talk Joshi which is a podcast that features Matt again, but instead of having Rob on it, he’s joined by his longtime friend and tag team partner Andy Header. Andy Header, as a fellow pro wrestler gives his insights on the matches he sees just like Matt does, but on top of that you also get to hear him gush over the awesome outfits and hair that the joshi wrestlers show off as well. It’s not in a sexualized way or anything like that, he’s honestly someone who is a bit of a nerd when it comes to wrestling gear and cosplay, so there’s no need to worry. With Talk Joshi, these two best friends talk about any big show that happens on the joshi scene, though they mostly focus on TJPW, Sendai Girls, and some of the other indie promotions since they aren’t really covered with the other two podcasts. They also use Talk Joshi as a way to interview wrestlers as well which can give you some insights about wrestling in Japan as a foreigner and everything that comes with it. It’s insightful, and fun to hear what they have to say. Talk Joshi normally has a runtime of around an hour to an hour and a half, so if you’re looking for something that’s not overly long compared to the other two podcasts, this one might be for you.
You can find all three of these podcasts under the World of Joshi podcast network feed on Spotify or anywhere else you find your podcasts, along with having them up on YouTube as well. They also have a Patreon with some extra bonus content as well if that’s what you’re looking for. All in all, Rob, Matt, and Andy are all good guys who love professional wrestling, and I think it comes out when you hear them talk about.
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Jumping Bomb Audio
Jumping Bomb Audio is the podcast from one of the bigger podcasting networks in pro wrestling, the Voices of Wrestling podcasting network, and is the only one on that network that is solely joshi pro wrestling focused. You’ll hear me talk about another podcast on that same network that covers a lot of joshi along with puro as well later on. Jumping Bomb Audio has been running for quite a long time now and while I do think that the two hosts have a lot of knowledge about what they are talking about, I do feel like at times they are more on the negative side of things. It’s possible that after a good while you could get kind of burnt out of doing a bi-weekly podcast, especially if everything isn’t quite hitting the way that it used to.
Taylor and Kelly are quite positive about some of the stuff they see in the joshi scene, as I find that they are one of the podcasts that’s always been pretty positive about TJPW when a lot of other podcasts didn’t seem to enjoy it as much. I think they simply expect more out of promotions like STARDOM, Marigold, or Sendai Girls to where they may hold them to a bit of a higher standard when it comes to the stories they tell, and the action that happens in the ring. You’ll also always get an update on ChocoPro with this podcast as well since Kelly is a regular watcher of the product, and most of the other joshi-related podcasts don’t really cover the little joshi company that runs out of the Ichigaya Chocolate Square.
I would personally say that their podcast isn’t one that goes as in-depth at times when it comes to the shows they cover, but they do try to mention results for as many shows as they can on each edition of their show. Their usual runtime is normally around an hour to an hour and a half, so if you’re looking for something a bit on the shorter side, this one might be for you.
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Wrestling Omakase
Remember when I said there was another podcast on the Voices of Wrestling podcasting network that mixed both joshi and puro in their weekly discussions? Well, this is the one! Wrestling Omakase is a longrunning podcast put together by the host John, and a revolving door of co-hosts which makes each episode interesting because you never know what kind of take you’ll get from that week’s co-host. I’ve personally only been listening to this podcast for around a year I think, but from my understanding I think it was more men’s Japanese wrestling focused at the beginning, but over time John has become quite the fan of joshi pro wrestling. Now if you listen to this podcast, you’ll probably hear joshi discussion at, at least a 60 / 40% ratio, which is honestly quite good for a podcast that covers as many promotions as it does.
Not only will you get a wealth of in-depth coverage of various promotions along with match ratings on top of it, but you’ll also normally get at least one segment each show where John will talk about either going to Japan or one of the time they’ve been there as they’ve visited the country quite a few times already. While some may be a bit jealous if you’ve never had the chance to go before, as someone who has made the trip for the past three years, I can appreciate the Japan talk as it reminds me of a lot of the fun times I’ve had in the awesome country. Their growing understanding of the Japanese language can also be quite useful when talking about promos or write-ups that they’ve been able to decipher while watching the product.
Much like Joshi’ing Around Weekly, this podcast normally runs quite long, but if you’re someone like me who has a lot of time to kill and you want to hear about as much Japanese pro wrestling as possible, it’s perfect for that. A normal runtime is usually around four hours or more, so you’re definitely getting your proverbial money’s worth.
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Red Belt Radio
My friend Jason, otherwise known as String6Splash, has been covering STARDOM in particular for quite some time now on YouTube, and with his videos, you’ll normally get some good topics to really think about, as his stuff is normally very well thought out. Whether it’s talking about a booking decision by Taro, or previewing a big upcoming event, you know that you’re going to get about as much information as possible when it comes to STARDOM, and that’s something that can be quite useful, especially if someone is attempting to get into STARDOM for the first time. A new possible fan may not understand some of the intricacies of what’s said but they will get enough information to help them lock into what the biggest joshi promotion in the world is putting together.
Jason not only does short videos that get to whatever point is trying to be made, but he also does livestreams, usually with a guest of some kind where they will normally do a preview for a show, while also getting takes from that guest which might differ slightly from what Jason himself might believe. That type of collaboration keeps things quite interesting to say the least, and it’s something I look forward to when it comes to his content. As far as I know, the only way to listen to Jason’s content is through YouTube, which is a bit of a drawback for me since I don’t have YouTube premium and am normally listening to this stuff with my phone put away, but I think the content is good enough to warrant opening up YouTube each time you want to listen at least.
Meerkat Ultra
I guess since I mentioned him during String6Splash’s write-up, I might as well move onto Meerkat Ultra now, who honestly is the gold standard when it comes to making entertaining YouTube focused videos about joshi pro wrestling. Whether he’s giving you a bunch of useful information, giving takes on how things are being booked, or simply adding even more entertainment value to a wrestling style that’s quite entertaining already, Meerkat, in my opinion, is truly helping joshi pro wrestling by making the videos that he does. That’s why it’s unfortunate what recently happened to his channel as BushiRoad, the parent company of STARDOM, hit him with quite a few copyright strikes which almost lead to the channel being taken down. Obviously, when it comes to copyright, it’s normally bots of some kind that are flagging stuff, so it’s possible that no one from BushiRoad themselves actually went after him, but it was still enough to scare him from doing any more STARDOM related content on his channel going forward, which I think will hurt STARDOM in the long run. Obviously, it’s not going to kill the company or anything, but I do think that there’ve been quite a few people who have found joshi pro wrestling through Meerkat Ultra’s videos, and now they will be missing any coverage of STARDOM on that channel going forward. It’s not the end all, be all, but it matters at least in my opinion.
A normal video by Meerkat Ultra is usually around 10 to 15 minutes, but there are times where you’ll also get longer form videos that cover a topic a lot more in-depth as well for the people looking for that sort of thing like myself. You’ll get Meerkat’s special attention to detail with their film studies background, and no matter what show is being talked about, you’ll always know that Meerkat will make it entertaining to watch. I would love to see joshi companies work with someone like Meerkat, because I do see a way for more fans to find a promotion through his videos, especially if he’s given more content to work with. Honestly, it could even help a promotion much in the same way that the Sendai Girls YouTube documentary is helping Sendai Girls at the moment, with that company exploding in popularity right now in Japan. There’s a good possibility that he won’t get that chance, but I’m still going to hold out hope either way.
HypeTalk TV
Alessandro has become quite a name when it comes to coverage of joshi pro wrestling even though he may not watch the product enough to truly cover it on a show-by-show basis. What he does that’s different is that he’s using his Japanese-language skills to allow joshi pro wrestlers to share their story with the English-speaking audience from around the world by interviewing them. That in itself is providing a useful resource for fans around the world to be able to better connect with these wrestlers who put their bodies on the line in the ring for our entertainment. With his interviews, you get to see the wrestler’s reaction, and hear the way that they say their words, which is quite different from most interviews you’ll see of them online since those are normally in written form rather than video or audio. It also helps that Alessandro has reached out to some of the smaller promotions to talk to some of the wrestlers who get less publicity, especially with the international audience, so that you have the chance to get to know these wrestlers that you may have never heard of before.
If you’re looking for hard-hitting questions about working with other wrestlers and stuff like that, these interviews are normally not going to be what you’re looking for, as the way Japanese wrestlers do interviews is normally quite different from how wrestlers overseas do them. With interviews in the US or the UK for instance, you’ll usually get a lot of out of character answers without the wrestler really thinking about how what they say will affect their on-screen character, while in Japan, wrestlers are a lot more mindful of that sort of thing, and will usually throw in a bit of kayfabe as well. Plus, if you read an interview in Shupro, there’s probably a good chance that you won’t see them ask “what is your charm point?” which is one of the hallmarks of a HypeTalk TV interview. It’s one of those questions that seems to be quite disarming after catching the wrestler off guard at first and sometimes allows their chat to become a bit more informal than they might have thought it would go before. Watching the interviews personally makes me kind of wish I could chat with these wrestlers in the same way, but I feel like my ability to pick up a new language at this time in my life is probably not all that realistic, so instead I’ll have to live vicariously through Alessandro instead.
Wrestling Previews & Reviews With Blitzball Champ
Jason Ingram, otherwise known as Blitzball Champ, has been making content about pro wrestling as a whole for quite some time, and while his focus isn’t always just on joshi wrestling itself, he covers quite a bit of it on his YouTube channel. Jason’s thoughts are always quite well thought out, and while you don’t have to agree with every point he makes, you can definitely understand why someone would feel the way he does as he explains himself. At the time of this writing, he actually recently returned from Japan where he went to watch a lot of pro wrestling events, and it’s been really cool hearing him share stories about them, along with photos of meet & greet opportunities he had after the shows he watched.
As a whole, he has a pretty positive attitude about joshi wrestling as a whole, and I can speak from experience from talking to him, that he, much like most of the content creators, is trying to spread the good word of joshi pro wrestling to people who may not already be fans, as we’re all trying to grow the fanbase as a whole. I mean, at the end of the day, the more success joshi pro wrestling has overall, the more that these awesome athletes will get the recognition that they deserve for what they do to entertain us. Jason’s videos have a range of runtime being as low as around 20 minutes at times, all the way up to over an hour or two, but you know that if you put in the time to watch, you’ll get good in depth coverage of whatever it is that he’s talking about on that piece of content.
That covers the wealth of podcasts and videos that I intake on a somewhat regular basis, but there’s even more out there I’m sure that I don’t even know about. There are also quite a few shows that were around for a bit, but are now on hiatus like Actwres Stage for instance, which was a monthly podcast all about Actwres girl’Z that I really enjoyed.
The main thing is that there’s a lot of people out here trying to cover our favorite niche of pro wrestling, and it’s definitely much appreciated! If anyone feels that their podcast or YouTube channel has been left out because of my ignorance, feel free to let me know on social media because I’m always open to listening to new shows, and I am not meaning to leave anyone out on purpose. If I can help someone find even one new podcast to listen to or a channel to watch on YouTube then I feel like I’ve done my job, so hopefully this will help. As always, stay tuned to ResuraMag.com as we continue to cover the best wrestling in the world, joshi pro wrestling!
