Miu Watanabe is in the midst of making the TJPW International Princess Championship something special. She promises to have the best and most memorable reign with that belt in its short history.
Exhibit A: her title defense against American freelancer Janai Kai on the Feb 18 show in Nagoya.
Watanabe had herself another solid performance in a significant spot. We saw the same thing against Moka Miyamoto last year and in January with that power-versus-power battle against Trish Adora.
Miu has all the bubbliness and character TJPW could want, but she also brings it once the bell rings. Against Kai, we saw that on display again. Her eyes glaze over and her legs grow wobbly when she’s on the defensive, sucking you into her predicament then its all big strikes and big babyface fire when it’s time to fight back.
And Watanabe hasn’t even yet had the kind of full-on classic she’s capable of having as champ. It’s been good to real good thus far, but greatness might be next up. Watanabe’s friend and tag partner Rika Tatsumi stepped up to challenger her at Grand Princess.
That’s going to be a barnburner blessed with all that friend-against-friend energy.
The International Princess title doesn’t have that much of a legacy yet. It’s not quite four full years old. COVID slowed its momentum in 2020 and turned Thunder Rosa’s reign into a fat nothing. It doesn’t have a robust catalogue of matches, either.
But Watanabe is in the process of changing that. TJPW’s clearly going to give her fun, foreigner opponents. And the UpUpGirl is going to take advantage of every opportunity. Count on her delivering against Tatsumi and piling on the must-see action during what promises to be a long reign.
She’s a special talent who is going to do for this title what Shinsuke Nakamura did for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Miyu Breaks Through!
Yamashita can now call herself a tournament winner after years of almosts and not-quites thanks to her her victory alongside Maki Itoh in this year’s Max Heart.
In nine tries at the Princess Cup, Yamashita has made it to the semi-finals four times, but never pushed past that point. She and Itoh made it to the finals of the inaugural Max Heart in 2021, losing to NEO Biishiki-Gun, followed by a loss in the second round last year.
Mahiro Kiryu upset Yamashita in this year’s Princess of the Decade tourney. Yuki Aino, of all people, knocked Miyu out in the second round of the Spring Beautiful One Day Tournament back in 2020.
But that’s all forgotten now. The monkey’s off the back. Rejoice and be merry!
WOTY Rankings
1. Miyu Yamashita
2. Shoko Nakajima
3. Miu Watanabe
4. Rika Tatsumi
5. Yuka Sakazaki
Banger Alert
Rika Tatsumi vs. Shoko Nakajima (January 30, Beyond the Origins, Into the Future)
The finals of the Princess of the Decade tournament is easily one of TJPW’s best matches this year.
Take all the chemistry we saw between these two from Summer Sun Princess and funnel into a condensed, high-octane, five-minute match. The stakes, the tournament format, the one-count tiebreaker bonus match: Helluva recipe to work with. The whole tourney was an interesting watch I’d recommend as a whole, but they definitely saved the best for last.
Look, if STARDOM is going to go the New Japan route with the lengthy epics in the main, maybe TJPW should lean heavier into being the short and sweet alternative.
Mini-Mailbag
Out of all the current rookies in TJPW, who do you see winning a championship first?-@ethanvieira
HIMAWARI. Her vibes are going to carry her. She’s already standing out and fitting perfectly into the TJPW roster. The crowd is with her. Her gear is fabulous. Team HIMAWARI all the way.
That’s What They Said
Make away for the aristocracy; Neo Biishiki-Gun is coming back. Karen Murray of Karen Watches Wrestling summed up many a fan’s excitement about Sakisama and company’s return:
Check out my Wrestle Inn column on TJPW celebrating its 10-year anniversary with quotes from Raku, Miyu Yamashita, Miu Watanabe, Maki Itoh, and Yuki Arai.
Ryan Dilbert is a columnist for Wrestle Inn, the host of Flight of 5, co-host of the Ocean Cyclone Show, and a below-average social media user. You can find links to his work on his linktr.ee.