Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling came in blasting with its first show of 2023. It delivered everywhere you’d expect. Hyper Misao vs. Shoko Nakajima was the chaotic, wacky piece of art it should have been. Miu Watanabe flexed her muscles in impressive fashion. And Yuka Sakazaki’s battle with Miyu Yamashita hurled itself into the conversation for best TJPW match ever.
Everyone predicting the promotion thriving in 2023 looks real smart now.
It’s a promising place with new talent on board and the cornerstones continuing to be most excellent. And even as the spotlight grows brighter, TJPW has managed to stay true to itself. This is still the home for cute, crazytown, vibes, even while it grows into a joshi powerhouse.
Let’s take a look at the whole card, complete with recommendations and ramblings, with an eye on what it all means moving forward.
Yuki Aino vs. HIMAWARI
Solid debut for HIMAWARI of Actwres girl’Z.
She’s got a funky, fun look and plenty of infectious energy. And as we saw here against Aino, she has potential in the ring, too.
HIMAWARI served as the underdog with Aino outpowering her for most of the bout. The in-ring narrative played up her disadvantage in the experience department. She was fighting uphill the whole time and was pretty engaging in that role.
Rising up the TJPW ranks isn’t going to be easy with all the new faces getting added of late, but HIMAWARI gave us reason to believe she’ll do just that.
Arisu Endo and Wakana Uehara vs. Juria Nagano and Moka Miyamoto
Watching this match, I kept thinking about how bright the company’s future is.
You got last year’s super-rookie Nagano improving at a speedy clip. The newcomer Wakana looked like she belonged in there with everyone else. Endo was in there doing STARDOM High-Speed-esque stuff. And Moka is really putting it together.
The Karate Girls took control for most of the action, beating up on Wakana, punishing her with strikes. That gave Wakana a chance to try to garner emotion from the crowd while working underneath. She did a decent job, especially given how green she is.
The pace was good through all of it, showcasing all four talents along the way.
Haruna Neko, Pom Harajuku and Raku vs. Kaya Toribami, Mahiro Kiryu and Nao Kakuta
If you asked a TJPW fan to imagine this match beforehand and write down all the beats, they’d likely be spot on.
This was a middle-of-the-show filler with all the wrestlers inserting their usual shtick. The Neko catwalk, the Pom comedy bits, Mahiro apologizing. We got all the usual fare here with nothing standing out other than Raku’s new Juice Robinson-esque additions to her gear.
If you’re not a big Pom head or Raku disciple, skip this and move onto the meat of the card.
Shoko Nakajima vs. Hyper Misao (New Year Rabbits Match)
God bless these two maniacs.
This was a ladder match and later a lumberjack match and finally a weapons-allowed bout, but more importantly, Nakajima vs. Misao was an exploration of the absurd. Every year when these two meet on Jan. 4, they do their best to push things into weirder and weirder territory.
You get stuffed bunnies, rubber mallets, kaiju toys positioned for maximum destruction. A scooter to the spine. A referee as confused as all of us.
I legit laughed out loud at some of the stunts. The title matches might get the lion’s share of the buzz coming out of the show, but I recommend sampling this silly adventure, too.
Mizuki vs. Rika Tatsumi vs. Maki Itoh vs. Yuki Kamifuku vs. Hikari Noa vs. Suzume (Princess Of Princess Title #1 Contendership Battle Royal)
Typical battle royal vibe and pace until it got down to Maki Itoh and Mizuki and damn did things get intense. You can’t help but feel how important challenging for the POP is to these two in those moments.
They tear at each other, animalistic, desperate. Just as it should be.
Maki would have made sense if TJPW had planned to have Miyu win the belt at the end of the night. With Yuka as champion, the obvious move is to have her Magical Sugar Rabbit teammate come out of this and face her once more.
And sidenote, just like year, Suzume shined despite not being the focus. Her time will come eventually. The Queen Bee agenda is real!
Miu Watanabe (c) vs. Trish Adora (International Princess Championship)
TJPW had itself a mighty fine 2022 in part because of the foreign talent it brought in. That trend is continuing apparently with Adora, one of the most intriguing talents on the indies, coming in to face Miu for the international title.
This was a beautifully laid out match.
Miu is used to outmuscling everyone but couldn’t do that against the bruiser that is Adora. She had to take all of Adora’s power moves and keep fighting, proving herself in a frenzied comeback.
A really good match was the result with Adora looking like a no-brainer to bring in again. Watanabe, meanwhile, looked like a legit star, the kind of warrior everyone pulls for. She has the chance to make the International Princess Championship something special much in the way Shinsuke Nakamura changed what the IWGP IC belt was.
Saki Akai and Yuki Arai (c) vs. Heidi Howitzer vs. Max The Impaler (Princess Tag Team Championship)
A dominant, unsettling win for the two monstrous challengers. Max and Heidi thrived as the predators; Akai and Arai won hearts over with their fighting spirit.
It’s not a match that will net a bunch of stars from critics, but an interesting spectacle.
The result and the aftermath are what should get people talking, though. Wasteland War Party whooped the champs. They looked downright unbeatable.
But Akai shoving her face in Max’s mug, refusing to back down after the bell hints at this story not being over. Could we see Reiwa AA Cannon charge back with hearts ablaze? Are the first-ever foreign TJPW champs going to just swallow up the whole division?
Color me intrigued for all of it.
Yuka Sakazaki (c) vs. Miyu Yamashita
(Princess of Princess Championship)
This was some high-level shit, y’all.
Two special talents had some of their best work with a match heavy on violence and all kinds of homerun big moves. Yuka vs. Miyu was a match built around the “iron sharpens iron” philosophy. Each had to bring their best and spend every drop of energy to try and top the other. They kept pushing each other to get more brutal, more resistant to the pain they caused each other.
Yuka has always been presented as a top star, but she’s put on another level after this. You handle the End Boss like this and the narrative around you shifts. You beat the best enough and you eventually lay claim to that title yourself.
An instant classic. Stay tuned for a full, pretentious column on this match on Wrestle Inn soon.
After the bell, Yuka (who was soon joined by Mizuki) cut an emotional promo about next facing her long-time friend. Mizuki vs. Yuka at Wrestle Princess remains one of the best stories told in a TJPW ring. The sequel promises to be even better. Praise be the wrestling gods.
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.