Tokyo Joshi Pro continues their “City Circuit” series today as part of a busy weekend for wrestling in Nagoya, and since they are in the hometown of all-girl J-pop megagroup SKE48, the group that counts Yuki Arai among its members will have a big presence today. Arai herself will join 4 of her “teammates” for a special live mini-concert during the event, then she and Saki Akai will try and defend the Princess Tag Team Championship against Yuki Kamifuku & Mahiro Kiryu. Both challengers have beaten Arai in recent weeks so the momentum is not on the champions’ side. Can Arai’s teammates help lift AA Eye Candy to a first successful defense? And vocal support will be allowed too so hopefully the fans can cheer Arai on to victory!
Today’s event will be held at Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. The commentary team will be Haruo Murata & Kagehiro Osano, with Arai’s fellow SKE48 teammate Marika Tani as a special guest on commentary (she will also be a guest for DDT’s event after this one). Note that the SKE48 performance during the event will be available as part of the on demand replay for only one month after today. Since there is a DDT event shortly after this event it can’t run too long but it will be longer than usual-I anticipate the running time being around 2 1/2 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Maki Itoh vs. Arisu Endo
Yuki Aino vs. Nao Kakuta & Neko Haruna in a 3-way
Hikari Noa vs. Moka Miyamoto
Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao vs. Miyu Yamashita & Raku
Yuka Sakazaki, Mizuki & Pom Harajuku vs. Rika Tatsumi, Miu Watanabe & Suzume
Princess Tag Team Champions Yuki Arai & Saki Akai vs. Yuki Kamifuku & Mahiro Kiryu for the titles
SKE48 live performance featuring Yuki Arai and 4 other members. This will probably come around the middle of the event
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Updates below will begin at 11:30 PM ET/8:30 PM PT. The live stream is scheduled to launch at 11 PM ET/8 PM PT.
11:15 PM ET UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya, Japan. Your hosts are Haruo Murata, Kagehiro Osano & Marika Tani (who is of course wearing a cute Yuki Arai t-shirt to support her SKE48 teammate).
The paid attendance will be announced after the event, but based on advance sales it could be a legit sellout. If not, it’ll be close, so possibly right around 1000. (It’s not a legit sellout, but looks like at least 95% full)
The first match should begin in 25-30 minutes.
The first match begins just after 11:40 PM ET.
Match 1: Maki Itoh vs. Arisu Endo. 15 minute time limit
Result: Maki Itoh beat Arisu Endo
Match 2: Yuki Aino vs. Nao Kakuta & Neko Haruna in a 3-way. 20 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Aino beat Nao Kakuta & Neko Haruna in a 3-way by pinning Haruna.
Time for the SKE48 live mini-concert performance! The first song performed is their hit song “Finally”. No English title for the second song. The third song performed is called “Stand by you”. The vocal crowd is making this an AWESOME performance. I know they’re trying to keep the coronavirus in check but the increase in vocal support allowed at wrestling events in Japan is a big step towards normalcy and restoring an important tradition in the sport. Afterwards, the girls have some fun with ring announcer Sayuri Namba & Miu Watanabe, then Maki Itoh comes out. It’s well known that Itoh is not a fan of Arai in the ring. After this and photo ops for the ringside media, one more song. This concludes the performance, which went just over 20 minutes total. Remember you only have one month to watch this portion of the event on demand! (DDT’s website noted afterwards that Itoh will be MC for the SSKE48 14th Anniversary Festival on 9/25)
And now back to the wrestling…
Match 3: Hikari Noa vs. Moka Miyamoto. 15 minute time limit
Result: Hikari Noa beat Moka Miyamoto
Match 4: Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao vs. Miyu Yamashita & Raku. 20 minute time limit
Result: Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao beat Miyu Yamashita & Raku. Nakajima pinned Raku with a Northern Lights suplex hold.
Match 5: Yuka Sakazaki, Mizuki & Pom Harajuku vs. Rika Tatsumi, Miu Watanabe & Suzume. 20 minute time limit
Reslut; Rika Tatsumi, Miu Watanabe & Suzume beat Yuka Sakazaki, MiUki & Pom Harajuku. Watanabe pinned Harajuku after Teardop.
Main Event: Princess Tag Team Champions Yuki Arai & Saki Akai vs. Yuki Kamifuku & Mahiro Kiryu for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: Princess Tag Team Champions Yuki Arai & Saki Akai beat Mahiro Kiryu & Yuki Kamifuku to retain the titles. Arai pinned Kiryu after Finally. V1 for the champs. And all’s well that ends well in Nagoya today. And in a few hours, Akai will be back going for the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship in DDT. Next up: TBA. No challengers emerged and the crowd goes home happy. And best of all, Arai is still a champion.
The next event is a TJPW INSPIRATION event on 9/11 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo, the latest in their series of occasional special events that feature mostly comedy matches and outsider participation and are much shorter events-this one has just 4 matches scheduled, so it will only go about an hour. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Saturday at 11:30 PM ET/8:30 PM PT.
UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 640, a legit sellout. Did I ever grossly overestimate! But they still were just a few empty seats from 100% full, I’d say pess than 20.
