Tokyo Joshi Pro’s biggest event of the year, GRAND PRINCESS ’24, is now in the books.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English.
The announced paid attendance was 2349. Given the setup (this is only the second time they’ve run the venue-the first was during the pandemic in 2022, they held this event at Ariake Arena last year), and the lower half of the venue was set up for only about 15% of normal capacity, this is actually very good. (The Kokugikan’s lower level box seats normally hold 4-6 people for sumo tournaments, but they used them as single person seats, plus the setup took away one of the 4 sections) The lower level was almost completely sold out.
Match 1: Haru Kazashiro, Runa Okubo & Uta Takami beat Chika Nanase, Kira Summer & Shino Suzuki. Kazashiro pinned Nanase with a fisherman’s suplex hold.
Match 2: Ami Yumoto Debut Match: Nao Kakuta & Ami Yumoto beat Mahiro Kiryu & HIMAWARI. Kakuta pinned HIMAWARI after Shiden Kai. Yumoto is a member of all-girl J-Pop group AKB48, the parent group of the numerous spinoffs like SKE48, and the Guinness World Record holder for biggest music/idol group in terms of members.
Match 3: Raku & Pom Harajuku beat Andreza Giant Panda & Kaya Toribami. Raku pinned Toribami after Doctor Yellow. Panda & Toribami were seconded by Neko Haruna, who is out long-term due to injuries.
An SKE48 mini-live performance was held, featuring Yuki Arai and Marika Tani, who was a special guest on Japanese commentary for WRESTLE UNIVERSE. Tani is about to leave the group so this was one of her final performances with them if not the last (she is what the Japanese call graduating, a polite way of usually saying not fired or retiring, but moving on in her career). (This portion will probably be removed from on demand in about a month, so watch it quickly if you missed it live)
Match 4: Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano beat Wakana Uehara & Toga. Miyamoto pinned Toga after Norokan.
Match 5: Masha Slamovich (TNA Wrestling) beat Rika Tatsumi.
Match 6: Aja Kong (OZ Academy) & Max The Impaler beat Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao. Kong pinned Misao after a diving elbow drop.
Match 7: Minoru Suzuki beat Maki Itoh by ref stoppage (technical submission). Post-match, Suzuki continued “breaking” Itoh’s fingers until she apologized for her behavior backstage.
Match 8: Yuka Sakazaki (All Elite Wrestling) & Mizuki beat Emi Sakura (All Elite Wrestling) & Chris Brookes (DDT). Mizuki pinned Sakura after Aquamarine. This was a one-time return for Sakazaki, who left TJPW in December to continue her career internationally, which unfortunately hadn’t really happened yet due to injuries (concussion).
Intermission (15 minutes). It was also announced that the summer blowout event, SUMMER SUN PRINCESS ’24, will be held on 7/20 at Korakuen Hall.
Match 9: International Princess Champion Yuki Arai beat Yuki Kamifuku to retain the title. V2 for Arai. The right Yuki won, which makes me very happy.
Match 10: Suzume & Arisu Endo beat Princess Tag Team Champions Yuki Aino & Ryo Mizunami to win the titles. Suzume & Endo become the 16th Princess Tag Team Champions. Suzume pinned Mizunami after Ring A Bell. They lost their prior best chance at the titles due to other wrestler injuries and got put into a 3-way instead that cost them a fair shot at the titles. Now they get redemption.
Main Event: Miu Watanabe beat Princess Of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita to win the title. Watanabe becomes the 14th Princess Of Princess Champion. TRIPLE CROWN! Watanabe has now become only the second wrestler in TJPW history to win all 3 of the promotion’s titles in her career-the other one is Rika Tatsumi. Her dream has come true…this is also an incredibly big win for Up Up Girls, the promotion’s mini-music group Watanabe is the unofficial leader of. Just wonderful on so many levels, an exciting future to look forward to as TJPW prepares to enter it’s 11th year. Afterwards, all the wrestlers gathered on stage for the closing group photo as Watanabe thanked the fans for coming. Yamashita is now leaving for another extended tour of the US and will not return until at least mid-June.
The next event is TJPW LIVE IN PHILLY Friday at Penns Landing Caterers in Philadelphia, PA, part of Game Changer Wrestling’s “The Collective” taking place over WrestleMania week this next week in the city. Live streaming will be only on Triller+, the paid subscription service of TrillerTV fka FITE, available worldwide for $7.99/month or $79.99/year, beginning at 8 AM PT/11 AM ET. It will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. The event is a legit advance sellout. I will try to do live results but will not be able to watch live due to work conflicts. After this TJPW will participate in GCW with a co-branded GCW vs. TJPW event Saturday, also available only on Triller+, at the same venue with that event beginning at 11:30 AM PT/2:30 PM ET. Live results are tentatively scheduled (I have some potential schedule conflicts that morning but hopefully those will be out of the way in time).