Tag: tjpw

Tokyo Joshi Pro has announced the field for the 4th Futari-wa Princess Max Heart Tournament, the promotion’s annual tag team tournament. There will be 11 teams this year comprising the entire roster except for Maki Itoh (injured), Hikari Noa (injured/illness), Yuki Aino (current Princess Tag Team Champion and probably because no Ryo Mizunami participation as co-Champion) & Runa Okubo (on hiatus to focus on education).

The full field:
Miyu Yamashita & Toga
Yuki Arai & Wakana Uehara
Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe
Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao
Mizuki & Shino Suzuki
Yuki Kamifuku & Mahiro Kiryu
Nao Kakuta & HIMAWARI
Raku & Pom Harajuku
Suzume & Arisu Endo
Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano
Kaya Toribami & Haru Kazashiro

The tournament is single-elimination bracket format with 6 teams facing off in Round 1 and the other 5 going straight to the Quarterfinals. Matchups will be determined by random draw at a later date.

Unless something happens, the winning team will face Aino & Mizunami for the Princess Tag Team Championship at a later date, probably at GRAND PRINCESS ’24 on 3/31. Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh won last year’s edition but won’t repeat because no Itoh (she would not have participated anyway because she was to have been in the US the rest of January). On paper Tatsumi/Watanabe are the early favorites and have won the tournament before followed by Suzume/Endo as sleepers.

The schedule is as follows:
1/20 (Club eX in Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo): Round 1 and one Quarterfinals
1/21 (Club eX): Remaining 3 Qurterfinals
1/27 (Ryogoku KFC Hall, Tokyo): Semifinals
2/10 (Korakuen Hall, Tokyo): Finals

At a press conference in Tokyo today, Juria Nagano announced she is leaving Tokyo Joshi Pro and quitting wrestling this spring. Nagano has always been a part-time wrestler due to her other work as an actress and nurse, and is quitting to focus more on acting/entertainment but also due to personal reasons. It’s essentially retiring without saying retiring as she says she will be done with wrestling, hence TJPW calling it “graduating”.

She will work the following events before leaving: 1/20 (Club eX in Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo), 1/27 (Korakuen Hall), 2/10 (Korakuen), 3/31 (Ryogoku Kokugikan) and finish up on 4/13 (Kitazawa Town Hall, Tokyo).

Tokyo Joshi Pro holds their first TJPW INSPIRATION event of the year today, part of their series of occasional mini-events focusing more on comedy matches and types of matches you aren’t likely to see often in the promotion. The events normally have only 3 or 4 matches and run just over an hour. Today’s event was to have been headlined by Hikari Noa vs. Masha Slamovich in some kind of deathmatch, but Noa is off due to the ever-vague poor physical condition/health. Max The Impaler is the replacement and it will be a regular match. The match of note is a 6-woman battle royal with Mizuki, Maki Itoh, Miu Watanabe, Rika Tatsumi, Shoko Nakajima & Yuki Kamifuku-the winner will main event GRAND PRINCESS ’24 on 3/31 and get a shot at Princess Of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita at the biggest event of the year.

Today’s event will be held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. There will be no commentary. These are very short events with only 4 matches and they typically have 10-15 minute time limits, so if you’re in the western US keep your Friday night plans for after this event as it should have a running time of only about 75 minutes. The promotion is predicting the event will run around 90 minutes.

Today’s lineup:
Pom Harajuku vs. Kuishinbo Kamen (Osaka Pro)
Miyu Yamashita & Yuki Aino vs. HIMAWARI & Toga
Battle Royal. Participants: Mizuki, Maki Itoh, Miu Watanabe, Rika Tatsumi, Shoko Nakajima, Yuki Kamifuku. The winner will face Princess Of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita for the title on 3/31 (Update-see below)
Max The Impaler vs. Masha Slamovich (TNA)

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET.

PRE-SHOW UPDATE (1:45 PM PT/4:45 PM ET): Maki Itoh is now off the event due to injury. Arm. Out indefinitely but her planned excursion back to the US the rest of the month is now also off. MRI conducted today after complaining of numbness in the arm after the 1/4 event where she lost to Rina Yamashita. According to TJPW, a full diagnosis and return tineframe is pending but she will rest for now. The battle royal will go forward with just 5 today and there will be no replacement.

6 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Shinjuku Face in Tokyo, Japan. There is no commentary.

The pair attendance will be announced after the event. What we can see on screen looks close to full except below the camera. DDT here did 255 earlier today so I’m guessing this will do close to that, around 250. Hard camera view only. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 374, a super full house/very near sellout)

The matches should begin shortly. It starts with Sayuri Namba’s usual pre-match rundown & announcements, then someone is brought in to preview the lineup. This went on for about 15 minutes. No Up Up Girls performance today. Lineup order changed so the battle royal is now the main event.

The matches begin at 6:20 PM PT/9:20 PM ET.

Match 1: Miyu Yamashita & Yuki Aino vs. HIMAWARI & Toga. 20 minute time limit
Result: Miyu Yamashita & Yuki Aino beat HIMAWARI & Toga. Yamashita pinned HIMAWARI after Attitude Adjustment.

Match 2: Pom Harajuku vs. Kuishinbo Kamen (Osaka Pro). 15 minute time limit
Result: Pom Harajuku beat Kuishinbo Kamen. Comedy match. Harajuku is dressed up like Kamen, a masked clown wrestler. Harajuku won after the referee superkicked Kamen and counted fast on a Harajuku rollup. You read that right, the ref superkicked Kamen. Afterwards, Harajuku with microphone. It almost immediately turned into a comedy skit.

Match 3: Max The Impaler vs. Masha Slamovich (TNA Wrestling). 20 minute time limit
Result: No Contest. Ref assault by both after Max introduced a chair then they brawled through the venue and out of the audience area.

Quick break for restoring order and referee recovery from what just happened.

Main Event: Battle Royal. Participants: Mizuki, Miu Watanabe, Rika Tatsumi, Shoko Nakajima, Yuki Kamifuku. Pinfalls, submissions and over the top rope eliminations. The winner will face Princess Of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita for the title on 3/31. No time limit
Order of elimination: Nakajima by Mizuki (over the top rope), Mizuki by Tatsumi (over the top rope), Tatsumi by Kamifuku (rollup), Kamifuku by Watanabe (Teardrop)
Result: Miu Watanabe wins. As a result, Watanabe will face Miyu Yamashita at GRAND PRINCESS ’24 for the Princess Of Princess Championship. Only a select very few have been TJPW Triple Crown champions in their career by winning all 3 titles in the promotion. Watanabe now has a chance to join them. Afterwards, Yamashita came back out for the initial promo for that match. Handshake turned into fighting words and a stare then she left the ring and Watanabe finished with her victory comments to end the event. A very exciting main event to come and I’m looking forward to it!

The next event is 1/13 at Kobe Art Center in Kobe. There will be no live broadcast.

The biggest day of the year in Japanese pro wrestling kicks off with Tokyo Joshi Pro opening 2024 with their first blowout event of the year. 3 big title matches headline a 10-match extravaganza today-first, in a match that will have me on pins & needles, Yuki Arai challenges International Princess Champion Max The Impaler for the title. Can the Genius Girl solve the Non-Binary Nightmare? Then, what was to have been a Princess Tag Team Championship match between Nao Kakuta & Hikari Noa and Suzume & Arisu Endo is now a 3-way for the titles because Kakuta & Noa vacated the titles due to Noa being out indefinitely (the always vague poor health/physical condition). Suzune & Endo will face Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi and Ryo Mizunami & Yuki Aino for the titles. In the main event, Miyu Yamashita defends the Princess Of Princess Championship against Masha Slamovich. This will also be the final event for Runa Okubo for now. The rookie will be away for the near future to focus on her education (high school entrance exams) and is planning to return in March.

Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. Arai’s SKE48 teammate Marika Tani will be a guest on Japanese commentary. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube. Fans will be allowed to throw streamers into the ring but they just announced it won’t be allowed during only the 4th match due to the nature of the match. There will be a post-event gathering/autograph session afterwards at a nearby venue. Although this event will be over in time for fans to get to (or ready for) Tokyo Dome they do caution it’s going to be a longer event than normal. With the plans for the post-event party they may have to push that back a little but plan on this event going roughly 3 hours. (Pre-show mote: TJPW is saying around 3 hours runtime for today’s event, which would leave maybe 90 minutes until Tokyo Dome afterwards)

Today’s lineup:
Yuki Kamifuku, Mahiro Kiryu & Toga vs. Moka Miyamoto, Juria Nagano & Kaya Toribami
Raku, Ram Kaichow & Pom Harajuku vs. HIMAWARI, Haru Kazashiro & Runa Okubo
Mizuki vs. Nao Kakuta
Shoko Nakajima vs. Hyper Misao
Riho vs. Shino Suzuki
Aja Kong vs. Wakana Uehara
Rina Yamashita vs. Maki Itoh
International Princess Champion Max The Impaler vs. Yuki Arai for the title
Suzume & Arisu Endo vs. Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe and Ryo Mizunami & Yuki Aino in a 3-way for the vacant Princess Tag Team Championship
Princess Of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita vs. Masha Slamovich for the title

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 5:30 PM PT/8:30 PM ET. The event is scheduled to begin at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET.

5:30 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has started. We should be going to the venue in about 15 minutes.

5:45 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Haruo Murata, Kagehiro Osano, Sayoko Mita & special guest Marika Tani (SKE48). Your English hosts are Baliyan Akki & Mr. Haku.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s a slightly modified reduced capacity setup as usual so won’t be in the 4 digits, plus a Stardom event is about to start too, but looks like a good crowd so far. Probably will be around 700. Will not be a sellout but looks like it will wind up being close. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1235, a super full house/very near sellout. Blew my estimate away and then some)

The matches should start in about 20 minutes.

No match lineup video as usual for Korakuen, Sayuri Namba handles it today as she usually does for other events.

The matches begin at 6:15 PM PT/9:15 PM ET.

Match 1: Yuki Kamifuku, Mahiro Kiryu & Toga vs. Moka Miyamoto, Juria Nagano & Kaya Toribami. 20 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Kamifuku, Mahiro Kiryu & Toga beat Moka Miyamoto, Juria Nagano & Kaya Toribami. Kamifuku pinned Toribami after Fameasser.

Match 2: Raku, Ram Kaichow (666) & Pom Harajuku vs. HIMAWARI, Haru Kazashiro & Runa Okubo. 20 minute time limit
Result: Raku, Ram Kaichow & Pom Harjauku beat HIMAWARI, Haru Kazashiro & Runa Okubo. Raku pinned Kazashiro after Doctor Yellow.

The YouTube broadcast ends here.

Match 3: Mizuki vs. Nao Kakuta. 15 minute time limit
Result: Mizuki beat Nao Kakuta

Match 4: Shoko Nakajima vs. Hyper Misao. Some kind of ladder match with a Daruma hanging above the ring. 15 minute time limit
Result: Shoko Nakajima beat Hyper Misao. Retrieving the Daruma. Comedy match largely involving Misao riding her new and improved Hyper Bike all throughout Korakuen Hall. Nice guided tour!

Match 5: Riho (All Elite Wrestling) vs. Shino Suzuki. 15 minute time limit
Result: Riho beat Shino Suzuki by submission

Match 6: Aja Kong (OZ Academy) vs. Wakana Uehara. 15 minute time limit
Result: Aja Kong beat Wakana Uehara

Match 7: Rina Yamashita (Independent/Freelancer/Game Changer Wrestling) vs. Maki Itoh. 20 minute time limit
Result: Rina Yamashita beat Maki Itoh

Match 8: International Princess Champion Max The Impaler vs. Yuki Arai for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Arai beat International Princess Champion Max The Impaler to win the title. Arai becomes the 12th International Princess Champion. FINALLY!!! SHE DID IT!!! A long-awaited measure of revenge. Last year on this date Max & Heidi Howitzer beat Arai & Saki Akai to win the Princess Tag Team Championship and Max also stole Arai’s prized hairpin. After this, Max returned the hairpin in an honorable gesture. Now Arai has it back and she is finally a singles champion. And I broke down crying very happy tears of joy. It’s all worth it now.

Match 9: Suzume & Arisu Endo vs. Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe and Ryo Mizunami (Independent/Freelancer) & Yuki Aino in a 3-way for the vacant Princess Tag Team Championship. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Aino & Ryo Mizunami beat Suzume & Arisu Endo and Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi in a 3-way, when Aino pinned Endo, to win the Princess Tag Team Championship. Aino & Mizunami become the 15th Princess Tag Team Champions. Kinda feel bad for Suzume & Endo because they lost a good chance to win when Hikari Noa & Nao Kakuta had to vacate the titles and cost them a shot and instead they got put into a 3-way here instead that really stacked the deck against them. They’ll be back.

Main Event: Princess Of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita vs. Masha Slamovich for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: Princess Of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita beat Masha Slamovich to retain the title. V3 for Yamashita. The onscreen graphics on the stream incorrectly spelled Masha’s last name as “Alamovich”. When it was over, Masha made it clear she wanted one more match. Next up: The winner of a 6 person battle royal Saturday, meaning it will be one of these: Mizuki, Maki Itoh, Miu Watanabe, Rika Tatsumi, Yuki Kamifuku, Shoko Nakajima. That title match will happen at GRAND PRINCESS ’24 on 3/31 at Ryogoku Kokugikan. Just not Mizuki or Itoh again please…

The next event is a TJPW INSPIRATION stand-alone event Saturday at Shinjuku Face. It is supposed to be headlined by Slamovich vs. Hikari Noa in some form of deathmatch but that is questionable because of Noa’s status as she may be off the event due to the ever-vague poor health/physical condition that caused her to miss today. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Friday at 5:45 PM PT/8:45 PM ET with live results scheduled.

UPDATE: The Noa-Slamovich Death Match Saturday is now off. Noa remains out and will miss the event. Max The Impaler is the replacement and it will be a normal match.

UPDATE 2: Maki Itoh is now off all events for the next month after Saturday. Returning to the US from 1/13-1/27. Will return on 2/10.

More bad news for DDT & their sub-brands as the body count keeps rising, and as a result, this breaking news: The Tokyo Joshi Pro Princess Tag Team Championship is now VACANT. Previous champions HIkari Noa & Nao Kakuta have vacated the titles because Noa is now off the 1/4/24 event. The ever-vague poor health/poor physical condition. Out indefinitely. Kakuta attended the emergency press conference but Noa did not. They were to have defended the titles against Suzume & Ariseu Endo on 1/4. As a result, there will now be a 3-way between Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe, Suzume & Arisu Endo and Ryo Mizunami & Yuki Aino for the titles and Kakuta will now face Mizuki on 1/4.

Tokyo Joshi Pro wrapped up the CITY CIRCUIT 2023 Tour today with their penultimate event of the year, their annual fan appreciation event. This event featured matches that were all determined by a fan lottery/drawing at the prior event.

Today’s event was held at Kasukabe Fureai Cube in Saitama and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 210.

Miyu Yamashita, Rika Tatsumi & Mizuki all missed the event due to remaining on overseas expeditions to the US and Nao Kakuta missed the event due to scheduling conflicts. All matches had a 7 minute time limit.

In opening announcements, Princess Tag Team Champions Nao Kakuta & Hikari Noa vs. Suzume & Arisu Endo for the titles was added to 1/4 at Korakuen Hall.

Match 1: Arisu Endo beat Haru Kazashiro.

Match 2; Suzume beat HIMAWARI.

Match 3: Shoko Nakajima beat Toga.

Match 4: Yuki Kamifuku beat Runa Okubo & Shino Suzuki in a 3-way by pinning Okubo.

Match 5: Raku vs. Juria Nagano went to a time limit draw.

Match 6: In a match where you had to answer a trivia question right after a 2 count or submission to win, and you could lose on a 1 count while a song was playing after a wrong answer, Hyper Misao beat Kaya Toribami.

Match 7: Mahiro Kiryu vs. Wakana Uehara went to a time limit draw.

Match 8: Yuki Aino beat Pom Harajuku.

Match 9: Maki Itoh vs. Hikari Noa went to a time limit draw.

Main Event: Miu Watanabe beat Moka Miyamoto.

The next event is “Se-No, Marry Christmas! 2023”, their final event of the year, on 12/24 at Ryogoku KFC Hall in Tokyo. Yuki Arai participation has been announced but Nao Kakuta will miss the event due to a stage performance. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Saturday at 10:15 PM PT/1:15 AM ET but the actual start time is subject to change as that is 45 minutes before the event begins (streams normally start 30 minutes before an event, sometimes 15 minutes if there are pre-show matches).

COMBAT PRINCESS USA, Tokyo Joshi Pro’s US return co-promoted with Prestige Wrestling, is now in the books.

Today’s event was held at the Vermont Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA and cam be watched on demand as a PPV on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English (additional purchase required, around $20 US). There were technical issues during the live broadcast so it may be unavailable while a better quality replacement is put up.

The paid attendance has not yet been announced. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 400, a super full house/very near sellout)

Match 1: Max The Impaler & Pom Harajuku beat Rika Tatsumi & Amira. Harajuku pinned Amira after Wasteland War Justis.

Match 2: Trish Adora beat Moka Miyamoto.

Match 3: Mizuki beat Sandra Moon.

Match 4: Miu Watanabe beat Hyan.

Match 5: Princess Tag Team Champions Hikari Noa & Nao Kakuta beat Janai Kai & Shazza McKenzie to retain the titles. Noa pinned McKenzie with a blizzard suplex hold. V3 for the champs.

Match 6: Taya Valkyrie beat Shoko Nakajima.

Main Event: Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly beat Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh. Slamovich pinned Yamashita after a jumping piledriver.

The next event is Sunday at Kasukabe Fureai Cube in Saitama. All the matches were determined by fan lottery at a recent event, thefe will be 11 matches with a 7 minute time limit for each. Yamashita, Mizuki & Tatsumi will miss this event due to remaining overseas while Kakuta will moss the event due to scheduling conflicts. There will be no live broadcast.

Tokyo Joshi Pro held a special aquarium-thened comedy event recently that was premiered for viewing earlier today. This was a previously recorded standalone event.

This event was held at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise in Yokohama and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE as a PPV (separate purchase required). It should be available for all monthly subscribers without additional purchase in a few months.

This was a closed venue event with no fans in attendance.

The format was a best-of-3 match series between teams of 6 led by Yuka Sakazaki & Yuki Arai. Matches were held inside an actual aquarium and were Falls Count Anywhere with no actual ring aka Street Fights, similar to how DDT does their Street Pro Wrestling events.

Match 1: Miu Watanabe & Arisu Endo beat Shoko Nakajima & HIMAWARI. Watanabe beat HIMAWARI with a Canadian backbreaker.

Match 2: Rika Tatsumi & Suzume beat Yuki Arai & Raku. Tatsumi pinned Raku.

Main Event: Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki vs. Hyper Misao & Nao Kakuta went to a no contest. Ref assault by both teams. Draw. Which led to…
Impromptu Match: Yuka Sakazaki, Mizuki, Rika Tatsumi, Suuzume, Shoko Nakajima & HIMAWARI beat Yuki Arai, Raku, Miu Watanabe, Arisu Endo, Hyper Misao & Nao Kakuta. Sakazaki pinned Endo after a running elbow butt. Sakazaki gets sent off with a giant stuffed animal.