Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling has announced the 9th Tokyo Princess Cup, their annual singles tournament featuring the entire TJPW roster. Normally it features the entire roster, which is currently 22, but only 20 entrants are set for this year and it guarantees a new champion this year. That is because defending winner Maki Itoh is out because she was invited to participate in Game Changer Wrestling in the US on August 14, which is the same date as the Finals. Itoh will go to the US to contribute to TJPW by appearing overseas and will miss the tournament as a result. Rookie Juria Nagano will also not participate due to schedule reasons. That and recent history would suggest Mizuki will be the favorite going in-the only reason she may very well not have been going for a 4-peat this year is Itoh, who beat Mizuki in last year’s Semifinals to deny her a potential 3rd straight tournament win.
The schedule for this year’s tournament is as follows:
Rounds 1-2: 7/16, 7/17, 7/18 at Ryogoku KFC Hall & 7/23 at Shinjuku Face
Quarterfinals: 7/31 at Otemachi Mitsui Hall
Semifinals: 8/13 at Korakuen Hall
Finals: 8/14 at Korakuen Hall
Round 1 will have 4 matches over each of the first 2 events. Because of the number of participants, 4 will get a free pass to Round 2. After the Quarterfinals, there likely will be a random draw to set up the Semifinals. The eventual winner will likely earn a Princess Of Princess Championship match unless the current champion wins (that will be either Shoko Nakajima or Rika Tatsumi).
