With an emotional weekend in Nagoya in the books as Yuki Arai said goodbye to SKE48 after over a decade, Tokyo Joshi Pro returned to Tokyo today for an outdoor event.
Today’s event was held at Ueno Park Outdoor Stage in Tokyo and will be available on drmand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Saturday. There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 136.
There were last-minute changes to the card due to Pom Harajuku being pulled off the event. The always-vague poor health. Antonio Honda was also a last-minute removal. Chronic illness. A.YAZAWA was the replacement.
Match 1: Suzume & Neko Haruna beat Toga & Chika Namase. Suzume pinned Nanase after Ring A Bell.
Match 2: Maki Itoh & Yuki Kamifuku beat Kira Summer & Ivy Steele. Itoh beat Steele with Itoh Deluxe.
Match 3: Arisu Endo beat Uta Takami & Miu Watanabe in a 3-way by pinning Takami.
Match 4: Miyu Yamashita & Moka Miyamoto beat Wakana Uehara & Mifu Ashida. Yamashita pinned Ashida after Attitude Adjustment.
Match 5: In a Rock & Roll Deathmatch, where all wrestlers must rock out when music played, Rika Tatsumi & Mahiro Kiryu beat A.YAZAWA & Trans-Am Hiroshi. Tatsumi pinned YAZAWA.
Main Event: In a 3 event competition that detetmined which team could win the actual match with 1 count pinfalls or 2 count pinfalls. Mizuki, Yuki Aino, Raku, Haru Kazashiro & Shino Suzuki beat Shoko Nakajima, Hyper Misao, Kaya Toribami, Yoshiko Hasegawa & HIMAWARI. First event: Mizuki team wins a Ball Insertion conpetition 5-2. Second event: In a 2-legged wrestling 2 count pinfalls match, Nakajima team wins (Nakajima & Hasegawa pinned Kazashiro & Suzuki). Third event: Nakajima team won a baton relay race. That meant Nakajima team could win with 1 count pinfalls, Mizuki team with 2 count pinfalls. Match result: Raku pinned Misao.
The next event is Saturday at Hiroshima Sangyo Kaikan in Hiroshima. Shoko Nakajima, Uta Takami & HIMAWARI will miss the event as they are headed to the US early for other events ahead of The Collective. There will be no live broadcast.
In other news, as soon as Arai left SKE48 she announced the official idol-rite-of-passage: Her first sexy modeling photobook. Shot on location in Indonesia, it has all kinds of content-swimsuits, lingerie, implied nudity, all you’d expect from a gravure idol. It’s been all over Japanese media since Arai announced it herself. On sale in Japan on 5/23. (UPDATE: She’s announced that it’s already hit #1 on the Amazon Japan bestseller chart as a preorder) She will return to TJPW full-time in May but will be on the US event in Las Vegas, NV on 4/18. and it was announced her US debut match will be against Arisu Endo. The event will have 7 matches including 3 title matches. Broadcast plans TBA but I expect the live broadcast will be only on TrillerTV/FITE with a Triller+ membership which is $7.99/month or $71.99/year. The event is scheduled for 4/18 at 11 AM PT/2 PM ET.
It was also announced that Matcha & Alexis Lee will participate in TJPW on 5/3 & 5/5. Matches TBA.
UPDATE: WRESTLE UNIVERSE has extended the PPV viewing period for the 3/30 Yuki Arai SKE48 performance. Originally to end this weekend, the viewing period has been extended until 4/13 at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET and you can now purchase the replay until 25 hours prior. I highly recommend it.
