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.
