Following up on a hint dropped in the preview for Sunday’s event, Tokyo Joshi Pro announced today that International Princess Champion Maki Itoh is returning to the US later this month, and this time she’s bringing bestie/frenemy Miyu Yamashita with her. They will be appearing in Portland, OR on 5/28 and 5/29 US time for local independent PRESTIGE Wrestling. On 5/28, Itoh will defend the International Princess Championship against former WWE star and indy standout Mia Yim, who was recently let go by WWE and apparently has not yet followed fiance Keith Lee to All Elite Wrestling (Itoh made a couple appearances in AEW during their pandemic stay in Jacksonville, FL as part of a #1 Contender Tournament for the AEW Women’s Championship and has an 0-2 AEW record). This is significant for the title because it’s the first time a defense will happen outside TJPW, which was one of the plans for the championship before the coronavirus pandemic derailed those plans. Yamashita will face indy and Impact Wrestling star Masha Slamovich on 5/28.
On 5/29, Yamashita & Itoh will face each other for the first time since WRESTLE PRINCESS 2 in October. Presumably this will be a non-title match if Itoh retains.
As a result, both will miss the 5/29 TJPW event at Otemachi Mitsui Hall in Tokyo.
The events will be available to stream worldwide on the IWTV streaming service, which I believe costs around $15/month. No word on when/if their matches will become available on WRESTLE INIVERSE.
