Dramatic DDT

TOKYO JOSHI PRO “GRAND PRINCESS ’26”, 29/03/2026
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

1. Uta Takami Vs Shion Kanzaki
2. Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title – Staggered Entry Battle Royal: Antonio Honda (c) Vs Sumire Uesaka Vs Rika Tatsumi/Great Wakabayashi-kun Vs Raku Vs Mahiro Kiryu Vs Mifu Ashida Vs Kira Summer Vs Chika Nanase Vs Sakura Hattori Vs Matcha Vs Momo Sato Vs Minimo (w/ Mari Yaguchi)
3. HIMAWARI & Shino Suzuki Vs Toga & Ren Konatsu
4. Shoko Nakajima, Yuki Aino & Haru Kazashiro (w/ Ninja Red, Geki Red & Go-On Red) Vs Aja Kong, VENY & Pom Harajuku
5. Mizuki Vs Andreza Giant Panda
6. Miyu Yamashita & Arisu Endo Vs Sareee & Takumi Iroha
7. Special Tag Match: Yuka Sakazaki & KONOSUKE TAKESHITA Vs Hyper Misao & Super Sasadango Machine
8. International Princess Title: MIRAI (c) Vs Suzume
9. Princess Tag Team Titles: Yuki Kamifuku & Wakana Uehara (c) Vs Jessie McKay & Cassie Lee
10. Princess Of Princess Title: Miu Watanabe (c) Vs Yuki Arai

It’s only when I started typing this when I noticed Tokyo Joshi Pro has been running Sumo Hall on a two year cycle this entire time. “GRAND PRINCESS” has been held at Ryogoku in 2022, 2024 and now 2026. The third time looks to be their most ambitious event in the venue with the ultimate goal of reaching a sell out being put in place. I don’t know if the success Stardom got in the building at the end of 2025 has anything to do with it but something prodded TJPW hard enough to get them into marketing their show harder than ever before. We have celebrity and multimedia tie-ins galore on the undercard alongside some new wrestling crossovers that TJPW doesn’t normally go through. Putting it all together is a smorgasbord of different storylines that range from some wrestlers striving to become stronger, others fighting alongside their heroes, a deep throwback to pro wrestling’s Showa days and a main event rivalry that can honest to God find comparisons with King’s Road. Things are looking different compared to the last two Ryogoku shows because TJPW are now firmly trusting their second generation to perform at the top end of the card. Another sign of a new era approaching is the show will debut newly designed belts for the three TJPW championships.

The promotional blitz is all thanks to Super Sasadango Machine. The masked wrestler from DDT is also a savvy business man outside of wrestling with a good reputation for his marketing abilities. TJPW hired him to be the PR Ambassador for this show and he came up with the “Ryogoku Road To Success” Challenge. He approached people from all over the company with tasks, instructions or challenges for them to complete. These ideas would both prepare the wrestlers for their matches while hopefully attract attention and promote the show in the process. The end result is probably the most fun I’ve had seeing a build up for a show like this in a while. Many of the challenges won’t actually apply to the matches themselves once they take place but following everyone’s adventures to get here was a nice way to get more emotional investment in the roster, especially for the lower card wrestlers. Back when DDT first ran Sumo Hall in 2009, part of its success was built on the company being the little engine that could with everyone involved doing their part to sell tickets. It’s silly to call TJPW an underdog with the corporate backing they have these days but given the similar age the company is in here to DDT back then (DDT was 12 years old in 2009, TJPW is currently 12 now), the effort being put in feels like a spiritual successor in a way.

The question I have now going into the show is will this whole thing work out in the box office? TJPW got 1,714 fans in Sumo Hall for 2022 (pandemic era) and 2,349 fans for 2024. Looking at the events page on the TJPW site, a lot of the floor seats have sold out. Although having been in Ryogoku myself recently and seeing first hand what the layout is like, the one person per box seat layout means that isn’t really as big an amount as it sounds. Also pro wrestling is one of those events nowadays where the most expensive tickets almost always sell out to the hardcores even when the standard tickets don’t sell like hot cakes. I personally would be thrilled to see the show at least break the 3,000 mark and go beyond that. I would also be tugging at the collar if it can’t break 2,500 but that’s just projections coming from a fan.

1. Uta Takami Vs Shion Kanzaki

Road To Success Challenge: Shion Kanzaki must perform a live street show by singing and playing the guitar right in the heart of Shinjuku.

We start off with the brightest star of the “Next Generation” taking on the most recent rookie to debut. Uta Takami had been breaking out of the young pack with some in-ring success that is catching up to her endlessly energetic personality. She won the Next Generation Tournament last Autumn and followed up a few months later with a performance that took her all the way to the Max Heart Tournament final. She’s also become creative with her photoshops on Twitter to promote her matches. Now Takami is being entrusted with the opening singles match of the show. Things are looking up (up) for this member of The Up Up Girls.

Shion Kanzaki only just made her debut on 4th January and if there’s a similarity I can make for her, it would be towards HIMAWARI. This is someone who when they only just wrestled their first match, they already looked like a perfect fit for TJPW and fitted in like they’ve already been there this whole time. That doesn’t mean I expect Kanzaki to be giving out Jackhammers like HIMAWARI does anytime soon. She’s still finding herself by fighting up from the bottom. Given her previous history from being in a band, Sasadango instructed her to go sing as a busker in the lively streets of Shinjuku. She was only able to do one song before an unusual interruption brought her session to an end. More will be explained in the next match.

2. Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title – Staggered Entry Battle Royal: Antonio Honda (c) Vs Sumire Uesaka Vs Rika Tatsumi/Great Wakabayashi-kun Vs Raku Vs Mahiro Kiryu Vs Mifu Ashida Vs Kira Summer Vs Chika Nanase Vs Sakura Hattori Vs Matcha Vs Momo Sato Vs Minimo (w/ Mari Yaguchi)

Road To Success Challenge: Tetsuya Koda must find a famous guest from outside of wrestling who is big enough to sell out Ryogoku all by themselves and have them make their pro wrestling debut.

Road To Success Challenge: Rika Tatsumi needs to delve into her inner madness.

Road To Success Challenge: Minimo must master a special move through intensive training!

Road To Success Challenge: Sanshiro Takagi must scout another idol to make her pro wrestling debut.

Where do I even begin with this? I think starting with the Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title makes the most sense. The championship usually belongs to DDT but thanks to the 24/7 rule, a bunch of different events going back to last summer led it to finding a second home in TJPW. DDT recently got their belt back thanks to Antonio Honda but there is paranoia among management (particularly the DDT GM Hisaya Imabayashi) that Honda could end up losing the belt to a New Japan wrestler, which is the last thing DDT wants. At the time of writing Honda is currently the title holder but there are several people hunting him down just so they have a chance to say they will defend a championship inside Sumo Hall this weekend.

Okay class you’ll need to open up your history books because we’re about to delve into 1970s NJPW for this part. TJPW’s boss Tetsuya Koda was tasked by Sasadango to go find a big star for the show. It must be someone famous enough to sell out Sumo Hall by themselves and they also must be from outside the wrestling scene. Koda had no luck finding anyone to pass this challenge and pretty much gave up on it. Then a weird bit of fortune came his way when he accompanied Shion Kanzaki for her Shinjuku busking. As they were promoting the Sumo Hall show, a saber was suddenly thrown their direction. From out of nowhere the famous singer and voice actress Sumire Uesaka (who once sold out Ryogoku with a solo concert) appeared wearing an Indian robe. She attacked Koda with the saber while ranting about the Iron Man Title she once held a year ago. The incident got coverage in Tokyo Sports where it was compared to Tiger Jeet Singh attacking Antonio Inoki at the same Shinjuku spot back in 1973. They interviewed Uesaka where she explained she accidentally grabbed her saber instead of her umbrella before leaving her home that day (we’ve all been there) and she has no memory of anything that happened afterward. However she also revealed she got hooked on Showa era pro wrestling as a teenager after listening to Singh’s entrance song. She loves the dynamic of strong style Japanese wrestlers fighting villainous foreigners of all shapes and sizes. She has no wrestling skills but will bring the saber along with her as a good luck charm. Then when she found out a wrestler with the name Antonio was now the champion, she declared war on him for the belt! Honda’s response is he will target Uesaka’s arm if they have to fight. That way if she ends up getting hurt, an injured arm won’t get in the way of her voice acting career.

Now here is where things get messy. There are so many other people in this match with their own stories to tell! Well, most of them do. Rika Tatsumi was told by Sasadango to go in search of her inner madness. Tatsumi didn’t understand what he meant because according to her, she is a pure idol wrestler and not a psychopath in any way. She went forth on her journey anyway and got to meet her comedy hero Cookie! to learn how to hone in her more insane instincts. The result of this is the creation of a new persona called The Great Wakabayashi-kun and TJPW are expecting Tatsumi to show it off in the Battle Royal. Speaking of new personas, the masked cassowary Kaya Toribami has now turned into a ninja called Sakura Hattori. The change happened when she went to visit ninja master Genichi Mitsuhashi in Iga City for ninja training and then discovered a mysterious faceguard that seemed to possess her. Hattori has since gone on a four match winning streak that happened during the Texas tour while showing some change in personality. She still appears and interacts with others outside of matches but in the ring Hattori has a more aggressive moveset than last time. She needs to be quicker doing the nine hand seals pose on the top rope though. Maybe in her mind she’s doing it lightning fast but in the real world it takes forever before she completes it.

There are special guests taking part in the match too. Matcha is coming over from Thailand to continue TJPW’s working relationship with SETUP. She recently beat Hattori/Toribami to take the IWA Japan SETUP World Tag Team Titles away from K!SS// and this could be their next meeting in the ring. Momo Sato is another celebrity entry. She is here because Sanshiro Takagi was ordered to scout a new idol to make their wrestling debut. Takagi found out that DDT wrestler Daichi Sato has a little sister in the group Harajuku Gakuen who already has some experience with pro wrestling training. When Takagi convinced Momo to take part, Sasadango applauded him for achieving the perfect combination of a nepotism hire with sky high potential. The last piece of pop culture to fill out the field is Minimo-chan, the mascot from the 2000s idol group Minimoni. It will be accompanied by one of its members Mari Yaguchi thanks to a business hookup that took place when TJPW held a show in Malaysia last year. Minimo-chan was instructed by Sasadango to go learn a devastating finishing move for its debut. After some heavy training where Mahiro Kiryu was used as the crash test dummy, Minimo-chan developed a new finishing move called the Drink Some Delicious Milk Pyon! Kick. In the meantime the mascot has been watching AJPW tapes, becoming a big fan of Steve Williams, Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat in the process. So if anybody complains about this match for being too silly, tell them it is directly influenced by the glory days of New Japan and All Japan.

The Battle Royal also has Raku, Mifu Ashida, Kira Summer and Chika Nanase all taking part but to be honest they are all getting overshadowed by the idols, psychos, ninjas, mascots and tributes to pro wrestling from five decades ago… How the fuck does this Battle Royal have more stories to talk about than the Royal Rumble this year?

3. HIMAWARI & Shino Suzuki Vs Toga & Ren Konatsu

Road To Success Challenge: Shino Suzuki must play Rock Paper Scissors against influencers with a combined total of 100,000+ followers on social media and keep playing until she beats three of them.

Road To Success Challenge: To improve her sharpness, Ren Konatsu must take dance lessons at LDH!

I brought up HIMAWARI earlier as a potential path for growth in regards to Kanzaki. Someone who immediately fits in with the company upon debut and gradually work up the card. Another key milestone for a TJPW wrestler like this is to find a connection with another wrestler and form a tag team with them. HIMAWARI did that by forming the Bumping gRitters with Shino Suzuki. They’re still in the early phase where they are pretty much the likeable losers of the division but a match on a show like this is usually a good sign that a team will be moving up a step. The entire build up to this match was pretty much an excuse to find out what the mental breaking point is for Suzuki. Even at the best of times she turns into a cramped up ball of anxiety when thrown into a competitive environment so Sasadango came up with the bright idea to lean into it. He challenged Suzuki to go find influencers with over 100,000 followers and challenge them to games of Rock Paper Scissors (plus an added rule where you have to make them flinch in the right direction after winning). Suzuki would need to keep on doing this until she could beat three influencers. She eventually passed the challenge with a 3-2 record and hopefully she will come out of the experience with a newly enforced iron will. Although I’m struggling to think of any situation where picking scissors will beat taking an Elbow Strike from Toga.

Toga has spent the last few months levelling up in her own way. She formed a tag team with Yuna Manase called Hot Shot and the relationship allowed her to make a rare outside appearance in order to wrestle on a Ganbare☆Pro show. With some new experiences boldening her up, Toga wanted to prove she can go win by herself. She’s continuing to find new ways of stretching her wings by taking an outside booking at Las Vegas during Wrestlemania Week too. She might wind up being a good influence for a rookie like Ren Konatsu to look up to. Konatsu is starting to progress at a nice pace. Having Kanzaki debut means she has somebody below her on the pecking order to win matches against. She now has her first finishing move called the Aries Comet added to her arsenal. Plus she was given a task by Sasadango too. She had to go take dance lessons at a studio owned by LDH (the entertainment agency Kaisei Takechi belongs to). Konatsu claims she is already noticing an improvement to the Aries Comet because of this training so the Bumping gRitters better watch out!

4. Shoko Nakajima, Yuki Aino & Haru Kazashiro (w/ Ninja Red, Geki Red & Go-On Red) Vs Aja Kong, VENY & Pom Harajuku

Road To Success Challenge: The ToJo Tokusatsu Club must take part in “Fireball Return Training” as seen in Episode #19 of Gekisou Sentai Carranger.

If you haven’t noticed with TJPW, there is a lot of social activity that goes on within the locker room. Long lasting friendships are made away from the wrestling ring as the wrestlers get to know each other further and find out they share similar interests. The ToJo Tokusatsu Club is an example of this for the wrestlers who obsess over Super Sentai. The club originally existed for Shoko Nakajima, Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino to show off their hobby during shows but disappeared after Tenma retired. When Haru Kazashiro joined TJPW and expressed her love for tokusatsu, the club returned with a big goal in mind. They want to teach children that pro wrestling can make dreams come true so what better way to do that than to invite the Super Sentai over to Sumo Hall where they can all fight kaiju together!

The timing of this collaboration confused me because Super Sentai only just recently ended its fifty year run on television. The rumour is it happened because a falling out between Toei and Hasbro over the handling of source material and merchandising for Super Sentai and Power Rangers going forward. Heck if I know if that’s true but CyberFight went and organized something with the Super Sentai anyway. The ToJo Tokusatsu Club will be joined by Ninja Red, Geki Red & Go-On Red for their match as the club takes on a trio of the nastiest villains you can think of.

Well, sort of. Max The Impaler was meant to be part of the match but unfortunately couldn’t get a travel visa approved in time so they have to miss the show. At least this allows me to type out the sentence “The kaiju could not appear because of visa problems” which is right up there with “The Human Torch was denied a bank loan.” Max would have reunited with both Aja Kong and Pom Harajuku, which is usually the case for Max’s appearance at TJPW’s bigger shows. Some last minute decision making has resulted in an interesting X factor being thrown into the mix. VENY will be taking the place of Max for the match. If there’s any joshi out there that can capture the bitchy energy of Rita Repulsa, it’s her.

5. Mizuki Vs Andreza Giant Panda

Road To Success Challenge: To fight off the panda, Mizuki must find and acquire a new legendary weapon.

A mystery emerged in TJPW during February when the Pico Pico Hammer belonging to Mizuki was stolen during a show held in Okayama. A clue was found when a small USA flag was left in its place. At the time I thought this was a storyline created for the Texas tour or possibly even next month’s Las Vegas show but it turned out to be something of a red herring. Instead members of New Nemuro Pro Wrestling contacted TJPW to take credit for the theft. It was one of their wrestlers Mr. USA that stole the hammer and left the flag behind but the actual mastermind behind the plot was Andreza Giant Panda! It was two years ago when Mizuki struck Andreza over the head with her hammer in a moment that went viral across the internet due to how photogenic the entire thing was. The amount of attention it had left Andreza feeling humiliated. Ever since that day he had bided his time and waited for the opportunity to get revenge. With Sumo Hall coming up, now is the time for it to take place!

Mizuki hasn’t been able to retrieve the stolen Pico Pico Hammer but the Texas tour showed that she has a spare in her collection. That won’t be enough to defeat an enraged giant panda so Sasadango came to her aid with an idea. She would have to go find a new legendary weapon to replace the hammer. Her journey (which also includes an isekai side story game TJPW made for their LINE account) led her on the path to meeting Masami Obami, the creator of Brave Bang Bravern and director of other anime in the mecha genre. With the help of Bravern itself, Obami went to work on forging the Burn Pico Pico Core Axe Hammer for Mizuki to use. Prepare for the weapon to be unleashed inside Sumo Hall this weekend!

6. Miyu Yamashita & Arisu Endo Vs Sareee & Takumi Iroha

Road To Success Challenge: Miyu Yamashita should participate in idol practice and undergo intense idol training.

The original plan for this match was for Lei Ying Lee to be a part of it. However TNA pulled Lee from the show because she was needed to wrestle at their PPV last night and presumably their TV tapings happening this weekend too. Because you see it was really important for Lee to be in a 3 Way TNA Knockouts Title match where she was about to win only to get pulled out of the ring so the champion could steal the pinfall instead. The pull out led to TNA sending an apology where they stated neither TJPW nor Lee were at fault over the situation. The English version of the news story was pretty polite but the funny thing is the Japanese report includes TJPW saying they don’t understand how this could have happened when the booking was put together and agreed to well in advance.

On the bright side, TNA’s decision has the knock-on effect of putting together a more interesting tag team match. Sareee was meant to be Lee’s partner as part of her first appearance in TJPW since 2020. The last time she was here she locked horns with Miyu Yamashita and the same plan is in place here. With Lee now out of the picture, TJPW quickly made a deal with Marvelous to replace her with Takumi Iroha. Not only are we now getting the TJPW debut of Iroha but it also means Sareee & Iroha are bringing their Spark Rush tag team over here! The positions these two currently hold in the joshi hierarchy is quite fascinating. Sareee gets to bounce between Stardom, Marigold and other companies while running her own shows while Iroha gets to do her own flirting with different joshi promotions and also NOAH too. I’m trying to think of a good comparison to their current positions and the best I can come up with is maybe Yoshihiro Takayama and Kensuke Sasaki in the late 2000s, early 2010s? Does that make Marvelous comparable to Kensuke Office? No wait, then that means Chigusa Nagayo is Kensuke Sasaki and Iroha is Katsuhiko Nakajima. If that’s the case, Yamashita would need to keep her chin tucked in for the entire match otherwise it will become a massive target… Hang on, where was I?

The hype for the match is built around everyone getting to see Yamashita fight Sareee and Iroha but that story is leaving somebody out to the side. The usually cheerful Arisu Endo isn’t happy that she’s being forgotten about by everyone else. She just as much wants a piece of Spark Rush as Yamashita does. If she gets her way she is going to shine the brightest out of anyone in the match! As I mentioned at the start of this preview, TJPW has found faith in their second generation, which Endo is a part of. A strong performance here wouldn’t shock me if it leads to her getting a main event Korakuen Hall singles match sometime later this year. Maybe at the Tokyo Princess Cup at the earliest, eh? Would that tickle anyone’s fancy? While I shouldn’t ever count out Yamashita from winning more prizes in TJPW, her focus this year seems to be on being the locker room leader while also helping out with the global expansion plans.

Yamashita was the last person to complete their challenge given to them by Sasadango. She was ordered to go take on intensive idol training. She did just that by going to visit three members of Niji No Conquistador. She learned the three most important things of being an idol from Karin Matoba, Mayu Kurihara and Yu Kawabata. They are the introduction, appealing to the fans and pulling off the idol group’s dance. I don’t know how any of those three qualities will help her deal with Spark Rush.

7. Special Tag Match: Yuka Sakazaki & KONOSUKE TAKESHITA Vs Hyper Misao & Super Sasadango Machine

We’re approaching a year since the day Konosuke Takeshita and Yuka Sakazaki revealed to the world that they are a married couple. That it took this long to book them as a tag team tells you where the state of the wrestling industry’s imagination is at nowadays. Don’t give me your excuses that Takeshita was busy wrestling for three different companies, fighting in tournaments and defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. Sakazaki’s only being booked whenever ROH needs to warm up somebody in order to put over someone else. Her last match on record was for TJPW back on 4th January so there’s not a lot to write about. Actually there is one thing. Sakazaki will debut a new theme song at this show called “AYAYAYAY” by Hi-yunk. Hype for the match went lopsided when Shingo Takagi and Natsupoi announced their marriage last month. Fans thought it would make a lot of sense to do a couples versus couples tag like that.

Instead the opposing team is something way more incomprehensible. Hyper Misao took it upon herself to be one of the opponents as part of a plan to acquire as many contracts for herself as possible. Her logic is if she can beat the team of Sakazaki & Takeshita then New Japan, DDT and AEW will all offer her deals to sign with them! She needed a tag team partner who acts just as outside of the box as she does in order to have a chance at winning. That’s where Sasadango comes in. It turns out that the PR in PR Ambassador does not stand for Public Relations. It infact stands for Pro Wrestling Ring and by taking on the role, Sasadango also automatically agreed to wrestle a match on the show without realizing it. He wanted no part of the until Misao talked him into it. She explained that if Sasadango’s appearance can sell even one ticket it would be worth it just to make that one fan happy. If Sasadango can’t even achieve that then there is no hope that his marketing will help sell out Sumo Hall either. Now fired up, Sasadango is ready to bring the fight towards Takeshita & Sakazaki. Not only does he want to win the same contracts that Misao wants, he is aiming to get signed by every wrestling company out there!

8. International Princess Title: MIRAI (c) Vs Suzume

It took a roundabout way to get here but we’re getting the BeeStar championship rivalry that was destined to happen one way or another. MIRAI made her return to TJPW this year and immediately staked her claim for the International Princess Title by beating Arisu Endo for the belt. The title win gave MIRAI the achievement of being the first wrestler to win championships in TJPW, Stardom and Marigold. She took care of Toga in her first defence before calling out someone very close from her past to be her next challenger. Suzume was MIRAI’s classmate and their debuts in 2019 happened only a few months apart of each other. They teamed together as BeeStar until MIRAI split from TJPW in 2021. Since then the two of them took their own paths to grow into successful wrestlers. MIRAI had stays in Stardom and Marigold until she recently moved over to her new home Michinoku Pro. In doing that she is on a wave of success that’s sailing her around Japan’s wrestling scene. Suzume meanwhile stayed in TJPW where her success came from winning the Princess Tag Team Titles as part of Daisy Monkey and also winning the International Princess Title by herself.

And it is the IP Title that brings MIRAI and Suzume together in the ring once more. As much as Suzume appreciates everything MIRAI has done for her in their early days together, the IP Title is a championship that means just as much to her. Meanwhile MIRAI is trying to add an element of TJPW Vs Michinoku Pro to the proceedings. Both women have become stars for their respective home promotions and MIRAI has often brought along M-Pro wrestlers to stand in her corner for her TJPW title matches so far. That might change with this match coming up because she offered Toga to take up that role after the two earned each other’s respect from the previous title defence. MIRAI’s work during this run is a bit odd. The ingredients are there for an inter-promotional feud to take place with MIRAI as an outsider yet she’s pretty much been welcome back with open arms and the workings are here for her to stick around on a semi-regular basis. In fact, TJPW had announced in advance that an IP Title match would take place at their Las Vegas show but they then had to walk it back when they couldn’t book MIRAI for that show. Way to paint yourself into a corner, lads. It can still go ahead if Suzume wins back the title but the way the news was announced kind of comes off as a spoiler no matter how they tried to cut it.

9. Princess Tag Team Titles: Yuki Kamifuku & Wakana Uehara (c) Vs Jessie McKay & Cassie Lee

Road To Success Challenge: Ober Eats must post images or videos that will go viral with 10,000 likes.

I think this video pretty much sums up my opinion of the match.

Look, if this was anywhere in the first seven matches of the card you would get no complaints from me. Have it be non-title, place it in Ota Ward Gymnasium or put another company’s tag belts on the line then fine, awesome, I can live with it. This is the semi-main event of a Sumo Hall show! The previous matches we got in this position with the Princess Tag Titles were The Magical Sugar Rabbits Vs Daydream and Yukiniki Vs Daisy Monkey. Those are good standards to have! Instead we’re getting Ober Eats Vs The IInspiration. Maybe it will be better than Reiwa AA Cannon Vs The Uprising from 2022 but holy hell that’s the faintest praise I can damn it with. I wonder if the plan here is to give Jessie McKay & Cassie Lee a transitional title reign in order to put over another TJPW team in Las Vegas next month.

The reason I think that is because Ober Eats is currently top of the pile in TJPW’s tag division with no nearby contenders in sight. They became the first team to ever win the Max Heart Tournament while holding the Princess Tag Titles. With Sumo Hall next on their list, Yuki Kamifuku & Wakana Uehara asked for a team more glamourous and buzzworthy than them to be their challengers. They’re thrilled with The IInspiration being chosen for them as a more global challenge to surpass. To help them build up the hype, Sasadango told Ober Eats to go viral on social media by getting 10,000 likes. Kamifuku put out a video of her walking through the streets in her wrestling costume. At the time of writing it is sitting pretty at 6,600+ likes. Meanwhile Uehara unintentionally smashed through the challenge without trying when a picture of her meeting the Buc-ee’s mascot hit 10,000 likes within the day it was posted. (Her actual tweet for the challenge only reached 2,500+ likes). I swear, sometimes everything just goes that girl’s way. Except when it doesn’t, like when The IInspiration beat her in Austin earlier this month as a preview for what’s to come.

10. Princess Of Princess Title: Miu Watanabe (c) Vs Yuki Arai

Is TJPW King’s Road? I’m not joking when I ask this because the rivalry between Miu Watanabe and Yuki Arai over the last two months is the closest thing to the King’s Road philosophy that anyone is doing right now. That philosophy is not dangerous head drops or finisher kick outs. It is telling the story of a rivalry that progresses match by match as the two adversaries figure each other out step by step. And if that means taking a big flat back bump or two onto the floor along the way then so be it.

Watanabe has been enjoying a six month reign as the Princess Of Princess Champion. She has overcome her mental block over whether she fights like a princess or like a monster and has been racking up the usual amount of title defences a typical Princess champion would get for her reign. She also has a match of the year contender with Suzume from 4th January that will likely be remembered as the peak of this title run. TJPW threw together a 6 Way Elimination to determine the No. 1 Contender and Arai came out on top, going as far as to submit Yamashita to win the match. She failed to win the Princess Title in her first attempt last year so now the story is will her inevitable push to a title win happen the second time?

Last month at Korakuen Hall was where the fun began. A preview tag match featuring the two of them took a turn when they fought each other on the ring apron. Arai won the exchange in an extreme manner by using the Full Nelson Buster to throw Watanabe from the apron onto the floor! From that point forward, it was on! Arai put more focus on using the Scorpion Death Lock to win matches while also introducing a new Twister Brainbuster to beat lesser opponents. Watanabe then got to make Arai give up to the Canadian Backbreaker only to get a taste of her own medicine in the next battle after that. Watanabe is sometimes seen having tape strips applied to her back and while the story isn’t yelling to everybody on a loudspeaker that she isn’t 100%, Arai’s use of the Scorpion Death Lock was able to make Watanabe tap out on one occasion during the series. With that being said, any fear of Watanabe having a serious back injury was put to bed after that when she found ways to power her way straight out of Arai’s finishing move in order to turn it into a Giant Swing. The two most recently exchanged wins during the Texas tour. Watanabe has the most recent direct victory while Arai got a moral one by hitting the Finally axe kick after being unable to do so match after match until the end.

As we now finally approach Sumo Hall it’s been something of a stalemate between champion and challenger. Or at least when one of them gets ahead it’s never far enough to prevent the other from catching up and overtaking them. The winner of this match will be heading over to Vegas where they will defend the title against the new American Gladiator J-Rod. That is a match we’ve seen with Watanabe already while it would be something completely fresh for Arai. However international shows such as that is where you can get away with burning a rematch that doesn’t need to be done back in the home market. The reign Watanabe is on has no need to be stopped right now and this build up has done wonders for making Arai an interesting rival for her. Should Arai win the title the question I have for her is can she stay this interesting against other opponents? If she has figured out how to be more dynamic with laying out her matches then maybe the time is now to pull the trigger on her. But if it was up to me I’m more interested in seeing Watanabe hold on for whoever wins the Princess Cup later this year.