Dramatic DDT

TOKYO JOSHI PRO “GRAND PRINCESS ’22”, 19/03/2022
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

1. Juria Nagano Debut Match: Suzume & Arisu Endo Vs Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano
2. Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling Vs Ganbare☆Pro Wrestling: Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu, Haruna Neko & Kaya Toribami Vs Yuna Manase, Moeka Haruhi, HARUKAZE & YuuRI
3. Sanshiro Takagi Vs Hyper Misao
4. Yuki Kamifuku Vs Asuka
5. Nodoka Tenma Vs Yuki Aino
6. Sakisama, Mei Saint-Michel, Martha & Yukio Saint Laurent Vs Marika Kobashi, Raku, Pom Harajuku & Ram Kaichow
7. Special Single Match: Hikaru Shida Vs Hikari Noa
8. International Princess Title: Maki Itoh (c) Vs Yuki Arai
9. Princess Tag Team Titles: Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki (c) Vs Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe
10. Princess Of Princess Title: Miyu Yamashita (c) Vs Shoko Nakajima

It took nine years for Tokyo Joshi Pro to start from a tiny little idol stage in Akihabara and make it all the way to running grand old Sumo Hall by themselves. It’s a show bigger than the “WRESTLE PRINCESS” name and is part of a stacked Ryogoku weekend with DDT celebrating its 25th Anniversary the next day. All three Princess Championships will be defended, there are some inter-promotional matches, some emotional backstories, a final call for two beloved roster members before they go away and an anticipated debut so let’s have a look at what’s in store for us.

1. Juria Nagano Debut Match: Suzume & Arisu Endo Vs Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano

The big debut TJPW has been building up since the start of the year is Juria Nagano. She is a woman of many talents being a former children’s world champion karate fighter, actress and nurse with 900,000 TikTok followers. Her 2nd dan black belt in Shito-ryu makes Nagano a suitable tag partner for Moka Miyamoto and her Shotokan background. Nagano was moved to tears when she first discovered the deep bonds the TJPW roster has with each other and is looking forward to forming her own. Even her opponents are excited to be in the ring for her debut match. Suzume said she wants to crush Nagano in the ring with her love and Arisu Endo believes it will be an exciting match showcasing the future of TJPW. Arisuzu are a team to watch out for and the most likely from this new generation to jump up a level together later this year.

2. Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling Vs Ganbare☆Pro Wrestling: Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu, Haruna Neko & Kaya Toribami Vs Yuna Manase, Moeka Haruhi, HARUKAZE & YuuRI

A former TJPW wrestler returns looking for a passionate fight. Yuna Manase was with the promotion from 2017 to 2020 until she found a new home in Ganbare☆Pro. She kept a good relationship with TJPW since then but suddenly called out the company in a fiery speech demanding an opponent who wants to fight her instead of being told to by management. Nao Kakuta answered the call, fueled by memories of working with Manase in Actwres girl’Z before either of their TJPW days. The response is also the first time Kakuta felt like a proper member of Tokyo Joshi by defending the promotion’s honour. However Manase immediately got backup with everyone from the Ganbare☆Joshi division wanting to join in the challenge and take part. The challenge became big enough to suck in more people for an inter-promotional 8-Women Tag Match.

Kakuta gathered together Mahiro Kiryu, Haruna Neko & Kaya Toribami to be on her team. Kiryu was recently in the news for alerting everyone on social media to a convincing looking email scam she almost fell for. Neko continues to live life as a catgirl scratching every person who gets in her way. Toribami hasn’t lost a step in the ring since coming back from a European vacation over the winter but is still at risk of being the team’s weak link. Manase is flanked by the rest of Ganjo, a group of women who became tight from constantly teaming with and fighting against each other. HARUKAZE is the biggest example of that, reinventing herself from one of Japan’s weakest wrestlers to a reliable combatant under the tutelage of Yuu Yamagata. The weathergirl wrestler Moeka Haruhi understands Manase is the sun that everyone else in the match will gravitate around, but she wants to be the rainbow that catches everybody’s attention. The least experienced member is YuuRI. She made a surprise jump from JTO to Ganjo at a time when other joshi were transferring to higher profile companies. For her to wrestle in Sumo Hall is a big deal because that was where she discovered pro wrestling in the first place. Ganpro’s bread and butter is having wrestlers who wear their hearts on their sleeves and giving it their all in the ring despite their limitations. Win or lose, the TJPW team can learn a valuable lesson coming out of this match.

3. Sanshiro Takagi Vs Hyper Misao

At first this match was just thrown out as an announcement promoted as an attraction match with no build attached to it. Still the match by itself makes sense on paper. Hyper Misao is always the most creative woman in TJPW when it comes to making up match structures and stipulations and Sanshiro Takagi will literally do anything in the ring to make DDT and everything surrounding it successful. But Misao was bothered by the idea of this match going ahead. Takagi as he is now isn’t the crazy wrestler she saw when she attended her first wrestling match eight years ago. He’s too much of a boring corporate president these days to inspire Misao on a match as important as this. It’s understandable. Takagi is older and his body isn’t what it used to be. He also has a lot on his plate behind the scenes along with a grudge match happening in DDT the next day. But he is still the crazy pro wrestler Misao saw eight years ago. As the poster says above, this won’t be a normal match!

As time has gone by Misao has become more publicly open about her past life before discovering pro wrestling. To go from feeling lost and empty to becoming a big driving force in TJPW is inspirational to see. Thanks to pro wrestling the “29 year old”* has become a stronger person, gotten married and continues to protect love and peace the only way she can. Meanwhile Takagi got stuck fighting with Pheromones and Michael Nakazawa. Who really has more going for them here?

*Misao became self-conscious over her real age during her last birthday and decided to break up from her year of birth.

4. Yuki Kamifuku Vs Asuka

The speed this friendship is going is really fast. Yuki Kamifuku and Asuka have been close friends outside of wrestling since 2017 but only went public with it last year when they started teaming together as VENYU. The team did well in TJPW this year, reaching the semi-finals of the “Futari wa Princess” Max Heart Tournament. But with no chance of winning accolades happening anytime soon the two drinking buddies have nobody to fight but themselves. There have been a few little swipes made in good nature between the two but for Kamifuku it is a chance to climb up to Asuka’s level on the big stage. Asuka feels honored having an important match like this take place while she is a freelancer. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t looking to have fun either. The VENYU entrance is already flashy. What will they be like when Kamifuku and Asuka are trying to out-do one another?

5. Nodoka Tenma Vs Yuki Aino

One of the women leaving pro wrestling soon is Nodoka Tenma. She has been with TJPW since 2016 starting off using a children’s TV character gimmick called Nodoka-oneesan. The time has come for her to retire after she decided to get into food production and agriculture in her hometown. She decided her retirement from pro wrestling will happen on 26th March because she does not want to miss this show. When Tenma & Yuki Aino failed to win the Max Heart Tournament final, Tenma came up with an idea for them to do at Sumo Hall. They should wrestle each other! The Bakuretsu Sisters have never had a singles match by themselves and Tenma does not want to end her wrestling career without doing one. It was an idea that has come up before but Aino always turned it down. This time the match is so important that Tenma will not take no for an answer. Aino has shown flashes of breaking out as a singles wrestler in the past. She seems to be sticking around after her older sister leaves so it is a path she will probably have to take as we head into the summer.

6. Sakisama, Mei Saint-Michel, Martha & Yukio Saint Laurent Vs Marika Kobashi, Raku, Pom Harajuku & Ram Kaichow

The mighty NEO Biishiki-gun returns once more to be a thorn in everyone’s side. This time they are coming nearly at full force. Sakisama & Mei Saint-Michel are already established as a nearly unbeatable tag team but we also get the reappearance of Sakisama’s first loyal maid Martha. There is also the dark and foreboding presence of Yukio Saint Laurent to deal with too. The TJPW side put together to fight them are made up of a mixture of cute and sugary personalities but something is a little bit different this time. Ram Kaichow is part of the team and I bet she is something the likes of which NEO Biishiki-gun have never dealt with before. Kaichow has no problem acting like she owns the place whenever she shows up in TJPW so how will a woman as proud as Sakisama react to that? Kaichow recently celebrated 17 years in the wrestling industry and remember most of that was spent in Triple Six. NEO Biishiki-gun is nowhere near the weirdest thing she has seen before.

But what about the rest of the team? Marika Kobashi is the other wrestler who will be leaving TJPW soon. She wants to spend her final years in university living the full college life. However she also made it sound like it will not be the end of her pro wrestling career so it may only be goodbye for now (unless she shows up somewhere else). Raku is still big into trains and now calls her fanbase her “Passengers”. While not performing with The Up Up Girls she has been teaming with Pom Harajuku. That one continues to run around causing mischief like an out of control three year old. Raku & Harajuku are getting used to teaming with each other but they are regular cannon fodder for NEO Biishiki-gun. Chances of an underdog upset here are slim.

7. Special Single Match: Hikaru Shida Vs Hikari Noa

Now we’re getting into the main course. The top four matches on the card are what I’m all hyped for and it begins with the TJPW debut of Hikaru Shida. Signs of a working relationship between AEW and TJPW were made clear last year and now that it’s become a little easier to travel overseas, that means Shida gets to wrestle in her home country again. TJPW gave her the offer to wrestle in Sumo Hall and here we are. The former AEW Women’s Champion looked a little lost in the shuffle at times but a high quality feud against Serena Deeb means she is coming to Sumo Hall riding a fresh wave of interest. This is the perfect test for her opponent, someone who spent the last few years coming out of her shell by making bloodlust look cute.

As time goes by Hikari Noa pushes TJPW closer inch by inch towards a more violent style of wrestling. He dream is to become the Queen of Deathmatch wrestling and she has jumped into the deep end whenever the opportunity presents itself. Now Shida is not a deathmatch wrestler per se but she has no problem getting dragged into the hardcore style. I mean, this is a woman we recently discovered will threaten decapitation if she hates somebody enough. Like I said, a perfect test for Noa. There are high expectations though and from studying footage Shida thinks Noa has been struggling to meet those expectations. She can tell Noa enjoys wrestling and is hungry to win but does she have the mental and emotional state to succeed?

This may not be the end of Shida in TJPW too. She wasn’t aware of the promotion until she went to America and the interactions she’s had with TJPW wrestlers since then have impressed her. Maybe there will be more interactions between them in AEW or Japan. She performed on stage with Arisu Endo before and Shida hasn’t seen any of her matches other than her debut. Plus there is a certain unbeatable champion in the main event that Shida has been thinking about. But now is not the time to talk about that…

8. International Princess Title: Maki Itoh (c) Vs Yuki Arai

If there is a result on this show that will cause a shockwave throughout TJPW is will be Yuki Arai beating Maki Itoh for the International Princess Title. Itoh became a two time IP Champion on 4th January, ending Hikari Noa’s deathmatch title dreams. With the belt back in her hands, Itoh’s goal is to reestablish the championship as a global prize to be defended overseas. She isn’t shy (when is she ever?) about going back to AEW and defending the title against former champion Thunder Rosa to finally complete a thread that’s been left hanging ever since the pandemic began. She has a trip to America coming up in May and the title could be a necessary accessory for her plans. The worst thing that could happen now is if a far more popular idol steals her glory, her thunder and her championship. How typical would that be?

Momentum is such an overused word in pro wrestling but it really does apply here for Arai. The SKE48 idol has been a big boost for TJPW’s business and the wrestling media in Japan is throwing every Best Rookie achievement they can find in her direction. And she isn’t slumming it in the ring. The hard work is on show even when the match layout every now and then is a bit obvious in highlighting her strengths while hiding her flaws. I shouldn’t knock it when it works though, especially if it gets applied to a rivalry like this.

Whether Arai wanted it to happen or not, she was destined to be Itoh’s enemy. It’s only natural when it is an idol as successful as her to rub Itoh the wrong way. Even more so when the one place Itoh can feel superior is inside the wrestling ring. Itoh tapped out Arai in her debut match and encouraged her to keep coming back fo as long as it will take for Arai to finally beat her. A full year hasn’t even been passed since then but Arai is already confident she now has what she needs to beat Itoh. It would be an unusual result but these are two unusual idols.

9. Princess Tag Team Titles: Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki (c) Vs Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe

We now reach the point where the remaining title matches are between the two strongest opponents. The Princess Tag Team Titles are what helped form The Magical Sugar Rabbits together in the first place. Their first reign holds the current record for the most title defences. In second place is the reign held by Daydream, who are their opponents here. The Max Heart Tournament is what sets up this match. Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki were shockingly eliminated in the opening round, preventing them from facing Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe in Round 2. Daydream then went on to win the entire tournament. The two teams weren’t anywhere near each other in the bracket but MagiRabi know it is their duty as champions to beat the Max Heart winners.

The challengers have a lot on their plate. Tatsumi’s crush on Mizuki is well known but winning back the Princess Tag Titles is now more important. She doesn’t care about that anymore and accepts that Mizuki will hate her for taking the belts away from MagiRabi. Mizuki isn’t worried about a problem like that because she thinks her team is not going to lose anyway. Watanabe sees the champions as a wall she hasn’t been able to climb over until now. Sakazaki’s only concern is defending the belts so MagiRabi can continue bringing fans into their happy, sparkling world!

10. Princess Of Princess Title: Miyu Yamashita (c) Vs Shoko Nakajima

Let’s finish this one strong. The two longest serving members of TJPW headline the promotion’s biggest show yet in Sumo Hall. It is the very same building where Miyu Yamashita and Shoko Nakajima had their official pro wrestling debuts on 17th August 2013. Funny thing is they were both on the same team back then and lost to two wrestlers who are since long gone from the company. In the nine years since then Miyu Yamashita has been the constant ace in TJPW, growing up with the most dominant Princess Of Princess Title reigns in the championship’s history. She has been the female face of CyberFight’s expansion, sharing centre stage with the likes of Jun Akiyama and Naomichi Marufuji. Ever since her debut in Ryogoku, Yamashita has dreamed of Tokyo Joshi holding their own show there. This won’t mean much to her if she cannot beat her biggest opponent on TJPW’s biggest show.

Shoko Nakajima has beaten her for the Princess Title once before, back in 2019. It was how Yamashita’s 10 defence title reign was finally brought to an end. In fact, Yamashita and Nakajima are currently 1-1 in Princess Title matches against each other. Yet the Big Kaiju has always felt small around her rival. No matter how many times Nakajima won matches against her, Yamashita would easily shrug them off and return to winning ways. It can get disheartening. With this match taking place in Sumo Hall, Nakajima doesn’t know if she will ever get a title shot as important as this ever again. This is the Big Kaiju’s best chance to take down an even bigger monster and finally become the superior champion. Whatever the result is, the future of Tokyo Joshi Pro will be made clear when the dust is settled.