Mio Shirai Announces Her Plan To Retire

February 17, 2015

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Mio Shirai held a press conference today to announce she will be retiring from pro wrestling in September. Shirai was accompanied by representatives from the four companies she is under contract with. There was Naomi Susan from Union, Mayumi Ozaki from Oz Academy, Tsukasa Fujimoto from Ice Ribbon and Yumi Ohka from Pro Wrestling WAVE. All four gave Mio a lot of praise for her match with her sister Io Shirai from Saturday’s “M.I.O 2” event. There will be three more “M.I.O” shows. “M.I.O 3” takes place in Osaka Ikuno Kumin Center on 9t May, “M.I.O 4” will be in Shunjuku FACE on 19th June and the final “M.I.O” show will be in Korakuen Hall on 20th September. That show will be the destination of Mio Shirai’s retirement match.

Mio made her decision to retire due to neck problems. She has suffered from numbness in her neck for over two years but was still able to wrestle thanks to her training. Her doctor said there is no official name for her condition but explained the bones in her neck sometimes become slippery which causes the numbness. Mio spent a good amount of time thinking about her decision. She and Susan joked about putting her in a singles match with Shuji Ishikawa and taking the Splash Mountain last year. Mio said she will face Ishikawa again without hesitation if she gets the opportunity.

When asked what she is going to do after wrestling, Mio said she’d like to start doing four panel manga strips about what happens in joshi waiting rooms. For her retirement match Mio hasn’t decided who she wants to wrestle or team with. However she squashed any ideas of teaming with Io again. She doesn’t think it will happen, at least right now.

Mio ended the conference with an appeal to the entire women’s wrestling world. Wrestling does not offer long careers for women. Their bodies take a lot of abuse in a short amount of time and the effects can be long lasting for them. Mio wants every joshi to wrestle because it is what they want to do and also to have no regrets when the time comes for them to leave the business. Mio was only able to show a little part of her dream to her fans but she was still able to live her dream.

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Posted by JamieOD

UNION, OZ ACADEMY, WAVE, ICE RIBBON “M.I.O 2” Results

February 14, 2015

io-vs-mio

UNION, OZ ACADEMY, WAVE, ICE RIBBON “M.I.O 2”, 14/02/2015
Shinjuku FACE
509 Fans – Super No Vacancy Full House

1. Sonoko Kato & Ryo Mizunami defeated Tsukasa Fujimoto & Miyako Matsumoto when Kato pinned Matsumoto with the Diving Guillotine Drop (10:47).
2. Irregular Fall Count Match: Isami Kodaka & Mika Iida Vs Yumi Ohka & Daichi Kazato ended in a Time Limit Draw (20:00).
3. Seiya Morohashi, Mochi Miyagi & Aja Kong defeated Fairy Nihonbashi, Dynamite Kansai & Shuji Ishikawa when Morohashi pinned Nihonbashi with a School Boy (11:12).
4. Four Organisations 4 Way Match: Mayumi Ozaki defeated Tsukushi, Shu Shibutani and Cherry when Ozaki pinned Shibutani after a Missile Dropkick from Tsukushi (10:46).
5. Io Shirai defeated Mio Shirai with the Moonsault (18:54).

The second four promotion collaboration spearheaded by Mio Shirai took place on a special day, her 27th birthday. The main event saw Mio take on her sister Io Shirai. It was the first time in 3 years the two wrestled in the same ring together. Io was cornered by Stardom wrestlers Yoshiko and Mayu Iwatani while Mio had Tsukasa Fujimoto, Misaki Ohata, Mayumi Ozaki and Cherry. The sisters didn’t hold back and in the end Io got the better of Mio with the Moonsault. Io took the microphone and said there was a lot of fans and media paying attention to the match. She said two sisters were able to sort out their problems in front of a large audience and it gave them an amazing match. She asked if the invisible wall that seperated them has now been broken. Io said today wasn’t about her saying farewell to her sister. Instead it may be a new beginning for both of them.

The Irregular Rule in Match #2 was Isami Kodaka and Daichi Kazato only had to be pinned for a two count for their team to lose the match. Despite the disadvantage for the men on both teams, nobody was able to capitalise and the match went to a 20 minute draw. Kodaka and Yumi Ohka both teased challenging each other to a singles match in the future.

Fairy Nihonbashi got Shuji Ishikawa and Dynamite Kansai to wear her replica masks and do elegant handshakes with their opponents. Seiya Morohashi and Aja Kong had an embarrassing moment when a double team move went wrong and the two ended up kissing each other. Kong also hit Morohashi with her steel can. She then hit Nihonbashi with it and Morohashi crawled over for the pin.

“M.I.O 3” will take place in Osaka on 9th May. “M.I.O 4” is planned for Shinjuku on 19th June.

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UNION, OZ ACADEMY, WAVE, ICE RIBBON “M.I.O” Results

September 11, 2014

m-i-o

UNION, OZ ACADEMY, WAVE, ICE RIBBON “M.I.O”, 11/09/2014
Shinjuku FACE
323 Fans

1. Close 3 Way Match: Mio Shirai defeated Tsukasa Fujimoto and Misaki Ohata when Shirai pinned both Fujimoto and Ohata with a Double Cradle (6:31).
2. Cat Vs Scallops: Neko Nitta defeated Mika Iida with the Ne Kohisutoraru (10:57).
3. Glistening Mixed Match: Hamuko Hoshi & Hiroshi Fukuda defeated Yumi Ohka & Mitomi Masayuki when Fukuda pinned Masayuki with a School Boy (13:14).
4. Heavy Match: Dynamite Kasai & Aja Kong defeated Shuji Ishikawa & SAGAT when Kong pinned SAGAT with the Backfist (12:37).
5. Barbed Wire Board Death Match: Mayumi Ozaki, Shu Shibutani & Yuko Miyamoto defeated Mio Shirai, Maki Narumiya & Isami Kodaka when Ozaki pinned Shirai with the Diving Rolling Senton through lighttubes (23:35).

Today was all about Mio Shirai. The new Fly To Everywhere Champion brought together the four companies she is under contract with to joint host an event highlighted by a mixed gender Barbed Wire Board Death Match. Shirai teamed with Isami Kodaka and Maki Narumiya to face Yuko Miyamoto, Mayumi Ozaki and Shu Shibutani in a match that featured light tubes, a football, a guide light, a paddle, a chain, and a whip as well as the aforementioned barbed wire boards. Shirai’s face wound up becoming a crimson mask but Narumiya probably took the worst bump, Miyamoto gave her the Fire Thunder Driver through a table. Despite the violence, Shirai and Ozaki joked with each other after the match. Shirai thanked each of the wrestlers and said she wanted to show everywone how awesome Union, Oz Academy, WAVE and Ice Ribbon all are.

Hiroshi Fukuda complained about having to team with Hamuko Hoshi instead of Yumi Ohka before their tag team match. When Ohka rejected his advances after the match and kicked him away, he called her an old hag and ran off.

Shirai wrestled twice on the show, competing in the opening match as well as the main event. The opener was a 3 Way match between Shirai and her two WAVE partners, Tsukasa Fujimoto and Misaki Ohata. The bout could be won by either pinfall, submission or throwing an opponent over the top rope and out of the ring. In WAVE the three women often use a football, a guide light and a pole as foreign objects. So it was no surpise that they used the weapons on each other. Shirai snuck away with the win when she cut into a series of nearfalls between the other two and pinned them at the same time.

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Double Trouble For HARASHIMA, Mio Shirai Signs Many Contracts

January 22, 2014

DDT “SWEET DREAMS! 2014”, 26/01/2014
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1. Saki Akai & Makoto Oishi Vs Yoshiko & Toru Owashi
2. Keisuke Ishii & Soma Takao Vs Antonio Honda & Daisuke Sasaki
3. Sanshiro Takagi & Hikaru Sato Vs Yukio Sakaguchi & Akito
4. KUDO Vs Danshoku Dino
5. Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title – Battle Royal: Masa Takanashi (c) Vs MIKAMI Vs Yasu Urano Vs Michael Nakazawa Vs Tomomitsu Matsunaga Vs Gota Ihashi Vs Kazuki Hirata Vs Guanchulo Vs DJ Nira Vs Hoshitango
6. KO-D Tag Team Titles – 3 Way Match: Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto (c) Vs Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega Vs Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo
7. KO-D Openweight Title: HARASHIMA (c) Vs Shigehiro Irie

DDT held a press conference at the TEC Offices in Shinjuku to promote HARASHIMA’s next two title defences. First up is the KO-D Openweight Title match versus Shigehiro Irie. The rematch of last year’s Peter Pan main event is something that has been on Irie’s mind for a while. He felt great frustration over losing the title and wants to get rid of that by winning it back. HARASHIMA told Irie that kind of frustration is a good thing because it encourages him to become a stronger human being.

DDT “GALAXY EXPLOSION IN NAGOYA 2014”, 02/02/2014
Nagoya Telepia Hall

1. DDT Extreme Title – Best 2 Out Of 3 Falls: HARASHIMA (c) Vs Keisuke Ishii
*Fall 1: Feet Only Death Match. Fall 2: Cliff Death Match. Fall 3: To Be Determined by Amon Tsurumi.

The press conference continued with the appearance of Keisuke Ishii, who immediately attacked HARASHIMA. Tempers calmed down and the two were able to continue the conference as if nothing happened. HARASHIMA decided the rules for their upcoming DDT Extreme Title match in Nagoya. After wrestling Antonio Honda in a Blindfold Bra Match where he had to rely on just his hands, HARASHIMA now wanted to see what it was like to wrestle with just his feet. So for the match, both men will have their hands tied together and will have to rely on their legs to wrestle. However, Ishii had an idea of his own. He wanted to have a Cliff Death Match where you have to do a move from the ring apron to the floor in order to win. Ishii is a big fan of apron spots. He even has a Top 3 all time favourite apron spots. His Top 3 apron spots are:

3. Akira Taue giving Kenta Kobashi the Dynamic Bomb from the apron to the floor (21st March, 1995).
2. Kenta Kobashi giving Jun Akiyama a Brainbuster from the apron to the floor (10th July, 2004).
1. Mitsuharu Misawa giving Kenta Kobashi the Tiger Suplex from the stage walk to the floor (1st March, 2003).

Amon Tsurumi decided that both rules will be used in a 2 out of 3 Falls match. Fall 1 will be HARASHIMA’s Feet Only Death Match and Fall 2 will use Ishii’s Cliff Death Match rules. The rules for a possible third fall will be created by Tsurumi the day before the show.

mioshirai-4contracts

Mio Shirai had been spending the last week teasing a very important announcement. Rumours going around the Japanese wrestling scene included Mio announcing her retirement, a marriage engagement or even a pregnancy. Instead the big reveal was Mio had signed a contract and will end to her status as a freelancer. However, it turned out that Mio was signing a contract with not one, not two, not even three but four different wrestling companies. Taking a cue from Kota Ibushi, Shirai signed contracts with Pro Wrestling WAVE, Oz Academy, Ice Ribbon and Union.

After wrestling for seven years, Mio felt it was time to form an afilliation with one of the companies she works for. However she couldn’t decide who to choose. Inspired by Ibushi’s dual contract with DDT and New Japan, Shirai was inspired to do the same and wanted to be with the promotions she enjoyed working for most. Union boss Naomi Susan said she was very surprised to hear about Mio’s idea at first but is happy that she chose Union to be one of the companies. Since the Union roster is mostly filled with men, Susan hopes Mio’s signing will begin an expansion of Joshi in Union. Mayumi Ozaki said she was the only person in Oz Academy who knew about Mio’s plans. Ice Ribbon’s Tsukasa Fujimoto is amazed at the idea and thinks it is a boost that comes just in time for Mio to replace Hikaru Shida, who will be leaving the company in March. WAVE’s Mikiko Futagami (formerly known as GAMI) is expecting more merchandise sales to come from this signing and pointed out she might be actually working for 5 or 6 companies if you include her Osaka Joshi shows.

Mio’s first show with Union under the contract will be at Yokohama on 11th February.

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