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dalekofchaos · 4 years ago

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My hopes for WWE & AEW in 2021 and things I hope changes for WWE and AEW in 2021

Hopes

WWE

Roman Reigns stays dominant and reigns supreme as the Tribal Chief

Keith Lee wins the Royal Rumble, joins The Hurt Business and brings the WWE Champion to the Hurt Business

Naomi returns and joins The Hurt Business and dethrones Asuka to take home the gold

The Hurt Business DOMINATES Raw

Bianca Belair wins the Royal Rumble and dethrones Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania

The Riott Squad win the Women’s Tag Team Champions

Unify the men’s Tag Team Championships

Unveil a new Title and give us WWE’s very first Television Championship. It should be styled similar to the NWA and WCW’s TV belts, but on the sideplates it should include USA and Fox on the plates. Shelton Benjamin or Ricochet should be the TV Championship

Big E reigns supreme as Intercontinental Champion and finally gets to face Roman for the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania 38

Rhea Ripley gets called up and goes to Smackdown

Mercedes Martinez dethrones Io Shirai and becomes NXT Women’s Champion

Karrion Kross reclaims the NXT Championship

Anyone but Johnny Sameface as NXT North American Champion

Queen Of The Ring. The amount of female talent available on Raw, SmackDown, NXT and NXT UK is quite something. It's clear that this is the richest women's division in WWE history. They really should do something with all those workers. The 'Mae Young Classic' tourneys have been fine, but people would trip over themselves to see a fully-fledged 'Queen Of The Ring' epic staged across multiple nights. If booked correctly, this tournament could help establish a new contender for top titles. If she isn't Champion by then(though she should be) the perfect person to become Queen Of The Ring would be Bianca Belair! Bianca Belair would have unparalleled credibility for her 'StrongEST, FastEST, ToughEST' mantra if she whipped a bevy of skilled workers to become the first 'Queen'. WWE could also get creative by linking the event in with Charlotte Flair's nickname and spinning off into a feud between her and the winner afterwards.

Form Full-Time Female Tag-Teams and keep them around. The Women’s Tag Team DIvision is a mess. Keep creating makeshift Tag Teams and breaking up established tag teams and your tag team division is dead. The current champs and their predecessors haven't even been "proper" full-time duos - Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were shoved together awkwardly in the summer, and they've since been replaced by the unlikely Asuka and Charlotte Flair combo. This cannot be allowed to continue. It's damning that WWE don't have more fully-formed pairings ready to go. The Riott Squad are perhaps the only actual twosome who are presented as a tight-knit collective weekly. Other than that, who is there? Considering the belts have been around for a few years now, that's unacceptable. The IIconics split, so did Sasha Banks and Bayley, and the scene is littered by 'odd couple' tandems like Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans and Peyton Royce, and Billie Kay teaming with the likes of Natalya or Tamina when it suits.

Ensure NXT is treated like a proper third brand rather than a quasi-development league for Raw and SmackDown. NXT has been on USA Network for over a year now, but it's still very much behind both Raw and SmackDown as a priority. Need proof? Look at the way Keith Lee was handled when he was "called up" after SummerSlam 2020. The former NXT Champ had to start all over again, and he's had several teething problems on Monday nights. It'd be nice to see WWE move away from positioning NXT as a 'feeder' for the other two shows. Changing someone's gimmick when they leave makes the brand look less-than, and there's simply no need for that anymore; NXT should be an equal to Raw and SmackDown, not a development league. Sadly, it still comes across as that. Lee's stop/start plight and the (mis)fortunes of others like Aleister Black and Ricochet should be a lesson to WWE. Some workers are better off rocking the black and yellow, not the red or blue.

AEW

Darby Allin becomes AEW World Heavyweight Champion

Adam Page costs Kenny the title and Page gets revenge and DESTROYS Kenny

MJF destroys the inner circle from within and when Jericho realizes what just happened, that’s when MJF and Wardlow destroys Jericho

Which is when we get a Sammy Guevara babyface turn and we get MJF vs Sammy

Arn Anderson turns on Cody

AEW’s Four Horsemen is formed. MJF, Shawn Spears and FTR with Tully and Arn managing as the JJ DIllon mouthpieces

Darby Allin and MJF feud for the title

The Women’s Division is improved. The girls get more time to shine on Dynamite. Your champion actually appears(shocking, I know) and build feuds and stories for your women’s division. There’s still some time to do what’s right for your women’s division, but the only thing that remains to be seen, does the powers that be of AEW even care?

Get a new title design for the Women’s Championship. It looks like a toy for a child. It’s plastic, not gold. It should be as big and beautifully designed as the men’s titles. It should be as big as the NWA’s title or even the WWE’s title. The title is symbolic as to how AEW treats it’s own women’s division and that needs to change with a fresh new design.

Sign Thunder Rosa. It may not fix everything with the women’s division, but it gives you your needed star power. Tony Khan should be begging on his hands and knees to sign Thunder Rosa in 2021 after her time with the NWA is up, his women’s division is getting their asses kicked by what his EVP refers to as a “developmental brand”

If you can’t sign Thunder Rosa. My solution is Push Anna Jay and Britt Baker as the top face and heel of the women’s division and either of them dethrone Shida.

Changes

WWE

Leave whatever that monstrosity of a creative team they have for RAW is. Let the Wrestlers dictate what they want their characters to be. Ditch the scripted promos. Let promos feel organic and real. Let the wrestlers be characters who feel real and genuine. Get rid of a “Creative” that isn't creative and let the wrestlers be creative and let them be free of terrible creative.

Get rid of the Gimmick PPV. WWE has ruined gimmick matches by turning them into themed PPVs. none of these matches are organic or special anymore. The matches themselves are great but are booked to fit a theme of a pay-per-view, when they should be used organically at the height of feuds. no one cares about the name of PPVs, so i don’t understand why WWE does this. the only one that actually works is MITB, because it makes sense as storylines reset after Mania.

Scrap the Brand Warfare/Brand Supremacy. WWE should scrap the tired brand warfare format at Survivor Series and move away from Raw vs. SmackDown completely. Booking around a calendar has become company law in WWE over the past decade or so. Perhaps McMahon always formatted things this way really, but it's more glaring now that gimmick bouts like Elimination Chamber, Hell In A Cell and Money In The Bank have their own pay-per-views. Survivor Series, with it's played out Raw vs. SmackDown vibes, also needs a rethink. "Brand warfare" is boring now, and it has been for several years. Although 2020's event was fun, it's nonetheless true that the month-long build to Survivors feels like a repetitive slog fans are forced to sit through every November. Hopefully, 2021 will change that. It is possible to book traditional elimination bouts without some sort of false show loyalty - WWE did this almost every single year until the first brand split in 2002. Their over-reliance on Raw vs. SmackDown is plain lazy. Survivor Series should be revolved around great rivalries between stables/factions. It’s really not that hard. Or at the very least if there IS a Smackdown vs Raw themed Survivor Series, at least add a damn reward. Give the brand a head start in the Rumble,, give the winners of the match number one contenders for their brand’s respective titles or ANYTHING better than just “brand supremacy lol”

Get rid of the 24/7 title. It has run it’s course. R-Truth is funny, but even he can’t make it work anymore.

Stop. Breaking. Up. Tag Teams. Stop killing your Tag Team Division. For the love of god just stop!

Cut Akira Tozawa’s ninja bullshit. It’s not funny, it’s annoying

Kill Retribution. It’s complete garbage. It has been consistently terrible ever since Retribution began. Mustafa Ali cannot save Retribution, he’s trying but no one can save it.

Stop the 50/50 booking

Stop rewarding Nia Jax, the living botch machine for injuring her fellow wrestlers

Stop pushing Lars Sullivan. Absolutely no one wants him.

They should cut raw to 2 hours because 3 hours is unbearable

Stop the overreliance of part time wrestlers. I don’t want to see Goldberg being pushed at the expense of today’s talent and I don’t want to see Goldberg period. I don’t want to see Brock Lesnar return at the expense of today’s talent. I don’t want to see Legends return. Push your current fucking wrestlers and make stars. You idiots!

Do not rush Becky Lynch back to the ring, she just had a baby. I read the reports that Vince wants Becky back by Wrestlemania. That is a terrible decision

Stop killing pushes because Vince changed his mind

Enough with “creative has nothing for you” if your “creative” has nothing for a certain wrestler, then they are not creative. Either let the wrestlers appear on the show or release them if you don’t want them anymore, it’s simple as that.

Do. Not. Put. The. Title. On. Goldberg. Goldberg should not have beaten Bray Wyatt's 'Fiend' for the Universal Title at Super ShowDown in February - that was a huge mistake, one that set Bray back and felt totally unnecessary. In 2021, WWE should outright avoid any temptation to repeat the trick and give ol' Billy another go-around with one of the top titles. If anything, Goldberg's only purpose should be to play victim for a quick Roman Reigns squash. Get through that elusive match then turn Bill into a company ambassador. He doesn't need to pretend it's still 1998 all these years on.

AEW

Leave the overabundance of spots just for the sake of spots and enough with the false finishes. Jim Ross was right, like it or not, the spots for the sake of spots and the false finishes need to end. This is my major problem with AEW and why I can’t stand The Elite in general. Everyone just needs to get their shit in. Everything looks fake. No one can look strong or credible and we have to see garbage Indy wrestlers and the spot monkeys make everything look fake and phony. The champions never look credible and everyone is on the level of job guys. This needs to change

Stop leaving your Women’s Champion off the show. It is downright insulting how dirty they are doing Hikaru Shida. She deserves as much time to shine as the other champions deserve.

Stop putting the NWA Women’s Champion as more of a priority than your own Women’s Champion

Enough with Brandi. Why is the women’s division given absolutely 0 screentime and barely anytime to develop their stories, but Brandi is ALWAYS THERE! Everything has to be about her. When a feud between Cody and Shaq was close to happening, of course it had to be about her. She’s turned heel/face as much time as the Big Show. I’ve grown tired of Brandi Rhodes. Stop shoving that attention whore down our throats. WE GET IT! You wanna be Stephanie so bad!

Enough with Cody’s big dramatic midlife crisis entrances. We get it, you wanna be Triple H SO BAD!

Stop the petty bullshit shots at WWE. It was fun at first, but it’s getting annoying. This is Eric Bischoff giving away the results and “That’ll put butts in the seats” level of petty bullshit. AEW had the fucking nerve to tweet a fan’s post saying they did a better tribute for Brodie Lee than WWE. HE JUST DIED! AND YOU ARE MAKING IT ABOUT YOUR FUCKING RIVALRY? GROW THE FUCK UP!

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insomniacowl · 4 years ago

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Neon Genesis Evangelion analysis chapter 15: Ayanami Rei, Unit – 00 Part 2 Trigger Warning: Languages that may depict rape and murder

Rei: …Who? Me? Myself inside of Eva?

No, there is someone else in here. Who are you?

Let’s begin this chapter with the scene from episode 23 when Armisael is “Penetrating” Unit – 00 and forced itself into Rei’s mind.

In this sequence, the other being that looked like Rei was the Armisael, yet Rei’s monologue is telling as she recounts that she was always aware of the other “being” that was inside of Unit – 00. Therefore, it is likely that there is a soul of someone in Unit – 00’s core who has a connection with Rei in a certain way. If the Soul in Unit – 00’s core was Naoko, Rei would not have felt the presence of a different “Self” in the core, thus there would have been a different way this was portrayed in this sequence.

There is another important scene in the game. As I have covered in the chapter for the unit – 03, there is a sequence in it where the pilots are confronted with the soul/s that are inside of their respective cores. For Shinji, Asuka, and Touji, they encounter their own mothers, but Rei encounters the younger Rei with distorted body proportion that we see in episode 14, with her name displayed as “???”.

Furthermore, in the game documents, the soul inside Unit – 00’s core is referred to as ‘Unknown being in the form of younger Rei’. With we extrapolate this and try to connect the game to the original series, we can see that it is the same being that we see in the game and in episode 14 through Shinji.

???: Why do you lie about your name and your body?

In the end, all we are let know is that the identity of the soul in Unit – 00 only looks like the first Rei when she died, therefore, it may not be correct to simply say that the identity of the soul is that of “The first Rei” as in this case, it becomes a contradiction of having two identical souls existing at the same time.

So let us delve a little further to answer this question of the identity of the soul while not straying away from the canon.

The second rei we know, and love did not have such evil smile

To start off, I will tell you my conclusion. My belief in the identity of the soul in Unit – 00’s core is a “Piece” of Lilith’s soul. This is possible as we have seen this happen with Kyoko’s soul for Unit – 02. Furthermore, as Kyoko’s contact experiment was conducted before the creation of Unit – 00’s core, we can also say that there is a possibility that Kyoko’s experiment was set up to test the viability of splitting a soul.

This “Piece” of the soul is not that of the First Rei. It is a part of the soul that was split on purpose when First Rei’s soul was being salvaged. Seeing again from Kyoko’s case, splitting of the soul can result in parts of the personality being attached with a specific soul (For Kyoko, her motherly side was taken away). Thus my argument is that Gendou has removed the expressive and potentially dangerous element of Lilith’s personality and locked it up in Unit – 00’s core. The personality that was locked up is likely to be related to that of Jealousy, hatred, and sexual desires and I will come back to this when we start our discussion of Rei.

Also, let’s keep in mind that the First Rei was made in 2004 and killed in 2010. Second Rei was created shortly after and is active during the ongoing of the series, 2015. So we can observe that the “Age” is not related to their physical appearance. Furthermore, First Rei is superior in terms of the ability to communicate with other people.

Gendou: She’s not Shinji. Her name is Rei

In her conversation with Naoko, we can definitely see that the First Rei had a sadistic side to her that we do not see in Second or Third Rei. What she tells Naoko is not that of a child simply repeating to another adult what they heard, but we can see that she is enjoying the distress Naoko is feeling at that moment. This is in line with the personality of Lilith in European folklore.

We can also see that Naoko was shown to be afraid of the image of “a jealous woman” that the First Rei has shown her.

Naoko: Rei-chan, is there something you want to say?

Rei: Don’t bother asking old lady. I can do what I want by myself

Naoko: You shouldn’t go around calling others an old lady. I’ll tell on you to commander Ikari

Rei: But you are an old lady.

That old lady is uptight. The old lady is useless now. That what the commander said

*In original Japanese, Old lady (Baba) is more derogatory

In theorizing, many lean towards the idea that Gendou has made the First Rei say such lines. My belief is that Lilith has used her abilities to read the thoughts of Gendou and Naoko or have at the very least said what she said on her own free will. We can say this about her ability as we see Kaworu being able to tell that he is being watched by Misato and can float freely as he travels down to central dogma. Being a being of similar status, it is likely that Lilith too has similar abilities as Kaworu shows us.

If the case of Kaworu’s ability stands, we can also make an argument of the same nature for the First Rei, and therefore also explain why the Second Rei never shows such abilities (as she is not a complete soul).

If Gendou has made the First Rei say such things to Naoko, that also means that he foretold Naoko’s murder of Rei and the suicide shortly after. Such foresight is in the realm of prophecy and I don’t think it's even written in the dead seas scroll.

It doesn’t matter if you die. You are replaceable…. Just like me.

Now let us shift our perspective to that of Gendou for a moment. Inside of the First Rei is the Soul of Lilith. And this soul is important in the project of instrumentality. But the situation he found himself after the death of the two he realized that there is a need for a safer way of containing this soul.

Since the First Rei have managed to kill Naoko if resurrected in the same way, what could she possibly do next to sabotage? This made Lilith’s soul difficult to deal with.

In this case, the best way forward for Gendou was to lock away the problematic part of Lilith’s soul in unit – 00 and create the Second rei with the remainder, teach her the emotions that she does not have (either as Lilith, or the part that was locked up) and right before the initiation of the HIP, fuse the two together to create the Third Rei,

Rei: This is… tears… crying… am I crying?

The emotions Rei picks up throughout the series is the “Love towards Gendou”, and right before her moment of death was “Loneliness” and “Sadness”. To put it in different words, creating a desire for the instrumentalization. To cement this desire, Gendou chooses this exact moment to unfreeze Unit – 01 and send out Shinji to turn that desire into that of “Love for Shinji” (Gendou’s problem was that this love developed a little too much). The Second rei that has completed her utility then died in Unit – 00’s self-destruction.

The two souls were salvaged and were fused into the Third Rei and in Gendou’s mind, Rei that was perfect for the Third impact was created. So to say the Third Rei is the same being as the First is inaccurate due to the difference there was between the Second and the First, and there would have been some danger in carrying out the instrumentality with the First as she was.

Kaworu: First children Ayanami Rei. You are just like me.

Rei: Who are you?

One more detail that supports my argument is in episode 24 when Kaworu refers to Rei as a being just like he is and just for a short period, the Third Rei was similar to the First Rei. This happens when Kaworu enters the central dogma when he blocks out everything from the outside by expanding his AT-field. Aoba report of a brief spike of a second AT-field and we see Rei floating in Central Dogma looking down at Kaworu and Shinji. It is also the Third Rei that appears at the final moment of End of Evangelion (This too will be covered in a later chapter in detail).

This means that because the Third Rei was existing inside of Lilith during the actual instrumentalization, Rei was able to become a higher being.

Shinji: Ayanami, why do you ride the Eva?

If we look back, other then the lack of emotions the Second Rei shows, we do not see her showing any extraordinary abilities. I have mentioned before the possibility of Second Rei not containing the soul of Lilith. It is often taken as though fact by many that ‘Rei = Lilith’ but we need to keep in mind that we do not have solid evidence that the soul of all Reis is identical.

This gives rise to the possibility that the Second Rei may not even be Lilith. It that is the case, it explains two observations that we can make. Firstly, the comparison between Kaworu who was able to pilot Unit – 02 (That was a part of his body) freely, and how Rei was unable to move Unit – 01 as freely. Secondly, how Gendou was confident enough to make Rei pilot Unit – 00 that was built using the Body of Adam.

Yet this is not enough to disprove the ‘Rei = Lilith’ hypothesis thus my argument of partial nature of Second Rei’s soul.

The first Rei in episode 25: Look inside of you. There is a heart that no one can see neither understand

In episode 14, there is a piece of dialogue that is presented in a throwaway manner that says, “Ayanami herself only faintly feels her existence”. This describes Rei’s lack of social abilities and also points to the missing “piece” of her existence and is continuously presented to us when we see Rei is seen reflecting on her identity.

In other words, this missing “Piece” was inside of Unit – 00, and the absence of it has caused great pain and feeling of loneliness for the Second Rei. This is also the reason why she continues to pilot Unit – 00 as this is when she can feel herself to be whole. Thus why she describes the act of piloting Eva as “A way to stay linked to others”.

Rei: No. I don’t know. I’m probably the third.

One more point of note is that the Third Rei was aware (although not completely sure of it) that she is the Third.

This struck me as odd that she knew this since the Second never said anything about her being Second, neither would it be sensible for Gendou or Ritsuko to tell her this fact.

However, if we consider the idea of the Second rei having a missing “Piece” she was aware of, and if Lilith’s soul was able to understand that there was a period this “Piece” was removed, then returned, the Third Rei should be able to instinctively feel that there have been two “transformations” that has occurred before this.

I always wonder the reason why they used the word “Umbilical” cord to refer to the power supply cable.

The soul inside of Eva’s core has mostly been that of the pilot’s mother. This is likely due to the ease of synchronization between mothers and children. But let’s think of what the reason might be. My guess is that Eva imitates the situation when there are two souls in one body during pregnancy. Since there have been nine months of this had happened already before the child was born, they ‘return to the womb’ in the form of piloting the Eva.

In the case of Rei, the absence of a mother for her served as an obstacle in creating Unit – 00’s core, to create a representation of a mother-child relationship, the best course of action would have been to split the soul into two and place them respectively into the Eva and into the cloned body.

My proposition here would suffice in explaining the relationship between all of our pilots and their Evas’ cores.

Let us now return to where we started and look again at the hints presented to us in the sequence of Unit – 00 going berserk. Through both cases of going out of control, Unit – 00 seemed to have shown its hatred of Rei, Gendou, and itself. There is no proof of Unit – 00 having any reason to desire to harm Ritsuko. My belief in her assumptions being shown to us was to highlight the guilt she might harbor regarding the Dummy system. On why it seemed like Unit – 00 was trying to kill Rei or itself, my argument is that it also desired to become one complete soul, and to make it happen, either one of them had to die.

The being that Shinji encounters when he is in Unit – 00 is therefore not exactly the soul of the first Rei. She is also Rei, but not completely Rei. Since there is no exact name that we can use to refer to this soul (that is only a part of the whole soul), it explains why the name in the game text is referred to as ???.

In episode 25 (End of Evangelion) we see that both the second Rei and the First exist together inside Third Rei and we are shown the first Rei talking to the Second in a demeaning and cruel attitude that feels like it is Lilith. This could be due to the soul has been in different locations being inserted into the Third Rei as they were salvaged.

1 + 1 = 1

If my hypothesis presented over the two chapters are correct, they would have required the technicalities on how to separate out only a specific part of Lilith. It should not be impossible due to the example of Kyoko existing, but I will say that this is what is referred to as the “Trouble faced during the creation of Core for Rei” that we are told in the game.

The analysis of Unit – 00’s core also leads directly to the analysis of Ayanami Rei herself. For example, her name “Rei” in Japanese can both mean “Zero” or “Spirit”, alluding to her being the pilot of Unit – 00, or to the identity of the importance of the Soul in her identity. It may also refer to two souls ( 0 and 0 ) existing both inside and outside of Unit – 00.

There is still so much that we have left to discuss the identity of and Ayanami Rei as a character. All of this will be covered in the future.

I would like to thank you for stitching with me for the past five weeks covering the analysis of Evangelion Units for what they are, and this chapter concludes this discussion on their identity and the role of souls in piloting it. From the next chapter onwards, we shall be on a new topic of the organizations and angels starting with the discussion of Seele, Gehrin, and Nerv.

Thank you for reading

TBC Chapter 16 Seele, Gehrin, Nerv and…

#Neon genesis evangelion #Evangelion #Eva #End of evangelion #Nge #Nagisa Kaworu #Lilith #Sci-fi #Ikari Shinji #Soryu Asuka Langley #asuka #Ayanami Rei #rei #Anno Hideaki #Katsuragi Misato #Anime #Analysis #Review

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darkarfs · 5 years ago

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This is gonna make so many horrible people unhappy. EVERY Takeover has had at least one match-of-the-year candidate on it. Some of the most emotional moments in that brand have come from cards that even aren't quite as good. I even considered not doing this list, because, by all accounts, NXT Takeover: Tampa isn't even going ahead. But then I thought, fuck it, let's celebrate, taken all together, for my taste, the best wrestling product in the history of mankind. It's not just moves; it's emotional investment, sharply-focused, character-based storytelling, intricately-performed spectactle from the greatest physical specimens ever to lace their boots. It FINALLY legitimized Western women's wrestling in the mainstream (Michelle McCool, Trish, Molly, Mickie, Jazz, Victoria, you all were stunning performers in your own right, but you and your kind were, until NXT, only given 3 minutes: the longest women's match IN HISTORY, until 'Mania 32, was Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James at Wrestlemania 22, and it got 9 minutes.), it's got some of the greatest tag wrestling ever seen on ANY brand, it's created the longest-drawn storytelling ever, it's the best of the indies, the best of the WWE, wrapped up in a sequence of shows that were epic without being FIVE FUCKING HOURS LONG.

Where do I even start...?

Honorable mention: Takeover: R Evolution (I have to, because I've only got 10) Sami Zayn spends over a year, clawing and sweating and tearing walls down, just to get to the top of the mountain in NXT. He has the opportunity to cheat, but does it his OWN way, as beautiful, unique babyface Sami Zayn...before being no-scoped by his best friend, who debuted THAT NIGHT. The undercard isn't as strong, so I can't officially include it, but this payoff, this triumph, and this tragedy represents everything the first era of NXT was, and kickstarted it, truly, onto its first golden era. So, properly, then...

10. Takeover: Rival If you leave this list feeling like the title reigns, and thus, ERAS, of Zayn/Owens are a little under-represented by it, I completely understand. After all, so much good came from that time. American Alpha soldifying themselves as the dominant tag team, the Iron-Woman match between Sasha and Bayley, Becky Lynch putting all the pieces together, Enzo and Cass actually being GOOD...it was, still, at its heart, a developmental brand at that time. It had indie megastars, yes, but it also had the likes of Bull Dempsey. And that's not a dig at Bull Dempsey, it's just that those early Takeovers were an eclectic mix of skill levels, which is what NXT was at that time. It was a place to showcase these people. That said, some of these cards were truly *fantastic.* Case in point: Takeover: Rival. Not only was the undercard completely stacked (Hideo Itami vs. Tyler Breeze over-delivered; we had the first and still SOMEHOW ONLY Fatal 4-Way match between the Four Horsewomen; and Finn Balor vs. Neville was a solid match of the year candidate), but the main event was the first step in one of the most storied rivalries in the history of wrestling: Zayn vs. Owens. The video package is one of the best NXT ever did, and the match...was a masterpiece of simple-but unexpected booking. Zayn mistimes a leap to the outside, hits his head, and Owens responds by powerbombing him over...and over...and over again, until the ref stops the match. Zayn loses nothing, because he was never pinned, Owens is made to look even MORE the loathsome monster, and Zayn's title reign ends after just a month, without the champion nor the championship devalued in any way. It showed that NXT knew, even then, how to reward fans for their emotional investment.

9. Takeover: Portland Right now, NXT feels like it's approaching the very end of a special time in its life. Like it's on the verge of hitting critical mass. One of either Gargano or Ciampa probably leaving the company after the next Takeover, and the reign of the Undisputed Era seems to be crumbling, too. In yesteryear, this would indicate a raft of very important call-ups, neccessitating a shift in the roster and a period of calm centered around more patient character-building. NXT's existence now as a third brand throws that formula into uncertainty, but it definitely feels like they're ramping up to a finale, because goddamn, this is NXT almost at a point of self-parody. Every match is so. MUCH. Lee/Dijakovic is the pinnacle of HOT wrestling (and Lee, will you marry me?) Bianca Belair breaks out as an actual superstar...just as Charlotte decides to visit and to ruin everything, which is just dreadful timing. Gargano/Balor being everything we need it to be, and also Balor pinning Gargano with his fucking dick. And the Broserweights being VERY DUMB...but also VERY, VERY GOOD. The only thing that lets this card down...and this is obviously subjective...is that NXT has almost come TOO FAR, now, in its delivery on its main events, in that every kickout starts to beggar belief. On the level of Triple H/Undertaker at Wrestlemania 28, in that I still love it, but...hoo, it can be exhausting. Depends on how much Ring of Honor you like in your gumbo, I guess, but it feels like everyone on the roster is racing toward Tampa to explode, like a wrestling Crisis on Infinite Earths, and then MAYBE...things can calm down. Just a hair. Y'know, if Tampa even...still happens.

8. Takeover: Philadelphia If there's one man that's become synonymous with NXT, it's Johnny fucking Wrestling. You know, what would happen if a meerkat put on muscle mass and became the best set-piece wrestler this side of Daniel Bryan. We knew since he started his tag team with Tommaso Ciampa that he was an exceptional wrestler, but it wasn't until Philadelphia, and his INSANE match with Andrade "Cien" Almas, that we saw him as truly the industry's next star. It was the first Takeover match to go over 30 minutes (Sasha/Bayley at Respect went EXACTLY 30, don't @ me), it was the first NXT match to get 5 stars from Dave Meltzer (if that matters to you), and it set a new bar for Takeover main events. And while the undercard doesn't live up to it, it's still loaded with excellent matches. A.O.P. vs. the Undisputed Era is something special. Shayna Baszler makes her Takeover debut, and while she's nowhere near her prime, it cemented her immediately. Velveteen Dream and Kassius Ohno have a very fun match, and Aleister Black and Adam Cole have a ludcriously stupid no-holds-barred match, featuring two men doing with chairs what no one ought to do with chairs. But as good as all of that is, it's really a one match show, but what a match, and Ciampa ending it by being an utter bastard yet again.

7. Takeover: Brooklyn I Does the first Brooklyn Takeover feature Canadian Destroyers, 18 kick-outs and "fight forever" chants? It does not. Does it create moments of wrestling happiness that are rarely, if ever, replicated? It sure does. Firstly, Blue Pants appears and helps the Vaudevillains defeat Blake and Murphy. Seems quaint to look back on it, but it made everyone SO goddamn HAPPY that night. If you're forgetting, Leva Bates (that wrestling librarian in AEW right now) was once a comedy jobber in NXT, who wore Blue Pants. Adorable. Ignore what happened on the main roster (which is something you'll probably have to do with a lot of these shows, I imagine), but the Vaudevillains were once incredibly over (I promise!), and their win was one of several beam-inducing moments from this stellar night. Samoa Joe destroyed Baron Corbin at the height of his game, Apollo Crews debuted brilliantly (again, ignore what happens next!) and Balor and Owens' ladder match was also fantastic. Also, what's Jushin Thunder Liger doing here?? Wrestling like he's in his early 30s, that's goddamn what!! But of course, the reason we're all here is Sasha Banks vs. Bayley, and...there's still something in my eye. Anytime people want to rag on NXT for being "predictable," remind them that giving the people a moment they've genuinely prayed for...is a good thing. Bayley besting Sasha Banks at her prime just made us all...so happy. All of us. Everyone. When that curtain call took place, it was so earned. The narrative of women's wrestling dominated most of 2015, and this moment, this match, was the apex of that narrative.

6. Takeover: Chicago I And speaking of feelings...hello, Ciampa, you godless fuck. And so begins maybe the actual greatest rivalry in all of NXT. It is truly an odyessy, with twists, turns, injuries, betrayals, wounds torn open, and this is the nexus point. Well, the seeds had already sort of been planted, because Triple H knows what he's doing. Ciampa almost ALMOST turns on Gargano after their terrific match in the Cruiserweight Classic, only for the team to die another day...and what a death it was. After a great ladder match, the two stand atop the ramp, and you think "will it happen?" And the absolute bastards show you the copyright logo, just to make you think the show ends there, because it always does, seconds after that happens. You unclench, you breathe out, relax...Ciampa whispers "this is MY moment" and then...It is a perfectly engineered bait-and-switch, and exactly as vicious as it needs to be. Pats on the back, all 'round. This moment alone makes this a worthwhile Takeover, but there's also a hell of an undercard. The women's triple-threat (Ruby Riott vs. Asuka vs. Nikki Cross) is stellar, Bobby Roode and Hideo Itami have their respective best Takeover matches ever, and then there was Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne. An absolute show-stealer of a match, a star-making performance for both men (especially Dunne), it cemented the career of several men, and was a fully-formed GREAT show, as opposed to a good show in service to a storyline.

5. Takeover: Brooklyn IV Gargano and Ciampa's battle of brotherhood, betrayal and brainwashing was supposed to blow off at Takeover: New York, but because God hates necks, Tomato Champion was out of action, making this the final singles encounter to date, until Tampa (again, IF it even happens). This is the weakest of their 3 excellent encounters (which still makes it better than any match over SummerSlam weekend), but it also features Johnny Stupid running into a speaker, because his dumb ass can't seem to quit Ciampa. It's one of the greatest long-form feuds for a reason, mirroring Bret and Owen from 1993 into 1994, with all the repeated imagery, the callbacks, the nuances, the psychological cruelty. The street fight at Chicago II is MAYBE better, but this undercard, for me, is a lot stronger. It featured the Undisputed Era vs. Moustache Mountain, aka the Brothers Shithead vs. the Proud Circus Bear and His Beautiful Son. Velveteen Dream vs. EC3 was the closest NXT got to WWE-style storytelling and was still brilliant (remember when EC3 wrestled?), and HEY, wouldn't you know it, Kairi Sane was once a character with dimensions, as evidenced by an amazing match with Shayna Bazsler. But what makes this undercard truly stellar is Adam Cole vs. Ricochet. It is so nice to see Ricochet used well, etc., but I will still never stop pissing myself at Cole nailing him square in the jaw with a superkick WHILE HE'S MID-MOONSAULT UPSIDE-DOWN SWEET JESUS. Sometimes...sometimes...things fall exactly into place.

4. Takeover: WarGames (2018) The WarGames Takeovers are just so silly. It's a silly shoebox, filled with huge, silly men who only barely know why they're killing each other. It's as close as we ever get to WWE's now-terminal problem of "set aside whatever feuds you have right now, because it's Stipulation Month!" (see: Hell In a Cell, most Money In the Bank shows, though Elimination Chamber largely sidesteps this). The other Shoebox Takeovers are really good, no doubt, but this one stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. But there is not a bad match on this card. Kassius Ohno rides Matt Riddle's knee all the way to heaven; NXT shows why 2-out-of-3-falls is fast becoming its signature stipulation with the excellent blowoff between Sane/Baszler; Sexy Mindgames Prince had a star-making match against Tommaso Ciampa, showing why he may be the best overall character in NXT right now, and sweet lord, Aleister Black vs. Johnny Wrestling. It somehow showed that Gargano was JUST AS, if NOT MORE engaging as a dirtbag than as a good guy. And those Black Masses are presents just for me, a guy who tends to like more community theater in his wrestling than flips ("I ABSOLVE YOU...OF ALL YOUR SINS!"). And then we get to the Shoebox, and gosh it's silly! The Viking Experience, Ricochet and Pete Dunne take on the Undisputed Era, and...its a fucking LOT. 45 minutes of spots and smashing, with just a sprinkling of story, with Fish locking Dunne in his cage so he can't participate in the match. Since this seems to be what this match is designed for...let's rattle off some spots! Ricochet, jumping from one ring to the other! That amazing face-off that recreates the Captain America: Civil War poster! Perhaps the beefiest Tower of Doom in all of wrestling! And then Ricochet proving just how amazing he is...with the double moonsault off the top of the cage. What a stupid thing to do in an amazing, amazing show.

3. Takeover: Dallas I get it; a lot of people might not rank this Takeover quite so high. But it might be my actual personal favorite...? Overall...? More than any other Takeover, this show feels the most like it's filled with living, breathing superheroes. Many NXT stars are seen as just indie guys whose only gimmick is "I'm a very good wrestler," making them almost anti-WWE at the core. But NXT doesn't get enough credit for being, at its core, the best aspects of WWE. The showmanship, the things that elevate mere wrestlers to things like monsters, gods, and demons. I will always like my NXT WWE-style: the best wrestling cut with the most theater, the most camp. And Dallas is that concept, writ large. Baron Corbin coming out with lil' skulls on his shoulders. American Alpha finally becoming Super Saiyan Nerds. Asuka killing our hero, because Bayley is a person, and Asuka is a goddess who can perform brain surgery with her feet. Finn Balor coming out and going actual Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Samoa Joe. It's excellent wrestling, near-mythic visuals...and then we get to Nakamura/Zayn. The most special moment of a very special night. It is, from nearly every perspective, perfect. The hype of the crowd, salivating with anticipation. That moment when Nakamura appears in silhouette, and that violin note slides like a knife across steel, to reveal the man who set New Japan aflame. Sami Zayn getting the best possible swan song in a promotion built almost entirely on HIS back. The end of his era. That bit where they just KEEP PUNCHING ONE ANOTHER. I know it's not a perfect show (Balor/Joe stops for 3 minutes to address a cut on Joe's forehead, stalling its momentum; that Corbin/Ares match isn't as good as it could be) but that all means nothing. It's a sentimental choice, and I'd make it #1 if I could.

2. Takeover: New Orleans I went around and around in my head, and this one and #1 kept jockeying for position in my brain. But these top two Takeovers are literally note-perfect, from ship to shore, soup to nuts, top to tails. So if this is YOUR favorite? (Honestly, maybe 1 person I know who loves wrestling as much as I do will even see this mess). I'm here for you, and I understand. But this show has TWO 5-star matches from the Wrestling Observer, and I don't ever agree with that. In this case, I agree with BOTH, in the North American Championship ladder match, and the first (and so far, BEST) match in the Gargano/Ciampa feud. Everything. Is. Amazing. Shayna Bazsler became Women's Champion after BEAST-MODING her SHOULDER back INTO IT'S SOCKET to show that, YES, she gets pro-wrestling. Roderick Strong shocked the world (and the System) by joining the Undisputed Era and becoming the final Chaos Emerald needed to make that stable Super Sonic. Aleister Black took the championship from Andrade "Cien" Almas and SMILED, I fucking SAW IT! And it all depends on what you want from your wrestling, but Gargs/Tamps might actually be the best main event in Takeover history, at least from a storytelling standpoint. The crutch, the neckbrace. Each man going back to their DIY roots (the tag team - they didn't build another ring when that one broke), and then sitting side-by-side, like they did at the Cruiserweight Classic. Brothers. Completely spent. Destroyed. No one but each other. And then Ciampa shits any chance at redemption up the goddamn wall, cementing his own destruction. Every. Bit. Counts.

and #1...

Takeover: New York For a whole bunch of other wrestling fans, this has the greatest main event in Takeover history. But first, let's take a minute to appreciate how lucky we are, or were, that NXT exists. It justfies the existence of WWE, artistically, almost by itself. If this one's only slightly worse than New Orleans, it is argued, it's that the North American title ladder match was TOO good, and hurt every other match on the card. It has been argued. Not by me, but this one is somehow the most perfectly paced, perfectly sized wrestling card, on its own, ever. Every match, through alchemy or magic, manages to enthrall the crowd equally, and completely. The Viking Raiders vs. Grumpy Smaller Undertaker and the Human Pinball was off the hook incredible, and that warm "thank you" feeling has translated, currently to a man trapped in a room and a man trapped in Vince McMahon's scorn for smaller wrestlers, respectively. Matt Riddle and Velveteen Dream put on an absolute fantasy match, pitting the best of MMA vs. the best of WWE-style theatricality, and adds to the complete, demented character-world of this brand, and the fact that Dream WINS against one of the hottest new prospects is so deserved, and shows that he can, and will, shine forever brighter. Then AAAAGH WALTER vs. Pete Dunne! WALTER LAYS into poor Dunne, his chops alone having you believe that after the match, he's going to run into the arena's parking lot to FIGHT THE CARS. Then Shirai vs. Baszler vs. Sane vs. Belair and goddammit how do I even expound on that without crashing thesarus.com? And then Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole wrestled for. 40. MINUTES. With Gargano as the defacto heel because it was allegedly Cole's time. And by the match's end, he had the crowd more behind him than maybe they ever had been before. Is it a bit much? Yes. Too many kickouts? Probably. But it stands as the apex of Johnny Wrestling's journey. After everything had been taken from him: DIY, his health, his sanity, even his chance at revenge...the only thing he has left is the NXT Championship. And in that moment, he is invincible, he is more than enough.

What a show. What a host of shows.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

#long post

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i-was-a-teenage-eldritch-horror · 3 years ago

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1. Everything about the sequence in the hospital in Episode 22 signals that it hasn’t been that long since the contact experiment with Unit 02. If it’s been long enough for Asuka’s dad to (healthily) grieve and move on, then why the fairly long conversation between him and the nurse about Kyoko’s state? Surely, if it had been a while, there would be no reason for this discussion; it would already have been had.

Additionally, the fact that his new girlfriend is a nurse at the hospital suggests that he wasn’t spending much time grieving and/or visiting Kyoko. That the nurse plainly states that she doesn’t like Asuka (a grieving toddler) and says it to her dad’s face doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of Asuka’s dad (or the nurse, for that matter).

Also, it’s implied that Kyoko was released from the hospital eventually. In Episode 24 when Asuka comes running to tell Kyoko she’s been selected as a pilot, we see a different doorknob than in Episode 22′s flashback to the hospital. Also, wouldn’t Kyoko have logically been under suicide watch or enough supervision to prevent her from hanging herself had she still been in the hospital?

2. Ok. If that’s the case, then why is the lance of longinus penetrating Unit 02′s AT field deliberately framed as such? At that point in eoe, we have not one but several instances of caretakers failing, all happening back-to-back. Gendo assaulting Rei, Misato assaulting Shinji, Naoko rejecting Ritsuko, and Ritsuko doing nothing to help Rei. Are we really truly meant to think of Kyoko as an exception when it’s surrounded by a whopping four other instances of caretakers failing?

Whether or not this is fair of the narrative to Kyoko is another discussion entirely; the point is that it is framed as such.

Additionally, the lance took its sweet time pausing in the air and tearing through the AT field. If Kyoko wanted to, she could’ve acted of her own accord and moved to spare Asuka a gory, gruesome death. Unit 01 does this exact thing several times; it is entirely within the realm of possibility. Unit 00 also acts on its own accord numerous times throughout the series.

Also, Kyoko has blatant homicidal feelings towards Asuka -- she hung her in effigy with the ragdoll, as we saw in Asuka’s encounter with Arael in Episode 22, even asking Asuka to die with her. It’s even said that she was treating the ragdoll as if it was Asuka, and we see her strangling it in the hospital in Episode 22. Strangulation is always an attempt on someone’s life. You’re either trying to break their neck or suffocate them. If that wasn’t harrowing enough, delayed death after strangulation is extremely common as well.

Kyoko dipping out in eoe was probably a second attempt to die together. Which is all the more gut-wrenching when you remember that Asuka’s whole arc in eoe is partially centered around her making the difficult decision to live after a period of suicidality.

3. Misato doesn’t have a good track record with other women, period.

She speaks of her mom only once throughout the entire series, and even then its in relation to her dad. This is in spite of being raised by her both after her dad’s death and probably before as well -- how many times does Misato say her dad was totally absorbed into his work?

Misato is also dismissive towards Ritsuko -- she notes that Ritsuko doesn’t talk about herself, yet never questions why and if that’s unique to Ritsuko’s relationship with her (it is, for the most part), and later rebuffs Ritsuko’s attempts at rekindling their friendship.

In Episode 9, Misato uses Rei specifically to bruise Asuka’s ego after having to unexpectedly take Asuka in (probably after some needling by Kaji or Ritsuko). When Ritsuko shows Misato Rei’s origins, she doesn’t care, and says this isn’t what she came to see.

Finally, when Asuka begins to slip into a downward spiral towards the end of the series, she is completely and totally unsympathetic. She dismisses Ritsuko’s concern about Asuka’s falling sync rates with the flimsy excuse of “she’s on her period” instead of investigating or admitting the true cause. It tracks well, then, that because Misato recognizes the masculine parts of herself in Shinji and the feminine parts of herself in Asuka, that she neglects Asuka and dotes on Shinji. This is not to say that her treatment of Shinji was good, obviously. Only that Misato tried with Shinji.

You’re right, though, that Asuka rejected Misato in turn. We know that Asuka doesn’t think very highly of Misato -- she says as much to Kaji in Episode 22. However, that doesn’t excuse Misato’s behavior at all. If it had been Shinji audibly throwing a fit in the bathroom in Episode 22, Misato would not have been nearly as apathetic. How many times throughout the show does she take Shinji aside and have a heart-to-heart with him?

The only equivalent instance I can think of with Asuka is in Episode 10 at the hot springs, when Asuka is ashamed that Misato knows every bit of her trauma, only for Misato to blithely respond that it’s part of her job. Misato knows every ounce of Asuka’s pain and still neglects her.

Asuka Was An Accident

Unit 02 is notoriously flaky, and dare I say, the most lifeless eva of all. Asuka even thinks of it as a “toy.” Whereas Unit 01 is protective and lively, and Unit 00 is erratic and self-injurious, Unit 02 fills the role of “robotic military weapon” the best out of all the evas, at least for the majority of the series. Towards the end, Unit 02 becomes obstinate and flaky.

Since Unit 02 contains Kyoko’s soul, I think this indicates something about her as a parent. Namely that Kyoko didn’t want to be a mother, in my opinion. After the contact experiment with Unit 02, she retains not only her body, but a piece of her mind. Yui, however, didn’t even retain her body (Gendo states in Episode 15 that the gravestone is an artifice), only enough DNA to be used to make Rei. This is because Yui wanted to be a mother, and to be an eva. She directly tells Fuytsuki in Episode 21 that she wants to have kids. Shinji was planned. I don’t think Kyoko particularly wanted either of these things; motherhood or being an eva. Hence only a part of her being taken into Unit 02.

Asuka is introduced into the series late, unexpectedly (to the audience), and she completely changes the game. Character dynamics, tone, everything. What does that sound like to you? To me, it sounds like a surprise pregnancy, and an accidental child.

If we know one thing about Asuka’s father, it’s that he’s a jackass. He cheated on Kyoko while she was in the hospital– a startling parallel to how commonly men cheat on their wives and girlfriends when they experience long-term illness, such as cancer. If I’m being honest, I think Mr. Langley probably pressured Kyoko into keeping Asuka. Benefiting one-sidedly from a woman’s labor and sacrifice.

Taking this into account, it’s no surprise Unit 02 is so flaky when it comes to protecting Asuka. Kyoko tried her best to cope with being a mom, and what that ended up looking like was lifelessness, to the point that Kaworu was able to use Unit 02 in Episode 24. But ultimately it was just too much for her, so she dips out when it becomes too hard, like at the end of Asuka’s fight against the MPEs in end of evangelion. Of course, Asuka bears the brunt of that.

So, there’s another one to add to the pile of Asuka-Ritsuko parallels: being accidents. Because unless Naoko is older than Gendo, she would’ve had to have been a teen mom, and most babies born to teen moms are accidents.

Additionally, Misato and Rei, characters who are each associated with motherhood in their own way, reject Asuka. Misato consciously, purposefully neglects her. Rei ignores her. Misato also has to take Asuka in unexpectedly at the last minute.

The cherry on top of all of this is that Asuka is literally a red-headed stepchild. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, “red-headed stepchild” is a saying used to describe someone who is both fussy, hard to handle, and neglected, unwanted, and mistreated.

Sound familiar?

#Asuka Langley Soryu #Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu

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pendulumprince · 8 years ago

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Considering the ending of Arc-V anime, I wonder what would happen if Yuya and Yuzu didn't get together in the future? I'm not against this couple, but I can't help having this "scientific" interest what would happen if Yuya ended up, for example, with Reiji, and Yuzu with Masumi? How would counterparts react? Will they riot inside Yuya and Yuzu?

So what you’re asking is, how would the other six counterparts react if lustershipping and pendulumshipping happened? You’re a scientist after my own heart, anon.

Let’s look at pendulumshipping first. Yuya and Reiji get together. I think the first thing we’d have to ask is, what do the other counterparts think about Reiji in general? Yugo would likely be neutral to him; but Yuto and Yuri know him foremost as Leo Akaba’s son. I’m sure that Yuto’s gotten past his grudge against Leo and recognizes everything Reiji did to end the war, but considering everything that happened, I don’t know if the same thing can be said for Yuri.

I mean, I really don’t. No one does, and we can never truly know, because our glimpse at reformed!Yuri was so brief. Based strictly on what we know for sure… Yuri just about turned on the Professor during his duel against Asuka. He literally said that he wanted to card everyone in existence until he was the only one left, so that mass death warrant obviously included Leo. So whatever semblance of sentimentality he had for Leo—the one person who paid him any mind, his father figure—was done away with because of Zarc’s influence.

And then after Zarc was exorcised from them? Yuri likely saw all the evil that Leo did with a clarity he never had before. So we can assume he realized what Leo did was wrong, and the he was used as a living weapon. He may have also realized that Zarc was only able to influence him so strongly was because Leo encouraged his negative qualities, and kept him from his (plutonic/romantic/whatever) soulmate, Serena. So this may breed a grudge, one that may extend to Reiji.

And there, have Yugo (neutral), Yuto (likely pro), and Yuri (likely anti).

Moving onto the girls, what do the other counterparts think of Masumi? Ruri and Rin never met her themselves, so they would likely be neutral. Serena also never met her in person, but is connected to her in an oft forgotten way…

Serena carded Hokuto, one of Masumi’s best friends.

We can assume that Serena would be able to see things from Yuzu’s perspective. So she would see Yuzu getting together with Masumi, and likely think nothing of Masumi herself. But say, if Yuzu hangs out with the LDS trio as a group, and Serena recognizes Hokuto, remembers that she carded him? And/or if she overhears Masumi talking about how much she missed her friend? She would feel guilty, which would probably make her more actively amenable to the idea of Yuzu and Masumi being together.

So we’d have Ruri (neutral), Rin (neutral), and Serena (pro, if only out of guilt).

Now, this only relates to how the counterparts feel towards Reiji and Masumi, not how they’d feel over Yuya and Yuzu not getting together. I think several factors would play into that, too.

I think everyone would be fine with it at first, even Yuri (I don’t think he’d risk alienating the other counterparts, because above all else he doesn’t want to be alone anymore). So it’s fine if Yuya goes on a date with Reiji to the local carnival, or if Yuzu and Masumi go to a concert together. Yuzu wants to go eat breakfast at Masumi’s house instead of Yuya’s? Sure, fine. Yuya starts spending his free time in Reiji’s office as opposed to YSDS? No big deal. As long as things stay casual, I don’t think the counterparts would make much of a fuss.

But if things get serious? Like, if Yuzu formally introduces Masumi to Shuzou, or Yuya (who is now a pro duelist) announcing his relationship with Reiji publicly? Then that would naturally make the other counterparts worry, because the more time Yuya and Yuzu spend with their formidable others, the less time they’re spending with each other. And that means that Yuto isn’t seeing Ruri, Yugo isn’t seeing Rin, and Yuri and Serena are drifting back to square one.

Yuto and Serena probably take a more wait-and-see approach (because they’re more favorable to Reiji and Masumi as people). Yugo, Ruri and Rin would be more vocal about their concerns, and knowing Yuri… he probably does his best to sow seeds of doubt into Yuya’s head about Reiji (such as reminding him of all the shit Reiji’s willing to pull for the sake of keikaku, that sort of thing).

Assuming none of this works, and years pass, and things become even more serious? Like Yuzu and Masumi move in together in an apartment across town, or Yuya and Reiji are traveling for extended periods of time together?

Then yes, there is rioting.

Yes, there are hostile takeovers.

Yuri!Yuya would totally shred all of Reiji’s most important documents. Serena!Yuzu would shamelessly sell all of Masumi’s most prized jewels, and spend the proceeds on cat stickers she’d cover the walls in.

Does Rin!Yuzu chew Masumi out for mild infractions, mom-style? You bet your ass she does. Would Yugo!Yuya run over Reiji with his bike? I doubt he’d be successful, but he’d sure as hell try.

And when Masumi calls “Yuzu” out on this behavior, you think Ruri!Yuzu would give her an inch? She’d gaslight Masumi so fast, but she’d do it badly, on purpose, specifically so that Masumi notices it. And Yuto!Yuya does much the same, playing long-winded mind games with the King of Mind Games himself, to try to convince him that that this behavior is completely normal.

This is all done in an effort to have Reiji/Masumi initiate a break up, because they know Yuya/Yuzu would never do it. What they don’t realize is that all this behavior is so insanely OOC that Masumi and Reiji knew it was the counterparts from the start.

To fix this they get together and talk it out amongst themselves. They rightfully come to the conclusion that things are never going to go back to normal, so long as Yuya and Yuzu are only spending a nominal amount of time together. But they love their formidable others too much to let them go entirely, nor would breaking up be fair to Yuya or Yuzu.

So they come up with a compromise, one that Yuya and Yuzu readily agree to.

The four (really ten) of them move in together. Reiji begins to make a conscious effort to get to know, and eventually sort of date, Yuto, Yugo and Yuri. Masumi does the same with Serena, Ruri and Rin.

They hold joint weddings, on in which the counterparts are acknowledged. They travel together. They help raise each others kids.

Is it a messy arrangement? Yes, it can get very messy. But Yuya and Yuzu are in close proximity, so the counterparts can be together, allowing peace to be maintained. Besides, Yuya and Yuzu are always happiest when they’re together. And what Masumi and Reiji want, above all else, is for their spouses to be happy.

Man, this went from an analytical post to a quasi-fanficish one. I don’t think I’ve ever made that jump before lol good question anon.

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squaredcirclesirens · 7 years ago

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Beginner's Guide to 2017 Joshi

About this guide: The work I’ve put into this beginner’s guide was inspired by the incorrect statements made by some people in the wrestling news/reviews world about joshi wrestler Asuka and the hyperbole of how much the impact of Kairi Hojo and Io Shirai leaving for WWE will have on the entire scene. People who know about the joshi industry even from a distance know that she’s never stepped foot in Stardom, but so many don’t know a thing about joshi after the boom period of 1993-1998. As a fan of both past and the current product it’s annoying seeing someone/people speak with authority about the current scene without much proper knowledge and it inspired me to try to get people to learn about what’s what in the modern joshi scene. It’s not 2006 anymore, multiple promotions have managed to claim over 1,000 people in attendance at Korakuen Hall in recent times, some promotions can regularly pull an attendance number of 800 or more people at the legendary wrestling venue. There are many skilled women from different generations still active in wrestling today, Tokyo Sports’ 2016 Rookie of the Year was a woman, there are young people who aren’t even two years into their careers and are already having great matches and making improvements in strides. All these things tend to be ignored by Western fans due to them not knowing who and what is out there besides Io and Kairi matches in Stardom within the last two years or they only know of boom-era joshi wrestling and assumed it all died after 1998 and haven’t bothered checking it out again after Aja Kong and Kyoko Inoue left AJW. These feelings I had about people talking out of their ass was combined with seeing people greatly enjoying Stardom and I want to show them that there’s more out there that is worth checking out, so at the end of all of this I just wanted to help people discover the current joshi scene and maybe enjoy some of the wrestling that I greatly enjoy. This guide has heavy emphasis on wrestlers that appear on taped shows meaning not every joshi promotion and wrestler has been written about and I’m also one person, who doesn’t watch every promotion. Gatoh Move, Reina, Tokyo Joshi, freelancers like Saki, and other women like Cherry, Saki Akai, Bambi, and others aren’t present in this document. Unless specified all the matches found on this guide can be viewed on the Real Hero Drive.

Major Promotions

Ice Ribbon

Started in 2006 by Emi Sakura, who now runs Gatoh Move, Ice Ribbon features a young roster that can have high-speed matches that are go-go-go with little stopping. Some Ice Ribbon shows have a light-hearted feel to them with comedic matches and some games played instead of matches. Big matches in Ice Ribbon can be some of the best high-speed matches around, like Tsukushi vs Tsukasa Fujimoto from late December of last year, and Ice Ribbon always has some of the highest Korakuen Hall attendance numbers.

Titles

ICEXInfinity Championship: Risa Sera

International Ribbon Tag Team Championship: Vacant

Triangle Ribbon Championship: Manami Toyota

Roster

Tsukasa Fujimoto – Debut: August 8, 2008

For a second career after getting some wrestling training for an acting role Tsukasa Fujimoto has become one of the better joshi wrestlers and one of the top acts in Ice Ribbon. Some of her best work is with Arisa Nakajima in their tag team, The Best Friends, Best Friends vs Yoshiko & Nanae Takahashi is a great introduction to their work together. Tsukasa fits the high-speed, dangerous top rope moves type matches that have a slight touch of boom-era AJW feeling to them like in her match against Tsukushi at RibbonMania last year.

The Best Friends vs Yoshiko & Nanae Takahashi (JWP 7/24/2016)

The Best Friends vs AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi (Oz Academy 11/13/2016)

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tsukushi vs KAZUKI & Tsukasa Fujimoto (JWP 12/28/2016)

Tsukasa Fujimoto vs Tsukushi (Ice Ribbon 12/31/2016)

Tsukasa Fujimoto vs Arisa Nakajima (Ice Ribbon 3/26/2017)

Tsukasa Fujimoto & Tsukushi vs Manami Toyota & DASH Chisako (4/15/2017)

The Best Friends vs Lovely Butchers (Ice Ribbon 4/24/2017)

Tsukasa Fujimoto vs Hiroyo Matsumoto (Ice Ribbon 5/05/2017)

Tsukushi – Debut: March 14, 2010

Another Ice Ribbon roster member that started training as a child and debuted young, Tsukushi is younger than 21 and already has 7 years of wrestling experience to her name. Tsukushi doesn’t even stand 5 feet tall and isn’t bigger than a minute and fast pace matches fit her stature very well.

Leon vs Tsukushi (JWP 7/24/2016)

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tsukushi vs KAZUKI & Tsukasa Fujimoto (JWP 12/28/2016)

Tsukasa Fujimoto vs Tsukushi (Ice Ribbon 12/31/2016)

Hiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi vs Homiko Hoshi & Hiroyo Matsumoto (Ice Ribbon 1/29/2017)

Tsukushi & Hiragi Kurumi vs Ryo Mizunami & Misaki Ohata (Ice Ribbon 3/26/2017)

Tsukasa Fujimoto & Tsukushi vs Manami Toyota & DASH Chisako (4/15/2017)

Tsukushi & Hiragi Kurumi vs Azure Revolution (Ice Ribbon 4/24/2017)

Tsukushi & Hiragi Kurumi vs Kyuri Maika Ozaki (Ice Ribbon 5/05/2017)

Maya Yukihi – Debut: November 24, 2014

When wrestling in her home promotion Maya Yukihi sports blue and is a babyface that doesn’t carry around a whip. She’s one-half of the team Azure Revolution with Risa Sera, the other team she’s a part of is Seiki-gun with Mayumi Ozaki. When Maya Yukihi appears in Oz Academy she wears all black gear, makeup with heavier eye shadow, carries a whip with her, and has the tendency to break the rules.

Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs Maya Yukihi & Rina Yamashita (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

Maya Yukihi vs Aja Kong (Ice Ribbon 1/29/2017)

Maya Yukihi, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka vs Aja Kong, Tsubasa Kuragaki & Yoshiko (Oz Academy 4/12/2017)

Tsukushi & Hiragi Kurumi vs Azure Revolution (Ice Ribbon 4/24/2017)

Risa Sera, Maya Yukihi, & 235 vs Mochi Miyagi, Akane Fujita, & Rina Yamashita (Ice Ribbon 5/05/2017)

Risa Sera – Debut: October 20, 2012

If everything goes well Risa, Maya, and Tsukushi should be the next generation of top stars for the Ice Ribbon promotion. She’s the current ICEXInfinity champion, Ice Ribbon’s top title, and her team with Maya Yukihi known as Azure Revolution will probably be a force to be reckoned with for the International Ribbon Tag Team titles in the future — she also isn’t afraid to have a deathmatch either.

Risa Sera vs Rina Yamashita (Ice Ribbon 3/26/2017)

Tsukushi & Hiragi Kurumi vs Azure Revolution (Ice Ribbon 4/24/2017)

Risa Sera, Maya Yukihi, & 235 vs Mochi Miyagi, Akane Fujita, & Rina Yamashita (Ice Ribbon 5/05/2017)

Stardom

Started in 2010 by Rossy Ogawa, Nanae Takahashi, and Fuka, Stardom is another Rossy Ogawa production with high emphasis on a wrestler’s beauty and selling gravure-like photobooks and cards of the talent. It only takes one look at the roster page on Stardom’s official roster page to see who their target audience is, but like another hyper-visual fighting promotion, the in-ring wrestling can produce match of the year candidates featuring some of the best women wrestling today (as of the writing of this editorial). Thanks to the popularity of Io, Kairi, and Mayu, more recently Western fans know of Stardom and watch matches but that comes with the con of people not knowing the history of the promotion and the industry past 2014 like some newer fans of NJPW. All matches from Stardom can be viewed on their wonderful English-subtitled streaming service Stardom World.

Titles

Artist of Stardom Championship: Io Shirai, AZM, & HZK

Goddesses of Stardom Championship: Jungle Kyona & Hiroyo Matsumoto

High Speed Championship: Kris Wolf

SWA Undisputed World’s Women’s Championship: Toni Storm

Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani

World of Stardom Championship: Io Shirai

Roster

Io Shirai – Debut: March 4, 2007

One of the top female wrestlers in the world today, her matches in Stardom are one of the big reasons people started to have a renewed interest in the joshi scene. Her, Kairi, and Mayu have been dub the Daughters of Stardom and they’ve held the top singles belts in recent memory and having match of the year contender matches over these titles. She recently created her Queen’s Quest stable with HZK (Hazuki) and AZM (Azumi) after turning on her former tag team partner, Mayu Iwatani, in late 2016.

Io Shirai vs Mayu Iwatani (Stardom 12/22/2016)

Io Shirai vs Kairi Hojo (Stardom 1/17/2016)

Stardom vs World Selection (Stardom 2/7/2016)

Io Shirai vs Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 7/2/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Mayu Iwatani vs Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura (3/9/2017)

Io Shirai vs Kairi Hojo (3/20/2017)

Io Shirai vs Viper (Stardom 1/15/2017)

Kairi Hojo – Debut: January 7, 2012

One of the Daughters of Stardom, Kairi Hojo’s matches and moves helped make Stardom gain visibility with Western fans. Everyone’s favorite pirate has fast paced matches that don’t slow down, even if it means Kairi having her fair share of concussions and injury scares. A couple months after Yoko Bito’s return to wrestling she and Kairi teamed up to form BY Ho and won the Goddesses of Stardom titles, and now Kairi holds the Artist of Stardom Championship with Konami and Hiromi Mimura.

Io Shirai vs Kairi Hojo (Stardom 1/17/2016)

Stardom vs World Selection (Stardom 2/7/2016)

Io Shirai vs Kairi Hojo (Stardom 3/20/2017)

Kairi & Yoko vs Kay Lee Ray & Nixon Newell (Stardom 1/15/2017)

Kairi & Yoko vs Kyoko Kimura & Kagetsu (Stardom 12/22/2016)

Mayu Iwatani – Debut: January 23, 2011

The third Daughter of Stardom in multiple ways, despite being an early member of Stardom Mayu has never held the top belt. She was in a long time team with Io Shirai known as Thunder Rock before Io betrayed her and retained the Wonder of Stardom title in their MOTYC bout from late December of 2016. Mayu is the high speed queen of Stardom, you can see this in a single match from her High Speed title defense against Kay Lee Ray from early 2016 and you have to watch her match against Io for the Wonder of Stardom title.

Io Shirai vs Mayu Iwatani (Stardom 12/22/2016)

Mayu Iwatani vs Kay Lee Ray (Stardom 1/17/2016)

Stardom vs World Selection (Stardom 2/7/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Mayu Iwatani vs Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura (3/9/2017)

Yoko Bito – Debut: January 23, 2011 / Return: June 23, 2016

After retiring due to injury all the way back in 2012 after just one year of active wrestling Yoko Bito returned to wrestling and Stardom in the middle of last year. Months after her return she joined forces with Kairi to form BY Ho and they captured the tag titles, losing them to Jungle Kyona & Hiroyo Matsumoto in 2017. She’s been a good part of the mid card but with Kairi & Io due for departure maybe there’s a chance for her to move up in the pecking order.

Yoko Bito vs KONAMI (Stardom 2/23/2017)

Kairi & Yoko vs Kay Lee Ray & Nixon Newell (Stardom 1/15/2017)

Kairi & Yoko vs Kyoko Kimura & Kagetsu (Stardom 12/22/2016)

Io Shirai vs Yoko Bito (Stardom 10/30/2016)

Jungle Kyona – Debut: November 15, 2015

A young member of the Stardom roster who’s starting to ascend the ranks, Jungle Kyona is a powerful wrestler full of positivity. Like Mika Shirahime over in Sendai Girls, once Kyona got her Senegal flag ring gear she started to gain momentum and even won the tag titles with Hiroyo Matsumoto from BY Ho. Kyona is the second power wrestler on the native Stardom roster besides Io Shirai and that helps her stand out being able to crush the rest of the roster with lariats and other power moves.

Jungle Kyona vs Chihiro Hashimoto (Stardom 6/5/2016)

Jungle Kyona vs Io Shirai (Stardom 8/28/2016)

Jungle Kyona & Momo Watanabe vs Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani (Stardom 11/11/2016)

Jungle Kyona vs Kay Lee Ray (Stardom 1/29/2017)

Jungle Kyona vs Kairi Hojo (Stardom 2/23/2017)

Jungle Kyona & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito (Stardom 3/5/2017)

Jungle Kyona vs Toni Storm (Stardom 3/20/2017)

HZK – Debut: July 6, 2014

Since her heel turn HZK (Hazuki), a member of Io Shirai’s Queen’s Quest, has been slowly climbing up the ladder in the Stardom pecking order. She beat Jungle Kyona in the first round of the Cinderella tournament and went to a 10 minute time limit draw with Kairi in the second round.

HZK & Io Shirai vs Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito (Stardom 1/3/2017)

Queens Quest vs Yoko Bito, Mayu Iwatani, & Hiromi Mimura (Stardom 1/29/2017)

HZK & Io Shirai vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Jungle Kyona (Stardom 4/9/2017)

HZK vs Jungle Kyona (Stardom 4/30/2017)

HZK vs Kairi Hojo (Stardom 4/30/2017)

Kris Wolf – Debut: October 10, 2014

She’s a wolf that likes meat and is a member of Oedo Tai, Kris Wolf is the only full-time foreigner on the Stardom roster. She’s not a main event talent but Kris is very entertaining and easy to remember due to her tail and heel antics with her Oedo Tai crew.

Sendai Girls

Based out of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture Sendai Girls has created a truly unique roster in the joshi wrestling world in northern Japan. On the surface level, no one else can offer what Sendai Girls offer: they have a shoot wrestler, the best heel character in the business, a high-speed tag team specialist, a fiery rookie, and a legend all on a single roster. Some of the best mat-work and charismatic young wrestlers will be found here along with a match diversity unseen in other promotions. Matches range from a hard-hitting bout in Meiko Satomura vs Hiroyo Matsumoto, a hardcore tag match between KAORU & DASH Chisako vs Ryo Mizunami & Kyoko Kimura, and matches with more mat work and grappling like Chihiro Hashimoto vs Cassandra Miyagi.

Titles

Sendai Girls World Championship: Hiroyo Matsumoto

Sendai Girls Tag Team Championship: Hikaru Shida & Syuri

Roster

Meiko Satomura – Debut: April 15, 1995

Arguably the best female wrestler in the world right now, after the closure of GAEA Japan in 2005 Meiko Satomura created Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling the following year and has slowly but surely made it a top promotion in the modern joshi scene. Over the last couple years, Meiko has racked up an amazing list of matches with all sorts of opponents from multiple promotions, from Io Shirai to her old time rival Aja Kong. She wrestles with pure heart and determination and it feels like she’s always giving her all even in 6-person tag matches on smaller shows, I’ve never watched a Meiko Satomura match and felt that she was being lazy and just coasting along.

Io Shirai vs Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 7/2/2016)

Meiko Satomura vs Syuri (Sendai Girls 3/11/2016)

Meiko Satomura vs Aja Kong (Sendai Girls 4/8/2016)

Meiko Satomura & Mika Iwata vs Hana Kimura & Kyoko Kimura (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

Alex Lee, Chihiro Hashimoto, & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Ayako Hamada, Meiko Satomura, & Mika Iwata (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

Meiko Satomura vs Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls 10/18/2016)

Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada (Sendai Girls 11/9/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Yoshiko vs Aja Kong & Meiko Satomura (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Mayu Iwatani vs Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura (Stardom 3/9/2017)

Meiko Satomura vs Syuri (Sendai Girls 3/11/2017)

Meiko Satomura vs Hiroyo Matsumoto (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

DASH Chisako – Debut: July 9, 2006

One of the first wrestlers produced from the Sendai Girls dojo and one of two veterans on the roster, for most of her career DASH Chisako was in a tag team with her sister, Sendai Sachiko, until her retirement in early 2016. DASH easily excels at tag team wrestling thanks to her near ten years’ experience at the craft and she also has good high-speed style matches. Her tag team with KAORU and their short title reign after winning the tournament was one of my favorite runs in 2016 wrestling, the two meshed together extremely well and had excellent matches against Syuri & Hikaru Shida and Kyoko Kimura & Ryo Mizunami. After losing the tag titles she had more singles matches and has even teamed up Cassandra Miyagi to challenge for the belts in 2017, a team that I would definitely like to see happen more in the future.

DASH Chisako vs KAORU (SenJo 2/28/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & DASH vs Aja Kong & Rydeen Hagane (Sendai Girls 7/2/2016)

DASH Chisako vs Sareee (SenJo 7/30/2016)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Hana & Kyoko Kimura (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Sendai Girls 10/16/2016)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Kyoko Kimura & Ryo Mizunami (Sendai Girls 10/18/2016)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Command Bolshoi & Kyoko Kimura (Sendai Girls 1/9/2017)

DASH Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi vs Hikaru Shida & Syuri (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

Cassandra Miyagi – Debut: November 24, 2014

Once upon a time, there was a wrestler named Michiko Miyagi, a young woman with jet black long hair and bangs, now she is the 10,002 year old entity known as Cassandra Miyagi. Half-bleached hair with her bangs gelled up into a spike, black and purple eyeliner with a gear of matching colors, and charisma that fills an entire room, Cassandra is one of the best characters in all of Japanese wrestling today, male or female. Whenever she steps into a room she commands everyone’s attention with her head banging and yelling, but she isn’t just a character. She has the skill set to back it up. Her tag matches with Aja Kong from last year’s tournament to crown new Sendai tag champions and her title match against Chihiro Hashimoto exemplify her in-ring ability, her move set won’t set the world on fire like everything else about her but you can still tell that she was trained by Meiko with how crisp her attacks are and her ability to shoot for a takedown.

Aja Kong & Cassandra Miyagi vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

Aja Kong & Cassandra Miyagi vs Hiroe Nagahama & Ryo Mizunami (Sendai Girls 10/16/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto vs Cassandra Miyagi (Sendai Girls 11/9/2016)

DASH Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi vs Hikaru Shida & Syuri (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

Mika Shirahime – Debut: July 12, 2015

Debuting a few months before Chihiro Hashimoto as Mika Iwata, Mika has been a part of the normal rookie experience in Japanese wrestling in that she lost most of her matches in the first couple of years. According to her Cagematch profile, she lost all of her 2015 matches and 39 of her 43 matches in 2016 but after getting new white gear and picking her new ring name, Shirahime (meaning white princess), she finally started to get over the rookie slump and picked up her first singles win in early 2017. As the kick pads suggest Mika has a lot of kicks and strikes in her arsenal in contrast to the two other young talents in Sendai Girls. One of my favorite moments in a Mika Shirahime match is when she starts to get fired up, her hair gets a bit frazzled, her eyes get wider, and she yells before attacking her opponent in hopes of making a comeback. It may be easy for a new fan to put Mika aside due to her not being as over the top as Cassandra or having to go through the normal rookie losing streak phase but by 2018 Mika Shirahime should be winning more matches and showing more fire in her in-ring personality to match the power of her kicks.

Ayako Hamada vs Mika Iwata (Sendai Girls 7/2/2016)

Meiko Satomura & Mika Iwata vs Hana & Kyoko Kimura (Sendai Girls 7/18/2016)

Mika Iwata vs Sareee (SenJo 9/29/2016)

Alex Lee, Chihiro Hashimoto, & Hiroyo Hashimoto vs Ayako Hamada, Meiko Satomura, & Mika Iwata (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

Mika Iwata vs Yako Fujigasaki (Sendai Girls 10/16/2016)

Mika Shirahima vs Konami (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

Chihiro Hashimoto – Debut: October 25, 2015

Tokyo Sports’ 2016 Rookie of the Year and one of the most promising young talents in the joshi scene today, Chihiro Hashimoto stands out from the crowd with her shoot wrestling background and amateur-based move set. A former member of the Japanese junior national wrestling team (the Japanese Women’s freestyle wrestling team is the most dominant in the sport) Chihiro made her professional wrestling debut teaming with legend Shinobu Kandori against fellow rookie Mika Iwata and the legendary Manami Toyota. Since her debut Chihiro has gotten a strong push, not having the traditional year-long losing streak that most rookies in Japanese wrestling experience. According to her Cagematch profile she’s won 52% of her 67 matches, an unheard of number for a rookie but it’s obvious that Meiko Satomura wants to build up Chihiro Hashimoto as a future face of the promotion and she’s doing that by having Chihiro win in dominant fashion. In 2016, at Sendai Girls’ tenth-anniversary show at Korakuen Hall, Chihiro defeated Meiko Satomura to become the second Sendai Girls World Champion, she lost the title to Aja Kong early this year but defeated Aja in their rematch on April 6 at Korakuen Hall in a great match. Not even a full two years into her career Chihiro Hashimoto has title match wins over Meiko Satomura and Aja Kong, an amazing feat for an amazing wrestler.

Chihiro Hashimoto & DASH Chisako vs Aja Kong & Rydeen Hagane (Sendai Girls 7/2/2016)

Alex Lee, Chihiro Hashimoto, & Hiroyo Hashimoto vs Ayako Hamada, Meiko Satomura, & Mika Iwata (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

Meiko Satomura vs Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls 10/18/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Yoshiko vs Aja Kong & Meiko Satomura (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto vs Cassandra (Sendai Girls 11/9/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Mayu Iwatani vs Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura (Stardom 3/9/2017)

Chihiro Hashimoto vs Aja Kong (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

WAVE

Started in 2007 after the closure of Jd’ Star by Yumi Ohka and GAMI that has seen many now popular faces through its doors, including current WWE NXT star, Asuka, and Io Shirai before joining Stardom, WAVE helped provide a place to wrestle and to call home during joshi’s rough period of the 2000s after the closure of AJW, GAEA, Jd’ Star, and Arsion/AtoZ. WAVE has their own streaming service called the WAVE Network.

Titles

Regina Di WAVE Championship: Ryo Mizunami

WAVE Tag Team Championship: Yumi Ohka & Yuki Miyazaki

Roster

Yumi Ohka – Debut: August 19, 2001

The head of WAVE along with GAMI, Yumi originally started as an athress over in Jd’ Star and after its closure she and GAMI founded WAVE in 2007.

Yumi Ohka vs Kagetsu (Oz Academy (7/9/2016)

Yumi Ohka & Mayumi Ozaki vs Hikaru Shida & Syuri (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

Yumi Ohka vs Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

Yumi Ohka & Yuki Miyazaki vs Ryo Mizunami & Misaki Ohata (WAVE 1/28/2017)

Yumi Ohka & Yuki Miyazaki vs Ryo Mizunami & Misaki Ohata (WAVE 3/12/2017)

Maya Yukihi, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka vs Aja Kong, Tsubasa Kuragaki & Yoshiko (Oz Academy 4/12/2017)

Ryo Mizunami – Debut: November 11, 2004

A late trainee of GAEA Japan and an early student of Meiko Satomura, Ryo has the fighting style and heart similar to other GAEA Japan students. Formerly in a tag team with Misaki Ohata named Avid Rival, who were the tag champions in WAVE and Ice Ribbon in the last bit of 2016 into early 2017.

Ryo Mizunami vs DASH Chisako (WAVE 6/2/2016)

Ryo Mizunami vs Nanae Takahashi (WAVE 7/6/2016)

Dynamite Kansai & Rina Yamashita vs Chihiro Hashimoto & Ryo Mizunami (WAVE 10/10/2016)

Yuu Yamagata vs Ryo Mizunami (WAVE 9/25/2016)

Yuu Yamagata vs Ryo Mizunami (WAVE 12/29/2016)

Takumi Iroha vs Ryo Mizunami (WAVE 4/19/2017)

Misaki Ohata – December 10, 2006

A student of Mariko Yoshida & Leon and getting her start in JD Star, Ohata stayed with Mariko Yoshida and her project until 2010 and eventually joined WAVE & Osaka Joshi Pro in 2015.

Misaki Ohata vs Nanae Takahashi (WAVE 1/3/2016)

Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami vs Yumi Ohka & Yuki Miyazaki (WAVE 1/28/2017)

Ryo Mizunami vs Misaki Ohata (WAVE 2/11/2017)

Ayako Hamada – August 9, 1998

Ayako Hamada is the daughter of the legendary Gran Hamada and the young wrestler that got a serious push early in her career in Arsion. Due to who her father is and her relationships with wrestlers in Mexico Ayako has a lucha influenced moveset including a ropewalk and great arm drags. Earlier this year Ayako went back to Mexico and has been wrestling for AAA for most of 2017 as of writing this editorial.

Ayako Hamada & Yuu Yamagata vs Ryo Mizunami & Misaki Ohata (WAVE 8/7/2016)

Ayako Hamada & Rina Yamashita vs Nanae Takahashi & Yoshiko (WAVE 8/14/2016)

Ayako Hamada & Nanae Takahashi vs Rina Yamashita & Yoshiko (WAVE 11/27/2016)

Oz Academy

Originally a stable in JWP Project & GAEA Japan led by Mayumi Ozaki, what started as a couple produce shows eventually became its own promotion. Oz is slightly similar to World Women’s Wrestling Diana in that the roster is all longtime veterans of the industry, you’ll see many freelancers and women from many promotions make appearances on Oz Academy shows. This is also the home to Mayumi Ozaki’s current stable, Seiki-gun (some online will also refer to this group as Ozaki-gun), who are experts in cheating and causing shenanigans.

Titles

Oz Academy Openweight Championship: Hiroyo Matsumoto

Oz Academy Tag Team Championship: Hikaru Shida & Syuri

Roster

Mayumi Ozaki – Debut: August 17, 1986

A JWP & JWP Project original Mayumi Ozaki is one of the biggest heels in joshi history and a great tag team worker, nowadays you’ll see her fight her matches with the help of Police and the rest of her stable, Seiki-gun. A modern Ozaki singles match has the same layout, Police drags her opponent through the crowd and throws chairs at them, Ozaki hits her opponent with her chain and probably chokes them too, other members of Seiki-gun will attack Ozaki’s opponent, and maybe they have a chance of winning the match after all of that.

Mayumi Ozaki, Saki Akai, & Yumi Ohka vs Cherry, Shida Hikaru, & Syuri (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

Mayumi Ozaki vs Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi vs Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

Hana & Kyoko Kimura vs Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 9/11/2016)

Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs Maya Yukihi & Rina Yamashita (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy 12/11/2016)

Mayumi Ozaki vs Manami Katsu (JWP 4/2/2017)

AKINO – Debut: July 21, 1998

An Arsion original and trained by Mariko Yoshida, until she was asked by a retiring Dynamite Kansai late last year AKINO had been a freelance wrestler after the failure of M’s Style. She’s currently a member of Mission K4 with fellow roster member Sonoko Kato, Kaho Kobayashi, and Kagetsu.

AKINO & Sonoko Kato vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Oz Academy 7/9/2016)

AKINO, Dynamite Kansai, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue, Leon, Sareee, Yoshiko, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

AKINO, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Sonoko Kato vs Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kuragaki, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi vs Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

The Best Friends vs AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

AKINO & Sonoko Kato vs Syuri & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 6/26/2016)

AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi vs Hikaru Shida & Syuri (Oz Academy 4/12/2017)

Aja Kong – Debut: September 17, 1986

The legend herself, with over 30 years in the business there’s not much that hasn’t been said and written about Aja Kong. After 30 years though Aja Kong has expectedly gotten slower and mainly features in multi-women matches or tag matches, but when she does have a singles match she usually does her best to pull out all the stops and make it good. Her rare singles matches also help elevate the person that’s able to defeat her, like rookie Chihiro Hashimoto did to regain the Sendai Girls Championship.

Aja Kong, Rina Yamashita, & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Hikaru Shida, Manami Toyota, & Misaki Ohata (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

Aja Kong & Cassandra vs Hiroe Nagahama & Ryo Mizunami (Senjo 10/16/2016)

Aja Kong & Cassandra vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (SenJo 9/29/2016)

Meiko Satomura vs Aja Kong (SenJo 4/8/2016)

Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada (11/9/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Yoshiko vs Aja Kong & Meiko Satomura (11/23/2016)

Aja Kong & Ayako Hamada vs Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi (Oz Academy 6/26/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & DASH vs Aja Kong & Rydeen Hagane (SenJo 7/2/2016)

Aja Kong, Rina Yamashita, & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Hikaru Shida, Manami Toyota, & Misaki Ohata (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

Aja Kong vs Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

Sonoko Kato – Debut: April 15, 1995

Sonoko Kato is a member of GAEA Japan alongside Meiko Satomura for its lifetime, unlike Meiko, Sonoko stayed freelance for a couple of years before joining the Oz Academy roster and eventually forming the current stable, Mission K4. Her finisher is the wonderful Kowloon’s Gate and she has seemingly taken a step back from the main event seen in Oz after losing the Openweight title to Hiroyo Matsumoto in late November of 2016.

Sonoko Kato & AKINO vs Syuri & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 6/26/2017)

Sonoko Kato & AKINO vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Oz Academy 7/9/2016)

Sonoko Kato, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashik, & AKINO vs Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kuragaki, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2017)

Sonoko Kato vs Dynamite Kansai (Oz Academy 9/11/2017)

Sonoko Kato vs Hiroyo Matsumoto (Oz Academy 11/13/2017)

Sonoko Kato & Kaho Kobayashi vs Aja Kong & Yoshiko (Oz Academy 1/8/2017)

Sonoko Kato vs Kaori Yoneyama (Oz Academy 5/28/2017)

Minor Promotions

Pure-J

Pure-J is the promotion born from the ashes of the former JWP. JWP had to close down due to a dispute with Daily Sports over the use of the name and property. In a way it’s a little like how JWP Project came to be after the original JWP (Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling) shut down due to differences backstage between talent, something happens that causes the promotion to close down, but everyone picks up the pieces and creates a new promotion with a slightly different philosophy. The promotion plans to have its official debut on August 11 and since JWP closed on April 2 they’ve been running small shows under the Dream Joshi banner and they already have a new rookie in their dojo, so Pure-J is on a positive path to getting started on the right foot.

Titles

Princess of Pro-Wrestling: Yako Fujigasaki

Daily Sports Women’s Tag Championship: Command Bolshoi & Leon

Roster

Command Bolshoi – Debut: November 26, 1991

A member of the original JWP and a member of JWP Project for its entire lifespan Command Bolshoi has been the backbone of the JWP organization since the 2000s and still intends to lead Pure-J into the future. Command Bolshoi doesn’t do many singles matches these days outside of the rare Bolshoi Kid appearance, now she’s usually in a tag match with her teammate Leon or in multi-man tags.

AKINO, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Sonoko Kato vs Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kuragaki, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

Jumonji Sisters vs Kyoko Kimura & Command Bolshoi (SenJo 1/9/2016)

Manami Katsu & Tamu Nakano vs Command Bolshoi & Leon (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

Leon – Debut: March 15, 2000

Leon is an Arsion original who stayed with the company until it finally closed its doors as Major Girl’s Fighting AtoZ. In 2007, she joined JWP and has been with them until the end of JWP and the formation of Pure-J. She’s the member of the roster who can have a great high-speed match with the likes of Kaho Kobayashi & Tsukushi but also stand with larger opponents like Yoshiko & Nanae Takahashi.

Nanae Takahashi & Yoshiko vs Leon & Rydeen Hagane (JWP 11/3/2016)

AKINO, Dynamite Kansai, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue, Leon, Sareee, Yoshiko, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

Leon vs Tsukushi (JWP 7/24/2016)

Leon vs Kaho Kobayashi (JWP 8/14/2016)

Manami Katsu & Tamu Nakano vs Command Bolshoi & Leon (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

Yako Fujigasaki – Debut: August 18, 2013

Currently the youngest member of the Pure-J roster and the final JWP Junior Champion, Yako Fujigasaki has gone through a character evolution over the last year. Thanks to a feud with WAVE’s Sumire Natsu last year stemming from Yako’s lack of beauty, Yako evolved into the Visual Hunter. Yako and Sumire’s feud escalated to a final battle dubbed “Battle without Honor or Humanity,” after that match she kept the Visual Hunter name and now battles other pretty women in wrestling.

Mika Shirahime vs Yako Fujigasaki (Sendai Girls 10/16/2016)

Yako Fujigasaki vs Hirori (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

Hanako Nakamori – Debut: July 16, 2006

The final JWP Openweight Champion and current ace of the promotion, Hanako Nakamori and Arisa Nakajima had been the top people in JWP through the 2010s.

Arisa Nakajima vs Hanako Nakamori (JWP 12/28/2016)

Kagetsu & Sawako Shimono vs Hanako Nakamori & Makoto (JWP 2/21/2016)

Aoi Kizuki vs Hanoko Nakamori (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

Manami Katsu – Debut: April 3, 2011 / Re-debut: April 3, 2016

Manami Katsu originally retired back in 2014 to take care of her mother but decided to come back to wrestling in 2016 and has shown a renewed fire since her return. On JWP’s final show she fought Mayumi Ozaki in a losing effort and has recently earned a Daily Sports Tag title match with her new tag partner, Tamu Nakano, with the team name Violet With. She and Tamu seem be a great tag team and their near future should be one to look out for.

Command Bolshoi, Rabbit Miyu, & Manami Katsu vs Meiko Satomura, DASH, & Cassandra (Chikara

Manami Katsu & Tamu Nakano vs Command Bolshoi & Leon (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

KAZUKI – Debut: May 26, 1997

Originally a part of Jd’ until its closure in 2004 and joining JWP in 2005, KAZUKI’s eventually become the go-to person to wrestle a debuting wrestler. She’s also the leader of the unit ‘The Wanted’ although it’s currently just her and Rydeen Hagane in the group.

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tsukushi vs KAZUKI & Tsukasa Fujimoto (JWP 12/28/2016)

KAZUKI vs Miyuki Takase (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

Rydeen Hagane – Debut: August 18, 2012

The biggest wrestler in JWP/Pure-J and a member of The Wanted with KAZUKI, Rydeen Hagane is the resident hoss of the promotion.

Meiko Satomura vs Rydeen Hagane (SenJo 2/28/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & DASH vs Aja Kong & Rydeen Hagane (SenJo 7/2/2016)

Nanae Takahashi & Yoshiko vs Leon & Rydeen Hagane (JWP 11/3/2016)

Rydeen Hagane vs Hiroyo Matsumoto (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

SEAdLINNNG

SEAdLINNNG is Nanae Takahashi’s newest promotion formed after leaving Stardom with some friends, including the shortly retired Yoshiko. After a press conference she started up SEAdLINNNG and in its near two years of existence, it’s finally starting to gel together and get its own identity. The two notable roster members are obviously founder Nanae and Yoshiko, in 2017 they were joined by a newly freelance Arisa Nakajima & Sareee with a sixth roster spot still empty on the profile page on the official website. Besides hard-hitting wrestling, the SEAdLINNNG roster probably does the most shoot fighting of any active promotion, with Nanae doing Lethwei kickboxing & Sei Za and Yoshiko fighting in MMA for South Korea’s ROAD FC.

Roster

Nanae Takahashi – Debut: July 14, 1996

One of the founders of Stardom and founder of SEAdLINNNG, Nanae Takahashi has a loyal friend group that has helped her promotions start off on a good foot. Along with wrestling Nanae also participates in shoots fights for Lethwei Japan and new budo style organization Sei Za, she was even present ringside at the this year’s first Rizin FF card next to the women of LLPW-x. Unlike her shootfighting record, Nanae is a great pro wrestler that isn’t showing any signs of slowing down with her age.

The Best Friends vs Yoshiko & Nanae Takahashi (JWP 7/24/2016)

Nanae Takahashi & Yoshiko vs Leon & Rydeen Hagane (JWP 11/3/2016)

Arisa Nakajima & Nanae Takahashi vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Ryo Mizunami (SEAdLINNNG 3/25/2017)

Nanae Takahashi & Sareee vs The Best Friends (SEAdLINNNG 5/5/2017)

Yoshiko – Debut: January 23, 2011

The infamous Yoshiko, most known in the west for shooting on Act Yasukawa and breaking her face. After retiring for a short time after the ‘Ghastly match’ she came back to wrestling to join Nanae Takahashi’s newly formed SEAdLINNNG promotion. Despite what Western fans think of her, the native fanbase and wrestlers don’t hate her and willingly work with her, almost as if shoots have happened before in wrestling, and if she was hated she’d had difficulty finding work in major joshi promotions. Recently, Yoshiko has added MMA to her resume, winning her first match in South Korea’s ROAD FC and having her second fight in July. Like Tsubasa Kuragaki, Hiroyo Matsumoto, and Rina Yamashita, Yoshiko is a hoss that lays in hard hitting attacks and doesn’t back down from a fight.

The Best Friends vs Yoshiko & Nanae Takahashi (JWP 7/24/2016)

Nanae Takahashi & Yoshiko vs Leon & Rydeen Hagane (JWP 11/3/2016)

Chihiro Hashimoto & Yoshiko vs Aja Kong & Meiko Satomura (11/23/2016)

AKINO, Dynamite Kansai, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue, Leon, Sareee, Yoshiko, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

Meiko Satomura vs Yoshiko (SenJo 7/30/2016)

Maya Yukihi, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka vs Aja Kong, Tsubasa Kuragaki & Yoshiko (Oz Academy 4/12/2017)

Yoshiko vs Rina Yamashita (SEAdLINNNG 5/24/2017)

Sareee – Debut: April 17, 2011

Sareee was a former member of World Women’s Pro Wrestling Diana before being transferred to SEAdLINNNG this year in a bit of a surprise to fans. Her former home promotion doesn’t make tape so her appearances in other promotions were the only time the at-home audience could see her work, now that she’s in SEAdLINNNG hopefully more of her matches make it on film. Despite being under 24 years of age Sareee has been wrestling for 6 years and hopefully she continues to grow as a wrestler in SEAdLINNNG.

Sareee vs Rabbit Miu (JWP 12/28/2016)

AKINO, Dynamite Kansai, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue, Leon, Sareee, Yoshiko, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

DASH vs Sareee (SenJo 7/30/2016)

Mika Iwata vs Sareee (SenJo 9/29/2016)

Sareee vs Yoshiko (SEAdLINNNG 3/25/2017)

Nanae Takahashi & Sareee vs The Best Friends (5/5/2017)

Arisa Nakajima – Debut: January 3, 2006

Late last year Arisa Nakajima shocked fans by saying she was leaving her home promotion for the vast majority of her career, JWP, to go freelance. She didn’t stay freelance for long as she went to join SEAdLINNNG after wrestling there against Nanae Takahashi in early 2017.

The Best Friends vs Yoshiko & Nanae Takahashi (JWP 7/24/2016)

Arisa Nakajima vs Kyoko Kimura (JWP 11/3/2016)

The Best Friends vs AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

Arisa Nakajima vs Hanako Nakamori (JWP 12/28/2016)

Arisa Nakajima & Nanae Takahashi vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Ryo Mizunami (SEAdLINNNG 3/25/2017)

Tsukasa Fujimoto vs Arisa Nakajima (Ice Ribbon 3/26/2017)

The Best Friends vs Lovely Butchers (Ice Ribbon 4/24/2017)

Beginning Pro

Home of the Actwres Girlz (a pun on actress and wrestler), a concept about bringing in beautiful actresses to the squared circle that isn’t too far from JD Star’s ‘athtress’ idea except that it’s arguably better executed and received. Yuna Manase was the original face of the promotion when it opened its doors in 2015 and since her departure in 2017 Saori Anou and Natsumi Maki have become the new faces of the promotion.

Roster

Saori Anou – Debut: May 31, 2015

Saori Anou is the current face of Beginning Pro along with Natsumi Maki after Yuna Manase left and she’s just shy of passing her two year anniversary of being a wrestler. If Beginning Pro is being represented outside of the promotion there’s a high chance it’s Saori Anou carrying the flag for her home promotion. Her home promotion doesn’t make tape but you can find her in some Stardom matches and on the final JWP show. She’s also been on some Pure-J “Dream Joshi” cards so one can assume she might show up on future Pure-J shows.

Natsumi Maki – Debut: May 31, 2015

One of the main faces of the current Beginning Pro, she along with Saori Anou are the go-to women to represent the company on other promotion’s cards. Most of her recent stuff outside of Beginning Pro has been tag matches with Saori Anou or in multi-person matches, like the battle royal from JWP’s final show.

Osaka Joshi Pro

The sister promotion to WAVE, Osaka Joshi Pro (aka Daijo) has a smaller roster that also features on WAVE shows. Recently, they’ve been on hiatus due to Sawako Shimono taking time off to get treatment for her Alopecia earlier this year.

Roster

Rina Yamashita – Debut: November 4, 2013

2017 has been a great year for Rina Yamashita so far, her home promotion has been on a hiatus of sorts since Sawako Shimono announced her own hiatus from wrestling. Rina has been in more promotions this year and has meshed well with all of them, most recently she has been in SEAdLINNNG wrestling Yoshiko.

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Rina Yamashita vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

Aja Kong, Rina Yamashita, & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Hikaru Shida, Manami Toyota, & Misaki Ohata (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

Syuri & Hikaru Shida vs Dynamite Kansai & Rina Yamashita (Oz Academy 10/25/2016)

Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs Maya Yukihi & Rina Yamashita (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

Rina Yamashita vs Syuri (SEAdLINNNG 3/16/2017)

Rina Yamashita vs Risa Sera (Ice Ribbon 3/26/2017)

Rina Yamashita vs Yoshiko (SEAdLINNNG 5/24/2017)

Marvelous Pro Wrestling

Marvelous Pro Wrestling is Chigusa Nagayo’s current promotion that formed in 2015 and had its first official show in 2016. Unlike Nagayo’s last promotion Marvelous is a smaller group that runs modest venues and outdoor shows. The promotion itself doesn’t have a TV deal or streams on NicoNico, but you can find the older talent on other shows, like Sendai Girls, WAVE, and even the occasional ZERO1 show.

Roster

Mio Momono

One of Chigusa Nagayo’s first students in her new promotion, Marvelous Pro Wrestling, Mio Momono’s gear color is pink and she has an infectious smile that makes you want to cheer her on. Though Mio is out of her rookie phase and wins matches now, she still hasn’t started to craft a unique move set and uses all the standard pro wrestling moves many rookies use: dropkicks, basic suplexes and holds, and such. The recent big news was Mio picking up a pinfall against a member of Voodoo Murders on a ZERO1 show, so watch out, Mio means business.

Mio Momono & Konami vs Mika Shirahime & Syuri (Sendai Girls 1/9/2017)

Mio Momono vs Mika Shirahime (Sendai Girls 1/28/2017)

Rin Kadokura

Another original Marvelous Pro trainee, wearing blue gear Rin has evolved as a wrestler sooner than Mio in-ring. Outside of her home promotion Rin has been in SEAdLINNNG and in WAVE, currently she is participating in WAVE’s annual round robin tournament, Catch the WAVE.

Rin Kadokura & Takumi Iroha vs Hiragi Kurumi & Sareee (SEAdLINNNG 5/24/2017)

Rin Kadokura vs Rina Yamashita (WAVE 6/4/2017)

KAORU

A longtime friend of Chigusa Nagayo, from GAEA Japan to Marvelous, KAORU has always had a presence in a Nagayo promotion. She and Tomoko Watanabe serve as the in-ring veterans to all of the younger wrestlers that make up the majority of the Marvelous roster. Last year she was in a great tag team with DASH Chisako in her second home, Sendai Girls, wrestling for the titles and having a fun hardcore match against Ryo Mizunami & Kyoko Kimura. For a wrestler that’s approaching 50 years old KAORU hasn’t really slowed down in her wrestling, she still does her Valkyrie Splash and takes her fair share of bumps.

DASH Chisako vs KAORU (Sendai Girls 2/28/2016)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Kyoko Kimura & Hana Kimura (Sendai Girls 9/29/2017)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Hikaru Shida & Syuri (Sendai Girls 10/16/2016)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Kyoko Kimura & Ryo Mizunami (Sendai Girls 11/9/2016)

KAORU vs Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 1/28/2017)

Takumi Iroha

Takumi dropped out of college after watching a Crush Gals video and seeing a Stardom Korakuen show to become a pro wrestler. In 2015 she left Stardom to join Chigusa Nagayo’s new promotion, Marvelous Pro Wrestling, and now has gear that’s a throwback to Chigusa’s mid 90s ring attire. In 2017 Takumi has mostly been in her home promotion and ZERO1 helping Chigusa in a Current Blast Deathmatch or winning a 6-person tag against the Voodoo Murders.

Takumi Iroha vs Ryo Mizunami (WAVE 4/19/2017)

Rin Kadokura & Takumi Iroha vs Hiragi Kurumi & Sareee (SEAdLINNNG 5/24/2017)

Notable Freelancers/misc. promotion wrestlers

Hiroyo Matsumoto – Debut: July 16, 2006

My projected MVP of joshi in 2017, after winning the Oz Academy Openweight title and changing her hairstyle last year Hiroyo has become a machine and has been appearing anywhere feasible and having great matches. She’s become one of the key freelance wrestlers in joshi wrestling and one of the strongest women, being able to carry two opponents with ease. She’s also one-half of the Goddesses of Stardom champions with Jungle Kyona. When watching one of her matches expect power moves combined with some “fighting spirit” as Lady Godzilla tears down her opponents.

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Rina Yamashita vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

Alex Lee, Chihiro Hashimoto, & Hiroyo Hashimoto vs Ayako Hamada, Meiko Satomura, & Mika Iwata (SenJo 9/29/2016)

Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada (11/9/2016)

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tsukushi vs KAZUKI & Tsukasa Fujimoto (JWP 12/28/2016)

Hiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi vs Homiko Hoshi & Hiroyo Matsumoto (Ice Ribbon 1/29/2017)

Aja Kong & Yoshiko vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 2/26/2017)

Jungle Kyona & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito (Stardom 3/5/2017)

HZK & Io Shirai vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Jungle Kyona (Stardom 4/9/2017)

Tsukasa Fujimoto vs Hiroyo Matsumoto (Ice Ribbon 5/05/2017)

Hikaru Shida – Debut: July 20, 2008

Like Tsukasa Fujimoto, Hikaru Shida was an actress that got wrestling training for a role and decided to continue wrestling as a primary career. Over the last two years Hikaru and Syuri’s tag team has become one of the best, claiming the Oz Academy and Sendai Girls tag titles. Hikaru has also had great singles matches while on her quest to win the Oz Academy Openweight championship like her contest against Kagetsu from this February.

AKINO & Sonoko Kato vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Oz Academy 7/9/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

Aja Kong, Rina Yamashita, & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Hikaru Shida, Manami Toyota, & Misaki Ohata (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 9/11/2016)

Aja Kong & Cassandra vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

Syuri & Hikaru Shida vs Dynamite Kansai & Rina Yamashita (Oz Academy 10/25/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaori Yoneyama (Oz Academy 1/8/2017)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kagetsu (Oz Academy 1/25/2017)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs DASH Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

Kaho Kobayashi vs Hikaru Shida (Oz Academy 5/28/2017)

Syuri – Debut: October 26, 2008

Leaving Reina in March of 2016 and going freelance has improved Syuri’s stock, when she quickly afterwards had a good match with Meiko Satomura, making herself a semi-regular on Sendai Girls and Oz Academy cards. Her background in kickboxing translates to the ring with her heavy use of kicks, it doesn’t take much to see how she would’ve become friends with Asuka based on just their wrestling styles. After leaving Reina, Syuri ditched the hand mirror for an Indian Club and tries to use it to weigh down and shatter her opponent’s’ ribs in tag matches.

Syuri & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs AKINO & Sonoko Kato (Oz Academy 6/26/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 9/11/2016)

Aja Kong & Cassandra vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

DASH & KAORU vs Syuri & Hikaru Shida (Sendai Girls 10/16/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaori Yoneyama (Oz Academy 1/8/2017)

Mika Shirahime & Syuri vs Konami & Mio Momono (Sendai Girls 1/9/2017)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kagetsu (Oz Academy 1/25/2017)

Syuri vs Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 3/11/2017)

Rina Yamashita vs Syuri (SEAdLINNNING 3/16/2017)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs DASH Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

Hana Kimura – Debut: March 30, 2016

Debuting just last year and affiliated with Wrestle-1’s Pro Wrestling A.C.E. brand, Hana Kimura is the daughter of the recently retired Kyoko Kimura and also currently a ring girl with MMA promotion Pancrase. She’s just barely a year into her career and still has a barebones rookie move set with dropkicks and simple holds, but with Pro Wrestling A.C.E. now putting on shows and being a member of a short-handed Oedo Tai in Stardom, Hana should be able to get plenty of singles matches and general in-ring experience to help flesh out her character.

Meiko Satomura & Mika Iwata vs Kyoko Kimura & Hana Kimura (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

Hana Kimura & Kyoko Kimura vs Maya Yukihi & Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy 9/11/2016)

DASH Chisako & KAORU vs Kyoko Kimura & Hana Kimura (Sendai Girls 9/29/2016)

Kaho Kobayashi – Debut: June 28, 2013

A WNC original and member of the Mission K4 stable, Kaho Kobayashi is a high-speed wrestler and good at playing a babyface in peril. She’s best in tag matches but that isn’t to say she doesn’t have good singles matches, her match against Leon at Oz Academy’s Plum Mariko memorial show on August 14 is her best singles bout in my opinion.

Kaho Kobayashi vs Leon (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

AKINO, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Sonoko Kato vs Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kuragaki, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

Kaho Kobayashi & AKINO vs Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi vs Maya Yukihi & Yumi Ohka (Oz Academy 10/25/2016)

AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi vs The Best Friends (Oz Academy 11/23/2016)

Sonoko Kato & Kaho Kobayashi vs Aja Kong & Yoshiko (Oz Academy 1/8/2017)

AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi vs Hikaru Shida & Syuri (Oz Academy 4/12/2017)

Kaho Kobayashi vs Hikaru Shida (Oz Academy 5/28/2017)

Kagetsu

Kagetsu is a member of Mission K4 and a former member of the Sendai Girls roster before becoming freelance in 2014. During her time as a freelancer Kagetsu hasn’t been back to Sendai Girls but has enjoyed success in Stardom as a member of Oedo Tai, and some moderate success in Oz Academy with Mission K4. She went on a short hiatus this year and made her surprise return to save Oedo Tai teammate Hana Kimura from losing a match to Mayu Iwatani that would’ve caused Oedo Tai to break up.

Kagetsu & Sawako Shimono vs Hanako Nakamori & Makoto (JWP 2/21/2016)

Kagetsu Kaho Kobayashi vs Aja Kong & Ayako Hamada (Oz Academy 6/26/2017)

AKINO, Dynamite Kansai, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue, Leon, Sareee, Yoshiko, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 7/18/2016)

AKINO, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Sonoko Kato vs Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kuragaki, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

Kagetsu vs Hikaru Shida (Oz Academy 2/26/2017)

Kagetsu vs Hiroyo Matsumoto (Oz Academy 4/12/2017)

Kaori Yoneyama – Debut: November 29, 1999

A longtime JWP member since her debut, until 2013 when she became freelance and created her YMZ group with Hagane Shinou. Kaori is a really fun wrestler that knows how to engage a crowd and warm them up in her opening matches. If she’s slotted on the bottom half of the card it’s probably with tag partner Tsubasa Kuragaki, another former JWP wrestler. She and Tsubasa Kuragaki are former Oz Academy tag team champions and are one of my favorite tag teams today.

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Rina Yamashita vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

AKINO, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Sonoko Kato vs Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kuragaki, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 9/11/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaori Yoneyama (Oz Academy 1/8/2017)

Sonoko Kato vs Kaori Yoneyama (Oz Academy 5/28/2017)

Tsubasa Kuragaki – Debut: January 8, 1995

Another former longtime JWP wrestler that went freelance in the last couple of years, Tsubasa Kuragaki is one of the few hosses in joshi wrestling and has an underrated finisher with the Metal Wing. You can see her in tag matches with frequent partner Kaori Yoneyama and others, using her strength to hit high impact moves.

Syuri & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs AKINO & Sonoko Kato (Oz Academy 6/26/2016)

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Rina Yamashita vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 8/14/2016)

AKINO, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi, & Sonoko Kato vs Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama, Tsubasa Kuragaki, & Yuki Miyazaki (Oz Academy 8/21/2016)

Aja Kong, Rina Yamashita, & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Hikaru Shida, Manami Toyota, & Misaki Ohata (Oz Academy 9/4/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 9/11/2016)

Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaori Yoneyama (Oz Academy 1/8/2017)

Aja Kong & Yoshiko vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tsubasa Kuragaki (Oz Academy 2/26/2017)

Konami – Debut: February 25, 2015

Konami is the protege of Asuka (fka Kana) and former member of the Reina roster until she had to take a hiatus from wrestling for health reasons. She announced her return to wrestling a month later in September under the GPS Promotion. It’s very obvious that she trained under Asuka by just looking at how Konami wrestles, her strikes and ground game are almost a complete copy of her teacher’s.

Mika Shirahime & Syuri vs Konami & Mio Momono (Sendai Girls 1/9/2017)

Mika Shirahime vs Konami (Sendai Girls 4/6/2017)

Aoi Kizuki – Debut: May 1, 2005

Aoi Kizuki is a former Ice Ribbon member who’s become freelance in January of last year. Aoi is easily recognized for her near-constant smile, ring gear, and entrance. She’s currently trying to become a member of the stable Mission K4 after recently losing to AKINO at Oz Academy Disorder in late May.

Aoi Kizuki vs AKINO (Oz Academy 5/28/2017)

Aoi Kizuki vs Hanoko Nakamori (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

Tam Nakano – Debut: July 16, 2016

Unlike her seniors, Tamu Nakano doesn’t have many matches on tape to be able to see, but from the one match that recently became available, Tamu seems to already be a good wrestler just a year into her career. She also seems to become growingly invested into wrestling, citing her growing desire to wrestle many places as to why she decided to leave Beginning Pro. Currently, she’s one-half of Violet With with Pure-J’s Manami Katsu and based on interviews they seem to mesh together well and could be a top team in the future year.

Manami Katsu & Tamu Nakano vs Command Bolshoi & Leon (Pure-J 6/2/2017)

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