Asia & Oceania

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

• Mayu Iwatani, Seri Yamaoka & Utami Hayashishita vs. Mio Momono, Senka Akatsuki & Takumi Iroha – 6th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING (Monday Magic)
• Alejandro & Kai Fujimura vs. Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane – 23rd September at Korakuen Hall
• Dragon Bane vs. Galeno – 16th October at Korakuen Hall
• Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane vs. Daga & Daiki Odashima – 11th October at Ryogoku Kokugikan
• KENTA vs. Yoshiki Inamura – 8th November at Korakuen Hall
• Daiki Odashima vs. Hiromu Takahashi – 8th November at Korakuen Hall
• Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Yoshiki Inamura – 21st November at Sendai Sun Plaza Hall
• Galeno vs. Jack Morris – 4th October at Lives NAGOYA
• Jack Morris vs. Masa Kitamiya – 23rd September at Korakuen Hall
• Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Tetsuya Endo – 17th September at EDION Arena Osaka #2

N-1 Victory 2025 Block A:
Daga [2] defeats Tetsuya Endo [0] (10:26):

N-1 Victory 2025 Block B:
Jack Morris [2] defeats Daiki Inaba [0] (5:34)

N-1 Victory 2025 Block B:
Galeno [2] defeats Harutoki [0] (7:40)

N-1 Victory 2025 Block A:
Masa Kitamiya [2] defeats Manabu Soya [0] (8:20)

N-1 Victory 2025 Block B:
Ricky Knight Jr. [2] defeats Kenoh [0] (11:11)

N-1 Victory 2025 Block A:
Kazuyuki Fujita [2] defeats Ulka Sasaki [0] (4:44)

N-1 Victory 2025 Block B:
Naomichi Marufuji [2] defeats OZAWA [0] by Count Out (7:33)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title
Hiromu Takahashi defeats YO-HEY (c) (17:47)

N-1 Victory 2025 Block A:
Kaito Kiyomiya [2] defeats KENTA [0] (13:49)

© NOAH

11th September 2025
Okayama Convention Center, Okayama, Japan
Recommended N-1 Victory Matches: None

The story of these next few shows is similar to Marigold’s Dream Star. The smaller tour stops are going to have tournament bouts that match up with the occasion – very much a ‘house show’ style. While nothing was bad, nothing was particularly outstanding. I have been spoiled by Stardom putting on great tournament matches in places like Sendai, and also two excellent matches (Natsupoi versus Rina and Starlight Kid versus Natsuko Tora) in the same Okayama building weeks prior.

A Block

The GHC Heavyweight Champion, KENTA, coming off of a loss to Kaito Kiyomiya at Korakuen Hall, had a chance to bounce back against the passionate powerhouse, Manabu Soya. Soya came out dressed as Judgement Soya, the referee version of himself that vows to bring justice and soul to the ring. He checked KENTA’s gear before revealing his wrestling gear and getting to work. It was not to be for KENTA as he recorded a second loss in a row. They are not keeping KENTA particularly strong, so I think it is entirely possible he is dropping at Sumo Hall in October to whoever wins the tournament.

Masa Kitamiya was feeling it in his singles bout with Kaito Kiyomiya, even showing off a front flip kip-up early on, which of course the ego of Kaito wouldn’t allow to go unanswered so he performed one of his own. Despite an appearance from Dark Kaito, it wasn’t enough to protect him from the Stranglehold Gamma, as Kitamiya continued his unbeaten streak.

Ulka Sasaki and Tetsuya Endo had a good match which started off with 5 minutes of mat wrestling before hitting each other with sharp strikes. Sasaki resorted back to chokes, with Endo having to break them with backdrops and even a UFO. Endo won with the Burning Star Press. So far so good for these two. Kazuyuki Fujita continued the trend of “short but sweet” as he put Daga away in a few minutes with a powerbomb.

B Block

In the main event, Naomichi Marufuji took on Kenoh in a battle of the NOAH die-hards. This match was good that showcased how well these two know each other with lots of counters. Marufuji picked up the win after getting hit with a P.F.S. but reversing into a pin of his own and holding his weight down on Kenoh.

Morris was popular with the fans in this B Block match with fellow Brit Ricky Knight Jr. I can’t say I’m an avid RKJ viewer, but he pulled out some Danshoku Dieno strategies as he cupped Morris’ privates during a rope break. Okay then. Aside from that, this was a decent match. RKJ has a great dropkick to the head of the opponent. Morris kicked out of a Styles Clash but pinned RKJ with the Tiger Driver soon after.

© NOAH

13th September 2025
Hiroshima Industrial Hall East Exhibition Hall, Hiroshima, Japan
Recommended N-1 Victory Matches: None

A Block

Following their tussle over KENTA spitting a Genki drink all over Fujita at Korakuen Hall last month, Manabu Soya and Kazuyuki locked horns… or legs, as there was a leglock that lasted, what felt like, forever. The match got better with some strong lariats before Fujita finished Soya in the same way he had finished Sasaki and Daga, with a powerbomb. Fujita made his debut in Hiroshima 30 years ago and thanked the fans. Ulka Sasaki and Masa Kitamiya were on track to have a great match but it was Kitamiya’s turn to drop points, but he’s getting a monster push so it had to be via DQ (Tadasuke interference with a steel chair). Daga and KENTA had quite a stale, boring, house show match with KENTA winning with the G2S.

B Block

Galeno beat Daiki Inaba with the Galeno Special in a fine match. Marufuji and Morris mostly had a match full of chops before Morris pinned Marufuji with the Tiger Driver. On the undercard, Alejandro, HAYATA & Kai Fujimura versus Alpha Wolf, Dragon Bane & Junta Miyawaki was a good match. Los Golpeadores and Alejandro were the standouts.

© NOAH

14th September 2025
ACROS Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan
Recommended N-1 Victory Matches: Jack Morris vs. Kenoh

Night 4 was likely the best of the 3-day trip across west Japan, but still no matches that stand out as “must-see”.

A Block

My favourite storyline of N-1 has been Kazuyuki Fujita going on a rampage, and he picked up another 2 points against Kaito Kiyomiya as he pulled down the straps, destroyed Kaito with a powerbomb, and waddled back out of the arena. Our hero. Backstage, Kaito said that Fujita was “too damn sturdy.” You’re damn right he is, Kaito. Screw it, throw Fujita in the Sumo Hall main event. (This match went too long, I want to see Fujita squashing fools.)

KENTA and Masa Kitamiya went far too long with too much shenanigans. There was so much interference that this match convinced me Kitamiya was winning the N-1 and will beat KENTA for the title. Kitamiya could have pinned KENTA but he lifted him up, and that backfired as KENTA found the roll-up.

Tetsuya Endo and Manabu Soya went a bit too long such that it could not keep my attention. There were some nice spots such as an avalanche Oklahoma slam from Soya, straight into a Death Valley Driver for another nearfall. The finish was great as Endo hit a Torture Rack Bomb into a Burning Star Press to pick up the points.

B Block

Jack Morris had a solid tournament up to this point, with his babyface turn coming at the right time. The audience is on his side and you can see that he is trying to have good matches, whereas a lot of the other wrestlers feel like they are not even bothering. Kenoh pinned Morris after an avalanche dragon suplex into 2 P.F.S. finishers. This was a pretty good match.

The other two B block matches were quite disappointing. Naomichi Marufuji beat Daiki Inaba in a short, forgettable match with Shin Ko-Oh. Ricky Knight Jr. beat Harutoki, in another match you will not remember half an hour after you watch it. Ricky won with the Firebird Splash.

Elsewhere on the undercard, it was Daiki Odashima’s 1 year anniversary on this show, as he teamed up with brothers Alejandro & Kai Fujimura against another pair of brothers, Los Golpeadores, whose partner was Galeno. Backstage, Tadasuke demanded the “salary thief” YO-HEY show up to Osaka or he’ll “spill it all” about YO-HEY who has a “girl there.”

© NOAH

15th September 2025
Kumamoto Castle Civic Hall, Kumamoto, Japan
Recommended N-1 Victory Matches: Daiki Inaba vs. Kenoh

Night 5 was my favourite night of the N-1 up to that point with several good matches. Again, still none you need to interrupt your busy life to see, but if you put them on, you would have a fun time.

Go Shiozaki, Daiki Inaba and AMAKUSA all visited local schools to donate merchandise given the recent floodings in Kumamoto which devastated parts of the prefecture. All three hail from Kumamoto.

A Block

Big Boss Fujita headed into his match against Tetsuya Endo with 4 wins, 0 losses. Unfortunately, booking demanded Fujita lose, as if he won, it would’ve knocked Kaito Kiyomiya out of the tournament, and they’re not doing that in Kumamoto a week before the final. That made the result a foregone conclusion, so it was all about sitting back, relaxing and seeing how Endo would do it. To be honest, it was quite boring. After landing a Shooting Star Press nearfall, Endo caught Fujita out with a pin. Fujita’s win streak should’ve had a bigger payoff.

I may be on a bit of an island, but I am getting on board the Ulka Sasaki train. Fuminori Abe has worked his magic, at “Monday Magic” back in June, and rehabilitated my perception of Sasaki. I’ve enjoyed many of his N-1 matches, although his match on this night with Kaito Kiyomiya was a bit weaker than his others. Kiyomiya picked up the win with the Skywalker elbow. Masa Kitamiya came out on top in an all-Team 2000X match against Daga. Both wrestlers worked harder than I expected, with Kitamiya tapping out Daga with the…you guessed it: Stranglehold Gamma.

B Block

Daiki Inaba, the person who exudes more ‘dumb jock energy’ than any other wrestler on the roster, assaulted Kenoh with his series of unique second rope spears, but it wasn’t enough to beat the N-1 specialist, Kenoh. This match was really fun. The crowd were super hot as it is Daiki’s hometown, so they rallied behind Inaba with “Inaba” and “Jonetsu” (passion) chants. There was an audible groan with Kenoh tapped Inaba out. Inaba has become a great underdog babyface that you can beat.

Jack Morris, clearly enjoying his babyface run, put in another good performance in Harutoki. It’s not like Morris’ matches have been barnburners, but they’ve been a fun watch, mostly because he’s clearly having fun too with the crowd fully behind him. This was a good match, which Morris won with the Tiger Driver. This win put Morris on a surprising 10 points, with 5 wins and 1 loss in the B Block. Hot on his heels was Galeno who beat Ricky Knight Jr. in a fun match with a lot of good nearfalls.

© NOAH

17th September 2025
EDION Arena Osaka #2, Osaka, Japan
Recommended N-1 Victory Matches: Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Tetsuya Endo (new Match of the Tournament)

On the undercard, the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, Hiromu Takahashi, made an appearance teaming with AMAKUSA, beating the team of Daiki Odashima & Eita. Hiromu and Eita will clash for the title on the 11th October Sumo Hall show. Junta tried to challenge for the title, despite the fact he had no momentum whatsoever. Hiromu dismissed him.

A Block

DDT’s Tetsuya Endo has provided some well needed energy to NOAH’s N-1 tournament. He faced Kaito Kiyomiya in the main event of this show. The first 5 minutes of this match already told me that this match was going to be good. There wasn’t the usual tired formula of most N-1 matches so far, where I can predict the next month with a formulaic tit-for-tat. This match broke the ‘NOAH mediocrity’ mould. It felt like something different. Nothing exemplified that more than Kaito slapping Endo around the face, before Endo fired back with five or six slaps and an aggressive exploder suplex.

KENTA and Ulka Sasaki I think did not have great chemistry, or at least, KENTA doesn’t lend well to Ulka’s strengths. KENTA caught a cradle on Ulka after a leg submission. Manabu Soya tapped out Daga with a dragon sleeper. The match was fine, but I do not think Soya has had a particularly great tournament.

These results left the top of Block A at a precarious tipping point, with Fujita on 8 points, and KENTA, Kitamiya, Kiyomiya and Endo all on 6 points with a record of 3 wins and 2 losses.

B Block

At the top of the B Block, Galeno faced Jack Morris. If Morris won, he would be through to the final. The audience was split in a heated match-up before it ended in a very anti-climactic double count out draw. The match was getting pretty good. This result eliminated Kenoh.

Marufuju beat Harutoki with Shiranoui. Harutoki hasn’t really lifted off in the way I expected this tournament.

There are some wrestlers that go to Japan and you can see immediately that they will fit in, Titus Alexander being a prime example. Ricky is one that will need some time to adjust. An example is how he uses the Styles Clash as a basic move, when in Japan it is not seen like that. It’s used as a finisher by some (Miku Aono), or a big move designed to pop the crowd in a big match (Bozilla in Stardom), not a nearfall a few minutes into a fight. Ricky beat Daiki Inaba.

© NOAH

20th September 2025
Act City Hamamatsu, Hamamatsu, Japan
Recommended N-1 Victory Matches: None

This was not a good night of matches. Some of the matches didn’t matter, and the ones that did had to end in a particular way for the points to make sense ahead of Night 8.

A Block

Kaito Kiyomiya beat Manabu Soya in the main event with the Skywalker elbow. Once again, Dark Kaito made an appearance, this time after a series of headbutts from Soya. Soya returned the favour no-selling a series of uppercuts while yelling “JONETSU!” This was the match of the night, especially with the crowd heat. I haven’t mentioned it but Kaito has been going on all tour about how he wasn’t front and centre of the AI-generated posters, and despite being in the main event in this show, Galeno and Marufuji were on the Wrestle Universe banner. So Kaito has been on a mission to win matches to become front and centre again. Kaito said December was his 10th anniversary, so he was going to become champion and make a commemorative t-shirt with him at the centre.

KENTA faced Kazuyuki Fujita at the top of the block. They stared at each other for over a minute. I’m not exaggerating. They did not move for at least 75 seconds. The first strike happened two minutes into the bout. There were some fun strong strikes in this match, but it was mostly not as good as Fujita’s under 5-minute squashes. This match just went far too long with Fujita selling. There was a series of really poor looking Busaiku knees from KENTA before pinning Fujita. The crowd barely cared about that finishing sequence. I was not into this. If you’re going to have Fujita go on a run at least commit to the bit. Was this really the pay-off for Fujita’s winning streak to begin the N-1?

Tetsuya Endo faced the Chairman of Team 2000X, his former faction that he left under the mentorship of the Godfather, Takashi Sugiura, before the Godfather betrayed him. This was a decent match where Kitamiya worked a bit stiffer than he has been in the past few tour stops, until the finish where Kitamiya slapped on the Stranglehold Gamma outside the ring, and Endo didn’t make it into the ring in time. This result effectively eliminated Endo. Kitamiya said he was disappointed Endo couldn’t find the strength to make it back into the ring, and then said he would “kill Fujita” on the next show. Ulka Sasaki tapped out Daga in a match that did not have an impact on the standings.

B Block

Galeno faced Naomichi Marufuji where if Galeno lost, his path to the finals was no longer in his hands and he would have to rely on Jack Morris. If Marufuji lost, he would be eliminated. So, rightly, Marufuji won in order to create a more exciting Night 8 (take notes, Marigold). Marufuji snuck out the win with a cradle when Galeno was attempting the Galeno Special. Kenoh and Harutoki had a match that did not have an impact on the standings.

© NOAH

21th September 2025
Light Cube Utsunomiya, Utsunomiya, Japan
Recommended N-1 Victory Matches: KENTA vs. Tetsuya Endo, Galeno vs. Jack Morris

NOAH managed to create a compelling final day, regardless of the match quality of the tournament, it was booked reasonably well to get to this point and draw 617 fans to the Light Cube, destroying their previous records of 251 and 253 at the arena. Stardom, who have prominent stars from the region (Rina, Hanan and Hina) drew 1,044 over two nights (502 and 542), and All Japan drew a strong 598 for their Royal Road tournament quarterfinals, so the NOAH number was very strong – a validation of the booking strategy. The “S” and “A” tickets were all sold out, with “B” tickets in limited availability.

In the undercard, Black Menso-re, Daiki Odashima & Junta Miyawaki faced Atsushi Kotoge, HAYATA & Ryo Hoshino. Hoshino, previously of ZERO-1, now wrestles in Tochigi Pro in…Tochigi prefecture, where the show was held. He previously appeared in NOAH in March as part of the “Limit Break” series. All Rebellion (Alejandro & Kai Fujimura) and AMAKUSA snuck a win against Los Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane) and Jack Morris ahead of their GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team bout on 23rd September.

A Block

A block was all up for grabs as Kazuyuki Fujita, Masa Kitamiya, KENTA and Kaito Kiyomiya all entered the night with 8 points (4 wins, 2 losses). There were 27 different configurations that could lead to seven different outcomes. We are obviously not going to list them all. KENTA would win the block outright in 10 of them, Kitamiya in 6, Fujita in 6 and Kaito in 3. Then, there were 2 scenarios with Fujita and Kitamiya tied for 1st, 1 scenario with KENTA, Kaito and Fujita tied for first, and one scenario with KENTA, Kaito and Kitamiya tied for first. That means that out of the 27 scenarios, 23 had an outright winner. In the latter two scenarios in a three-way tie, the head to head record would not break the tie, and the rules were unclear what would happen. According to Shupro, this last happened in All Japan’s 1997 “Champions Carnival” between the legendary Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuhara Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada, and they held a three-man playoff round-robin.

The first match to decide which crazy route we would end up in was Daga versus Kaito Kiyomiya. After Daga hit Kaito with the Shining Wizard, he no-sold it as Dark Kaito and then hit Daga with two Shining Wizards (one with Daga standing which was impressive). After Yoshitatsu tried to interfere, Kaito pushed Daga into him and then tried for a huricanrana pin, but Daga rolled through and picked up the win. This left only 8 scenarios left, with both triple-tie outcomes out of the question and Kaito now eliminated.

Next up was Fujita and Kitamiya. Fujita’s tournament really fell off a cliff once he started meeting the big hitters, as he couldn’t squash them, and he didn’t look great going long with them either. In this match, once again, as he had done against Soya, there was a leg lock that lasted a couple of minutes with an almost completely silent crowd. Just painful (for me, not Kitamiya). Kitamiya hit Fujita around the head with a steel chair, and then gave him a piledriver onto it. Fujita got up a few moments later and started walking to the ring. I thought it was a write-off angle but I forgot it’s Big Boss Fujita, it was merely a scratch. What Fujita couldn’t no-sell, was Kitamiya’s super strong submission that has been absurdly protected, the Stranglehold Gamma, and sure enough, Fujita verbally submitted to it (it took him a minute, though).

Finally, we had KENTA vs. Tetsuya Endo to decide the A block finalist for the N-1. If KENTA won, he was through, if KENTA drew or lost, Kitamiya was through. Quite simple – a must-win match for the champion. If KENTA’s workrate is on a scale from a New Japan Strong show in LA to GHC Heavyweight Title match in Korakuen Hall versus Kenoh, then this was around half way up on the scale, which is pretty good. There was some spice behind his strikes and he mostly kept up with Endo who has been one of the best workers in the N-1. KENTA was almost rolled up when trying a G2S. He regained control with a brutal lariat. On his second G2S attempt, Endo spiked KENTA with a Poisonrana and bombarded him with a running knee strike and the Burning Star Press for the win. Good match.

Masa Kitamiya won the A Block. And for those keeping score (me), KENTA lost to Kaito, Soya and Endo. I really doubt they are collecting their title shots, so I think Kitamiya is just winning the title at Sumo Hall on 11th October. I did already think that after their A block match which was chaotic just to protect Kitamiya and give KENTA the points he needed.

Manabu Soya faced Ulka Sasaki in a match that did not affect the outcome of the block.

B Block

The final night of B block action was similarly exciting due to the different scenarios. There were 9 scenarios in this group. In 5 of the scenarios, Morris would win the block outright, with Marufuji winning outright in 3 of them. The last scenario was a Marufuji loss and Galeno win, leading to a Morris and Galeno tiebreak. In that scenario, there would be a playoff match to determine who goes through as they previously had a draw in the block. Of course, that was the scenario that took place.

The first domino was Galeno against Kenoh. The crowd was hot for this one, probably the loudest so far out of the non-Korakuen Hall shows. Interestingly, there were still loud Kenoh chants despite him being eliminated. Kenoh tripped when running the ropes which got a loud reaction and more chants for him. The Japanese audience are so forgiving of botches, it is like night and day from the general US audience who would have immediately chanted “You f’d up!” This was a very short match. Galeno looked very strong as he lariated Kenoh out of his boots and then hit the Galeno Special for the win. In the other match to determine which scenario would play out, Galeno and Jack Morris came out to watch Marufuji versus Ricky Knight Jr. It was a solid match which focused on chops and strikes. Marufuji hit the Ko-oh knee for a nearfall and tried the Shiranui but Ricky picked up the win with a reverse cradle, knocking Marufuji out and setting up the Galeno and Jack Morris playoff match. Ricky said he wanted his friend Jack Morris to win the tournament, even though he considers Marufuji a living legend and one of the greatest wrestlers ever.

Jack Morris beat Galeno in the main event playoff match, which meant the N-1 final would be Masa Kitamiya vs. Jack Morris. This match was good. There was a cool striking sequence that ended with yet another stiff Galeno lariat and Morris went on to nail Galeno with a great looking Code Red. Ultimately Jack Morris won with his protected finisher this tournament, just one Tiger Driver. After the match, Kitamiya pulled off a “dumb foreigners” promo, asking Morris to learn Japanese before the finals at Korakuen Hall.

Block A

• Masa Kitamiya — 10 pts (5–2–0) – Winner of N-1
• Kazuyuki Fujita — 8 pts (4–3–0)
• KENTA — 8 pts (4–3–0)
• Kaito Kiyomiya — 8 pts (4–3–0)
• Tetsuya Endo — 8 pts (4–3–0)
• Manabu Soya — 6 pts (3–4–0)
• Ulka Sasaki — 4 pts (2–5–0)
• Daga — 4 pts (2–5–0)

Block B

• Jack Morris — 13 pts (6–1–1) – Finalist
• Galeno — 11 pts (5–2–1)
• Ricky Knight Jr. — 10 pts (5–2–0)
• Naomichi Marufuji — 10 pts (5–2–0)
• Kenoh — 8 pts (4–3–0)
• Daiki Inaba —4 pts (2–5–0)
• Harutoki — 2 pts (1–6–0)

KENTA, Manabu Soya, Tetsuya Endo & Ulka Sasaki defeat Daiki Inaba, Galeno, Kenoh & Ricky Knight Jr. (9:31)

Daiki Odashima & HAYATA defeat Team 2000X (Daga & Takashi Sugiura) by DQ (3:43)

Daga defeats Yoshi Tatsu (0:32)

Atsushi Kotoge, Go Shiozaki, Kazuyuki Fujita & Mohammed Yone defeat All Rebellion (Harutoki & Kaito Kiyomiya), Naomichi Marufuji & Shuhei Taniguchi (6:05)

YO-HEY defeats Tadasuke by DQ (3:48)

Eita & Junta Miyawaki defeat AMAKUSA & Hiromu Takahashi (11:01)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title:
Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane (c) defeat All Rebellion (Alejandro & Kai Fujimura) (11:50)

N-1 Victory 2025 Final:
Masa Kitamiya defeats Jack Morris (22:40)

© NOAH

4th October 2025
LIVES Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

Galeno successfully defended his GHC National Championship against Jack Morris, in a match set up backstage at the N-1 final, following their draw and subsequent Morris win during the N-1 tournament. The hot crowd was solidly behind Morris and added to the atmosphere. Morris and Galeno stepped it up a notch since their performance in their previous two bouts. Galeno spiked Morris with a nasty Michinoku Driver before slamming Morris to the ground with his own move, the Tiger Driver. Morris kicked out, delivering his own Tiger Driver that only Kitamiya had kicked out of since the start of the N-1, the crowd gasping at both him getting the heavyweight Galeno in the air but also the kick out. A missed shooting star press offered Galeno the opportunity he needed. He removed his armband, turning Morris inside out with a lariat before pinning him with the Galeno Special.

The remnants of Team NOAH following Go Shiozaki’s sudden departure, Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara, teamed with AMAKUSA to take on Team 2000X (Masa Kitamiya, Tadasuke & Takashi Sugiura). This was a squash match, which somehow Kotoge managed to squeeze in a shoot headbutt on Sugiura in. Kitamiya tapped out Ohara with the Stranglehold Gamma and then gave Kotoge a piledriver after the match. Kitamiya read out the resignation letter he wrote for KENTA that he debuted at the press conference days prior. Kitamiya was getting cheers and claps.

NXT’s Charlie Dempsey and Harlem Lewis faced each other in a singles match before their tag match at Sumo Hall over a week later. For those that weren’t sure what to expect, this was a good match. Dempsey in particular showcased that he knew how to wrestle to the NOAH crowd as his grappling received complimentary grasps from the audience, his striking and moves lend itself well to the Japanese crowd, including a beautiful butterfly suplex, and Harlem did alright following Dempsey’s lead. Dempsey tapped out Harlem.

The athleticism of NOAH’s junior division was on full display as GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Los Golpeadores teamed with HAYATA against Tetsuya Endo and the next challengers, Daga and Daiki Odashima. This match was great and the finish looked brutal as Bane spiked Endo with a Poisonrana. What an awesome finish. One of the underrated aspects of Golpeadores is that they finish their matches in different ways. I genuinely believe they are one of the best tag teams in the world. Bane in particular is a world-class worker and he is VERY over. Also, someone needs to tell me their theme song. It did seem like NOAH was reading my mind as Bane challenged Galeno after the main event for the GHC National Championship.

Junta Miyawaki defeats Kai Fujimura (7:28)
Galeno & Harutoki defeat Manabu Soya & Yuto Kikuchi (5:33)

Charlie Dempsey & Harlem Lewis defeat Jack Morris & Ulka Sasaki (11:42)

Shun Skywalker & Takashi Sugiura (w/OZAWA) defeat HAYATA & Tetsuya Endo (12:00)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title:
Daga & Daiki Odashima defeat Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane (c) (15:20)

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Minoru Suzuki – Double Countout (9:39)

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kaito Kiyomiya defeat Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji (10:29)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title: Hiromu Takahashi (c) defeats Eita (16:29)

GHC Heavyweight Title:
KENTA (c) defeats Masa Kitamiya (23:34)

Manabu Soya defeats Yuto Kikuchi (8:11)

Alejandro, Harutoki & Kai Fujimura defeat Black Menso-re, Mohammed Yone & Ulka Sasaki (6:15)

Alpha Wolf, Atsushi Kotoge, Eita & Hajime Ohara vs. AMAKUSA, Daga, Daiki Odashima & HAYATA – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

Kenoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Shuhei Taniguchi defeat Team 2000X (Masa Kitamiya, Tadasuke & Takashi Sugiura) (10:15)

Hiromu Takahashi defeats Junta Miyawaki (9:50)

Kaito Kiyomiya defeats Charlie Dempsey (13:07)

GHC National Title:
Dragon Bane defeats Galeno (c) (16:05)

Harlem Lewis & Yoshiki Inamura defeat KENTA & Tetsuya Endo (12:37)

© NOAH

21st October 2025
Hodogaya Public Hall, Kanagawa, Japan

Charlie Dempsey and Harlem Lewis teamed up with Yoshiki Inamura for their final dates in Japan before handing over to Hank and Tank on the next show. They faced HAYATA, KENTA and Ulka Sasaki. Inamura was announced as “Mr. Smack Daddy”, so this was the show I realised it was a whole thing now, as if the branding on the pants covering his ass wasn’t enough. It was really hard to take seriously. Maybe I’m not supposed to. The fans were cracking up at them speaking English. I can’t say it’s not an over gimmick. This match felt like it dragged quite a bit. I was shocked when the 15 minute time call happened because it felt like not much had happened. This honestly felt like a WWE Raw main event (derogatory). I’m genuinely not trying to be edgy and anti-WWE on purpose. Watch this match and see if you disagree. I could almost hear the ad breaks in my head during this match given how little happened during portions of it. Inamura closed out the show with his Japanglish gimmick which popped the crowd.

All Rebellion (Harutoki, Kai Fujimura & Kaito Kiyomiya) faced Junta Miyawaki and the team of Kenoh and Naomichi Marufuji, who had both enjoyed each others’ company in recent weeks. The start of this match was Junta and Kai’s showcase while the uncs (and Harutoki) looked on. But the uncs got down and dirty as Kenoh and Marufuji hit a series of double teams on Harutoki. Junta and Kai took centre stage again for the closing stretch. Kai picked up the cradle on Junta.

Daiki Odashima and Tetsuya Endo faced the Chairman of Team 2000X, Masa Kitamiya, and his lackey, Tadasuke, in tag action. One of my favourite things in Japanese wrestling is the calls of the women in the audience for the popular male wrestlers, in NOAH, DDT, Dragongate, etc. Daiki gets some of the most calls in the scene in small towns and tour stops. It was constant throughout this match. I loved it. Kitamiya, still being kept strong, tapped Daiki out with the Strangehold Gamma and continued to beat him up after the match. It was in the post-match promo that I remembered Kitamiya and Sugiura were GHC Tag Team Champions.

You wouldn’t believe it, and neither would I because I normally skip all Menso-re matches, but Black Menso-re, Hajime Ohara & Mohammed Yone against Eita, Shuhei Taniguchi & Shuji Kondo had a lot of crowd heat and was a lot of fun. In particular the final stretch with Menso-re trying to win with close nearfalls and Kondo decapitating him was fun.

© NOAH

26th October 2025
Kasukabe Fureai Cube, Saitama, Japan

Yoshiki Inamura beat Shuji Kondo in a tune-up singles match. He once again spoke Japanglish in the post-match promo. After the main event which KENTA won, he called out Inamura. He reminded Inamura that while he is NOAH’s future, KENTA is its present, and they would decide on 8th November which would win. Endo made it clear that he would have his sights on the GHC Heavyweight Title, and KENTA replied he would take him on any time.

NXT tag team, Hank & Tank (Hank Walker & Tank Ledger) pinned Los Golpeadores. Not only that, but they pinned the GHC National Champion, Bane. Yes, I was mad when I wrote this. I don’t need to type more to point out how ridiculous that was. The best thing in NOAH in 2025, alongside OZAWA, pinned by some dorky NXT midcarders, and they didn’t even pick the right one to be pinned. Truly ridiculous. Hearing the cries of “Bane!” die as one of the most over people on the roster got pinned by random outsiders made me die inside. Some of the worst booking NOAH has done all year. Anyway, this set them up for a GHC Tag Team Title match against Team 2000X (Kitamiya & Sugiura). Team 2000X destroyed Daiki Odashima after their match. Hank & Tank ran in for the save and challenged for the title in English. Kitamiya told them to speak Japanese but said he was a nice guy so set the match for the 8th November Korakuen Hall.

Jack Morris, Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji defeat All Rebellion (Harutoki & Kaito Kiyomiya) & Mohammed Yone (7:14)

Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane defeat Passionate RATELS (Manabu Soya & Saxon Huxley) and HAYATA & Ulka Sasaki (5:40)

NOAH Jr. Grand Prix First Round:
Kai Fujimura defeats Junta Miyawaki (6:53)

NOAH Jr. Grand Prix First Round: Shuji Kondo defeats Black Menso-re (0:57)

NOAH Jr. Grand Prix First Round:
Ninja Mack defeats Alejandro (8:29)

NOAH Jr. Grand Prix First Round:
Hiromu Takahashi defeats Daiki Odashima (12:56)

GHC Tag Team Title:
Hank And Tank (Hank Walker & Tank Ledger) defeat Team 2000X (Masa Kitamiya & Takashi Sugiura) (c) (15:30)

GHC Heavyweight Title:
Yoshiki Inamura defeats KENTA (c) (17:30)

Junior Grand Prix – 1st Round – Day 1
8th November 2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Daiki Odashima vs. Hiromu Takahashi

The NOAH Jr. Grand Prix was kicked off at Korakuen Hall. The tournament was a single elimination singles tournament containing 16 wrestlers, with the finals on 21st November. The bracket as of this show can be seen above. In the first match, Junta Miyawaki was attempting to climb his way back up to the top after getting destroyed by Hiromu, both on the mic and in the ring. Well, that didn’t happen. He lost to Kai Fujimura who debuted a new move called Golazo, which was a running Death Valley Driver. Shuji Kondo defeated Black Menso-re in under a minute. The crowd knew it was going short because every nearfall got a huge pop. Kondo took Menso-re’s head off with a couple of lariats before the win, just as he had done in the preview tag. Alejandro lost to Ninja Mack. It was a Ninja Mack match, so it had nothing but his high spots such as his awesome Sasuke Special and the Ninja Bomb (corkscrew 530 senton), which are very impressive at his size but it doesn’t make for a very engaging match.

In the best of the first round matchups, the defending GHC Junior Heavyweight World Champion, Hiromu Takahashi, faced off against the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and ‘NOAH’s future,’ Daiki Odashima. Every time they had met so far their interactions had been electric, and this was no different as they had a great match. The crowd was totally on Daiki’s side, but he fell to Hiromu’s Time Bomb. They left a LOT in the tank for future matches if they decide to do that. Daiki did not use any of his new finishers that he inherited from Tamon Honda. The rest of the matches took place on the next house show.

Junior Grand Prix – 1st Round – Day 2
9th November 2025
Espoir Isanuma, Saitama, Japan
Recommended Match: AMAKUSA vs. Jun Masaoka

The NOAH Jr. Grand Prix continued in Saitama with four first round matchups. HAYATA beat (former?) stablemate Yuto Kikuchi to advance to the next round. Kikuchi attempted to get a foothold in the match early with a tope con giro and springboard missile dropkick, but HAYATA launched Kikuchi into the ringpost and dominated much of the rest of the fight attacking the left arm. HAYATA won with a bridging armlock on the injured arm. Tadasuke dispatched his former Team 2000X teammate, Daga. As you can imagine, there was a lot of interference, ref bumps and low blows.

While freelancer Jun Masaoka did not make it very far in the tournament, falling to AMAKUSA, he certainly left his mark on the tournament in a great match. The match brought an injection of violence that the other bouts didn’t, making the Daga and Tadasuke match, which was supposed to be a hateful feud, look silly. They traded open-handed slaps, forceful throws into the crowd chairs and trash talking. Eita and Hajime Ohara faced off in the final of first round matches. During the preview tags, Ohara mentioned that Eita provides him with a lot of motivation because of their shared history. They both ascended through the Toryumon system and worked in Mexico, but Ohara never made it to Toryumon Japan (later Dragongate) whereas Eita did. As the senior, he vowed not to lose. Eita beat Ohara to advance to the quarterfinals with a cradle.

Elsewhere, in the main event, Hanky and Tanky (Hank Walker & Tank Leger) teamed up with their NXT buddy, the Smackiest of Daddies (Yoshiki Inamura), against Harutoki, Kaito Kiyomiya and Naomichi Marufuji. The worst part about current or former NXT wrestlers in Japan is that they never shut up. Oddyssey in All Japan is a big offender of this, and here it was Hank, or Tank, that just would have to constantly talk. It’s almost as if they are taught that talking gets them over.

© NOAH

Junior Grand Prix – Quarter Finals 1
15th November 2025
EDION Arena Osaka #2, Osaka, Japan

In the first Grand Prix quarter-final, Hiromu Takahashi faced Ninja Mack. Despite Mack looking a bit different than usual, he did hit all of his usual big spots, including the viral backflip to the entrance (with a terrifying tope suicida where I thought he landed on his head, but it wasn’t clear from the camera angle). However, he cannot have a match in between them. Ninja Mack is what AEW haters think AEW wrestlers are like. No one needs to see Mack try to build up heat on Hiromu. The problem I have with Ninja Mack is that he is a DDT character but portrayed as a serious competitor. As a DDT fan, I think he would be great there. He does not fit New Japan or NOAH, in my opinion (I’m a nobody, don’t get mad). Thankfully, Hiromu advanced with a cradle.

In the other quarter-final, which actually main evented, HAYATA bested Eita in a duel of NOAH’s most experienced junior heavyweights. As you normally get with your veterans, this was a slowly worked match, designed to build heat on Eita, rather than HAYATA, which I felt was a bit strange. HAYATA stunned Eita with a DDT on the outside, which led to Eita’s neck getting worked. It was not very interesting. The last minute was quite hot with the crowd biting on the nearfalls. HAYATA won with Headache.

After losing the titles to Hankman and Tankman, Team 2000X tried to bounce back against MaruKen (Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji). This match was better than I expected. Sugiura set the tone for the match, slapping Marufuji around the face. What I did not expect, was for Team 2000X to win and become the #1 contender after having just dropped the title, halting a lot of the momentum that MaruKen had. They did so with a chair shot to the head onto Kenoh during a ref bump. This was a strange booking decision and another example of NXT morphing coherent storylines.

Harutoki & Kaito Kiyomia faced Jack Morris & Yoshiki Inamura in a preview tag. It was pretty good with great back and forth between the pairings of Kaito & Inamura and Morris & Harutoki. Harutoki will face Morris at Kaito’s 10th anniversary on 7th December. In an undercard tag match, Daiki Odashima and Tetsuya Endo displayed some great chemistry and had some awesome sequences before Endo pinned Daiki with the Shooting Star Press. The Passionate RATEL’S drama continued as Yuto Kikuchi teamed up with Tanky and Hanky against Manabu Soya, Axon Huxley and Atsushi Kotoge. Soya shouted at Kikuchi that he belonged with them, but Kikuchi wasn’t listening. He was taking a break from the faction while YO-HEY was out. Hank (or Tank) pinned Kotoge in his hometown.

© NOAH

Junior Grand Prix – Quarter Finals 2
16th November 2025
Umeda Sky Building, Stella Hall, Osaka

The crowd at Umeda Sky Building, a tall skyscraper in the heart of Osaka, were raucous for the second day of Junior Grand Prix Quarterfinals. In the first of the quarter finals, Kai Fujimura, who I expected to go all the way, had to contend with the brick wall of Shuji Kondo. Kondo attacked Kai’s leg, putting him in a tree of woe. He then sprinted at Kai’s leg with a lariat which terrified the crowd. Kondo kept up the pressure on the leg before Kondo got bored and decided to try and take Kai’s head off. Kai found a way out from Kondo’s onslaught with a cradle to win. Kai would face HAYATA in the semi-finals.

In the other quarter final, Tadasuke and AMAKUSA also decided to do a leg-work match. Of course, Tadasuke would use distraction and weapons to work over the leg rather than Kondo’s method of brute force. AMAKUSA landed a leg-trap German suplex into the Kaikoku finisher, but Jun Masaoka pulled the ref out. Tadasuke low blowed AMAKUSA and Masaoka joined Team 2000X. Tadasuke pinned AMAKUSA but he kicked out to loud chants. Yoshitatsu hit AMAKUSA with a signboard, but AMAKUSA kicked out again. Finally Tadasuke hit the Tadasuke Crash for the win. It was maybe the best I had seen Tadasuke look in months, given I had not enjoyed his work at all since he joined Team 2000X. This match worked quite well. Masaoka explained that he and Tadasuke go back twenty years to junior high days. Tadasuke started out in Osaka Pro Wrestling and Masaoka is an Osaka native who went to Osaka Pro’s school and saw Tadauke’s debut. Tadasuke would face Hiromu in the semi-finals.

In the main event, the NXT trio of Inamura, Hankerman & Tankerman faced Alejandro, Harutoki & Kaito Kiyomiya in a preview between Inamura and Kaito. I can’t get past the fact that Hunky and Tunky have to taunt between every move they do. I hate it. Inamura is pretty great. He pinned Alejandro with the Discharge.

HAYATA, Kenoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Yuto Kikuchi faced Junta Miyawaki, Manabu Soya, Ninja Mack & Saxon Huxley. Soya was in YO-HEY cosplay to tempt Yuto Kikuchi back to the Passionate RATEL’S after Kikuchi said there was no Passionate RATEL’S without YO-HEY.

Alejandro, AMAKUSA, Daga, Daiki Odashima & Ninja Mack defeat Black Menso-re, Eita, Shuji Kondo & Yuto Kikuchi (7:42)

NOAH Jr. Grand Prix 2025 Semi Final Match:
Kai Fujimura defeats HAYATA (8:38)

NOAH Jr. Grand Prix 2025 Semi Final Match:
Hiromu Takahashi defeats Tadasuke (10:11)

KENTA, Tetsuya Endo & Ulka Sasaki defeat Passionate RATEL’s (Manabu Soya & Saxon Huxley) & Kazuyuki Fujita (5:34)

Jack Morris, Junta Miyawaki, Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji defeat Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Hi69 & Mohammed Yone (10:25)

GHC Tag Team Title Match:
Team 2000X (Masa Kitamiya & Takashi Sugiura) defeat Hank And Tank (Hank Walker & Tank Ledger) (c) (11:29)

NOAH Jr. Grand Prix Final Match:
Hiromu Takahashi defeats Kai Fujimura (14:26)

GHC Heavyweight Title Match:
Yoshiki Inamura (c) defeats Kaito Kiyomiya (16:36)

The Leave Presents TEAM NOAH JUDGMENT
29th November 2025
Yokohama Radiant Hall, Kanagawa, Japan

After the departure of Go Shiozaki to All Japan, Team NOAH have been floating aimlessly. They held a show on 29th November to attempt to address what their path forward would be. The returning Hi69 tried to lead the charge forward telling Go Shiozaki to “f- off” in a post-main event promo. The main event was Team NOAH (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Hi69 and Mohammed Yone) against Harutoki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Shuhei Taniguchi and Yuto Kikuchi, where all of Team NOAH had already wrestled once on the show, really showcasing how thin this card was. The main event was fine, with Atsushi Kotoge getting beaten up the best part of the match. After the match, Kotoge announced that Team NOAH would continue. The crowd erupted in Kotoge chants. He went on to say that giving up was easy, continuing is harder. Backstage, Yone said they would take submissions for the names of the show and their unit. Kikuchi teased “making a move”.

Ryoma “The Human Thumb” Tsukamoto teamed with Hi69 against Tochigi Pro pair Tsugutaka Sato and Ryo Hoshino, who were both familiar with Hi69. Tsukamoto has been appearing in JTO and DDT regularly in 2025, but this marked his first NOAH appearance. Backstage, Hi69 mentioned that he would want Tsukamoto as a partner going forward. Tsukamoto said that he had NOAH in his sights since the start of the year, and mentioned that both he and NOAH’s Vice President Naomichi Marufuji started in All Japan. Tsukamoto was basically cutting a promo asking to join NOAH.

Team NOAH’s Hajime Ohara started the show against GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Daiki Odashima. Daiki continued to pull out cool moves like a front-flip backslide pin. This match had some cool counters and submission transitions, hard-hitting chops and it felt like a good struggle where both worked hard for control of the match. As the match progressed to a time-limit draw, they sold the fatigue well, with Daiki barely even able to get Ohara up for a delayed German suplex. Daiki was unable to bridge, leading to the draw. This was pretty great. Ohara said he wanted to go 30 minutes with Daiki next time.

Kohei Kinoshita appeared on the show. Kinoshita is a freelancer after leaving Dove Pro in August 2025. Backstage, Kinoshita said that he would like to face NOAH wrestlers next time. He was against Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Kai Fujimura and Kaito Kiyomiya under their masked “Leave” gimmicks. The show was sponsored by “The Leave”, a property management company for renting and subleasing. They’ve been working with NOAH for a while.

© Marvelous

Friday Night Gacha Episode 1
3rd October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Friday Night Gacha is headed up by Crush Gal Chigusa Nagayo, who runs Marvelous. But there are two differences: 1) it is affiliated with NOSAWA and Monday Magic, and 2) Nagayo set up a brand new company separate from Marvelous in order to run this show. So, we’ve decided to put it in the NOAH section side-by-side with Monday Magic. Nagayo had long-teased the show after being captivated by the random nature of unannounced cards and surprise wrestlers that Monday Magic has. Being familiar with Marvelous, my favourite promotion, I was very much expecting her sense of humour to pervade throughout Friday Night Gacha. Instead, this was a great first episode of Friday Night Gacha which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was essentially a joshi version of Monday Magic. While I was afraid I would get Yosuke Santa Maria and Jiah Jewell for the 23rd time, and every comedy freelancer in Japan such as Batten Burabura, instead, I got all of my indie favourites. Not only that, but it was a ‘worlds collide’ scenario as some of them were first time ever encounters. Nagayo surprisingly nailed the spirit of Monday Magic and applied it to Joshi. Perfect.

We were off to a barnstormer as Nagayo’s prized student, the hothead Senka Akatsuki, came out to open the show, and who else would follow her but the joshi icon, Marigold’s Mayu Iwatani. Marvelous and Marigold are currently embroiled in an interpromotional feud. Senka was due to compete in Marigold’s Dream Star Grand Prix and face Mayu in the Dream block, but had to pull out due to contracting pneumonia. This match was making up for that. Senka launched herself at Mayu while Mayu was doing her entrance, in classic Senka fashion. Mayu looked excited to face Senka before blasting her with an elbow. Senka responded with her signature body slam into a flash pin combo. It was great seeing Mayu sell the flash pin, something a lot of Senka’s opponents struggle with. After no-selling Mayu’s back spin kick, Mayu planted a super kick on Senka’s chin before climbing the turnbuckle. Senka threw her off the turnbuckle, drilling an Axe Bomber lariat into Senka. Senka then hit the last remaining move in her arsenal, a vertical suplex. It was all downhill from there for Senka. Mayu launched Senka into the air with a German suplex and finished her off with a moonsault.

The Crush Boys (Starboy Charlie & Titus Alexander) made an expected appearance as Titus had already been announced on upcoming Marvelous shows. Although, strangely, they would be against each other in a singles match. This was their 4th singles match against each other, and the first since a West Coast Pro World Title match in 2023. This was a pretty good match with some athletic spots, such as Charlie landing on his feet from Titus’ Big Ugly finisher (Chaos Theory) and a great standing corkscrew splash from Charlie. Ultimately, Charlie would get pinned by Big Ugly.

Even on the show run by Nagayo, Riko could not get away from the Great Sakuya, daughter of the Great Muta, gimmick. She came out with NOSAWA, presumably to talk about how she was a Monday Magic exclusive and to laud it over Nagayo. Nagayo came out and said some words, leading to Sakuya misting NOSAWA in the face and shaking Nagayo’s hand. Then Sakuya misted Nagayo and danced her way out. Great.

Kakeru Sekiguchi made a rare appearance in the Marvelous universe, with her single previous appearance in 2018. Fellow Actwres girl’Z (AWG) alumni, Tae Honma, who would be retiring just a week later on 13th October, was her opponent, also having not appeared in Marvelous in a while (since 2019). They had just faced each other on Miyuki Takase’s 8th anniversary show. The ring announcer explained the rules. Kakeru and Tae would have to dance to “Love Riddle” at random intervals. Love Riddle is the song that the AWG roster performs to open up every show. Kakeru and Tae struggled to remember the dance at first but finally got there. Both got more and more tired with each dance sequence. Referee Tommy was enjoying herself and knew a lot more of “Love Riddle” than I expected. Honma won with a schoolboy. This was very fun, especially if you are an AWG watcher.

Sendai Girls’ Spike Nishimura, formerly a US independent wrestler, teamed with top freelancer and ChocoPro’s Super Asia Champion, Rina Yamashita, against Sendai Girls Junior World Champion, YUNA, and the ace of Marvelous and their double champion, Takumi Iroha. There was no doubt whether Takumi would be on the show. Spike was great in this match and looked at home in the ring with Takumi. Spike pinned YUNA, which made me wonder if this was canon and if Spike would now claim a shot at YUNA’s title and if so, what did that mean for her participation in the Jaja Uma tournament where I had her as an odds-on favourite?

I immediately started to think this show was booked for me when the wrestlers for the main event came out. The main event was a total mish-mash of indies wrestlers and it was like a wrapped up present Nagayo cooked up just for me. Mio Momono (Marvelous), Misa Kagura (freelancer), Rina Amikura (COLORS) and Valentina Rossi (US freelancer touring with Marvelous) faced Chikayo Nagashima (Marvelous), Hanako Nakamori (PURE-J’s ace), Honoka (WAVE) and Miyuki Takase (Sendai Girls). You can CTRL+F some of the names to see what else they’ve been up to as we cover all of them. The match was announced as a Captain’s Fall match. Basically, each team has a secret captain, and the other team doesn’t know who it is. When a captain is pinned, their team loses. It is announced after a pinfall whether a captain was pinned or not. Chikayo was submitted early and it was announced she was not a captain. Takase and Amikura were pinned at the same time, and also were not captains. Amikura accidentally let slip that Mio was the captain, so the other team frantically tried to pin her, but Mio would keep kicking out at the last second. They tried to get Mio counted out, but Mio sprinted back into the ring on 12 (it’s 20 count) and then defended the ring against the other team. Honoka ran in from behind at the last second and picked up the pin on Mio with an O’Connor roll. I couldn’t stop smiling. I couldn’t believe they booked Mio to lose like that, and it was awesome. Takase closed out the show, but as she was doing so, Love Riddle played multiple times meaning she had to do the dance and kept getting interrupted. Miyuki is of course also an AWG alumni. Amikura came into the ring to do the dance as well, because she is also an AWG alumni. You get the point. Almost all of the indie scene are AWG alumni.

© NOAH

Monday Magic Episode 1
6th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe
Recommended Monday Magic Matches: Mayu Iwatani, Seri Yamaoka & Utami Hayashishita vs. Mio Momono, Senka Akatsuki & Takumi Iroha

Monday Magic made a return, albeit more understated than before as it was hosted in Shin-Kiba than the usual Shinjuku FACE due to venue scheduling difficulties. This show is defined by the excellent semi-main event which reignited the year-long rivalry between Marigold and Marvelous.

First, Danny Duggan returned to Monday Magic, and unless he was doing shows very much under the radar, it looks like he hasn’t done much since the last Monday Magic season. He has ties with Akira Nogami, who in turn is close with NOSAWA. In the last season he did state his ambitions to be in the N-1, unfortunately that did not come to fruition. He had some quite good hard-hitting performances, so it was a welcome return. Duggan returned teaming up with N-1 finalist Jack Morris against the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Los Golpeadores, and the Crush Boys (Starboy Charlie and Titus Alexander) who are touring with Chigusa Nagayo’s promotion, Marvelous, and were also on Nagayo’s Monday Magic spin-off, Friday Night Gacha. This was quite sloppy with a lot of slip-ups, with Duggan especially not having a good day at the office, but it was still a lot of fun. You can’t really not enjoy yourself where Los Golpeadores and Titus are involved.

NOSAWA announced two more seasons of Monday Magic in January and May, with Wrestle Magic at Korakuen Hall on 15th June. Additionally, he announced a new monthly brand called “Universe Magic” in March and April at Shinjuku FACE. Great Sakuya (Riko Kawahata) came out and lowblowed him. It was part of a storyline continued from Friday Night Gacha where she refused to serve either NOSAWA or Chigusa. Sendai Girls’ Miyuki Takase came out and they brawled. Takase asked for a singles match and got misted. Backstage, Takase said she was going after the GHC Women’s belt held by Takumi Iroha.

Tatsumi Fujinami made a rare NOAH appearance, teaming up with LEONA (Fujinami’s son) against Maybach Taniguchi and the Mummy. The whole bit was that the Mummy was actually Manabu Soya, who was due to face LEONA in singles action in Fujinami’s promotion, Dradition, in November.

All Rebellion (Alejandro, Galeno, Harutoki, Kai Fujimura & Kaito Kiyomiya) faced a team from Spain’s Lucha Rebellion promotion, creating a Rebellion vs. Rebellion 5-on-5 tag match. The Lucha Rebellion team was Eddie Vergara, Iker Navarro, Joey Torres, Nathan De Windt & Sito Sanchez.

The Marigold vs. Marvelous feud that has been going on for most of 2025 and made an appearance on the last season, reignited in an incredible six-woman tag as the Marigold World Champion, Utami Hayashishita, brought the icon and Superfly Champion, Mayu Iwatani and their super rookie, Seri Yamaoka, to face the AAAW and AAAW Tag Team Champion, Takumi Iroha, Mio Momono, and their super rookie, Senka Akatsuki. Whenever Seri and Senka meet in the ring it is fireworks. It is the most “real” feeling rivalry in joshi, perhaps even wrestling, today. When they interact, there is a buzz that just takes over the entire crowd. It is a legitimately unique, ‘lightning-in-a-bottle’ rivalry that should expand for their entire careers, and will become the defining rivalry of their generation. If, Rossy Ogawa and Chigusa Nagayo/Takumi Iroha play their cards right that is. It is my favourite pairing in wrestling, bar none. It is perfect pro wrestling for me, with no notes. Writing out the moves in this match would just ruin the magic. Watch the match. All I will say is when you get to the post-match, look at Seri’s look to Senka. These are 18 to 19-year-old rookies and they are better actors than the vast majority of the industry. You look at them and the way they interact with each other and you instantly appreciate the respect they both have for their characters. They have not broken character once since first meeting on 30th March in an explosive tag at Korakuen Hall. It has been 7 months of perfection from both. THEY ARE ROOKIES. You will see something like this maybe once every generation. Are you maybe feeling a bit down on the perceived state of wrestling and want “the old days back”? Do you want pro wrestling to feel “real again”? Watch Seri and Senka. I didn’t even feel like recapping the main event after this – so I didn’t. HAYATA defended his GHC Hardcore title against freelancer Yuko Miyamoto. It was an ok match. No blood. There you go. Watch the semi-main event.

© Marvelous

Friday Night Gacha Episode 2
10th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Episode 2 of Nagayo’s Friday Night Gacha was off to a hot start as Stardom’s FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) made an appearance against Nagayo’s prized students, Ai Houzan & Senka Akatsuki (who, in the Marvelous world, are in a bitter rivalry with each other). FWC, and Hazuki in particular, have been making the rounds across the Japanese indies, perhaps in a preview of life after Stardom if their contracts are not renewed in 2026. In true Gacha fashion, it was the first time FWC had interacted with either Ai or Senka. Koguma tapped out Ai after a fun match.

Comedy duo Hibiscus Mii & Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru faced Magenta (Maria & RIKO) from Marvelous. They repeated a popular spot where they get tag partners to kiss each other following an argument. Maria and Riko teased kissing but pulled out at the last second.
Ryo Mizunami, Risa Sera and Shin Sakura Hirota faced off in a standard Sakura Hirota comedy three-way. Sera teased doing the double knee drop which she swore off since tearing her ACL and MCL, but Sakura caught her with a shark attack in the butt. These two matches were more what I was expecting from Nagayo in the first episode.

Iker Navarro and Joey Torres, Spanish wrestlers from promotion Lucha Rebellion, who appeared on Monday Magic, appeared again on this episode facing the Crush Boys (Starboy Charlie & Titus Alexander). This was a really well worked match with little crowd heat, despite the Crush Boys’ popularity among NOAH/Marvelous fans. It was hard to get into for that reason even though the in-ring work itself was great.

Nightshade made a return to Japan. There is some history here as although Nightshade is an EVE regular, she previously toured with Marvelous and trained in their dojo, and also unsuccessfully challenged Takumi for the AAAW Title in January 2025. She teamed up with Maya Yukihi against Itsuoki Aoki and Takumi Iroha. Maya has been taking selected dates, trying to mount a return following a devastating arm injury in late 2024. This was very much a preview tag with not much noteworthy action.

The main event of the rare six-match card was Sendai Girls duo, DASH Chisako & Yuu, against Kaoru Ito & Mio Momono. This match was pretty great. It had the most heat of any match on the show, which was noticeable as the crowd had been quite quiet all night. The match also relied heavily on Mio’s incredible ability to fight from behind as Yuu and Chisako did their best to keep Mio down. Chisako and Mio were excellent with each other the entire match with a lot of nearfalls and fast-paced action. Mio picked up the win with the JK Bomb (sunset flip powerbomb) on Chisako, who rarely eats the pin in tag matches, but I suppose Yuu gets pinned even less. The Great Sakuya (Riko) came out after the main event and misted Mio.

Monday Magic Episode 2
20th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe
Recommended Monday Magic Matches: Daichi Hashimoto & Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Kenoh & Titus Alexander

After the high of episode 1 with the incredible Marigold vs. Marvelous match, it was difficult for Monday Magic to sustain that momentum in its average second episode, although there was a good main event. One of the greatest in-ring wrestlers of all time, Masaaki Mochizuki, teamed with another, Naomichi Marufuji, as well as with one of NOAH’s best prospects in Daiki Odashima. They faced the unit of Eddie Vergara, Iker Navarro and Nathan De Windt from Lucha Rebellion in Spain. Daiki pinned Vergara with the Rolling Olympic Hell – Part 1 (Kaiten Jigoku Gorin in Japanese). He picked it up from his trainer, Tamon Honda. Honda had 9 parts to the pin. Part 1 is where he takes the legs and then rolls the opponent onto their back while locking the leg. Part 2 would be a rolling cradle variation. Part 3 is a double ankle hold variation, etc. It’s perfect for Daiki. More Spaniards, Joey Torres and Sito Sanchez, were on the card as they lost to Los Golpeadores. Miyuki Takase got the singles match she wanted with Great Sakuya. She was misted and Sakuya got disqualified. Why was this a thing? Nightshade came out and was friendly with Sakuya. She was also in a stable with Riko in Marvelous so this wasn’t a surprise.

Monday Magic regular Danny Duggan, who had a bit of an off-day on episode 1, was back again in singles action against Charlie Crowley. Crowley had been appearing for Kyushu Pro Wrestling. Crowley’s character seems to be inspired by Fegan Floop from Spy Kids (now you know my age). He had a balloon prop that was very over. The crowd was sad when Danny popped it. Crowley stole the pin on Duggan and they became friends after. Happily ever after. Alejandro, AMAKUSA, HAYATA & Starboy Charlie fought in a four-way survival match. Charlie picked up the win on HAYATA, setting up a GHC Hardcore match for next week with another mystery opponent in a three-way, which turned out to be Naruki Doi. Risa Sera came out to challenge Takumi Iroha for the GHC Women’s Title.

It was an all-star main event as BJW’s Daichi Hashimoto & Kaito Kiyomiya faced Kenoh & Titus Alexander. It was Hashimoto’s first NOAH appearance since a short run in 2012. This match was pretty great, in particular Hashimoto and Kenoh trading kicks was awesome as they told each other they were having fun. Daichi lifted Titus for an awesome two-stage German suplex, but Titus kicked out at one and there was a time-limit draw. There was no post-match promo or backstage comments, which seemed kind of ominous.

© Marvelous

Friday Night Gacha Episode 3
24th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe
Recommended Match: Sareee & Takumi Iroha vs. Senka Akatsuki & Seri Yamaoka

The exciting energy of the first episode of Friday Night Gacha appeared to be more of an outlier as Friday Night Gacha closed out with another middling episode. In the opener, Shin Sakura Hirota made an appearance as Shin Chigusa taking on Jaguar Yokota, who was unable to keep her cool and constantly corpsed. Real Chigusa came out and they did a bit where Jaguar couldn’t tell who was who, before Jaguar rolled Shin Chigusa up.

In a match that you could see fit perfectly on a Marvelous undercard, Bryan Ishikaza and Titus Alexander faced MASA TAKA and Starboy Charlie. MASA TAKA trains in the Ito Dojo, the same palace Sareee, Chi Chi, Miku Kanae and Sayaka Toyota train. MASA TAKA, despite having just celebrated his two year anniversary of wrestling, is still incredibly green. You can tell he is afraid of getting hurt when he is wrestling, which is not what the viewer should be thinking. More Ito Dojo trainees made an appearance, this time another wrestler with two years of experience, Uta Shima. She teamed with COLORS owner and PURE-J Openweight Champion SAKI against Itsuki Aoki and Senka Akatsuki. SAKI and Aoki are familiar with each other through their regular bookings in WAVE, while this is the first time SAKI had met Sora Ayame.

Mio Momono came out to beat Great Sakuya up, but Mio got geeked and misted during her entrance. Maria then came out to beat some sense into her tag partner and slap her back into Riko Kawahata. It was billed as a singles match, so Mio must have been hiding under the ring selling the mist. After some good, athletic action, Sakuya misted Maria in the face to break a submission hold and was DQ’d. Mio came back out to attack Sakuya.

I sat up for the main event and locked in as Seri Yamaoka’s music hit, I knew something was about to go down. Then Senka’s music. Oh let’s go. But then they walked to each other, indicating they would team up. Spark Rush’s music hit. Okay, good job guys, this episode was fully salvaged. It almost seemed like Chigusa deliberately sandbagged the rest of this episode just for this main event. Senka was just coming off an unsuccessful shot at Takumi’s AAAW Title, while Seri and Sareee had never actually interacted before. Seri debuted against MIRAI on Sareee’s last Marigold show. The crowd was no longer silent. It was insane how quiet the crowd was before this match and they were completely woken up by this match. Senka and Seri fought with each other about who should wrestle first before they were ambushed by Spark Rush. Seri tagged in and just launched Senka out of the ring, although she did nicely tag Senka in later when she was struggling against Spark Rush. Senka’s hot tag included body slamming Sareee on top of Takumi to loud “Senka!” chants. Seri and Senka landed frog splashes onto Sareee (Senka debuted it against Takumi in the AAAW Title match). Seri tried to fight back against Spark Rush with forearms but received a double open-handed slap to her face and double rolling side kicks to the temple. Spark Rush followed up with their signature Swanton bomb into diving double foot stomp onto Senka but Senka somehow kicked out. The crowd started screaming Senka’s name, but one last uranage from Sareee closed out the match.

After the match, Seri picked up a mic and then got into a full mount on top of Senka shouting at her about why she had to lose. They began to brawl again. Sareee instigated them telling Senka not to just take the abuse from Seri. Senka spoke about wanting revenge for the uranage. While Senka was talking, Seri was pushing her face still. It’s the little touches like that that make me see this as my favourite feud in wrestling. These two are lightning-in-a-bottle, a generational feud. Chigusa said she wants to run it back next June, and chose June specifically so she could first focus on Marvelous’ 10th anniversary show in May.

Monday Magic Episode 3
27th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

This episode confirmed that maybe the Monday Magic season had run its course and Nosawa was out of ideas. It’s not Monday Magic if you use the same wrestlers in slightly different formats in heatless matches. The first episodes of Monday Magic and Friday Night Gacha were by far the best episodes.

In the opener, Team NOAH (Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara) faced Magic regulars Joey Torres & Sito Sanchez. This was not good. They tried the Young Bucks move with the opponent being springboarded onto the other partner into a powerbomb. It did not go as well. Then Torres did not hit the Bamboo Dragonfly cleanly, twice in a row. The second match was right up my alley, sort of. The Sakuya gimmick sucks, but at least she brought AKARI from PURE-J as her partner, alongside Nightshade. Miyuki Takase brought her Luminous tag team partner, Diana’s ace, Haruka Umesaki, as well as PURE-J’s heart and soul, Leon. AKARI and Leon started the match running drills that I am sure they have run thousands of times back in the Kame Arena Dojo. While I was excited to see the participants on a larger stage than usual, the match was just fine. Umesaki saved Takase from being misted, allowing Takase to pin AKARI.

Shigehiro Irie and Shuji Ishikawa faced the Mummy (Manabu Soya) and Maybach Taniguchi who had appeared earlier in the season. It was the same bit except this time we got the payoff and he unmasked going wild. Ishikawa later pinned Tanagiuchi. Wow, such magic. There was a rumble with all the Monday Magic regulars: Titus Alexander, Kaito Kiyomiya, Nathan De Windt, Eddie Vergara, Danny Duggan, Iker Navarro and Dragon Bane. This was also brutal. The same regulars as always, with Kaito and Bane thrown in there. I get that if you bring people from overseas for Monday Magic they need to make their trip worthwhile, but it does heavily dilute down the concept. The match did get fun briefly with Kaito, Bane and Titus. After the match, Archie Cole, via a video recording, said he would return to Monday Magic next season.

The bright spot of the episode was Risa Sera and GHC Women’s Champion Takumi Iroha locking up once again, not particularly for the action, but the occasion. Risa Sera has been nursing an ACL and MCL injury to her right knee since 13th July, and continued wrestling as she is on her retirement road, due to end on 12th January 2026. Takumi accepted the challenge as she mentioned that when she was a rookie they used to team a lot and Sera always looked out for her, and now, Sera runs her own promotion, Prominence, while Takumi is the ace, head coach and booker of Marvelous. This was their first singles match in 11 years. It was a solid match given Sera’s current ability to work. Backstage, even Takumi said she hoped Sera could retire without doing more damage to her body. After the match, the icon Mayu Iwatani challenged Takumi Iroha, continuing the Marigold and Marvelous feud, and re-igniting their own feud, with their last singles match occurring in Korakuen Hall during the pandemic where Mayu defended the World of Stardom Title successfully in an excellent match. In the main event, HAYATA defended his GHC Hardcore title against Naruki Doi and Starboy Charlie. Titus said he would challenge HAYATA for the title next season.

El Desperado, Shota Umino, YOH, YOSHI-HASHI & Yuya Uemura defeat House Of Torture (Dick Togo, DOUKI, EVIL, SANADA & SHO) (7:36)

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeats Great-O-Khan (7:45)

NEVER Openweight Title:
Oleg Boltin (c) defeats Don Fale (5:55)

IWGP Tag Team Titles:
Knockout Brothers (OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) defeat Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii (c) (13:30)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title:
Hiromu Takahashi (c) defeats Taiji Ishimori (11:30)

IWGP Global Heavyweight Title:
Gabe Kidd (c) defeats Shingo Takagi (21:37)

IWGP World Heavyweight Title:
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) defeats Ren Narita (29:24)

IWGP Women’s Title:
Syuri defeats Sareee (c) (14:56)

BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors, David Finlay & Taiji Ishimori) defeat Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Titan (7:58)

Riot In Ryogoku No Disqualification No Count Out:
Drilla Moloney defeats SANADA (13:37)

Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) & YOH defeat TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa) (7:55)

NJPW World Television Title:
El Phantasmo (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

NEVER Openweight Title:
EVIL defeats Oleg Boltin (c) (11:40)

IWGP Tag Team Titles:
Knockout Brothers (OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) (c) defeat Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura (14:40)

IWGP Global Heavyweight Title:
Yota Tsuji defeats Gabe Kidd (c) (24:13)

IWGP World Heavyweight Title:
Konosuke Takeshita defeats Zack Sabre Jr. (c) (31:16)

Oleg Boltin, Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto defeat Katsuya Murashima, Masatora Yasuda & Zane Jay (8:58)

TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles) defeat Daiki Nagai, Gedo & Hiromu Takahashi (9:17)

Funky Carat (Dragon Dia & Ryusuke Taguchi), KUSHIDA & Yuki Yoshioka defeat El Desperado, Kuukai, Tiger Mask & YAMATO (7:55)

House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, Ren Narita, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi) defeat Master Wato, Shota Umino, Toru Yano, YOH & Yuya Uemura (6:18)

BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors, OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) & Shingo Takagi defeat United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Jakob Austin Young & Templario) (10:58)

Super Junior Tag League 2025 Final:
House Of Torture (DOUKI & SHO) defeat BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori) (15:01)

IWGP Global Heavyweight Title:
Yota Tsuji (c) defeats Hiroshi Tanahashi (20:05)

IWGP World Heavyweight Title:
Konosuke Takeshita (c) defeats Hirooki Goto (24:20)

A Block

• Don Fale & EVIL — 6 pts (3-1-0)
• El Desperado & Shuji Ishikawa — 6 pts (3-1-0)
• Gabe Kidd & Yota Tsuji — 6 pts (3-1-0)
• Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• Drilla Moloney & Shingo Takagi — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• Satoshi Kojima & Taichi — 2 pts (1-3-0)
• Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi — 0 pts (0-4-0)

B Block

• Ren Narita & SANADA — 6 pts (3-1-0)
• David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• Alex Zayne & Lance Archer — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• OSKAR & Yuto-Ice — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• El Phantasmo & Hiroshi Tanahashi — 2 pts (1-3-0)

• Konami vs. Starlight Kid – 3rd November at Ota Ward General Gym
• Sareee vs. Suzu Suzuki – 6th September at Yokohama Budokan
• Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara vs. Natsuko Tora & Ruaka – 30th November at Act City Hamamatsu Exhibition Event Hall
• Akira Kurogane, Ami Sohrei, Bozilla & Lady C vs. HANAKO, Rian, Waka Tsukiyama & Megan Bayne – 7th November at Korakuen Hall
• Miku Kanae & Sareee vs. Natsupoi & Saori Anou – 28th November at KBS Hall
• Mei Seira & Yuna Mizumori vs. Miku Kanae & Sareee – 7th November at Korakuen Hall
• AZM vs. Saya Kamitani – 27th September at Korakuen Hall
• Starlight Kid vs. Tomoka Inaba – 6th September at Yokohama Budokan
• Momo Watanabe vs. Saya Kamitani – 3rd November at Ota Ward General Gym
• Koguma vs. Hazuki – 11th October at Korakuen Hall
• Hazuki vs. Mei Seira – 3rd November at Ota Ward General Gym
• Aya Sakura, AZM, Bea Priestley, Saori Anou & Sayaka Kurara vs. Azusa Inaba, Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Ruaka & Saya Kamitani – 23rd September at EDION Arena Osaka #2
• HANAKO & Megan Bayne vs. Rina Yamashita & Suzu Suzuki – 26th November at Kanda Myojin Hall
• Akira Kurogane & Bozilla vs. Miku Kanae & Sareee – 29th November at EDION Arena Osaka #2

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

Rian defeats Akira Kurogane and Fukigen Death (5:01)

Rina defeats Ema Maishima (8:38)

Empress Nexus Venus (HANAKO & Waka Tsukiyama) defeat Aya Sakura & Kikyo Furusawa (8:26)

Dark Silueta & Mei Seira defeat Cosmic Angels (Sayaka Kurara & Yuna Mizumori) (9:43)

HATE (Azusa Inaba, Konami & Momo Watanabe) defeat Mi Vida Loca (Bozilla, Itsuki Aoki & Rina Yamashita) (10:14)

God’s Eye (Hina, Kiyoka Kotatsu, Ranna Yagami & Saki Kashima) defeat STARS (Hanan, Momo Kohgo & Saya Iida) & Yuria Hime (10:26)

God’s Eye (Ami Sourei & Lady C) defeat Cosmic Angels (Natsupoi & Saori Anou) and FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) and Neo Genesis (AZM & Miyu Amasaki) (6:25)

Natsuko Tora defeats Mayumi Ozaki (12:43)

IWGP Women’s Title:
Sareee (c) defeats Suzu Suzuki (22:33)

Wonder Of Stardom Title:
Starlight Kid (c) defeats Tomoka Inaba (21:15)

World Of Stardom Title:
Saya Kamitani (c) defeats Bea Priestley (22:34)

Hazuki defeats Akira Kurogane and Ema Maishima (5:55)

Empress Nexus Venus (HANAKO, Rian & Waka Tsukiyama) defeat Cosmic Angels (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara) & Kikyo Furusawa (10:33)

God’s Eye (Ami Sourei, Kiyoka Kotatsu, Lady C & Saki Kashima) vs. Mi Vida Loca (Bozilla, Itsuki Aoki, Rina Yamashita & Suzu Suzuki) – Double Count Out (12:16)

Cosmic Angels (Natsupoi & Saori Anou) defeat God’s Eye (Ranna Yagami & Tomoka Inaba) (8:14)

Future Of Stardom Title: Hina (c) defeats Yuria Hime (13:17)

Bea Priestley & STARS (Hanan, Momo Kohgo & Saya Iida) defeat HATE (Azusa Inaba, Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora & Saya Kamitani) (9:00)

CMLL-Japan Women’s Title:
Koguma defeats Dark Silueta (c) by referee’s decision (4:54)

High Speed Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls:
Mei Seira (c) vs. Yuna Mizumori – Time Limit Draw (10:00)

Artist Of Stardom Title:
HATE (Fukigen Death, Konami & Rina) defeat Neo Genesis (AZM, Miyu Amasaki & Starlight Kid) (c) (20:00)

© STARDOM

23rd September 2025
EDION Arena Osaka #2, Osaka, Japan
Recommended Match: Aya Sakura, AZM, Bea Priestley, Saori Anou & Sayaka Kurara vs. Azusa Inaba, Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Ruaka & Saya Kamitani

Ahead of a big Korakuen Hall show, Stardom held a show at one of their most regular non-Tokyo tour stops, Osaka. Despite not being in 5 Star season, Stardom miraculously smashed their previous record at the building by over 200, with their previous record of 661 taking place on 10th April 2022. Stardom has been running this building since 2016 and has an average attendance of 492 (541 pre-pandemic, 481 post-pandemic, ignoring any shows held during March 2020 and March 2022). If anything, this is a testament to how hot Stardom is in 2025 and it cannot be denied by anyone making a numerical case, relative to their previous years.

On the show, the new Artist of Stardom Champions H.A.T.E. (Fukigen Death, Konami & Rina) successfully defended their titles against Stars (Hanan, Momo Kohgo & Saya Iida) in a great match. I considered this the first real challenge of Hanan’s Stars leadership – would she step up to the plate? And well, yes. She did. Hanan is an excellent multi-person tag wrestler. She had already shown that during her Goddess of Stardom run with Saya Iida but she reinforced that sentiment with her performance here. More than that, her sequences with Rina left me salivating for a future big main event singles match between the two sisters, with a title on the line. They were by far the best part of this match as Rina showed off the confidence in her character as she relentlessly bullied Hanan to a chorus of boos. On the other hand, I was not impressed by Momo Kohgo’s performance, particularly because of the storyline behind it. Rina had humiliated and eviscerated Momo Kohgo during promos leading up to this match, and when push came to shove, Momo Kohgo was unable to exact her revenge and lay in any of her forearms or strikes. Rina had even said that Kohgo being in the title fight was one of the reasons Sareee looked down upon Stardom – did that not warrant Kohgo to beat the hell out of Rina? There is a spark missing which I’m not sure will ever be lit. Hanan, rightly, carried the match home, reaching the ropes after Rina’s Hydrangea attempt before dropping Rina with a disgusting backdrop suplex. The suplex looked so violent that I was relieved, for once, that a referee distraction was what stopped the pin, rather than a kick out. Hanan almost picked up the victory for her stable with the La Magistral pin, but alas, the match would once again end with Konami tapping out the leader of the opponent faction. After the match, Hanan attempted to take the mic, before H.A.T.E. just jumped on her, beating her down. Konami took the mic:

Konami: “(To Hanan) Losers don’t get to talk in this ring, idiot! Get lost! Man, sisters… I’m jealous. Sisters are great, right, Fukigen?”
Fukigen: “Death!”
Konami: “We want a little sister too, don’t we, Fukigen?”
Fukigen: “Death!”

I’m all in on this trio which exudes heavy Team Rocket vibes. Konami’s promos have been super entertaining, pretty much ever since she turned pseudo-babyface in her feud with Sareee. Initially I thought about what it meant for Hanan, until I remembered Starlight Kid tapping in the same way as a means of putting Konami over, so I didn’t mind it much, especially since Stars are in the middle of a rebuild which is part of their story. Hardship makes the comeback even sweeter. Give Hanan some time away from the spotlight – undercard tags are where she excels either way.

Not only was there a record crowd, but they were absolutely hot for the action, and no match displayed that more than the quintessential Stardom ten-person tag opener, with Aya Sakura, AZM, Bea Priestley, Saori Anou & Sayaka Kurara taking on H.A.T.E. (Azusa Inaba, Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Ruaka & Saya Kamitani). Originally, the match was supposed to be AZM & Miyu Amasaki vs. Azusa & Saya to preview their World of Stardom Title match on 27th September, but Miyu fell ill, so they threw them in the opener, and it absolutely rocked and was my match of the night. There are perhaps only two promotions in the world that regularly put on matches like this with ease, and Dragongate is the other one, although it is probably rarer than even Stardom – fitting since half the Stardom roster are massive Dragongate fans. Azusa and AZM in particular were great in this match, with Azusa rolling through the Azumi Sushi leading to a nearfall that the crowd bit on.

Elsewhere, Tomoka Inaba and Kiyoka Kotatsu had a “karate-off” in their tag match, which is clearly where Kiyoka feels most comfortable. After the match, Syuri made her return to the promotion and vowed to go after Sareee’s IWGP Title. Natsupoi helped Yuna train for her high speed rematch with Mei Seira, winning with the Fairy Blink. After the match, she explained to Yuna that it wasn’t about speed or power, it was about what was in her heart. Cute.

Yuria Hime defeats Kikyo Furusawa (5:44)
Cosmic Angels (Natsupoi & Saori Anou) & Tae Honma defeat Ranna Yagami, Rian & Sayaka Kurara (10:57)

Waka Tsukiyama defeats Momo Kohgo (5:08)

STARS (Bea Priestley, Hanan & Saya Iida) defeat HATE (Fukigen Death, Konami & Momo Watanabe) by DQ (6:38)

Cosmic Angels (Aya Sakura & Yuna Mizumori) & FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) defeat Ema Maishima & Neo Genesis (Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki & Starlight Kid) and Mi Vida Loca (Akira Kurogane, Bozilla, Itsuki Aoki & Rina Yamashita) (8:47)

God’s Eye (Ami Sourei, Kiyoka Kotatsu & Lady C) defeat HATE (Natsuko Tora, Rina & Ruaka) (12:03)

Kaoru Ito & Sareee defeat God’s Eye (Syuri & Tomoka Inaba) (8:50)

Future Of Stardom Title:
HANAKO defeats Hina (c) (14:11)

World Of Stardom Title / NJPW STRONG Women’s Title:
Saya Kamitani (c) [Stardom] defeats AZM (c) [NJPW] (23:10)

Rian defeats Fukigen Death and Kikyo Furusawa and Ranna Yagami (6:18)

Three Way 15 Man Tag Team: Cosmic Angels (Aya Sakura, Natsupoi, Saori Anou, Sayaka Kurara & Yuna Mizumori) defeat Ema Maishima & Mi Vida Loca (Akira Kurogane, Itsuki Aoki, Rina Yamashita & Suzu Suzuki) and God’s Eye (Ami Sourei, Hina, Kiyoka Kotatsu, Lady C & Syuri) (11:33)

Neo Genesis (AZM & Miyu Amasaki) defeat Empress Nexus Venus (HANAKO & Waka Tsukiyama) (8:21)

STARS (Bea Priestley, Momo Kohgo & Saya Iida) defeat HATE (Natsuko Tora, Rina & Ruaka) (9:55)

Bozilla defeats Saki Kashima (11:29)

High Speed Title:
Mei Seira (c) defeats Hazuki (10:58)

Wonder Of Stardom Title:
Konami defeats Starlight Kid (c) (21:15)

World Of Stardom Title / NJPW STRONG Women’s Title:
Saya Kamitani (c) defeats Momo Watanabe (21:30)

Blue Goddesses

• HANAKO & Megan Bayne — 11 pts (5-1-1) – Advanced
• Saki Kashima & Syuri — 9 pts (4-2-1) – Advanced but pulled out due to Saki’s injury
• Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara — 8 pts (4-3-0) – Advanced on tiebreaker
• Bea Priestley & Saya Iida — 8 pts (4-3-0) – Advanced in place of Saki & Syuri
• Konami & Rina — 6 pts (3-4-0)
• Ami Sohrei & Lady C — 6 pts (3-4-0)
• AZM & Miyu Amasaki — 4 pts (2-5-0)
• Rina Yamashita & Suzu Suzuki — 4 pts (2-5-0)

Red Goddesses

• Natsuko Tora & Ruaka — 12 pts (6-1-0) – Advanced
• Miku Kanae & Sareee — 8 pts (4-3-0) – Advanced on tiebreaker
• Akira Kurogane & Bozilla — 8 pts (4-3-0) – Advanced on tiebreaker
• Natsupoi & Saori Anou — 8 pts (4-3-0)
• Mei Seira & Yuna Mizumori — 7 pts (3-3-1)
• Osita & Teotleco — 7 pts (3-3-1)
• Hina & Ranna Yagami — 6 pts (3-4-0)
• Rian & Waka Tsukiyama — 0 pts (0-7-0)

Day 12 – EDION Osaka Arena #2, Osaka – 29th November 2025 – Advancement to Semi-Finals

• Akira Kurogane & Bozilla defeat Miku Kanae & Sareee (15:10)
• Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara defeat Bea Priestley & Saya Iida (13:38)

Day 13 – Act City Hamamatsu Exhibition Event Hall – 30th November 2025 – Semi-Finals and Finals

• Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara defeat HANAKO & Megan Bayne (10:55)
• Natsuko Tora & Ruaka defeat Akira Kurogane & Bozilla (10:30)
• Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara vs. Natsuko Tora & Ruaka

We will have Finals coverage in our next issue.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 1
7th November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 1,127
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Mei Seira & Yuna Mizumori vs. Miku Kanae & Sareee, Akira Kurogane, Ami Sourei, Bozilla & Lady C vs. HANAKO, Rian, Waka Tsukiyama & Megan Bayne

The tournament kicked off with a great show from top to bottom at Korakuen Hall. The one thing about Stardom’s tours is that they have a very high floor and you’re unlikely to catch a truly bad match. The first recommended match of the tournament came through the form of a reliable duo of Saki Kashima and Syuri as they faced Mi Vida Loca’s Rina Yamashita and Suzu Suzuki. Saki and Syuri provide the tag league with something different. They’re a comedic presence but they do not run it thin and find something new to entertain crowds with on each house tour. The dynamic worked amazingly in particular with Rina and Suzu who were the perfect foil. Saki picked up the win for her team.

In the other recommended match, Yuna Mizumori and Sareee continued their mini-feud, apparently based off of a stiff dropkick Sareee gave Yuna in 2019. Every time Yuna had a chance at Sareee, she would attempt to either cave a hole in her chest with forearms, or decapitate her with sliding and running lariats. It was awesome and gave the match a lot of heat. Yuna’s partner, Mei Seira, was not her usual perfect self with some wobbles, but Sareee’s attention to detail made their segments feel mostly seamless. As for Sareee’s partner, Miku Kanae, it was clear that this was not Ice Ribbon Miku Kanae, the sweet-hearted and soft-hitting Miku. This Miku was unhinged as she threw out Sareee-style open-handed slaps in a bid to make her mentor proud. Unfortunately, she lost.

FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) returned from their CMLL excursion with an itch to be luchadores, as they debuted a new masked heel gimmick, Dos Locas de Mexico, named Osita (bear in Spanish) and Teotleco (a month in the Aztecan calendar, the second kanji in Hazuki’s name means month or moon). They faced one of the best tag teams in Natsupoi and Saori Anou. The match felt a bit disjointed as it was clear DLM were getting used to their gimmick, but it’s a fun change and it’s not as if the tag league matters too much. DLM lost in their first match.

AEW’s Megan Bayne returned to Stardom, being an inspired choice for HANAKO’s partner during the Tag League. She was thrown into the fray immediately as she teamed with ExV (HANAKO, Rian & Waka Tsukiyama) against Akira Kurogane, Ami Sohrei and Bozilla in a real big girls match. This match was awesome. 10 stars. No notes. Just big girls beating the hell out of each other (with appearances from Akira, Rian and Waka, on occasion).

Elsewhere, Konami & Rina beat Sakurara (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara), Bea Priestley & Saya Iida beat 02Line (AZM & Miyu Amasaki) and BMI2000 beat Hina & Ranna Yagami.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 2
8th November 2025
G Messe Gunma Main Hall, Takasaki, Japan

In a match after my own heart, Miku Kanae picked up the first win for her and Sareee against Rian & Waka Tsukiyama unleashing her rare German suplex finisher. The last time I had seen her do that move was on 28th June on an Ice Ribbon dojo show, where she dropped former ICExFinity Champion Ibuki Hoshi on her head. So, needless to say, I popped hard for the finish. Aside from that, the match was wildly entertaining as Rian tried to step up to Sareee only to get mercilessly put down.

Natsupoi & Saori beat Hina & Ranna Yagami in a great main event. It was exactly as you expect, with no surprises, but given the four involved, that’s how you know it was good.

Akira Kurogane and Bozilla continued their journey to rival Saki & Syuri for the best comedic dynamic on the tour. Akira was playing the fool-hardy, reckless, energetic rookie role perfectly while Bozilla had to repeatedly keep bailing Akira out of trouble. Akira’s straight face as she jumps head first into danger is one of the best parts of the act.

Megan Bayne folded Sayaka Kurara in half as she powerbombed her team to victory in a great match. Sayakara bumped their asses off for Megan, and this also continued Aya Sakura and HANAKO’s feud. Saya Iida began building momentum for both herself and her team as she caught the win over Saki Kashima and Syuri with her Iidabashi pin. Suzu and Rina lost again before they would forfeit the next two tag matches due to Suzu becoming ill.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 3
9th November 2025
Kissei Bunka Hall, Matsumoto, Japan

Another day, another high quality house show delivered by the deep Stardom roster. My match of the night goes to Akira & Bozilla against Mei & Yuna, and that’s largely due to Bozilla and Mei who had great chemistry together, in the same way that AZM and Bozilla did in their Korakuen Hall match earlier in the year. Bozilla jumping to Stardom from Marigold was the best thing for her career, giving her the chance to work with some of the best high speed wrestlers in the world so that Bozilla can learn how to become an even better base before she makes the inevitable leap to the AEW or WWE (we all know it’s coming, don’t act surprised). MegaSkyscrapers (HANAKO & Megan) faced Reiwa Tokyo Towers (Ami & Lady C) in an all-beefy girls main event where Megan showed off her strength, double suplexing Tokyo Towers. Lady C also showed off her improvement as she has been holding her ground, and shining, in the prominent spots she has been put in during this tour. As someone who does not connect with Lady C’s character, her in-ring ability is undeniably improving. HANAKO pinned Lady C with the JP Coaster.

In other tournament matches, DLM beat Rian & Waka and Hina & Ranna defeated Miku & Sareee in quite standard match ups. Syuri tapped out Miyu Amasaki with the White Tiger submission in a good match. Saki continued her trademark comedy, as she looked to summon fighting spirit and knock AZM off the turnbuckle, but instead she turned around and tagged Syuri in.

Saya Iida pinned the Wonder of Stardom Champion, Konami, in a surprising development on the undercard. She has been booked quite strong in this tag league and then given a pin over a champion in a non-tournament match. I would be shocked if this didn’t end up being a title shot at Korakuen Hall in the future. As at the time of writing, nothing had been announced. Maybe this is Iida being rewarded for her hard, selfless work during the summer in the 5 Star putting over anyone and anything.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 1
7th November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 1,127
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Rina Yamashita & Suzu Suzuki vs. Saki Kashima & Syuri, Mei Seira & Yuna Mizumori vs. Miku Kanae & Sareee, Akira Kurogane, Ami Sourei, Bozilla & Lady C vs. HANAKO, Rian, Waka Tsukiyama & Megan Bayne

This might just be me, but this show felt like the weakest of the tour so far, with no matches you should go out of your way to see. With that being said, it was still a solid slow. As I say, Stardom has a really high floor. The best match was perhaps Konami & Rina against Saki & Syuri which etched another chapter into Konami and Syuri’s seemingly eternal feud. What I loved about the match was that Saki cut the comedy, realising that Syuri was facing her nemesis. Saki wanted to actually try to not let Syuri down, and that little touch was great. It’s similar to when you see Antonio Honda or Kazuki Hirata try hard in a DDT match. It just means all the more. Rina and Syuri had great chemistry and fit like a glove before Syuri win by submitting Rina with the White Tiger.

Lady C once again held her own in the main event and showed off her growth. Strangely (I think), Ami pinned Iida who had picked up several significant wins. Poi & Saori beat Mei & Yuna in a good opener. Poi & Saori have such a nasty double German suplex combo. Miku & Sareee faced the tag team champions, BMI2000, but with the match mostly involving Miku & Ruaka, the match was not as great as it could have been. Ruaka pinned Miku with the bridging german suplex.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 5
13th November 2025
YouTree 1st Floor Hall, Hachinohe, Japan

In the main event, Rian returned to her hometown as she sought for the sweet taste of victory. The crowd got behind her in this match, but it wasn’t enough against Mei Seira who was a total bully. Mei pinned Rian with a sick powerbomb for the win. Despite the blip against Iida, Konami continued her streak of choking people out, as she put AZM to sleep to pick up the points for her team. The match was really well worked, but perhaps shorter than I was expecting for the semi main event.

Sareee and Bozilla met for the first time since their time in Marigold together in 2024. Bozilla seemed like she was taking the match up in a different light to others. Her selling was on point for Sareee’s offence and her lariats in particular were stiffer than usual. Akira and Miku were continuing the feud they had just started on the Sareee-ISM show days prior. Miku pinned Akira with the signature jackknife pin.

In a match provided by Suzu’s absence, Aya Sakura once again went up against HANAKO in an undercard tag, for what was the 6th time since October. It doesn’t get old. Sayakara became honorary MVL members by way of Rina Yamashita, to their utter confusion as to what was going on. MVL’s music blared out as they were coerced into posing with Rina.

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 6
15th November 2025
Chateraise Gateaux Kingdom Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Stardom had a rare joint show, of sorts, teaming up with WAVE & Diana for the two back-to-back Sapporo shows. Diana had their own show earlier in the day, but on this Stardom show, the WWWD Champion (their world title) Haruka Umesaki teamed with Mizuki Kato against BMI2000 (Natsuko Tora & Ruaka). Kato is not part of Umesaki’s unit in Diana, but who’s counting. Nanami Hatano, who leads her own unit in Diana, faced Kikyo Furusawa in singles action. Both these matches were fine, but with it being a Stardom show the Diana wrestlers weren’t there to shine themselves.

The best match on the show was the main event, as Megan Bayne returned to Japan days after the Blood and Guts match in AEW. Bayne is a special talent that deserves more recognition as she showed no signs of slowing down, suplexing Konami and Rina at the same time. All four wrestlers were great in this match in a match with non-stop action before Bayne pinned Konami. This was the third time Konami had been pinned on the tour since becoming Wonder of Stardom champion, with Ami and Iida taking the other wins.

Bea Priestley and Saya Iida received an automatic two points due to Suzu’s continued absence. They instead faced the team of WAVE’s Honoka and Rina Yamashita. If you’re interested in more about Honoka, we do cover WAVE in our Independents section. The match made me want to say Saya Iida and Honoka in singles action. Bea was pretty good against Rina Yamashita as they exchanged strikes, German suplexes and superkicks.

Reiwa Tokyo Towers lost to Sakurara as, despite their main events, they started the tour 1-2. In the red block, DLM (Osita & Teotleco) and Mei & Yuna went to an up and down time-limit draw with a great finishing stretch, while Hina & Ranna beat Rian & Waka.

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 7
16th November 2025
Chateraise Gateaux Kingdom Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

The second day in Sapporo started to burn me out. Perhaps it was overexposure to so much tag team wrestling in such a short period of time. It’s just hard for it to hit the same as it did on the first few nights. There were only two days of rest from the 8th November to the 16th November. Thankfully, the roster were taking a well deserved one-week break after this show. The Blue Goddesses carried the show at the top of the card, as HANAKO & Megan Bayne went 4-0, beating Bea Priestley & Saya Iida. Megan had her usual power spots, but HANAKO impressed in the ring with Saya Iida. This tournament has provided HANAKO with a new credibility that she did not have before, at least not with me. In the same block, Reiwa Tokyo Towers were in the main event for the third time, and lost once again, this time to Konami & Rina. Konami spraypainted Ami’s face for the assist win. Ami has a pin over Konami so presumably the cheating was to further that storyline before they meet for the white belt at a future Korakuen. In the Red Goddesses block, BMI2000 handily beat Rian & Waka, and Mei & Yuna beat Hina & Ranna Yagami.

The undercard was a collaboration with WAVE, which, if you read our independent section, is mostly a mid-card comedy promotion, so that’s what you got. They at least booked YuuRI in the same match as Natsu Sumire, but unfortunately Yuki Miyazaki escaped containment and got her own match teaming up with Rina Amikura against Kikyo Furusawa and Rina Yamashita. Miyazaki, retiring on 1st January 2026, continued her storyline of harassing Sayaka Kurara before putting Taro Okada in the embarrassing pin. Okay. The best undercard match was former Regina di WAVE Champion, Cohaku, teaming up with Sayaka Kurara against WWWD Champion Haruka Umesaki and Mizuki Kato. I was surprised how much offence Kato got against Sayaka, compared to the Diana collaboration show the previous night which barely gave Diana talent a look-in.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 8
23rd November 2025
Big Palette Fukushima, Fukishima, Japan
Recommended Match: Ami Sohrei & Lady C vs. Saki Kashima & Syuri

The show in Fukushima injected some much needed life into the tournament after the lulls of the previous few nights. This show was main-evented by an all-God’s Eye bout between hometown girl Ami Sohrei & Lady C against Saki Kashima & Syuri. This was the match of the night and capped off a night of great bouts. In particular, not only did Saki have her work boots on, but Lady C was on form as she cracked Saki with a thunderous forearm, a sharpness in Lady C’s strikes that we had not seen until recently. If this is what Syuri has been cooking in the dojo with Lady C, then sign me up for more. On the finishing stretch, the behemoths of the faction went toe-to-toe, as Syuri launched Ami Sohrei with a German suplex, only to be countered immediately with a Blue Thunder Bomb. After one Fire Thunder Driver from Ami, Syuri kicked out. Ami needed some assistance from Lady C, but planted Syuri with the second driver for the big upset win.

Bea Priestley & Saya Iida squeezed past Konami & Rina, just a couple of weeks after Iida pinned the Wonder of Stardom Champion. On this occasion, it would be Bea and Rina on the closing stretch, with Bea finishing Rina off with Plan Bea. Bea looked good in this match, probably her best outing so far in the tournament. Rina was her usual awesome self.

Natsupoi & Saori Anou continued their unbeaten streak in the tournament, with four wins from four against a team with the opposite fortune as Rian & Waka Tsukiyama fell to a record of zero wins and six losses.

Bozilla single-handledly took home the points for her and Akira as she pinned Natsuko Tora to beat the current Goddess of Stardom Champions. That theoretically should set her up for a future bout, perhaps on the 8th December Korakuen Hall, but we’ll see.

DLM (Osita & Teotleco) seemed to have finally clicked and figured out how to combine lucha with their usual FWC style of wrestling, as they faced Hina & Ranna Yagami. This was their best match yet and felt like a well polished, fast-paced match. Ranna was in the match for most of it, so credit must also be given to her for how well she gelled, especially with Teotleco. DLM picked up the points.

On the undercard, Yuna Mizumori pinned her tag league partner Mei Seira to continue their feud over the High Speed title. Yuna cut a promo after the match saying that while they would win the tag league, she would be the one to take the title from Mei.

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 9
24th November 2025
Iwaki City General Gymnasium, Fukushima, Japan

While not as good as the previous night of action, there were some solid-to-good matches on this show. In the Blue Goddesses book, the show was main evented by Sakurara (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara) against Bea Priestley & Saya Iida. The match felt a bit off to me. The action wasn’t bad, but the crowd didn’t seem too enthused by the action, and it didn’t come off as a main event in the same way that MegaSkyscrapers or PoiSaori’s matches have. It wasn’t bad at all, just noticeable, to me at least. Sakurara picked up the win as Kurara pinned Bea with the Prism Capture cradle.

Suzu Suzuki returned to action, teaming with Rina Yamashita against Reiwa Tokyo Towers (Ami Sohrei & Lady C) who were coming off a huge win in Ami’s hometown. They followed that up with a count out victory after Lady C brawled with Yamashita on top of a far away stage, beat her down, and then sprinted back into the ring during the 20 count. That result meant Suzu and Yamashita went 0-5.

Megan Bayne completed an insane trip straight after AEW’s Full Gear PPV on 22nd November to make this show, with the timezone math making it so Bayne would’ve landed in Japan on the morning of this show, at the earliest if she took a plane straight after her match on the PPV. Given the circumstances, MegaSkyscrapers and 02Line (AZM & Miyu Amasaki) could be forgiven for having quite a standard, but decent match, in which Bayne still pulled out her power spots such as the double German suplex. MegaSkyscrapers went 5-0 to top the group while 02Line’s poor performance continued.

Over in the Red Goddesses block, the Goddess of Stardom Champions BMI2000 clashed with Natsupoi and Saori Anou. The match was used to build up Saori’s red belt match with Saya Kamitani, as Saya pulled out the ref on Anou’s Potering pin, which allowed Natsuko to mist Saori and Ruaka picked up the win with the bridging German suplex. This was a smart decision to use this match to add some heat to the Saya and Saori feud, given that Saori and Poi don’t really need a deep run in this tournament, and the tag team champions do need to be protected.

Finally, Bozilla was a bit more lenient towards Akira in their match against Hina & Ranna Yagami as she allowed Akira to get more time in with her opponents. Ultimately, Bozilla had to take over briefly. Unfortunately, while she was trying to keep Hina out of the ring, the reverse happened and Ranna landed a sick buzzsaw kick to Akira to win the match.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 10
26th November 2025
Kanda Myojin Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: HANAKO & Megan Bayne vs. Rina Yamashita & Suzu Suzuki

Stardom rolled up to Kanda Myojin Hall, the monthly residence of Shinobu Kandori’s promotion LLPW-X, for another solid night of Tag League action. In the main event, Akira Kurogane and Bozilla continued their comical dynamic where Akira is very eager to run head first into danger and Bozilla has to be there to pick up the cases. In this match, Bozilla essentially 2v1’d Natsupoi and Saori Anou in a match where Bo and Saori showed off their chemistry, which is off the charts. They previously met in the 5 Star where they had an excellent match. Bo killed Saori with a German suplex, lariat and a powerbomb to take home the points. Mi Vida Loca (Akira, Bozilla, Itsuki Aoki, Rina Yamashita & Suzu Suzuki) closed out the show. They’re currently my favourite faction because of their dynamic and match quality.

Speaking of Mi Vida Loca, MegaSkyscrapers (HANAKO & Megan Bayne) lost their first match of the league to Yamashita and Suzu, who picked up their first ever win. This match was awesome. There were moments where I thought Yamashita was going to kill HANAKO, such as with the Impact (B-Driver) and HANAKO tucking her head in at the last second. Suzu sent Megan flying with a German suplex leading to Yamashita destroying HANAKO with the Splash Mountain for the win. The danger of the spots combined with HANAKO’s excellent selling really helped me lose myself in this match.

Sareee met Hazuki (Teotleco) for the first time ever in their careers, as DLM (Osita & Teotleco) took on Sareee and Miku Kanae. It would be a win for Sareee on this occasion as she submitted Osita, but the interactions between Sareee and Hazuki were enough for me to desperately want a singles match between the two. The match had a good intensity to it, making it stand out from the other matches on the card, but that is very much a Sareee specialty anyway.

Elsewhere, Saki Kashima and Syuri beat Sakurara (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara) as Kashima pinned Sayaka with the Revival crucifix pin. Syuri and Aya Sakura were excellent in this match and I couldn’t help but think how God’s Eye-coded Aya Sakura was. 02Line picked up a surprise win against Reiwa Tokyo Towers as Miyu Amasaki of all people pinned the next white belt challenger in Ami Sohrei. Amasaki had been eating pins left and right all tour so that made this result even more surprising. Finally, BMI2000 won their match against Mei Seira & Yuna Mizumori as Ruaka reversed a roll through pin, allowing gravity to do the work and pinning Mei Seira.

After missing some shows on the tour, Ema Maishima was back in action, teaming with Ranna against Bea Priestley and fellow rookie Kikyo Furusawa. Unfortunately, Bea submitted Ema with a grounded octopus hold. Although Saya Kamitani, Kikyo’s regular work buddy for the Tag League, was not on this show.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 11
28th November 2025
KBS Hall, Kyoto, Japan
Recommended Match: Miku Kanae & Sareee vs. Natsupoi & Saori Anou

Day 11 in Kyoto was always one geared up to be one of the best as Stardom had stacked the show with some of the most anticipated match ups of the tournament. It was also the hometown of two participants, HANAKO and Miyu Amasaki, although perhaps intentionally, neither of their matches were built around that fact. HANAKO had already been strongly highlighted throughout the tournament, while Miyu had not, eating several pins on her way to a 2-5 record with AZM. Sakurara (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara) scraped through to the quarter-finals after Sakura won a surprise cradle pin over AZM, so at least Miyu escaped another pin.

Meanwhile, in HANAKO’s case, it was all about Megan Bayne & Syuri. Saki Kashima, initially super confident to take on MegaSkyscrapers, immediately realised what a mistake she had made and after escaping Megan’s wrath, tagged in Syuri as soon as she could. Later, she would even try to leave the venue, only to be chased by HANAKO and carried back to the ring. Aside from the Saki melodrama, Syuri and Megan had their own little singles match during the last five minutes. We all know how good Syuri is, but her selling for Megan, and in return, Megan’s selling for Syuri was fantastic. The match went to a time-limit draw as Megan launched Syuri with a German suplex. They planted the seeds of an IWGP Title match… whether that will come to fruition, who knows? The draw was enough to get both teams through. Unfortunately, Stardom announced that Saki Kashima was injured and so Saki and Syuri had to withdraw, allowing Bea Priestley & Saya Iida through instead.

The show was main evented by Miku Kanae & Sareee against Natsupoi and Saori Anou. If Sareee’s team won, it would create a three-way tie atop the Red Goddesses block. There was some tie-in to Sareee’s own show, “Sareee-ISM”, where Natsupoi faced Sareee in the main event of Chapter IX on 10th November as they built towards an angle playing off of their real-life friendship. In that show, Natsupoi had said that she would not stop until she could surpass Sareee. That fiery determination caused Natsupoi to go 100 mph in Kyoto as she launched herself at her best friend. The best part of this match was that Miku looked like she belonged. She was beaten up, but she never gave up, her kickouts looked great and were laid out well, and then on top of all that, after Sareee hit Saori with an uranage, Miku won with her signature locomotion jackknife pin. I think you would not be blamed for having this match as your match of the tournament. It was awesome. This knocked Natsupoi & Saori Anou out of the tournament.

Rina Yamashita and Suzu Suzuki faced Konami and Rina. Yamashita was five steps ahead as she taught referee Barb Sasaki the cross-armed Mi Vida Loca pose in Sapporo earlier in the tour. That pose helped Barb stay defiant when Rina tried to spit at him, and also allowed him to celebrate with Rina and Suzu after the match as they picked up the win. Konami and Rina have consistently had good matches this tour, with Rina putting in a shift and Konami cutting out a lot of the HATE stuff and just wrestling.

Rian and Waka Tsukiyama finished with zero wins and seven losses as Rian tapped out to a member of the 2025 class, Akira Kurogane. Akira has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the tag league and shown considerable character work in her duo with Bozilla. While Rian has been on her own character development arc, Akira felt like she shone much brighter in this match on her way to victory.

Elsewhere in the Red Goddesses block, BMI2000 (Natsuko Tora & Ruaka) beat DLM (Osita & Teotleco) with the usual box-style HATE distraction win. I think that DLM works better as heels so this dynamic didn’t exactly appeal to me.

Outside of the tag league matches, Mei Seira got her win back over her tag league partner, Yuna Mizumori, in a three-way match involving Momo Kohgo. This was payback for losing to Yuna earlier in the tour which set up their upcoming High Speed Title match. Saya Kamitani gave Ema Maishima a lot of offense the day Saya turned 29. Of course, Saya ended up winning anyway.

© STARDOM

Goddess of Stardom Tag League – Day 12 – Quarters
29th November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 959
EDION Osaka Arena #2, Osaka, Japan
Recommended Match: Akira Kurogane & Bozilla vs. Miku Kanae & Sareee

On a day where there were two matches to determine which teams would advance to the semi-finals, the major news of this show was the pretty much near-sellout of the arena. With standing room it’s hard to say the exact capacity of the arena, but there were spectators standing behind the seats. A number of 959 at this arena is a number that pretty much only New Japan achieves nowadays, and it was the best ever number Stardom have done at the popular Osaka building. Every major promotion runs this building, but only New Japan attains the sellout number. Dragongate announced some numbers over 1,000 in 2024 which should have an asterisk on it given their history of inflating numbers and comparing to what New Japan announce regularly for the venue. Given that this was really a sub-Korakuen Hall level card, it is quite a remarkable show of drawing power for the promotion that continues to be hot. Along with it being Stardom’s best ever number, just for context, they have run this building (ignoring Covid times) forty times. It beats every 5 Star number in the same building. Remarkable.

The show itself was good, but I wouldn’t even think it sneaks into the top 25 shows in Stardom in the year. The undercard was mostly there, and the tournament matches were very good and among the best of the tag league so far, but also probably not even in the top 50 Stardom matches in 2025. But, the floor is so high with Stardom that this card was an easy watch. In the main event, Sakurara (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara) advanced to the semi-finals, defeating Bea Priestley and Saya Iida and on their way to meet BMI2000 (Natsuko Tora & Ruaka) in the next round. Bea and Iida were put in this position after Saki Kashima & Syuri had to pull out of the tournament due to Saki sustaining an injury. This was a repeat of their main event on 24th November, which I felt lacked a little juice, even if it was still good. Unsurprisingly, I felt the same about this match. The match before it had more heat and crowd investment, and while there were spots the crowd got into in this match, it didn’t hit the next level for me. Nevertheless, Iida and Sakura were excellent in their interactions and made their case for being the next in line for singles title challenges.

The semi-main event stole the show as Akira Kurogane and Bozilla dispatched Miku Kanae and Sareee to face MegaSkyscrapers (HANAKO & Megan Bayne) in the next round. This pairing met on 13th November where Miku got the pin with her locomotion jackknife pin. That was after Miku destroyed Akira with a German suplex at Sareee-ISM Chapter IX. Those encounters meant it was Akira’s time to shine, and boy did she ever. With the crowd fully on her side, Akira overcame the outsider team and pinned Miku with the beautiful bridging half-hatch suplex. This match was excellent, with Sareee and Bozilla going at each other’s throats far more than their previous bout. Sareee and Bozilla have excellent chemistry together and Sareee was excellent in conveying her desperation for Miku to get some shine. The dynamic between these two teams has been very fun and it was no different here. After the match, Akira said that she and Bozilla had now become tag team partners, and instead of rejecting her, Bozilla finally accepted Akira. A great arc throughout the tag league capped off with this win. Great stuff.

There was not much to go over from the undercard. Saori Anou and Syuri went up against their future opponent over Wrestle Kingdom week in Saya Kamitani, who paired with Konami. The match was quite short and Saya lowblowed Daichi before spraying Saori Anou in the face with the H.A.T.E. black spray paint can. It was unusually extra heelish from Saya and a humiliation of Saori, which may indicate that Saori’s chances of winning the World of Stardom Title are higher than people think.

The best match of the undercard was BMI2000 facing Rina Yamashita and Suzu Suzuki, in a non-title match that went to a double count-out finish. Natsuko Tora has shown excellent chemistry with all of Mi Vida Loca, as she had one of her better performances of 2025 against Itsuki Aoki in a Korakuen Hall main event, so it was no surprise that her performance against Rina and Suzu was just as good. Natsuko is great.

Megan Bayne participated in a showcase three-way with sisters Hina and Rina in a fun undercard match where Rina got to show off some more comedy chops. In other news, Rian picked up a win on Ranna Yagami with her Hanaguruma finisher (like a spin into a cradle?) Rian debuted the move against Akira in June.

Goddess of Stardom Tag League Semi-Final:
Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara defeat HANAKO & Megan Bayne (10:55)

Goddess of Stardom Tag League Semi-Final:
Natsuko Tora & Ruaka defeat Akira Kurogane & Bozilla (10:30)

Rian & Waka Tsukiyama defeat Konami & Rina (0:57)

Suzu Suzuki defeats Ema Maishima and Lady C (4:42)

AZM, Mei Seira & Miyu Amasaki defeat Kikyo Furusawa, Osita & Teotleco (5:09)

Ami Sourei, Hina, Kiyoka Kotatsu & Tomoka Inaba defeat Bea Priestley, Momo Kohgo, Saya Iida & Yuria Hime (9:24)

Natsupoi & Yuna Mizumori defeat Miku Kanae & Sareee (9:30)

Ranna Yagami & Syuri defeat Azusa Inaba & Saya Kamitani (9:44)

Goddess of Stardom Tag League Final:
Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara defeat Natsuko Tora & Ruaka (17:29)

• Miu Watanabe vs. Mizuki – 20th September at Ota City General Gymnasium
• Miu Watanabe vs. Yuki Aino – 18th October at Korakuen Hall
• Miu Watanabe vs. J-Rod – 9th November at Korakuen Hall
• Shoko Nakajima vs. Uta Takami – 18th October at Korakuen Hall
• HIMAWARI & Shoko Nakajima vs. Miu Watanabe & Uta Takami – 22nd November at Kanazawa Ryutsu Kaikan

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

Mei Suruga & Uta Takami defeat Ren Konatsu & Suzume (12:55)

DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title Delayed Entry Battle Royal:
Mahiro Kiryu defeats Pokotan (c) and Chika Nanase and Kira Summer and Mifu Ashida and Raku and Ram Kaicho and Shino Suzuki (15:21)
Pokotan pins Chika Nanase (8:02)
Raku’s pillow pins Pokotan (8:35) – new champion
Raku’s pillow pins Shino Suzuki (9:55)
Raku throws Kira Summer over the Top Rope (11:04)
Ram Kaicho & Raku throw Kira Summer over the Top Rope (13:39)
Raku throws Ram Kaicho over the Top Rope (14:35)
Mahiro Kiryu pins Raku & Raku’s pillow (15:21) – new champion

Aja Kong defeats HIMAWARI (8:53)

Flag Scramble Authorized Weapon Death Match:
Pom Harajuku defeats Rika Tatsumi (11:01)

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Yuki Arai defeat Haru Kazashiro & Toga (13:52)

Ryo Mizunami & Yuki Aino defeat Kaya Toribami & Miyu Yamashita (13:11)

International Princess Title Match (vacant):
Arisu Endo defeats Priscilla Kelly (10:59)

Princess Tag Team Title:
Over Eats (Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku) defeat Kyoraku Kyomei (Hyper Misao & Shoko Nakajima) (c) (17:02)

Princess Of Princess Title:
Miu Watanabe defeats Mizuki (c) (22:58)

© TJPW

Haruna Neko’s Graduation
27th September 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 284
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

The graduation and subsequent retirement of Haruna Neko took place on 27th September in front of an energetic crowd. Neko had knee surgery in October 2023 and was out for around a year. In May 2025, she suffered another knee injury, undergoing surgery which was successful, but Neko had decided that after seven years in the ring she would like to choose a new path in life. Neko (which means cat) debuted in 2018 at Shin-Kiba 1st RING, so her graduation taking place at the same arena was a full-circle moment. Neko was a regular fixture in the TJPW undercard, known for her character work as a cat. For her graduation, she was a second at ringside for Mahiro Kiryu and Suzume, who battled the tantrum-throwing toddler, Pom Harajuku, and the person Pom beat at Wrestle Princess VI, Rika Tatsumi. During the match there were a series of tributes to Neko, such as a tandem cat-style facelock applied by Kiryu and Suzume. Misao was at ringside and entered the ring, calling Neko forward. Misao explained that she wanted Neko to headline one of her “HYPE!” shows and asked her to re-think graduation. Neko was in tears, and took the sign Misao was holding before bonking her over the head with it. Kiryu hit Pom with the Nekonut Crush and a spinebuster for the win.

After the match, Kiryu cut a promo about how much she loves Neko and that she will defend the DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title, which is a 24/7 title, in her honour. Like a true cat, Neko didn’t really give a crap and raked Kiryu in the eyes, and went for a pin, but Kiryu kicked out to a chorus of boos from the audience. Neko raked her again and this time Suzume, Pom and Rika helped Neko to pin Kiryu, winning the title. Neko won the only title in her career. Neko said that she’s happy she won it, but if she had the title it would mean all the humans would come after her, so she gave it back to Kiryu voluntarily by tapping out. The graduation ceremony began with flowers presented by Shoko on behalf of the roster. Neko closed out the show thanking all of her colleagues and the fans for the seven years. A ten-count bell toll took place and her final ring introduction was made with streamers being hurled into the ring, bringing the ceremony to a close.

Two new champions, the Princess of Princess (POP) Champion Miu Watanabe, and the International Princess Champion, Arisu Endo, brought Uta Takami in for a match against Haru Kazashiro, Kira Summer and the next POP challenger, Yuki Aino. Aino blocked a giant swing attempt by elbowing Miu in the face. We’ll see if that comes into play during their title match. This was the most I’ve enjoyed Aino since her “HYPE!” match with Misao. It’s quite amazing how Miu can get her challengers over. Miu tapped out Kira as Aino watched on. I think I was on the right track as last issue I mentioned Miu was establishing a slightly more heelish tone to her character which she will need as a champion depending on the challenger. This was the match of the night.

Miyu Yamashita continued her vital role as a leader on the undercard as she teamed up with usual partner Kaya Toribami as well as Shoko Nakajima. They went up against HIMAWARI and the duo from Kyoto, Mifu Ashida and Yuki Arai. It only dawned on me in this match how over HIMAWARI might be, as the crowd cheered loudly for her as she was tagged in. Aside from a few slip ups from Ashida, this was a fun tag which Shoko won with the Northern Lights suplex on Ashida.

Hyper Misao, still reeling from the loss of the Princess Tag Team Titles, combined with the loss of her cat, Haruna Neko, was too sad to wrestle and tried to leave. Shino suggested a fun match, where any time a wrestler scores a two-count or forced a rope escape, they would earn the chance to answer a country-name quiz. If they correctly found the country on the globe, they would win the match. Shino rolled up Misao for a two-count and failed the first question, which was Sweden. Misao returned the favour with a roll-up but failed to find Mexico. What was that Big Damo tweet about wrestlers? Eventually, somehow, Misao won the match by finding Madagascar on the map.

Autumn Victory in SHINAGAWA – Next Gen Round 1
4th October 2025
Shinagawa Prince Hotel Club eX, Tokyo, Japan

TJPW announced the third edition of the “Next Generation” Tournament 2025. Four wrestlers who debuted in 2024 and 2025 took part – Chika Nanase, Kira Summer, Ren Konatsu and Uta Takami. The winner of the tournament would get a title shot at either the Princess of Princess Title, Princess Tag Team Title, or International Princess Title. The format is TJPW’s first-ever double-elimination tournament, shown in the above image. The grand final will take place on 26th October. In the grand final, if the wrestler who made it through the winners bracket wins the first match, they will be crowned the champion. If the wrestler who made it through the losers bracket wins the first match, there would be another match immediately after to crown the champion.

The first match pitted rookie Ren Konatsu against the ever-improving Uta Takami, hoping to win a landmark tournament just over one year into her career. She was one step closer after she submitted Konatsu with the Koala Clutch in a solid match, especially from Konatsu who looked comfortable in the ring. Chika Nanase was faced with the hurdle of overcoming her close friend Kira Summer in the first round. While it was shaping up to be a standard undercard match, Chika unleashed some fighting spirit, walking through Kira’s lariat to deliver a great sounding forearm. Chika looked great in this match and put on a hell of a performance for the time allotted. The results meant that

In the main event, Miu Watanabe and Yuki Aino turned up the heat ahead of their clash for the Princess of Princess Title on 18th October, with the champion Miu teaming with Shino Suzuki and Aino bringing along Haru Kazashiro. I could watch Miu forever. She was excellent at portraying the challenge that Aino posed. The two 2018 classmates battled for superiority, wanting to show each other which was the strongest. Miu tapped into her monster side, Miudarella, as she traded shoulder barges with Aino. When Aino went flying, Haru attacked Miu only to be swatted off. Miu barked at Shino to take care of Haru as Miu only had Aino on her mind. Aino managed to best Miu, shoulder tackling her to the ground before putting Shino away for the win with the Venus DDT. This was an excellent preview.

Toga and Yuna Manase continued their stride towards the Princess Tag Team Titles, beating another tag team, this time the duo from Kyoto, Mifu Ashida & Yuki Arai. The champions, Ober Eats (Yuki Kamifuku & Wakana Uehara), had to overcome the troublesome duo of Mizuki and Pom Harajuku. Kamiyu pinned Pom with the Famouser.

Hyper Misao tried to win the DDT Ironman Heavy Metal Title from Mahiro Kiryu by rolling her up as soon as she made her entrance, but she failed. Daisy Monkey (Arisu Endo & Suzume) and Mahiro faced Misao, Kaya Toribami and the leader, Miyu Yamashita. Unfortunately for Mahiro, Miyu was in top form and tapped Mahiro out to become the new champion. Misao immediately tried to roll Miyu up, but once again failed. TJPW are in Gunma on the 19th October which is Mahiro’s home prefecture. She begged Miyu for the title so she could go back home a champion. Miyu said she would have to win it back fair and square the week after at Shinjuku FACE, and Mahiro agreed. As Miyu was walking out, Mahiro rolled Miyu up to win the title and then bolted. Backstage, Miyu said she would kick Mahiro’s head off at Shinjuku FACE for backstabbing her, with the title match still on.

Autumn Victory in SHINJUKU vol.1 – Next Gen Round 2
12th October 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

In the next round of the Next Gen tournament, there was one Winners’ bracket match and one Losers’ bracket match. In the Winners’ bracket, Uta pinned Kira to advance to the Grand Final where she only needed to win one match to take the whole tournament.

In the Losers’ bracket, Chika knocked out Konatsu, meaning that Chika will face Kira in the Losers’ final. Arisu (Japanese one) teamed up with Haru Kazashiro, taking on Alice Crowley and Shoko Nakajima. Alice immediately attacked Arisu after the bell. I think it was really interesting that TJPW brought in an external heel for Arisu’s defences, given being the underdog babyface is what she does best, and TJPW doesn’t typically have heels. Alice pinned Kazashiro for the win in the preview tag.

Miu Watanabe and Ober Eats (Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku) faced Yuki Aino and Toga & Yuna Manase in a preview of both the Princess of Princess Title and Princess Tag Team Title matches at Korakuen Hall. Miu’s brief clash with Manase was a highlight as she rarely gets to go against other power wrestlers and heavyweights. Toga pinned Uehara with a Rock Bottom. Miyu Yamashita got her mitts on Mahiro Kiryu as they fought for the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship. In a surprising twist, the binder that held the contract for the match became the new champion as it ended up on top of Kiryu. The crowd were chanting for the contract. Miyu tried to pin the binder but Kiryu stopped her. Miyu made it back into the ring to win the match by countout, but she would not be leaving with the title. The title eventually made its way back into Kiryu’s hands, but first, the contract binder was pinned by another binder when someone placed it on top nonchalantly. The new binder champion had a drink placed on top of it. Referee Shirai was nearby to count the drink as the new champion. Then Kiryu walked past and drank the drink to become the champion again as the drink passed out (due to its contents being emptied by Kiryu). HIMAWARI and Shino Suzuki will be challenging the winner of the Princess Tag Team Title match at Korakuen Hall.

Chika Nanase & Kira Summer defeat Mifu Ashida & Ren Konatsu (7:09)

DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title Five Way:
Mahiro Kiryu (c) defeats Kaya Toribami and Pom Harajuku and Raku and Suzume (7:54)

Miyu Yamashita defeats Shino Suzuki (5:19)

Shoko Nakajima defeats Uta Takami (9:38)

Mizuki defeats Haru Kazashiro (8:47)

Quiztojonaire Match:
Yuki Arai defeats Hyper Misao (11:26)

International Princess Title:
Arisu Endo (c) defeats Alice Crowley (11:49)

Princess Tag Team Title:
Ober Eats (Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku) defeat Toga & Yuna Manase (14:51)

Princess Of Princess Title:
Miu Watanabe (c) defeats Yuki Aino (17:49)

Autumn Victory in TAKASAKI – Next Gen Losers’ Final – Mahiro Kiryu’s Homecoming!
19th October 2025
G-Messe Gunma Main Hall, Gunma, Japan

Kira Summer faced her friend Chika Nanase in the Losers’ Final, with the winner booking a spot against Uta Takami at Ryogoku KFC Hall, which would take place on 26th October. Chika pinned Kira after an elbow strike. I am not quite sure what happened. It did look like it wasn’t meant to be the finish but who knows. The fight was quite short.

As she had promised, Mahiro Kiryu returned back to her hometown as the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion, as she teamed with Suzume against Miyu Yamashita and Pom Harajuku. Pom tried to trick Mahiro by distracting her with the crowd. She tried to roll her up while the crowd were yelling welcome back. It didn’t work. An upset Pom tagged in Yamashita so Yamashita could beat the crap out of Mahiro, since Yamashita was upset about the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Title match from the week before. In the end, the hometown hero won, with a spinebuster to Pom.

Elsewhere, after their match at Korakuen Hall, the Arisus (Alice Crowley & Arisu Endo) teamed up against Haru Kazashiro and Mizuki, who was back wearing white gear. American Arisu was so happy that Japanese Arisu picked up the win with Ju no Okite on Haru. It’s actually a really cute pairing and wouldn’t mind seeing it go on for longer. Takumi was the MVP in a preview match between Ober Eats (Kamiyu & Wakana) and Kaya Toribami against Takumi, Shino Suzuki and Yuki Arai. Kamiyu booted Takami in the face which made the whole crowd gasp because it looked that good. Mifu Ashida faced Miudarella (Miu Watanabe) in a singles match. I couldn’t tell if Mifu had gotten better or if it was just the ‘Miu effect’ where she makes everyone look great. Miu won with the Canadian backbreaker as she almost snapped Mifu in half. Rookie Ren Konatsu faced Toga. Ren fits TJPW perfectly. There was nothing in particular in this match that triggered that thought, it was just thinking about the way she wrestles and her character. It’s tailor-made for TJPW, in a similar way that Uta Takami is as well. They must have a good recruitment process. Toga tapped out Ren with a facelock.

Autumn Victory in RYOGOKU – Next Gen Final – Uta Takami wins!
26th October 2025
Ryogoku KFC Hall, Tokyo, Japan

The Next Gen Tournament finals took place as Uta Takami faced Chika Nanase. Takami was coming through the winners’ bracket and so would only need one match to win the whole tournament, while Chika needed two wins in a row to take the tournament. Takami was an excellent babyface-in-peril as she lost the first fall to a cracking elbow from Chika but fought through another elbow strike and a full-nelson hold to beat Chika with the Koala clutch. After the match, Takami called out Arisu Endo. Endo accepted a singles match against Uta Takami for the International Princess Title on 9th November.

In the main event Haru Kazashiro, HIMAWARI & Shino Suzuki faced Kira Summer, Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku in a preview for the Princess Tag Team Titles on 9th November. HIMAWARI pinned Kira with the Sunflower Tempest. HIMAWARI and Shino’s tag team name is apparently “Bumping gRitters”, meaning shining pebbles that collide head-on. The pebbles are represented by the grit, and it’s also a play on ‘glitter’ which is the shine. Sure, why not.

Classmates-turned-rivals-turned-teammates PoP Champion Miu Watanabe and Yuki Aino faced the team from Kyoto, Mifu Ashida and Yuki Arai. As it was Aino’s birthday, Ashida led a cheerleading chant to celebrate (since her gimmick is being a cheerleader). Aino submitted Mifu with the Love and Fire full nelson. Mahiro Kiryu, the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight champion lost her title to her teammate, Rika Tatsumi, as the pair faced Hyper Misao and Raku. Misao and Raku were planning to roll Kiryu up the moment she walked through the curtain, a similar plan to what they had on a previous show. Kiryu came out of a different entrance. Later in the match, Raku and Misao argued over who should get the fall on Kiryu, but Tatsumi blasted Kiryu with a chop to the head for a two-count. Then Tatsumi hit the running hip attack on Kiryu to become the new champion. Misao no longer cared about pinning Kiryu and Tatsumi no longer wanted to be tagged in, leaving her to the wolves. Dark Mizuki was back in action in a win against Toga.

1st November 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

J-Rod, who would face Miu Watanabe at Korakuen Hall, made her TJPW debut against Kira Summer. J-Rod is unashamedly American with the full starry red, white and blue outfit. She beat Kira in under 4 minutes with a spear. Rika Tatsumi defended her DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship against Pom Harajuku. At the start of the match, Rika didn’t want to actually defend it because she’s scared of losing it, so she asked if it could be non-title. Pom went one step further and suggested they cancel the match. They mutually agreed and walked to the back. Pom came back out and asked the ref to start the match, which he did so quietly. Rika was being counted out, but she heard the count and ran back into the ring on 19, and then went on to beat the crap out of Pom, making her tap with the dragon sleeper. Rika got her revenge from Wrestle Princess VI. Rika was referring to her title as “Ironman-chan”.

Chika Nanase, Ren Konatsu, Rika Tatsumi & Ryo Mizunami defeat Hyper Misao, Kakeru Sekiguchi, Mahiro Kiryu & Mifu Ashida (14:49)

Four Way Tag Team: Mizuki & Suzume defeat Haru Kazushiro & Yuki Aino and Kaya Toribami & Miyu Yamashita and Pom Harajuku & Raku (11:09)

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Yuki Arai defeat Hot Shot (Toga & Yuna Manase) (12:21)

MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title:
Shoko Nakajima (c) defeats Viva Van (12:58)

International Princess Title:
Arisu Endo (c) defeats Uta Takami (11:15)

Princess Tag Team Title:
Ober Eats (Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku) (c) defeat Bumping gRitters (HIMAWARI & Shino Suzuki) (16:38)

Princess of Princess Title:
Miu Watanabe (c) defeats J-Rod (12:55)

Yuu’s Return Before Retirement!
19th November 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

Yuu returned to the promotion for the first time in seven years in a special four-match card. It was a final goodbye and emotional affair before Yuu’s retirement on 28th December. She teamed with Yuki Kamifuku against Miyu Yamashita and Shoko Nakajima. The match was a fun 20-minute time-limit draw, with Yuu turning Miyu Yamashita’s chest red and turning back the clock with Shoko, with some spots repeated from their classic 4th January 2017 title match. After the match, a tearful Yuu thanked Koda for the opportunity as she thought it would never happen and that it felt like home.

Kaya Toribami beat Toga at the start of the show. Toga has a unique look in TJPW. I have a slight problem with some of her WWE tribute moves as they don’t look great, in particular the Rock Bottom and the Rolling Thunder. Her forearms to Kaya were great and it’s something I’ve noticed since her match with Hiroyo Matsumoto at Wrestle Princess. I think if Toga leans more into that she can stand out even further. Kaya was great in this match, despite her landing the springboard corkscrew moonsault on poor Toga’s face.

Gabai Ji-chan made an appearance against Rika Tatsumi. Ji-chan is a gimmick where he pretends to be a really old man with a walking stick and shaking legs but eventually hulks up with some impressive athleticism. He’s also known as PSYCHO, or Sawasdee Kamen in ChocoPro. Mizuki and Yuki Aino defeated HIMAWARI and Raku.

© TJPW

Uta Takami’s Homecoming
22nd November 2025
Kanazawa Ryutsu Kaikan, Ishikawa, Japan
Recommended Match: HIMAWARI & Shoko Nakajima vs. Miu Watanabe & Uta Takami

Tokyo Joshi held their first ever show in Ishikawa, at the behest of Uta Takami as she teamed with Miu Watanabe against HIMAWARI and Shoko Nakajima in front of her hometown crowd. The main event was one of those matches where you can see how good Uta Takami is at playing a babyface, but also it treated us to two other rarities: a bullying side of HIMAWARI and Miu Watanabe locking up with Shoko Nakajima once again. Those three things combined for an excellent main event, as HIMAWARi showed off her potential as a character with more variety than you may think as she whipped Uta with her hair braids aggressively. The crowd were wowed by Miu and Shoko’s chemistry, who have the best chemistry between a pair of wrestlers on the planet today, as they decided to try some new cool moves like they do every time they meet. This time when Miu countered Shoko’s headscissors, Miu found a way to transition it into a backbreaker over the knee. The audience which led her to a spirited effort against Shoko buoyed Uta. There was a great spot where Shoko just forced Uta Takami through the metal linkage between the ring post and the ropes which looked brutal and immediately had the crowd chanting for Uta. Despite the support, Shoko won with an emphatic Northern Lights suplex.

International Princess Champion Arisu Endo and Haru Kazashiro faced dark Mizuki and Toga in a good match. Mizuki was great as usual, but in particular in the finishing stretch of the match she highlighted Kazashiro with great nearfalls. Mizuki pinned Kazashiro with the Cutie Special. Mizuki’s bridge on the Cutie Special is still the craziest bridge in the world.

Rika Tatsumi won the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Title back from Mahiro Kiryu in their never-ending back and forth feud over the title. It was Rika, Raku and Pom Harauku against Hyper Misao, Kaya Toribami and Kiryu. Rika tapped out Kiryu with the dragon sleeper and then immediately had Raku trying to roll her up. Rika ran out of the venue with the title.

Yuki Arai pinned Kira Summer in a solid singles match, while Ober Eats (Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku) beat Chika Nanase & Yuki Aino as Wakana blasted Chika with the Sushi Tornado.

© TJPW

24th November 2025
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan

TJ Show

TJPW split their roster into two and held a double header at Itabashi Green Hall. The venue is used regularly by PURE-J for their bigger shows where they put on title bouts, normally housing just over 100 people. PURE-J’s attendance hovers around 100, so, being the bigger promotion, TJPW mostly sold the venue out, hitting 190 people.

In a match with three Yukis, Arai and Uta Takami were against Aino and Kamifuku. There was a bit where early in the match, Kamifuku and Aino bumped into each other and swapped bodies. Kamifuku in Aino’s body tried a big boot but realised her legs were too short. They bumped back soon after, regaining their usual skills. The double Yuki team would be the victors after Aino planted Uta with the Venus DDT.

Princess of Princess Champion Miu Watanabe beat Mahiro Kiryu in a singles match, days after Kiryu lost her DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Title to Rika Tatsumi (again). Kiryu tried Rika’s signature elbow but failed, with Miu giving her a “what are you doing?” type of look, before trying it herself and failing. Kiryu tried to apologise but Miu cut her off. Kiryu then lectured Miu for a couple of minutes (not exaggerating). Miu’s leg became numb from kneeling for so long, so Kiryu attacked it. That strategy wouldn’t work for long, and Miu won with the Teardrop.

The other top singles champion, International Princess Champion Arisu Endo, fended off a strong attempt from Kira Summer at pinning the champion in a non-title match. Kira looked good in this position, a marquee singles match, which is not something she often does. In the end, after fighting off the camel clutch the first time, a second camel clutch would end Kira’s hopes in this match.

Hyper Misao goaded HIMAWARI into reciting some lines from the acting that she is doing on the side, so Misao could try to win by rolling her up during the sample performance. It did not work. Misao won with La Magistral

Chika Nanase continued to show some small growth as she landed some great sounding elbow strikes on Toribami. Unfortunately she had to submit to Torigako hold. She subsequently stormed out of the arena. I am not sure if TJPW will be where Chika succeeds, but she’s slowly picking up some important building blocks in the ring. Her facial expressions could improve to help her sell.

PW Show

Haru Kazashiro and Suzume took on the duo of Miu Watanabe and Toga, where Miu was pulling double duty having appeared on the “TJ” show to replace Rika Tatsumi. This also served as a preview match between Miu and Suzume ahead of their 4th January bout for the Princess of Princess Title. The story they are building is about Suzume needing to overcome Miu’s power, as Miu picked Suzume up like a little kid and charged her into the corner of the ring. Suzume’s agility was a key factor, as she dodged Miu’s Laser Beam chop and immediately countered with a step-up bulldog. Later, while Miu was bullying Haru, Suzume came out of nowhere with a cutter which Miu sold magnificently. Miu actually looked like she had gotten hit with a finisher. It was awesome. With some assistance from Toga, Miu barely escaped with a Teardrop onto Haru.

To celebrate her 7th anniversary, Pom Harajuku dressed up as a giant inflatable dinosaur kaiju, to go up against “The Big Kaiju”, Shoko Nakajima. Shoko ended up goading the big dinosaur outside the venue, locking them outside. Somehow, the dinosaur found another entrance and survived the 20-count. Shoko had enough and just started wailing at the dinosaur, deflating it and breaking the costume. Shoko won with the Northern Lights suplex.

While Miyu Yamashita was off on a European tour, it was down to Mizuki to become the midcard wall for the younger wrestlers to test themselves against. Dark Mizuki was awesome. She looked emotionless as she cranked in a facelock onto Shino. This version of Mizuki feels like the best representation of the 2010s joshi scene while giving Shino a lot. Shino looked crazed as she attempted to put Mizuki to sleep with a rear-naked choke. This was another great showing for Shino, after her bout with Miyu Yamashita the month before. She’s a very good underdog babyface.

Rookie Ren Konatsu had to contend with the sleepy Raku. Ren fits the TJPW dynamic well and also just does a lot of cool moves for a rookie. For example, after removing Raku’s sleeping hat and throwing it away, instead of just rolling Raku up with a schoolboy, she did a cartwheel into the schoolboy. She didn’t have to, but she did. Raku won with a front facelock.

• Kaisei Takechi & Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada – 3rd November at Sumo Hall (My DDT Match of the Year)
• Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada vs. Minoru Suzuki & Shinya Aoki – 6th September at Yokohama Radiant Hall
• Kazuki Hirata vs. Yoshihiko – 28th September at Korakuen Hall
• Kazuki Hirata vs. Yuki Ueno – 28th September at Korakuen Hall
• Kazuma Sumi vs. Yuki Ueno – 28th September at Korakuen Hall
• Daisuke Sasaki, Ilusion & Konosuke Takeshita vs. HARASHIMA, Kazuma Sumi & MAO – 8th November at ACROS Fukuoka
• Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuki Ueno – 3rd November at Sumo Hall
• Chris Brookes vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – 3rd November at Sumo Hall
• Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida vs. Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya – 19th October at Korakuen Hall
• Antonio Honda vs. Konosuke Takeshita – 6th November at Shinjuku FACE
• Kazusada Higuchi vs. Yuya Koroku – 9th November at Kumamoto Castle Civic Hall
• Daichi Sato vs. Kazusada Higuchi – 15th September at Sapporo Sun Plaza
  Antonio Honda vs. Danshoku Dino vs. Kazuki Hirata – 6th September at Yokohama Radiant Hall
• Daichi Sato & Yuya Koroku vs. KANON & MAO – 8th October in Shinjuku FACE
• Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu vs. Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada vs. Danshoku Dino & Kazuki Hirata vs. KANON & MAO vs. Kazuma Sumi & Yukio Naya vs. Yuki Ueno & Yuya Koroku – 17th September at Kiranah Tokyo Gardens
• Akito vs. Kazuki Hirata – 14th & 15th September at Sapporo Sun Plaza
• Daichi Sato & Takeshi Masada vs. Shinya Aoki & Yuki Ueno – 23rd October at Ueno Park, Tokyo

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

© DDT

2nd September 2025
Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

The new KO-D Openweight Champion, Kazuki Hirata, started off his title reign in hilarious Hirata-fashion, getting pinned by HARASHIMA 3 times in a row. Hirata was teaming with Dieno and HARASHIMA was teaming with Naomi Yoshimura. They started the match with everyone hyping up the champion vs. former champion match up with Hirata and HARASHIMA starting, making it feel like a big time match-up. The bell rang, then Hirata was lariated and pinned immediately, the crowd loved it (as did I). The GM was furious that the champion got pinned so easily and ordered a rematch. Hirata was lariated again, but kicked out at two this time, but then was pinned by a second lariat immediately after. This was real graps.

The GM wanted to do another restart, but he saw how amped up HARASHIMA was, and was worried another pin would take place, so he ordered Yoshimura to start again. After Hirata was body slammed and Yoshimura tried to pin him, the GM just said “Yoshimura…” to remind him to make it look good and take longer to pin Hirata. Yoshimura tried a Boston crab, but the GM gently reminded him again. Yoshimura then went to tag HARASHIMA… “Yoshimura…” echoed out from the GM. Hirata thanked him and then tagged Dieno in. Later in the match, Hirata and Dieno concocted an elaborate move, which I’m not sure they realised how it would work. In the confusion, HARASHIMA hit a high kick and Somato for the third straight win. After the match, HARASHIMA said that he always wants the belt, so since he pinned the champion, he should get a title shot. Hirata admonished him for wanting to take the belt from someone so weak, and said that the fans want to see him take the belt from someone strong, so Hirata declined HARASHIMA’s challenge. Five star segment.

Akito and The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya) against Daichi Sato, Jun Akiyama & Soma Takao was a pretty good full workrate match on the card. Iino pinned Takao to pick up the red armband and declared he would immediately use it. Hirata rushed out, first trying to bribe him with sweets. When that didn’t work, Hirata told Iino that he should check the schedule at the gym Iino runs. A second brought out Iino’s phone, and Iino saw a reservation for 7:15pm under “Mr. Hirata”. Iino rushed out of the arena, wanting to make it in time for his training session for “Mr. Hirata”, as Hirata just smirked at the camera. Hirata lives another day. Iino was so good in this segment. Just a big beefy idiot. Five star segment, again.

Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes, Takeshi Masada) & Tomimitsu Matsunaga faced DAMNATION T.A. (Hideki Okatani, Ilusion & MJ Paul) in a ladder match for custody of Bunbun. Bunbun was not hanging very high, so Brookes could get him without a ladder. Ilusion tried jumping for it and still couldn’t reach it, so everyone made fun of him. Moments like these are the fuel for his dorky hatred. Once Ilusion finally reached Bunbun, Bunbun rejected him, slapping him and eating his face, allowing Masada to powerbomb Ilusion off the ladder. Bunbun accepted his true friend, Masada, as Masada unclipped Bunbun to win the match.

Satoshi Kojima teamed up with his Animal Hamaguchi Dojo junior, Yuya Koroku, and Antonio Honda against Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi, Ryota Nakatsu & Yuki Ishida). Higuchi and Kojima chopped the crap out of each other in a solid main event. Satoshi teamed up with Anton for his Gon the Little Fox attack on Higuchi. Koroku said that 8 years ago he had lined up for Kojima’s autograph and told him he was training to be a wrestler because of him, and so this match was a dream come true for him.

It was also Yuki Ueno’s birthday (the park is not named after him). He teamed with Kazuma Sumi and 37KAMIINA teammate To-y to take on the bloodthirsty maniac (it’s just a sex doll), Yoshihiko, and Strange Love Connection which consists of KANON and Ueno’s former teammate, MAO. The crowd were primed to cheer for everything Ueno did by To-y, as he had a pep-talk with them prior to the match, similar to what Hirata did for Toru Owashi earlier in the year. To-y also told referee Matsui to count slower if Ueno was getting pinned. Ueno had a bunch of bruises on his chest following his war with Higuchi at Korakuen Hall days earlier. This match put a smile on my face. Canadian Destroyers with Yoshihiko, Kazuma Sumi being a bully, and Yoshihiko getting his revenge lowblowing Ueno and To-y before using their finisher, a helicopter lucha-style spin into a Frankensteiner. Just a fun match.

Naomi Yoshimura & Tomomitsu Matsunaga defeat Hinata Kasai & Rukiya (9:37)

HARASHIMA & Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida) defeat Kazuma Sumi, Shigehiro Irie & Soma Takao (9:01)

DAMNATION T.A. (Hideki Okatani, Ilusion & MJ Paul) defeat Daichi Sato & Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) (12:01)

The 37KAMIINA (To-y & Yuki Ueno) & Yuya Koroku defeat The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya) & Jun Akiyama (13:37)

Minoru Suzuki & Shinya Aoki defeat Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) (7:25)

Kazuki Hirata defeats Antonio Honda and Danshoku Dino (13:45)

© DDT

“The Fighting Beer Garden” 2025 in SHINJUKU Extra Innings
12th September 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

Before the 2nd September Ueno Park show, Kazuki Hirata did a short press conference and spoke about how he had received congratulations for his title win from people like Hiromu Takahashi (one of his friends who was at his 15th anniversary show) and Konosuke Takeshita, who Hirata said sent him a ¥5,000 Sushiro gift card and Hirata politely responded to Takeshita, “Thank you very much!” The GM Hisaya Imabayashi asked him if he had an opponent in mind for Korakuen Hall on 28th September, and after dodging the question a few times, he suggested the GM, then the referee, and when asked what his criteria for a challenger was, he replied, “Someone as weak as possible.” The GM told him to give him an answer on the Shinjuku Face show. Well, at the start of the show, Kazuki Hirata came out with a bodyguard (obviously Ryoma Tsukamoto in a luchador’s mask). The GM Imabayashi asked him for his answer. Hirata once again nominated Imabayashi for the main event of Korakuen Hall, which the GM profusely refused. We’ll pick this up again at the main event…

The Apex were on opposite sides of a tag team bout to celebrate Yukio Naya’s 8th anniversary since his debut, as Jun Akiyama and Iino faced Naya and Kazusada Higuchi (I almost typed out KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi…) Iino and Akiyama were not on the same page. Akiyama and Higuchi picked up where they left off at “Peter Pan” as Akiyama attempted to headbutt Higuchi, instead resulting in him feeling more of the pain than Higuchi. Iino and Naya lit each other up with chops and the Burning Elbow before Naya picked up the win rolling up his tag team partner with a La Magistral, winning the red armband.

Akito, Rukiya and Soma Takao were involved in a D Generations clash with Daichi Sato, Hinata Kasai and Yuki Ishida. Takao was about to take his shirt off but Hinata stopped him, leading to a loud crowd response with Hinata unable to control himself, laughing at what he had done (the bit is Takao always teases taking his shirt off but never does). Akito stole the pin on Ishida, winning the green armband.

Later in the main event of the show was an “Enter Sandman” match, a five-way between Antonio Honda, Chris Brookes, Danshoku Dieno, KANON and Hirata. This match was basically a tribute to ECW’s Sandman as they all came out dressed like Sandman with cane sticks and beer. As a side note, it is very cute how Hirata is main eventing shows with his two “Match 2” buddies in Anton and Dieno. Hirata was the only one in his usual attire which drew the ire of the other participants. At the start of the match, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” song started playing and the participants took out some beers. They toasted each other on the beat drop and then all ran around the audience spraying beer on random people, who were all wearing protective wear (what do you expect going to a Beer Garden show?!) This was basically a celebration of the start of Hirata’s reign as Enter Sandman played on repeat. As part of the celebrations, Dieno happily took Chris’ elastic ribbon right into his ass.

I was waiting for Hirata to get rolled up by one of the contestants for them to become the next contender. Instead, the music stopped when Anton slipped, injured his leg and asked for the microphone. Anton then told a story about Gon the Little Fox before attacking the other participants. Akito came out to stop Anton’s attack with his green armband ready to cash in, but the bodyguard stopped him and posed with Hirata. Yukio Naya came out with his newly acquired red armband, beat up the bodyguard and was about to cash in but Dieno came out to protect Hirata. There was no way the “Match 2 Collective” would let Hirata lose his title. Hirata then infused Dieno’s ass with beer, forcing the other participants into the Hell Gate. The lights went off. Yoshihiko (the sex doll) made their appearance, immediately taking out the bodyguard and hitting Hirata with the super huricanrana Frankensteiner combo called Reincarnation. Anton tried to protect Hirata, but Yoshihiko forced Anton in Dieno’s ass and then double pinned Anton and Hirata. Hirata then nominated Yoshihiko as his next challenger. The first challenger for Kazuki Hirata’s KO-D Openweight Championship – Yoshihiko. That match will take place on 28th September at Korakuen Hall.

Elsewhere in the opener, Shinya Aoki faced Takeshi Masada in a special singles match. This match was set up on the 6th September show in which Aoki was the enabler of Minoru Suzuki’s mean streak as they both targeted Masada’s ‘Pillman-ized’ leg brutally. Aoki picked up where he left off, stretching Masada’s leg in intricate holds. Masada fought back with forearms and was about to deliver his Chikara KOBU Mukimuki finisher but Aoki reversed into a pin to win the match. Backstage, Aoki explained that he was doing what he was doing to make Masada stronger, because he wanted Masada to stop Suzuki where Aoki could not.

Daisuke Sasaki came out before DAMNATION T.A. (Hideki Okatani, Ilusion & MJ Paul) took on Kazuma Sumi, To-y and Yuya Koroku. He was injured in the KO-D Tag Team Title match on Peter Pan Night 1. First, he said that he would be at his self-produce show “CHARISMANIA x MANIA x MANIA” on 2nd October at Korakuen Hall. He called out Okatani and said happy birthday to him, before announcing that Hideki Okatani would be facing the deathmatch legend, Jun Kasai, on that show in a Hardcore match. Let’s hope it’s better than Okatani’s Hardcore match against Isami Kodaka on 18th June. It was pretty sloppy and Okatani did not look comfortable. Jun Kasai is a genius though, and will give Okatani a great match.

At the start of the show there was a press conference for the DDT Extreme Title match in Sapporo on 14th September. Ilusion was dressed up in a suit and very polite as he read out a written apology. The crowd loved this bit, although he was back to his usual asshole self in the six-man tag, taking selfies as he beat up To-y. He later escalated this to beating up To-y with the selfie stick itself and was disqualified. The rules of their DDT Extreme Title match were that both of them will be doing a Universe Cast stream on Wrestle Universe, and the first to pin, force a submission OR shut down the opponent’s stream will win.

MAO struck a Rainmaker pose as Okada’s New Japan music played during a “LariPro 2025” match dedicated to the best lariaters in history. The match was HARASHIMA, Keisuke Ishii & MAO against Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Toru Owashi & Yuki Ueno. Ueno was not a good sport, breaking up the action with non-lariat moves at multiple points, receiving loud boos before leaving the venue. Ueno later returned in black shooter trunks with the legendary Riki Choshu’s music blaring out, launching lariats all over the place. MAO even pulled out a Buckshot Lariat. But, within the chaos of all the lariats, Keisuke won with a roll-up.

© DDT

14th & 15th September 2025
Sapporo Sunplaza, Hokkaido, Japan
Recommended Match: Daichi Sato vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Akito vs. Kazuki Hirata (both)

Hirata survives Akito’s onslaught!

Okay. So Akito and the KO-D Openweight Champion, Kazuki Hirata (still weird to type), had two-match series against each other during the Sapporo tour. The series was a “Sapporo Marathon-Style Deathmatch” with a 10-minute time limit that would take place over both days. Every fall, submission and forcing someone out of the ring is worth 1 point. Fouls are -2 points. Akito thought this would disadvantage Hirata, because he’s so weak, so he allowed 1 point when a wrestler puts on glasses and gets “TOKYO GO!” to play, and 5 points if they finish the dance. Akito wanted to cash in his armband, but Hirata convinced him to wait for the second day of the tour so the match went on as normal. What happened after was hilarious. Hirata was pinned immediately twice, before putting on his glasses to make it 2-1 to Akito. Hirata then was docked 2 points for a suspected belt shot (Eddie Guerrero style), and Akito was docked 4 points for two fouls for strangling with the belt, making it -1 to -2 in favour of Hirata. In reality, Hirata staged it, placed his head in the belt with Akito unconscious, but Matsui was knocked out by Hirata earlier, and when he woke up, he thought Akito was strangling Hirata. Hirata pulled this exact same stunt twice in a row. He tried to pull it off a third time, but forgot to knock out Matsui, so the jig was up and he couldn’t use that trick anymore (I guess Matsui gave him the benefit of the doubt and didn’t dock him points). Afterwards, Akito rolled up Hirata again, -1 each. Hirata put on his glasses again 0 to -1. Akito put on the glasses, 0-0. Akito tapped out Hirata thrice within seconds of each other to the beat of “TOKYO GO!”, 3-0 to Akito. Akito then completed the “TOKYO GO!” dance himself, 8-0 to end the first night. Akito tried to cash in again after the match, but Hirata had a photo session that was suddenly announced, and Hirata told Akito that if he became champion, they’d be overrun at the merch table that day where Akito was helping out, so Akito withheld his cash-in. There is a bit where Hirata is counting every scuppered attempt at his title a “defense,” and since he convinced Akito not to cash in, twice, he racked up another “two defenses” taking his total to “seven defenses”.

On the second night, Akito tapped Hirata out immediately, twice, taking the lead to 10-0. Akito used masking tape to tie Hirata’s hands to the rope and covered his mouth. Then, Akito racked up points by putting on the glasses again and again, picking up 5 points within 10 seconds, putting the score at 15-0. Akito cashed in his armband, since Hirata couldn’t object. The match then became a KO-D Openweight Championship match. After Hirata’s tape was cut, the match began and Akito immediately went for the ankle to try to tap Hirata out, as he had done several times already, but this time Hirata reached the ropes to the tune of loud chants for him. After almost 6 minutes of action, Hirata pinned Akito with the Miracle One-Shot Comeback Neck Clutch to win the KO-D Openweight Championship match. Shortly after, as Hirata’s music was planning for winning the pinfall during the title match, the 10-minute deathmatch time limit had also just expired, meaning the deathmatch ended with 15 points to 1 to Akito, but Hirata had defended his title. Wow. Hirata’s run has already exceeded all expectations in its creativity and bringing significance to the house shows, where you want to catch up on the results and watch the VODs as they are released. He is also giving back to all of the people that were with him along the way, as he got emotional with Akito. Akito said that a long time ago, Hirata had injured his leg in a match with Akito and was shelved for a long time, and that Akito had long felt that he had to settle that guilt someday, and that day had finally arrived. Both were emotional at getting to wrestle for the KO-D Openweight Championship. Hirata said that he now has something that he actually wants to protect.

Other Sapporo First Night Matches – Ueno wins an armband, To-y successfully defends

The rules of the DDT Extreme Title match between the twerp Ilusion and champion To-y were that both of them will be doing a Universe Cast stream on Wrestle Universe, and the first to pin, force a submission OR shut down the opponent’s stream will win. As they grabbed each other’s phones, they agreed to trade them back, but Ilusion double crossed To-y and grabbed both of them before almost switching To-y’s stream off. To-y choked him and retrieved his phone. There were a lot of spots like this, as well as wrestlers streaming hitting each other, or, as Illusion did, streaming him humping To-y’s face. In the end, To-y retained with the Kojima Impact. Backstage, To-y teased he would defend the title against something emblematic of ‘extreme’ at Sumo Hall on 3rd November.

In the semi-main event, Ilusion’s stablemate, Hideki Okatani, faced To-y’s stablemate, Yuki Ueno, in a singles match. Okatani showed some flashes of potential, as he has done so in D Generations matches, this time against one of DDT’s aces. After being angered by DAMNATION T.A’s shenanigans, a fired up Ueno choked out Okatani in the middle of the ring. This was a pretty good match. Ueno won the blue armband from Okatani.

Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada), Danshoku Dieno & HARASHIMA and Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) battled in a three-way tag team bout. Dieno continued being very lustful for KANON but also showed Masada some love. Daichi Sato and Jun Akiyama teamed with local Hokkaido wrestler Noriyuki Yoshida against Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida) and Yukio Naya. This was a good match, with fun interactions between Higuchi and Akiyama following their Peter Pan bout, and D Generations wrestlers Ishida and Sato having a great sequence towards the end. This was a preview for Sato and Higuchi’s singles match on the subsequent show (I should note that Higuchi is from the other side of Hokkaido).

Other Sapporo Second Night Matches – 17-year-old Sato collides with Higuchi

Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) faced off against HARASHIMA & Yuya Koroku in a high-workrate, high-heat main event. Daichi Sato had one of his biggest singles matches to date against former KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi. We are in Sapporo, and it is a house show, so there were always limitations on how high this match could reach. So although I had it circled in my calendar, I was also not expecting it to blow me away. But, parts of it certainly did. I really was not expecting Higuchi to pull out the shoot headbutts. First, his signature headbutt into the ring post, and then, either a shoot headbutt or the best worked headbutt I’ve heard, straight into Sato’s skull. I was stunned. He had even moved away from those moves during his KO-D Openweight Title reign. This match fucking ruled for the time it was given, and the spot it was in. Give me this on a Korakuen Hall or Sumo Hall show.

This might be an interesting fact, but Dieno rarely goes against DAMNATION T.A. and any of their members. At most, it is a few times a year. Before teaming up with Sumi and Ryuto on this show to face Okatani, Ilusion and MJ Paul, the last time he had faced any of the members was 9th February. They largely keep them silo’d away from each other. MJ Paul started with Dieno, and he wasn’t really interested in MJ Paul so tagged out. Okatani and Sumi however, have been a very regular pairing in 2025, and it’s been great. Okatani caned Dieno in the butt, which left a red mark, before Ilusion pinned Sumi with the Swanton bomb.

© DDT

23rd September 2025
Namba SkyO Conventional Hall, Osaka, Japan
Recommended Matches: To-y & Yuya Koroku vs. The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya)

While this show didn’t heavily feature Hirata, something significant still happened. Kazuma Sumi pinned Hirata with a schoolboy, staking a claim for a title shot. Hirata convinced Sumi to delay the title shot until after his matches with Yoshihiko and GM Imabayashi. He handed Sumi some Haribo sweets to close out the deal. Hirata’s persuasion skills were on point during this title reign, and this show was the perfect example of Hirata not taking the spotlight from the main event, but still progressing his own storyline in a coherent, entertaining fashion.

The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya) successfully defended the KO-D Tag Team Championship against To-y and Yuya Koroku in the main event. Koroku and Iino have some history when they used to team up in the Burning faction with Tetsuya Endo. After receiving machine gun chops from To-y, Iino became chop-resistant and walked towards him Terminator-style. That was much of the story of this title match as the D Generations duo tried to find a way to break The Apex down. Koroku briefly identified the chink in the armour as he launched a Triangle Lancer submission hold from a tornado DDT, with Iino panicking. It would have been a convincing false finish if I had not known the results going in. The finishing stretch was electric as Koroku kicked out at one from a brutal running lariat. Koroku then attempted to decapitate Iino with a fierce elbow which Iino fought through with fighting spirit to hit Koroku with another lariat and a spear for the win. That was great. After the match, Harimao (Higuchi & Ishida) challenged for the titles. That match will take place on 19th October at Korakuen Hall.

Jun Akiyama celebrated his 33rd anniversary, teaming up with HARASHIMA and Yuki Ieno against Daichi Sato, Kazusada Higuchi and long-time friend Tomomitsu Matsunaga. HARASHIMA, 51, showed that age doesn’t matter as he did a front flip to get himself out of a headscissors hold against 17 year old Daichi. For his anniversary, Akiyama decided to give Higuchi a shoot headbutt, but immediately regretted it. Higuchi and Ueno had a chop battle, which you just know Ueno will be bruised from for a few shows to come. Daichi and HARASHIMA traded stiff kicks to the chest before Daichi drilled HARASHIMA with a German suplex that HARASHIMA no-sold to deliver a Michinoku Driver to Daichi. This was a super fun, short six-man tag.

It was KANON’s birthday, so he was booked in a tag against his number one fan, Dieno. Dieno would not let go of KANON. MAO even offered himself to Dieno, but Dieno ignored him. MAO then pulled his pants down, so he could taunt Dieno which successfully worked in pulling Dieno away from KANON. KIMIHIRO then took one for the team too, pulling his own pants down to get Dieno off of MAO. KANON was helpless as he saw his friends receiving love taps from Dieno mercilessly. KANON sprinted at Dieno, but was caught by a kiss. The lights went off and Pachabel’s Canon started playing. A spotlight began shining on KANON, face-down-bare-ass-up with Dieno posing majestically over his catch. The lights would then turn off and on repeatedly. Every time they turned on, KANON would start winning the fight with Dieno, ending with KANON romantically kissing him during one of the spotlights, and tapping Dieno out in the final spotlight with the Cobra Twist.

Rookie Hinata Kasai faced Hideki Okatani. Hinata is starting to lay in his forearms a bit more. It’s hard to say where he’ll end up as it’s too early, but so far he has marginally improved since his debut. Takeshi Masada beat Akito in a good singles match.

Rukiya & Soma Takao defeat Daichi Sato & Hinata Kasai (4:47)

Shinya Aoki defeats Yuya Koroku (8:04)

Survival 3-Way Tag Match:
Akito & Kazuma Sumi defeat KANON & MAO and Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya
MAO eliminates Yukio Naya (6:55)
Kazuma Sumi eliminates MAO (8:32)

Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi, Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ishida) defeat Schadenfreude International (Antonio Honda & Chris Brookes) & Diego (11:20)

HARASHIMA & Jun Akiyama defeat Danshoku Dieno & Evil Uno (0:08)

HARASHIMA & Jun Akiyama defeat Danshoku Dieno & Evil Uno (5:43)

KO-D Six-Man Tag Title Decision Match (vacant):
37KAMIINA (To-y & Yuki Ueno) & Kaisei Takechi defeat DAMNATION T.A. (Hideki Okatani, Ilusion & MJ Paul) (18:47)

DDT Universal Title:
Minoru Suzuki (c) defeats Takeshi Masada (13:06)

KO-D Openweight Title:
Kazuki Hirata (c) defeats Yoshihiko (15:42)

KO-D Openweight Title:
Yuki Ueno defeats Kazuki Hirata (c) (6:47)

KO-D Openweight Title:
Yuki Ueno (c) defeats Kazuma Sumi (12:02)

© DDT

Ring Autumn Tournament
8th October 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

Ahead of the KO-D Six Man Tag Team Title match on 19th October and the KO-D Openweight Title match at “Ultimate Party” on 3rd November, HARASHIMA and Minoru Suzuki fought To-y and Yuki Ueno in the main event at Shinjuku FACE. Despite it being a preview for Ueno and Suzuki, To-y was worked on for large portions of the match, garnering a lot of sympathy from the crowd. He also got the loudest pop of the match when he tried to stand up to Suzuki with a series of stiff chops, but was put away with Minoru’s Gotch-style piledriver. HARASHIMA, 51, was amazing in this match, displaying a lot of athleticism and eating some fierce strikes from To-y.

Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi, Naomi Yoshimura & Ryota Nakatsu) had a preview tag match against The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya) and Rukiya. Higuchi and Ishida are due to go after The Apex’s KO-D Tag Team Titles on 19th October, but Ishida was out with flu-like symptoms. This was one of Rukiya’s highest spots on the card since his return, giving him an opportunity to showcase what he was about. Yoshimura was in killer mode against Rukiya, not selling for his offence and bullying him around the ring. He looked a bit terrifying, to be honest. This match was a big ol’ meat fest (complimentary). Higuchi won by pinning Rukiya’s shoulders to the mat with the Brain Claw.

Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) clashed with D Generations pair Daichi Sato and Yuya Koroku. Daichi was probably one of the most over wrestlers on the show with constant screams of his name. One moment in the match literally made me scream “f-ing hell” as MAO went for his usual over-the-referee stunner, but Daichi caught him mid jump and dropped him on the top of his head with a German suplex. That was incredible, but so was Daichi and MAO’s whole interaction in this match. Sometimes I do crowd watching, and the girls in the audience could not stop filming Daichi in this match. MAO won, tapping out Daichi in a crossface. SLC have been stringing together a series of wins high up the card making me think a KO-D Tag Team Title challenge is on the horizon for them.

Dieno’s absence also affected Kazuki Hirata’s “Second Match Homecoming”, which meant it had become a handicap match with Akito, Kazumi Sumi, Soma Takao and Tomomitsu Matsunaga all beating up Hirata, welcoming him back to the second match on the card following his fairytale KO-D Openweight Title run. Hirata, naturally, was terrified of this handicap match. This was basically an extended bullying session for poor Hirata as he tried new and creative ways to turn people over to his team with his exceptional bargaining skills. It was those same skills that he used to circumvent cash ins on his title for almost a month. First he persuaded Takao to join him by threatening to cancel all his Dropkick bookings (Takao’s promotion), then Akito by saying he would forgo 3 months of pay, and finally Tomomitsu, who simply required a cash payment. That left only Sumi, and all four started bullying Sumi. Fortunately, Sumi was more resilient than Hirata and ended up rolling him up for the victory.

DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & Ilusion) clashed with Shinya Aoki & Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada). The dork, Ilusion, continued showcasing why he is one of the most fun characters in DDT today with an excellent comedic display, playing off of his opponents perfectly. After Bunbun attacked Okatani, he impaled Bunbun with a cane to the horror of the crowd and Masada. Masada got his revenge and pinned Okatani clean. In a match originally slated as “Playtime Series Chapter 5” between Danshoku Dieno and new rookie Hinata Kasai, Dieno fell ill and was replaced by Jun Akiyama. As they locked up, I was waiting for Akiyama to do some Dieno spots and start feeling up the rookie as that would be a very DDT way to make the replacement, but instead there were no shenanigans and they wrestled a straight match, an experience I’m sure Hinata was grateful for. After a spirited performance, Hinata tapped out to Jun’s double legged Boston crab. Antonio Honda faced MJ Paul in a “special singles match”. I would not use the word “special” and “MJ Paul” in the same sentence. As Anton went for his suicide dive, MJ Paul didn’t even flinch as he knew Anton would trip and hurt his leg. After his ‘Gon the Little Fox’ attack, Anton tried his best to finish MJ Paul off and win with a backslide, but MJ Paul’s weight was too much for Anton and he tapped out while attempting the backslide.

© DDT

12th October 2025
Rembrandt Hotel Tokyo Machida, Tokyo, Japan

The main event was a preview of the KO-D Six Man Tag Team Title match that would take place on 19th October at Korakuen Hall. HARASHIMA and Yuya Koroku clashed with 37KAMIINA (To-y & Yuki Ueno). This was a fun main event, with the highlight being the first few minutes with great grappling between HARASHIMA and Ueno. It devolved into brawling and To-y launching Shin Sakura Hirota-like shark attacks into HARASHIMA’s butt before getting back on track with a great final 10 minutes of fast-paced action.

Schadenfreude International (Antonio Honda, Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) battled against Kazuma Sumi and Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO). After a Gongitsune attack from Anton, KIMIHIRO and Bunbun fell into each other’s arms and were getting married with Anton as the priest, but Masada stopped the ceremony before KIMIHIRO and Bunbun were about to kiss. Anton took advantage and eventually won with the bridging O’Connor roll on Sumi (of course).

Yuki Ishida lost to The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya) ahead of their tag match at Korakuen Hall on 19th October as he teamed up with Daichi Sato. Higuchi came out after the match and started laying into Ishida asking him where his fighting spirit had gone. Backstage, he continued to admonish him and told him he had to go out and smash them at Korakuen Hall. Ishida said he would flip the switch from that show onwards. It really seemed that this tag title match was made to highlight Ishida.

Hirata, back in his ‘match two’ position, attempted to get Yoshimura on board with dancing to ‘Tokyo Go.’ After some bargaining, and even persuasion from Jun Akiyama, Yoshimura put the glasses on, only to lariat Hirata out of his boots as soon as the dance was about to start.

Kazuma Sumi, Naomi Yoshimura & Soma Takao defeat Hinata Kasai, Keisuke Ishii & Munetatsu Nakamura (8:26)

Schadenfreude International (Antonio Honda, Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) defeat Akito, Fuminori Abe & Super Sasadango Machine (12:10)

Daichi Sato & Rukiya defeat Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga (8:45)

Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) & Kumadori defeat DAMNATION T.A (Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & MJ Paul) (12:43)

Kazuki Hirata defeats Shinya Aoki (7:35)

KO-D Tag Team Title:
The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya) (c) defeat Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida) (22:20)

KO-D Six Man Tag Team Title:
The 37KAMIINA (To-y & Yuki Ueno) & Kaisei Takechi (c) defeat HARASHIMA, Minoru Suzuki & Yuya Koroku (28:51)

25th October 2025
Ikuno Ward Citizens Centre, Osaka, Japan

37KAMIINA (Ueno & To-y) and Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) proved why they are the top teams in DDT. This was your classic high work rate main event on a DDT house show and hit all my buttons in the right way. Ueno pinned Masada for the win with the BME. In the semi-main event, KANON and Yukio Naya had a hard hitting singles match previewing their tag team title match at Ultimate Party. KANON needs to launch his overalls into a bonfire. I still remember his purple chest from his singles match with Higuchi. The visual works better if he’s going to be a hard hitter. Naya sold a lot for KANON before beating him with the backdrop suplex.

Kazuki Hirata and MAO had a creative match. After the initial grappling of the match, I don’t have translations but it was like they were wrestling invisible versions of each other, like a sci-fi bit. For example, MAO would be putting an arm bar on an invisible man, and Hirata would be selling as if an invisible man had him in an armbar, so they were mirroring each other’s movements while impressively in sync with each other. Imagine wrestling a match but there’s meters of air between the wrestlers, but they wrestle as if there isn’t. It was great. The stuff you see on house shows!

26th October 2025
Imaike Gas Hall, Aichi, Japan

37KAMIINA had yet another great tag match in the main event, this time against Harimao (Higuchi & Ishida). Ishida was trying to build off of momentum from his tag title challenge, as he kicked out of Ueno’s frogsplash with a yelp of “Dosukoi!” After that hilarious kickout, Ueno hit the WR to take the win. MAO faced Yuki Iino in the second of preview singles between The Apex and Strange Love Connection. After almost being decapitated by Iino, MAO picked up the win with the Gedo clutch. Akito & Kazuki Hirata faced Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada in a ‘get Bunbun out of the bag’ match, with the first team to, well, get Bunbun out of the bag winning the match. Of course, Bunbun’s best friend, Masada, won the match.

Sanshiro Takagi defeats Hinata Kasai (7:07)

HARASHIMA, Naomi Yoshimura & Toru Owashi defeat Rukiya, Shinichiro Kawamatsu & Soma Takao (10:05)

DAMNATION T.A (Hideki Okatani, Ilusion & MJ Paul) & Demus defeat Daichi Sato, Kazuma Sumi, Kumadori & Yuki Ishida (11:03)

DDT Extreme Title Five Way Blindfold Death Match:
To-y (c) defeats Akito and Antonio Honda and Kazuki Hirata and Super Sasadango Machine (14:13)

Jun Akiyama, Shinya Aoki & Yuya Koroku defeat HAYATA, Junta Miyawaki & Tetsuya Endo (14:53)

AMAKUSA defeats Daisuke Sasaki (16:23)

KO-D Tag Team Title Three Way Elimination:
Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) defeat The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya) (c) and Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) (17:48)
Yuki Iino pins Yuu (11:14)
MAO pins Yukio Naya (17:48)

Zack Sabre Jr. defeats Chris Brookes (26:03)

Kaisei Takechi & Konosuke Takeshita defeat Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada (24:14)

DDT Universal Title / KO-D Openweight Title:
Yuki Ueno (c) [KO-D] defeats Minoru Suzuki (c) [Universal] (34:30)

22nd November 2025
Yokohama Radiant Hall, Kanagawa, Japan

DDT were back in Yokohama to kick off a trio of preview shows before the 30th November Korakuen Hall show. The show began with a press conference for both the DDT Extreme Title match between champion To-y and challenger Sanshiro Takagi, as well as contract signings between triple champion Yuki Ueno and Super Sasadango Machine for the KO-D Openweight Title, and Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) and DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki & Hideki Okatani) for the KO-D Tag Team Titles. Following the signings, the show had several preview tags. In the main event, Chris Brookes, To-y and Yuki Ueno faced HARASHIMA, Sanshiro Takagi and SSM, as Ueno picked up the cradle win against SSM. After the main event, Ueno and SSM cut serious promos. Ueno asked SSM, for real, why did he want to challenge Ueno. Ueno is ace, Ueno wants to take DDT to the Tokyo Dome, what is SSM’s plan if he does win? SSM responded saying that on 4th January, with Tanahashi’s retirement, a spot for the ace of the industry opens up. There will be a power vacuum in New Japan, with Takeshita thrown into it too. SSM says that gives DDT a chance to become the sport’s icon, and if he has the KO-D Openweight Title, that would make him the icon of pro wrestling. SSM said he wants to be the one on talk shows and that Ueno is underqualified. Ueno then gave some backstage comments (my god Ueno’s promos and backstage comments are always so long). He just rambled about the promo.

Later, in another preview, Okatani and KANON clashed in a heated singles match as they brawled in the crowd and unleashed stiff chops onto each other. This was a good match which Okatani won by cheating as Ilusion distracted the referee, MJ Paul hit KANON with a chair and Okatani finished things off with his awesome running crucifix driver.

Antonio Honda defended his O-40 Championship against Daisuke Sasaki, who hilariously turned 40 on the exact day of the show (the O-40 title is named as such because only over 40s can compete for it). Anton immediately hurt his leg and required the spirit of Gongitsune. Sasaki did not allow him to tell his dirty story and immediately jumped him. Anton would get the chance to tell his dirty story about a “penis dance” later and launched the Gongitsune attack at Sasaki, who evaded and re-directed the attack into referee Matsui’s eyes. Sasaki got the upper hand and captured the title with a tight cradle. After the match, Anton sang happy birthday to Sasaki.

Daichi Sato and Yuki Ishida took on Takeshi Masada and Yuya Koroku in an all-D Generations tag match. Yeah, this match was booked for me. This was great and the perfect window if you want to peek into the future of DDT. Ishida picked up a big win on Koroku, indicating he’s no longer bottom of the barrel in the D Generations group!

For Akito’s 16th anniversary, he celebrated by refereeing a tag match between Hinata Kasai and Rukiya against Kazuki Hirata and Soma Takao. Hirata and Takao tried to bribe Akito before the match. Akito counted very slowly on Hinata and Rukiya’s pins as a result, while counting fast for Hirata and Takao. When Hirata was tapping out, Akito would take his phone out and take a selfie with Hirata rather than stopping the match. Akito would switch sides later, giving Rukiya tips on the Boston crab hold which submitted Hirata.

MBM and Ultima Sombra, Belgian wrestlers who regularly compete in Banger Zone Wrestling (BZW) in France, faced Kazuma Sumi and MAO. It’s easy to forget that MAO is actually one half of the BZW Tag Team Champions alongside Yoshihiko. MBM got the pin on Sumi (of course).

Akito, Daichi Sato & Yuya Koroku defeat Hinata Kasai, Rukiya & Soma Takao (10:19)

Kazuki Hirata, Kazusada Higuchi & Toru Owashi defeat Antonio Honda, Danshoku Dieno & Kazuma Sumi (0:06)

Kazuki Hirata, Kazusada Higuchi & Toru Owashi defeat Antonio Honda, Danshoku Dieno & Kazuma Sumi

Gaia Hox & Jun Masaoka defeat Demus & Ilusion and Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya
Chris Brookes, Naomi Yoshimura, Takeshi Masada & Yuki Ishida defeat HARASHIMA, Jun Akiyama, MBM & Ultima Sombra (12:01)

DDT Extreme Title:
To-y defeats Sanshiro Takagi (9:51)

KO-D Tag Team Title:
Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) defeat DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki & Hideki Okatani)

Konosuke Takeshita defeats Shinya Aoki (10:06)

KO-D Openweight Title / DDT Universal Title:
Yuki Ueno defeats Super Sasadango Machine (27:16)

© DDT

D Generations 6
6th September 2025
Yokohama Radiant Hall, Kanagawa, Japan

The main event of D Generations, my favourite show going on, pitted perennial loser Yuki Ishida against a younger talent who has challenged for the KO-D Championship, is currently challenging for the KO-D Tag Team Titles and, at the time of this match, held one of the cash-in armbands, in Yuya Koroku. So of course, Yuki Ishida beat him. The match was great, as were pretty much all the matches on this show, in particular I thought it was much better than their singles match back in March which was the second match on a main DDT house show and only given 9 minutes. This is the power of the D Generations shows. Yuki Ishida now holds the green armband.

I think people who aren’t convinced about To-y’s in-ring work need to see his serious D Generations matches, as they are almost always good. He’s a stiff chopper, runs the ropes excellently and is very over. To-y also did a tope con giro over the ropes near the turnbuckle. I’m not saying this was a KO-D level match, but you could easily see the seeds of a future one being planted. Masada kicked out of To-y’s wrist-clutch full nelson slam before being caught with a Frankensteiner, but the time-limit had expired. This was the match of the night. Very good.

Hideki Okatani and Kazuma Sumi had the chance to steal the show given their amazing final few minutes of the KO-D Six Man Tag Team Title match in the same building weeks prior on 9th August. Okatani took his shirt off to choke Kazuma, so shirtless Okatani went to work. Sumi is a great babyface with a lot of support, and while they didn’t manage to recreate the magic of their previous encounter, this was still a good match. There were surprisingly quite a few Okatani call outs, so he definitely has his fans. I really have no idea how someone doesn’t break their neck on Okatani’s crucifix driver, it looks brutal.

Daichi Sato was against JTO’s Ryoma Tsukamoto, who looks like the long lost son of Hideki ‘Shrek’ Sekine. Ryoma has been on a lot of these DDT sub-brand shows and performed well. This match started off as ‘big beefy bitches’ taking each other down, but interestingly turned into a Starlight Kid tribute match as Ryoma worked over Daichi’s leg. I liked that he only started working the leg after Daichi had blasted him in the chest with his powerful kicks. This type of match is exactly why this sub-brand rules. The only problem? He was working the wrong leg. But hey, baby steps. (Daichi kicked with his right leg, Ryoma was working Daichi’s left leg. Unless Ryoma has some leg submission that I’m unaware of.) There was an absolutely insane German suplex by Daichi for a near fall before Ryoma, somehow, lifted Daichi up for a jackhammer for the finish. Very impressive match.

Against Ilusion, Rukiya showed the same aggression he put Hinata away with in 5 minutes on the Ueno Park show. I think it was Rukiya’s best performance since his return. Ilusion won as he distracted the ref, lowblowed Rukiya and hit a Swanton bomb. In the opener, rookie Hinata Kasai took on rising young talent, Ganbare Pro’s Munetatsu Nakamura, who feels like a part of the DDT roster with how many shows he’s on. Hinata has a lot of confidence in the ring, and on the mic, with good selling, but he’s by no means a super rookie. Munetatsu was as great as always, winning with a Chaos Theory.

© DDT

17th September 2025
Kiranah Garden Toyosu, Tokyo, Japan

Yuu gets her wish!

Kazuki Hirata held a contract signing for his KO-D Openweight Championship defence against Yoshihiko on 28th September. It was planned for the start of the show, but Yoshihiko (again, who is a blow-up doll), was late, so it was postponed.

Yuu is ticking off bucket list items before her retirement on 28th December as she was granted her wish of doing a DDT-style street fight in a public venue (a BBQ garden) in a six-way tag team match against Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada), Danshoku Dieno & Kazuki Hirata, Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO), Kazuma Sumi & Yukio Naya and Yuki Ueno & Yuya Koroku.

After winning a karate chop duel with everyone on space hoppers, Hirata was about to break into a victory dance before Yoshihiko’s music hit and arrived at the venue. The match was stopped briefly for the contract signing to take place. Yoshihiko and Hirata signed the contract. Yuki Ueno acted as the MC. Ueno asked Yoshihiko for their comments, but they remained silent. Hirata told Yoshihiko to bulk up and get strong because he was going to tear them to shreds. Ueno opened up the ceremony for any questions. Takeshi Masada, representing Schadenfreude International, Inc., asked Hirata what his next goal would be if he retained. Hirata said he would call out GM Hisaya Imabayashi next. Yuya Koroku, from Animal Hamaguchi Gym, asked if Hirata had a plan up his sleeve, and Hirata said “No comment!” Yoshihiko offered a handshake, but Hirata slapped it away, so Yoshihiko choked Hirata out, dragged him over the grass, then hit his Reincarnation finisher onto a pile of chairs. Hirata was out of action for the rest of the match.

Back to the action, Masada put Koroku through a table with Chikara KOBU Mukimuki and then the match descended into brawling in the swimming pool. At one point Brookes and Masada accidentally kissed on the lips, with Dieno voluntarily joining in. Sumi did some crazy lucha moves in the pool, before succumbing to MAO’s 450 splash (literally), picking up the win for Strange Love Connection.

It was so much fun seeing Team 200kg enjoy themselves. I wish more joshi did DDT crossovers for fun brawls like this. At one point the camera returned to catch up on what Hashimoto and Yuu were doing, they were just sitting down with the fans and eating food while the men were beating the shit out of each other with all the different weapons they could find. Naya tried to disrupt Team 200kg so they threw beer over him. These shows are great, they remind you of jumping off furniture as a kid and playing around with your siblings or friends. DDT, best vibes promotion of 2025.

© DDT

21st September 2025
Granship Exchange Hall, Shizuoka, Japan

In the main event, Akito & Danshoku Dieno teamed up against Antonio Honda and KO-D Openweight Champion Kazuki Hirata, as Hirata continued to just hang out with his friends following his title win at Peter Pan. Following their series of matches in Sapporo, Hirata immediately tapped out on an ankle lock from Akito, so clearly he had not gotten any stronger in the week prior to this show. Honda asked for a rematch, which took place and Hirata immediately tapped again. The match was restarted for a second time, but this time, Hirata powered through and lasted longer against the onslaught of Dieno and Akito. Akito put on the ankle lock again, but instead of immediately tapping, first Kazuma Sumi willed Hirata on, then Hinata Kasai, then Daichi Sato, Yuki Ishida, and lastly, To-y. With the power of love, he did not tap out. He put on his glasses for one last final rally, pinning Akito with the Miracle One-Shot Comeback pin.

Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) and HARASHIMA faced off against Daichi Sato, Jun Akiyama and Yuki Iino in a good match. In a preview of a future Korakuen Hall main event, Daichi started off against Masada. After messing up a kip up, Daichi arm dragged Masada to the flaw and then flawlessly pulled the kip up off. Brookes brought out the elastic ribbon, but Jun and Daichi tried to be smart and use it on Brookes, so they stretched it out as Brookes was held down by Daichi. Brookes escaped, leaving Jun and Daichi holding onto opposite ends of a stretched out ribbon. Referee Matsui counted for them to let go or get disqualified, which Daichi did first, blasting the ribbon into senpai Jun’s face. Jun was not happy. Leave the ribbon to Brookes next time. Daichi was the star of this match as he nailed HARASHIMA with a bridging German suplex on the finishing hold, although that was not enough as HARASHIMA came back with a Somato to the back and to the face for the win.

© DDT

CHARISMANIAxMANIAxMANIA
2nd October 2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo,  Japan

Daisuke Sasaki celebrated his 20th Anniversary at Korakuen Hall. Sasaki was injured at “Peter Pan” in an unsuccessful defense of the KO-D Tag Team Titles to The Apex (Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya), suffering a fractured left rib, but has made a miraculous recovery (or perhaps fought through the pain) in order to main event his anniversary event. This is the second Sasaki had put together this year, as he recently held a produce show in June at Shinjuku FACE which involved his DAMNATION T.A. stablemates at various positions on the card. DAMNATION T.A. are not your usual heels, they are a group of outcasts, misfits and dorks (read: Ilusion) that take out their frustrations on the DDT universe rather than looking inwards and doing some reflection. They were the nerds at school who were bullied and then became the bullies themselves in a cycle of violence and hatred.

DAMNATION T.A. been in a bit of a spiral recently, first losing the tag team titles, then having the Six-Man Tag Team Titles stripped due to Sasaki’s injury, and then losing the match for the vacant titles to the popular jocks at school who hang out all the time shirtless at the sauna (homoeroticism intended), 37KAMIINA (Toy & Yuki Ueno) and the new cool kid at school, popstar Kaisei Takechi, who the ladies don’t stop fawning over. What else can make the dorks feel better than throwing their own party with all their other dork friends, inviting their older brothers (Togo Family) and getting them to beat up the cool kids! The best match on the card, although not the main event, was the Togo Family (Dick Togo, Diego, KUBITO, Naohiro Katsumi & Yasu Urano) against DDT (Akito, HARASHIMA, Kazusada Higuchi, To-y & Yuki Ueno). Dick Togo is Sasaki’s senpai and taught him everything he knows. They had a singles match together at the previous produce show which was awesome, so I was expecting Dick Togo to be at his best here too, and well, we did.

The match began with the veterans of both teams, Dick Togo, 56, and HARASHIMA, 51, having some fun grappling on the mat, with the crowd appreciating the effort. When To-y tagged in, it dawned on me how over he actually is as the whole crowd started screaming his name. Togo and Higuchi had a fun stretch of the match as they chopped each other, with Togo’s “live show charisma” mostly absorbing the chops. Under no touch lucha-style rules, Ueno jumped in to take the Wrestling Master on himself. To-y tried to get Togo off of Ueno, so Togo flattened him with a Pedigree on top of Ueno. When Diego was in danger, Togo intercepted HARASHIMA’s Somato with a deadly lariat and then teamed with Urano to take out Higuchi and Ueno. Togo took Higuchi out of the match with a dive on the outside, which left the weak Urano all to Ueno. Ueno won with the Best Moonsault Ever.

The actual main event of the show was Daisuke Sasaki himself, teaming up with El Desperado against Antonio Honda and Shuji Ishikawa. One of Sasaki’s gimmicks is wrestling in a t-shirt, sort of like Naito, but not really, he takes it off far less. To my memory, it happened once in 2025 – at Sasaki’s previous produce show in June, of course. Similarly, Antonio Honda has wrestled seriously once in 2025, in the first round of King of DDT against Yuki Ueno, where he was a late replacement for the injured Masahiro Takanashi. Well, we got both Sasaki shirtless and a serious Anton. Sort of. Sasaki became shirtless after he was sick of Anton’s shenanigans. Anton at the last few moments mostly wrestled seriously.

One of the most fun parts of the match was IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Despe, known for targeting the leg and preparing his opponent for the Numero Dos, working Anton’s well known fragile leg that he continuously manages to injure every single match, summoning the spirit of Gon the Little Fox. Eventually, Anton tripped while running the ropes and began his Gon bit. Sasaki interrupted it to raucous boos. Anton was a mega babyface in this match, even getting Despe booed when Despe hit him off the apron. You would think it was Anton’s anniversary show given how this match was built around him. Anton tried for a suicide dive, but once again, tripped, leading to his Gon bit. Shuji was corpsing during the bit. After failing to attack Despe with Gon, Despe locked in the Numero Dos with Anton clawing away, barely getting the ropes. Anton hit Despe with Shining Gon the Fox (a shining wizard but also with a Gon attack, where his hands are shaped like a fox and he pokes the opponent in the eye). After a hot back and forth between Sasaki and Anton, Sasaki tapped out Anton with a La Mistica crossface. After the match, Shuji was hinting to Despe that they should have a singles match and Despe didn’t want any of that smoke. After the match, Sasaki shouted out the injured Masahiro Takanashi, saying that he would run into him again some day. Sasaki said his next goal was playing with his band, who debuted on this show, at Nippon Budokan.

Hideki Okatani, Sasaki’s rising prodigy who has fit in perfectly to his new heelish character in 2025, was awarded with a hardcore match against deathmatch legend Jun Kasai. I was very critical of Okatani’s previous hardcore match on the last Sasaki-produce show, but I was sure that Kasai would bring out the best in Okatani, as he does for everyone. In the deathmatch world, hardcore matches are the gateway stipulation. They’re for beginners and wrestlers getting into the scene. Kasai regularly has hardcore matches with those venturing into that territory, with some upgrading to a deathmatch with Kasai. Another example of this happening recently was GanPro’s Mizuki Watase. We’ll see if Okatani can make it to a deathmatch at next year’s Sasaki-produce shows! Okatani and Kasai began sitting down on chairs in the middle of the ring and had a duel hitting each other over the head with keyboards. That must’ve hurt. This was mostly a standard hardcore match but, as expected, far better than Okatani’s previous one with Isami Kodaka and had a great few final minutes. Okatani surprisingly kicked out of Kasai’s Pearl Harbor Splash. Kasai then kissed Okatani into a reverse Tiger Driver, and surprisingly, another kick out. One final chair shot and the Cross-Arm Stimulation (cross-armed piledriver) finally put Okatani away after a really good match with no blood. Backstage, Kasai thanked DDT for taking care of his boy (rookie Hinata) and asked them to take care of him too by continuing to feed him spirited, fresh guys like Okatani.

Sasaki held a “Commemorative Cup” gauntlet tag match for a bunch of tag teams in the DDT-affiliated universe. The match started with the duo of Danshoku Dieno and Sumi Caras (Kazuma Sumi’s masked luchador gimmick, except it’s a plastic bag instead of a mask). As Hirata made his entrance with his partner, Soma Takao, Dieno set up on the turnbuckle with Hell’s Gate (his bare exposed ass ready for people to be Irish whipped into it). Sumi pushed Hirata into Hell’s Gate while Hirata was mid-entrance dancing. Hirata rolled out under the bottom rope. Hirata later came back in, threw Sumi into Hell’s Gate, unmasked him and then eliminated him. Sumi’s paper bag mask remained in Dieno’s ass, so Hirata later retrieved it and put it over Toru Owashi’s head. Owashi was not happy about that and wailed on Hirata. This match was either about Dieno’s ass and how the different tag teams would utilise the weapon, or the Brahman Brothers usual shenanigans with spraying a lot of water around and their green go (including honorary members Brahman Brookes and Brahman Masada). Or both! At one point, Dieno was force fed the Brahman’s green goo, and he apparently digested it immediately as Yukio Naya’s face was in Dieno’s ass and then Naya revealed green goo dripping from his mouth.

4th October 2025
Asakusa Rokku Broadway Shopping Street, Tokyo, Japan

DDT held one of their traditional shopping mall shows with a three-way tag team match between Kazuma Sumi & Rukiya, Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida) and To-y & Yuki Ueno. Yes, Higuchi was still bare-footed. Some of these bumps looked like they HURT! Higuchi and Sumi both rolled down a set of concrete stairs, Sumi did a moonsault off of a ladder onto the rest of the wrestlers, Harimao rode the DDT bike straight into a tower of chairs, To-y took a tornado DDT on concrete (big ouch), but the big finish was To-y splashing through a table on top of Sumi and Rukiya, pinning both.

5th October 2025
Niigata Higashi-ku Plaza, Niigata, Japan

Super Sasadango Machine returned to his hometown of Niigata in the main event, teaming up with Danshoku Dieno in tag action against Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO). The gimmick of the match was that random DDT roster members would come in with SSM’s mask and wrestle for a bit. Dieno continued his one-sided romance with KANON, although now KANON was immune to it and kissed Dieno back before taking him out with a lariat. Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) faced off against Kazuma Sumi & Yuki Ueno, where Ueno was continuing on his asshole mode from stomping Hirata and Sumi at Korakuen Hall the week before. After Chris rejected Ueno’s handshake, Ueno slapped Bunbun off the turnbuckle to loud boos. They also brought in a kid from ringside to be the third person in their usual Schadenfreude International pose, kneeling on top of Sumi. When going for a tope suicida, Chris’ leg gave up in a nod to Antonio Honda. In Anton fashion, Chris took the mic and tried a Gongitsune attack, but Ueno, the dastardly heel, stopped Chris in his tracks, kicking him in the gut, to a large chorus of boos. This match was so much fun.

Jun Akiyama and Kazusada Higuchi briefly reignited their Peter Pan feud as they locked horns in a tag match alongside Tomomitsu Matsunaga and HARASHIMA respectively. HARASHIMA was filling in for Yuki Ishida who was feeling ill. Akiyama has been headbutting Higuchi in recent weeks, but always felt more of the pain. He learnt his lesson here, pausing before giving a headbutt and tagging in Matsunaga. This was a well worked match, finished by Higuchi pinning Matsunaga with the Brain Claw Slam. Kazuki Hirata was back to his comfortable spot – second on the card – as he, Yuki Iino and Naomi Yoshimura were in a three-way. Yuki Iino managed to put on the Tokyo Go glasses and become like an overpowered raid boss from a video game, running around the arena and tapping out Hirata in an Argentine backbreaker.

13th October 2025
AKOS Event Plaza, Saitama, Japan

DDT held a show just outside AKOS shopping mall in Saitama. There was a KFC in the background the entire time which made me quite hungry. In a well-worked main event, Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) and Kazuma Sumi faced 37KAMIINA (To-y & Yuki Ueno) and Shinya Aoki. Ueno won with the frog splash on Sumi. Even on a three-match card, Kazuki Hirata found a way to be in the second match as he teamed with HARASHIMA and Soma Takao against Schadenfreude International (Antonio Honda, Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada). It was a standard match with all the usual antics: elastic ribbons, missed splashes, Tokyo Go and Gongitsune attacks.

Yuki Ishida kept on picking up momentum ahead of his tag team title challenge as he pinned Daichi Sato in the middle of the ring with the Flaming Palm. Ishida and Daichi, both members of D Generations, showed off that they would probably have a pretty good D Generations main event against each other. They had teamed up together the day before, and have teamed together before on D Generations, but not ever had a singles match against each other.

© DDT

14th October 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

The wacky world of Sanshiro Takagi’s side project continued, with the explicit goal of trying to bring back the “old vibes of early DDT” in the late 90s and early 2000s, which is obvious when you look up and down the cards that Takagi puts together. This show was better than the last, which I did not enjoy, and in particular had a great main event with Shinya Aoki taking Yuji Nagata to a 30-minute time-limit draw focussed on mat wrestling and the back-and-forth of trying to secure a pin or a submission hold. Overall I’d say the show still has some ways to go.

Team Shonandai (Suwama & TJPW’s Yuki Kamifuku), named after a station in Fujisawa as both are from there, teamed up to take on the Uptown Wrestling duo of Kuroshio TOKYO Japan and Momoko Hanazono. This match was quite fun, Shonandai were total heels and played off well against Uptown.

Sanshiro Takagi made his return against Muneori Sawa. He was beaten within 30 seconds, so GM Hisaya Imabayashi ordered them to restart the match so he could get the most out of his ticket that he paid for to see the match. As they approached the 5-minute time-limit on the restart, the GM forced the timekeeper to not ring the bell. Sawa won with the manji-gatame. Takagi announced their next show at Shinjuku FACE on 29th December, with Sawa, Takagi and Jun Kasai teaming up against Abe, Kuroshio and Nagata. Also on that show, Takashi Sasaki, FREEDOMS President and DDT legend, will re-unite with MIKAMI against a team to be announced. MIKAMI and Sasaki were mostly rivals but held the KO-D Tag Titles together in 2001. MIKAMI teamed with FREEDOMS wrestler Jun Masaoka on this show against the Brahman Brothers and Ryoma Tsukamoto & Shota in a three-way tag match. Mac Matsushita picked up another win on Takagi’s show as he teamed with Gym Trainer Kotoka against Bryan Ishizaka and Fuminori Abe.

© DDT

23rd October 2025
Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

DDT were back at the park for the first time since 2nd September, and the last “Beer Garden” of 2025, for one of my favourite gimmicks – King of Drunk. It’s basically an event where the wrestlers get drunk, with shots every 1 minute, and the last one surviving in the middle of the ring wins. Some of the wrestlers are great at acting drunk, in particular Daisuke Sasaki. I do think they are drinking shoot beer, but obviously exaggerating the effects of it (unless they have somehow managed to put water in closed cans of beer). Sasaki won the tournament in summer along with Chris Brookes and HARASHIMA as the match ended in a draw as they all got too drunk. MAO won the spring tournament, resulting in a King of Drunk 2025 Final between all four. Referee Matsui also joins in with the drinking.

They started trying to wrestle, keyword trying, but ended up trying to pin the referee before more cans of beer arrived. The funniest spot of every Drunk match is Daisuke Sasaki trying a cartwheel handspring and giving up half way through landing on his ass. After that, the shots of spirit started arriving. MAO tried to call for a “brainbuster” but forgot the “buster” part so just kept repeating “brain.” He did not realise Chris had escaped the hold. After about a minute, MAO saw Chris out of the hold and said “Eh?” before getting slapped around the face. After some more shots, MAO placed Chris onto a cart while singing the Mario Kart theme song. They weren’t moving, although I bet he thought he was going real fast. After all were totally smashed, GM Hisaya Imabayashi came in to ask them if they thought it was going too far. Referee Matsui, also drunk, tried to beat up the GM, but the GM threw him out. Throughout the match, music had been playing at random intervals where all wrestlers would have to start dancing. While the GM was scolding them, the music played, and he flawlessly executed the dance routine and beat up the drunk wrestlers, until HARASHIMA put him in an arm lock. HARASHIMA then hit a Somato on all three other drunk wrestlers, but fell to the floor. All the drunk wrestlers fell on top of him to pin him. Since Sasaki was bottom of the pile, he was awarded the win and became the new King of Drunk 2025.

Daichi Sato racked up another main event as he teamed with another DDT young standout in Takeshi Masada against Shinya Aoki & KO-D Openweight Champion Yuki Ueno. Halfway through the match, all the wrestlers swapped out, with Ishida (Masada), Sumi (Daichi), Hirata (Aoki) and To-y (Ueno) subbing in, pretending to be their chosen wrestlers with the same gear. The Daichis later teamed up together for some double teams. This was a great match showcasing the future of DDT, in particular Daichi and Masada. I suspect this was booked on purpose to highlight those two. Ueno beat Daichi with the WR while Aoki had Masada in the Aoki clutch.

KANON met Kazuki Hirata in a singles match. KANON did not want to dance, but Hirata did, as it was the last “Beer Garden” of 2025. KANON tried to break Hirata’s glasses but then they started speaking to him and convincing him about the joys of dancing. A Disney-like musical number started about, presumably about the joy of dancing as Hirata tried to sing to KANON. KANON was convinced and finally put the glasses on. Hirata tried to cheap shot him but he was so weak he bounced off KANON and KANON did the Tokyo Go dance. Hirata tried once again to hit him over the head with a chair while KANON was dancing, but KANON didn’t even notice and the chair ricocheted off him, knocking Hirata out with his own chair strike. KANON turned around and saw Hirata on the ground, oblivious to what had happened and pinned him for the win. Comedy enjoyers are spoiled with DDT and Hirata in particular. It never feels stale and always gets a pop.

DAMNATION T.A. (Hideki Okatani, Ilusion & MJ Paul) took on three big boys of DDT (Jun Akiyama, Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya). It did not go well for them, in particular, Ilusion, who was submitted by Higuchi’s Brain Claw. To-y, Yuki Iino and Yuki Ishida were in a three-way where the phrases “Come on!”, “I am The Apex!” and “Dosukoi!” were banned. Those are the catchphrases of those three participants, respectively. They fell back to other catchphrases which Ishida also banned. For the rest of the match they said variations of their catchphrases, but Iino slipped up towards the end as after a ref bump, ref Matsui woke up and heard Iino saying his catchphrase, leading him to lose the match. Hinata Kasai, Kazuma Sumi, Rukiya and Yuya Koroku had full creative freedom in the opener to have whatever type of match they wanted to have. As it was Sumi’s 3rd anniversary match, he chose the rule where only a school boy counts as a finish. After pinning Rukiya with a deep schoolboy, Sumi said that he would reach the top of DDT using the school boy.

© DDT

8th November 2025
ACROS Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan
Recommended Match: Daisuke Sasaki, Ilusion & Konosuke Takeshita vs. HARASHIMA, Kazuma Sumi & MAO

In the main event, AEW and New Japan global star, Konosuke Takeshita, teamed with DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki & Ilusion) to face a familiar foe in HARASHIMA, as well as Kazuma Sumi & MAO. The backstory behind the pairing is that Takeshita used to train Ilusion. This match was so great. Takeshita did not take it easy as he worked hard with both HARASHIMA and Kazuma Sumi. This match was a chance for Sumi to work with Takeshita for the very first time, and it was absolutely glorious. I loved every moment as Sumi ragdolled for Takeshita’s offence, but Sumi also had the crowd on his side during his fast-paced lucha-style comebacks. One of Sumi’s best moves was countering Takeshita’s wheelbarrow German suplex into a Canadian destroyer. Just disgusting. Sumi is my favourite midcarder in the world, and this was a Sumi showcase.

In a three-way, Kazuki Hirata, Takeshi Masada and To-y decided to have a bit more fun and play a game. In line with To-y’s gambling addiction, they gambled to see which person would be able to be pinned with a 1-count, a 3-count or a 5-count. Masada drew the short straw, meaning he could be beaten with a 1-count, while Hirata lucked out and needed to stay down for 5 seconds to lose. To-y and Hirata teamed up to try and get it over with and pin Masada in a second, but they started fighting. Only the beautiful, handsome face of Masada could talk them out of it. Hirata was corpsing when Masada was talking them out of it. You know you have some comedic chops if you’re corpsing Hirata. Hirata tried to distract Masada, MAO-style, and then lowblow him, but Masada did not fall for it and gave him a big boot. Masada pinned Hirata for the 3-count and started celebrating, until referee Matsui told him it had to be a 5-count. Masada looked so sad. Masada was desperate and tried Antonio Honda’s Gongitsune attack. He wrote the dirty story down on the back of a poster so he could recite it. Hirata’s selling of Masada’s story telling was hilarious as he followed Masada’s dong flinging around (it was his forearm representing a penis). After the failed attempt, both Masada and Hirata tried to pin Hirata but he kicked out at 4 each time. Finally, Hirata tapped out to his weakness, any submission hold. Great match.

Hideki Okatani pinned Yuki Ishida with the running boot in the opener, which I’m not sure he has done very often. Ishida is back to exactly what he was doing before his big tag team title match. The ace and double champion, Yuki Ueno, had a singles match against Tomomitsu Matsunaga…? It kinda went hard. Daichi Sato, now teaming with the person he went to war with in Sapporo, Kazusada Higuchi, faced Chris Brookes and the recently returned Sanshiro Takagi. Chris and Higuchi’s chemistry, built from their KO-D Openweight Title match earlier this year, was on full display. You just know Takagi booked this match to go up against Daichi. Wait a sec. He pinned Daichi. No. Not like that Takagi-san. Bad Takagi-san.

© DDT

9th November 2025
Kumamoto Castle Hall Civic Hall, Kumamoto, Japan
Recommended Match: Kazusada Higuchi vs. Yuya Koroku

In the main event, Konosuke Takeshita, HARASHIMA and Sanshiro Takagi faced Daichi Sato, To-y and Yuki Ishida. As with Takeshita and Ilusion the night before, here Takeshita wanted to face one of his former students, Ishida, rather than team with him. Part of that is that it was Ishida’s hometown and Takeshita wanted to ensure he could shine, and shine he did, especially in the finishing stretch. The old men (and Takeshita) lined up to deliver signature moves to Ishida but his D Generations friends saved the pin. He then went one on one with the Alpha with the crowd behind him. Ishida threw himself at Takeshita, attempting his Dosukoi palm strikes. Takeshita unleashed the world class elbow, with one woman in the crowd almost jumping out of her seat, before Takeshita pinned Ishida with the Raging Fire.

Kazusada Higuchi and Yuya Koroku were tasked with having the best match of the show and delivered. Koroku had to fight for his life against Higuchi. Every so often, one of HARASHIMA or Higuchi decides to roll up to a house show and make a younger wrestler look like they have the heart of a gladiator. It’s one of the best ways to get a wrestler over with the crowds, but is quite tricky to pull off without feeling like a squash. HARASHIMA and Higuchi excel in that role. The finish was excellent as Higuchi, slowly over the course of a minute with extreme struggle, transitioned Koroku’s signature Triangle Lancer into a brutal single leg Boston Crab to submit Koroku.

Yuki Ueno faced his former partner MAO as well as Kazuki Hirata in a three-way. MAO and Hirata liked their invisible man wrestling gimmick from Osaka a few weeks back that they repeated it here. It won’t get old. It’s very impressive how in sync they are. They upped the stakes this time as Hirata hit his invisible version of MAO with a Bomaye Knee and Styles Clash. Ueno then put the glasses on, seemingly gaining the power of the Force and disposing of his opponents while Tokyo Go was playing in the background. This whole match was just comedic chaos.

In the opener Kazuma Sumi faced the man who had been terrorising his nipples since his return to the promotion, Demus. This was the match I learnt that referee Matsui’s Spanish is pretty good. I had not seen any of Demus prior to this DDT run and he is supremely charismatic and fits the promotion well. This was a great lucha showcase for Sumi.

Masada got quite a noticeable pop when beating MJ Paul in singles action, meaning the crowd at least saw Paul as a big enough threat for it to be considered an important victory.

D Generations 7
11th November 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

One of my favourite shows, D Generations, returned for a 7th installment at a much more packed Shinjuku FACE than D Generations 4. New Japan’s young talent came out to play as in a great main event, Kosei Fujita teamed up with his friend Takeshi Masada against DAMNATION T.A. (Hideki Okatani & Ilusion). Okatani and Fujita were awesome together. Masada pinned Ilusion after Fujita took out Okatani with a moonsault. Also on the show, young lions Katsuya Murashima and Daiki Nagai were in action. Murashima teamed up with Koroku against Kumadori and the Human Thumb, Ryoma Tsukamoto. It was interesting to see Kumadori on a D Generations show, but I suppose he’s not as big of a star as Kaisai Takechi, or even close to it. Koroku tapped out the Human Thumb with the chicken wing arm submission. Thumb wasn’t happy and brawled with Koroku after the bell, before beating up his own teammate, Kumadori. Nagai fared well against Rukiya, showing off his charisma in the early stages of the bout as he bullied Rukiya outside of the ring and chirped at the referee, before tapping Rumiya out with a brutal Boston crab in just over 6 minutes. Rukiya couldn’t even win against a New Japan young lion.

Two heavyweights of the D Generations roster, To-y and Daichi Sato, clashed in a singles match. Normally when this happens, you can expect it to be a 15-minute time-limit draw. Instead, To-y definitively pinned Daichi with the Kojima Impact. This was a great match, although I wish To-y would cut out the Kaito Kiyomiya no-sell. Kazuma Sumi and Yuki Ishida beat GanPro duo Munetatsu Nakamura and rookie Sentaro Motojima in a great match. Nakamura is surely headed towards a DDT deal. Ali Najima, a very impressive rookie hailing out of Sportiva in Nagoya, defeated DDT’s own rookie Hinata Kasai. Hinata is by no means a prodigy, but he is also someone that can improve and come into his own. It’s also important to note that growing in DDT is not only about in-ring skills, and Hinata has not had a chance to unleash his comedy chops yet.

“Utan Festival 2025”
16th November 2025
JR Omori Station East Exit Plaza, Tokyo, Japan

DDT held their once-a-year show outside Omori station in Tokyo, which featured the annual defence of the eponymous World Omori Title. As the title is held by the healing Masahiro Takanashi, an Interim Title match was held between Antonio Honda and Kazuki Hirata. It was a typical Honda and Hirata match, meaning it was great fun. They played all the hits, Gongitsune and Tokyo Go, before Hirata won with the Miracle One-Shot Cradle. It is also tradition for a battle royal to be held to determine the challenger for next year. That was contested between Toru Owashi, Yuki Iino, Soma Takao, Demus, Ilusion and Tomomitsu Matsunaga. A kid from the audience got involved and looked very pleased with himself after he got in a punch on Demus. Iino eliminated himself after being traumatised by Demus biting his nipples, so he ran the ropes unstoppably like a scared horse until Ilusion pulled down the top rope, eliminating Iino. Ilusion won the battle royal so he will challenge Hirata next year.

Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) and their honorary third member who teams with them quite a bit, Kazuma Sumi, faced MAO’s old friends in 37KAMIINA (To-y & Yuki Ueno) as well as Yuya Koroku. This was your classic go-go-go full-workrate main event. And it was great as it was a collection of some of the promotion’s best workers. Yuki Ueno got the pin on Kazuma Sumi.

Another Utan Festival meant the return of Rikidozan’s grandson, Chikara, who is unimaginably unathletic. It was used as a bit where he struggled to land a diving chop onto Ishida, and otherwise stuck to what works, a chopping battle with Higuchi. After the match he was on his knees bowing to Jun and HARASHIMA, and HARASHIMA was just looking at him like “what are you doing?” Takeshi Masada finally got to play the bully rather than be the one getting bullied as he taught rookie Hinata Kasai a lesson in a singles match. Masada won with the running knee strike although Hinata got in more than I expected, including a couple of nearfalls.

“Gorgeous Night”
23rd November 2025
Fukushima Toyota Crown Arena, Fukushima, Japan

DDT returned for another instalment in their (mostly) annual “Gorgeous Night” show in Fukushima that involves 64-year-old Gorgeous Matsuno. Matsuno produces and organises the show with help from DDT, and it includes local sponsors and communities. After the devastating 2011 earthquake, Matsuno vowed to hold the event every year as long as he is an active wrestler. Matsuno teamed with MAO and Toru Owashi against Antonio Honda, Jun Akiyama and Yuki Ueno in the main event. Matsuno said that he would retire if he lost. This match had so much heat. That would be because Akiyama cranked in a standard wrist lock and the crowd knew Matsuno could tap at any moment, and he did, ending the match and his career in seconds. They held a 10-bell salute for Matsuno’s career. His partner said he can’t quit after something like that, so they restarted the match where he endured Akiyama’s wristlock. He would go on to defeat Antonio Honda, with the aid of Chinese medicine taken during the match, like Popeye and spinach. After the match, he repeated his wish to continue being an active wrestler for the rest of his life.

Despite being a produce show focusing on vibes more than workrate, Daichi Sato and The Apex (Yuki Iino and Yukio Naya) alongside KANON and Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida) did not get that memo as they chopped, kicked and beat each other into oblivion. We were treated once again to the Daichi-Higuchi match up, although it was more of a tease rather than the full blown out war they showed us in Sapporo in September. Higuchi put Daichi away with the Brain Claw Slam (the coolest move in wrestling?)

Chris Brookes teamed with TJPW’s hometown girl Arisu Endo against Kazuki Hirata and GanPro’s Moeka Haruhi. Endo, an Aizuwakamatsu native, had her own TJPW homecoming show a few months ago, while Haruhi donated a kidney to her sister who lives in Fukushima. Endo got booed in her own hometown when she dropkicked Hirata as soon as he put his glasses on. Endo put the glasses on, but Haruhi knocked them off. Haruhi then put the glasses on but Chris knocked them off. The crowd started chanting for Chris to put them on. Chris put them on but then it came full circle as Hirata knocked the glasses off Chris. Hirata then said they should do it together and handed out glasses for them all. Endo looked like she was having the time of her life doing the dance. Chris gave Hirata a shotgun dropkick into the corner which Hirata sold like death (that was hilarious). Endo gave Hirata the Ju no Okite for the win. It was a very fun match.

The Belgian duo of MBM & Sombra pulled out the Shibata gimmick of using a phone to translate to communicate to the opposition team of Takeshi Masada and To-y. There were some clever spots during this match, such as MBM asking the crowd to be quiet so he could dislocate To-y’s finger, but he would make a clicking noise with his tongue and the roof of his mouth at the same time. That drew some screams.

Kazuma Sumi’s Homecoming!
24th November 2025
Mie Cultural Center Multipurpose Hall, Tsu, Japan

Kazuma Sumi completed his first ever homecoming as DDT held a show in Tsu, Mie. Aside from the main event, this was a standard house show – fun but nothing you need to go out of your way to see. Sumi was in the main event with Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) against DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani and Ilusion), which also served as a preview of the KO-D Tag Team Title match at Korakuen Hall on 30th November. Okatani and Ilusion were the perfect heels for Sumi’s homecoming. Okatani and Sumi have had some of the most memorable in-ring back and forths for me in 2025, and Ilusion is just a great dickhead. Ilusion strangled Sumi with fans’ towels and then, just for fun, snatched away other fans’ towels and threw them in the air. Sumi pinned Ilusion with the inverted 450 splash. Great performance from Ilusion and Sumi.

Daichi Sato got to test himself against the triple champion and ace Yuki Ueno in a semi-main event tag team match. Ueno was with To-y while Jun Akiyama backed up Daichi. Daichi completely dominated To-y for much of the match. It was refreshing to see Daichi get the better of his D Generations “senior”. He then went toe-to-toe with Ueno and at no point looked out of his depth. Unfortunately, it was too big of an ask to have Sato pin To-y, who is the D Generations guy getting the biggest push right now. To-y pinned Sato with the spinning flatliner. At least Daichi beat To-y’s ass at the start of the match. This was a great Daichi showcase.

On the undercard, Schadenfreude International (Antonio Honda, Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) faced Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi, Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ishida). Schadenfreude sprinted at Harimao before the bell, but of course, Anton hurt his leg. He proceeded with the Gongitsune attack but was countered by Harimao. Yoshimura looked like a beast as he tapped Anton out with a headlock.

• Go Shiozaki, Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & XYON vs. Jun Saito, Kento Miyahara, Yuma Anzai & Yuma Aoyagi – 14th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Atsu@Haya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) vs. W Yuma (Yuma Anzai & Yuma Aoyagi) – 22nd November at Korakuen Hall
• Hokuto Omori vs. Kento Miyahara – 3rd November at APA Hotel & Resort Sapporo
• Naoya Nomura vs. Ryuki Honda – 14th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Dan Tamura vs. Shota Kofuji – 14th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Hikaru Sato & Ryo Inoue vs. Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi – 14th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Kento Miyahara vs. Ryuki Honda – 15th September at Korakuen Hall
• Saikyo Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kento Miyahara) vs. Maximum The Dragon (Naoya Nomura & Ryuki Honda) – 22nd November at Korakuen Hall
• Go Shiozaki vs. Kento Miyahara – 22nd October at Korakuen Hall
• Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai – 23rd September at Arena Tachikawa Tachiki
• Jun Saito vs. Kento Miyahara – 23rd September at Arena Tachikawa Tachiki

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

All Asia Tag Team Title:
MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka defeat Atsuki Aoyagi & Yuma Aoyagi (14:02)

Royal Tournament 2025 Semi Final:
Kento Miyahara defeats Daisuke Sekimoto (5:07)

Royal Tournament 2025 Semi Final:
Ryuki Honda defeats Ren Ayabe (9:08)

Davey Boy Smith Jr., Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Naruki Doi & Seigo Tachibana defeat Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi), Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji (9:58)

Baka No Jidai (Hideki Suzuki, Hikaru Sato & Kengo Mashimo) defeat HAVOC (Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & Xyon) (11:01)

Jun Saito, Rising HAYATO & Yuma Anzai defeat Dan Tamura, Naoya Nomura & Suwama (11:57)

Royal Tournament 2025 Final Match:
Kento Miyahara defeats Ryuki Honda (16:11)

Davey Boy Smith Jr., Fuminori Abe, Seiki Yoshioka & Shotaro Ashino defeat Ren Ayabe, Rising HAYATO, Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji (7:14)

GAORA TV Title Battle Royal:
Kuroshio TOKYO Japan defeats Takashi (c) and Aizawa NO. 1 and Hokuto Omori and Kikutaro and Kuma Arashi and Naruki Doi and Seigo Tachibana and Senor Saito (15:01)

Daisuke Sekimoto defeats Dan Tamura (11:12)

Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi defeat Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai (17:30)

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title:
Atsuki Aoyagi (c) defeats MUSASHI (17:20)

AJPW World Tag Team Title:
HAVOC (Oddyssey & Xyon) defeat Baka No Jidai (Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo) (c) (17:06)

Triple Crown Title:
Kento Miyahara defeats Jun Saito (c) (22:57)

Saito Brothers (Jun Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito) defeat Baka No Jidai (Hikaru Sato, Kengo Mashimo & Seigo Tachibana) (10:10)

Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan defeat ATM, Dan Tamura & Shota Kofuji (10:36)

ELPIDA (Rising HAYATO & Ryuki Honda) defeat MUSASHI & Ren Ayabe (12:28)

Go Shiozaki & Shotaro Ashino defeat Hideki Suzuki & Kento Miyahara by DQ (3:17)

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title:
Atsuki Aoyagi (c) defeats Ryo Inoue (20:07)

AJPW World Tag Team Title:
HAVOC (Oddyssey & Xyon) (c) defeat Yuma Anzai & Yuma Aoyagi (22:56)

© All Japan Pro Wrestling

“Anniversary Series” 2025
14th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo Japan
Recommended Matches: Dan Tamura vs. Shota Kofuji, Hikaru Sato & Ryo Inoue vs. Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi, Naoya Nomura vs. Ryuki Honda, HAVOC (Go Shiozaki, Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & XYON) vs. Jun Saito, Kento Miyahara and W Yuma (Yuma Anzai & Yuma Aoyagi)…yeah this show was good.

All Japan’s Shin-Kiba shows have had the loudest crowds in Japan all year. I say that confidently, because they are the shows I remember that I have to lower my volume because the mics peak with how loud some of the cheers are for wrestlers. Despite what you think about the All Japan product in 2025, the domestic fans that attend the shows love it. In saying that, at Shin-Kiba, the fans have a reason to be loud because the action is almost always fantastic. These shows are my guilty pleasure. Can All Japan just have a permanent residence at Shin-Kiba so their product is always good? This show was excellent from top to bottom (I love Tachibana but I skipped the match with Kikutaro, yell at me later in the Newsletter channel on Discord).

In the opener, the Osaka Style Wrestling rookie, Shota Kofuji, faced hard-hitting junior heavyweight Dan Tamura. Dan did what Dan does best – hit hard. The cool part about the match was Shota returning fire. He popped the crowd with a great arm drag Fisherman suplex combo. This match was sick (complimentary). Shota fought through hell and came close to winning before succumbing to a disgusting lariat into a Death Valley Driver from Dan.

Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) took on Hikaru Sato & Ryo Inoue. If you need any indication as to how transformative Shin-Kiba shows are for All Japan, then look no further than this match where Hokuto Omori wrestled Hikaru Sato completely seriously for several minutes to open this match. Yes, you read that right. Aside from Hokuto trying to tap out Sato, this match also had Inoue and Arashi go hard, with Arashi’s diving senton having one of the biggest “yelps” possible from the crowd. Inoue and Hokuto carried the match home with some electric sequences and the crowd on the edge of their seats, while Arashi held Sato in an Argentine backbreaker outside of the ring to prevent him from breaking up a pin. What a randomly great match.

Ren Ayabe, Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO faced Hideki Suzuki and Mu-chan & Sei-chan (MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka). Atsuki and HAYATO were due to face Mu-chan & Sei-chan on 22nd October at Korakuen Hall so this was a preview match. Hideki was a bit unhinged, deciding to attack MUSASHI at random when he felt like it, which put him at edge. The action went from comedy to serious in the closing minutes as they seemed to wrestle at 2x speed. I double checked to make sure I hadn’t fast forwarded by force of habit when watching All Japan. MUSASHI pinned HAYATO with Niten Ichiryu, getting his win back from HAYATO on the Saitama 11th October show. Another pretty good match!

Naoya Nomura and Ryuki Honda started off at a blistering pace before taking their foot off the gas because it seemed a running elbow from Nomura knocked Honda a bit loopy. He laboured around for a bit unable to stand up, then Nomura pinned him but Honda kicked out and eventually regained where he was. They started throwing bombs in the last few moments. Honda struck Nomura with a lariat to the back of the head and a snap German suplex, but Nomura popped up immediately and threw Honda with his own German suplex. Honda then proceeded to do everything in his power to sever Nomura’s head from his body with a barrage of lariats. Nomura tried to knock Honda out with forearms but Honda kept fighting back. One of the forearms downed Honda, but Nomura knew it wasn’t enough so hoisted Honda up for a Death Valley Driver to take the win. This match just made me smile. Match of the night. What is this show??

The new-look, full-strength HAVOC (Go Shiozaki, Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & XYON) faced Jun Saito, Kento Miyahara and the Yumas (Yuma Anzai & Yuma Aoyagi). Kento had been pissed off at Shiozaki showing up, confused at what he wanted, and accepted Shiozaki’s Triple Crown challenge which would take place at the 22nd October Korakuen Hall. This match was by far HAVOC’s best performance as a unit so far. In particular, it was Oddyssey’s best performance as he finally lived up to the moment, understanding the occasion of the super hot crowd, with slightly less taunting and yapping than usual. It started exactly as the previous match ended – with pure chaos. Once things were more controlled back in the ring, Ashino and Anzai showed off some back-and-forth with Ashino throwing Anzai around with side suplexes, picking up where they left off in January when they were on course to have a barnburner but Anzai got shoot knocked out, ending the match early. The crowd were going absolutely nuts in this match as Anzai was selling for each member of HAVOC. Every time HAVOC wanted to tag Shiozaki in, Kento came out of nowhere to boot Shiozaki in the face, off the apron. Shiozaki would finally get tagged in alongside Kento, with Kento wasting no motion to drop Shiozaki to the mat. Kento tried to use weapons again but his teammates held him back. I felt the match slowed down slightly once Shiozaki was selling, especially after such a hot start. Once Shiozaki started fighting back, the match picked up intensity again as he attempted to create a cavity in Aoyagi’s chest with heavy-handed chops. The crowd became unglued for Aoyagi’s comeback. However, it wasn’t enough as Shoizaki lariated Aoyagi into a German suplex from Ashino. Shiozaki finished Aoyagi off with one last lariat. Scratch my previous match of the night. It was this. What a crazy show. Kento said he hadn’t forgiven Shiozaki for vacating their tag belts over 10 years ago, the first tag belts Kento had ever won.

Yuma Aoyagi defeats Shota Kofuji (9:33)

Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi, Takashi & Tokyo Yankees (Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana) defeat Dan Tamura, Hikaru Sato, Saito Brothers & Yuko Miyamoto (Jun Saito & Naruki Doi) (10:50)

HAVOC (Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & Xyon) defeat Baka No Jidai (Fuminori Abe, Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo) (7:18)

Ren Ayabe & Talos defeat Naoya Nomura & Ryuki Honda (10:55)

Yuma Anzai defeats Ryo Inoue (12:12)

All Asia Tag Team Title:
MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka (c) defeat Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO (16:15)

Triple Crown Title:
Kento Miyahara (c) defeats Go Shiozaki (22:56)

26th October 2025
Hamabun Gymnasium, Hokuto City, Hokkaido, Japan

G Boys (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & Seigo Tachibana) had their first preview against Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara and Big is Justice (Ren Ayabe & Talos) ahead of the Hokuto and Kento match on the 3rd November. Given they were in Hokuto’s home prefecture, he had a wide range of support and Kento’s team heeled it up at times, although Kento was too popular to sustain the heat. Kento picked up the first preview tag win, killing Tachibana with the Shutdown Suplex.

AtsuHaya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) faced Hentai Men (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) in a preview for the World’s Strongest Tag League. Despite a rare early tumble between Atsuki and Sato, HAYATO and Dan got this match back on track. Atsuki directly tapped to Sato. Atsuki would later defend against Sato on the 29th. Also in previews for the Tag League, HAVOC (Go Shiozaki, Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & XYON) went up against Mu-chan & Sei-chan (MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka) and W Yuma (Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai). XYON tries his best, bless him, but he had some Tanga Loa style ‘hitting air’ strikes in this match. Needless to say, this match was not as good as the Shin-Kiba HAVOC eight-man and this went at a snail’s pace in comparison.

Ryo Inoue had a fun, hard hitting match with Ryuki Honda before succumbing to the Final Vent. The Aggressive Cats (Hideki Suzuki & Shota Kofuji) started their journey as a tag team on this show in a singles match against each other. One of the great signs of a rookie is their ability to withstand punishment, and Kofuji smiling as Hideki slapped him around the face is one way of proving you have that. After wrestling on the mat, Suzuki blasted Kofuji with stiff elbows to the gut before pinning him with the double underhook suplex.

27th October 2025
Tomakomai City General Gymnasium, Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan

HAVOC faced G Boys in an eight-man tag match. It should be noted that the entire motivation for Hokuto-gun and Uptown Wrestling coming together was, in Hokuto Omori’s own words, to take down HAVOC. Hokuto would be kept strong heading into his Triple Crown match as he tapped out XYON to cheers from the crowd.

W Yuma faced Hentai Man in a Tag League preview where Dan and Anzai impressed before Anzai picked up the win. Big is Justice faced Mu-chan and Sei-chan in separate singles matches previewing the Tag League. This is when I realised that Big is Justice may just win the whole Tag League, or at least make the finals. Talos destroyed Yoshioka. MUSASHI had a bit of a better time against Ayabe, but not enough to take a win.

For some reason, Hideki Suzuki is doing a Bruiser Brody/Gianni Valletta tribute gimmick as he runs through the crowd with his towel. Maybe he saw Gianni return on a recent Dragongate show and thought it looked fun. He teamed with Jun Saito and Inoue against Kento, HAYATO and Atsuki.

28th October 2025
Yotsuba Arena Tokachi, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan

In Obihiro there were two titles at stake as the HAVOC vs. G Boys feud finally came to fruition. Firstly, Shotaro Ashino captured the GAORA TV Championship from G Boys member Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, as HAVOC accrued their second set of titles. Jiro entertained in the match as he ate a series of pitch perfect German suplexes from Ashino, before landing on his feet on the third attempt and dropping Ashino on his head. In the end, Ashino’s awesome suplexes and submission holds were too much for Jiro. There were some legitimately surprised faces in the crowd. Backstage, Jiro said he had one and a half belts left, as a fan told him the GLEAT tag team belts are only worth half a belt. You can read that as he is one half of a team so it’s one half of the title, or, GLEAT’s not a real promotion. Then, HAVOC defended their World Tag Team Titles against Hokuto Omori and Kuma Arashi. Given Oddyssey’s proclivity to become the centre of attention, and my absolute aversion to it, this match missed the mark for me. Hokuto-gun have been firing on all cylinders recently and even they could not put on a great match with these champions.

© All Japan Pro Wrestling

29th October 2025
Windhill Kushiro Super, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan

All Japan returned to the hometown of Taishin Nagao, who died in a tragic accident on 7th September. While this was a house show rather than a big show, there were clearly some wrestlers that stepped up an extra gear for the occasion, and also some special performances. Rei Saito performed in the ring with guest performer Hanawa. Hanawa had written ‘Docchi?’ for the Saito Brothers. It was Rei’s first ever time performing in the ring. The show also had one title match, as Atsuki Aoyagi successfully defended against Hikaru Sato. Atsuki sold for far too long in a match that had a very slow starting pace. Selling is cool, but this wasn’t interesting, especially when you know he is going to make the same comeback as always to win (miss a few moonsaults, hit one, then finish with a Firebird splash). Atsuki paid tribute to Taishin saying he would make sure that the juniors become even better than before. The show was capped off with an all-star main event in tribute to Taishin Nagao with all of his closest friends, as Hideki Suzuki, Ren Ayabe, Ryo Inoue & Yuma Anzai fought with passion with Jun Saito, Kento Miyahara, Shota Kofuji & XYON. After the match, Kento got Taishin chants going before a ten-bell salute was offered in memory of Taishin. A theme song that was never used for his matches played as the arena chanted his name. That was a touching end to the memorial show.

Elsewhere, Talos continued to entertain in a fun three-way with Uptown boys Seicho Tachibana and Jiro. Talos has been one of the better gaijin imports All Japan has brought in.

31st October 2025
Asahikawa Industry Promotion Centre, Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan

This was the most “house show” of shows on the tour up to this point with not much to report, as well as the subsequent two shows. They were mainly a stopgap between Taishin’s memorial on the 29th and the big show on the 3rd November. It mainly focused on preview tags for the Tag League tournament with no outstanding matches. AtsuHaya faced G Boys (Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana) in preparation for the Tag League. Jiro wiped his hand under his arm pit and wiped it on HAYATO’s face. He also put his hands in his hands and smeared it on HAYATO. Each time, there were HUGE screams from the audience, like children shrieking. They must have allowed in children for free at this show, as it was such a loud reaction.

1st November 2025
Bihoro Town Sunny Centre, Bihoro, Hokkaido, Japan

The second of “nothing much” house shows continued in Bihoro, although this had some story progression with G Boys (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & Seigo Tachibana) facing Kento Miyahara, Ryuki Honda & Shota Kofuji in a Triple Crown preview. Rookie Kofuji was quite over going up against Tachibana and Arashi with loud Kofuji chants. Kento even allowed Kofuji to send the crowd home to loud chants. I had to check to see if it was his hometown, but Kofuji is from Tochigi, not close to Hokkaido. Hokuto wasn’t as popular in this Hokkaido town as it was all about Kento. Andreza Giant Panda made a All Japan Hokkaido tour appearance for the second year in a row as they teamed with Kumagori Hokkai, who wrestles in a bear costume, and Jun Saito against Hideki Suzuki and Big Is Justice (Ayabe & Talos). Suzuki is doing a gimmick where he behaves as a cat so there were technically three animal-based gimmicks in this match. Of course, in a match that had two animal gimmicks, Suzuki stopped the cat stuff.

2nd November 2025
Iwamizawa Event Hall Akarennga, Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, Japan

The last stop before Sapporo was even more standard than the two shows before. Top seeds in the Tag League had a preview as W Yuma (Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai) went up against Big Is Justice. Aoyagi was pinned on his birthday while Talos sang happy birthday to him. Kofuji continued his solid tour in an opener with Jun Saito which led to a big body slam spot the crowd popped for. Kofuji was really picking up momentum on this tour leading to his Asia Tag Team Title match in Sapporo.

3rd November 2025
APA Hotel & Resort Sapporo, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

The only show of the tour to be broadcast live , and the tour’s biggest, took place in the capital of Hokkaido in Sapporo hosting the Triple Crown Title match between Hokuto Omori and Kento Miyahara. Hokuto entered in new all-white gear and his former MMA coach, Kenichi Yamamoto, presented him with flowers. While the crowd did love Kento, Hokuto, from Ebetsu just outside of Sapporo, had the strongest support of any Hokkaido crowd up to this point. They chanted Hokuto’s name at the beginning of the match and there were dueling chants throughout. Despite that, Kento played the bully as he dominated Hokuto and delivered a piledriver onto the apron, rousing support for the hometown hero. Hokuto rallied back with a razor sharp elbow to the champion, followed up by Kento selling Hokuto’s armbars like death. Kento’s selling was awesome in general. Kento looked panicked as Hokuto delivered his own Shutdown suplex into a dragon suplex, into his finisher, Muso Issen for the closest nearfall of the match. This was one of Hokuto’s best matches, which isn’t too surprising if you’ve watched him in recent months, as he was clearly gearing up to this. The next title challenge will be on New Year’s Eve.

Mu-chan & Sei-chan (MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka) successfully defended their All Asia Tag Team Titles against Aggressive Cats (Hideki Suzuki & Shota Kofuji) in a good match where it was all about Kofuji withstanding the onslaught of the champions. He was not as over as the previous shows, but still had strong support.

There was a set of preview tags for the Tag League with an all-out HAVOC clash and AtsuHaya against Big Is Justice. The latter team were completely patronising to AtsuHaya. Talos was super charismatic, talking in broken Japanese and cracking the crowd up. So it was a bit of an extended squash match, but at least it was entertaining. It did hurt a bit as HAYATO in particular has been outstanding this year, but alas, the big guys have to go over. In the HAVOC clash, puro legend Go Shiozaki and All Japan workhorse Shotaro Ashino worked overtime to put Oddyssey over. XYON pinned Ashino with the diving headbutt. Backstage, Inoue challenged Ashino for the GAORA TV belt, so it looks like that is back to being a division that has good matches.

The opener with Dan Tamura, W Yuma (Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai) against Jun Saito, Ryo Inoue & Ryuki Honda was great. There was hard-hitting action, Inoue looked awesome as he leathered Anzai with kicks, and Anzai taking names before dropping Inoue with the Gimlet with a bloodied nose looked awesome.

© All Japan Pro Wrestling

Yuma Anzai’s Homecoming!
16th November 2025
G Messe Gunma Exhibition Hall, Takasaki, Japan

The main event was Big Is Justice (Ren Ayabe & Talos) and MUSASHI against Kento Miyahara, Shota Kofuji and Yuma Anzai. I’m pretty certain this was Kofuji’s first main event in All Japan, so if he isn’t signed already from Osaka Style Wrestling, it’s as much as a done deal. In his hometown, Anzai looked like THE guy in this match. He showed more of his comedy chops than usual, doing the Abraham Simpson ‘walk in, hat down, see Talos, hat on, walk out’ meme. The crowd would hype him up to take Talos on. They then brawled around the arena where Talos looked like a horror movie killer stalking his prey and Anzai sold his boots off. Honestly, this was the best use of a big gaijin. Talos tagged in Ayabe to continue the assault, while Kento was just in the crowds enjoying the action. This was a super fun house show match and a very good homecoming main event.

Shotaro Ashino defended his GAORA TV Title against rising junior heavyweight Ryo Inoue. Let’s just say, thank whoever is above us in the skies for putting this title on Ashino. This match was great. Ashino looked like a beast as he dropped Inoue with lariats and release German suplexes. Inoue was a very good babyface that the crowd got behind. Inoue screamed in agony and tapped as Ashino cranked in the heel hook.

Elsewhere, Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & Takashi) defended their TV Six-Man Tag Team Titles against FUMA, Kikutaro and Yuma Aoyagi. The division is essentially an undercard comedy division where Hokuto-gun go up against some regional talent, sometimes random opponents. This was the latter. Yuma was exactly where he loves to be. FUMA tried to shoot Kuma with his gun, I guess because Kuma means bear, so this was like bear hunting? But it ricocheted off him and hit Takashi multiple times. There was a triple pin, with Yuma, FUMA and Hokuto all getting a pin but the referee only counted Hokuto’s pin so they retained. Why am I even writing about this? To the two people that read this, I am sorry.

World’s Strongest Tag League – Opening Night
22nd November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 1,327
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Saikyo Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kento Miyahara) vs. Maximum The Dragon (Naoya Nomura & Ryuki Honda), Atsu@Haya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) vs. W Yuma (Yuma Anzai & Yuma Aoyagi)

The annual World’s Strongest Tag League tournament kicked off with a strong audience at Korakuen Hall. This show comfortably beat my expectations and overall was an easy watch with some great matches. Outside of the 14th October Shin-Kiba show which I loved, I cannot remember many other All Japan shows in 2025 where I’d recommend more than one match. Maybe, I was just in the right mood. But that’s what consuming media is all about – you have to be ready to receive it. Watching a comedy in a foul mood isn’t as good an idea as it sounds.

The main event had potential to be one of All Japan’s best matches in the past few months. It would slightly depend on how hard Yuma Aoyagi wanted to go, as he teamed with his W Yuma teammate, Yuma Anzai to take on AtsuHaya, composed of Rising HAYATO and Yuma’s brother, Atsuki Aoyagi. Just so it’s clear, Yuma = Yuma Aoyagi and Anzai = Yuma Anzai. Yuma got dibs. The crowd chanted for “Aoyagi” to start the match. Classic. HAYATO has been the unsung hero of All Japan the last few months, so I was happy for him to get a big spot against a top team. He started by delivering one of his signature overhand chops to Anzai, who no-sold it and walked slowly towards HAYATO. That was awesome. Of course, my initial worry seemed to come to fruition as I did not enjoy Yuma’s control segment on HAYATO and felt that it deflated the momentum of the match. As soon as Anzai was back in there with HAYATO, the match felt immediately better. They were electric with each other, so much so that I just wanted a 20-minute singles match between the two. In fact, both Aoyagis just took the wind out of the sail of this match. It’s not that what they did was bad, it just paled massively in comparison to what HAYATO and Anzai achieved. Anzai was absolutely incredible. He is the guy. He is him. He’s the ace. Give him all the titles. Rename the promotion after him. I would say Anzai and HAYATO carried this to a “recommended match”, although Atsuki was actually quite good in the final stretch and the crowd were electric because of how over he is. Atsuki pinned Yuma with the Firebird Splash in an upset, with the junior heavyweights beating the heavyweights (which was the story going into the match).

Saikyo Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kento Miyahara), sporting a new name, faced Maximum The Dragon (Naoya Nomura & Ryuki Honda). DBS was sporting a new shaved haircut and had a bit of meanness to him to start off the match. This was a great, surprisingly hard-hitting match, the surprising part was that DBS would also be one of those working stiff. Nomura, a great wrestler who can go whenever he is allowed to, cut DBS in half with an awesome looking, full-speed spear. The finishing stretch of the match had a hot crowd with lots of close nearfalls, the classic Kento touch. Great stuff.

Tournament favourites Titans of Calamity (Ren Ayabe & Talos) faced the former AJPW World Tag Team Champions in Mashimon (Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo). Make no mistake about it, Talos has been a success. He is able to get the fans behind him if he needs to, but also, he is great at being mean enough to get the fans behind the babyface he is beating up. He’s been so successful that I am certain he wasn’t a Hideki Suzuki recruit. I thought Ayabe was good in this match, as Hideki brought out the nasty side of him leading him to lay in some razor sharp elbows. There were probably too many moments of nothing happening in this match to call it great though.

G Boys (Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Takashi) against the current AJPW World Tag Team Champions HAVOC (Oddyssey & XYON) seemed like, on paper, a match I would absolutely detest, however, I think they were smart in opening the show with a short match. After the opening ceremony when teams were walking to the back, the G Boys decided to try their luck and attack HAVOC, which immediately began the match. The momentum threw HAVOC off, but they eventually turned the tables and squashed G Boys. Even though my disdain for Oddyssey’s wrestling is strong, since it’s Jiro and Takashi, I could not care less and this match was totally satisfying.

Immediately after, more G Boys (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) tried their luck against the other pair of HAVOC (Go Shiozaki & Shotaro Ashino). Hokuto asked Shiozaki to shake his hand for what seemed like forever (maybe 90 seconds), before Shiozaki lariated Hokuto. Ashino was great, landing an awesome high-angle German suplex on Arashi. He later lifted Arashi up and launched him, causing Arashi to land onto Hokuto with a senton. While the crowd did really want Hokuto to win, it was never likely. Shiozaki pinned Hokuto with the Gowan Lariat.

World’s Strongest Tag League – Day 2
23rd November 2025
Kira Messe Numazu, Shizuoka, Japan

In the B block there was a “top of the table clash” as the champions Oddyssey & XYON faced AtsuHaya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO). AtsuHaya had just picked off a top team in W Yuma in the Korakuen Hall main event, so I suspected they’d get brought back down to Earth by the champions. This was the main event of this show. Oddyssey man-handled his smaller opponents after I had just watched them have an electric match with W Yuma. As I said, back to shitty reality. Just pointless crap. Oddyssey treating the Junior Heavyweight Champion and the lowkey MVP of All Japan in recent months like they were NXT extras immediately took me out of this match, and it was difficult to get back into it. I get it. They’re champs. They’re big. They’re strong. I would be fine if I knew this was leading somewhere, but I know it’s not. There will be no comeuppance. It’s just all a self-serving stream of ego slop. I’m not saying HAVOC no-sold, they didn’t. But the story they told was that it was never credible for one of AtsuHaya to go against one of HAVOC. If they tried, they would be smacked away like a fly. That’s a fine story, sometimes. Not every single HAVOC match. I’m just ranting now. XYON won with the diving headbutt.

Saikyo Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kento Miyahara) beat G Boys (Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Takashi). After Saikyo Bulldogs blew me away at Korakuen, this was a showcase for Takashi and Jiro’s comedy. Saikyo Bulldogs won with DBS’ diving headbutt.

In the A block, Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) faced Titans of Calamity (Ren Ayabe & Talos). It was hard not to see a Titans win going into this. This match was actually good, or at least better than I expected. Hokuto traded some stiff blows with Ayabe, and at one point Arashi lifted Talos up into a Torture Rack which got a huge pop. But, as expected, Titans got the win with their double chokeslam finisher.

Hentai Men (or something like that) (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) faced HAVOC (Go Shiozaki & Shotaro Ashino). It was a match that was mostly there, it certainly lost my attention. It wasn’t bad but it did not exactly grip me. Shiozaki and Hikaru worked most of the match together and there were some stiff chops, but it was mostly just a match. Shiozaki won with the Gowan Lariat.

On the undercard, Shota Kofuji continued his tour openers where he has a singles match against a top talent, this time it was Yuma Anzai. It was a good match in which the crowd loved it when Kofuji nailed Anzai with a bridging Fisherman suplex. Anzai got his own back, winning with a beautiful bridging German suplex.

I saw Yuma Aoyagi wearing a baseball cap ahead of the eight-man undercard tag with everyone who wasn’t in a tag league match, so I knew what I was getting and skipped it. Feel free to report back on what it was like.

World’s Strongest Tag League – Day 3
28th November 2025
Kumamoto City Food Exchange Hall, Kumamoto, Japan
Recommended Match: Go Shiozaki & Shotaro Ashino vs. MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka

All Japan’s tour of Kyushu began in Kumamoto headlined by “good HAVOC” (Go Shiozaki & Shotaro Ashino) against Mu-chan & Sei-chan (MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka) (tag team names should not be almost as many characters as the names of the wrestlers within them). Good HAVOC completely bullied Yoshioka, including Shiozaki chopping him so hard that he fell off the turnbuckle and it led to screams from the crowd. Ashino then went to work, throwing Yoshioka with side suplexes. Yoshioka’s comeback was just as hard-hitting and vicious, with the crowd gasping when a buzzsaw kick connected with Shiozaki’s head. Shiozaki punched away Yoshioka’s foot on the next attempt before lariating his head off. MUSASHI ran into the ring to save Yoshioka and slapped Ashino around the face. Ashino just stared at MUSASHI before flinging him into the air with a German, and then getting him back up for a Gowen lariat & German suplex combination. Yoshioka was the legal man, so Ashino suplexed him as well, but it wasn’t enough for Shiozaki to get a three-count. There were several following nearfalls that the crowd bit on completely, until Shiozaki won with a stiff Gowen lariat. This match was awesome. Shiozaki and Yoshioka were great while Ashino looked like a murderous monster (more of that please). MUSASHI was around too I guess.

Mashimon (Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo) faced Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato. I thought that Hideki’s bullying of Dan in the final few minutes and Dan trying to fight through made for really compelling action. After Dan ran a train of lariats onto Hideki, Hideki headbutt him several times. Dan returned to lariating Hideki as hard as he could, before Hideki attempted a rear naked choke. Dan countered and went for a pin but Hideki kicked out and tried to put Dan to sleep. Dan kicked out, so Hideki kicked Dan twice in the chest to win the match. It was a cool finish. A little detail was how Mashimo was protecting the ring during the rear naked choke, but when he turned around and saw Dan counter, Sato immediately grabbed Mashimo’s leg, tripping him up so he couldn’t break the pin up. Spots like that are great.

Atsu@Haya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) faced Maximum The Dragon (Naoya Nomura & Ryuki Honda) in the only B Block match on the show. This match was sneakily good. Guess what, you don’t need to squash Atsu@Haya just because they are against heavyweights. What an awful match that was between “bad HAVOC” (Oddyssey & XYON) and Atsu@Haya. This was a good example of how to have a compelling match when putting them against two giants. HAYATO fought his hardest against Honda, even kicking out of a stiff running lariat. Honda then pinned HAYATO with the Final Vent. HAYATO and Nomura were excellent, but of course I’d say that since I’ve been going on about both in almost every review. I cannot believe All Japan is voluntarily not getting more dates out of Nomura after the Tag League. Incredible.

Undercard

Following Yuma Aoyagi’s suspension, Jun Saito teamed with Yuma Anzai against Kento Miyahara and Ryo Inoue in a non-tag league match. Inoue was an absolute crowd favourite and it is clear that he is gaining real momentum within the promotion. Going up against former Triple Crown champions in Jun and Anzai at break-neck speed, while teaming with the current Triple Crown Champion only helped to serve that perception. This was the show where Jun and Anzai agreed to fight each other over the chance to face Kento on New Year’s Eve for the Triple Crown. It’s a good direction during the tag league with Yuma out. I hope it’s not Jun.

Shota Kofuji continued his series of singles matches against All Japan and freelance talent, this time against Yuko Miyamoto. The crowd broke out into “Kofuji” chants on multiple occasions, showcasing his natural connection to the All Japan fans. Kofuji hit a Northern Lights suplex onto Miyamoto, and Miyamoto had to break the referee count by holding the referee’s hand (stupid). A gutbuster into a Boston crab was enough to deliver a loss to Kofuji.

World’s Strongest Tag League – Day 4
29th November 2025
Fukuoka Island City Forum, Fukuoka, Japan

Despite being a “bigger” show, this show paled in comparison to the show even just the night before in Kumamoto.

Titans of Calamity (Ren Ayabe & Talos) took on Mu-chan & Sei-chan (MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka) in what should have been a routine win. So technically, given how little Mu and Sei got in this match, I should be mad, because I was mad about the bad HAVOC and Atsu@Haya match. But, I’m not mad. Titans of Calamity were great in their role. I was getting mad at how little they were budging. Then, Mu and Sei won via a count-out win and I celebrated. That’s a successful finish for me. The big assholes got what was coming to them. Titans needed to drop a match or two and Mu and Sei needed to pick some up, so this result made sense.

HAVOC (Oddyssey & XYON) faced Saikyo Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kento Miyahara). Oddyssey will still not shut up and just wrestle. It is brutal and relentless. It is a new form of torture that must be subject to the Geneva Conventions. This match felt like a WWE Raw main event. I hated this. You can read this entire “Asia” section. There’s not much wrestling I hate. Oddyssey in All Japan is something I hate. The gyrating hips, the “this one is for you lady” pointing at the crowd before he does a move. All of it. I can’t give an assessment of this match that wouldn’t be outrageously biased. I put the rest of it on 2x. Bad HAVOC won.

Mashimon against Hokuto-gun was a bit of a boring match, capped off by the referee not counting to three during a cradle where Hideki had clearly pinned Hokuto. He had to repeat the count so it looked pretty awful. Hokuto is back to square one following his mini-push for Hokkaido.

Undercard

Ryo Inoue kept on mixing it up with the heavyweights as he teamed with Maximum The Dragon (Naoya Nomura, Ryo Inoue & Ryuki Honda) against Jun Saito, Shotaro Ashino and Yuma Anzai. This deliberate booking by All Japan has been pretty good. While I didn’t start out much of an Inoue believer (you can read the reviews), it’s undeniable that the track he is currently on is working, as the crowds continued to chant his name on this show. I mean, there was literally a spot where Inoue is one against three, with Jun, Ashino and Anzai just giving him hell and him trying to fight back. This is as good of a push a junior is getting in All Japan. Jun won with a super delayed vertical suplex.

Shota Kofuji had perhaps his strongest singles opponent yet in Go Shiozaki. Kofuji looked like a tough bastard as he tried to take everything Shiozaki threw at him, but it was too much in the end and he had to submit. Kofuji left with marks all over his thigh and chest from the chops and a brutal single leg Boston crab.

World’s Strongest Tag League – Day 5
30th November 2025
Hiroshima Sangyo Kaikan East Exhibition Hall, Hiroshima, Japan

Overall, this felt like quite a weak tour show, compared to Kumamoto which was great. Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato clashed with Titans of Calamity (Ren Ayabe & Talos) in the main event, in what I think was the “bad version” of what a Titans match can look like. It was far too slow with not enough comeuppance nor good selling to justify it. I have been praising the Titans through the roof (see my other reviews), this one just didn’t quite click. They pinned Tamura with the double choke slam.

Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) were looking to get their first points on the table again Mu-chan & Sei-chan (MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka). I watched this match twice, because I didn’t feel much the first time and thought maybe I wasn’t paying attention. I still didn’t feel much the second time. The match wasn’t bad, it just didn’t hook me. I’ve had that before with Mu-chan and Sei-chan, but sometimes they get me, like the match in Kumamoto which I thought was great. I will say that I think the finishing stretch between Hokuto and MUSASHI here was good. Hokuto locked in the dragon suplex, but MUSASHI countered so Hokuto transitioned to a German suplex for a nearfall. He then hit a shoddy looking dragon suplex. Hokuto got his team their first points with a frog splash.

Atsu@Haya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) were embroiled in the shenanigans of the G Boys (Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Takashi). HAYATO had to sell Takashi’s snot attacks like he was shot with a gun. At least HAYATO won by picking up a frankensteiner pin on Jiro.

Undercard

In an undercard match, Kento teased leaving the venue as the fans were chanting Anzai’s name louder than his. He emotionally manipulated them into chanting his name. Inoue was back in the star-studded undercard match with the former Triple Crown champions. Kento mocked the fan’s love of Inoue while stomping a mudhole in him. They know. As they were in Hiroshima, Dove Pro’s Tsuyoshi Okada tagged along for the ride.

Shota Kofuji lost another singles challenge on this show, this time to Kengo Mashimo. A lot of the fight was grounded with Kofuji looking for cute pins before Kengo caught Kofuji’s arm and submitted him.

Block A

• Good HAVOC (Go Shiozaki & Shotaro Ashino) — 6 pts (3-0-0)
• Titans of Calamity (Ren Ayabe & Talos) — 6 pts (3-1-0)
• Mashimon (Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo) — 4 pts (2-1-0)
• Mu-chan & Sei-chan (MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka) — 2 pts (1-2-0)
• Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) — 2 pts (1-3-0)
• Hentai Man (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) — 0 pts (0-3-0)

Block B

• Bad HAVOC (XYON & Oddyssey) — 8 pts (4-0-0)
• Saikyo Bulldogs (Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) — 6 pts (3-1-0)
• Maximum The Dragon (Naoya Nomura & Ryuki Honda) — 4 pts (2-1-0)
• Atsu@Haya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) — 4 pts (2-2-0)
• G Boys (Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Takashi) — 2 pts (1-3-0)
• W Yuma (Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai) — 0 pts (0-5-0) – Yuma Aoyagi disqualified

• JackyRiiita (JACKY KAMEI & Riiita) vs. D’Courage (Dragon Dia & Yuki Yoshioka) – 3rd November at EDION Arena Osaka #2
• Homare, Kazuma Kimura & Shun Skywalker vs. ISHIN, KAI & Yoshiki Kato – 8th October at Korakuen Hall
• JACKY KAMEI vs. Ryoya Tanaka – 4th September at Korakuen Hall
• Ben-K vs. Susumu Yokosuka – 15th November at Mercure Hotel Yokosuka
• Flamita & JACKY KAMEI vs. Luis Mante & Ryoya Tanaka – 24th September at Korakuen Hall
• Akihiro Sahara & Daiki Yanagiuchi vs. Mochizuki Jr. & Riiita – 28th September at Kobe Sambo Hall
• Jason Lee vs. Kzy – 9th November at Matsuyama City General Community Centre
• Ryoya Tanaka vs. Ryu Fuda – 14th September at Sendai Sun Festa
• Naruki Doi vs. Shun Skywalker – 6th November at Korakuen Hall
• Hyo vs. YAMATO – 8th November at Kobe Arts Centre
• JACKY KAMEI vs. Susumu Yokosuka – 23rd November at Fukuoka Ukiha Arena

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

Mochizuki Jr. defeats Kazuma Kimura (9:11)
Don Fujii, Mondai Ryu & Takashi defeat Natural Vibes (Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T) (6:00)

PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Kagetora, Susumu Yokosuka & YAMATO) defeat Mochizuki Dojo (Akihiro Sahara, Daiki Yanagiuchi, Masaaki Mochizuki & Ryu Fuda) (9:18)

Homare & Shun Skywalker defeat D’courage (Dragon Dia & Yuki Yoshioka) and PARADOX (Dragon Kid & Naruki Doi) (10:07)

Love And Peace (Ben-K, Hyo & Riiita) defeat Gaja Dokuro (Jason Lee, Kota Minoura & Madoka Kikuta) (3:34)

Open The Brave Gate Title:
Ryoya Tanaka (c) defeats JACKY KAMEI (14:58)

Open The Triangle Gate Title Ladder:
Gaja Dokuro (ISHIN, KAI & Yoshiki Kato) defeat Bendito, Flamita & Luis Mante (c) (22:28)

© Dragongate

14th September 2025
Sendai Sun Festa, Miyagi, Japan
Recommended Match: Ryoya Tanaka vs. Ryu Fuda

In the main event, Love & Peace (Ben-K, Hyo, JACKY KAMEI, Mochizuki Jr. & Riiita) lost to Gajadokoro (ISHIN, Jason Lee, KAI, Madoka Kikuta & Yoshiki Kato) in a Captain Fall Elimination match, with Ben-K and Kikuta as the captains ahead of their Dream Gate Title Match. This match was mostly about trying to get Ben-K over as a credible threat to Gajadokoro as he eliminated KAI and Kato and kicked out of multiple hip attacks from Kikuta. Kikuta pinned Ben-K with a fierce rolling lariat after almost 25 minutes of action.

Ryoya Tanaka successfully defended his Open The Brave Gate Championship against hometown hero Ryu Fuda. This match was great. I preferred Tanaka’s matches with Mochi and Jacky, but this was still very good. The strikes were on point and the action was fast paced. Ryu Fuda sold the Cross Saber like death, landing on the top of his head. Tanaka hit the Stardust Press perfectly to retain the title. After the match, Tanaka said there was still a big gap between them. Tanaka has to be a heel within a year.

It was Yuki Yoshioka’s birthday as he paired with his Open The Twin Gate Champion partner, Dragon Dia against PARADOX (BxB Hulk & YAMATO). YAMATO has fully settled back into his more light-hearted role in the undercard following his loss to Shun Skywalker at “Kobe World”. This was a fun match, which I wouldn’t mind seeing as a title match at a Korakuen Hall show. Backstage, Yuki said he wants to become the ace with the High Fly Flow, and that it meant a lot to him to beat Hulk with the High Fly Flow on his birthday.

Kota Minoura and Shun Skywalker faced off in a special singles match. Minoura’s mouth was bleeding early on. Shun pinned Minoura with an elaborate cradle. Akihiro Sahara picked up his first direct pinfall, pinning Mondai Ryu with a modified facebuster. After the match, Sahara said that he wanted to catch up with his classmate, Homare, and beat him in a fight.

© Dragongate

21st September 2025
EDION Arena #2, Osaka

In Osaka, the Open The Twin Gate and Open The Brave Gate Champions, D’courage (Dragon Dia, Yuki Yoshioka & Ryoya Tanaka) fought against the Open The Triangle Gate Champions, Gajadokoro (ISHIN, KAI & Yoshiki Kato) in an “All Champions” six-man tag match. In a match with a lot of Gajadokoro antics, Ryoya Tanaka picked up the win and then called out Flamita for his next Brave Gate challenger.

Ben-K & Hyo continued the build for the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Kota Minoura & Madoka Kikuta, as the champion Kikuta knocked out Ben-K, winning the match by referee stoppage. This has been something they’ve done a few times with Kikuta to keep him strong. Following his expulsion from Z-Brats, now Gajadokoro, Homare fought with Jason Lee. Shortly into the fight Jason Lee was DQ’d due to interference. Rookie Kazuma Kimura and Shun Skywalker came out to help Homare. The match became an impromptu six-man tag preview with ISHIN and Yoshiki Kato joining Jason Lee. They are challenging Gajadokoro for the Open The Triangle Gate Title at Korakuen Hall on 8th October. Ryu Fuda, after failing his Brave Gate challenge, bounced back with a pin on U-T with his new pumphandle driver finisher. Veteran Susumu Yokosuka faced rookie Akihiro Sahara in the opener. Akihiro seems to be progressing well, he has a lot of expression inside the ring. He does remind me a bit of ISHIN.

© Dragongate

28th September 2025
Kobe Sambo Hall, Hyogo, Japan
Recommended Match: Akihiro Sahara & Daiki Yanagiuchi vs. Mochizuki Jr. & Riiita

In the main event, Flamita unsuccessfully challenged Ryoya Tanaka for the Open The Brave Gate Title. It was a match that was really good, but I definitely enjoyed the idea more than the actual execution. There were some incredible athletic sequences, but also long periods of control in between. While I enjoyed it, it was not the full fireworks display I was expecting.

There was a Royal Sambo Battle Royal with Love & Peace (Ben-K, Hyo & JACKY KAMEI), PSYPATRA (Shun Skywalker & Homare) & Kazuma Kimura, and Gajadokuro (Madoka Kikuta, KAI, ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato) building up to both the Open The Dream Gate Title match and the Open the Triangle Title Title match. Kikuta eliminated Shun, leaving the last three as Kikuta, Kato and Ben-K in a two-on-one handicap scenario. Ben-K eliminated Kato, finding himself in a showdown with Kikuta. Ben-K dodged the rolling lariat and hip attack, cutting Kikuta in half with a spear for the win. Elsewhere, other Gajadokuro members (Jason Lee & Kota Minoura) lost to Luis Mante & Yuki Yoshioka as Yoshioka pinned Jason Lee with the High Fly Flow.

The leader of Mochizuki Dojo, the legendary Masaaki Mochizuki, faced one of his proteges, Ryu Fuda, in the opener. Fuda was coming off an unsuccessful Brave Gate Title challenge. You would think it was a match inspired by Stardom’s Starlight Kid as they worked over each other’s legs. Mochi nailed Fuda with a twister, but, to the surprise of the crowd, Fuda kicked out. Fuda tried his new pumphandle driver finisher, but Mochi retaliated with an open handed slap across the face. They traded stiff kicks before the time-limit draw was announced. This was an excellent match that felt like Mochi’s stamp of approval for Fuda.

Following that, two other members of Mochizuki Dojo, rookie Akihiro Sahara and Daiki Yanagiuchi faced Mochi’s son, Mochizuki Junior, and Riiita. This match was also really good. I’m not sure what Mochi fed his juniors today but they were all on fire. Both teams chopped the crap out of each other, and Akihiro showed off his power with a brutal spinebuster. This match was all about Yanagiuchi and Junior though, who were awesome together. Yanagiuchi picked up the win with a seatbelt pin and celebrated hard. After the match, Mochi and Fuda got into the ring and according to Jae on Bluesky, they announced that Dojo would be disbanding.

Mochizuki Dojo (Daiki Yanagiuchi & Ryu Fuda) defeat Akihiro Sahara & Mochizuki Jr. (8:01)

PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi & YAMATO) defeat Don Fujii, Masaaki Mochizuki, Punch Tominaga & Takashi (8:44)

D’courage (Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka) defeat Natural Vibes (Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T) (5:57)

PARADOX (Kagetora & Susumu Yokosuka) defeat Gajadokuro (Jason Lee & Kota Minoura) (11:50)

Los Hermanos De La Jungla (Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr.) & Luis Mante defeat Love And Peace (Hyo, JACKY KAMEI & Riiita) (9:48)

Open The Triangle Gate Title:
Gajadokuro (ISHIN, KAI & Yoshiki Kato) (c) defeat Homare, Kazuma Kimura & Shun Skywalker (12:20)

Open The Dream Gate Title:
Madoka Kikuta (c) defeats Ben-K (23:50)

© Dragongate

12th October 2025
Acros Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan

Afternoon Show – D’courage rack up another Twin Gate defence

In the main event, PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka & YAMATO) went to war with Gajadokuro (ISHIN, KAI, Madoka Kikuta & Yoshiki Kato). YAMATO forgot his gear so wrestled in black trunks. Susumu picked up yet another win as he gained momentum, this time the win was on Kato.

The Open The Twin Gate Titles were defended by D’courage (Dragon Dia & Yuki Yoshioka) against the newcomers from Mexico, Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr., in a good match that went 11 minutes. The crowd bought there might be a switch as they increasingly chanted for Dia in the finishing stretch.

Shun and Homare beat Luis Mante and the Brave Gate Champion Ryoya Tanaka as Homare superkicked Ryoya and Shun pinned him. Shun and Homare have beaten champions before and not cashed in any title challenges so I would expect nothing different here. ISHIN came out after the match to demand more answers about the masked man from Korakuen Hall on 8th October. Shun said he would bring him out in the evening show. ISHIN was quite subdued, they sold the fear of the new masked man quite well. The former Twin Gate Champions, part of Gajadokuro, Jason Lee and Kota Minoura, beat Love & Peace duo, Ben-K & Hyo, as Kota kicked Hyo in the nuts behind the referee’s back. Natural Vibes (Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T) clashed with the rest of Love & Peace (JACKY KAMEI, Mochizuki Jr. & Riiita). Strong Machine J pinned Junior to keep the losing streak going for Love & Peace because they may have signed a contract saying they were not allowed to win when they formed the group. Seriously, how are they even losing to Natural Vibes?

Evening Show – Shun reveals the name of his ally, El Cielo

After the main event of the afternoon show, GM Ryo Saito asked children in the audience to draw the teams for the six-man tag main event, showcasing King of Gate winners. Ben-K, Kzy & YAMATO faced Dragon Dia, Susumu Yokosuka & Yuki Yoshioka. This was a classic house show main event with a slow worked pace and lots of comedy between the misfit teams, especially YAMATO and Kzy who could not get on the same page all match and would regularly forearm each other.

After Kikuta pinned Homare with the rolling lariat in a tag match (ISHIN & Kikuta against ShunMare), Shun and Homare revealed the name of their new ally to Gajadokuro (ISHIN & Madoka Kikuta), as “El Cielo”, roughly translating to “the sky.” Of course, the story is that Shun Skywalker used his connection to the universe to call forth a cosmic being down from the sky to torment Gajadokuro some more. Shun revealed he would wrestle the week after in Kobe. Love & Peace continued to eat more pins against Gajadokuro (Jason Lee, KAI, Kota Minoura & Yoshiki Kato). The last stretch between Kato and Junior was fast-paced, blistering back-and-forth action before Kato won with the Crescent Backbreaker. The Panther brothers faced off against Dragongate’s young guns, Ryu Fuda and Ryoya Tanaka. Aero Panther pinned Fuda with the springboard 450 after Fight Panther took a nasty bump off of a tope con giro, wiping out Ryoya.

© Dragongate

18th October 2025
Kobe Art Centre, Hyogo, Japan

In the main event, Billy Ken Kid from Osaka Pro Wrestling and Gurukun Mask based out of Okinawa joined the fray as Billy teamed with D’courage (Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka) and Gurukun teamed with PARADOX (Kagetora, Susumu Yokosuka & YAMATO). Yuki and YAMATO entertained the crowd as Yuki tried to steal YAMATO’s suplex denial gimmick. Tanaka pinned Kagetora with the Cross Saber. After the match, Tanaka challenged Billy to a Brave Gate match as Tanaka trained under Billy and wanted to surpass his senpai. Tanaka requested EDION Osaka Arena and it was made official for 2nd November.

ShunMare faced KAI & Kikuta in the semi-main event. As Homare hit KAI with a beautiful superkick and Shun was setting up for the SSW, the familiar sound of sirens started playing, indicating the arrival of the one and only Gianna Valletta, the Maltese Bruiser Brody-style wrestler who had not been seen since 9th May. The fans got incredibly excited as soon as the sirens started playing and Gianna was making his way through the crowd slamming his chain around. Given his previous Z-Brats allegiances, Gajadokuro opened their arms for him, but he sided with Shun, Homare and El Cielo and turned on Gajadokuro. Shun finally announced the long-suspected name of his stable: PSYPATRA. This was a great angle.

As expected, Shun’s new ally, the masked El Cielo, won the battle royal, which earned him a spot in King of Gate 2025. El Cielo entered last with Ultimo Dragon, immediately launching themselves with a tope suicida at 100 miles an hour ending up deep into the crowd seats. Down the stretch, he came up against Aero Panther and totally showed off, dodging a lariat with a backwards handspring, reminding me of Kazuma Sumi in DDT (who El Cielo definitely is not). Cielo pinned him with the spinning Doctor Bomb. As at the time of writing (sorry if it’s been confirmed by the time this sees the light) the theory is that El Cielo is TN Revolucion. A product of the DG dojo, after being recalled from the Mexican independents, a month later he retired in 2023 following a bad knee injury. Everyone thought he was retired for good so if you’re reading this in the distant future, this new faction of Shun’s was a spark of excitement for Dragongate creatively.

The crowd was loud for Gajadokuro taking on veterans PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid & Naruki Doi). It was classic “Not Hug” energy as DK accidentally gave a 619 to Doi and later there was a mishap that led to them accidentally hugging each other. They lined up Doible, the sliding kick (Bakatare) and crucifix bomb (Bible) combo, but as the ref was distracted, ISHIN delivered a low blow and unmasked DK, rolling him up.

Masaaki Mochizuki and Luis Mante teamed up to take on Mochi’s son, Mochizuki Junior, who teamed with his Love & Peace teammate, JACKY KAMEI. The Mochis only got their hands on each other for a short sequence, but what a fun sequence that was. Mante pinned Junior after Mochi dropped his son with a Buzzsaw kick. After Ben-K’s unsuccessful Open The Dream Gate Title challenge, he was back in the opener with his under-utilised stablemates as Love & Peace (Ben-K, Hyo & Riiita) faced Natural Vibes (Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T). At least Riiita picked up the pin after reversing U-T’s Paciencia (rolling cradles).

19th October 2025
Kobe Art Centre, Hyogo, Japan

Gurukun Mask and YAMATO lost the Soryu-Oh Tag Team Championship to YAMATO’s stablemates, Kagetora and Susumu Yokosuka. The titles belong to Ryukyu Dragon Pro Wrestling, based out of Okinawa, where Dragongate would run at the end of November. Susumu pinned YAMATO with Jumbo no Kachi, meaning Susumu had strung together a series of impressive wins in prior weeks. Of course, that was leading somewhere. Not only had he been pinning people, he had been pinning members of Gajadokuro. It gave Susumu the confidence to call out Kikuta himself and set up a Dream Gate match for 2nd November in Osaka. Kikuta mocked Susumu for being old, but Susumu dropped him with a Jumbo no Kachi. GM Ryo Saito then made the match official.

After the stable’s creation the night before, PSYPATRA (El Cielo, Homare & Shun Skywalker) went to war against Gajadokuro (ISHIN, KAI & Madoka Kikuta), brawling through the crowd and causing total chaos. Gianni pinned KAI before hanging him with the chain and disposing of him. The Panther brothers (Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr.) faced one of the best tag teams in the world, JackyRiiita (JACKY KAMEI & Riiita). This match was great. It is a bit ridiculous that Riiita can flawlessly execute a corkscrew tope con giro while landing on his feet. Aero Panther tried to one up him as he jumped on the top rope to deliver a springboard moonsault to Jacky on the outside. Aero Panther’s springboard moves are amazing. Riiita pinned Fight Panther with Ritanic. As stupid as it is, it was the first time JackyRiiita had teamed in a tag match since the formation of Love & Peace in May, which Riiita acknowledged after the match. My dream came true as they challenged D’courage for the Open The Twin Gate Titles on 3rd November. Hyo won a battle royal preparing him for his King of Gate first round match-up against YAMATO. That match will also take place in Kobe Art Center.

26th October 2025
KBS Hall, Kyoto, Japan

In the main event, Gajadokuro (Kota Minoura, ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato) faced PSYPATRA (Shun Skywalker, Homare & Gianni Valletta). After a match with a lot of crowd brawling, Gianni pinned KAI with the King Kong Knee Drop. After the match, ISHIN tried to persuade Gianni to join them, but he got mowed down. Shun then took the mic and challenged for the Triangle Gate Titles once again, this time with Gianni instead of rookie Kazuma Kimura. That match would take place on 3rd November.

In a preview for the Open The Dream Gate Title match in Osaka, champion Madoka Kikuta paired with KAI to face BxB Hulk and Susumu Yokosuka. As expected, Kikuta destroyed Hulk with a rolling lariat. Kikuta told Susumu it wasn’t too late to rescind his challenge. Susumu refused. Kikuta spat in his fast and said his time left as a pro wrestler was short. Susumu said he would aim for the top for as long as he continued wrestling. After Hyo dispatched Kzy, GM Ryo Saito gifted Hyo a singles match against Taiji Ishimori on 3rd November in Osaka. Former Mochizuki Dojo member, rookie Akihiro Sahara, faced his former mentor, Masaaki Mochizuki himself, in singles action. Akihiro slapped away Mochi’s hand before the match. Akihiro kept that energy during the match, chopping Mochi as hard as he could and shoulder tackling down with force. The veteran move of a crucifix pin would help Mochi take the win.

Day 1
Gajadokuro (KAI & Yoshiki Kato) defeat Love And Peace (Ben-K & Mochizuki Jr.) (7:02)

Open The Owarai Gate Title:
Jiro Shinbashi defeats Kuishinbo Kamen (c) (5:28)

PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, Kagetora & Naruki Doi) & Ultimo Dragon defeat Don Fujii, Kikutaro, Masaaki Mochizuki, Shachihoko BOY & Takashi (6:11)

Luis Mante defeats El Cucuy and Gianni Valletta (5:50)

Open The Brave Gate Title:
Ryoya Tanaka (c) defeats Billy Ken Kid (16:28)

Four Way 12 Man Tag Team Elimination:
Love And Peace (Hyo, JACKY KAMEI & Riiita) defeat Natural Vibes (Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T) and PSYPATRA (El Cielo, Homare & Shun Skywalker) and Gajadokuro (ISHIN, Jason Lee & Kota Minoura) (13:20)
ISHIN pins Homare (9:45)
Hyo pins U-T (11:15)
Riiita pins Jason Lee

Open The Dream Gate Title:
Madoka Kikuta (c) defeats Susumu Yokosuka (21:32)

——

Day 2
Akihiro Sahara & Daiki Yanagiuchi defeat Kazuma Kimura & Ryu Fuda (5:46)

Don Fujii defeats Jiro Shinbashi (8:00)

PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi & YAMATO) defeat Ho Ho Lun, Masaaki Mochizuki, Mondai Ryu & Ultimo Dragon (4:41)

El Cucuy, Luis Mante & Ryoya Tanaka defeat Gajadokuro (Jason Lee, Kota Minoura & Madoka Kikuta) by DQ (3:25)

PARADOX (Kagetora & Susumu Yokosuka) defeat Natural Vibes (Kzy & Strong Machine J) and Love And Peace (Ben-K & Mochizuki Jr.) (9:09)

Taiji Ishimori defeats Hyo (12:45)

Open The Triangle Gate Title:
PSYPATRA (Gianni Valletta, Homare & Shun Skywalker) defeat Gajadokuro (ISHIN, KAI & Yoshiki Kato) (c) (11:28)

Open The Twin Gate Title:
Love And Peace (JACKY KAMEI & Riiita) defeat D’courage (Dragon Dia & Yuki Yoshioka) (c) (19:26)

Day 1 – Korakuen Hall, Tokyo – 6th November 2025 – First Round

• ISHIN defeats Luis Mante (9:15)
• Shun Skywalker defeats Naruki Doi (10:06)*
• Ryoya Tanaka defeats Homare (8:52)
• Yuki Yoshioka defeats Madoka Kikuta (17:36)

Day 2 – Kobe Arts Centre, Kobe – 8th November 2025 – First Round

• Riiita defeats Dragon Dia (10:33)
• Gianni Valletta defeats Dragon Kid (7:07)
• El Cielo defeats Strong Machine J (5:28)
• YAMATO defeats Hyo (15:16)*

Day 3 – Matsuyama City General Community Centre, Ehime – 9th November 2025 – First Round

• Kzy defeats Jason Lee (11:50)*
• KAI defeats BxB Hulk (9:30)

Day 4 – Tottori Sangyo Gym, Tottori – 10th November 2025 – First Round

• El Cucuy defeats Ryu Fuda (10:01)
• JACKY KAMEI defeats KAGETORA (14:15)

Day 5 – Tsuyuhashi Sports Center, Nagoya – 13th November 2025 – First Round

• Yoshiki Kato defeats Mochizuki Jr. (9:30)
• U-T defeats Takashi (13:11)

Day 6 – Mercure Hotel Yokosuka, Kanagawa – 15th November 2025 – First Round

• Genki Horiguchi defeats Masaaki Mochizuki (7:40)
• Susumu Yokosuka defeats Ben-K (16:00)*

Day 7 – Fujisan Messe, Shizuoka – 16th November 2025 – Second Round

• Riiita defeats KAI (10:44)
• Yuki Yoshioka defeats U-T (12:32)

Day 8 – Imari Kunimidai Gymnasium, Saga – 21st November 2025 – Second Round

• Gianni Valletta defeats Kzy (9:20)

Day 9 – Kumamoto Castle Hall, Kumamoto – 22nd November 2025 – Second Round

• YAMATO won via forfeit from Ryoya Tanaka due to right shoulder injury
• ISHIN defeats El Cucuy (5:13)

Day 10 – Fukuoka Ukiha Arena, Fukuoka – 23rd November 2025 – Second Round

• Yoshiki Kato defeats El Cielo by Count Out (10:14)
• JACKY KAMEI defeats Susumu Yokosuka (17:36)*

Day 11 – Iizuka City General Gymnasium, Fukuoka – 24th November 2025 – Second Round

• Genki Horiguchi defeats Shun Skywalker (2:04)

Day 12 – T.O.P.S BittsHALL, Oita – 25th November 2025 – Quarter Finals

• ISHIN defeats JACKY KAMEI (9:36)
• Yuki Yoshioka defeats Genki Horiguchi (12:09)

Day 13 – Omuta Cultural Hall, Fukuoka – 26th November 2025 – Quarter Finals

• Gianni Valletta defeats Yoshiki Kato (10:16)
• YAMATO defeats Riiita by referee’s decision (11:02)

© Dragongate

King of Gate – Opening Night
6th November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 1,136
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended King of Gate Matches: Naruki Doi vs. Shun Skywalker

Dragongate’s annual singles tournament, King of Gate, returned with an opening night at Korakuen Hall. The main attraction on opening night was the clashing of Dream Gate Champion Madoka Kikuta and Yuki Yoshioka. This was only their second singles match ever, and the first time since Kikuta turned on Yoshioka inside the steel cage at Dead or Alive in May 2025, which led to Yoshioka’s head being shaved. It sent Yoshioka on an arc of redemption trying to find himself and eventually brimming back to full confidence having captured the Open The Twin Gate Titles with Dragon Dia. Yoshioka was Kikuta’s first victim in his reclamation of the Reiwa Six, his own personal vendetta against Yoshioka, Strong Machine J, Shun Skywalker, Ben-K and Kota Minoura, with the last one on that list yet to play out as they are stablemates. It was another Kikuta-paced match with a slow and middling heat section before building to the entertaining part of the match. Towards the end of the match Kikuta was unleashing deadly, stiff lariats onto Yoshioka, trying to keep him down. Yoshioka rallied back with the Battle Hook into the Nail Gun driver for a close near fall. Yoshioka followed up with the High Fly Flow for the win, advancing in the tournament and pinning the champion. Yoshioka had finally got his revenge, but part of his redemption was climbing back to the top of Dragongate, and he’ll need to capture the title to do that. This was a good match but it did not live up to the fact that this was a 6-month revenge arc. Of course, they may still have left some in the tank for the actual title challenge.

Open the Brave Gate Champion Ryoya Tanaka met with Homare in a coming together of two of the best athletes and in-ring talents with less than 3 years of experience. Homare, part of Shun Skywalker’s PSYPATRA faction, came in with a cocky attitude, spitting in the face of the champion early on. The two tried to out-do each other before Homare tried to win against the momentum of the fight with the Momo Latch. Tanaka followed up with his Cross Saber finisher. As that was not enough to put the rookie away, Tanaka went to the top rope for his super Stardust Press finisher. This was a definitive victory for Ryoya Tanaka. He would later have to pull out of the tournament due to a shoulder injury.

Shun Skywalker faced his former coach in the DG Dojo, Naruki Doi. Doi attacked Shun’s knee which he had struggled with around Kobe World season, although it is not known how much was a work and how much wasn’t, given he did not take a long time off at any point. The match ramped in the closing stretch as Doi hit Dragon Kid’s Bible move. Shun retaliated with Blaster for a nearfall which only spurred loud chants for Doi. Doi then hit an incredible running Code Red into a Bakatare for a nearfall of his own. The crowd was unglued during the fast paced counters and nearfalls. Shun pinned Doi with the Sky de Special.

ISHIN was in full entertainment mode, wrestling half the match as a babyface with the crowd on his side against the poor Luis Mante. ISHIN stole the win with a pin reversal to advance to the next round.

In a series of King of Gate preview tags on the undercard, Love & Peace (Ben-K, Hyo, JACKY KAMEI, Mochizuki Jr. & Riiita) stole a lot of PARADOX’s (BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, Kagetora, Susumu Yokosuka & YAMATO) gimmicks to use against them, as Junior used the Go To Hospital and Riiita finally landed the brainbuster on YAMATO after several attempts. Hyo pinned YAMATO ahead of the King of Gate main event a few days later.

Elsewhere on the undercard, Masaaki Mochizuki was having a LOT of fun in his comedy match with rookie Jiro Shinbashi. This gimmick actually has legs. Shinbashi got a phone call during the match that he had to take with a client that wanted to take him golfing. Mochi gave Shinbashi a penalty kick while he was on the phone which drew loud boos. I laughed when Shinbashi lost his phone during a flying headscissors, and then he ran to pick up the phone and apologised to the imaginary client. As an avid DDT fan, this was an excellent comedy match and Shinbashi’s best yet. This left an impression on me, as you can tell from the fact I chose it as my cover picture despite the fact it was the opening night of King of Gate.

© Dragongate

King of Gate – Day 2
8th November 2025
Kobe Arts Centre, Hyogo, Japan
Recommended King of Gate Match: Hyo vs. YAMATO

The tournament continued back in Dragongate’s home city of Kobe with four strong match-ups on paper. In the main event, Hyo faced the ace of Dragongate, YAMATO in a great match where YAMATO targeted Hyo’s leg. Hyo tried to do his usual tricks such as the forward front flips but hesitated upon landing, giving YAMATO an opening, allowing him to land a Galeria for a nearfall. YAMATO needed two more Galerias to put Hyo away and advance. YAMATO would face Brave Gate Champion Ryoya Tanaka in the next round.

Riiita beat Dragon Dia in a great match showing off their athleticism as he blasted Dia with an avalanche Riiitanic to advance to the next round. The crowd popped big on the finish. Gianni Valletta brawled with Dragon Kid outside the ring. It was a good underdog performance from Kid, but not enough as Gianni landed the knee to Kid’s face to go through to the next round. Strong Machine J launched himself, before the bell rang, at the new PSYPATRA member El Cielo. As one of the Reiwa Six who had taken a backseat since being destroyed by Madoka Kikuta at Kobe World, he was looking to bounce back with a strong tournament. It wasn’t to be as El Cielo unleashed a new move as he put SMJ with a spinning tombstone piledriver.

I was on Jiro Shinbashi watch for the undercard. He faced Yasushi Kanda with much of the same gimmicks that he had in his other matches, which worked great so no need to change them. Also on the undercard was a three-way tag team match between D’courage (Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka), Gajadokuro (ISHIN & Madoka Kikuta) and PSYPATRA (Homare & Shun Skywalker). ISHIN brutally attacked Homare’s arm with a steel chair before submitting him with an armbar. Homare had to be helped out of the arena (not by Shun of course, he had better things to do).

King of Gate – Day 3
9th November 2025
Matsuyama City General Community Centre, Ehime, Japan
Recommended King of Gate Match: Jason Lee vs. Kzy

KAI and Jason Lee advanced to the next round, beating BxB Hulk and Kzy respectively. In a match marred by Gajadokuro interference, KAI picked up the early advantage with some help from ISHIN ringside. Not only did KAI need the chair shot early on, but it also came into play on the finish as a distracted ref did not see Hulk get hit by a chair, leading to KAI rolling him up for the win. Kzy fared much better against Jason Lee in a great, hard-hitting straight-up fight, with clean striking on display from both. Kzy planted Jason Lee with a Canadian Destroyer before drilling him with Impact for the win.

King of Gate – Day 4
10th November 2025
Tottori Industrial Gymnasium, Tottori, Japan

JACKY KAMEI beat Kagetora on his homecoming in front of a lively, energetic, hot home crowd to advance in the tournament. The match was a classic homecoming match layout with top notch selling from Jacky. Jacky was out of the gate immediately with a tope con giro. Kagetora slowed down the pace to gain control of the match, working him over so the crowd could root for Jacky. Jacky would come back with an even crazier corkscrew tope con giro. Jacky tried a springboard but missed so had to land on his feet, and immediately sold the damage Kagetora had done to him. The match entered the final stretches with Love & Peace banging on the mat encouraging the fans to clap and cheer before Jacky picked up the win with the Jacky Knife. Jacky was great in this match (obviously).

El Cucuy, a Mexican independent wrestler on tour with Dragongate, faced Ryu Fuda in the other match-up on day 4. While Fuda held the early advantage, Cucuy dominated for the next several minutes, attacking Fuda’s kicking leg. Fuda ambitiously tried his now pumphandle driver finisher on Cucuy to no avail. Cucuy pinned Fuda after a crazy springboard Spanish fly, which gave us an ISHIN versus El Cucuy match in the next round.

King of Gate – Day 5
13th November 2025
Tsuyuhashi Sports Center, Nagoya, Japan

In his hometown of Nagoya, U-T faced Takashi. What a homecoming present. This was the worst match of the tournament so far. It wasn’t atrocious, but it felt like it wasted time, and with the tiny crowd and largely empty venue, the homecoming aspect didn’t even come into play. U-T submitted Takashi with Bien Llave.

Junior against Kato was much better. Junior struggled while Kato targeted his back and threw him around, literally, with a backwards over-the-head throw. Junior fought back with high knees and kicks, attempting a German suplex before falling due to his back pain. Kato nailed Junior with stiff lariats before bending Junior in half with a gnarly Argentine backbreaker.

King of Gate – Day 6
15th November 2025
Mercure Hotel Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
Recommended King of Gate Match: Ben-K vs. Susumu Yokosuka

Ben-K and Susumu Yokosuka clashed in a battle of former Open The Dream Gate champions. This was a great match in front of Susumu’s hometown crowd. There was a moment early in the match where they were doing the typical run through the legs spot, but Susumu didn’t jump high enough and Ben-K caught him mid-air. They saved it so well that I’m not sure if it was intentional or not. Given that Ben-K subsequently worked Susumu’s abdomen to soften him for the spear, I think it was intentional which made it even cooler. Susumu’s selling in this match combined with Ben-K’s ruthlessness made for a compelling dynamic. In some ways, I enjoyed this match more than Susumu’s Dream Gate match with Kikuta weeks prior. They were stiff with each other, including a shoot headbutt which Ben-K followed up with a deadly snap German suplex from Ben-K. Susumu rallied back with a Jumbo No Kachi but Ben-K speared him immediately after, leaving both exhausted on the floor. Once they got to their feet, Susumu sent spit flying out of Ben’s mouth with violent lariats and picked up the win.

Kota Minoura suffered a concussion in his undercard match on Day 5 of the King of Gate Tournament, leading him to withdraw. Having reached the previous four finals of King of Gate, this would be the first King of Gate final since 2020 that did not involve Minoura. Genki Horiguchi appealed to the Dragongate higher ups for him to take Minoura’s spot in the tournament. They relented, leading to a singles match between Genki and Masaaki Mochizuki. Genki was bullied, chopped and beaten up for his troubles, and the crowd were behind him with constant calls of “Genki!” Well. To my surprise, he actually ended up getting the backslide win on Masaaki.

King of Gate – Day 7 – Second Round
16th November 2025
Fujisan Messe, Shizuoka, Japan

KAI and Riiita kicked off the round-of-16 in a good match. As you can already guess, KAI dominated the match, allowing Riiita to come back with his breath-taking dives. Riiita nailed KAI with Riiitanic, but the referee was pulled out by Gajadokuro. KAI dropped Riiita with a powerbomb and a running lariat, but both were close nearfalls. After a misfire from Yoshiki Kato, Riiita hit another Riiitanic to go through to the quarter-finals. Is this… is this a Riiita push? First the tag titles, now a deep run in King of Gate? It was Riiita’s first time past the second round.

In the second of the round-of-16 bouts, former Brave Gate Champion U-T took on one of the pre-tournament favourites, Yuki Yoshioka. I am not quite sure why Yoshioka was wrestling in a tank top but it did not exactly present the match as high stakes. Nevertheless, Yoshioka worked hard against U-T with stiff strikes and clean execution of moves. While this match did not blow me away enough to recommend it, it did make me realise that current-day Yoshioka has a floor of “good” matches, meaning he rarely has an off day. That is in contrast to shortly after his head getting shaved where his performances did not inspire much confidence. After fighting out of U-T’s Bien Llave, Yoshioka hit a number of Battle Hooks before the High Fly Flow for the win.

King of Gate – Day 8 – Second Round
21st November 2025
Imari Kunimidai Gymnasium, Saga, Japan

There was only one King of Gate match on Day 8 and it was chaotic as it involved Gianni Valletta. Kzy won a great match with Jason Lee to earn the right to face the Maltese madman in the second round. Kzy was out of the gates immediately as he dove onto Valletta and tried to attack the big man’s leg. Valletta was back on top of things and threw Kzy into the crowd, with one old man not very happy at Kzy getting thrown into his leg. The old man even gave Shun Skywalker, who was a second for Valletta, a slight nudge in anger. It was all Valletta from there on out as he held Kzy in a choke for a couple of minutes to tire him out. Kzy would attempt to get going several times only to be cut down by Valletta, whether it’s throwing him off the top rope, lariating his head off or delivering a chokeslam. Valletta won with the knee drop. Your enjoyment of this match will probably depend a lot on how much you like to see Kzy struggle, and how much you like Valletta controlling the match.

King of Gate – Day 9 – Second Round
22nd November 2025
Kumamoto Castle Hall, Kumamoto, Japan

In classic ISHIN fashion, he wore one of El Cucuy’s masks to start the match. Cucuy chopped the crap out of ISHIN before dropping him with a tope con giro. This match was short and to the point. There was no messing around. After El Cucuy bullied ISHIN for a very short time, ISHIN bumped the ref, kicked Cucuy in the balls and then hit a delayed German suplex for the victory. The match was fine for what it was. I can’t say you should go out of your way to watch it, which is maybe what you thought when you saw it on paper. But also, I appreciate my time not being wasted, so I cannot say it was bad.

King of Gate – Day 10 – Second Round
23rd November 2025
Ukiha Arena, Fukuoka, Japan
Recommended King of Gate Matches: JACKY KAMEI vs. Susumu Yokosuka

Susumu Yokosuka continued his run of barnburners, this time with a very likely candidate to have a great match in JACKY KAMEI. Early in the match, Jacky unleashed some stomps onto Susumu, who repaid Jacky by catching his leg, lifting him high into the sky and dropping him on his right knee. Susumu would go to town on the right leg for several minutes. Just when Jacky mustered the strength to fight back, Susumu lariated Jacky over the turnbuckle, literally, then climbed the ropes and launched Jacky with an exploder suplex. Despite Susumu’s relentless assault, Jacky still persisted, even through Susumu’s signature lariats, to pick up the win with the Jacky Knife. This was a good match. The leg work, while lasting for over half of the match, was mostly good. Jacky being a great seller and Susumu’s hot streak of great performances made it all gel together.

Gajadokuro member Yoshiki Kato squeezed past El Cielo in a count out victory. Kato controlled the match in very Gajadokuro fashion before El Cielo mounted a comeback with an impressive backward handspring dodge before launching into a patented TN Revolucion style tope suicide. Kato had scouted the move and threw a chair into El Cielo’s face, and then carried him to the back and up to the second floor of the venue. Kato then tied Cielo’s hands to the rail with duct tape before Kato ran back into the ring at the last second. Yup.

King of Gate – Day 11 – Second Round
24th November 2025
Iizuka City General Gymnasium, Fukuoka, Japan

Genki Horiguchi pinned Shun Skywalker with the Backslide from Heaven in just over 2 minutes. Yes, really. The crowd were screaming in shock. It was a fun 2 minutes with the crowd fully behind Genki with “H-A-G-E!” chants. Shun beat up the referee after the match before hitting the camera with a big boot in an amazing shot. I guess he wasn’t winning the tournament anyway, so why not? Save the Shun and Yoshioka match for later (they would’ve met in the quarter finals). I can imagine Kota Minoura beating Shun to set up a Minoura and Yoshioka quarter finals, so it’s possible Shun losing at this stage was always possible.

King of Gate – Day 12 – Quarter Finals
25th November 2025
T.O.P.S BittsHALL, Oita, Japan

In the first of the quarter finals, JACKY KAMEI was looking to continue his best ever run in the King of Gate tournament, his previous record was losing in the first round. He had to contend with ISHIN who was also achieving a personal record in the tournament. Jacky had had a much tougher time to this point in grueling battles in his hometown against Kagetora and in Ukiha against Susumu Yokosuka, two PARADOX veterans who put Jacky through the paces. ISHIN took advantage of this and dominated Jacky for much of the fight with ease. Jacky attempted a comeback with a springboard seated senton, ISHIN caught him and transitioned into a Boston crab. It was only when Jacky could reverse ISHIN’s signature brainbuster that he showed a glimpse of winning. ISHIN attempted to extinguish that hope with a snap German suplex into a fierce lariat, but Jacky kicked out. Jacky attempted to win with his Jacky Knife after a sequence at blistering speed, but ISHIN won the battle of pin reversals to go through. The last minute was excellent.

Genki Horiguchi’s dream run in the King of Gate tournament came to a realistic end at the hands of the pre-tournament favourite in Yuki Yoshioka. Genki had knocked off Open The Dream Gate champion Shun Skywalker in the last round, causing Shun to call off sick from the subsequent shows due to “injury.” Yoshioka, who has been wrestling a more confident style since he captured (and lost) the Open The Twin Gate Title, built heat on Genki with long control segments. Supported by the crowd, Genki nailed Yoshioka with an avalanche Frankensteiner and a spike DDT for a nearfall. He then attempted the Backslide from Heaven that had put away Shun, but Yoshioka countered with a Battle Hook. Horiguchi countered Yoshioka’s High Fly Flow with his knees and tried to finish things off with a Beach Break, but couldn’t get the cover in time due to selling the work Yoshioka had done earlier in the match. Yoshioka evaded another Backslide from Heaven, before hitting the Fisherman’s driver and a High Fly Flow for the win. This was a good match and a nice end to Genki’s run. ISHIN and Yoshioka moved on to the semi finals at Korakuen Hall.

This was the show that brought the announcement of PSYPATRA relinquishing their Open The Triangle Gate Titles, leading to a new round robin tournament involving all five of the other units. Homare suffered a shoulder injury and would be out longer than expected.

Dragongate partnered with local Oita promotion FTO in order to deliver some matches on the undercard as Dragon Dia beat Mejiro Kid in a singles match and FTO owner Skull Repeat A-Ji partnered with PARADOX (Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi & YAMATO) against Gajadokuro (Jason Lee, KAI, Madoka Kikuta & Yoshiki Kato).

King of Gate – Day 13 – Quarter Finals
26th November 2025
Omuta Bunka Hall, Fukuoka, Japan

YAMATO was cast out of the King of Gate tournament due to injury, in a match that the referee had to stop. This allowed Riiita to pass to the semi-finals, one match away from the finals. After a deep run from JACKY KAMEI, and JackyRiiita being made Twin Gate Champions, things are looking up for Love & Peace enjoyers such as myself. After besting YAMATO on the mat, Riiita grabbed the mic to taunt YAMATO further which launched a faster paced sequence. Riiita tried to fly with a tope con giro, but YAMATO had already gone under the ring to the other side and ambushed Riiita, regaining control of the match. Riiita fought back, finally landing his tope con giro. Then, Riiita’s flatliner off the ropes seemed to be the spot that caused the damage. YAMATO looked like he was in pain and tried to continue before collapsing again. The referee was right to stop the match. It’s unclear exactly what injury it was, it looked scary because he wasn’t able to move his neck much. Hopefully YAMATO was just being careful by not moving too much, as thankfully he was able to walk out on his own two feet, and cut a promo about wanting to run it back the year after.

In the other quarter final, Gianni Valletta pushed past Yoshiki Kato to set up a semi-final match with Riiita. The fight spilled outside the ring several times. It was strange, but refreshing, to see Gianni dominate Kato for much of the fight. Gianni was briefly in danger after Kato managed to lift him into an Argentine backbreaker and followed up with a stiff lariat. Gianni finished things off with a chokeslam into the King Kong knee, finishing up a standard house show match.

© Dragongate

The Gate of Miyane 2
24th September 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 1,268
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: dragongate.live
Recommended Match: Flamita & JACKY KAMEI vs. Luis Mante & Ryoya Tanaka

Seiji Miyane, who has close ties with Don Fujii, produced the first Gate of Miyane on 24th August 2024 in Kobe Sambo Hall. After the critical success of the first show, TV show host Miyane held the event at Korakuen Hall. Miyane has hosted “Miyaneya” on Yomiuri TV and “Mr. Sunday” on Fuji TV’s since 2006 and 2010 respectively. He is also a lead presenter for Fuji News Network’s (FNN) special election coverage. The feud between Shun Skywalker and Miyane that began at the first event has flared up again, and Miyane vowed to put Shun in a match that would finally defeat him.

Miyane paired Shun Skywalker with surprise partner Takashi Sugiura from Team NOAH as they faced Minoru Suzuki and YAMATO in the main event. Sugiura and Marufuji faced ShunMare (Shun & Homare) at Final Gate in December 2024. It was also Minoru’s first time in a Dragongate ring since Kobe World 2006. This was very much a “Shun produce show” match – light-hearted, working the crowd and fun. Shun’s comedy chops were excellent in this main event and the post-match. Shun took the mic mid-match to declare that if he won he would join Miyane on his show and become the face of TV. Miyane then began to chop Shun before running away like a coward. Shun picked up a child to use as a meat shield against Minoru, but Minoru just slapped him on the head. As expected, Minoru and Sugiura, “the uncles at the barbeque,” as Jae on commentary put it, locked horns in a forearm battle. In the end, not even Shun was safe from Minoru’s Gotch-style piledriver, with Minoru pinning Shun clean. Miyane finally got his revenge. After the match, Miyane thanked Minoru for coming. Minoru replied that he didn’t come to be Miyane’s lackey, he came because he wanted to see Shun, and then Minoru walked off. Shun was still knocked out so Miyane comically helped him to his feet. Shun regained consciousness and said he was so strong he won while knocked out. Miyane told him he had lost and Shun outright said he had won before Miyane decided it wasn’t worth it and switched topics. Miyane called for a truce so they could destroy Gajadokoro together. Shun said that implied Miyane was admitting defeat in their rivalry. Miyane said no, he just wanted to destroy Kikuta’s unit. Shun asked the crowd what they thought and then ran away. To be continued…

Backstage, NOAH’s 2025 success story, OZAWA (who is currently injured and on crutches) showed up and bowed to Shun, handing him a gift. Takashi Sugiura is in OZAWA’s Team 2000X faction and NOAH has a Sumo Hall show coming up on 11th October. OZAWA’s gift was wagashi (sweets) from Asakura. OZAWA said that since he got injured, he is unable to entertain the Godfather. Shun asked what on Earth he was talking about. OZAWA said that when he wrestles, it makes the Godfather happy, but now he can’t. OZAWA asked Shun to step in for him. Shun said that as the Skywalker he has seen OZAWA’s ascent, and he judged OZAWA to be interesting. Interesting enough that Shun will entertain the Godfather, Takashi Sugiura at Sumo Hall.

DDT x All Japan x Dragongate

Elsewhere on the card, Miyane’s focus was to put on dream matches that Dragongate fans wanted to see, which involved a DDT crossover and Yuma Anzai from all Japan. After the show, Miyane announced he would like the next show to be a DDT vs. Dragongate show. Dragon Dia and Dragon Kid faced DDT’s MAO and Yuki Yoshioka. This match was booked because MAO looks a bit like Yuki Yoshioka, and to be fair, he does. This was a really good match blending comedy with workrate, which is a DDT specialty, particularly for MAO. Commentary would sometimes call Yuki as MAO and vice versa, and MAO and Yuki kept huddling and spinning around so the referee couldn’t tell which was which and who the legal man was, as they also had matching costumes. They were dressed as removal guys from the Art Hikkoshi Center and entered to the company’s theme song. Yuki would do MAO’s “square-up” gimmick, allowing him to show a fun side as he bullied his D’courage and Open The Twin Gate Champion partner, Dragon Dia. Yuki pinned Dia with the High Fly Flow.

Jae was not happy about the Danshoku Dieno match as he is not a fan of Dieno’s antics. Dieno teamed with Don Fujii and Masaaki Mochizuki to go up against BxB Hulk, Hyo and KAI. To win the match they had to kiss the opponent on the lips. The last time Dieno was in a Dragongate-proper ring was in 2005. Fujii and Mochizuki came out dressed up with make-up, wigs and dresses. Mochi tried to kiss Hyo. Dieno pulled Hyo’s pants down and Mochi started spanking Hyo’s ass. As Jae said “this shit is still funny in Japan apparently.” It was quite funny sitting through this match with Jae and Ho Ho Lun burying it. The crowd was going wild, for what it’s worth.

© Dragongate

In the final cross-over match, Yuma Anzai, who returned from a break recently on 15th September, teamed up with Homare to face Gajadokoro (Madoka Kikuta & Yoshiki Kato). It was Anzai’s Dragongate debut. Anzai was as great as ever going up against Kikuta, throwing him around with suplexes. Anzai kicked out of a hip attack before being pinned by Kikuta’s rolling lariat. Kikuta invited Anzai back to Dragongate so he could destroy him before turning his attention to his next opponent, Ben-K, who told Kikuta that although he got knocked out in the last show in Osaka, he was in front of his face now still standing.

Dragongate Undercard

In the opener Flamita and JACKY KAMEI faced Luis Mante and the Open The Brave Gate Champion, Ryoya Tanaka. Tanaka already had 4 title defences at this point, one against Jacky, and another was upcoming on 28th September against Flamita so this served as a preview tag. This match was a lot of fun and an athletic showcase for these four supreme athletes. Jacky’s biggest fan was at ringside shouting “Kamei-chan!” which Mante and Tanaka made fun of. As Jae on commentary found out, calling every move in a match like this is futile. The one move that caught my attention was a Mysterio Rana into a code breaker. Why not? For my money, these are four of the best high fliers in the world, with Flamita my vote for best high flyer, and you can’t really get an opener as strong as this in Dragongate. Flamita pinned the champion Tanaka with Flam Fly (a Spanish Fly). Jae mentioned in commentary that Tanaka stopped using that move out of respect to Flamita when Flamita returned to Dragongate, so Flamita was showing a bit of cheeky confidence pinning him with that move.

Jason Lee & Mochizuki Jr. went up against Kota Minoura & Riiita who came out to Gold Class music. Minoura was in Gold Class with Riiita before he turned on the faction and joined Gajadokoro (formerly Z-Brats), and Riiita used to be Minoriiita, Minoura’s mini version. It didn’t take long for this match to descend into chaos as ISHIN came out and attacked Riiita and Junior. ISHIN complained that he didn’t have a match, so Miyane brought in the mystery man, oh come on. Kazuyuki Fujita? I had just finished watching him wrap up a comically entertaining (in a car crash sort of way) N-1 run. Fujita pinned ISHIN with ease, with Ho Ho Lun just saying “wow.” Yes that’s what I meant about his N-1 run, welcome to Fujita. Making others look strong isn’t really his thing.

Ben-K got a nice day off from being knocked out by Madoka Kikuta in their preview tag for the Open the Dream Gate Championship as he was slotted into a comedy eight-man tag with Kagetora, Kzy & Takashi against Susutimo Dragon (Susumu Yokosuka), Ultimo Dragon, Ultimo Machine (Strong Machine J) & Washitimo Dragon (Toru Owashi). The bit was that Ultimo Dragon’s team all had custom made Ultimo-style masks and would attempt his spots and mostly fail.

• Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Seri Yamaoka – 26th October at Ryogoku Kokugikan
• Mai Sakurai vs. Victoria Yuzuki – 26th October at Ryogoku Kokugikan
• Kizuna Tanaka vs. Rea Seto – 17th October at Chikujo City Community Center Sopia
• Miku Aono vs. Utami Hayashishita – 26th October at Ryogoku Kokugikan
• Mayu Iwatani vs. IYO SKY – 26th October at Ryogoku Kokugikan
• Mayu Iwatani vs. Victoria Yuzuki – 14th September at Korakuen Hall
• Komomo Minami & Mayu Iwatani vs. Seri Yamaoka & Victoria Yuzuki – 20th September at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Mai Sakurai vs. Nao Ishikawa – 17th November at Korakuen Hall
• Rea Seto vs. Victoria Yuzuki – 13th November at Shinjuku FACE
• Mayu Iwatani vs. Seri Yamaoka – 13th October at Korakuen Hall
• Mai Sakurai, Seri Yamaoka & Shinno vs. Utami Hayashishita, Victoria Yuzuki & Yuuka Yamazaki – 17th October at Chikujo City Community Center Sopia
• CoCo vs. Mayu Iwatani – 17th November at Korakuen Hall

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

Hummingbird, Komomo Minami, Seri Yamaoka & Yuuka Yamazaki defeat Megaton, Minami Yuuki, Nagisa Tachibana & Nao Ishikawa (9:02)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 DREAM League:
Seri Yamaoka [8] defeats Rea Seto [3] by forfeit

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 STAR League:
Chika Goto [7] defeats Kizuna Tanaka [2] (7:12)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 STAR League:
Chanyota [5] vs. MIRAI [8] – Double Count Out (5:11)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 STAR League:
Misa Matsui [8] defeats Nagisa Nozaki [7] (5:51)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 STAR League:
Mai Sakurai [9] vs. Miku Aono [10] – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 DREAM League:
Maria [6] defeats CHIAKI [3] (4:46)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 DREAM League:
Mayu Iwatani [9] vs. Victoria Yuzuki [10] – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 DREAM League:
Kouki Amarei [8] defeats Utami Hayashishita [9] by Count Out (9:51)

DREAM STAR Grand Prix 2025 Final:
Miku Aono defeats Victoria Yuzuki (14:48)

Battle Heart Series 2025
20th September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Komomo Minami & Mayu Iwatani vs. Seri Yamaoka & Victoria Yuzuki

The show was main evented by a match booked just for me – Komomo Minami & Mayu Iwatani versus Seri Yamaoka & Victoria Yuzuki. Komomo has been one of Marigold’s under-the-radar success stories as she has improved massively, now in the second year of her career. She is, of course, still behind Victoria Yuzuki, but she has all the tools to keep improving and I’d consider her on the same level as Seri. One of my favourite things to watch in wrestling is the development of younger talent, and Marigold putting this in the main event over the established talent in Mai Sakurai, Miku Aono, MIRAI and even the Marigold World Champion Utami Hayashishita should prove to you how serious Marigold are about developing the talent they know are good (Yuzuki, Seri and Komomo). This match was just awesome. This match is the reason I watch Marigold. They went hard at each other and lived up to the main event billing. I’ve spoken about Yuzuki’s selling being hit and miss, but when it hits, it HITS, and here she sold a DDT like death, landing on the top of her head. Mayu brings out the absolute best in Seri as they traded a series of German suplexes. Yuzuki nailed Komomo with two deathly superkicks for a nearfall which got the crowd behind Komomo. After the match, Seri challenged Mayu for her Superfly Title on 13th October at Korakuen Hall. Mayu spoke about Seri’s performance in the “5 Star”, rousing a loud booing crowd, before she corrected herself. It was later announced that Komomo had suffered an eye injury and so would miss the next few shows.

The pay-off for my descent into madness over MIRAI’s booking arrived on this show. The semi-main event was a preview tag match between Miku Aono and Utami Hayashishita as they teamed up with United National Champion Mai Sakurai and MIRAI respectively. After the match, MIRAI announced that she was leaving the promotion on this show – more on that in the Marigold news section. In the actual match, as expected, Miku and Utami picked up where they left off in Kawagoe on 5th July and beat the crap out of each other. Utami does have an established pattern of going hard on the preview tags and not leaving much more for the title match, but this time I am optimistic, because Miku simply won’t let her get away with it. It was a good 15-minute time-limit draw.

Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI, Nagisa Nozaki & Rea Seto) faced Chika Goto, Kouki Amarei and Minami Yuuki. This was your standard DR tag match. Gochika pinned Rea Seto. After the match, Gochika asked Kouki to team with her to go after the Twin Star titles, held by Marvelous’ Magenta (Maria & Riko). Maybe Kouki can find some success in the tag division? The fourth member of Darkness Revolution, Misa Matsui, was instead busy putting away Kizuna Tanaka. Tanaka is a wrestler who I feel her growth has stagnated slightly. That’s not to say she’s bad, but her peers are slightly leaving her behind. This was a short, solid match. Misa is so good that she should be the upper-midcard gatekeeper for those wanting to challenge for the top title, and in particular she should probably get a United National run and feud over it with Yuzuki.

Yuuka Yamazaki tapped out Megaton in a rear-naked choke in the opener. I know Megaton is a joke, but you can tell they believe in Yuuka. She has no rookie nerves whatsoever and that is such an underrated factor in a wrestler’s development. It is even more remarkable that she is only 18. Combine that with being a rookie and she should not be as confident as she currently is in her character.

23rd September 2025
176BOX, Osaka, Japan

In the main event, Shinno returned to Marigold. She’s part time working in Marigold due to studies. She teamed with Miku Aono and Seri Yamaoka to take on Utami, Yuzuki and fellow Yuuka Yamazaki. Shinno was a bit rusty as she slipped on the ropes on a springboard attempt. As another argument to Yuuka’s un-rookie-like coolness, she immediately started stomping on Shinno to save the spot without missing a beat, and then they repeated the spot. I still don’t understand how Miku and Utami are generating so much sound from their lariats, but it’s awesome. The finishing stretch put a spotlight on the hometown hero Yuuka, as she took a beating from Miku. Yuuka was just great in this match. She was pinned by Miku after a Tiger Driver. This was a good main event. It was announced that Shinno would face Kizuna Tanaka in a “second-generation showdown”, with their mothers, Yumi Fukawa and Michiko Omukai respectively, seconding them at ringside.

Mayu Iwatani had a fun singles match with Flying Penguin (surprise). She was cut on her forehead during this match, although not sure on what spot. After the match Mayu said Penguin wasn’t anywhere near her level, but with experience she’ll get there. Iwatani told Penguin to branch out and not only work in Osaka. Penguin responded saying she loved Mayu and had always watched her, so she wanted to grow. They shook hands.

Kouki Amarei teamed with United National Champion Mai Sakurai against Darkness Revolution (Misa Matsui & Rea Seto). Mai pinned Seto with a diving elbow. Backstage, Sakurai spoke about how much Yuzuki has grown since she faced her in singles shortly after Yuzuki’s debut. Elsewhere, MIRAI set up a gauntlet match with her against everybody on the roster for 11th October. Backstage, she let Erina Yamanaka lariat her, because Yamanaka would not be able to make the 11th October show and it was Yamanaka’s wish.

4th October 2025
Tochigi Prefectural Cultural Center, Utsunomiya, Japan

In the main event there were preview tags for the United National Title and the World Title at Sumo Hall as Chika Goto, Mai Sakurai & Utami Hayashishita faced Mayu Iwatani, Miku Aono & Victoria Yuzuki. It was mostly the same story as all of Utami’s preview tags, she and Miku beat the crap out of each other. Even though you’ve seen it before you never get sick of it. Miku fought off Utami’s Crusade (spinning crucifix powerbomb) before decapitating her with a running lariat. Miku wound Utami up with a Rainmaker before pinning her with the Styles Clash. Great finish.

Komomo Minami and Seri Yamaoka faced MIRAI and Yuuka Yamazaki in a match requested by MIRAI before she left Marigold. Yuuka, Seri and Komomo all debuted against MIRAI, so this was a full-circle moment for all involved. Yuuka asked MIRAI if she could start the match, with the crowd starting loud “Yuuka!” chants. Yuuka got pinned by Komomo’s Komo Clutch within 30 seconds. They pleaded with Rossy for a restart which they got. The ensuing match was fun and a good showcase for the future of Marigold, in particular Komomo sold really well, including a lariat from MIRAI that Komomo sold like death. Komomo pinned MIRAI with the Komo Clutch.

Kizuna Tanaka, Minami Yuuki and Nagisa Tachibana faced Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI, Misa Matsui & Nagisa Nozaki). This was a showcase for Tachibana as she tried to fight off DR. This match was the clearest indicator yet at how much Tachibana had improved. It’s pretty much night and day from a year ago, as she did not look out of place at all wrestling a large duration of this match. That doesn’t mean she’s outstanding or anything yet, but she is clearly on the right path. It’s easy to forget she is still a rookie.

Battle Heart Series 2025
13th October 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 887
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Mayu Iwatani vs. Seri Yamaoka

Marigold made a quick pit stop at Korakuen Hall before their Sumo Hall show. It was one of those shows that is mostly filler rather than a huge Korakuen Hall show, serving to preview matches and get everyone on the card. Aside from MIRAI’s last match for Marigold, this show could literally have been at any other venue and it would not have looked out of place. It is absolutely no surprise that this was Marigold’s worst number at Korakuen Hall since Mayu Iwatani joined (there were 10 worse numbers pre-Mayu, showing you the effect she has had on Marigold’s attendances). The only feud blown off was in the main event as Mayu Iwatani successfully defended her Superfly Championship against standout rookie, and the only person to have pinned Mayu since she joined Marigold, Seri Yamaoka. Seri beat Mayu on the first night of the Dream Star and looked to get her win back. Given Mayu was just about to face Io Shirai at Grand Destiny, there was literally no chance of Seri winning. They did not drag it out, as the 15-minute time-limit championship was decided instead in just under 12 minutes. It was quite an interesting match because they worked the early portions to the pacing of a standard 20 minute main event match, but then picked up dramatically around half way through the match when they started throwing bombs at each other. Seri showed off some really impressive power with a triplet of German suplexes, which she made look way easier than it actually is. Mayu and the Japanese commentators did a great job of selling Seri’s Aoki clutch as a dangerous move which Mayu quickly avoided before putting Seri away with the Dragon Suplex. An excellent, teasing preview of what these two wrestlers could do with more time.

In MIRAI’s last match at Marigold, she teamed up with friend and tag partner, Mai Sakurai as they went up against Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI & Nagisa Nozaki) in a re-run of a previous Twin Star Title match. While obviously the crowd were firmly on MIRAI’s side, I couldn’t help but feel this was a bit of a run of the mill match for MIRAI’s final match. This was a match I would expect to see on any of the house shows. It followed the standard DR formula, complete with a chair shot to MIRAI’s head. MIRAI came back, bolstered by the chants of the crowd. Sakurai hit a backdrop suplex, assisted by MIRAI’s lariat, on CHIAKI for the win.

The crowd seemed to not care much for the preview tag for the Marigold World Championship as Chanyota & Utami Hayashishita went up against Erina Yamanaka & Miku Aono. While you are expecting Utami and Miku to continue delivering consistent hard-hitting action, which they did, Chanyota and Erina played their own part, with Erina looking slightly improved from her last outing pulling out a frankensteiner, Northern Lights suplex and a diving crossbody to the outside. Utami and Miku did what they did best, shoulder tackles, lariats and trade German suplexes with no messing around. Yet another example in the joshi scene of two gals just beating the crap out of each other. There’s no other story here. Miku won the Dream Star, and now they beat each other up in every preview tag. It could not get more simple. After losing multiple preview tags in a row, Utami finally picked up a win over Miku with Crusade (spinning crucifix powerbomb). This would be their last time facing each other before their Sumo Hall clash.

In a representation of what the future of Marigold holds, Kizuna Tanaka, Nagisa Tachibana & Victoria Yuzuki faced Komomo Minami, Minami Yuuki & Shinno in a six-woman tag. Kizuna, 20, and Shinno, 16, started off proceedings in a preview of their singles match at Grand Destiny. This was Shinno’s Korakuen Hall debut and boy did she look to stamp her authority. Shinno was loud, adding emotion to each move she did, especially the submission holds. Even though she debuted a few months ago, she works as if she understands the intricacies of working. On the other hand, Tachibana looked a bit lost in her sequence with Shinno, despite having made some improvements from a year ago, she is still by far the least polished of the six members of the new generation. Yuzuki basically did nothing in this match, and to be fair, she had nothing to prove. We all know she is leading her peers at this point in time. Shinno landed some great head kicks in this match on Tanaka and then Tachibana. After the head kick on Tachibana she finished her off with a Sareee-style uranage. After the match, Tanaka offered a handshake to Shinno ahead of their match at Sumo Hall, and Shinno dropped Tanaka with an uranage. That was awesome.

17th October 2025
Chikujo Town Community Center, Fukuoka, Japan
Recommended Match: Kizuna Tanaka vs. Rea Seto, Mai Sakurai, Seri Yamaoka & Shinno vs. Utami Hayashishita, Victoria Yuzuki & Yuuka Yamazaki

Marigold was in Fukuoka for super rookie Seri Yamaoka’s first ever homecoming in her hometown of Chikujo. Seri teamed up with fellow rookie Shinno and Mai Sakurai against Utami Hayashishita, Victoria Yuzuki and Yuuka Yamazaki. You already know this match was good. It’s difficult for these tag match main events to not at least be good, they have quite a high floor. This one in particular was made better by the occasion once the match got going with wrestlers not afraid to lay their strikes in. At one point, Yuzuki broke Seri’s pin on Yuuka with a cracking kick to her face. It says a lot that Yuuka is already being put into these positions and I will say that she totally shined in this position. I think I am starting to buy the theory (my own) that Yuuka is secretly 26 and has been training wrestling for 4 years already. Seri pinned Yuuka with a German suplex into the Aoki clutch. Great stuff.

Chika Goto and Hummingbird faced CoCo and Miku Aono. CoCo is Van Vert Jack’s brother who are masked wrestlers for the “MY WAY” promotion based out of Fukuoka – a lucha libre promotion with a roster of Japanese luchadors. She debuted in 2023 and she has said she would love to do tours in Mexico. CoCo, a 15 year old with 2 years of experience, already had a smooth performance in SEAdLINNNG on 4th October. She again showed natural athleticism in this match with Hummingbird in the opening sequence. Hummingbird got a rare opportunity outside of an opening match against Nao Ishikawa or Megaton to show her mettle against Miku, and grabbed the opportunity with both arms, launching stiff forearms into Miku’s chest. There were some mishaps from Hummingbird throughout the match, but it was still a good match. CoCo landed a Firebird splash onto Hummingbird, but the VOD skipped ahead, so I am just going to guess Hummingbird didn’t kick out and they went to the actual finish which was MIku’s Buzzsaw kick.

Kizuna Tanaka and Rea Seto kicked off their singles match at blistering pace with strong forearms and dropkicks. These guys were absolute sickos on a random house show match, indicated by a disgusting shoot headbutt, which I have to believe was accidental. Seto then tried to break Kizuna’s foot in a leg lock, even removing her wrestling boot and exposing her bare foot. Tanaka wrestled with only one boot for the rest of the match. Rea won as she brutally cranked back on a leg lock. This was one of the best 6-minute matches I’ve seen in 2025. Nagisa Tachibana showed off her continued improvement in an opener against Komomo Minami. Komomo does not need to show off anything as she has, on several occasions, proved that she belongs in the upper tier of Marigold’s prospective talent.

18th October 2025
Acros Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan

CoCo was given the main event spotlight alongside Miku Aono and hometown wrestler Komomo Minami as they faced Utami Hayashishita, Hummingbird… and Nao Ishikawa? Without looking at every single house show, this is the first main event I remember Hummingbird and Ishikawa being a part of, excluding stuff like gauntlet matches. It was Komomo’s homecoming match, so perhaps she just really wanted to face them given they had spent a lot of time together in openers and second matches over the previous year. Utami tried to pull a Magenta from Marvelous and lock Komomo out of the room to win by countout. It was not successful. Since Mayu missed the Fukuoka tour, some cards were changed meaning Utami and Miku clashed an extra two times before their Sumo Hall fight. CoCo was once again very impressive for her age and experience as she drilled Ishikawa with a Firebird splash, allowing Komomo to follow up with the Special Komo clutch for the win. This was a fun main event.

In the penultimate preview tag match for Sumo Hall before Mai Sakurai would defend her United National Title against Victoria Yuzuki, they paired up with Seri Yamaoka and Yuuka Yamazaki respectively. Yuzuki ramped up the intensity she had already brought to Mai in other matches by jumping her during her entrance. This was the preview where I thought that Yuzuki could give Mai her best match yet if they are given enough time. They had wrestled against each other with such intensity that it had brought out the best in Mai. Seri dumpstered Yuuka with a crazy spinebuster. Mai picked up the win, tapping out Yuuka with an STF.

19th October 2025
Yamaguchi Refresh Park, Yamaguchi, Japan

It was three homecomings in a row in the far west of Japan as Marigold was in Yamaguchi, the hometown of Shinno. Shinno teamed with Mai and Utami against Miku, Yuzuki and… Megaton. Shit. A Megaton match I could not skip. Shinno got a hero’s welcome. This may be the 7th time typing this. Utami and Miku beat the crap out of each other. Seriously, if you like these two, it might be an idea to go watch all their preview tags in order. They aren’t the only ones that had decided to destroy each other on the previews, as Mai slapped the taste out of Yuzuki’s mouth. Those were the highlights of the match, with Shinno mostly being paired with Megaton, for some reason. Kizuna came out in the post-match to deliver one last promo to Shinno before Sumo Hall, saying she would absolutely not lose (she absolutely would).

Backstage after her match, CHIAKI was upset she did not get any love from the crowd as she also has Yamaguchi ties with her family based there. Three of the younger generation, Kizuna, Komomo and Seri fought in a short three-way match which Seri cleaned up with her awesome triple side-suplex into the Aoki clutch finisher. This was to give Seri some momentum heading into their clash with Chihiro Hashimoto at Sumo Hall. Rea Seto tapped out Hummingbird in her hold that she is now calling “I AM A L0CK” (yes, stylised like that).

Kizuna Tanaka (w/Yumi Fukawa) defeats Shinno (w/Michiko Omukai) (6:00)

Gauntlet Tag Team:
Gigaton & Shoko Koshino defeat Chanyota & Erina Yamanaka and Darkness Revolution (Nagisa Nozaki & Rea Seto) and Hummingbird & Nao Ishikawa and Komomo Minami & Yuuka Yamazaki and Minami Yuuki & Nagisa Tachibana (25:18)
Minami Yuuki & Nagisa Tachibana eliminated Hummingbird & Nao Ishikawa (2:58)
Komomo Minami & Yuuka Yamazaki eliminated Minami Yuuki & Nagisa Tachibana (7:29)
Chanyota & Erina Yamanaka eliminated Komomo Minami & Yuuka Yamazaki (12:36)
Darkness Revolution eliminated Chanyota & Erina Yamanaka (19:18)
Gigaton & Syoko Koshino eliminated Darkness Revolution

Minoru Suzuki defeats Megaton (6:27)

Sareee defeats Chika Goto (11:40)

Marigold Twin Star Title:
Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI & Misa Matsui) defeat Magenta (Maria & Riko Kawahata) (c) (10:37)

Chihiro Hashimoto defeats Seri Yamaoka (11:34)

Marigold United National Title:
Victoria Yuzuki defeats Mai Sakurai (c) (20:36)

Marigold World Title:
Miku Aono defeats Utami Hayashishita (c) (26:25)

IYO SKY defeats Mayu Iwatani (26:28)

© BBM

Annual Halloween Mask Fiesta 2025
29th October 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

CoCo returned in an aptly themed show where she was just her own masked luchadora self. She teamed up with Mayuchika and Yuzuchika (masked Mayu and Yuzuki if I needed to point that out). They faced Hummingbird, also in her own gimmick, Ikeman Mask (Utami) and Rabby Gocchi (Chika Goto). Utami was basically doing a parody of Kuroshio TOKYO Japan’s gimmick. Mayu wanted to shoot herself in the face during the 10 minute entrance. CoCo won with an impressive 450 before challenging Mayu Iwatani to a match. Since Mayu Iwatani wasn’t there, Mayuchika said she’d pass the message on.

Bio Serpent (Nagisa Nozaki), The best of cutie MATSU (Misa Matsui) & Wild Wolf (CHIAKI) faced Darth Maida (Mai Sakurai), MEGALOTTI (Megaton) & Merci (Miku Aono). Darth used the force against the other team. Wild Wolf drank a protein drink and powered up like Popeye with spinach. Gal Luchadora (Yuuka Yamazaki) and Masked Lilith were a gyaru-inspired duo as they clashed with RISE (Seri Yamaoka) and Kiinyan (Kizuna Tanaka). Kiinyan was a cat. Yuuka basically had her usual gear but just had a mask on top. Seri pinned Nao with the springboard missile dropkick which was the first time she had done that. Rea Seto cosplayed as the chihuahua Rewawa Trickland as during one sequence she obeyed Rider Yuuyu’s (Minami Yuuki) commands and offered up her paw, but at other times she would pee her on. Rea won with a roll-up. Kopanda (Komomo Minami) faced Mil Nagisaras (Nagisa Tachibana). Kopanda wore a panda mask and would just want to sleep upside down hanging from the ropes. Do pandas actually do that? I thought that was koalas? After some cool lucha moves the match became a bit sloppy, largely due to Komomo who looked absolutely dead tired. I have not seen Komomo like this, maybe she was selling being a panda a bit too much.

1st November 2025
Ushiku City Sports Park Gymnasium, Ibaraki, Japan

Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI, Misa Matsui & Nagisa Nozaki) faced Mayu Iwatani, Seri Yamaoka & Victoria Yuzuki in the main event. The match began with the standard Darkness Revolution brawling before turning into a good match with Seri and Yuzuki in particular having great sequences with Misa. Yuzuki pinned Misa with the Rolling Arrow pin. After the match, Yuzuki challenged Misa for her Twin Star Titles, and they accepted. Rea challenged Yuzuki for her United National Title, citing a draw in the Dream Star. Yuzuki said she beat her in a Superfly Title match, but accepted anyway for 13th November. A quick reminder is that Rea turned heel because she was getting upset at Seri and especially Yuzuki bullying her. They had a great match in the Dream Star.

Chika Goto and new signee SYOKO Koshino faced Marigold World Champion Miku Aono and Nao Ishikawa. Miku and Nao used to be known as “Young Beauty Express” in their Ice Ribbon appearances. Gochika pinned Nao and then tried to challenge Miku for the title. Miku basically asked Gochika what she was talking about and not to challenge lightly.

Two of Marigold’s rising stars, Rea Seto and Yuuka Yamazaki met in a singles match. Rea bullied Yuuka, brawling with her all over the hall. This was an opportunity for Yuuka to show off her selling chops, and for a rookie with 5 months experience, she did quite well in selling the left arm that Rea targeted. After a brief comeback, Rea relentlessly targeted the arm again before blasting her with stiff forearms. Rea pinned Yuuka with a sick bridging backdrop suplex. This was a great match.

© Marigold

Battle Heart Series 2025
13th November 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Rea Seto vs. Victoria Yuzuki

In the main event, Rea Seto challenged Victoria Yuzuki for the United National Title. This feud began months ago when Rea Seto turned heel due to perceived bullying from Seri Yamaoka and Victoria Yuzuki. They faced one another in the Dream Star in an excellent match, and so my excitement for this match was quite high. While Darkness Revolution’s brawling is quite boring and standard, it made sense for Rea to do so here given their past. Rea then attacked Yuzuki’s leg relentlessly, which has been Rea’s thing (and she’s good at it). She devastated Yuzuki with a dragon screw. Yuzuki made her comeback by launching Rea into chairs and dropping on her with a diving crossbody, before murdering her with the Sareee-style basement dropkick. I was about to get mad at the DR interference, but Rea used the chair to twist Yuzuki’s ankle in a sick way that made it look great. Rea then put Yuzuki’s ankle in a hold, but Yuzuki immediately rolled through and threw Rea, which looked odd. Those are the moments to sell that Yuzuki needs to do better. Rea slapped Yuzuki across the face for the no-sell (just kidding), before Rea tried to rip her ankle off her leg. Yuzuki barely survived by reaching the rope. Yuzuki rallied before finishing Rea off with her finisher, Victory Sunset. After the match, Rea vowed she’d keep on challenging as that is what it meant to be a pro wrestler, before she broke down into tears. The crowd chanted her name after. This is the Rea people want to see. Being a heel for an extra edge is fine, just leave the cartoony DR stuff out.

Mayu Iwatani teamed up with newcomer SYOKO Koshino against the awesome rookie duo of Seri Yamaoka and Yuuka Yamazaki. Yuuka appears to have started doing a 120% schoolboy. Cool. Koshino pinned Yuuka with the frog splash. Mayu and Seri took this match quite easy, which of course is perfectly understandable.

The World Champion, Miku Aono, teamed up with Kizuna Tanaka against Chika Goto and Nightshade, on tour with Marvelous. This was a preview tag for their singles match at Korakuen Hall. Nightshade was able to captivate the Shinjuku crowd as they wow’d for a swinging side slam, a running senton, a double Samoan drop and then a double running senton. Miku teased giving Gochika a Styles Clash but Gochika wriggled out. This match went a bit long, but at least didn’t lose the crowd.

Originally set for a three-way between Erina Yamanaka, Nagisa Nozaki and Nao Ishikawa, just before starting the match, Komomo Minami’s music started playing and she made her entrance. Komomo had been out injured since Lucha Fiesta. It was a bit odd how it was an unannounced return after a week out. The crowd did not know how to react. Komomo had a bit of a sloppy outing, so she might need time to get up to scratch. Nagisa Tachibana is getting more ambitious in her moves which caused her to slip in this match, but that is how one gets better.

15th November 2025
176BOX, Osaka, Japan

In a preview tag for their singles match at Korakuen Hall two days after, Miku Aono and Chika Goto faced off, teaming with SYOKO Koshino and Minami Yuuki respectively. Miku was great in this match. While she isn’t given main events on these house shows, she is still the most consistent performer. She was lariating and kicking the crap out of both Gochika and Yuuki.

In the main event, Darkness Revolution faced the all-star quartet of Mayu Iwatani, Seri Yamaoka, Victoria Yuzuki & Yuuka Yamazaki. Yes, they are my all-star quartet. If you want a quick check-in on DR, yes, they still do the exact same 5-minutes of brawling at the start of every single match. Without fail. Surely, it’s building to something. Surely, one day the babyfaces will actually beat the crap out of DR all over the arena. Aside from that, this match was the very typical Marigold house show main event, which is a good thing. I complained endlessly about Rea’s illogical heel turn, not because she can’t do it, but because they didn’t tell the story very well. But, Rea has significantly improved any match that DR has. Her and Misa are excellent workers and once the initial brawling has ended, they are awesome. Rea did a sick move on Seri, it was like a… leg-hooked backdrop suplex? Yuzuki stupidly took a shoot chair shot to the head. I don’t think it was gimmicked because it didn’t sound like it, but if it was, great job working me on a random house show! I do not know why CHIAKI just launches that chair at people’s heads. Seri pinned Rea with a rolling cradle. They were both very good with each other.

© Marigold

Battle Heart 2025
17th November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 785
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Mai Sakurai vs. Nao Ishikawa, CoCo vs. Mayu Iwatani

Okay, so I didn’t put this as a key show, but I did think it was a really good Korakuen Hall show, much better than the filler Korakuen before Grand Destiny. There were several good matches and they set up a few matches for the big show on 3rd January. On the 13th November, Marigold held a press conference. Chika Goto, who had tried challenging Miku Aono for the title since 1st November but had been refused by the champion, made another appeal to Miku. At the conference, Gochika proposed letting the fans decide on the day. If they are behind her, the match will be made into a title match. Miku agreed. What ended up happening is that while there were many cheers, there was a smattering of boos for Gochika. She turned to Rossy Ogawa, and he refused to make it into a title match. I did not really like this at the time it was announced. I felt it made Gochika look less over than she was before this whole storyline.

But, during the match, the fans got behind Gochika strongly. I am not sure if Gochika will come out of this match more over than she was when she went into it, but I’m willing to let it play out. It does give Gochika a strong storyline heading into future battles. Before, she was mostly the comedy midcarder, which she was awesome at, now, she can switch into a more serious mode for title matches motivated by the fans’ rejection here and wanting to prove a point to them. That works. The match itself with Miku was good, but I have seen Gochika have several matches better. She seemed to lack a bit of energy and urgency, even though there were some cool spots. At one point, Gochika and Miku struggled on the Styles Clash, and Gochika fell on her head in an awkward way that would make you think she could have broken her neck. Her nose immediately started bleeding. Fortunately, she seemed to be fine in the post-match promo as tears streamed down her face and she vowed to keep vying for the title.

CHIAKI and Misa Matsui defended their titles against Seri Yamaoka and Victoria Yuzuki. I have a personal bias against CHIAKI matches which I must disclose which made it more difficult for me to enjoy this match, but there were plenty of great spots. Misa pinned the United National Champion to retain the Twin Start Titles. Misa and Yuzuki in particular had some excellent sequences which bodes well for their future title bout on 6th December in Sapporo, as Misa challenged Yuzuki after the match. Backstage, Seri was interrupted by Marvelous’ Senka Akatsuki and they set up a singles match for 28th December at Marvelous’ Korakuen Hall show. That will be my match of the year. No, I am not joking. Read my Monday Magic Episode 1 review in the NOAH section.

CoCo, a 15-year old wrestler with 2 years of experience, burst onto the scene a few weeks ago when she took a booking in SEAd on 4th October (a show we have a review of so you can see what I thought when I saw her for the first time). She’s Van Vert Jack’s brother, a masked wrestler. They’re all part of the My Way promotion based in Fukuoka. CoCo made her first appearance as part of the Fukuoka Loop before Grand Destiny, and she would go on to have a great match with Mayu Iwatani, vying for the Super Flyweight Title. In a bid to avoid repeating my thoughts on CoCo from the other reviews, what impressed me more in this match than her other matches was how good she was at bumping and selling here. That is the one thing that both a) younger wrestlers and b) less experienced wrestlers struggle with. She is both of those and yet had some very excellent bumps. She is an athletic prodigy. I don’t like exaggerating, but the way she moves is not normal for a 15 year old. We will see if she can put it all together or if she will stay as a high speed, lucha-inspired wrestler. After the match, with Mayu retaining, Mayu said that there was no way they could let a prodigy like CoCo slip away. It seems like a done deal.

The match of the night clearly goes to Mai Sakurai and Nao Ishikawa. The story behind the match was quite simple. It was their second singles match since the Marigold launch, and Mai Sakurai had felt that Nao Ishikawa outdid her on the Marigold launch show and ever since saw her as a rival. Nao would go on to be in openers and one of the lowest wrestlers on the card and stuck with a terrible Gigaton gimmick. They are also both 2020 classmates. They beat the crap out of each other. The match started with Ishikawa dropping Mai on her head twice with German suplexes and trying to win with the 120% Schoolboy, but Mai just barely held on. Following that, there were open-handed strikes, shoot headbutts, dropping each other on their heads, you name it. Mai bullied the hell out of Ishikawa and did a great job in getting her over. This was Nao Ishikawa’s best match in Marigold so far and it’s not close, and one of Mai’s best matches outside the Giulia and Yuzuki matches. Amazing.

22nd November 2025
Morioka City Gymnasium, Iwate, Japan

Marigold began their north Japan loop in the home town of MIRAI and Michinoku Pro. As such, given the announcement of their partnership, MIRAI was ringside for much of the show. Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI, Misa Matsui & Rea Seto) faced Komomo Minami, Mayu Iwatani and Victoria Yuzuki, which served as a preview between Yuzuki and Misa. Given it was a DR match, you could skip the first few minutes of brawling, unless you’re completely new and haven’t seen DR before, then it might be a novelty to you. After a rough few outings following an injury return, Komomo looked almost back to her best in this match. Misa pinned Komomo.

Nagisa Tachibana, Minami Yuuki and Seri Yamaoka met in a three-way match. It was immediately off the rails as Seri was running the ropes and sort of just… ran into Nagisa who had just been dropkicked out of nowhere by Minami. Seri kept her cool and the match was mostly just fine if not slightly uninteresting for a while. Then, Nagisa tried the springboard crossbody that she’s been doing a lot, but completely lost her balance and fell to the floor outside the ring. She ran back in and gave Minami a dropkick, so at least she wasn’t hurt. This match reminded me of the undercard in early Marigold just after their launch. Seri ended the match shortly after. Not a good day at the office.

Mai Sakurai and Miku Aono met in a preview tag ahead of their red belt match on 3rd January. Miku teamed with former Ice Ribbon partner Nao Ishikawa while Mai teamed with Chika Goto, so in a way, this match played on the singles match Miku & Goto, and Mai & Nao just had on the Korakuen Hall show. I’m just glad Nao is higher up the card and hope she stays there. Nao tapped out to Mai once again to the STF.

Yuuka Yamazaki choked out Megaton once again (she also did so two months ago) and Kizuna Tanaka beat Hummingbird ahead of her Superfly Title shot.

23rd November 2025
Hamanasu Hall, Aomori, Japan

Marigold World Champion Miku Aono, Seri Yamaoka and… Megaton, went up against Mai Sakurai, Minami Yuuki and Victoria Yuzuki in the main event. This was another preview tag ahead of the World Title bout between Mai and Miku on 3rd January. Miku is the queen of preview tags. There is not another soul in the scene that goes as hard as she does in previews, and that’s why she’s my true ace of Marigold (she has still not missed a single show by the way). Alas, it was much briefer in this match as they decided to give the shine to Megaton, who could not survive Mai Sakurai’s brutal onslaught.

Chika Goto against Nao Ishikawa and Yuuka Yamazaki in a three-way was weirdly awkward. Not as bad as the three-way the night before, but it seems like the roster tends to just forget how to go from spot to spot smoothly when they are thrown into a three-way. Goto pinned Nao with the choke slam, which is not a great looking finisher.

Rea Seto looked ruthless against Hummingbird as she did what she does best, go after the leg. I didn’t quite enjoy Hummingbird’s selling performance as Rea needs a good dance partner (like Kizuna Tanaka) to put on a great match. It was still a good match, Rea came out of it looking far better than Hummingbird, who was building towards a Superfly Title match against Mayu with two losses in a row. Nice.

Nagisa Tachibana bounced back from a rough night the previous show and had a solid performance against Kizuna Tanaka. Tanaka pinned Nagisa with the running knee strike, which I think she should replace with a different finisher. It looks too much like she’s taking a back bump while barely hitting the opponent.

24th November 2025
Kazuno City Memorial Sports Centre, Akita, Japan

Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI, Misa Matsui & Rea Seto) faced Mayu Iwatani, Seri Yamaoka & Victoria Yuzuki ahead of Misa and Yuzuki’s title match. After the usual DR brawling to begin the match, DR took turns in beating Yuzuki up, but Yuzuki would have the last laugh as she pinned CHIAKI with Victory Shooting. This match was mostly just CHIAKI wrestling with Seri and Yuzuki. So, it was what it was – fine.

Miku Aono and Mai Sakurai had another preview ahead of their title match on 3rd January as Miku and Komomo Minami faced Mai and Gochika. Mai has been holding back a bit compared to how berserk she went in the previews with Yuzuki. Maybe Yuzuki is just the ‘sicko whisperer’ because of how hard she goes. This was still good between her and Miku though. It would be Komomo that tried to get the pin on Mai as they battled out the last few minutes. Gochika would have to help Mai out of several sticky situations against Komomo. Miku accidentally nailed Komomo with a high head kick, leading to Mai dropping Komomo on her head. I thought that was the finish. Komomo kicked out and then Mai hit the STK for the win. They gave Komomo a lot here.

Hummingbird faced Nao Ishikawa, who was coming off a series of good performances higher up the card. Hummingbird was hoping not to make it three losses in a row on the North Japan loop ahead of her title challenge in Sapporo on 6th December. After a solid match, Hummingbird bucked the trend and won with a bridging wrist-clutch leg roll cradle. This got her win back over Nao after losing to her a few weeks ago in Osaka. What momentum for Hummingbird heading into her match with Mayu! Ignore the Korakuen tag, Kizuna Tanaka and Rea Seto losses. That didn’t happen.

Nagisa Tachibana and Yuuka Yamazaki had a ‘rookie-off’ in the opener. Nagisa laid her strikes into Yuuka in this match, which is always good to see. Nagisa was a bit less ambitious with her crossbody following the recent mishap, as here she dove off the middle rope rather than the top rope. To my amazement, Nagisa picked up the win with a cloverleaf, submitting Yuuka. Yuuka hadn’t really been booked as a rookie since her arrival, picking up wins with little fanfare and being thrown into main events which Nagisa has never been thrown into, so I did expect this to be a routine Yuuka win. Okay, interesting. Let’s see where that goes.

Recommended Matches:

• Senka Akatsuki vs. Takumi Iroha – 19th October at Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial Exhibition Hall #3
• Magenta (Chikayo Nagashima & RIKO) vs. Itsuki Aoki & Senka Akatsuki – 21st September at Shin-Kiba 1st RING

Since our last issue, Marvelous have been on a journey to establish Senka Akatsuki as a key player for the promotion going forward. On 19th October, Senka Akatsuki challenged ace, head coach, booker and talisman, Takumi Iroha in her hometown of Kanazawa, Ishikawa, for the AAAW Title. The show was all about her, celebrating not only her homecoming, but also her one year anniversary as a wrestler. The Rookie of the Year candidate went into the bout against the insurmountable Takumi with a challenge posed by the champion: “you have three moves: the axe bomber, the brainbuster and the flash pin. What else?” Senka debuted a new frog splash, but it wasn’t enough to put Takumi away. Nevertheless, it is clear who the promotion are putting their weight behind. The next big milestone for the company is their “10th” anniversary (it depends on what you count as their first show, but the company themselves are calling it their 10th anniversary).

They will be holding a huge show at Yokohama BUNTAI on 5th May 2026, so all eyes are on how the company books heading into their biggest year yet, buoyed by the momentum of renewed interest and a Wrestle Universe deal. While it’s not in the Marvelous section, Senka and Marigold’s super rookie, Seri Yamaoka, continued their feud in NOAH’s Monday Magic series in what is the best thing in the scene right now. Marvelous, or rather, Chigusa Nagayo, held a Monday Magic spin-off called Friday Night Gacha – you can read reviews of that series in the NOAH section as part of the Monday Magic reviews. We also have reviews on some Marvelous house shows, including Takumi’s homecoming in September, to give you a taste of the promotion away from the bright lights.

Click here if you want full coverage of Marvelous!

Recommended Matches:

• Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee – 16th November at Korakuen Hall (My Sendai Girls Match of the Year)
• Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Mika Iwata – 23rd September at Sendai Sun Plaza Hall
• Manami vs. Yurika Oka – 23rd November at Azalea Taisho Hall
• Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase vs. Mio Momono & Yurika Oka – 17th October at Sendai PIT
• Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase vs. DASH Chisako & VENY – 26th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) vs. Hibiscus Mii & Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru – Takase 8th Anniversary, 27th September at 176BOX (for comedy sickos)
• Lena Kross & VENY vs. Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase – 28th September at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• DASH Chisako & Rayne Leverkusen vs. Lena Kross & VENY – 27th September at Azalea Taisho Hall
• Team 200kg vs. Manami & Ryo Mizunami – 27th September at Azalea Taisho Hall
• Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) vs. FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) – 22nd November at Nishitetsu Hall
• Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase vs. Takumi Iroha & VENY – 16th November at Korakuen Hall
• MAX VOLTAGE (Itsuki Aoki, Miyuki Takase & Ryo Mizunami) vs. Rina Yamashita, Utami Hayashishita & VENY – Takase 8th Anniversary, 27th September at 176BOX

Sendai Girls held a show at the 3,000 capacity Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, although the attendance number was never released. The show followed the same pattern as the one at Xebio Arena in August – fun, house show vibes with a seriously excellent main event as Chihiro Hashimoto successfully defended her Sendai Girls World Title against Mika Iwata in a low-level MOTY contender. The company also held the Jaja Uma tournament focusing on younger wrestlers, with talent from SEAdLINNNG, Stardom and Marigold. The final would be contested by new Sendai Girls signee, Spike Nishimura (originally a US independent wrestler), and Senka Akatsuki. Miyuki Takase held her 8th anniversary which was a fun show with good vibes all the way through, while Chihiro Hashimoto would hold her 10th anniversary show on 16th November in Korakuen Hall, reigniting her legendary rivalry with Sareee. We will review that show in our next issue, but the chances are high that the match was incredible.

Click here if you want full coverage of Sendai Girls!

Recommended Matches:

• Seiki-gun vs. H.A.T.E. – 19th October at Yokohama Budokan
• Gojizones Union (Hiroyo Matsumoto & ZONES) vs. Phantom Limit (AKINO & Misa Kagura) – 19th October at Yokohama Budokan
• Jun Kasai & Rina Yamashita vs. Kazumi Kikuta & Sonoko Kato – 24th August at Toyoda Gosei Memorial Gymnasium ENTRIO (for deathmatch sickos)

OZ Academy have gone through quite a bit of a shift in their stables since the last time we checked in on them. Misa Kagura joined Phantom Limit (AKINO, Cohaku, Tsubasa Kuragaki & Unagi Sayaka) in OZ Academy. This means she is now teaming with Sumika Yanagawa in 1111, Arisa Shinose in Chiapuri, Manami Katsu in Victoria Pinky, Phantom Limit and also Haruka Umesaki’s new unit in Diana. She really wanted to leave JTO. Saori Anou left her temporary home of Phantom Limit and rejoined Mayumi Ozaki. Kakeru and Maya Yukihi disbanded their own Kakeru-gun stable to assist Mayumi Ozaki as well, reforming Seiki-gun completely to take on the outsiders, Stardom’s H.A.T.E.

We have a full review of the 7th September OZ Academy show which set up a lot of matches for the Yokohama Budokan show on 19th October. We also have a review of the Yokohama Budokan show, OZ’s biggest show of the year, where Seiki-gun defeated Stardom’s H.A.T.E. in a 47-minute no DQ elimination match. Also on that show, Misa Kagura continued to show why she is a gem of the scene by performing excellently in the OZ Academy Tag Team match with AKINO against champions Gojizones Union (Hiroyo Matsumoto & ZONES).

Sonoko Kato is due to retire on 23rd November at Korakuen Hall. She will play a heel teaming with Mayumi Ozaki against AKINO and Itsuki Aoki as she said it was the one regret she would have if she did not do it before retiring. Also, that should let you know how high regard Itsuki Aoki is held in.

Click here if you want full coverage of OZ Academy!

Recommended Matches:

• Chihiro Hashimoto & Natsupoi vs. Sareee & Suzu Suzuki – 10th November at Shinjuku FACE
• Bozilla & Kaoru Ito vs. Nightshade & VENY – 10th November at Shinjuku FACE
• Akira Kurogane & Ranna Yagami vs. Chi Chi & Miku Kanae – 10th November at Shinjuku FACE

Sareee held another installment of her renowned self-produced show as she battled long-time best friend, Natsupoi, and long-time blood rival, Chihiro Hashimoto, in the main event, with Crazy Girl Suzu Suzuki by her side for support. The match was excellent and built towards Sareee’s match with Chihiro Hashimoto on 16th November for the Sendai Girls World Title. It also sowed the seeds for a future feud with Natsupoi, who cut a fiery, teary-eyed promo about feeling like her achievements in Stardom were always overlooked by people making it hard to stand out in Stardom and reducing her love of pro wrestling. Poi said that, despite losing, wrestling Sareee brought her joy. Poi said that while there’s red belts, white belts and IWGP belts, it was crushing Sareee that Poi wanted more than anything. She vowed she would do so. In the semi-main event, Bozilla, and one of the best wrestlers in the world (my column, I get to say that), VENY, locked horns. VENY showed off her babyface underdog chops, which is a rarity. The last time I saw VENY work like this was when she was wrestling Ryan Clancy on a Sapporo house show in Marvelous. With the stakes obviously much higher in this match, VENY was less comedic about her selling and put over Bozilla amazingly, including tapping out to a rear-naked choke. They brawled after the match with Bozilla asking for a singles match and VENY agreeing. As at the time of writing, it is not clear where that match will be held. This excellent show felt like the first of the road towards Sareee’s major show in Yokohama Budokan on 22nd March, which will celebrate her 15th anniversary.

Click here if you want full coverage of Sareee-ISM!

Recommended Matches:

• Miku Kanae vs. ZONES – 8th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Dan Tamura & Towa Iwasaki vs. Shota Kofuji & Shuji Ishikawa – 8th October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Chika & Yuna Manase vs. Soy & ZONES – 5th November at Shin-Kiba 1st RING

EVO has monthly shows and held #38, #39 and #40 at Shin-Kiba. #38 served as a precursor to #39 which was overall a well-rounded show with good variety, something that the promotion does well given it has both men’s and women’s matches. Miku Kanae challenged for her first ever title against the EVO Strong Women’s Champion, ZONES, in an unsuccessful albeit spirited performance. Miku Kanae stood out and largely, in my opinion, outshone ZONES with her excellent selling and captive performance. ZONES, meanwhile, reinforced my view that she is still slightly inexperienced, especially in matches of a typical, standard main-event structure. Where ZONES excels is throwing bodies at bodies, but obviously a small, babyface underdog like Miku was not going to have such a match, so that exposed ZONES quite a bit. Nevertheless, ZONES continued to be the flagbearer for the promotion. That was, until she dropped the title to MICHIKO on a GLEAT show at Yokohama BUNTAI that only drew 703 people (Stardom did 2.7k there in 2024). MICHIKO, formerly of Sendai Girls, had not appeared on a single EVO show before she captured the title, but the two promotions had been feuding since early September. MICHIKO had pinned ZONES in a mixed-tag match in GLEAT to earn the opportunity. Chika would go on to challenge MICHIKO to try and bring the title back home on 17th December.

EVO has announced a new round of recruiting, with the eventual successful applicant earning a 1 million yen cash prize and will be formally made a part of the roster on the 17th December Shin-Kiba event. They are open to beginners as well as active freelancers.

SUNNY left the promotion at the end of September. While she would continue to referee for EVO, she also said that she would work as a freelancer going forward, presumably as a referee.

Click here if you want full coverage of EVO!

Recommended Matches:

• Selene Misora vs. VENY – 19th September at Shin-Kiba 1st RING

The main news coming out of SEAd is not necessarily their shows, but instead how they have opened up bookings for their rookies and we are seeing them much more frequently on the indies such as Sendai Girls, Diana, Sareee-ISM and even Shawncapture. SEAd may have started to realise that they are a company that is all about the rookies and that is where they should be investing all their energy. That would be obvious if they watched their own shows which has fallen into utter disarray, in my humble opinion, with a severe drop-off in match quality, particularly in the tag team division now run by Mio Shirai and Natsu Sumire (compare with Ayame Sasamura and Itsuki Aoki). The return of Amazon had only added to that issue.

We have full reviews of all recent SEAd shows, but really, all you need to know is to keep an eye on their younger talent. Honori Hana is starting to come into her own with an awesome powerhouse, hard-hitting style, but seriously needs more bookings to clean up parts of her game including her selling. Miria Koga participated in the Jaja Uma tournament, with a great performance against Rian but a bad day at the office against Spike Nishimura. Koga has great kicks and a nice German suplex, but needs to round off her game. The two rookies of the 2025 class, Yuki Funa and Selene Misora, are still very early into their careers but show promise, with Selene Misora in particular looking like a wrestler that has strong potential. If you need an indication of SEAd’s investment in its youngsters, SEAd began a new series called “SEED STAGE” on 2nd November focused on the youngsters, held at Diana’s regular venue, Post di Amistad. It mirrors Diana’s Future Sight series held at the same location which SEAd youngsters have been popping up on in recent months. With both companies based in Kawasaki, the last couple of months marked a renewal in their working relationship. Additionally, SEAd announced that another trainee, Rui, 24, had passed the pro test and would debut in 2026.

Click here if you want full coverage of SEAdLINNNG!

Recommended Matches:

• Haruka Umesaki vs. Kirari Wakana – 28th September at SKIP City
• Manami Katsu vs. Kirari Wakana – 24th November at Yokohama Radiant Hall
• Kaho Matsushita vs. Manami Katsu – 26th October at Korakuen Hall
• Arisa Shinose & Ibuki Hoshi vs. Manami Katsu & Misa Kagura – 13th September at Ice Ribbon Dojo

A few things have happened in the world of “happy Ice Ribbon!” First, Victoria & Pinky (Manami Katsu & Misa Kagura) became the new International Ribbon Tag Team Champions as they beat Bad Butts (Ancham & Yappy) in an overbooked, chaotic, disappointing match on 21st September which does not match the level of all workers involved. Bad Butts repeated their awful implementation of a heel stable at the 26th October Korakuen Hall show with nonsensical weapons usage. The 21st September result made Manami Katsu a double champion (also holding the ICExFinity Championship). Katsu went on to defend her ICExFinity Title at the 26th October Korakuen Hall show against Kaho Matsushita, in a defence that was hastily put together following Ibuki Hoshi’s unfortunate ACL injury. Ibuki was set to challenge Katsu for both the tag titles (with Kaho) and the ICExFinity Title. Kaho perhaps proved herself right as while the match was awesome (as an IR lover), she clearly showed she was not ready to take Katsu’s spot, with Katsu being the main engine of the main event. Kaho had struggled with confidence and the storyline was about whether Prime Link (Ibuki & Kaho) were finally ready to take the title from Katsu and lead Ice Ribbon back to glory (the answer for now is: no.) Kirari Wakana lost her last two matches of her seven match trial series, one in an awesome match against Haruka Umesaki, and the final one against Maya Yukihi at Korakuen Hall. She would subsequently go on to become the #1 contender for Manami Katsu’s throne in what was set up as an exciting showdown between the ace of Ice Ribbon and its future. Unfortunately, she fell short in a smart, well-laid out, great match.

The top of the card for the 31st December Korakuen Hall show is shaping up, including the one night return of Hamuko Hoshi (Ibuki’s mother), who will team with Mochi Natsumi (they were a team called Love Butchers) against Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera. Hamuko announced that she has congenital acetabular dysplasia in her hip joints. Hamuko said that once Ibuki can walk again following her ACL injury and can take care of her kids (Ibuki has a kid), Hamuko will get artificial hip joints. Hamuko wants to make a full return, but she says she might not be able to after that surgery so she wanted one last match, just in case. They set up a four-way tournament for 7th December to decide Katsu’s next challenger. Kaho, Totoro, Kagura and Miku Kanae will draw random lots before the show, compete in two singles matches, then advance to the final where the winner will face Katsu at Korakuen Hall.

Yuka will also return. Yuka debuted against Kyuri on the 31st December 2013 Korakuen Hall show, with her last match in 2016, before announcing retirement in 2019 due to lengthy time out with an injury. Given the length of her time away from the ring, Yuka will be an unknown and might be the shot in the arm Ice Ribbon needs. Yuka has been working with Venus, so there’s part of Ice Ribbon’s partnership with the theatre troupe paying dividends.

Click here if you want full coverage of Ice Ribbon (come on, why wouldn’t you?!)

Recommended Matches:

• Miran vs. Mizuki Kato – 14th September at TOKYOSQUARE
• Hazuki vs. Syan Syan – 5th October at Korakuen Hall
• Kuumu vs. Nanami Hatano – 21st September at Post di Amistad
• Maika Ozaki, Miran & Mizuki Kato vs. Risa Sera, Tae Honma & Yuu – 5th October at Korakuen Hall
• Nanami Hatano vs. Yuna Manase – 5th October at Korakuen Hall
• Caffeine and Crush (Ayako Sato & Debbie Keitel) vs. AKARI & Hanako Nakamori – 9th November at Post di Amistad

At the beginning of September, Diana had heated up their unit war as Nanami Hatano added a new member to her unit with Mizuki Kato. That new member was owner Kyoko Inoue, where the unit would try to follow a more ‘traditional’ philosophy. WWWD Champion Haruka Umesaki had teamed up with young budding stars Miran, Syan Syan and now Misa Kagura, adopting a ‘King’s Road’ or ‘Royal Road’ philosophy. As a result, Umesaki had named her unit “Grace of Royalty”, meaning only Nanami’s unit did not have a name as at the time of writing. Invader or Innovator, INVA for short (Ayako Sato, Debbie Keitel, Himiko & Kuumu), started the war and are basically heels that cheat and distract refs, but at the same time they do actually care about Diana’s future. Interestingly, it appeared that the unit war storyline had died down a bit with no serious progression in October, but it continued on the 9th November show as Nanami recruited her Nijumaru teammate, Rina Amikura, to her cause. Umesaki had sneakily (and unsuccessfully) tried to recruit her while Nanami was out with injury. INVA recruited PURE-J’s AKARI and Hanako Nakamori, basically by having banger tag team matches with them and asking them “isn’t this so fun?” It is being hinted that Ayako Sato has an overall plan. We will see if that goes anywhere. That means the units, as at the time of writing are:

• Invader or Innovator (INVA): Ayako Sato (leader), Debbie Keitel, Himiko, Hanako Nakamori, AKARI & Kuumu
• Grace of Royalty: Haruka Umesaki (leader), Misa Kagura, Miran & Syan Syan
• TBD Name: Nanami (leader), Kyoko Inoue, Mizuki Kato & Rina Amikura

Syan Syan had returned to Taiwan for study but would be back for the big shows. Syan Syan’s progress continued at an alarming rate as she put on a great match with Hazuki. She has the potential to be the next big thing in the indie scene. Another Diana talent with endless potential, Miran, became the new WWWD Crystal Champion, beating Mizuki Kato in a great match. Anne, a trainee who passed the pro test on 21st September, already debuted at Korakuen Hall on 5th October, which must be one of the shortest pro-test-to-debut lengths ever. Sato & Keitel beat Unagi Sayaka & Umesaki at Korakuen Hall and then vacated their titles. Keitel immediately said that she was going after Umesaki’s WWWD Title, a match that will take place on 14th December, two months after it was teased. Diana is slow, good booking. Diana announced that their 15th anniversary in 2026 would be celebrated with four shows, two in Culttz Kawasaki in their hometown, and two at Korakuen Hall.

Click here if you want full coverage of Diana!

Recommended Matches:

• Cohaku vs. Itsuki Aoki – 2nd November at Korakuen Hall
• Haruka Umesaki & Honoka vs. Itsuki Aoki & Kakeru Sekiguchi – 23rd September at Post di Amistad
• Cohaku vs. Yuki Miyazaki – 28th September at 176BOX
• Cohaku vs. Rina Amikura – 15th September at Fujisan Messe

We have a full, huge catchup of WAVE, as they held their Dualshock Tournament for the WAVE Tag Team Titles which were held by SPiCEAP (Maika Ozaki & Tae Honma). SPiCEAP won the tournament, then successfully defended the titles against Honoka & Saran on 12th October, Honma’s last date. They did a Sting storyline where she retired as the champion after running through every tag team over the course of a few months. The tournament itself didn’t have any outstanding matches. The best tag match during the period was in fact a non-tournament match that randomly crept up on me as Itsuki Aoki and Umesaki put on a terrific hard-hitting performance. The vacant titles were captured by Saran & Yumi Ohka at Korakuen Hall on 2nd November. Cohaku had racked up two defences, one against Rina Amikura on 15th September, another against the retiring Yuki Miyazaki on 28th September. On her third defence, Cohaku could not fight off the challenge from Itsuki Aoki on 2nd November at Korakuen Hall in an excellent match. Aoki captured her first ever singles title on her anniversary of her mother’s passing, using Manami Toyota’s Japanese Ocean backdrop suplex that Toyota had taught her in 2022 (they are from the same prefecture and Aoki runs a promotion there with Ikuto Hidaka).

Click here if you want full coverage of WAVE!

Recommended Matches:

• Mari & MARU vs. Natsuki & Sakura Mizushima – 18th September at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Ayano Irie & MARU vs. Marino Saihara & Yukina Uehara – 24th November at Yokohama Sambo Hall
• Amaterasu (Act & Mari) vs. Midsummer Sea Breeze (Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki) – 1st October at Tokyo Dome City Prism Hall
• Ayano Irie & Sakura Mizushima vs. Mii & Rina Amikura – 31st October at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• Marino Saihara vs. Yui Tensho – 1st October at Tokyo Dome City Prism Hall

AWG held a big show at Prism Hall on 1st October with three title bouts and a new debuting rookie, Kana Yafuku, 21. MARU beat Sakura Mizushima for the KING of Ring Entertainment Title, while Amaterasu (Act & Mari) and Marino Saihara defended their AWG Tag Team Titles and AWG Title respectively. However, things took an insanely odd turn as it appeared that Act went injured going into that match, taking less bumps than she even normally does. Nevertheless, they kept the titles, but then vacated them two weeks later. If that wasn’t a bad enough booking decision, AWG then announced new interim titles. What? They also announced that the semi-main event and main event of the 13th October show would determine who would fight for the titles. Huh? They finally announced that the winners of those two matches would then be randomised to create the teams for the interim title match. Excuse me? Marino Saihara and Yukina Uehara are the new interim AWG Tag Team Champions. But they had never been an established tag team before. After an entire ACT Game tournament spanning months to crown the inaugural champs with in-built storylines and teams. Okay. Anyway, they are heading into the Korakuen Hall show on 29th December, which clashes with Stardom’s almost sold-out Sumo Hall show. Marino Saihara will head into that show as a double champion with hints of her pulling double duty.

Upcoming are Comicon shows on 5th and 7th December, Step 67 on 15th December and an Osaka show on 20th December ahead of the 29th December Korakuen Hall show. Marino should comfortably break the defence record of 6 (held by Miku Aono) before the Korakuen Hall show, allowing them to switch the title, if that’s what AWG want to do. I personally think Marino still has a lot left in the tank and is clearly the ace of the promotion and one of the best champions in the scene. Additionally, Chii Aoba has finally been lifted out of the openers and put straight into a title match against MARU. The date of that match, as at the time of writing, has not been announced.

Elsewhere, Anri was injured in training, which is horrible news as she was a rookie who was an incredibly consistent performer for her level of experience. Yui Tensho announced she will be transitioning to become a ring announcer as of the 29th December Korakuen Hall show, effectively announcing a pause to her in-ring activity. Mii had her graduation show on Halloween. Mii started training with AWG in 2018 before joining the promotion. She stayed with the promotion during its relaunches, embedding herself as one of the seniors in the promotion and explained that she got ill a few years ago and tried to come to terms with it but struggled immensely. Mii had not wrestled since the 29th December 2024 Korakuen Hall show. She said she was planning on graduating without saying bye, but the recently retired Tae Honma had talked her into it. Mii graduated against her two juniors in Ayano Irie and Sakura Mizushima, while teaming with her former partner Rina Amikura, known for her appearances in the independent scene having left AWG in 2021.

Click here if you want full coverage of AWG!

Recommended Matches:

• Mei Suruga vs. Rina Yamashita – 5th September at Shin-Kiba 1st RING
• AZM vs. Mei Suruga – 30th October at Shinjuku FACE
• Emi Sakura vs. Aoi Kizuki, Kaori Yoneyama, Mei Suruga, Momoe Nakanishi & Riho – 30th October at Shinjuku FACE
• Antonio Honda vs. Rina Yamashita – 5th October at Itabashi Green Hall

In a new era for the promotion, ChocoPro had a very surprising title switch as Rina Yamashita beat Mei Suruga in the main event of “Game Changer” in an awesome match. It’s one of the best matches of Rina’s career, and just another Tuesday for Mei Suruga. Their next ring shows on 5th October at Itabashi Green Hall saw Yamashita defend her title against DDT’s Antonio Honda, in another great match in which he mostly wrestled seriously. Emi Sakura’s 30th anniversary took place on 30th October at Shinjuku FACE and was an awesome show with several great matches. It has been a string of very good ring shows for ChocoPro in 2025.

Click here if you want full coverage of ChocoPro!

Recommended Matches:

• Leon vs. SAKI – 31st August at Itabashi Green Hall

We have a full catch-up of PURE-J from the August Korakuen Hall show as we blitz through all of their recent shows and main storylines. PURE-J’s ace, Hanako Nakamori, returned from injury and captured the tag team titles with Kaho Kobayashi. SAKI remained the PURE-J Openweight Champion in defenses against Leon, Momo Tani in her home region of Kansai and even Chie Ozora. Chie had been having assassins sent by her mentor Risa Sera, in a bid to train Chie up. Chie’s sixth assassin was the champion, SAKI, but Chie did not manage to win the bout. Chie’s final assassin was Risa Sera herself. Sera passed down the moniker of ‘Azure Blaze’ to Chie (pronounced ‘Soen’ represented by the kanji 蒼焔) and wanted to hold a succession ceremony for Chie before Sera’s retirement. Chie was emotional, but accepted the honour. Creakari (AKARI & Crea) split at the August Korakuen Hall show and were mostly in a downward losing spiral. Crea brought in her Ice Ribbon heel persona in a bid to try and win matches, but failed to capture the tag team titles. Things came to a head as two of the best workers in PURE-J in AKARI and Crea clashed for the third time in singles action this year.

Click here if you want full coverage of PURE-J!

Recommended Matches:

• Chi Chi & Yumiko Hotta vs. NØRI & Takako Inoue – 18th September at Kanda Myojin Hall
• NØRI vs. Mika Iwata – 21st August at Kanda Myojin Hall

We have a look at what NØRI is getting up to in LLPW-X as she continued main eventing their monthly residency shows at Kanda Myojin Hall, this time against Sendai Girls’ Mika Iwata in a losing effort. After that match, NØRI and Takako Inoue faced Chi Chi and Yumiko Hotta in a tag match on 18th September, with the story being that NØRI needed to start finding some results following her 3rd straight defeat at Kanda Myojin Hall. That’s exactly what NØRI did as she knocked Chi Chi (not literally) with a beautiful running enzuigiri. The finish was awesome. The next match for NØRI took place on 14th November. We will have a review of that in our next issue.

On 29th August at LLPW-X Dojo in Otsuka, Tokyo, a 14-year-old high school trainee called Ayume passed her pro test with LLPW-X owner Shinobu Kandori, her right hand woman, Takako Inoue and coach Megumi Yabushita watching over her. When Kandori announced that she had passed the test, Ayume was visibly emotional. The hope is that she can debut within the next year.

Click here if you want full coverage of LLPW-X!

Recommended Matches:

• Daichi Hashimoto vs. Shuji Ishikawa – 14th September at Korakuen Hall
• Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Yasufumi Nakanoue – 25th November at Korakuen Hall
• Daichi Hashimoto vs. So Daimonji – 13th October at Chateraise Gateaux Kingdom Sapporo

We have a review of BJW’s Korakuen Hall show from 14th September where Daichi Hashimoto defended his BJW World Strong Heavyweight Title against Shuji Ishikawa in his best defence. Hashimoto attempted to defend next against So Daimonji in his home prefecture of Hokkaido but was unsuccessful, meaning the Ikkitousen runner-up finally achieved his goal of becoming the champion.

Click here if you want some coverage of BJW! (Our sicko-ness can only extend so far…)

• Mochizuki Junior vs. Ryo Inoue – Naruki Doi Produce Show, 7th November at Shinjuku FACE
• Hikaru Sato vs. Fuminori Abe – KTDan IV Produce Show, 23rd October
• Homare, Shun Skywalker & Yuma Anzai vs. Kento Miyahara, YAMATO & Yuma Aoyagi – Naruki Doi Produce Show, 7th November at Shinjuku FACE
• Hayabusa vs. Kaito Kiyomiya – ZERO1, 10th November at Korakuen Hall
• Bad Butts (Ancham & Crea) vs. rhythm & Tomoka Inaba – JTO, 4th October at Yokohama Nigiwaiza
• Aoi & Azusa Inaba vs. rhythm & Tomoka Inaba – JTO, 12th September at Hiroshima Industrial Hall East Building

These are in order of personal preference rather than chronological.

© Marvelous

Takumi’s Homecoming!
6th September 2025
Nishitetsu Hall, Fukuoka, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Marvelous returned to Fukuoka for the first time since November 2023 for the homecoming of their ace and double champion, Takumi Iroha. Unfortunately, this show was too small to be covered by the usual Japanese media sites that transcribe promos, so there are no translations as Marvelous do not post results on their website unlike other companies. I believe in the opening Takumi asked how many had gone to a show, and then she went on to use Senka and Mio to explain pro wrestling and tell them when to chant. They explained pin attempts and submissions. This might mean there were lots of friends and family members with local promotion rather than the usual pro wrestling crowd. The show made more sense with that context as this was not a high workrate show. I also did not need a translation for the intermission as Chigusa Nagayo turned back the clock and sang a song (Nagayo was part of the Crush Gals tag team in the 80s who, aside from being the most popular wrestlers in Japan, did also release music).

In the main event, Takumi teamed with Senka Akatsuki, who was due to challenge Takumi on 19th October, as they faced the annoying, troublesome team of Magenta. They were the perfect opponents for a homecoming match in front of casuals. The crowd wanted to see these two murdered, and I am with them. After several minutes of brawling in the crowd, Senka’s comeback got the fans behind her, as you would expect, although she was on standby for most of this match ensuring Takumi gets the hometown spotlight. There was a lot of good action in this match, such as Riko’s top rope Frankensteiner into a Northern Lights Suplex. Takumi pinned Riko after connecting with a Go 2 Sleep into her Running Three finisher.

Ai Houzan had really broken out of her shell since the Marigold feud kicked off, and seemed to get better and more in tune with her fiery character with each appearance. I especially saw a big jump after her singles match with Sareee on 30th July. Another singles test was in Ai’s path as she had to contend with the indomitable Mio Momono in the semi-main event. Ai started this match with a lot of energy, with a series of dropkicks, Yurika Oka-style (Mio’s long time tag team partner), but Mio bounced back immediately and took control of the match. Later, they traded full mount positions. It was telling that when Mio was on top slamming forearms into Ai’s chest, the casual crowd reacted, but when reversed, there was little reaction. If anything, it showed how Ai needs to lay in her stuff more. Mio showed her how it was done when she slapped Ai into the middle of next week. Ai fell to the ground before regaining her composure. Maybe she was mad enough now to hit Mio harder? She swung at Mio, but Mio dodged. BAM. Another slap straight across Ai’s face, straight into a brainbuster. Mio doesn’t play around. Mio pinned Ai with the headbutt into a Nagayo-style German suplex.

Chikayo Nagashima, Sora Ayame and Valentina Rossi clashed in a three-way. I’ve spoken before about Sora Ayame’s amazing selling, but, like Ai, she is also starting to understand what her strengths and weaknesses are, and what her character should be. She unleashed some new offence: kicking her opponents in the shin. She knows she can’t wrestle like Senka, so why not try the old school? Well, aside from that observation, this match was very sloppy, which was bound to happen with two green wrestlers. Valentina pinned Sora. The opener was a comedy match solely for Chigusa Nagayo’s humour between Batten Burabura and Jiah Jewell. I paid for the show and still had to skip through this.

© Marvelous

14th September 2025
Kariya, Aichi, Japan

Marvelous returned to Kariya for the first time since 21st June, where Senka had a great performance against Johnnie Robbie in the main event. Senka teamed up with Mio to take on Ai Houzan and fellow Reiwa Crush Gal, Sora Ayame. The last time Ayame stood across from Senka in the ring was on Unagi Sayaka’s produce show in Sumo Hall on 26th April. This match came about after Senka challenged Takumi for the AAAW Title, with Ai and Ayame frustrated that she had skipped the queue again. Takumi just told them “maybe you should’ve said something before.” They’re doing an angle with Ai and Ayame trying to catch up with Senka and prove they deserve some plaudits too. This match was good, but the crowd was dead and Mio was taking it quite easy given it was a house show in Kariya. Senka’s signature pin doesn’t work as well with a dead crowd. Ayame actually reversed it and tried the same, until Senka reversed it once again. After assistance from Mio with a splash, Senka won the pinning duel.

After the match, Senka cut a promo and was beat up by Ayame and Ai, who were frustrated that Senka was getting all the attention. Ai spoke for quite a long time, as did Nagayo, before Senka and Takumi faced off with Ai and Ayame. Without transcripts, I spent some time uploading clips and trying to rely on YouTube auto-captioning. What I got from it was that they were setting up a tag match (I’m assuming Senka & Takumi versus Ai & Ayame) for 26th October at the “WAKU×2 Shinojimafes 2025”, which would have been Marvelous’ first ever festival appearance. It was later cancelled. The transcript seemed to indicate Nagayo was encouraging Ai not to lose her fire and granting her the match to take out her frustrations.

At the intermission, the trainee who passed her pro test on 27th June, Fuuka, 12 (well we don’t know her birthday so she could have turned 13), was brought out to speak to the audience. We were hit with the three-comedy match undercard special on this show. I think this has been quite rare, I cannot remember the last card that had 3 comedy matches out of the 4. Shin Sakura Hirota returned for a Marvelous match against Chikayo Nagashima and Takumi Iroha after 6 months (which included trying to get elected in Aichi prefecture, where this show was held). Magenta tried to lock Takumi in a toilet. Shin Sakura won with a double pin, or something. It doesn’t matter. Riko Kawahata and Valentina Rossi were in singles action, in which Riko tried to get over the fact Valentina is flexible and has long legs. And in the opener Jiah Jewell faced Yosuke Santa Maria for what I feel like is the 9th time I’ve seen this pairing with or against each other (okay, it was actually the 4th time since 30th July, I was close).

© Marvelous

21st September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe
Recommended Match: Magenta (Maria & RIKO) vs. Itsuki Aoki & Senka Akatsuki

Marvelous held a rare five-match card at their usual base of Shin-Kiba. This was a rare main event without Takumi Iroha or Mio Momono, so who would fill in those shows? Well, Senka Akatsuki of course. She teamed up with Itsuki Aoki against Magenta (Chikayo Nagashima & Riko Kawahata). Magenta pulled off the corner pads and beat up Aoki and Senka with them. While yes, it is sad that Riko has a heel gimmick, she has still been working hard compared to Maria, especially in Marvelous. Riko is still great and shouldn’t be lumped into the same box as Maria. Aoki and Riko traded some really stiff forearms in the middle of this match and were rough with each other all match. It’s probably the stiffest I’ve seen Riko work her entire heel run. Riko is also one of the best at taking Senka’s shoot pin. She knows how to sell it and kick out. You would be amazed at how many wrestlers, especially the more green ones, make that move look so bad. The last few minutes of this match were awesome with the crowd going crazy for every single nearfall. Senka went for the lariat, but Riko caught her with a German suplex. Senka fired up and lariated the crap out of Riko for a nearfall that Chikayo had to break up. The teams traded a series of nearfalls to close out the time-limit draw. This was a great match, with an MVP-level performance from Riko. After the match, Riko said that Magenta would be coming after the AAAW Titles when they’re ready, after they defend their Twinstar Titles against the Twin Towers (Chika Goto & Kouki Amarei) in Marigold. Aoki is a great, confident promo and showed she can step up to be a main-event level talent when needed. She teed up Senka (who she referred to as the future champion) to close up the show. Senka reminded everyone that she was challenging for the title in her hometown in Ishikawa prefecture on 19th October. Senka said that teaming with Aoki reminded her that she needed to have more confidence. Aoki told Senka that as future champion she would be closing a lot of shows in the future, so she should start now. Aoki whispered to Senka what she should say, and prompted the crowd to cheer. It was adorable. Aoki was the ultimate wing-woman on this show.

The AAAW Tag Team Champions, Spark Rush (Sareee & Takumi Iroha) faced Mio Momono and Valentina Rossi. While Mio has been booked on almost every Sareee-ISM show, this was her first time across the ring from Sareee since a 10-minute time-limit draw in ZERO-1 on 1st January 2024. Mio had also not wrestled Takumi since returning from injury in July, so this was their first interaction since February. Valentina kicked off the match, so Mio started off a “baka gaijin!” chant for her. That means ‘stupid foreigner.’ Takumi is booking Valentina in difficult spots by putting her so high up the card as she is too green to keep up in these tags. I appreciate she took the opportunity to gain more experience, but by green I don’t mean that in an insulting way, just that she literally has less matches than most Japanese rookies (61). It seems Marvelous knows that too as she barely gets any time in these matches, so maybe she should just be in opener matches and get more time with Magenta.

As you can imagine, Mio was great with both Takumi and Sareee. There was no love lost between Mio and Sareee as they traded full mount positions while drilling forearms into each other’s chest. They were awesome together. Mio tried a casadora, but Sareee wasn’t having any of it, so she nailed Mio with a wheelbarrow German suplex. Mio’s fighting spirit allowed her to fight through it and deliver her own German suplex, but Sareee replied with her own fighting spirit. Sareee ran the ropes but got caught with Mio’s Cutie Special pinning combination, which Takumi had to break up. Valentina tagged in and was getting double teamed by two of the best wrestlers on the scene today. Mio accidentally drop kicked Valentina, leading to Sareee cradling Valentina for the win. This was pretty good, and just a little taste of Mio against either Sareee or Takumi. Backstage, Takumi invited Bob Bob Momo Banana to challenge, but first, they are defending against Kaoru Ito and Tomoko Watanabe for an Ito Dojo show on 16th October at Shinjuku FACE.

Ai Houzan met another hurdle in her journey to the stop as one of Senka’s rivals. This time, it was the annoying Maria, whose gimmick is far past its expiry date. Maria showed glimpses of her former self as she wrestled well in the last few minutes (she turns it on much less often than heel Riko does). Maria pinned Ai with Excalibur (the Michinoku driver that almost killed CHIAKI on the Marigold show). Ai has shot up my rankings in previous weeks with the fire she has shown.

The opener was my special little guy, Ayame Sasamura, against Sora Ayame in a battle of the ‘Ayames.’ I squealed with excitement seeing Sasamura on this card, as she only does a few Marvelous shows a year. Sora continued her new devastating offense developing on the house shows – kicking her opponent in the shin and then trying to win with an inside cradle. She tried this twice. Later in the fight, Chigusa Nagayo starts coaching Sora from commentary, telling “the leg, the leg!” Sasamura tells Chigusa to shut up, turns around, and gets kicked in the shin again. Sasamura recovers and wins with the diving double foot stomp. On the way out, Sora kicks Sasamura’s shin again. Elsewhere, Yosuke Santa Maria and Jiah Jewell met in the ring for the 5th time since July, once again in a multi-person tag, this time with Bryan Ishizaka (who mostly wrestles in A-Team).

At the intermission, Nagayo called forward two trainees. They introduced themselves as Kaya Nishimura, 16, and Mahiro Namatame, 18. Nagayo asked them when they’d like their pro test, and they answered November. Nagayo asked for their colours, with Mahiro saying navy blue and Kaya saying rainbow. Rainbow was a bit difficult, so Nagayo prompted her again. Kaya wanted gold. Nagayo said that reminded her of Sumire Natsu, but they’ll try.

© Marvelous

5th October 2025
Azalea Taisho Hall, Osaka, Japan

While this was a Marvelous house show, it had an interesting main event, on paper, with full-strength Magenta (Chikayo Nagashima, Maria and Riko Kawahata) against Ai Houzan and Spark Rush (Sareee & Takumi Iroha). You might not believe it, but this was the first time Magenta had teamed up together since Chikayo turned on Takumi to join them in July. Ai has been on fire for the past couple of months, with a noticeable change after her singles match with Sareee and her tension with Senka Akatsuki. She’s been on a journey to prove to Takumi that she deserves the same opportunities that Senka gets, as Senka is due to face Takumi in Senka’s hometown of Ishikawa on 19th October. While on paper it was interesting, the action itself was quite run-of-the-mill. The match was standard Magenta tag action, with their antics of trying to lock Takumi away for a count-out victory not succeeding early on. I was surprised when it was announced that 15 minutes had passed as barely anything notable had happened and there was little crowd heat during that period. Magenta picked up the win with a moonsault from Riko. Magenta announced they would finally go after the AAAW Tag Team Titles. Who knows when!

In the opener, the Reiwa Crush Gals faced off against each other in singles action for the first time since Unagi Sayaka’s produce show at Sumo Hall on 26th April. Since then, Senka has mostly eclipsed what Ayame has been able to achieve, so much so that it has become a storyline within the promotion, with Ai Houzan also involved in the ‘everyone is jealous of Senka’ storyline. I really liked the grappling between these two. I think Senka is a very good grappler but she rarely uses it in her matches. The most I have seen her employ it is against Seri Yamaoka, a wrestler with an amateur background. This match was far better than their one in April, signifying how much both are developing. It was more polished. In particular this match made me realise that it’s not just Ayame’s character development that has improved, but she is just becoming a better wrestler, slowly with each match. Senka picked up the win with an Axe Bomber, for the second match in a row, which was the start of making it her new finisher. Oh, and Nanashi was on the show doing their gimmick match where everyone is afraid of them and they chase them down and decapitate them

© Marvelous

12th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo Japan

Marvelous were just one week out from their big event for Senka’s homecoming in Ishikawa as they returned to Shin-Kiba for a go-home show. This show was probably one of the most well rounded cards Marvelous have put out for one of their Shin-Kiba shows in 2025, with good workers in every single match. If you needed any indication of that, the opener was Mio Momono taking on Miku Kanae, who was fresh off her challenge for her first ever title, an unsuccessful one against ZONES in EVO on 8th October. This was Miku’s first proper Marvelous match (the previous one was a Stardom ComiCon crossover). This was a battle of the best underdog babyfaces in the scene, but of course, Mio has a bully mode that she regularly unlocks against junior talent and that was on full force here as Mio threw Miku around the ring and tried to force her to tap out through a series of attempted holds. Mio also tried to knock Miku out with a stiff forearm before attempting her German suplex but Miku countered with an arm drag and almost put Mio away with her double roll-through jackknife pin. Unfortunately, a marker of how low down the totempole Miku is in the scene is what finishers are needed to pin her, and Mio made it very clear where Miku is as she won with a rare splash off the top rope.

The second match, almost always a comedy match involving the men, instead had four good workers as Hagane Shinnou and Titus Alexander faced Starboy Charlie and Yosuke Santa Maria. While the Crush Boys and Santa Maria (not to be confused with Magenta Maria) are no strangers to Marvelous cards, this was Shinnou’s Marvelous debut. Shinnou mainly works in ChocoPro and Gokigen Pro, rarely venturing out of that sphere, but is a great worker and a hard-hitter. However, it’s still the second match, so Marvelous found a way. During the initial tie-up between Shinnou and Maria, Maria felt that Shinnou had felt them up, to which Chigusa Nagayo on commentary said, in English “oh sexual harassment!” Thanks Nagayo. Titus attempted the Big Ugly on Santa Maria, but she countered by kissing him and delivering a crucifix bomb for the win. At least there was some good work in this match! Nagato absolutely loves this match (she normally always loves the second match). During the intermission, Mio and Nagayo had to dance every time AWG’s intro song, Love Riddle, played, following Friday Night Gacha episode 1 where that was the gimmick. Mio clearly watches AWG, her dance was on point. Trainees Fuuka, 12 (maybe 13, birthday unknown) and Kaya Nishimura, were ringside. Unfortunately this was one of those Marvelous shows where you won’t get translations because Shupro didn’t bother covering it and Marvelous don’t have their own results page like every other promotion.

The semi-main event saw Ai Houzan team up with Miku Kanae’s training partner, Chi Chi, who was making her first Marvelous appearance of 2025, having made regular stops in 2024. They would face Magenta (Maria & RIKO) who were on their way to earning an AAAW Tag Team Title shot. Riko was on top form in this match, slapping Ai around the face after Ai dared to mess her hair up, and then later going on to mess Chi Chi’s hair up. When her zipper on her pants came undone, she was a pro at seamlessly joking about it, later checking under her top making sure everything was… as expected, I guess? I don’t know what goes on under there, I’m a guy. Chi Chi broke her nose when Maria knocked her down with a big boot. It was bleeding pretty much immediately, but Chi Chi hit Maria with a Fisherman suplex (what a pro) before tagging in Ai. Miraculously, Chi Chi continued to work the rest of the match, making sure to come in and hit her timings. One of those spots was getting superkicked in the face, and she bravely held her nose before taking that spot. Maria pinned Ai with the spike Michinoku Driver. Just like CHIAKI at the Dream Star Finals, Ai almost got dropped on her head. That move is actually dangerous. Credit should be given to Chi Chi for finishing that match. That’s the “Barbie” girl by the way. When people think of joshi and think of frilly pink skirts, they tend to be thinking of wrestlers like Chi Chi, but they don’t consider it’s the same Chi Chi that time after time shows how tough as nails she is, with stiff strikes, gnarly bumping and finishing matches with a broken nose while hitting all her spots perfectly and taking superkicks to the face. That’s my fuckin’ Barbie right there.

Nightshade returned to Marvelous on episode two of Friday Night Gacha where she reignited her feud with Takumi Iroha, so it was only a matter of time for her to appear on a Marvelous-proper show. She teamed with Senka Akatsuki against Spark Rush (Sareee & Takumi Iroha) in the main event. Takumi and Senka started off against each other in a preview of their title match the week after. As Senka attempted a flash pin, Takumi kicked out immediately, not hanging around. While we didn’t get the full version, I saw a very short glimpse of a ruthless Takumi as she connected with a vicious chop onto Senka, reminiscent of Takumi beating the crap out of Sora Ayame in April. There was a hilarious moment where Takumi called over one of the best wrestlers in the world, Sareee, to help her with Nightshade. Sareee sprinted at Nightside, and Takumi didn’t realise Sareee was sprinting towards her and moved Nightshade out of the way, meaning Sareee tripped and fell face first into the turnbuckle. I could not stop laughing. Oops! Takumi kicked Sareee in the gut for messing it up before they got back on track with a double team on Nightshade. Takumi picked up the win, tapping out Senka with an armbar.

After the match, I felt a sense of euphoria as Takumi had repeated verbatim what I have been writing and talking about on podcasts regarding Senka only having three moves of doom. Takumi said “You have the axe bomber, the brainbuster and the flash pin. What’s the rest? I look forward to it next week.” She has added the Boston crab which she unleashed on her eternal rival Seri Yamaoka, and once again in this main event, so we do have to make that four moves of doom. By the way, this is not an indictment on Senka, it’s just a reminder of where she is at, she is still a rookie and she’s still green. That does make watching her exciting, but it’s best to not call her the best thing since sliced bread until we see how that development goes. The fact she can get as much out of her moveset as she has already is incredibly promising. While the main event wasn’t the most explosive, or fluid, I think it did its job as a preview, to show us what might take place the week after. Senka would initially not submit to Takumi’s brutal double chicken wing hold and armbar attempts but eventually had to relent, while Takumi was more resistant to Senka’s flash pin than other opponents had been and Senka would either need to double down on her moves of doom, or find something new to overcome the obstacle of the double champion and ace. Oh, and Nightshade joined Evil Magenta. Great.

Nightshade defeats Ai Houzan (8:10)

Hanako Nakamori defeats Sora Ayame (10:11)

Titus Alexander defeats Starboy Charlie and Yosuke Santa Maria (11:37)

Mio Momono & Miyuki Takase defeat Chikayo Nagashima & Risa Sera (15:31)

Magenta (Maria & RIKO) defeat Sareee & Spike Nishimura (15:11)

AAAW Title:
Takumi Iroha defeats Senka Akatsuki (19:39)

2nd November 2025
Oyama Cultural Centre, Tochigi, Japan

Marvelous were back on the road for the first time since Senka’s homecoming on 19th October where she failed to beat Takumi Iroha for the AAAW Title. Senka teamed up with Takumi in the main event in Oyama against the other two jealous youngsters of Marvelous, Ai Houzan and Sora Ayame. It was Takumi who had essentially told Ai and Sora to put up or shut up as she accepted Senka’s challenge. For Sora, this was also the same arena where Takumi beat the crap out of her in April. Sora must have had PTSD as Takumi slammed some hard chops into Sora, although this time, Sora tried to fight back. Takumi smacked her down with another thunderous chop before doing a giant swing to Sora with the whole crowd screaming. This show was made completely worth it when Takumi tagged Senka in, and Senka also did a giant swing to Sora. For such a small crowd, this match had a lot of heat. Ai Houzan was done with Senka’s shit and gave her a clonking headbutt to yelps from the crowd. Sora almost pinned Senka with a reversal which fooled the crowd. Eventually Senka would try to shoot pin Sora while Takumi held Ai back but Sora escaped. Senka lined Sora up for the frog splash and hit it perfectly for the win. After a post-match promo between Sora and Ai telling Senka their feelings, Senka closed out the show by herself, having learnt how to do so from Itsuki weeks earlier. That’s character progression.

French wrestler Amale, made her Japan debut against Nightshade, who we recently saw align herself with Marvelous. Amale will get a lot of reps in Japan and likely improve, given she currently only does around 20 matches a year in Europe. That is normally a month or two for many Japanese wrestlers on the indies. Amale had faced Nightshade once before in Germany. It looked like Nightshade had to work at a slower speed than usual. Another wrestler made their Marvelous debut on this show, P.P.P. Tokyo’s Echika Miyavi who had recently been seen on Stardom’s New Blood shows. She teamed with Mio Momono against Magenta (Maria & RIKO) who had lost their Marigold Twin Star Titles the week before. Magenta bounced back as Maria tapped out Echika. The only man on Marvelous’ roster, Leo Isaka, came out at the intermission during Chigusa’s usual talkshow. He’s been out since May. Tochigi is his home prefecture, so he came out to say he’s hoping to return by their big show next May in Yokohama BUNTAI.

© ryota95288915

11th November 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo Japan

In the main event, Itsuki Aoki and double champion Takumi Iroha faced the re-united Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera). Despite Sera’s injury, AzureRevo have teamed on multiple occasions since their produce show in July (4 days before Sera’s injury). Sera and Takumi met on Monday Magic’s weeks prior. Sera was Takumi’s senior and they teamed quite a bit in Stardom when Takumi debuted so there was some history leading to that match-up. Now with her AzureRevo tag team partner, Sera met Takumi once again. It was not your Marvelous workrate main event, which would be difficult with Sera’s current condition, but it was a fun main event with a shocking result as Yukihi pinned Takumi. Takumi normally books herself quite strong when champion, and she has eaten exactly one pinfall in singles action in the past few years and that was in another promotion to drop their title (Marvelous’ partners West Coast Pro). I also don’t recall her taking a pin in tag matches since she’s been champion, although there could have been a few times I’m unaware of. In the post match promo Takumi was embarrassed about the loss. Chigusa Nagayo wanted Takumi to team up with Sera one final time before Sera’s retirement in January, against Aoki and Yukihi, which they agreed to. The date wasn’t made clear as Aoki kept on saying she’d be busy on certain dates.

The feud between the Marvelous prospects, Ai Houzan, Senka Akatsuki and Sora Ayame continued in a three-way match. In the build-up, Sora said that while she’s lost almost every time to Senka, since this was a three-way, she’d use her brain to outwit them and win. She said that there was no way she could fail if she played sudoku in the lead-up to the match. It tied in with her crafty kick to the opponent’s ankles to catch them off guard. She unleashed this deadly weapon on Senka during the course of this match. In fact, Sora was a complete menace with the move as she kicked Senka’s ankle during a pin on Ai, and then stole the pin turning it into her signature prawn hold for a very close nearfall. In the end, Ai would take the win by taking advantage of Senka and Sora’s brawling and pinning Sora.

Newcomer Amale, who Takumi Iroha had faced for the RCW World Title in Spain (where I imagine the connection came from), lost to Mio Momono in a singles match. Mio was in bully mode, targeting Amale’s arm, allowing Amale to show off her selling abilities. It was a fine match. All four members of Magenta faced off in a tag team match as Chikayo Nagashima & Nightshade took on Maria and RIKO. As with much of Magenta’s undercard matches, this was mostly light-hearted comedy. JT Thorne, from West Coast Pro, returned to Marvelous in the opener against Yosuke Santa Maria, playing the rare heel role in the promotion’s undercard.

Sendai Girls Tag Team Title #1 Contendership:
FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) defeat Bob Bob Momo Banana (Mio Momono & Yurika Oka) (11:57)

Sendai Girls Junior Title:
YUNA (c) defeats Rian (9:29)

Sareee defeats Manami (8:31)

Jaguar Yokota, Miku Kanae & Unagi Sayaka defeat Miyuki Takase, Shin Sakura Hirota & Yuu (6:23)

Lena Kross & VENY defeat Rayne Leverkusen & Spike Nishimura (8:36)

Hardcore Tag Team:
Reiwa Ultima Powers (DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto) defeat Aja Kong & Ryo Mizunami (16:05)

Sendai Girls World Title:
Chihiro Hashimoto (c) defeats Mika Iwata (21:16)

© Sendai Girls

Miyuki Takase’s 8th Anniversary ~ Limitless Heat
27th September 2025
176BOX, Osaka, Japan
Recommended Matches: Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) vs. Hibiscus Mii & Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru (for comedy sickos), MAX VOLTAGE (Itsuki Aoki, Miyuki Takase & Ryo Mizunami) vs. Rina Yamashita, Utami Hayashishita & VENY

Miyuki Takase held her 8th anniversary event in Osaka. It was a great show from top to bottom with a variety of hard hitting action, comedy and cute reunions. The main event was Max Voltage (Itsuki Aoki, Miyuki Takase and Ryo Mizunami) against Rina Yamashita, Marigold World Champion Utami Hayashishita and VENY. Max Voltage entered as the original quartet, with the fourth member, Nanae Takahashi, making an appearance too. They did their entrance dance and song from back in the SEAdLINNNG days. The main event followed a tried and true format for produce and anniversary shows – beat up the subject of the show as much as possible so the crowd goes crazy for all their moves and comebacks. It works every time without fail, and the same was true here. Those types of matches are as strong as the ‘heels’ in the match. In this case, it worked very well because it had three of the best hard-hitting bully-archetype wrestlers today in Yamashita, Utami and VENY. While Aoki and Mizunami got their stuff in, this was all about letting Takase shine. Rina and VENY were brutal as they landed a double superkick just for Utami to dump Takase on her head with a German suplex. VENY followed up with her cracking elbow (which is one of the best in wrestling today), allowing Yamashita to drill Takase with Implant. Aoki and Mizunami broke up the pin but were quickly swept out of the ring allowing Yamashita to pin Takase with Splash Mountain. After the match, Takase was giving a speech thanking all of the participants (and Nanae) one by one. VENY is on record as hating doing promos so she only spoke briefly, of course. This was a really great main event and capped off an enjoyable show.

The semi-main event was Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) against Hibiscus Mii & Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru. Takase is friends with the Hibiscus and Ranmaru duo, with Ranmaru having been on Takase’s previous anniversary shows. They both have made appearances in AWG and WAVE before when Takase was working in those promotions. This entire match and segment was awesome. It depends if you like DDT-coded comedy in your wrestling; for me, I couldn’t stop smiling the whole way through. Also, have you ever seen Hashimoto do comedy before? Well, that’s because she can’t. She corpsed her entire way through this segment and it made things even funnier. It started with Hashimoto powerbombing Ranmaru into next week, winning the match in under a minute. Ranmaru took the mic and announced a new partner – Shin Meiko Satomura (Shin Sakura Hirota). Hashimoto said that it was now 3 on 2, so they called on forth Shuji Ishikawa to reform Team 333kg, which kicked off a six-person tag match. For those who are not familiar, Shuji Ishikawa is a giant shoot-headbutting, violent maniac. The usual shenanigans took place – Shin Meiko missed Scorpion Rising, had most of her offence no-sold, so on and so forth. Ranmaru took Hashimoto’s waist before groping her breasts. Hashimoto was disgusted (while corpsing). Then, Hibiscus went to break up a pin on Ranmaru, but Hashimoto moved out of the way, so Hibiscus hit her teammate. They start arguing, but then end it with a peck on the lips. Hashimoto yelled at them, telling them that that was not how you do it. Hashimoto and Yuu started arguing, and then Hashimoto and Yuu pecked each other on the lips at the end of the argument. Hashimoto could not stop laughing. She looked very embarrassed. I popped hard. Then, the whole crowd chants for Shuji and Shin Meiko. They enter the ring, start arguing and Shin Meiko puckered her lips, awaiting Shuji’s gentle touch. Shuji amped himself up, and planted his soft lips onto Shin Meiko’s, and music started playing. Both are corpsing. Then, Shuji started doing karaoke. I don’t know why, but I also do not care why. *****

Tae Honma, who would be retiring on 13th October, teamed with Takase in her first match on the card against Kakeru Sekiguchi and Marigold’s Dream Star Grand Prix winner, and next World Champion challenger, Miku Aono. Miku was the ace of AWG when Takase was in the promotion. Honma and Kakeru were also in AWG alongside Takase, so this was an AWG-lore tag team bout. Kakeru and Miku were a tag team in AWG, capturing the Tag Team Titles in 2021 from Honma and Maika Ozaki before the titles were discontinued. Miku looked so happy to be facing Honma before her retirement as the last time she had faced her was in the 2021 AWG Tag Team Title match. This match was great. All four worked hard and the crowd was hot throughout. As expected, Miku and Takase tried to decapitate each other with stiff lariats. Miku, determined to prove a point to her former AWG colleagues, then began forearming Honma who returned fire. Honma had to go towards her partner, Takase, for some encouragement during the battle. Miku drew an end to it by resorting to using her kicking strikes instead, before pinning Honma with the Styles Clash. After the match, Honma grabbed Miku’s hand and they started hugging each other. All four were chatting with each other like it was a high school reunion. It was cute.

Hiroyo Matsumoto, ZONES and Nagisa Nozaki were involved in a three-way. ZONES and Matsumoto are part of the same stable in OZ Academy, Gojizones Union. It took some convincing by Nagisa to get Matsumoto and ZONES to stop working together against her which opened up the fight. Nagisa plays different characters in different promotions. She doesn’t play her Darkness Revolution character from Marigold when making these appearances, and she’s always fun (and quite over) on these shows. Matsumoto tapped out her tag team partner, ZONES, with a headlock.

The opener saw Miyuki Takase’s long-time tag team partner, Mika Iwata, team with Chi Chi against Diana’s ace and champion, Haruka Umesaki and Misa Kagura, a freelancer who has made friends in different units all over the scene, Umesaki being one of them. Iwata refused to take her t-shirt off which was a side-plot of the match. Chi Chi was quite excited to try Kagura’s boar charge, but Iwata wasn’t having any of it so Chi Chi forearmed Iwata, her own partner, in the chest.

© Sendai Girls

27th September 2025
Azalea Taisho Hall, Osaka, Japan
Recommended Matches: DASH Chisako & Rayne Leverkusen vs. Lena Kross & VENY, Team 200kg vs. Manami & Ryo Mizunami

Team 200kg defended their Sendai Girls Tag Team Titles against Manami & Ryo Mizunami in the main event. Sendai Girls tag team main events rarely miss. This was another great Team 200kg main event, buoyed by the fact it was mostly Hashimoto and Manami working with each other. Hashimoto cut Manami in half with a deadly spear before picking Manami up for the Last Ride. Manami countered the powerbomb, leading to a knee strike and a nearfall that the crowd became unglued for. The whole finishing sequence was hot from there on out, but eventually Manami succumbed to the Last Ride, desperately reaching for the ropes knowing she was doomed. At some point, Manami seemed to break her nose, but it’s not clear when it happened – there was a rough cannonball from Yuu but Manami did not react as if her nose had broken. I think this was one of Manami’s best underdog performances in 2025.

DASH Chisako & Rayne Leverkusen faced Lena Kross & VENY. This match was sick. The striking was on point, they wrestled at full speed and did as much as they could in the short time they were given. All four wrestlers chose their spots to shine and were highlighted well, and there were some sick bumps such as Rayne giving Kross two incredible looking German suplexes because, she is afterall, named after the Bundesliga football club, Bayer Leverkusen (this is a joke, do not repeat this). VENY landed a second rope moonsault, Kross followed up with a split legged moonsault with Chisako breaking up the pin with a double diving foot stomp. Kross pinned Chisako with an ushigoroshi. This was one of the better 11 minute tag matches in Sendai Girls all year.

Chi Chi and ZONES, career rivals in EVO, teamed together for the first time since 5th January in Sendai Girls, alongside Hiroyo Matsumoto as they faced Miyuki Takase, YUNA and Yura Suzuki. This was one of YUNA’s better performances. She showed a lot of tenacity trying to overcome Matsumoto, who was working her hardest to get YUNA over. It helped that the crowd was very hot for this match. This match exceeded my expectations. In the first of back-to-back openers for the pair, Yurika Oka beat Miku Kanae. The newly signed Spike Nishimura had an initiation singles match with Mika Iwata. Spike did well in this match. She understands how to wrestle to the Japanese crowd and I think the best compliment I can give is that she fits in seamlessly to the roster. The Jaja Uma tournament is a good start for her in the promotion as she continues to improve. She only debuted in November 2023. I watched this match more than once to figure out what I thought was missing, and I think Spike can lay in her strikes a bit more. She may be used to being soft with her strikes on the US independent scene, so her striking stood out a bit in comparison to Iwata’s.

© pepe_tanaka

28th September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Lena Kross & VENY vs. Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase)

In the main event, Lena Kross & VENY faced Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase). It was the first time Red Energy had teamed since 3rd August. This match was really good and I’m glad Red Energy are teaming again as they were building an excellent Tag Team of the Year case and Takase had been in a holding pattern. Following her World Title loss to Hashimoto days prior, Iwata was as over as ever. Lena Kross looked incredible in this match, with great strikes and a split-legged moonsault. In the finishing moments, Takase almost took VENY’s head off with a lariat for a very close two-count. VENY handed Takase a receipt, pinning her with the top-rope moonsault for the win. After the match, Lena Kross thanked Sendai Girls for the past three years, which made it sound like she had signed a contract with WWE or AEW (speculation, not a report).

Team 200kg picked up a win against Rayne Leverkusen and Spike Nishimura who both looked good. After the match, Hashimoto spoke about her entry into the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament. Seri Yamaoka, from Marigold, came out to challenge Hashimoto for Marigold’s Sumo Hall show on 26th October. It seems the Rea Seto entry into the Jaja Uma tournament wasn’t just a one-off and there’s more of a relationship between the two promotions than anticipated. After Hashimoto accepted the challenge, Seri tried a double-leg takedown, but Hashimoto stuffed it and then suplexed her. That was awesome. Hashimoto will be pulling double duty on that day as Sendai Girls have a show at Shin-Kiba in the afternoon.

Miku Kanae and Yurika Oka had a very fun singles match continuing from the previous night. Initially Miku exploded out of the gate with a dropkick and flash pins, causing Yurika to leave the ring and regain composure. Miku wouldn’t let her back in, so Yurika just left the room, before coming back sprinting down the entrance catching Miku off guard. Yurika was really feeling the 3.2 second kick-outs on this show as she failed to kick out twice making the referee look a bit silly. Yurika won with the Fisherman buster. Sendai Girls World Junior Champion, YUNA, lost to Chi Chi in the opener to a sit-out cradle. YUNA is a champion in the promotion, but Chi Chi is much further up the pecking order, so the finish made sense.

First Round
1st October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

In the first match, Spike Nishimura beat EVO’s Soy with a short-range lariat to go through to the next round. The match itself was quite short with not much happening. Matches like that in a tournament for lesser experienced talent is normal. Spike did an interview with Queen of the Indies, episode #264, in April 2025. She described how she wasn’t a wrestling fan growing up as the 2009-2010s WWE product didn’t appeal to her (she is not alone), but she found Lucha Underground which was her gateway into RoH, Chikara and other promotions. She did MMA in college but the gym closed down so during the pandemic she decided to give wrestling a try and joined New England Pro Wrestling Academy. One of the wrestlers she idolises and gave her inspiration was Orange Cassidy. Spike said that one of her long-term goals was to wrestle in Japan, but she did it very early in her career as part of the 6th edition of the Jaja Uma tournament in 2024. She mentioned how she experienced a cultural shock when she was at a restaurant in Sendai in 2024 and they asked her what she does and she said “joshi puroresu” and the server got excited, which is something that doesn’t happen in the US. She also mentioned Starlight Kid as one of her dream opponents. She’s now signed with Sendai Girls and it’s a great story to see a wrestler from the US independent scene make the jump full-time to Japan so I’m doing nothing but rooting for her success. After the announcement I figured SpoIf you’re a regular reader, you will be familiar with Soy from our EVO section. She’s one of their young wrestlers and she pops up all over the scene. She unsuccessfully challenged ZONES for the title in August in her best match to date and unfortunately came up short once again against my tournament favourite, Spike.

Stardom’s Rian faced 2AW rookie Yuka Satsuki. Satsuki is the least known rookie in the field given the footprint of 2AW and it is not a joshi promotion, even though they have incredible joshi such as Ayame Sasamura. I have seen her exactly once when she was in an EVO match, so this was very much a way to get to know her better. Rian, famous among my friend group for DDTing herself during a Stardom house show, jokes aside, has improved significantly in the past six months, so this tournament was an opportunity for her to showcase that against people she should have a realistic chance of beating. While there were some sloppy moments, this match was enjoyable and Satsuki looked good, moving deceptively quickly. There were a lot of great nearfalls, including a Boston crab reversal into a Samson clutch pin by Rian, before Rian took the win to advance.

The surprise inclusion of Rea Seto marked a return to her previous home promotion. Seto started out as a Sendai Girls rookie before jumping to Marigold at its launch. Marigold had not been working regularly, if at all, with Sendai Girls, so Seto’s inclusion as well as Hashimoto’s inclusion on Marigold’s Sumo Hall card marked an improvement of co-operation between the companies. Seto faced Marvelous’ rookie, Sora Ayame. Ayame is behind Senka in terms of development, but has her own unique charm. She’s incorporated a new move – kicking her opponent in the chin. If that doesn’t perfectly encapsulate what she’s about then I’m not sure what will. Sora was out of the gates quickly with a series of dropkicks while Rea was posing during her entrance. After kicking Rea’s ankle, as expected, Ayame tried to put Seto away with the flash pins, to no avail. Rea worked over Ayame’s leg for the entire match leading up to a brutal cross-legged stretch, causing Ayame to submit.

Stardom’s class of 2025 felt stacked, not in the sense that they were all immediately stars, but they all had their own distinct characters, looked confident and self-assured. Out of Akira Kurogane, Kikyo Furusawa and Ema Maishima, Ema appeared to be the one with perhaps the most in-ring upside, albeit a bit less confidence in their character – something completely normal for a rookie. Ema went up against a darling of the indie scene, Miku Kanae. Miku initially debuted in AWG, before leaving the promotion and joining Yumiko Hotta’s T-HEARTS, where she trains with Sareee, Chi Chi and others in Kaoru Ito’s dojo. Miku has been getting booked more in promotions like Stardom, Sendai Girls and EVO, when she was regularly sticking to promotions like SEAd. In EVO she had even managed to earn herself a shot at the top title. Miku’s #1 fan was in attendance, a fan that constantly shouts “Miku!” for minutes on end. He was the same fan I complained about in an EVO review during one of Miku’s matches, so I assume he just goes to all her shows. As expected, this was the best first round match-up. Ema showed off her silky smooth wrestling including a great looking chain suplex, while Miku did what she does best – be an amazing underdog as she fought out of submission holds. Leading up to the time-limit draw, Ema charged at Miku but was caught out by Miku’s trademark jackknife pin.

© Sendai Girls

Second Round
1st October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

In the second round, Spike faced SEAd rookie Yuki Funa. Funa is only a few matches into her career so it was a bit funny that she received a bye into the second round. Funa, 28, has a background in softball and debuted on 20th March, injuring her arm in her debut shelving her for several months. She returned on 26th July, back on the journey of beginning her career. I’m guessing the only reason Funa got a bye instead of Soy was for political reasons, or Meiko really wanted to test Spike’s ability to lead a match. Funa sprinted at Spike attempting a double leg takedown early, but struggling as Spike was in total control. There were some mistimings from Funa, which we’ve seen in her SEAd performances. Spike had to work hard to keep this match under control, before pinning Funa with a lariat.

The second most senior SEAd roster member after Honori Hana, Miria Koga, faced Rian in the second round after receiving a bye. Miria has over one year of experience and mostly focuses on kick-based offense. She had feuded with Stardom’s H.A.T.E. this year and is currently entering a feud with Honori Hana over who is the better person to lead SEAd going forward. Miria bullied Rian for the first few minutes, peppering her with her kicks. Rian tried to turn the table with a rear naked choke before climbing the ropes. Miria intercepted Rian with a high kick and jumped off the turnbuckle for a great diving dropkick. Miria put Rian away with the bridging German suplex. This was one of Miria’s best singles matches this year as she showed what she can do when she’s dominating a match rather than selling against veterans, a skill set she is still yet to develop.

YUNA, the current Sendai Girls Junior World Champion, made her start in the tournament against Rea Seto. YUNA’s progress has been a bit slow compared to her peers, which becomes very apparent when you learn that she debuted 5 months after Chi Chi and 3 months before Marigold’s Victoria Yuzuki, but that by no means means she is not good. Rea and YUNA have some history. Rea and YUNA debuted against each other on 9th August, and subsequently had several matches against each other in the openers of Sendai Girls shows. This was a reunion almost 18 months in the making. That history meant they went quite hard at each other. Rea showed off her arsenal of submission moves, including a Cattle Mutilation, before getting caught out by YUNA’s pin.

In what was one of the most anticipated matchups in the entire tournament, Senka Akatsuki faced Miku Kanae to determine who would face YUNA in the semi-finals on 17th October. Senka has set the gold standard for the most recent rookie class, capturing the hearts of those that watch her. While she is still clearly getting better and improving, her connection to the audience cannot be doubted. This match lived up to the anticipation as Miku put out all the stops to overcome Senka’s barrage, including her tilt-a-whirl crossbody, and off-the-turnbuckle crossbody. Miku almost captured the win with her jackknife pin once again, but Senka kicked out at the last second. Senka’s signature combination, a body slam into her flash pin, was reversed by Miku. Senka picked up the win with her Axe Bomber lariat, a move she does not usually finish matches with, so that was cool.

Semi Finals
17th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

The tournament continued weeks later with the two semi-finals. In the first, hometown wrestler Spike Nishimura was looking to book her place in the finals at Korakuen Hall as she took on Miria Koga. This match did disappoint slightly, but that is probably because I am quite invested in SEAdLINNNG’s rookies and I felt that Miria did not have a good performance compared to what I am used to. Spike looked good, but Miria had several timing issues as well as not laying in her kicks as much as she normally does. Spike beat Miria to go through to the finals, as expected from the onset.

Two days before her huge homecoming show, Senka Akatasuki faced Sendai Girls World Junior Champion YUNA in the other semi-final. This match could’ve gone either way. I was expecting YUNA to win just to set up the Korakuen Hall match up between two Sendai Girls wrestlers. However, I was pleasantly surprised at Senka making it through as she beat YUNA with the Axe Bomber in a good match.

The main event was a highly anticipated match-up between Bob Bob Momo Banana (Mio Momono & Yurika Oka) against Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase). This was a rematch of the amazing match on 2nd February where Mio Momono injured her arm and had to sit out a lot of the fight early on, leaving Yurika Oka to fend off Red Energy unsuccessfully in a heroic babyface performance that gives me goosebumps thinking about it. This match was equally awesome. Momo Banana turned up the dial on their obnoxiousness, trying to get under Red Energy’s skin who would fight back with kicks and lariats. At one point I was sure Takase had actually decapitated Mio with a lariat. On the finishing stretch, Mio went for a rolling cradle but the referee did not count as a shoot and stopped at 2, despite Takase not kicking out. Mio then went for a JK Bomb and got the 3 count, so I think Takase just forgot to kick out.

Team 200kg teamed up with Yuu in what I think is the first ever time with that exact trio. They faced Gojizones Union (Hiroyo Matsumoto & ZONES) and Soy. This was a battle of hosses. Chops, lariats, suplexes, you name it. Nightshade returned to Sendai Girls while she was touring with Marvelous, allowing DASH Chisako to play the rare underdog babyface in a match. Nightshade heeled it up completely. One of the best things in Japan is the crowd pop before a running senton, and Nightshade’s is one of the best. Chisako squeaked out a win as she rolled up Nightshade, just surviving.

26th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: DASH Chisako & VENY vs. Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase)

Team 200kg faced ChocoPro duo Emi Sakura and Mei Suruga in a fun main event, likely as a bucket list item for Yuu before her retirement. Yuu had already made appearances in ChocoPro this year. It had a lot of comedy, such as Hashimoto out-wrestling Emi Sakura and then Sakura just screaming her head off in fear before tagging in Mei. Even Hashimoto corpsed. Yuu picked up the win with a crafty pin on Sakura.

The semi-main event of the show provided the highlight of the show from a pure workrate point of view as DASH Chisako and Veny fought Red Energy to a time-limit draw. The match was awesome. There were a lot of great sequences, such as when Iwata went for her kick off the turnbuckle, but VENY interrupted her and Chisako launched Iwata into the ring with a German suplex. VENY followed up with a top-rope missile dropkick, and Chisako delivered another German suplex and then a diving double foot stomp. That was not enough to take the victory, just as Takase’s deadly lariat almost, but was not enough to take off VENY’s head. Iwata hit Raion as the time-limit expired. VENY has been killing it in Sendai Girls in the past few months – but when is VENY NOT killing it?

The Sendai Girls World Junior Champion, YUNA, went to a time-limit draw with Yura Suzuki, which would indicate a title match at some point in the future. Elsewhere, Hiroyo Matsumoto had some fun with Shin Sakura Hirota, Ryo Mizunami and Yurika Oka beat Spike Nishimura and ZONES as Mizunami speared Spike.

YUNA & Yura Suzuki defeat Chi Chi & Soy

Senka Akatsuki defeats Spike Nishimura

Aja Kong defeats Shin Sakura Hirota and Yuu

Aya Sakura & Natsupoi defeat Bob Bob Momo Banana (Mio Momono & Yurika Oka)

DASH Chisako defeats Maria

Takumi Iroha & VENY defeat Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase)

Sendai Girls World Title:
Chihiro Hashimoto defeats Sareee

18th November 2025
Sendai PIT, Miyagi, Japan

Ahead of Yuu’s retirement, she continued to strike off bucket list items as Team 200kg faced Stardom’s Lady C and Syuri. I’m not sure Lady C was part of the bucket list item, but who knows. Syuri and Hashimoto most famously went up against each other in a critically acclaimed knockout or submission match at Stardom’s inaugural All Star Grand Queendom in 2023. They grappled for a few minutes to start the match, and what a glorious few minutes or so it was. I can’t quite tell if it was a shoot, but Lady C could not swing Hashimoto around. It must’ve been a work – but she basically dropped Hashimoto and the crowd was laughing. In a match that highlighted Lady C’s improvement, Yuu finished her off with a sick powerbomb. Given how much Lady C and Yuu wrestled each other in this match, maybe Yuu did want Lady C?

Miku Kanae continued spreading her wings outside of the Yumiko Hotta office as she teamed with DASH Chisako against Red Energy. You already know who was taking the pin in this match. But, on the way to eating the pin, Miku did what she does best, which is be an amazing babyface trying to go to war against Iwata. It was all downhill for Miku after Chisako accidentally delivered a diving double foot stomp to her.

Spike Nishimura, off of her Jaja Uma Tournament Finals loss, went head to head with Beyond The Sea Champion (SEAdLINNNG) Hiroyo Matsumoto. This was a great proving grounds match for Spike as she sold well and went blow for blow with the veteran freelancer. It would be the Boston crab that repeatedly posed a challenge for Spike before she succumbed to the double knee drop.

Chi Chi and Ryo Mizunami faced Bob Bob Momo Banana (Mio Momono & Yurika Oka). While I absolutely LOVE three of the four in this match (and am neutral on Mizunami), this was a standard Sendai Girls undercard tag match. It was good, but nothing outstanding. I did love Chi Chi and Yurika going at it though – but like, duh?

2AW rookie Yuka Satsuki, who competed in the Jaja Uma tournament, faced Sendai Girls Junior World Champion YUNA, as YUNA looked to pick up some momentum ahead of a Senka Akatsuki defence. While YUNA won the match with a great looking roll-through cradle, I left the match more impressed by Yuka’s urgency and intensity. Sorry that I keep crapping on YUNA. I just expect more at this stage. The way this was booked didn’t help YUNA as she barely just escaped Yuka.

© tomo_REstart_

Mika Iwata’s 10th Anniversary – Kick Thunder Claw Marks
22nd November 2025
Nishitetsu Hall, Fukuoka, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe
Recommended Matches: Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) vs. FWC (Hazuki & Koguma)

Yes, Mika Iwata’s anniversary goes into a little toggle box and Hashimoto’s doesn’t. What can I say: it was a smaller show, at a smaller venue, and a show released on VOD. I’m just following the same designation that Sendai Girls gave the show! Poor Iwata. If you read the review of the 23rd September show, then you already know some of Iwata’s background and I won’t repeat it. At least Mika Iwata got to main event her own anniversary show as Red Energy faced Iwata’s eternal foe, Saori Anou, as well as Ryo Mizunami. Iwata and Saori are sworn enemies, having had time limit draws dating back to 2022. Iwata was one of the opponents in the main event of the hugely successful show celebrating Natsupoi and Saori Anou’s 10th anniversary, so Saori was returning the favour by beating Iwata up on her 10th anniversary. Iwata’s kicks were just that bit spicier when levied against Saori, and Saori’s open-handed strikes hit a tad harder than usual. Although, Mizunami played a much greater role than Saori in this main event. The match had the tried and true layout of beating the hell out of the person whose occasion is being celebrated to get the crowd fully behind them. However, Iwata, unlike others who get beat down, always gets back on her feet. Here, she withstood Mizunami’s offence before delivering kick after kick until Mizunami could no longer stand on her feet and fell to her knees, receiving another kick. Iwata picked Mizunami and delivered the Raion for the win.

Finally, after winning the #1 Contendership on 23rd September in Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) cashed in their shot against Team 200kg. The match was a forgone conclusion, but it was a good opportunity to check in on what FWC could do in a semi-main event spot given time. While the first 10 to 15 minutes were very standard Team 200kg spots such as the Yuu steamroller, the match picked up dramatically in the finish as Koguma and Hashimoto battled it out to close out the match. It started with Hashimoto spearing Koguma into next week, but Koguma fought back with a great splash covering a lot of distance. Hashimoto kicked out and went for a German suplex, but Koguma landed on her feet and applied the 120% schoolboy for a nearfall. After FWC survived a double powerbomb, Hashimoto lariated Koguma. You could actually hear fans in the crowd shout for Koguma. She countered a second powerbomb attempt with a sunset flip powerbomb. Hashimoto got the German that she wanted, but Koguma fought through and delivered her own German, dropping Hashimoto on her head. Koguma ran the ropes but was met by Hashimoto’s deadly lariat. Koguma was out of gas, got squished by the Team 200kg press and then defeated by Hashimoto’s Last Ride. This was an excellent babyface performance from Koguma.

On the undercard, Spike Nishimura told a slightly different story in her match with DASH Chisako than she had done against Matsumoto. Here, she used her size advantage to bully Chisako for much of the early stages of the bout, before the veteran got the upper hand. She hit two diving double foot stomps on Spike for a nearfall, but needed the Hormone Splash to finish things off.

Chi Chi teamed with VENY against Hiroyo Matsumoto and Manami. Given its position on the card, the match wasn’t given a lot of time, but it was still a lot of fun. This was Manami’s return from an injury to her nose in her last outing where she battled for the Sendai Girls World Tag Team Titles against Team 200kg. VENY and Matsumoto had a great back-and-forth which made me hope for that match at the 26th December Korakuen Hall show for the Beyond The Sea Title. Matsumoto pinned Chi Chi with the backdrop suplex.

PURE-J’s Rydeen Hagane teamed with Miku Kanae against Bob Bob Momo Banana (Mio Momono & Yurika Oka). Bob Bob continued to be the most annoying but lovable tag team on the planet. Mio and Miku, having met a few times this year already, were familiar with each other, which led to Mio being able to counter Miku’s signature jackknife and win by applying her weight down on Miku in a roll-up.

In the opener, Yura Suzuki pinned the Sendai Girls World Junior Champion YUNA. It is not exactly the strongest reign of all time. Yura Suzuki is a good talent and looked in control with great striking and grappling, as opposed to YUNA who was once again on the back foot. It was the seventh time that YUNA had been pinned (by anyone not just juniors) since winning the title.

23rd November 2025
Azalea Taisho Hall, Osaka, Japan
Recommended Match: Manami vs. Yurika Oka

Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) faced Mio Momono and Spike Nishimura in the main event. We were treated to the rare babyface performance of Mio Momono. It’s not often that Mio is put into this spot (partly to keep it special), but every time she is thrust into that position, she knocks it out of the park. It was no different here and she and Hashimoto interacted for the first time in over a year – the last time was at the debut show of Senka Akatsuki where they battled for the AAAW Tag Team Titles. Their chemistry was clearly still there as they had fast-paced sequences and Mio’s selling was great. Even Yuu was at her dominating best as she looked like a monster. Yuu crushed Spike to win the match.

Manami continued her comeback in a singles match with Yurika Oka in an excellent match. The match was underpinned by aggression and intensity, with the two portraying a need to beat the other. Yurika was working as hard as I’ve ever seen her as she attacked Manami’s leg relentlessly. Manami’s selling was awesome, and he attempted to come back with a cracking knee strike and trading several close nearfalls. Yurika held Manami at bay with open handed strikes, but Manami would finish the victor with her diving splash.

YUNA defended her Sendai Girls World Junior Championship against Miku Kanae, so at least YUNA did not get pinned for the eighth time since winning the title. After an onslaught of dropkicks from Miku, YUNA caught Miku with a slingblade and hit her missile dropkick for the win.

The standout junior in Sendai Girls, Yura Suzuki, had to contend with her own challenge against the indomitable Mika Iwata. Yura displayed confidence and skill in this match, showing why she would be the next to break out in Sendai Girls. After having to absorb several of Iwata’s kicks, Yura mustered the strength to hoist Iwata in the air with a German suplex. Iwata slowly regained her senses and connected with a knee strike before finishing Yura off with the triangle kick.

Masked Hanahana defeats Momoka Hanazono (10:27)

AKINO, Cohaku & Saori Anou defeat Jaguar Yokota, Mayumi Ozaki & Tae Honma (29:01)

OZ Academy Pioneer Title:
Kakeru (c) defeats Ram Kaicho and Tsubasa Kuragaki (10:16)

OZ Academy Tag Team Title:
Hiroyo Matsumoto & ZONES (c) defeat Itsuki Aoki & Ryo Mizunami (18:34)

Light Tubes Deathmatch:
Jun Kasai & Rina Yamashita defeat Kazumi Kikuta & Sonoko Kato (19:49)

© OZ Academy

Flowers of the Cemetery
7th September 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

OZ held their monthly show at Shinjuku FACE which happened to be streamed on Niconico. It seems a bit random where they decide to put a show on PPV, as the Korakuen Hall show was on NicoPro’s Zaiko but this one wasn’t. In either case, they air on GAORA on Demand a few weeks after the initial event date. Unfortunately there were no translations I could find for promos on this show, neither Shupro, OZ Academy’s website nor any other place I usually check, so this recap just has the bare minimum. Unfortunately, this was a show with a lot of promos, angles and moments.

Stardom’s President, Taro Okada, opened the show with an apology to Mayumi Ozaki following H.A.T.E’s conduct on the Stardom Yokohama PPV on 6th September. Ozaki slapped Okada around the face, before they set up a rematch between Ozaki and Natsuko Tora for 19th October, once again at Yokohama Budokan, but instead it will be OZ’s show.

Gojizones Union (Rina Yamashita & ZONES) faced Phantom Limit (Saori Anou and Unagi Sayaka), who challenged for the tag titles a few months ago. This was a very fun match. At one point Yamashita hit Saori so hard with an elbow she looked horrified at what she had done. After ZONES rocked Unagi with a lariat, Unagi reversed the pin into a cradle for the win. Unagi and Rina set up a singles match for the 19th October Yokohama Budokan show.

The OZ Pioneer Champion faced Misa Kagura in a singles match. If you read any of this section, you probably know how Misa Kagura is getting on in the world of freelancing (very well). I thought it was cute that Misa Kagura’s new gear debuted at Ice Ribbon’s Korakuen Hall show. It seems to be her new permanent gear moving forward. They brawled around the venue and had a solid match. Kakeru-gun’s other member, Maya Yukihi, distracted the ref so that Kakeru could smash Kagura over the head with her sign. Kagura kicked out, but later verbally submitted to a brutal stretch. After the match AKINO came into the ring to save Kagura from a beatdown. Kagura then joined AKINO’s Phantom Limit unit, meaning this was the second unit she had joined on the same day (she joined Haruka Umesaki’s unit in Diana hours earlier).

After a three-way between AKINO, Mayumi Ozaki and Tsubasa Kuragaki, a seismic shift in OZ took place as Saori Anou left the temporary custody of Phantom Limit. It was the place she called home after being made homeless by Ozaki in December 2024. I wish there were full transcriptions for this key promo. It seemed like AKINO was saying it was fine for Saori to find her path and leave Phantom Limit to join Seikigun. She handed Saori the whip and left her in the ring with Mayumi Ozaki. Saori timidly picked up the mic and spoke to Ozaki. Kakeru-gun (Kakeru and Maya Yukihi) made their way to the ring and said their own words to Ozaki. The end result was Seikigun reforming as a whole, with Mayumi Ozaki, Kakeru, Maya Yukihi and Saori Anou. H.A.T.E. (Konami, Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Rina & Ruaka) came out to the ring and started beating up Seikigun. It was announced that the 19th October match that Ozaki had against Natsuko Tora would instead be an all-out war between the reformed Seikigun and H.A.T.E.

In the main event, Hikaru Shida and Syuri reunited for the first time in OZ since 2019 for the occasion of Sonoko Kato’s retirement road, who teamed up with Aja Kong. Syuri was making her first appearance since AEW “All In” on 12th July. This was your classic produce show main event, although it actually had a decisive winner rather than a 30 minute time-limit draw. There were a lot of tribute spots, light working, comedy and crowd interaction. Hikaru had great striking and took some good bumps such as Aja’s backdrop suplex. Aja initially blocked Shida’s cane with her trash can, but after some mishaps, Shida managed to cane both Aja and Kato and land her Three Count of Soul on Kato for the win. Everyone was crying after the main event as Shida and Syuri said some clearly emotional words to Kato and she cut a promo with everyone sitting down in the ring in tears. Even Itsuki Aoki was shown on social media in the back of the venue crying.

Two further matches were set up after the main event. For the 28th September show in Sonchika (Sonoko Kato & Chikayo Nagashima) will face AKINO and Hiroyo Matsumoto. For the 19th October show at Yokohama Budokan, Team Power Spot (Sonoko Kato, Ryo Mizunami & Itsuki Aoki) will face a team from Sendai Girls: DASH Chisako, Chihiro Hashimoto & Mika Iwata.

Jaguar Yokota, Mei Suruga & Momoka Hanazono defeat Cohaku, Emi Sakura & Tsubasa Kuragaki (11:10)

Ram Kaicho defeats Kaori Yoneyama and Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (1:01)

Ram Kaicho defeats Kaori Yoneyama and Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (0:51)

Ram Kaicho defeats Kaori Yoneyama and Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (1:38)

Rina Yamashita defeats Unagi Sayaka (8:47)

Chihiro Hashimoto, DASH Chisako & Mika Iwata defeat Itsuki Aoki, Ryo Mizunami & Sonoko Kato (12:49)

OZ Academy Tag Team Title:
Hiroyo Matsumoto & ZONES (c) defeat AKINO & Misa Kagura (22:58)

Eight Man Tag Team Elimination:
Ozaki-gun (Kakeru, Mayumi Ozaki, Saori Anou & Yumi Ohka) (w/Maya Yukihi) defeat HATE (Natsuko Tora, Rina, Ruaka & Saya Kamitani) (w/Konami & Momo Watanabe) (47:51)

© OZ Academy

Plum Blooming ~ OZ Land 2025
9th November 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

In the main event of OZ Academy’s final Shinjuku FACE show of the year, Gojizones Union (Hiroyo Matsumoto, Rina Yamashita & ZONES) clashed with Seiki-gun (Mayumi Ozaki, Saori Anou & Yumi Ohka) in a battle for supremacy at the top of the promotion. As you may have expected, this match was pure chaos. There were multiple prolonged brawls in the crowd at the start and in the middle of the match, constant interference, weapon usage, friendly fire on teammates, stopping pins by pulling the refs leg, moves and counter moves – you name it. The crowd was invested the entire time as OZ Academy showed why they provide some of the best live experiences out of all promotions. Saori pinned ZONES with the Special Potering. Ozaki reminded Saori that ZONES was one half of the OZ Tag Team Champions and that maybe she should become a double champion.

The stable MISSION K4 reunited for one night as part of Sonoko Kato’s retirement road, as AKINO, Kaho Kobayashi, Kakeru Sekiguchi and Kato faced Cohaku, Misa Kagura, Momoka Hanazono and Ram Kaicho. They made their signature Mission Impossible entrance. This match put a spotlight on Momoka Hanazono. Kato started crying after a spot, so the audience demanded Momoka apologise. Momoka just struck Kato in the face and flipped off the crowd. It was interesting to see a match for Kato’s retirement road be largely centered around Momoka’s gimmicks. The finishing stretch had Kato and Momoka trade nearfalls before Kato dropped Momoka on her head with Kowloon’s Gate for the three count. If you like Momoka, this is probably a match for you (and since I like Momoka, I am recommending it!) As it was Kato’s last show at Shinjuku FACE, staff member Yuka Ogawa presented Kato with flowers. Backstage, Kaho broke down speaking about how she felt it was her fault the unit started to disband following her departure due to mental health reasons in 2021. She said she felt so happy she was given one last chance to reunite. AKINO said the goal of MK4 was for her and Kato to develop younger wrestlers, so she would continue with that goal going forward.

New Regina di WAVE Champion Itsuki Aoki faced Rina Amikura in a great opener as they traded chops and forearms before Aoki won with a cradle. This was only Ami’s 3rd OZ Shinjuku FACE show, losing to Kakeru in 2022 and Ram Kaicho in March 2025. Ryo Mizunami and Tsubasa Kuragaki attempted to one up the opener with a hard-hitting match with dramatic high spots including diving leg drops onto the apron and a missed moonsault from Kuragaki. Mizunami took the win with a fierce lariat. Finally, Jaguar Yokota faced Kaori Yoneyama and Unagi Sayaka in a three-way match in a fun match relying on the dependable Yoneyama-Jaguar comedy dynamic.

© OZ Academy

Sonoko Kato Retirement Show ~FINAL BLUE DRAGON~
23rd November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 1,500
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: GAORA on Demand (PPV)

Sonoko Kato has officially retired after 30 years. Kato debuted on 15th April 1995 in GAEA Japan, Chigusa Nagayo’s previous promotion before Marvelous. She debuted on the same day as the legendary Meiko Satomura and both gained attention as the next era of joshi after the Crush Gals. Kato went on to mainly work with Mayumi Ozaki in OZ Academy for the rest of her career, teaming up with Ryo Mizunami in the H2D tag team, putting on great tag team matches for decades. She won OZ Academy’s top title, the Openweight Title for the first time in 2015 and went on to win it another two times. Kato retired on her own terms, a produce show (under the OZ Academy banner) at a packed (but not sold out) Korakuen Hall.

It was fitting then that Kato’s final opponent was her long-term tag team partner in Ryo Mizunami. This wasn’t exactly a workrate special, but it was a good, emotional match between two close friends. Mizunami gave Kato all the usual gimmicks like her machine gun chops. In the end, Mizunami won with RED VOLTAGE. After the match, Kato passed on her Kowloon’s Gate finisher to Mizunami. There was also a beautiful ceremony, lasting almost an hour, as they played video packages, gave speeches and celebrated Kato’s career. One moment in particular was quite emotional as the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka) appeared and read out a fictional letter from Sonoko Kato’s late mother. Kato was in absolute tears as the letter was being read out (there are no translations for what it said). Backstage, all Kato mentioned about it was that it was exactly what her mother would have said. The link between the Crush Gals and Kato was that Nagayo trained Kato at the start of her career in GAEA. Kato finished off the show with a speech thanking all those that had supported her during her career, before more ribbons were thrown into the ring and she was carried off on the shoulders of her juniors. Kato said moving forward she would support her juniors and OZ Academy.

Kato fulfilled some career-long wishes on this show, including giving in to Mayumi Ozaki asking Kato to work one match with her as a heel. Kato teamed with Ozaki against long-time OZ Academy fellow colleagues in AKINO and Itsuki Aoki (technically a freelancer but has worked with OZ Academy for almost a decade). Kato tried her best, but in the end she was too much of a goody two shoes for Ozaki and switched sides, causing Kakeru and Saori Anou to back up the Seiki-gun leader. Ozaki had asked Kato to hit AKINO over the head with a barbed-wire chair, but Kato refused. Then, Seiki-gun brawled with Kato, Aoki and AKINO over Korakuen Hall in OZ Academy fashion before Kato eventually got the win to loud cheers.

On the undercard, Kato attempted to put on shows including all the people that meant a lot her, exemplified most in the eight-woman tag as Aja Kong, Chikayo Nagashima, Hikaru Shida & Nagisa Nozaki faced Hiroyo Matsumoto, Rina Yamashita, VENY & Yuki Kamifuku. Most of these connections are GAEA or OZ Academy. I have no idea what Nagisa Nozaki, VENY and Yuki Kamifuku’s connection to Kato are. Seeing Kamiyu outside the confines of TJPW was kind of interesting. She worked a bit harder than usual, like she had something to prove. But, as with almost every tag that VENY is a part of, she was the standout in this match early on as she wowed the crowd with her moonsaults and stiff strikes. The match progressed with Hikaru Shida getting some shine in back and forths with Yamashita before going nuts with her cane. Yamashita would regret showing Aja the finger, and Aja pinned Yamashita after a backhand fist.

There was also a battle royal where Kato wanted to highlight some of the industry’s younger talent. She made the rules such that wrestlers with over 20 years of experience had to start the battle royal and last five minutes, and then the wrestlers with less than 20 years of experience could enter. The winner won 300k yen (just under $2k). Shin Sakura Hirota was involved, so you already know what happened. She came out initially as Shin Meiko Satomura, then got immediately pinned, so came out after as Shin Sonoko Kato. Ram Kaicho won the battle royal after pinning Shin Sonoko Kato. Other names were Jaguar Yokota, Yumiko Hotta, Tsubasa Kuragaki, Kaori Yoneyama, Shin Sakura Hirota, Ram Kaicho, Mochi Natsumi, Kaho Kobayashi, Saori Anou, Shoko Nakajima, Rina Amikura, Momoka Hanazono, Unagi Sayaka, ZONES and Sayaka Toyota.

Yurika Oka defeats Selene Misora (7:41)

Chi Chi & Miku Kanae defeat Akira Kurogane & Ranna Yagami (12:15)

MIRAI defeats YuuRI (15:20)

Bozilla & Kaoru Ito defeat Nightshade & VENY (15:41)

Sareee & Suzu Suzuki defeat Chihiro Hashimoto & Natsupoi (19:12)

© EVO

Shin-Kiba Tournament #38
10th September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

In the main event, Chi Chi and ZONES met in an EVO ring for the first time in almost 3 months, as Chi Chi and her Ito Dojo partner, Miku Kanae, faced the powerhouse team of Muscle Sisters, P.P.P. Tokyo’s Chanyota and the EVO Strong Women’s Champion ZONES. The last time they met there was a set of foreign, fervent Chi Chi supporters in the crowd. Well, on this show there was one very enthusiastic Chi Chi & Miku superfan constantly shouting for them. I spotted him with a “Legendary Evidence” T-shirt, indicating he was a Yumiko Hotta fan, who is the boss of T-HEARTS, Miku’s home promotion – so that all checked out.

Chi Chi and ZONES picked up where they left off from their fight for the inaugural title. They bring the absolute best out of each other – ZONES sprints faster, Chi Chi packs more of a punch in her strikes, superkicks and suplexes. They understand the gravity of being at the forefront of a promotion and the ones responsible for its growth going forward. In Shupro #2376, an editorial was written about ZONES’ gentle nature and how it may have held her back as a pro wrestler. ZONES said that she is constantly told by veterans that she needs to unleash her wild side more. Chi Chi has been the best person to bring that out of ZONES, and the interactions in this match showcased that.

The finishing stretch was between Miku and ZONES, as ZONES struggled to put away the underdog babyface. That would cost her dearly as Miku pinned the champion with flying headscissors into a jackknife pin. A pissed off ZONES said that she’d defend her title against Miku on 8th October, the next EVO show. Miku said it was her first year, so she’s also discounting her time in AWG as wrestling (she debuted there in 2022). Backstage, Chi Chi gave Miku some advice. She told her to aim for ZONES face as she hates getting hit – “open-hand slaps, that sort of thing. Do what your opponent hates, over and over again.” Well that explains their singles match in June and why it was so hard-hitting, and makes me love it even more.

Chika continued her strong progress this year in a singles match against freelancer Maika Ozaki. Ozaki is part of the popular SPiCEAP team with the retiring Tae Honma and has held titles in several promotions such as Diana, and as at the time of writing, is a WAVE Tag Team Champion with Tae. Chika’s offence is looking more credible and improving with each show, with moves like her running senton, single handed chop to the chest and judo takedown appearing more lethal. Chika tapped to Ozaki’s Argentine Backbreaker finisher after a good match.

Sumire Natsu continues to find her way into all the promotions I watch! She’s also now parading around the Beyond the Sea Tag Team Title that she won on the SEAdLINNNG Korakuen Hall show, to my dismay. My mortal enemy took on Soy, who was coming off an excellent title match with ZONES on the previous EVO show. The most notable thing about this match was that Natsu is wearing new red and black gear. Don’t worry, it still has the pointy cones over her breasts, although now they have rings hanging from them like a nipple clamp. Great.

BJW found some representation on the show in the form of their rookie Ryuma Sekimo, who was coming off an amazing match at Korakuen Hall with one of his idols, and EVO regular, Fuminori Abe. Here, Sekimo instead found himself against EVO GM Shuji Ishikawa. This match followed the Ishikawa versus smaller guy formula, which is always great. Sekimo added a little pepper into his strikes, jumping before throwing a forearm, realising he is much shorter than Ishikawa. Sekimo even climbed the turnbuckle to deliver his strikes at eye-level with Ishikawa. The crowd shrieked each time Ishikawa swatted Sekimo away with a forearm. The viewers held their faces in their hands in shock as Ishikawa landed a diving double foot stomp on Sekimo. Later, Sekimo went for a body slam, but Ishikawa countered it and launched Sekimo like a lawn dart into the corner, folding him up. That looked absolutely brutal. Ishikawa put Sekimo away with the Giant Driver. This was a great selling performance from the rookie, although, given how hard Ishikawa hits, who knows if it was selling or not! Suwama was even more of a bully against All Japan’s Dan Tamura, although Dan, with more experience, was eventually able to fight back by dropping Suwama with a running lariat. This match was slow paced and hard hitting, but not as good as Ishikawa’s match. Suwama put Dan away after two dangerous backdrop suplexes, dropping Dan on his head.

© EVO

Shin-Kiba Tournament #39
8th October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Dan Tamura & Towa Iwasaki vs. Shota Kofuji & Shuji Ishikawa, ZONES vs. Miku Kanae

The past few shows for EVO I have been writing about ZONES’ improvement. Specifically, what seemed to light a fire under ZONES’ ass was when she beat Chi Chi to become the inaugural EVO Strong Women’s Champion. It was a low-level MOTYC for me, one of the best matches in the indies in 2025, and by far the best match of both Chi Chi’s and ZONES’ career. Following on from that, ZONES had a barnburner with Soy in the main event of the August show, a match I had no idea that Soy had in her, but that ZONES brought out of her. Last month, ZONES and Chi Chi met in a tag match where both gave it their all to build their career rivalry, but in the process, ZONES did not have much left in the tank and was pinned by the small, timid but gutsy figure of Miku Kanae. Miku, officially part of the T-HEARTS organisation led by Yumiko Hotta and supported by the Ito Dojo (including Sareee and Chi Chi), is a darling of the indie scene and was heading into her first ever singles match for a title in her career. Originally an Actwres girl’Z alumni (of course), she has carved her own path and garnered attention for her excellent work as an underdog babyface. This match exposed a weakness in ZONES a few years into her career. ZONES needs hard hitters and stiff workers to produce her best work. In this match against a traditional pro wrestling underdog such as Miku, I think ZONES slightly came up short, still producing a great match, but not hitting the highs of her previous two.

ZONES started off in dominant fashion, brushing off Miku’s dropkicks, throwing her outside of the ring and bullying her. This was a similar pattern to her match with Soy, who fought back. In a mirror of that match, Miku fought back against ZONES’ outside-the-ring bullying, but did so instead in typical Miku-fashion, dodging the lariat which caused damage to ZONES arm, and launching on top of her with a flying crossbody. Miku, realising the damage she had caused, immediately latched on an armbar and attempted a double-armed wing clutch, but ZONES reached the ropes quickly. ZONES Irish whipped Miku from corner-to-corner, which was smart because fans of Miku would recognise that eventually Miku was going to do her crossbody-off-the-turnbuckle, but instead, nothing. Later in the match, ZONES repeated the Irish whip, but this time, Miku got her signature move off to turn the tide of the battle. Miku went back to working the injured arm from earlier, tying it in the ropes and dropkicking it. The part of the fight which I felt exposed ZONES was the selling of the arm, which was not great at points. For example, following the dropkick to her arm she immediately hit Miku with an elbow drop without any sign of struggle, and that was just one of a few examples. But hey ho, it’s a nitpick and makes it clear what level ZONES is at and what she needs to improve on. Miku caught ZONES with a brutal Christo (modified Octopus), again targeting the arm, before ZONES swatted her off. Miku’s speed, seemingly having increased dramatically during the year, assisted her in this match as she sprinted at ZONES with a barrage of dropkicks before stretching back ZONES’ injured arm into a violent double-armed wing stretch, the one she was not able to achieve earlier. ZONES barely made the ropes. Miku attempted her signature jackknife pins to no success. Miku had nothing left in the tank. We were in the ZONES zone. ZONES threw her around with a series of German suplexes and then decapitated Miku with the running lariat. This was a top-class Miku performance and I felt that she outshone ZONES, even though I think ZONES did well with improvements on the table for the future.

EVO regulars Dan Tamura (All Japan) and Towa Iwasaki (BURST Pro) took on rookie Shota Kofuji (Osaka Style Wrestling) and EVO GM Shuji Ishikawa. Shota has been regularly wrestling in All Japan and has shown good, consistent development. These matches with Dan and Shuji on the EVO undercard are super fun because they hit so damn hard. Dan and Shota went balls to the wall in this match, hitting each other as hard as they could. Dan hit a lariat so thunderous on Shota I just said out loud “f-ing hell”. I was even surprised that Iwasaki, who had not really impressed me in his outings in BJW and EVO thus far, laid in his strikes against Shuji. This match was for all those who want to see wrestlers just beat the crap out of each other (wait a second, I thought only 2000s NOAH had that and modern wrestling is dead?)

Soy, who has been appearing regularly in ChocoPro since #393 in September 2024, brought over his ChocoPro tag partner, Miya Yotsuba to face Rina Yamashita and Sayaka Obihiro. Soy and Miya unsuccessfully challenged for the Asia Dream Tag Team Titles in May in a great match against Bellflowers (Makoto & Sayaka). Miya herself is one of Mei Suruga’s students and unsuccessfully challenged Mei for the top title earlier this year, as did Obihiro. The only wrestler in this tag match that successfully challenged and dethroned Mei was the current Super Asia Champion, Rina Yamashita. Miya traded forearms with Rina in what is potentially a preview of a future Super Asia match in ChocoPro. On this occasion however, Rina pinned Miya with Implant.

Chika faced her most significant match yet, against homegrown star Chi Chi. Given that Chika’s opponents have exclusively been against freelancers (if you don’t count Aki Shizuku as an EVO roster member as she’s never marketed as one), it marked a step up in her development to be given a match against Chi Chi, and not only that, but Chika’s longest ever singles match so far in her short career. For Chi Chi, this was a tune-up match as she vowed to face Yuu before Yuu’s retirement on 28th December. Chi Chi’s debut match was against Yuu. For Chika’s level of experience, she is quite good. Given that she is part of the 2025 class, her in-ring work is comparable to Diana’s Mizuki Kato, who debuted in 2023, albeit Kato’s personality and charisma is wildly ahead of Chika’s. Chika showed off an awesome deadlift vertical suplex. Chika kicked out of Chi Chi’s Northern Lights suplex at one but tapped out shortly after to Chi Chi’s guillotine choke.

Muscle Sakai faced EVO founder Suwama. Sakai, a comedy wrestler, is also known for his Super Sasadango Machine gimmick in DDT. He also faced Minoru Suzuki, as Sakai, at one of DDT’s big Peter Pan shows in August, in a rematch of his “retirement” match in 2010. Given that, I knew what to expect from this. Lots of shenanigans. One of the advantages of watching so much wrestling is that I know when to watch on 2x! Sakai announced that it had become a “Mild Lumberjack Deathmatch”, where if Suwama leaves the ring, he will be thrown back into the ring, but if Sakai leaves the ring, Sakai would be allowed a rest break and get massaged by the lumberjacks. There were two masked lumberjacks. You get where this is going. Sakai left the ring multiple times for breaks and snacks with the lumberjacks not allowing Suwama to pursue. Sumire Natsu made an appearance assisting Suwama with the win. Sumire was due to team up with Suwama and Rina Yamashita against Team 333kg (Chihiro Hashimoto, Shuji Ishikawa & Yuu) on her produce show on 31st October.

© EVO

Shin-Kiba Tournament #40
5th November 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Chika & Yuna Manase vs. Soy & ZONES

In the main event, Chi Chi faced the retiring Yuu in a bucket-list match. Chi Chi made her debut against Yuu in EVO in 2023, so this was a full-circle moment. Chi Chi broke her nose a few weeks ago in Marvelous against Magenta (Maria & RIKO) and was out of action. She returned here wearing a fabulous pink, sparkly face protector. This match was great. It had a hot crowd, Yuu was taking the match seriously and they built tension well to certain spots given Chi Chi’s injury. For example, I was terrified about Yuu’s cannonball as she normally smashes into people’s faces. They initially denied giving the crowd the spot but revisited the spot later. Chi Chi took it very safely, but it was smart how they got there. Yuu killed Chi Chi with the Last Ride for the win.

In the opener, ZONES returned doing the walk of shame as this was the first EVO show since she lost the EVO Strong Women’s Title in a 7-minute match in a half-empty stadium on a GLEAT show. She teamed with Soy against Chika and GanPro’s Yuna Manase, who went to war, eating Soy’s chops and ZONES’ decapitating lariats. Soy and Chika were the stars of this match. They built up nicely to a spot where Soy would do a Chika-style judo takedown on Chika. Then, I have no idea if they have beef in the dojo or if Soy is just a sicko, but she shoot slapped Chika around the face which made me audibly yelp “what the f-…” Chika returned fire with an open-handed palm to Soy’s chest before pinning her with her signature judo takedown. This was Chika’s first ever pinfall. Chika has been improving at a great rate and connecting with the crowd in her short time wrestling. Chika took the mic and was in tears. Chika would be going after MICHIKO, who is the one that took the belt from ZONES in GLEAT.

In the men’s division, or the Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama division, Shuji Ishikawa faced Junya Matsunaga from ZERO-1. Shuji was his usual brutal self. At certain points in this fight when I took my eye off the screen, my head whipped back just to make sure it didn’t randomly start playing a horror flick as the screams of the crowd echoed through the arena. EVO is fun because it has easy-to-enjoy, good joshi wrestling sandwiched in-between violent bachi-bachi shoot-style wrestling. This promotion was made for me. Shuji won with the Fire Thunder after a great fight from Matsunaga. But, you can’t have it all ways. Suwama faced BJW veteran Abdullah Kobayashi. There was some weird gimmick where Suwama had an assistant, Sumire Natsu, who was cosplaying one of those adult actresses, the seductive secretary type. I am not sure what was going on. The ref was then doing his usual weapon searches before starting the match and kept finding new weapons on Abdullah so he was DQ’d. The match eventually restarted into a quick brawl. Abdullah threatened Sumire if Suwama didn’t give up. Sumire then wallop’d him then Suwama lariated him to win. Not good. Elsewhere, The ‘Miku guy’ was back, well, he’s at every single Miku match. He screamed Miku’s name, although it felt like he was more reserved than usual. At one point though, Momoka Hanazono flipped him off. Thanks Momoka, I knew you were a real one.

© SEAdLINNNG

Shin-Kiba Series 2025 Vol. 5
19th September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: seadlinnng.com
Recommended Match: Selene Misora vs. VENY

SEAdLINNNG (SEAd) is going through a re-build. It has been for a while to be honest. This promotion right now is all about the younger talent and trying to elevate them, and that makes it a very fun watch for someone like myself who is into storylines like that. It has four young wrestlers on their roster (technically, Amazon and Yoshiko are on the roster making six in total, but Amazon is not noteworthy, returning from action after a 2 year absence only last month not looking great, and Yoshiko has been out of action since 2022 although she recently told SEAd she was preparing to return). Honori Hana, 25, has been on the roster since December 2019, so she’s by no means a rookie, but it is clear she is still figuring things out. She took a break from wrestling after contracting COVID in 2020, and was out from July 2021 to December 2024, so in practice she has only been wrestling for 2 years. VENY gave her the best match of her career earlier this year which has really given Honori a platform moving forward. Given the absence of top wrestlers in the promotion, her seniority on the roster means that you could say that she is the frontrunner to be SEAd’s ace. However, she is not there yet at all, meaning SEAd have to rely on freelancers, who have been at the top of the card for years. Then, Miria Koga, 19, is just over one year into her career. She focuses mainly on her strong kicks and, as of this show, is entering a feud with her senior, Honori. SEAd understands its current situation and is having the younger talent go against each other. The SEAd live crowd are totally into the younger wrestlers fighting each other, which makes their matches even better.

One of the story beats is that Unagi Sayaka is trying to light a fire under Honori’s ass to lead SEAd going forward, as Unagi said in the August Korakuen Hall press conference that SEAd was all about the freelancers (the last time a SEAd roster member held the title was Arisa Nakajima in 2023). In my view, Honori has had that fire ever since her title match with VENY in May. At Korakuen Hall in August, Honori Hana and Miria Koga were on opposite teams in an all-SEAd roster tag team match, including rookies Yuki Funa, 28 with a background in softball, and Selene Misora, 20 with a background in judo. Funa was injured on her debut on 20th March and only returned recently, so, as of this show, only has 4 matches under her belt. Selene debuted on 17th June against Stardom’s Koguma, so also as of this show, has participated in 4 matches. With such little experience, the jury is still out on the rookies (Selene so far looks like the most promising).

I thought this show was great, focusing on the younger talent in three key matches. First, Honori Hana continued teaming with Unagi Sayaka, this time against the Beyond The Sea Champion, Hiroyo Matsumoto and Miria Koga. It must be noted that Honori has one of the best theme songs in the scene right now. It is about drinking tequila and taking shots though, I’m not sure how much of a drinker Honori is, but she does not strike me as a party type. Since Matsumoto was on the other side, I guess each team had at least one person with a banger theme. Matsumoto’s theme really captures the late 80s early 90s vibes (the song is “Live Happy” by C+C Music Factory featuring Zelma Davis, released in 1990).

Miria and Honori picked up where they left off at Korakuen Hall, throwing each other across the ring to start the match. This match had a LOT of heat in the closing stretch when Miria and Honori were trading nearfalls on each other. Miria picked up the upset, cradling Honori for the win. Hopefully this leads to a singles match where they beat the crap out of each other. After the match, Honori launched an attack on Miria and they had to be broken apart. This is what I want to see from SEAd.

Former Beyond The Sea Champion VENY took on rookie Selene Misora. I was VERY, VERY excited for this match. VENY is great against rookies (read: beats the crap out of them) and Selene has shown some great babyface fire, and seems like a rookie you don’t want to mess with. This was the first true test of Selene’s career. VENY, not usually big on symbolism, looked fabulous and decided to wear all black for this match to mourn Selene’s career after she would put an end to it here. I was already in heaven after the first minute. VENY shrugged Selene off twice, so Selene slapped the mat and sprinted at VENY, succeeding in a double-leg takedown. The mat wrestling didn’t go too well for Selene as VENY laughed her off. The first big move came after Selene tried to dropkick VENY down, but failed, so VENY showed her how it was done and dropkicked Selene off her feet. After she landed some elbows on VENY and ran the ropes, VENY landed a massive big boot, turning Selene inside out. After 5 minutes, VENY was done playing with her food and went for a moonsault finisher, but Selene grabbed her lag, and then dropkicked her leg so VENY fell off the turnbuckle. Selene landed some forearms to try to knock VENY down. VENY was now annoyed at Selene’s hubris, and knocked her out with a stiff elbow for the win. This was up my street, a match that made the whole show worth it, and my match of the night.

After losing the Beyond The Sea Tag Team Titles at Korakuen Hall last month, Ayame Sasamura & Itsuki Aoki regrouped, but on opposite sides of a tag team match in order to let off some steam. Sasamura in particular was very upset about the loss, mostly mad at herself for her performances over the past few shows, including the show in July where she was pinned which set up the challenge in the first place). Sasamura’s partner would be Miku Kanae, while Aoki grouped up with rookie Yuki Funa. Given how green she is, any comments about her ability are far too early and hiccups, as there were in this match, are to be expected. One thing that might be flying under the radar is Miku Kanae’s improvement. She hasn’t picked up any flashy moves, but I cannot recall the last time I have seen her mess up a move, or hesitate in the ring. Sasamura and Aoki exchanged some stiff strikes in this match, before Sasamura picked up the win by pinning Funa. Aoki wanted to handshake Sasamura, but Sasamura playfully rejected before Aoki forced her to shake hands, so the situation is that there’s some tension and things to work through, but it’s not dramatic, they’re still friends. You know, like what happens in real life.

The Other Matches

Amazon returned to the promotion in August after a few years out of action, losing in an “all-star” eight-person tag team. On this show, she was in a four-way high speed match with Makoto, Nagisa Nozaki and YuuRI. The joke of the match was that Amazon cannot do high speed, so she got very tired and gassed. I always think you have to be an exceptional comedic talent to pull off a “fake gassed” routine, and unfortunately Amazon is neither of those three things. Even outside of the ‘comedy’, the wrestling itself was not good. Anyway, Amazon won as Makoto pushed her and she fell and pinned Nagisa. After the match, Amazon picked up YuuRI and they left together. The bit is that YuuRI is her plaything, or something. SEAd are putting me through a nightmare blunt rotation with first, Shirai & Natsu, and now, Amazon & YuuRI. I guess as long as they stay away from the younger talent, it’s fine.

Technically, the main event of the show was the Beyond The Sea Tag Team Title match as Mio Shirai & Sumire Natsu defended against Ka Kedita & La Pidita, but, I think it’s a secondary storyline to what is going on in the promotion. Kedita is played by Kakeru Sekiguchi while Pidita is played by Kaho Kobayashi. It’s a fun undercard gimmick and Kaho in particular is great at playing a luchador. I’ve also documented for several months in my columns how indifferent I am to Natsu. Shirai has been fine since her return with some good matches here and there in WAVE. The best part of this main event was Kedita and Pidita dancing to Natsu’s theme music. In fact, Kedita was just great in this main event. Kedita powered through Natsu’s terrible Bronco Buster to deliver a thunderous powerbomb before later giving her a stiff lariat. Natsu retained the title by getting a cradle on Ka Kedita. The luchadors got a good match out of the champions. Amazon and YuuRI came out after the match to challenge next on 4th October. That is a hard pass for me. How did we go from Sasamura & Aoki to this?

© SEAdLINNNG

Kawasaki Pro Wrestling Matsuri 2025!
4th October 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 709
Culttz Kawasaki, Kawasaki, Japan

SEAdLINNNG (SEAd) hold spring and autumn shows at Culttz Kawasaki. The seasonal event started in September 2024, and this was the third instalment, with the attendance holding steady, around 700, which is likely their largest attendance all year (not all Korakuen Hall shows are announced but none of them looked like they drew as much). The show’s main event was an all-star eight-person tag, as Ayame Sasamura, Miria Koga, Ryo Mizunami & Yumiko Hotta faced Hazuki, Jaguar Yokota, Makoto & Miku Kanae. There were no big storylines leading into this match, this main event was put on to draw the live crowd and was mostly a house show match with all of the legends and veterans getting their spots in. The most interesting part was that one storyline of the match was Miria, a member of the SEAd roster, being put front and centre. There were some great moments from Miria, who is progressing well, as she and Miku stiffly slapped each other. In the closing stretch, Miria went toe to toe with former Beyond The Sea Champion, Makoto. Makoto pinned Miria and closed the show out (champion Hiroyo Matsumoto was not on the show). It was Miria’s first main event in a year, and backstage Miria spoke about how the SEAd roster had barely been able to main event in favour of freelancers and she would continue to try and change that.

The day before making her Diana debut, Hazuki made her SEAd debut on this show in the main event, continuing to build out her network in the indies and either preparing for a freelance run, or just having fun! Whatever the reason, it’s nice seeing Hazuki enjoy herself on these shows. Hazuki spoke about looking forward to wrestling Yoshiko again, so I suppose that’s the next direction. Yoshiko announced on the July show that she was making a comeback.

Mio Shirai and Sumire Natsu successfully defended their Beyond The Sea Tag Team Titles against Amazon and YuuRI, in a match set up on the last show (read our previous review for details). As you could probably expect based on what I said there, I did not enjoy this match. The entire match is built around Amazon’s ‘strength’ and ‘size’ because she’s a big gaijin. The main issue is that she does not have the experience or skill required to pull off that role, compared to say Bozilla in Stardom. Amazon no-sold the champion’s attacks and she used YuuRI as her weapon (dropping her on occasion). Amazon’s lack of athleticism meant the action where she was involved was very slow, in a ‘WWE Great Khali’ sort of way. Natsu did her usual comedy stuff grinding on YuuRI’s face so that didn’t help my enjoyment. There were just some really awful spots too. YuuRI landed a nice German suplex on Natsu, but Mio broke up the count, not by hitting YuuRI, but just asking the referee not to count. She literally put her arm in front of the ref about to count a three. What? YuuRI accidentally dropkicked Amazon, so Amazon attacked her. Natsu picked up the win with a cradle on Amazon. I promise I wasn’t going into this match to dislike it. This was probably the worst SEAd match I’ve seen all year.

Unagi Sayaka has been on a mission to try and nurture the next generation of SEAd stars, with most of her focus on Honori Hana. Honori teamed up with Unagi in a tune-up tag match with PURE-J’s ace, Hanako Nakamori, who was making a return to the promotion after a 1-year absence, and Misa Kagura, who herself continues to make the rounds on the indie scene. Kagura in particular was a good match up for Honori as both can be heavy hitters, although this match failed to take off and I do not blame the crowd for not being up for this as the action was not too exciting. This win set them up to challenge Mio and Natsu for a tag team title challenge after the semi-main event.

While Honori Hana was busy facing top wrestlers on the indy scene, the two rookies of the 2025 class, Yuki Funa, 28, and Selene Misora, 20, were facing two of Stardom’s powerhouse wrestlers in singles action, Saya Iida and Yuna Mizumori respectively. Funa and Miria both participated in the Sendai Girls Jaja Uma tournament focussing on young talent, and while both received byes to the second round, Funa was knocked out of the second round by their new signee Spike Nishimura. Funa’s main goal right now is getting reps so that moves become more natural for her and she hesitates less and gets less confused where she is in the match. For the most part, she did that in her match with Iida, although she did just have to eat a lot of chops, which she did well. Selene on the other hand, with fewer matches than Funa, looks far more comfortable in the ring and put on a great performance full of fire against VENY on the last show. Selene continued her development here and again, I felt it was a more convincing performance than Funa. While it is very early on, Selene seems to have grasped the basics of pro wrestling a bit quicker. Backstage, she and Yuna both spoke about her fighting spirit being her strong skill and Yuna was surprised at her fire for being only four months in, so I’m glad I wasn’t just imagining it.

On the show there was also a men’s match, which is not unusual as they have also taken place on the last two shows at Culttz Kawasaki. Kohei Sato (freelancer with mostly Tenyru Project and previously ZERO1) and Van Vert Jack faced Masato Tanaka (ZERO1) & SUGI (freelancer, previously ZERO1). Van Vert Jack is a masked wrestler for the “MY WAY” promotion based out of Fukuoka, which is a lucha libre promotion with a roster of Japanese luchadors. Jack was damn good. The highlight was his Komander-like ropewalk into a corkscrew springboard moonsault to the outside. Yes, I wrote it down correctly and he did that. This match was quite good. I was expecting them to take it easy or do a lot of comedy considering where it was on the card, but they all worked hard and put on a very impressive athletic display. SUGI got the snot beaten out of him for most of the match by Kohei but managed to fight his way back against Jack, pinning him with a Firebird splash.

Local SEAd luchadora La Pidita (Kaho Kobayashi) faced CoCo in a high speed match. CoCo is Van Vert Jack’s brother and is also masked. This was my first time seeing CoCo as she barely has any recorded matches, mostly wrestling locally in Fukuoka. She debuted in 2023 and she has said she would love to do tours in Mexico. CoCo, for a 15 year old with 2 years of experience, was smooth and well polished. This was a good 5-minute spotfest. Cagematch doesn’t capture how many shows she may have done locally, but it must be quite a bit given how athletic she looked in this match with Kaho. She was making tope suicidas, springboard moonsaults and even an attempted 450 splash, pulling out at the last second when Kaho moved out of the way. I am not sure where she has been hiding. Well, in Fukuoka. It was really interesting seeing her and Van Vert Jack and hopefully she picks up some more SEAd bookings. Pidita won with the 120% schoolboy.

© SEAdLINNNG

Shin-Kiba Series 2025 Vol. 6
14th November 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: seadlinnnng.com

My disappointment at the progression of the main event scene in SEAd has been well documented in these reviews, especially with the tag team titles being held hostage by Mio Shirai and Natsu Sumire’s meandering 20-minute ‘comedy’ matches. This time, instead of the terrible opponents of Amazon and YuuRI, they were against the established upcoming team on the independents, 1111 (Misa Kagura & Sumika Yanagawa), months after their departure from JTO. They were looking for the Beyond The Sea Tag Team Titles in the main event of this show. The match had some good parts to it, but some I was not interested in. Sumika was forced to play the heel to build heat on Sumire, for some reason, which is not a particularly compelling dynamic for me when Sumire is such a heel to me. I mean, she was shoving Sumika’s face into the turnbuckle with her groin! The match was much better when Mio Shirai was in the match beating up 1111. Anyway, the match was fine, quite by the numbers and nothing outstanding. The very typical Mio & Sumire defence, with Mio pinning Kagura with an enzuigiri. After the match, Honori Hana challenged, presumably she will pair up with regular partner Unagi Sayaka. They let Honori close out the show.

As SEAdLINNNG have re-geared their promotion around their youngster, Selene Misora has been paired with VENY in a few bookings. It is an inspired pairing if it continues as Misora has a bit of that attitude in her strikes very early on in her career. VENY is a beacon of the Japanese independent scene, and even though she is just 27, it is time for her to raise her own protege. They went up against the Beyond The Sea Champion Hiroyo Matsumoto and Miria Koga. I absolutely love rookies beating each other up. Misora showed off what will become her signature fiery attitude as she threw Miria around the ring and dropped her with a clean double-leg takedown. Unlike her colleagues, Misora is also absolutely not afraid to show emotion and be loud in the ring. There’s no shyness about her, or at least not as much as you expect from a freshly debuted rookie. She pulled Miria by the hair, slamming her to the mat before forearming her in a mounted position. She then went to the champion, Matsumoto and just started forearming her. This was a good performance from Misora, although as the junior she obviously had to lose to Miria’s German suplex (which looked great).

The opener between my special little guy, Ayame Sasamura and the veteran of the SEAd contracted wrestlers, Honori Hana, was a match right up my street. Honori has become a powerhouse hard-hitter but still needs to refine her selling and pick her spots better. Being bullied by Ayame is a good position to learn both. Ayame absorbed Honori’s strikes until Honori had enough and pinned Ayame down in the full-mount position before delivering an open-handed slap, showcasing glimpses of her ruthlessness. She followed up with two crazy looking backdrop suplexes, with Ayame bumping on the top of her neck. Ayame found the win after a lariat and a Tiger suplex. This was a great match.

Yuki Funa found herself in her first high speed match with La Pidita (Kaho Kobayashi) and Ka Kedita (Kakeru Sekiguchi). Itsuki Aoki and YuuRI went up against Las Fresas de Egoístas (Makoto & Nagisa Nozaki). It was a fine match but readers should know my feelings towards YuuRI by now. I can’t get into her matches. Makoto was awesome though as she offered an injection of pace before putting YuuRI away with the Michinoku driver.

© Ice Ribbon

A three-hour match between Ibuki & Kaho…?
Ice Ribbon Dojo #1441
6th September 2025

At the start of Prime Link’s (Ibuki Hoshi & Kaho Matsushita) singles battle against each other, the first since their title bout at Korakuen Hall in December 2023, Kaho said that 10 minutes weren’t enough, so they made it unlimited. After some crowd brawling, chop wars (which obviously Ibuki won as that is her specialty), and bike riding outside of the dojo.. oh wait, they did not return and the show moved onto the main event.

The newly established Victoria Pinky (Manami Katsu & Misa Kagura) battled with KiraMiku in the main event. Victoria Pinky, shortened as Vicky, showed off some new tandem offence, although it is astonishing with how good Katsu is at some aspects of wrestling, she absolutely still cannot do Kagura’s boar charge into the corner. It does fit her character to suck at something so uplifting and cute. Katsu pinned Kirari with a diving double foot stomp in a solid match.

After the match, Vicky was about to close the show, but Ibuki and Kaho stormed into the dojo chasing each other. Tsukasa Fujimoto, the new referee for the match, declared it was “Falls Count Anywhere” rules. They ran out of the dojo again. Later, the video showed them at the Summer Festival. After eating shaved ice cream together and playing rock, paper scissors (the loser gets bonked with a bin), they tried to roll each other up, to no avail. They then chased each other back into the ring while wearing kimonos and continued the match there. They both brought Katsu out from the back and started chopping her, they chopped Tsukasa. Later, Katsu came into the ring doing karaoke while everyone put their fingers in their ears. I thought she was fine to be honest. But also, what on earth has Kagura done with the original Katsu? This has to be a clone. After the song, the ref, Tsukasa, apparently allowed Katsu to participate in the match as the whole roster attacked her and Prime Link pinned Katsu with a double jackknife to end their match at 3 hours, 19 minutes, and 41 seconds.

Ice Ribbon Dojo #1442
13th September 2025
Recommended Match: Arisa Shinose & Ibuki Hoshi vs. Manami Katsu & Misa Kagura

Vicky (Manami Katsu & Misa Kagura) faced H!Fly (Arisa Shinose & Ibuki Hoshi) in the main event. Katsu had still not figured out Kagura’s boar charge into the corner, which is really funny. If she were not a great wrestler, I’d be convinced she had no hand-eye coordination ability whatsoever. We will report breaking news if Katsu ever manages to do the charge gracefully. Kagura continued to add to her indy credentials as she got into an explosive forearm/chop battle with Ibuki, who has one of the hardest chops in the scene. It was awesome. This match barely involved Arisa, which made it all the more better as Katsu and Ibuki reignited their feud from earlier in the year when Ibuki unsuccessfully challenged for Katsu’s ICExFinity Title at Korakuen Hall on 29th March. Really good match, one of the better Dojo matches this year. After the match, Vicky declared themselves as the next challengers as they had won three tag bouts in a row since forming together. Bad Butts were champions at the time.

Ice Ribbon Dojo #1443
20th September 2025

Bad Butts faced Katsu and Kirari Wakana in a tag match in the main event, as a preview ahead of the 21st September tag title bout between Vicky and Bad Butts. This show served as a preview to the overbooked title match on the next night. This had a lot of weapons. I read the Ice Ribbon official report and nothing suggested weapons were allowed. It was just bizarre. Thankfully, in this preview they did also wrestle exactly how I expected the tag match to go. As Katsu and Ancham engaged in a stiff forearm battle, I thought about how they could have such a good singles match together (they’ve never had one). One day. Yappy pinned Kirari.

Arisa Shinose and Mase Hiiro teamed together to bully senpai Ibuki Hoshi in a three-way match. Initially I thought Mase might have thought it was a handicap match as she stood outside the ring waiting for a tag from Arisa. Then, Ibuki started chopping the crap out of Arisa, so Arisa went for a tag, but Mase pretended to do her shoelaces, so she just didn’t want none of that smoke. How does this child get pro wrestling when some adults never do? She’s a proper worker. She did a huricanrana driver again which is a genuinely good looking move for her. Later, she put her chest out while getting chopped by Ibuki with no fear. She is so fun to watch. Arisa, the traitor, rolled Mase up to win the match. JTO’s HisokA continued to make appearances in Ice Ribbon as she beat Mase’s older sister.

Kaori Yoneyama defeats Riko (4:56)

Miku Kanae & Moe Hiiro defeat Makoto & Mase Hiiro (8:35)

Totoro Satsuki defeats Arisa Shinose (8:07)

Ibuki Hoshi & Kaho Matsushita defeat Kirari Wakana & Tae Honma (15:54)

Crea vs. Sumika Yanagawa – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

International Ribbon Tag Team Title:
Manami Katsu & Misa Kagura defeat Ancham & Yappy (c) (15:50)

© Ice Ribbon

One Day Tournament, Katsu single handedly closes out a show!
Ice Ribbon Dojo #1445
27th September 2025

Ice Ribbon held a one-day tournament at the dojo won by the current ICExFinity Champion, Manami Katsu. After the show it was revealed that the prize of the tournament was a microphone, which Katsu was not happy about. It was also Katsu’s first time closing out a show, signifying the full transition from big meanie head to lovable cuddly bear, orchestrated by her Vicky tag team partner, Misa Kagura. Katsu made her way through HisokA, Ibuki Hoshi and Totoro Satsuki to win the tournament. Both Ibuki and Totoro were title rematches from earlier in the year, with Ibuki challenging in March and Totoro in February. Katsu’s semi-final with Ibuki planted the seeds for the subsequent challenge the next day, even if it didn’t come to fruition due to Ibuki’s injury. It was a teaser. There were some great striking sequences in this short 5 minute encounter, which ended in a count-out victory for Katsu after she double foot stomped Ibuki far up the ramp. Totoro had a chance to finally get serious in her finals match with Katsu. I did really like their previous title match in February, but it’s pretty much the only match I’ve seen Totoro take seriously. She once again tried hard in her match with Katsu, proving that Katsu was the gold standard in Ice Ribbon that everyone wanted to achieve. Totoro whipped out a nasty lariat, turning Katsu inside out for a nearfall. Katsu fought for her life but found the cradle for the win.

The only other match worth mentioning was Ibuki vs. Kirari Wakana. Like Katsu, Ibuki takes some sick pleasure in beating up the younger members of the roster, symbolised no better than Ibuki dropping Kirari on her back with a running loud forearm to the chest. Ibuki picked up the win with Good Ibuning, where slides through the opponent’s legs and topples them over into a backwards fall cradle. Tsukina Umino had another exhibition match, this time with Riko as she tried to return from a fractured collarbone injury. I got actual goosebumps from the post-match promo (guys, reading transcripts while watching shows is the ultimate way to experience the artform, promos form a vital part of the storybuilding). Umino took the mic and said that Riko, 11, had asked for the match to prove that she could fight adults. Since Riko wasn’t in the one day event, Umino said that it meant that they thought she wasn’t able to fight adults, and that as Riko’s coach, Umino had failed her. Umino apologised, with Riko in tears. Umino said that she will train hard with her to ensure Riko never feels left out again. I was not expecting that. Very cute.

© Ice Ribbon

Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #1446
28th September 2025
SKIP City, Saitama, Japan
Watch On: YouTube (membership required)
Recommended Match: Kirari Wakana vs. Haruka Umesaki

Ice Ribbon began the build to their next Korakuen Hall show, scheduled for 26th October. The SKIP City shows in Saitama are a bit bigger than the Dojo shows with five matches rather than four, but not full on PPVs as they are uploaded directly to Ice Ribbon’s YouTube for members. The top two matches on this SKIP City show made it one of the best of 2025, for my money. Despite my undying love for the storyline of Misa Kagura pulling ICExFinity Champion Manami Katsu out of her shell over the course of excellent tag team and singles bouts, I was even more excited for the next Korakuen Hall show which marked a return to Ibuki Hoshi to the top of the card. That was until she got injured. It was announced on 14th October that she had sustained an ACL injury and would be missing out of action for the foreseeable future.

On the Ice Ribbon #1445 Dojo show a one-day tournament was held and Ibuki and Katsu met in the semi-finals in a hard-hitting, fast and furious match under 5 minutes. Katsu won with a diving double foot stomp off the stage outside of the ring, leading to a count out, so it was clear the match was a tease for what was to come. Ibuki is part of Prime Link with Kaho Matsushita, the duo of 22-year-olds that serve as the engine room of the promotion. She is one of the promotion’s hard hitters, meaning her encounters with Katsu always tend to produce fireworks as they do not shy away from beating each other up. The last time they met was when Katsu successfully defended her ICExFinity Title against Ibuki at Korakuen Hall on 29th March in a great match. This was the first title defence I could realistically see Katsu losing, given Ibuki has been over 18 months without the title, and if she lost a second time against Katsu she wouldn’t be able to challenge again (you would hope). However, it was not to be.

In the main event of this show, Arisa Shinose and Prime Link (Ibuki & Kaho) faced Vicky (Katsu & Kagura) and Makoto. This match is one of those that will be quite underrated and less memorable as the year goes on because it didn’t have an “oh shit” moment, but it was 17 minutes of really good action. The flashpoint came when Katsu and Ibuki exchanged chops with each other. Ibuki, the chop specialist, obviously had the upper hand here. Katsu kept trying to eat the chops, but with each double handed chop delivered, she struggled to maintain her stature and eventually toppled over. After some miscommunications from Makoto and Kagura, Katsu was left alone with Ibuki and lost to Ibuki’s Good Ibuning cradle. That meant that Prime Link had dealt Vicky their first loss and set up Ibuki to challenge for both the singles and tag titles before her injury.

There was some rare Diana representation on the card, with both Diana starlets, the WWWD Champion, Haruka Umesaki and Nanami Hatano on the show in singles action. Umesaki faced rookie Kirari Wakana. Kirari was going through a seven-match trial against top freelancers and indie talent. She had lost every single challenge so far, to UK independent wrestler Blueshe, Miyuki Takase, Unagi Sayaka, Rina Yamashita and Kaori Yoneyama. Umesaki was her 6th challenge, which she of course lost. However, this was Kirari’s best one yet and I liked this match a lot. I thought Kirari’s performance against Yamashita lacked some fire, well Kirari brought it here against Diana’s ace, with each forearm that connected causing a reverberating sound. As Kirari locked in the Octopus hold she screamed at Umesaki to give up. She really showed she wanted to win this one. Then, on top of that, Umesaki is like the Miu Watanabe of the indies. She’s a cutesy, adored babyface, ace of her company, but she can turn into the bullying, dominant, heelish champion at the flick of a switch. It made for the best dynamic yet for Kirari’s seven-match series.

Umesaki launched a Sareee-style basement drop kick and a diving drop kick for a near fall. There were some really intricate pin reversals between the two before a very close pin with La Magistral by Kirari. Kirari, after failing to land it so far in previous matches, finally landed a diving double foot stomp from the top rope onto Umesaki, marking progress throughout the seven-match series, another awesome near fall for those following the matches. Umesaki then nailed Kirari with a Cutie Special, normally a finisher for a match like this, but Kirari kicked out at the last moment. Umesaki, done with play-time, tried to take off Kirari’s head with two brutal elbows, before going for the Ume Press (horizontal corkscrew splash). Kirari still kicked out! I don’t think I had seen Umesaki give someone this much. Umesaki pulled out a quite rare Amethyst Cross for the win. Awesome match that I was really not expecting. After the match, they announced Kirari’s final opponent at Korakuen Hall on 26th October – Maya Yukihi. Maya makes her yearly Ice Ribbon return against Kirari’s former trainer. Kirari said that even though Ice Ribbon is in a tough spot, she wants to show Maya that there are amazing wrestlers there and Kirari wants to bring back the shine from the days when she was watching as a fan. Okay, that’s another wrestler mentioning Ice Ribbon’s woes in promos. Interesting. The promo was great. This was Kirari’s coming out party for me. She went from average rookie to great rookie, for my own rankings, just from this performance.

Nanami had a slightly lower-stakes match-up as she faced 14-year-old Moe Hiiro in the opener. Nanami is a champion in Ice Ribbon as she won the vacant Triangle Ribbon Title after it was stolen and taken to Kaori Yoneyama’s promotion, Gokigen Pro. She was actually a Triangle Ribbon Champion previously for two weeks in 2024, so this is her second reign. This was her first Ice Ribbon show in 2025. Moe is the older of the two Hiiro sisters, but actually has slightly less experience than her younger sister. Despite debuting as a middle-schooler in Diana, Nanami has a bit of a mean streak with the less experienced wrestlers which we saw in her match with Kuumu in Diana. She gave Moe a taste of that with strong forearms. This was one of Moe’s better performances as she did not get lost as much and she hit her timings well.

The standard “kids & Totoro” match was on the undercard as the 6 or 7-year-old (age unknown) menace Mase Hiiro faced fellow elementary schooler, Riko, 11, and heavyweight Totoro Satsuki. It turned into a handicap with the kids trying to beat Totoro, as it normally does. Mase was smarter this time and tied Totoro to the ropes before pinning Riko. Since this was a Triangle match, she called out Nanami and said she wanted to challenge for her first title to a big crowd gasp (you just have to love Ice Ribbon). Totoro has wanted the belt for ages, doing a bunch of comedy in the division for months, so she threw her hat into the ring too. It was made official that Nanami would defend against Mase and Totoro. That match would take place on 13th October.

Elsewhere, following her 15 minute time-limit bout with Crea on the TOKYOSQUARE PPV, Sumika Yanagawa continued her feud against Bad Butts (Ancham, Crea & Yappy, sometimes Banny Oikawa) as she faced Yappy in singles action. Crea had offered Yanagawa a spot in Bad Butts, which she roundly refused. As this match began, Totoro was still tied up in the ropes and Yappy would routinely beat her up just for fun. Thanks, Yappy. The match was getting pretty good with Yanagawa blasting Yappy with a good looking high kick, but, Yappy hit the referee over the head with the Bad Butts metal plate and then started strangling Yanagawa with a chain to get DQ’d. The feud continued.

Bad Butts gets a new member! Great.
Ice Ribbon Dojo #1447
4th October 2025

There was some PURE-J influence in this card, but instead of Crea, it was Crea’s former partner, Chilean wrestler AKARI, who teamed with Totoro Satsuki against Yappy and the new member of Bad Butts, Sammi Chaos. Sammi is a wrestler from the north east US independent scene, billed out of New Jersey. The Ice Ribbon report, through machine translation, described her as “towering and thick.” Nice. She is taller, and thicker, than Totoro to be fair. I’m pretty sure she is much bigger than Nia Jax but they have the exact same billed height and weight. I am excited to see Sammi squish Moe Hiiro like a bug. I yelped at my monitor when I saw Sammi deadlift Yappy into a bodyslam. I am 99% sure Yappy did not jump for that, so this girl can LIFT. Sammi pinned Totoro clean with the Vader Bomb. Kiku, part of the Hot Shushu promotion that is closely affiliated with Ice Ribbon, is retiring in March 2026. As part of her retirement road she is having a series of singles matches. On this show she faced referee Banny Oikawa, who beat her with roll-up and then asked to team with her on the next dojo show.

Ice Ribbon Dojo #1448
11th October 2025

Ice Ribbon unusually streamed this dojo show for free on YouTube. The more people that get to see Ice Ribbon the better. It is VERY funny to me that the first Ice Ribbon match that people might see in 2025 was ICExFinity Champion Manami Katsu beating up 11-year-old, Riko. Katsu is one of the most brutal when it comes to fighting the kids. This had to be done on purpose. I burst out laughing as the first forearm from Katsu connected hard with Riko. Welcome to Ice Ribbon, new viewers! Kiku continued her retirement road teaming with Banny Oikawa against Kirari Wakana and T-HEARTS’ Sayaka Toyota. Miku Kanae was unavailable so presumably Yumiko Hotta sent Sayaka instead. It’s a rare outside appearance for Sayaka, who is the niece of the legendary Manami Toyota. Miku and Sayaka did not get off to a good start, as Miku accidentally dropkicked Sayaka causing some tussling. They got on the same page later as Sayaka sent Banny flying with a missile dropkick, and Kirari followed up with her own diving dropkick. Kirari pinned Banny with a tilt-a-whirl crossbody.

PURE-J’s AKARI continued her Ice Ribbon dates as she had a single match with Arisa Shinose, who she teamed up with the week before in PURE-J, losing to Ancham and AKARI’s former partner, Crea. In the main event, HisokA, Sumika Yanagawa & Totoro Satsuki took on Bad Butts (Crea, Sammi Chaos & Yappy). All I’ll say, kindly, is that if they knew ahead of time that this was going to be broadcast on YouTube for free, this wouldn’t be the match I would book. But, I’m not a booker. This was not the best showcase of Ribbon. There was no Kaho Matsushita on the card or Ancham, who are two of the better workers in Ice Ribbon. This match was to set up Totoro and Sammi at Korakuen Hall. Totoro’s English is pretty good.

© Ice Ribbon

Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #1449 ~ Yokohama Ribbon
13th October 2025
Yokohama Radiant Hall, Yokohama, Japan

In the main event of Ice Ribbon’s Yokohama Ribbon show, Diana’s Ayako Sato took the place of Ibuki Hoshi in what was supposed to be a preview match for the upcoming ICExFinity Title match between champion Manami Katsu and Ibuki. It was announced on 14th October that Ibuki had suffered an ACL injury and so they would re-announce the 26th October Korakuen Hall card at a later date. Ayako teamed with Kaho Matsushita and Kaori Yoneyama against Katsu, Moe Hiiro and T-HEARTS’ Sayaka Toyota who made her Ice Ribbon debut on the 11th October dojo show. Aside from the parts of the match with Kaori Yoneyama doing Kaori Yoneyama stuff, this match was all business and a great main event. Kaho picked up the win on Moe and exchanged words with Manami Katsu (which no translation was released for, as at the time of writing), but it seemed to set the direction of the Korakuen Hall main event.

Tsukina Umino finally made her full-time return following a fractured collarbone injury suffered on 3rd January, after having multiple exhibition matches since July. She faced Akane Fujita in a hard-hitting 15-minute time-limit draw. Her original opponent on 4th January in Yokohama was Fujita, so it was a full-circle return for Umino. Umino asked for a FantastICE Title match and Fujita accepted. Fujita requested that Umino start using honorifics as Fujita is her senior, but Umino refused. Umino said she would at least use “Fujita-san” if Fujita would retain the title against her.

Nanami successfully defended her title against Mase Hiiro and Totoro Satsuki in a match set up on the 28th September SKIP City show. Mase charmed Nanami in order to persuade her to work together against Totoro. Once Totoro gained the upper hand, Mase started convincing Totoro to team up with her against Nanami. Totoro was too smart and body slammed Mase. In a repeat of the SKIP City bout, Totoro was tied by tape to the ropes. This time however, when Mase’s Mase Histral move on Nanami failed, Mase got annoyed and freed Totoro to release her on Nanami. Mase is an immoral, scheming little brat. Totoro somehow got stuck underneath the turnbuckle and Nanami pinned Mase with the Seven Three Hold.

Arisa Shinose & Makoto faced Bad Butts (Sammi Chaos & Yappy). Sammi Chaos joined the faction on the 4th October dojo show. She is billed with the exact same height and weight as WWE’s Nia Jax but seems much bigger, although that could just be a ‘wrestling in Japan’ thing where the average height is much smaller. This match started off as expected when Arisa and Makoto frantically ran away from Sammi until they had the courage to stand up to her. Yappy accidentally hit Sammi over the head with the Bad Butts sign to temporarily weaken her, although it didn’t do much. Sammi won with the Vader Bomb on Arisa. KiraMiku were reunited following Miku missing the previous dojo show as they faced Diana’s Miran and Riko. This was Miran’s first appearance in Ice Ribbon since 2022. 11-year-old Riko stood out in this match having one of her better performances so far, with KiraMiku making her look great. Kirari pinned Riko for the win.

© Ice Ribbon

Ice Ribbon make the switch to Kaho
Ice Ribbon Dojo #1450
18th October 2025

Following Ibuki Hoshi’s unfortunate ACL injury, Ice Ribbon made the pivot to Kaho Matsushita on this show, as she would end up taking Ibuki’s place to challenge Manami Katsu for the ICExFinity Title at Korakuen Hall. Vicky (Katsu & Kagura) and Moe Hiiro clashed with Kaho and KiraMiku (Kirari Wakana & Miku Kanae). While Moe’s cartwheel back elbow needs some work, it’s good to learn these things early in your career. She’s in her first full year. A short update on Katsu’s ‘Kagura boar charge’ – it’s still comically bad and I hope she never does it correctly. Moe was pinned by the Kira-Miku Revolution double pin.

After the match, Kaho announced that after her promo in Yokohama, she felt she was not ready to lead Ice Ribbon and challenge for the title, so she said she just wanted to test herself against Katsu in a singles match. Katsu, of all people, gave a heartwarming response. Katsu said that when she came into Ice Ribbon, Kaho was out injured, but the first time she saw her in the ring, she was amazing. Katsu revealed that Kaho joined Ice Ribbon as a staff member, not a wrestler, and how amazing it was that she was that reliable in the ring. Katsu reminded Kaho that she could carry a main event by herself and told her she’d put her title on the line. Kaho accepted with tears in her eyes. This was an incredible pay-off for Ice Ribbon viewers, simply because Katsu’s character arc has been gradual, logical and satisfying. Her being the one to pull out the best of Kaho is an amazing story. The fact this was a total pivot for Ice Ribbon makes it all the more impressive to be honest. It might be better than the original plan with Ibuki.

Tsukino Umino teamed with Arisa Shinose in her second match back from injury, against Bad Butts (Ancham & Yappy). Umino challenged Ancham to “Rock, Paper, Scissors – Smack the Head”, where if you lose the rock, paper, scissors, well, you get smacked on the head. This was a callback to 3rd January when Umino lost. It was her last match before going on the sidelines with a 9-month injury. Umino got her revenge, smacking Ancham on the head several times. After the match, BB tried to recruit Umino, but she faked them out. She said she’s not a babyface but she wouldn’t want to be seen dead with BB. This was a 13-minute no contest. The BB vortex continued its downhill trend. Mase Hiiro & Sammi Chaos, a duo with a 100kg difference between them, beat Sumika Yanagawa and Totoro Satsuki in a preview for Sammi and Totoro at Korakuen Hall. Sammi pinned Totoro. This match was a bit of a slog.

“Hamakatsu” Produce Show
Ice Ribbon Dojo #1451
25th October 2025

Ibuki Hoshi’s mother, and former Ice Ribbon veteran, Hamuko Hoshi, returned to produce a show with Manami Katsu as both have birthdays in October. Their name is “Hamakatsu”, a play on a popular deep-fried ham snack. In a Halloween costume match, any time music played, seconds would force-feed Ancham, Riko, Sumika Yanagawa and Totoro Satsuki hamakatsu until the music stopped. They looked absolutely sick of the hamakatsu by the end of the match. I was expecting them to throw up. In the two opening matches, wrestlers would wear Hamuko and Katsu’s gear and pretend to be them. Kagura and Kaho were cosplaying Katsu against Yappy and Moe Hiiro cosplaying Hamuko.

The main event was Kirari Wakana against Manami Katsu, with the ‘Absolute Champion’ against the ‘One Aiming to be Ice Ribbon’s Centre’. While still good, the match was not as good as I was expecting, with some mistimings and confusion from Kirari, probably nervous as it was only her second ever singles match with Katsu. Katsu carried the match by beating the crap out of Kirari, including with a brutal diving double foot stomp and picking up the win with an awesome high angle German suplex. After the match, Katsu told Kirari that her and her generation (Ibuki, Kaho, etc.) needed to step up to lead Ice Ribbon. Kirari said that she of course knew that, basically telling Katsu she didn’t need her to tell her that. Hamakatsu closed out the show, with Hamuko in tears after watching the matches as she wanted to get back in the ring. She said she wouldn’t give up on a return.

Kaori Yoneyama, Misa Kagura & Riko defeat Makoto, Mase Hiiro & Moe Hiiro (10:15)

Totoro Satsuki defeats Sammi Chaos (7:05)

Maya Yukihi defeats Kirari Wakana (12:22)

FantastICE Title:
Akane Fujita (c) defeats Tsukina Umino (11:33)

Ancham, Crea & Yappy defeat Arisa Shinose, Miku Kanae & Sumika Yanagawa by DQ (13:17)

ICExInfinity Title:
Manami Katsu (c) defeats Kaho Matsushita (18:28)

Ice Ribbon Dojo #1453
1st November 2025

Tsukina Umino continued her return from injury teaming up with Kirari Wakana against Arisa Shinose and Totoro Satsuki. This was a preview match before their #1 contender match days later. In a series of three of the younger kids having singles matches, first, Moe Hiiro, 14, faced recent ICExFinity challenger Kaho Matsushita. Moe did 14 rotations of the Manami Toyota-style cradle around the ring. Both were dizzy and needed a break. Off her first ever win at Korakuen Hall when she burst into tears, Riko, 11, faced PURE-J’s Chie Ozora. Finally, JTO’s Big Haruka, standing at 173cm, made her debut against elementary schooler Mase Hiiro. It’s quite tough when a green wrestler faces Mase, as she really needs a vet to make a lot of her gimmick work. It relies a lot on great selling, and also, Mase is great at remembering her spots and makes you look silly if you’re too slow. For some reason, Haruka has `rm -rf you” on the back of her gear which, in Linux, means deleting a file named ‘you,’ so she’s saying she will be deleting you. But, who at JTO is using Linux? TAKA Michinoku?

© Ice Ribbon

Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #1454
3rd November 2025
TOKYOSQUARE, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan

After the 26th October Korakuen Hall show, Kirari Wakana challenged Totoro Satsuki to a singles match with her newfound confidence, now that she was done with her seven-match trial. Not only would it be a singles match, but it would decide the next challenger for Manami Katsu’s ICExFinity Title. Kirari debuted brand new gear for the new phase of her career. While I have a hard time getting past Totoro being a serious competitor, she allowed Kirari to do what she does best, which is be an underdog. Kirari overcame the challenge of Totoro to become the next contender, taking the victory with a really cool pin where it’s a spinning headscissors but instead she holds on and turns it into a cradle. The title match with Katsu would take place at Yokohama Ribbon on 24th November.

Diana’s WWWD Champion Haruka Umesaki and their prodigy WWWD Crystal Champion Miran joined an all-star six-person tag alongside Sumika Yanagawa clashing with Kaho Matushita and Vicky (Manami Katsu & Misa Kagura). Miran won her title in TOKYOSQUARE, which is her hometown arena. This was the first time the Diana and Ice Ribbon aces faced each other since 2020, and second time ever overall. Katsu and Umesaki are known for having the stiffest forearms on the independent scene, so it was no surprise that they set up a forearm battle, and it was glorious. The Ice Ribbon angle on this match was that 1111 (Kagura & Yanagawa) were on opposite teams and Kagura pinned Yanagawa with the Haretokidoki Misa.

The elementary school rivalry between Riko and Mase Hiiro was higher up the card than usual, Riko partnered with Makoto and Mase with Miku Kanae. Miku embarrassed herself not knowing Mase’s entrance dance (just kidding). Mase might be the most charismatic child wrestler on the planet right now. Because she’s so young, who knows what she will end up doing, but it is hard to not see her turn into a wrestler as good as, say, Riho, who also started at a very young age. Riko pinned her nemesis Mase with the Fisherman’s suplex, giving her yet another win after picking up her first ever pinfall at Korakuen Hall a week prior.

Princess Pistachio, Taiwan’s first women pro wrestler who debuted in February 2022, made her Ice Ribbon debut. She works for Puzzle Pro Wrestling, one of the two major promotions in Taiwan, the other being New Taiwan Wrestling, notable for its relationship with Diana where Syan Syan and Kuumu wrestle. The masked wrestler teamed up with ‘Princess Arisa’ (Arisa Shinose) against Akane Fujita and Tsukina Umino, who were teaming up following their FantastICE match at Korakuen Hall on 26th October. Tsukina has looked pretty good since her return, especially in her 15-minute time-limit draw with Fujita in Yokohama on 13th October. She took the win here capturing a cradle onto Pistachio. Pistachio did very basic moves, more than I was expecting for someone wrestling three years, but I suppose if she was the first women wrestler in Taiwan, it’s pretty hard to develop. She looked fine overall, but not enough time to judge.

Rina Amikura returned to Ice Ribbon for the first time since May to test Moe Hiiro in the opener. Moe is still very early into her career, almost one year in, making her greenness very apparent. Ami did her best making it into a short, fun opener.

© Ice Ribbon

Kirari Wakana’s Birthday!
Ice Ribbon Dojo #1455
15th November 2025

Kirari had creative control for the dojo show that celebrated her birthday. Overall, this show endeared Kirari even more to me – she has more charisma than most rookies. In the first match she pitted Ancham and Tsukina Umino against each other, but with a special rule. If a wrestler complimented Kirari and made her feel good, she’d jump in and help them. Umino called Kirari cute and she jumped in and charged into Ancham. Ancham told a story of how her and Kirari met. Ancham then used Kirari as a body slam weapon. You get the idea. However, the two would use phrasing Kirari didn’t like, slowly upsetting her. The snapping point was Ancham saying Kirari was the cutest, after Ancham, which upset Kirari who went berserk against Ancham, Umino and the referee. After some chaos, Umino and Ancham ended up covering Kirari, ending the match in a double pin. Now that’s the type of wrestling I want to see.

Chie Ozora from PURE-J faced Riko, who would be given an advantage. Ozora could only win by submission, while Riko only needed a 2-count. Riko could also win if she accumulated a total of 20 counts on Ozora. This followed Ozora beating Riko weeks early at #1453, Kirari wanted to give Riko another shot. Ozora was very nice to Riko, even allowing her to try Ozora’s signature rope walk, but she tapped her out anyway to win the match.

Arisa Shinose faced Totori Satsuki, which was the classic “after you score a pinfall, answer a question about Kirari to win.” I say classic as a lot of promotions do this gimmick, TJPW and WAVE most notably. Tsukasa Fujimoto teased wrestling but would instead participate as Shinose’s second, helping her out on the final question about Kirari’s brother’s birthday, letting Shinose take the win.

In the main event it was Kirari and SEAdLINNNG’s Miria Koga making her first Ice Ribbon appearance of 2025, against Sumika Yanagawa and Kaho Matsushita. This was billed as those with November birthdays against those who debuted in the month of November. Kirari and Miria also debuted around the same time and are the same age. This was the “workrate” match of the show and was pretty good, but nothing must-see. Kaho pinned Kirari with Fanfare.

Kirari closed out the show saying she was first, going to win the belt on the 24th November, second, win every belt after that and third, become the ace of Ice Ribbon. She also said that after three things she forgets things, so she will also work hard on not being a ‘chicken-brain’ by the end of the year and asked for the fans to cheer her on in that pursuit. They brought out cake for Miria and Kirari and the two blew out candles. Ice Ribbon really takes care of external wrestlers. Kirari was great on this show. As a random aside, it looks like Ice Ribbon has a new expensive camera angle. Things can’t be all bad…

Ice Ribbon Dojo #1456
22nd November 2025

Kirari, two days before her excellent title challenge with Manami Katsu, went up against Katsu’s partner, Misa Kagura in a preview. I enjoyed this match. These two are at the top of the promotion in my mind right now, just behind Manami Katsu. Ibuki Hoshi would be up there but she’s out with an injury. So this was quite a big singles match for a dojo show. Kagura was a total bully, yanking her hair, contorting her limbs into weird shapes and just being aggressive as hell. Kirari’s selling is improving with each match and I’m enjoying each match of hers. You can read back reviews to see how cold I was on her before. One of my favourite things in wrestling is a wrestler having a match that completely turns things around for me. Of course, given the stature of these two in the company, it went to a 10-minute time-limit draw. Kirari called Katsu a chicken for not having a preview tag with her. Kirari’s character is interestingly brutal on the mic. This match should’ve main evented. But who the hell cares about Ice Ribbon dojo match card order? Me. I do. Kaho & Tsukina Umino faced Sumika Yanagawa and Totoro Satsuki in the main event. It was fine. Kirari should’ve main evented.

© Ice Ribbon

Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #1457
24th November 2025
Yokohama Radiant Hall, Kanagawa, Japan
Watch On: Ice Ribbon Live (PPV or 1 month after with a subscription)

After struggling through her seven-match trial against high profile talent, rookie Kirari Wakana finally made her way to a challenge against the ace of Ice Ribbon, the ICExFinity Champion Manami Katsu. Heading into this match, what I was looking for was to see how much aggression Kirari would display. It was what I felt Kirari lacked in the Rina Yamashita trial, but Kirari snapped back with an excellent display in her Haruka Umesaki trial. I was looking more for the latter in the culmination of that storyline – a title bout at the top of the card.

The match was excellent. Especially if you’ve been following Kirari’s journey. A lot of Ice Ribbon matches aren’t exactly “parachute-friendly.” They reward viewers who have followed the story of the characters, a bit like Tokyo Joshi but a bit harder-hitting. This match was laid out very well. The story of the match was Kirari keeping up the pressure on Katsu early, and Katsu had to really fight to not get beaten quickly and early. Katsu sold Kirari’s onslaught perfectly, but one opening – a massive big boot from Katsu – was enough to turn the tides of the fight, leading Kirari to be on the backfoot. Kirari fought back with some nearfalls before unleashing not one, not two, but three diving double foot stomps. That was the move which Kirari debuted against Umesaki, but she knew one wouldn’t be enough. It turned out, even three weren’t enough. Kirari tried to German suplex, which would definitely be a new move, but with Katsu being too big for Kirari, Katsu wriggled out and hit her own bridging German suplex for an awesome nearfall. Katsu then climbed the rope and hit her own signature diving double foot stomp. But she turned to the crowd and motioned it wasn’t enough. Kirari had hit three on Katsu. She wasn’t going to stand for that. So she hit a second, and then a third. Amazingly, Kirari kicked out. Katsu picked Kirari up, and put her down with the Inazuma Buster for her lack of respect for the ace. Great match.

In the post-match, Katsu nominated Kaho Matsushita as the Korakuen Hall challenger on New Year’s Eve. She said that it was the one match that stood out the most to her. Kaho refused the nomination, before saying that she would be the one challenging her. This was a nice callback because Katsu was the one that encouraged Kaho to accept the nomination in October. Totoro Satsuki, to my dismay, came barrelling out and took the microphone. Then Misa Kagura. They set up a four-way tournament for 7th December to decide Katsu’s next challenger. Kaho, Totoro, Kagura and Miku Kanae will draw random lots before the show, compete in two singles matches, then advance to the final where the winner will face Katsu at Korakuen Hall.

In other news, this was the show that Hamuko Hoshi announced she would return for one night on the 31st December Korakuen Hall show. Hamuko announced that she has congenital acetabular dysplasia in her hip joints. Hamuko said that once Ibuki can walk again following her ACL injury and can take care of her kids (Ibuki has a kid), Hamuko will get artificial hip joints. Hamuko wants to make a full return, but she says she might not be able to after that surgery so she wanted one last match, just in case. Yuka announced her return from retirement. Her last match was in 2016, and she formally announced she’d be stepping away in 2019. Yuka was in complete tears after her announcement. It was adorable.

On the undercard, Misa Kagura, Akira Fujita and Tsukina Umino faced Kaho Matsushita, Makoto and Sumika Yanagawa. This match was pretty good. Tsukina Umino had probably her best performance since her return from injury as she went toe-to-toe with Kaho.

Bad Butts, one of the worst factions in wrestling for match layout and interference spots rather than in-ring talent (and yes, worse than HoT), faced Arisa Shinose and Diana’s Nanami Hatano. Bad Butts were represented by Yappy, and the very talented Ancham, who is totally hampered by the gimmick. If you follow these reviews, you’ll see that the point at which I totally soured on Bad Butts was their tag title match against Vicky (Katsu & Kagura). It was that bad. The Bad Butts Korakuen Hall match weeks later was even worse. Yappy pinned Shinose after a solid match. Arisa challenged Yappy at Korakuen Hall in December. It will be Bad Butts (Ancham, Crea and Yappy) against Arisa and two mystery partners.

Elsewhere, Mase Hiiro pinned her sister, Moe, with the help of Kaori Yoneyama in a Triangle Ribbon (three-way) match and Totoro Satsuki beat Riko for what feels like the fifteenth time this year. Mase challenged Makoto and Kaori Yoneyama for the Triangle Ribbon Title at Korakuen Hall.

© hiroyukikai1

Vol. 70
3rd September 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan

In October 2024, Diana had cancelled an event due to facility inspections and left the event unnumbered. So due to personal circumstances with Miran, they hosted vol. 70 on 3rd September in order to have Miran’s WWWD Tag Team Title shot with Risa Sera against champions Caffeine and Crush (Ayako Sato & Debbie Keitel). The main event was Blue Orchid (Miran & Risa Sera) going for the titles after winning the tournament on the previous shows. Miran was out of the blocks early going after the person who organised the tournament in kayfabe, and the leader of INVA, Ayako Sato. Miran and Sato worked a lot of the match together and it was pretty good. Sera obviously only has one working leg and did what she could. At 16, with 3 years of experience, Miran does not wrestle like someone her age, and she’s just a solid worker. The Diana ref is not great at pretending to not see interference as he stared right at Debbie spitting coffee (just saying that because it fits the gimmick) in Sera’s face, and later ignored INVA whacking Blue Orchid with Sato’s aluminium lids. After some good nearfalls, Debbie pinned Miran with the Espresso to retain the titles.

The opener of this show was Umesaki defending her WWWD Title against Kuumu, with the winner going on to face Syan Syan. She put Kuumu away in 5 minutes when she pinned her after a strong forearm, exactly what it should be. Next up was Syan Syan, Umesaki’s new stablemate and Kuumu’s rival. As I’ve written in my coverage of her WWWD Crystal title match with Mizuki Kato, Syan Syan is very promising. As mentioned, she is from Taiwanese promotion NTW, but signed a training contract with Diana in July 2024. This match was great, in particular there was an awesome forearm exchange, where they hit each other as hard as they could so you could hear the thunderous echo on impact. There was a great nearfall when Syan Syan delivered a triplet of Northern Lights suplexes on the champion. Umesaki responded with another cracking forearm, but during the pin Syan Syan rolled through for a nearfall. Umesaki eventually put Syan Syan away with the Ume Press.

© hiroyukikai1

Vol. 95
7th September 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan

“Vol. 95” was supposed to have Miran on it in a tag team title match but due to personal reasons it had to be moved to “Vol. 70” (see previous review). Diana allowed customers to claim refunds for “Vol. 95”.

INVA (Ayako Sato, Debbie Keitel, Himiko & Kuumu) faced WWWD Champion Haruka Umesaki and her stablemate, Syan Syan, as well as Risa Sera and Misa Kagura, who has been wrestling mostly in Ice Ribbon. This was sadly Syan Syan’s last match of her summer break before returning to Taiwan for university. The match was announced to be weapons allowed, which confused the ref and babyfaces, so Sato probably had something to do with it. Sera, a renowned deathmatch wrestler, shouted that if she had been told beforehand, she would’ve brought her favourite weapons. Sato said she promised she wouldn’t use her aluminium tray since the babyfaces didn’t have weapons. Of course, she later used it as a weapon. Kuumu was pinned by Kagura after a solid 15 minute match. As it had no touch rules it had a lot of action but felt a bit disjointed, especially as Kuumu, who is only a few months into her career, needed some direction from Himiko (only a few years into her career despite the 30 year age difference). After the match, Umesaki asked Kagura to join her faction. Awesome. Unexpected but I’ll take it. Hopefully she shows the same fire she did in Ice Ribbon. I wonder what Arisa Shinose thinks of that… (Arisa was mad that her usual partner, Kagura, teamed with ICExFinity Champion Manami Katsu in Ice Ribbon).

The main event pitted Diana runner Kyoko Inoue against one of her brightest stars, Nanami Hatano. It had been two and a half years since their previous bout, so it was a chance for Nanami to show her growth since then. The last time Kyoko lost a singles match in Diana was to fellow legend Kaoru Ito in August 2019. She has been in 28 singles matches since. The last time she lost in a standard rules singles match before that was to her prodigy, now best in the world, Sareee, in March 2019 in a #1 contender’s tournament. In that same tournament she went to a 20 minute draw with Chihiro Hashimoto. So you can see how much she thought of Sareee, and how little she loses. When she loses she wants it to mean something. She even vacated the WWWD Title in 2021 rather than drop it.

So, of course, Nanami lost this match. Kyoko deems it far too early in Nanami’s career for the landmark victory. That being said, it’s not like Kyoko doesn’t give a lot in these matches. She bumps, sells and takes whatever offence is needed. The story of this match was Nanami trying to choke Kyoko out, to show a ruthless streak. She tried inside and outside the ring to get Kyoko to go to sleep, to no avail. Kyoko was visibly tired from the attempts but eventually made her way back into the fight with a series of lariats, before finishing Nanami with her Niagara Driver. After the match, Nanami spoke about the unit war between INVA and Umesaki’s unnamed faction (Umesaki, Miran, Syan Syan and Misa Kagura). Nanami said that INVA represented reformation, while Umesaki’s team represented the “King’s Road”, but Nanami wants to make a team representing tradition. Nanami said that she has only managed to sign up Mizuki Kato, and then asked Kyoko if she wants to join. Umesaki protested that Kyoko was too overpowered to join Nanami. Kyoko said she was going to sit it out, but it sounds too fun, so she accepted Nanami’s invitation to join her unnamed stable. With Kyoko’s inclusion, it is clear Nanami’s stable will represent keeping Diana’s tradition, and while both Nanami and Umesaki will be opposing INVA, Nanami will want to ensure Umesaki does not implement the wrestling Umesaki thinks is best and changes Diana for, what Nanami thinks is, the worse. I’m all in on Umesaki’s faction to be honest, no offence to Nanami.

© hiroyukikai1

Miran’s Homecoming
14th September 2025
TOKYOSQUARE, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Miran vs. Mizuki Kato

You might think it’s weird that Miran’s homecoming was at a very popular venue for small promotions, but yes, she is from Itabashi! The young, talented Miran challenged for Mizuki Kato’s WWWD Crystal Title in the main event. Miran lost to Nanami in the finals of the inaugural tournament for the title. In the second iteration, she lost a match due to injury and was out for 3 months. There was no better way to right the wrongs of the past than to win the title that she was on the cusp of, in her hometown in front of her friends and family. Miran, sporting new gear for the occasion, looked excellent. She wrestled at a standard that suited the occasion and put on one of her cleanest performances so far. Kato played her role well but had some fumbles such as not being able to get over the ropes well and holding Miran back from a super Frankensteiner. Miran was raring to go but Kato hesitated multiple times, which showed you the fearlessness of the 16-year-old. Miran tried to roll Kato through, but Kato stopped and sat on Miran. There was silence for a bit as the ref checked on Miran, and Miran was bleeding from the nose after. Kato’s senton did cause an unfortunate injury to Honoka in the last title defence – she might need to calm down a little (if it was indeed that move, which it appeared to be). Miran won the coveted title with a huricanrana. After the match, there was a heart-warming moment that made me so happy, as Kato was not upset about losing. Instead, she grabbed a cloth and slowly wiped away the blood from Miran’s face while smiling. Adorable. Great match.

Princess Nijumaru (Miss Kagura, Nanami & Rina Amikura, even though Kagura is now technically in Umesaki’s unit) took on the misfits team of Debbie Keitel, Maika Ozaki and Saran. This was a great match with Saran and Nanami stealing the spotlight. Nanami pinned Saran with the Northern Lights suplex. INVA (Himiko & Kuumu) faced former WWWD Champion Risa Sera and GanPro’s Yuna Manase. A lot of this match was Sera bullying Kuumu with Boston crabs. Kuumu was pinned by Manase. Yuuki Mashiro, former ICExFinity Champion in Ice Ribbon, made her second Diana appearance since 2022. I’m unsure if this was a proving grounds match to join Diana but it did feel like one with how hard they wrestled for 10 minutes. If it was, I think Mashiro passed as she looked great in this good opener. Umesaki won with La Magistral.

© hiroyukikai1

Vol. 96
21st September 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Recommended Match: Nanami Hatano vs. Kuumu

This Diana show was more skippable than others, with perhaps only the opener the only good match on the show (and that was an extended squash). In the main event, Kyoko Inoue successfully defended her WWWD Elizabeth Championship (Diana’s three-way belt) against Risa Sera and Tae Honma. The belt is open to wrestlers over 40, but Kyoko made an exception for Honma and Sera as they are retiring. Kyoko is very giving with her bumps and selling, but not with the results, as we’ve touched on her insane singles record in the vol. 95 review.

Umesaki and her stablemate, Miran, teamed up with WAVE’s Saran to face Himiko, Prominence’s Mochi Natsumi and Yuko Sakarai from COLORS. I am convinced the Diana referee is paid off. Every single show, he stares at INVA using weapons but doesn’t DQ them. Umesaki pinned Himiko with La Magistral in a fine match. Caffeine and Crush beat Jaguar Yokota and Mizuki Kato. The referee once again blatantly ignored the weapons. It is somewhat of a storyline, because each show they distract him with something different. Sometimes Kuumu is seducing him, and other times they are showing him Keitel’s swimsuit photos, but he just needs to make a better effort not looking in the direction of the weapon usage, for my own immersion.

Kuumu faced Nanami in the opener. One thing that Kuumu has clearly improved in her short stint in Diana so far is her expressiveness. She is less nervous and shows a lot more character. From Diana’s English account, it’s clear she is fluent in English and she has adopted some Keitel mannerisms in how she talks to referees and complains, so she must be receiving tips from Keitel. It’s pretty good. She only debuted in Taiwan in June, so any improvement is good. Kuumu has also improved her forearms as they have much more weight to them. She was clobbering Nanami. Nanami looked ruthless as she forearmed Kuumu with the loudest one yet, then grabbed her into a rear naked choke, rendering Kuumu unconscious. This was Kuumu’s best performance yet from a confidence point of view, and Nanami looked like a badass. This match was great.

Before the show, trainee Anna finally passed her pro test on the third go. It was quite rough after the second test on 13th July, as Jaguar Yokota point blank asked her why she had travelled from Nagoya to do the test, and her and Kyoko said that she was not any better than the first test. All of that paid off as she put in the work on her third example. Kyoko said that she had grown a lot since the second test and was using her voice more. The surprising part was that Kyoko announced that her original plan to debut Anna at the 5th October Korakuen Hall show would go forward, meaning the turnaround from her pro test would be a few weeks. That must be one of the shortest pro-test-to-debut lengths ever.

© hiroyukikai1

Future Sight #38
23rd September 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan

In the main event, INVA (Keitel & Kuumu) clashed with Umesaki & Kagura in a preview tag for 5th October Korakuen Hall. It’s gone under the radar, but Keitel showed off the improvements she had made when she went up against Umesaki. I think Umesaki is a really good floor raiser. It’s hard to have a bad match with her, but she won’t drag you to an outstanding match. Kuumu had yet another solid performance as she is becoming more confident in her character. Umesaki nailed Kuumu with a forearm, but instead of pinning her as she did in their title match weeks prior, she lifted her head up, and nailed her with a Cutie Special for the win. After the match, she did not explain why Chobuki (her team with Unagi Sayaka) is back together again after saying they were breaking up weeks earlier. I’m going to guess they just changed their mind and needed a match for Korakuen.

Rina Amikura took on Himiko in the semi-main event. This was a very interesting match for a Future Sight show as Himiko heavily worked over Rina’s leg, which she has previously injured, to the extent that Rina took off the laces of her boots to give it more room to manoeuvre. It was fun leg work, including a cool looking guillotine drop. Nevertheless, Rina rallied with an awesome cannonball, diving senton, side suplex and front flip senton. After some brief defiance from Himiko, Rina put her away with the double underhook buster.

Originally the Triangle Ribbon Championship was going to be defended by Nanami against Miran and Miyako Matsumoto, but the card was changed, replacing Miyako with Chiho Urahoro, a wrestler representing Hokuto Pro Wrestling in Hokkaido. She debuted there in August 2024 and has been on training excursions in Diana, with her last match in March 2025. As reported in our last issue, Nanami won Ice Ribbon’s three-way title in Gokigen Pro on 4th August, after it was stolen by Matsuzawa-san, who was seconding Makoto, during Ice Ribbon’s 26th July show in Yokohama. This was Nanami’s first defence. Miran and Nanami will face each other for years to come, but they showed a glimpse of the rivalry in the usual method of communication in joshi companies – forearms. That was pretty much the highlight of this short bout before Nanami beat Urahoro with a cradle.

Mizuki Kato and Maika Ozaki battled it out in a hoss versus hoss match up. This was a fun opener, with Kato showing a lot of personality and a lot of hard hitting action. At one point, Ozaki blasted Kato with a crackling lariat. A second lariat and I thought Kato was done, but she pulled through. Ozaki lifted Kato on her shoulders to deliver the Argentine backbreaker for the win.

Rina Amikura defeats Anna (6:50)

Hazuki defeats Syan Syan (10:55)

Maika Ozaki, Miran & Mizuki Kato defeat Risa Sera, Tae Honma & Yuu (15:47)

Jaguar Yokota & Mayumi Ozaki defeat Himiko & Kuumu and Hiragi Kurumi & Mochi Natsumi and Makoto & Misa Kagura (9:17)

Yuna Manase defeats Nanami Hatano (12:35)

World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana Queen Elizabeth Title:
Kyoko Inoue (c) defeats Tomoko Watanabe and Yuki Miyazaki (12:39)

World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana Tag Team Title:
Ayako Sato & Debbie Keitel (c) defeat Haruka Umesaki & Unagi Sayaka (22:01)

Future Sight #39
13th October 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan

WWWD Champion Haruka Umesaki and Mizuki Kato faced SEAd’s Honori Hana and WAVE’s Saran. Mizuki loudly bulldozed everyone down, including her partner Umesaki. Mizuki loudly yelled at Saran to give up while she stepped on her – that’s kind of Mizuki’s thing. She’s louder than Chigusa Nagayo on commentary. The main draw of this match was Honori and Umesaki forearming the crap out of each other. They have some of the hardest forearms among their generation of wrestlers in the scene. Umesaki closed out the good main event, beating Saran with an Amethyst Cross.

Diana standout and WWWD Crystal Champion Miran returned to action following a scary mishap at the Korakuen Hall show a week prior. She had also wrestled on the Ice Ribbon show early in the day. She faced Debbie Keitel, who was on the path to challenging Umesaki. Not only does Miran continue to impress in-ring, but she showed off some personality here as she taunted Debbie to get back in the ring. There is still some hesitation from Miran on some spots but she is so much more athletic than a lot of other wrestlers her age. This match went longer than I expected and was a good showcase for Miran, who was pinned after Debbie spat coffee in Miran’s face behind the ref’s back.

SEAd rookie, Yuki Funa, 28, who is at the very start of her career, faced Nanami, 19, who is a seasoned veteran at this point. Nanami had defended her Triangle Ribbon Title in Ice Ribbon just hours before. This was one of Funa’s better performances in her short career. While there were still clear timing issues, both with running spots and getting into position for cradles, she showed some more fire and laid in her forearms, which is always the starting point for a joshi rookie. Interestingly, she also has adopted the Senka-style flash pin as she tried to hold Nanami down. Nanami choked Funa out with a dragon sleeper. Nanami has been ruthless with rookies. Himiko faced Marika Kobashi, 24, who, aside from participating in Catch the WAVE and a few Future Sight shows, has mostly been off the radar. She picked up a surprisingly clean win against Himiko, so she might be coming in for more Diana dates.

© hiroyukikai1

Vol. 97
26th October 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan

In the main event, Miran & Saran faced Nijumaru (Nanami Hatano & Rina Amikura). Miran is the real deal, as we see every time she gets the spotlight. Miran and Nanami were the highlight of this main event, but especially Miran. After getting caught on a crossbody by Nanami, Miran reversed it into a tornado DDT. Miran and Nanami battered each other with forearms. Miran ran the ropes but Nanami caught her with the rear naked chokehold that she had been using to choke out rookies such as Kuumu. Miran frantically found the ropes. As Amikura tagged in, Miran attempted a signature Frankensteiner but Amikura reversed it into a double leg Boston crab. Later, Miran attempted it again, this time successfully, requiring Nanami to break up the pin to save Amikura. After a diving senton and double underhook facebuster, Amikura pinned Miran. Miran was great in this match. Nijumaru announced they wanted to go after the vacant WWWD Tag Team Titles, which is great, they are the best people for the championship right now to keep Nanami and Umesaki away from each other for a bit longer.

The leader of Invader or Innovator (INVA), Ayako Sato, fresh off of vacating the WWWD Tag Team Titles with Debbie Keitel and on the road to challenge Kyoko Inoue for the WWWD Elizabeth Title, took on WAVE’s Honoka, which was her first appearance since her fractured sternum injury in July against Mizuki Kato. After being stretched out in holds and generally out-wrestled, Honoka fought back with a series of dropkicks. Sato countered Honoka’s cartwheel back elbow by trying for a German suplex, but Honoka rolled through and baited Sato as instead of going for her signature O’Connor roll, Honoka locked Sato into an STF. That was a great sequence. With the ref distracted by Keitel, Sato dropkicked Honoka with her aluminium dish and hit a Fisherman suplex for a nearfall. The Diana ref is still the most oblivious referee in the world given Sato was banging the tin to rouse crowd claps. After Honoka tried all her moves in the book, except her bridging O’Connor roll (doing well to protect that), Sato pinned Honoka with the bridging dragon suplex to close out a good match.

Haruka Umesaki teamed with Jaguar Yokota and Risa Sera against Maika Ozaki (now teamless since Tae Honma’s retirement) and two of Nanami’s stablemates, Kyoko Inoue and Mizuki Kato. Umesaki, sporting new gear, found herself on the wrong side of the three heavyweights as they took turns to beat her up and put her in submission holds with Kato yelling at Umesaki to give up, very loudly. Umesaki got her revenge by trying to make a mould of her forearm in Kato’s chest. Kato, confused and distracted by Jaguar rubbing Halloween decorations in her face, was rolled up by Umesaki to lose the match. INVA teammates, Debbie Keitel and Himiko, locked horns in the opener. Keitel showed an even more brutal side than usual against her stablemate. Himiko fought back with brawling in the crowd, as well as trying to strangle Keitel with a towel behind the ref’s back. There were some good mat wrestling sequences in this match, especially on the finishing stretch as Keitel put Himiko away with the seatbelt pin.

© Diana

Vol. 98
9th November 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Recommended Match: Caffeine and Crush (Ayako Sato & Debbie Keitel) vs. AKARI & Hanako Nakamori

The former WWWD Tag Team Champions that vacated their titles, Caffeine and Crush, faced the PURE-J duo of AKARI and Hanako Nakamori. Sato and Nakamori were in a tag team called ‘Ayaka,’ and were two-time WWWD Tag Team champions before they lost in April due to a Debbie Keitel run-in. Sato then later teamed up with Keitel, so Nakamori felt betrayed and harboured negative feelings towards Sato. This match was great. It was a match you could tell they put together with the goal of having one of the best matches of the year at Post di Amistad, just like that Red Energy match. Of course, the result wasn’t in question. It was obvious it would be a time-limit draw as it was PURE-J’s top stars against Diana’s top stars, but that didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the match. These four really laid it in against each other. The strikes were stiff and the suplexes had extra snap to them. While Sato was as great as ever, Keitel and AKARI were so good together. You could tell there was a real trust there given how hard they were hitting each other. I love matches like this. There’s maybe less than 70 people in the arena and they are just giving it their all. It’s why I will continue to support these promotions. After the match, Sato betrayed Nakamori one more time, this time as she recruited Nakamori’s PURE-J colleague, AKARI, to join INVA. AKARI accepted the invitation. The unit war was going international with representatives from Japan, Ireland, Mexico, Taiwan and now Chile. Sato will have a showdown with Nakamori on 23rd November.

WWWD Champion Haruka Umesaki and Rina Amikura faced Kyoko Inoue and Mizuki Kato. There was only one person who would be taking a pin in this match. The best part about these Kyoko matches is that the talent does not seem to care how hard they hit her, perhaps as a bit of karma for their training. Umesaki was blasting Kyoko with her trademark forearms before delivering an impressive German. Diana finally progressed the unit war as Nanami recruited her Nijumaru tag team partner, Ami, to her cause. As at the time of writing, by my count, that means that we have Haruka Umesaki, Miran, Syan Syan and Misa Kagura in the King’s Road unit, led by Umesaki. There’s Nanami, Rina Amikura, Mizuki Kato and Kyoko Inoue in the traditional unit, led by Nanami. Then finally, there’s Invader or Innovator with Ayako Sato, Debbie Keitel, Himiko and Kuumu, led by Sato. I assume once all the recruitment is done we can get down to business, but this storyline started a couple of months ago with Kuumu’s debut on 27th July and still hasn’t really kicked off yet.

Blue Orchid (Miran & Risa Sera) faced Honoka and Maika Ozaki. Every time Honoka and Miran were in the ring together it was awesome. They started off the match with an electric sequence showing off their athleticism. Risa Sera also had one of her better performances with hard-hitting strikes against Maika. Rookie Anna made her second appearance following her 5th October Korakuen Hall debut. Given it was over a month prior, it seems they were putting their foot off the pedal after they had slammed on the accelerator by debuting her so quickly after her pro test. Anna has some ways to go. It was a bit rough because of the portions of the fight with Himiko working Anna over in submission hold and Anna has not figured out how to sell properly just yet. Anna’s offence is fine for how green she is at this stage.

© hiroyukikai1

Future Sight #40
21st November 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan

Despite “Future Sight” being a show that is meant to highlight younger talent, you can’t always have a full card of younger talent. What Diana likes to do instead is ensure each match has a young talent that can go all out. In the main event, Blue Orchid (Miran & Risa Sera) went up against Miran’s stablemates, Ponytails (Haruka Umesaki and Misa Kagura). This match simply made me want to see an Umesaki and Miran title match in Miran’s home arena of TOKYOSQUARE. That would go hard. Miran looked awesome. After the match, Umesaki finally revealed the name of their new unit name, “Grace of Loyalty”.

Yuki Funa, a SEAd rookie who needs as many reps as possible, teamed up with Himiko against Rina Amikura and P.P.P. Tokyo’s Riara. Riara and Yuki surprised me. I had kind of just pigeon-holed Riara in my mind as a budget Sumire Natsu, admittedly I skipped her entire Marigold run because she was on the undercard and the Marigold undercard was not great at that point. On the other hand, Yuki is still very green. So I had low expectations going into this match, but these two beat each other up. There were some disgustingly loud forearms and open-handed strikes between the two. Apparently, that had got Yuki’s adrenaline going because she later slapped Himiko around the face. I was terrified Yuki was going to receive a receipt. Well, she did after the match – a little kick to the stomach. These are exactly the type of matches Yuki Funa needs to be having. This match completely overdelivered. Of course, this is not a match for parachuters, it’s just a good match and nothing more, but I’ve got an attachment to the SEAd rookies so this made me very happy.

Rookie Anna, who was fast tracked through her trainee program, faced the rookie hazer (tongue-in-cheek), Nanami. Nanami went far easier on Anna than she did Kuumu (who she beat the crap out of). I think Anna is the most green rookie I have seen. She immediately forgot some spots early into the match. She was also put into a very long single leg Boston crab by Nanami. I’ve commented on Sora Ayame’s “I don’t want to be here” face, but accepted her selling was just exceptional for her experience. Anna actually has that expression. She’s just not ready. I’m guessing this is a trial by fire by Kyoko Inoue given Anna had failed her pro test twice before. However, she throws harder forearms than almost everyone in Stardom.

Elsewhere, I learnt that Mizuki Kato’s English is pretty good, as she complimented Debbie Keitel’s Japanese saying “Nice Japanese.” Her English accent seemed a bit fluent. She had a good match with Debbie. Kato is becoming a reliable performer. She does not really have bad matches, they are all good. The next challenge will be having more than just good matches.

© Diana

Vol. 99
23rd November 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan

The main event of vol. 99 followed on directly from the events of vol. 98 which saw AKARI join INVA to the disgust of her PURE-J colleague, Hanako Nakamori. The main event of this show saw AKARI and her boss, Ayako Sato take on Hanako Nakamori, and for some reason… Debbie Keitel (who is a part of INVA). Debbie and Hanako tried to work with each other with some slight hiccups, but for the most part, Debbie was trying her best to win the match. The finish happened when Debbie misted Sato with coffee, and then Hanako rolled Sato up. After the match, Sato tried to recruit Hanako Nakamori, basically saying, “hey, see, we have fun matches don’t we?” That was the same way she had convinced AKARI to join her. Sure enough, Hanako followed suit and she accepted Sato’s offer. That was when I realised that Debbie was tagging with Hanako as an inside agent, ensuring she would have a fun, good match, enough to want to join INVA. Yes, INVA are heels, they cheat, distract refs and use weapons. But they do also want what’s best for Diana.

In the semi-main event, Diana’s glacially slow progression of its unit war continued as we almost had a full unit team together for a match, alas it was only three out of four members of Nanami’s unit as she, Mizuki Kato and Kyoko Inoue faced the mish-mash team of Himiko, Maika Ozaki and Misa Kagura. For the record, I love how slow it’s going. It would be a lot better if many other smaller independent promotions in Japan had a slow, long-term storyline arc play out over the year, rather than just put matches together for the sake of it. It’s a really nice hook. The match was a good six-man tag, with Kagura in particular impressing (what’s new). Maika Ozaki is kind of just there since Tae Honma’s retirement. She doesn’t have much of a storyline in any promotion and she’s not exactly having bangers.

There was an all-blue three-way between Risa Sera and her proteges, PURE-J’s Chie Ozora and Miran. Chie tried to go after Sera’s leg but Miran saved Sera.This was a fine match, with Sera pinning Miran. I am hoping that Sera puts Miran over big in Diana before her retirement. In PURE-J, Sera is teaming with Ozora to go after the titles which is a way of putting her over. They did already do that storyline with Miran and Sera but I think Miran needs one step further with a singles win over Sera. She is the WWWD Crystal Champion afterall.

Anna’s development continued as she faced Haruka Umesaki in the opener. If Nanami was too scared to beat Anna up, then Umesaki definitely wouldn’t be. Look, for all the comments I’ve made about Anna, her forearms are quite insane. She’s 16, this is her third ever match, and she was absolutely pummelling the champion with forearms. Umesaki won with a brutal Boston crab. Anna was a bit better here than the Nanami match. Baby steps!

© WAVE

Dualshock WAVE Tournament – Day 1
1st September 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

The “DUALSHOCK WAVE 2025” tag team tournament kicked off on 1st September with an unusual 11 teams announced. The champions, SPiCEAP received a bye to the second round, leaving five first-round matchups. WAVE released the bracket at the end of the 1st September show with an awesome graphic from (see above, explanation will make sense later). Honestly, following promotions like WAVE is an absolute trip, because even Shupro doesn’t care enough to get it right, and Cagematch gets their results for WAVE from Shupro. For example, the 28th September event didn’t even have the Dualshock final listed on it in Shupro or Cagematch, when it definitely took place because it was on WAVE’s website. The matchups were randomised as the participants grabbed onto ends of a chain from a box before figuring out who was on the other end. These were all the first round matchups:

• Cohaku & Momoka Hanazono vs. Rina Amikura & Yuko Sakurai
• Hardcore & Deathmatch Women, HDW (Risa Sera & Yuki Miyazaki) vs. Sumire Natsu & YuuRI
• Cherry & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Hokukado (Itsuki Aoki & Kakeru Sekiguchi)
• Saran & Yumi Ohka vs. Tropikawild (SAKI & Yuna Mizumori)
• Haruka Umesaki & Honoka vs. 1111 (Misa Kagura & Sumika Yanagawa)

Before the tournament kicked off in earnest Maika Ozaki and Tae Honma settled their differences following an almost 25 hour no time-limited, falls count anywhere match that ended in a draw in August. In this time-limited match, Maika pinned Tae with the Olympic slam in their last ever singles match against each other. Backstage, Tae said that she would retire with the titles and that was her way of giving back to WAVE. That was perhaps a sign of things to come.

In the first Dualshock match, Ami and Sakurai beat Cohaku and Momoka, in what was also a preview of their Regina Di WAVE Title match weeks later. This was a really good match, especially the sequences between Cohaku and Ami, including Ami dumping Cohaku on her head with a German suplex. In the end, Ami picked up the win with a Samson clutch. Team Hokukado beat Cherry and Yoneyama (it was the familiar 2025 Yoneyama match). The wrestlers due to retire at the beginning of January, HDW, beat Sumire Natsu and YuuRI to try and begin a miracle run. Tropikawild beat Yumi Ohka and Saran.

At the end of the show, the four winners drew lots, with Ami & Sakurai drawing A, Hokukado drawing B, HDW drawing C and Tropikawild drawing D. Referring back to the image, yes, that meant that Tropikawild went straight to the finals with one win, while HDW would have the toughest route possible, making them strong babyfaces throughout the tournament. Umesaki and Honoka were due to face 1111 on the show after, and as mentioned before, SPiCEAP received a bye.

Dualshock WAVE Tournament – Day 2
7th September 2025
KBS Hall, Kyoto, Japan

The first match in the second round introduced SPiCEAP into the tournament as they successfully defended their titles, and the right to advance in the tournament, against Rina Amikura and Yuko Sakurai. Ami continued to impress on her way to her title shot against Cohaku, with her sequence with Maika producing some stiff, hard-hitting action. On the other hand, Sakurai had still been unable to show that she had another gear. Ami and Maika were the best parts of this match. Maika pinned Sakurai with the Tokko Buster.

This is also the show that Honoka returned from injury against the champion Cohaku. Since Honoka was out injured with a fractured sternum due to a senton from Mizuki Kato in Diana on 26th July, at the start of the bout Cohaku stepped on Honoka’s chest to get some heat. That was the story of the match – Cohaku playing heelish to rile up support for an underdog, returning babyface. Cohaku’s style of wrestling lends herself well to this storyline. It was a good return for Honoka, who the crowd wanted to see pick up a win against the champion. The closest nearfall of the match came as Honoka pinned the champion with a bridging O’Connor roll. It wouldn’t be enough as Cohaku returned fire with Paquete (a 120% schoolboy with a cradle, of sorts… it’s hard to describe). PURE-J’s Momo Tani was on this show as she is from Kyoto.

© hiroyukikai1

Dualshock WAVE Tournament – Day 3
10th September 2025
TOKYOSQUARE, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan

WAVE returned to TOKYOSQUARE for Shin Sakura Hirota’s proper farewell from WAVE, as she previously abruptly announced a break from wrestling to focus on an election in Aichi prefecture in June. She never got a send-off. Even though she will wrestle for WAVE on occasion as a freelancer going forward, this was her leaving party. Rina Amikura, SAKI & Yuko Sakurai faced Shin Sakura Hirota, Yuki Miyazaki & Yumi Ohka in the main event. This was over half the show, taking up almost an hour. To cut to the chase, Sakura was pinned in 5 seconds, demanded a restart for a proper farewell, got pinned in 8 seconds, and then pleaded for a final time. The third match lasted over 16 minutes with Amikura pinning Hirota with a diving senton. Hirota then suggested a match where it wouldn’t stop until she won. Sakura was pinned nine times by the entire roster. She managed to finally get the win as Hikari Shimizu distracted everyone with shaved ice. Sakura pinned Cohaku with FFD (where she gets hit by a move and then just collapses on top of someone and pins them as they’re unable to get her off them).

In the Dualshock tournament, two teams made their debuts as Diana ace Haruka Umesaki and Honoka, team name “Ame-kyun”, faced the new top freelancer team of 1111 (Misa Kagura & Sumika Yanagawa). Just days before this match, Umesaki had asked Kagura to join her unit in Diana. Umesaki pinned her new stablemate with La Magistral, going on to face HDW in the next round and knocking out 1111.

Tae Honma continued her retirement road with a bucket list singles match against Mika Iwata. This was their first ever singles match against each other, and second match ever. Tae was very much up for this match, hitting Iwata with forearms as hard as she has done so far on this retirement road, otherwise the match was quite short and a standard affair.

Dualshock WAVE Tournament – Day 4
15th September 2025
Fuji, Shizuoka, Japan
Recommended Match: Cohaku vs. Rina Amikura

Following on from the previous show, Ame-kyun lost to HDW in their second match in the Dualshock tournament. This match was quite good. There were a lot of dramatic nearfalls, brawling with cane sticks, comedy spots and the crowd was into it. They bit on Honoka’s nearfall on Miyazaki with a bridging O’Connor roll, but Miyazaki put Honoka to rest with the Death Valley Driver.

Cohaku defended the Regina di WAVE Championship against 2018 classmate Rina Amikura. Cohaku is on a mission to defend against those of her generation, with Amikura being the first defense of her reign. This was a great match, with both working hard in a stiff, non-stop action bout. I was happy to see Ami in this position because she does not get this spotlight often and she did great. Cohaku is consistently a good main-event match wrestler. Cohaku kicked out of Ami’s double underhook facebuster before delivering two cracking running knee strikes for a nearfall. Cohaku finished Amikura off with the Jikiden Double Arm T (her own variant of the double underhook facebuster).

© hiroyukikai1

Dualshock WAVE Tournament – Day 5
20th September 2025
Yokohama Radiant Hall, Yokohama, Japan

HDW’s dream run to the finals continued against Hokakudo (Itsuki Aoki & Kakeru Sekiguchi) as they put away the veteran freelance team. When Sera originally obliterated her knee, she would regularly use it for heat in matches. In the past month or so, that had died down. It made a reappearance here as Kakeru briefly worked over Sera’s injured knee. Sera also broke up some pinfalls with her cane. It’s always the same ref in WAVE, Ice Ribbon, Diana and AWG that is the most lenient referee in the universe. Miyazaki pinned Aoki with the Gedo clutch.

Ame-kyun (Haruka Umesaki & Honoka) were total heels against the popular “Kids Club” pairing of Cohaku and Momoka Hanazono. A crowd member was very enthusiastic and kept asking Momoka to keep body slamming Honoka again and again, a request Momoka happily obliged. Umesaki even attempted to use Momoka’s gimmick against her and cry for sympathy, but Momoka just dropkicked her and flipped her off. This match was a lot of fun. Elsewhere, Saran put up a good effort against Ayame Sasamura. Sasamura joined the Brief Sisters (Miyazaki, Rina Amikura, Unagi Sayaka & Yuko Sakurai) after the show, presumably just as a thing before Miyazaki’s retirement.

At Tae Honma’s request due to her retirement road, WAVE booked her three singles matches in a gauntlet against Stardom’s Waka Tsukiyama, Momo Kohgo and finally, the real challenge, Ami Sohrei. Have a guess at what the link is? Yep, they were all in Actwres girl’Z. Tae put Waka away with the Tae Lock and submitted Kohgo with “Mellamo☆Tae”. The match with Ami was the best of the three, with Tae not having enough left in the tank to deal with Ami’s chops and power moves.

Dualshock WAVE Tournament – Day 6
23rd September 2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Recommended Match: Haruka Umesaki & Honoka vs. Itsuki Aoki & Kakeru Sekiguchi

HDW (Sera & Miyazaki) reached a roadblock as their last match before the finals were against the WAVE Tag Team Champions at the time, SPiCEAP (Maika Ozaki & Tae Honma). As the rules of the tournament stated, as well as granting passage to the finals, this match would also be for the Tag Team Championships, so it was as big of a main event feel you could get in an arena as small as Post di Amistad. SPiCEAP got some heat by working over Sera’s injured knee. Cheapest. Heat. Ever! The same referee from the last show had no issues with Sera breaking up pins with her cane. Tae latched on a flying armbar onto Miyazaki. Miyazaki tried to deadlift out of it, but Maika blasted her with a lariat. Miyazaki tried her best but had to pass out in what was a cool finish, bringing the dream run for HDW to an end. After the match, Cohaku said that she had no faith in Miyazaki winning the rumble on 1st October for a shot at the Regina di WAVE title, so she was nominating her for a title match on 28th September before she was going to retire.
Elsewhere, the Regina di WAVE Champion, Cohaku, continued to solidify her role as the ace of the promotion as she tries to nurture their younger talent, as she took on Saran in a singles match. Ame-kyun (Haruka Umesaki & Honoka) faced Hokakudo (Itsuki Aoki & Kakeru Sekiguchi). I will continue to maintain that Aoki is almost the perfect pro wrestler. Okay, not perfect, she’s not a GOAT in-ring worker, but she is still incredible, and the most important part is how charismatic she is. It is the little things, like posing with Ame-kyun pulling a cute pose before beating them up. That mimicry played into the entire fight as she got crowd participation going every time she did a heart shape. She is so comfortable being herself in the ring, and that always makes for the best wrestlers. For a random WAVE house show, this match was awesome, made entirely by Aoki playing off of Ame-kyun. Aoki is the heartbeat of the entire indie joshi scene.

Momoka Hanazono defeats Saran (11:27)

Cherry defeats Kaori Yoneyama and Yumi Ohka (8:53)

Natsu Sumire & YuuRI defeat Itsuki Aoki & Risa Sera and Rina Amikura & Yuko Sakurai (15:11)

Princess Of Pro Wrestling Title:
Honoka (c) defeats Mizuki Kato (12:58)

Regina Di WAVE Title:
Cohaku (c) defeats Yuki Miyazaki (14:20)

WAVE Tag Team Title / Dualshock Wave 2025 Tournament Final:
SPiCEAP (Maika Ozaki & Tae Honma) (c) defeat Tropikawild (SAKI & Yuna Mizumori) (19:11)

PHASE2 Reboot 6th ~ NAMI 1
1st October 2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Regina Challenge Battle Royal

Itsuki Aoki won a 22-person battle royal to become the new #1 contender for Cohaku’s Regina di WAVE Title on 2nd November at Korakuen Hall, overcoming Ayame Sasamura, Cherry, Cohaku, Haruka Umesaki, Honoka, Kakeru Sekiguchi, Kaori Yoneyama, Misa Kagura, Mizuki Kato, Momoka Hanazono, Natsu Sumire, Ranna Yagami, Rina Amikura, Risa Sera, SAKI, Saran, Sumika Yanagawa, Yuki Miyazaki, Yuko Sakurai, Yumi Ohka and finally, YuuRI. It was the only match on this card which made for quite a fun, easy-to-watch 90-minute show. The rules were over-the-top-rope or pinfall and submission eliminations. The first two wrestlers would start and fight for two minutes and then a new entrant would join every minute after that. Somewhere in the match a one-minute “slow-motion rule” would be activated. When the match would get down to the final seven, there would be an intermission and the match would be restarted as a standard seven-way elimination match.

The match started with Cohaku and Umesaki making me desire a singles match between them, since the last one took place over a year ago in the Catch the WAVE tournament. YuuRI joined in at #6 and failed missile dropkicks at multiple points during the match as part of the gimmick. She’s just pretending to be bad, guys. Sera was the first eliminated as she was pinned trying to go for a double knee drop (she swore she wouldn’t do it while her knee was injured and has teased it every match). Miyazaki was the last entrant and immediately eliminated Kato. Wrestlers volunteered for Miyazaki’s signature embarrassing pin where she puts people in a chicken wing pin with their head between her legs and then opens their legs. She swatted away all the older wrestlers, and when Saran was pushed forward, Miyazaki said she was too young. Umesaki was the unlucky one. While wrestlers were running the train on Miyazaki in the corner, she managed to eliminate Amikura, Sakurai and Sekiguchi. Miyazaki was like an end boss. She then threw a cloth over Ranna Yagami in order to try the magician’s levitation trick, but Ranna wouldn’t co-operate, to a round of boos. Ranna showed Miyazaki how it was done as she made Yumi Ohka levitate. 1111 (Kagura & Yanagawa) asked to go next. Everyone put the cloth over them and then lifted them up and threw them out of the ring to eliminate them.

One minute of slow motion played. Natsu dry-humped Ranna for most of it. Alright, I got a laugh out of YuuRI. She wound up going for a fierce kick on Cohaku on the apron, but she slipped when running backwards to gain speed and eliminated herself. Momoka was worried about YuuRI so went to check on her and eliminated herself. While everyone was on the outside (some rolled out under the bottom rope), Umesaki and Saran psyched themselves up to do a plancha to the outside. As they were at the top of the turnbuckles, Umesaki counted them down and Saran jumped off but Umesaki didn’t, tricking her and making Saran eliminate herself. Saran, at 16, was so easily manipulated. Ranna submitted to Natsu’s Bronco Buster… Miyazaki was eliminated by all seven remaining wrestlers, Ayame, Cohaku, Honoka, Aoki, Natsu, SAKI and Umesaki. That was a very fun battle royale.

After a hard-hitting back and forth with Umesaki, Ayame was eliminated. SAKI and Sumire repeated the spot they had done throughout the battle royal by ramming Umesaki’s head into Sumire’s lady parts. SAKI, Umesaki and Natsu were eliminated in quick fashion leaving Cohaku, Honoka and Aoki. If Cohaku and Aoki’s interactions here were anything to go by, their match will be nothing short of excellent. As Cohaku was distracted by Aoki on top of the turnbuckle, Honoka ran in and pinned the champion with a leg-roll clutch. Aoki and Honoka had a great short match with dramatic near falls and crowd heat before Aoki won with the frog splash to become the new contender. This conveniently continued Cohaku’s wish to face people of her generation (even though Itsuki is one year her senior).

Itabashi Surprise ~ October 2025
12th October 2025
TOKYOSQUARE, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan

After winning the Dualshock WAVE tournament to retain their WAVE Tag Team Championships, Honoka and Saran came out to challenge SPiCEAP to a title match one day before Honma’s retirement. I thought for sure that meant they were dropping it as Honoka and Saran are both signed to WAVE full-time and are their young wrestlers aged 20 and 16 respectively. Instead, they pulled a rare “Sting”, allowing Honma to retire as one half of the WAVE Tag Team Champions. That being said, perhaps SPiCEAP should’ve watched parts of Sting’s run for inspiration, as this match was not put together to get the most out of Tae’s retirement. Out of all the people to face in the last match with the title for the line, why choose your young talent? The idea obviously was to put them over and make them look good, but it’s just strange that they ended up beating the young stars and the best highlights of the match went to Honoka, rather than Saran, who I think has been struggling (compare her to Miran to see why I think that). I have mental blocks for some matches, and this was one of them. The concept was strange and I couldn’t ignore that while watching. This match had the potential to be quite big using the heat of a retirement, but it was squandered in a small venue with a strange match layout. It was like the wrestlers putting together the match forgot the occasion. SPiCEAP vacated the titles after the match. I learnt from backstage comments that Maika Ozaki’s mum is friends with WAVE booker GAMI (I assume her and Ohka do the booking, this is speculation, not a confirmed report!)

The retiring Yuu made her final WAVE appearance as she teamed up with Momoka Hanazono to face off against another impending retiree, Yuki Miyazaki, and her stablemate Yuko Sakurai. This was a fun match, with Yuu and Momoka playing off each other very well. At the start of the match Momoka hyped up Yuu to charge at them, but only Momoka ran in, directly into Miyazaki’s embarrassing pin. This happened again later. Momoka commanded Yuu to do the ‘Yuu Rocket’ and jumped on the turnbuckle to give her a missile dropkick so Yuu could go flying into the grounded opponents. Momoka launched off majestically and thrusted her foot into Yuu’s back, but Yuu didn’t move an inch and Momoka fell crashing to the floor to laughter from the crowd. Yuu just sprinted at the opponents, giving them a cannonball by herself. Later in the fight, the roles reversed and Yuu wanted to give Momoka a ‘Momoka Rocket’. She sprinted and dropkicked Momoka who flopped hilariously like a sandbag, dropping to the ground dead from the force of Yuu’s dropkick. Needless to say, she did not make it to the opposing team. One of the better comedy matches in WAVE I’ve seen in 2025, largely due to how magnetic Momoka is.

Regina di WAVE champion Cohaku fought YuuRI. I was terrified when YuuRI got the pin on Cohaku until I realised that the match was a 15-minute ironman match. This match had a lot of the ‘YuuRI pretends to be bad’ antics as she missed some sentons and failed multiple kip-ups in a row. She lost her contact lens at one point. Cohaku clawed back two pins just before the time-limit with two Paquettes (120% schoolboy) to win 2-1.

SEAdLINNNG’s youngster, Miria Koga, 20, made her WAVE debut. I have noticed the SEAd rookies being booked in other companies more and more. That is a very good development as there was no way they would develop as fast doing one show a month, especially with the decreasing quality of the main event scene there. Miria, a strong kicker that mixes in some great suplexes, faced Yumi Ohka in the opener. Despite it being her home promotion, Ohka worked as a total heel and gave Miria a lot. This is something Ohka always does to ensure that promotions continue booking their wrestlers with WAVE as it is heavily dependent on co-operation with other companies and freelancers. Miria put up a spirited fight but lost to Ohka’s big boot.

Yuki Miyazaki defeats Rina Amikura and Yuko Sakurai (17:23:00)

Kaori Yoneyama vs. Kirari Wakana – Draw

Maika Ozaki, SAKI & Yuuki Mashiro defeat Mizuki Kato, Natsu Sumire & YuuRI (16:15)

Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato defeat Haruka Umesaki & Honoka (18:39)

WAVE Tag Team Title (vacant):
Saran & Yumi Ohka defeat Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera) (18:14)

Regina Di WAVE Title:
Itsuki Aoki defeats Cohaku (c) (19:17)

16th November 2025
Chateraise Gateaux Kingdom, Sapporo, Japan

WAVE spent the weekend in Sapporo supporting Stardom’s two-shot for their Goddess of Stardom Tag League tournament, although they got the chance to host their own show on the second day in the same venue attracting one of the biggest non-Korakuen Hall show crowds of the year. For the occasion, Ame-kyun (Haruka Umesaki & Honoka) challenged Saran & Yumi Ohka for the WAVE Tag Team Titles. I would just like to say that I love Honoka’s screaming. She screams when she’s selling but also when she’s on the offence, for example before an avalanche Frankensteiner. It’s quite unique and does convey an intensity you don’t otherwise get. Honoka was on fire in this match as she battled against her WAVE-contracted colleagues in Saran and Ohka. This match was pretty good, especially the nearfalls on the finishing stretch where Saran looked as good as she ever has and busted out a new (I think) crucifix driver on Honoka for the win. Honoka enjoyers, do not waver, the day Honoka wins the Regina Di WAVE Title will hit like crack. Let Saran have her time in the Sun… it won’t last for long *evil laugh*.

Hokuto Pro Wrestling’s Ami Kanda teamed with Kaho Kobayashi and Sumire Natsu to take on Cohaku, Rina Amikura & YuuRI. Kaho and Rina were, as usual, standouts in this match, with Kaho pinning Rina with the 120% Schoolboy. Hokuto Pro, a promotion based in Hokkaido, had just announced a joint partnership with Diana who were also in Sapporo for the weekend. Diana supported the WAVE show, as alongside Umesaki’s main-event, Mizuki Kato and Mochi Natsumi faced Maika Ozaki and Nanami Hatano. The audio mixing on this show was worse than usual, meaning Kato’s usually loud screams became quite ear-piercing.

Elsewhere, Yuki Miyazaki continued harassing Sayaka Kurara, although Sayaka would escape the embarrassing pin which built into the storyline for the Stardom show later that day where Miyazaki caught Taro Okada in the pin. On this show, Miyazaki kept on trying to lick Sayaka’s knee, which led to Taro Okada running in, throwing out the ref and causing the match to end in no contest, saving Sayaka. They started the match later with Taro Okada as the referee. Okada was a mega-heel on this show as he spat in Miyazaki’s face with water to save Sayaka, but that opened him up to taking the embarrassing pin. Okada’s acting is quite Tony Khan-like, but a bit better. He’s a lovable dork.

© hiroyukikai1

20th November 2025
TOKYOSQUARE, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan

This show was all about the main event. As part of her retirement road, Yuki Miyazaki teamed with Ayame Sasamura and Hibiscus Mii against Honoka, Risa Sera and Suzu Suzuki in a hardcore match. The idea was that Honoka wanted a hardcore match against Miyazaki before retirement, but she wanted to bring along some deathmatch specialists to help her – enter Sera and Suzu. Honoka said that she used to watch Sera and Suzu do hardcore before she even became a wrestler. The match was really good. I’m not sure if it’s good for parachuters not familiar with Mii and Miyazaki’s style (slow with a lot of comedy and some talking segments – that’s why I haven’t recommended it), but as a Honoka fan, and someone who doesn’t mind Mii and Miyazaki, I thought this was great. Honoka’s selling was excellent and put on an awesome babyface performance in her first ever hardcore match. All of the other names, Suzu included, didn’t do as much as you might think. This was mainly a showcase for Honoka and trying to overcome Miyazaki.

Honoka was immediately body slammed onto a barbed wire chair by Miyazaki. Honoka was ‘busted open’ early into the fight. If Honoka can do a blade job, so can Mercedes Mone! Honoka’s blade job was absolutely nasty (complimentary). It was similar to Despe’s red mask against Jun Kasai earlier in the year. She was in for a rough night. Somehow, Hibiscus Mii had bladed too, but I have no idea what spot she and Honoka decided to blade on. It seemed like they just wanted to bleed, which hey, I’m down with that.

There were some fun spots in this match, such as Suzu asking Miyazaki to put Honoka in the embarrassing pin and that “she could handle herself,” so she lay down on her back and put her legs in the air to mimic the embarrassing pin right next to Honoka and Miyazaki. Then, Miyazaki stapled her retirement show poster to Suzu’s forehead. Sera returned the favour by stapling her own retirement show poster to Miyazaki’s ass. Honoka tagged in and launched an assault of missile dropkicks. Before the fourth missile dropkick, Mii stopped Honoka and asked her if she could sit on top of the turnbuckle next to her. Honoka reluctantly agreed. They had a heart-to-heart. Mii asked Honoka how long she had been wrestling for. Honoka replied saying “just over two and a half years.” Mii said, as an “auntie with 24 years,” she struggles with nausea and menopause is rough. Miyazaki joined them. Mii then says “you have a future, we don’t, why don’t you just let us win, eh?” Honoka then suddenly hit a sick avalanche Frankensteiner on Miyazaki. After a crossbody from the top of a huge ladder, Miyazaki fought back, dropping onto Honoka through a table. Honoka crawled back into the ring, and Miyazaki whacked Honoka over the head with half the broken table. Honoka slowly got to her feet with the crowd roaring her on. Miyazaki smashed it again over her head. Honoka got up once again and was dropped for a fourth time. Finally, Miyazaki pinned Honoka with a Gonzo bomb onto chairs.

After the match, Miyazaki thanked Honoka, saying that she wasn’t sure if Honoka would be able to do that, and that she is happy Honoka went through with it despite being so nervous about it. Miyazaki said it made her happy seeing her change little by little from a regular girl’s face into a pro wrestler’s. Miyazaki said that deathmatches don’t end until the wrestlers make it to the merch table, otherwise the fans worry. So they closed out the show and went to the merch table later. Backstage, Honoka said that she was on the verge of tears just before the match as she was so worried. She said that it hurt way more than she thought it would and she gained a lot of respect for hardcore wrestlers.

The WAVE Tag Team Champions, Saran & Yumi Ohka, faced Arisa Shinose & SAKI. SAKI is a well known quantity. She has a clear ceiling and that isn’t going to change any time soon. This match was more interesting because of Arisa Shinose’s performance, who wrestles in Ice Ribbon but she had not stood out as much as she did in this match. Aside from a hilariously bad Muto impression with the Shining Wizard, Arisa showed a lot of good selling. She had been mostly white noise for me when watching Ice Ribbon, but this performance gave me some hope she could build up to some sort of title match in Ice Ribbon.

© AWG

31st August 2025
Yokohama Sambo Hall, Kanagawa, Japan

This was the second Yokohama date in a row that AWG ran Yokohama Sambo on the same day as Ice Ribbon, so the venue probably prefers double booking the same day than spreading it out. The babyfaces and heels having their own entrance wasn’t just a Korakuen Hall special, and appears to be the new standard opening heading into Love Riddle. All the heels had their own prop, like MARU’s chain, but Great Asako had a spoon and a sponge. During the performance MARU kidnapped Yui Tensho and took her backstage. Maybe a sign of things to come for Yui who declared she was done with weaklings but hadn’t formally left the top babyface faction yet. The main event was billed as Killer’Z (Act, Mari & Nene Arahata) against Actwres 5 (Marino Saihara, Naru and Yui Tensho). This was the show after Amaterasu beat MRC in the AWG Tag Team tournament finals at Korakuen Hall. Yui did not come out with Actwres 5, making it a handicap. She came out later and assisted in beating down Actwres 5, teasing her heel turn and turning it into a 4 on 2. After eating an axe bomber from Yui, Mari pinned the champion Marina following a buzzsaw kick.

Another Killer’Z duo, Kyoka Iwai & MARU fought with Natsuki & rookie Yukina Uehara. Yukina is still pretty green, there were some shaky spots, such as forgetting to sell getting hit by an umbrella, and I’m not sure I like the jackhammer, but her kicks are very good for someone without an athletic background (her background is beauty pageants). This was a good match. Rico Fukunaga was doing some Bruce Lee nunchucks gimmick against Great Asako. This was not good. Great Asako is not a character I’m interested in seeing, ever. This somehow managed to get worse the longer it went on. In the opener, Erisa Nagai faced Rio in a battle of the rookies. Rio had endeared herself to me with her chops and charisma, already, but this match made me realise that I like Erisa more with each performance. This match was fun. Rio teased some sort of Gotch-style hold, maybe into a powerbomb. She already added the Liger Bomb to her arsenal, so let’s see how she continues to develop.

Haruka Ishikawa against Nagisa Shiotsuki was like a breath of the fresh midsummer breeze following the preceding match. Nagisa’s match against Sakura Mizushima at Korakuen Hall has elevated her in my personal rankings of the roster, so Haruka, a good worker, was an appropriate test of if that would continue. Haruka, tired of being brutally chopped, started unceremoniously punching away at Nagisa’s hand, before attacking it with dropkicks. Nagisa almost put Haruka away with the Maelstrom Bomb. Haruka fought back with a massive lariat into her backdrop suplex for the win. This match was great.

© AWG

ACTwrestling Step 62
7th September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

AWG returned to Shin-Kiba 1st RING to continue their Step series following the Korakuen Hall show on 13th August, and once again, it was good. The Step shows I have seen in 2025 have all been of a consistent, good quality. Some have been outstanding, none have been bad, with most falling into the ‘good-to-great’ region.

In the main event, the new AWG Tag Team Champions, Amaterasu (Act & Mari), teamed up with the boss of Killer’Z, MARU, as they clashed with their mortal enemies, Actwres 5 (AWG Champion Marino Saihara, Naru & KING Champion Sakura Mizushima). Marino was sporting different gear more accurately representing her being the Red member of Actwres 5. Maybe Sakura is next (green)? The current storyline between the factions revolves around the 5th member of Actwres 5, Yui Tensho, seemingly defecting to join Killer’Z. She was a second for this match and helped beat them up outside the ring. Marino and Mari had significant interactions in this match, making me think they may be building up a big title match, one I am very much invested in seeing now that I have it in my head. They were brutal with each other, with Marino dropping Mari right on the top of her head with a release German suplex. All of Actwres 5 (or maybe it’s Actwres 4 now) delivered their Five Buster (which in AWG lore felled the ancient kaiju “Toy’s King”) to Mari and were going for the killing blow with a series of dropkicks before Act, MARU and Yui Tensho rushed in to save the day. Some misfiring led to a Marino and Mari one-on-one, allowing Marino to deliver the MRN Smash to Mari for the win. Marino and Mari were the stars of this main event.

After the match, Marino asked Yui what she really wanted. Yui said she just wanted to have fun and thought that Marino and Sakura had become boring since they got titles. This received some support from the crowd. Yui officially quit her Yellow role in Actwres 5 and told them “Good luck in Actwres 4.” All of a sudden, and one of the reasons I love this promotion, a new rookie rushed out and excitedly said that they wanted to join Actwres 5. They repeatedly claimed that they loved curry, which apparently is what Yui said she was force fed in Actwres 5 even though she instead loves ramen. Marino said they’d think about it as long as she keeps training. Naru immediately took a liking to her, like an excited puppy. The rookie’s insistence for loving curry endeared her to Marino who relented and said that they would train her for her debut. Yui then turned down the Killer’Z offer to join them, meaning she would actually be going it alone. The new rookie’s name is Kana Yafuku, 21.

Super rookie Anri (yes, she deserves that label, along with Senka, Daiki Odashima, Homare and Seri Yamaoka) faced Killer’Z member Nene Arahata in the semi-main event. Anri, sporting a new haircut, was once again very good in this match. She nailed Arahata with an enzuigiri so hard that I thought it had rocked her. Sometimes I wonder what type of wrestler Anri will develop to become, because she is too good at being an underdog babyface, but she’s also too great to pigeon-box. As an aside, when I’m using superlatives to describe her, it’s always relative to her experience. She isn’t the best worker in the business, but she’s one of the best around for her experience. Anri hit Arahata with a great wrist-clutch Olympic Slam. I do have a confession to make. When I first started watching and saw Nene Arahata, I thought she had botched a finish. The reason was because one of the moves she uses to finish matches, the delayed brainbuster, looks like a regular suplex that I did not buy as a finish. I am now wiser, but using that move as a finish is still not good. It’s 2025, it’s hard for it to stand out. Anri unfortunately lost to the brainbuster.

Asako Army (Asako Mia & Yukina Uehara) took on Midsummer Sea Breeze (Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki). Straight off the bat, Yukina fired off kicks at Natsuki, at a speed such that she even fell over, before recovering and continuing. Asako and Yukina had a cute chemistry. As Asako was struggling to put on the octopus hold, Yukina blasted Nagisa in the chest to soften her up. Natsuki and Yukina were awesome together. With how hard Yukina was hitting Natsuki I wasn’t sure if she knew it was meant to fake. Seeing Yukina against Natsuki did make me wonder. After 3 years, Natsuki is one of the better workers in the scene, with a non-combat sports background (ballet). Yukina, the beauty queen who ranked second in the Miss Earth Japan contest adopts the same stiff kicks style. While Yukina is still green, where will she be in over 2 years? Just like with Anri, it’s exciting to find out. Anri is far more well-rounded, whereas Yukina comes off as if all she does during training is practice kicks – which are awesome, but the time will come where she will need to round her game. Or maybe she can become the Nagisa of kicks and just find inventive ways to kick people’s heads in. A very good match (Asako did not overstay her welcome). Natsuki pinned Yukina with the Cutie Special. After the match, Natsuki announced their intention to go after Amaterasu for the 1st October show at Prism Hall.

In the opener, Chii Aoba – oh of course she’s in the opener again – took on rookie Rio, who I’ve been writing about her slow and steady improvements, including the debut of a new Liger Bomb at Korakuen Hall on 13th August. Out of all the wrestling covered in this section, I still think Rio and Nagisa Shiotsuki have the loudest chops out of all of them, and Rio is a 6-month rookie. There is something about AWG where they teach their rookies to lay everything in… and it’s awesome. Aoba’s chest was minced meat. Guys, let me repeat, Rio is a 6-month rookie. I feel like you only get that type of interaction in this promotion. Aoba taught Rio a lesson, tapping her out in an armbar. This was a great opener. How crazy is it that I liked this opener more than anything on the first two nights of NOAH’s N-1 tournament?

© Battle News

ACTwrestling Step 63
13th September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

In the main event, Killer’Z member Haruka Ishikawa took a shot at Sakura Mizushima’s KING Title. Ishikawa had recently challenged the KING Champion’s faction leader, Marino Saihara, for the AWG Championship in June in a losing effort. After a series of good performances, most noticeably against Nagisa Shiotsuki in Yokohama a few weeks ago, Ishikawa was awarded the opportunity to wrest the title away from Actwres 5 and deliver a title to Killer’Z. Unfortunately for Killer’Z, Sakura was too strong for Haruka and beat her with Storming Blossom for her 5th defense (it’s an awesome finisher which consists of her signature Backlash move (like a sideways Code Red?) combined with a 120% schoolboy roll-up). This was a very good match. The two have very good chemistry, which Haruka agreed with. Backstage, Haruka said that it was the most fun match she has had and didn’t care much for the belt, she just wanted to wrestle Sakura. After the match, MARU challenged for the belt for Prism Hall on 1st October. Backstage, Sakura spoke about how the fans’ reaction to Yui Tensho’s betrayal on the last show upset her (they cheered for Yui when she was cutting a promo on Actwres 5). But she said it was motivation to make sure Actwres 5 is not boring. Even AWG isn’t immune to fans turning on babyfaces in favour of cool characters.

The leaders of Killer’Z, Act & MARU faced the leader of Actwres 5 and the AWG Champion, Marino Saihara, and former AWG Champion Natsuki. Marino hit the MRN Smash on MARU but Act pulled the referee’s leg to break up the count. After drawing black lipstick on Marino and Natsuki, Killer’Z then pulled a Death Riders and choked them with a plastic bag. After MARU pushed the referee, he decided finally that THAT was the thing that would cause a DQ. Everything else up to that point was fine. It’s the same referee that lets Bad Butts use a metal plate as a weapon in Ice Ribbon After the match, Natsuki challenged Act for their tag titles on behalf of Midsummer Sea Breeze (her and Nagisa Shiotsuki), but her face was too cute so Act and Mari couldn’t stop laughing. Marino then said that Actwres 5 wanted the titles, but her face was also too cute to take seriously. Act told them to clean their faces and come back and challenge properly.

A member of the heel faction, Killer’Z, Mari, and Polaris (Anri & Erisa Nagai) clashed in a three-way match, with Mari initially just watching on. Anri stopped Erisa, telling her they should work together against her. Erisa agreed as they launched an attack on Mari. Then, Anri tried to cradle Erisa. From there it was every woman for themselves. Mari picked up the double pin on Polaris after powerbombing Anri onto Erisa.

Asako Army (Chii Aoba & Yukina Uehara) took on Actwres 5 (Naru & Rico Fukunaga). Naru is so dorky (compliment). Naru dodged one of Yukina’s kicks and thought she was safe, but got kicked again in the back, hard. Yukina’s partner, Aoba, yelled at Naru “that’s not how you take a kick,” demanding to be tagged in by Yukina and telling Naru to tag in Rico. Rico lined up a kick on Aoba, who subsequently fell to the floor from its power, tagging Yukina back in. Naru was back in, and she had learnt from Aoba, bracing for Yukina’s kick, and managing to survive three, before she fell to the apron and received a butt-to-butt attack from Yukina. That’s what I want from my tag matches that are second on the card! It was a very fun match. Given that sequence, and Yukina’s interactions with Rico later, I’m glad they are leaning more into Yukina’s kicking. Rico tapped Aoba out as she cranked the Blue Mountain Sleeper hold.

In the opener, Asako Mia, Hinata Senya and Nanami Togi faced off in a three-way. The most enjoyable part of this match was the anticipation for Asako locking on the octopus hold. It’s a move she struggles with. On the first attempt she fell off Hinata’s back, but she managed to get on the hold on the second attempt later. Great job from Asako. Hinata hit a Somato on Asako, but then Nanami grabbed Hinata’s hair before spraying her, but Hinata forgot to break the pin so the referee looked a bit stupid not counting for several seconds. This match wasn’t great. Nanami picked up her first ever win. Asako said she was tired of losing and wanted a singles match on the next show (she had still not got her first pinfall at that point and she had been in the promotion for 3 years).

© Battle News

ACTwrestling Step 64
18th September 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Mari & MARU vs. Natsuki & Sakura Mizushima

In the main event, top Killer’Z duo, Mari & MARU, faced Natsuki and Sakura Mizushima in a preview tag match. Amaterasu (Act and Mari) are due to defend their AWG Tag Team Champions against Midsummer Sea Breeze (Natsuki & Nagisa Shiotsuki) at Prism Hall on 1st October. Also on that show, Sakura will defend her KING Title against MARU, who continued to show why she’s one of the most entertaining wrestlers on the roster. MARU started the match wanting to rub Sakura’s make-up off her face with rubber gloves before realising Sakura wasn’t wearing any makeup. Later, she broke up a figure-eight lock that Sakura had on Mari by shaking a dinner bell in Sakura’s ear. MARU later brutalised Natsuki with her chain while Mari choked her. That seemingly wasn’t enough for Killer’Z who were going for homicide as Mari climbed the turnbuckle and applied a rear naked choke with Natsuki dangling from her feet (what a great sell). There was a rare mistiming from MARU as she bumped for Sakura’s Killswitch before Sakura had done the sit-out, so Sakura repeated the move. Sakura covered MARU, and then, for some reason, Hinata was inside the ring when she tried to pull the ref out, which looked really stupid. The whole reason that spot works is because the ref doesn’t know who pulled them out. Poor referee Banny Oikawa had to ignore it and look like a bit of an idiot. As the referee was checking out turnbuckle pads, Killer’Z wrapped a chain around Sakura’s neck and then Mari delivered an assisted Abyss Drop. MARU finished Sakura off with a diving double foot stomp. This match was yet another example of AWG’s tag match specialty, with non-stop action for over 17 minutes.

The other half of the AWG Tag Team Champions, Act, and Hinata Senya, clashed with Anri and Nagisa Shiotsuki in another preview tag match. Nagisa was a menace in this match with her chops, as usual. The most I have seen Act bump/take any punishment from in recent months has been Nagisa’s chops. Hinata did not look like she was having fun dealing with Nagisa’s offence, especially the running double chop which knocked Hinata off balance, as she once again did not have a great outing here. There was a moment where Hinata failed to bump correctly for Nagisa’s Maelstrom Bomb, which is a move that looks terrible if the person taking it doesn’t know how. It looked incredible at Korakuen Hall with Sakura. Shiotsuki smashed Hinata to the mat with the Dolphin Swing (a Blue Thunder Bomb without as much swing). Shiotsuki is really growing on me. She was great in this match.

Asako Mia was not a happy bunny. She began the show tearing up a piece of paper that had the word “script” on it. She wanted her first pinfall to be against the AWG Champion Marino Saihara. She fired up with forearms which Marino mostly no-sold before getting swatted away. As the match went on, it got more…competitive? Asako was the plucky underdog babyface against the dominant champion and played her role quite well in this match. Marino leathered Asako with an inside kick before pinning Asako with the Hero Kick (running double foot stomp). This was probably the most I had ever enjoyed Asako. While I’ve never praised her wrestling, her acting is very good. After the match, Asako said she would take Polaris (who are in her Asako Army stable) and end the “loss-harrassment” streak at Prism Hall on 1st October. Marino took the mic and spoke about how she has a title defence against Tensho on 1st October. The weird thing is they didn’t announce that, nor did Tensho challenge on the last show. I read all the promos too and didn’t see it mentioned. Do I have to follow social media to explain some things? The new rookie, Kana, was called up by Marino who said she would train her into being the ‘Yellow’ of Actwres 5. Kana was crying with happiness.

Erisa Nagai faced Yukina Uehara in an all-rookie bout. Naturally, Erisa tried to work over the leg early in the match, but Yukina shrugged it off (she is still quite green after all) and they gave up on that idea. Erisa landed on top of Yukina with the Chilli Leg Drop (a diving split leg drop), which is a move which feels like a disaster in the making. After Erisa attempted a tornado DDT small package, Yukina rolled through and traded nearfalls back and forth with Erisa. Yukina would win out by holding Erisa down in a cradle for the win. This was a match that highlighted the inexperience of both wrestlers, even if I did enjoy Yukina’s kicks.

In the opener, Chii Aoba had a rematch with Rico Fukunaga, following their singles match on 28th June and their UWF bout in GLEAT on 9th August. Rico peppered Chii with kicks, so in anger, Chii viciously took Rico’s right leg into a kneebar. Once Rico reached the ropes, Chii tried to snap the knee using the bottom rope. Chii unleashed her vicious side in this match and showcasted a lot of great grappling. Rico turned Chii out with a dragon screw before locking in a knee bar on Chii. Chii would make the ropes, but Rico later targeted the leg with a dropkick, before putting on the same knee lock Chii had put on Rico earlier in the fight. Chii once again successfully used a rope break. Chii blocked a tiger suplex before hitting a great powerslam onto Rico. Chii sensed blood in the water, and pinned Rico with a bridging backdrop suplex in a huge upset, capping off a great opener. This was the best I had personally ever seen Chii.

Chii Aoba & Toiro Hina defeat Hinata Senya & Nanami Togi (7:00)

Three On Two Handicap: Anri, Asako Mia & Erisa Nagai defeat Nene Arahata & Rio (w/LP Gonbe) (8:13)

Naru & Rico Fukunaga defeat Haruka Ishikawa & Kyoka Iwai (9:25)

SPiCEAP (Maika Ozaki & Tae Honma) defeat Kana Yafuku & Yukina Uehara (14:35)

AWG KING Of Ring Entertainment Title:
MARU defeats Sakura Mizushima (c) (14:41)

AWG Tag Team Title:
Act & Mari (c) defeat Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki (10:04)

AWG Title:
Marino Saihara (c) defeats Yui Tensho (12:05)

© AWG

13th October 2025
Yokohama Radiant Hall, Kanagawa, Japan

Following AWG’s big show, fans were brought back down to earth as it was announced that Amaterasu would be vacating their tag team titles as Act was injured. While they didn’t say it, it was speculated that Act was injured going into the Prism Hall show. So first, they didn’t bother dropping the titles, presumably because they wanted to keep Amaterasu very strong and had an idea in mind for them losing, but the sillier part is that they announced a random draw of teams to fight for the Interim AWG Tag Team Titles. When I read about this, it did not fully sink into my brain that they had both VACATED the titles AND needed to crown interim champions? You only need an interim title if the actual title is held by an absent competitor so then you can book a unification title match. Why do you need an interim title if the main titles have been vacated? Then the random draw part. Why are Marino Saihara and Yukina Uehara teaming up to face Rico Fukunaga and Sakura MIzushima for the interim titles? Why not just throw the rookie team of Polaris in there and use the same teams the promotion established during the great ACT Game tournament? I’ve been watching for over half a year religiously now and this has been the worst booking decision so far.

The way they decided the final four was simply the winners of the two tag team matches on this show. First it was Kyoka Iwai & Nene Arahata vs. Sakura Mizushima & Yukina Uehara, then in the main event it was Asako Mia & Yui Tensho vs. Marino Saihara & Rico Fukunaga. Since the latter two teams won, they went through to a random lottery draw, which finally got us the match of Marino & Yukina vs. Rico & Sakura. The semi-main was announced as a submission match. While I have been heaping praise on Yukina for finding her strengths (kicking), her selling is still far behind as she often seems so wooden when taking offence. Sakura was back to her usual self following a bad day at the office at Prism Hall. She tapped out Kyoka with the Figure Eight. In the main event, they announced it was pinfall only, Asako was riding high following her maiden career win at Prism Hall but quickly came crashing down to reality when she immediately tapped to a hold early on but the match continued. Tensho was put in quite a difficult position here with such a deadweight on her team. Tensho had to break up several pins to have any chance of winning. Eventually it was inevitable. Marino pinned Asako with the MRN Smash.

Rookie Kana Yafuku had to overcome the roadblock of the new KING Champion MARU. Okay. We’re two matches into Kana’s career. I can already say that we need more theatre kids in wrestling. Her selling is quite good for just her second match in. I don’t want to get carried away, but it is quite impressive. There’s obviously only very basic offence still, but selling is important so it’s good a rookie has such a strong headstart on that. MARU won in under 6 minutes with a good performance from both.

Second on the card but first in my heart was Polaris (Anri & Erisa Nagai) against Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki. This is the match that should have been for the vacant AWG Tag Team Titles, but for some reason, isn’t. Anri’s been a bit quiet since her ACT Game tournament came to an end and she had that singles match with Marino two Yokohama shows ago. She turned the volume up in this match and looked fantastic in her exchanges with Natsuki. Anri has been using a new move where it looks like she is going for the Cristo (flying Octopus hold) but instead she rolls up and tries to win with a tight cradle. It’s awesome. In a match at just over 10 minutes, this was a really fun tag match. Both teams are GREAT and Polaris are coming along nicely with Erisa not falling too far behind and able to pull her weight.

Mari beat Rio in 18 seconds with a buzzsaw kick. Rio asked for a rematch and then got another 9 minutes with Mari before losing again, but this time to another of Mari’s signature moves, Noshigami. Listen, I’ve been a Rio enjoyer since the start. She just gets me. I love her comedy chops just as much as her actual chops, and I think her and Mari played off each other great. This was a good spotlight for Rio and the 18 second loss I thought actually worked well with the restart. Mari sold a lot, as she always does, and Rio looked the best she has since Korakuen Hall in August. Once again, Mari worked overtime to put others over.

© AWG

19th October 2025
176BOX, Osaka, Japan

Without rehashing the absurd circumstances in which this match came about, Marino Saihara & Yukina Uehara won the Interim AWG Tag Team Titles against Rico Fukunaga & Sakura Mizushima. After a rough day at the office at Prism Hall, Sakura was back to her best in this match, flattening Marino with crossbodies, exchanging stiff forearms, moving great (including dodging moves by arching backwards), and her selling was on point. After Rico tried to submit her unit leader and tag team partner in MRC, the AWG Champion stamped her authority as she delivered an MRN Smash to Rico. Sakura had to break up the bridging German suplex at the last second. Yukina obliterated Sakura with a jackhammer leaving Marino and Rico once again. Rico got the better of Marino with a tiger suplex which now Yukina had to break up. Eventually Marino would take the titles for her and Yukina with another MRN Smash on Rico. While I enjoyed this match, it would have been far, far better with Marino and Sakura in the final five minutes. Yukina’s timing and positioning in tag team matches has slightly improved. The result meant that Marino was a double champion, sort of, with presumably a title bout with Amaterasu in the future for… the interim? Or Amaterasu gets the real ones back? Who knows. After the match, Rookie of the Year candidate Anri cut an emotional promo I wish I had the transcript for, but it’s in Osaka so the regular source of transcripts doesn’t attend, and Shupro doesn’t consider AWG as wrestling so doesn’t cover it. From context, Anri may have spoken about how important the tag belts were to her and directly asked for a tag team title match, along with MARU & Ayano Irie and Midsummer Breeze who also came out and cut a promo.

MARU picked up her first defence of the KING Title against Yui Tensho. The boss of Killer’Z, MARU, had been trying to recruit Tensho into Killer’Z following her acrimonious split from Actwres 5, but Tensho had realised that she was better doing things alone, and MARU immediately lost interest after Tensho lost the title match to Marino Saihara at Prism Hall on 1st October. I was not sure what to expect from this, but Tensho throwing green balls out of a bag at MARU, and chasing her with a tiny green water pistol was not it. That might be my bad. It is called the KING of Ring Entertainment Title for a reason. MARU got things back on track by hanging Tensho with her chain. That’s more familiar. MARU threw her chain at Tensho, I guess trying to dropkick the chain onto her, or something? Tensho avoided the dropkick and punched MARU with the chain in front of the referee who had selective sight. It wasn’t enough to put MARU away who retaliated by throwing chalk powder at Tensho, clearly missing but Tensho sold anyway because, you know, you only get to do that type of spot once. MARU won with two diving double foot stomps.

After their fun back and forth on the previous show in Yokohama, Mari and Rio teamed up against Midsummer Sea Breeze (Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki). As you can imagine, the pair were not on the same page, with Rio accidentally splashing onto Mari trying to break up a pin. When Mari Irish whipped Natsuki, Mari went for a dropkick, not knowing Rio would hold Natsuki, thinking that’s what Mari would want, and making Mari fall flat on her face. Mari got bored of all the mishaps and went to relax on a chair, leaving the rookie to fend for herself against one of the top tag teams. When Rio was about to lose, Mari threw a water bottle to break up the pin. Later, she came back into the ring to kick Rio in the back. Rio had enough and swung her around with an airplane spin. Rio kept trying to survive by herself but eventually, the former AWG Champion Natsuki put her away with Mari nowhere to be seen.

Polaris (Anri & Erisa Nagai) lost to the regular tag team from Killer’Z, Ayano Irie and Nene Arahata, as Nene forced Erisa to submit with the Argentine backbreaker. Rookie Kana Yufuku continued her training to become the ‘Yellow’ of Actwres 5, filling the position left by Yui Tensho’s departure. The next phase of training was a singles match against the ‘Pink’ of Actwres 5, Naru. Kana was already hitting forearms harder than any of the younger wrestlers in Stardom. While this was a very short match, I am liking the early direction of Kana. Naru won with the crucifix pin.

© AWG

ACTwrestling Step 65 – Mii’s Graduation
31st October 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Ayano Irie & Sakura Mizushima vs. Mii & Rina Amikura

It was Halloween night at Step 65, as well as Mii’s graduation. Mii started training with AWG in 2018 before joining the promotion. She stayed with the promotion during its relaunches, embedding herself as one of the seniors in the promotion. Mii explained that she got ill a few years ago and tried to come to terms with it but struggled immensely. Mii had not wrestled since the 29th December 2024 Korakuen Hall show. Mii said she was planning on graduating without saying bye, but the recently retired Tae Honma had talked her into it. Mii graduated against her two juniors in Ayano Irie and Sakura Mizushima, while teaming with her former partner Rina Amikura, known for her appearances in the independent scene having left AWG in 2021. Ami is Mii’s close friend while Ayano was Mii’s closest junior. Ami was great in this match. The roster ran the train of bodies on Mii, ending with Ayano hugging and kissing Mii before Ami cannonballed Mii. Mii held on to a series of submissions including Sakura’s Muta Lock. Ayano hit the Teardrop Angel, Sakura followed up with the Backlash into a Smile 120% for the win. Afterwards was Mii’s graduation ceremony. Everyone was in tears. It was emotional carnage. It was great. They handed Mii flowers from different special people to her including Nao Kakuta, her debut opponent. They showed clips from her career. She thanked everyone at AWG before having a shower of streamers rain down on her. After the show Mii gave a message to Ayano saying that she was the only one of the homegrown members left (presumably referring to the 2018 trainee class). She told Ayano she had to win a belt and that it was her dream to see that.

The two champions, AWG Champion Marino Saihara and KING Champion MARU faced Chii Aoba and Mari in what was an excellent match on paper and in practice. This match was super, super, super fun with the dynamics between champions Marino and MARU, where Marino did not want MARU to use her chain. There was one slight slip up between Chii and MARU on a powerslam that Chii normally executes flawlessly. MARU had had enough and used her chain against Chii, as well as hit her with a water bottle and poured water on her before landing the double diving foot stomp for the win. Chii challenged MARU for the title, to the collective cheers of all the AWG sickos, but MARU rejected her and called out Kyoka Iwai instead.

Midsummer Sea Breeze were on opposite sides as Nagisa Shiotsuki and Yukina Uehara faced Natsuki and Rico Fukunaga. Nagisa couldn’t help herself and hit a double team with Natsuki on Yukina. There were 3 kickers and 1 chopper in this match. Nagisa, the chopper, got into a kick-chop duel with Rico, before Rico had enough and kicked Nagisa’s chopping arm. Nagisa and Natsuki had a great closing sequence with a lot of heat, as once again, Nagisa continued to rise up my personal rankings. Natsuki won with the jackknife pin. It was in the post-match promo that I actually remembered Yukina was an interim AWG Tag Team Champion. It still doesn’t feel real. Nagisa said she wanted to go after an AWG singles belt but would be back to challenge for the tag belts.

In the opener there was a Halloween Battle Royale to crown the Pumpkin Queen of 2025. It appeared that Asako Mia may be on a bit of a winning streak as she rolled up Haruka Ishikawa, who was dressed as a clown, to win the match. The match was not great with a lack of action and not amazing comedy. After winning, Asako called herself the woman with 2 wins in 400 matches. She then tried to challenge for all the titles but the ring announcer, Tensho, told her there weren’t any points awarded for the match. Asako tried to list off potential partners but Tensho had to tell her they were all already in teams. Asako said she would go after the tag titles herself. That will go well.

© AWG

ACTwrestling Step 66
15th November 2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

The ace of AWG, Marino Saihara, defended her AWG Title against Nagisa Shiotsuki. Nagisa’s elevation since Korakuen Hall was done really well. It was logical, well-paced and it also matched her improving performances as she was involved in a slew of great matches after the past few months. I personally loved the result as Marino is still on an awesome run and is the promotion’s most reliable performer. I was enjoying this match and then it felt like it ended abruptly – probably because I was enjoying it that much. Marino won with the MRN Smash in just over 11 minutes in a great match. They definitely could have taken time off the semi-main event and given it to the AWG Title match. I do think the idea was that it was Nagisa’s first title shot and that she isn’t ready, which I guess is fine. Backstage, she spoke about needing to level up more.

MARU defended her KING Title in an Extreme Rules match against her underling and pupil, Kyoka Iwai. From the top of the ladder, Kyoka sent MARU through a table with the cleanest table break you will ever see. MARU repaid the favour by later climbing the ladder in the ring and crashing through Kyoka on a table outside the ring with a double foot stomp. This match went past its peak quite a few times, with Kyoka being not a great worker and working a 22-minute match with MARU. MARU directed the match well, but it felt too long. MARU won after destroying Kyoka’s knee with a chair and applying the MARU Lock Muffler.

New girl on the block, Kana Yufuku, paired with Yukina Uehara against Ayano Irie and Nene Arahata. Yukina and Ayano had some heated back and forths, with Ayano no-selling Yukina’s kicks, and Yukina flipping Ayano inside out with a rear naked choke. Ayano channelled the spirit of Act and just ended up no-selling the entire match. A very weird match. The purpose of the match was to make Ayano look strong ahead of her Interim AWG Tag Team Title match against Marino and Yukina, but it felt like it went too far in that direction.

After picking up her first win on the Prism Hall show and then becoming Pumpkin Queen on the last show, Asako Mia, with the help of Naru, was going for a third win against Mari and Nanami Togi. This match made me come around to the idea that Asako might be a comedic genius. The way she portrayed the simultaneous blend of ignorant confidence and utter fear of Mari was amazing. She was sure she would get a third win after having been on a roll, but Mari made her really reconsider if she actually wanted that win. At one point Asako and Mari were just staring at each other and Asako was breathing heavily, with others corpsing and almost corpsing herself. Later, she tried to save Naru and unleashed the most hesitant barrage of strikes you will ever see, leading to Mari flinging Asako neck first into the bottom rope. This match was a lot of fun.

Erisa Nagai and Sakura Mizushima faced Haruka Ishikawa and Rio. Rio has been teaming with Killer’Z members from time to time and at one point wanted to be recruited by them. After a couple of shaky performances it felt like Sakura was finally finding her way back as she put in another fun performance with fellow top worker Ishikawa, who is one of the most anime characters in the promotion in her presentation (complimentary). Rio still pops me every match with her chops.

© AWG

24th November 2025
Yokohama Sambo Hall, Kanagawa, Japan
Recommended Match: Ayano Irie & MARU vs. Marino Saihara & Yukina Uehara

The main news coming out of this show is that Rico Fukunaga, Asako Mia and Yukina Uehara all volunteered to challenge Marino Saihara for her AWG Champion. Marino is trying to break the record of defences of 6, held by Miku Aono. Given there are shows on 5th and 7th December at Comicon, Step 67 on 15th December and an Osaka show on 20th December, Marino can comfortably break the record and drop the title on 29th December. Who she would drop to, I am not sure, as I think her title reign could go on even longer, but that might be AWG’s idea with announcing three challengers at once. Additionally, MARU finally accepted Chii Aoba’s challenge for the KING Title.

The stupid Interim AWG Tag Team Titles were defended by Marino Saihara and Yukina Uehara against Killer’Z duo Ayano Irie & MARU. This match meant either Marino or MARU would be leaving the match as a double champion heading into Korakuen Hall on 29th December (there were two other shows before then, but unlikely that title matches are scheduled). MARU is a glorious, old school joshi heel. Nothing flashy, just good work getting heat. Killer’Z worked over Yukina’s special weapon, her leg. Given Yukina has around 40 matches in her career, she did not put on the greatest selling performance to match the work. MARU, the smart heel that she is, goaded Yukina into kicking her so she could catch the leg and try for a stretch muffler. All she did was put her leg out a tiny bit. It’s the little details like that which make MARU great. Killer’Z pushed the advantage against AWG Champion Marino by spilling the fight into the crowd, which is MARU’s wheelhouse. Marino put on an excellent selling performance which whipped up the crowd into a frenzy behind her. I had Marino losing as maybe 1% going into this match. Her performance in this match made me think it was maybe 30 or 40%, which was quite remarkable. Yukina saved Marino and fought back with a triple German suplex. I was shocked that Ayano kicked out of that. But, of course, it was not the delayed German suplex, the MRN Smash. Marino then hit the MRN Smash to retain the titles. An excellent performance from Marino. Real ace shit. Backstage, Marino said that now they beat MARU and Ayano, all that’s left is Amaterasu and then they would have beat all of the Killer’Z top stars.

Chii Aoba and Rico Fukunaga faced Kana Yufuku and Sakura Mizushima. Kana is training to become a member of Actwres 5, so pinning Rico would be a big leap in the right direction. On the other hand, Chii, Rico and Sakura are all due to compete in GLEAT’s UWF show on 6th December, so this match also served as a warmup. Rico’s warmup was smashing her foot into Kana’s back. Kana, initially hesitant and wanted to tag out, braced and absorbed the strikes. This was a good Actwres 5 training session for her. Chii was great in this match with a nice looking powerslam, a bridging chicken-wing submission, the Disher Screw (like a Paige Turner) and then she finished Kana off with “Dessert Is Ice – With Chii On Top, If You Please!” (It’s a frog splash, and yes that’s the actual finish name.) Chii later challenged MARU for the KING Title. That’s an awesome direction. Finally, some elevation for Chii. From the openers to a title match with MARU at Korakuen Hall.

Yui Tensho is on her “retirement” run as she is due to transition into a non-wrestler role at the end of the year. She teamed up with rookie Rio against Midsummer Breeze (Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki). Natsuki, a former AWG Champion, was bullied and beaten by Rio and Tensho. I loved Rio and Nagisa going up against each other as they are the two premier choppers in the promotion. They clearly know it too as they set up a chop battle which the fans reacted to. Nagisa pinned Rio for a three-count but the ref counted two and Tensho broke the pin late, so I’m guessing either she forgot she was meant to break it up or Rio forgot to kick out. Nagisa submitted Rio with the scorpion deathlock.

Kyoka Iwai did her thing, using her umbrella as a weapon, against her senior in Killer’Z, Mari. The boss, MARU, even helped Iwai cheat. Mari, like the heroic babyface I know she is, fought through all the antics to teach Iwai a lesson. Mari finished Iwai with a question mark kick into a blockbuster. Iwai wasn’t happy and stormed off.

Lady Police Gonbe is a trainee who made her “pre-debut” on this show against Asako Mia. Gonbe’s debut had been postponed due to an injury to her left-knee ligament. It wasn’t a real debut, she still needs to have surgery. Given this pre-debut, I’m going to guess she’s more of an Asako Mia than an Anri or Yukina Uehara. She was whacking Asako Mia with a styrofoam bat. It reminded me a bit of Dragongate debuting Jiro Shinbashi in a comedy match in November – he isn’t going for the Open The Dream Gate Title any time soon. But Jiro’s salaryman gimmick is much better than a generic policewoman gimmick. Asako actually looked pretty good in this match. She threw a great head kick but was caught by the LP Gonbe Hammer (double-handed fist to the opponent’s chest) leading to yet another loss. I was actually expecting Asako to win here. Maybe the fact it was a pre-debut is why it was so cartoonishly goofy and it will be different when she debuts?

I don’t talk about the entrance dances every review because they happen, well, every show. But I wanted to note I absolutely love both the new babyface and new heel dance. Marino fits being the centre of the babyface dance perfectly, and Mari absolutely destroys the heel choreography. MARU’s complete disdain for the dance is always entertaining too. I never skip it. Mari is my ace. (Ok, joint-ace with Marino.)

Hiyori Yawata, Kaho Hiromi & Mochi Natsumi defeat Chie Koishikawa, Erii Kanae & Sayaka Obihiro and Chon Shiryu, Shin Suzuki & Tokiko Kirihara (7:36)

Charli Evans & Sayaka defeat Miya Yotsuba & Soy (10:16)

Antonio Honda defeats Baliyan Akki (12:40)

Banana Senga, Hagane Shinnou & Tsutomu Oosugi defeat Chris Brookes, Munetatsu Nakamura & Shota Kawakami (11:48)

Super Asia Title:
Rina Yamashita defeats Mei Suruga (c) (20:30)

Chie Koishikawa, Hagane Shinnou & Kaho Hiromi defeat Erii Kanae, Shuichiro Katsumura & Tokiko Kirihara (8:42)

Kaori Yoneyama & Yuu defeat BestBros (Baliyan Akki & Mei Suruga) (14:41)

Sayaka Obihiro defeats Hiyori Yawata (8:54)

Hanako Nakamori, Makoto & Sayaka defeat AKARI, Miya Yotsuba & Soy (14:21)

Super Asia Title:
Rina Yamashita (c) defeats Antonio Honda (17:41)

Emi Sakura defeats Kaho Hiromi (4:59)

Eight Man Tag Team Four Way:
Jonathan Johnson, Makoto, Rina Yamashita & Sayaka defeat Antonio Honda, Erii Kanae, Minoru Fujita & Tokiko Kirihara and Chie Koishikawa, Hagane Shinnou, Sawasdee Kamen & Sayaka Obihiro and Chon Shiryu, Hiyori Yawata, Shin Suzuki & Soy (6:10)

Riho defeats Miya Yotsuba (12:21)

Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka defeat Baliyan Akki & Chris Brookes (16:12)

AZM defeats Mei Suruga (16:11)

Gauntlet:
Aoi Kizuki, Kaori Yoneyama, Mei Suruga, Momoe Nakanishi & Riho defeat Emi Sakura [4:1] (19:19)
Kaori Yoneyama pins Emi Sakura (4:27)
Riho pins Emi Sakura (2:05)
Emi Sakura pins Aoi Kizuki (2:08)
Momoe Nakanishi pins Emi Sakura (6:04)
Mei Suruga pins Emi Sakura (4:35)

© PURE-J

Rainbow Mountain 2025 ~ PURE-J 8th Anniversary
11th August 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 656
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

PURE-J do not upload the Korakuen Hall show to their YouTube because they’re one of the few joshi indies to do DVD-only for the Korakuen Hall shows and then upload later to @TB3_official on YouTube, so it took a while to watch this show.

On 11th August, PURE-J were at Korakuen Hall celebrating their 8th anniversary. PURE-J are the “cousins” of LLPW-X as they share a common ancestor, Japan Woman Pro-Wrestling which split into Japanese Women’s Project (JWP) and LLPW in 1992. PURE-J is the direct descendent of JWP which closed operations in 2017. Therefore, it was fitting that LLPW-X’s ace, NØRI, who has headlined all of their Kanda Myojin Hall monthly shows, was on this card teaming up with Jenne against Asuka Pro’s Arisa Shinose and Diana’s Nanami Hatano. Diana has been sending their champion and ace, Haruka Umesaki, to all of the LLPW-X shows, so there’s some loose affiliation between all 3 promotions. It was Jenne’s 1 year debut anniversary. Shinose pinned Jenne with a shining wizard.

Momo Tani faced Tae Honma before Honma’s retirement on 13th October. Honma was Momo’s debut opponent on 8th April 2018 and in the preview, Momo said that a lot of her current moves were taught to her by Honma. Momo beat Honma with one of those moves, Hatsubashi.

One of PURE-J’s storylines is Risa Sera sending assassins to test Chie Ozora. Chie and Sera challenged for the Daily Sports Women’s Tag Team Champions but came up short, so Sera set up the squad of assassins to train her up. The assassins so far have been Kaho Kobayashi, Mio Shirai and on this show it was Makoto. All, including this match, (obviously) ended up in a loss for Chie.

Creakari (AKARI & Crea), the standouts of PURE-J lost to Cherry and KAZUKI on the undercard. Creakari had already announced it would be the last time teaming together. KAZUKI then beat AKARI and Cherry beat Crea in singles matches in Chiba on 23rd August. It might just be a storyline, but AKARI and Crea have been uncharacteristically losing a lot since the Korakuen Hall show. It does coincide with Crea’s increased appearances in Ice Ribbon.

The semi-main event involved the return from injury for one of PURE-J’s best workers and their ace, 5-time PURE-J Openweight Champion and, now, 6-time Tag Team Champion, Hanako Nakamori. She teamed with Kaho Kobayashi and beat Ganbare Pro duo Moeka Haruhi and Yuna Manase to win the Tag Team Titles. Hanako said it was the most nervous she had ever been in her 19-year career as 4 months was the longest time she had been out. In Ganbare Pro at Korakuen Hall on 26th August, Nakamori teamed up with Moeka, who she just beat for the tag titles in PURE-J, to take on Manase and YuuRI, so the former PURE-J tag champions would be on opposite sides weeks later in their home promotion.

The main event was a six-person tag match between PURE-J Openweight Champions as DASH Chisako, Kaori Yoneyama & Leon beat Risa Sera, Rydeen Hagane and the current champion, SAKI. Kaori and Leon are classmates (1999/2000), whereas Sera, Hagane and SAKI are 2012 classmates. After Leon pinned Hagane, SAKI said she wanted to defend her belt against every PURE-J wrestler, starting with Leon on 31st August. Momo Tani came out and said she wanted to raise PURE-J’s profile in Kansai, and as she is from Kyoto, wanted a shot at the title at the Osaka show on 14th September, whoever it would be.

© PURE-J

PURE-J Pure-Plum Memorial 2025
16th August 2025
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan

This show was dedicated to the late JWP wrestler Plum Mariko, who passed away at the age of 29 in August 1997. This was the 28th anniversary of her death due to injuries sustained in the ring. PURE-J is a direct descendant of the JWP promotion. Cutie Suzuki, a JWP legend, was invited into the ring at the end of the show for a commemorative photo.

The storyline of Chie’s ‘big sis’ Risa Sera sending assassins to Chie to train her up continued, although this time, Sera made an appearance herself, tagging with Ozora against Kaori Yoneyama and KAZUKI. Chie has had three assassins defeat her so far. Chie tried some of the techniques at the start of the match but wasn’t able to pull them off. However, she did manage to get the pin on Kaori Yoneyama. After the match, Sera said that it proved that she was right to send the assassins, and that she also wanted to pass on her moniker to Chie. Sera’s motto is pronounced “soen banjo” (蒼焔万丈), roughly translating to ‘long life’ or ‘hurrah’-type encouragements for the ‘Azure Blaze”. Sera said that she wanted to pass on the ‘Azure Blaze’ moniker to Chie (pronounced ‘Soen’ represented by the kanji 蒼焔). Sera said she wanted to hold a succession ceremony for Chie before her retirement within the next 5 months. Chie, who also wears blue, was emotional and in tears but accepted. This was cute.

The main event was a battle royal with submissions only involving seven PURE-J wrestlers as well as Cherry, Kaori Yoneyama and OZ Academy’s Tsubasa Kuragaki. The last two wrestlers were Chie Ozora and Yoneyama. Once the two-count rule was added as a tribute to Plum Mariko, Yoneyama pinned Chie. Yoneyama said while she had not met her while Plum was alive, she knew about her ever since she joined JWP and visits her grave yearly. Yoneyama then asked to be the next assassin for Sera, who accepted.

Crea teamed up with one half of the new Tag Team Champions, Hanako Nakamori, taking on the team that lost the titles at Korakuen Hall, GanPro’s Moeka Haruhi & Yuna Manase. This was a match that’s better on paper than it was in practice, which is why it was in the opener I’m guessing. It was still solid, but did not reach the levels it should with workers such as Crea and Hanako. This was my first chance seeing Hanako after her injury, and she was good, but I still need to see whether she can work at full speed which this match wouldn’t show given how light it was. Manase demanded a match for the next Itabashi Green Hall show. Crea took the pin again in this match. AKARI beat Rydeen Hagane in singles action although it was a Plum Mariko Memorial two-count match.

© PURE-J

PURE-J GanbaRay Memorial 2025
31st August 2025
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Leon vs. SAKI

This show commemorated Leon’s tag partner, Ray, who passed away due to brain tumour at the age of 36 in 2018. Leon referred to her as her eternal tag partner. They were in the team “Mascara Voladoras” together. SAKI issued the challenge for the PURE-J Openweight Title to the former champion, and Leon accepted SAKI’s challenge for this show in Ray’s memory. Before the match, Leon was brandishing a scarf from Ray’s 12th anniversary, a show in which Leon teamed with Kagetsu to face Command Bolshoi & Hibiscus Mii.

Leon wasn’t messing around in this match. She laid in every strike and smacked SAKI with stiff forearms throughout the contest. SAKI isn’t my cup of tea normally, but she had some crazy bumps in this match including a top rope spider German suplex where she landed right on the top of the neck. This was a really good match in which Leon and SAKI made me believe there could be a title switch. SAKI managed to fend off Leon with a running brainbuster into the Kawild Knee Drop right to Leon’s chest. SAKI did not want to disrespect Leon in a match that meant a lot to Leon considering it was a memorial show for one of her closest partners, and they both worked hard.

The new Daily Sports Tag Team Champions Hanako Nakamori and Kaho Kobayashi teamed with Asuka Pro’s Arisa Shinose to take on Makoto, GanPro’s Moeka Haruhi & CMLL’s Dark Silueta in a Ray Memorial special six-woman tag. Kaho is such a perfect fit for PURE-J that now she’s a champion, I hope she does more dates. Makoto tapped out Arisa, which I’m sure she’s used to from Ice Ribbon.

Crea teamed up with KAZUKI to go up against KAZUKI’s WANTED teammates, Momo Tani and Cherry. KAZUKI was conflicted throughout and the miscommunication led to Crea getting rolled up by Momo Tani. The loss streak continued. Her former tag partner, AKARI, was up against Rydeen Hagane and Yuna Manase in a three-way following the events of the Plum Memorial show and…also took the pin, eating a lariat from Manase. Surely this is leading to Creakari realising they need to reunite in order to win and then they go on a tear on their way to the top of the promotion…?

Chie battled her fourth assassin in Kaori Yoneyama, but the wily Yoneyama went for her deadly O’Connor roll, which Chie reversed, but the momentum carried Yoneyama forward to secure her own pin. It was announced that Sera’s next assassin would be from her own stable, Prominence – the scary Mochi Natsumi on 20th September at Itabashi Green Hall. Mochi makes a few PURE-J appearances a year.

PURE-J Dojo (#144)
7th September 2025
Kame Arena Dojo, Tokyo, Japan

After one month away from the dojo, PURE-J returned with a main event of AKARI & Leon teaming up to take on Ice Ribbon’s rookie, Kirari Wakana, and Rydeen Hagane. Yes, AKARI lost. However, in the second match, Crea had her 12th attempt at beating Hanako Nakamori in a singles match. She has lost every single time, except this time! Crea finally took Hanako to a 15 minute time-limit draw. Given it was a dojo show, they weren’t going to give away something for free (well, technically I pay £8.99/month), so they worked quite light in the first 10 minutes to make sure they went to the time-limit. The last 5 minutes were great. After the show, Crea said that she always used to be the junior that Hanako could beat up whenever, but now she’s getting better, finally earning a draw. Hanako said that she’s seen Crea’s “Bad Butts” attitude in Ice Ribbon (her heel persona there), and asked her to bring it to PURE-J. That set up Ancham & Crea against Hanako & Kaho Kobayashi for the Tag Team Titles on 20th September at Itabashi Green Hall.

© PURE-J

PURE-J Osaka Festival 2025 ~ Autumn Battle
14th September 2025
Kumin Center, Osaka, Japan

In Momo Tani’s home region of Kansai, Tani took on SAKI for the PURE-J Openweight Championship. SAKI’s goal is to defend against every member of the PURE-J roster, similar to Haruka Umesaki’s challenge in Diana. Tani had challenged SAKI after her defence against Leon in Itabashi. SAKI and Tani have some history from their time together at AWG (of course, where else?) After leaving AWG, Tani would regularly perform in SAKI’s promotion, COLORS and second her during big matches at Korakuen Hall. Tani would one day dream of facing SAKI in a main event. Tani was recently married and SAKI had thought she would coast through her career after that, so Tani was determined to prove that wasn’t the case. Tani tried her hardest in the match, but it wasn’t enough as SAKI successfully retained. I’m still yet to see an outstanding SAKI performance, this match just showcased the level she was at and it’s not changing. You get what you get with SAKI. The match was good, but nothing more. When I follow PURE-J, it’s not for SAKI. It’s for Creakari, Hanako Nakamori and Leon. On the other hand, Tani put on a great underdog babyface performance. SAKI pinned Tani with the running brainbuster (which, to be fair, is an awesome move).

There was some participation on the card from Osaka-based wrestlers, with PURE-J’s relationship with 2Point5 in play as Crea fought with Flying Penguin, and Lady Kurara was in a tag match teaming with Miyuki Takase against Chie Ozora and Madeleine. Momo Tani also wrestles for 2Point5. AKARI & Leon faced Hanako Nakamori & Super W. It was Hanako’s first time facing Leon since her return from injury. Leon pinned Super W with the frog splash in a good match. Crea beat Flying Penguin. That means Crea won a match. I repeat, Crea did in fact win a match. Crea looked good and blasted Flying Penguin with a shotgun dropkick, before finishing her off with a Northern Lights suplex. When Crea is allowed to wrestle all out (due to whatever gimmick she’s playing at any point in time), she’s excellent.

© PURE-J

Pure Spirit Vol. 4
20th September 2025
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan

In a highly anticipated main event, the Daily Sports Women’s Tag Team Championship was on the line as Bad Butts (Ancham & Crea) challenged the champions Hanako and Kaho. The match came about after Crea’s time-limit draw with Hanako at the dojo, with Hanako asking Crea to bring her “heel-side” out to PURE-J, so this was the debut of “Bad Butts Crea”. One thing we don’t see from Crea in Ice Ribbon in her heel gimmick is her stiff working, which she does in PURE-J more regularly, and she did so here, slapping her senpai, Hanako, hard around the face multiple times. This match did have Bad Butts shenanigans all over it, but it was probably as good as it gets with that gimmick mixing in a lot of good striking and sequences with the overbearing interference. Kaho retained the titles for her team with the 120% Schoolboy.

The 5th assassin sent to Chie Ozora by Risa Sera was her Prominence stablemate, Mochi Natsumi. Early on in the bout Mochi used her whip before relinquishing it to the referee. She should try working in Ice Ribbon as she could use it without penalty. The refs in PURE-J are much better at getting distracted. There was a ref bump before Mochi pulled an Eddie Guerrero. The referee let her off due to the benefit of the doubt. This was a good match where Chie actually picked up her first win of the series, rolling through a Lou Thesz press and then just putting all her weight down on Mochi. I love flash pins like that. It seems Risa’s “training” is paying off.

Elsewhere, Leon and Rydeen Hagane beat Cherry and SAKI in a solid match. KAZUKI is doing a gimmick where she’s doing matches in her judo gi and incorporating some judo style into the match. KAZUKI is a black belt in judo and previously had similar matches such as with Megumi Yabushita in JWP (Yabushita was a legit national-level judoka). This time she faced Kaori Yoneyama, an orange belt, and handily beat her, including choking her with her belt. Command Bolshoi stepped in to take KAZUKI down. AKARI faced ASUKA Pro’s Arisa Shinose in the opener. AKARI has a beautiful Northern Lights suplex, but it wasn’t enough to put Arisa away the first time. AKARI tapped Arisa out with a sick Boston crab.

PURE-J Dojo (#145)
23rd September 2025
Kame Arena Dojo, Tokyo, Japan

In the main event, the cornerstones of PURE-J over the last 8 years, Hanako Nakamori and Leon, teamed up together to take on Arisa Shinose and Chie Ozora. This match exceeded my expectations, in particular I think Chie had a pretty good performance. She picked up a huge upset win on Hanako ahead of her title match with SAKI on 5th October. This result could lead to her challenging for the tag titles down the line as well.

Crea continued her losing streak, this time in her usual PURE-J gimmick as she was pinned by KAZUKI. I can’t wait for the payoff…since breaking up with AKARI she is 1-6-1, with the 1 win coming against Flying Penguin in Osaka. In the opener AKARI faced Rydeen Hagane with special rules. Now, the report hasn’t been released as at the time of writing so I’m not sure what those rules are, but they did take several breaks to hit food…so, eating contest?

© PURE-J

Pure Rising Vol. 5
5th October 2025
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan

After managing to slay one of her assassins on the previous Itabashi Green Hall show, Sera announced that Chie’s sixth assassin would be the PURE-J Openweight Champion SAKI. In the letter that Sera sent, she explicitly told Chie not to challenge SAKI for her title as she wasn’t ready to become a champion. After being tempted by SAKI who was on her own mission to defend against every PURE-J wrestler, Chie then proceeded to immediately challenge SAKI, making it official. The match itself was like all other SAKI matches. It is really difficult for her to have an interesting 20 minute match. The set up for this match was a lay up. It was all about Chie proving she was good enough to challenge, despite Sera’s lack of confidence. Chie did quite well showing a fire lit underneath her, but it doesn’t really work if the fire you are raging against is a wooden plank. This was the dud of SAKI’s reign so far and it wasn’t for a lack of trying from Chie. SAKI nominated KAZUKI as her next challenger, continuing her road of facing roster members. After that she has Crea, Hanako Nakamori, Rydeen Hagane and possibly rookie Jenne (but she hasn’t been seen since Korakuen Hall in August). Meanwhile, ‘big sis’ Sera announced that the final assassin was her (of course, where else was this leading?)

The Kobayashis (Hanako Nakamori & Kaho Kobayashi) (not official team name, but Hanako’s shoot last name is Kobayashi which she has referred to in promos) successfully defended their Daily Sports Tag Team Titles against YoneLeo (Kaori Yoneyama & Leon) in a good, but standard tag match.

AKARI and Arisa Shinose took on the Ice Ribbon Bad Butts duo of Ancham & Crea. This was AKARI and Crea’s first match against each other since they went their separate ways at Korakuen Hall, and Crea was back with a bad attitude. Both had been on a bit of a losing streak. Crea’s second match as her heel character appeared to prove fruitful as she pinned Arisa with a big boot. It is so baffling that Crea decided to hide some of her best abilities away behind the character. You can see glimpses of it. In this match it was when she almost forearmed a hole through AKARI and slapped her around the face. After the match, AKARI attacked Crea and said the attitude didn’t suit her, challenging her to a singles match. Crea said she didn’t care and would become stronger no matter what, either as Bad Butts or her old self, she’d decide who she would show up as to defeat AKARI. So in PURE-J at least it’s a split personality sort of thing, but in Ice Ribbon she’s just a heel.

KAZUKI continued her judo gi match gimmick, this time taking on WANTED stablemate, Cherry, who is a legit bronze medalist in BJJ at the World Master tournament. The match sounds a lot cooler than it was, as it was just a worked comedy match with some judo throws thrown in. There was a sequence where Cherry took KAZUKI’s back for what felt like a couple of minutes. She won as she pulled KAZUKI’s pants down and rolled her up. Like I said, it sounded cooler than it was in practice.

© PURE-J

AKARI, Crea & Chie Ozora Produce Show (#146)
12th October 2025
Kame Arena Dojo, Tokyo, Japan

AKARI, Crea and Chie put together the cards for the first of two back-to-back days at the dojo. In the main event it was a rare team of Chie Ozora and Momo Tani against Crea & Leon. The last time Chie and Momo had teamed together on a PURE-J show was in 2022. It has been almost 10 months since Crea and Leon last teamed together. You’d be amazed at how creative some of these indies get at avoiding match-ups despite only having 10 people on the roster. It was also Momo’s first dojo show in over a year (she is based in the Kansai region). We were treated to babyface Crea, who was awesome, with Chie in particular. I have warmed up to Chie more and more in recent months during her assassin arc as she’s fired up. Since it was babyface Crea, of course, she lost to Momo’s hurricanrana pin.

AKARI took on Hanako Nakamori with one important twist. It was a surprise cosplay, as AKARI was dressed like a banana and Hanako was Nezuko Kamado from Demon Slayer. AKARI explained her cosplay was because Hanako hated bananas. Hanako doesn’t watch Demon Slayer but she was told Chie and AKARI like the show, so chose that cosplay. The fans would vote for the best cosplay after the match. AKARI’s banana outfit won. To be fair, it was quite good, she committed with facepaint and all. I could not take her seriously during the match at all despite it being a solid match.

The trio decided to book Arisa Shinose to have her first ever singles match against Rydeen Hagane, wanting her to “break through the wall.” Arisa did not break through the wall. She was pinned after a backdrop and a reverse splash.

Leon, Hanako Nakamori & Rydeen Hagane Produce Show (#147)
13th October 2025
Kame Arena Dojo, Tokyo, Japan

The next day at the dojo was produced by the PURE-J vets, Leon, Hanako Nakamori & Rydeen Hagane. In the main event, they booked AKARI & Leon against Chie Ozora & Hanako Nakamori. AKARI wore Leon’s gear, and Chie wore Nakamori’s gear. The best part of this match was Hanako and Leon blasting each other with kicks, chops and forearms. It is amazing how stiff Leon still chooses to work, even at a random dojo show. For the love of the game. Leon beat Chie with Clutch de Gao.

OZ Academy’s Tsubasa Kuragaki came in to wrestle Rydeen. Kuragaki normally does a couple of PURE-J dates a year, given her JWP past and PURE-J being a direct descendent of JWP. The match was a bull rope deathmatch with wrists tied together. Additionally, anyone who used disrespectful language during the match was punished with a slap from a paper fan. It was far less interesting than it sounds. It did not have a lot of action.

Crea faced Momo Tani in the opener in their first singles match in over a year. As Momo stopped doing dojo dates in 2025, her PURE-J dates have gone down quite a bit meaning it is more rare for her to have these matches. Once again, Crea was her babyface self. The two rules with babyface PURE-J Crea are a) she is allowed to win and b) she’s allowed to be awesome. Both applied in this match.

Ring Announcer Produce Show (#148)
2nd November 2025
Kame Arena Dojo, Tokyo, Japan

AKARI faced Daiki Shimomura, a wrestler from BASARA. This match was really good. It was hard hitting with AKARI eating some vicious chops before getting her own back with some stiff kicks and forearms. It surprised me how hard they were going on a dojo show. Shimomura won with the Swanton bomb. AKARI looked awesome.

PURE-J Dojo (#149)
9th November 2025
Kame Arena Dojo, Tokyo, Japan

Diana’s prodigy, Miran, returned to PURE-J for the first time since 2023 for Chie Ozora’s birthday. The link between them is specifically that they are both ‘Risa Sera’s Children’ (sic). They teamed up against AKARI and Ice Ribbon’s rookie, Kirari Wakana. Honestly, Miran is an amazing talent. The way she runs the ropes with no fear, her lucharesu style and the fact she is not afraid to hit hard. I’ve been getting to Kirari more and more since her match with Haruka Umesaki, but Miran blew Kirari away here. It is impossible that she will not be a major breakout star in the next 5 to 10 years. You read it here first. Buried deep within the PURE-J section of Issue 11 of the Social Suplex Newsletter. You’re welcome.

Elsewhere, after going to a 15-minute time-limit draw on her 12th attempt at beating Hanako Nakamori in singles action, Crea ended up losing in just over 10 minutes on her 13th attempt. Maybe one day. It was a good match with hard strikes, but I’m unsure where this Crea storyline is going, if anywhere. She was a babyface in this match.

© PURE-J

Pure Rising Vol. 6
13th November 2025
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan

In the opener, AKARI and Crea finally met in singles action for the first time since their break-up in August. As with every single Creakari singles match, this was great. Crea was her old usual-self with awesome striking and clean sequences with her former teammate. Crea even hit her delayed German suplex, the main reason I started watching PURE-J (seriously), but AKARI just barely kicked out. Crea then finished AKARI off with a Tiger suplex. These matches are never given enough time. Now, I still have no idea what the story they were telling was, and I did translate the reports. The match was set up because Crea was in her Bad Butts character (heel) and cheated against AKARI in a tag match. AKARI wanted to snap her out of it. Here, Crea was in her babyface character and won. It feels like it missed a step and AKARI should’ve beat heel Crea cleanly? Or I suppose the match was to show Crea she could win as a babyface. That works I guess. Crea would later go on to challenge SAKI after the main event, with the match made official for 14th December, as the AKARI match made Crea believe she could reach the top again after a losing streak and trying out a heel character in PURE-J.

Chie Ozora finished her story, sort of, as she faced her mentor Risa Sera, who was the seventh and final assassin sent by Sera herself to challenge and train Chie. This has been an endearing anime-like storyline. Some would say this match with the one-legged Sera was perhaps a bit too much “cinema” in the sense it had a lot of talking, but it made sense for the storyline. Chie was clearly too scared to hurt her mentor, so Sera had to beat it into her. Given Sera’s limitations, the match was fine for what it was. Sera asked Chie to challenge for the tag team titles with her. That match will take place on 14th December at Korakuen Hall against the Kobayashis (Hanako Nakamori & Kaho Kobayashi, Hanako’s real last name is Kobayashi). Sera also asked Chie Ozora to team up with Miran to face her and Maya Yukihi at her retirement show on 12th January. SAKI and Rydeen Hagane wil join them in a three-way tag match. It does mean Sera is pulling double duty as she also has a hardcore match booked with Suzu Suzuki.

Elsewhere, SAKI defended her PURE-J Openweight Title against PURE-J mainstay KAZUKI in the main event. It was a match. Leon & Rydeen Hagane beat Arisa Shinose & Yuna Manase. Leon and Yuna were great together and smacked the crap out of each other with forearms. Then again, Leon does that with everyone. Leon and Yuna seemed to set up a match, maybe for December Korakuen (there were no transcripts available at the time of writing).

PURE-J Dojo #150
23rd November 2025
Kame Arena Dojo, Tokyo, Japan

wPURE-J normally need some gimmicks on their dojo shows in order to keep things fresh considering how small their roster is. The show had a special battle royal which included a visit from Jaguar Yokota. The second of such gimmick matches was a two-count match between AKARI and Leon, in which Leon squeaked out a victory. Finally, Crea began training for her title challenge against SAKI on 14th December at Korakuen Hall as she faced Chie Ozora, although this time in a submission-only match. Chie’s selling was great in this match and it made Crea look like a beast. Chie fought back and was super close to tapping Crea out but it was a time-limit draw. Great work from both. I even thought Crea tapped at the end because of how much she was selling. That would’ve been quite an upset given Crea’s upcoming title challenge.

© LLPW-X

Hono Emaki Vol. 2
21st August 2025
Kanda Myojin Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: YouTube (Free!)
Recommended Match: Mika Iwata vs. NØRI

LLPW-X’s monthly residence at Kanda Myojin Hall continued on 21st August as NØRI went up against Sendai Girls’ Mika Iwata. This was a match of who could beat who with the most creative kick. Firstly, NØRI tries a tornado kick when Iwata is downed against the bottom rope. She does pull her kick at the last second so it doesn’t look as clean, but it was a good idea. Iwata fired back with a great rolling head kick, which led to NØRI falling outside of the ring. One of NØRI’s skills is actually being an underdog, which you would not expect given how good her striking is. However, the recent main events against named stars have forced her into that role, and I find it very believable. Her selling is good, and her fire-up is awesome. You cannot help but root for her when she fires up with a primal scream and launches kicks at the opponent. That’s exactly what happened in this match as I could not stop smiling when she was forcing Iwata to recoil with the power of her kicks. This match was NØRI’s best this year, slightly edging out her encounter with Nanae Takahashi in April. I liked the finishing stretch with the crowd screaming NØRI’s name before she ate several kick combos in a row to lose. The hero doesn’t always win. But one day, she will. She also cuts some awesome, emotional post-match promos. NØRI asked for a match in Sendai Girls. Awesome, that’s what NØRI should be doing, getting more reps in other promotions.

In the semi-main event, Megumi Yabushita and Miyuki Takase took on Ryo Mizunami and Shinobu Kandori. Yabushita debuted in Jaguar Yokota’s promotion, Jd* in 1997 and has been closely associated with her throughout her career. Takase and Mizunami are very familiar with each other through their bouts in Sendai Girls, with Mizunami coming off a win over NØRI on the last show. This match felt like it ended before it even got going. The first 5 minutes flew by with foreign weapons (a belt), chops and lariats, and the match ended just under the 8 minute mark with a diving leg drop from Mizunami. Yabushita had some good ragdoll bumps here.

Diana’s Champion Haruka Umesaki continued to make appearances in LLPW-X as her and Takako Inoue fought with Miku Kanae and new LLPW-X rookie Wakana. This was Wakana’s second match so of course, she was super green. She clearly does not know how to sell and she’s standing waiting casually to get hit, bracing herself. But she is quite agile. At one point Takako blasted Wakana in the leg with a stiff kick. That was a way of the coach telling her student to show more fire, and that’s what Wakana did as she attacked Umesaki with forearms. Unfortuantely, Umesaki pinned Wakana with her elbow strike in under 9 minutes.

In the opener, one of LLPW-X’s less experienced wrestlers in Catherin fought in a singles match against Ito Dojo’s Uta Shima, who has 2 years of experience. Catherine only has 1 more month of experience yet looked far more polished while controlling most of the fight. Shima squeezed out a win with a rollup.

© LLPW-X

Hono Emaki Vol. 3
18th September 2025
Kanda Myojin Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: YouTube (Free!)
Recommended Match: Chi Chi & Yumiko Hotta vs. NØRI & Takako Inoue

LLPW-X’s monthly show at Kanda Myojin Hall took place on 18th September where NØRI teamed with Takako Inoue against T-HEARTS’ Yumiko Hotta and EVO’s Chi Chi. At the press conference on 5th September, Takako admonished NØRI for not achieving any results at Kanda Myojin Hall so far and that she wanted NØRI to learn from this match. Hotta agreed with Takako that she wanted NØRI to give her everything that she’s got.

Chi Chi and Takako were awesome in this match. Chi Chi fired the first shot at Takako with an open handed strike, so Takako immediately countered with a stiff slap. Takako looked incredible as she was roughing Chi Chi up and teaching her a lesson. Takako is 56 years old. I may have to revise my list of “top 50+ year old workers” and place her near the top just from the way she moves (Masaaki Mochizuki and HARASHIMA hold the top spots). NØRI picked up the win on Chi Chi with an amazing finish. First, she kicked Chi Chi in the lower mid section with a low spin kick. She immediately followed up with a lightning fast spin kick to Chi Chi’s head for a nearfall. When that didn’t work, she let out a primal scream (reminder that NØRI has one of the best fire-ups in the scene), and then ran at Chi Chi, killing her with a running enzuigiri with the crowd chanting her name. So good. It looked sick. NØRI had finally achieved some results at Kanda Myojin Hall, as Takako had wanted. Great stuff.

The show was celebrating Catherine and NØRI’s birthday, so Catherine had a marquee match against Haruka Umesaki. Catherine was emotional at the announcement, she had no idea. Catherine brought the fight to Umesaki, especially in the forearm battle which is Umesaki’s specialty. After Catherine slightly messed up the Cutie Special, Umesaki finished with the Ume Press.

The rookie Wakana, in her 3rd match, teamed up with Miyuki Takase against Ryo Mizunami and LLPW-X owner Shinobu Kandori. Miyuki was a champ for letting Mizunami do her thing with the machine gun chops without wussing out. The LLPW-X crowd is insanely supportive of its home talent. The crowd roared for Wakana as she tried her best against Kandori.

NØRI faced Sareee in singles action in Kyushu Pro on 28th September. The match was uploaded for free to Kyushu Pro’s YouTube. Sareee is closely associated with Chi Chi and Yumiko Hotta, who NØRI had just faced on the 21st September LLPW-X show, and given that NØRI had also clashed with Sareee at Strong Style Pro Wrestling “Vol. 36” earlier in the month, a singles match was the natural progression of their feud. NØRI would end up teaming with Sareee on the T-HEARTS show on 10th January. Kyushu Pro is a family-orientated promotion based on the island of Kyushu, so there were lots of children at the show, all rooting Sareee on, who has a much larger national profile than NØRI. The match was great, which you could’ve bet your house on anyway. NØRI’s selling was very good in this match which is no surprise as she has shown this during her fights with veterans in LLPW-X main events where she has had to sell a lot. Sareee targeted NØRI’s leg with a dragon screw and a stiff kick to the thigh which limited NØRI’s primary weapon. After surviving a NØRI kick to the face, a familiar Sareee combo met NØRI’s demise: a basement dropkick, and diving double foot stomp. This was really just a teaser, without a single uranage landed on NØRI. We will be seeing more of this match-up in the future.

© LLPW-X

Hono Emaki Vol. 4
14th November 2025
Kanda Myojin Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: YouTube (Free!)

LLPW-X’s residency had a one month break, but they were back on 14th November as Stardom made a rare appearance in LLPW-X with Akira Kurogane and Bozilla teaming with Megumi Yabushita against Miyuki Takase, NØRI and Shinobu Kandori. For some reason, Kandori started this match against Bozilla, getting beaten up, with Akira getting tagged in to get more heat on Kandori. Well, she came to her senses later and tagged in the actual star of LLPW-X in NØRI. There were once again flashes of moves from NØRI that make you go “oooh”, one such instance being where Kandori had Bozilla in an armbar, but Bozilla was still on her feet, and NØRI just came in out of nowhere with a beautiful stiff kick to the back of Bozilla’s head. Despite that, this match felt more like a Kandori showcase, with NØRI not getting much shine. I am not sure why LLPW-X are moving away from the marquee NØRI singles matches at the top of the card but I very much hope they return.

The T-HEARTS partnership continued as Catherine and Miku Kanae faced Takako Inoue and Yumiko Hotta. This was the veterans against the youngsters. Given that, you knew what to expect going into this match. Hotta is probably one of the most prolific no-sellers out of all the veterans. You’d think that would change for her own T-HEARTS talent in Miku Kanae, but that was not the case. Miku got absolutely destroyed. Not just by Hotta, but by Takako, who is a particularly ruthless vet, even though she bumps and moves well, she definitely likes to lay her stuff in. I suppose you might enjoy this match if you like rookies getting squished and beaten up by vets. Not my thing, though.

LLPW-X’s long-lost cousin, PURE-J, lended a singles match in the opener as AKARI faced Chie Ozora. It was a well worked match, slightly above the level of their dojo bouts, but below the level of a Pure Spirit match.

After facing Yumiko Hotta in her first trial, Wakana had to contend with Ryo Mizunami. As at the time of writing, this match had not been uploaded.

© BJW

14th September 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 603
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Daichi Hashimoto vs. Shuji Ishikawa

BJW returned to Korakuen Hall with a double main event and two title matches focusing on their non-deathmatch divisions. In the main event, EVO GM Shuji Ishikawa challenged Daichi Hashimoto for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship. Hashimoto was coming off a successful defence against Ikkitousen winner Leyton Buzzard. Ishikawa’s last match for BJW at Korakuen Hall was a stiff shoot-style brawl, with headbutts and all, against former Strong Champion Hideoyoshi Kamitani.

The main event went exactly as you’d expect an Ishikawa main event to go – and it was awesome. The match started with heavy open-handed strikes by Ishikawa. Hashimoto duly replied by launching rocket-strapped kicks into the towering figure, before Ishikawa ramped up the violence with a Giant Driver on the apron. When Hashimoto returned to the ring teasing a count-out, he had a crimson mask. Ishikawa took advantage of his wooziness, immediately stunning him with a backdrop suplex which prompted the whole crowd to chant “Daichi”, willing him on to victory. Then, Hashimoto dropped Ishikawa straight on his head with a piledriver which looked so violent that I have no idea how Ishikawa stood up afterwards. I thought there was no way that did not cause a legitimate injury. Ishikawa somehow, maybe by sheer habit, retaliated, dropping Hashimoto with another Giant Driver and a Fire Thunder (crucifix powerbomb). At this point I thought for sure that Hashimoto was going to drop the title. Hashimoto tried to palm strike Ishikawa, but Ishikawa gave as good as he got but twice as hard, as he turned Hashimoto inside out with a fierce running lariat. Hashimoto kicked out one last time before locking in the armbar for the victory. This was comfortably Hashimoto’s best defence yet and he agreed in his post-match promo.

In the semi-main event, BASARA and BJW mainstay Isami Kodaka tried to pry the BJW Junior Heavyweight title away from Kosuke Sato. Kodaka is a former Junior Heavyweight Champion himself, as well as a 5-time BJW Tag Team Champion. The match slowly increased in heat and intensity after a slow start. Kodaka launched Sato from the top rope delivering an avalanche brainbuster before attempting to tap Sato out, to no avail. Sato rallied as the two traded German suplexes. Kodaka tried to finish the match with a vertical-drop brainbuster, which the crowd bought as a finish, but Sato survived. Sato brought home the victory after a shoot headbutt into his Bloody Sunday finisher. It was Sato’s second successful defence, after being Jacob Crane on 27th July. This was a pretty good match.

On the undercard, So Daimonji & Kazumasa Yoshida beat Jacob Crane & Leyton Buzzard as Daimonji pinned Crane with the Black Rain. There was a preview for the UWA World Tag Title match on 23rd September in Osaka where Hideyoshi Kamitani & Isami Kodaka would defend their titles against Yasufumi Nakanoue & Andy Wu.

On 27th August, Takumi Sakurai, who predominantly wrestled in A-Team, demanded to join BJW’s deathmatch division (brave man). On this show, Sakurai had his first fluorescent light tubes deathmatch which he unfortunately lost as he was pinned by Kankuro Hoshino with the Gedo clutch. Ryuji Ito asked Sakurai after the match how it was, to which Sakurai said “it hurt like crazy, and it was awesome!” It was announced that Kazumi Kikuta, Sakurai and FREEDOMS’ Toru Sugiura would challenge for the Yokohama Shopping Street Six Man Tag Team Titles (what a mouthful) on 5th October where they ended up losing.

© BJW

13th October 2025
Chateraise Gateaux Kingdom Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

After the main event of the 14th September Korakuen Hall show, since Hashimoto has been nominating all of his challengers, he did so once again, calling out fan favourite So Daimonji. Daimonji was runner-up to Leyton Buzzard in the 2025 Ikkitousen tournament. That match took place in Sapporo, in Daimonji’s home prefecture of Hokkaido on 13th October. The match started off at a deliberate pace to build tension, with Hashimoto escalating the bout with a piledriver outside the ring. Daimonji sold the struggle of recovering excellently, before battling back with a tope suicida. Hashimoto viciously attacked Daimonji’s leg with a dragon screw into a brutal STF, with the home crowd pleading for Daimonji to reach the ropes, which he did, just. He rolled out onto the apron to recover, and Hashimoto hit another piledriver. Daimonji stumbled into the ring and Hashimoto relentlessly pressed the advantage with yet another piledriver. In one of the closest nearfalls of the match, Daimonji kicked out at the last second to keep the hopes of the crowd alive. Daimonji rallied with a cutter and a Black Rain lariat for a nearfall. Daimonji and Hashimoto agreed to hold hands and blast each other with strikes where they couldn’t defend. Daimonji attempted decapitation with a lariat, almost threw Hashimoto on his head, and then pinned Hashimoto with the deadliest Black Rain yet.

31st October 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 503
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

In the main event, Masaya Takahashi unsuccessfully tried to capture the BJW Death Match Heavyweight Championship from his classmate Yusaku Ito in a Halloween inspired deathmatch. They were supposed to have the match a few years ago and so were taking the opportunity while it existed. The match took place with all of the lights out in a ‘Moonlit Ambush Deathmatch’, making it very difficult to see the action and what was actually happening. I have very little idea of what took place and cannot describe to you what was going on. I think they might need to go back to the drawing board with that gimmick. Once the lights were back on, both wrestlers were all bloodied with glass everywhere, so they were definitely hitting each other!

In perhaps the strongest indication of where BJW is at as a company, one half of the Brahman Brothers, Brahman Kei, challenged Kosuke Sato for his BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship. The Brahman Brothers is a chaotic comedy tag team that tour the indies spitting out goo and spraying water over crowds in the mayhem. After a very typical Brahman match, including one brother spitting goo from the balcony of Korakuen Hall onto Sato below, Sato managed to overcome the comedic challenge and retain his title.

After clashing in the Ikkitousen Strong Climb finals a few months ago in which Leyton Buzzard was victorious, Leyton crossed paths with his former stablemate and current BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion So Daimonji in a tag match. Leyton paired with Jacob Crane while Daimonji had Yuya Aoki on his side. Normally when I tune into a BJW show, the undercard is blitzed through. These guys spent 20 minutes trying, working hard and succeeding in putting on a great match. Leyton’s hot tag early in the fight should’ve told me what to expect as he launched Daimonji and Aoki with German suplexes before diving over the top rope to the outside in a blitz of moves. After the match, Leyton convinced Aoki to challenge Daimonji after announcing he would not be sure when he could return to Japan. Daimonji already saw it coming, accepted immediately and said that he wanted to fire up the promotion, use the belt to start a revolution and that he saw too many orange seats (referring to their abysmal Korakuen Hall attendances). Jacob rushed back into the ring to jump Aoki. Then, a masked man came in to help them. Minoru Fujita, a former BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Champion, returned to the promotion for the first time since 2023, beating up Aoki and aligning himself with Daimonji and Jacob. Aoki will have his revenge on Daimonji on 25th November at Korakuen Hall.

Takumi Sakurai continued his foray into BJW deathmatching with Ryuji Ito as they took on Abdullah Kobayashi and Kazumi Kikuta. Kikuta pinned Sakurai with Kowloon’s Gate. Since it was Halloween, Daichi Hashimoto, who had lost his title weeks prior, wore a Batman mask as he teamed up with Kazumasa Yoshida and with another former champion in Hideyoshi Kamitani. They beat Kankuro Hoshino, Ryota Hama and Yasufumi Nakanoue. After their blistering singles match in August, and another encounter in October, Fuminori Abe teamed with his protege, Ryuma Sekimo, to face Kaji Tomato and Tatsuhiko Yoshino in a classic Abe-style comedy opener.

© BJW

25th November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 407
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: BJW Core / YouTube
Recommended Match: Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Yasufumi Nakanoue

At the top of the card, the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion So Daimonji successfully defended his title against Yuya Aoki. On the previous Korakuen Hall show, Jacob Crane and Minoru Fujita aligned with Daimonji as they beat up Yuya Aoki. Daimonji’s stated goal was to bring more people to the shows and start “filling up the orange seats.” On this show they drew 96 fans less than when they did the angle. But maybe it needs some time to get going. Despite that, this crowd was extremely loud for the top two matches on this card. In light of Daimonji’s new alliances, he worked more aggressively than usual, including throwing the referee at Aoki to prevent a springboard. Daimonji’s intensity made the crowd root for Aoki even more. Aoki survived the first Black Rain lariat by the skin of his teeth, kicking out at the last second. The second Black Rain lariat would be Aoki’s downfall after a great babyface performance.

Kazumasa Yoshida and Yasufumi Nakanoue battled it out to decide who would be Daimonji’s next challenger. Yoshida had challenged twice before for the title and lost on both occasions to Yuya Aoki, while Nakanoue is a previous World Strong Heavyweight Champion. Yoshida put on a compelling selling performance as he tried to battle through Nakanoue’s veteran control of the match. The crowd fully got behind Yoshida, wanting him to win. You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking the crowd size was twice as advertised. Yoshida turned the tables by lifting his knees up on a Vader bomb attempt from Nakanoue. That allowed the two men to stand on their feet and square off in a striking battle that Yoshida capped off with a full-nelson slam. They then teetered on the turnbuckle. Nakanoue went for a sunset flip powerbomb but Yoshida barely hung on in what was a cool looking spot. Yoshida stood Nakanoue up and unleashed a chop so loud I squealed. Nakanoue delivered a receipt in the form of a stiff lariat. He followed up with a running lariat, but it still wasn’t enough. Finally, he drilled a diving elbow into Yoshida’s heart to dash his hopes. This match was great. Nakanoue had also lost previously to both Aoki and Daimonji in singles action, so while it will feel like a bit of a rubber stamp defence for Daimonji, this #1 Contendership match certainly gave Nakanoue and Yoshida both some heat going forward. Nakanoue’s title match with Daimonji takes place in Nakanoue’s hometown of Osaka on 21st December.

The heavyweight duo, both former BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champions in their own right, Daichi Hashimoto and Hideyoshi Kamitani faced the even bigger heavyweights of Abdullah Kobayashi and Ryota Hama. Kamitani won the match, and he repeated his callout of Jun Kasai (which had happened on social media). Kasai came out and they brawled. Kasai got huge chants, which Kasai taunted Kamitani with given that BJW is not Kasai’s promotion. They announced a singles deathmatch for 31st December.

Ryuma Sekimo teamed with someone I’d rather not give attention to, against Jacob Crane and Minoru Fujita. I would’ve skipped this match had it not had the draw of rookie Sekimo going up against Crane. Fujita picked up the win on Voldemort with assistance from the ropes (he’s in a heel faction with Crane and Daimonji now so he has to cheat to win).

BJW always gets me to watch the openers as they throw people like Fuminori Abe in there. Abe teamed with the BJW Junior Heavyweight Champion Kosuke Sato against Kaji Tomato and Tatsuhiko Yoshino. Well. Instead, it was a short match and was used to set up Yoshino as a challenger as he got a flash pin on Kosuke. It turned into multiple people staking a claim on the title. It will be defended on BASARA’s show on 11th December against Takato Nakano, leading to a battle royal on 30th December.

Kankuro Hoshino, Ryuji Ito & Takumi Sakurai took on Kazumi Kikuta, Masaya Takahashi & Yuko Miyamoto in a six-man tag deathmatch with 100 Fluorescent Light Tubes. It followed the announcement on the show for the annual Xmas Day deathmatch tournament. President Tosaka announced that the tournament would be a tag team tournament including 16 wrestlers and 8 teams 31st December at Korakuen Hall. Foreign participants such as Micky Knuckles, Beastman, Provider, Michael Weaver and MASADA were announced. The tournament will also feature Ryuji Ito, Yuko Miyamoto, Yusaku Ito, Takumi Sakurai, Abdullah Kobayashi, Takumi Tsukamoto, Masashi Takeda, Yuki Miyazaki, and Rina Yamashita.