New Japan Pro Wrestling

News Round-up

By Trish Speirs

New Japan’s second biggest show of the calendar year, “Dominion”, will be headlined by a rematch for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship between Callum Newman and former Champion Yota Tsuji. The match has long been the plan for this event, with any talk of Tsuji’s title loss at “Sakura Genesis” being down to his post-show comments – about Bushiroad and TCG card games back in February being responsible for said booking – being wide of the mark. The decision was made, in part, because of the show’s presence once more in primetime on Japanese television following on from the successful broadcast of “Wrestle Kingdom 20” in the same time slot back in January, as they look to push Wolf and Tsuji as their two big stars to a more mainstream audience by airing another set of title victories.

It is a narrow needle that New Japan have set themselves to thread with this booking, where a long run for Tsuji after years of largely business ineffective title reigns would have generally been seen as preferential, but Tsuji has worked hard in the meantime and now comes across as someone that crowds are much more invested in than they were this time last year. On recovering the belt, though, it is clear that Tsuji should carry the title through the G1 and all the way up to the Tokyo Dome show next January. The wrestler won the opportunity to challenge by pinning Newman, as per his challenge, in a tag match at the “Road to Ignition” event on May 6th, which meant they could give him reason to challenge after his IWGP Global title loss to Andrade El Idolo a few days previous. Tsuji received a massive assist from Shingo Takagi in the tag, who could have earned another match with the champion if he had pinned Newman himself, which likely sets up a further title defense for Tsuji later in the year.

Also announced for the card is the aforementioned Aaron Wolf challenge to NEVER Openweight Champion Ren Narita, Andrade El Idolo set for his first defense on the IWGP Global title against Shota Umino and Drilla Maloney, and Konosuke Takeshita putting up the New Japan Global Championship against the returning SANADA. The event will be shown live on New Japan World. Missing from the show will be Oleg Boltin, who has undergone elbow surgery. The former NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Champion is targeting a return for the G1.

The G1 Finals in Ryogoku Sumo Hall will also have the added attraction of a retirement match, after Hiroyoshi Tenzan announced his intention to bring his career to a close on August 15th. The 55 year old has struggled with a series of injuries over recent years, undergoing surgery to his lower back last summer. Tenzan made his debut in pro wrestling back in 1990 and was a four time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, a three-time G1 winner, as well as having numerous runs with the IWGP Tag Titles with Satoshi Kojima. His retirement will follow just a month after Tiger Mask IV, who will finish up in Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on July 8th.

“Best of the Super Junior Tournament 33” Round-up

The 33rd iteration of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament kicked off on 14th May at Korakuen Hall, featuring two great matches, with bare-footed KUSHIDA returning for an excellent mat-based technical match with Robbie Eagles before Kosei Fujita and Francesco Akira attempted to murder each other in a heated, intense main event that was one of the best matches of the tournament so far.

The future ace of the division Kosei Fujita took on AEW’s future star Nick Wayne in a fast-paced back and forth which showcased both wrestlers’ abilities.

On the third night on 17th May, Valiente Jr. suffered a knee injury and his match with Ryusuke Taguchi had to be stopped, although he has since returned to continue in the tournament.

One contender for a match of the tournament so far is former BOSJ winner Master Wato going blow-for-blow with Kosei in the main event on the fifth night in Osaka. This match was exactly the type of thing I love seeing in wrestling, a deviation from the usual formula – a bland, uninteresting, goody-two-shoes wrestler reaching deep within themselves and channeling their frustration against their opponent. A has-been, a relic of the past, showing that he can hang with the future of the promotion. It had hard-hitting strikes, a consistent, well-told story and a hot crowd. If there is a better match than it throughout the tournament, then I will be incredibly happy.

One of the stories of the tournament has been how deathmatch legend Jun Kasai fits into the tournament and how he would adapt to the New Japan ring. The answer has been that he will do what he does best and we sit there and like it. As an example of this: on the third night Jun got Kosei bleeding within minutes. Jun is completely content in dragging the rest of the field into his own realm, and the referees appear helpless to stop him.

As at the time of writing, Titán is top of the A Block with an impressive 5 wins and 1 loss, there is a two-way tie for second between Wato and Jun, and a five-way tie on 6 points. Daiki Nagai is winless after he pleaded with Hiroshi Tanahashi for a spot in the tournament following the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI boycotting the tournament. Nagai has had some solid performances, with his best coming against Francesco Akira in Kyoto. There is even more parity in the B Block, with a four-way tie for first with 6 points and a four-way tie for second with 4 points. That’s common booking in these Japanese tournaments, leaving everything to play for on the last two nights.

“Wrestling Dontaku” Night One

3rd May 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 2,477
Fukuoka Convention Center, Fukuoka, Japan

Review By Trish Speirs

Former IWGP Intercontinental Champion Andrade El Idolo added some gold to this return run with New Japan Pro Wrestling after defeating Yota Tsuji for the IWGP Global Title in the main event of night one of this year’s “Wrestling Dontaku” weekend in Fukuoka. Andrade, 36, inherited the spot after original challenger Gabe Kidd went down with injury whilst wrestling for AEW and first choice replacement, Davd Finlay (as reported by ourselves and later by The Super J Cast), opted to focus on his new journey in the US rather than making an immediate return to the far east.

As it turned out, El Idolo didn’t just make for an excellent replacement, but may have ended up the strongest option of all three, as he began to establish a rivalry with Tsuji with this match following on from their excellent bout together back in February for the same belt in Trenton, New Jersey. El Idolo thankfully didn’t keep the Gabe Kidd ‘invader’ storyline as it was either, with the pair instead using the New Japan vs outsider rhetoric that Tsuji has employed in recent months as something which could be flipped in order to put pressure on Tsuji himself, with the Mexican wrestler challenging the champion over his adoption of lucha libre in his matches and how it would not hold up against a true luchador like himself.

And that theme fed into the structure of the match, with Andrade having all the answers to Tsuji after surviving an early flurry from the champion. Every time Tsuji went for something big, he was answered or countered by Andrade, who turned something offensive from the top into a Spanish Fly, and a curbstomp attempt led to Tsuji being slammed onto the apron, and Tsuji’s attempt to move away from a moonsault from the top only led to Andrade hitting him with a standing moonsault instead. The champion is a quick learner, though, and found his pathway back into the match by countering into a powerbomb.

A heavy chop exchange (a full-on blood-drawing one) took us into the final part of the match, which held absolutely unreal pacing. Tsuji hit Andrade with a Gene Blast spear from mid-air, Andrade leapfrogged the second spear attempt and hit his opponent with a Hammerlock DDT for two, Tsuji got a curb stomp and locked on the Boston Crab, but Andrade reached the ropes.

The story returned to where it had begun at the start of the match, though, when Tsuji went for a Guerrero Special from the top. Andrade blocked it before giving Tsuji a ridiculously nasty looking DDT onto the top of the ring post. El Idolo was straight back in the ring after delivering a DM and got the three count. Andrade then closed the show with an emotional promo before receiving challenges from both Drilla Maloney and Shota Umino.

What continues to stand out in Tsuji’s matches as a defending champion is his relationship with the crowd, where they get fully behind him as the match progresses in a way that is not always the case for many a babyface champion, who become more of an obstacle in the eyes of both the crowd and the challenger. It should set him in good stead for when he picks the IWGP Heavyweight Title belt next month at “Dominion”, whilst Andrade continues to impress wherever he travels with this one. A third match between these two talents is now something worth anticipating.

Aaron Wolf faced Don Fale in the match third from the top on night one, looking to avenge the shock defeat he suffered to Fale in the opening round of the New Japan Cup as well as the Don’s role in Wolf’s loss of the NEVER Openweight Title to Ren Narita at “New Beginning in Osaka” the month before. There has already been plenty said about Wolf’s booking, but this current pathway appears very much to be about playing to a mainstream audience in Japan than promoting him to more global wrestling fans. Japanese fans, in general, are more willing to wait on a wrestler’s development and card ascension than their western counterparts, and they are still with Wolf in the buildings.

This match was nothing to write home about, with Fale attacking Wolf before he could even remove his shirt during the match announcements and then dragging him around the outside for a run of subsequent punishment. The limited movement of Fale meant this was always going to be a simple match, with Wolf focusing on his selling for the first half and making sure to stay connected to the crowd. When he was finally able to turn the tables, he put together a run of offense: from a splash from the top, to a scoop slam, which picked the crowd up. With Fale too big for Wolf to put a standard submission on, he would need to use alternative means in order to defeat his much bigger opponent, and that came in the form of the Angle Slam, which received a massive pop from the crowd. The Angle Slam is the moment anyone watching will remember from this match and it is the picture ready-made to put out to the media ahead of Wolf’s next national TV appearance for NJPW at “Dominion”.

“Dontaku” has traditionally been the ‘Bullet Club show’ in recent years but this was the ‘House of Torture half hour’, as the Wolf-Fale match was swiftly followed up by Ren Narita making a successful defense of the NEVER Openweight belt against Oleg Boltin. Boltin was looking to add a third belt to his current collection but got weighed down by a combination of an injured shoulder and the standard, non-stop House of Torture interference, which began pretty much immediately. Narita used the assists to allow him to regain control of Boltin’s arm, constantly stretching and punishing the shoulder wherever possible. Boltin still thought he had a shot at the win, and maybe he could have secured it had he been able to make a pin after hitting his Kamikaze (fireman’s carry facebuster) finisher, but the move meant he landed on his injured shoulder, keeping him from covering the champion.

Any chance of following up was removed when Dick Togo gave Boltin a low blow and Narita was able to lock in a cross arm lock for the submission. Aaron Wolf (who had earlier carried SHO out in an attempt to even up the odds a little), returned to the ring in order to protect Boltin from another House of Torture beatdown before grabbing the mic in order to make his challenge for “Dominion” to Narita.

In the undercard, Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita accepted the challenge of El Desperado and Místico to put their IWGP Junior Tag titles on the line in the match between the pairs the next night, after TMDK had been defeated in an eight-man where Yuya Uemura pinned Hartley Jackson after the strongest exchanges of the match. Yuto-Ice lived up to the Knockout Brother name in getting the win for his team against Masatora Yasuda and Tomoaki Honma, and Great-O-Khan bullied Tatsuya Matsumoto rather than simply pinning him in a six-man, where United Empire defeated the Goto Revolutionary Army ahead of their NEVER six-man clash a night later. The match marked Will Ospreay’s first wrestling appearance at a “Dontaku” show in Fukuoka in six years, and he was markedly unimpressed with the actions of Great-O-Khan at the end of this match. Ospreay wrestled pretty much as normal during the bout, with some good exchanges with Hirooki Goto in the middle of the match. The only sign of his AEW “injury” issues were some tape on his neck and shoulder.

“Wrestling Dontaku” Night Two

4th May 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 3,603
Fukuoka Convention Center, Fukuoka, Japan

Review By Trish Speirs

Callum Newman will face Yota Tsuji in a rematch from “Sakura Genesis” at “Dominion” in Osaka on June 14th after making a successful defense of his IWGP Heavyweight Title against Shingo Takagi in one of the strongest matches of his career so far. The win came just a year after an unsuccessful challenge for the same championship against Hirooki Goto whilst Newman was more in the role of a pure babyface. The win came in much the same way as he won the title, with a second low blow in the match followed by a Make Way.

Takagi had turned back the clock a bit in the early going, using the experience difference to make Newman pay for his overconfidence before punishing him for taunting Takagi’s wife Natsupoi in the audience. One of Shingo’s greatest in-match attributes, his ability to change up the speed of matches instantly, was fully on display here, with fast paced exchanges leading into the closing stretch of the match, ending with a handspring counter to an Oscutter from Takagi followed swiftly by a dangerous driver. Shingo was pulling out things in this match that we have not seen since his junior run and Newman appeared to have no answer within the course of the match, instead resorting to feigning an injury and allowing assistance from his United Empire stablemates after throwing the referee outside. Nagai and Tsuji came out to even the odds from Takagi (it is nice to know they did not learn abandonment from their time in LIJ), and Takagi was back on top.

Will Ospreay arrived to second his protégé after Newman had narrowly escaped a pin after a Last of the Dragon, but found one of his first actions to be getting angry at his charge as the champion resorted to a low blow to even up the match before nearly finishing things off with a Kiss The Crown. It wasn’t enough, though, and after a poisonrana from Takagi put him back under threat, Newman went back to the low blow in order to get the win.

Newman’s style was a little more Ospreay-coded than in other performances in recent months, and it was their relationship that was in focus in the aftermath, when Ospreay attempted to step in to stop Newman from smashing Takagi with a belt shot after he had already smashed Tsuji over the head with the gold when he was attempting to protect his stablemate. The Empire that had surrounded the ring to threaten Tsuji all of a sudden became a circle of pressure around Ospreay, as Newman demanded that he hit Takagi instead in order to illustrate that he was with them and not just “Death Rider Billy”. Ospreay gave Takagi a Hidden Blade before rolling his eyes. Newman then laid out his tag challenge to a fallen Tsuji and Takagi for “Ignition to Dominion” before posing with the full unit.

If you ever wanted to know what sort of thing you would have seen from Ospreay had he chosen to go to WWE, well, you had your answer right here, as the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Champion ran through as many sad/conflicted/dejected faces as he could muster through the entire post-match whilst Jake Lee enjoyed everything about life as a clown just three feet away.

The ‘story beats’ at the end of the main event had followed on from a United Empire victory in the semi main event, where Ospreay, Henare and Great-O-Khan took the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Titles from Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi and Oleg Boltin.

The match started off with some outside brawling before some power exchanges between Oleg Boltin and Henare. Boltin continued to sell the shoulder, arguably more than Ospreay sold his neck during the match, with Will wrestling much more like one would expect to see him prior to his recent AEW return in the US. His exciting exchanges with Hirooki Goto carried the central part of the match, with a 450 Splash from the top (that felt like he ran up the ropes to hit) gaining him a close two-count. Ospreay went for an Oscutter on Goto but got hit with a Kamikaze from Oleg Boltin instead. Henare would remove Boltin from the ring, taking it back to Ospreay and Goto, who slammed the AEW man to the mat from the top rope. There were further strong exchanges between Ospreay and Bishamon later in the match, which the crowd loved, but it also made what is going on currently in AEW feel even more puzzling.

The finish saw Yoshi-Hashi isolated against all three members of the Empire team after Ospreay had taken out Boltin and Goto with a sky twister press to the outside. Yoshi-Hashi survived the first application of the iron claw, but he fell after receiving a trio of doomsday device-style Hidden Blade from the top. O-Khan took the pin, but this was Ospreay’s win to secure his first set of team gold in New Japan.

El Desperado and Místico took the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championships from Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita in a match which became a title match the night before. Místico was at the centre of the match for the closing stages, and was very over with the crowd, which allowed them to look the other way when the luchador struggled with the ropes and later with a dive and a Spanish Fly where he pretty much landed on his head. This one had plenty of dives and fast paced action to go around, though, highlighted by a ridiculous dive to the outside by Desperado that drove both Fujita and himself into the barricade on the outside. It turned out that what was a quiet crowd at the start turned into a noisy one by match’s end. The interactions between Fujita and El Desperado felt like a preview for the future as well.

The end came when Kosei Fujita gave up a potentially match winning armbar after tag partner Eagles had gotten trapped in La Mística. The distraction was enough for El Desperado to catch Fujita in a stretch muffler, leaving both TMDK men with nowhere to go, leading to the match ending in a double submission and new Junior Tag Champions. The win marks the first title in Japan for Místico in seventeen years and frees up Fujita of tag gold ahead of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

In the early matches, the news of the night was the return of SANADA after Konosuke Takeshita’s successful defense of the New Japan World Television Championship in an eleven minutes bout which started out as a pretty standard wrestling match before becoming a completely overbooked mess, with House of Torture wrestlers followed by members of Takeshita’s new Hontai faction in order to counter them, which at least found a nice way to play on positive changes in the relationship between Shota Umino and the New Japan World Television Champion.

Takeshita’s victory celebrations were interrupted by a video of a man walking in the back, before the lights went out and the masked man was in the ring and attacking the champion. He revealed himself to be the former IWGP World Champion who, as we have previously reported, missed time over the spring in order to get surgery on his injured arm, which has been a continuous problem for the wrestler since the summer of 2023. A number of outlets speculated that SANADA was leaving New Japan after the promotion announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence, but this was solely to cover the injury. SANADA has been backstage at multiple events during the past few months.

Elsewhere, Aaron Wolf brought out the Angle Slam to gain another victory over House of Torture, Taichi made a proposition to Yuya Uemuya to tag together against Oiwa and Zack Sabre Jr. after the pair saw off Oiwa and Hartley Jackson in tag competition, and OSKAR tapped out Honma, as the Knockout Brothers continue to rack up wins.

The attendances of these shows, with night one at 2,477 and night two at 3,603 were never going to compete with the numbers from last year, sold on the back of Tetsuya Naito’s last matches in the promotion, but saw them post a very similar number for night one in 2024 (Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Nic Nemeth for the IWGP Global Championship) and six hundred less for night two compared to Jon Moxley defending the IWGP Heavyweight belt against Ren Narita.

STARDOM

Bitesize Round-up

STARDOM held their biggest show of the year, “All Star Grand Queendom”, at Yokohama Arena, drawing 8,015 fans. Chris Whitehead writes about the unparalleled success of the event in our front page article.

Shupro #2409 featured a piece by STARDOM President Taro Okada on “All Star Grand Queendom”, written by new Editor-in-Chief Hikaru Inoue. The first point raised, which mirrors the comments made in Chris’s frontpage article, is the context surrounding the record-breaking attendance figure. Last year’s show featured a retirement match, Meiko Satomura in one of her final appearances, Chihiro Hashimoto, and Yumiko Hotta, whereas this year’s card consisted entirely of current contracted talent plus Megan Bayne. With a weaker card on paper, an untested main eventer, no outside talent, and weaker attendances heading into the show, drawing 512 more than the previous year is far more remarkable an achievement than the raw number suggests. That is the context in which Okada and the Japanese media are framing it.

On the booking of the main event, Okada says he chose the match because of how much potential he sees in Kurara, and that she completely turned fan sentiment around during the match itself. He notes there was a desire to shake up the current STARDOM status quo, and that while everyone in STARDOM has great matches, he truly believed Kurara could go beyond even that. Inoue adds his own take on Sayaka as a phenomenon, comparing her appeal to the Sagrada Família, the idea being that she is not yet a finished product, so people’s imaginations run wild about what she could become. The twists in her story, from panicking and putting Cosmic Angels on the line to exclaiming that “it would all be alright”, are what make fans want to follow her. Okada briefly touches on H.A.T.E., saying he does not feel any unit has lost value, and that he is curious to see who steps up now that their monopoly has been broken. He also reflects on his “WrestleMania” trip, saying that STARDOM cannot replicate the WWE machine but needs to think seriously about growing pro wrestling in Japan, competing not with other wrestling promotions but with baseball, basketball, and live music. Following that interview, on 17th May, Okada announced a new strategic relationship with MLW which will involve talent exchanges, including Saya Kamitani wrestling once again in the US for the first time since 2024 (before her heel turn and rise to super stardom).

STARDOM’s annual post-“All Star Grand Queendom” Golden Week West Japan tour produced record attendances across almost every show. Fukuyama on 29th April broke its previous record by 20%, across seven runs of that venue. Takamatsu on 1st May and Kochi on 2nd May both set new records too, the latter by 3% across four visits. Kumamoto on 4th May smashed its record by 20% as well. The only show not to break a record was Fukuoka on 6th May, where they missed by just 19 paid tickets, though by all accounts the venue was still a super no vacancy sell out. It is worth noting that Bushiroad only announces paid tickets, so the gap may simply reflect a few extra comp tickets distributed this time around.

Something else worth noting from the house shows is how hard the wrestlers are working them. In a random eight-person tag in Takamatsu there were spots that would not look out of place on a major show, which speaks to the promotion and wrestler’s understanding that building a regional audience matters if they want to grow. The Fukuoka main event, “Master vs. Apprentice” pitting Fuwa-chan, HANAKO, Kikyo Furusawa and Ranna Yagami against FQC’s Hazuki, Koguma, Maika and Maki Ito, went 26 minutes. That is how you build audiences in the regions, and it is great to see STARDOM committing to it.

In Kumamoto, the New Blood Tag Title match with Sakurara (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara) defending against Matoi Hamabe and Anne Kanaya was excellent. The armbar struggle between Matoi and Aya was a highlight, with the crowd ramping up rather than dying down the longer it went, which is the mark of both wrestlers selling it properly. The roll back to the centre for the armbar was great, and a buzzsaw kick from Sakura that caught Matoi flush in the face was awesome. Aya then won with a great-looking leg choke. Backstage, Anne Kanaya interrupted Sakurara and made her case to join Cosmic Angels, saying that after fighting them she could no longer hold back and wanted to grow stronger at their side. Yunamon appeared ready to welcome her immediately, but Sakura stepped in and insisted Kanaya go through the same audition process she and Kurara had to endure. What was interesting is that it was Sakura driving that conversation rather than Kurara, with Kurara initially just agreeing before Sakura prompted her to say it properly. There are real co-leader dynamics between those two despite Kurara holding the red belt. STARDOM then released a series of social media videos, subtitled, showing Anne’s CA initiation, including Sakura teaching her a dance and a visit to Sakura’s photo studio. The videos are Sakura’s own production, which would explain the English subtitles, something they have not consistently done before.

Watching Sayaka Kurara across the tour was fascinating. She is already carrying herself differently as red belt champion, no-selling more, planting her feet and encouraging juniors to hit her harder, the small details that signal a wrestler stepping into a top role. She still gave Kikyo plenty on the Takamatsu show, which is right, she has not suddenly gained a superpower overnight and should still feel beatable. There was also a moment on a random house show where she did the Starlight Kid/Saori Anou leg sell on the bridge of her turning DDT before immediately following it up with a full-sprint Tokimeki Spear and Falcon Arrow, which was a bit interesting for a house show. The Falcon Arrow as a finisher is a great choice, too, because one day she might hit a Violet Screwdriver instead and nobody will see it coming.

The Hanan and Bea Priestley previews were great and turned me around on Bea’s heel turn at “All Star Grand Queendom”. A forearm strike from Hanan in Fukuoka in particular stood out. They went hard in their tags together and it made the upcoming singles match on 23rd May feel more interesting.

Elsewhere, Ema Maishima continues to show more and more personality and was great teaming with FWC in Fukuyama, though she fumbled her diving crossbody again in Fukuoka and it will be interesting to see whether she persists with it. Saya Kamitani seems to have taken Akira Kurogane on as her next pet project, pulling her into impromptu five-minute singles matches in both Fukuyama and Kumamoto, both of which were good. Rian may be heading toward Neo-Genesis at some point, though when asked to join she made an excuse and left in classic Rian fashion. There is also a possibility she ends up in Cosmic Angels, judging by a cute backstage exchange with Natsupoi in Fukuoka where Natsupoi scolded her for stomping on people’s feet and told her to do it somewhere the universe cannot see. Ami Sourei picked up a lot of wins across the tour and declared backstage in Fukuoka that she wants the Artist titles and the white belt.

Finally, Tabata has finished her tour with STARDOM.

STARDOM’s next PPV was “Queen’s Destiny” on 23rd May which saw Sayaka Kurara successfully defend the World of STARDOM Title in her home prefecture against the wildly popular Maki Itoh, on a crusade to destroy Cosmic Angels as she sees them as STARDOM’s most evil unit (despite them being the most popular unit and unapologetic babyfaces). Suzu Suzuki became the next contender for Kurara’s belt while Hanan defended her Wonder of STARDOM Title against Bea Priestley in an excellent match. Stay tuned to the Joshi’ing Around for audio reviews of that show.

NOAH

Bitesize Round-up

NOAH’s show at Ryogoku Kokugikan on 2nd May was a show of two cards. The undercard was largely uninspiring, with nothing of real consequence going on below the top three matches, but those top three matches delivered. OZAWA defeated Tetsuya Naito in what was the obvious emotional main event of the evening for the crowd (coming from someone who was there live), a split audience delivering dual chants and enormous heat throughout, though Naito’s execution was inconsistent. It mattered little in the room. Dragon Bane and AMAKUSA put on a great junior heavyweight showcase, a beautiful exchange of springboard corkscrew dives and poisonranas, with Bane taking the win and the Golpeadores continuing their incredibly well-booked push. The actual main event saw Shane Haste defeat Yoshiki Inamura to win the GHC Heavyweight Title in a match that took its time finding its footing, with a sluggish opening stretch, but once the lariats started flying the crowd were fully invested and it turned into a great match, with crazy spots such as Inamura’s deranged diving headbutts drawing Yoshiki chants. Shane went on to defend the title against his White Raven Sqwad teammate KENTA on the 13th May Korakuen Hall show. It’s hard to say where this title reign will end up, with Tetsuya Endo as the next opponent, but OZAWA is a likely destination by year-end now that he has had the big Naito feud.

The NEO GLOBAL TAG LEAGUE 2026, NOAH’s heavyweight tag league, returned for the first time since 2020 and got underway from the 23rd May Kyoto show. The tour includes stops in northern Japanese prefectures Iwate and Akita and Aomori before finishing at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on 16th June. The teams have been confirmed as BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito, Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson, Harutoki & Kaito Kiyomiya, HAYATA & Tetsuya Endo, Kid Lykos I & Kid Lykos II, Masa Kitamiya & Takashi Sugiura in Block A. In Block B, the teams are Manabu Soya & Yuki Iino, OZAWA & Tadasuke, Stallion Rogers & Yoshiki Inamura, Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji, Kazuyuki Fujita & Mohammed Yone, Katsumi Inahata & KENTA. NOAH could really go in any direction they want with this tournament so predictions are quite futile. It’s whoever they feel is a good defence for BUSHI & Naito. Soya already challenged with Shuji Kondo earlier in the year but given the new tag team with Iino, he could have another show. OZAWA has unfinished business with Naito, but Tadasuke is not the partner OZAWA would beat Naito with (if it was Owadasan, I may have reconsidered). I wouldn’t put it past NOAH to give Stallion Rogers & Inamura the title as a consolation gift for Inamura dropping the GHC Heavyweight Title. Kenoh & Maru have had their Naito feud so I will rule them out. Fujita & Yone could be a fun filler defence for Naito so I wouldn’t rule them out either, but it’s Yone and they don’t give him anything serious anymore. The next big NOAH show is in Osaka in July, so Harutoki & Kaito or HAYATA & Endo make a lot of sense to me there. But then I’m not sure why they’d put them in the same block. Like I said, predictions are futile for a belt that can be defended either as a filler on a Korakuen Hall show or a semi-main event on a big PPV.

“SPRING MAYHEM RYOGOKU 2026” – Live Report

2nd May 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 4,539
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: AMAKUSA vs. Dragon Bane, Shane Haste vs. Yoshiki Inamura
Designation: Key Show

Arriving late due to prior commitments (taking two-shot photos with a bunch of AWG wrestlers at Shin-Kiba 1st RING), I missed the bulk of the undercard, though from what I gather, that was no major loss. Sumo Hall remains a special building, the acoustics alone elevating everything inside it in a way that rarely translates to television, and I was glad to be there for the top of the card. I had a solo sumo box for this one, which in theory is a great way to watch a show, and in practice mostly involved me spending the first hour, including during intermission relocating and trying to figure out which box was mine, with the language barrier between me and the attendants not helping. The numbering system for the boxes is quite baffling, with rows, columns and box numbers all in play, and the first person I asked for help pointed me in entirely the wrong direction. I eventually worked it out myself and settled in just after intermission. Once situated, though, the box seats are great. Plenty of room to stretch out, snacks on hand, and just good vibes all round, and there is no bad view in the building. I definitely recommend it, perhaps with the caveat of doing your homework on the seating layout beforehand. As a show overall, at 15,000 yen it was by some distance the least value for money show of my two-week trip, the undercard matches that I did see offering nothing of real interest beyond the top three matches. It’s not that they were bad, just uninspiring, which in its own way is worse. NOAH doesn’t really have a thread in its undercard, unlike other promotions like DDT and STARDOM. It’s quite top heavy, so there are times where the top of the card isn’t too great and it can feel like the whole promotion is a bit of a slog to watch. But, the top of this card was great.

Some fans left before the main event, which was their loss. Shane Haste beat Yoshiki Inamura to become the new GHC Heavyweight Champion in a match that overdelivered despite a slow start that nearly lost me. The opening stretch was plodding; Shane’s control working left the crowd comparatively muted after the noise of the previous two matches. They really just needed to beat the hell out of each other from the off, and once the lariats started coming that became obvious. From that point the crowd were fully invested, rallying behind Inamura on the crossface, biting hard on Shane’s wrist clutch uranage and even harder on the signature chokeslam that followed it, and then losing their minds when Inamura started throwing diving headbutts like a man with nothing to lose, drawing Yoshiki chants for his troubles. Shane had won me over by the end, his beautiful dropkick counter to Inamura’s running lariat in particular being a great moment, and his sell of Inamura’s lariats was fantastic. The 30-minute call drew a (positive) murmur from the crowd who were still completely into it. Shane hit a final lariat, landed his finisher, tied the legs and got the pin. A great match that perhaps did not need its first ten minutes. Why is Shane Haste the champion? Well, why not, I suppose.

The pre-match build had OZAWA pushing for a fan vote to decide which match would main event Sumo Hall, a bit that worked on two levels. First, he pointed out that Korakuen Hall was not exactly empty during his title reign, with the show he did this promo on drawing 1,012. Second, and more pointedly, it was a dig at Naito’s famous “Wrestle Kingdom 8” situation, where the fans voted for him to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Title, only for the match to be bumped down the card so Tanahashi and Nakamura could main event with the IWGP Intercontinental Title. It was announced on the day that OZAWA and Naito would go third from the top, which – to be fair – was the main event for most people in the building still. The graphic alone drew a pop, and the dual chants at the bell gave me goosebumps.

What followed was a proper split-crowd match with enormous heat live in the building, with Naito working his signature neck offence in anticipation of the Destino while OZAWA cheekily borrowed his springboard dropkick into the corner. The crowd bit on a tornado satellite cradle near-fall that was deafening. Naito botched what was meant to be an ambitious Destino reversal into a backslide, leaving OZAWA to simply complete the backslide himself for the win, and while Naito was not at his sharpest here, the crowd did not turn on him. I think Japanese crowds are often misunderstood. They don’t really support wrestlers in the same way and are very loyal. They clapped him out of the building with people still screaming his name. That is how Japanese fans treat their legends. OZAWA winning was exactly the right call, giving him the marquee result he deserves, and he is still as over as anyone in the promotion right now, even if he has cooled off a bit.

Pound for pound, GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion AMAKUSA and Dragon Bane have been the best junior heavyweights in NOAH (and arguably, the world) over the past year, and this was the match I was second-most excited for on the card. They wasted no time making the case, opening with an incredible sequence capped by a beautiful tope con giro from Bane, before AMAKUSA responded with an insane corkscrew dive that nearly took out the commentary team. From there it barely let up. Bane followed with a springboard moonsault, a springboard sidekick into a poisonrana, and an avalanche poisonrana that drew gasps. If Ospreay is the bar for doing ridiculous things at full speed, Bane is not far behind. AMAKUSA more than kept pace, landing another enormous springboard corkscrew and seeing his corkscrew splash finisher kicked out of. The Santa Maria Driver had the whole crowd convinced it was over, and the girl behind me absolutely lost her mind. Bane took the win with the electric chair spin slam to become double champion, the Golpeadores holding two singles belts simultaneously. As noted in the Yokohama Budokan review from 8th March, the one thing NOAH’s booking has most consistently got right is the elevation of the Golpeadores, and this continued that story perfectly. It is actually an underreported aspect of NOAH’s booking and they deserve credit for how they have booked those two in the past year. This was a sick match. Eita was out afterwards to challenge Bane for his anniversary show on 20th June, which he has not stopped talking about in promos and backstage.

There were two other matches on the card that were part of the Los Tranquilos de Japon versus Team 2000X rivalry, with the first two serving as direct precursors to OZAWA and Naito. Alpha Wolf and Kai Fujimura opened proceedings against Angel Reyes and RYUSEI, a fairly short affair with Alpha Wolf making the most impression by absolutely lighting Reyes up with slaps, the handprint still visible on his face in the backstage comments afterwards. Wolf Driver, and done. It was crazy how stiff Wolf was being with Reyes. The BUSHI and Jun Masaoka match had considerably more heat, built on the back of Masaoka attacking BUSHI backstage, unmasking him and telling him he was nothing without it and would forever remain in Naito’s shadow, earning their Sumo Hall match with a no-DQ stipulation. The crowd were split but enormously into it, the action spilling to the outside with BUSHI powerbombing Masaoka onto chairs to a massive pop. A low blow from Masaoka led to BUSHI accidentally misting the referee, which brought T2000X in to beat BUSHI down, but he survived and won to a big reaction.

The Gallows and Anderson match against Kenoh and Marufuji was the first I caught from my actual seat, and while Kenoh’s popularity was obvious and the crowd popped for the roll-up finish, the match lacked any real stakes beyond the crowd wanting their favourites to win. Fine for what it was, but not something that gave you much to hold onto.

While I missed this due to arriving late, I did see that Yuki Iino from DDT made his NOAH debut teaming with Manabu Soya to form a new tag team ahead of the tag league. Hey, why not? I complained about the undercard, that’s one way to make it more fun.

“Monday Magic”

“Monday Magic” is NOAH’s ‘mystery vortex’ series, held on Mondays every few months in ‘seasons’. It’s primarily at Shinjuku FACE. It was launched in October 2023 as a distinct brand within NOAH, and the show is overseen by former NOAH booker NOSAWA Rongai. Match cards and participants are largely kept secret until wrestlers make their ring entrances on the night itself. The talent that appears on the shows are normally a few distinct groups. They are either NOAH talent, Japanese freelancers and indie talent such as Masato Tanaka, international talent touring with Marvelous (as Chigusa Nagayo has a strong relationship with NOSAWA Rongai and is a big fan of the series, even making her own spin-off named “Friday Night Gacha”), talent from Sonny Onoo’s “Chosen One” recruitment program such as Archie Cole or random Europeans that NOSAWA managed to find (he is a big fan of football and interested in European culture). Sometimes you get some Dragongate or DDT talent. On the women’s side, the talent is mostly freelancers, or from Marigold, Marvelous or Sendai Girls. The promotion has two main titles, the GHC Hardcore Championship and the GHC Women’s Championship. The big show is called “Universe Magic”, usually held at a bigger venue as the culmination of a season.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling

Bitesize Round-up

Yuki Arai defended her Princess of Princess Title against Arisu Endo on 4th May at Korakuen Hall, while Suzume defended her International Princess Title against Haru Kazashiro on the same show. It was a reversal of the 4th January Korakuen Hall show for Daisy Monkey, which saw Suzume go for the POP Title and Arisu for the IP Title. We have a live report of that show. Arai’s next challenger is Yuki Kamifuku; Suzume will defend against Mahiro Kiryu, and Daydream (Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi) will defend their new Princess Tag Team Title against Mizuki & Uta Takami.

Following her homecoming show on 16th May, TJPW announced that Shino Suzuki would be taking a hiatus from wrestling and her idol activities for the foreseeable future to deal with health issues that she had been dealing with for some time.

Shin Sakura Hirota will be making her TJPW debut at “Summer Sun Princess ‘26” on 18th July. The show will be taking place at Korakuen Hall, after the show was held at Ota City General Gymnasium in 2025.

Anri, a trainee who was due to make her debut alongside Shion Kanzaki on 4th January 2026 but pulled out due to injury, was noticed ringside at a Marigold event as a trainee. This was following comments from Rossy Ogawa confirming that another trainee had joined them.

TJPW will be collaborating with TIF Asia Tour to produce “LOVE & PEACE TIF Pro Wrestling 2026”, running dates on 31st July, 1st and 3rd August at Tokyo Idol Festival 2026.

“Yes! Wonderland ‘26” – Live Report

4th May 2026
Company Announced Attendance:
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Ryo Mizunami vs. Toga, Haru Kazashiro vs. Suzume
Designation: Key Show

Yuki Arai defended the Princess of Princess Title against Arisu Endo in the main event. The press conference build for this one was great. Arai noted that the 4th May Korakuen Hall show fell exactly on her fifth anniversary as a wrestler, and that her debut match five years ago at that same venue had Arisu as one of her opponents. She reflected that the most important points of her career have all involved Arisu in some way, and that it felt like destiny. Despite that, she was clear about her motivations: having lost to Arisu in the Tokyo Princess Cup tournament in 2025, she wanted to get her win back. Arisu, for her part, said this was the first time she had been able to say out loud that she wanted to challenge for the Princess of Princess Title, and that it was only possible because Yuki Arai is the champion. She described Arai as a protagonist, even mentioning that Arai’s MBTI type is quite literally the Protagonist. Arisu, an Adventurer type, declared she would redo the test once she won the belt.*

*(Editor’s Note: This line is incredibly funny.)

The match itself had some great spots but also things that took me out of it in equal measure. Arisu was pretty incredible throughout, her selling was great, particularly of the scorpion deathlock, and she is such a natural babyface that when Arai was wrenching her wrist and driving her boot and forearms into her, the crowd were screaming for Arisu. Arai, for her part, had some absolutely ferocious forearms, and there is something to be said for the philosophy of just hitting hard and skipping a few levels of learning, as mentioned to me by Newsletter Contributor David Hayter, because it works. She looked like a demon in those moments. The struggle over the full nelson was reminiscent of the kind of fight over a hold you get with Kento Miyahara’s Shutdown Suplex. A great recurring spot was Arai simply being too big for Arisu to lock in the Ju no Okite, which she never managed to pull off. On the other hand, the set-up for the avalanche full nelson was quite clunky and made Arisu look a bit silly. My main issue with the match was an extra Camel Clutch submission near the end which felt one move too many and cooled the crowd slightly when the match did not need it, especially as Arisu was the one being the underdog, but the Camel Clutch reversed that. Arai won with the Finally axe kick.

As a side note, the guy sitting next to me was a massive Arai fan, only bringing his camera out for this match with a huge lens, which got me thinking about photography culture in Japanese wrestling more broadly. It is a mainstream thing there in a way it simply is not in the west. At ChocoPro, something like 90% of the people in the building had a professional lens, and if you look at the orange seats at a Korakuen Hall show you can see half of them watching through a camera. That is partly why certain sides of the building cost more than others for ticket prices.

Daydream (Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi) dethroned The IInspiration (Cassie Lee & Jessie McKay) to finally bring an end to Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay’s reign as Princess Tag Team Champions. The match came in around where you would expect. Miu putting her fingers in her ears at the start of The IInspiration’s music set the tone, and the challengers got themselves over with the initially quiet Korakuen Hall crowd, drawing some laughs for tripping over their ribbons and their usual gimmicks. The core problem is that their selling and offence both leave a lot to be desired, and if Miu Watanabe, one of the best sellers on the planet, cannot make you look credible, that tells you everything. There were some bright spots. A fun moment came when Cassie was visibly caught off guard by how fast Miu was swinging her and did not know what to do with her arms. I’m glad to have the tag titles out of that weird little chapter.

Ahead of the 4th May Korakuen Hall show, at the aforementioned press conference at Kanda Myojin, Haru Kazashiro spoke about shifting her focus from the future to the present, explaining that she had spent a long time unable to find the right direction, and that this challenge represented a conscious decision to face where she is now rather than where she might be going. She spoke about being frustrated that when people talk about her, it’s always about the future rather than the now. Suzume, fresh off an overseas tour that took her to Vancouver and Las Vegas, spoke warmly about Haru as someone who came to TJPW with feelings closest to her own, both wanting to become the person they want to be through the promotion. The match itself was quite good, more so depending on your investment in Haru. Haru opened with early arm work on Suzume’s left arm, which did pay off, as Haru used it to break out of a hold later in the match, a nice touch. Suzume showed why she belongs in conversations about the best sellers in the promotion, her facials throughout were excellent, most notably her panic selling inside a triangle armbar, and it is worth underlining that the much-praised Miu and Suzume match worked as well as it did not just because of Miu but because Suzume is right there with her. There was a good nearfall off a Fisherman suplex, and an awesome moment where Suzume countered Haru’s springboard with a springboard bulldog of her own. Suzume finished things with a ropewalk bulldog onto the ring bell for the win.

Ryo Mizunami against Toga was my match of the night and it was straight out of the indies in the best way. This was a rematch of a bout from early in Toga’s career, with the whole point being to show how much she has grown, and it delivered on that completely. Mizunami’s no-selling of Toga’s forearms early on fit her bully role perfectly, especially considering that’s Toga’s entire gimmick and you wanted to see those forearms land, and Mizunami was really good in that role throughout. When Toga started laying it in, the place heated up fast and became the loudest it had been all night. The crowd was rocking for her. Mizunami’s lariats were absurdly loud in person, and she kept throwing them. The sequence of Toga eating one after another with the crowd screaming for her to keep going was great stuff. Mizunami’s fighting spirit sell into eating another running elbow was very good. Toga ultimately went down to a spear, with the crowd screaming for her to kick out on the cover. This was a strong performance from Toga that put her over considerably compared to where she was when these two first met.

The six-woman tag between Mei Suruga, Mizuki and Uta Takami against Pom Harajuku, Raku and Yuki Aino was a solid match elevated by Mei being great in this setting, although it slightly underdelivered from my expectations, but that’s largely due to its place on the card. Aja Kong and Yuki Kamifuku against Kakeru Sekiguchi and Mahiro Kiryu was exactly what it needed to be, the regular Mahiro and Aja Korakuen match delivering as it always does, with the spot of the match being Kakeru and Mahiro running around in circles to try and confuse Aja, as the joke is they look very alike. After they had stopped running around, Aja simply slapped the correct Mahiro immediately and then hit a wild backdrop suplex. The crowd had a lot of fun chanting for Mahiro.

The six-woman tag featuring Kira Summer, Wakana Uehara and indie guest YuuRI against Chika Nanase, HIMAWARI and Shino Suzuki was a good example of how TJPW use outside talent well. Bringing in outsiders to galvanise the crowd behind the homegrown roster is a trope as old as time in Japan and it works every time. Chika looked great, including one of her best running elbow strikes and what appeared to be a new springboard elbow drop, and there was a lot of support for her to get a big win here, but Wakana took the win as she’s only allowed to be pinned by gaijins. Ren Konatsu and Shion Kanzaki’s singles match was very short, with the notable detail being Konatsu opting not to pin after the Aries Comet and instead going for a new submission, which was a cool difference from their previous Korakuen Hall opener on 14th February. Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima against Miyu Yamashita and Sakura Hattori was fun for the crowd reaction to Misao and Hattori being on opposite sides, though there was some untidy stuff from Misao.

DDT

Bitesize Round-up

Kaisei Takechi sought medical attention after experiencing symptoms of abdominal pain and was diagnosed with acute appendicitis. As a result, he pulled out of the KING OF DDT 2026 tournament. Kazuki Hirata was entered as his replacement. This is a big blow to DDT’s plans as it was likely Takechi was either going to go further or continue a rivalry with DDT’s homegrown young starlet in Takeshi Masada. It’s bad luck for DDT, with this being the second time Takechi had to pull out of a scheduled appearance at Korakuen Hall due to illness or injury. The tournament has been perhaps the first booking mishap that DDT has had in a very long time. For a promotion that has arguably the best treasure trove of young talent on the planet, it is damning that none of them ended up making the final four, consisting of MAO, Minoru Suzuki, HARASHIMA and Danshoku Dieno. There is no doubt that Takechi’s absence shook things up, but given that Takechi already had a “Peter Pan” match booked with Takeshita, I think there’s a strong chance that it was always the plan to have Minoru win the tournament and take the title off of Ueno, to drop it to Takechi down the line. In the semi-finals, MAO will be facing Danshoku Dieno while Shinya Aoki takes on Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki defended the DDT Universal Title against Aoki in July 2025, while Dieno and MAO would be having their first singles match since a house show in 2017. Overall, the tournament, as expected, was strong with great match quality throughout, as you can tell from our recommended match list, with a review from live in the building on 4th May.

New Japan and DDT are holding a 5-on-5 elimination series at Korakuen Hall on 8th June, billed as the “Ichimen Taikousen Part 2”. It will be broadcast simultaneously as a double PPV across both promotions’ streaming platforms as a follow-up to the crossover PPV held last year on 9th June. It continues the cooperation between the two companies following a tumultuous few years when HARASHIMA and Hiroshi Tanahashi knocked heads during the 2010s. They buried the hatchet at last year’s show. As with last year, the show will be built around Toru Yano (NJPW) and Super Sasadango Machine (DDT), who will captain their teams in the 5-on-5 elimination match. Yano will mainly pick from the Hontai faction while, since SSM is unaffiliated, SSM will pick from across the board in DDT. Yano has so far picked El Desperado, Tomoaki Honma and Ryusuke Taguchi, while SSM picked Akito, MAO and Kazuki Hirata. The elimination series will be a minimum of five matches with a member of each team eliminated after each match.

“KING OF DDT 2026” Opening Round – Live Report

4th May 2026
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Hideki Okatani vs. Yuya Koroku, Chris Brookes vs. Junta Miyawaki, Daichi Satoh vs. HARASHIMA, Minoru Suzuki vs. Yukio Naya, Danshoku Dieno vs. Kazuki Hirata, Kazuma Sumi vs. MAO (huh, this show was pretty good live)
Designation: Key Show

One of my main regrets of my trip to Japan over Christmas 2025 was that I never got to see a DDT show at Korakuen Hall. I made sure that wasn’t a repeating theme, this time getting lucky by snagging first row tickets in the Wrestle Universe lottery. I didn’t quite expect to be directly opposite the hard cam all night, but hey. The crowd skewed heavily female, definitely more than half, with a lot of young women attending in groups, the kind of audience that suggests people getting into wrestling together and bringing each other along for the ride. I had been writing about the demographic shift quite a lot, so it was validating to see it in person. The energy in the building was awesome, helped in no small part by the DDT superfan sitting next to me who was such an expert that he was timing his claps to the riffs of entrance music. I actually recognised him from the front row of a lot of DDT house shows, but I didn’t want to disturb him with my “Baka Japanese” (thank you for the phrase, Debbie Keitel), so I just let him enjoy the show and did my part by joining in on his claps and chants. Seriously, he kickstarted almost everything. At one point, he started the chants to build up to Kazuma Sumi’s suicide dive in the main event, and Sumi just looked at him, pointed and nodded in appreciation (Sumi probably knows him from all the DDT house shows, but anyway). I thought this show was incredible, but I’m not surprised that it didn’t receive that same buzz online. The atmosphere was very much ‘you had to be there to believe it’. I watched parts of the show back, looking at my stupid face grinning throughout the show, and some parts felt different, colder, when watching at home. I thought that the roster came out and delivered, with stiff strikes and hard-hitting action throughout the show. What stood out most was the deliberate variety on offer: no two matches felt the same, and the card as a whole served as a perfect showcase of everything DDT does well. The card was extremely and perfectly put together, even in deciding the match order. Watching this show from start to finish, it’s hard to think of many better shows in 2026.

This show kicked off the annual KING OF DDT tournament, with the winner set to challenge the KO-D Openweight Champion Yuki Ueno, likely at “Peter Pan” 2026 on 11th August at Ryogoku Kokugikan. There were two pre-show tag matches, in which one of them had Ueno himself competing. It was quite a weird quirk to see the champion in the pre-show, but they had to fit eight singles matches on the main card and wanted to give them the time they deserved, which is something that DDT is always willing to do. The first pre-show match was Jun Akiyama, Rukiya, Yuki Ishida & Yuni vs. Tomomitsu Mastunaga, Masami Inahata, Naomi Yoshimura & Viento Maligno. During the match I was trying to stay cool that Akiyama was just hovering around me, while also marvelling at how massive Masami actually is in person. It was also telling that when Yuni walked past a pair of girls near me, they started screaming their heads off with excitement. Those are the types of fans DDT is attracting, and it’s awesome. I also found it quite funny that Yuki Ishida was still doing young boy duties such as cleaning the ring in between matches, which is one of the problems when you don’t get new trainees and recruits in often enough. They debuted Hinata last year and there’s another trainee running around the ring, but not enough to do all the jobs.

The second pre-show match was a three-way tag, where I won’t bore you with all the names because basically it was just the Antonio Honda show, and it was insanely fun. In person, you also start to appreciate how much of a comedy GOAT Anton is, where he does really small but effective things like landing a drop kick, and then turning to the referee to say quietly “that hurt.” It wasn’t for the cameras, it was quiet and barely noticeable, but it cracked me up.

Then, the tournament kicked off with Hideki Okatani and Yuya Koroku in the opener. Okatani was Koroku’s senior when Koroku first moved into the DDT dorms. They spent several years living together, so this match was something special for Koroku and he said that it had felt like an honour. This match reminds me of my feelings about Sakurara vs. BMI2000 in STARDOM’s “Dream Queendom” 2025 show, which had very different reactions inside and outside of the building. Granted, people weren’t as lukewarm on Okatani & Koroku as much as the Sakurara match, but inside Korakuen Hall, this match was absolutely incredible, and easily my match of the night. I genuinely do not know of a way to do this match justice, because the heat in the building for this match was mind-blowing. Of course it helped that it was the opener, but these two were absolutely beating the shit out of each other in front of a screaming Korakuen Hall, and I was swept up in it, losing my shit for Koroku. It sounds stupid, but I had goosebumps by the end of this match. I was just completely captured by it in a way that will not happen very often, so this match will always hold a special place in my heart just for that reason. I suppose I will do a bit of analysis and just say that Hideki Okatani has been on a tear for quite a while, but it’s really been under the radar because DDT has so many excellent young guys. But I will never, ever doubt Okatani’s ability. It’s all about his booking. Koroku is probably the best bell-to-bell worker out of the entire D Generations crew. Yes, including To-y, Daichi Satoh, Kazuma Sumi, Takeshi Masada. All of them. Koroku is almost in his 30s, so he is older than his D Generations peers, but at some point, his time will come. Incredible match.

Next up, we had Takeshi Masada against To-y. This is a weird one, because they are probably DDT’s top two young stars in terms of push, and they can definitely go and put on a banger if they want. But they didn’t want to. This is where the variety in DDT comes in. The build going into this match was that Masada has a thing for putting his fingers down people’s throats. He put his fingers down To-y’s throat before, so now To-y developed an involuntary response to almost gag every time Masada puts two fingers up to simulate what he would put down To-y’s throat again. (Hey, not everything has a serious, heated build.) There was an in-built story here in that despite being parts of different units, To-y in 37KAMIINA and Masada in paleyouth, they were both key parts of the younger “D Generations” initiative that DDT have been running the past few years. But, this match was mostly based on that vomiting gimmick, although it did have an incredible struggle at the finish before Masada deadlifted To-y into the ChikaraKOBUMUKIMUKI Driver. It was highly enjoyable and a nice relaxing break after the intense opener.

After that “break”, Chris Brookes and Junta Miyawaki upped the intensity almost immediately. Junta came to the ring and I noted that he looked a bit mad, like he had a point to prove. Junta started off hitting Chris pretty hard, and I thought “huh, Chris isn’t going to be too happy about that.” Chris almost immediately gave Junta some receipts, flinging him into chairs. Chris was a monster in this match, destroying Junta with the loudest chops you will ever hear, and it wasn’t for no reason. The result of Chris bullying Junta got the crowd immediately behind Junta. Junta followed up with a clonking headbutt into an avalanche Sunshine Suplex. That almost got me out of my seat. There was an incredible reversal of pins which led to probably the best nearfall I have ever seen live since it had the entire building explode. Unfortunately for Junta, it wasn’t enough, and Chris took home the win. This was my second match of the night. Junta fits right at home in DDT, and Chris continues to be one of the most underrated performers in Japan.

Switching it up completely, Social Suplex’s own Big Beefy Boy Daichi Satoh faced HARASHIMA in a match where my notes read “just f-ing kicks and grappling”. That is all. Oh, they also kicked the hell out of each other right in front of me. Hell yeah. Unfortunately, Daichi didn’t make it through. Another awesome match. KANON and Shinya Aoki followed the theme of traditional combat sports by doing a “grapplef*** wrist-control match”, again, my notes from live in the venue. And that sounds derogatory, but it’s the opposite. It was also fantastic. There was a huge pop when Aoki won, so I think people expected KANON to win. To be fair, I did, too.

I experienced my first ever “Kaze ni Nare” live as Minoru Suzuki and Yukio Naya locked horns. This match was a bit of a cooldown match compared to the others, with even the superfans around me relatively quiet until Naya picked up Minoru by the leg and dropped him. The stretch of the match with Minoru selling got the fans giddy, it’s something they love watching and Minoru did a lot of that in this match. He sold Naya’s shots to the stomach like a shotgun blast, so while all the fans loved seeing it, it was how I knew that Naya was not going to be winning the match, and indeed that was the case. Minoru finished Naya off with the delayed Gotch piledriver, which is actually an incredible finisher when you’re there live and you can almost feel everyone hold their breath while he held Naya upside down for what seemed like an eternity, before dropping him on his head with a thud.

The semi-main event was contested between DDT’s most loved veterans, Danshoku Dieno and Kazuki Hirata. Hirata replaced Kaisei Takechi in the tournament, which means I am yet to experience a live show Takechi appearance (he was at that January show that I missed…). This was Hirata’s first entry in six years and thought it was worth giving him another Cinderella run after this title reign last year, but instead, it was Dieno’s turn. This was the third time that I have been at a DDT show, and it was the third time that Dieno entered the arena on the opposite side, and visited the three sides of the arena I was not at. Not only that, but this was the first time at Korakuen, and I’m front row, but of course he entered through the orange seats. I am starting to think he is ducking me. I met him in the hallway when I was leaving a DDT show once and he just nodded his head at me and said “hello”, not even a pat on my ass or anything. Is Dieno not into me? What’s going on there? Anyway, he was very into Hirata, as he humped him like there was no tomorrow. These two wrestled this match like their lives depended on it, there were things you’d never see in their house show matches like stiff axebombers, sheerdrop brainbusters and of course, a moonsault from Dieno. Dieno won with the Danshoku Driver, although he had one layer of pants removed so Hirata’s head was almost near Dieno’s nutsack. I am pretty sure I saw one of Dieno’s testicles. In the post-match promo, Super Sasadango Machine came out to try and recruit Dieno for the DDT team on the DDT x NJPW show on 8th June. The second at ringside, Hinata Kasai, threw a mic to Dieno and it skipped along the mat making a sound. Dieno paused, picked up the mic and just said, “That was very cool.” After SSM got rejected by Dieno, SSM got so mad that he started rubbing the mic against the mat to try and replicate the same sound. That’s the sort of hilarious improv that makes it hard not to be a fan of these guys.

Last but not least, we had the DDT Universal Champion Kazuma Sumi taking on his “big bro” and former DDT Universal Champion MAO in the main event. There were big vibes for the entirety of this match. The two went hard out of the gate. However, I think that was somewhat of a detriment, as they went so hard that it left little juice in the tank for the finishing stretch, like a long-distance runner that leads the race by miles but then finishes fourth, which is kind of where it ended up in my rankings of the matches of the night. (You know, I like lists.) There were still some really cool spots, as you can imagine in a main event between these two. The superfan I mentioned earlier absolutely adores Kazuma Sumi, as do I. There was a moment where MAO brushed off Sumi and no-sold his offense, and the superfan next to me was in absolute awe of that spot. We also had a fun recreation of the Ospreay spot as Sumi stayed standing after an avalanche suplex. MAO tapped out Sumi to close out an incredible night. When people say they don’t watch DDT because “it’s just ass stuff,” I’m no longer going to try to convince them otherwise. You read this review. Do you think that’s the case? And even if it was: what’s wrong with some ass?

All Japan Pro Wrestling

Bitesize Round-up

All Japan drew their best crowd since September 2022 of 3,055 to Ota Ward for the “Champion Carnival Finals”. That is a seriously good number that can’t be looked past, beating STARDOM’s record at the venue, who are currently the number two promotion in the country. No matter which way you slice it, or how many metrics you want to use, whether it’s the best number since 2022, the best Ota Ward number since 2013 (announced), the best Champion Carnival final number since 2006 (unless you believe the 3,200 number in 2009). Whatever one you want to pick, it is an undeniably good number for All Japan, and it didn’t even rely on Yuma Anzai, who is a surefire superstar within the next decade. It appeared the fans were interested to see which of Madoka Kikuta, Go Shiozaki, Rei Saito or Hideki Suzuki would win the tournament. Hideki Suzuki won the tournament, against my expectations, to set up a future title match against Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara.

The tournament was pretty good, I’d say better than last year with a lot of really great matches. There were some rough nights, but that’s the nature of every Champion Carnival. Yuma Aoyagi standing in for Cyrus turned out to be a revelation, as he contested most matches from the role of an underdog, despite him obviously being a previous Triple Crown Champion. Since he has come back from his suspension, he has been shot back down the pecking order, and that has allowed the fans throughout the tournament to route for him to pick up some “upset” wins when they wouldn’t be upset “pre-suspension”. It’s quite interesting. Yuma Anzai was written out of the tournament on 3rd May, following a suspected injury on 2nd May. I’m of the view that it wasn’t a work and that he was genuinely injured on 2nd May, otherwise he may be the best seller in the history of the business. Given the tournament was nearing its end, if he wasn’t going to win the tournament anyway, it made sense to write him off. It’s really hard to pick an MVP, but given how great his performances were on the final day, Go Shiozaki (who left HAVOC after the final) may win that award, with shoutouts to Yuma Aoyagi, Yuma Anzai, Daisuke Sekimoto, and even Madoka Kikuta had a few good performances.

Speaking of Yuma Anzai, he made mainstream waves in Japan as he appeared on Season Four of the Japanese version of The Bachelorette. Anzai performed strongly and made it all the way to the final two but lost as the Bachelorette said that she had hoped their friendship would grow into love but she never felt that it did. The thorniest times during the season were when Anzai explained that she would always come third in his life, as: wrestling was first, and second were the fans. It was a cold line that made me want to run through a brick wall for Anzai. Anzai sat down for an interview with anan on 16th May after the final had aired. anan is a popular Japanese women’s lifestyle magazine. It has been running since 1970 and is one of Japan’s most well-known and long-running magazines covering a wide range of topics including fashion, beauty, health, relationships, food, and entertainment. It’s primarily aimed at women in their 20s and 30s, the exact demographic that has exploded in post-pandemic Japanese men’s wrestling, so it is notable coverage for Anzai. I scrolled through some tweets from people that read the interview that said that they had not known Anzai before The Bachelorette and wanted to watch his matches, but they had only seen New Japan before so they were unsure what to do. That points to Japan’s fan culture where they are huge fans of specific promotions or wrestlers and don’t watch wrestling as widely as fans in the west do, but also that the TV appearances and interviews in wider publications are working for Anzai.

Back to the interview, Anzai said that he joined the show because wrestlers don’t get many chances to meet people, and so unless he was forced into that situation, due to his lazy nature, he may never meet someone. He also wanted to increase awareness of professional wrestling. Anzai said that he can put his entire life into wrestling, but if no one watches, then it’s meaningless, and he wanted to use his romantic vulnerability to do that. The interview dug into how he doesn’t have romantic experience despite him being good looking. He said he could count the number of people he had dated on one hand, and when he entered the wrestling world, it was all about that and he hadn’t dated since. Anzai also spoke about how he got into wrestling, inspired by Hiroshi Tanahashi against Kazuchika Okada in the 2013 G1 Climax final (he would have been 14). Minoru Suzuki became his favourite wrestler shortly after that. Training was brutal for Anzai and he thought about quitting every day, but he was too shy to tell someone and then his debut came around so he thought he would give it a try, and then it got easier from then on out. Anzai revealed that his hobby is knitting, and that his mother is a care worker who did handicraft with the people she looked after, so he got into handicraft by helping her prepare for those sessions (and he’d also get pocket money for it). There’s a knitting shop near the All Japan dojo that Anzai goes to for advice, and the old ladies that go there for knitting classes all fawn over him, apparently (not that far-fetched).

Anzai’s run on The Bachelorette reminded me of Saya Kamitani being vulnerable on a mainstream show, Chidori no Oni Ren-chan, exploding her popularity, but we will wait to see if it has the same effect for Anzai. The attendance numbers for the Champion Carnival Finals and the June Korakuen Hall show are promising starts. In Shupro #2411, All Japan received a 30-page spread covering several of their wrestlers. Yuma Anzai noted that All Japan is a promotion that is easy to get into without knowing its full history, and that he comes across many fans that started watching because of the Saito Brothers appearances on non-wrestling shows, which is something he wants to emulate and use his good looks to do that. Ryo Inoue spoke about not having the same positive traits as Saito Brothers and Yuma Anzai who are his nearest seniors and junior respectively, yet are at the top of the promotion. Instead, he wants to use the jealousy he has as a force for positivity, which is when the fans started responding to him. His first goal is to overcome AtsuHaya (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO), who he has been consistently pinned by. HAYATO just spoke about his drawing hobby in true HAYATO fashion. The Titans of Calamity gave a short interview in which Talos confirmed that he’s looking to settle in Japan, although not in Tokyo as it’s too expensive, he’s thinking more Chiba or Saitama where community to Tokyo is easy (yes, Japanese trains are that good that you can live in nearby cities and commute easily). Finally, Kofuji expressed his love of cats, which is where the Hideki Suzuki storyline of him acting like a cat in their tag team came from. I mean, their tag team name was literally Aggressive Cats. Hideki is also a big fan of cats and apparently they exchange text messages about their cats. Yes, really.

The Saito Brothers will challenge (and let’s be honest, win) the World Tag Team Title on 6th June in Kakuda, their hometown. The title is currently held by Titans of Calamity (Ren Ayabe & Talos). The Saito Brothers won the same title on the 2023 Kakuda show. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The former KURAMA, Yasutaka Yano, re-debuted on 17th May against Yuma Aoyagi. Yano was a NOAH wrestler who was fired, alongside Kinya Okada, for committing sexual assault against a woman in her 20s in Sendai in April 2023. Yano was arrested but charges were dropped in December 2023. He emerged in Mexico under the KURAMA gimmick.

“Champion Carnival 2026” – Finals

17th May 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 3,055
EBARA WAVE Arena Ota, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Go Shiozaki vs. Madoka Kikuta, Go Shiozaki vs. Hideki Suzuki, Daisuke Sekimoto, Hikaru Sato, Kengo Mashimo & Suwama vs. Kento Miyahara, Kuma Arashi, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai
Designation: Key Show

In front of 3,055 fans, the most All Japan has managed to draw since their Nippon Budokan show in September 2022, Hideki Suzuki became the winner of the Champion Carnival 2026. Shiozaki was one of the pre-tournament favourites. In fact, before this show I even pre-wrote a lot of this review thinking it was nailed on that he would win. Shiozaki is a strong performer who the fans are behind, and it would make sense to pull the trigger sooner rather than later and take advantage of the popularity he currently has. No one cares about Hideki Suzuki, so it also made sense that he was the guy to go in the final against Shiozaki so that the crowd could unify behind him. It was a simple booking decision. No one needed to see Hideki Suzuki win a Champion Carnival in 2026. Yet, that’s what happened. The story of the match was quite simple. Shiozaki was beaten up throughout the tournament, a classic tape job around his stomach. Hideki was beating him up all match, including his brutal elbows to Shiozaki’s taped up gut, even grounded ones which the crowd winced at. Shiozaki made his comeback and kicked out of multiple double arm suplexes from Hideki which the crowd (and I) bit on. It was at this point that I had a funny feeling that Hideki might be funny. I got nervous. That alone makes a match good. When I am invested in the result and they tug on those emotions. I badly did not want Hideki to win. When they were kicking out of each other’s finishers, I thought, wow, they might actually have Hideki win, I might actually have to rewrite parts of this review. So from that angle, I think the match was awesome. If you had no investment in either person winning, I can see people finding the match boring, especially the opening control portions of the match, but it certainly worked for me. After the two double arm suplexes earlier, Hideki hit a third, this time with a bridging hold, and I knew it was over.

In the first semi-final, Open The Dream Gate Champion Madoka Kikuta lost to tournament favourite Go Shiozaki. Immediately off the start I was shocked at how strongly Kikuta was selling Shiozaki’s chops. This was a mode of Kikuta I had not seen a single time during his Dragongate title reign. I don’t mean the fact he sold, but how comically he sold it. It was almost like he was reinvigorated performing in front of the All Japan crowd. Of course, it played into the story of the match as he let Shiozaki’s guard down and then pounced. Kikuta’s signature control portion of the match followed, and he even managed to bust up Shiozaki’s nose on a quite non-descript move, just shoving his hand in Shiozaki’s face, but that did make Shiozaki look even cooler making his comeback. Kikuta then chopped the hell out of Shiozaki, taunting him and mocking Shiozaki’s signature chops, blocking them whenever Shiozaki tried them. It was quite smart to open up with Kikuta selling the chop like death, and then denying them for much of the match. When Kikuta allowed Shiozaki to return fire due to hubris, the chinks in the armour started to show and he fell to the mat as the crowd roared Shiozaki’s name. The match quickly accelerated to the final stages where they battered each other with lariats, with Shiozaki countering Kikuta’s weapon, his rolling lariat, in a reversal of the story with the chops throughout the match. Now it was Kikuta on the backfoot, unable to unleash his own weapon. Shiozaki finished Kikuta off with a hellish lariat that Kikuta took an insane bump for. Kikuta never did get to hit his lariat. I was amazed how hard they went considering Shiozaki had a final match to prepare for. Wonderful stuff. I liked this match more than the main event, which really goes to show how much of a great performance Shiozaki put on in this show.

In the other semi-final, Rei Saito took on Hideki Suzuki in a repeat of their semi-final from last year. That semi-final was probably the best match of the entire tournament in 2025, as Rei knocked Hideki out in just a few minutes. It wasn’t just the novelty of the knockout that was brilliant, it also called back to Jun Saito’s Triple Crown defence against Hideki Suzuki where he was close to being knocked out by Hideki, so it felt like a bit of revenge from Jun’s brother to do the same to Hideki and actually accomplish it on a big stage. It was truly an incredible match, so I was curious to see what direction they’d go in this year. Well, they absolutely did call back to last year’s semi-finals as Rei sumo-slammed Hideki into the corner and attempted to knock him out before Hideki clutched Rei to force a clinch break from the referee. Rei was furious that a break was called (is it even a rule in wrestling? This isn’t boxing!) and hounded the referee, and then Hideki rolled Rei up for the win, so it was over almost as quickly as their bout the year before. To be honest, it didn’t work as well as last year’s one, at all. But I could see what they were trying to do. This result convinced me that Shiozaki was winning the whole thing, because Lord knows how I’d react if they decided to give Hideki Suzuki a Champion Carnival tournament win in 2026.

Undercard

The crowd was loud and on fire for much of the undercard matches, which made them easier to get through. The undercard started with a HAVOC vs. Hokuto Army match as AIZAWA NO. 1, Hokuto Omori & Takashi took on Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & Xyon. As a reminder, the whole reason why the Hokuto Army grouped up with the Up Town Guys (Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana) in late 2025 was so they could take down HAVOC. That never happened. So I did find it funny that we were back to square one with a HAVOC and Hokuto Army match, HAVOC beating them convincingly, with Hokuto being hit by two finishers to lose, and then Hokuto teasing that they would disband. He said that last year, they had four members in the Champion Carnival, but this year they had zero. Takashi only gets booked in Kansai (which Takashi corrected to “Osaka, actually!”). AIZAWA only gets bookings in Tohoku and Jack Kennedy only gets booked in Nagoya. Hokuto said there’s no point anymore. AIZAWA said he would beat the person who left the Hokuto Army, Kuma Arashi, to prove that they should stay together. Hokuto left after saying, “miracles like that just don’t happen.” Damn. AIZAWA later challenged Arashi for his GAORA TV Title.

Yasutaka Yano re-debuted against Yuma Aoyagi. That’s the guy that had to leave the country and flee to Mexico after committing sexual assault against a women in her 20s in Sendai in April 2023. Yano was arrested but charges were dropped in December 2023. I won’t be providing much commentary on his matches going forward unless it’s relevant to a major storyline.

The Saito Family (Jun Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito) faced Shota Kofuji and Titans of Calamity (Ren Ayabe & Talos). It was cool to see Kofuji away from the opener and higher up the card on a big show. Not only that, but he picked up his first direct pinfall. Sure, it was on Senor Saito, but we’ll take it. Also, this match was to set-up yet another World Tag Team Title match between Titans of Calamity and the Saito Brothers, which will take place on 6th June in Saitos’ hometown. So, this makes sense. I thought they would try to do a Triple Crown match there, but when Jun lost his shot on 23rd February, I started to doubt there was a route to do that Jun vs. Rei match that was originally planned in October but had to be cancelled due to Rei’s injury. But, when the Saitos failed to beat Titans of Calamity for the title in the main event on 15th March, I started to doubt that they would main event for the tag titles, too. But, it kind of makes sense that they want them to win the titles in their hometown rather than defend them, so really, I should’ve sussed this out and put the jigsaw puzzles together.

There was an all-star eight-man tag as Daisuke Sekimoto, Hikaru Sato, Kengo Mashimo & Suwama faced Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara, Kuma Arashi, Ryuki Honda and Yuma Anzai, who was seemingly fine now after taking a few weeks off and having to pull out of the tournament. Of course, he was even more popular coming off his push into the mainstream following his The Bachelorette run. Suwama and Kento got a huge reaction when they faced off. That feels like an easy filler Triple Crown defence if Suwama ever felt like lying down for three seconds. They beat and beat on Anzai to get the crowd more and more into him. They knew the assignment. This match was all about Anzai. Honda and Arashi did have their moments in the match, but they were not as heated as anything Anzai was involved in. Anzai pinned Hikaru with the Gimlet. Great match. That’s what wrestling is all about. Capitalising on heat. After the match, Anzai cut a super simple, cookie cutter, babyface promo in front of the crowd that he would reach the top of the company once again and for them to support him. Simple, great booking.

The semi-main event spot was given to the juniors, which I thought was quite refreshing, as Atsuki Aoyagi, Dan Tamura & Rising HAYATO took on MUSASHI, Ryo Inoue & Seiki Yoshioka. Regular readers will know how high I am on the All Japan junior heavyweight division, so I thought this match was pretty good. I didn’t quite like to see Ryo Inoue take another pin to Atsuki. It feels like Ryo should have won the Junior Heavyweight Title by now.

Dragongate

Bitesize Round-up

By Taylor McClernan

Dragongate’s journey to the “Golden Colosseum” was a unique one. As Dolphins Arena is currently shut down for remodeling, Dragongate decided to rename its Golden Week event to go along with the location change to Aichi Prefectural Budokan, with “Golden Colosseum” becoming the second new addition to Dragongate’s calendar so far in 2026. Along with this change were two major repeat situations that added a hurdle into the build for this show. Ho Ho Lun and Dragongate were running US shows during “WrestleMania” Weekend, meaning about half the roster would be outside the country for more than 10 days. The other repeat situation was Madoka Kikuta competing in the Champion Carnival for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Last year fit Kikuta’s arc of the growing dissension in D’Courage and him chasing individual accomplishments away from the returning Yuki Yoshioka, before ultimately turning on him in the Survival Cage Match that main evented “Dead or Alive”. This year, however, Kikuta is entering as the Dream Gate champion, and will also partake in the US tour on top of it. As a result, Kikuta did not appear in a proper Dragongate show between the April 6th Korakuen Hall show and “Golden Colosseum” on the 26th. Another big wrinkle in the build to this show was two large gaps in broadcast shows between “Uno! Dos!! Tres!!!” & “Golden Colosseum”. Dragongate had three shows between February 28th & March 3rd, which were only one week removed from “Uno! Dos!! Tres!!!” After that they only had shows on March 29th & April 6th, along with a Gajadokuro produce show that, like the U.S. tour, are not fully canonical to the main brand. When it rains it pours; so of course on top of all this, Dragongate also had to deal with a slew of injuries. Big Boss Shimizu tore his ACL the show after the cage match was announced in March, resulting in Kikuta having to replace him in the match. Similar fate followed U-T, as he was shortly hurt after being named the Brave Gate challenger. U-T did make it to that defense, but only because of it previously being booked in his hometown, as it was discovered he has a serious neck injury. Ben-K and BxB Hulk also got banged up and had to be pulled from their announced matches. The result of all this was a major show where only the top two matches really had any sort of story whatsoever.

Also in this issue we will bounce around to the Dragongate shows and appearances in the USA, as well as the Gajadokuro produce show at Shinjuku FACE. Madoka Kikuta and Hyo also entered in other promotion’s tournaments, so we will check in on them as well.

We also have a follow up on the news from the last issue. Dragongate did a full 180 on their previous stances, as they decided to meet with Magnum TOKYO to discuss previous and current issues with the company, as well as fully allowed Dragon Dia out of his contract to become a free agent. Dia had previously stated no immediate debut in another promotion was imminent, but now there are no potential contractual or legal issues standing in his way if he does choose to sign elsewhere. The Magnum Tokyo meeting provided the bigger news, as president Toru Kido was able to squash all the beef in a heart-to-heart, and not only are Dragongate open to a reunion with Magnum, but any previous Toryumon or Dragongate wrestler that left on bad terms with the company. This most notably opens the door to a potential CIMA retirement match and/or tour in a Dragongate ring. This could also mean some bigger retired faces could return like Masato Yoshino, or even active wrestlers in other companies like GLEAT & AAA. Dragongate and Kido decided to embrace the history of the company, and while nothing has been scheduled yet for these historic figures, it’s hard to not be optimistic about these developments given how they were the polar opposite for years up until about a month ago.

Road to “Golden Colosseum”

Reviews By Taylor McClernan

“Golden Colosseum”

26th April 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 2,462
Aichi Prefectural Budokan, Nagoya, Japan
Recommended Match: JACKY KAMEI & Riiita vs. Kagetora & Susumu Yokosuka
Designation: Key Show

Review By Taylor McClernan

“Golden Colosseum” opened up with a bit of an oddball matchup, as the Gajadokuro trio of Ishin, Jason Lee & KAI teamed up against a mismatch of babyfaces. This likely was originally a full Love & Peace trio, but Mochizuki Jr. had been nursing an injury for a few weeks, and Luis Mante subbed in. Then, Ben-K got a bone bruise on his neck in the DGUSA tour and was replaced by Kazuma Kimura. Kimura originally was slated for the PARADOX eight-man tag in match 3 but was shifted to the opener after BxB Hulk also picked up an injury days before the event, causing further shuffling. I think this made for a more interesting opening contest, as Gajadokuro could have teamed for the final time based on the main event result, and being mashed up against a slew of faces opened up a lot of potential future rivals or partnerships. Ishin & Hyo kicked things off, which reminded me of how last year was my first trip to Japan, largely to attend the last “Dead or Alive” in Dolphins Arena, where Hyo also opened the show. Ishin was rocking a freshly trimmed beard where his goatee had the connecting chin strap, except that only existed on the right side of his face. Sort of like he had a beard monocle. Kimura, who still serves young boy duties, quickly found himself working underneath and taking a beating from all three of the Snake Skulls. Kimura escaped finally, following a judo throw counter to KAI to allow the former Big Hug to clear house. Hyo ended things with a springboard counter to score the win for the team of the ragtags.

Next up we had the “Sugihara Trading Company’s Best Employee Contest” as Jiro Shinbashi took on Jungle Kyona. This was largely the standard Shinbashi affair, as we slowly begin to build more of Shinbashi’s backstory. Shinbashi lost in a clever manner given the match gimmick, as he was disqualified for sexual harassment when he did his trademark shirt rip to reveal the hairy chest. Kyona was on the phone with the boss prior to and following the match, so Jiro may face some repercussions in the coming days.

The old guys tag followed, as PARADOX & Punch Tominaga took on the reigning & former All Asia Tag Champions, as Genki Horiguchi & Yasushi Kanda teamed with Don Fujii & Masaaki Mochizuki. Punch & Kimura were the original partners of MochiFujii, but following injuries to BxB Hulk & Ben-K saw the match shuffled and them teaming with the men who dethroned them seven days prior. Any time Punch & Don Fujii find themselves on opposing teams we get their hijinks together, and that opened this contest. Things finally picked up once Yamato finally tagged in, with Super Frankensteiners, Doi 5s, Bible & Bakature Sliding Kick combos that were a lot of fun. Eventually Punch found himself back as the legal man, and the reigning All Asia tag champ saw the opportunity to unleash his best weapon for the win with a Backslide From Heaven.

A special singles match between Yuki Yoshioka and Strong Machine J finished the front half of the show. Both men are important parts of the Reiwa Six, but they are a bit directionless at the moment. A big show singles match was what both men needed, and allowed both to get a jump back into Dream Gate contention. They worked this like a Dragongate main event, which meant it had a slow build up where we opened with a lot of locks and holds. That made this a bit hard to get into watching live, especially with it being the same time as STARDOM “All Star Grand Queendom”, but the second half of the match did pick up. Yoshioka did the combo of High Fly Attack and High Fly Flow to put away SMJ.

The business end of the card opened with the Open The Triangle Gate title match. Natural Vibes defended against the oddball team of Problem Dragon, TAKASHI, & Koji Iwamoto. Problem Dragon has never held a belt in Dragongate since his debut in 2006, but he and Iwamoto were the hometown boys. This match was set up in a backstage angle that wasn’t part of the standard broadcast, and Takashi & Problem Dragon only teamed together on tape in the April 6th Korakuen in the lead-up to this match. Case Lowe & Mike Spears on The Open The Voice Gate podcast deemed this as one of the weakest on paper championship matches in the history of the company. Despite that, this was the first match on the show with actual stakes, and one of the few matches on the show not damaged by injuries. The challengers came in with a clear game plan and took it to Vibes from the opening bell, making the opening 5 minutes a complete one- sided affair. Vibes only survived due to teammates breaking up pinfalls, as they were visually pinned multiple times. GuC finally scored the first offensive moment of the match for the champions, which allowed for the match to get more on a 50/50 footing from there on. The crowd in Aichi actually did seem to be into the hometown challengers over Vibes, as they reacted much stronger to TAKASHI & Problem Dragon then any of the champions, even fan favorite Kzy. The closing stretch saw Problem Dragon hit The Problem on @KEY for a near fall that the entire crowd in Aichi bit on. @KEY survived and hit Problem Dragon with a spinebuster to defend and deflate the crowd.

Ryoya Tanaka seeked to gain sole possession of the second most defenses of the Brave Gate title on the night, as he defended the belt against Nagoya native, and the man he beat to win the title, in U-T. The former champion scored a pinfall over Tanaka about a month prior to the show to challenge for the title, only to remain out with injury the entire time between those two shows. The injury turned out to be a severe neck injury that U-T himself admitted he probably shouldn’t be wrestling on, and was only doing so to honor the booking and not disappoint his hometown fans. Knowing he was damaged goods, U-T opened like a ball of fire and went straight after the champion. One shot to the neck region was all it took for Tanaka to completely turn the momentum, and Tanaka showed the killer instinct without hesitation to become only the second man ever to defend the Brave Gate title double-digit times in a single reign. U-T was able to use his technical savvy to score flash rollups throughout, but the giant X on his neck was a constant target of Tanaka, and that allowed the champion to be in the driver’s seat throughout. U-T did manage to kick out of a Cross Saber, but Tanaka did not relent and locked U-T in a disgusting looking Crossface that might have ripped his head off if referee Yagi didn’t call for the stoppage. Ryoya Tanaka now has ten defenses of the Brave Gate title, and is one win away from tying PAC for most successful defenses of the title. He seems on a collision course to become the first man to defend the belt 12 times at “Kobe World” in July.

The semi main event saw a Winner Takes All tag match, as Open The Twin Gate Champions Jacky Kamei & Riiita of Love & Peace took on Ryukyu’s Sou Ryuo Tag Champions Kagetoraa & Susumu Yokosuka of PARADOX. These teams were pretty even in matchups between major shows, but PARADOX seemed to really favor the shows that made tape. After finally scoring a win over the Ryukyu champs, JackyRiiita laid down the challenge for the winner takes all match. JackyRiiita made it known they were very upset to not be on the DGUSA tour, as they believe they are the best tag team in the world (as do I). You kinda felt like that would be a huge motivating factor on display in this match, and it proved to be true. These four treated us to far and away the best Dragongate match of 2026, and an instant Match of the Year contender. The Original Jimmyz of PARADOX turned back the clock and pulled out every signature tag maneuver from their glory years, only for JackyRiita to keep finding ways to survive. Kamei is one of the best wrestlers on the planet, and he can routinely take your breath away as a viewer with some of the things he can do in the ring. Kagetora was the willing participant on the night, by being on the receiving end of a springboard Super Frankensteiner where Kamei leapt over Riiita. Susumu and Kagetora were no slouches here either, and kept up with the younger tag team throughout the contest. Riiita made sure to not be outdone by his tag partner and had his own series of death defying moves. I cannot recommend this match enough, and nothing I can write can do it justice of how awesome it was. Riita was ultimately able to secure the win with the Riitatonic, and I don’t know how I would have reacted if Susumu had kicked out of that. There was nothing left to give between these four men.

Our main event was the traditional Survival 6-way Cage Match, with the added stakes of the loser’s unit also being forced to disband. Five flags would sit on top of the cage, and whoever failed to retrieve one would be shaved bald or unmasked, as well as leave the night without allies. The build to this match was very uneven, but ultimately it landed in a good place that had a lot of tension and emotion behind it. When Shun Skywalker won the Open The Dream Gate title at last year’s “Kobe World”, the rest of Z Brats turned on him other than Homare. Madoka Kikuta went on to defeat Shun in his first defense and renamed the unit Gajadokuro. Shun in turn recruited away Gianni Valetta, and introduced us to El Cielo to form the four man group, Psypatra. Those two units have been at odds since “Kobe World” in one way or another, but it really ramped up upon the return and inclusion of Big Boss Shimizu in 2026. Shimizu was almost a stand-in for Kikuta as the leader in his war with Shun, while Yoshiki Kato insisted he knew who El Cielo truly was and was determined to unmask him. This was originally just a four way match between those men, but Shimizu wound up tearing his ACL and being put on the shelf for all of 2026. The timing of this was terrible, as half the unit was on the DGUSA tour, leaving Kota Minoura as the man to carry this feud in Japan, and he began feuding with (and going after the hair of) Homare. This gave the match the electricity and heat it desperately needed, and the two were added in to make it the traditional six-way. Kikuta stepped in as leader of Gajadokuro to take Shimizu’s place. The problem with this is Kikuta doesn’t have much hair to begin with, so he kept Shimizu’s on the line in his place. Those stakes weren’t enough so he offered if any of the three Gajadokuro members were to lose, they would disband. Homare loved this idea and matched the offer, to the dismay of Shun. With that, the stage was set for a huge fallout following our main event.

The main event started off interesting with two team entrances instead of six individual entrances, despite this being “every man for himself.” Gajadokuro saw their whole team ringside, while Psypatra’s entire unit was in the cage, as Gianni Valetta had been in Malta all of 2026. Psypatra got the early advantage and downed all their opponents and tried to escape all at the same time. Gajadokuro on the outside thwarted this attempt, which is an element of the match every year. Where things changed up is, after the first stop, the Snake Skulls on the outside found gaps in the cage to slide weapons through, and filled the ring with steel chairs and boards. Gajadokuro began dismantling Psypatra with foreign objects and power moves. All three members attempted to escape following a triple powerbomb to Shun through a raised impromptu table, but El Cielo & Homare stopped their rivals. This left the Dream Gate champion alone at the top of the cage as the first escape. Now with a numbers advantage, Psypatra regained control in a back and forth that saw Homare climb the cage, he was caught and stalled, and rather than El Cielo help him, he climbed over his teammate to be the second to escape. Homare and Shun still had the advantage in the 2 on 2 scenario, and Homare once again scaled the cage, only to be stopped at the top by Ishin and a bag of powder. Ishin and Minoura had some inter-turmoil the last couple of months, with Minoura taking his spots in a couple big matches, so it was fitting a missed powder attack would see Ishin blind Minoura. Homare survived this initial attack but still was caught by Kato before escaping, and Kato was able to toss him back to the ring mat and be the third to escape. Psypatra now had the numbers advantage inside the cage but were met with all five members outside the cage preventing them from escaping. For a third time Homare was on the brink of escaping but was tied up with outside interference before Minoura hit him with the mist to escape and end Psypatra. Despite the biggest stipulation being decided, this is where the real drama began. Shun Skywalker and Homare were all that was left. Homare became a wrestler because of Shun, and has spent every day of his career by his side, as his strongest and often only ally. Skywalker’s Dragongate career has seen him have to defend his mask five times, and he has done everything in his power to defend it, betraying many teammates throughout. Now there was a wedge forced between the two due to Homare’s arrogance of putting the unit on the line and inserting himself in the match due to his feud with Minoura. The stipulation had already forced their breakup, but now they had to battle to survive losing their personal wager as well. Shun conveyed a lot of emotion even through his mask as a man torn about this, where Homare clearly was devastated with nothing hiding his face. They battled each other despite this, giving each other their best shots. Shun as the veteran and mentor ultimately was able to win the exchanges and scale the cage. He stood atop the cage, conflicted about whether he should actually grab the flag or not. Homare crawled his way up to try to confront him one last time, only for Shun to finally claim the last flag after Homare used the last of his spirit to scale the cage. Was this the Skywalker of old inflicting additional torture and punishment, or was the man actually considering allowing his protégé to escape? Gajadokuro gleefully returned to the cage to celebrate their dominance and shave Homare’s head, while Cielo looked on in disgust and Skywalker had a thousand yard empty stare. Gajadokuro left the cage to allow the former Psypatra to fulfill their final duty of shaving their former teammate. Cielo used his time to let Kato know their rivalry was not over. Shun finally took his turn last, and didn’t cackle while shaving Homare like he has throughout the years when winning these matches, but silently finished shaving Homare’s head to give him as clean of a look as he could. He did finally grab the mic and put the blame on Homare for what happened. Homare made his way to the mic as Skywalker was leaving to thank him for everything.

“Golden Colosseum” was a big improvement over “Uno! Dos!! Tres!!!” The business end of the card all delivered, and the event set up the big angle of what Shun does next. We didn’t have a clear next challenger for Kikuta, but that may have been the purpose of the Yoshioka singles match. The tag and trios division breathed a lot of life into the show, as did U-T’s gutty performance.

Road to “Kobe World”

Reviews By Taylor McClernan

Bonus Content: Global Gate

By Taylor McClernan

Dragongate started their US tour in Portland, Oregon, on April 10th. This show as of this writing has not made tape yet, but was filmed and Ho Ho Lun told me that it will eventually be available on the Dragongate Network. I bought a front row ticket to this show and had hoped to give a live review for this issue, but unfortunately my trip down to Portland was a trip from hell, and my AirBnB flooded eight minutes into the show from an air conditioner clog. I know that this show was filmed, because the cameraman stood directly in front of me throughout the entirety of the opening (and only) match I was in the building for. I did get to speak briefly to Ryo Saito who was selling Dragongate merch before the show, and he complimented me on my Yu Yu Hakusho hoodie.

Dragongate was in Vegas for “WrestleMania” Weekend, and a live review was provided by Chris for that show, as well as most shows featuring Dragongate talent. This year we did not have the second DG show, which seemed to be when everything really clicked for the talent, and featured some Match of the Year contenders in 2025. No such match occurred on this tour, and I’m not sure there is even really a recommended match I can give. “WrestleMania” Weekend just doesn’t seem to have that magic or the right sort of crowd to give us a great week of wrestling anymore, even with all the talent in town. By all accounts the shows are still a blast to be at live, but little to none of it translated to the home viewer. With “WrestleMania” in Saudi Arabia next year, there are hopes for a replacement weekend, most likely centered around an AEW event. If that occurs, that seemingly would be an environment for Dragongate wrestlers to flourish. The “WrestleMania” crowd seems more interested in meme wrestling, which Dragongate can also provide, but it is not what they are best at.

Back in Japan, Madoka Kikuta competed in the Champion Carnival for the second consecutive year. He finished tied for 2nd place in his block and in the tournament (a total of 8 wrestlers finished with 8 points), and advanced to the final night of the show. He would end up losing to Go Shiozaki in the semi finals.

Hyo will enter his first Best of the Super Juniors Tournament, kicking off on May 14th. He will be joined in Block B by El Desperado, Kushida, Yoh, Robbie Eagles, Taiji Ishimori, Jakob Austin Young, Sho, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Daisuke Sasaki. The tournament will conclude on June 7th. Based on the field, I do not expect Hyo to mirror Kikuta’s success and advance to the final night.

Marigold

Bitesize Round-up

After failing to win the Marigold World Title from Miku Aono, marking her second singles loss in a row to Marigold’s ace, Utami Hayahishita announced that she would be leaving the promotion. Utami cited needing a change in scenery rather than any dislike for the promotion. Utami attempted to remain diplomatic and not burn any bridges. It is worth noting that in Shupro #2398 a few months ago, Utami spoke of burning out while being the ace of Marigold throughout 2025 and wanting to approach the next stage of her career in a “tranquilo” state. In other interviews, Utami mentioned not receiving the 2025 MVP at the Marigold Year-End Awards in December 2025 as a flashpoint for her. She recalled being so upset she was crying not only in the ring but backstage, as she had been champion for 10 months, but the award was still given to Miku Aono. She had been downcycled entirely after losing the title on 26th October at “Grand Destiny”, so this is no surprise to Marigold viewers, as the promotion has not relied on her at all for over six months. To counteract this news, Marigold announced that they had signed United National Champion Victoria Yuzuki to an unusually long five-year contract, signalling her commitment to the same promotion her mentor, Mayu Iwatani, is also committed to.

However, in further unfortunate news for Marigold, Yuzuki suffered an ACL injury on 19th April in Sapporo and would be out for the foreseeable future. Misa Matsui was also injured on the same day, although hers was a less serious left elbow injury and she returned to action soon after. Those injuries followed Mayu Iwatani’s toe injury on 11th April and Erina’s facial injury in the same match. We wish them all the best in their recoveries as that marks four champions that have gone down with injury in a short space of time, while losing Minami Yuuki, who was on hiatus rehabilitating a knee injury and left the promotion on 20th April, and Utami Hayashishita. This is a promotion that was already thin on numbers due to their reluctance to book outside talent on shows. They will have no choice but to do so, and indeed, that appeared to have been the case with the introduction of Chi Chi.

Anri, a former TJPW trainee who was due to make her debut alongside Shion Kanzaki on TJPW’s 4th January 2026 but pulled out due to injury, has instead joined Marigold as a trainee.

Utami Hayashishita’s Final World Title Challenge

25th April 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 756
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Miku Aono vs. Utami Hayashishita
Designation: Key Show

The main event between Marigold World Champion Miku Aono and Utami Hayashishita was a continuation from their 26th October 2025 clash at Ryogoku Kokugikan, where Miku took the Marigold World Title from Utami using a BT Bomb, Utami’s own finisher, in a moment Utami described as humiliating. At the time, it was quite shocking to me personally as I was not expecting them to do the title switch due to the way Miku was being booked, not being a focal point of the promotion despite winning the United National Title and the Dream Star Grand Prix. On top of that, the finish was quite notable, with Miku using Utami’s old move. How definitive the result was made me think it was not a match they cared about protecting, almost like a one-and-done “put Miku over” match. I even speculated after that that Utami might be on the way out. Both women framed this as a match with a sense of finality, Utami stating she did not believe there would be a next time between them, and Miku wanting to win in a way she could be proud of before saying that only they could put on the best match possible for Marigold. Well, you already know Miku defended her title, because the big news was Utami announcing immediately after that she was leaving the promotion. I suppose that’s one way to ensure that it would be their last ever time facing off like that. I’ve spoken about the news in the round-up, so what about the match itself?

Utami is the kind of wrestler who gets better and better for me. The more I watch wrestling, the more I’ve come to appreciate her talents and how great she is. The story of Utami working over Miku’s leg after eating some stiff early kicks was told excellently, with Miku’s selling adding the cherry on top as she was unable to take an Irish whip. There was a spot where Miku was struggling to lift Utami, before deadlifting her back up anyway for the bodyslam in one of those small details that separates a very good wrestler from a world-class one. The collisions between the two, a defining feature of every preview match they have had together even going back to their 2025 feud, hit as hard as ever, with the two generating an impact that would not look out of place in a match between heavyweights like Daisuke Sekimoto and Tomohiro Ishii. And then there is Miku’s super finisher, which remains the leading candidate for best finisher in wrestling, spiking Utami straight down on her head with “Red Sensation”, in a move that somehow looks more and more dangerous each time I see it. Miku Aono is legitimately one of the best wrestlers in the world right now, and matches like this are why, but Utami showed that she is still up there in the elite of the elite.

Angel Hayze defended her British Empire Wrestling World Title against Seri Yamaoka. As mentioned in the previous issue, I was slightly confused why only one of Hayze’s titles were on the line and why she had to pick one because it was obvious she was going to retain the BEW Title, unless we were going to start seeing Seri pop up in the UK indies. Well, haha. This is awkward: Seri Yamaoka actually won the match, meaning it did make total sense why only one title was on the line, but at the same time, what on Earth is Seri Yamaoka going to do with the BEW Title? If you don’t know what promotion BEW is, neither do I. And I’m a British wrestling nerd. Maybe Seri drops it back before the end of Angel’s tour? I don’t have a clue. Anyway, Seri then called out Senka Akatsuki for 23rd May at the big show. I was live at their 28th December singles match and I thought it was excellent, but they were clearly holding back. I hope they go even harder in that match. The finish that Seri put Angel Hayze away with was pretty sick, folding her in half with two awesome German suplexes before rolling Angel into the Aoki clutch for the win.

Chika Goto fought her tWin toWer partner, Kouki Amarei, with their last match at Ota Ward General Gymnasium on 3rd January 2025 for the GHC Women’s Title, a bout that Chika described as ‘still unresolved’, as the memory of being pinned by Kouki’s Amethyst Butterfly left her with frustration. Over the year and a half since, Chika has found a renewed love for wrestling under Utami’s tutelage, and it was from that position of growth that she turned to Kouki and asked, directly and pointedly, whether she could say the same. Kouki’s admission that she sometimes wonders whether she is truly enjoying wrestling, compounded by Chika’s frustration at Kouki’s April 11th comments to SYOKO Koshino about juggling two careers, led to Chika questioning where Kouki’s passion for wrestling actually lies and whether the stage means more to her. A slap from Chika and one fired back from Kouki later, Kouki declared she intended to do both wrestling and performing arts without doing either half-heartedly, though Chika batted away the extended hand and made clear that whether the match is great or not depends entirely on Kouki. Well. The match was fine. Kouki will just not hit another level, and she is destined to stay at this speed for a long time unless a miracle happens. She isn’t bad, but she’s now in the same group of wrestlers as SAKI for me – fine but I will never remember a match, ever (unless it’s for the wrong reasons like CHIAKI vs. Kouki Amarei from the 2025 Dream Star Grand Prix).

Two thirds of the 3D Trios Champion La Vie en Rose (Mai Sakurai & Natsumi Showzuki) and Shino took on Team Osaka (SYOKO Koshino, Yuuka Yamazaki & Momoka Hanazono). It was a Marigold debut for Momoka, which suspiciously comes after Mayumi Ozaki was on the Shinjuku FACE show weeks earlier. I have been crying out for Marigold to utilise more talents on the independent scene to help bolster their Korakuen cards, so this was certainly a welcome direction. It also helps that Momoka is one of the best comedy characters in wrestling today, with multiple gimmicks that all pop the crowd, rather than being a comedy character with one trick. She’s versatile, and also a great worker. That was on display here. For the crying bit that Momoka normally does, Natsumi Showzuki was the villain this time, causing everyone in the match to cry, including the stoic Mai Sakurai, her trios partner. This was just a great match if you like some versatility and comedy on your cards.

One of the better prospects that Marigold has brought over, Maddy Morgan, was due to receive even more time to shine in a singles match against United National Champion Victoria Yuzuki. However, due to the injury to Yuzuki on 19th April, the match did not take place and Maddy instead faced Nao Ishikawa and CHIAKI in a three-way. She challenged Miku Aono for the title after the main event. The match was made official for Korakuen Hall on 16th May.

Darkness Revolution (Misa Matsui, Nagisa Nozaki & Rea Seto) took on Hummingbird, Komomo Minami & Megaton.

In the opener, the much improved Nagisa Tachibana faced new rookie Lady AI. Even Lady AI in the press conference on 16th April remarked about how hard Tachibana works, including staying late in the dojo to practice and refine her moves.

“Shine Forever” – 2nd Anniversary Show

23rd May 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 1,230
Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Senka Akatsuki vs. Seri Yamaoka
Designation: Key Show

“Shine Forever” show drew 1,230 fans, down significantly from the 1,812 at the January show. As has been discussed at length, this comes down to a combination of bad booking, compounded by injuries, resulting in a lacklustre card. For the main event six-woman tag, Maddy Morgan, Takumi Iroha and Utami Hayashishita took on Mai Sakurai, Miku Aono and MIRAI. When asked at the press conference why the anniversary show was headlined by a six-woman tag rather than a title match, Rossy acknowledged that several champions are injured and that plans to bring in someone from overseas fell through. He framed the match as a celebration of the promotion’s two years rather than a statement about the future, noting that aside from Maddy there are no young wrestlers in the main event. On the subject of Mayu’s interview in Shupro #2410, in which she said everything was fine, Rossy responded with characteristic dryness that perhaps she can say that because she no longer has any responsibilities. MIRAI’s inclusion is not a surprise, and the story of how it came about is funny, with MIRAI texting Rossy after bumping into Aimyon at a rock festival and things progressing from there. Aimyon sang the song “Marigold” that Rossy loves. Rossy sees it as a one-off for now. At the press conference, Utami spoke enthusiastically about facing Takumi, Miku and MIRAI and her bond with Mai, without mentioning Maddy. Mai spoke about her history with Utami, from being her first opponent in her debut ten-match series when Utami was red belt champion in Stardom, to sharing the same birthday and blood type, to meeting her in Marigold’s first league final at Korakuen. She said she wants to stop relying on Utami and carry the promotion into its third year herself.

The main event did not quite live up to Rossy’s All Japan Four Pillars ambitions for this match, which he mentioned in the press conference. There were enjoyable moments throughout, Utami and MIRAI clearly delighted to be in the ring together, the Takumi and Miku exchanges teased a singles match that could feed families for years. But there were too many spots that did not land with the heat needed, and eyes glazed over more than they should have for an anniversary main event with wrestlers of this calibre. It was one of those matches. Most importantly, it was Mai Sakurai that got the pin on Utami with the running powerbomb. Alongside her post-match and backstage comments about wanting to carry the company forward in its 3rd year, this main event made it more clear than anything that the Mai Sakurai will be a key part of Rossy’s plans in the upcoming year, perhaps even dethroning Miku Aono on the second attempt later in the year. Backstage, Utami reported her neck was a “bit battered”. There also appears to be an angle developing around something MIRAI said to Utami previously, possibly related to a proposal involving a match in Michinoku Pro. One to keep an eye on. Rossy closed things out with an interview acknowledging that the promotion has had some tough times at Korakuen and on big shows, and that the focus now is on figuring out how to turn things around. He indicated that some of the injured wrestlers would be returning for the Ota Ward show in August. He also said that he enjoys building a promotion from scratch without leaning on experienced reliable wrestlers, which goes some way to explaining his apparent reluctance to book freelancers.

Senka Akatsuki taking on Seri Yamaoka was the match of the night and the continuation of one of the best feuds in wrestling right now. Everything about it feels organic, competitive and real. They set the tone in the early minutes, building tension carefully, and then the apron German suplex came out of nowhere and immediately ratcheted the temperature right up. Senka’s defence of her own Zenjo-style pin into a high bridge and rolling through immediately was on display again. Then Seri defended it in the same way as YUNA had done on the Sendai Girls show against Senka, which added another layer to how the move is evolving across matches. Later, an axebomber landed before the pin attempt, meaning Seri was too beaten up to defend it the same way, and the traditional defence of kicking out at the last second each time returned. Whether that is deliberate or not, it is fascinating that something so simple is making me think so much. The slaps Seri threw here were vicious and stood out all the more for the contrast with the Chi Chi match on 4th May. The finish came when Seri countered an axebomber attempt into the Aoki clutch, and it was immediately clear that was the finish even before the ref started counting, which is exactly what great wrestling should do. Awesome match. Real, no BS wrestling, meat and potatoes in the best possible sense. Postmatch, it emerged that Seri had been working with her fingers taped together. Seri noted they are now 1-1, called for a main event meeting one day, and suggested that when the time comes, perhaps they could also team together. Senka’s facial expression in response was amazing, caught completely off guard and uncertain how to process what had been said. Backstage, Senka was more composed, made clear she has no intention of teaming while the rivalry sits at 1-1, and stated that Seri remains her biggest rival and she is still frustrated.

CHIAKI and Misa Matsui defended the tag titles against Chika Goto and Kouki Amarei in the only title match on the card. The main question going in was whether Kouki could look salvageable in a tag setting, and the result was fine. Her selling was decent enough. Chika Goto remains a really valuable part of the Marigold roster, a reliable worker who is over despite everything, and this kind of role suits her well. Kouki picked up the win with the Amethyst Butterfly, which was the correct result.

The tag match pairing Komomo Minami and Nagisa Tachibana against Shinno and Yuuka Yamazaki is a microcosm of what is frustrating about Marigold’s booking. This is an anniversary show, and yet all four young wrestlers have been thrown together near the opener with no hook and no investment beyond simply wanting to see them develop, which you could get on a house show anyway. There is nothing preventing them from building something meaningful between, say, Komomo and Yuuka, and paying it off with a singles match. Yuuka did debut new gear, which was a nice touch, but aside from Nagisa attempting some kind of forward flip Natural Selection that probably needs a bit more workshopping, there was nothing here that had not already been seen on a house show. The match ended in a time limit draw, which sums up the problem neatly. Rather than giving these wrestlers wins and losses to build actual stories around, they continue to rely on the draw as a crutch, and it is becoming tiresome. There was some light at the end of the tunnel though.

The invading force of Chi Chi faced Rea Seto in a singles match. There was good leg selling from Chi Chi when she tried to run the ropes and found she could not sprint, allowing Rea to capitalise, and the moment where Chi Chi just stood up and started slapping Rea repeatedly around the face was awesome. The issue with the match was structural. The problem about invaders facing heels applies here, though in Rea’s specific case it is complicated by the fact that she barely reads as a heel. She has been getting huge crowd reactions and loud chants during promos for the better part of a year throughout her heel run, and the storyline itself seems to be playing into that with Chi Chi consistently calling Rea a babyface or a “half-baked character.” The match layout, however, treated her as a full heel, with Rea as the limb-targeting aggressor, as she usually is, and Chi Chi as the one in peril, which felt backwards. They got closer to the right dynamic towards the end, and Chi Chi won with a nice backdrop suplex. Post-match, Chi Chi called Rea a babyface again, pointed out that she was crying her eyes out and that was why she was weak, and handed out new nicknames to various members of the roster, including what appeared to be a pointed reference to Nagisa as the person who uses Twitter to do nothing but moan about the company. There was good heat between Chi Chi and the second match’s participants, which gave them all something to do. I just wish it didn’t take a freelancer to inject some creativity for the youngsters, but anything will do at this point. Backstage, Rea said that Chi Chi has helped clarify what she needs to do, though whether that translates into an actual vicious streak from Rea remains to be seen.

The eight-person tag featuring Angel Hayze, Nao Ishikawa, Natsumi Showzuki and SYOKO Koshino against Johnnie Robbie, Nagisa Nozaki, Nightshade and Nyla Rose was notable mainly for being the first time an AEW wrestler has appeared on a Marigold show. Nyla Rose was over and the crowd responded well to her exchanges with Nao Ishikawa. The match ended with Ishikawa’s team getting stacked and pinned, which is quite a thing to behold. Postmatch, Ishikawa pointed out that the foreign wrestlers who had only just arrived were in the main event (Maddy Morgan), while she had been there from the start.

Dump Matsumoto’s match with Megaton was a bit hard to watch. Blading someone with a fork makes me a bit squeamish, and then pinning Megaton immediately afterwards without doing anything with the blood whatsoever made it even more confusing. After the match, Dump called out Megaton on whether she was a babyface or a heel, told her to stop going through the motions, and suggested that if she wanted to be a babyface she should lose some weight. She also noted that she and Rossy go way back to Zenjo when she was a rookie and that she sees him as a comrade in arms and would like to work with him again. Megaton then stopped her and said she could become a queen of evil, with Dump offering some guidance. Whether this is a heel turn for Marigold’s most over babyface, a bait and switch, or something else entirely is unclear. I’m sure you’re all waiting in suspense.

Japan Independents

Bitesize Round-ups

Here is a round-up of news from the Japanese independent scene. Feel free to Ctrl+F “Key Show” if you want to skip to the reviews for the big shows, or expand any promotion you are interested in and follow the link to the reviews for that promotion!

Note, recommended matches are in order of my own enjoyment of them, rather than chronological.

Miscellaneous News Round-up

Gokigen Pro

Gokigen Pro held a show on 1st May at Post di Amistad, which I am noting because I was there! Gokigen is an incredibly fun promotion, one that you will never really regret buying a ticket to, no matter what the price is. The funniest spot has to go to Momoka Hanazono, whose gimmick where she starts crying and gets the crowd to tell the other wrestler to apologise shone once again. She started crying and the referee started crying, too. Her opponent, Moeka Haruhi, was dressed as a duck (reasons unknown to me) and wasn’t able to talk so she had to communicate Love Actually-style via cue cards. One of the cue cards had an “I’m sorry” on it. Momoka slowly got up to accept her apology but instead just launched a super stiff punch straight through the cue card. Even though I knew it was coming, it caught me completely off guard with how much ferocity she launched the punch with. The main event was amazing. It was Ice Ribbon’s Yuuka and 2AW’s Yuka Satsuki against Diana’s Haruka Umesaki and freelancer Makoto.

The match was the main reason I chose to go here instead of the deathmatch chaos going on at Korakuen Hall at the same time (the FREEDOMS show). It was a match put together just for me, as Umesaki and Yuuka’s forearm battle was glorious. I met Satsuki after the show. She had already seen me during the show and made a shocked face while pointing at me as she recognised me from the EVO show in Chiba days prior, but she wanted to tell me again at the meet-and-greet by pointing at me and making big eyes and saying “WOW, Eric. Big surprise!” I don’t know how these wrestlers retain names. She also spelt it correctly in English without prompt. I met Yuuka for the first time, although this was my third time seeing her wrestle. I showed her the Ice Ribbon section of the newsletter (of course), told her I was really happy to see her make her return after 9 years and that I loved her stiff forearms. She was very happy and let me take a one shot photo without paying anything for some reason, so I said I wanted a portrait just so I could give her money. Very fun show!

ZERO1

The Fire Festival Tournament kicks off on 13th June at Shin-Kiba 1st RING. The tournament is a two-block round-robin league, with the winner of A Block facing the winner of the B Block in the final on 7th August at Korakuen Hall. In the A Block will be Masato Tanaka, ZERO1 Heavyweight Champion Junya Matsunaga, Shuji Ishikawa (EVO), Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (Up Town Wrestling), Kuma Arashi (AJPW) and Ryunosuke Nagai (Mitsuya Nagai’s son who debuted against Go Shiozaki in December 2025). The B Block will be contested by last year’s winner Hayabusa, Katsuhiko Nakajima (freelancer), Daichi Hashimoto (BJW), Tsugutaka Sato and Koji Doi (freelancer). Chris Vice sustained a torn ankle ligament and fractured fibula during training and will need to undergo surgery, which was scheduled for 20th May. Chris is targeting a return to the ring within approximately three to four months. As a result, he will be absent from upcoming events for the foreseeable future, including the ZERO1 6th June Itabashi show and the Fire Festival 2026 tournament opening at the 13th June Shin-Kiba show. ZERO1 later confirmed Yuko Miyamoto (freelancer) as Vice’s replacement in the B Block.

At ZERO1’s 2nd May Urayasu show, the ambassadors of the Republic of Sudan and the Kingdom of Lesotho attended the event. The unlikely diplomatic mission was organised by Alpha Japan’s chairman Hideo Arai. They watched all matches and met with the wrestlers, with the desire to strengthen ties between their nations and Japan.

ZERO1 has announced more matches for their card for their 21st June Gifu show. Alongside the previously announced Fire Festival 2026 official match, Junya Matsunaga vs. Kuma Arashi (A Block), there will be an inter-promotional clash added against Yanagase Pro Wrestling, who are based in Gifu. The ZERO1 trio of Masato Tanaka, Hayabusa & Yuki Toki will face Hide Kubota, Jack Kennedy & Kenta Kosogi in a six-man tag.

BJW

BJW held one of their biggest shows of the year at Yokohama Budokan on 29th April, announcing an attendance of 1,255, down from 1,657 from the year before. As reported in our preview in the last issue, the show was built around BJW originals against The Outsiders, led by the then-BJW Strong World Heavyweight Champion So Daimonji. Daimonji lost his title in the main event to Kazumasa Yoshida. Continuing the theme of the show, BJW’s Kosuke Sato defended his title against Tochigi Prop’s Satsuki Nagao in the best match on the show. It was a hard-hitting, heated battle, with the crowd fully behind Sato, who has been a bright spot on almost every card since he became champion. Nagao was awesome in his role of being a wall for Sato. My only wish was that the camera angle would have been better. It was really hard to see and hear details, and Sato got opened up at one point by, I assume, a shoot headbutt, but I wasn’t sure. That did take away from the match and the effort put in by these two wrestlers. Maybe it’s just me, but this could definitely have been one of the best matches from the independents this year had it been in a Korakuen or just with better production allowing us to see these details the wrestlers put in.

Lower down the card, BJW rookie Ryoma Sekimo took on his mentor Fuminori Abe in another one of their great hard-hitting bouts. Their match at Korakuen Hall last year was my favourite BJW match of the year, but I do have a soft spot for Abe. In this match, there was a small kid that would keep chanting for Sekimo, and Abe would flip them off.

Sareee Takes a Short Break

Sareee took a hiatus, at least one month, starting immediately on 14th May, due to advice from her doctors to prevent further issues with her neck. She sustained the injury on the 16th April match on Kenta Kobashi’s produce show “Fortune Dream 11”, where she wrestled Chihiro Hashimoto and Saya Kamitani in Tokyo at Korakuen Hall before flying to Las Vegas and almost immediately wrestling again in the main event of the Marvelous show. As a result of the injury leave Sareee is taking, she was pulled from all appearances, including a high-profile singles match against Marigold rookie Seri Yamaoka on 16th May. She was later announced as part of AEW’s Owen Hart Tournament bracket* against Skye Blue.

(Editor’s Note: Please, please, I beg you, PLEASE be on the June 17th “Dynamite” for me, Emi, the editor of this newsletter. Only if you’re sufficiently healthy, though, obviously. Thank you, Sun God.)

Aja Kong’s 40th Anniversary Celebration in Okinawa

Aja Kong celebrated her 40th Anniversary in Okinawa on 16th May, celebrating the entire joshi wrestling independent scene with one of the wackiest cards you’ll see (complimentary). The show was held outdoors near one of Okinawa’s many beaches, although the weather was a bit unlucky and it was a bit windy. The show is available in full on Wrestle Universe. In the opener, Rina Amikura teamed with (wait for it) Shoko Nakajima, against Mika Iwata and (wait for it) Sora Ayame. I’ve made the point so I won’t say it for every match but this was basically a card of strange bedfellows, which made it really fun. It’s also why there were barely any independent shows on that weekend, alongside Sukeban taking place in the US. In the opener, it was fun to see Shoko Nakajima dodge Sora Ayame’s shin kicks using her agility, although that wouldn’t last for long, of course. The semi-main event saw the dream team of Chihiro Hashimoto, Syuri and Takumi Iroha against a dream team of the independent scene (Haruka Umesaki & Itsuki Aoki). Oh, and Kakeru Sekiguchi was there. That match was a ton of fun with rare match ups between Itsuki and Hashimoto, as well as Umesaki against all three of Hashimoto, Syuri and Takumi. In the main event, Aja Kong, alongside Hikaru Shida, Kaori Yoneyama and Ryo Mizunami, pinned Yuki Kamifuku, who was teaming with Nagisa Nozaki, Saori Anou and VENY. Honestly, most of my notes would be about VENY, but I do that enough in this section so I won’t bore you. (But she was amazing.)

GLEAT

The “G-CLASS 2026” kicked off on 13th May at Shinjuku FACE. In the first match, Kaito Ishida advanced by defeating fellow Black Generation International member KAZMA SAKAMOTO. I thought the match might never end. On the other hand Hayato Tamura and T-Hawk had a fun, hard-hitting bout before T-Hawk won with a flash pin. It was simple and to the point. Takehiro Yamamura upset the G-REX champion El Lindaman after pinning him clean with the Stardust Press. This was another good match. Finally, Ryuichi Kawakami beat Brass Knuckles JUN in the main event to make the final four.

The tournament continued on 20th May at the same venue. Just before the “G-CLASS” matches, Daisuke Sekimoto & Hideki Sekine faced Takanori Ito & Tetsuya Izuchi in a UWF Rules tag match. Izuchi was quite cocky standing up to Sekimoto and began the match lighting Sekimoto up with kicks. Sekimoto hulked up, hit Izuchi with a German suplex, picked him up, and hit one of the stiffest lariats you’ll hear. The referee started the 10-count, which presumably would have led to a 1-point deduction for Izuchi’s team, but the referee then immediately stopped the match, as it seemed Izuchi was legitimately knocked out from the lariat. He had to be stretched out and looked like he couldn’t move properly, but Kotaro Suzuki confirmed later that Izuchi didn’t suffer a serious injury. T-Hawk submitted Kawakami with an armbar to advance to the final. There were some hard strikes but it was mostly dull, which I have felt about a lot of T-Hawk’s GLEAT matches recently. T-Hawk will be facing Kaito Ishida in the main event of “G-CLASS 2026” after Yamamura overcame Kaito Ishida in the other semi-final. The match had the crowd gripped and I think if I cared about either wrestler, this would be a great emotional match with a story told around Yamamura’s leg being worked over. Unfortunately, I don’t care about either wrestler, so it just ended up being pretty good for me.

Joe Yamamoto is scheduled to debut on 20th June at Kitazawa Town Hall. T-Hawk welcomed it and decided to take an indirect shot at Miyake, GLEAT’s former rookie, who T-Hawk said had apparently left the promotion without notice or explanation.

GLEAT’s anniversary show on 1st July will include Naomichi Marufuji going up against Kaz Hayashi, coming out of his July 2024 retirement, and Kotaro Suzuki against Minoru Tanaka. AAA will cooperate with GLEAT as Abismo Negro Jr., NOBU SAN & SBK face ARASHI, El Fiscal and Soma Watanabe.

Osaka Pro Wrestling

At Osaka Pro’s event on 3rd May held in Kashiwara City, Osaka, a signing ceremony for a partnership agreement between Osaka Pro and Kashiwara City was signed. Osaka Pro said that it would enable them to work even more closely on initiatives for livening up the local community and volunteer activities.

Michinoku Pro

On 6th May, MIRAI put in a spectacular performance against Manjimaru. She looked emotional during her entrance, while Manjimaru was cold as he strolled to the ring. He rocked MIRAI with a huge forearm. MIRAI left the ring, taking a while to compose herself with tears strolling down her face, before getting the courage to come back into the ring and try again. Manjimaru once again struck her with a stiff forearm knocking her out of the ring again. MIRAI was in tears and needed some coaching at ringside. She slapped herself around the face and went back for more, unleashing a barrage of forearms that Manjimaru no-sold and countered with the same forearm – but this time, MIRAI continued. Manjimaru sandbagged her attempts at lifting him up before rocking her with a shoot headbutt. He followed up with a disgusting lariat for a nearfall and applied a high angle half-crab for the win. This was a match very much in the vein of Mio Momono and Ai Houzan from earlier in the year. A tough love showing, but MIRAI’s performance here was much more incredible than Mio or Ai’s in their match. A lot of the power in the Ai & Mio match for me was in the post-match and the sheer shock of it all. This, however, was one of MIRAI’s best performances.

El Desperado, Luis Mante, Van Vert Jack, Mei Suruga, CoCo and Kaho Kobayashi will all be making an appearance on Michinoku Pro’s Korakuen Hall show on 12th June.

LLPW-X & T-HEARTS

Shinobu Kandori’s promotion, LLPW-X, and Yumiko Hotta’s promotion, T-HEARTS, will be collaborating for a show on 30th May at Tokyo Tower Media Centre. This means we finally get to see Rina wrestle again following her appearances on 22nd March. It is a bit frustrating how much of her career is being stunted by being in a promotion that doesn’t run shows regularly as she has so much potential. The card is an all-LLPW-X bout as Takako Inoue faces rookie Wakana, Catherine tries to survive against Yumiko Hotta, Sayaka Toyota tries to survive against Shinobu Kandori and finally in the main event 2AW’s Ayame Sasamura and Michinoku Pro’s MIRAI takes on T-HEARTS’ Miku Kanae and Rina. Pray that this show makes tape. Amu Fujiwara is not on the card due to an injury, which is why Ayame Sasamura was brought in. Rina was likely due to face off against Miku Kanae.

Kyushu Pro

Kyushu Pro announced that two international wrestlers would be coming in for a tour in June. The first is Canadian wrestler Casey Ferreira, who trained at the NJPW LA Dojo and the Lionsgate Dojo in Vancouver, and the second is Austrian wrestler Curtis Black.

Tenryu Project

Tenryu Project held a show on 9th May at Shinjuku FACE. As well as Tenryu Project joshi regulars Ayame Sasamura and DASH Chisako, Marvelous also made representation on the card as Spark Rush (Sareee & Takumi Iroha) faced Marvelous rookie and Sendai Girls Junior Champion Senka Akatsuki, who teamed up with her rival in Sendai Girls, Spike Nishimura. Also, the group of foreign wrestlers who appeared on Marvelous’s 10th anniversary show were on this card as Masha Slamovich & Ray Lyn faced Nyla Rose & Renée Michelle. A key match on the men’s side was Kohei Sato taking on Fuminori Abe.

P.P.P. Tokyo

PPP Tokyo held a press conference on 8th May for their 21st May Shinjuku FACE show. They unveiled the new women’s belt, the Venus of Party Title, that Chanyota and Echika Miyavi would be fighting for. Chanyota brought Echika into wrestling, so it’s a fitting, meaningful match for both. It was an awesome match. They could have done a simple student vs. teacher match, but instead, Echika absolutely dominated Chanyota for much of the match. Outside the ring and inside the ring. Every time Chanyota tried to make a comeback, Echika chopped the crap out of Chanyota. It was relentless. Of course, Chanyota found a way back through submission holds, a crazy jackhammer and running lariats before beating Echika with her backbreaker drop to become the inaugural Venus of Party Champion. Chanyota’s first challenge will be her tag partner, ZONES, on 19th July at Shin-Kiba.

The promotion also surprised Riara at the press conference on 8th May, announcing her third anniversary match as she teams with Utami Hayashishita against Natsu Sumire and Marika Kobashi. Riara teamed with Utami for her homecoming show in Marigold and it stuck with Riara ever since. Utami continued to text Riara and send her messages & gifts on her birthday despite her not working for Marigold since May 2025, and Natsu and Mariko are close friends of Riara. On the Shinjuku FACE show, they had a very fun match, with Natsu jumping on top of Utami and bear hugging her after the match following their STARDOM history together. Riara worked really hard, including a very stiff slap to Marika early on. I thought it was a great anniversary match.

Finally, Beast Murayama continues to be one of the best underdogs in the lesser known independent circuit. On the 21st May Shinjuku FACE show, he teamed up with So Daimonji against Kabuto Mitomi and Shuji Kondo. The PPP Tokyo crowd absolutely adores him, and they keep booking him in matches where he has to go against hard-hitting veterans, they mess him up, and the heat is so great. He’s basically a friend of Suwama’s from back in their All Japan training days, didn’t wrestle for a few decades, Suwama brought him back into EVO, and now Beast does appearances here and there in smaller indies. I think the fans latched onto him because he looks like the guy that serves you sake in an izakaya, totally unassuming, but he tries so damn hard every match and he’s something new. Anyway, keep your eyes out for his matches.

The promotion also announced the launch of a new brand headed up by renowned MMA referee Yuji Shimada, titled “Paradise Clinch”. It’s a brand focused more on shoot-style, a bit like GLEAT’s “LIDET UWF” brand. Interestingly, it is women-only with two-count falls, submission only, and no strikes allowed. The idea is that they want to bring in mixed martial artists or BJJ practitioners, and also pro wrestlers, to come in and face their talent, Chanyota, Echika Miyavi and Non Toraga. Shimada said that he would like to scout athletes from other sports like speed skater Nana Takagi. PPP Tokyo founder Kabuto Mitomi explained that they launched it as a new brand partly to try new venues in an experimental way given the closure of Shinjuku FACE, showcasing one of the earliest ripple effects of the venue’s closure. The first three shows will be held in Ichikawa City in Chiba on 21st June, 27th June and 12th July. They’ll assess the response and decide whether to hold more shows after that point.

PPP Tokyo announced the rest of their dates for the year. 14th June at Post di Amistad, the three aforementioned dates of “Paradise Clinch”, 19th July at Shin-Kiba 1st RING, 6th August at Shinjuku FACE (the last time they’ll host a show there), 11th September at TOKYOSQUARE in Itabashi, 18th October at Post di Amistad, and then they will be running Korakuen Hall on 26th November for only the second time in its history. That gives you a flavour of the venues they will look at running when Shinjuku FACE is out of the picture, and many other promotions will be in the same spot. Founder Mitomi expanded on the loss of Shinjuku FACE in Shupro #2411 and stated that he wanted to lead the search for a similar venue and work with other promotions. He lamented the loss of the venue for all the reasons we explored in the last issue, but also that their branding and identity was tied to the venue, given that its location is in Kabukicho, a famous Shinjuku district known for its night life and partying.

Singer-songwriter Momoyama Tsukika and OrDi Co., Ltd. are launching a new-concept called “Energy Marriage Entertainment,” abbreviated to “Enamari.” It’s a show combining music, comedy, and pro wrestling. The wrestlers on the show are from the JTO and PPP Tokyo rosters. The show will be held on 29th June at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo. Two matches have been announced, which are Azusa Inaba & Chanyota vs. Riara & Tomoka Inaba and Kentaro Hachisu vs. TAKA Michinoku.

Up Town

On 10th May, Up Town announced that rookie Shiono would be going on indefinite hiatus to protect her physical and mental health. As a result, they had decided it was better for Shiono to resign from the promotion. We wish Shiono the best of luck going forward with whatever she decides to do.

Up Town has launched a new show title “Next Level” that it runs out of TOKYOSQUARE. It focuses on the rookies in the promotion, for example allowing Hyo Ogawa to go 20 minutes with Seigo Tachibana and give them some experience. The main shows are currently run at Shinjuku FACE, but with the venue closing in September, it will have to find a new venue.

A new rookie debuted on “Next Level #2” on the 23rd May show at TOKYOSQUARE. Her name is Saira and she is a 17-year-old parkour practitioner who has competed in national championships. She came third in Women’s Freestyle in 2024, 2nd in 2025 while also achieving 3rd in the Speed category in the same year. Saira is from Miyagi prefecture, where Sendai Girls is based. She had already attended a pro wrestling circle run by the promotion but gave up on being a wrestler when she moved to Tokyo, but she continued to follow as a fan. Up Town founder Jiro scouted her, and luckily she had been a fan of his already. After appearing at the February Up Town show, she started training once a week, debuting three months later. In her debut, she executed a perfect Shooting Star Press which gained a lot of attention. Her goals are to both win a medal representing Japan if parkour becomes an Olympic sport, and to wrestle in a Sendai Girls ring. Aside from Jiro, her other favourites are DASH Chisako, Chihiro Hashimoto and Sareee.

BAKA GAIJIN + FRIENDS

BAKA GAIJIN + FRIENDS appeared at NYLON JAPAN’s “22nd Anniversary Party” at ZERO TOKYO on 24th April. NYLON JAPAN is a Japanese fashion and lifestyle magazine, and the party had a bunch of DJs and took place in the early hours of the morning. According to reports, they put on a memorable performance for a crowd that, for many, was their first taste of pro wrestling. The highlight of the match came mid-way through, when Chris Brookes lined up Mr. Bueno with the plastic case, only for MAO to accidentally connect with his own partner, leaving Brookes bleeding from the forehead. MAO delivered a dive from the stage before Brookes put Mr. Malo away with the Somato.

Shinya Aoki’s “Eioki Clutch 01”

The Aoki Family, a group founded by Shinya Aoki, hosted a new event named “Eioki Clutch” on 20th April at Shinjuku FACE. If you’re wondering why it’s “Eioki”, I’m just going off what the word is, which is “エイオキクラッチ 01” which uses katakana characters. If it was “Aoki” he’d just use his kanji surname “青木”. Anyway, G-REX champion El Lindaman faced Fuminori Abe in a match made just for me, considering Abe is one of my favourites. Lindaman was motivated for the first episode of Aoki’s new produce show and played really well off of Abe’s signature shoot-style-meets-comedy wrestling style. Lindaman won with the delayed German suplex. In a rare independent appearance for Marigold talent, Seri Yamaoka and Yuuka Yamazaki took on Chihiro Hashimoto and Manami. Of course, the link is that Seri is familiar with Aoki and even uses his Aoki clutch as one of her finishers. The match was awesome. Seri and Hashimoto wrestled at “Grand Destiny 2026” which was a low-level MOTYC. Their grappling is always great. Hashimoto was a monster in this match as she normally is, no-selling Yuuka’s offence, throwing her around, slapping her around the face, you name it.

Katsuhiko Nakajima’s Produce Show “XX STYLE ～IT’S SHOW TIME～”

On 31st May, Katsuhiko Nakajima will be holding his produce show at Azalea Taisho Hall in Osaka. The main event will be Hayabusa & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masato Tanaka & Yuko Miyamoto. Other matches include Seichi Ikemoto against Shinya Aoki, Kohei Kinoshita & Masakatsu Funaki against Shuji Kondo & YASSHI, Daisuke Sekimoto taking on Quiet Storm, an all-young boys tag battle between Sportiva’s Ali Najima & GLEAT’s Tetsuya Izuchi and NPW’s Naoya Murata & Osaka Pro’s Sho Mizuno. In the opener, Ryunosuke Nagai will be taking on Kouki Iwasaki.

Asuka Pro Wrestling

Asuka Pro Wrestling’s 4th May show at Post di Amistad will be headlined by three singles matches pitting top babyface faction Angelic☆Cures (Arisa Shinose, Sumika Yanagawa & Misa Kagura) against the top heel faction Makomio Value Set (Makoto, Mio Shirai & Matsuzawa-san), with the losing unit forced to disband. The feud provides Arisa with yet another singles rematch with Makoto, a wrestler she has admired since childhood and two years on from her first defeat to her. Arisa Shinose’s dad, who runs the promotion, will be in an exhibition match as he gears for a return in July.

Osaka Style Wrestling

OSW has announced the departure of Shota Kofuji, effective 30th April. Kofuji had been dual-contracted with both OSW and All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Shawn Capture

Shawn Capture will be running a show in owner Ikuto Hidaka’s hometown of Masuda in Shimane prefecture on 31st May. It’s worth mentioning these as they are all in collaboration with local communities and councils and deliver pro wrestling to communities that may not otherwise be exposed to it. Some of these shows also broadcast on local television channels. With some assistance from the local Tourism Association, this show will be run during the annual Masuda Festival, as has happened the past several years. As always, Shawn Capture roster member Itsuki Aoki will be on the show.

On 12th May, Hidaka and Itsuki conducted a “Dream Class” in Izumo City, once again in Shimane prefecture, with the cooperation of the Izumo City Board of Education, ahead of the “Goen no Kuni Shimane Pro Wrestling 2026” event in Izumo, scheduled for 19th July. They delivered a lecture and participated in physical activities such as squats with all students at Sada Junior High School; and the day after, they did the same with Year 4 pupils at Otsu Primary School.

Ai Pro Wrestling

Ai Pro Wrestling Expo, based out of Aichi prefecture, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. For the occasion, it will hold an event on 1st November at a venue in Nagoya, Aichi. A singles bout between blind professional wrestler Yuta Odachi and Naomichi Marufuji has been announced.

“Marvelous 10th Anniversary” – Live Report

5th May 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 3,492
Yokohama BUNTAI, Kanagawa, Japan
Recommended Matches: Miyu Yamashita vs. Senka Akatsuki, Mei Seira vs. Mio Momono, Itsuki Aoki & Mio Momono vs. Mayu Iwatani & Rin, Sareee vs. Takumi Iroha
Designation: Key Show

This was the show that inspired my Golden Week trip in the first place. Marvelous was the first indie that really accelerated my descent, or rather ascent, into being obsessed with the Japanese independent scene. I had dabbled in Sendai Girls and EVO, but it went haywire after I discovered Senka Akatsuki on the 30th March Marigold Korakuen Hall show. When the pricing for the seating was released, I had felt that the Marvelous staff were having a bit of a stitch up, and I refused to pay 100k or 50k yen for front row seats, considering that’s almost the same as the industry leader at Yokohama Arena (STARDOM’s “All Star Grand Queendom”). Days before the show, I really regretted that decision. I caved and tried to buy front row tickets as I saw there were a few remaining. By the time I actually sat down to buy them, they were gone. I got over it quickly enough given the excellent sightlines from where I ended up sitting, and it did teach me a lesson I’ll carry forward: if there’s no good reason not to, just do what the heart wants. I came to realise on this trip that I’m someone who needs to be close to the action. If I sit too far back there’s a risk of disassociating, of it feeling like watching from home rather than being there. The venue and sightlines are great, but the venue is so massive that you do feel quite a bit away from the action.

Nevertheless, there were a few memorable moments before and after the show worth documenting. Spotting Rossy Ogawa and Tetsuya Koda (the Marigold and TJPW bookers), sitting together and having a chat, was amusing given that Ogawa had very recently taken in one of TJPW’s trainees. I suppose all is fair in wrestling. I took a photo because I found it funny, looked down at it, and realised Rossy was glaring directly into the lens. He then walked past me shortly after, and I was briefly convinced he was following me like the Boogeyman. Alas, I was safe. More importantly, I had two goals after the show: to say goodbye to Itsuki Aoki and VENY no matter how long it took. The Marvelous queues were so long I gave up on meeting any of their wrestlers, but I managed both of my targets. VENY, my favourite wrestler, was first. I told her in Japanese that I was leaving, that I was really happy to have met her, wished her luck for her Korakuen Hall anniversary show in October, and that I’d see her next year (we don’t talk about me planning a third trip this year to try and catch that show). She was delighted. Then I noticed she had T-shirts, one left, in my size. I got visibly excited, she matched my energy, and I bought it on the spot. She spelt my name correctly without being prompted as I had met her the week prior, she had a go at some English, told me to have a safe trip, and we took a couple of two-shot photos. The moment that wrapped it all up nicely, though, was later when I was packing up to leave and she sprinted past on the way back to the locker room, yelling “Eric, mata ne!”* and waved as she ran. Itsuki also recalled our meeting, given it was only two days prior at the WAVE show. After the two-shot photo she grabbed my phone and just started taking selfies, which was very on brand for her.

*(Editor’s Note: I looked the words mata ne up just to be certain, and the first link on DuckDuckGo read, “The Warmest Way to Say Goodbye in Japanese”, which made my heart very happy for Eric. Properly translated, it means, “Again, okay?”)

On to the show itself. The announced attendance was 3,492, which I initially doubted purely on gut feeling. But the more I thought about it the more it made sense. Yokohama BUNTAI has an unusually high ratio of arena space to building size, with a narrow concourse that prioritises seating capacity, so a large number of empty seats could quite easily represent the difference between 3,500 and 5,000. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. And if the number is accurate, it is absolutely staggering. It is almost more mind-blowing to me than STARDOM’s number of 8,015 at Yokohama Arena, relative to each promotion’s respective sizes. If they had done 2,000, I would have called it a roaring success, a number they could never have done at Korakuen. Nearly doubling that, from a promotion whose Korakuen shows looked comparable to Diana or other smaller independents at 600-800 people, is hard to get your head around. This didn’t happen by accident. The wrestlers did a lot of local promotion, there was a substantial and clearly hardworking backroom staff operating behind the scenes, and the card deserved the number it got. It was a well-earned result. It’s also worth noting, as far as I’m aware, that this is the only joshi show to have featured wrestlers from STARDOM, Marigold and TJPW all on the same card. I don’t want to go too deep into that, but there were so many political minefields on this card that were defused due to everyone wanting to come together to celebrate Marvelous’s 10th anniversary. An all-round home run.

The production quality was very high, professional and well-run in a way that many joshi independents simply could not replicate, the graphics on the big screen notwithstanding. They really went to the effort to make this feel like a big show. At the venue there were so, so, so many Marvelous staff running around like crazy trying to make sure everything went as planned. The introductions during the show opening felt grand, worthy of a big show. There was not a bad match on the card. The concerns I had going in about certain matches featuring veterans from an earlier era turned out to be bigger in my head than in reality, as they were confined to two bouts and both were actually pretty fun. The main event alone was worth the price of admission. A really, really great show, and a significant moment for Marvelous.

One note from Shupro #2409, released ahead of the show: Chigusa Nagayo confirmed what Maria had written in her blog, that the original booking confusion between Yokohama Budokan and Yokohama BUNTAI had actually been a happy accident. Nagayo reflected that BUNTAI was a venue with deep history for her when including the previous building that was on the site, as it was the site of many GAEA Japan shows during the Crush Gals reunion in 2000, and the retirements of both Akira Hokuto and her own partner Lioness Asuka. She saw the mistake as fate.

AAAW Title: Takumi Iroha (c) vs. Sareee

In the main event, Takumi Iroha defended the AAAW Title against Sareee in their first singles match in seven years, with the record between them standing at one win apiece and one draw. The belt itself carries one of the most prestigious lineages in joshi wrestling, with champions including Chigusa Nagayo, Devil Masami, Aja Kong, Meiko Satomura, Manami Toyota and Dynamite Kansai among others, and Sareee absolutely had the prestige to sit alongside those names. Takumi had held the title for 614 days coming in. A title change would have made complete sense here, on the biggest occasion in Marvelous history, and it would have kept the Takumi and Mio programmes available for later. Takumi’s motivation for this match was rooted in something bigger than the match itself, noting that GAEA only lasted ten years and that she is driven to see Marvelous surpass that milestone.

I thought this match was excellent. It is a unique match that only these two could put on. My friend, Tim Hunter of Social Suplex, put it even better. It’s a 0.01% match no matter what issues or criticisms you have of it, so even to get to that level so effortlessly deserves praise. It is absolutely one of my favourite matches of the year and there were moments during it where I quite literally wanted to jump out of my chair. What the match did excellently was feel like a fight between two people who desperately wanted to win. The struggle over the running three throughout the match was exceptionally well done, the crowd heat whenever Takumi was close to losing was remarkable, and the avalanche powerbomb and the sequence leading into it conveyed the kind of realistic physical struggle that these two are great at. The reversal of the Running Three into a flash pin, the rolling elbow getting a huge pop (I am understating that, for haters of “thigh slaps”: eat dust because this shit popped the entire building*), the moment when everyone in the building knew the wrist clutch uranage was coming and Takumi kicked out anyway, and then the eruption when Takumi finally hit the Running Three to retain. It did not feel like twenty minutes and that’s one of the highest praises I can give a match.

*(Editor’s Note: Can confirm, you can hear it on the broadcast as well – and I, personally, lost my shit.)

A large disclaimer is worth attaching to all of this: there was a reason I wanted front row for this match specifically. Takumi’s style, and to a degree Sareee’s forearms, are the kind of thing you want to either be right up close to in person or watching on a well-mic’d broadcast at home, so you can feel the impact and get fully drawn into the nearfalls. Sitting twenty rows back in a quieter section of the building undeniably affected the viewing experience, and I don’t rewatch. That is not a stubborn position, it is mostly a time constraint, but it does mean acknowledging when external conditions shaped my opinion. With that caveat firmly in place, this match is not my Match of the Year, but there can only be one of those. It was excellent, electric in the building, and the scary thing is that…well, it could have been even better.

Sareee targeted the leg early, catching a kick and hitting a dragon screw on the apron into a foot stomp, then later dodging a Takumi kick aimed at the ring post so that Takumi connected with the steel instead. It was smart, purposeful work, all the more effective because Sareee’s character is such a competitive maniac that she will happily dismantle her best friend without hesitation if it means winning. More dragon screws followed. It was awesome. Then, the problem is that I felt that the leg work was then largely abandoned, and there is no convincing explanation for why a limb that was clearly causing serious damage simply stopped being a factor for the next twenty minutes. If you are going to drop the thread that early and that completely, it is better not to pull it at all. I will say though, that again, I loved Tim Hunter’s description of Takumi unleashing on Sareee with kicks in a comparable way to Kota Ibushi against Kazuchika Okada at “Wrestle Kingdom 14”.

The other criticism worth making is Sareee’s selling during the German suplex exchange. When Takumi hit her Germans, Sareee essentially no-sold them and kept wrestling as though they had never happened. Compare that to Takumi, who sold Sareee’s own Germans as if she was woozy and struggling to stay upright. Fighting spirit sequences require the recipient to show the effort of fighting through the pain before it catches up with them. It never caught up with Sareee. I do think that’s a fair constructive criticism of Sareee. She was acting like a monster, it was important for her to be a brick wall for Takumi in this match, but you can do that while picking better moments to fight through the pain. On the separate question of the uranage, I do think there is a bit of a misunderstanding of Sareee’s finishers. The standard uranage is not her finisher. Her finisher is the wrist-clutch version, and she adds on a headbutt to the wrist clutch for her biggest matches. Takumi kicking out of a wrist clutch uranage, something that essentially never happens, was a massive pop moment for everyone in the building who understood that. The fact that people have conflated the two, in my opinion, actually speaks to how effectively she has protected the actual finish and how smart she has been in finishing matches since her return to Japan in 2023.

After the match, Takumi made an observation that is worth highlighting: that Marvelous’s Korakuen Hall numbers are modest, likely in the 600-700s based on the last few shows before they stopped announcing figures, yet they have just done nearly 3,500 at Buntai. She is right to note the discrepancy, and right to credit the backroom staff who made the event possible. She and Chigusa also floated the idea of Nippon Budokan, with Chigusa invoking the venue’s history for her personally, from Tokyo Bakuhatsu Musume with the Crush Gals to Lioness Asuka versus Jaguar Yokota to her own match with Devil Masami. The stated condition was selling out the 8th August Korakuen Hall show. Whether that condition is a work or not given the logistics of booking a venue of that scale on short notice is another question entirely, but it is wrestling so we’ll let it slide. Takumi’s backstage comments hinted at what lies ahead:

The next chapter is already being written.

AAAW Tag Team Title: Magenta (Maria & RIKO) (c) vs. Nightshade & Nyla Rose

In the semi-main event, Maria and RIKO defended the AAAW Tag Team Titles against Nightshade and Nyla Rose. Nightshade was apparently given Takumi’s graphics on the big screen, which is one way to make an entrance. Magenta’s gear looked great. Nightshade and Nyla are solid big workers and this was fun. The crowd was behind the home wrestlers despite them being heels, which is exactly what you want on a show like this, and I understand completely why you bring in recognisable names for your biggest event. So while this match didn’t necessarily have any build, I thought it was pretty good and served its purpose. Nyla took a stair bump right next to where I was sitting, three seats into the aisle, and those are not soft steps, so she’s a psycho for that bump and deserves a hell of a lot of credit for it.

I was actually in the process of talking myself into the booking of the match when Nightshade and Nyla scored the three-count, at which point the people around me were audibly upset, a smattering of “no, no, no” from the surrounding seats (in Japanese, of course). Magenta is wildly popular and that shouldn’t be underrated. To be clear, this is nowhere near as bad as the IInspiration situation in TJPW. Nightshade and Nyla are better workers and they have Marvelous experience and are a part of the family, as Chigusa Nagayo herself said. But the only way this works out is with a meaningful payoff, and the obvious one is a pairing like Senka and Ai eventually taking the titles off them. That is the kind of conclusion that would make this worthwhile. Miu Watanabe and Rika Tatsumi winning the titles off IInspiration never delivered that sense of payoff, and all of the Ober Eats and IInspiration business ended up feeling like poor booking in retrospect. This can go either way and I’m waiting to see what they do with it.

As it happens, the May 12th show offered an early hint at the direction. Nightshade and Nyla faced off against Senka Akatsuki and Sora Ayame, and I will take some credit for this (jokingly). After the BUNTAI show, I had been chatting with Nightshade and I mentioned that I’d love to see them go up against Senka and Sora. Nightshade replied that she had loved working with Senka at Shin-Kiba and would love to do it again. The very next card announced featured exactly that match. Whether Nightshade had some input based on that conversation or not, I don’t care, I’m taking credit!*

*(Editor’s Note: Me when I asked Hangman about why he hadn’t feuded with Jon Moxley yet at Comicpalooza in Houston in 2022. Take your credit where you can, Eric!)

Rin’s Retirement Match: Itsuki Aoki & Mio Momono vs. Mayu Iwatani & Rin

Rin’s retirement match saw her team with her idol Mayu Iwatani against Itsuki Aoki and Mio Momono, a pairing that brought together the three people who mattered most to her in wrestling: her idol, her greatest classmate, and her best tag partner. The setup was poetic, and Mio noted as much herself, observing that she was welcoming Mei Seira back in an earlier match and sending Rin off almost in the same breath.

Mayu came in with a fractured toe and was visibly limping, which set the tone for her role in the match. She got a dropkick in despite the injury, which got a reaction from everyone except Rossy Ogawa, who remained unmoved as he sat at the back of the floor seats. Her best contribution ended up being comedy relief, most memorably when Mio hit a cross body off the balcony and the entire group left Mayu behind, with her taking an age to make her way back to the ring. It worked perfectly, giving the match some levity in between the more serious exchanges between Itsuki and Rin, which carried the bulk of the work alongside Mio, who was a workhorse throughout. The moment of Itsuki not wanting the match to end was awesome, breaking up a pin after Mio’s JK Bomb to big laughter from the crowd. Given that Itsuki genuinely did not know Rin was retiring when the announcement was made (she was the only person in the ring that wasn’t told on that day), there was something real underneath the comedy of it. Rin won the match with a beautiful dragon suplex, using Mayu’s own move to close out her career, which was a fitting end.

Rin retired ten years after her debut on 3rd May 2016, on Marvelous’s first ever proper show. In her retirement promo she was clear that she is done completely, returning to life as a mother with no plans to remain involved in wrestling in any capacity, though she left open the possibility of coming back to witness Mio’s retirement someday. This was a really sweet moment live and there were clearly fans that had come just for this match, with a whole row of fans two rows ahead of me having pom poms and LED lights in Rin’s alternating blue and orange colour scheme. Rin made sure to acknowledge them.

High Speed (10-minute, one-fall): Mei Seira vs. Mio Momono

The first of Mio Momono’s two matches on the night was a High Speed match against Mei Seira – ten minutes, one fall. The format was a GAEA Japan one, which gave it added historical resonance on a show so steeped in that lineage, and the practical reason was that Mio was wrestling twice on the card. The political dimension of Mei’s return to Marvelous should not be understated. She had left alongside Cohaku in an acrimonious split in 2021, and her appearance here represented a burying of the hatchet with Chigusa. Cohaku was not on the card, so perhaps that was a step too far for now. Mio had spoken about Mei in terms she rarely uses for anyone, describing her as the junior she taught from scratch and the first person who ever made her feel competitive during practice. She also came into this match frustrated at not being in the main event, which by her own admission was firing her up.

What followed was an absolutely incredible sprint. I mean, I think this is probably the best 10-minute match I have ever seen. The Checkmeite at the five-minute mark, the dropkicks, the sliding kicks, the top rope Germans, the bumps throughout were just relentless. Mio won with the JK Bomb, and the reaction from the Marvelous faithful around me was something else with people literally jumping out of their seats. Pinning Mei Seira clean, in her first appearance back, as a STARDOM wrestler, clearly meant a great deal to a lot of people in that building. Mio had said beforehand that she felt this was a match only they could put on together, and she was absolutely right.

Afterwards, Mei suggested a tag team. Mio’s response was that it was not finished yet, whether that means a tag or a revenge match, but that for today she needed Mei to leave because she had another match to wrestle. Mei said backstage that she had been nervous about reuniting with Nagayo but that it felt like reuniting with her mother, and that she wants to do more in Marvelous going forward. Whether STARDOM’s schedule allows for that remains to be seen.

One of the major stories on this card that should not be forgotten is that Mei went out and put on basically two MOTYC matches with ease. She is, without a doubt, one of the best wrestlers on the planet, and she would definitely be spoken about in that way if she were more known.

Hardcore: Chikayo Nagashima, Rina Yamashita, VENY & Echika Miyavi vs. Masha Slamovich, Queen Aminata, Jessy Jackson & Johnnie Robbie

This match marked the return to Marvelous for four international talents, including AEW’s Queen Aminata, Jessy Jackson and the former West Coast Pro Women’s Champion Johnnie Robbie, whose promotion has a working relationship with Marvelous. Masha Slamovich’s appearance here marked her return to wrestling following allegations of domestic abuse made against her by former partner and deathmatch wrestler AKIRA, after which she had not worked until now.

On the match itself, an eight-woman hardcore match felt like a potential waste of a Japanese team that included VENY, Echika Miyavi and Rina Yamashita alongside the reliable Chikayo Nagashima, as well as Queen Aminata and Johnnie Robbie on the opposing side. There was probably a better six-person standard match somewhere in that group but I also recognise that these shows will always have cards with big multi-man matches rather than optimising match quality.

The early stretch involved a lot of chair arrangement, as these matches tend to. Echika brought a baseball bat, a nod to her pitching chop, and the spot where she blasted a chair into Masha with it got a big pop. Jessy Jackson was decent and worked well with VENY. The standout moment was the Rina and Masha sequence, which got an insane reaction, culminating in a ladder superplex through tables on the outside, a GCW-style spot between the two that landed exactly as intended. Aminata picked up the win by pinning Echika. It was a perfectly acceptable match, though outside of the VENY interactions and the Rina and Masha table spot, it was hard to invest too heavily.

Ai Houzan, Chigusa Nagayo & Ruka Amahane vs. Aja Kong, Hijiri Saotome & Sora Ayame

This match served a dual purpose, introducing two new recruits in Ruka Amahane, 13, and Hijiri Saotome, 18, while also marking Chigusa Nagayo’s first match in a year. Aja Kong is one of the best veterans you can put in front of debuting rookies, and Nagayo as a wall for Sora and Hijiri made sense on paper. Chigusa had consulted Lioness Asuka about whether she should do this, had her doubts, but came in confident, with Asuka at ringside to support her. Aja’s press conference message was characteristically blunt: if you are going to wrestle me, bring it.

The graphics mixed up Ruka and Hijiri before the match even started, which is not the ideal way to introduce a debuting wrestler. The atmosphere for Chigusa’s entrance was something else entirely, with middle-aged women two rows in front of me screaming their lungs out with pom poms, and fake money raining down from above which people sprinted to collect. The gaijin two seats along the row grabbed a large handful and then distributed them to everyone around him, which was a nice touch. The rookie costumes, all white with their names embroidered, looked great and worked as a twist on the traditional Marvelous rookie swimsuits.

The match had a very old school AJW feel to it. Ai getting beaten up by Aja was good, the crowd were completely invested in Chigusa, and Sora’s shin kicks were over. Chigusa’s own booking came back to bite her somewhat as Sora went to work on her legs, and Sora herself continues to look smoother each time out. The highlight was Ruka being given her own version of the “Senka in Las Vegas” moment, with Aja going for shoot pins and Ruka repeatedly kicking out to the loudest crowd reactions of the match. At 13, simply surviving that long without gassing is an achievement on a debut. The caveat is that Marvelous tend to handicap their rookies heavily, so it is hard to assess either Ruka or Hijiri at this stage. As a point of comparison, Amu Fujiwara in LLPW-X was given the freedom to have a match of the year contender on the Sareee show at a similar age (14). The decision to have Aja finish both rookies rather than going to a time limit draw was deliberate, as Chigusa confirmed backstage that she wanted them to experience what it felt like to lose on a big stage, which I thought was a good touch.

Backstage, Chigusa confirmed that the third rookie, Kanata Suou, 16, will be making her debut at the 8th August Korakuen Hall show. She also mentioned that there are younger students at junior school level who want to become wrestlers but are currently too small for it to be safe, which drew a gentle contrast with the approach taken by promotions like Ice Ribbon and Diana, who seem to find a way regardless. Most significantly, Chigusa spoke about the trauma she had carried around the number ‘10’, the guilt she still felt over GAEA Japan closing after a decade, something she considered her personal responsibility. Marvelous has now surpassed that anniversary, and she said that finally, that trauma is gone.

Miyu Yamashita vs. Senka Akatsuki

The political significance of Miyu Yamashita’s appearance here cannot be overstated. This was her first ever match in another joshi promotion in Japan. She has been wrestling since 2013 and has been the ace of TJPW for the better part of a decade, and in all that time she had never once stepped into another joshi ring in her home country. TJPW simply does not do this. The most plausible explanation is that this was a make-good for Takumi stepping in at “Grand Princess ‘26”, and if some kind of deal was struck to make it happen then credit to Chigusa and Takumi for pulling it off. The matchmaking was also a ten out of ten. Miyu is one of the very best at the veteran versus underdog dynamic, as we have seen her be a wall in TJPW for the last decade, and Senka is the perfect opponent for exactly that structure.

The match delivered. The crowd were loud for Senka throughout, with one fan in the front row going wild for her. They structured it exactly as they should have, bully and underdog, which is what both are best at. I thought it was interesting that Miyu used the Takumi approach to Senka’s Zenjo-style pin, getting out immediately rather than milking the near fall. A running backdrop from Senka looked like a new addition, and her lariat to knock away Miyu’s high kick was awesome. Of course, there was only so long that Senka could resist Miyu’s strikes, and she eventually succumbed to the Skull Kick. The one mild criticism, or nitpick, is that Senka could have been given a bigger near fall moment, one of those “oh-shit” reactions that her matches at Shin-Kiba or Shinjuku FACE tend to generate. It is also true that her style lives and dies on crowd atmosphere, and it is harder to create that atmosphere in a larger building, through no fault of Senka’s so early in her career. It was still an excellent match, though.

Senka’s backstage promo was completely in character, talking about how hard she had been training to beat Miyu because defeating the leader of TJPW was her way of shooting straight to the top. Fully kayfabed, no cracks, just how we like it from Senka. Miyu’s promo was something a bit different. She talked about how nervous she had been, noting that she extended her left hand for the pre-match handshake when she always uses her right, which she attributed to the competitive energy she felt the moment they locked eyes during the entrances. She said she thinks she has found a rival in Senka, that she believes she has found someone she is going to love as a wrestler, and that from the first moment she looked at her she could tell Senka was not an ordinary person. Coming from one of the top wrestlers in the scene, on her first ever appearance in another joshi promotion, those are big words. Miyu also touches on something that Nightshade mentioned to me separately after the show: that wrestlers find working with Senka genuinely fun. The reason is not hard to understand. Her matches are built on fundamentals, crowd connection and performance rather than elaborate spots, and it turns out most wrestlers love exactly that kind of work.

Alan Angels & Ray Lyn vs. Miko Alana & Vinnie Massaro vs. Yosuke Santa Maria & Renee Michelle vs. Kohei Sato & Shin Sakura Hirota

Kohei Sato, the freelance shoot headbutt machine, apparently couldn’t make the show, which in fairness felt somewhat inevitable given that his presence on this card had never quite made sense to me. I’m sure there’s a link there, I just don’t know it! Shin Sakura Hirota brought Titus Alexander out in his place, who was selling exhaustion from the first match, so at least the Titus and Yosuke Santa Maria storyline could be picked up again! Ray Lyn and Renee Michelle were two wrestlers with a combined five weeks of Marvelous appearances between them from roughly a decade ago. Renee attempted a moonsault that she did not quite rotate properly on and required the catchers to do one of the best jobs in their lives to avoid disaster, though she came back from that and hit a nice German suplex on Alan Angels. Sakura Hirota was like the glue that held this match together. The finish was chaotic, with Sakura accidentally shark attacking Titus, Yosuke taking the opportunity to plant a kiss on him following their ongoing storyline, and Sakura then catching Yosuke off guard with a hurricanrana pin for the win. It was fun enough for what it was.

WWE ID Title: Starboy Charlie (c) vs. Titus Alexander

Starboy Charlie and Titus Alexander were called the “Crush Boys” as homage to Chigusa Nagayo’s “Crush Gals”. Titus has always had a deep respect for Chigusa Nagayo, so much so that he has re-based to Japan and become an official member of the Marvelous roster.

The WWE ID Title being on the line is another political minefield they managed to navigate, with an AEW wrestler also on the card. That is only the second time the WWE ID Men’s Title has been defended on a show with an AEW wrestler also scheduled to appear (Willow Nightingale and Cappuccino Jones in Beyond Wrestling). Of course, it’s not like either company actually cared, more of a trivia fact than anything else. This was also likely one of their last times wrestling each other as Charlie gets sucked in more to the WWE system and chases his dream. They were not holding back and they were basically doing all the crazy stuff they have probably workshopped over drinks over all the years. It was an incredibly fun spotfest, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. The Big Ugly was not going to appear given the result was never really in doubt, and Chazz finished the match with a clean Dragon Sleeper tap out. It was a good opener that set the right tone for the evening.

Chihiro Hashimoto’s Wrestler of the Year Run Continues – Live Report

25th April 2026
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase vs. Miku Kanae & VENY, Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Yurika Oka
Designation: Key Show

This was geared up to be my first show of my Golden Week trip (arriving a bit earlier for STARDOM’s “All Star Grand Queendom” show), but I snuck in a TJPW Shinjuku FACE show the evening before, travelling there straight from the airport. But, let’s pretend this was my first show. It was a pleasant welcome back to the country and a wonderful way to ease my way back into the Japanese live show experience. A lot of interesting things happened to me on this show, perhaps too much for a first show. Firstly, I was surprised to see Debbie Keitel in the building, or rather, I wasn’t expecting it. I was planning to meet and greet with her at the later Diana shows and discuss potential interviews, but it made sense as Debbie and Hyperactive, and Anita in particular, go way back to their days in EVE, so she was seconding for them at ringside.

Then, at ringside, I was blindsided by a friend who I had no idea would be at the same show. I had sat next to them at the Tokyo Dome in January and we were part of the same friendship group for a few years, but apparently we didn’t communicate enough to know we’d be at the exact same show at the same time, so when I got a tap on the shoulder at the intermission I almost jumped out of my skin. Finally, as if that wasn’t weird enough, after the show, I was quite hungry and went into the first yakiniku place I saw next to Shin-Kiba station. Then, around ten minutes into my meal, Meiko Satomura walked into the same restaurant. Obviously, I was starstruck. She shakes hands with everyone leaving the venue at each show, so I figured she must have remembered me, not because I’m remarkable, but because I am pretty easy to spot in a crowd of Japanese fans. Lunch is a red line you don’t cross, so I pretended I didn’t see her at all as she was eating with the ring announcer and I wanted to leave her in peace. I paid for my food, and then she gave a wave and a smile on the way out. I guess she did remember me.

The opener saw YUNA take on ZONES, featuring some interesting leg work. YUNA looked excellent here and came across as one of the most improved wrestlers in 2026. She radiates a positive energy that is hard not to get swept up in. She made sure to look directly into my lens (see picture above), which I found interesting given her recent blogs in Shupro where she spoke about her own photography hobby and how she as a wrestler will deliberately try to look at people’s cameras so they can get their perfect shot. Well, thank you, YUNA.

Mika Iwata and Miyuki Takase against Miku Kanae and VENY was a close match of the night. If you’re surprised, then just remember that I am a VENY superfan. The chemistry between all four was excellent and the crowd got very into it. Iwata’s kicks are the real thing, stiff and clean. Like, you think she’s maybe adding a thigh slap there or something, and she isn’t. She’s actually just kicking that hard. It’s quite ludicrous. Her exchanges with VENY were particularly good, and Miku Kanae was outstanding throughout. A really fun match.

Manami and Ryo Mizunami against Spike Nishimura and Stephanie Maze featured Mizunami laying into Maze with chops for what felt like a very long time, leaving Maze’s chest in a bad way by the end of it. Spike followed up with her train of lariats to Manami. It did go on quite a bit, and the thought occurred more than once that Spike could have stepped in to cut the chop sequence short at any point, so Spike became a bit of a heel to me. Spike’s ringside antics with YUNA were entertaining, at least. There was loud drilling from next door that provided quite the backing track to the match.

Chihiro Hashimoto against Yurika Oka was just a banger. The technical work was excellent from the opening moments, right down to details like how Hashimoto transitions out of holds. Yurika’s attempts to take Hashimoto’s arm to the limit were the standout sequences of the match, with Hashimoto selling them as if it were a shoot. Yurika’s takedowns into armbar attempts were creative throughout, and there was a particularly smart piece of work after a splash where she held onto Hashimoto’s arm during the pin, already set to transition to the armbar the moment she felt Hashimoto begin to kick out. Yurika hit the rotating splash twice, stepping on Hashimoto on her way to the top rope in defiant fashion, and came close on a few occasions before eventually falling to a running lariat. Post-match, Yurika drew a big laugh by referring to Hashimoto as “Chihiro,” with Hashimoto apparently responding in polite form. From what I gathered with my ‘Baka Japanese’, anyway. ZONES then came out to make a challenge for the next show.

Hyperactive (Anita Vaughan & Safire Reed) took on Reiwa Ultimate Powers (DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto) in the main event, with Debbie Keitel in their corner. They fit in well, Saf in particular, though Anita’s lariat sequence with Matsumoto was a highlight, too. Anita picked up the pin over Chisako, suggesting the two are being pushed seriously. A tag title match between the teams was announced for 22nd May at Sendai PIT.

© OZ Academy

“OZ30th & Ozaki40th ~ Bloom, Pray”

10th May 2026
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: GAORA SPORTS
Recommended Match: AKINO vs. Yuki Funa
Designation: Key Show

Following the Korakuen Hall show on 26th April, Saori Anou lost to Unagi Sayaka in a singles match, meaning she was subject to one request from Unagi. Unagi asked her to team with her despite not being in the same unit. Saori Anou accepted, with the caveat that as soon as they lost one tag match, they would then disband. Despite not being a formal member of Seiki-gun as she is a member of Phantom Limit, Unagi came out dressed in all black to match Saori. Unagi was up against members of her own unit, Cohaku and Misa Kagura. Before the bell, Misa was in absolute tears and glaring at Unagi, who had essentially betrayed her faction by choosing to team with Saori Anou. It’s sort of like “Oh, we’re not good enough for you but Saori is?” It was an emotionally charged main event, mostly buoyed by Misa’s amazing performance, who continues to be one of the best wrestlers on the independent scene. Of course, Unagi pinned Misa clean. So the tag team with Saori continues and Misa doesn’t get her revenge. Unagi convinced Saori to go after the tag team belts.

Power Gojizones Alliance (Hiroyo Matsumoto & Itsuki Aoki) faced Tomoka Inaba and Honoka. Honoka was a replacement for Miku Kanae, who had sustained an eye injury on the Sendai Girls show hours prior. Miku Kanae apologised for her absence after the intermission break. She seemed to be in tears. Japanese culture is a whole different thing. The match itself was won by Matsumoto pinning Honoka. Given the four workers in this match, you already know it was good.

AKINO gave SEAdLINNNG rookie Yuki Funa a lot of time in their singles match. Yuki has been picking up quite a few OZ Academy bookings, and this match made me realise that AKINO and Mayumi Ozaki may have taken a certain liking to Yuki. The match went almost 15 minutes and Yuki was given a lot of nearfalls and kickouts. It was the type of match structure that immediately tells you what the veteran thinks of the rookie. And, to be fair to Yuki, she grasped the opportunity with both hands and looked very good, even eliciting the crowd to chant for her towards the end of the match, despite not being as well known as the other wrestlers. She even did a rare springboard crossbody off the turnbuckle which I haven’t seen her do before (or I’ve forgotten, which is very possible). As far as rookie vs. vet match ups go, this was a really good iteration of one. I’d recommend it just if you wanted a preview of what Yuki Funa is about.

Little Goblins (my English translation of Chibikko Gurentai until we get confirmation from OZ Academy), consisting of Kaori Yoneyama, Momoka Hanazono & Ram Kaicho, faced Power Gojizones Alliance (Rina Yamashita, Ryo Mizunami & ZONES). The last time these units faced off in a six-person tag, the Little Goblins worked together using party poppers to get a pin on Hiroyo Matsumoto, setting up Momoka for an unsuccessful title shot on 26th April. During that match on 8th March, Yamashita had been shot by a party popper, and her death was mourned by ZONES. In a callback to that moment, Yamashita took a party popper in this match, opened her mouth, and shot, committing suicide. ZONES attempted to avenge her death running wild with lariats, but of course, her undoing would be another popper and a roll up from Kaicho.

Jaguar Yokota picked up a double win against Seiki-gun members Kakeru and Mayumi Ozaki in the semi-main event.

“JUMP UP！2026”

17th April 2026
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Honori Hana & Unagi Sayaka vs. Selene Misora & VENY (I wrote this here before the match, it was guaranteed), Ayame Sasamura vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto
Designation: Key Show

SEAdLINNNG has become one of my five favourite promotions, sitting alongside STARDOM, Ice Ribbon, AWG and DDT, and the past year has done a great deal to earn that placement. The transformation over the past year, accelerating since Arisa Nakajima’s retirement in 2024, has seen the promotion shift away from its previous model of top freelancers coming in for showcase bouts and towards something far more interesting, a rookie promotion with real developmental ambition. What SEAd does better than almost anyone outside of STARDOM is give their young wrestlers hooks, storylines and rivalries that extend well beyond what happens between the ropes, building threads that could pay off five or ten years down the line. That is difficult to execute and they have done it close to perfection. The “SEED STAGE” series is the best regular show on the independent scene and it is not close: Ayame Sasamura is the new top champion in the promotion, Honori Hana is a champion, VENY wrestles on almost every show, the production and branding are strong, and the promotion currently houses the ‘feud of the year’ in Honori Hana against Selene Misora. SEAdLINNNG feels like it’s firing on all cylinders.

The Beyond The Sea title match served as the final of a tournament Ayame Sasamura herself suggested back in December, following a significant undercard win that gave her the confidence to propose it, with Beyond The Sea Champion Hiroyo Matsumoto accepting and going further by putting the title on the line in every tournament match. The two best wrestlers in the bracket made it to the final as expected, with MIRAI having been knocked out in the first round by Matsumoto. Ayame has been a tag champion in SEAd but had yet to have her singles moment, and with SEAd being something of a home away from 2AW for her, my hope was firmly that this would be her time. Matsumoto, in her 20th year and on a run of outstanding performances, was a great dance partner for Ayame. In the press conference on 9th April, Matsumoto spoke about how she thought Sasamura wasn’t ready to be declared the strongest. It was too early. She was happy she made the final, but she questioned Sasamura’s resolve to reach the top. She questioned Sasamura wanting it badly enough. Sasamura acknowledged that she had never beaten Hiroyo Matsumoto. But, she said, SEAdLINNNG is an organisation that has helped her grow since she was a rookie, so that’s why she had the resolve to organise the tournament and advance to the final. That same resolve would carry her to a win in the main event at Korakuen Hall. Sasamura finished by saying “Matsumoto, you said that I don’t scare you. That’s simply because you don’t know enough about me.”

Ayame told Sasamura what she’s about as she pinned Hiroyo Matsumoto to become the new Beyond The Sea Champion in a match built around a compelling dynamic, with Matsumoto spending much of the first half trying to survive an onslaught from Ayame rather than the more traditional story of the big champion dominating until the inevitable babyface comeback. Ayame’s hard elbows made an early statement and her babyface work throughout was great as always, with the crowd firmly behind her. The standout moment of the first half was a hurricanrana reversal on the outside into a diving double-footed stomp, with Matsumoto’s selling so convincing that it seemed like a legitimate injury. One example of this was Matsumoto sandbagging as Ayame tried to pick her up and prompting a referee check. The second half shifted the dynamic as Matsumoto began unloading with lariats, including a running lariat that Ayame bumped like a maniac for, but Ayame kept on kicking out of Matsumoto’s lariats. The finish was smartly constructed, with Matsumoto’s signature rotating powerbomb looking like the end before Ayame countered into a sit-out cradle for a nearfall. If you watch a lot of these matches, you know that if that counter pin is not the finish, then the pin straight after it also isn’t. But, Ayame followed up with a schoolboy that actually got the three. Ayame was crying as she posed with the title to close out the show. This was a great feel-good moment.

My current favourite rivalry in wrestling marked a new chapter as Honori Hana & Unagi Sayaka defended their Beyond The Sea Tag Titles against Selene Misora & VENY. There are two dynamics to this rivalry, the first is between Honori and VENY. Their history stretches back to VENY’s time as champion when Honori challenged her in a gruelling hard-hitting bout that left VENY with a hematoma on her forehead from a shoot headbutt. Ever since, they have been out for each other, almost as if it’s on sight, brawling and beating the crap out of each other. VENY considers Honori to be an annoying, disrespectful junior who needs to learn her place. Then there’s the feud between Honori and Selene. Selene is Honori’s junior who debuted on 17th June 2025. Selene’s characteristic trait is her unshakable confidence for her level of experience. She delivers promos with an ice cold touch and isn’t afraid to throw stiff forearms into veterans, which is why VENY took a liking to her after their singles match in September 2025. But Honori is a psychopathic, territorial, rampaging dumb jock wrestler who won’t let the new shiny toy of Arisa Nakajima get any footing on what she considers her own patch, as the most experienced of the SEAdLINNNG contracted wrestlers. That has led to heated battles, including a fiery tag match on 10th February 2026 that left Selene bleeding after Honori shoot headbutt her. After receiving medical attention briefly, Selene got back up and slapped Honori Hana right in the face and finished the match. That was around 10 matches into her career by the way. They replayed that moment in the video package before the match on the Korakuen Hall show and it still made me shudder.

At the press conference on 9th April, VENY asked Selene how she was feeling. Selene said she was in perfect shape. VENY told Selene to make sure she doesn’t get sick (referring to Selene missing the 19th March show which had a preview tag scheduled) and to not get injured (referring to the shoot headbutt Honori gave her on the February tag). VENY then turned to Honori and asked her if she had been training twice as hard as everyone else, a comment VENY had made to her after the aforementioned title match in May 2025. Honori said that she was. VENY then totally ignored Unagi Sayaka, just like I have in the write-up of this build. Selene didn’t take kindly to Honori’s comments about how good her and Unagi are and they brawled briefly before sitting down, indicating the pure hatred they had for each other. VENY said that in her previous title matches, she has always gone into them thinking that she didn’t mind dying as long as she wrestled the best she could, and she questioned whether Honori and Unagi would ever have a resolve that strong. She was asked her thoughts on Selene, before ending she would help teach her a special little technique:

Well, then. That’s pretty much exactly what VENY did. This match was absolutely insane if you’ve been following the rivalry and understand all of the characters and the fact that they are still essentially rookies. Honori Hana was the star of this match as VENY followed through on her promise and launched a chair straight into Honori’s skull outside of the ring early in the match. You then immediately saw Honori fall to the ground and be covered by staff members including Natsuki Taiyo. I was thinking, “Wait, she’s not doing a blade job, is she?” The camera switched to Unagi and Selene brawling, and sure enough, after a minute or so, Honori emerged with a goddamn crimson mask. I went absolutely ballistic and started DM’ing people who I knew wouldn’t care about spoilers because I couldn’t keep it to myself. What other promotion would allow their rookies to do blade jobs (don’t argue about Honori being a rookie or not)? This promotion is psychotic, and it’s incredible. Honori was bleeding buckets and Selene was just shoving her foot into Honori’s face while VENY provided direction by just standing in the corner and barking orders at Selene. Selene complied and started biting at Honori’s wound. Reminder, Selene has had less than 20 matches and is already doing deathmatch spots. Honori was not doing well and badly wanted to tag Unagi in, so VENY just sprinted across the ring, booted Unagi off the apron, and slapped Honori around the face for even trying to escape. This match had already made it into low-level MOTYC territory for me for deciding to do a blade job, it was like the rest of the match could have been a disaster and I wouldn’t have cared. The rest of the match was still awesome, though, so this match launched into one of my favourite matches. Ever. I won’t go through all the spots, but Selene had been fully inducted into VENY’s faction Las Fresa de Egoístas as she used a ref bump so she could blast Honori over the head with the unit’s branded wooden board. She attempted to win the same way she had done on 28th February, which was an awesome callback and near fall. Honori retained the title with her frog splash. Incredible stuff, and more vindication for why I’ve been calling it the ‘feud of the year’.

Miria Koga has been on record about who her favourite wrestler is. It’s Syuri. Syuri inspired her to begin wrestling, and Miria has clearly moulded her wrestling style after Syuri including utilising a lot, and I mean a lot, of kicks. On the previous SEAd show, SEAd coach Natsuki Taiyo and SEAd GM Arisa Nakajima announced that they had booked Syuri to face Miria on this show. Miria clearly did not know and was shocked and you could see she was about to break out crying but held strong. Sometimes, that’s the only hook you need to be invested in a match. You don’t always need some crazy Tam Nakano-style storyline, even though they’re incredible, sometimes you can build a match with one announcement. Miria said that it was around five years ago when she was a SEAd trainee that Syuri told her they should meet in the ring one day, and now it had finally come true for her. The crowd were firmly behind her throughout, popping loudly for her bridge out of a pin and they were hot during her comeback. She even landed her signature German Suplex on Syuri. There was a moment where Miria started firing kicks at Syuri before running the ropes, only to eat a devastating head kick in response. Eventually, though, Syuri submitted Miria, ending a good match, and a positive showing for Miria.

Las Fresa de Egoístas (Makoto, Mima Shimoda & Nagisa Nozaki) beat Chanyota, MIRAI & YuuRI in a six-woman tag match. This was a well-worked solid match and the standard “outside talent” offer match on a SEAd big show.

Ka Kedita, La Pidita, Madison Marley, Mio Shirai, Natsu Sumire & Yuki Funa competed in a high-speed battle royale, and one of the better examples of the format. Mio Shirai provided some fun spots by repeatedly forgetting the rules and throwing in a big boot before attempting a pin, which does not count under high speed rules, with the crowd chanting for her to run the ropes. In high speed rules, you have to run the ropes twice and then do a pin, with no other moves in between. The highlight was Yuki Funa eliminating Natsu Sumire which was a meaningful moment for someone yet to register a singles win nearly a year on from her debut, and despite Natsu being Natsu, she was very recently the tag team champion. My hope was that Yuki would go on to take the match, given the momentum she had built over the last few weeks with her improving performances, but it was not to be. Yuki is one of the four contracted SEAd wrestlers. She was injured in her debut in March 2025 before returning in July 2025 looking quite green, but she has improved a lot over the past few months. She’s just doing her own thing, improving consistently while Honori and Selene beat each other’s brains out.

Fresh rookie Lana Hisaki faced PURE-J Openweight Champion Hanako Nakamori in the opener. It was a good showing from Lana in just her fourth match, bringing an intensity that stands out for someone at her stage, even if the nerves are still visibly written all over her face. Her willingness to put veterans in Torture Racks and similar non-rookie offence signals a clear vision for how she is being presented, and it is an interesting one. Hanako worked well as the experienced vet, and while she is no longer the most mobile wrestler, a working kicking leg is all she needs, which Lana appeared to be feeling the effects of judging by the way she was telegraphing an incoming kick by bracing while running the ropes.

Tournament #46 (did not make tape) – Live Report

29th April 2026
2AW Square, Chiba, Japan
Designation: Key Show

This was the first joint show under the same banner for EVO and 2AW, held in 2AW’s headquarters in Chiba. Also, I believe this show did not yet make tape, so enjoy a Social Suplex exclusive! As a gaijin in what is presumably not a regular stop for foreign fans, the welcome from the other attendees was notably warm, with polite acknowledgements throughout. There was even an apparent suggestion from someone in the toilet queue that I might be a professional wrestler, which is one way to be made to feel at home. A Shupro photographer was present and I ended up in a few of the published photos, which was cool. During and after the show, there were brief encounters with several of the roster. Yuka Satsuki was awesome. I have discussed her quite a few times on the Joshi’ing Around Podcast and in reviews here and there in the newsletter. She’s an incredibly promising up and coming rookie, moving at the speed of light for someone of her size. Well, her personality was just as bubbly as you think it would be. She was very confident with impressive English. Chi Chi was surprisingly relaxed and obviously fluent in English. It was actually hard for me to stop with my broken Japanese because I was so used to it, and you could tell she had a look like “Come on man, just speak English.” Ayame Sasamura was also lovely, so all in all this was a great show for meet and greets. Chiba was very easy to get to, because the Japanese actually invest into their public infrastructure rather than let it rot and have its citizens rely on personal vehicles. I had no issues getting to the venue from my hotel in Iidabashi. I think it took me around 90 minutes, but it didn’t feel that long.

Yuka Satsuki opened against ZONES, and she was every bit as impressive in person as on tape. She was pulling out the inverted Boston leg work, and her expressiveness and rope speed are even more incredible when you are there to see them. Yuka announced at the end of the show that she is now dual contracted, which felt inevitable given the recent purchase of EVO.

The three-way between Chi Chi, Chika and Mio Shirai was something of a surprise, as, for some reason, I got confused and expected the Chi Chi and Sumika Yanagawa singles match for the title here. Given we were in the middle of nowhere, I thought Mio Shirai might spot me and ask me to leave the show or something (that might be a deep cut). Chi Chi was excellent in this, at one point absolutely lighting up Chika with forearms and chops in that competitive, fired-up way she does so well.

Ayumu Honda and Kengo Mashimo worked over Hyo Ogawa for most of their tag match against Ogawa and Shuji Ishikawa. Hyo was better than expected, showing athleticism with kip-ups and back flips, a great dropkick, solid crowd connection, a fun look and good arm selling throughout. It was actually my first time seeing him as I had skipped a lot of Up Town shows. He tapped out to Mashimo in the end.

The tag between Hiroshi Yamato and Suwama against Mitsuya Nagai and his son Ryunosuke was also fun. Ryunosuke, who debuted against Go Shiozaki in December 2025, is big and beefy and was visibly taking instructions from his father during the match before getting destroyed by Suwama, who was as stiff as ever. Yamato was working in his All Japan Jr singlet, busting out gator rolls and reminding everyone of the past he had.

The show closed with Ayame Sasamura against Soy, a rematch from very early in Soy’s career, and this one was considerably more even. Ayame was an absolute sicko throughout, no-selling offence and just blasting Soy with strikes. She is a great babyface but she plays the bully role just as convincingly. Soy was pretty good, though it was hard to take your eyes off Ayame. The post-match was a highlight in itself, with the seconds doing great work tending to Soy in a way that made you think she was actually hurt. This was a breezy, 90-minute show, in a quiet area with not so many people such that you could enjoy your meet and greets. This ended up being one of my favourite shows on my Golden Week trip due to those combining factors.

“Kitazawa Ribbon” #1487 – Live Report

26th April 2026
Kitazawa Town Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Kirari Wakana & Yuuka vs. Makoto & Sumika Yanagawa
Designation: Key Show

One of my favourite things to do is watch Ice Ribbon at Kitazawa Town Hall. It’s central enough that it feels like Tokyo, but not as crowded as places like Kabukicho where Shinjuku FACE is, and not as far out as Shin-Kiba or TOKYOSQUARE. It was quite a hot day so it wasn’t my smartest choice to dress in all-black, and I had to leave to go to STARDOM’s biggest show of the year shortly after, so I was in a bit of a time crunch, but there is no way I could miss this Ice Ribbon show. When I was seated, President Hajime Sato came up to me showing me his phone with a translation, asking me if I had picked my “prize” up. It was obviously a mistranslation, but then he walked away and ushered me to follow him. I obviously followed him without question. I am just lucky I was addicted to games and didn’t hang around street corners as a kid. Apparently I had bought a VIP ticket and so I was due an acrylic stand, so I got a Riko one (it’s one of those lottery ones). When I got back to my seat I noticed there was a lovely group of Brits sitting right behind me. I never spoke to them, because we are Brits (I did eventually speak to them when we ran into each other for the umpteenth time at Actwres girl’Z). Yuuka was randomly doing bumps in the ring before the show. I have no idea why. I have never seen wrestlers test the mat, only the ropes. Maybe Yuuka is just built like that.

I was most excited for the main event. I am a huge Yuuka fan, ever since her return, and I think Kirari Wakana has improved massively over the past six months and is one of the best rookies in the scene. I think the switch happened around her match with Haruka Umesaki in September, that was the first time I thought, “Wait a second, she’s amazing.” Sometimes you just need that light bulb moment, and that match felt like one for her. I was praying for them to win the titles. It felt like a suitable storyline for Kirari and Yuuka if they weren’t going to go after the top title, and Mystic Eclipse (Makoto & Sumika Yanagawa) were really a makeshift tag team that seemed put together to get the titles off of Manami Katsu ahead of her unexplained hiatus. Well, they didn’t win, but the main event delivered. Kirari and Yuuka came out all guns blazing against the International Ribbon Tag Champions only to have their momentum absorbed and then overpowered. Kirari was an excellent babyface throughout. The match was just total chaos, with everyone pinging around the ring like maniacs, and with me sitting in the front row on the camera side, it felt like there was a wrestler next to my feet at every point in the fight. At one point Sumika got dropped on her head with a double team underhook suplex, but she still managed to pick up the pin on Kirari with her finisher, the 1010, for their second defence. I was too emotionally invested in this match for it to not be great, and it appeared that Kirari and Yuuka were too.

After the match, Sumika grabbed the mic and, while celebrating the retention, let something slip. She announced that her ambition for the year was to win every belt in Ice Ribbon, her eyes drifting towards the Triangle Ribbon Title around Makoto’s waist. Makoto seemed more amused than worried, noting that she had thought Sumika was a laid-back sort and was surprised to find out she was so greedy. Sumika confirmed that she was. Makoto then addressed the crowd directly, announcing that this year marked both her twentieth anniversary as a wrestler and Ice Ribbon’s twentieth anniversary as a promotion, the two being tied together given the founding date of June 20th. She invited everyone back to the venue on that date to celebrate. Both Kirari and Yuuka were visibly emotional during the post-match handshakes. They were actually devastated and it hit me so hard. Yuuka was actually sobbing while going around and shaking the fans hands. She didn’t look any of us in the eye as she was crying. Kirari was equally distraught. Not only were their performances incredible bell-to-bell, but also in the post-match.

The semi-main was a great tag match. Umino and Fujita were as stiff as ever against each other, with Umino drawing blood from Fujita’s chest with an early chop. Kaho has been quietly developing into more than just a technically sound wrestler, her strikes in particular looking very crisp. Umino pinned Kaho to build momentum heading into their ICExFinity Title match, and the win felt well-timed.

The opener between Hikari Minami & Moe Hiiro and Mase Hiiro & Nanami Hatano was a fun start to the show. Hikari picked up the win for her team with a double fisherman suplex, both she and Moe showing off great bridges in the process.

Yappy taking on Shiono was less a competitive match and more a masterclass in patience, with Yappy essentially coaching Shiono through the bout in real time, including how to properly lock up. It was a fun twist on a match that Yappy could do with someone that was very inexperienced. Shiono did at least manage to crank a Boston crab hard enough to catch Yappy off guard, which was funny. Shiono apparently asked to join Bad Butts after the match, but well, she’s retired now so that’s not happening.

“Season 2 Episode 2” – 15th Anniversary No. 2

19th April 2026
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Debbie Keitel vs. Haruka Umesaki
Designation: Key Show

Diana held their second major show of the year celebrating their 15th anniversary, with the first held on 24th January in Kawasaki. The third will be back in Kawasaki in July with the fourth and final taking place in Korakuen Hall in October. In the main event, Diana’s indisputable ace Haruka Umesaki regained the WWWD Title from Debbie Keitel, the same title that Umesaki had vacated on 14th December in order to allow an even playing field for the anniversary year. Keitel had won the vacated title in a match against Nanami, but her solid title run had come to an end at the hands of the inevitable. The result made Umesaki a double champion as she also holds the WWWD Tag Team Title with Unagi Sayaka. Backstage, Umesaki regretted the fact that they did not draw 1,000 fans, so despite the crowd looking decently packed and loud, the unannounced number could be estimated to be around 700 to 900, which is normally just above the number they do. Umesaki said that it felt like they were still far from that goal and she wanted to work hard to get there.

The crowd were red hot throughout in what was probably the hottest atmosphere a Diana match has seen at Korakuen Hall in a long time. Umesaki came out aggressive from the off, given Debbie’s unit had been causing problems for her and Nanami for the best part of a year, with her signature elbow strike landing early, though Debbie was perhaps a touch too quick to recover from it. The match ended up sprawling into a brawl among the orange seats before returning to the ring with an extended submission segment, with Umesaki working over Debbie’s leg. I enjoyed the way Debbie sold her leg when she was doing her signature double knees and facewash spots. Debbie landed a Midnight Espresso and her running knee, a move that has finished matches before, before going to a middle rope Midnight Espresso, all to no avail, and by that point it was clear Umesaki was winning. A running forearm, a German suplex and the Blast sealed the win and the title for Umesaki, who can go on to build an eventual big match with Nanami.

Ayaka (Ayako Sato & Hanako Nakamori) against Prominence (Hiragi Kurumi & Mochi Natsumi) was a pleasant surprise. Hiragi Kurumi in particular produced her best performance in a long time, a noticeable step up from her Korakuen Hall WAVE Tag Team Title outing in February, throwing hellish lariats, moving well, landing a great cannonball and an awesome side slam, with Ayako Sato bumping like a maniac throughout. Sato won with the dragon suplex on Hiragi.

The team of veterans Jaguar Yokota, Kyoko Inoue & Tomoka Watanabe against Mizuki Kato, Nanami Hatano & Unagi Sayaka in a best 2 out of 3 falls match overdelivered considerably. The two out of three falls stipulation made sense once it became clear the reason behind it. Kyoko Inoue allowed Nanami to flash pin her in the first fall, with Kyoko smart enough to know that a fall in a multi-fall match will never be recorded as a loss while still giving Nanami something meaningful. Kyoko of course got her win back in the deciding fall by pinning Nanami. Kyoko famously does not get beaten, with her last singles match loss against a Diana talent being to Sareee in 2019 in under 2 minutes, so without any hijinks it was Sareee again in 2018. Kato was getting big pops for her running splash on Kyoko, Jaguar was taking an extraordinary number of bumps for someone of her age and standing, and Watanabe and Kyoko were busting out Germans on Kato and Nanami. The crowd were hot throughout and this ended up being an enjoyable match.

Anna, Honoka, Maika Ozaki & Misa Kagura faced Cosmic, Makoto, Rina Amikura & Tarlee in a Captain’s Fall match where the captain is only revealed upon elimination. Anna debuted new gear, a long overdue upgrade over her grandma-knitted jumper, while Cosmic, who seems to be Algerian based on her gear colours and symbols, was a solid presence and exactly the kind of overseas wrestler that is welcome on the Japanese independents, showing up purely for the love of it. Tarlee is a new addition to the foreigners, coming from Australia. The match’s unexpected highlight was the crowd’s reaction to Anna, who had a remarkably strong connection with the Korakuen Hall audience, with Tarlee and Cosmic working her over to reactions that felt like I was watching someone bully a beloved figure. Anna’s selling remains a work in progress, with some moments against Makoto where she barely sold the offence, so imagine much more heated the crowd could have been! The closing stretch saw Makoto revealed as her team’s last survivor and the captain, somehow surviving a three-on-one handicap long enough to eliminate Misa Kagura and pin Anna, who turned out to be the captain all along, for the win.

In the opener, Miran against Tabata felt like a wasted opportunity for Miran, and nothing in the match changed that view. The match was largely Miran running at full speed doing impressive things. There was an attempted suicide dive that saw Tabata’s foot catch the rope and send her straight to the floor which summed up my thoughts on her performance in the match. A flying octopus attempt had to be aborted and restarted when Tabata was not ready. Miran still found ways to impress before winning with the lionsault, and the Mei Seira and AZM comparisons continue to feel apt, not as a sum of the two but in the sense that she carries bits of both in her style. She is a “time travel” wrestler for me, one where I have a growing impatience to see what she will become in five years.

“Season 2 Episode 3 – Future Sight” – Live Report

29th April 2026
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Designation: Key Show

Diana held a show in their Post di Amistad venue in Kawasaki on 29th April, and it turned out to be quite a memorable outing for a few reasons beyond the wrestling itself. This was my first time in Kawasaki, and as someone who moved away from London – due to how busy and loud it was – to a smaller, quieter city, I appreciated Kawasaki being the same analogue of that to Tokyo. At this show, a mutual friend was in attendance for what turned out to be a farewell of sorts as he headed back home, and he left me with a Natsuko Tora acrylic stand, a parting gift in return for a beer I had bought him at the Tokyo Dome back in January. Then, unexpectedly, Misa Kagura was there. She was not on the card but was working as a second. Misa Kagura is one of my favourite wrestlers and I had met her at an Ice Ribbon show in January. The most shocking thing was during the meet-and-greet after this show, Misa had managed to remember my name from months prior. Not a Japanese name either. I don’t know how that’s actually possible and might be the most impressive memory recall I have ever seen with my own eyes.

Not to get parasocial, but it did feel like we ended up chatting like old friends despite the language barrier and despite it only being the second time I had met her. After she had been pulled from some recent appearances, I asked how she was doing and she pointed to her head, which is never a good sign, but thankfully I’m not fluent in Japanese so I can pretend that she’s all fine. She responded by asking whether I had stayed in Japan since the show in Kitazawa in January – once again, a great memory. As I was purchasing a photo portrait, she pointed out her white costume in some of the photo shoots and excitedly asked me if I knew who Hanako Nakamori was, since it was her costume. I smugly showed her my PURE-J review which included a photo of her in that costume, and she was very excited. I finished up by asking whether she would ever come to the UK to wrestle and she said, essentially, that it was too expensive. Hey, EVE, Dann Read – I’ll buy out all the seats. Just make it happen.

Debbie Keitel, of course, was also there. I had handed her a business card at Sendai Girls a few days prior, so we already had an initial meeting point, and I mentioned to her how jarring the contrast is between her in-ring character and her out of the ring. She said she hears that a lot. She introduced me to Fuwa Taishi and Sami – more of that in an upcoming feature. Finally, I briefly met Ice Ribbon rookie Kirari Wakana, who appears to be picking up English pretty quickly and was kind enough to compliment my Japanese in return. I think she was just being nice. But she is just as eccentric as you’d expect. Definitely a unique individual and I ended up wanting to support her more, so I guess the wrestlers were doing their jobs! On to the show!

Kirari Wakana versus Mizuki Kato opened things up and was a pretty good match. Kato is just as loud in person, and Kirari was laying her shots in. Kato’s dropkick is awesome. It needs to be a finisher. It’s too good. Kirari and Kato both held on for quite some time, including a diving double foot stomp and Kato’s splash, before Kato got the submission with a modified Argentine backbreaker. Mizuki Kato is also a really fun presence at ringside, constantly interacting with the fans between bouts.

Anna and Nanami Hatano faced Ayako Sato and Non Toraga in a tag match. Anna clearly loves dishing out punishment more than receiving it, and her dropkick is improving with each match. The referee involvement was, if anything, more irritating live than on screen. Why is he so bad at preventing Invader or Innovator from cheating?!

Debbie Keitel and Himiko took on Miran and Saran in the best match of the night. Miran is just insane, and Debbie kept pace with her throughout, which is a testament to how good Debbie is. You can clearly see Debbie having the time of her life wrestling Miran.

Haruka Umesaki versus Australian wrestler Tarlee I did not take many notes on, largely because there were about seven wrestlers surrounding me at the time! Tarlee’s partner, who appeared to be the only other non-Japanese person in attendance besides me and my friend, was watching from the audience. I only clocked that he was Tarlee’s boyfriend as I spotted him walking with Tarlee after the show past the BBQ Olive Garden I was sitting at and munching on some chicken. Tarlee was visibly limping, so hopefully she’s alright now.

“Season 2 Episode 5” – Live Report

5th May 2026
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Designation: Key Show

The show on 5th May at Post di Amistad had plenty going on before a bell was even rung. The most surreal moment came when Alessandro from HypeTalkTV walked into the building. He is a YouTuber I support and whose work inspired me to start seeking out my own interviews with wrestlers, so I went over to introduce myself and told him as much, which he seemed happy to hear about. He was generous with interviewing tips. He also told me to say hello to Thom Fein at the Marvelous show right after. (I did not do that.) I also had a brief chat with Miran, told her I thought she was the best wrestler for her age, and she was happy to hear it and wanted to practise her English with me. She let me know in English that she studies it at high school. It was sweet.

Anna took on Kaho Kobayashi in a fun opener. Kaho destroyed Anna with some nasty dropkicks. It was actually more brutal than I’m used to seeing from Kaho. Anna still has work to do on the selling side, which we all know as she is very early in her career, standing in position a bit too long at times, but her improvement on the offensive side should really not go unnoticed.

The six-woman tag pitting Tradition and Inherited against Grace of Royalty was a pretty good match. Umesaki and Nanami had some interactions that were fun to watch, and they badly need to have a singles match at some point.

Ayako Sato vs. Miran was great, and Miran was breathtaking. Miran tapped out to a cross-arm face submission, but this was another strong showing from someone who is becoming very hard to ignore. Given the concentration of matches happening during Golden Week, they were not going to go all out at this point in the card, as these two on a Korakuen Hall show would tear the house down.

Debbie Keitel and Mizuki Kato faced Honoka and Kyoko Inoue as Honoka was a substitute for Himiko. There was a funny side storyline going on around the apron, as Honoka repeatedly tried to knock Mizuki off the apron while Mizuki completely no-sold the whole thing several times. It was hilarious. Mizuki’s dropkick continues to be absurd, and watching her stand her ground against Kyoko Inoue made me want to run through a brick wall.

“Season 2 Episode 6” – Live Report

6th May 2026
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Designation: Key Show

My final and fourth time at the venue was the last show of my Golden Week, and was a light-hearted way to end the trip. I won’t talk about all of the other stuff that happened outside of the show as that will be coming up in a separate written piece. The show marked Misa Kagura’s return to action against Debbie Keitel and was a really fun match. I was wearing my signed Misa Kagura shirt on this show, which Misa pointed to as she made her entrance (see picture above). I also did it just to annoy Debbie, because why not. Debbie debuted what appeared to be a new spot, dropping to a knee to dodge an attack before countering with something resembling a Pelé kick. I hadn’t seen that from Debbie before in her Diana run, so it’s great that she’s adding more stuff to her game as it’s something she thinks about a lot. The crowd was firmly behind Misa throughout, though it was Debbie who took the win with a tight cradle.

Anna and Miran faced off against Kaho Kobayashi and Nanami Hatano in a strong tag. Anna was again on the receiving end of Kaho’s dropkicks, though this time she kicked out of the fisherman suplex that had beaten her on the previous show, drawing a big pop. It was a nice piece of continuity and a good example of how Diana rewards you for following the product closely, even across Golden Week shows.

INVA (Ayako Sato & Himiko) faced Grace of Royalty (Haruka Umesaki & Mochi Natsumi). It was fun, but Himiko was the story of the match. Working the day after being ill, she carried an enormous share of the work here, which is a remarkable effort from anyone and all the more so given she is 54. There were moments where she looked absolutely spent, and honestly who could blame her, but her performance was so good. The selling of the exhaustion, the pained facial expressions that gave off the impression, “Why do we need to do this? I was just ill yesterday, can’t you just go away?” It wasn’t Himiko’s day as Umesaki took the win. The guy next to me fist pumped when Umesaki won.

The six-way match featuring Hiragi Kurumi, Kyoko Inoue, Maika Ozaki, Mizuki Kato, Rina Amikura and Rydeen Hagane celebrated Kyoko Inoue, with them all wearing Kyoko cosplay. Kyoko made her entrance last, spotted what was happening mid-entrance and tried to turn back. She was not amused. Ozaki impressed in this one, landing a sick lariat and showing she can lift a remarkable amount with her Argentine backbreaker.

“CATCH THE WAVE” – 2026 Opening Round – Live Report

3rd May 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 413
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Designation: Key Show

The CATCH THE WAVE tournament started which is the biggest joshi indie tournament on the calendar and following it last year was incredibly fun, so it was quite surreal seeing it kicked off in person this time. I got there early and of course, as always, some fun meet-and-greets took place. I didn’t realise SEAdLINNNG GM (and one of the GOATs) Arisa Nakajima was going to be there supporting Miria Koga. She was by herself before the show at a merch table so I went up to her and, after I explained what Social Suplex does and showed her our SEAdLINNNNG reviews, she opened up her wallet and gave me her own business card. I own Arisa Nakajima’s business card. That’s a bit weird. In a good way. I felt so bad that I just bought another Miria Koga t-shirt (I now have a hoodie and a t-shirt of hers and she is not my favourite SEAd wrestler). I went back after to see if I could get a signed portrait of Arisa, and she didn’t have any portraits. I told her she’s one of the best ever, but I still have a rule of if I take up a wrestler’s time, then I need to buy something. So I bought a Miria Koga towel. Yes, that’s three Miria items now because of my rule.

I also met Regina di WAVE Champion Itsuki Aoki at this show who is one of my favourites currently. She’s started a Shupro blog recently where she said she is a totally different person outside of the ring, shy and timid, and it was hard for her to write, so she wanted people to encourage her whenever they see her or DM her with certain phrases like “I read it!” So after the longest queue I’ve ever been in, I quoted back all of the things she said in the blog that she wanted people to say. She seemed a bit speechless, in a good way.

But, there’s always some bad with the good. On the elevator on the way up to the 5th floor at Korakuen Hall, an elderly Japanese guy lightly bumped into me. No problem. But then he started talking to me and asked about my shirt, etc. I’m waiting for Itsuki to show up (she never did, she was showing up after the show only), so I’m just kind of standing with him. He tells me he’s waiting for mochi Natsumi, then he starts gesturing that she has big breasts and says “body dynamite” in broken English. I’m like, great, doing the stereotype of a joshi fan real wonders here. There’s still work for us to do to shed that perception of joshi fans.

The opener, a six-woman tag pitting Cherry, Natsu Sumire, and YuuRI against Mochi Natsumi, Saito, and Yuko Sakurai, was a solid match built around getting Saito over, who deserves to be in better company than she currently finds herself in. Natsu provided some unintentional comedy during her entrance, walking up to a fan who had not taken a photo of her and posing until she essentially bullied him into it. A hard skip at home, but fine for what it was.

Miria Koga then faced Up Town rookie Shiono in a Young Block match. Shiono’s theme is something approximating white noise, barely registering as an entrance theme at all. The match itself was frustrating to watch. Koga’s strength is her physicality and aggression, and whenever she strays from that and tries to work a more considered match she looks lost. Shiono had her in a Boston crab at one point, which was not a good sign. To her credit, Koga closed it out with a stiff kick and at least kept it short. If she wants to model herself on Syuri she needs to carry that same seriousness into every moment of a match, and she was not there yet here, looking nervy throughout and blanking fan calls entirely.

The Elizabeth Block three-way of Kaori Yoneyama, Miyako Matsumoto, and Yumi Ohka was notable mainly for Ohka arriving with sponsors literally embroidered onto her coat, which sums up the financial realities of wrestling for WAVE in 2026. Matsumoto picked up the win.
Kaho Kobayashi and SAKI was probably about as good as a SAKI match gets at this point. Kaho was blasting her with lariats that looked devastating while almost nothing SAKI threw back carried any real impact, making for a jarring contrast. SAKI took the win with a running brainbuster, the one move in her arsenal that still looks convincing.

Cohaku and Rina Amikura, who had a good title match together in Shizuoka in September 2025, put on a hard-hitting, all-action contest that was one of the better matches on the card. Cohaku’s offence has real stiffness to it, even more pronounced live, and there was a good near fall off a kickout of the W Amin Buster. They built to a nice finish with a series of cradle attempts from Cohaku before Rina reversed one for the win.

Itsuki Aoki against Maika Ozaki was exactly the kind of match Aoki excels at. Maika held up well in a hard-hitting format and Itsuki was walloping her throughout, though Maika’s no-selling of a rebound German was not the right way to do a fighting spirit spot. Aoki’s charisma is extraordinary and she finished with a beast of a running lariat.

The match of the night was Honoka against Saran. Saran was at her most fired up I have ever seen her, and the contrast with Honoka’s comparatively lighter strikes only made Saran look more devastating. She scouted the handspring elbow and launched a dropkick right into it, showed some really impressive armbar transitions including ripping Honoka’s arm while she was running the ropes, and landed a nasty double foot stomp. The finish was great. Saran went for a diving double foot stomp, Honoka rolled out of the way, and Saran rolled through the landing, only for Honoka to use her momentum to rebound her off the turnbuckle into an O’Connor roll for the win. Honoka was visibly selling a potential injury on her way to the merch table afterwards. A goat performance from both.

ACTwrestling at Korakuen Hall – Live Report

30th April 2026
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Ayano Irie & MARU vs. Natsuki & Rio
Designation: Key Show

Off the back of a two-day man flu, I was on the way to recovery by the time this Korakuen Hall show rolled up, and just as well. I spent the afternoon walking around Suidobashi and the Tokyo Dome area for the first time on this trip, had Pepper Lunch again (hey, if it works, it works), and then made my way to Korakuen Hall. Given I was still recovering I didn’t do that much during the day and wanted to preserve my energy for this show. AWG is one of my favourite promotions, probably because the roster is made up of talented actors and idols who just happen to be very good at wrestling, which creates a fascinating dynamic, particularly given that they actively position themselves outside of the professional wrestling ecosystem so it’s really the only place to see unique talents such as Mari, Nagisa Shiotsuki, Anri and Yukina Uehara.

Before the show, I got to meet two of my favourite members. Firstly, the stiff forearm queen herself, Kana Yufuku, turned out to unsurprisingly be a hyperactive ball of energy. She reacted to seeing the newsletter and hearing that I love how hard she hits by repeatedly yelling “I love you” at me in English, which may or may not have been all the English she had available. As regular readers will know, AWG operates on a points system where buying merchandise or tickets for a specific wrestler earns them points, which then factor into the outcomes of their big points matches. Supposedly. Anyway, I mentioned to Kana that I had contributed quite a few points her way by purchasing front row seats to two shows and tickets to their upcoming theatre play, “ACTRIUM”, at Shinjuku FACE, and the reaction was more “Ahhhhh, I love you!” Okay, that’s definitely the only phrase she knows. I also met Anri, my other favourite rookie. Anri was a total pro, making easy small talk, asking about my SLK shirt, and being patient with my very much butchered Japanese. She is a great wrestler and an equally great person to meet, and she asked to keep my business card.

Most importantly, I got to see AWG’s opening dance routine live for the first time and was genuinely delighted by it. Yukina Uehara loves the camera. A lot. She would not stop looking directly into my lens when the heels were doing their part of the routine. The babyfaces chill at ringside posing for cameras when that happens, and as it was a Korakuen Hall show, the whole crew is there so they spread out on all sides of the ring. But, I had crossed off a bucket list item by hearing “Love Riddle” live. The rest of the show could’ve been the worst thing ever and I still would’ve left that sacred hall happy, but it also turned out to be a pretty good show.

The big news coming out of the show was that Nagisa Shiotsuki defeated Rico Fukunaga to win the AWG Title and become a double title holder alongside her KING Title, meaning that her reign as the clear ace of AWG has officially begun given that she now rules over the points and wrestling division of AWG. This was a surprisingly hot main event, with both wrestlers having dedicated groups of supporters making plenty of noise, but it was clear to me why Nagisa was being made double champion when I was there live. She is very, very popular. The match was laid out to feel evenly matched, which made sense given that these were two champions, the question simply being which was the stronger of the two. It was quite a simply told story and to help tell that story, Rico caught Nagisa’s signature chopping arm early in an armbar. The action spilled outside, with a running kick from Rico answered by a body slam and a running chop from Nagisa, all of it reinforcing the story of equal champions butting heads. I thought that Nagisa also showed something new as she grabbed the leg into a cool stretch before dropping into a dead drop slam. They built up to the Maelstrom Bomb and Blue Thunder Bomb nearfalls, and there was a great moment where one fan was waving his fists in jubilation as he so badly wanted Nagisa to submit to Rico’s crossface. It was Nagisa’s day, though, as she won with two Off the Lip suplexes to reach the peak of the AWG mountain and end Rico’s reign, which did not light the world on fire.

The match of the night easily goes to Natsuki in her penultimate match as she teamed with rookie Rio against Ayane Irie and MARU. It was exactly the type of chaotic, heated brawl that MARU specialises in. Rio was used perfectly in the first half, with the crowd on fire for her and a super fan nearby losing his voice in the process. Her chops were insane, and she teased the powerbomb finish she used at Korakuen back in August. The heat around Rio felt like the beginning of something for her, tying into the ongoing storyline of Mari having rejected her when she tried to join Killer’Z earlier in her career, a storyline thread that has continued to run recently. The second half of the match shifted to MARU and Natsuki, delivering some great near falls, including a sick running enziguri that almost ended things. The whole roster piled in to run corner attacks on Natsuki, with even Rio screaming sorry during her run and referee Banny Aikawa getting in on it with a dropkick. The win itself came via MARU’s leg suplex. Joshi wrestlers really do retire at the height of their powers, and Natsuki is a perfect example of that.

The third important match on the show was Harahara Red (Marino Saihara & Yukina Uehara) defending their AWG Tag Team Title against Mari & Nene Arahata. I believe Harahara Red had new music here. Mari and Marino Saihara were as good as you would expect, with Mari in particular being amazing throughout. Yukina was really great with her late saves, continuing to show why she feels like a breakout waiting to happen. You can go back maybe five newsletter issues and you’ll see me talking about Yukina getting lost in tag matches. Almost a year later, and she is one of the most polished tag team wrestlers on the roster. The spot of the match was a wrist clutch powerbomb from Mari to Marino that was absolutely sick. The finishing stretch saw Marino hit the MRN Smash, Mari kick out at one with fighting spirit, and Marino dropping her on her head with a second one to finish her off. Great stuff. On a personal note, AWG’s chair bowling spot sent seats skidding into my row. I was waiting for that the whole show because it normally lets you get a bit of space between you and the person next to you, and if you’re a tall Western guy, you can feel cramped. Somehow rather than giving me more space from the guy sitting very close to me, the chair bowling made things worse.

Naru was great in the singles match against new rookie Mugi Kakuhen, playing the bully role very well. She is reminiscent of Poi in a lot of ways – similar build, visibly ripped, capable of doing a lot of cool things, and completely selfless about where she sits on the card. Mugi’s selling was quite good throughout.

Haruka Ishikawa and Kyoka Iwai versus Kana Yafuku and Marino Nishimura was a continuation of their seemingly endless feud, with the two coming to the ring already fighting, which was pretty funny. Marino’s bridge on her special pin is awesome, and the former “Yellow” Yui Tensho made an appearance to show Kana how things are done after Ishikawa no-sold Kana’s new axebomber lariat. Kana ultimately won with that same running lariat, which was a great moment. Now, Kana & Marino, go after the tag belts!

The eight-woman tag was a decent enough Asako Mio special, going a bit long but generating a fair amount of heat and ending up pretty fun. Yuri Yamane is clearly pulling her kicks, though she had a cool spot taking down the opposing team one by one with takedowns. Erisa looked great until the split leg spot which I never quite understand. Wild Bunny was in this match, which is notable as it’s Act’s alter ego, but she doesn’t want to pretend she’s ready to wrestle because then she might have to lose a match. Anri was incredible in person and is legit. This felt like a bit of a waste of Anri. Chii Aoba was busy backdrop suplexing and power slamming her way through things in her own awesome way.

Saya Matsuzaki debuted against Sakura Mizushima. It was a much more basic debut compared to Kana, Marino, Mugi or Yuri, built around fundamentals like body slams, and it was hard to get a read on where Saya is at this stage. Sakura’s kill switch move did not land well at all and she should probably consider dropping that move.

ACTwrestling “Step 74 ~ Natsuki’s Retirement” – Live Report

2nd May 2026
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches:
Designation: Key Show
Natsuki Career Retrospective by Velkej Bracha

One of my favourite wrestlers has retired for the first time since I really began watching joshi wrestling. (Before you say, “Tam Nakano?” She became my favourite in her retirement match – it was almost as if it was too late.) Meiko Satomura, Nanae Takahashi, Yuu and countless others in the past year were all before my time. While I missed Natsuki’s AWG Title reign at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, she was the wrestler that truly made me fall in love with AWG. It was the match on 24th May 2025 at Shin-Kiba 1st RING. This was near the start of my delve into joshi independents, having only really watched just STARDOM, Marigold, TJPW and Sendai Girls on and off up to that point, but around March 2025 I was getting into Marvelous and through that discovering freelancers and the other promotions they perform in. One day, I saw Velkej Bracha mention in the Social Suplex discord that he had seen one of the best “Step” shows AWG had put on for a long time, so my curiosity of course took the better of me, as it usually does, and I watched the show. The match was Anri and Natsuki teaming up against Mari and Hinata Senya. It was game over, I was hooked. Anri, Mari and Natsuki immediately became my favourites, and the match was so good that I even thought Hinata Senya was right up there with Anri, for about a week. So ever since then, I held the view that Natsuki was the best wrestler in AWG, with Mari not far behind, and Anri was my favourite rookie.

When Natsuki announced her retirement, I was in denial. I spoke about how this was actually just her leaving the promotion to make her long awaited jump to STARDOM, given that she had worked with Natsupoi and Saori Anou in a tag match and also appeared on their anniversary show, and she had suspiciously been downcycled in AWG, notably not winning the AWG Tag Team Title with Nagisa Shiotsuki (which will forever be a stain on AWG’s booking). I was pouring over the transcript, trying to find alternate meanings of the kanji to try to justify that it might mean something other than retirement, perhaps just leaving or pausing activities with AWG. Then I read her backstage comments and poured over each word to look for hints, a way out. There it was. She wanted to spend more time with her family and focus on things out of wrestling. It was over. This was a new feeling for me, because it had honestly never happened in my fandom that I latched onto a wrestler and they unexpectedly disappeared. Just by chance, I had never experienced that. So I wasn’t upset, I was shocked. For a long time. I didn’t really process it. So guess where I processed it? Live at the venue.

That’s why I honestly struggled with this review. I don’t know how to put into words how I felt sitting there, and I don’t know how to talk about how I feel about this show. I can’t, and I’m not going to force it. It’s difficult to compare to any other show, even “All Star Grand Queendom” which I was second row for. This show will always hold a special place for me, but the way it was done was so perfect, and celebrated Natsuki so well, that it’s not a sad memory for me, it’s a happy one. It is honestly a bizarre feeling that throughout this whole period, I didn’t ever feel sad. It went from denial, to shock, to happiness. So when I say I processed it at the venue, you may have been expecting me to say that I cried, or I got sad. But no, I processed the retirement and I was…happy? I was happy that the roster got a dedicated show to say goodbye to Natsuki, I was happy the promotion made the right choice and put together an excellent show from start to finish, I was happy for me and all the other fans that got to take two-shot photos with Natsuki and say goodbye, I was happy for Natsuki that she was doing what she wanted. If that sounds weird, then it’s because I feel weird that I skipped the sadness stage. When I think about it, not too hard, I think a large part of it is because the retirement was so sudden and out of nowhere that I know this is what Natsuki wants. It’s much sadder when a retirement happens due to injury or old age and you see the wrestler go out against their will. In a sense, the only sad thing about Natsuki’s retirement is that she should have been a far bigger star than she was, but that was out of her control, she did damn near everything she could to get there.

This was a perfect retirement show. It was Natsuki’s show from start to finish, one that she put together after receiving approval from AWG. It was so good that I didn’t care how late I was going to be for NOAH’s show at Ryogoku Kokugikan hours later. I must’ve stayed behind for an hour making sure I soaked in everything I could. I even interacted with some other fans from the UK who I had seen at the prior Ice Ribbon and AWG Korakuen Hall shows. The mood for the show was jubilant and celebratory rather than sad and depressed, although the post-match of the main event got to some of the wrestlers. The whole roster was on point for the whole show, and Natsuki herself was a total professional. She was the brightest star throughout the four scheduled matches that she was a part of. All four matches were built around her and she never once looked tired. Natsuki, who’s all about sunshine and summer, beamed throughout each match, serving as the glue for all of the wrestlers whose emotions got to them, and keeping things ticking like she has always done in her matches. She was the best wrestler in the company for a reason. Natsuki said it best before her retirement ceremony, that it was the most tired she had ever been, but also the most comfortable.

The show opened with Anri and Natsuki taking on rookies Kana Yufuku and Rio. This was essentially Natsuki starting her retirement show with the next generation of AWG. An opener chapter of her last show with the youngest and british. Nanami Togi performed bass live for Natsuki’s entrance, a good touch to set the celebratory tone for the day. The match was light-hearted and fun, with Natsuki drilling kicks into the rookie’s backs, a spot that has become tradition for new debuting rookies, and topping that off with doing her sun emote to the delight of the crowd and myself. Rio hit a sharp dropkick, a sign of how much she has improved over the past few months, and watching Kana develop an axebomber remains one of the funniest ongoing things in AWG, in a good way. Anri was, as ever, remarkable, one of those wrestlers you perhaps have to see live to truly believe how good she is at her level of experience.

The second match was a three-way tag pitting Ayano Irie and MARU against Haruka Ishikawa and Kyoka Iwai, and Nagisa Shiotsuki partnering Natsuki. This was Natsuki’s final match with her long-term tag team partner in the Midsummer Breeze team, as they took on the heel unit Killer’Z one last time. Ayano set the tone immediately, telling everyone to behave because it was Natsuki’s day. Ayano was totally character-breaking and it was awesome. She was smiling pretty much the entire match and just being herself. Natsuki even briefly joined forces with former rivals Ayano and MARU. But, by far the most character-breaking performance of the day went to Haruka, who was in total tears after the match despite winning. She was very close to Natsuki.

The third match was an eight-person tag and arguably the funniest of the night. There was a random UWF-style exchange between Chii Aoba and Rico Fukunaga which I loved, Erisa Nagai fumbling a complicated spot, and Yukina Uehara kicking out at one and immediately spin-kicking Marino Saihara, which was hilarious. Asako Mia was the comedy standout as always, her facial expressions during a submission hold drawing enormous chants from the audience despite everyone expecting her to tap immediately. Asako then picked up what was only her third career win in hundreds of matches as she pinned Natsuki. Asako ended up completely corpsing Natsuki in her post-match promo.

Then came the main event, a four-way between Mari, Naru, Nene Arahata and Natsuki. Naru, Nene and Natsuki had joined AWG together six years ago wanting to be a part of AWG’s theatre division. They had no experience in martial arts or sports. Natsuki said that they only got as far as they did because Mari put in her time and effort and love, watching over the three of them. Three of the four were already in tears before the match even began, with Mari visibly emotional if slightly more composed than the others. Nobody was ready to start, so Natsuki had to essentially call them out, at which point they immediately attacked her and spent a good while shoving her into every wall of the Shin-Kiba she had worked so many matches in. The whole roster piled in at various points, at one point crushing the referee into the corner because no one wanted him to count a pinfall and end the match. Naru was caught at the bottom of that pile and seemed to nurse a thigh injury at ringside for some time afterwards. Mari ran away with the bell. Nobody wanted to put Natsuki away and end it. Mari and Natsuki were wonderful together, teacher and student, and Mari was visibly crying while folding Natsuki with the abyss drop to close it all out. By the finish, the seconds and much of the roster were in tears. Natsuki closed out the show talking about how much the other three had meant to her before ushering the roster to the ring to close out the show. She spoke about how she had joined six years ago and had so many amazing experiences. She showed the first signs of vulnerability before her last words, saying that her entire life had been training, standing in the ring, memorising scripts and rehearsing. She now felt lonely. But it was a decision she made herself, so she will continue walking forward in the path ahead. This was the perfect send off for Natsuki, and one of the best AWG shows in recent times.

Rose Girls Launch Show – Live Report

25th April 2026
TOKYOSQUARE, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Matches: Cohaku & Honoka vs. CoCo & Kaho Kobayashi, Maria & RIKO vs. Miku Kanae & Yuuki Mashiro
Designation: Key Show

Rose Girls’s launch show came in as a really great debut event, with the top three matches all delivering. Getting to TOKYOSQUARE required me to head to Ikebukuro first, then a local train, then either a bus or a twenty-minute walk. It is not complicated, just not as central as other venues, and the surrounding neighbourhood is on the quieter side.

After the show I had the chance to speak to both Maria and VENY. With VENY, I showed her the photo from our last meeting and told her to come back to the UK, to which she said she would love to, so I need EVE to book that ASAP. I told her that the SEAdLINNNG match from 17th April was amazing and she saw my Selene top and Las Fresa de Egoístas hoodie, which made her very happy. To confirm we were talking about the same match, she mimed blood gushing from her forehead with the expression of a proud mother, which was hilarious. I found out later that she had posted about it on Instagram saying “the match had been critically acclaimed internationally”, encouraging people to watch it. So I’m taking credit for that Instagram post. I told Maria in Japanese that her blogs were very touching, got her portrait and then left the venue, before making my way to the bus stop, getting halfway there and realising I had completely forgotten to pay. I rushed back and explained what had happened, at which point she started laughing because she had clearly forgotten to prompt me to pay as well since we got talking about her blog. I paid and left a tip for the inconvenience, but that was pretty funny.

As for the show itself, Megumi Yabushita defeated Uta Shima in the opener. This was a last-minute addition to the card as a result of Konomi Hori picking up a concussion at the 11th April show. The match was offered by Ito Dojo, the office run by Kaoru Ito with which Sareee, Chi Chi and Miku Kanae are closely affiliated. Uta has been wrestling for two years and is decent. Yabushita is a veteran and a legitimate judoka, and was putting the judo belt to use on Shima throughout. Miku Kanae was an excellent second at ringside, right next to me and yelling constantly.

SAKI defeated Sumika Yanagawa. I still have not forgiven SAKI for beating Crea in Pure-J back in December and she is everywhere on the indie scene, rarely taking a pin, which drains any match of drama. Her running brainbuster is very good, though.

Cohaku and Honoka defeated CoCo and Kaho Kobayashi in what was the match of the night up to that point. All four are great workers and it showed. Kaho ran the ropes with enormous energy throughout and was brilliant in the opening exchanges with Cohaku, before CoCo and Honoka took over and were equally good. Honoka’s headscissors is the proper lucha style, jumping onto the opponent’s shoulders unassisted, it’s small things like that that look awesome. CoCo’s moonsault to the outside is something else, with time seeming to stand still for a moment, and she also busted out a tornado DDT and what appeared to be a new spinebuster. Cohaku picked up the win with her special cradle.

Hiroyo Matsumoto and VENY defeated Rina Amikura and Ryo Mizunami. VENY was incredible and the superkick she landed flush on Amikura was so good. This was the second time in the same day that I had to ensure Mizunami’s machine gun chops so I was pretty done with them…except, VENY sold them so well. Not only that, but she even noticed me, crawled over to me and stuck her hand out asking me for help. That was probably a moment I will never forget.

Maria and RIKO defeated Miku Kanae and Yuuki Mashiro in the main event, probably the hardest Magenta have worked in a long time. I think it is the best I have ever seen them perform since the heel turn. I know that sounds like high praise, but that’s how good I thought this match was watching it live. RIKO is an exceptionally clean worker and this was Magenta at their best.

Rose Girls “vol.2” – Inaugural Champion Crowned

9th May 2026
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Designation: Key Show

Rose crowned their first ever champion at the second show. Rose, with only one seasoned wrestler under contract in Yuki Mashiro, were expected to crown her as their first champion. However, it was Riko from Marvelous that ended up winning her first ever singles title in her seven-year career. Riko won the title in a nine-person battle royale including Chanyota, CoCo, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Kaho Kobayashi, Maria, Mei Suruga, Miku Kanae, Riko and Yuki Mashiro. These are all wrestlers that appeared on the pre-launch shows. The match was not a format I would use to crown a new champion, as it played out as these rambos in Japan normally played out, with some fun spots making it an easy watch, but you forget that the winner would become the promotion’s first ever world champion. There were some really cool co-operation spots between Mei and CoCo. Mei is a huge fan of CoCo, telling me at a meet-and-greet the week before how great she thought CoCo was. However, the final stretch between Riko and Yuki Mashiro was great, since, if you weren’t spoiled, you would easily bite on several of the nearfalls expecting Mashiro to win. Riko is a really underrated worker and was one of the best choices out of the wrestlers assembled, alongside Mei Suruga, so Rose is in good hands, and it will need to be. After the match, Mashiro announced that she would be going on hiatus to repair damage to her neck. Riko said that she would be waiting for Mashiro to return. In backstage comments, it was revealed that Mashiro reached out to Magenta to work the Rose shows as she was a fan of their work, showing that it wasn’t just GM Megumi Kudo who was doing the hard work behind the scenes. Kudo said that Mashiro’s hiatus was unfortunate, but that she was young and they wanted their top contracted star to come back at full strength, before going on to say that she wants Riko to defend the title in singles matches both within Rose and outside the promotion.

Elsewhere, VENY looked at the main event that was booked and decided to have absolutely nothing to do with it, deeming it above her. She instead requested them to feed her a rookie, and they did that obligingly, as 2AW’s Yuka Satsuki fared her best against VENY. Satsuki is one of my favourite rookies, who is also a lovely, bubbly, energetic personality. But there was no room for that here as she threw her body at VENY to no avail early on. But VENY gave Satsuki far more than I was expecting, likely due to the fact there were only four matches on the card. This was a good match and worth watching if you happen to fire open the show for the main event.

1111 (Misa Kagura & Sumika Yanagawa) lost to COLORS (Rina Amikura & SAKI) as SAKI pinned Misa. Misa, girl, sometimes you just have to say, “That doesn’t work for me, sister.” You’re too good for this.

In the opener, ZERO1 rookie Konomi Hori had to contend with Ryo Mizunami’s chops. You know how it goes. It was fine but not enough to give any real window into Konomi’s progress.

“ChocoPro #520”

3rd May 2026
Ichigaya Chocolate Square, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Chie Koishikawa & Mei Suruga vs. Sayaka Obihiro & Soy
Designation: Key Show

This was my first visit to Ichigaya Chocolate Square for ChocoPro. Rich Latta had described it as “one of the worst wrestling environments on the planet today,” so I was hyped up to see it live.* The venue itself is tiny, tucked down an alley in Ichigaya, with everyone squashed together to watch wrestling on a small chocolate mat. You can even watch from outside through the window. And yet, something clicked for me here. This might be the purest form of professional wrestling in existence, stripped back to its most essential elements. Tell a story with your body and capture the crowd. No more, no less. It was interactive, engaging and, most importantly, fun. Places like this are just as important as more traditional indie venues such as SEAdLINNNG or Diana, and it is no coincidence that environments like this produce wrestlers like Mei Suruga, who is one of the best wrestlers in the world.

*(Editor’s Note: There are tears in my eyes.)

There were two side stories from the evening. The first: I had spotted the same person at several shows throughout the week, an obvious fellow gaijin. He was here, too, standing right behind me as I sat outside watching through the window. At the end of the show, during match announcements for the next card, he slipped away and returned in different clothes. I assumed he was heading somewhere after, like a party, since he had a little party hat. Then the next card was announced and he jumped out and screamed right in my ear, announcing himself to the crowd. He is a wrestler, one of Singapore’s most well-known, from the same promotion as Alexis Lee. His name is Mighty Mighty. You can imagine my shock. The second side story: I met Mei Suruga after the show. She is an incredible person, not just one of the best wrestlers in the world but extremely personable. Full eye contact, asking interesting questions, in no rush whatsoever to end the conversation. She asked about the articles, we talked about her matches in ZERO1 and the meaner character she had adopted there and her match with CoCo. She spoke very highly of CoCo, and mentioned that her dream match is a singles match between her ChocoPro protégée Kaho Hiromi and CoCo, which tells you how highly she rates Kaho, too. As for Aoi Kizuki welcoming me “back” at the door, I did not have the heart to correct her that it was my first time.

On to the matches, which I am working from memory given that taking notes on your phone at such an intimate venue would have been quite rude and I just wanted to soak in the environment. Baliyan Akki and Kaho Hiromi opened with a creative match. Based on this performance alone, Kaho was very impressive. She does not feature significantly on the ring shows so opportunities to watch her are limited, as I don’t always have the time to watch all the Chocolate Square shows, but on this evidence she is definitely one to watch.

The tag match between Chie Koishikawa and Mei Suruga against Sayaka Obihiro and Soy was the highlight of the card, a high-octane, creative match. Obihiro picking up the pin over Suruga was notable and may hint at a future DPW Women’s Title opportunity for her. Mei was incredible throughout.

The main event tag saw Antonio Honda and Miya Yotsuba take on Munetatsu Nakamura and Sayaka. The match was built around Honda’s trademark antics and tricks, but Nakamura and Sayaka were not falling for any of them, which gave the whole thing a great dynamic. A dropkick to the head from Nakamura was a particular highlight. The crowd was hot throughout, the twists and turns came thick and fast, and it was a great match. All in all, I would love to go back to Ichigaya, and it was one of my favourite shows of the trip.

“ChocoPro #522 ~ Gatoh Rhapsody”

5th May 2026
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Baliyan Akki & Mei Suruga vs. Munetatsu Nakamura & Sayaka
Designation: Key Show

ChocoPro ran their signature one-day mixed tag team tournament that has been running since 2013, although this was its 10th edition. Two teams received byes due to a random draw: ViolenceOJT (Munetatsu Nakamura & Sayaka) and Obihiro Shokudo Main Branch (Minoru Fujita & Sayaka Obihiro). That means the other four (out of six) teams would battle it out in the first round. First up, BestBros (Baliyan Akki & Mei Suruga) defeated The Kid & The Squid (Chris Brookes & Kaho Hiromi). Kaho tried to surpass her mentor, Mei, but was unable to do so. The last stretch between student and mentor was great, as Kaho almost picked up the win before Mei reversed it into one of her propeller pins for the win. O.K. Evolution (Ken Ohka & Soy) defeated Kung Fu Panda (Choun Shiryu & Kaori Yoneyama) to advance to the other semi-final.

The match of the tournament went to the semi-final between ViolenceOJT and BestBros. It was almost so good that I wished it was the final and had more time. The chemistry between all four wrestlers was off the charts, already apparent when Akki and Nakamura had some great grappling to kick off the match. Mei and Sayaka were equally good. BestBros advanced by locking in a double-combination propeller clutch and jackknife pin onto Nakamura. Obihiro Shokudo Main Branch beat O.K. Evolution to advance to the finals.

As you can imagine in a match with Obihiro Shokudo Main Branch, there were a lot of gong hits to disrupt their opponents, BestBros, as well as break up pins. And as you can imagine in a match with BestBros, there were a lot of creative, incredible nearfalls on the near stretch which caused the crowd to get so loud that the mics actually peaked, which is one of my favourite things in wrestling. I don’t want that perfectly mixed, high-quality audio. No, I want the crowd to blow my ears out. They attempted to do that once again on the finish which was the climax of all the nearfalls, with Akki flinging Mei into a rotating splash onto Obihiro for the win. After the match, Mei cut a beautiful promo about how badly she wanted to face Akki for “ChocoPro #500” but couldn’t make it due to suffering from a fever. She challenged him for 24th May at Shinjuku FACE at her 8th anniversary show, and Akki accepted. Mei said that BestBros would be going after the Asia Dream Tag Team Title held by Chie Koishikawa and Sayaka.

Elsewhere, Miya Yotsuba clocked in her first defence of the Super Asia Title against Tokiko Kirihara, who had pinned Miya at “ChocoPro #517” on 21st April. Tokiko, 51, started wrestling in 2019, and it’s always awesome to see people start wrestling later in life, like Himiko in Diana. Miya defended the title with two Miyahammers to Tokiko’s back. There were some great moments in this match, such as Tokiko taking Miya down with a judo throw into a nearfall that pretty much the entire crowd bit on.

Chie Koishikawa pinned Chie Ozora in the “Battle of the Chies”, with Itabashi Green Hall being a very familiar to Ozora as PURE-J run there monthly.

PURE-J “Rainbow Unicorn vol. 5”

4th May 2026
Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Recommended Match: Crea vs. Hanako Nakamori

On 14th December 2025, I almost swore off covering PURE-J because I had been so upset at Crea not winning the PURE-J Openweight Title. It had been her third attempt at the title in her sixth year as a wrestler and it was against SAKI. The match went agonisingly long, in the sense that I was desperate for her to win and there was nearfall after nearfall, and then deflatingly, SAKI retained, only to drop the title to Hanako Nakamori weeks later. That kickstarted the beginning of Nakamori’s sixth run with the title, making her once again the double champion and undisputed ace of the company following her return from injury, while Crea, who I believe is the best wrestler in PURE-J, was left with nothing. I was ‘worked’, in the sense that I was angry at the result because I badly wanted the wrestler I supported to win – that’s healthy. I was not sure if it happening twice in a row would allow it to remain a healthy relationship.

Crea targeted Hanako’s weapon, her kicking leg, relentlessly. These two were so familiar with each other, being part of the same small promotion for almost seven years, facing off in so many preview tags almost weekly at the Kame Arena dojo shows, so it was only natural that Crea would know exactly how to attack Hanako. This gave Crea the advantage and she looked dominant for much of the match, in contrast to her match against SAKI where she was on the back foot. Crea was on the path to capturing her maiden world title in her home promotion. Crea delivered her signature rotating delayed German suplex for a nearfall. She got the underarm hooks teasing her tiger suplex, but Hanako slammed her head backwards into Crea’s forehead to break free. Crea returned fire with her own clonking headbutt but it still wasn’t enough to be able to lock in her tiger suplex. Hanako hit the Requiem Driver, but then lifted Crea’s head off the mat. In a title match. She then blasted Crea’s head with a buzzsaw kick before hitting another Requiem Driver for the win. I just can’t anymore. I’m being so worked.

2019 classmates AKARI and Diana’s Nanami Hatano, still only 19, faced off against 2020 classmates Chie Ozora & Misa Kagura, who had been tagging together in PURE-J leading to a failed challenge for the tag belts on 23rd February.

Oceania

Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW) News

MCW collaborated with Oceania Pro Wrestling (OPW) on 26th April at the regular Thornbury Theatre. Water Rapids (Mitch Waterman & Ryan Rapid) defended their MCW Tag Team Title against Strong 94 (JJ Avery & Renegade) and Blacklisted (FOX & JXT). Also on the show, Scott Green won a six-way scramble to win a ticket to the “Ballroom Brawl 2026” match on 27th June.

On the road to “Ballroom Brawl 2026”, the biggest show of the year, MCW were at Thornbury Theatre on 23rd May for “High Stakes 2026”. A full preview guide is available on the MCW website if you want to jump in. The promotion writes previews for each of their big shows, helping newer fans get into the product.

Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA) News

On 29th May at Moore Park, Sydney, PWA’s Black Label series will return with “Dropped Out”, where The Tuckman will defend his Soul of PWA Title against Toni Sin in a No DQ Street Fight and North Shore Wrestling (Jack Osborne & Sam Osborne) will take on Mana And Manoush (El Phoenician & Marley Peleti).

Explosive Pro Wrestling (EPW) News

On 9th May at EPW’s stomping grounds of The Point in Merriwa, around 30km outside of Perth, EPW held “It Ends At Dusk”. Dustin Connors failed to defend his EPW Coastal Title against Jesse Lambert; while in the main event, James Hartness held onto the EPW Heavyweight Title against Edward Dusk.

EPW’s next major show is “Evolution”, although in 2026 it is a two-day special on 10th and 11th July, also held at The Point. Already booked for the second night is James Hartness defending the EPW Heavyweight Title against Mikey Broderick, and ATO (Julian Ward & Kaz Jordan) will defend their EPW Tag Team Title against The Untouchables (Damian Slater & Marcius Pitt).

World Series Wrestling (WSW) News

The “Rise Against” Tour finished up on 18th May after what can be said was a successful four nights, especially the opening night in Adelaide on 15th May. With an estimated couple of thousand people in attendance (no official figure announced), it may well have been the biggest show in Australia not run by a major promotion such as WWE, AEW or NJPW. The full international talent list on tour was WSW Women’s Champion Ash By Elegance, WSW Tag Team Champions The Parea (Eli Theseus & Gabriel Aeros), WSW Australian Champion Matt Riddle, as well as Ryan Nemeth, Donovan Dijak, The Good Brothers, Bishop Dyer, Moose, Nic Nemeth, Shotzi Blackheart, Priscilla Kelly, Myla Grace, Man Like DeReiss, Killer Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux. By the end of the tour, Killer Kross was crowned the WSE World Heavyweight Champion and The Good Brothers took the WSW Tag Team Title from The Parea.

WSW announced a new “MegaMania” tour from 29th October to 2nd November. The shows will be in Auckland (NZ), Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. In addition to the two previously announced talents (Andrade El Idolo and Shayna Baszler), WSW has announced Sammy Guevara, Killer Kross & Scarlett Bordeaux and Los Tranquilos de Japon (BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito & their rookie RYUSEI).

Rest of Asia

Malaysia Pro Wrestling (MYPW) News

The MYPW Southeast Asia Champion Miles Karu went on a tour with DDT, making his Japan debut on 16th May in Yokohama Radiant Hall. CyberFight promotions DDT and TJPW have been very active in the Southeast Asia region. Miles will be on an excursion for 3 months.

APAC Wrestling News

MYPW’s competitor, APAC, hold “Trial By Fire” on 6th June at ESI Grand Hall, Spacerubix in Puchong which is part of the Greater Kuala Lumpur area. The undefeated APAC Champion Azroy, who has dominated APAC since his heel turn, will be taking on five other competitors in the “Trial By Fire” main event. Azroy will be looking to defend against APAC owner and “Godfather of Malaysian professional wrestling” Shaukat (what are the odds Shaukat built Azroy up just to beat him?), Alfa Nazri who is dubbed as the future of Malaysian wrestling, Double K, Konrad Kai and Ragab.

SETUP Thailand News

SETUP held a show on 2nd May titled “ABSOLUTE MAYHEM” that premiered on their YouTube. The show involved collaboration with Filipino promotion Dexcon, as DXCN World Champion Jake De Leon defended against former IWA Japan SETUP Champion Jonathan Johnson in the opener. In the semi main event, Monomoth lost the SETUP Thailand Openweight Title to Anont Alonzo, while the “Unstoppable Force”, Vietnam’s biggest star and three-time Vietnam Pro Wrestling Openweight Champion Ares failed to capture the IWA Japan SETUP Title from Shivam, one of Thailand’s own biggest stars.

SETUP’s next episode is titled “HELLRAISER”, held on 27th June. Announced for the show is DDT’s Daisuke Sasaki against Jonathan Johnson.

New Taiwan Entertainment Wrestling (NTW) News

This isn’t really breaking news, but I’m writing the update so I get to write what I want! NTW uploaded a match between Diana’s Nanami and Syan Syan from early 2025, and even back then, Syan Syan looked incredible. NTW and Diana’s relationship has been amazing for Syan Syan, and it’s almost guaranteed that one day Syan Syan will break out and become a star. She has all the tools needed. I visited Diana’s dojo in Kawasaki and will be writing a feature that will touch on Syan Syan and how Diana views her. (Spoiler: They think she will be a star). It is mind blowing to me that such a young scene such as women’s wrestling in Taiwan has already produced a top prospect.

Sky participated in DROPKICK’s show on 19th April. DROPKICK is a small independent promotion in Yamaguchi, Japan.

PUZZLE Pro Wrestling News

Following his appearance at the 18th April PUZZLE Dojo show, Gaia Hox will be returning on 11th July for “Axe Wang’s 10th Debut Anniversary”. If Gaia is still the champion, and Wang weighs less than 90kg, the match will be contested with Gaia’s King of FREEDOMS World Junior Heavyweight Title on the line.

Singapore Pro Wrestling (SPW) News

SPW’s next big show is “Reckoning” on 3rd July at Foo Chow Building, which includes DDT’s Shinya Aoki and NOAH’s Yoshiki Inamura making their SPW debuts.

Mighty Mighty appeared on ChocoPro on 4th May during their Golden Week shows. A funny side story is part of my ChocoPro 3rd May review where I bumped into SPW’s Mighty Mighty multiple times during my trip in Japan, until one show he jumpscared me by jumping into the frame of the show and announcing that he’d be on the next card of ChocoPro on 4th May. And in another international appearance for a Singaporean talent, Alexis Lee appeared in EVE in London on 1st May.

Pro Wrestling Society (PWS) News

PWS Korea held “Wrestle Nation 2” on 9th May during Korean Golden Week at KBS Arena, main evented by TAJIRI (yes, that one) losing the PWS Title to Jin Gae Sung, who won the title for the very first time after having been a three-time PWS Korean Champion and a two-time PWS King of Korea Champion. Also on the show was Nic Nemeth winning the PWS Korean Title from Shiho. British wrestler Succubus won the PWS Women’s Title.

There was an incredibly international four-way affair which involved Maki Itoh (Japan) & Super P (The Philippines) against Alexis Lee (Singapore) & Yeni (Korea). The show looked like it was very well attended with a couple of thousand in attendance.

PUSO Wrestling News

PUSO Wrestling will be moving away from their inaugural venue, Brawl Pit, and entering a new chapter. Brawl Pit is the same venue that the other major Pinoy promotion, Dexcon, uses regularly.

Dexcon Wrestling (DXCN) News

Chris Brookes and Zack Sabre Jr. will be heading to Manila together across two days on 23rd May and 24th May. Chris will be in Sari Sari Makati for his produce show “Baka Gaijin + Friends MNL Vol. 2” while Zack will wrestle at DXCN’s event Dakila 2 at Brawlpit Bulusan.

While Minoru Suzuki was in Singapore on the 10th April, he also stopped by DXCN’s “DITO NAMAN” show to have a three-way DXCN World Title match against Jake De Leon and Ravena. The show will air on Triller with a significant delay, although they may upload some matches to YouTube too.

Vietnam Pro Wrestling (VPW) News

On 9th May, VPW held “Saigon Slam Jam” in An Phu, Ho Chi Minh City. In the opener, China’s most followed pro wrestler, Chen Wenbin, made his VPW debut. Real Global Threat (Thai veteran Shivan, Singaporean legend Andrew “The Statement” Tang and Filipino star Jake de Leon) went up against the homegrown VPW fan favourite team of The Classic Night (Billy & Bobby) and Meteor Kid in a Football Field match, defending the hometown team (classic heat, right?). The ring was literally in a football field, so it wasn’t some crazy gimmick match. AEW talent Viva Van defended the VPW Women’s Title against Filipina wrestler Chelsea Marie. In the main event, the “Unstoppable Force” Ares defended his VPW Vietnam Title against Hy Draco and The Rocky Horror Show (Rocky Huynh & The British Horror). The Rocky Horror Show are the VPW Tag Team Champions and defended against Ares and Draco on 14th March, which led to them getting added to this main event. Alas, Ares still leaves as champion. Will anyone stop the “Unstoppable Force”?! Follow along on VPW’s very active Twitter!