Between music festivals, weddings, trips to lochs and catching COVID for the first time, July was a busy month for me, so I can’t promise I saw all the good wrestling that was available (not that I ever do). However, I can promise I managed to find time to watch some (mainly during the COVID part of the month), so there will be plenty for you to get your teeth into. We’ve got Baka Gaijin, Sendai Girls and more! Enjoy.
Part of the joy of Baka Gaijin is seeing how people react to working on those tiny little mats penned in by enthusiastic fans. It’s not the only venue where you can see such things, but with the beer flowing, it’s a different vibe to something like ChocoPro. However, I don’t think there was ever any doubt about Astronauts making themselves at home. In many ways, they’re the perfect pairing for that room. Not only are they violent as hell, laying in those strikes hard enough that the camera being on top of them is never an issue, but they’re also ridiculous. I’ve touched on it before, but there’s a Looney Tunes aspect to what they do. The only difference is that rather than dropping anvils on people’s heads, they’re punching them.
That feeling was exemplified by my favourite spot in this match, where Brookes and Abe found themselves locking on simultaneous manji-gatames. With their partners tied up, they began swinging at each other, only for Brookes to continually weave out of the way, delighting in frustrating Abe and his shorter arms. Of course, that was only going to end badly for him. Nomura managed to wriggle himself free enough to grab Chris in place, at which point Abe stood up and punched him square in the head. It was perfect – violent and funny in equal measure, earning both gasps and laughs. Would it have worked in a ring? Of course. However, it would have felt more contrived, lacking the visceral thrill it had in Arena Shimokitazawa. The room took something good and made it even better.
That’s true for most of this match, which veered from Masa getting to dive into his inventive book of grappling to hard hits to everyone getting drunk. They had twenty minutes, and they packed them tight, diving into aspects of everything these teams are capable of. You could argue it was unfocused, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but it fitted the mood. One of the disadvantages of that atmosphere is that it’s easy for your attention to wander, the pub-like vibes lending themselves to chatter and drinks, but it never did here. Something exciting was always happening as they teased all the possible matches we could see from these teams somewhere down the line. If those in power have any sense, it’s something we’ll get sooner rather than later, and whether in a ring, a bar or a car park, I suspect it will be great.
Nao Kakuta & Tae Honma vs Natsupoi & Saori Anou, CROSS (6/7/24), Nao Kakuta Produce
When Nao Kakuta sat down to plan her retirement road, she probably didn’t see it going like this. I imagine she wanted her tag-team partner and close friend Hikari Noa to be involved and not to be robbed of her final shows in America and Korakuen thanks to a combination of illness and injury. Through no fault of hers, she’s had repeated spanners thrown into the works, which feels horribly unfair. Thankfully, the one thing that did come off was this match, where Kakuta managed to pull together some of her old pals for one last chance to mess around.
And the action was good, maybe even great at times, but it was one of those moments where quality is almost irrelevant. It was more about these four having a laugh and eventually escalating things with the help of some of those famous Nao boots. Self-indulgent wrestling often leans towards the tedious, but there are times when it works, and a moment like this is one of them. The goal wasn’t to put on an outstanding match. It was to let Nao hang out with people whose careers took different paths from hers. That the action was good was more of a bonus than anything.
It also made me think about just how much Tokyo Joshi will miss her. On paper, Kakuta perhaps wasn’t the flashiest signing. She didn’t come in and win loads of titles or have a series of classic matches (although she had a lot of consistently good ones). However, in a company like TJPW, where the vast majority of the roster came through the same system, it’s important to have someone like Nao. She brought something different to the midcard, a meanness that isn’t typical of the house-style, and which pushed some of those younger, less experienced wrestlers into territory they weren’t comfortable with. Having a new person turn up and boot you in the face is the kind of challenge every rookie needs to face at some point, and Nao provided that.
Of course, there were other highlights. Free WiFi were glorious before being cut short far too early, and whenever Nao did get the tap on the shoulder, she inevitably delivered. She had the talent to make everything she was involved in at least 15% better, and while that 15% might not be as noticeable an absence as someone like Yuka Sakazaki, it will be felt. However, much like Saki Akai, Nodoka Tenma or Tsukushi before her, there’s a sense that Nao is going out on her terms. She’s chosen when to walk away and has enough time to live a whole other life if she so chooses. I’ve no doubt she’ll smash it, but I’ll always miss watching her boot people in the face.
Chaos. Utter chaos.
The main event of TJPW’s joint show with Up Up Girls (2) was a lumberjack death match, which is an intimidating title that actually meant the members of UUG (2) were at ringside armed with water pistols and a squeaky hammer. The wildcard? Rika Tatsumi joined them because it looked like fun. Oh no.
There was a short period where this tried to be a wrestling match with the occasional soaking, but it didn’t last long. If you give Tatsumi that kind of power (alongside a group of idols presumably following her lead as to how they should involve themselves in the action), it’s only ending one way. Still, there were a couple of fun spots before chaos broke out, the best of which was HIMAWARI using a rubber ring to barge into Mizuki, sending her flying. However, this really took off when it ditched all that, grabbed a water gun and broke out into the stands.
Full disclosure a big part of my enjoyment of this probably comes from the aforementioned COVID, which had left me miserable and seeking light entertainment. A group of giggling wrestlers fighting through the fans and throwing buckets of water at each other while being pursued by idols with water pistols was exactly what I needed. Sometimes, a bit of silly, inconsequential fun can turn a day around, and even if the Ueno camera setup for this show wasn’t ideal for capturing the madness, it got enough.
Yusaku Ito vs Masashi Takeda, Tokyo Death Match Carnival 2024 Vol. 1 (11/7/24), FREEDOMS/Jun Kasai Produce
There is a beauty to simple shit done well.
Yusaku Ito might not be a rookie (he debuted in 2012), but as far as I can gather, he only switched to deathmatches full-time in 2023. So, when he’s in the ring with Masashi Takeda, it might as well be day one. Deathmatch wrestling is always about proving yourself. Sure, there’s the winning and losing element, but the best stuff also has the sense of two people pushing each other to see how deep their passion runs. If you want to get over in that world, you can’t just win. You have to win while proving that you’re willing to go just as far, if not further, than the other guy. By the end of this match, Ito was coated in his own blood and had a concrete block hurled at his head (which was resting inside a clay flower pot). It’s safe to say he’d shown he would go as far as it takes.
Truthfully, I don’t have a huge amount to say about this. I haven’t followed Ito’s career and only dip into FREEDOMS for the big shows, so there are more qualified people to talk about the dynamic between these two, as everything I got came from simply watching this match. However, if it worked for me with that little context, I can only imagine it would hit even harder for someone already steeped in this world. Plus, it had the other essential ingredient of a great deathmatch – a load of cool shit. Sometimes it is that simple.
Ai Houzan vs Jessy Jackson, Marvelous in Kariya (13/7/24), Marvelous
How I wish this match had played out in front of a hot crowd rather than dealing with the lukewarm response it got. I don’t think it was down to the wrestlers, either. Sometimes, the fans just aren’t going to go with you, no matter what you do, as even some prompting from Chigusa Nagayo wasn’t enough to wake them up.
Still, if you can get past the largely quiet room, there was a lot to like here. I hadn’t heard of Jessy Jackson before she appeared n Marvelous, but she’s proven to be a good find (although I have since learnt she’s in a relationship with Travis Banks, which is disappointing). There’s an aggressiveness to her, backed up by her amateur-style mouth-guard. Houzan is at home in that plucky underdog role, so pairing her up with someone who wasn’t only bigger and stronger than her but was willing to gnaw on her ear and throw her through some chairs was a natural fit. It’s a classic formula, but that’s because it works, and plucky Ai trying to survive Jackson’s onslaught was back-to-basics wrestling done well.
It was also an example of why Marvelous’s penchant for a time-limit draw isn’t a fault. I like the idea that it’s hard to win wrestling matches, and while many draws are poorly executed, that doesn’t mean they can’t be an excellent narrative tool. While Ai never stopped going for the win here, there was also the sense that she would have achieved something by simply making it to the fifteen-minute mark. Her kicking out of one of Jackson’s big suplexes felt more impactful because it helped the time tick away, rather than simply delaying the move that would finally put her down for the three. Having seen Ai fall short in so many openers before, the hope that she would cling on and get over the line had me engaged, even if the fans in Kariya mainly stuck to polite applause.
That’s also a testament to how they’ve handled Ai’s journey. Sure, I’ve moaned that it’s time to push her to that next level countless times, and I’ll do so again, but the slow and steady approach pays off in moments like this. Houzan standing her ground and refusing to go down easily against this bully outsider is all the more exciting because of how big a deal it would feel for her to get a result. It may not have happened here, but she got a little bit closer than she might have a month ago, and that, in its way, is a win.
Io Shirai vs Utami Hayashishita, Summer Destiny (13/7/24), Marigold
I don’t have feelings of nostalgia around Io Shirai wrestling in Japan. She left Stardom before I dug into joshi, so she’s always been a WWE wrestler for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen enough of her past stuff to know she was brilliant, but the emotional connection born from closely following someone’s journey isn’t there. She’s a step detached from the world of joshi that I fell in love with.
And yet, this worked for me in a way that other recent dream matches haven’t. There was a sense of occasion here brought about by Io’s return that was infectious, so much so that it also seemed to throw Utami off her game. The opening minutes were the Shirai show. I can’t pretend I’ve kept up with her WWE work, but it felt like a wrestler reminding everyone of what they can do, dashing off the incredible like it was easy and adding a flourish to pop the crowd as she did. She was showing off, enjoying herself, and Utami appeared to freeze under the onslaught. Hayashishita was in the ring with her idol, and while it was a huge opportunity for her, for Io, it was just a chance to show everyone what they’d been missing.
Thankfully, Utami eventually got her head in the game and realised that the way through Shirai was pure power. At that point, we saw another thing Io shines at – bumping. The way she took Utami’s lariat over the top to the floor was the first sign that she was going out of her way to make everything look good. It would have been easy for Io to make this all about her, especially as you assume part of the deal with WWE was that she would win, but she made those Utami moments of offence count. Alongside showing off her incredible athleticism (seriously, the wee pause in the setup for the avalanche poisonrana was mindblowing), she wanted to leave Utami a little bit better than she found her, and while I’m not Hayashishita’s biggest fan, I do think she succeeded in that.
Of course, the perfect version of this probably does end with a Utami win. Assuming it’s a one-and-done, it makes a lot more sense for her to be overwhelmed by her idol, find her footing and overcome her. Instead, Hayashishita figured out what she was doing and lost anyway, with no obvious chance of redemption. Still, that’s not something I need to worry about, especially as someone realising Marigold sits closer to Stardom than Marvelous in my priorities. I can simply enjoy getting to watch a generational talent strut their stuff once more, reminding the world of the incredible things they can do. In that sense, this was a blast, and any of its flaws were someone else’s problem.
Takumi Iroha vs Seiki-gun (Maya Yukihi, Saori Anou & Kakeru), Serpent’s Temptation (14/7/24), Oz Academy
My biggest worry when Marvelous started to pivot from Mio Momono fighting to get the AAAW Title back from Mayumi Ozaki to Takumi Iroha doing so was that the formula might fall flat. Momono is a natural babyface, all scrappy energy and desperation. In contrast, Iroha is calm and collected, radiating the sense that she knows what she’s doing. I don’t want to suggest she’s not likeable, but it’s a different kind of appeal. Quite frankly, she’s too cool to be my hero. I appreciate that might be a me thing, but I find it very hard to idolise anyone who seems like they have their shit together. It’s just not relatable.
However, the pivot has happened, and the perfect way to test Iroha’s babyface credentials was a match where she took on Ozaki’s minions single-handedly. To my surprised delight, she proved up to the task. Not just in being able to beat the shit out of them, I never doubted that, but in doing so in a way that suggests Mio isn’t the only one to have learnt a thing or two from Chigusa Nagayo. Even before the bell rang, Iroha was laying on that babyface charm, sending Magenta away from ringside to leave her to take on what was already an unfair battle by herself.
Before I get deeper into Iroha’s performance, I do want to point out that the minions were also great. There’s an art to playing this kind of supporting role, especially when you’re a wrestler as talented as the likes of Maya Yukihi. You have to find the balance between retaining your menace but also getting your arse kicked when the time is right. Yukihi walked that line particularly well here, standing her ground in the one-on-one with Iroha until it was time for the tide to turn, at which point she joined her fellow Seiki-gun members in going all out to make the Marvelous ace look unstoppable. Every villain needs a good set of goons to take the beatings they deserve and Ozaki has picked hers well over the years.
Back to Iroha, who was really good here. She’ll never be on Mio’s level when it comes to that babyface fire, but I’m not sure anyone in the world is right now. However, she still played this nicely, biding her time as she struggled against the numbers before finally finding an opening that allowed her to get even. Her comeback was so satisfying that even the usually bloodthirsty Oz fans started to root for her, cheering her on as she seized the opportunity to unleash on her tormentors. It didn’t exactly make for an incredible match, but it was a satisfying one, and it made me feel like her winning back the belt could have some of the emotional oomph it requires (although it will never be Mio doing it). They have set the scene well, and with August 8th approaching, I’m intrigued to see if they can stick the landing.
If we’re being honest, this probably wasn’t as good as the match these teams had in Shinjuku. Back then, they had the benefit of roughly double the time and being in the main event slot, which left them free to go all out. In Korakuen, with a big inter-promotional battle above them in the card, they were forced to rein it in. Not to the extent that it fell flat – it was still a good-to-great title match – but it felt like more got left on the table. However, what this match did have, and it’s a pretty momentous change, is the emotional payoff. It ended not just with Oka winning her first non-junior title but pinning her senior in the process, and that was played to perfection.
It’s easy to focus on the silliness of Bobubobu Momo Banana. Christ, you only have to hear the theme they debuted on this show, something that it sounds like they might just have edited together themselves. Oka and Mio are goofs. They’re the kind of people who film promo videos while standing in ponds or challenge themselves to eat countless bananas before fighting Sareee. However, alongside all that, this has always been about Yurika Oka getting to the next level. Mio Momono has proven to be the perfect person to unlock something in her, letting her embrace her inner weirdo and become a better wrestler in the process.
That growth shone in this match. Oka’s still firing off countless dropkicks, but she’s starting to think beyond that. In the last face-off between these teams, she lost because Manami, the person perched on the rung of the Sendai ladder above her, had that little bit more in the tank. When push came to shove, Oka didn’t have the answers. This time, though, she found a way. In the final act, she grasped the counters she needed, and while the finish had a slight assist from Momono, she was the one that bundled Manami up for the three and claimed those titles as her own.
Of course, the Mio vs Aniki stuff also shone. Momono is at her best when going up against people twice her size, as she stubbornly refuses to be beaten into submission and finds a way to even the odds. Here, she hit a particularly impressive German on Mizunami that looked all the more impactful because of that size difference. Aniki, meanwhile, was in serious mode, still loving the party but making sure she laid those shots in. However, this wasn’t really about them. It was about their young partners battling for their position in the Sendai hierarchy, and when the match left them alone to see it home, that was when things came to life. Oka and Manami got their chance to shine, and while it was Mio’s disciple who came out on top this time, I think it’s safe to say it’s not the last time we’ll see them do battle.
Mei Suruga vs Uta Takami, Summer Sun Princess (20/7/24), TJPW
I long ago lost count of how many times Mei Suruga has made her way onto one of these lists. I assume she’s alongside Mio Momono for most appearances, but when you factor in Mio’s injuries, she might even be a lap or two ahead. If I were attempting to pin down the wrestlers who have defined the last few years of my wrestling journey, she’d be impossible to ignore. It would be simplistic to say she was solely responsible for how my taste has gone, but a trip to Ichigaya on New Year’s Day 2020 and the birth of ChocoPro have played a bigger part than most. Suruga has been at the heart of it all, a constant presence in my wrestling-watching who rarely lets me down. Yet, even as she moves on to bigger and better things, it will always be this Mei that charms me most. It’s the one who can wander into TJPW and steal the show in ten minutes against a rookie having her twentieth match.
What makes this version of Suruga so wonderful is her ability to tap into exactly what a match requires. It’s a talent she picked up from her trainer, Emi Sakura, and it shone here. The obvious route when wrestling Takami is to bully her. She’s a tiny wee thing, her offence primarily made up of screeching and leaping onto people’s backs, and the natural reaction is to try and milk that for sympathy. Now, I’m not getting to suggest Mei didn’t bully her because she most definitely did, but Suruga was smart enough to tweak her approach. It wasn’t as simple as an outsider coming in and putting a rookie in their place. Instead, she played the big sister, prodding and teasing to see what she could get away with. Her bullying primarily came via gentle mockery, stealing Uta’s trademark shuffle and patting her on the head. It was enough to get the fans behind the youngster while keeping this match within the realms of playful goblinery rather than outright abuse.
It was a playground where both shined, from their kawaii poses to their toe stomping. Uta has quickly become a favourite, but even I was caught off guard by how effortlessly she kept pace with the charisma machine that is Suruga. Of course, if Mei had wanted to, she could have taken off and left Takami tied up in a knot, but that’s not the point. We all know Uta isn’t on her level yet. She showed her potential in the glint in her eye and the joy on her face as she scampered after Mei into mischief. A lot of rookies are so focused on remembering what to do next that they don’t get to enjoy being in the ring. Watching Mei and Uta prance about the place, you could tell they were having a blast.
Truthfully, this wasn’t the best match on Summer Sun Princess. Either title bout lays claim to that (I’d probably give it to the tag, but I’d need to rewatch them to make that declaration confidently). However, I couldn’t help but respect Mei vs Uta that bit more. It’s the neatness of it. Ten minutes of action that did everything it needed to, plus a little extra, and had both coming out the other side looking better than they did coming in. It might not be the type of match people put down as their best of the year, but, well, maybe that’s a fault in how they view wrestling. It’s an obsession with things being bigger and better, that leaves so many unable to appreciate something small and perfect. This was a joyous display that left me with a smile on my face, and I will never ask for more than that.
Danshoku Dieno vs Sanshiro Takagi, Wrestle Peter Pan (21/7/24), DDT
It was fitting that Sanshiro Takagi’s final match before his indefinite hiatus would, for better and worse, so beautifully capture the soul of DDT. I might not be as up-to-date with Tokyo Joshi’s brother company as I have in the past, but I will always have a place in my heart for it. It’s a land of nonsense and make-believe where wrestlers get the freedom to explore who they are (watch El Desperado’s performance on this show for proof) and pick apart the beautiful bullshit that is professional wrestling. Takagi is, of course, responsible for a lot of that, and while the big man is stepping away from the ring for a while, he will always be the core of what makes DDT special.
And for all my issues with Danshoku Dieno’s act, he was the right choice to put the bow on this era of Takagi’s career. Christ, if there is anyone who represents the good and bad that I mentioned above, it’s him. At his worst, he’s an outdated expression of gay panic, a character that often descends into homophobic shtick that would have felt dated when he debuted. At his best, he’s a genius. Someone who flies the flag for expressing himself as he chooses and has a magic touch at weaving nonsense into the most serious of wrestling matches. Thankfully, we got more of the latter here. These Weapon Rumble matches have always been a bright spot in DDT creativity, and from Takagi being forced to go through a retirement ceremony with Saki Akai to the appearance of DDT legends Makami and Poison Sawada Julie, this was them firing on all cylinders. We even got a touch of the long-running feud between Tetsuya Koda and Hisaya Imabayashi, the two of them giving Dieno and Takagi a well-deserved break when they couldn’t resist the chance to have a pop at each other.
Of course, the moment that got everyone talking was the return of Kota Ibushi, which was brilliantly teased via Michael Nakazawa’s appearance before being paid off. It wasn’t only lovely to see Kota seemingly moving better after years blighted by injury, but it also paid off with an emotional Ibushi asking if he would be welcomed home to wrestle in a DDT ring again. Takagi’s tears said it all. Ibushi’s critically acclaimed work might have come elsewhere, but he is, in his heart, a DDT wrestler through and through, and I would love to see him get the chance to show that once more.
Whether he does or not, this match felt like a love letter – a love letter to what Sanshiro Takagi has created. A company that is far from perfect, and will always be rough around the edges, but which welcomes in the weirdos and the freaks and gives them a home. A home where they can be themselves and prove that they have everything that the more polished performers down the road do, plus a little bit extra. I trust that we’ll see Takagi again and that this won’t be the last great match he has, but even if we don’t, his legacy is secured. He created all of this, and that’s something to be proud of.
Shoko Nakajima vs HIMAWARI vs Uta Takami, Nao Kakuta Graduation (25/7/24), TJPW
You could almost view this match as a sequel to Uta Takami’s showdown with Mei Suruga. It’s probably simplistic to say she wrestled Mei and instantly levelled up (she’s shown a knack for this stuff since day one), but there was a sense that she was taking what she learned from Suruga and putting it into practice at the first opportunity. She approached this with an innocent smile on her face and a goblin gleam in her eye.
What stood out most, though, was how funny Uta was here. It was in something as simple as how she scampered up after being ignored by Shoko and HIMAWARI in the opening minute, striking a pose like she’d been involved all along. That’s a classic three-way spot, but Takami enthused it with personality. Then there was her contribution to the HIMAWARI dropdown spot and her sneaking in and out of the ring to try and steal pins. She had one match with Mei, and now she looks like a disciple of Sakuraism, maximising every second she has in there.
It also points to how quickly Uta is evolving. I talked in my Summer Sun Princess review about rookies figuring out who they are as wrestlers and how that process is different for everyone. However, Uta is already there. Just months into her career, she’s grasped her strengths and how to use them to get a reaction. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not a perfect wrestler, but she’s set her foundational blocks into place. Takami’s a scrappy wee mischief merchant, all fiery underdog screeching and cheeky smiles. Pair that up with the calm veteran air of Nakajima and TJPW’s other recent big-brained rookie HIMAWARI, and you’ve got a recipe for delight. This only went seven minute, but every single one of them made me smile.
Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs Mio Momono & Riko Kawahata, Sareee-ISM Chapter IV (29/7/24), Sareee Produce
Mio Momono is no stranger to being a pest, but even by her standards, grabbing the earliest opportunity to try and reveal Tsukasa Fujimoto’s age to everyone watching was outstanding work. If her goal was to get under Tsukka’s skin, it worked, as the Ice Ribbon legend spent the rest of the match taking every opportunity to swipe at the wee menace. She even managed to find a way to kick Momono in the head while holding Kawahata in a manji-gatame, showing that if you want to do something enough, anything is possible.
Not that Mio shining here was a shock. She’s equally at home going toe-to-toe with hitters as hard as Best Friends as she is scampering between their legs before leaping up to try and surprise them. While I know I’m a bit of a stuck record when it comes to screaming about how good Momono is, I don’t think anyone who has watched this match could blame me. Paired with two generational talents, she’s not only capable of matching them on their level but also has the talent to steal the action out from under them as she capers around, dropping charisma bombs all over the place. She’s just that damn good.
What caught me off guard was how impressive Kawahata was. I don’t think it’s cruel to say she was the weakest worker in this match. The number of people who could slotted into that spot and not be counted as such might struggle to get to ten. Yet, when Arisa started slapping her around the face, she woke the fuck up. They were gifted most of the third act to work together, and it was all about Kawahata trying to match Nakajima blow for blow, standing her ground and refusing to go down without a fight. It was a gusty as-hell performance from Riko and made a lot of sense when combined with the Twitter thread she posted later in the day explaining just how important she felt Nakajima was for her career. This was someone grabbing one last chance to put it all on the line against a wrestler they idolise.
My only fault with this match was that, at twelve minutes, it was far too short. I wanted more of Mio menacing and Kawahata standing her ground. Sadly, it will be the last time either one of them gets in the ring with Nakajima, and it’s a damn shame we never really got to see her and Momono do it on the biggest stage possible. However, with Mio continuing to announce Fujimoto’s age on Twitter afterwards, there is at least one piece of magic that can come from this, and quite frankly, I think she should keep doing it until someone puts it together.
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