Mika Nagano - MMA and Wrestling

Mika Nagano was born on December 29th, 1983 in Gifu, Gifu, Japan.
She's five foot three and weighs 114 pounds and before becoming a wrestler, Mika Nagano was a Japanese female mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.
In MMA, she goes by Mika "Future Princess" Nagano and her win-loss record is 8-4-0.
Her last MMA fight was a win over Emi Murata via submission (armbar) at Jewels - 14th Ring on May 14th, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan.



Mika started her MMA career back in 2006 then debuted with Ice Ribbon in August of 2009.
She stayed with them a few months, then appeared to leave pro wrestling to focus on MMA in February of 2010.

But now it looks like Mika will be doing both MMA and pro wrestling after showing back up in the wrestling promotion Stardom's debut show in January of 2011.

Here is match with Mika Nagano, Fuka and Hikari Shida taking on Kazumi Shimouma, Hamuko Hoshi and Haruna Akagi from back in Mika's Ice Ribbon days.

Eight Woman Tag Team Match - Japanese Women Wrestling

Here is a eight woman tag team match posted by kapengmabula on YouTube.
It's Japanese women wrestlers Ayumi Kurihara, Mio Shirai, Io Shirai and Makoto taking on Mima Shimoda, Kyoko Kimura, Atsuko Emoto and Tomoka Nakagawa at a NEO event.

First we have a little video background leading up to the match, then Mima, Kyoko, Atsuko and Tomoka come to the ring already armed with folding chairs and chains.

Then Ayumi, Mio, Io and Makoto come in...unarmed.

The intros start but never finish as it immediately turns into what "Good Ole JR" would call a pier six brawl.

The action comes back into the ring and normalcy is restored for a moment and it looks like the match will go on like a normal contest.
But not for long...

Pretty soon everyone is back in the ring and going at it again.

Somewhat unusually.

Mima gets upset by a slow count....

...and finally a team turns on one of it's members.

You can see this video and more like it at kapengmabula's YouTube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kapengmabula

Eight Woman Tag Team Match - Japanese Women Wrestling, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on September 26th, 2010

Itsuki Yamazaki Vs.Yukari Omori

This is a video posted on YouTube by xkingx2009 of Itsuki Yamazaki wrestling Yukari Omori at an old All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling event.

Itsuki Yamazaki made her wrestling debut in 1980, and was one half of the famous Jumping Bomb Angels.
Yukari Omori was also part of a famous tag-team, the "Dynamite Girls".

This match is pretty much pure Joshi Puroresu.
No gimmicks, no over the top promotion, just two Japanese women in swimsuits (a Speedo swimsuit in Yukari's case) going at it in the ring.

After the intro, the ref going over the rules, the opening bell and a pretty quick series of moves, they lock up in the center of the ring...


Itsuki side-steps and rolls Yukari into a leg lock...


Then she moves up and puts her knee in Yukari's back, adding more pressure to the leg lock...


Another flurry of moves and Yukari winds up trapped in Itsuki's body scissors...


Yukari manages to escape, almost gets Itsuki in a boston crab, but gets rolled over into an attempted pin...


But Yukari escapes by trapping Itsuki in a head scissors...


Which Itsuki somehow manages to turn back into a modified leg lock.



And all this is less than four minutes into the match.



If you like this match, you can see more like it at xkingx2009's YouTube channel here.
http://www.youtube.com/user/xkingx2009



Itsuki Yamazaki Vs.Yukari Omori, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on September 20th, 2010.

Kana vs Kyoko Kimura - Japanese Women Wrestlers

Again we return to HybridDolphinELPS and another really well done Joshi video.
This on eis shorter than normal and has some jump cuts, but the action is very intense and very stiff in some places.
It's Kana wrestling Kyoko Kimura at the Catch the Wave Tournament.

Kana comes in first, followed by Kyoko, and amazingly they don't jump each other before the bell.

But when the bell rings, they race at each other and start out "hammer and tongs".

Kana gets a take down, goes for a leg lock and unable to secure that, dives up and goes for a front face lock that Kyoko escapes.

Back on their feet, Kana starts landing those amazing roundhouses.

Kana then nails Kyoko with a few knees, then slips around her for a sleeper.

Kyoko supplexes her way out of that, and they start back with the kicks, elbows, fists and slaps.

Back on the mat, Kana locks in an arm bar.

Imagine what Kana or Kyoko could do in the WWE if they just let them loose....

Like I said before, this one was posted by HybridDolphinELPS, and if you want to see more, you can check out the channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HybridDolphinELPS

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Kana vs Kyoko Kimura - Japanese Women Wrestlers, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on July 21st, 2010.

Kana vs. Mio Shirai, Japanese Women Wrestlers

Kana is a real favorite on this blog, and I'm expecting Mio Shirai to become one as well.

Mio was once one half of The Sexy Purple Thunder Sisters with Io Shirai, though I don’t know if they are still tag teaming or not.

But here is a video posted by the legendary nagashimark on YouTube of Kana taking on Mio at at show by the Japanese wrestling promotion NEO, back in February of this year in...well…in Japan of course.

This match doesn’t have the high flying, high risk moves that you see a lot of times in Joshi.
These ladies go down to the mat for some MMA style submission wrestling.

First Mio comes in, looking more like a female mixed martial arts fighter than a wrestler...


Then Kana comes in looking more like a female wrestler than a MMA fighter and gives Mio a nice look of disgust...or maybe contempt..

The match starts off more like kick boxing or Muay Thai....

But soon these two ladies hit the mat and begin exchanging holds and counters at an impressive speed...

After a brief exchange, Mio winds up on the receiving end of a leg lock from Kana...

Another quick exchange of holds, and Kana winds up with what looks like maybe a kneeling figure four leg lock?...

Again, Kana goes after the leg...

Now Mio comes up with her own leg lock and repays the punishment...

But Kana reverses back and traps Mio in a very painful looking arm bar (Seated armbar?)....

And this is just the first half of this match!

You can see the second half, and check out more of nagashimark's videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nagashimark

Kana vs. Mio Shirai, Japanese Women Wrestlers, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on May 7th, 2010.

Candy Okutsu wrestling Ayako Hamada

Here is a match posted by HybridDolphinELPS on YouTube, of Candy Okutsu wrestling Ayako Hamada in Ayako's debut for the ARSION wrestling promotion back in 1998.
1998?
Has it really been that long?

Anyway, like I said, this was Ayako's debut wrestling match, and she was seventeen at the time, although you couldn't tell it by her in ring performance.
Less than one year after this match, she and Mika Akino won the Twinstar of ARSION tag- team wrestling belts.
Of course Ayako has wrestled all over the world since then for promotions like Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) in Mexico, TNA wrestling, Shimmer Women Athletes and many more.

Candy Okutsu on the other hand had a few years under her belt at the time of this match, having debuted on August 4, 1992 (also at the age of 17) for the JWP.

But looking at this match, you really cant see much of a difference in their in-ring abilities.

Starting off, Candy hits the double bicep pose after she gets in the ring....



And to show that she's not intimidated, Ayako does the same...



The two women exchange a flurry of the typical (for Joshi) high speed attacks, reversals and counters, winding up with a test of strength in the center of the ring....



After one brutal exchange (I think Candy had some of the hardest elbows in the business) she goes for a pin on Ayako...



Later on, she traps Ayako in the inevitable Boston Crab...



But Ayako rallies, and traps Candy in a sleeper....




This is a really good, solid Joshi match, and one you can show your friends to help explain that even a standard Joshi match is better than 90% of the WWE Diva and TNA Knockout matches.

And of course you can visit HybridDolphinELPS' channel on YouTube to this see this, and more Joshi action like it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/HybridDolphinELPS

Candy Okutsu wrestling Ayako Hamada posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on May 2nd, 2010

Cherry and Takanashi Masako wrestling Kana and Oikawa Chihiro

Well here is a kind of unusual video I found on Veoh of Cherry and Takanashi Masako wrestling Kana and Oikawa Chihiro.
The video was posted by apocalyptico77 and it happened at Union Night in Shikiba on 3-7-2009.
Why Takanashi Masako is wrestling in drag I have no idea (Shades of Santina Marella!).
Maybe someone out there can explain why he's doing this.
But if you kinda look past that, it's a pretty good match.
Of course any match Cherry or Kana is in is good.
: )
You can check out apocalyptico77's page here and see some more great Japanese wrestling, not just joshi either.


Watch Union Proresu - Cherry,Takanashi Masako vs Kana, Oikawa Chihiro in Sports | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Joshi Puroresu and YouTube

If you just cant get enough Joshi, I have a couple of really good stops for you on YouTube.

The first is nagashimark's channel.
There you can see matches with soon to be TNA star Ayako Hamada, Nanae Takahashi, Kaori Yoneyama, Chikayo Nagashima, Devil Masami, Plum Mariko, Chigusa Nagayo and Cutie Suzuki.
The url is http://www.youtube.com/user/nagashimark
It might be a good idea to subscribe too because new videos get posted on a regular basis.

My next favorite Joshi channel on YouTube is DoubleMiz.
Lots of Joshi greats here too like Momoe Nakanishi, Ayako Hamada, Mariko Yoshida, Mima Shimoda, Mayumi Ozaki and Megumi Kudo.
The url is http://www.youtube.com/user/DoubleMiz
DoubleMiz also has a Veoh page here: http://www.veoh.com/users/ringmistress
And DoubleMiz's channel is another good one to subscribe to.


technorati tags: female wrestle, japanese female wrestling, wrestling females, wrestler

Ayako Hamada Coming to TNA

Ayako Hamada Coming to TNA

I have written about Ayako Hamada several times here on this blog.
Now the daughter of the legendary Gran Hamada is leaving Japan and Mexico to become a TNA Knockout.
With joshi puroresu on the decline in Japan, now is probably a good time for American wrestling promotions like TNA and WWE to start grabbing some of the talent there.
Ayako's wrestling background is impeccable, and I think it'll be great for her to get exposure here in the US.
It might even help breathe some like into Japan's wrestling scene.
So far there has been no official announcement at TNA Wrestling.com.


You can visit Ayako's website here:
http://ayakohamada.com/

SENDAI Girls' Pro Wrestling

Meiko Satomura, one of the co-founders of SENDAI Girls

Founded in 2005 by Meiko Satomura and Jinsei Shinzaki, SENDAI Girls' Pro Wrestling is a Japanese female wrestling promotion based in the city of Sendai, Miyagi in the Tohoku region.
It is also known by SGPW and Senjo.
Meiko Satomura was a successful female wrestler in the 2000's, wrestling for promotions like GAEA Japan where she was both a two time singles champion and two time tag team champion.
Jinsei Shinzaki, a male pro wrestler is the prsident of Michinoku Pro Wrestling. He wrestled in the US for the WWF and ECW.

At first, Satomura was the only experienced wrestler on the roster, and she served as not only a wrestler, but also the trainer and booker.
SENDAI held it's first show on July 9, 2006 at Sendai's Sun Plaza.
Because of the small roster, the matches consisted of Senjo's first four wrestlers making their debuts in singles matches against four experienced female wrestlers.

And because of the small roster size, most of their shows are SENDAI Girls versus other promotions, which over here would be like WWE and TNA wrestlers facing each other at a show, or WWE and ROH.

According to their website, their roster currently stands at:
DASH Chisako
Hiren
Meiko Satomura
Ryo Mizunami
Sendai Sachiko
Yukari Ishino

The SENDAI Girls website is here:
http://www.sendaigirls.jp/

The AJW Championship, Part 2

On July 25, 1985, Bull Nakano defeated Mika Komatsu for the AJW Championship.
Yumi Ogura won the belt on January 28, 1988 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Then on July 10, 1988, Mika Komatsu took the title in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (?).
The title was then vacated and Erika Shishido beat Manami Toyota for the belt on March 19, 1989 back in Tokyo, Japan.
Reibun Amada won the title on August 24, 1989 in Tokyo, but the title was again vacated when Reibun retired in October, 1989.
Manami Toyota won the belt by defeating Mika Takahashi on November 18, 1989 in Matsuda, Kanagawa, Japan, but AGAIN the title was vacated on September 1, 1990.
Kyoko Inoue defeated Takako Inoue to take the title on October 2, 1990 in Yamagata, Yamagata, Japan.
But Takako turned around and beat Kyoko on April 29, 1991.
This was followed by the title being won by Mariko Yoshida, Sakie Hasegawa, Tomoko Watanabe and Kaoru Ito until the American Debbie Malenko won the belt on February 10, 1993 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan.
She held the title until it was...guess what?....yes vacated again, in 1993 because Debbie was injured and could not defend it.

The AJW Championship

The first ever AJW Champion, Rimi Yokota

I did an entry awhile back on the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship. It was the main title in the Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW).
But they had another title, the AJW Championship.
This title started in 1980 and ran until after the promotion closed in 2005.

The first ever AJW Champion was Rimi Yokota, better known as Jaguar Yokota. She won the belt in Tokyo on December 15, 1980, beating Nancy Kumi.
The title was vacated a few months later on March 7, 1981.
Devil Masami then defeated Tomoko Kitamura on May 9, 1981 to claim the title, and it was vacated again on April 7, 1982.
Lioness Asuka then defeated Masked Yu on July 19, 1982, becoming champion until she was defeated by Kaoru Matsumoto on January 8, 1983.
Asuka came back and beat Kaoru Matsumoto taking the title again till it was vacated yet again on January 18, 1984.
On February 28, 1984, Itsuki Yamazaki defeated Noriyo Tateno to win the belt, and she held it until it was vacated AGAIN on February 25, 1985.

To be continued.....

Asuka Ohki, Tyrannosaurus Okuda and Natsuki Taiyo

Asuka Ohki (Kaori Ohki) is a Japanese female wrestler born on October 31st, 1985 in Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Yes, a Halloween baby.
She made her pro wrestling debut on December 24th, 2006 wrestling Kayoko Haruyama.
Here is a wrestling video of Asuka Ohki taking on our next entry Tyrannosaurus Okuda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMwN9l5VNCc


Tyrannosaurus Okuda (Shuri Okuda) was born on November 23rd, 1989 in Tadotsu, Kagawa, Japan.
She made her wrestling debut on July 7th, 2006 against the legendary Mayumi Ozaki.
Tyrannosaurus (you gotta love that name) has wrestled for SENDAI GIRLS and various independent promotions in Japan.
She has held the JWP Jr.Title and the POP (Princess of Pro-Wrestling) Title.
Here is a video of Tyrannosaurus Okuda wrestling Hiroyo Matsumoto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxQfjuhbvII


Natsuki Taiyo was born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan.
She made her pro wrestling debut on January 3rd, against Hiromi Takahashi.
Natsuki has wrestled for several Japanese promotions including - All Japan Women, GTKN, SUN and independent promotions.
She has held the Iron Man Heavy Metal Title twice, the POP (Princess of Pro-Wrestling) Title and the World-1 Women's Title.
Here is a video of Natsuki Taiyo wrestling the popular Kyoko Kimura.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v4296518b94MjypF

Sendai Sachiko, Yukari Ishino and Moeka Haruhi

Sendai Sachiko (Sachiko Kanari) was born December 26th, 1989 in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
She is a female wrestler that has worked for SENDAI GIRLS since 2005.
Her pro wrestling debut was against Kyoko Inoue on July 9th, 2006.
I imagine the descrepancy in dates is between traing and actually getting into the ring.


Japanese female wrestler Yukari Ishino was born on June 24th, 1992 in Settsu, Osaka, Japan.
Her pro wrestling debut was against Chikayo Nagashima on August 24th, 2008.
She also works for SENDAI GIRLS.


Moeka Haruhi aws born on October 8th, 1984.
She made her pro wrestling debut on February 13th, 2005 against Rika Takahashi.
Moeka has worked for GTKN and WAVE wrestling promotions in Japan.

The WWWA World Tag Team Championship

Since I've already done an entry on the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship, I thought I'd do one on the WWWA World Tag Team Championship.
The WWWA World Tag Team Championship was All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) tag team title from 1971 till they shut down in 2005.
The title was held by many of the most famous joshi puroresu stars as well as several famous female wrestlers from the US.
Jumbo Miyamoto and Aiko Kiyo were the first champions defeating Patty O'Hara and Texas Red for the belt. But in a very unusual move, Jumbo Miyamoto and Aiko Kiyo weren't satisfied with the match (even though they won) and wanted a rematch. This led to Patty O'Hara and Texas Red winning the second match and becoming the tag team champions.
This started a trend for Jumbo Miyamoto as she teamed with Maxie Murata and won the titles back.
Jumbo Miyamoto would hold one half of the tag team belts many times in the following years, with many different partners such as Miyoko Hoshino, Mariko Akagi and Junko Sasaki.

The Beauty Pair, Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda, held the belts, as did the Queen Angels (Lucy Kayama and Tomi Aoyama), the Black Pair (Mami Kumano and Yumi Ikeshita), the Dynamite Girls (Jumbo Hori and Yukari Omori), the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka), the Jumping Bomb Angels (Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno) and the Red Typhoons (Kazue Nagahori and Yumi Ogura) among many others.

The last tag team to hold the belts was Double Kong (Aja Kong and Amazing Kong) back in October of 2004.

Yuko Motohashi

Yuko Motohashi is a Japanese female wrestler.
She was born on March 17, 1985 in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka, Japan.
Her pro wrestling debut was May 8, 2007 against Mariko Yoshida.
Yuko wrestles for IBUKI Pro Wrestling in Japan.

Yuki Miyazaki

Yuki Miyazaki is a Japanese female wrestler.
She was born on February 2 1979.
Yuki made her pro wrestling debut on January 8 1995 against Tomoko Kuzumi.
She has worked for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (JWP), JDStar (Jd'), Free, NEO and Dramatic Dream Team (DDT).
Her favorite wrestling moves are the Moonsault Footstomp, the Moonsault Press and the Texas Cloverleaf.
Here's a video of Yuki Miyazaki wrestling Asuka Ohki in Tokyo, Japan at the Itabashi Green Hall.

S-Ovation/IBUKI: Ray

I couldn't find out a lot about Ray other than she wrestles for S-Ovation/IBUKI.
And she's 5'4" and 128 pounds.
And that she wrestles in this really cool looking Lucha Libre/Arabian Knights looking outfit.
For more info on S-Ovation/IBUKI, check out their website at http://s-ovation.com/wrestling/english.html

Ran Yu-Yu

Ran Yu-Yu(Tomoko Miyaguchi)is a Japanese female professional wrestler.
She was born August 17th, 1975 in Osaka Japan.
She made her pro wrestling debut on January 4th, 1994 against Rieko Amano.

Here's a video of her wrestling (as Tomoko Miyaguchi) against Kanako Motoya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeP1WecGmio

Nagisa Nozaki, Japanese female professional wrestler

Nagisa Nozaki is a Japanese female professional wrestler.
She was born November 22nd, 1990 in Iruma ski, Saitama, Japan.
Her pro wrestling debut was November 3rd, 2006.
She wrestles for the NEO promotion.
Nagisa often tag teams with Aoi Kizuki

Yuri Urai wrestling Nagisa Nozaki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbW6-iZEFnc