Joshi Puroresu in the USA

You know a lot of us have always had to rely on YouTube and other internet sources to see joshi puroresu.
But thanks to Shimmer Women Athletes, ROH and Chikara, we are actually getting to see female Japanese wrestlers here in the US in action.

If you can make it to the Berwyn Eagles Club in Berwyn, Illinois (just outside Chicago), on Saturday and Sunday, March 26th and 27th, 2011 you'll get to see Ayako Hamada, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Misaki Ohata, Ayumi Kurihara and Tomoka Nakagawa
More info here: http://shimmerwrestling.blogspot.com/

If you can get to Ring of Honor's "Honor Takes Center Stage" on April 2nd, 2011 at the Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, you will get to see Hiroyo Matsumoto, Ayumi Kurihara and Tomoka Nakagawa there as well.
More info here: http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/atlanta-ga-april-2nd/

And on April 15,16 and 17th, if you can get to The Asylum Arena in South Philadelphia, Pennslyvania, you'll get to see joshi legend Manami Toyota team up with Mike Quakenbush and Jigsaw at Chikara's King of Trios 2011 tournament.
More info here: http://www.chikarapro.com/events.php

I havent said anything about the tragedy in Japan here, but I have been praying for the people there.
I am also glad to hear that just about all the wrestlers I have spoken with in the past are okay.
The hard times arent over in Japan yet people.
If you can help out, here's the Red Cross website:
https://american.redcross.org/
And if you cant afford it (I know times are tough), there's no price tag on prayers, positive energy and well wishes.

Yumi Ohka - Japanese Wrestling

It's been quite a while since I have done anything on Japanese female wrestler Yumi Ohka.
Yumi was born on April 4th, 1979 in Koga, Ibaraki and made her pro wrestling debut on August 19th, 2001 wrestling for JDstar.
She is currently wrestling for WAVE (Pro Wrestling Wave) along with GAMI, Moeka Haruhi, Shu Shibutani, Kayo Fujimori and a masked wrestler that looks oddly familiar, Sakura Candle.



Along with Yuki Miyazaki and Toshie Uematsu, Yumi is one of the few female wrestlers to hold the Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship.
Yumi is also part of Misaki Ohata’s heel faction, Black Wave.

Yumi Ohka vs. Haruka Matsuo

Watch Yumi Ohka vs. Haruka Matsuo in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

You can check out Yumi's blog (in Japanese) here:
http://ohkayumi.blog.players.tv/

Stardom - Japanese Female Wrestling Promotion

Former ARSION head Rossy Ogawa and retired Japanese female wrestler Fuka's had a new wrestling promotion debut in January called "Stardom".
The roster (as far as I can tell) is...

Nanae Takahashi
Nanae Takahashi has wrestled for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, Pro Wrestling SUN, AWA Superstars of Wrestling, Ice Ribbon, JDStar, NEO Japan Ladies' Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX and more.

Natsuki*Taiyo
Natsuki*Taiyo has worked for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, Pro Wrestling SUN, Passion Red, NEO, Ice Ribbon and more.

Yuzuki Aikawa
Former Japanese Idol Yuzuki Aikawa has been trained by Fuka and also has eight years martial arts experience in Taekwondo.

Yoko Bito
Yoko Bito is new comer to wrestling, but a Japanese Kyokushin Karate champion.

Yoshiko (World Tiger 4)
Another newcomer, Yoshiko was born on July 26th, 1993.

Eri Susa
Newcomer Eri Susa was born on July 23rd, 1993 and was trained in aikido before starting wrestling.

Mayu Iwatani
Mayu Iwatani was born on February 19th, 1993 and before wrestling she was trained in judo.

Haruka
Little Haruka was born on April 2nd, 2002. Yep, she's only eight years old.

Arisa Hoshiki
Arisa Hoshiki was born on October 13th, 1995. Before wrestling she trained in boxing and kickboxing.

Mika Nagano
Before becoming a wrestler, Mika Nagano was a Japanese female mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. Her MMA record is 7-4-0.

Iris
Iris was born on October 19th, 1990 in Mexico. She was trained in Lucha Libre by Ultimo Guerrero.

Here is the poster from the Stardom Launching Event "Birth of Nova" on January 23rd, 2011...




You can check out their official site here:
http://wwr-stardom.p-kit.com/

Takako Inoue Wrestling Mima Shimoda

Here is a wrestling match posted on YouTube by xkingx2009 with two of my favorite Japanese female wrestlers, Takako Inoue and Mima Shimoda.
Even though they are both awesome wrestlers, they do look a little bit like they just stepped off the set of the Power Rangers here.




Mutual dislike is not very well hidden, as they start off with a hair muss by Takako and a slap by Mima.

More slaps, chops and an Irish whip and the two lock up in the center of the ring in the classic test of strength.

That gets broken up and the two women launch into an exchange that shows just how well they are able to neutralize each others moves.

Is it considered a camel clutch if you are just sitting on your opponents back pulling her hair?

Well the ref makes Mima break the hold, but that's followed by more hair pulling, a hair-mare, and some rope choking.

I guess Takako gets tired of Mima's rule breaking, because when Mima tries to initiate another test of strength, Takako takes her hand...and promptly bites it!

But it doesn't take long for Mima to cheat her way back into control and take the match outside the ropes.
Mima even takes her out into the cheap seats and gives her a bodyslam on the concrete.

You have to love Mima though.
After leaving Takako on the floor, she goes back to the ring, climbs up on the turnbuckle and taunts her.

Takako climbs back into the ring, and Mima almost immediately leg tackles her and traps her in a Boston crab.

Not satisfied with JUST a Boston crab, she changes up to a single leg crab and pulls Takako's knee pad out of the way so she can get a better grip.

And all of that is not even half of the match!

After watching this, I am now convinced that Mima enjoys punishing her opponents more than any other wrestler out there.

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



Takako Inoue Wrestling Mima Shimoda, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on December 17th, 2010

Ayako Hamada Gone From TNA

On Monday, December 6th, 2010, TNA Wrestling released Ayako Hamada.
Ayako (or Hamada as TNA was billing her) was one half of the current TNA Knockout Tag Team Champions along with Taylor Wilde.
Of course her release is not that much of a surprise.
TNA acted like they really had no idea what to do with Ayako (who has over twelve years experience in the ring).
In January 2010, she teamed with Awesome Kong and defeated Taylor Wilde and Sarita to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Titles.
Then Kong left the company and they were stripped of the belts.
Ayako only showed up now and then until she and Taylor Wilde beat The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Lacey Von Erich), winning the Knockout Tag Titles once again.
That match was Ayako's first time on television in four months.

I suppose this is another phenominal misuse of talent that we can lay at the feet of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.
Way to drive the Knockouts division into the ground guys.

Well Ayako has already worked for SHIMMER Women Athletes and Jersey All Pro Wrestling while she was working for TNA (God knows she had enough time), so we still may see her up here North of the border.
If not, I'm sure Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion (AAA) in Mexico would love to have her back.

And just for the heck of it, here are two greats, Ayako Hamada and Mima Shimoda going at it from back in 2000.
Posted of course by DoubleMiz





Ayako Hamada Gone From TNA, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on December 11th, 2010

Kana wrestling Ayumi Kurihara

Here is a video posted by kapengmabula on YouTube of Kana taking on Ayumi Kurihara at Passion Red's "2PASSION" on May 3rd, 2009.
Although kapengmabula posted it, he gives credit to another well known name on this blog nagashimark, so it's still "all in the family".
If I understand correctly, Passion Red started off as a stable, but began to hold their own shows and joshi star Nanae Takahashi runs Passion Red.
And I also read that back in January, Kana left Passion Red and is now a freelancer and she will be heading up her own wrestling promotion, KANA PRO.
You can check out Puroresu Represetin' for more info on Kana.

Anyway, this is part one of a really great match that highlights the best in joshi.
It starts out with a brutal face off with chops, punches, slaps, forearms, then goes into some high flying, then they go to the mat for some MMA style submission grappling.

I tell you, Kana can get VERY innovative with punishment, as she puts poor Ayumi's legs through the wringer.

As part one ends though, it looks like Ayumi may be starting a comeback.

Like I said, this is just part one.
To see part two, you can go to kapengmabula's YouTube channel and see the end of this match and some more great action.



Kana wrestling Ayumi Kurihara, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on 4-9-2010

The Top Ten Japanese Female Wrestlers in August

I haven't done a top ten of Japanese female wrestlers here in awhile, so here we go.

1. Hamada
Without a doubt the most popular Japanese lady wrestler on here.
Of course the worldwide exposure on TNA has a "little" something to do with that.
I'm hoping that might start some more interest in Joshi Puroresu over here.

2. Kaori Yoneyama
Surprisingly to me, Kaori Yoneyama came in at the second postion.
Last month HybridDolphinELPS put up a video tribute to Kaori on YouTube that you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey5lRK_r2ec

3. Francoise
Last month, the lovely Francoise, recently from Hustle, came in at number three.
Here's a short video of Francoise wrestling another Japanese beauty Cherry posted by persicummalum on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQZKsEYpJM0

4. Misaki Ohata
Coming in at number four is Misaki Ohata.
You can see a video of Misaki wrestling Sachiko posted by kapengmabula on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThAWNB5ZIxs

5. Momoe Nakanishi
Japanese female wrestler Momoe Nakanishi came in at number five last month.
Here is a video of Momoe Nakanishi taking on Ayako Hamada (Yes, now TNA Knockout Hamada) at the AJW 35th Anniversary Show, May 11 2003 posted by the infamous DoubleMiz on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ktjRNdUO3w

6. Chaparrita Asari
The high flying Chaparrita Asari came in at number six last month.
You can watch a video of Chaparrita ASARI wrestling Baby-A from the ARSION 5th Anniversary Show, again posted by DoubleMiz on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8YXllD3pAE

7. Etsuko Mita
Etsuko Mita came in at nuber seven last month.
Here is a video of Etsuko Mita taking on Hiroyo Matsumoto posted by nagashimark over at YouTube.
The match is from the NEO Stage 09 tournament, semi finals on February 8, 2009.
You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqFZ2n3LuI

8. Kana
The popular Kana came in at number eight last month.
And here is a video of Kana taking on Minori Makiba at the May 5, 2009 NEO "May History", posted by yoshitonic1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTw4rkNhnGY

9. Kayoko Haruyama
Number nine last month was Kayoko Haruyama.
You can watch Kayoko Haruyama taking on Tojuki Leon on this video posted by kapengmabula on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2rUAOj7Yak

10. Mimi Hagiwara
And last, but not by any means least, is the beautiful Mimi Hagiwara.
Mimi no longer wrestles, but here is a video of her going up against Chigusa Nagayo. posted by hajimanko on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7WzzeyEt4Q

I'd like to thank all of these posters that have put up Joshi videos on YouTube, that give eveyone a chance to get in on the action.
If you go to the vids (sorry I didn't hyperlink them, but Goggle seems to get cranky if I do that too much in a post) make sure to subscribe to these posters channels.
And let them know you appreciate their work at getting these matches out there.


posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on Sept 9th, 2009

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

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.

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.

Itsuki Yamazaki wrestling Plum Mariko in Japan

Here's a hold you don't see much in women's wrestling, at least over here, a front bearhug.
I guess only women like Victoria or Beth Phoenix would be able to pull off a bearhug submission believably.
But here are female Japanese wrestling stars Itsuki Yamazaki ( one half of the Jumping Bomb Angels) and the late Plum Mariko pulling it off.



technorati tags: sexy, japan, sports, pro-wrestling, wrestling, pro wrestling, pro wrestling blog, pro-wrestling, news

Toshie Uematsu

Toshie Uematsu

Wrestler name(s) To-chan, Toshi-A
Height: 5 ft 2 in
Weight: 130 lbs
Born: April 14th, 1974
Trained by: Chigusa Nagayo
Wrestling Debut: April 15th, 1995

Toshie Uematsu is a Japanese female Pro Wrestler who was very popular in the 1990s and 2000s.
Toshie was one of the first female wrestlers trained by Chigusa Nagayo when she formed the GAEA Japan promotion.
She is currently a free-lance wrestler.

Toshie was born on April 14th, 1974 and made her pro wrestling debut at the age of 21 on April 15th, 1995 at Memorial First Gong, which was the first show of the GAEA Japan joshi puroresu wrestling promotion.
In 1997, several GAEA wrestlers, including Toshie, appeared in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and were entered in the inaugural tournament for the new women's cruiserweight title.
Toshie won the tournament, defeating Malia Hosaka on April 7th, 1997 in Hunstville, Alabama, and became the first holder of the WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship.
She lost the belt to Yoshiko Tamura on July 19th, 1997 and the title was vacated soon afterwards.
Toshie held the AAAW Tag Team title twice with her partner Ran Yu-Yu.
Toshie and Ran often bent the rules, winning a lot of their matches by countout after luring their opponents as far away from the ring as possible.
During her career so far, Toshie has held the WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Champion (once), the AAAW Tag Team Championship (twice with Ran Yu-Yu), the JWP Tag Team Championship (four times), the Daily Sports Tag Team Championship (once), the WDB Tag Team Championship (once) and the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship (three times).


Toshie can change her looks as evidenced by the photo above, and below.

Toshie Uematsu Wrestling Meiko Satomura from February 3rd, 1999, posted by nagashimark

technorati tags: sexy, wcw, sports, japan, pro-wrestling, wrestling, pro wrestling, pro wrestling blog, pro-wrestling, news

R.I.P: Nancy Daus Sullivan Benoit (May 21, 1964 - c. June, 2007)

Mariko Yoshida - Japanese Women Wrestling

Mariko Yoshida was born on February 15th, 1970 in Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan.
She is a female professional wrestler best known for her work in the ARSION wrestling promotion, where she also served as the head trainer.

Mariko made her wrestling debut in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW / Zenjo) on October 10, 1988 at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall in a match against Keiko Waki.
She was one of the best young stars in AJW, often using Lucha Libre inspired aerial maneuvers to go along with her extremely good mat work skills.

Mariko left AJW in 1997 and joined Aja Kong's ARSION promotion, becoming their head trainer.
In ARSION, she became known as a technical wrestling master, and got a push as a major star.
Mariko was nicknamed "ARSION no Shinjutsu", or "ARSION True Heart".
Giving up the high-flying techniques of her run in Zenjo (because of a neck injury in 1992), her style in ARSION was ground work and submission wrestling moves.

In 2006, Yoshida was presented with the Cauliflower Alley Club's Future Legend Award, becoming only the second female (Cheerleader Melissa was the first), to win this award.

Mariko in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6stpJEP7Yk&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdE4rGmyO5E

Momoe Nakanishi - Japanese Wrestling

Japanese female wrestler Momoe Nakanishi was born on July 7th 1980.
She was trained by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) and made her wrestling debut on July 14th 1996, in a match against fellow AJW trainee, Nanae Takahashi.

During her career, Momoe held the All Japan Junior title, the AJW Tag Team Championship (twice with Nanae Takahashi), the All Japan Singles title, the WWWA Super lightweight title, the WWWA World Tag Team Championship (twice with Nanae Takahashi as NANA*MOMO), the All Pacific title, the WWWA Title and the AtoZ title.

Momo retired from wrestling on January 7th, 2005.
Her retirement match was fittingly against the lady that she came up through AJW with, Nanae Takahashi.

Momoe Nakanishi taking on Ayako Hamada - Part 1 of 3, posted by DoubleMiz

Momoe Nakanishi - Japanese Wrestling, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on 4-3-2007

Toshie Uematsu - Japanese Wrestling

Wrestler:Toshie Uematsu
Height: 5' 2" (157cm)
Weight: 143lbs (65kg)
Date of Birth: April 14 1974
Debut: April 15 1995 vs. Chikayo Nagashima
Promotions: GAEA (1994-)

April 7 1997 - Defeated Malia Hosaka to win the WCW Womens Cruiserweight title. Lost the belt to Yoshiko Tamura on July 19 1997.

Worked for Chigusa Nagayo's GAEA promotion.

technorati tags: wrestling,wwe, sports, smackdown, raw, pro-wrestling

Manami Toyota - Part 2

However, the feud between Manami and Toshiyo Yamada was not yet over.
It reached it's climax on August 15th, 1992 at Korakuen Hall in a Hair vs. Hair match. The bout was a very dramatic one, but what made the event was what occurred after the match. Manami, even though she had won the match, did not want Toshiyo to get her head shaved, and had to be forcefully restrained by four preliminary girls, who eventually forced her back to the mat. In respect of the match conditions Toshiyo wanted her head shaved and went ahead with the stipulation.

Soon after this match the two women once again teamed up to win their first World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA) World Tag Team Championship in March 1992, defeating "Jungle Jack" (Aja Kong and Bison Kimura) in Tokyo. At AJW’s Dreamrush shown on November 26th, Manami and Toshiyo defended their WWWA Tag Team wrestling titles against Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki in a legendary two out of three falls match, which is considered one of the best wrestling matches ever.

In April of 1992 Manami furthered her singles career by defeating Kyoko Inoue on April 25th in Yokohama for the IWA World Women's Championship. Toyota defended that title eight times over the course of the next three years, before losing it to Reggie Bennett in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on May 15th, 1995.

At Dreamslam II, on April 11th, 1993 Manami and Toshiyo fought a rematch against JWP Project's Kansai and Ozaki in yet another highly-rated two out of three falls encounter. This time, however, Manami and Toshiyo were on the losing side, and Kansai and Ozaki got their revenge. The feud concluded at AJW’s St. Battle Final event, on December 6th, 1993, when Manami and Toshiyo regained their tag titles.

On August 24th, 1994 Manami once again squared off against Kyoko Inoue, and defeated her to unify the IWA and All Pacific Singles Championships. Manami’s run with the two titles was not to last very long, because on October 9th, 1994, Inoue gained a measure of revenge against Manami, when Kyoko and her partner Takako Inoue (no relation) won the WWWA Tag Team Championship from Manami and Toshiyo. Manami then vacated her All Pacific Championship, prior to her first WWWA Heavyweight Championship match against the monstrous Aja Kong at AJW’s Queendom III show, on March 26th, 1995. The match saw Manami reach the summit of AJW when she won and became the 39th WWWA Champion.

On May 7th, Manami defended her crown against arch-rival Kyoko Inoue at the Korakuen Hall, where the two fought to a 60 minute time limit draw. Despite piledrivers on the floor, German suplexes off the top rope, and multiple finishers, neither combatant was able to secure outright victory. Nonetheless, Manami retained, and the match was voted Match of the Year for 1995 in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The following month, Manami lost the WWWA Championship to former champion Aja Kong, on June 27.

Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue (May 7, 1995)