masu-me (or Masumi Arakawa) was born on July 9th, 1988 in Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan. She started her wrestling training in September of 2010 (which is kinda late for Joshi) and made her in-ring debut on December 23rd, 2010 in Korakuen Hall at JWP Climax 2010 against KAZUKI. masu-me is also a singer, which harkens back to the old days of Joshi with the "singer/wrestlers".
She has released at least one single and a photobook. (Her single was released the same day she made her wrestling debut) masu-me is five foot one and weighs 95 pounds. In JWP, she has formed a tag-team with Tsukasa Fujimoto called Kyutipea.
JWP Spot with Kaori Yoneyama and masu-me
(actually there are a ton of interview videos on YouTube with her)
Here is a match posted on YouTube by ElfenLiedPictureSh0w between two female wrestling greats, Debbie Malenko and Akira Hokuto. Yeah, some of you may not know who Debbie Malenko is and that's a shame. I think she may have been one of the best women wrestlers to ever set foot in a ring, but she never got the WWF/WWE hype. Of course I don't need to tell you who Akira Hokuto is if you have seen very much Joshi at all.
These two start out fast and in just a few moves, Debbie has Akira trapped in a Dragon Sleeper.
But Akira almost immediately reverses it and traps Debbie in the same hold.
Then Akira ups the ante a bit by adding a body scissors to the hold.
An escape and a few high speed reversals later, and Debbie and Akira are both outside the ring, with an unfortunate second caught in the cross fire.
Here is a match posted on YouTube by H781N of a Japanese female wrestler who is rapidly becoming one of my favorites Shuri, taking on an American female wrestler, Serena Deeb. Shuri (I have seen it spelled Syuri as well) is from the old HUSTLE wrestling promotion where she was Karate Girl (KG). Serena Deeb of course has worked for a lot of promotions here in the US including the WWE (on SmackDown! and FCW), Shimmer Women Athletes, Great Lakes Championship Wrestling, Memphis Championship Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling. This match is from SMASH 12 on January 29th, 2011 in Tokyo.
They start out actually shaking hands....
..and Shuri quickly gets the advantage with a head scissors.
But Serena escapes and captures Shuri in a side headlock.
You can see the match in full here...
If you like this match, be sure to drop by H781N's channel here and check out some videos and maybe subscribe to the channel.
Shuri Wrestling Serena Deeb, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on March 20th, 2011
The last wrestling match I posted here was Ayako Sato and Misaki Ohata. Well this one is Ayako again, but this time against a blog favorite, Francoise (Huransowazu).
Francoise Hirota has worked for Osaka Pro, LLPW Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling and she also worked for the Japanese wrestling promotion HUSTLE as the valet of the late Lance Cade. I believe this is her actual wrestling debut on January 5th, 2007 for LLPW.
First up we have an interview with Francoise showing her working out and yes setting up the ring and cleaning. You dont just go into Japanese wrestling and say "I wanna be a star". There are dues to pay.
So finally at about 2:30 we get to her actual match against Ayako. She looks a bit nervous, but who can blame her?
Francoise recovers from that pretty quickly and immediately opens up with a running drop kick. She tags Ayako a few more times with dropkick and goes for a quick pin which Ayako breaks up with the ropes.
Now Ayako opens up with her own series of dropkicks, followed up with some bone-jarring snapmares which Francoise sells pretty good for a rookie.
Ayako then traps Francoise in a rear headlock, and adding a bodyscissors, shows the rookie that she's not gonna be getting any mercy.
Francoise gets to the ropes and Ayako releases her which leads to some more back and forth till Ayako finally traps her in a boston crab.
Sadly, embedding is disabled on this match, but you can go to YouTube and watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVOrg7GaGGM
Francoise vs Ayako Sato, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on January 21st, 2011
Here is a match posted by nagashimark on YouTube, of Misaki Ohata taking on Ayako Sato. This match was for the Sendai Girls wrestling promotion on April 20th, 2008.
Misaki Ohata has shown up a few times on this blog. She was trained by the famous Mariko Yoshida and worked for many wrestling promotions in Japan like JDStar. You can see her now in the US with Shimmer.
Ayako Sato has wrestled for JWP, NEO and if I'm not mistaken, has done some Olympic-style wrestling as well.
After the introductions, we jump right into the match where Ayako has Misaki trapped in a leg lock.
Misaki manages to slip out of that and trap Ayako in a figure four headscissors.
That doesn't last for long though as Ayako slips out of that hold and clamps on a double leg lock.
Which then then transitions into a bow and arrow.
Misaki escapes, but Ayako literally rocks her world with some devastating dropkicks and goes for a pin. Unfortunately for Ayako, Misaki kicks out, then catches her in an arm bar.
You can see the whole match here...
If you like this, be sure to check out nagashimark's channel for more videos.
Misaki Ohata Wrestling Ayako Sato, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on December 3rd, 2011
Here is a match posted by the legendary DoubleMiz, of Manami Toyota taking on Kyoko Inoue from March 31st, 1996. This is a really high quality video, and it's part 1 of 2. You know...I know both Manami and Kyoko are highly skilled athletes, but when I saw Manami going to the ring at the beginning of the video, the only thing I could thing was "My God...her hair is beautiful!"
Anyway, both of these women are Joshi legends.
Manami made her pro wrestling debut in 1987...
and Kyoko debuted the next year in 1988.
This match is a sequel to Manami and Kyoko's match in 1995, which won the Wrestling Observer Match of the Year.
And this match takes off like a rocket with a missed dropkick, a giant swing and a kiwi roll all in rapid succession.
Coming up from that, they go into the classic test of strength...
Which leads into Kyoko unleashing an array of submission moves on Manami...
Here is part one of this amazing match...
To see part two, go to DoubleMiz's channel and check it out, and subscribe while you're there.
Here is a match between Mai Ichii and Ayumi Kurihara, posted on YouTube by xkingx2009.
Ayumi Kurihara was born on July 13th, 1984 in Tokyo, Japan and was trained by Mariko Yoshida, AKINO, Michiko Ohmukai and GAMI. She made her pro wrestling debut on April 24, 2005 and has worked for wrestling promotions like AtoZ, M's Style, NEO, JWP, Jd', Ibuki and Pro Wrestling SUN.
Mai Ichii was born on March 21st, 1980 in Saitama, Japan. Besides being a wrestler, she is a MMA fighter with a 4-4-0 record.
This match starts off with Ayumi taking the offensive with a series of drop kicks that some of which I swear look pretty "stiff" to me.
After pummeling the fool out of Mai, Ayumi straddles her and clamps on a camel clutch.
Mai manages to bite her way out of it....yes...bite. Undaunted, Ayumi turns and clamps on a double toe hold which Mai tries to unsuccessfully bite her way out of.
Failing the biting escape, Mai makes the ropes and opens up with a few dropkicks of her own. Getting Ayumi down, she goes for a leg lock which Ayumi reverses.
Mai escapes, there’s another flurry of moves and Ayumi comes out on top with a headlock.
Here we go back to nagashimark, and a video posted of Tomoka Nakagawa taking on Mima Shimoda. Well why not? We had Mima Shimoda wrestling Etsuko Mita a few weeks ago, then Hiren wrestling Tomoko Nakagawa, so I guess this is a logical progression.
Anyway, we start off with Tomoka....
Then Mima in her corner, looking like she really doesnt like Tomoka, or anything near her for that matter...
After a few exchanges, Mima gets Tomoka down and locks on a Boston Crab...
Then she stands Tomoka up, and sinks her teeth into her forearm...
Mima stays in control, grabbing Tomoka's hair and planting a knee into the back of her neck...
Finally Tomoka turns the tables, and gets Mima in a modified camel clutch, using Mima's hair...
But Mima reverses back and clamps her own camel clutch on Tomoka. Rather than locking her hands under Tomoka's chin, Mima leaves them open to roll and grind her forearms into Tomoka's face...
That is until she locks down and almost turns Tomoka's head completely around.
This time we have a video posted by HybridDolphinELPS on YouTube of Hiren wrestling Tomoko Nakagawa in Japan for the Oz Academy wrestling promotion. I know Oz Academy started out as a stable, but I think by this time they were putting on their own shows.
This video is a little different from the others as in it is basically a beat down. Oh there are some cool MMA style moves in it, and submission holds that would make a WWE Diva or TNA Knockout (well not all of them) submit in about 30 seconds. But it's pretty much just a one sided attack.
First up you have Hiren. Hiren (Yurie Kaneko) was born on January 16th, 1986 in Katsushika City, Tokyo, Japan and made her pro wrestling debut on July 9th, 2006, wrestling Mariko Yoshida.
And her opponent Tomoko Nakagawa. She was born on September 29th, 1981, in Asahikawa Hokkaido, Japan and made her pro wrestling debut on January 23rd, 2005 with Yuu Yamagata against TAKA Michinoku and Ryota Chikuzen.
Hiren immediately takes control, as her corner people attack Tomoko and really work over her leg, like old school nWo. Then Hiren proceeds to hit her with every spare folding chair in the arena. This must be no DQ.
Focusing on the injured leg, Hiren clamps on a leg lock going for a submission.
In perfect heel style, Hiren smiles and looks like she is really enjoying punishing her opponent.
But Tomoko, isnt about to give up, she escapes and even hopping on one leg, launches her own counter-attack.
Tomoko is too badly damaged though, and quickly Hiren clamps on an ankle lock that would make Kurt Angle or Ken Shamrock proud.
This would have ended a regular match here, but Tomoko refuses to give in, and Hiren adds grinding a boot into the back of Tomoko's head to add insult to injury.
Here is the match in it's entirety, and if you like it, go to HybridDolphinELPS' page and subscribe for even more great Joshi videos.
