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)
This is Japanese female wrestler Sakura Emi (or Emi Sakura, take your pick) Emi was born on October 4th, 1976 in Kimitsu, Chiba, Japan. She started out wrestling under her own name (Emi Motokawa) for wrestling promotions like the International Wrestling Association of Japan and Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
Emi went on to wrestle as a freelancer for promotions like Gatokunyan (GTKN) and NEO. Notably though, she is the founder of the all women's wrestling promotion, Ice Ribbon. This five foot two, 154 pound wrestler has held a ton of titles so far in her career including the AJW Singles Championship, the AWF Women’s Championship, the NEO Singles and NWA Women’s Pacific Championship, the NEO Tag Team Championship (once with Kyoko Kimura), the JWP Tag Team Championship, the Daily Sports Tag Team Champion (once with Kaori Yoneyama), the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship (twice), the ICEx60 Singles Championship (twice) and the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship (three times, once with Kaori Yoneyama, once with Nanae Takahashi and once with Ray)
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
It's been a while since I have done anything on the Japanese women wrestling videos on YouTube, so here are some I have run across that have been uploaded recently.
First up we have a match with Fuuka taking on Yuri Urai. This video was uploaded by xkingx2009. Fuuka was one of the last wrestlers trained in Jaguar Yokota's JDStar promotion and Yuri Urai also wrestled for the JD Star promotion. The video is a bit "choppy" but still worth a look.
Next up we have a video posted by lablue6uy of Etsuko Mita facing Emi Sakura facing Makoto. Not the best joshi match in the world, but since YouTube is the only place I can see these, I'm not complaining. Back in 1987, Mima Shimoda made her wrestling debut against Etsuko Mita and Etsuko has since retired. Emi Sakura went on to found the Ice Ribbon wrestling promotion. The last I heard, Makoto was working for Ice Ribbon.
And finally we have Misaki Ohata wrestling LEON, posted by ElfenLiedPictureSh0w. If you are lucky enough, you may have caught Misaki here in the states working for Shimmer. Tojuki Leon (Rena Takase) has been wrestling since 2000. Probably the best match out of all three, but with kind of a weird ending.
This month, there will be a new womens wrestling promotion in Japan called Diana or World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana. The promotion is being run by NEO founder and 23 year Joshi veteran Kyoko Inoue.
The roster for Diana includes.... Kyoko Inoue Kaoru Ito Ayako Sato Keiko Aono Nagisa Nozaki Aya Yuki Sareee
The first card will be held on March 21st, and it will feature.... Ayako Sato vs Aya Yuki Keiko Aono vs Mariko Yoshida Nagisa Nozaki vs Aja Kong Sareee vs Akira Kinuko And a tag team match with Kyoko Inoue and Aya Yuki taking on Kaoru Ito and Ayako Sato.
So far they have events scheduled for March, April, May and June.
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...
This is female Japanese wrestler Tsubasa Kuragaki. Although I have mentioned her before, I haven't really done anything on her.
Tsubasa was born on December 7th, 1975 in Chiba City, Kamagaya, Japan. She's five foot three, 140 pounds and she made her pro wrestling debut either January 8th, 1995 or October 21st, 1998. I've seen two different accounts.
She has wrestled almost exclusively for JWP (Japan Women Project), but she has also done some freelance work as well. During her career so far, she has held the JWP Openweight Championship, the JWP Tag Team Championship (once with AKINO and twice with Kayoko Haruyama), the Daily Sports Tag Team Championship (twice with Kayoko Haruyama), the JWP Jr. Championship and the NEO Singles and NWA Women’s Pacific Championship.
Is it just me, or does it look like she uses the same tailor as Awesome Kong?
Here is Tsubasa wrestling Ran Yu-Yu for JWP on July 27th, 2008, posted on YouTube by kapengmabula (with credit to nagashimark)
Tsubasa Kuragaki - Japanese Women Wrestling, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on February 3rd, 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.
I keep thinking I'm gonna give nagashimark a break, but with great Japanese female wrestling videos like this one, who can? This one is a match between two great Joshi wrestlers, Mima Shimoda and Etsuko Mita that took place in the NEO wrestling promotion in 1998.
Mima was born on 23, 1970 and she made her pro wrestling debut against Etsuko Mita back in 1987 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Etsuko was born on May 28, 1969 in Toyko and at one time was part of a very successful tag-team with Mima. She is also credited with creating the "Death Valley Driver", a brutal finishing move that is a brainbuster type slam performed from a fireman's carry. I have also heard that the move is banned in some promotions for being too dangerous.
This video has the two former tag-team partners facing off, and it seems there is a great deal of animosity between them.
They face off, trade a few opening moves and size each other up.
Etsuko get Mima down early on, and Mima retaliates by biting her on the knee.
Etsuko gets Mima down and clamps on a figure four leg-lock.
Which puts Mima in a world of hurt.
Mima escapes the figure four, and clamps one of her own on Etsuko.
Not satisfied with that, Mima rolls her over and applies a toe-hold.
But Etsuko escapes and the match goes out of the wrestling ring and into the crowd.
Here is part one of the match
You can go to nagashimark's YouTube channel here and see the rest, plus other great Joshi videos. And while youre at it, you can subscribe to the channel to see more great Japanese wrestling action.
And no, nagashimark isnt paying me to say all this...LOL
If you want to see some more great Joshi videos, check out my Hub Page here
