New Japan Pro Wrestling
Giulia had her first singles match in the U.S on October 28 at NJPW’s STRONG Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2023 in Las Vegas. She defended her Strong Women’s Championship against Hyan, who is a wrestler who has gained a ton of experience in promotions all over the world, including RevPro and wXw recently. They had a fun match, with great exchanges, where the Renaissance Woman tried her best to get the better of Giulia, but the former World Of Stardom Champion was too good on this day and retained her Strong Women’s Championship for the fifth time after the Nothern Lights Bomb. Backstage, Trish Adora challenged Giulia. It’s yet to be revealed when the match will happen.
In a match earlier the night, Stephanie Vaquer announced that she is challenging Mayu Iwatani for the IWGP Women’s Championship at Lonestar Shootout. The 30-year-old is a stand-out luchadora in CMLL and is CMLL World Women’s Singles & Tag Championship. To the Western audience, she might be known for her match against Mercedes Mone as part of the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship tournament.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
TJPW held their “All Rise ’23” Korakuen Hall show on October 27 in front of 686 fans, which is the third-best Korakuen attendance for Toyko Joshi Pro in 2023. The show featured Yuka Sakazaki’s return, Reiwa AA Cannon colliding in a singles match, and two Championship matches.
The first important match was a Rumble with the winner challenging Max The Impaler for the International Princess Championship in Osaka EDION #2 next month. Eight Wrestlers took part in this match, with Shoko Nakajima winning after pinning Raku, who tried her best to get the upset win. Nakajima has never won the IP Title before and could crown herself the second Triple Crown Champion in the company’s history.
Yuka Sakazaki made her return to Pro Wrestling after a neck injury that kept the former Princess Of Princess Champion out for over 5 months. She is teaming with Mizuki against Hyper Misao & Pom Harajuku. They had a fun comedy match, with many fun comedy spots, that showed what a menace Sakazaki is. She picked up the win with the Merry-Go-Round and will be on every Tokyo Joshi show until her graduation show in December.
Next was the final Korakuen Hall Match in TJPW for Saki Akai before she retires at DDT’s Ultimate Party. She is facing off against her Reiwa AA Cannon Tag Team Partner Yuki Arai. Saki Akai dominated the early parts of the match over her less experienced Tag Team Partner, which created a great veteran vs. underdog dynamic. Akai landed a handful of Boots & kicks right into the face of her opponent, but Arai always stayed in the match, trying to overcome her mentor. She starts her comeback, ending with Saki Akai barely reaching the ropes with her legs after Yuki Arai hit her “Finally” finisher. From then on, it was only Akai hitting move after move, but the “Genius Girl” didn’t want to stay down, so Akai needed to hit the “Quetzalcoatl” to win the match
In the semi-main event, the Princess Tag Team Championships were on the line when Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano challenged Hikari Noa & Nao Kakuta, the newly crowned Champions, who won the Championships at Wrestle Princess after defeating the Toyo Mates. Free Wi-Fi showed their experience early in the match, dominating Shinken Kusho. Moka & Juria, while only teaming up a couple of times, showed great chemistry in this match, starting their comeback together as a team, and got close near falls, but it never seemed that they had an actual shot against the Tag Champions. Hikari Noa pinned Juria with the Blizzard Suplex to defend the Tag Titles for the first time.
The main event is for the Princess Of Princess Championship, with Miyu Yamashita making her first defense as a four-time POP Champion against Regina. The Powerhouse is from Finland and is the current FCF Finnish Heavyweight Champion and is trying to win the top title of TJPW in her just third match in the promotion. That was a match that existed, Regina is not interesting enough to create an interesting match here with Miyu Yamashita. She dominated the majority of the match, with the Champion playing the underground, but it never got anywhere. Yamashita kicked out of Regina’s “Finnish” until she started her comeback and defeated Regina with the Crash Rabbit Heat to retain the title.
STARDOM
Stardom also held the “Halloween Dark Night ~House Of Terror~” show on October 29th, which is the Halloween show, that reminded fans of the old Showcase shows, that stopped earlier this year. It had whacky, but funny, stipulation matches including a Coffin Explosion match in the main event.
The show opened with a Goddesses Of Stardom Tag League Match between Prominence and the God’s Eye duo of Syuri & Saki Kashima. They had a really fun match, with Risa Sera just bullying Kashima throughout the whole match. Kashima performed her underdog role well, suffering a beating, while showing that this is the best role for her. She & Syuri tried their best to come back, but Sera & Hiragi Kurumi were too strong and defeated the God’s Eye team.
In the first stipulation match, STARDOM presented a Zombie Rumble with the participants including KARMA, Ram Kaicho, Fukigen Death, the Stardom Machines, three random Zombies, and the birth of the second Sexy Dynamite Princess, who looks similar to Hanan. It was the Super Strong Stardom Machine, who overcame the Zombies and won the match.
All participants stayed out, for the Zombie Lumberjack Match, where Dump Matsumoto & ZAP faced Club Venus’s Mina Shirakawa & Waka Tsukiyama. This was a one-sided match, with the Club Venus team having no chance against Dump & ZAP, especially Waka was getting annihilated with the Kendo stick. They got destroyed easily and lost in under 10 minutes to ZAP & Dump.
Next, was a fun Trick Or Treat Anywhere Fall Count Four Way Match, which was a staple of the Showcase shows, between Momo Watanabe, Mei Seira, Suzu Suzuki, and Thekla. This was the best match of the night and featured a great mix of funny spots, like Suzu & Seira throwing candy into the crowds, while Watanabe is eating it. The ending sequence between Thekla & Suzuki was great and made the match even better. Suzu won the match by rolling up Thekla and continues to gain momentum, just 3 weeks away from the World Of Stardom Championship match.
The Halloween Weapons Four Way Match that followed was equally entertaining, with Hazuki having a police cosplay, and Mai Sakurai coming out with a Darth Vader mask, and a double lightsaber, which popped my inner Star Wars fanboy. It was a hilarious match, with Mai breaking her lightsaber instantly, Saori Anou bringing out roaches, which scared the hell out of Syuri. As the match went on, they really picked it up and went all out. A really fun match on this super wild show.
In the semi-main event, MIRAI is trying to take revenge on the Halloween Mask that attacked her in the Korakuen Hall four weeks ago. It didn’t take the Wonder Of Stardom Champion long to find out who was under the mask, and it was none other than Ruaka. The moment her identity was revealed, Oedo Tai jumped the ring and caused a no contest. A confusing match, that screams to me, that it wasn’t planned when they shot the angle at the Korakuen.
In the main event, Mayu Iwatani faced three crows in a Coffin Explosion Four Way Match, where the winner is decided by who throws another wrestler into a coffin and closes it. The crows were to be revealed as Maika, Yuu and Megan Bayne. Another hilarious match with fun moments in the ring, which gave us Rossy Ogawa getting involved, who didn’t want to be killed by Yuu’s body, and was blown up in a coffin together with Mayu Iwatani after Megan Bayne & Yuu threw them into it and closed the coffin.
Official Goddess Of Stardom Tag League Standings:
RED STARS BLOCK –
5 – Mei Seira & Suzu Suzuki (2-0-1)
4 – Momo Watanabe & Natsuko Tora (2-0-0)
4 – Saki Kashima & Syuri (2-2-0)
3 – Hiragi Kurumi & Risa Sera (1-0-1)
2 – Mina Shirakawa & Waka Tsukiyama (1-1-0)
0 – Giulia & Thekla (0-2-0)
0 – HANAKO & Saya Iida (0-3-0)
BLUE STARS BLOCK –
6 -Hanan & Mayu Iwatani (3-1-0)
4 – Mai Sakurai & MIRAI (2-1-0)
4 – AZM & Miyu Amasaki (2-0-0)
2 – Maika & Megan Bayne (1-1-0)
2 – Hazuki & Koguma (1-2-0)
0 – Tam Nakano & Yuna Mizumori (0-2-0)
0 – Ami Sourei & Lady C (0-2-0)
