STARDOM
It was a rather quiet week for STARDOM with two tour shows in the North of Japan, but the most newsworthy part happened on the Sendai show. After their win in the main event, Maika & Shirakawa announced that their faction would be called “E-neXus-V” or short “EXV” with the “E” standing for “Empress” and the “V” standing for “Venus”. The abbreviation will likely be used more often here than the full name.
Mina Shirakawa also called out Mayu Iwatani to challenge her for the IWGP Women’s Championship at an unknown date. Looking at the schedule, the match seemingly will happen at “American Dream 2024” in Philadelphia at Wrestlemania weekend. It would be the fourth defense for Mayu Iwatani in her nearly 300-day-long Championship run.
On the second show, Saya Kamitani won the main event match with a new submission finish. She vows after the match to win the Red Belt and end the “Era of the Empress” at Supreme Fight in 7 days. For that, Kamitani prepared the “Three Phoenixs” with her Phoenix Splash, the Phoenix Strike, and the new submission finish for the biggest match of her career.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
The 4th Max Heart Tournament in Tokyo Joshi Pro started, where the winner of the single elimination tournament will challenge Yuki Aino & Ryo Mizunami for the Princess Tag Team Championships at Grand Princess in the Sumo Hall. This past weekend, the semi-final matches of the tournament happened, with the finals being decided for the Korakuen Hall.
In the first semi-final, Arisu Endo & Suzume defeated Juria Nagano & Moka Miyamoto in a bit over 15 minutes in a good match, where both teams shined and told a really good story that helped the dramatic of the match. Juria & Moka needed to win the match to gain the chance to challenge one more time for the Princess Tag Team Titles before Nagano retires in April, and they came close several times, but the tag teamwork of Daisy Monkey prevailed here and they secured their spot in the final. Nagano was disappointed with her loss but didn’t want to end her career without an accomplishment, so she called out Yuki Arai backstage and challenged her on February 10th for the International Princess Title.
Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi followed Daisy Monkey to the final by defeating Wakana Uehara and Yuki Arai in the second semi-final. Wakana showed here why she is popular, with a great underdog performance and fighting from underneath against Watanabe & Tatsumi. She and Arai have good chemistry, but in such a tough match-up against a team like Hakuchumu, it wasn’t enough to pull off the big upset. The winners of the 2022 Max Heart tournament once again made it to the finals, where they will face Daisy Monkey. On paper, Rika & Miu are the clear favorites, but Daisy Monkey’s momentum is hotter than ever. The final is set for February 10th in the Korakuen Hall.
Ice Ribbon
Ice Ribbon held a show in the Korakuen Hall in front of 299 fans, which is down 300 compared to Ribbonmania and one of the least visited Korakuen Hall shows in recent memory. The show featured a one-night tournament, with the winner getting a wish of their choosing. In a hard-fought final of the tournament, Hamuko Hoshi was able to defeat Asuka Fujitaki to win the “Ribbon-1”. She used her wish to call out Ibuki Hoshi and challenge her for the ICExInfinity Championship on March 23rd at the next Korakuen Hall of Ice Ribbon!
The former 2x ICExInfinity Champion tries to win the title for the first time since 2018 and will challenge her own daughter for that. Ibuki has been holding the most prestigious title in Ice Ribbon since August and defended it twice since. It’s the biggest test yet for the Champion, who has never defeated her mother in singles action and has the chance to take another step to being the Ace of Ice Ribbon.
Also on the show, Yuki Mashiro made her return to Pro Wrestling against Makoto. The “Gacha King” retired at last year Ribbonmania, and now, after just 13 months, we will be back in the ring again. She had a great performance, and it didn’t seem like she was missing a step here, and the crowd behind her. In the end, Makoto defeated Mashiro, but overall a successful return for Yuki. Her return is awesome news for Ice Ribbon since they are getting a future star back in their struggling roster.
World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana
Diana held a show at Culttz Kawasaki in front of 523 fans. The show is one of the biggest shows of the year for Diana, and it had a major match in the main event of the show with Haruka Umesaki defending her WWWD World Championship against Unagi Sayaka, who put her DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship in a double title match. The match ended with Umesaki defending her Championship for a second time, and winning the DDT Iron Man Title from Sayaka. However, Unagi rolled up Umesaki quickly after the match to win the title back and continue to walk around as a Triple Crown Champion.
Umesaki’s next challenger has already been announced, with her facing 2AWs Ayame Sasamura on February 11th in Shinkiba 1st RING. The Champion has yet to defeat Sasamura in a Singles Match in her career, with their last match in the Catch the WAVE ended with Sasamura putting Umesaki to sleep with a Sleeper Hold. The Champion needs to be fully focused on defeating Ayame to retain her title for a third time and tie the defense record of Kyoko Inoue & Ayako Sato.
