TJPW
TJPW had its first show in the United States during WrestleMania Weekend, and they totally killed it. Their show on the 31st featured 6 matches, with two being Championship Matches. The Globe Theatre with over 600 fans in attendance was really loud during the show and proved that Tokyo Joshi Pro has a solid fanbase in the United States.
In the opener, the Hikari Nao and the next POP Challenger Nao Kakuta defeated Arisu Endo and Suzume in a fast-paced opener with a lot of action. The crowd was totally behind Daisy Monkey here and rooted for them. Free WiFi proved why they are a great Tag Team and showed good chemistry. The 5G got the job down for Noa & Kakuta. Yuki Kamifuku faced Janai Kai in the shortest match of the night. They had a fun little match, with Kai picking up the win in the end. The next match was your typical Hyper Misao and Raku Tag Match with comedy elements. Trish Adora, who teamed with Misao, got her own Hero mask, which was pretty cool to see. Overall, Hyper Misao was really over on this show. She got loud “Hero” chants. Her charisma was on full display in this match. She and Trish picked up the win in a solid comedy bout.
Wasteland War Party is built up as one of the most dominant Tag Teams in Tokyo Joshi Pro’s history, and it continued here. The way Heidi & Max threw around Shoko was incredibly entertaining to watch. Miu and Shoko were fantastic babyfaces and tried their best to overcome the dominant WWP here. The former IP Champion Miu Watanabe was the stand-out in this match and gave Heidi & Max two consecutive body slams to the loudest pops of the entire night. The giant swing from Miu against Heidi made the crowd go nuts. It was one of the most viral spots during this Mania weekend. In the end, WWP continues their dominant run and win the match by pinning Shoko Nakajima.
The newly crowned International Princess Champion Rika Tatsumi defended her title against the young Billie Starkz in the co-main event of the show. It was a great sub-10-minute match that showed once again the potential of Billie. She and Rika had great chemistry. Not everything was 100% clean, but it was a well-laid-out match. The best spot was the crazy German Suplex spot that went wrong because Billie slipped, but then she turned it into an even more brutal German Suplex that made everyone go crazy. The only Grand Slam Champion in the history of the promotion retains the title and is facing Vert Vixen in Japan soon.
The Main Event was the TJPW All-Stars Match for the Princess Tag Team Titles. It featured three of the biggest international Stars TJPW has and the current POP Champion Mizuki. This Match was the perfect showcase of what match quality TJPW can deliver. From the first moment on everyone went totally crazy and delivered fantastic performances with the Popping Sugar Rabbit standing out. This was the match to establish Mizuki as a Top Star in the eyes of the International Fan base, and they did this perfectly. Her performance was outstanding, the Whirling Candy was perfect and made the crowd go crazy, and her winning the Tag Titles together with Yuka Sakazaki by pinning her former Partner Maki Itoh was the cherry on the cake for the newly crowned POP Champion. Mizuki is now a double Champion in TJPW and won the Tag Belts with the Magical Girl for the 3rd time. The 121000000 title run ended in just two weeks, mainly because Miyu Yamashita is now staying in the US for the next 3–4 months. But this match set up the Maki Itoh vs Mizuki POP Title Match in the future, which will be the biggest match of TJPW’s 2023.
The second and quarterfinal rounds of the Cinderella occurred this past weekend with shocking results. Ami Sourei was able to advance to the Semis by defeating the Leader of Oedo Tai, Natsuko Tora. Also, her NEW ERAS Tag Team Partner MIRAI made it through by defeating Saya Iida on Saturday and then Xena in the Korakuen Hall. Mai Sakurai defeated Mariah May and Momo Watanabe to continue her run in this year’s Cinderella. The biggest Cinderella story could have the fourth semi-finalist Waka Tsukiyama, who defeated Saki Kashima on Sunday to make it to the last four. She’s now on a four-match winning streak, and it doesn’t look like it’s ending any time soon.
The semi-final pairings are as followed:
Ami Sourei vs MIRAI
Mai Sakurai vs Waka Tsukiyama
The semi & finals will happen on April 15th
Prominence defended their Artist Of Stardom Championships against the top Queen’s Quest trio of AZM, Saya Kamitani and Utami Hayashishita. The current Champions defended their belts for a second time in a great contest when Suzu Suzuki pinned Utami with the Locomotive German Suplex. After the match, KAIRI came out to issue a challenge together with her two partners Natsupoi and the top freelancer Saori Anou. The former ICExInfinity Champion makes her Stardom return after 6 years. They will challenge Prominence in the Yokohama Arena on April 24th.
Starlight Kid announced her Partner for the Yokohama Arena Tag Team Match against Mei Suruga. Her Partner is Mei Seira, formerly known as “Mei Hoshizuki” in Marvelous. Seira and Suruga were known as the Tag Team “MeiMei” before Seira had a long break after her departure from Marvelous. Now she will make her in-ring return in the Yokohama Arena against her former Tag Team Partner after 1 1/2 years.
