Major Upsets Punctuate the Second Round of the TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup

By Noah Leatherland

TJPW began the second round of the Tokyo Princess Cup in the Osaka Azalea Taisho Hall, with some big names slated for action. Coming out of the other side, some major upsets eliminated some of TJPW’s top stars from the tournament.

Arisu Endo has had a tough year so far, losing the International Princess Title, feeling Spark Rush’s wrath, unsuccessfully challenging Yuki Arai and recently falling to Aja Kong. However, the TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup offers up some hope. After defeating Sakura Hattori in the first round, she came up against Chika Nanase in Osaka. Endo managed to keep her momentum alive, submitting Nanase to the camel clutch, advancing to the quarter finals.

Also looking to find form was Wakana Uehara. Uehara failed in taking the International Princess Title from Suzume at Summer Sun Princess, but has been looking to keep her singles run going strong. She defeated Mifu Ashida in the opening round of the TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup, setting up her clash with HIMAWARI in Osaka. HIMAWARI has only wrestled eight singles matches since last year’s tournament, having only won three of them. However, entering with a first round bye, HIMAWARI found good fortune and made Uehara submit to the half Boston crab.

The next second round bout saw Mizuki coming up against Hyper Misao. Both women are coming off of losses in marquee matches at TJPW Summer Sun Princess, with Mizuki losing to Chris Brookes, and Hyper Misao failing to become one half of the Princess Tag Team Champions. As a two-time Princess of Princess Champion, the odds favoured Mizuki in this one-on-one encounter. But, everyone can be caught. After an exchange of pin attempts, Misao tied Mizuki up in a La Magistral cradle and secured the pin.

Then, in the main event, The Pink Striker, Miyu Yamashita clashed with one half of the TJPW tag champions, Rika Tatsumi. Though both have held the Princess of Princess Title in the past, many would pick Yamashita as the favourite going into this match. Though Yamashita was as dangerous as ever, she too found herself locked into a submission. Tatsumi sunk the White Dragon Sleeper in and wrenched on Yamashita’s neck until she was forced to submit.

As such, the first two quarter finals in the TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup are set for August 8th:

• Rika Tatsumi vs. Hyper Misao
• Arisu Endo vs. HIMAWARI

The remaining second round matches are set to take place on July 30th.

Here are the full results for TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup, July 25th:

• Yuki Kamifuku, Mifu Ashida & Shion Kanzaki def. Momo Sato, Uta Takami & Haru Kazashiro
• Raku def. Ren Konatsu and Sakura Hattori
• Shoko Nakajima, Yuki Aino, Pom Harajuku & Toga def. Suzume, Yuki Arai, Miu Watanabe & Mahiro Kiryu
• Arisu Endo def. Chika Nanase
• HIMAWARI def. Wakana Uehara
• Hyper Misao def. Mizuki
• Rika Tatsumi def. Miyu Yamashita