By: Jeff Brown
2017 is when both Miku Aono and Asahi debuted. Miku in Actwres girl’Z against Natsumi Maki (Natsupoi) and Asahi in Ice Ribbon against Manami Toyota, their paths crossed in tag matches as the rivalry built.
Asahi, touted as the future of Joshi, is known as “The Sunrise of Hope”, and Miku, “The Heart Fighter.” Miku became AWG Tag Team Champion with Kakeru Sekiguchi, and as KKMK, they retired the titles. Asahi in Ice Ribbon challenged for the ICExInfinity Championship against both Tsukushi Haruka and Saori Anou but never won the belt. Her attempts at the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship were also fruitless. However, in each performance, she was victorious in defeat by showing incredible fighting spirit and growth as a wrestler.
With the AWG relaunch, Miku took on the responsibility of Ace and became “The Brilliant Rose that Illuminates the Future”. Not a marketing slogan but an ethos as she carried a growing young roster up a steep hill in the crowded wrestling landscape.
In the autumn of 2022, Asahi appeared in AWG to invite Aono back to Ice Ribbon for a tag match. It was a time-limit draw. Asahi participated in ACTwrestling at Korakuen Hall, teaming with Marino Saihara in a winning effort.
Spring 2023 is where Asahi started an excursion that turned into full AWG roster membership. She joined the unit Teppen☆ with Misa Matsui and Naho Yamada. Miku won the new AWG Championship against Kouki in March and has defenses against CHIAKI, Matsui, ACT, and Ayano Irie.
Again, throughout the year, they fought in tags, and at Shinkiba 1st RING, Asahi pinned the champion. Asahi showed she was literally willing to bleed as she got the pinfall. Miku has stated she has always been in Actwres girl’Z and has strong feelings for her roster and belt. Asahi, as a newcomer to the promotion, sees in The Brilliant Rose everything she wants and strives for, looking to end the Miku era at the 5th defense. Now at Korakuen Hall, they will have their first singles match, 6 years in the making.
Yui is already very popular with the AWG crowd and even won her debut match last summer. Yamashita, along with Yui, is a relatively unknown commodity. What helps this roster is that even though they have 2-3 matches, their background in acting and performing gives them a ton of confidence in the ring. Yamashita has a baseball uniform for inspiration with her ring attire. Yui gets the win with her variant of the Michinoku driver and continues her rapid rise.
A bit of a mixed bag of talent, in that Allen is in Serpent’s Path (Jadoshu) but is teaming with the good guys, which was part of the story of the match. Ishikawa is a very busy stage actress, so Korakuen shows are really the only time she wrestles. Saihara is a star that has the potential to crossover internationally with her comic-themed persona.
Togi is very new and has taken part in Maru’s theater productions as well as being a bassist, so the limelight is very familiar territory for this rookie. Nagisa is technically smooth and has the hardest chops going today. She is on a return path from injury; 2024 could be her breakout. Chii has a ton of fire as well as being part of the Coelacanth factory group of actresses along with her teammate Nagisa. Using her newly named Maelstrom bomb, Nagisa gets the victory.
Two veterans and two of the brightest of the 2022 rookie class had a really strong tag match. Naho Yamada and Sakura Mizushima both visited main events and took to wrestling very fast; each of them is very close to the next step in their career, and by 2024, their relative newness might not even be a talking point. There are lots of cool tandem spots from Matsui and Yamada, while Mii’s head kicks are still a vicious spot to go with her fun Kuma-chan bear shenanigans. Mizushima, while having a lot of flashy moves in her arsenal, is the perfect undersized babyface that overcomes the odds and won’t stay down.
Mii, Mizushima, and Yamada all had new gear that was very bright and colorful; Yamada’s in particular matches Matsui’s recent gear, giving them a look akin to the early 90s Rockers. The double-drop kick spots also echo that. Both of these teams would greatly benefit from tag team titles being introduced; it would provide something tangible for them all to strive for. Post-match, Naho invited CatMASK calico to join Teppen☆, and she accepted.
Erina Yamanaka is from Best Body Japan and has perhaps begun an excursion at AWG. She has some impressive head kicks, but this is her first match in the company and she might be a new member of BE∀STZ REBELLION . The team of Kanamic, Naru, and Natuski are very much like the previous match participants; tag belts would help them add stakes to their matches. There were a lot of bad guy spots as BE∀STZ REBELLION and Jadoshu beat up the babyfaces. In the end, Kanamic, Naru, and Natsuki hit a trio of top rope moves for the win.
It was a very fun and ridiculous spectacle as both Asako and CHIAKI adopted alter egos in The Great Asako and MUSCLE CHIAKI. It was short, so if this style of comedy isn’t your thing, you really couldn’t complain.
CHIAKI was playing off AWG’s association with Best Body Japan, and Asako has really found a niche on this large roster with outrageous and unpredictable matches and antics.
Kyoka Iwai is the most interesting character on the entire roster; she has a strong theater background that includes lead roles. She is the faction leader of Sky Rex in ARG and really showcases her ability to show strong emotions and frustration with losses. Ren has really changed, and this new character is definitely in progress. Both have the potential to be building blocks for this promotion in the years to come. Kouki is still very much the future ace, with Goto making improvements with each show; they were very dominant here, and that works great for Iwai’s character. After scrapping and desperately trying to get a win, Iwai got choke-slammed and lost. With each defeat, Iwai pulls more anguish and agony out and is someone who benefits from coming up short in matches; she shines with story arcs and progression and less with flashy moves or sequences.
Iwai started I.E.S. after leaving Jadoshu and is finally putting the pieces together like she has with Sky Rex. The name is play-off eyes and stands for “Indépendance Evolución Stahlherz”, and is French, Spanish, and German, representing her independence from Jadoshu, the evolution of their characters, with Ren dropping the RENSAN name and persona, and the steel-hearted fighting spirit that has become Iwai’s calling card.
ACT and Sumikawa’s careers have been linked since 2012 in STARDOM. In December 2021, ACT, in a version of her current gimmick, teamed with Saori Anou against Natsumi and Natsuki at Korakuen. She then participated as Wild Bunny in AWG and as Hisen in Kaguya for ARG. In the autumn of 2022, Wild Bunny was set aside for a full return to the evil ACT persona. She took Riko, Ayano, CHIAKI, and Arahata under her wing in Beastz Rebellion. In early 2023, she lost to the young prodigy Mizushima, which would happen a second time in her quest to build the future of the company. In ARG, she teamed up with her best friend Yumi Agawa and mentored both RENSAN and Naho Yamada. Here, the run is bookended by her teaming with Natsumi in the semi-main event at Korakuen.
This was a strong match that absolutely could have had all 4 going through the motions; instead, it was the veteran side of AWG showing their strengths and knowledge for all in attendance. Natsumi got the pin with top rope double knees, but that became almost secondary as ACT announced her hiatus from AWG as she restarts her wrestling career in 2024 in the United States. Whatever the future holds for ACT, she can hold her head high for the selfless 2 years of guiding and shaping a large rookie roster, which has amounted to some of the most important work of her legendary career.
Miku and Asahi went right to the hard strikes; there was no feeling-out process, and there was a hushed anticipation from the audience before Aono blasted Asashi with a kick to the back. That atmosphere and silence from a crowd is reminiscent of UWF or Rings, and even though AWG is a self-admitted performance, the wait for the ridiculously stiff offense is common for their Korakuen main events. Asashi had similar performances in Ice Ribbon, getting those 2.9 pinfalls and looking like she was going to reach the pinnacle of the promotion. Her time will come, but this is still very much the Aono era, though Asahi did kick out of the Styles Clash and forced Aono to use her Backdrop for the win, which is her ultimate finisher, a bit like Kenta Kobashi and the Burning Hammer. Afterwards, Maru came out to confront Aono ahead of their main event for Maru’s produce show.
The August Korakuen show introduced a new opening dance number and was the start of the next phase of AWG. This continued here, with lots of new ring gear, entrances, and special moves on display. AWG has made some large strides since February 2022, but what the company exactly is and why it is different from other Joshi promotions are still forming. They have a points system that they say will be refined in the future; it has elements with merchandise and ticket sales that the audience influences, but those are not often played up. It’s a large and ever-growing roster, with many making huge leaps with each show. Aono has been a standout as their ace, with veterans like Natsumi and Mari really taking on many responsibilities behind the scenes to guide these new talents. The variety of styles and personalities allows them to move forward in this enclosed ecosystem; they rarely have outside guests and have shown that it is not necessary.
AWG being a play or a performance about pro wrestling is a good way to look at this promotion, with their strong theatrical background creating colorful characters. A smaller schedule also makes access for new fans more manageable, with countless hours of wrestling available each week. The potential is there for them to become a truly unique promotion; all the parts are present, and it’s a matter of putting them all together as 2024 sees many Joshi brands branching out on the global stage. Actwres girl’Z continue their steps forward on to more radars and into more conversations.
All photos by Masahiro Kubota. Copyright Monthly Puroresu LLC.
Date:
October 20, 2023
Category:
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