By: Jeff Brown
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling is at Korakuen Hall today and sees the return of Yuka Sakazaki, and Saki Akai will be having one of the final matches of her career.
A battle royal will decide the challenger for Max the Impaler, Free WiFi has their first title defense, and Miyu Yamashita starts her reign as the new Princess of Princess Champion.
The Up Up Girls start the show with Shining Mark, which is one of their newer songs that they debuted this year.
This is a showcase of the new era of TJPW; all six joshi debuted this year. The upcoming Next Generation tournament will feature all of these participants and can be seen as a bit of a preview for potential matchups. Even with less than a year of experience, all six have already started finding their niches with special moves, and their characters are getting fleshed out.
Runa and Toga are just blasting each other with forearms, and that helps them stand out as it’s a bit more physical. Wakana and HIMAWARI are both naturally charismatic and have taken to wrestling very quickly; Haru and Shino both are picking up new moves and offset that with massive fighting spirit. HIMAWARI gets the win with a half crab against Haru, who is her Next Generation tournament opponent.
It was a really great match that was a mixture of current stars and talent on the rise. Itoh in the second match on the card seems a bit odd for a Korakuen show, but she shines anywhere. Mizunami is always fun and really brings the passion out of the younger roster; she’s been teaming with Aino recently, so they could be a future challenge for the tag titles. Aino has more aggression lately and is mentioning that she is tired of losing her big matches, while Toribami is moving up the ranks with a combination of high flying and submissions. The second half of this match really put the focus on Aino and Toribami, as Aino picked up the win for her team.
🔴東京女子プロレス
東京・後楽園ホール『ALL RISE '23』第４試合
○坂崎ユカ＆瑞希 vs ハイパーミサヲ＆原宿ぽむhttps://t.co/hJW0rJYbdh#tjpw pic.twitter.com/5F09A956l2— TJPW 東京女子プロレス (@tjpw2013) October 27, 2023
Yuka returns after 5 months; her final run before graduating was cut extremely short. The matchups planned, be they tag or singles, did not happen; she now has 7 matches left before leaving. TJPW shenanigans and chaos are the main takeaway and a feel-good moment as the Magical Sugar Rabbits are united again. Sakazki gets the win in this match that had everyone covered in silly string and cake.
Tag team partners in Reiwa AA Cannon, but also mentor and protege for this next bout. Akai is finishing up her career, and this is the last singles match for her at Korakuen. She refused to shake Arai’s hand, and that set the tone of this fight; it was a test or trial for Arai, who did not want to quit. Akai was quite relentless but was nearly beaten by the Finally kick, so Arai had almost a glimmer of hope of beating her partner.
Akai gets the win and tells Arai that she was happy to have this match and that the next time they meet, it will be as a pro wrestler and a fan. It’s a nice show of respect, and it’s easy to forget how early into her career Arai is. She is a very special talent with her simultaneous Idol (SKE48) and Joshi work.
Elimination could be over the top rope, pinfall, or submission. A good mixture of previous champions and roster members who are ready to make the move up the card. There are 3 tag teams along with Nakajima and Raku, so there are lots of tandem spots throughout. It took all 7 doing a group camel clutch to eliminate Mahiro, while Tatsumi and Watanabe were thrown out together. Kamifuku was dominant early, but it turned into Nakajima’s night. Raku, however, was hiding on the outside and nearly got the upset, but 2 consecutive northern lights suplexes kept her down, as Nakajima will be the next challenger for International Princess Champion Max The Impaler.
This is the first defense for Free WiFi, and it’s against Miyamoto and Nagano, who both have a strong karate background. Miyamoto has been part of a lot of semi and main events this year and is very close to being in the upper echelon of the TJPW roster. While still in the early days of her career, the moniker of rookie seems unnecessary at this point. Nagano is very flashy, with a lot of cool strikes, including the Brazilian Kick. Noa continues to be energized by this run, and Kakuta has the first title of her nearly decade-long career.
A very hard-hitting match, Kakuta with lots of kicks to the face and Noa with some particularly wicked sequences such as kicking out the knee of Nagano and a super kick to the head. There were lots of tag spots, including the 5G slam that helped clear Miyamoto from the match, and for a Blizzard Suplex from Noa, that was a bit of a desperation move to cut off the momentum from Nagano. This company has a strong pool of tag teams and could make for a really good run for Free WiFi.
🔴東京女子プロレス
東京・後楽園ホール『ALL RISE '23』メインイベント
○プリンセス・オブ・プリンセス選手権試合
＜王者＞山下実優 vs レジーナ＜挑戦者＞https://t.co/hJW0rJYbdh#tjpw pic.twitter.com/qnN0Ivvte6— TJPW 東京女子プロレス (@tjpw2013) October 27, 2023
The main event was a very classic David vs Goliath format, with Regina being disrespectful to not only Yamashita but Joshi in general in the build-up to the match. Regina is from Finland and is a great monster for this smaller roster; her 2 previous TJPW matches were both under 5 minutes.
Yamashita was in action star mode, having to overcome the much larger opponent and survive the devastating power moves. The Ace of the company fought back to prove how strong she and TJPW as a brand are. It was a very stiff outing that highlighted the various kicks and power of Yamashita.
This show was a very quick 2 and a half hours; it was essentially three acts, the new generation gaining experience along with seasoned pros guiding them, the requisite experimental comedy as a bridge to the very serious hard-hitting bouts that are a calling card for TJPW at Korakuen. Yamashita is one of the best wrestlers going today and is leading this roster into a new era. Who on this young roster reaches their potential and breaks out is the main story heading into 2024. There is a lot of promise and continual growth for this company in this period of transition.
Date:
October 27, 2023
Category:
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