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TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup Final Review

2 years ago

TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup Final Review

After four weeks and dozens of phenomenal matches, it all came down to this. Miu Watanabe vs. Yuka Sakazaki in the finals of the 9th Tokyo Princess Cup tournament. The winner would face Shoko Nakajima for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s top prize at Wrestle Princess 3 – the Princess of Princess championship. Two ring warriors with completely different backgrounds giving it their all in the ring. This is what the artform known as professional wrestling is all about.

Yuka Sakazaki is someone who studied stand-up comedy at university but found her true calling in joshi becoming one of TJPW’s first fledging recruits in 2013.  Miu Watanabe is a talented singer and bodybuilder who up until recent months was known primarily as a member of the Up Up Girls stable along with Raku and the far more in-ring decorated Hikuri Noa. Expectations were high for this match and bloody hell did both women ever deliver an impressive main event. The match was hard-hitting yet graceful with several stiff strikes and earth-shattering slams. Sakazaki threw some of the stiffest elbow strikes that almost caved in Watanabe’s face. Watanabe pulled out a modified giant swing in a front face lock position and hit her Tear Drop finisher from the top rope making Sakazaki’s body bounce off the mat twice in the most brutal of ways. These two both wanted the win more than anything and were willing to do whatever it took to get the pin or submission.

Both women told one hell of a story with Watanabe in tears towards the end of the match having come so far already. She shockingly defeated the Princess of Princesses champion Shoko Nakajima in the quarter-finals of the tournament to get to this point and solidified herself as more than just an undercard talent in the eyes of fans. Sakazaki on the other hand couldn’t hide her frustration at the fact that she, a veteran and a former two-time Princess Of Princess champion couldn’t keep this young upstart down forcing her to get more and more savage in her offense despite it being against her nature to be so brutal. She showed a vicious streak nobody knew she had in this match which shocked many. But in the end, there could be only one winner.

Yuka Sakazaki got her hand raised after an absolute war with Miu Watanabe that few fans will ever forget. The emotion in the arena was so palpable everyone began tearing up. Sakazaki tried desperately to hold them back to no avail during her victory speech. As did Shoko Nakajima who came out to congratulate her and make their match at Wrestle Princess official. Even the normally near cold-blooded Miyu Yamashita was balling her eyes out on commentary. Truly, this was a moment in time no one there will ever forget!

It was a good night for the champions of TJPW. While they all had been eliminated in the tournament’s early rounds they all put on impressive performances against strong opponents at this event.

Yuki Arai has been called the best young prospect in TJPW and it would be hard for anyone to argue. In just one short year the former Idol has put on many impressive performances including several memorable matches with Maki Itoh. But she is now really beginning to shine as the protege of Saki Akai. Ever since the pair won the Princess Tag Title fans have begun to see a slow but steady change in Arai’s attitude. It’s little things like doing a hair flick fakeout after offering to shake her opponent’s hand that showed a new confidence in herself that may border on arrogance. But nobody can argue with the results as she and Akai picked up a win against an extremely game Hikari Noa and Arisu Endo.

Despite what happens in Kaiju movies, monsters are in fact a rare thing to see in Japan. Anytime a very large, powerful wrestler lands in the orient it tends to make waves, especially in Joshi. Independent standout Max The Impaler however is just about causing a tsunami in TJPW displaying an impressive amount of power deadlifting Shoko Nakajima from a lying position before dropping her face first with a military press and intimidating everyone from the referee to her own tag partner Yuki Aino. Shoko and her tag partner Rika Tatsumi may have picked up the win but Max without question stole the show and made a name for themselves in the process!

Full Match Results:

  • Nao Kakuta def. Moka Miyamoto
  • Yuki Kamifuku & Mahiro Kiryu def. Hyper Misao & Kaya Toribami.
  • Miyu Yamashita, Suzume & Haruna Neko def. Mizuki, Raku & Pom Harajuku.
  • Saki Akai & Yuki Arai def. Hikari Noa & Arisu Endo
  • Shoko Nakajima & Rika Tatsumi def. Yuki Aino & Max The Impaler
  •  Tokyo Princess Cup 9 Final: Yuka Sakazaki def. Miu Watanabe

Rapid Fire Takeaways:

  • No English commentary and the lack of promotion on CyberFight’s part hurt the presentation of this event. This was the final night of TJPW’s biggest tournament and their equivalent to STARDOM’s 5★STAR GP.
  • The first three matches of the show were so abysmal that not even veterans like Miyu Yamashita, Yuki Kamifuku, and Hyper Misao could save them.
  • The second half of the show featured some of the best joshi wrestling you will ever see.
  • Max the Impaler must return to TJPW many more times after this tour is over. They are already a big hit with the fans and a potential singles match with Shoko Nakajima would be highly entertaining.

 

Date:

August 15, 2022

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