By: Mitchell Adams
The third annual Wrestle Princess event this year held in front of a sold-out crowd of over 3,000 fans in Tokyo Dome City Hall will without question go down as the biggest event in the promotion’s history. While many memorable matches took place the main event is what people who were lucky enough to attend will remember most. Shoko Nakajima, the two-time reigning and defending Princess Of Princess Champion is an inspiration to so many. Her unwavering fighting spirit has made her one of Joshi’s most accomplished athletes proving to the world that size truly doesn’t matter. She is every bit the biggest little Kaiju monster she claims to be. Yuka Sakazaki is a hilarious ball of energy with an insane amount of determination and a will to move past any obstacle in front of her. She is without a doubt a Magical Girl. To quote the late great Gorilla Monsoon, this match was an example of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object.
Yuka Sakazki had been through hell and back to get the opportunity to challenge for the richest prize in TJPW. After coming up short against Shoko at the Cyberfight Festival in June she had to regroup and rebuild herself from the ground up after such a hard loss. After months of hard work, she eventually found herself in the final of the Tokyo Princess Cup tournament where the young, up-and-coming Miu Watanabe gave the now grizzled veteran with years of experience (despite still being in her 20s) everything she could handle and then some. But in the end, she won the day and emotionally laid out her challenge to the Champion Shoko Nakajima. Both women were in tears at the time. They both knew what this match would mean for both of them. Yuka and Shoko have been with TJPW since it was founded in 2013 and represent everything the company stands for. To them, this match, win or lose would be a defining moment of their careers.
The match was like a volcano. The pressure began building slowly with both women spending the first five minutes of the match chain wrestling showing how much they respected each other and how much they enjoyed proving their skills to each other. But eventually, the pressure became too much as both women began hitting increasingly dangerous moves on each other to try and get the win. A Magical Merry Go Round off the top rope…BOOM. A Senton Splash on the apron…BANG. Fans in attendance must have begun wondering if the match would have to be called off and declared a draw for the safety of both women. However, eventually, one woman did indeed come out on top and earned her third Princess Of Princess Championship victory in a match that will probably live on forever.
Look out Miyu Yamashita, there may just be a new candidate for the title of Ace of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling!
雪崩式マジカルメリーゴーランド！！！！！#tjpw #tjpwWP3#wrestleUNIVERSE pic.twitter.com/0R6LuC19a5
— TJPW 東京女子プロレス (@tjpw2013) October 9, 2022
But the main event wasn’t the only match on the card that will tug at fans heartstrings.
After giving being on the run of a lifetime in the Tokyo Princess Cup Tournament but coming up just short in the final, many fans wondered what was next for Miu Watanabe. Despite not winning the tournament she still had so much momentum on her side. When TJPW officials decided to have a special number 1 contenders bout to decide to next challenger for the International Princess Championship it was a foregone conclusion that Miu would be one of the participants. After a hard-fought match with Suzame, Miu got her hand raised and was on her way to Wrestle Princess. But unfortunately for her, there was another rising star that had something to say about it.
○第七試合 インターナショナル・プリンセス選手権試合 30分一本勝負
＜王者＞アレックス・ウィンザー vs 渡辺未詩＜挑戦者＞
※第8代王者2度目の防衛戦。未詩、初のシングルタイトル奪取なるか！？#tjpw #tjpwWP3#wrestleUNIVERSE pic.twitter.com/7ZKgMxkk5Q
— TJPW 東京女子プロレス (@tjpw2013) October 9, 2022
Alex Windsor shocked the world when she defeated arguably TJPW’s most famous star Maki Itoh for the International Princess Championship on July 9th of this year. To Japanese fans, this woman from England who had to wrestle in borrowed ring gear due to her luggage getting lost during her flight to Japan was complete unknown. But to fans in the UK, the result was far from shocking. Trained by the famed Knight Family whose members include Sweet Saraya, her daughter Saraya (FKA Paige), and current Revolution Pro Wrestling British Heavyweight Champion Ricky Knight Jr, Alex Windsor had been kicking arses and winning titles in the thriving UK independent scene since her debut in 2009. A practitioner of the traditional British/European style of Pro Wrestling which mixes brawling and submission wrestling, Windsor has built her career out of the old wrestling credo “pound and ground” while also possessing enough charisma to hold a crowd in the palm of her hand with ease.
In the end, Miu Watanabe spent most of the match getting beaten, bruised and stretched out by Alex Windsor. However, just like she did through most of the Tokyo Princess Cup Tournament, Miu Watanabe took an absolute beating but kept coming back until she eventually got the better of Windsor picking up the win and her first singles title in TJPW. It’s been amazing to watch Miu Watanabe grow so much as a performer and the fans are completely behind her right now (some were even spotted tearing up at ringside while she herself burst into tears when her hand was raised) but fans also haven’t seen the last of Alex Windsor either!
未詩、ジャイアントスイング！！#tjpw #tjpwWP3#wrestleUNIVERSE pic.twitter.com/2ghWgBRkkV
— TJPW 東京女子プロレス (@tjpw2013) October 9, 2022
Date:
October 9, 2022
Category:
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