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Is Tokyo Joshi Pro Starting to Rival STARDOM?

2 years ago

Is Tokyo Joshi Pro Starting to Rival STARDOM?

By: Mitchell Adams

If you were a women’s pro-wrestling fan watching wrestleUNIVERSE on August 28th of this year, Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling seemed like they were riding on a massive high. Holding their third annual women’s only “Go Girl!” event at the mecca of Japanese wrestling, Korakuen Hall, in front of 500 fans with the promotion’s second cheering crowd since the pandemic.

The show featured the introduction of the brand new TJPW logo alongside a spectacular six-person tag team bout that presented the main players of the company in the lead up to Wrestle Princess III.

Despite their second cheering crowd back, the talk of the town was still with STARDOM, who amassed 1,500 fans at Korakuen Hall, solidifying its case as the top joshi promotion in Japan and the second biggest Japanese pro-wrestling company behind their sister company New Japan.

Tokyo Joshi has had tremendous success since its inception in 2015 creating international stars like Miyu Yamashita and Maki Itoh, but the question is still being asked – “Is Tokyo Joshi playing second fiddle to STARDOM?”.

The two companies, while different, both provide entertaining products targeted towards different audiences. And any joshi fan who watches the two promotions on the regular will agree that their presentation is different from one another. It’s entirely possible that Tokyo Joshi can close the gap between themselves and STARDOM – but it’s just a matter of making the most of what they have available to them.

Tokyo Joshi As An Alternative

TJPW has a presentation like no other joshi company running at the moment. From the start of its foundation in 2013, it has featured J-Pop musical performances and those roots have kept them different to STARDOM’s own focus on gravure idols and models. Even now, the promotion has regular performances by the Up Up Girls and has wrestlers who are also in the J-pop scene, Yuki Arai and Maki Itoh.

As the sister promotion to DDT Pro, it’s no surprise that some elements of the company have been passed down, such as its much more heavy focus on comedy in its undercard whilst providing hard-hitting affairs in the main event dubbed as “Queen’s Road” by fans after the style made famous by All Japan Pro-Wrestling.

TJPW has found itself easier to gain an audience despite its popularity being less than STARDOM. It’s place as part of CyberFight’s wrestleUNIVERSE means that it has a key advantage by livestreaming all of its shows, making it easier to watch compared to Japan’s top joshi wrestling company, who upload shows to their own service, Stardom World a few days after events have run.

Even though Tokyo Joshi is ahead of the game in terms of its accessibility to fans, providing a much more succinct English-language support than STARDOM, there are still areas where it’s being pulled down.

Not On Equal Footing to DDT

The Tokyo Princess Cup 9 that took place in July and August showcased how much potential TJPW really has. Miu Watanabe’s emotional fight as she slowly took down a different pillar of the company before succumbing to Yuka Sakazaki illustrated the emotional connection the wrestlers have with their audience.

But if you weren’t a hardcore watcher of TJPW, you’d have never known it was taking place – CyberFight had spent most of its social media resources promoting a DDT show that took place on the same day. That same DDT show had English commentary and higher production, however Tokyo Joshi wasn’t given the same resources despite it being the conclusion of the company’s biggest tournament of the year.

CyberFight is a much smaller company compared to STARDOM’s parent company Bushiroad, a legitimate entertainment company with big influence. It’s understandable why a focus wasn’t given to TJPW over DDT; DDT is much more popular on a global scale and already very established, having been around since the early 2000s.

Out of the three main CyberFight brands, Tokyo Joshi has the potential to have the most appeal. DDT is quite popular in some hardcore wrestling circles; its product is an acquired taste for mainstream audiences and some of its big acts like Pheromones have turned people way. NOAH, on the other hand, is much more geared towards puroresu purists who are fans of the hard-hitting King’s Road style from the 90s.

That leaves them with TJPW: The company that could be their crown jewel in the collection of wrestling companies. It has J-pop idols, eccentric characters and a happy-go-lucky atmosphere that could bring more people into its product, all it would take for that to become a reality is a little more investment. Not just in promotional material (which already features some fantastic posters for TJPW’s biggest shows) and production, but also into new stars. Thankfully, it looks like CyberFight has at least one eye on the future.

The New Generation of TJPW

For the last nine years, TJPW has been built on the foundations of the original trainees that became some of their biggest stars.

Miyu Yamashita is already a huge name in pro-wrestling and can flaunt a record three reigns as Princess of Princess champion, having held the championship for almost half of its entire existence as a championship.

Yuka Sakazaki is one of the most exciting high-flyers in joshi, and has been featured on mainstream wrestling, All Elite Wrestling, multiple times and could be well on her way to tying Yamashita’s three-time title wins.

Maki Itoh is arguably the most charismatic in-ring performer in the company, and even women’s pro-wrestling. Her multiple tours of the United States and United Kingdom have gained her a cult following within the industry and introduced more fans to the unique world of joshi puroresu, for better or for worse.

All these women alongside current Princess of Princess champion Shoko Nakajima as well as Saki Akai helped to build TJPW from the ground-up and define its in-ring style and in the process becoming the company’s biggest attractions.

Now the time has come for the promotion to find, train and develop new stars that can take their place, to carry the company to even further heights. Miu Watanabe, Hikari Noa and Yuki Arai are three examples of that.

Yuki Arai has had one of the best rookie years in TJPW history. Debuting in May 2021 during the pandemic, she made a name for herself in short time by having several matches with fellow idol Maki Itoh where she was able to hold her own and earn the respect of the fans. Along with training to be a wrestler, she’s had to work extra hard as she also performs as part of the J-pop group SKE48, making her rise that much more impressive.

Under the tutelage of Saki Akai, she began to show a edgier side of her personality, before the two successfully defeated Magical Sugar Rabbits for the Princess Tag Team titles in a shocking upset victory on July 9th.

Much like Arai, Hikari Noa has had a phenomenal year. Known mostly as a member of Up Up Girls alongside Raku and Miu Watanabe, who collectively perform at the start of every TJPW show, the pandemic also allowed her a spotlight to shine.

Defeating Yuki Kamifuku for the International Princess championship in a match many thought she didn’t have a chance of winning, Noa would have a historic 245-day reign that included a violent ladder match against Rina Yamashita. Her reign helped the company through a difficult time due to the pandemic and since losing the title to Maki Itoh in January, it seems that her momentum has stagnated, even after unsuccessfully challenging for the championship against Alex Windsor in the UK.

There are many people on the TJPW roster that CyberFight can invest in and push to the forefront as part of the next generation of stars to put them closer towards STARDOM, but it looks like they seem to be taking their time with it, as Miu Watanabe’s defeat in the Tokyo Princess Cup finals highlights that they still don’t have the faith in the new generation to carry the brand, instead opting for another pillar vs pillar showdown between Shoko Nakajima and Yuka Sakazaki.

If Tokyo Joshi wants to overtake STARDOM one day, they’ll have to pull the trigger on new stars, or they’ll miss the opportunity to strike while the iron is hot and will forever be second to the World Wonder Ring.

By
Features, STARDOM, Tokyo Joshi

Written by:

I'm an Australian based freelance writer who covers joshi wrestling for Monthly Puroresu. Since the third issue, I've been an integral part of story ideation and helping the publication branch out into new areas. In the past, I've written for wrestling dirt sheets, Aussie newspapers, and pop culture websites.