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It's 2025: Time to get into [Joshi Pro Wrestling]
-SPI-
Osaka, JapanRegistered User regular
Osaka, JapanRegistered User regular
Joshi Pro: Japanese Women's Pro Wrestling.
Yeah, there is a wrestling thread but I don't watch WWE or AEW. I did however become massively into Joshi Pro over the last year and this year you dear reader should do so too, because it's rad.
So what to watch, and how?
Firstly:
Stardom (World Wonder Ring Stardom)
The premier Joshi promotion, sister to NJPW (And under the same ownership umbrella.) One of the largest, with a heavy emphasis on factions (which changed substantially in the past year.)
Factions (currently)
The youtube channel has the weekly digest show “We Are Stardom”, occasional full matches and highlights.
Red Belt Match Highlights from 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSY33T5jQA
English?: Sometimes commentary on the big shows, which are also the only ones with lower thirds etc. The website has google translate… that’s what you get.
Yeah, there is a wrestling thread but I don't watch WWE or AEW. I did however become massively into Joshi Pro over the last year and this year you dear reader should do so too, because it's rad.
So what to watch, and how?
Firstly:
Stardom (World Wonder Ring Stardom)
The premier Joshi promotion, sister to NJPW (And under the same ownership umbrella.) One of the largest, with a heavy emphasis on factions (which changed substantially in the past year.)
Factions (currently)
STARS: The general good guy face group, with Mayu Iwatani (the face of the company in many ways) at the head.
Photo is a bit out of date, Yuzuki (3rd from right) has since moved to Marigold, changed her hair to blonde and became "Victoria Yuzuki".
E nexus V (ExV): A group headed by The Empress: Maika and The Venus:Mina Shirakawa.
Since this photo they added a rookie and Hanako got a new costume that is 1000% better.
H.A.T.E. :Recently rebranded Heel faction, previously named Oedo Tai. They moved from a purple scheme to all black and became a bit more brutal in style.
Gods Eye: Led by Syuri, a more martial arts combat feeling group. Physical and hard hitting style in matches.
Neo Genesis: New faction born in the aftermath of previous group Queen’s Quest being destroyed by Oedo Tai. Led by Starlight Kid who was kicked out of Oedo Tai. Young and hungry.
Cosmic Angels: The magical girls of Stardom led by Tam Nakano.
Where to watch: Stardom-World is their streaming site for ~10 a month. It is… functional. All the shows are on there, going back to 2011. It has improved in quality recently, adding live shows etc but still feels archaic and barebones in many ways.Photo is a bit out of date, Yuzuki (3rd from right) has since moved to Marigold, changed her hair to blonde and became "Victoria Yuzuki".
E nexus V (ExV): A group headed by The Empress: Maika and The Venus:Mina Shirakawa.
Since this photo they added a rookie and Hanako got a new costume that is 1000% better.
H.A.T.E. :Recently rebranded Heel faction, previously named Oedo Tai. They moved from a purple scheme to all black and became a bit more brutal in style.
Gods Eye: Led by Syuri, a more martial arts combat feeling group. Physical and hard hitting style in matches.
Neo Genesis: New faction born in the aftermath of previous group Queen’s Quest being destroyed by Oedo Tai. Led by Starlight Kid who was kicked out of Oedo Tai. Young and hungry.
Cosmic Angels: The magical girls of Stardom led by Tam Nakano.
The youtube channel has the weekly digest show “We Are Stardom”, occasional full matches and highlights.
Red Belt Match Highlights from 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSY33T5jQAEnglish?: Sometimes commentary on the big shows, which are also the only ones with lower thirds etc. The website has google translate… that’s what you get.
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The style of TJPW is far more into the idol/comedic zone. More frilly dresses than you get anywhere else and with full on idol performances during shows as well as actual former idols as wrestlers. Although they’re good at creating contrast with wrestlers like Miyu Yamashita with her devastating skull kick and a collection of various psychopaths like Maki Itoh.
I feel confident saying that TJPW has the best graphic design in Joshi, or Wrestling in general.
Where to Watch: Wrestle-Universe stands in contrast to Stardom World as being a fully functional service. Shows with easy to use timestamps, organised and designed to be navigated by a human. And with the bonus of Wrestle-Universe housing several other promotions for one fee. Youtube is various highlights and interviews, not really much there tbh.
English: More frequent than Stardom with commentary and more frequent use of lower thirds. Generally better, wrestle-universe is better than the google translate slap job Stardom goes with.
Dumb and Silly
More Serious Business (Miu is somehow the most idol and most wrestler simultaneously)
Generally comparable in style to Stardom (and recently they have frequently crossed over), Senjo is however smaller and more indie flavour. One of my current favourites with some amazing talent and making the most of freelancers and other small promotions. Camerawork can be hit or miss but that just adds to the flavour. Meiko Satomura, the founder and face of the company, is on a path to retirement this year.
Where to watch: Also on Wrestle-Universe.
Senjo also uploads full matches to their youtube.
English: Nah.
Chisako Dash v Momo Watanabe (from Stardom)
Satomura & Manami v Sareee & Aja Kong
Founded by Emi Sakura and born in part from the pandemic, Chocopro is unique and one of my absolute favourites. Chocopro runs most of their shows in Ichigaya Chocolate Square, which is the bottom floor of an old dentist’s office. They started shows on youtube during the pandemic and have continued ever since. With a veritable who's who of international indie and japanese wrestling, with many champions and legends as regulars, appearing (and being thrown through the window). While the main roster is primarily women the shows are mixed with any/all combinations.
The regular shows are 2-3 matches with the customary Janken Tournament. Incredibly fun, immaculate vibes 10/10.
Where to watch: Everything is on youtube for free (one of Chocopro’s core principles is no pay-wall) and usually live. Larger shows can take a little while to get up but remain free.
English: Commentary, like referees are rotated amongst wrestlers who aren’t in the ring at that moment so when Baliyan Akki is not in he gives English Commentary. Maybe ⅓ of matches if you are lucky and usually the intro/outro of shows.
Xmas Show
Purple Chocolate (The most recent ring show)
Marigold (Dream Star Fighting Marigold)
One of the newest promotions, created by former founder of Stardom Rossy Ogawa after he left/was removed from Stardom and reuniting with the other founders Fuka Kakimoto and Nanae Takahashi. Made up of a collection of former Stardom members that followed Ogawa and wrestlers who were previously in Actwres girl'Z (brought across by Fuka). Still feels like it’s finding it’s place (and audience) almost a year on, has a bit of a dry style compared to some of the others.
It hasn’t caught me yet, but there is some excellent talent there.
Where to watch: Also on Wrestle-Universe (what a deal!)
Prominence
Technically a 3 person unit, Prominence focuses on Death Matches. They started having full shows again this year and have recently changed to have full shows on Youtube via membership. Crosses over with Freedoms (Sasaki Takashi's Deathmatch Promotion, home of Jun Kasai) fairly frequently.
Risa Sera vs Takashi Sasaki
Evolution Pro Wrestling
Evo has its own membership for their shows, but the members are showing up everywhere at the moment. The four members are great and frequently feature on Senjo etc. Honestly have been killing it over the new year's period.
I know little about these:
Iceribbon
Wave
Diana
Pure J
Seadlinnng
AWG
Marvelous
Although it seems like with many you can access full matches via youtube memberships now (Diana and Pure J are on the same channel as prominence) rather than having to mess around with niconico.
Oz Academy
Oz Academy looks cool as shit, but it’s in the NicoPro zone and I can’t wholly be bothered digging that far.
Gokigen Wrestling/YMZ
Kaori Yoneyama’s Promotion. Has some fun stuff on youtube from ages ago. Has it’s own subscription model, just again in the difficult to access category. Thankfully there's lots of Yoneyama in other places.
Baka Gaijin and Friends
This is Joshi Adjacent at best, although most shows have several (usually members of Chocopro or Ram Kaicho). This is Chris Brookes (of DDT wrestling and frequent Chocopro appearances) show, run in a bar/restaurant. The rougher (somehow) spin-off from Chocopro in many ways and Baka-Gaijin acts as a Chocopro faction of sorts. Broadcast live on youtube with English Commentary courtesy of Mr Haku (when they don’t have to mute it to avoid copyright stikes), it is dumb nonsense and I love it.
Dump Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo
I've been working on a favorite 100 matches list because I'm a crazy person and these two matches have made the list so far as I can continue to revisit the history of Joshi.
Manami Toyota vs. Akira Hokuto
Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda
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The NJPW womens title gets defended on NJPW shows. Searching Mercedes Mone and Willow will get you some really good matches that are mostly against Stardom wrestlers.
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And here's a great MV for Giulia, before she was wasted by NXT.
I always enjoy watching Stardom, but have no real way to keep up with it. No major coverage or community I could find.
Meanwhile Wrestle-Universe is almost too much with 8 promotions for the one price. I just have it for Senjo, TJPW and DDT and never even touch the others apart from periodic check ins on Marigold.
I figured that was the case, but I appreciate the confirmation.
Thanks to you and Magell for the info.
I'm a big Willow fan, especially after seeing her wrestle live last year, so that's definitely a draw to Stardom for me.
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New Stuff:
Baka Gaijin volume 19 (21.1.25)
Card
1- Special Tag Team Match: Mr. Malo (Baka Gaijin) & Munetatsu Nakamura (Ganpro) vs Masahiro Takanashi (DDT) & Chie Brookes (Chie Koishikawa, Chocopro)
Mr Malo is an evil(?) offsider/rival to Mr Bueno, a heroic white masked wrestler from Death Valley.
ChieDK is a version of CDK (Calamari Drunken Kings) the Chris Brookes/Takanashi tag team, with Brookes replaced with Chie from Chocopro in Chris' gear doing all his moves.
2- Hideki Suzuki (AJPW) vs Takayuki Ueki (Freelance)
Suzuki was a surprise, Ueki is a Deathmatch specialist with a Police Officer persona and pulls out guns in most matches.
3- Antonio Honda 20th Anniversary Special Single Match: Antonio Honda XL (MAO, DDT) Vs Hagane Shinno (Freelancer and regular on Chocopro)
This match requires some knowledge of Antonio Honda to really get, he is a regular of Chocopro/DDT and once you've seen a match or two you will understand his usual skits and bits.
4- Title Decision Match: Chris Brookes (DDT) vs Ram Kaichow (666)
An Unexpected Title match with unexpected guests.
High quality nonsense all around. Always amazed at how much they can get out of such a small space (even smaller than Chocopro). Ram vs Chris in a singles match is such a nuts difference in size. Mr Haku does his best on translation as usual but don't expect too much.
The two most recent PPV for Stardom: Stardom Grand Queendom and New Year Dream are now up on Stardom World out of the PPV period. Both/Together are a great starting point for jumping in. I'm actually using them myself as a clean break/reset point to not worry about all the tour shows I missed in the back half of 2024.
New Year Dream in particular is good for seeing across a bunch of Joshi, as it has members of Evo, Senjo, Wave, Diana appearing as well as Freelancers, AEW and (Last but not least) Dump Matsumoto, which is always fun.
Grand Queendom showed off Stardom strongly in a big show and had Saori Anou vs Mika Iwata (of Senjo), which have faced off against one another a half dozen times across 2024 with back and forth with Stardom and Senjo belts and every time it has kicked ass. A good show to setup and understand the new status quo moving forward with title matches for the main Red and White belts.
Highlights and the Digest show covering both of these are also on the Youtube Channel as of yesterday.
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https://x.com/tjpw2013/status/1882129099772023002
Of those matches, the ones I'm looking towards:
The first two tag matches have some peak chaotic energy teams with Pom/Max and Hyper-Misao/Shoko.
Mizuki is amazing always, so hopefully the match with Ashida can be something that gets the latter to stand out, being the new TJPW member after moving from Ice-ribbon at the start of the year.
Match 3 has Miu and Rika who always do good stuff, but I'm actually interested to watch Chika Nanase lately. She is only just coming up to a year since debut and has been ok for most of that time but lately has improving substantially.
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Chocopro 423: Takanashi Birthday Special
TJPW Max Heart Tournament Live (free) Stream (will not be archived on youtube)
Other bits:
Suzuki Suzu (of Stardom) has been announced as the 7th competitor for Barb Sazaki's (Ref for Stardom/Freedoms etc) 25th anniversary "Crazy Fest" deathmatch show at Korakuen Hall, which will be her return to a deathmatch ring since moving from Prominence to Stardom almost 2 years ago.
Her last deathmatch:
Also the poster goes hard as hell:
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