The Joshi wrestling scene (Japanese Women’s Wrestling) is a deep scene full of insanely talented performers and every month there are dozens of fantastic matches from promotions from Stardom to Pure-J and everywhere in between.
Important Note (Due to some matches not airing as of the time of writing some presumably great matches can’t be ranked)
Riho, Mitsuru Konno & Sayaka Obihiro vs Yuna Mizumori, Emi Sakura & Mei Suruga
All the usual chaos of a trios match, in a small venue with all the Gatoh Move goodness added in. It isn’t any sort of technical masterpiece or an epic storytelling match but this one is very fun, as is to be expected from Gatoh Move.
Link To Watch (Gatoh Move Youtube Page)
Yuu & Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura & Mika Iwata
All four women went HARD in this with Meiko and Aja rolling back the years and having an end sequence right out of their GAEA matches. Iwata and Yuu held up their end of the deal by working the majority of the match and allowing the legends to come in at the best time to kick ass. Great work from all four and a great hard-hitting affair.
STARS (Arisa Hoshiki & Tam Nakano) vs Queen’s Quest (Bea Priestley & Momo Watanabe)
The second half of this match was almost entirely Arisa vs Momo and once again they were just fantastic. Tam and Bea are both currently trying to prove themselves and step up so they seemed more driven than usual and held up their end of the bargain but this was made by Momo and Arisa continuing their feud.
Oedo Tai (Natsuko Tora & Hazuki) vs Queen’s Quest (Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita)
The best part of this was the interactions between Watanabe and Hazuki. Watanabe and Hayashishita work very well as a tag team and their matches have a high floor. This one won’t rank among their best defenses but it was Hayashishita’s first one after an injury layoff so it’s understandable. Still great and Hazuki teaming with Tora will always provide a fun team.
High Speed Triple Threat: Tsukushi vs Mei Hochizuki vs Mikoto Shindo
SEAdLINNNG’s high-speed matches are some of the most consistently fun matches you’ll ever watch. In particular, this one was full of innovative and fluid spots involving all three that will amaze anyone that’s never seen these types of matches before.
Link To Watch (this match starts at roughly 21:30)
Oedo Tai (Kagetsu & Jamie Hayter) vs STARS (Mayu Iwatani & Arisa Hoshiki)
Live bias may play into this one being so high but it was a very good tag team match regardless. Hayter is a gaijin that has settled into Stardom’s in-ring style really well and she kept up with three of Stardom’s best in this one. Hoshiki brought her hard strikes, Kagetsu and Iwatani brought fast-paced action and all four wrestlers were on the same wavelength pulling off a very fluid and high paced tag team contest that you can only find in Joshi.
Takumi Iroha vs Mikoto Shindo
This was amazing. A tale as old as time of the younger opponent giving it their all despite being in the ring with one of the best wrestlers in the company. Mikoto sold really well and had so much purpose and aggression in every move that it was so easy to root for her. Takumi was fantastic as always and was ruthless with her kicks and her emoting the mounting frustration and desperation really helped to sell the story of the match. A beautiful story with great execution
Link To Watch (Marvelous Freshlive Channel)
Ayame Sasamura & Arisa Nakajima vs Ryo Mizunami & Nanae Takahashi
To sum this match up, Nanae and Arisa BEAT THE CRAP out of each other as much as possible. At every opportunity possible Arisa and Nanae went at it and that carried the duration of the match. There was a portion of the match where Mizunami and Takahashi worked over Sasamura which was very good as Sasamura is one of the best firey babyfaces in wrestling and the building excitement for Arisa finally tagging in made the moment she got in all the hotter.
Link To Watch starts at roughly 1:02:30
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Sareee
These two had a great match in January of this year and since then Sareee has become more accustomed to the Sendai Girls style and been given a win over Meiko which made her into an even bigger threat than before. An improvement on their last match in every way from the opening grappling to the hate-filled strikes to the end where they both seemed intent on dropping their opponent on their head as much as possible. One of the best matches of the year easily
Link To Watch Match Starts at roughly 1:27:00
Arisa Hoshiki vs Tam Nakano
This match wasn’t stiff in a show-offy way but instead was reminiscent of the old Hotta or Kandori matches from AJW where everything just looks like it hurt a lot. Big kudos to Hoshiki for making Tam Nakano’s offense look great and really putting Tam over as a credible challenger. Hoshiki also had some really great looking strikes in this one with her knees, in particular, looking dangerous. If you want non-stop violence then this is the match for you as these two beat the hell out of each other and lay it all in the ring.
Link To Watch (Stardom World) Subscription required but highly recommended
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. Make sure to check out as many Joshi matches and promotions as possible using the links provided above
