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 Joshi matches can’t be ranked)
Honorable Mentions
Tam Nakano vs Giulia, Utami Hayashishita vs Momo Watanabe, Utami Hayashishita vs Maika, Hikari Noa vs Natsumi Maki, Sareee vs Tomoka Inaba
5. Madeline vs Sareee
There is nothing we love more than a story carrying a match and this match told a really, really good story. The young and energetic Madeline fought with everything she had against one of the most fearsome competitors in all of Japan and despite the endless onslaught from Sareee she kept fighting and even got us to buy into some roll-up near falls.
4. Yuna Mizumori vs Mei Suruga
The old reliable david vs goliath told with two women that know each other inside and out inside the unique confines fo Ichigaya Chocolate Square. While the work in this was great on its own what took this to a new level for me were the little touches that you couldn’t get in any other promotion. Using the environment around them at key points or to gain a slight advantage is something that makes Gatoh Move so unique and it really makes this match must-see.
3. Sareee vs Yoshiko
Two of the best wrestlers in all of Japan clashed for the second time in the space of 10 days. While their first match made its way to YouTube in clipped form this one was uploaded in full and while it didn’t hit the heights we predicted it would they delivered a really strong match.
2. Marvelous (Takumi Iroha, Rin Kadokura & Mei Hoshizuki) vs Quenn’s Quest (Momo Watanabe, Utami Hayashishita & AZM)
The match wasn’t your typical bodies everywhere multi-person tag it focused heavily on personal confrontations like the ones between the participants. This use of personal conflicts kept the match fresh as new pairings would take the reigns and continue where they left off previously. The closing stretch between AZM and Hoshizuki was something tight out of a Marvelous main event with all the excitement to boot.
1. Suzu Suzuki vs Tsukushi
18-year-old Suzuki makes defense number one if her championship and it exceeded her title win by a distance. She and Tsukushi threw everything they had at one another with Tsukushi delivering an onslaught of strikes that most wrestlers couldn’t recover from. Suzuki however fought back and continued to expand her repertoire of attacks and managed to keep Tsukushi down with back to back to back german suplexes
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