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)
Top 10 Joshi Matches Of January 2020
10. Sendai Girls Battle Royal
This battle royal had everything that makes Joshi great. The comedy came from Sakura Hirota cosplaying as Meiko Satomura leading to her badly hitting some of Meiko’s signature moves. As well as that you had the moments of Sareee and Chihiro Hashimoto beating the heck out of each other. This was a really enjoyable match that encapsulated everything to like about Joshi.
Link To Watch (Sendai Girls YouTube)
9. Hibiki vs Rina Yamashita
Rina Yamashita was on top form here laying her strikes in with the usual impact. What really made this match good was Hibiki. She’s so intense and her offence is so impactful that it was easy to root for her whenever she fought back against Rina’s onslaught. This was a real hoss match, but a hoss match with a well-told story.
Link To Watch (Marvelous’ Freshlive Channel)
8. Hanako Nakamori & Manami Katsu vs Ryo Mizunami & Leon
The initial interest here was for Nakamori and Mizunami to beat each other up. But damn, Leo and Katsu came to play too and there were a ton of stiff shots being thrown. Really good tag match if people hitting each other very hard is what you’re into!
7. Mayu Iwatani vs Momo Watanabe
Saying this match was a spot fest is not meant as an insult. This was two women trading big moves for 20 minutes and taking some insane bumps. Mayu Iwatani especially manages to find a way to take a bump in the most painful-looking way possible. Not as good as their GP match last year but a fun encounter nonetheless.
6. Kagetsu & Mayu Iwatani vs Jungle Kyona & Momo Watanabe
Kagetsu and Kyona brought it as the final stretch was akin to a singles match with Kagetsu putting Kyona over strong. The rest of the action was the hectic tag team style we’ve come to know from Stardom. The added twist of JKGreeen reuniting and Mayu & Kagetsu teaming for the first time made the match better as there were nostalgic spots and new combos from Kagetsu and Iwatani. Stardom said goodbye to Kagetsu in the best way here with a great match that allowed her to put over Kyona.
5. Nagisa Nozaki, Takumi Iroha & Hibiki vs Rina Shingaki, Syuri & Miyuki Takasa
Great six-woman main event from WAVE featuring some main event players. The match had a few different dynamics such as the Takumi/Miyuki sequence and the Syuri/Nagisa kick battle. Hibiki was good whenever she got in and her power game adds something unique to her portion of the matches. Overall a really good tag match from WAVE
4. Chihiro Hashimoto & Mikoto Shindo vs Sareee & Nanami
Great tag match that had various good phases. The two main eventers trading blows, the rookies squaring off, the rookies battling defiantly against the main eventers and most importantly tag team moves aplenty. Sendai Girls have got the big time tag match formula down to a tee and Sareee and Hashimoto are two of the best at this style.
Link To Watch (Sendai Girls YouTube)
3. Natsumi Maki vs Sareee
Sareee continues to deliver matches at the highest level no matter where she goes. Natsumi Maki was more than up for the challenge as her forearms, in particular, were perfect here. In the end, though she succumbed to Sareee’s urunage but not after putting up a fight against one of the best wrestlers in the world. Matches like this will be what we miss the most when Sareee goes to America.
2. Mikoto Shindo, Takumi Iroha & Aoki Itsuki vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Queen Aminata & Mei Hoshizuki
Like most of these Marvelous main events these showed off the abilities of all six participants. Shindo and Hoshizuki carried the majority of the in-ring time as it seemed like they were always involved but they work really well together. When it wasn’t Shindo and Hoshizuki going at it we had the other four involved in fun exchanges like Takumi and Chihiro trading shots, which ended in Takumi clocking Chihiro with a beautiful punch. As long as Marvelous provides matches like this they’ll be a consistent feature in this top 10 list.
Link To Watch (Marvelous Freshlive Channel)
1. AZM & Kagetsu vs Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid
Kagetsu’s retirement road gave us some really fun matches like the tag with Mayu that we saw earlier on the list. The best match we got though was Kagetsu finally getting to team with AZM as they took on AZM’s rival Starlight Kid and Mayu Iwatani. AZM and Kid had the majority of the time in this one as they got to show off their chemistry, Iwatani and Kagetsu got involved when needed and kept the pace high. What really helped the match was how well AZM and Kagetsu worked together, it’s a travesty that we’ll never see them teaming again as they had the potential to be a top tier tag team. This was a really enjoyable tag team match between four very talented individuals.
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. And check out last month’s edition for more fantastic Joshi matches
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