Joshi Puroresu in the USA

You know a lot of us have always had to rely on YouTube and other internet sources to see joshi puroresu.
But thanks to Shimmer Women Athletes, ROH and Chikara, we are actually getting to see female Japanese wrestlers here in the US in action.

If you can make it to the Berwyn Eagles Club in Berwyn, Illinois (just outside Chicago), on Saturday and Sunday, March 26th and 27th, 2011 you'll get to see Ayako Hamada, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Misaki Ohata, Ayumi Kurihara and Tomoka Nakagawa
More info here: http://shimmerwrestling.blogspot.com/

If you can get to Ring of Honor's "Honor Takes Center Stage" on April 2nd, 2011 at the Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, you will get to see Hiroyo Matsumoto, Ayumi Kurihara and Tomoka Nakagawa there as well.
More info here: http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/atlanta-ga-april-2nd/

And on April 15,16 and 17th, if you can get to The Asylum Arena in South Philadelphia, Pennslyvania, you'll get to see joshi legend Manami Toyota team up with Mike Quakenbush and Jigsaw at Chikara's King of Trios 2011 tournament.
More info here: http://www.chikarapro.com/events.php

I havent said anything about the tragedy in Japan here, but I have been praying for the people there.
I am also glad to hear that just about all the wrestlers I have spoken with in the past are okay.
The hard times arent over in Japan yet people.
If you can help out, here's the Red Cross website:
https://american.redcross.org/
And if you cant afford it (I know times are tough), there's no price tag on prayers, positive energy and well wishes.

Eight Woman Tag Team Match - Japanese Women Wrestling

Here is a eight woman tag team match posted by kapengmabula on YouTube.
It's Japanese women wrestlers Ayumi Kurihara, Mio Shirai, Io Shirai and Makoto taking on Mima Shimoda, Kyoko Kimura, Atsuko Emoto and Tomoka Nakagawa at a NEO event.

First we have a little video background leading up to the match, then Mima, Kyoko, Atsuko and Tomoka come to the ring already armed with folding chairs and chains.

Then Ayumi, Mio, Io and Makoto come in...unarmed.

The intros start but never finish as it immediately turns into what "Good Ole JR" would call a pier six brawl.

The action comes back into the ring and normalcy is restored for a moment and it looks like the match will go on like a normal contest.
But not for long...

Pretty soon everyone is back in the ring and going at it again.

Somewhat unusually.

Mima gets upset by a slow count....

...and finally a team turns on one of it's members.

You can see this video and more like it at kapengmabula's YouTube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kapengmabula

Eight Woman Tag Team Match - Japanese Women Wrestling, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on September 26th, 2010

Tomoka Nakagawa wrestling Mima Shimoda

Here we go back to nagashimark, and a video posted of Tomoka Nakagawa taking on Mima Shimoda.
Well why not?
We had Mima Shimoda wrestling Etsuko Mita a few weeks ago, then Hiren wrestling Tomoko Nakagawa, so I guess this is a logical progression.



Anyway, we start off with Tomoka....



Then Mima in her corner, looking like she really doesnt like Tomoka, or anything near her for that matter...



After a few exchanges, Mima gets Tomoka down and locks on a Boston Crab...



Then she stands Tomoka up, and sinks her teeth into her forearm...



Mima stays in control, grabbing Tomoka's hair and planting a knee into the back of her neck...



Finally Tomoka turns the tables, and gets Mima in a modified camel clutch, using Mima's hair...



But Mima reverses back and clamps her own camel clutch on Tomoka. Rather than locking her hands under Tomoka's chin, Mima leaves them open to roll and grind her forearms into Tomoka's face...



That is until she locks down and almost turns Tomoka's head completely around.

Here is part one of this match......



To see the rest of the match, visit nagashimark's channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nagashimark

Results for IBUKI "Extra" on May 4, 2009

Results for IBUKI "Extra" on May 4, 2009 at Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan.

Tomoka Nakagawa defeated SENDAI Girl's Yukari Ishino in 9:37 with the CRB.

Ray over SENDAI Girl Hiren in 11:59 with a Moonsault Press.

Misaki Ohata wrestled SENDAI Girl's DASH Chisako to the 20 minute time limit resulting in a draw.
THEN 5 more minutes were out on the clock, and they still went to another draw.
When's the last time you saw a 25 minute match with the WWE Divas that went to a draw?

The tag team of Ryo Mizunami and Sendai Sachiko beat Hiroyo Matsumoto and Esui in 21:22.
Mizunami used a Diving Guillotine Drop on Esui.
Again...a 22 minute womens match.

You can find out more about IBUKI at their website here:
http://s-ovation.com/wrestling/english.html

Or their MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/ibukipro

Japanese Female Wrestler: Tomoka Nakagawa

Next up on my Japanese female wrestlers list is Tomoka Nakagawa.
She was born on September 29th, 1981, in Asahikawa Hokkaido, Japan
Tomoka's pro wrestling debut was on January 23rd, 2005 with Yuu Yamagata against TAKA Michinoku and Ryota Chikuzen.
She is currently wrestling for Mariko Yoshida's IBUKI wrestling promotion.
Before that, she wrestled for Kaientai Dojo (K-Dojo).

Here's a video of Tomoka taking on Etsuko Mita posted by CaptainCharisma0 on YouTube