Kana Vs Jessie McKay

Kana Vs Jessie McKay
http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/



I have mentioned several times here that it seems like the biggest Japanese women wrestlers are winding up here in the US.
And I have made no secret about how much I like Kana.
Well here is part of a match posted by CHIKARA on YouTube of Kana taking on "Everybody's Favorite Girlfriend" Jessie McKay in a match on October 7th, 2011 in Burlington, North Carolina (my old home state).
I wish it was the whole match, but hey, it's good to see even a clip.
And it's good to see these Japanese women wrestling stars working here in the States.
Maybe the WWE will see matches like this and raise the bar.

Right.

Kana is Bad

You know how much I love Japanese wrestler Kana?
Well here is something that further cemented that love.

You know who Yoshihiro Tajiri is right?
Well he's just TAJIRI in SMASH now (and obviously loves all caps).
Anyway, before Tajiri became a pretty much running gag in the WWE, he was a pretty bad man in ECW.

Here is Tajiri at the SMASH 21 Press Conference on August 30, 2011.
As he's talking, look who comes in with a samurai sword and clears house.



Yep, Kana.
I think her glare alone would be enough to clear out a room, but add the sword to it...



And if that's not enough Kana for you, check out this "Greatest Hits" vid posted by tripletails on YouTube...

Azumi Hyuga vs Yumi Ohka - Japanese Wrestling

Here is a video posted on YouTube of Azumi Hyuga taking on Yumi Ohka.
This is from the Japanese wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling WAVE's show, Road to Resurrection.

A little background....
Azumi Hyuga (Tomoko Kuzumi) was born on January 6th, 1975 in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
She was trained by Joshi legend Devil Masami and made her pro wrestling debut on December 4th, 1994 in Tokyo, Japan at Korakuen Hall.

One of the JDStar "athresses" Yumi Ohka (Yumiko Abe) is five foot six, 130 pounds and has been wrestling for eight years
She once held the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship.

They start out in the classic collar and elbow lock up in the center of the ring, but right off the bat Yumi twists Azumi into a rear headlock, then a side head lock.

Azumi escapes, and after a few quick exchanges, she has Yumi on the mat in a headlock.

Another series of reversals (with Yumi maybe thinking about not wearing such slick pants in her next match, no way to grab traction) and the two are literally tied up in the middle of the ring.

A lot more mat work, some more exchanges and Azumi finds herself on the receiving end of Yumi's arm bar.

So here is part one of this match up...

Cherry and Takanashi Masako wrestling Kana and Oikawa Chihiro

Well here is a kind of unusual video I found on Veoh of Cherry and Takanashi Masako wrestling Kana and Oikawa Chihiro.
The video was posted by apocalyptico77 and it happened at Union Night in Shikiba on 3-7-2009.
Why Takanashi Masako is wrestling in drag I have no idea (Shades of Santina Marella!).
Maybe someone out there can explain why he's doing this.
But if you kinda look past that, it's a pretty good match.
Of course any match Cherry or Kana is in is good.
: )
You can check out apocalyptico77's page here and see some more great Japanese wrestling, not just joshi either.


Watch Union Proresu - Cherry,Takanashi Masako vs Kana, Oikawa Chihiro in Sports | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Takashi Matsunaga, All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling

Takashi Matsunaga who founded All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling back in 1968 along with his brothers, passed away last Saturday.

Takashi was 73 years old.

Before founding "Zenjo", he had been the promoter, business manager and trainer for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Federation.

Takashi Matsunaga was one of the most important figures in women's pro wrestling, helping to elevate Joshi Puroresu in Japan.

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

Mima Shimoda versus Akira Hokuto

A while back I mentioned some really good Japanese professional women wrestling matches on YouTube, well here is one from Veoh posted by shupercousin.
It's a match between Mima Shimoda and Akira Hokuto from August 30th, 1995.
Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita and Akira had once formed a group called "Las Cachorras Orientoles" or LCO in AJW, but this looks like it too place after all that was over.


Watch LCO Faceoff! Akira Hokuto vs Mima Shimoda in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Joshi Puroresu News

Sad news.
Chris over at Joshi Puroresu News posted this today:

This time it is the end!
I have to stop updating this blog i am afraid as i simply do not have time to keep it up to date. Sorry if you rely on Ice Ribbon results being translated but its quite easy to do yourself anyway with a copy & paste and an online translator. Romaji translator is what i use.
Thanks for all people who have come here over the last few months. The blog will be kept alive in archive mode. LL!

This is sad because his blog was a really good source of up to date Joshi Puroresu news.
He had matches, results, info and really good pictures.
I hate to see the blog go, but I hope it will be back in the future.

You can see his blog here:
http://joshi-news.blogspot.com/


technorati tags: wrestling news and rumors, professional wrestling news, wrestling rumors

JDStar

Yumi Ohka

In the early 1990's there was a boom in joshi puroresu.
Several promotions started then and among them was a wrestling promotion created by the legendary Jaguar Yokota called JDStar.
She started the promotion in 1996, and in the beginning, because of her star power, she was the main attraction.
But by 1998, she felt the promotion was going nowhere and she decided to leave and become a freelancer.
When Jaguar left, the promotion was bought by Kiyu Uji, and he tried to build the comapny up.
But even with popular performers such as Lioness Asuka, Aja Kong, and Chigusa Nagayo, it still wasnt taking off.

Fuka

In 2001, Hidenobu Ichimaru bought the company from Kiyu Uji, and revamped it with a new gimmick to push the wrestlers.
The new gimmick was "Athress" or athlete-actress. Similar to the WWE renaming their women wrestlers as "Divas".
His method of drawing in models and training them to become wrestlers drew fire from fans and established wrestlers alike.
Again, similar to the WWE Diva situation.
Several of the established female wrestlers thought that the "Athresses" shouldn't be in the same ring as them.
JDStar struggled and finally went under in the summer of 2007.

Shibutani

Although a lot of the wrestlers were basically "throw aways" several stars did emerge including The Bloody, Fang Suzuki, Sumie Sakai, Emi Tojyo, Yumi Ohka, Kei Akiyama, Asami Kawasaki, Fuka and Shu Shibutani.

Female Wrestlers of Kaientai Dojo

Japanese professional wrestling promotion Kaientai Dojo (K-DOJO) is one of the few wrestling promotions to feature both men and women in mixed matches.
They will wrestle each other during mixed tag matches or singles matches.

Some of the female wrestlers that have worked for K-DOJO are.....

Tomoka Nakagawa

Yuu Yamagata

Ofune

Apple Miyuki

Bambi

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling

Bull Nakano started with AJW at the age of 15

Established in 1968 by Takashi Matsunaga and his brothers, All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling was a joshi puroresu (women's professional wrestling) promotion.
The promotion held it's first event on June 4, 1968.
Also in 1968, they got a deal with Fuji TV. This was the first time joshi puroresu had been aired on TV in Japan.
AJW was the successor to the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Association, which had been formed in August 1955.
The AJW held several regular annual events like the Japan Grand Prix, Tag League the Best, Wrestlemarinpiad and Wrestling Queendom.
On November 29, 1998, The AJW Hall of Fame had its first inducted class enshrined at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.

Most of the major female stars of Japanese wrestling worked for AJW at one time or another including:

Lioness Asuka (joined in 1980)
Akira Hokuto (she quit High School and joined the AJW dojo, making her wrestling debut shortly before her 18th birthday)
Aja Kong (trained by AJW, and graduated as part of their class of 1986)
Devil Masami (member of the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame,inducted in 1998)
Dump Matsumoto (one of AJW's biggest stars in the 1980s)
Monster Ripper (debuted in AJW in 1979)
Chigusa Nagayo (one half of the Crush Gals with Lioness Asuka)
Bull Nakano (started training with AJW at the age of 15)
Jackie Sato (joined AJW in 1975)
Jaguar Yokota (defeated WWWA Champion Jackie Sato at the age of 19)

The AJW wrestling promotion closed it's doors in April 2005 after a 37 year run.

Gaea

Gaea Japan was a well known Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion founded by Chigusa Nagayo in 1995.
During it's run, the promotion had ties with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and even had it's own weekly show on The Wrestling Channel.
At a press conference on August 24, 1994, charter members Chigusa, KAORU, and Bomber Hikaru (Mitsuyo Mura) announced the formation of the promotion, and wasted no time in holding rookie auditions the same day.
The new promotion held its first show on April 15, 1995 at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall. "Memorial First Gong" was a sellout and GAEA went on to hold monthly shows at Korakuen and went on the road to hold events in other Japanese cities.
Some of the other wrestlers that worked for Gaea included Toshiyo Yamada, Meiko Satomura, Chikayo Nagashima, Sugar Sato and Carlos Amano.
One of the biggest events in Gaea's run was on December 27, 1999, with the reunion of 80's tag team sensations, the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka).
On April 10, 2005, GAEA's run ended at the appropriately titled, "Eternal Last Gong" ending in the place it began, Korakuen Hall.
At the show, Chigusa lost to her protégée, Meiko Satomura in the main event.
Chigusa Nagayo offically retired after the match.

Gaea Japan was the focus of the 2000 documentary "Gaea Girls", by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams.

And here is part one of Mayumi Ozaki and Chikayo Nagashima wrestling Akira Hokuto and Maiko Matsumoto at GAEA, on April 29, 1997.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UiQH86pVgw
The video was posted by nagashimark on YouTube. You should really check out his channel, he's got a lot of good videos posted there.

The AJW Championship, Part 4

Saki Maemura, the last AJW Champion

Rumi Kazama beat Miho Wakizawa on May 26, 2001 in Tokyo for the title, then immediately vacated the belt. (?)
Then on July 27, 2001, Kayo Noumi defeated Miho Wakizawa to become the new AJW Champion.
Kayoko Haruyama defeated Kayo on September 26, 2001, and Kayo turned around on January 4, 2002 and beat her to take the title back.
Then the Championship was vacated.
Again.
This time so that Kayo could enter the October 20, 2002 tournament for the All Pacific Championship.
So on October 8, 2002, Miyuki Fujii defeated Mika Nishio to become the new champion.
Kaori Yoneyama beat Miyuki for the title on November 29, 2002 in Tokyo and Mika came back and beat Kaori for the title before...yes...vacating it again when she left AJW.
Then Sasori (Miyuki Fujii) defeated Saki Maemura for the title on June 19, 2003.
Hikaru won the title on February 15, 2003 and Saki Maemura beat her for the belt on January 3, 2004.
Saki was the last AJW Champion.
After 37 years, the promotion closed it's doors in April 2005.
During the title's run, no one held the belt more than twice.
The only ones to accomplish that were Lioness Asuka, Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe, Momoe Nakanishi and Kayo Noumi.

The AJW Championship, Part 3

Mima Shimoda

On September 18, 1993 in Omiya, Saitama, Mima Shimoda defeated Bat Yoshinaga to win the belt. Less than a year later, Mima gave up the title to concentrate on her tag team matches with Estuko Mita.
Kaoru Ito defeated Rie Tamada on May 4, 1994 in Toda, Saitama to become the new AJW Champion.
Then on June 30, 1995, Tomoko Watanabe won the belt, vacating it in early 1996.
Kumiko Maekawa defeated Chaparita ASARI on May 4, 1996 to take the title, then Rie Tamada beat her for the belt on November 21, 1996 and held it for a little over a year before she too vacated it in December 1997.
On December 12, 1997 Momoe Nakanishi defeated Sachie Nishibori to become the new champion.
Emi Motokawa won the belt on January 24, 1998 and in turn, Momoe Nakanishi took the title back on April 12, 1998. Due to the title defense limit, Momoe vacated the belt in 1999.
Nanae Takahashi defeated Miyuki Fujii on March 1, 2000, in Fukuoka, Fukuoka to become the new champion.
And Miho Wakizawa defeated Nanae Takahashi to become champion on September 17, 2000 in Tokyo.

To be continued.......

The AJW Championship, Part 2

On July 25, 1985, Bull Nakano defeated Mika Komatsu for the AJW Championship.
Yumi Ogura won the belt on January 28, 1988 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Then on July 10, 1988, Mika Komatsu took the title in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (?).
The title was then vacated and Erika Shishido beat Manami Toyota for the belt on March 19, 1989 back in Tokyo, Japan.
Reibun Amada won the title on August 24, 1989 in Tokyo, but the title was again vacated when Reibun retired in October, 1989.
Manami Toyota won the belt by defeating Mika Takahashi on November 18, 1989 in Matsuda, Kanagawa, Japan, but AGAIN the title was vacated on September 1, 1990.
Kyoko Inoue defeated Takako Inoue to take the title on October 2, 1990 in Yamagata, Yamagata, Japan.
But Takako turned around and beat Kyoko on April 29, 1991.
This was followed by the title being won by Mariko Yoshida, Sakie Hasegawa, Tomoko Watanabe and Kaoru Ito until the American Debbie Malenko won the belt on February 10, 1993 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan.
She held the title until it was...guess what?....yes vacated again, in 1993 because Debbie was injured and could not defend it.

DASH Chisako, Hiren and Ryo Mizunami

DASH Chisako (Chisako Kanari) was born on August 24th, 1988 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
She made her pro wrestling debut against Dynamite Kansai on July 9th, 2006.
DASH wrestles for the SENDAI GIRLS wrestling promotion in Japan.
Here is a wrestling video of Dash Chisako going up against Kaoru Ito from a Sendai versus Ito Dojo Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOBK8PIgZmE


Hiren (Yurie Kaneko) was born on January 16th, 1986 in Katsushika City, Tokyo, Japan.
She made her pro wrestling debut on July 9th, 2006, wrestling Mariko Yoshida.
Hiren also wrestles for the SENDAI GIRLS wrestling promotion in Japan.
Her is a video of Hiren wrestling Commando Bolshoi at a JWP versus Sendai show in Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHOQVt06_T0


Ryo Mizunami (Ayane Mizumura) was born on March 24th, 1988 in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
She made her pro wrestling debut on November 3rd, 2004 against Carlos Amano.
Ryo has wrestled for GAEA and SENDAI GIRLS in Japan.
This is a video of Ryo Mizunami wrestling Hiroyo Matsumoto at the Jaja Uma Tournament Finals in Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18MDBFCXB_s

Tojuki Leon, Tsbuasa Kuragaki and Nozomi Dai

Tojuki Leon (Rena Takase) was born on July 2nd, 1980 in Namerikawa, Toyama, Japan.
Her pro wrestling debut was March 15th 2000 wrestling against Ai Fujita.
Her favorite wrestling moves are the KIBA, the Mad Splash and the LEON Stone.
Leon has wrestled for ARSION, AtoZ and JWP.
Here is a video of Kaori Yoneyama and Tojuki Leon wrestling Keito and KAZUKI
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v16555700KHTdDpqk
Tsbuasa Kuragaki (Yasuko Kuragaki) was born on December 7th, 1975 in Kamagaya, Chiba, Japan.
She made her pro wrestling debut against Tomomi Kobayashi on January 8th, 1995.
Her favorite wrestling moves are the Canadian Backbreaker, Firebird Splash (450 Splash) , Luna Wing, Metal Wing, Moonsault Press and the Wing Clutch Hold.
She wrestles for JWP.


Nozomi Dai was born on December 13th, 1990 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.
She made her pro wrestling debut at the age of 16 against Toshie Uematsu on July 13th, 2008.
She wrestles for the Japanese promotion NEO.

The WWWA World Tag Team Championship

Since I've already done an entry on the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship, I thought I'd do one on the WWWA World Tag Team Championship.
The WWWA World Tag Team Championship was All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) tag team title from 1971 till they shut down in 2005.
The title was held by many of the most famous joshi puroresu stars as well as several famous female wrestlers from the US.
Jumbo Miyamoto and Aiko Kiyo were the first champions defeating Patty O'Hara and Texas Red for the belt. But in a very unusual move, Jumbo Miyamoto and Aiko Kiyo weren't satisfied with the match (even though they won) and wanted a rematch. This led to Patty O'Hara and Texas Red winning the second match and becoming the tag team champions.
This started a trend for Jumbo Miyamoto as she teamed with Maxie Murata and won the titles back.
Jumbo Miyamoto would hold one half of the tag team belts many times in the following years, with many different partners such as Miyoko Hoshino, Mariko Akagi and Junko Sasaki.

The Beauty Pair, Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda, held the belts, as did the Queen Angels (Lucy Kayama and Tomi Aoyama), the Black Pair (Mami Kumano and Yumi Ikeshita), the Dynamite Girls (Jumbo Hori and Yukari Omori), the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka), the Jumping Bomb Angels (Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno) and the Red Typhoons (Kazue Nagahori and Yumi Ogura) among many others.

The last tag team to hold the belts was Double Kong (Aja Kong and Amazing Kong) back in October of 2004.

Kyoko Kimura

The young lady with the 'fro is Japanese female wrestler Kyoko Kimura.
She made her pro wrestling debut on July 20th, 2003.
Kyoko has wrestled for the BJW, JD Star, NEO, BattlARTS and IBUKI promotions in Japan.
She held the NEO Tag Team Wrestling Championships twice. Once with TNA star Awesome Kong and again with Emi Sakura.
Kyoko seems to have a growing fanbase in the US.

Miko Nishio

Miko Nishio is/was a Japanese female wrestler.
She was born on December 12 1981.
Miko made her pro wrestling debut on September 30 2000, wrestling Terashita.
She worked for AJW and the OZ Academy promotions in Japan.
While she was with AJW, she won the AJW Championship, but had to vacate it when she left AJW.
Due to an injury, she went to a valet role in Oz.

Here is a video of her wrestling Carlos Amano I found on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hTOPEoED7Y