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...

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Yuki Miyazaki

Yuki Miyazaki is a Japanese female wrestler.
She was born on February 2 1979.
Yuki made her pro wrestling debut on January 8 1995 against Tomoko Kuzumi.
She has worked for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (JWP), JDStar (Jd'), Free, NEO and Dramatic Dream Team (DDT).
Her favorite wrestling moves are the Moonsault Footstomp, the Moonsault Press and the Texas Cloverleaf.
Here's a video of Yuki Miyazaki wrestling Asuka Ohki in Tokyo, Japan at the Itabashi Green Hall.

Yuka Shiina

Yuka Shiina was a Japanese female wrestler.
I say was because she retired back in 2006.
Yuka wrestled for the NEO promotion for over ten years.
She also wrestled for AJW and IBUKI.

Here's a video on YouTube of Mariko Yoshida and Shuu Shibutani wrestling Yuka Shiina and Kyoko Kimura in Japan back in 2005.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6cj1ob1bvU

Lelani Kai Wrestling in Japan

Here's a couple of photos of Lelani Kai wrestling in Japan.
If you have followed womens wrestling over the years, you know who Lelani Kai is.
She was trained by The Fabulous Moolah and made her wrestling debut in 1975.
Lelani held the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA) Tag Team Championship (with Judy Martin), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Women's Championship, the NWA Mid-Atlantic Women's Championship (three times), the Professional Girl Wrestling Association (PGWA) Championship, the WWF Women's Championship and the WWF Women's Tag Team Championship (twice, again with Judy Martin).
She also held the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling All Pacific Championship in 1986.
Here she is using the same supplex on both joshi wrestlers Devil Masami and Lioness Asuka.

More Apple Miyuki wrestling in Japan

More Apple Miyuki wrestling in Japan

The only thing I know to call this wrestling move is maybe a reverse stunt rider stretch.(?)
Whatever it is, Apple seems to really like using it in matches.

technorati tags: sexy, japan, sports, pro-wrestling, wrestling, pro wrestling, pro wrestling blog, pro-wrestling, news

Rie Tamada - Japanese Wrestling

Rie Tamada

Height: 5' 2"
Weight: 125 lbs
Pro Wrestling Debut: October 4th, 1991 against Chikako Hasegawa
Born: March 16th, 1973 in Yuuki County, Japan
Nickname: Fighting Cheetah
Signature wrestling move: Dragon Suplex Hold
Wrestling Promotions Worked For: AJW, ARSION, AtoZ in Japan, CMLL in Mexico.

Rie Tamada was a female Japanese wrestler.
She often tag-teamed with Yumi Fukawa in Japan and Mexico.
Their tag team was called "TamaFuka".
Rie retired on August 22nd, 2004.

Rie Tamada wrestling Chikako Shiratori
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbzlJmBJ22M

Rie Tamada - Japanese Wrestling, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on 6-22-2007

Mima Shimoda - Japanese Womens Wrestling

Wrestlers Name: Mima Shimoda
Real Name: Mima Shimoda
Name History: Mima Chan, Mima Shimoda
Trained By: Akira Hokuto
Born: December 23rd, 1970 in Tokyo, Japan
Pro wrestling Bebut: August 5th, 1987 wrestling against Etsuko Mita at Tokyo Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Height 5'6"/166 cm
Weight 143 lbs/65 kg

Signature Wrestling Moves: Death Lake Driver, Tiger Suplex, Moonsault Press, Running Neckbreaker, and Ax Kick
Wrestling Titles Held: AJW All Japan Junior Wrestling Championship, AJW All Japan Singles Champion, AJW All Japan Tag Team Champion (with Etsuko Mita), JWP Tag Team Champion (with Etsuko Mita), NEO Singles Champion, NWA Pacific Champion, Queen Of ARSION Champion, Twin Star Of ARSION Champion (twice, once with Etsuko Mita, and once with Michiko Omukai), UWA Tag Team Champion (with Etsuko Mita), WWWA Tag Team Champion (seven times, three times with Etsukio Mita, twice with Manami Toyota , once with Akira Hokuto and once with Takako Inoue)

Mima Shimoda - Japanese Womens Wrestling, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on 2-2-2007

Lioness Asuka

Wrestler name: Lioness Asuka
Real name: Tomoko Kitamura
Nicknames: Tomo
Name history: Tomoko Kitamura, Lioness Asuka
Born July 28th, 1963 in Hasuda, Japan
Pro wrestling debut: May 10th, 1980 in Omiya, Japan
Height 5'7"/170 cm
Weight 172 lbs/78 kg

 http://garbageandgold.wordpress.com/tag/chigusa-nagayo/

Signature moves Towerhacker Bomb, Liger Bomb, Giant Swing, Brainbuster, LSD III
Titles: AAAW Tag Team Champion (with Chigusa Nagayo), AJW All Japan Junior Womens Wrestling Championship, AJW All Japan Singles Champion (2), JD' TWF World Women’s Wrestling Champion (4), LLPW Six-Woman Tag Team Champion (2) (with Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya), NEO Singles Champion, NWA Pacific Women's Wrestling Champion (2), Queen OF ARSION Champion, Twin Star Of ARSION Champion (2 with GAMI, 1 with Mariko Yashida ), Unified Global Champion, WWWA World Singles Champion (2), WWWA World Tag Team Champion (4) (with Chigusa Nagayo)