Kana, Cherry, and Shuu Shibutani - Japanese Female Wrestling

Here are Japanese female wrestlers Kana, Cherry, and Shuu Shibutani having a good time in the ring and not beating the crap out of anyone.
That's pretty rare.
Especially for Kana.

I couldn't find them all together, but here is Kana and Megumi Yabushita vs. Shu Shibutani and Mika

Kayoko Haruyama - Japanese Female Wrestling

Female Japanese wrestler Kayoko Haruyama was born on March 5th, 1979 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan.
She was trained by the JWP Joshi Puroresu promotion and made her debut on January 23rd, 1998.
Kayoko worked for them her entire career until October 14, 2013, when she made her final appearance for JWP.

During that time she held a ton of titles including the AJW Championship, the Daily Sports Tag Team Championship, the Japanese Tag Team Championship, the JWP Junior Championship, the JWP Openweight Championship and the JWP Tag Team Championship.

Kaori Yoneyama- Japanese Female Wrestling

It's been quite a while since I did anything on Japanese female wrestler Kaori Yoneyama.
Actually I have done two posts on her before this.
One in January of 2009 and one in September of 2009.
But nothing for five years.
Wow.

Anyway, Kaori was trained by the JWP Dojo and made her pro wrestling debut on November 29, 1999.
So she is coming up on 15 years in the business.
Most of that time she was with JWP Joshi Puroresu promotion, but now she is a freelancer.

 Kaori Yoneyama - http://wwr-stardom.com/

The Top Ten Moves of Kaori Yoneyama

Kana vs Syuri - Japanese Women's Wrestling

"When in doubt, post Kana".
Here is Kana on the receiving end of what appears to be a pretty stiff kick from Syuri.
And that's Makoto looking on in the background.

These three have had some pretty wild times in the ring in Japan and they are still going at it.

By the way, in case you didn't know, Syuri is 11-0-0 in Pro Kickboxing.
So she knows how to kick.

More fun with Kana, Syuri and Makato...

Maki Narumiya - Japanese Ladies Wrestling

Female Japanese wrestler Maki Narumiya was born on April 7th, 1985 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan.
She is five foot four, 141 pounds and she was trained by Emi Sakura.
Maki made her pro wrestling debut on March 19, 2011, working for Emi's Ice Ribbon promotion.

Since her debut in 2011 she has held the ICE×60 Championship, the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship twice, won the Next Ribbon Tag Team Championship Challenger Determination Tournament, won the JRibbon Natsu Onna Kettei Tournament (with Hanako Nakamori) and held the CMLL-Reina International Junior Championship.

Arisa Nakajima - Female Japanese Wrestlers

I havent done anything on the lovely Arisa Nakajima in a while, so here's an update.
Arisa was born on April 6th, 1989 in Chichibu, Saitama, Japan, the same city that famous Japanese pro wrestler Akira Taue is from.
After training with the Major Girl's Fighting AtoZ promotion for a little over a year, she made her wrestling debut on January 3rd, 2006, against Mika Mizunuma in Korakuen Hall.

She has worked for Major Girl's Fighting AtoZ, JWP Joshi Puroresu (JWP Project) and JDStar and during her career has held more titles and won more awards than you can shake a stick at.
Arisa is five foot three and weighs in at 130 pounds.

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling

You probably already knew that several female Japanese wrestlers, not only wrestled, but also had singing careers.
To me, most of this is as painful to watch as the WWF/WWE's "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection", which I have tried very hard to forget.
All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling really pushed this with several songs and CDs being released.

If the idea and the picture above are not enough to stop you...how about a video of the top five songs?

Mio Shirai - Female Japanese Wrestlers

I know that when I can't think of anything else to talk about, I usually go to Kana, but today I thought I'd mention one of my other favorite Joshi wrestlers, Mio Shirai.
It's almost like mentioning Kana.
Yeah I know I just posted about Mio and her sister Io when they were the Sexy Purple Thunder Sisters a while back, but Mio has been doing quite a bit in Japan solo.

Mio and Kana defeated Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto on April 21st, 2013 and won the Wave Tag Team Championship, which is the first title Triple Tails.S has had.
Oh yeah, Triple Tails.S is the Mio/Kana tag-team that used to be just called Triple Tails when Io was a member.

Occasionally Mio and Kana have to face each other like they did here at the Regina di Wave Championship tournament.

You can check out Mio's Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/mio.shirai.39

More Japanese Women Wrestlers Here In The USA - SHIMMER

I have said several times here that even though the state of female wrestling in Japan may not be that good, but you can still see some great Japanese women wrestlers here in the USA.
Namely with SHIMMER.
Here is a video posted by Dave Prazak on YouTube that's a promo for the SHIMMER Women's Wrestling event that they held on October 27 and 28, 2012 in Berwyn, IL.
Watch the video and keep your eyes peeled and besides some American and Canadian greats, you'll see joshi stars like Ayako Hamada, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Kana, Tomoka Nakagawa, Ryo Mizunami and Yumi Ohka.

And after you watch, make sure to drop by http://shimmerwrestling.blogspot.com/

Mimi Hagiwara In Her Infamous White Swimsuit

Here is a picture I found on a Yahoo Japan Blog of Japanese female wrestler Mimi Hagiwara in her infamous white swimsuit/wrestling gear.
And...um...really that's all I have to say......

Mika Nagano - MMA and Wrestling

Mika Nagano was born on December 29th, 1983 in Gifu, Gifu, Japan.
She's five foot three and weighs 114 pounds and before becoming a wrestler, Mika Nagano was a Japanese female mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.
In MMA, she goes by Mika "Future Princess" Nagano and her win-loss record is 14-9-0.
Her last MMA fight was a win over Emi Murata via submission (armbar) at Jewels - 14th Ring on May 14th, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan.


Mika started her MMA career back in 2006 then debuted with Ice Ribbon in August of 2009.
She stayed with them a few months, then appeared to leave pro wrestling to focus on MMA in February of 2010.

But now it looks like Mika will be doing both MMA and pro wrestling after showing back up in the wrestling promotion Stardom's debut show in January of 2011.

Nanae Takahashi, Tsukasa Fujimoto and Mika Nagano vs Kaori Yoneyama, Hiroyo Matsumoto and Syuri 

Kana vs. Mio Shirai - Japanese Women Wrestlers

Kana is a real favorite on this blog, and I'm expecting Mio Shirai to become one as well.

Mio was once one half of The Sexy Purple Thunder Sisters with Io Shirai, though I don’t know if they are still tag teaming or not.

But here is a video posted by the legendary nagashimark on YouTube of Kana taking on Mio at at show by the Japanese wrestling promotion NEO, back in February of this year in...well…in Japan of course.

This match doesn’t have the high flying, high risk moves that you see a lot of times in Joshi.
These ladies go down to the mat for some MMA style submission wrestling.

First Mio comes in, looking more like a female mixed martial arts fighter than a wrestler...


Then Kana comes in looking more like a female wrestler than a MMA fighter and gives Mio a nice look of disgust...or maybe contempt..

The match starts off more like kick boxing or Muay Thai....

But soon these two ladies hit the mat and begin exchanging holds and counters at an impressive speed...

After a brief exchange, Mio winds up on the receiving end of a leg lock from Kana...

Another quick exchange of holds, and Kana winds up with what looks like maybe a kneeling figure four leg lock?...

Again, Kana goes after the leg...

Now Mio comes up with her own leg lock and repays the punishment...

But Kana reverses back and traps Mio in a very painful looking arm bar (Seated armbar?)....

And this is just the first half of this match!

Kana vs. Mio Shirai, Japanese Women Wrestlers, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on May 7th, 2010.

Candy Okutsu Wrestling Ayako Hamada

Here is a match posted by HybridDolphinELPS on YouTube, of Candy Okutsu wrestling Ayako Hamada in Ayako's debut for the ARSION wrestling promotion back in 1998.
1998?
Has it really been that long?

Anyway, like I said, this was Ayako's debut wrestling match, and she was seventeen at the time, although you couldn't tell it by her in ring performance.
Less than one year after this match, she and Mika Akino won the Twinstar of ARSION tag- team wrestling belts.
Of course Ayako has wrestled all over the world since then for promotions like Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) in Mexico, TNA wrestling, Shimmer Women Athletes and many more.

Candy Okutsu on the other hand had a few years under her belt at the time of this match, having debuted on August 4, 1992 (also at the age of 17) for the JWP.

But looking at this match, you really cant see much of a difference in their in-ring abilities.

Starting off, Candy hits the double bicep pose after she gets in the ring....



And to show that she's not intimidated, Ayako does the same...



The two women exchange a flurry of the typical (for Joshi) high speed attacks, reversals and counters, winding up with a test of strength in the center of the ring....



After one brutal exchange (I think Candy had some of the hardest elbows in the business) she goes for a pin on Ayako...



Later on, she traps Ayako in the inevitable Boston Crab...



But Ayako rallies, and traps Candy in a sleeper....




This is a really good, solid Joshi match, and one you can show your friends to help explain that even a standard Joshi match is better than 90% of the WWE Diva and TNA Knockout matches.

And of course you can visit HybridDolphinELPS' channel on YouTube to this see this, and more Joshi action like it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/HybridDolphinELPS

Candy Okutsu wrestling Ayako Hamada posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on May 2nd, 2010

Kana wrestling Ayumi Kurihara

Here is a video posted by kapengmabula on YouTube of Kana taking on Ayumi Kurihara at Passion Red's "2PASSION" on May 3rd, 2009.
Although kapengmabula posted it, he gives credit to another well known name on this blog nagashimark, so it's still "all in the family".
If I understand correctly, Passion Red started off as a stable, but began to hold their own shows and joshi star Nanae Takahashi runs Passion Red.
And I also read that back in January, Kana left Passion Red and is now a freelancer and she will be heading up her own wrestling promotion, KANA PRO.
You can check out Puroresu Represetin' for more info on Kana.

Anyway, this is part one of a really great match that highlights the best in joshi.
It starts out with a brutal face off with chops, punches, slaps, forearms, then goes into some high flying, then they go to the mat for some MMA style submission grappling.

I tell you, Kana can get VERY innovative with punishment, as she puts poor Ayumi's legs through the wringer.

As part one ends though, it looks like Ayumi may be starting a comeback.

Like I said, this is just part one.
To see part two, you can go to kapengmabula's YouTube channel and see the end of this match and some more great action.



Kana wrestling Ayumi Kurihara, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on 4-9-2010

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

Japanese Female Wrestling: Hustle

Pro wrestling in Japan has always been different.
But it doesn't get much different than the Japanese wrestling promotion Hustle.
They used to call the WWE a soap opera with chair shots.
Well imagine the WWE on acid.
You have a pretty good idea of Hustle.

But even as wild as Hustle is, it has had it's share of great wrestlers in their ring.
Some of the female wrestlers are not well known, but some are down right legends.
And some..well you might get a kick seeing what they look(ed) like in Hustle......

Yes, that's legendary Lucha Libre and Joshi star Ayako Hamada as Arisin Z.
This is the first, but not the last time she'll pop up on this list.


And yes another Lucha Libre star, Fabi Apache.
Doesn't look like Hustle remade Fabi much.


Although she's retired now, legendary Japanese female wrestler Devil Masami worked for Hustle under the name Madama Devil.

You can check out Hustle's homepage (In Japanese)here:
http://www.hustlehustle.com/

To be continued......

Latest IBUKI Results

At IBUKI's latest show on April 5, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan....

1. Kyoko Kimura defeated Kazumi Shimouma in 10:53 with a Headbutt.

2. Atsuko Emoto defeated Esui in 10:02 with the Momo Clutch.

3. Hiroyo Matsumoto and Misaki Ohata defeated DASH Chisako and Yukari Ishino in 15:13, when Matsumoto used a Back Drop on Ishino.

4. Tomoka Nakagawa defeated Ayumi Kurihara in 14:10 with a Cradle.

5. Ray and Natsuki*Taiyo defeated Shu Shibutani and Fuuka in 21:14, when Ray used the Sky Twister Press on Shibutani.

IBUKI's next show will be on May 31 at Korakuen Hall, Tokyo.

You can find out more about IBUKI and their wrestlers here:
http://s-ovation.com/wrestling/