TJPW Live Tour In Spring '23 (20/5/23) Review
Misao Needs A Wee Flag, Aniki Rules & Miu Is The Monster Under The Bed
Front Matter
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It’s safe to say the build-up to this show wasn’t ideal. Not only are Miyu Yamashita and Yuka Sakazaki in America, but a combination of injury and illness meant Yuki Arai, Rika Tatsumi and Haruna Neko joined the already missing Juria Nagano, leaving TJPW scrambling to rearrange the card. Thankfully, Ryo Mizunami and Yoshiko Hasegawa answered the call to fill two of those holes, and they shifted things around to cover the rest. Would it still make for a good watch? Let’s find out.
The pre-show announcements involved the news that we’re getting Miyu Yamashita vs Sawyer Wreck at Summer Sun Princess and Arai coming out to let everyone know she’s alright despite the injury. It sounds like it’s nothing too serious, so fingers crossed she’s back sooner rather than later.
Mahiro Kiryu defeated Toga
Mahiro apparently can’t tell Toga and Referee Kiso apart, a gag that I think comes from them having similar hair. It gave us a running bit where she kept trying to wrestle Kiso, setting her up to deliver her traditional apology. I’m sure the 20-year-old Toga is delighted at being compared to a 45-year-old man.
Sadly, while the nonsense was fun, the rest of the match wasn’t great. These two could not get on the same page, leading to multiple moments where they were to forced to awkwardly figure out what to do next. Even when they were in sync, it was all a tad stilted and awkward, like even they didn’t trust that it was going to come off. I think Mahiro has been having a good year, probably the best of her career, but this did suggest that she’s not quite ready to lead a green rookie through a match.
Still, this will happen when you have a bunch of young wrestlers on the roster. You can’t expect them to click with everyone, which means things will go wrong. Having a poor showing in the opening match of a small show is not a disaster, and both Mahiro and Toga will go on to have much better performances in the future. Plus, the Kiso stuff was funny, so there was still something worth seeing.
Verdict: Good Gag, Poor Match
Hyper Misao defeated Shino Suzuki
It turns out that Misao’s lifelong dream (or at least her dream since the morning of the show) is to be a bus tour guide like Shino Suzuki. Thankfully, as a brilliant superhero, most of it comes to her naturally, but she was missing one thing: a wee flag. Do you know who has a wee flag? Shino Suzuki.
These two clicked in all the ways that Mahiro and Toga didn’t. Shino is wonderfully naive in her likeability, and Misao is the perfect person to take advantage of that. The newest Up Up Girl fell for every single trick, and even when she tried to get a little bit nasty, setting up to stab Misao with the flag, it quickly backfired when Kiso suddenly remembered to do his job. It was delightful pro wrestling that never looked to overcomplicate things and played to both wrestlers’ skill sets.
Of course, Shino isn’t perfect. Some things need to be tightened up, and her moveset isn’t exactly diverse, but when she locked on the sleeper towards the end, it did feel like she was causing Misao problems. Besides, she’s ridiculously young in her career, and anyone expecting anything more than this is being a bit of a bellend. Suzuki’s learning to use her innate likeability to her advantage, and with people like Misao around to bounce off, that’s already paying dividends.
Verdict: A Lovely Time
Shoko Nakajima, Suzume & Haru Kazashiro defeated Ryo Mizunami, Yoshiko Hasegawa & Kaya Toribami
I don’t care if it’s TJPW, SEAdLINNNG or Gatoh Move; when Aniki turns up, people get excited. It’s not just the fans, either. You could see that Yoppy and Kaya were delighted to be teamed up with her, and it brought some pep to everything they did. Mizunami is an easy wrestler to take for granted, someone you can always rely on to come in and be good, but she’s a vital part of the freelance scene.
Haru’s performance in this match was a prime example of why that’s the case. I believe this was her first time wrestling someone from outside the TJPW system, so I expected the nerves she showed on her debut to return. However, there was nothing of the sort, as Haru thrived when given the opportunity to test herself against the power of Aniki. Of course, Mizunami took it easy on her, a few slaps to the back being the worst of it, but it still managed to draw some out of that rookie fire out of the youngster, leading to her throwing a strike with some bite behind it. Her defiance was never going to see her overcome Aniki, but it was still a cool thing to see.
As good as that was, it wasn’t why everyone was here, and this match wisely held off on letting Shoko and Mizunami loose on each other until towards the end. When they tagged in, there was an audible reaction from the crowd, and they delivered exactly what we were hoping for. Aniki’s power vs Shoko’s speed is a natural pairing, and the snippet we got suggested they could have a great match together. I’ve enjoyed Mizunami taking up the role of an outsider gatekeeper to the TJPW midcard, but if they want to dabble in her facing main eventers, I think we now know where they should start.
It all made for an outing where everything clicked. I haven’t even mentioned Suzume, who joined everyone else in having fantastic interactions with Aniki, including a cool setup for the Ring-a-Bell that took Mizunami out of the action for the finish. Yoppy, meanwhile, seems to have improved a little bit every time I see her, and I should make an effort to check out more GanPro. I don’t think anyone will have this down as a match of the year, but it was a near-perfect midcard tag, and you can’t say fairer than that.
Verdict: Fantastic Work
Yuki Kamifuku defeated HIMAWARI
I thought Misao going after Shino’s flag would be impossible to beat in the rookie bullying rankings, but Kamiyu might have trumped her. There were moments when she was whipping HIMAWARI with her own hair, while her response to the dropdown spot was fantastic. When you let her loose to be horrible to people, she always excels.
It also made HIMAWARI look great. Her evolution into a wee tank has been a joy to watch, and the image of her hoisting the much taller Kamiyu up to spin her around and toss her across the ring was great. I’m more and more convinced that she has the potential to be something special, as that blend of AWG and TJPW training seems to have produced someone with all the upsides.
In the here and now, it made for a fun wee match. It wasn’t long enough to be anything more than that, but it also didn’t need to be. Kamiyu and HIMAWARI played to their strengths, figuring out what makes them work as a pairing, and somewhere down the line, I reckon those same things could craft a banger.
Verdict: Good Fun
Yuki Aino, Raku & Pom Harajuku defeated Hikari Noa, Nao Kakuta & Wakana Uehara
Our semi-main event was a spiritual sequel to the trios’ tournament that TJPW held a few weeks back. That was won by the Dream Team of Aino, Raku and Pom, but Free WiFi and Wakana had to pull out when Nao couldn’t make the show. So, this was either a chance for the winners to consolidate their prize or for the team who missed out to make their case for being crowned unofficial champions.
Maybe it’s because Hikari promised that Nao would buy her dinner if they won, but pairing Wakana up with Free WiFi drew some personality out of her. She’s a good wrestler, and it’s not necessarily that I think she’s boring, but she hasn’t had the opportunity to show who she is. However, her excitedly trying to join in with throwing Pom across the ring by her hair, only for Hikari and Nao to point out that she probably shouldn’t do it towards the opponent’s corner, felt like we were getting a glimpse of the real her. Fingers crossed that it’s a sign she’s relaxing into her role and that we’ll only see more of that in the future.
As for the match, this was always going to be a winner for me, as it features a few of my favourite pairings. Hikari’s scrappiness melds nicely with Aino’s power, while she and Raku are a longtime standout combo. However, the show-stealers were Pom and Kakuta, who had a great little run together. I say this with all the love, but Pom is at her best when being bullied, and Nao is one of life’s natural bullies, making it a homerun of a pairing. Again I don’t think it’s a match that will necessarily linger beyond this show, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted, and I hope we see Free WiFi and Wakana teamed up again.
Verdict: The Dream Team Can’t Be Beaten
Mizuki & Moka Miyamoto defeated Miu Watanabe & Arisu Endo
We’re building to MagiRabbi vs Daydream, as they’ll battle over the tag-team titles at Korakuen on the 11th of June. Unfortunately, with Yuka in America and Rika missing the show because of illness, the onus was on Mizuki and Miu to do the heavy lifting. Fortunately, those two are a bit good, so it’s not too big an issue.
And this made me think about how important a single moment can be. For the bulk of it, things were ticking along nicely, providing some decent action but never quite hitting the heights we know these wrestlers are capable of. Then, towards the end, Mizuki went flying towards Endo, looking to hit her trademark dropkick against the ropes. So far, so normal, but this time, Arisu moved and lurking outside the ring, ready to pounce, was Miu. She emerged like the monster from under the bed, grabbing Mizuki by the legs, dragging her to the floor and starting to spin. It was cool as hell. Not only that, but they nailed every second of it, the timing and execution proving immaculate and instantly elevating this match to the next level. Sometimes something is so good that it makes everything around it better.
It also set up a final stretch between Arisu and Mizuki that kicked all kinds of ass, as Endo excels at taking the fall in the matches. (As does Miyamoto, although it wasn’t her role on this particular occasion.) Mizuki would eventually pick up the win, but the hard work had been done, as the threat of Miu’s power was placed front and centre, suggesting she could be the difference maker in that showdown. This was a good main event, but if the title match hits its potential, they’ll have a classic.
Verdict: A Great Build-Up Match
Overall Show
Despite all the missing faces, TJPW managed to put on a good show. There wasn’t anything here that I’ll be screaming at people to go and watch, but the opener aside, everything hit in some form, and it was an enjoyable couple of hours. We’re a few weeks away from the next big one, so TJPW is taking things relatively easy, but even a chilled-out Tokyo Joshi is a pleasant place to spend some time.
Watch Tokyo Joshi Pro: https://www.wrestle-universe.com/en/videos?labels=-tjpw.