A press conference was held by Tokyo Joshi Pro today with both Tetsuya Koda and Yuka Sakazaki in attendance. The big new coming out of the event is Sakazaki’s announcement that she will be graduating from TJPW on 1st December at the promotion’s 10th Anniversary show in Korakuen Hall. She will continue her pro wrestling career but it will happen overseas because she is also going to relocate to America in 2024. Sakazaki said it was a difficult decision to make but wanted it to happen during a big milestone which is why she picked the 10th Anniversary as her final match in the company. Koda said Sakazaki has several overseas tours scheduled for the rest of this year starting with an expedition to USA from 13th May to 4th June. These tours are being done to help Sakazaki prepare for her move to America next year so she will have limited appearances with TJPW for the rest of 2023.
Therefore Koda announced that The Magical Sugar Rabbits will defend the Princess Tag Team Titles against Daydream on the 11th June Korakuen show. This is going to be Sakazaki’s next match in Japan due to her busy schedule. Even though Sakazaki is leaving TJPW, she is still determined to hold onto the Tag Titles with Mizuki and continue their latest championship reign. When asked what caused Sakazaki to make this decision, she said she knew the day would come when she would have to leave the company and the last 10 years have gone in a blink of an eye. TJPW is special to her but she feels she could not stay there forever for that very reason. She loves pro wrestling and wants to continue doing it as she enters the next stage in her life. But if she was to continue wrestling in Japan for other promotions it would interfere with TJPW which is why she is choosing to relocate and wrestle in America instead. She is undecided if she will ever wrestle in Japan again but if she does it will 100% not be for another joshi promotion.
Sakazaki said there are still things she wants to do in TJPW before she finishes up there. She said there is one particular story she wants to finish up but did not explain what it is. Even though there are 7 months left in 2023, her busy schedule means it is more like three and a half months for her. When she consulted with Mizuki about her decision, Mizuki’s response was she didn’t want Sakazaki to leave her. But Mizuki supports the decision and the two intend to stay as Princess Tag Champions for as long as they can so they can bring the belts to Disneyland together. Sakazaki would also like to invite an AEW wrestler over for a match at “SUMMER SUN PRINCESS ’23” in Ota Ward Gymnasium on 8th July. She thinks it would be a good opportunity for Japanese AEW fans to see one of the company’s wrestlers up close and in person.
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A day like this was always going to come eventually. Yuka Sakazaki is now the biggest name yet in TJPW’s history to leave the company after being there for almost the entirety of its lifetime. Really it’s just Miyu Yamashita and Shoko Nakajima left that are ahead of her seniority wise with Rika Tatsumi right behind her. What amazes me and keeps this story a positive one is Sakazaki’s decision to continue wrestling and to go do it in America. As TJPW approaches the 10th Anniversary of their launch event it is astounding to look back and see how it has grown. There’s a list a mile long of all the different DDT offshoots and spinoffs that only lasted a few years at best (heck DDTeeeen!! wasn’t even that long ago). When TJPW first started in 2012 I didn’t expect it to be any different. NOZOMI came and went. They replaced her with a bunch of young trainees and I thought they would only last a few years then vanish like so many wrestlers of any gender have done over the years. Instead we got Yamashita, Nakajima, Sakazaki & Tatsumi successfully holding up the fort as the company matured and the roster grew. Now TJPW has carved out a pretty nice spot for themselves in a wrestling landscape. It’s good enough to be the No. 2 women’s promotion in Japan and they’ve produced several wrestlers who are now able to make a name for themselves in America. Sakazaki will likely call AEW her home next year, Yamashita is in big demand on the US indies and Maki Itoh will have probably taken over GCW by the time she is done with them. All that’s missing now is for WWE to poach Hyper Misao so she can keep watch over the NXT parking lot.
So yeah, good news, feeling a bit emotional. I’m not looking forward to typing this all again whenever Yamashita, Nakajima and/or Tatsumi calls it a day.
Dramatic DDT 