Originally I was only going to write a little bit about GCW’s latest tour of Japan in my monthly DDT Around The World series because there was only a handful of DDT and Tokyo Joshi Pro talent taking part and not even on every show. However plans changed when Masha Slamovich and Microman were both unable to travel to Japan, opening spots up for DDT and TJPW wrestlers to get booked for the shows on short notice. So since there was a lot more to write about, I had to put them in their own post.
GCW “GCW JAPAN 2025 AT SHINJUKU FACE”, 28/07/2025 Shinjuku FACE ??? Fans
1. GCW Tag Team Titles: Alec Price & Jordan Oliver (c) defeated Effy & Dark Sheik when Price pinned Sheik after a Flapjack/Facecrusher Combo (11:48). *V12 for YDNP.
2. Drew Parker defeated Shotzi Blackheart with the Swanton Bomb (6:48).
3. Jeffrey John defeated Kikutaro with the Pedigree (10:06).
4. MAO defeated Atticus Cogar after a Super Kick/Praying Mantis Bomb Combo with Drew Parker (12:38).
5. Kazusada Higuchi defeated 1 Called Manders with the Claw Slam (14:01).
6. GCW Ultraviolent Title: Matt Tremont (c) defeated Super Crazy with the Death Valley Driver onto a Table (12:07). *V16 for Matt Tremont.
GCW put together an inter-promotional champion versus champion match. 1 Called Manders was supposed to face Slamovich for the JCW World Title but that match was cancelled. Instead Manders brought along the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title to fight Kazusada Higuchi, the reigning KO-D Openweight Champion in a non-title bout. The two made sure to beat the hell out of each other including a moment at ringside where Higuchi Suplexed Manders onto the exposed floor. The damage done prevented Manders from doing a Gutwrench move later in the match, allowing Higuchi to take over with the Doctor Bomb. But Manders got right back up, Chopped Higuchi in the stomach and pulled off the Gutwrench Suplex on the next attempt. A back and forth series of Chops and Headbutts led to Higuchi reaching out for the Claw Hold but Manders bit his hand instead. A big Lariat from Manders got a two count but Higuchi rocked him back with his own Lariat and used the Claw Slam to get the win. After the match Manders offered to hand the KO-D Title back to Higuchi as a show of respect. Higuchi decided to do the same with the wXw Title.
Opposite attitudes clashed in the ring when MAO fought Atticus Cogar one on one. MAO came into the match wearing shades and a bright orange shirt for the summer while Cogar was all business with no time for dealing with his opponent’s nonsense. When MAO wiggled his way around a Waist Lock, Cogar pulled out his bundle of skewers. The ref took the skewers off him but Cogar pulled another bundle later in the match and threatened the ref when they were taken off him again. MAO ran in to try and stop Atticus but he missed a Big Boot and accidentally knocked the ref out instead! Cogar successfully jabbed MAO in the head with the skewers and then attack him with a chair. Then he suddenly pulled out a dart and was about to stab MAO with it when Drew Parker ran into the ring and stopped him. MAO and Parker then teamed up on Cogar, giving him a Super Kick/Praying Mantis Bomb Combo. MAO was able to pin him while the revived ref counted to three.
GCW “GCW JAPAN 2025 AT TOKYO SQUARE”, 29/07/2025 TOKYO SQUARE In Itabashi ??? Fans
1. Shota defeated Jeffrey John with a School Boy (8:17).
2. Hideyoshi Kamitani defeated 1 Called Manders with a Back Drop (11:29).
3. MAO, Alec Price & Jordan Oliver defeated Miyu Yamashita, Dark Sheik & Shotzi Blackheart when Price pinned Sheik after a Double Impaler DDT (15:19).
4. Atticus Cogar defeated Drew Parker with the Headlock Driver (8:32).
5. GCW World Title: Effy (c) defeated Abdullah Kobayashi with the Diving Sack Rider (14:34). *V25 for Effy.
6. GCW Ultraviolent Title: Matt Tremont (c) defeated Masashi Takeda with the Death Valley Driver into a box of Lighttubes (12:07). *V17 for Matt Tremont.
Slamovich’s absence meant Miyu Yamashita was called in to team with Dark Sheik & Shotzi Blackheart. As for their opponents, you already have Alec Price & Jordan Oliver as YDNP so add MAO to the mix and you get YDNPM (Young Dumb ‘N Price MAO)! Yamashita hit Price with the Skull Kick at one point but Price got one back on her by hitting a Rebound Lariat. MAO then took out Yamashita & Blackheart with a Quebrada outside the ring into the aisleway. YDNP then finished Sheik off with a Double Impaler DDT for the victory.
GCW “GCW JAPAN 2025 AT KORAKUEN HALL”, 30/07/2025 Tokyo Korakuen Hall ??? Fans
1. GCW Tag Team Titles: Alec Price & Jordan Oliver (c) defeated MAO & Rina Yamashita when Price pinned Yamashita after the Double Impaler DDT (?:??). *V13 for YDNP.
2. Atticus Cogar defeated Miyu Yamashita with the Headlock Driver (?:??).
3. Dark Sheik, Yoshihiko & Jeffrey John defeated Invisible Stan, Shota & Kikutaro when Sheik pinned Shota with the Diving Leg Drop (?:??).
4. Jun Akiyama defeated 1 Called Manders with the Wrist-Clutch Exploder Suplex (?:??).
5. Maki Itoh defeated Shotzi Blackheart with a Crab Hold (12:29).
6. Chris Brookes defeated Drew Parker with two Praying Mantis Bombs (23:16).
7. GCW World Title: Effy (c) defeated Matt Tremont with the Diving Sack Rider onto the Chairs (21:34). *V26 for Effy.
One of the big matches of the finale in Korakuen Hall was Chris Brookes being in the ring again with Drew Parker. This was the first match together in over two years after Parker left Japan to return home. Parker was busted open early when they brawled up the aisleway and Brookes rammed a table into his face. Parker knocked Brookes onto the table then fought off Takeshi Masada who was there as a cornerman. He had Bunbun with him so Parker grabbed Bunbun, climbed the nearby entrance and did a Diving Body Press to Brookes through the table! Brookes later did a Diving Senton to Parker sending both of them crashing into a stack of plastic boxes in the ring. After a long hard fought battle Brookes started giving Parker different kinds of Piledrivers. There was a Tombstone, then a Snap Piledriver, then a top rope Praying Mantis Bomb. Parker kept kicking out though and tried to show whatever defiance he still had left in him. Brookes then gave him two more Praying Mantis Bombs and Parker was finally down for the three count. The two embraced after the match.
Maki Itoh took part in last year’s GCW tour with a hand injury so in a kind of funny turn of events she took on Shotzi Blackheart who was going through the same thing for this year’s tour. At one point during the match Itoh went into the crowd because she noticed Shoko Nakajima and Miu Watanabe sitting on the bleachers as spectators. Back in the ring there was a strike exchange with Itoh no selling strikes to the head while Blackheart no sold Low Blows. When Blackheart got the upper hand, Itoh pulled out a pizza cutter and attacked her with it. Blackheart went for a Running Knee Strike but Itoh rolled her over into a Crab Hold, increasing the pressure until Blackheart gave up.
If anyone had a hard hitting three days of wrestling it was Manders. His third and final singles match of a tour was a dream come true for him because he got to fight Jun Akiyama. Much like the Higuchi match, both men hit and slammed each other as hard as they could until one reached their limit. That happened when Akiyama gave Manders the Wrist-Clutch Exploder Suplex. Manders gave Akiyama the horns up hand sign after the match and Akiyama replied in kind.
Throughout the tour a grudge developed between Jeffrey John and Kikutaro. It led to Kikutaro costing John a match against Shota and then brought Dark Sheik into the picture to even the playing field. Kikutaro was meant to fight Dark Sheik & Yoshihiko on this show with Microman as his partner. Plans changed so he decided to call in the big guns and invite Invisible Stan to team with him and Shota! Stan’s biggest impact in the match was to do the Korakuen balcony dive onto everyone down below! Back in the ring John landed a Plancha to Kikutaro, Yoshihiko gave Shota a Tornado DDT and Sheik then pinned him with the Diving Leg Drop.
The match Yamashita was scheduled to take part in was a singles bout with Atticus Cogar. Nowadays whenever Yamashita takes part in GCW she gets more and more into the wilder wrestling style of the company compared to TJPW. The same was seen here when she briefly stopped Cogar from using a chair by kicking it apart! The frame was still in one piece so it remained to be used as a weapon by both. Cogar pulled out the skewers but it was Yamashita who jabbed them into his head rather than the other way around! However Cogar recovered and gave her the Air Raid Crash. Yamashita kicked out of it but Cogar immediately rolled it into the Headlock Driver to win the match.
MAO and YDNP became opponents for the final show of the tour. The opening match was a GCW Tag Team Titles bout with MAO joining up with Rina Yamashita as Slamovich’s replacement to challenge the champions. They came close to winning when MAO hit a Frog Splash and Yamashita did a Diving Body Press on Price but Oliver made it in time to break the pin. MAO ran up the corner to do a Jumping Cutter but Price cut him off in midair with a Super Kick. With MAO out of the picture, YDNP were then able to beat Yamashita with the Double Impaler DDT.
Okay where do we start when it comes to July? Do we go with Konosuke Takeshita’s adventures in Mexico, Miyu Yamashita falling foul to the Missouri athletic commission or Maki Itoh voicing a character in Punch Punch Forever? Or how about Tokyo Joshi Pro being used to prop up Major League Wrestling’s shrinking women’s division? Yuka Sakazaki is starting to get more than one booking a month so more of that would be appreciated. Also is Takeshita’s team with Kyle Fletcher only called Protoshita because it makes everyone smirk when they say it out loud?
Oh, and we’re finally starting to find out what sort of deal Yamashita is on over in America. On the surface she’s going around the country like a freelancer and some media back in Japan highlights that is what makes her US work different from the joshi who work full time with WWE or AEW. Except we’re now seeing Yamashita pop up in Ring Of Honor again and her being pulled from one of TJPW’s Texas shows just so happens to line up with the ROH PPV taking place that same day.
Speaking of the Texas tour, that will be the big story for next month. TJPW’s decisions when it comes to the American market are going to pay off well by the sounds of it. Two of the Texas shows have sold out and according to the promoters the third will become the promotion’s highest selling USA show in their history. If the Wrestle Universe live streams go off without a hitch then even more American tours will be planned for the future so TJPW can make some dollars while the fans back in Japan still get to watch it on a reliable service. Given how much the scene suddenly exploded with joshi influenced companies over the last few years, nothing beats the real thing in the end.
MLW “WAR CHAMBER”, 07/06/2025 Cicero Stadium, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1. MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title: Shoko Nakajima (c) Vs Delmi Exo
AEW “COLLISION – SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER”, 11/06/2025 Theater Of The Clouds At Moda Center, Portland, Oregon, USA
1. Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly & Daniel Garcia Vs Konosuke Takeshita, Josh Alexander, Lance Archer & Hechicero
Video starts at 1:20:06 for the match JCW “REC.SPORTS.PRO.WRESTLING”, 12/06/2025 The Hall, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Jordan Blade
LLL “BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE – NIGHT 1”, 13/06/2025 The Oriental Theater, Denver, Colorado, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Stormi Renee
CMLL “MARTES POPULARES – CMLL Vs AEW Y ROH”, 17/06/2025 Arena Mexico, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
1. Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero, Averno & Euforia Vs Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, Rocky Romero & Hechicero
AEW “DYNAMITE – GRAND SLAM MEXICO”, 18/06/2025 Arena Mexico, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
1. Bandido, Templario, Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Adam Cole, Brody King & Daniel Garcia Vs Volador Jr., Hechicero, Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, Josh Alexander, Lance Archer & Dax Harwood
AEW “COLLISION”, 21/06/2025 accesso ShoWare Center, Kent, Washington, USA
1. Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Daniel Garcia & Bandido Vs Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 25/06/2025 accesso ShoWare Center, Kent, Washington, USA
1. 4 Way For The #1 Spot In The Casino Gauntlet At All In Texas: Konosuke Takeshita Vs Mark Briscoe Vs Roderick Strong Vs Bandido
Video starts at 28:22 for the match MLW “SUMMER OF THE BEASTS”, 26/06/2025 Melrose Ballroom, New York City, New York, USA
1. Wakana Uehara Vs Yuki Kamifuku
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Results
NEW TEXAS PRO “BAT CITY”, 01/06/2025 Empire Control Room, Austin, Texas, USA
1. VertVixen & Yuka Sakazaki defeated Charity King & AQA when Sakazaki pinned King with the Magical Girl Splash (16:55).
It’s been around four months since Sakazaki last wrestled and even then it was on a cruise ship. It wasn’t until this month she was back wrestling on land. She showed up to New Texas Pro wearing an all new black outfit to to team up with VertVixen. She needed to shake off the ring rust fast because she started the match fighting against the much larger Charity King. But King quickly learned that Sakazaki is no weakling. AQA, who was returning to wrestling after a three and a half year absence helped King wear down Vixen until Sakazaki hot tagged herself in to even the odds. AQA stopped her momentum in a sort of unintentional way when she jumped up for a Hurricanrana and Sakazaki collapsed beneath her. The match broke down to where Vixen gave AQA the Blue Thunder Bomb and Sakazaki went on to pin King with the Magical Girl Splash.
1. Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita & Hechicero defeated Bandido, Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd when Fletcher pinned Magnum with the Vertical Drop Brainbuster (14:16).
The lucha flavour was strong in AEW this month even before they made it over to Mexico. Don Callis has had it up to here with both Bandido and The Outrunners so he challenged them to fight The Don Callis Family but with a twist. Protoshita would be involved but so too would the Family’s newest member, the CMLL luchador Hechicero! Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd tried to play mind games by coming out wearing their own pink luchador masks and being introduced as Los Outrunners. The plan didn’t work and Protoshita dealt them the killing blows to win the match.
KITSUNE “GOING BACK TO SAN DIEGO”, 07/06/2025 Primal Compound, San Diego, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Zara Zakher with the Skull Kick (10:39).
2. Vipress & Hudson Envy defeated Nagisa Nozaki & Yuna Manase when Envy pinned Manased with a Rolling Koppo Kick (18:07).
If Yuna Manase was expecting a warm welcome back to Kitsune by everybody there she was in for a rude surprise. Vipress & Hudson Envy have gold in their sights and saw Manase as a target to get into the promotion’s title picture. Also it turned out Nagisa Nozaki wasn’t exactly on Manase’s side either because she attack her with a chair during the main event! However she also attacked Vipress with the same chair and seemingly only wanted to join forces with Envy. Dark Sheik ran in to chase after Nozaki while Tae Honma wanted to help Manase out. However her Missile Dropkick missed Envy and hit Manase instead. Envy then hit Manase with the Rolling Koppo Kick to get the win for her team. Honma checked on Manase afterwards and handed her over the Kitsune World Title. There’s still trust between the two but they have a title match coming up the next day.
Yamashita was also involved for both of Kitsune’s shows that weekend. Zara Zakher wanted to out-strike her late in their match but Yamashita shrugged off her chops and knocked her down with an Elbow Strike. Zakher got a second wind using a German Suplex and a Clothesline. She even backflipped out of the way from the Skull Kick to give her a Stunner for the nearfall. Yamashita got her back with a Knee Strike to the back of the head and put her down for the count with the Skull Kick. Yamashita pulled back her handshake to Zakher after the match, telling her instead she wants another singles match with her.
KITSUNE “8888”, 08/06/2025 South Gate, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Kidd Bandit with the Skull Kick (16:31).
2. Kitsune World Title – Triple Threat Match: Yuna Manase (c) defeated Tae Honma and Hudson Envy when Manase pinned Honma with the Suzuki Dynamic (17:07). *V1 for Yuna Manase.
The next night’s main event was thrown for a loop when Envy added herself into the Manase Vs Honma match midway through it! Earlier in the show Envy won a Nine Tails Rumble which granted her a Kitsune Title shot whenever she wanted. So she pulled out the ref while he was counting Manase pinning Honma and cashed in to try and steal the title for herself. However Honma kicked out of her pin to keep the now Triple Threat going. Manase survived to the end and used the Suzuki Dynamic to pin Honma for a successful title defence. She purposely used that move to win as her way of contributing to Honma’s retirement from pro wrestling happening later this year.
Yamashita ended her Kitsune weekend going two for two. She seemed to enjoy picking Kidd Bandit apart but didn’t expect to be hit with a Leaf Hurricane Kick. Just like with Zakher the day before, Bandit wanted to get into a striking duel with Yamashita but it led to her doom when she missed a second Leaf Hurricane and was blown away with the Skull Kick.
ROH “ROH ON HONORCLUB”, 11/06/2025 (Aired 19/06/2025) Adrian Phillips Theater At Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Brooke Havoc with the Skull Kick (3:33).
Now it’s starting to become clearer. Yamashita made an unexpected return to ROH for a quick victory over Brooke Havoc. Her opponent got cocky with a Dropkick and wasn’t aware that Yamashita stood back up behind her to deliver some kicks. Havoc got some chances back with a Superman Elbow Strike as well as a Sunset Flip counter to the Attitude Adjustment. But Yamashita caught her handstand, kicked her down and pinned her with the Skull Kick.
AEW “COLLISION – SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER”, 11/06/2025 Theater Of The Clouds At Moda Center, Portland, Oregon, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita, Josh Alexander, Lance Archer & Hechicero defeated Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly & Daniel Garcia when Alexander pinned Strong with a German Suplex (11:56).
Bloody hell it’s like The Don Callis Family is gaining new members every week! They had an 8-Man Tag Match against Paragon & Daniel Garcia but RPG Vice were hanging around at ringside to make it more like 6 Vs 4. Things broke down as they tend to do with Paragon & Garcia all locking in submission holds. Lance Archer powered out of Kyle O’Reilly’s Guillotine Choke by charging him into Garcia’s Sharpshooter on Josh Alexander and then stomping on Adam Cole to break Takeshita free from a Figure 4 Leg Lock. Takeshita also got a cheap shot in by hitting Roderick Strong with an Elbow Strike, allowing Alexander to pin him with a German Suplex.
JCW “REC.SPORTS.PRO.WRESTLING”, 12/06/2025 The Hall, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Jordan Blade with the Skull Kick (11:13).
A fired up Jordan Blade offered Yamashita something different from her previous opponents this month. Blade is a grappler with a focused ground game that put Yamashita on defence a lot more than usual. She also had some impact with using a Saito Suplex and also countering a Front Neck Lock into a Fisherman Suplex. But the temptation to get into a strike battle got into Blade’s head and led to Yamashita turning the tables on her. Blade got her head straight and went back to using grounded submissions. By this point it became a fight of endurance with both wrestlers getting groggy and throwing sloppy strikes. Blade tried to hit a Spinning Back Fist but she got hit back with the Skull Kick for the finish.
LLL “BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE – NIGHT 1”, 13/06/2025 The Oriental Theater, Denver, Colorado, USA
1. Abadon defeated Maki Itoh (11:00).
2. Miyu Yamashita defeated Stormi Renee with the Crash Rabbit Heat (?:??).
Oh hey we got a match finish that wasn’t the Skull Kick. Yamashita instead used the Crash Rabbit Heat to put away Stormi Renee.
Fans at Lucha Libre & Laughs got some bonus TJPW representation when Maki Itoh showed up unannounced for the weekend! She lost to Abadon on the first night but things went better on Night 2.
LLL “BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE – NIGHT 2”, 14/06/2025 The Oriental Theater, Denver, Colorado, USA
1. Maki Itoh defeated Mo Magee with the Itoh Deluxe (?:??).
2. Dark Sheik defeated Miyu Yamashita (?:??).
The next night Dark Sheik powered herself up by fighting Yamashita while dressed as Vertigo from the X-Men. Turns out that wasn’t a bad plan because she got to beat Yamashita. Itoh meanwhile made sure she would leave Denver as a winner when she beat Mo Magee.
CMLL “MARTES POPULARES – CMLL Vs AEW Y ROH”, 17/06/2025 Arena Mexico, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
1. Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero, Averno & Euforia defeated Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, Rocky Romero & Hechicero when Gran pinned Romero with an Avalanche Landslide (17:11).
AEW’s stay in Arena Mexico started a day early when Takeshita was among the AEW wrestlers booked for CMLL’s Tuesday show at the venue. You know maybe this was all meant to be. Even though this was Takeshita’s CMLL debut, he had a very thin attachment to the company already because he had held the KO-D Tag Team Titles multiple times back when it was also a certified CMLL championship. Does that actually mean anything? No but it’s nice to find even the slightest of reasons to connect things. The Don Callis Family fitted in nicely as the rudos for the match while Team CMLL the tecnicos by default even though Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero, Averno & Euforia usually all tend to be on the rudo side. The match was also only set for one fall instead of CMLL’s traditional Best 2 Out Of 3 rules. So there were a lot more pinfall breakups than you would expect in a CMLL match, although everyone still figured out how to pace it like the latter. Takeshita landed face first from Ultimo Guerrero’s Super Gourdbuster and Gran Guerrero used his own top rope move to pin Rocky Romero.
AEW “DYNAMITE – GRAND SLAM MEXICO”, 18/06/2025 Arena Mexico, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
1. Bandido, Templario, Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Adam Cole, Brody King & Daniel Garcia defeated Volador Jr., Hechicero, Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, Josh Alexander, Lance Archer & Dax Harwood (w/ Stokely) when Atlantis pinned Harwood with an Inside Cradle (15:47).
Things got even crazier the next night when AEW hosted “DYNAMITE” in Arena Mexico. A planned 12-Man Tag Match was changed into a 14-Man Tag Match mixing CMLL and AEW wrestlers all together. Plus the world got to learn just how much the hardcore CMLL fans do not like Atlantis Jr., which gets his father Atlantis caught in the crossfire too. Takeshita was taken out by a Templario dive late in the match, Bandido did the same to wipe out Volador Jr. and Brody King saved the biggest dive of them all for the end which Takeshita took alongside Hechicero. The match then came down to Atlantis fighting Dax Harwood and taking the victory with an Inside Cradle, much to the annoyance of the hardcores in attendance.
GCW “BANGIN’ IN LITTLE ROCK”, 20/06/2025 The Hall, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Blake Christian with the Skull Kick (15:04).
I wonder if this was another sign that Yamashita has an AEW/ROH deal under wraps. Blake Christian is a regular over in that circle and while he’s not protected over there, he is placed on a high pedestal over in GCW. Plus Yamashita likes to do new things over in that company. Like pull out a door from under the ring and have Christian dive into it, crushing her beneath it! Christian then threw everything he had at her including a Springboard 450 and also a Handspring Ace Crusher. However Yamashita stumbled back up and took a lucky swing, knocking her opponent out with the Skull Kick. Christian crumbled to the mat and Yamashita rolled on top of him for the pin. Yamashita offered a handshake afterwards but Christian gave her the middle finger and walked out. However he reconsidered and went back into the ring to shake her hand after all.
AEW “COLLISION”, 21/06/2025 accesso ShoWare Center, Kent, Washington, USA
1. Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita (w/ Stokely) defeated Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Daniel Garcia & Bandido when Harwood pinned Strong after the Shatter Machine (11:52).
The aftermath of Arena Mexico brought Protoshita back in the sights of Paragon, Garcia & Bandido. At least this time they had both members of FTR fighting alongside them. FTR scored the win for the team and everyone decided to beat down the faces afterwards until The Outrunners arrived to chase them off.
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 25/06/2025 accesso ShoWare Center, Kent, Washington, USA
1. 4 Way For The #1 Spot In The Casino Gauntlet At All In Texas: Mark Briscoe defeated Konosuke Takeshita, Roderick Strong and Bandido when Briscoe pinned Strong with the Froggy Bow (11:05).
Now that the road towards “ALL IN TEXAS” is getting clearer, Takeshita starting making his plans to enter the much lauded Casino Gauntlet Match. Mark Briscoe was now added to the mix as four men battled to become the No. 1 entrant in the match. The Casino Gauntlet is an Aztec Warfare/Thunderbastard style match that only lasts for one fall so entering early gives you the advantage to win rather than entering late because you get the chance to win before many of the other participants show up. The danger of having a one fall match was shown here when Bandido threw away Takeshita with the 21 Plex, Strong gave Bandido the End Of Heartache and Briscoe surprised Strong from the top rope with the Froggy Bow to get the win.
MLW “SUMMER OF THE BEASTS”, 26/06/2025 Melrose Ballroom, New York City, New York, USA
1. Yuki Kamifuku defeated Wakana Uehara with an Inverted Famouser (7:24).
TJPW’s working relationship with MLW grew with the American group hosting “The Battle Of The Idols” between Yuki Kamifuku and Wakana Uehara. The two Ober Eats partners had a standard match with each other. The only unusual thing was Kamifuku winning the match with an Inverted version of the Famouser instead of the regular one, possibly because Uehara couldn’t get herself in the right position. Kamifuku’s win was enough to get the attention of Shotzi Blackheart who walked to the ring after the match for her first appearance in the promotion. The two women even threw out the idea of them having a match together somewhere down the road.
REAPER “REAPER RISING – A KING’S CORONATION”, 27/06/2025 The Pit, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
1. Janai Kai defeated Miyu Yamashita by Pinfall (?:??).
How’s this for a match finish over at Reaper Wrestling. Yamashita and Janai Kai keep kicking the hell out of each other, Kai hits the Hurricane Kick, Yamashita hits back with the Skull Kick and Kai falls on top of her to get the pin.
METALMANIA “2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY”, 28/06/2025 Stage 722, Portland, Oregon, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Janai Kai
Yamashita and Kai faced each other again the next night at METALMANIA. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find the result of the match. The only thing I could see online is a clip of the two kicking each other. They didn’t just do the same match from the day before again, did they?
SPARK “IGNITE TEXAS”, 29/06/2025 Baytown Community Center, Houston, Texas, USA
1. Yuka Sakazaki & Raychell Rose defeated SAKI & Kaia McKenna when Sakazaki pinned McKenna with the Magical Merry-Go-Round (11:25).
2. SPARK Joshi Pacific Title – 3 Way Match: Airica Demia defeated VertVixen (c) and Miyu Yamashita when Demia pinned Vixen after the Skull Kick from Yamashita (13:37) *VertVixen fails in V1. Airica Demina becomes the 3rd SPARK Joshi Pacific Champion!
We finally get to the end of the month with SPARK Joshi holding its latest show in Texas. I haven’t seen the show yet so I don’t have much info on the matches other than how they finished. Yamashita came close to winning the SPARK Joshi Pacific Title when she used the Skull Kick on the champion Vert Vixen. However the third person in the match Airica Demina took Yamashita out of the way to steal the pin and win the championship instead.
Elsewhere on the card Sakazaki had her second match of the month by teaming with Raychell Rose to beat SAKI & Kaia McKenna. Sakazaki even scored the pin on McKenna by doing the Magical Merry-Go-Round on her.
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Upcoming Appearances
BZW “LES JEUX SONT FAITS”, 05/07/2025 Casino Barrière de Lille, Lille, France
1. BZW Tag Team Titles: MAO & Yoshihiko (c) Vs Danny Black & Joe Lando
Texas will be the main point of interest next month but first we have something going on in France to pay attention to. MAO & Yoshihiko are heading back to Banger Zone Wrestling to defence the BZW Tag Team Titles. The CPF team of Danny Black & Joe Lando are their latest challengers.
GCW “THE TOP PLAY”, 05/07/2025 The Webster Theatre, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
1. Alec Price, Jordan Oliver & Marcus Mathers Vs Miyu Yamashita, Megan Bayne & Billie Starkz
The GCW Tag Team Titles match didn’t go ahead this month for reasons I will cover at the end of this article. However Yamashita & Billie Starkz will get their hands on YDNP next month for an intergender trios match. Megan Bayne adds firepower to their team while Marcus Mathers comes to the aid of the champions.
This weekend looks to be the end of Yamashita’s latest tour. Her tweet schedule also mentions a booked in New Jersey on 6th July. JCW will be holding a show there on that date but they haven’t promoted Yamashita for it yet and I don’t see where she can fit on such a packed card that’s currently being advertised. I also haven’t been able to find any other shows taking place in the area that day so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “QUERI PRESENTS TJPW LIVE IN HOUSTON – NIGHT 1”, 10/07/2025 POST, Houston, Texas, USA
1. 3 Way Match: Yuki Kamifuku Vs Raku Vs Vert Vixen
2. Yuki Arai Vs Kaylia Capri
3. Miu Watanabe Vs Wakana Uehara
4. Suzume & Arisu Endo Vs Moka Miyamoto & Shino Suzuki
5. Special Single Match: Miyu Yamashita Vs Maki Itoh
6. Mizuki & Pom Harajuku Vs Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao
The word coming from TJPW and their American promotors is this Texas tour will be a big success.
ROH “SUPERCARD OF HONOR”, 11/07/2025 Esports Stadium Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA
1. ROH World Title: Bandido (c) Vs Konosuke Takeshita
I have high hopes this will be one of the matches of the weekend. Don’t even have to call it a sleeper. The last month of matches where Bandido went to battle with The Don Callis Family has all led to Takeshita challenging him for the ROH World Title! Can Takeshita become the second Japanese wrestler after Takeshi Morishima to hold the belt?
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “QUERI PRESENTS TJPW LIVE IN HOUSTON – NIGHT 2”, 11/07/2025 POST, Houston, Texas, USA
1. Wakana Uehara Vs Shino Suzuki
2. Arisu Endo Vs Kaylia Capri
3. Yuki Kamifuku Vs Pom Harajuku
4. Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao Vs Miu Watanabe & Vert Vixen
5. Maki Itoh Vs Raku
6. Mizuki & Suzume Vs Yuki Arai & Moka Miyamoto
The first two shows in Houston have both sold out.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TJPW LIVE IN DALLAS PRESENTED BY NEXTSHARK & QUERI”, 13/07/2025 The OC, Forney, Texas, USA
1. Hyper Misao & Shino Suzuki Vs Raku & Pom Harajuku
2. Moka Miyamoto Vs Alejandra Quintanilla
3. Yuki Arai Vs Maya World
4. Suzume & Arisu Endo Vs Yuki Kamifuku & Wakana Uehara
5. Shoko Nakajima Vs Miu Watanabe
6. Yuka Sakazaki & Billie Starkz Vs Miyu Yamashita & Vert Vixen
7. Special Single Match: Mizuki Vs Maki Itoh
And the “Dallas” show is apparently going to end up becoming TJPW’s biggest drawing show in America ever!
SETUP “UNDER PRESSURE”, 26/07/2025 The Circus Studio, G Village, Bangkok, Thailand
1. Chris Brookes Vs X
Some late summer travelling for Chris Brookes. First he’ll be going back to Thailand for a SETUP show. Ram Kaichow will be there too.
BAKA GAIJIN + FRIENDS “VOL. MNL”, 22/08/2025 The Social House, Makati, Philippines
1. Takeshi Masada Vs X
2. Chris Brookes Vs X
Then a month later Brookes is going over to the Philippines and he’s bringing Takeshi Masada with him. Dexcon will be holding a weekend tripleshot of shows, the first of which will be Baka Gaijin + Friends!
DXCN “???”, 23/08/2025 Philippines
1. Takeshi Masada Vs X
2. Chris Brookes Vs X
I can’t find any info on what the second Dexcon show of the weekend will be other than Brookes and Masada should both be on it.
GCW “HOMECOMING – NIGHT 1”, 23/08/2025 Showboat Hotel Atlantic City, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
Itoh returns to GCW in August for a doubleshot weekend.
DXCN “PEKSMAN”, 24/08/2025 Brawl Pit Bulusan, Quezon City, Philippines
1. Takeshi Masada Vs X
2. Chris Brookes Vs X
The third Dexcon show will be built around local wrestlers taking on the international guests.
GCW “HOMECOMING – NIGHT 2”, 24/08/2025 Showboat Hotel Atlantic City, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
There will likely be a lot more GCW bookings coming for Itoh as usual.
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Cancelled Appearances
WAFFLE HOUSE “GOOD FOOD FAST”, 15/06/2025 Waffle House, Colorado, USA
While Itoh was in Colorado for Lucha Libre & Laughs, she went to a Waffle House fully expecting the place to live up to its online reputation. Unfortunately for her no fights or other bad doings took place while she was there. Instead she got to experience the kind of Waffle House that the late Anthony Bourdain once waxed lyrically about.
GCW “TAKE A PICTURE”, 22/06/2025 The Truman, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
1. GCW Tag Team Titles: Jordan Oliver & Alec Price (c) Vs Miyu Yamashita & Billie Starkz
Yamashita found herself in the centre of controversy during the month when GCW were running a show in Missouri. The state’s athletic commission refused to give Yamashita a license to wrestle on the show because she has no social security number. GCW argued that she has all of the required documents as well as a valid working visa needed to qualify for a license. They also pointed out that Yamashita has wrestled in Missouri several times previously without any trouble. I can back up that claim because this very series of articles has records of her wrestling in St. Louis, Missouri twice in 2023: once for ROH in March and then for Glory Pro in May. Unfortunately this couldn’t change the commission’s mind and Yamashita wasn’t allowed to wrestle that evening.
Can’t say this month has been a quiet one. Konosuke Takeshita had a lot of TV time with AEW and we even got the lovely announcement that he’s married to Yuka Sakazaki. All of Takeshita’s work this month revolves around The Don Callis Family, yes even the American New Japan appearance. The group in its current form is nailing it at the moment with good tag matches week to week and the presence of Don Callis himself is not as overwhelming as it was before. I bet over the coming months Takeshita’s schedule will gradually switch from AEW over to New Japan as we walk through the Forbidden Door and approach the G1 season.
May saw Maki Itoh finish up her remaining dates in America before she travelled back home to rejoin Tokyo Joshi Pro. She has another tour lined up during the Tokyo Princess Cup so the Americans won’t be missing her for long. Miyu Yamashita is entering the second half of her excursion and her schedule is definitely keeping her busy. She’s bouncing back and forth from America to Canada and even found time to visit Italy. Her matches in the Upcoming Appearances section below are not all of the bookings she has left. She included a few unlabeled dates in her schedule on Twitter and it’s pretty easy to find online that they are for GCW’s sister promotion JCW. However JCW themselves haven’t announced her for anything yet so I left them off this post. As you’ll see at the very end, there is always a possible booking cancellation that could happen at any time.
TJPW’s grip on the Southeast Asian scene took something of a hit because Yuki Kamifuku and Raku both lost all of the SEA championships this month. It’s likely not the end of TJPW working with companies from Thailand and Singapore but for now the focus looks to be moving towards the new relationship with Major League Wrestling in America. MLW is currently going through a roster shuffle too with a good amount of contracts not being renewed and some new talent coming in to fill those emptying spots. TJPW may just be used as a temporary solution to fill in the gap but they’ll benefit from it for as long as it lasts.
The thing to watch for in the next month or two is how often Sakazaki will get to wrestle, whether it’s on the indies or if she can get booked in AEW/ROH again. I hear rumours every now and then that there’s an injury clearance issue going on with her. But it wouldn’t make sense if AEW uses that as a reason to keep her on the shelf only to let her go wrestle somewhere else. They haven’t like it in the past when their wrestlers got injured on another promotion’s show.
TOP TALENT “LIVE AT MIDWAY MUSIC HALL”, 02/05/2025 Midway Music Hall, Edmonton, Canada
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Ava Lawless (?:??).
We start off over in Canada where Yamashita headlined a Top Talent Wrestling show against Ava Lawless. The Canadian knew it was going to be a big test for her and she embraced it but Yamashita came out on top.
HOODSLAM “PHANTASMAGORIA”, 02/05/2025 Continental Club, Oakland, California, USA
1. GLAMpionship: MacDaddy MYLO (c) (w/KEiTA) defeated Maki Itoh with a School Boy (?:??). *V6 for MacDaddy MYLO.
On the same night one country away, Itoh was main eventing a show of her own with her return to Hoodslam. She was getting a shot at the GLAMpionship, a title that was originally created for the promotion’s sub-brand GLAM but made its way over to the regular shows. MacDaddy MYLO attacked her before she could finish her entrance but made the mistake of slamming her head into the turnbuckles which had no effect. Itoh’s momentum was cut off when MYLO pulled the ref into her way and then jumped in to do a Cutter. Itoh made another comeback only for KEiTA to interfere on the champion’s behalf. Itoh fought them both off and put MYLO in the Itoh Deluxe but KEiTA distracted the ref so she wouldn’t see MYLO tap out. Itoh got rid of KEiTA again but MYLO rolled her up in a School Boy to steal the win.
GCW “CRAZY SCARY SPOOKY HILARIOUS”, 03/05/2025 Ukrainian Culture Center, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Maki Itoh with the Skull Kick (13:23).
The day after that Yamashita and Itoh’s paths crossed over in GCW. The two of them were heading into a big weekend where they both had title matches to prepare for. But before any of that could happen the two would meet in the ring against each other! Did anyone on GCW commentary know about their history together as 121000000 beyond just them being tag champions a few times? Fucking of course not! At least the fans were super into it. The was the first time Yamashita would face Itoh in a place where Itoh has the home field advantage and while she didn’t go into MDK mode, she was able to put up her biggest fight against Yamashita yet. Even Yamashita seemed to be aware of it because when he knocked down Itoh with the Skull Kick, she ordered the ref to check her for a knockout. The ref dropped Itoh’s arm three times but on the third Itoh kept her hand up and raised a middle finger to the air! She got a second wind and almost scored the victory she waited so long for by countering the Attitude Adjustment into a Small Package. But Yamashita kicked out and nailed another Skull Kick to increase her singles match record with Itoh to 10-0. There was no hard feelings over the result and 121000000 shook hands afterwards.
GCW “WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU”, 04/05/2025 Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, Oregon, USA
1. JCW World Title: Masha Slamovich (c) defeated Miyu Yamashita with the White Knight Driver (10:13). *V36 for Masha Slamovich.
2. GCW World Title: Effy (c) defeated Maki Itoh with a Spinning Tombstone Piledriver (12:08). *V16 for Effy.
Well if plan of having iron sharpen iron was to result in championship wins it didn’t work out here. Itoh finished up her latest excursion by getting a shot at the GCW World Title held by Effy before she went home. Effy lightened the mood by singing “Mandy” on the microphone but changed the lyrics to be about Maki. She didn’t like it and told him to stop but that made Effy start to cry. It was all a trap to for Effy to get the one up on Itoh but she quickly escaped and turned the tables. She did a Diving Cross Body from the top rope to Effy outside the ring. Effy brought in chairs and ended up getting Choke Slammed onto one by Itoh! She also kicked out of a Spear at one and sliced Effy’s forehead open with her pizza cutter. Despite all that Effy countered the I.S.D by catching her in mid-air. He then spun it around into a Tombstone Piledriver to get the win.
Also on the show Yamashita challenged Masha Slamovich for the JCW Title in a continuation of their international rivalry. It was an even matchup but just like in Las Vegas last month, Slamovich got Yamashita in the White Knight Driver for the three count. Yamashita slapped away the champion’s hand after the match but immediately offered a handshake of her own, which Slamovich accepted.
AEW “COLLISION”, 08/05/2025 Masonic Temple Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander (w/ Don Callis) defeated Evil Uno & Alex Reynolds when Alexander pinned Reynolds with the C4 Spike (2:30).
Even though Takeshita was already eliminated from the Owen Hart Cup last month, this month he was still in orbit of the tournament. His new tag team with Josh Alexander in The Don Callis Family were set up for a match against the two wrestlers who reached the final. So for a warm up match they went and destroyed two members of The Dark Order in quick fashion on Collision. Alexander picked up Evil Uno and with Takeshita did a Doomsday Jumping Knee to the masked man. Then they smashed Alex Reynolds with a Double Elbow Strike to the head before Alexander pinned him with the C4 Spike.
HOG “WAGING WAR”, 09/05/2025 Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1. HOG Women’s Title: Indi Hartwell defeated Miyu Yamashita with a Full Nelson Facebuster (12:13). *Indi Hartwell becomes the 8th HOG Women’s Champion!
The stakes were raised for Yamashita’s return to House Of Glory. Right before her match with Indi Hartwell began the HOG commissioner Jason Solomon walked out and announced that the HOG Women’s Title held by Megan Bayne had been vacated. He then announced that this match would determine the new champ! Yamashita had the end of the match under control until Hartwell ducked the Skull Kick and planted her with a Full Nelson Facebuster to win the match out of nowhere and become champion.
NJPW “RESURGENCE”, 09/05/2025 Toyota Arena, Ontario, California, USA
1. NEVER Openweight Title: KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (c) (w/ Rocky Romero) defeated El Phantasmo with the Raging Fire (17:48). *V6 for KONOSUKE TAKESHITA.
Rocky Romero’s involvement with Takeshita in the NJPW USA shows have become a little more clearer now that Romero is part of The Don Callis Family. He accompanied Takeshita for his NEVER Openweight Title defence against El Phantasmo. It couldn’t reach the heights of last year’s G1 match but ELP still did a massive Thunderkiss ’86 dive to Takeshita into the front row, landed a Cutthroat Driver for a nearfall and also gave Takeshita a Piledriver on the ring apron. ELP had the win in his grasp when Romero pulled the referee out of the ring during a pinfall. ELP got some measure of revenge on Romero by Power Bombing him through a table but that gave Takeshita time to recover and pin ELP with the Raging Fire. There is growing respect between the two because they shook hands after the match.
MAPLE LEAF PRO “NORTHERN RISING”, 10/05/2025 Mattamy Athletic Centre, Toronto, Canada
1. Serena Deeb defeated Miyu Yamashita with the Detox (12:55).
Yamashita travelled back up to Canada for another appearance in Maple Leaf Pro. There she faced Serena Deeb who was making her third appearance in a row for the promotion. Yamashita hit the Skull Kick but Deeb made sure to topple out of the ring to avoid getting pinned. When she was put back in the ring, Deeb pushed Yamashita into the ref and then hit her from behind with a Chop Block. She then pinned her with the Detox, which is Deeb’s arm trapped Styles Clash kind of finisher.
MLW “AZTECA LUCHA”, 10/05/2025 Cicero Stadium, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1. MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title: Shoko Nakajima (c) defeated Delmi Exo (?:??). *V1 for Shoko Nakajima.
Right, here’s the funny thing about MLW. Their shows nowadays are one half live iPPV and the other half TV tapings for the upcoming month. That’s not unusual for wrestling but barely anyone who goes to MLW shows cares about spoiling the tapings part. Shoko Nakajima’s appearance on the live PPV was just to be seen sitting in the front row to hype up her next MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title defence. That match is a rematch with Delmi Exo that will air on MLW’s TV show in June. I couldn’t find any result or talk of the rematch online anywhere and the only reason we know Nakajima is still the champion is because she brought the belt back to Japan with her. Once the match airs I’ll come back and write this with any necessary corrections included. Like I don’t know, maybe they went to a 60 minute draw. I can’t prove they did but you can’t prove they didn’t either.
AEW “DYNAMITE – BEACH BREAK”, 14/05/2025 NOW Arena, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, USA
1. Will Ospreay & Hangman Page defeated Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander (w/ Don Callis) when Page pinned Alexander after the Buckshot Hidden Blade (18:34).
The two Owen Hart Cup finalists Will Ospreay & Hangman Page had to team up before their big PPV match. They needed to be on the same page because Takeshita & Alexander were coming after them like a well oiled machine. There was some communication between them to set things up but it still led to moments where Page almost hit Ospreay with the Buckshot Lariat and Ospreay almost hit Page with the Hidden Blade. But something eventually clicked between the two and they combined their finishers Kinnikuman style on Alexander to get the victory.
GCW “BIG TIME”, 17/05/2025 RJ Meyer Arena, Joppa, Maryland, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Marcus Mathers with the Crash Rabbit Heat (21:02).
Plans changed for Yamashita’s next match in GCW. She was supposed to face Tony Deppen but instead her opponent was Marcus Mathers. The match featured quite a bit of mat work with Mathers looking for spots to take Yamashita into an Ankle Lock. Yamashita also found herself getting thrown around more often than she would back in TJPW. Mathers press dropped her onto the ring apron and tried to do a Power Bomb but it was countered into a Sunset Flip. When Mathers went more high risk he paid for it by springboarding into a glancing Skull Kick for a nearfall. By that point Yamashita knew she had Mathers where she wanted him and wore him down with kicks before pinning him with the Crash Rabbit Heat.
GCW “RUN FOR IT”, 18/05/2025 Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, New York, USA
1. Billie Starkz defeated Miyu Yamashita with a Victory Roll Reversal (10:34).
Yamashita’s final GCW appearance for the month (probably because it was also the last GCW show of the month) was also the fourth singles meeting with Billie Starkz. It turns out Starkz has become a very slippery opponent for Yamashita to beat nowadays because this match was her third defeat in a row to her. Yamashita got a nearfall with an Avalanche Attitude Adjustment and continued the pressure after that but Starkz ended up reversing a Victory Roll to get the three count out of nowhere.
AEW “COLLISION”, 21/05/2025 (Aired 22/05/2025) Rio Rancho Events Center, Rio Rancho, New Mexico, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita, Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero (w/ Lance Archer) defeated Bandido, Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd when Takeshita pinned Floyd with the Bastard Driver (9:35).
More shuffling going around within The Don Callis Family yet things look so similar. Trent Beretta is back from injury and has reunited with Rocky Romero. Their Roppongi Vice team in New Japan is now conveniently renamed RPG Vice in AEW. They and Takeshita were put together for a trios match against the wild combination of Bandido and The Outrunners. During the madness Takeshita used a well timed Jumping Knee Strike to make Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd clash into each other. Then at ringside Lance Archer wiped out Bandido so the rest of The Family had the coast clear to finish things off.
MKW “BATTLE OF THE DECADE”, 24/05/2025 Dongxin Plaza, Beijing, China
1. Yuki Kamifuku & Chen Wenbin defeated Alexis Lee & Big Sam when Kamifuku pinned Lee with the Diving Famouser (?:??).
Now let’s head over to Asia to see what some of the other TJPW wrestlers have been up to. Middle Kingdom Wrestling in China brought in Yuki Kamifuku for a mixed tag match with Alexis Lee on the other team, making it a preview for their big title match happening in Singapore one week later. Kamifuku was teaming up with Chinese wrestler Chen Wenbin while Lee had a big British brute named Big Sam as her tag partner. Sam was too strong to a fault because he ended up missing Wenbin and Clotheslining Lee off the ring apron by mistake. Kamifuku by herself couldn’t hurt Big Sam but Wenbin was there to help her out when needed. Things also went wrong for Sam when his manager messed up a pin break and stomped on him, allowing the other team to charge in and Double Big Boot Sam out of the ring. Lee tried to get her hands on Kamifuku afterwards but Kamifuku got the better of her, winning the match with the Diving Famouser.
SAJ “HUNTER’S NET”, 24/05/2025 Via Dante 72, Sporting Cesate, Milan, Italy
1. 3 Way Match: Miyu Yamashita defeated Irene and Session Moth Martina (?:??).
Yamashita can now scratch Italy off her growing list of countries she’s wrestled in. SAJ Wrestling brought her in for a 3 Way Match against Italy’s own Irene and the Irish wrestler Session Moth Martina. The latter was really looking forward to this because she was meant to face Yamashita at EVE earlier in the year but she had to cancel it due to illness. Yamashita also tweeted that her first time in Italy was an incredible experience.
AEW “DOUBLE OR NOTHING”, 25/05/2025 Desert Diamond Arena, Glendale, Arizona, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher & Josh Alexander defeated Adam Cole, Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly when Fletcher pinned O’Reilly with (12:48).
Takeshita and co. were put in the unenviable position of following the annual Anarchy In The Arena match. They all did alright given the circumstances. Takeshita has crossed paths with Adam Cole, Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly before but not when all three have been together as Paragon. In fact the previous times Takeshita has been in the ring with Strong was as tag partners. The Don Callis Family ended up isolating O’Reilly and left it to Kyle Fletcher to finish him off. The Family continued the attack after the match until an unlikely trio of wrestlers came to the rescue. Hiroshi Tanahashi made a suprise appearance leading Tomohiro Ishii & Brody King to the ring to chase off The Family. It’s all to set up the next “FORBIDDEN DOOR” that will be held in England this year. It’s since been confirmed that the show will feature Tanahashi’s final wrestling match in the UK before he retires. Could Takeshita become a part of it just like he was for Tanahashi’s last USA match?
AEW “COLLISION”, 28/05/2025 (Aired 31/05/2025) El Paso County Coliseum, El Paso, Texas, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita, Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero defeated Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly & Tomohiro Ishii when Takeshita pinned Ishii with the Raging Fire (10:18).
Chaos broke out from the get go when The Don Callis Family attacked their opponents from behind only for Paragon & Ishii to bring the fight to them outside the ring. Don Callis also briefly got away from the commentary table to deliver a cheap shot. Takeshita and Ishii threw bombs at each other until Takeshita pushed Ishii into the ref. That allowed Romero to Low Blow Ishii from behind so Takeshita could pin him with the Raging Fire.
1. Queen Of Asia Title: Alexis Lee defeated Yuki Kamifuku (c) (?:??). *Yuki Kamifuku fails in V7. Alexis Lee becomes the 6th Queen Of Asia Champion!
The Queen Of Asia has been defeated. Long live the new Queen Of Asian Champion! Lee wanted one more shot at Kamifuku’s title in SPW and was willing to put up the biggest gamble of her life to do it. She promised to put her career on the line and retire from wrestling if she couldn’t take the title from Kamifuku! The bet paid off because Lee was able to get the win and become a two time Queen Of Asia Champion. Thing along with Kamifuku losing the VPW Women’s Title in TJPW earlier in the month brings her Southeast Asian dominance to an end, maybe just for the time being.
SETUP “THE FALLEN KINGDOM”, 31/05/2025 The Circus Studio, G Village, Bangkok, Thailand
1. SETUP All Asia Women’s Title: Matcha defeated Raku (c) with the Stunner (?:??). *Raku fails in V2. Matcha becomes the 4th SETUP All Asia Women’s Champion!
The good folks at SETUP have kept me up to date on Raku’s return to Thailand this month which I appreciate greatly. Matcha wanted a chance to win back the SETUP All Asia Women’s Title she lost to TJPW and would get it with Raku coming over to defend it. But Raku had a devious plan put in place to give her the advantage. When Matcha was in Japan for a TJPW tour, Raku purposely sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to her her backstage to send her to sleep. Raku then sent a recording of the song over to the SETUP dojo, making everyone over there who played it fall asleep on the spot. SETUP staff also told me that Raku played the same prank on a delivery driver on Matcha’s birthday so her birthday cake would never arrive! So Matcha tried to fight fire with fire by bringing along a certain kind of pillow and mat used in Thailand for Raku to lie on. Raku almost fell asleep but had the awareness to roll up Matcha when she tried to pin her. The two proceeded to wrestle the match using the mat as a weapon on each other, mostly by one bundling up the other in the mat to try and immobilize them. When it came down to the final moments of the match, Matcha countered Raku’s Doctor Yellow into the Last Rights. After that she hit the Stunner to win and regain her championship! Raku was upset to lose the title but Matcha made it up to her after the match by giving her the pillow to bring home as a keepsake. Raku may have also got to sing Zack Sabre Jr. to sleep at the merch table as the main photo at the top of the article suggests.
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Upcoming Appearances
NEW TEXAS PRO “BAT CITY”, 01/06/2025 Empire Control Room, Austin, Texas, USA
1. Charity King & AQA Vs VertVixen & Yuka Sakazaki
There was only one previous time when VertVixen & Yuka Sakazaki were in the ring together and it was for an AEW Dark match. They meet again for Sakazaki’s return to the American indies, this time teaming together over at New Texas Pro. Someone in this match who is also getting attention is AQA. She was seen as an exciting prospect on the indies a few years ago and even signed a deal with AEW (she got the graphic and everything) but unexpectedly quit the business only a few months later. All of a sudden New Texas Pro announced her return and this is going to be her first match back in three years. Charity King will be there to lend her a helping hand for the comeback.
KITSUNE “GOING BACK TO SAN DIEGO”, 07/06/2025 Primal Compound, San Diego, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Zara Zakher
2. Vipress & Hudson Envy Vs Nagisa Nozaki & Yuna Manase
Not long to go now until Yuna Manase returns for the next weekend of Kitsune shows. Yamashita will be there too.
KITSUNE “8888”, 08/06/2025 South Gate, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
2. Kitsune World Title: Yuna Manase (c) Vs Tae Honma
Manase has a Kitsune World Title defence against Tae Honma lined up while Yamashita won’t know who she faces until the day of the show.
LLL “BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE – NIGHT 1”, 13/06/2025 The Oriental Theater, Denver, Colorado, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
Yamashita’s first opponent for her weekend at Lucha Libre & Laughs has not been announced yet.
LLL “BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE – NIGHT 2”, 14/06/2025 The Oriental Theater, Denver, Colorado, USA
1. Dark Sheik Vs Miyu Yamashita
But her opponent on the second night is already known. It’s Dark Sheik!
GCW “BANGIN’ IN LITTLE ROCK”, 20/06/2025 The Hall, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
It won’t be until them middle of the month when Yamashita jumps back into GCW. There will be a couple of both new and familiar faces showing up by then, giving Yamashita a few potentially fresh opponents.
GCW “TAKE A PICTURE”, 22/06/2025 The Truman, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
1. GCW Tag Team Titles: Jordan Oliver & Alec Price (c) Vs Miyu Yamashita & Billie Starkz
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em! Yamashita and Starkz are teaming up for a crack at the GCW Tag Team Titles currently held by Jordan Oliver & Alec Price. This could be Yamashita’s last chance on this tour to win some gold.
MLW “SUMMER OF THE BEASTS”, 26/06/2025 Melrose Ballroom, New York City, New York, USA
1. Wakana Uehara Vs Yuki Kamifuku
The relationship between TJPW and Major League Wrestling will continue with more TJPW wrestlers crossing over to the world that never stops! While Nakajima is defending MLW’s Women’s Title in Japan, TJPW will be sending over Yuki Kamifuku and Wakana Uehara to compete against each other in the MLW ring. Cesar Duran says this is part of a new era for MLW’s women’s division being helmed by Salina de la Renta.
REAPER “REAPER RISING – A KING’S CORONATION”, 27/06/2025 The Pit, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Janai Kai
This is one of those times when the wrestling promotion in question is so far out of my reach I half consider if it’s someone’s eFed because the info is so sparse. However I can confirm Reaper Wrestling is a real company in Canada. Yamashita will get to face Janai Kai again and she sent a video warning Kai that nothing has changed since the last time they fought each other.
METALMANIA “2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY”, 28/06/2025 Stage 722, Portland, Oregon, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
And the award for the most unlikely place to book Yamashita during her excursion goes to METALMANIA! It’s where you go in Portland to see lucha mix with death metal music. Never would have thought Yamashita to be a headbanger.
SPARK “IGNITE TEXAS”, 29/06/2025 Baytown Community Center, Houston, Texas, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
2. Yuka Sakazaki Vs X
When was the last time Yamashita and Sakazaki were on the same show together? It wasn’t when Sakazaki graduated from TJPW a year and a half ago, was it? As you can see in the pic above, there’s also some Stardom talent appearing on the show. If SPARK has the pull to put together the tag match I’m thinking of then good job to them.
BZW “LES JEUX SONT FAITS”, 05/07/2025 Casino Barrière de Lille, Lille, France
1. BZW Tag Team Titles: MAO & Yoshihiko (c) Vs Danny Black & Joe Lando
It’s back to France for a quick summer break. Or maybe not because MAO & Yoshihiko have some business to attend to for their return to Banger Zone Wrestling. British wrestlers Danny Black & Joe Lando have challenged them for the BZW Tag Team Titles. The pair from the CPF (Close Personal Friends) stable held the titles before and are getting this match at the same venue where they lost them.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TJPW LIVE IN HOUSTON – NIGHT 1”, 10/07/2025 POST, Houston, Texas, USA
The current lineup “confirmed” for the Texas tour is Maki Itoh, Miyu Yamashita, Miu Watanabe, Suzume, Yuki Arai, Mizuki, Shoko Nakajima, Pom Harajuku, Moka Miyamoto, Arisu Endo, Raku, Shino Suzuki and Yuki Kamifuku.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TJPW LIVE IN HOUSTON – NIGHT 2”, 11/07/2025 POST, Houston, Texas, USA
The only one not “confirmed” yet but still included in the promotional material is Hyper Misao. That might depend on if she recovers from her elbow injury in time.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TJPW LIVE IN DALLAS”, 13/07/2025 The OC, Forney, Texas, USA
The only other thing known about the show lineups right now is each night will have different matches.
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Cancelled Appearances
MPX “METROPLEX WRESTLING”, 31/05/2025 Harwood Road, Bedford, Texas, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Maya World
A cancelled flight prevented Yamashita from travelling to Texas for her first appearance at Metroplex Wrestling. She was meant to fight Maya World at the show and called in a favour to Athena to be her replacement.
PRESTIGE “UNIT3D”, 01/06/2025 Vermont Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
Not much to say about this other than I’m including it just for the sake of record. When Yamashita first posted her list of USA bookings she included one for Prestige on 1st June. She later had an update saying the booking was cancelled and she was available for other dates on the weekend. Nothing was said on Prestige’s end but that’s also because they hadn’t at any point promoted she would appear on the show.
What a month. Felt like the moment WrestleMania Week ended the wrestling world just kept going. Konosuke Takeshita was involved with the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament in AEW and when that came to an end he very quickly established a new tag team with Josh Alexander. Then in Japan some DDT and Tokyo Joshi Pro wrestlers took part in Deadlock Pro’s weekend in the country’s capital. There was also some lucha libre action happening in Tokyo a few days later. Back in America Maki Itoh got her face painted again in a very nice and very evil manner. Then the very busy month came to an end with Miyu Yamashita stepping foot back inside AEW after a two or three year absence.
Yamashita is going to have a packed schedule in May. Itoh has a few things coming up but she will be back in TJPW in the middle of the month. Yamashita though has plenty on her plate and the AEW appearance came about at a good time to replenish some interest in her. What’s included below is not the complete schedule she posted on her Twitter account. There are plenty more dates coming up over the next few months but some haven’t been announced by the promotions yet so I left them out just to save some space. Our old pal Yuka Sakazaki got her first booking on the indies in quite a while too. Another thing to keep an eye on is just where will Keigo Nakamura land for his indefinite overseas excursion. Apparently wherever he’s going he is has gone travelling over there already. If he is indeed still going to wrestle I’ll do my best to keep track of it in these articles.
AEW “DYNAMITE – SPRING BREAKTHRU”, 16/04/2025 MGM Music Hall At Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
1. Owen Hart Foundation 2025 Men’s Tournament – Semi Final: Will Ospreay Vs Konosuke Takeshita
AEW “COLLISION – SPRING BREAKTHRU”, 17/04/2025 MGM Music Hall At Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
1. Josh Alexander & Konosuke Takeshita Vs Rocky Romero & Tomohiro Ishii
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 23/04/2025 Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
1. Will Ospreay & Brody King Vs Josh Alexander & Konosuke Takeshita
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 30/04/2025 Chartway Arena, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
1. AEW Women’s World Title Eliminator Match: Toni Storm (w/ Luther) Vs Miyu Yamashita
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Results
AEW “DYNAMITE – SPRING BREAKTHRU”, 16/04/2025 MGM Music Hall At Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
1. Owen Hart Foundation 2025 Men’s Tournament – Semi Final: Will Ospreay defeated Konosuke Takeshita with the Stormbreaker (21:43).
A highly anticipated rematch in the Owen Hart Cup saw Takeshita clash with Will Ospreay once again. Ospreay looked to have had Takeshita’s number until Takeshita purposely collapsed to avoid taking the Hidden Blade. Takeshita even caught Ospreay in mid-air with an Elbow Strike only for Ospreay to kick out at one and hit the Hidden Blade from out of nowhere. Takeshita kicked out at one as well leading to a role reversal where Ospreay used the Bastard Driver into the German Suplex and Takeshita responded with a Hidden Blade of his own. More counters came with Ospreay turning the Raging Fire into a Hurricanrana that then switched into the Styles Clash. Takeshita countered another Hidden Blade with a Backslide into a Powerdrive Knee but Ospreay flipped over a Lariat and lifted Takeshita into the Stormbreaker, winning a hard fought match that booked his spot in the final.
AEW “COLLISION – SPRING BREAKTHRU”, 17/04/2025 MGM Music Hall At Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
1. Josh Alexander & Konosuke Takeshita defeated Rocky Romero & Tomohiro Ishii when Alexander pinned Ishii with a Power Bomb (10:18).
There wasn’t much time for Takeshita to lick his wounds but The Don Callis Family are already regrouping with a new addition to the unit. AEW’s newest signing Josh Alexander has taken on Don Callis’s management services and made to team with Takeshita. They won their first match as a tag team but one of the reasons it happened was because Rocky Romero ended up abandoning Tomohiro Ishii and left him to the wolves. Alexander & Takeshita rocked Ishii with a Double Roaring Elbow then Alexander finished him off with a Power Bomb. There was then more drama when Trent Beretta made his return after the match and attacked Ishii with Romero. Callis gave a wrench to Beretta and he used it to knock Ishii out.
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 23/04/2025 Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
1. Josh Alexander & Konosuke Takeshita defeated Will Ospreay & Brody King when Alexander pinned King after the Assisted C4 Spike (13:08).
Winning ways continued for The Don Callis Family when they took on Takeshita’s two opponents from the Owen Hart Cup. It was a heck of a task getting there though. Brody King ran through them like a tank while Ospreay and Takeshita had unfinished business from their match last week. The Family needed Lance Archer to distract the ref in order to turn the tables. Even then it took a lot fo Alexander & Takeshita to put King away. It eventually took Takeshita helping Alexander lift King up for the C4 Spike to finally put the big boy away.
DPW “SPIRIT RISING – NIGHT 1”, 24/04/2025 Shinjuku FACE
1. Chris Brookes & HARASHIMA Vs LaBron Kozone & Calvin Tankman ended in a Draw (?:??).
2. DPW Women’s World Title: Dani Luna (c) defeated Rika Tatsumi (?:??). *V3 for Dani Luna.
I couldn’t get any proper results from DPW’s two shows in Japan since they’re usually pretty good at keeping things under wraps until the matches get uploaded to their streaming service. But some scraping through Twitter I was able to piece together some things. Rika Tatsumi failed in her bid to win the DPW Women’s Title from Dani Luna. Also the DPW Vs DDT match went to a draw, I assume of the time limit kind. One of the big spots was HARASHIMA going to do the Somato on LaBron Kozone only to get ran over in midair with the Pounce from Calvin Tankman.
DPW “SPIRIT RISING – NIGHT 2”, 25/04/2025 Shin-Kiba 1st RING
1. Calvin Tankman & Kazuma Sumi defeated Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida (?:??).
2. Emi Sakura, Chris Brookes, Mei Suruga & Baliyan Akki defeated Miyuki Takase, Kevin Ku, Dominic Garrini & Ryo Mizunami (?:??).
On Night 2 Chris Brookes was part of a ChocoPro team against a USA/Japan alliance representing DPW. Meanwhile Tankman got thrown in with some DDT wrestlers for a tag match between two pairs of big man and little man. Tankman is remaining in Japan for a ZERO1 tour but who knows, maybe DDT will come calling while he’s there.
HOG “ISOLATION”, 25/04/2025 NYC Arena, New York City, New York, USA
1. HOG Heavyweight Title: Mike Santana (c) Vs Konosuke Takeshita ended in a No Contest when Charles Mason interfered (15:57). *V14 for Mike Santana.
Well that kind of felt like a waste of time. The HOG Heavyweight Title was on the line and neither Mike Santana nor Takeshita were in a position to take a loss. So Charles Mason came out and ruined the whole thing. Santana had Takeshita pinned with the Spin The Block Roaring Lariat but Santana pulled the ref out of the ring mid-count and attacked Santana to stop the match. Takeshita tried to come to the rescue but Mason fled the ring unharmed. Santana and Takeshita raised each other’s hands to everyone afterward.
BLACK LABEL PRO “BLP AT SCX III”, 25/04/2025 The Wyndham, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Leyla Hirsch with the Skull Kick (?:??).
2. Danhausen & Maki Itoh defeated Davey Bang & August Matthews when Danhausen pinned Matthews and Itoh pinned Bang with the Double Kokeshi (?:??).
The latest American tours for Itoh & Yamashita kicked off over in Black Label Pro. Itoh joined forces with Danhausen once again to reunite Very Cute, Very Evil Makihausen. Itoh had the face fully painted to match her tag partner and be battle ready to go against Bang And Matthews. Itoh was in grave danger when Davey Bang & August Matthews combined to hit the Spears Tower on her but Danhausen broke the pin. When they tried the same move on Danhausen he paused them with a Curse that resulted in Itoh tripping them over. The two then filled their opponents’ mouths with jars of teeth before kicking them in their faces. Itoh & Danhausen then finished them off with Stereo Kokeshi Headbutts.
This month saw Leyla Hirsch return to action, now as a freelancer. Yamashita got to be one her of first opponents back and didn’t show much ring rust with her performance. She tried wearing down Yamashita with an Ankle Lock but Yamashita fired back with strikes that took a lot out of her opponent. Hirsch then missed a Moonsault and charged right into the Skull Kick for the finish.
1. Mexican Tourist Belt – The Road To Studying In Mexico 6 Way Match: Yuki Mashiro defeated Honoka, YuuRI, SONYA, CoCo and Yoshiko Hasegawa when Mashiro pinned Hasegawa with a Modified Suplex Hold (?:??). Order Of Elimination: SONYA, CoCo, Honoka, YuuRI, Yoshiko Hasegawa.
2. Octagon & El Hijo del Octagon Vs Daisuke Sasaki & Pantera Jr. ended in a Draw when El Hijo del Octagon and Pantera Jr. pinned each other from a Romero Special (?:??).
The warm vibes of lucha libre were in the air surrounding Sumo Hall for a sponsored show put together by the Mexico Kanko tourism company. Daisuke Sasaki was thrown in with some luchadors for a tag match. Naturally Sasaki was on the rudo side teaming with Pantera Jr. to take on the supposedly family pair of Octagon & El Hijo del Octagon. Sasaki stepped in to stop Octagon from doing dive from the top turnbuckle. But the match ended up going to a draw when Pantera put El Hijo del Octagon in the Romero Special. The move leaned both luchadors back onto their shoulders resulting in a double pinfall. After some arguing over the finish, all four wrestlers raised each others hands in the ring.
A sixth woman was added to the Mexican Tourist Belt match. Yoshiko Hasegawa may be retiring from wrestling soon but she didn’t want to miss a chance to win a holiday to Mexico! She came close to winning too, eliminating YuuRI and making it to the final two with Yuki Mashiro. She tried to win using the Fisherman Buster but Mashiro got the better of her and won the match with a Modified Suplex.
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 30/04/2025 Chartway Arena, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
1. AEW Women’s World Title Eliminator Match: Toni Storm (w/ Luther) Vs Miyu Yamashita
Right at the end of the month Yamashita wound up in a familiar place. She came back to AEW for the first time since 2022 (or maybe 2023 if you want to count ROH). She was here to repeat what she did back then and that was to fight the AEW Women’s World Champion and beat her to get a title shot. We’re far past the days of Thunder Rosa though. It’s Toni Storm’s time now, which also happens to rewind the clock back one century thanks to her Timeless gimmick. Yamashita got into the swing of things by literally kicking Storm’s ass around the ring as well as kicking away the loyal butler Luther. She also hit the Skull Kick but was too fatigued to make the pin in time. I couldn’t tell if she broke the pin herself or if Storm kicked out of it because both looked like they happened at the same time. Storm made a comeback and avoided the Crash Rabbit Heat to throw Yamashita over to the corner with a German Suplex. She then landed the Running Hip Attack and pinned Yamashita with the Storm Zero. The booking sounds like it was a one time thing for Yamashita during this latest stay in the States. But she promised if she ever comes back to AEW she will kick someone else’s head in!
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Upcoming Appearances
TOP TALENT “LIVE AT MIDWAY MUSIC HALL”, 02/05/2025 Midway Music Hall, Edmonton, Canada
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Ava Lawless
May starts off with Yamashita and Itoh going in separate directions for a while. Yamashita will be in Canada to face Ava Lawless in her Top Talent Wrestling debut.
HOODSLAM “PHANTASMAGORIA”, 02/05/2025 Continental Club, Oakland, California, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
Meanwhile Itoh returns to a Hoodslam that is currently in chaos. But when is it ever quiet over there?
GCW “CRAZY SCARY SPOOKY HILARIOUS”, 03/05/2025 Ukrainian Culture Center, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs Miyu Yamashita
The next day 121000000 are back together but this time as opponents. Can Itoh finally beat Yamashita one on one for the first time ever?
GCW “WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU”, 04/05/2025 Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, Oregon, USA
1. JCW World Title: Masha Slamovich (c) Vs Miyu Yamashita
2. GCW World Title: Effy (c) Vs Maki Itoh
Then soon after that the two of them have the chance to both become champions in the GCW sphere on the same night. While Itoh faces Effy for the GCW World Title, Yamashita gets in the ring again with Masha Slamovich in a bid to take away her JCW World Title. Slamovich just recently pinned Yamashita at the “DDT VS TJPW VS GCW” show which seems to be what set this title match up. At the moment this looks to be Itoh’s last booking before she goes back to Japan. Her TJPW return will be on 11th May.
HOG “WAGING WAR”, 09/05/2025 Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1. Indi Hartwell Vs Miyu Yamashita
Yamashita gets another match with someone who knows what it’s like to wrestle in WWE. This time it is the Indi Hartwell, the former NXT Women’s Champion (bet some of you forgot she held that title for a month) turned TNA’s latest signing.
NJPW “RESURGENCE”, 09/05/2025 Toyota Arena, Ontario, California, USA
1. NEVER Openweight Title: KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (c) Vs El Phantasmo
It’s now been confirmed that Takeshita will defend the NEVER Openweight Title against El Phantasmo at New Japan’s next USA show. This is also happening a week after they face each other in Japan with the NJPW World TV Title on the line. Does Rocky Romero get involved after the ambush he committed on ELP last month?
MAPLE LEAF PRO “NORTHERN RISING”, 10/05/2025 Mattamy Athletic Centre, Toronto, Canada
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Serena Deeb
Yamashita is just bouncing back and forth between Canada and America during this trip. Serena Deeb will want to be the road block that stops her.
MLW “AZTECA LUCHA”, 10/05/2025 Cicero Stadium, Chicago, Illinois USA
1. Shoko Nakajima Vs X
After winning the MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title earlier this month, Shoko Nakajima is set to return to MLW for their next “AZTECA LUCHA” taping. Nothing has been announced yet for what her match is going to be. Could it be a title defence against a luchadora from CMLL?
GCW “BIG TIME”, 17/05/2025 RJ Meyer Arena, Joppa, Maryland, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Tony Deppen
Itoh will be long gone home by this time so GCW could become Yamashita’s for the taking in her absence. Beating the promotion’s gatekeeper Tony Deppen would send her in the right direction.
GCW “RUN FOR IT”, 18/05/2025 Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, New York, USA
1. Billie Starkz Vs Miyu Yamashita
What kind of momentum will be following Yamashita by the time she fights Billie Starkz again?
MKW “BATTLE OF THE DECADE”, 24/05/2025 Dongxin Plaza, Beijing, China
1. Yuki Kamifuku & Chen Wenbin Vs Alexis Lee & Big Sam
Could this be the penultimate chapter of the rivalry between Yuki Kamifuku and Alexis Lee?
SAJ “HUNTER’S NET”, 24/05/2025 Via Dante 72, Sporting Cesate, Milan, Italy
1. Irene Vs Miyu Yamashita Vs Session Moth Martina
A change of venue for Yamashita’s debut in Italy due to an electrical problem in the original building. She is also finally going to face Session Moth Martina after their scheduled match in EVE back in March got cancelled. One week later Martina got to team with Italian wrestler Irene at the most recent SAJ Wrestling show. I haven’t seen it so I don’t know if anything happened as a reason to make them opponents here or if this is just three wrestlers who want to have some fun in the ring.
1. Queen Of Asia Title: Yuki Kamifuku (c) Vs Alexis Lee
If all goes wrong for Kamifuku in May she could end up losing both the VPW Women’s Title and the Queen Of Asia Title!
NEW TEXAS PRO “BAT CITY”, 01/06/2025 Empire Control Room, Austin, Texas, USA
1. Yuka Sakazaki Vs X
Finally Sakazaki gets to wrestle somewhere again! I don’t know if her lack of ring time lately is AEW/ROH not wanting to book her or if there’s an undisclosed injury of some sort holding her back but she’s making a reappearance on the American indies with New Texas Pro as her first stop.
KITSUNE “GOING BACK TO SAN DIEGO”, 07/06/2025 Primal Compound, San Diego, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Zara Zakher
2. Vipress & Hudson Envy Vs Nagisa Nozaki & Yuna Manase
The first singles meeting between Yamashita and Zara Zakher. They fought each other once before in a Princess Tag Team Titles match back in January. Yamashita pinned Zakher in that match. Will she do it again?
KITSUNE “8888”, 08/06/2025 South Gate, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
2. Kitsune World Title: Yuna Manase (c) Vs Tae Honma
This October Tae Honma is going to retire from pro wrestling. One of her last big singles matches will be in America when Yuna Manase defends the Kitsune World Title against her.
LLL “BUT THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE NIGHT 2”, 14/06/2025 The Oriental Theater, Denver, Colorado, USA
1. Dark Sheik Vs Miyu Yamashita
Yamashita returns to Lucha, Libre & Laughs for two nights but only one of them has a match announced so far. She faces Dark Sheik on Night 2. Nothing yet on what match she will get on Night 1.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TJPW LIVE IN HOUSTON – NIGHT 1”, 10/07/2025 POST, Houston, Texas, USA
Four wrestlers are currently confirmed for TJPW’s big tripleshot in Texas.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TJPW LIVE IN HOUSTON – NIGHT 2”, 11/07/2025 POST, Houston, Texas, USA
Yamashita and Itoh will be there as will Miu Watanabe and Suzume. So far that’s all of the official announcements.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TJPW LIVE IN DALLAS”, 13/07/2025 The OC, Forney, Texas, USA
Psst… the English website promoting the show also lists Yuki Arai, Mizuki, Hyper Misao, Shoko Nakajima, Pom Harajuku, Moka Miyamoto, Shino Suzuki, Raku and Arisu Endo as all “awaiting confirmation” to be on the show. I guess they could go and confirm them all but as we saw with Harajuku this month they might be making sure everything is absolutely ready for them all to travel first.
I’m probably going to be posting a lot of stuff over the next week and a half. Probably an unhealthy amount of writing about this stuff.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “WRESTLE UNIVERSE MEMBERS ONLY SHOW – PURE TOKYO JOSHI PRO WRESTLING 9”, 13/04/2025 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall
1. Costume Change Match: Mizuki, Suzume, Pom Harajuku & Yoshiko Hasegawa Vs Wakana Uehara, HIMAWARI, Toga & Haru Kazashiro
This week’s Tokyo Joshi Pro fan club show will feature six matches and the first one announced is the return of the Costume Change Match. Everyone is going to be wrestling in someone else’s gear.
Mifu Ashida will not be at the show due to a scheduling conflict.
BAKA GAIJIN + FRIENDS “VOL. 21: THE BEGINNING OF THE END”, 15/04/2025 Tokyo ARENA Shimokitazawa
1. Special Single Match ~Goodbye Keigo~: MAO Vs Keigo Nakamura
2. BK-G Openweight Title – Triple Threat Match: Chris Brookes (c) Vs Mr. Bueno Vs Mr. Malo
You know Keigo Nakamura is going to be missed if Baka Gaijin + Friends are putting together a farewell match for him.
1. Gouma Ryu Vs Minoru Fujita
2. SAGAT Vs Shota Kofuji
3. Takumi Tsukamoto & Judomaster Vs KUBITO & Daichi Kazato
4. Isami Kodaka & Tomoki Hatano Vs Daiki Shimomura & Lil’ Kraken
5. Ryota Nakatsu, Kazusada Higuchi, Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ishida Vs Ryuichi Sekine, FUMA, Takato Nakano & Masato Kamino
With the returns of Kazusada Higuchi & Naomi Yoshimura now completed, Harimao are back to full strength. The unit wants to keep making appearances in BASARA as well as DDT so they’re getting a big 8-Man Tag main event against the current Iron Fist Tag Team Champions as well as Aijin Tag.
Tomoki Hatano is coming over from HEAT-UP.
DDT “DDT GOES LAS VEGAS!”, 18/04/2025 Pearl Theater At Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
1. Special 6-Man Tag Match: Nick Wayne, Shunma Katsumata & Kazuma Sumi Vs Gringo Loco, Marcus Mathers & Tyler Bateman
2. Special Single Match: Antonio Honda Vs Santana Jackson
3. Special Single Match: Shinya Aoki Vs Timothy Thatcher
4. Special Single Match: KONOSUKE TAKESHITA Vs MAO
5. wXw Unified World Wrestling Title: 1 Called Manders (c) Vs Yukio Naya
6. DDT Universal Title: Minoru Suzuki (c) Vs Yoshihiko
Last week 1 Called Manders made news in the European scene by winning the vacant wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship in Germany. He isn’t wasting any time in putting the belt on the line including a few matches taking place in America this week. If he is still the champion heading into DDT’s Las Vegas show he will defend the title against Yukio Naya.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “KANDA MYOJON CULTURAL EXCHANGE CENTER PRESENTS THIS IS JAPAN”, 19/04/2025 Tokyo Kanda Myojin Hall
1. Kaya Toribami Vs Tabata
2. Yoshiko Hasegawa Vs Kakeru Sekiguchi
3. Ryo Mizunami & Moka Miyamoto Vs Mahiro Kiryu & Haruna Neko
4. International Princess Title Next Challenger Tournament: HIMAWARI Vs Toga Vs Haru Kazashiro Vs Mifu Ashida Vs Kira Summer Vs Chika Nanase Vs Uta Takami Vs Ivy Steele
4a. Round 1: X, X, X & X Vs X, X, X & X
4b. Round 2: X & X Vs X & X
4c. Final: X Vs X
This is the full card for the TJPW show that is happening in Japan while the Las Vegas trip is going on. Four matches that are really six when you count all rounds of the main event. Ryo Mizunami and Kakeru Sekiguchi are being called in from the reserves while the CMLL luchadora Tabata makes her TJPW debut. Tabata is the daughter of Lluvia and the stepdaughter of Ultimo Guerrero. She has been touring Japan with Stardom for an entire month while also appearing in a few Japanese indies here and there.
DDT/TOKYO JOSHI PRO/GCW “DDT VS TJPW VS GCW”, 19/04/2025 Pearl Theater At Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
1. Rika Tatsumi & Antonio Honda Vs Kidd Bandit & Shota
2. 3 Way Match: MAO & Yoshihiko Vs Jimmy Lloyd & Alec Price Vs Jack Cartwheel & Kazuma Sumi
3. Special Tag Match: Mance Warner & Shunma Katsumata Vs John Wayne Murdoch & Matt Tremont
4. Special 6-Man Tag Match: Daisuke Sasaki, Ilusion & Dark Sheik Vs Super Crazy, Marcus Mathers & Shoko Nakajima
5. Special Tag Match: KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & Masha Slamovich Vs Shinya Aoki & Miyu Yamashita
What in the hell is this card, man? There’s still more matches to be added too! Dark Sheik siding with DAMNATION T.A to face the Fire Pro random button trio of Super Crazy, Marcus Mathers & Shoko Nakajima. One time opponents Mance Warner and Shunma Katsumata now teaming up to face the deathmatch duo of John Wayne Murdoch & Matt Tremont. Mathers isn’t the only WWE ID talent involved because Jack Cartwheel is booked too. Also Kidd Bandit is there before heading over to Japan for a tour with ZERO1.
DDT “DDT HARU NO KEN FESTIVAL ~STILL GOING ON IN UENO~”, 23/04/2025 Tokyo Ueno Park Outdoor Stage
1. Keigo Nakamura Send Off Match ~ Special Single Match: Yuki Ueno Vs Keigo Nakamura
Soon Keigo Nakamura will be travelling overseas to go on an indefinite excursion. His final match in Japan with DDT will be against Yuki Ueno.
DDT “SAPPORO NIGHT CRUSH”, 26/04/2025 Hokkaido Sapporo Sun Plaza
1. Special 6-Man Tag Match: Jun Akiyama, Noriyuki Yoshida & Daichi Sato Vs Kazusada Higuchi, Tomoya & Yuki Ishida
2. Sapporo’s Famous Trial Singles Best Of Two Matches – First Round!!: Akito Vs Kazuki Hirata
3. Special Single Match: HARASHIMA Vs Danshoku Dieno
DDT returning to Sapporo means Tomoya and Noriyuki Yoshida get their annual bookings with the company.
DDT “MENKOI DAY SMASH”, 27/04/2025 Hokkaido Sapporo Sun Plaza
1. Special 6-Man Tag Match: HARASHIMA, Tomoya & Noriyuki Yoshida Vs Danshoku Dieno, Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi
2. Sapporo’s Famous Trial Singles Best Of Two Matches – Second Round!!: Akito Vs Kazuki Hirata
3. Special Tag Match: MAO & KANON Vs Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida
DDT is also putting on a two match series between Akito and Kazuki Hirata during the weekend in Sapporo.
DDT “D GENERATIONS 2 ~THERE’S NO LIMIT TO GROWING PAINS~”, 14/05/2025 Tokyo Ueno Park Outdoor Stage
1. Special Single Match: To-y Vs Daichi Sato
2. Special Single Match: Keisuke Ishii Vs Yuki Ishida
3. Special Tag Match: Shigehiro Irie & Shota Vs Takeshi Masada & Yuya Koroku
The first D GENERATIONS show ended with a declaration of war between DDT’s current youth movement against the Young Communication generation, a previous iteration of then DDT rookies wanting to prove themselves.
1. Special Single Match: Suwama Vs Muscle Sakai
2. Special Single Match: Yuji Nagata Vs Ken Ohka
Ken Ohka has always looked up to Yuji Nagata for being “Mr. IWGP”. He can never make his dream come true of becoming a great wrestler like Nagata is but he wants to test his unorthodox wrestling abilities against his wrestling hero.
What kind of wheeling and dealing might Sanshiro Takagi get out of booking Suwama for his next MatchMake & Agent show? Maybe Muscle Sakai can give Suwama some savvy business tips for managing Pro Wrestling Evolution.
God it feels like it’s been forever since I wrote so much about AEW in this series of articles. Konosuke Takeshita is getting more screen time with the one and only Kazuchika Okada becoming his new main target. Also Yuka Sakazaki returned to the ring and had several matches surrounding the AEW Women’s World Title. It even ended with an unusual reunion with somebody she used to know from Tokyo Joshi Pro. Sakazaki’s story did not end with her achieving gold and glory. It looks like she’s able to stick around this time though. She might end up taking a back seat in AEW from here on out or maybe she’ll drop down to Ring Of Honor but fingers crossed at least we all get to see her again.
Speaking of TJPW, a good few of the women there spent a lot of time travelling this month. Maki Itoh went back to America to finish off what was left of her disrupted tour. Shoko Nakajima reminded everyone she is quite the tournament wrestler by reaching yet another final. Yuki Kamifuku is continuing to prove why she deserves to be called the Queen Of Asia Champion. Plus in a change of pace we also got Raku & Pom Harajuku going on an adventure together in Thailand. As shown above Kenoh from NOAH was there too but he’s not important.
AEW “COLLISION”, 06/09/2024 NOW Arena, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, USA
1. Continental Contenders Challenge: Konosuke Takeshita Vs The Beast Mortos
AEW “RAMPAGE”, 13/09/2024 Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita (w/ Don Callis) Vs Action Andretti (w/Lio Rush & Leila Grey)
MKW “CHAMPIONSHIP SUPERCARD FROM SHANGHAI”, 14/09/2024 Bandai Namco Shanghai Base, Shanghai, China
1. Queen Of Asia Title: Yuki Kamifuku (c) defeated Crystal (w/ Chairman Al)
AEW “COLLISION”, 14/09/2024 Nutter Center, Dayton, Ohio, USA
1. Yuka Sakazaki Vs Serena Deeb
GCW “BAD ONE”, 14/09/2024 Harpos Concert Center, Detroit, Michigan, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs Kylie Rae
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 18/09/2024 Mohegan Sun Arena, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
1. Yuka Sakazaki & Queen Aminata Vs Mariah May & Serena Deeb
2. Kazuchika Okada, Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson Vs Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher
AEW “DYNAMITE – GRAND SLAM”, 25/09/2024 Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York City, New York, USA
1. AEW Women’s World Title: Mariah May (c) Vs Yuka Sakazaki
AEW “RAMPAGE”, 27/09/2024 MassMutual Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita Vs Angelico
SETUP “CHAOPHRAYA VOYAGE: 12TH ANNIVERSARY OF THAI WRESTLING”, 28/09/2024 The Circus Studio, G Village, Bangkok, Thailand
1. SETUP All Asia Women’s Title – 3 Way Match: Matcha (c) Vs Raku Vs Pom Harajuku
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Results
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 04/09/2024 UW Panther Arena, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
1. Dark Match: Konosuke Takeshita defeated Komander (w/ Alex Abrahantes) (?:??).
Not much to talk about Takeshita’s first match of the month. He beat Komander in a post-Dynamite dark match that followed up on the 4 Way they were both a part of the week prior. The result was pretty much the same here as it was in the 4 Way. Don Callis ordered Takeshita to give Komander another beating after the match but The Beast Mortos ran down to stop him. Takeshita and Mortos then got into a pull apart brawl.
AEW “COLLISION”, 06/09/2024 NOW Arena, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, USA
1. Continental Contenders Challenge: Konosuke Takeshita defeated The Beast Mortos with the Raging Fire (12:00).
So a few days later Takeshita and Mortos faced off with a little something extra on the line. The winner would qualify for a 4 Way Match at “ALL OUT” that also includes Okada putting the AEW Continental Title on the line. Takeshita discovered it would take a lot more than just using his big Elbow Strike to knock the minotaur down and out. Mortos was hard headed enough to keep standing after taking a German Suplex that made him land on the top of his dome. The two of them also fought up to the top rope where Mortos lifted Takeshita up in a Gorilla Press and threw him down from such a high height. Things went to even more of a standstill after a Double Heabutt spot but Takeshita survived the trampling and got in a critical hit by using a Busaiku Knee Strike. After that he used the Raging Fire on Mortos and that won him the match.
F1RST “SATURDAY NIGHT NITRO”, 07/09/2024 Mall Of America, Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
1. Allie Katch & Effy defeated Danhausen & Maki Itoh when Effy pinned Danhausen with a Cradle (?:??).
The famous Mall Of America was the location where Itoh met up with Danhausen again. This time they were teaming up as Very Cute, Very Evil Makihausen and that meant Itoh showed up in face paint! Their match against Bussy started off as a contest to see who was cutest between all four of them. Danhausen & Itoh both poured a jar of teeth down their opponents’ mouths and then kicked their faces. But things went wrong for them when they both tried to curse their opponents. Effy & Allie Katch both ducked the curse, leaving Danhausen & Itoh to curse each other! They started arguing leading to Danhausen giving Itoh a shove. Katch didn’t like what she was seeing and pushed Danhausen away from Itoh, unintentionally tripping him over Effy. Effy then pinned down Danhausen for the three count while Itoh got a comforting hug from Katch.
AEW “ALL OUT 2024”, 07/09/2024 NOW Arena, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, USA
1. AEW Continental Title – 4 Way Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy and Konosuke Takeshita when Okada pinned Cassidy with the Rainmaker (14:59). *V5 for Kazuchika Okada.
Okada is as big of a target that Takeshita could ask for in all of pro wrestling let alone AEW or Japan. But he had two other bodies to contend with because Orange Cassidy and Mark Briscoe were also in the match aiming to win the Continental Title. He needed eyes in the back of his head and that was proven by the finish. Takeshita almost beat Briscoe with the Powerdrive Knee but Cassidy broke the pin. Takeshita then countered the Orange Punch with an Elbow Strike and tried to set up the Raging Fire only for Okada to stop him. Okada then gave Briscoe the Rainmaker, Dropkicked Takeshita from the apron to the floor and after a small scare from Cassidy, he pinned Cassidy with the Rainmaker to remain champion. The cameras made sure to stay on Takeshita while Okada left to celebrate his victory. Things aren’t over between them yet.
AEW “RAMPAGE”, 11/09/2024 (Aired 13/09/2024) Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita (w/ Don Callis) defeated Action Andretti (w/Lio Rush & Leila Grey) with the Raging Fire (11:53).
Things at the PPV didn’t go Takeshita’s way so it was time to bounce back. Action Andretti turned out to be more of a challenge than the match-up suggested on paper. However Andretti missed a Springboard 450 and also jumped right into an Elbow Smash. Takeshita then used the Powerdrive Knee but held up Andretti at a 2 count. That was just so Takeshita could use the Raging Fire to end things on an even more painful looking note.
AEW “COLLISION”, 12/09/2024 (Aired 14/09/2024) Nutter Center, Dayton, Ohio, USA
1. Yuka Sakazaki defeated Serena Deeb with the Magical Girl Splash (10:38).
Guess who returned after being sidelined with an injury for the last five months? Sakazaki was back and her first AEW match in a long time was going to be against Serena Deeb. That was a matchup AEW were building up to anyway before Sakazaki got hurt so it seemed like whatever was planned back then was held aside all this time until Sakazaki was ready again. But first she introduced herself to Mariah May backstage and told her she is coming after the AEW Women’s Title. May didn’t take too kindly to that idea but her violent threats were no sold by Sakazaki. Later in the show Sakazaki went on to not only beat Deeb but also fend off a post-match attack from May. Sakazaki celebrated a good night by holding up the title belt.
MKW “CHAMPIONSHIP SUPERCARD FROM SHANGHAI”, 14/09/2024 Bandai Namco Shanghai Base, Shanghai, China
1. Queen Of Asia Title: Yuki Kamifuku (c) defeated Crystal (w/ Chairman Al) (?:??). *V3 for Yuki Kamifuku.
The reigning Queen Of Asia Champion travelled to China for her latest title defence. Kamifuku headlined a Middle Kingdom Wrestling show in Shanghai, beating Crystal to retain one of the Asian Double Crown belts. She gave a speech to the fans in both Chinese and English after the match.
GCW “BAD ONE”, 14/09/2024 Harpos Concert Center, Detroit, Michigan, USA
1. Maki Itoh defeated Kylie Rae with the Stunner (9:23).
Maki Itoh’s GCW dates in August got cut short due to injury but she was able to come back this month to get through the second half of her latest tour. Nobody was happier to see her than Kylie Rae because they were meant wrestle each other on one of Itoh’s cancelled dates. It didn’t take long for the fun and games to turn into slaps and strikes though. In fact Rae started losing her cool and started pulling cheap tricks to try and win like using the ropes to leverage a pin. The ref caught her doing it though and stopped his count. Itoh’s hard head gave her the defensive advantage and she was able to beat Rae with the Stunner. Itoh forgave Rae for playing dirty and the two made up after the match.
GCW “THA G-CODE”, 15/09/2024 Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, New York, USA
1. 4 Way Match: Sawyer Wreck defeated Maki Itoh, Brooke Havok and Dark Sheik when Wreck pinned Havok with a Neck Hanging Bomb (7:54).
The next night Itoh found herself in a 4 Way Match with opponents old and new. She’s been in the ring with both Sawyer Wreck and Dark Sheik a bunch of times while Brooke Havok was a new face for her to wrestle. Itoh was taken out by a Tornado Kick from Shiek, Havok dropped Sheik with a Pumphandle Drop and Wreck then pinned Sheik with a Neck Hanging Bomb. Itoh was too far away to break the pin before the three count.
DPW “CAROLINA CLASSIC”, 15/09/2024 Durham Convention Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA
1. Battle Of The Best – Round 2: Shoko Nakajima defeated Jada Stone with the Diving Senton (?:??).
The Big Kaiju returned to Deadlock Pro to compete in the next round of the Battle Of The Best tournament. However plans had to change when her scheduled opponent Trish Adora was unable to compete. Jada Stone grabbed the opportunity to fill in for Adora by winning a pre-show match held to determine Nakajima’s new opponent. She put up a good fight but in the end Nakajima booked her place in the final using the Diving Senton to win.
AEW “DYNAMITE”, 18/09/2024 Mohegan Sun Arena, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
1. Yuka Sakazaki & Queen Aminata defeated Mariah May & Serena Deeb by Disqualification when May attacked Sakazaki with the AEW Women’s World Title Belt (7:57).
2. Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher defeated Kazuchika Okada, Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson when Fletcher pinned Matt Jackson after the Coriolis (21:05).
Things are getting a little more tense with Takeshita now. He had another chance to face Okada in the ring but had to team with other members of The Don Callis Family. There’s a little “family” rivalry brewing between him and Will Ospreay so some jealous looks during tags were hard to hide from everybody. Okada also had The Young Bucks backing him up to be a pain in everyone’s sides. Ospreay & Kyle Fletcher pulled out the win in the end but the aftermath only showed there are more signs of infighting between Takeshita and Ospreay.
It was now clear that Sakazaki will be facing May for the AEW Women’s Title near the end of the month. A preview tag had Sakazaki dealing with both May and Deeb again. Her tag partner Queen Aminata had also been spending the month so far in a similar position so they became a team with common enemies. Sakazaki had was about to beat Deeb with the Magical Girl Splash again for the second time in a row when May ran into the ring with her title belt and hit Sakazaki behind the head with it. The match ended in a DQ but May continued to attack Sakazaki with the title to get her own back for what happened a week earlier.
AEW “RAMPAGE”, 21/09/2024 (Aired 27/09/2024) MassMutual Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita defeated Angelico with the Raging Fire (9:09).
Due to AEW’s taping schedule this match was kept in the bag for a week and didn’t air until near the end of the month. Just like with the Andretti match, Angelico made the grave mistake of going high risk and jumping his way right into an Elbow Smash to the jaw. The Blue Thunder Bomb and then the Raging Fire ended Takeshita’s month with a win.
AEW “DYNAMITE – GRAND SLAM”, 25/09/2024 Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York City, New York, USA
1. AEW Women’s World Title: Mariah May (c) defeated Yuka Sakazaki with the Storm Zero (6:11). *V2 for Mariah May.
Sadly for Sakazaki her long delayed quest to win the AEW Women’s Title ended in failure over at Arthur Ashe Stadium. May beat her clean by blocking the Magical Girl Splash with her knees and then using the Storm Zero for the three count. May wanted to continue attacking Sakazaki after the match but Willow Nightingale ran down to make the save. Then in an interesting reunion Mina Shirakawa made her entrance with the intention of protecting her close friend by evening the odds. However her “incredible live show charisma” was such a distraction that Nightingale dropped her guard allowing May strike her from behind with the title belt. May ran off to celebrate with Shirakawa, Shirakawa was confused by her actions and Sakazaki tried to chase after May before stopping in front of her old workmate.
SETUP “CHAOPHRAYA VOYAGE: 12TH ANNIVERSARY OF THAI WRESTLING”, 28/09/2024 The Circus Studio, G Village, Bangkok, Thailand
1. SETUP All Asia Women’s Title – 3 Way Match: Matcha (c) defeated Raku and Pom Harajuku when Matcha pinned Raku with the Stunner (?:??). *V3 for Matcha.
Both Raku and Harajuku made their way over to Thailand to be part of a big SETUP show. The event also included Kenoh as one of the headline stars but I’m not here to write about him. Raku got to perform for the crowd at the start of the show and then returned later to fight for a championship. Matcha put her SETUP All Asia Women’s Title on the line against her and Harajuku in a 3 Way Match. Raku took a bried nap in the middle of the ring, forcing Matcha and Harajuku to wrestle each other over her. Raku and Harajuku went on to have some fun at Matcha’s expense until the champion reached her limit and put a stop to it all. Harajuku gave Raku the Pom de Justice but Matcha then threw Harajuku out of the ring. She then gave Raku a Stunner and went for the pin. The ref stopped himself at two thinking there was a kickout (there clearly wasn’t) so Matcha gave Raku another Stunner and this time got the three count. Afterward Matcha and Harajuku got into an argument and began to fight, forcing the ringside officials to pull them apart. You read that right, Pom Harajuku was in a pull apart brawl!
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Upcoming Appearances
DEXCON “JAM OF THE JOSHIS”, 13/10/2024 Brawl Pit Bulusan, Manila, Philippines
1. Queen Of Asia Title: Yuki Kamifuku (c/c) Vs Chelsea Marie
If Kamifuku can successfully defend the Double Asian Crown against Xiz Zhao in TJPW then she will next bring the Queen Of Asia Title over to the Philippines. “The Pinay Vixen” Chelsea Marie won a match at the last DEXCON show to become Kamifuku’s challenger for this joshi themed event.
DPW “SUPER BATTLE”, 13/10/2024 Grady Cole Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
1. Battle Of The Best – Final: Shoko Nakajima Vs Dani Luna
A future shot for the DPW Women’s World Title is within reach for Nakajima. All she has to do is beat Dani Luna in the Battle Of The Best final.
MAPLE LEAF PRO “FORGED IN EXCELLENCE – NIGHT 1”, 19/10/2024 St. Clair College, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
2. Mike Bailey Vs Konosuke Takeshita
A familiar friend and foe will be Takeshita’s first opponent at Maple Leaf Pro’s opening weekend. It will be the first time he wrestles Mike Bailey in Bailey’s home country of Canada.
MAPLE LEAF PRO “FORGED IN EXCELLENCE – NIGHT 2”, 20/10/2024 St. Clair College, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
2. Josh Alexander Vs Konosuke Takeshita
The Takeshita Vs Bailey match announcement also cleared up which night the Josh Alexander match would take place. It looks like it will be the main event of the entire weekend.
With Thailand checked off, Pom Harajuku’s next trip will be to Singapore Pro Wrestling for a match against Alexis Lee. She is going to try and avoid being bitten while Lee will try to avoid her shins getting kicked off.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO/DEFY “TJPW BRIGHT EYES”, 09/11/2024 Washington Hall, Seattle, Washington, USA
I bet we’ll start getting some more announcements soon. TJPW are sending over Miu Watanabe, Suzume, Arisu Endo, Yuki Kamifuku, Miyu Yamashita, Shoko Nakajima, Rika Tatsumi, Mizuki, Maki Itoh, Yuki Aino, Moka Miyamoto and Wakana Uehara. The DEFY side will be using 6-8 local/American wrestlers and the card is expected to have 6 or 7 matches.
DDT/DEFY “DDT IN UTERO”, 09/11/2024 Washington Hall, Seattle, Washington, USA
The DDT show later that day is advertising Konosuke Takeshita, Daisuke Sasaki, Dansoku Dieno, MAO, Gringo Loco, Shota, Yuni and Yoshihiko to all appear.
DDT/TOKYO JOSHI PRO/DEFY “TRIANGLER DTD”, 10/11/2024 Washington Hall, Seattle, Washington, USA
The next day will bring everyone together for one big finale.
GCW “CHAOS IN KENTUCKY”, 14/11/2024 Headliners Music Hall, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
Once the DEFY shows are over Yamashita will be sticking around in the US for one of GCW’s big tentpole weekends of the year.
GCW “GATEWAY TO THE DEATH”, 15/11/2024 Pop’s Nightclub, Sauget, Illinois, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
There was a piece of an interview with Yamashita from a Japanese site I saw during the month. She said something like this has been the first year in her career where she hasn’t worried about the pressure of being the company ace or the headline champion for another promotion. It allowed her to learn how to just enjoy wrestling without carrying the weight of a company on her shoulders (the interview was before she won the Princess Tag Team Titles with Itoh so so much for that break). That could explain why she’s drawn to GCW. She gets to do things she wouldn’t normally do in TJPW, like smack someone over the head with a steel chair.
GCW “NICK GAGE INVITATIONAL 9”, 16/11/2024 Level 13 Event Center, Orlando, Florida, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs X
Yamashita’s not going to enter the Nick Gage Invitational tournament, is she? There’s already another Yamashita taking part in it.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “AEX32 SANTIAGO 2025”, 09/02/2025 Mapocho Station Cultural Center, Santiago, Chile
Next February TJPW will be making its first mark in Chile. They are sending over a few wrestlers to have matches at the AEX Santiago anime convention. Yamashita and Itoh are the first names announced. The event graphics hints at least two other people from the roster will join them. Apparently Chiitan is going to be there too so 121000000 can have a reunion with the mascot.
The GCW tour of Japan continued after their joint show with DDT. They ran two more shows this week both taking place in Shinjuku FACE. The shows also had presence from DDT and Tokyo Joshi Pro. The fact that DDT were promoting the cards and posted the results on their website pretty much tells us they had a hand behind the scenes too. I’m just going to focus on the matches relating to both DDT and TJPW in this post.
GCW “THE SKY IS THE LIMIT”, 13/08/2024 Shinjuku FACE 326 Fans
1. Miyu Yamashita defeated Broski Jimmy by TKO with the Skull Kick (7:17).
2. GCW Extreme Title: Maki Itoh (c) defeated The Great Sasuke with a Cast Strike (11:49). *V3 for Maki Itoh.
3. Joey Janella defeated Marcus Mathers with the Package Piledriver (19:37).
4. Effy, Allie Katch & Dark Sheik defeated Aja Kong, Masashi Takeda & MAO when Sheik pinned Kong with the Diving Leg Drop (10:17).
5. Danhausen defeated Kikutaro with a Roll Up (10:43).
6. Rina Yamashita & Masha Slamovich defeated Gringo Loco & Violento Jack when Yamashita pinned Jack after the Super Power Bomb (18:39).
7. GCW World Title: Mance Warner (c) defeated 1 Called Manders with the Impaler DDT (22:47). *V9 for Mance Warner.
MAO was part of a wild trio put together to take on Thrussy. He teamed with both Masashi Takeda and Aja Kong! Thrussy needed some artillery to even the odds so Allie Katch brought out a water pistol. MAO countered that by finding two bananas and using them to point at everyone like they were guns. That plan backfired when Effy grabbed MAO and forced him to point the bananas on himself. Thrussy were able to gang up on Kong and Dark Sheik hit the Diving Leg Drop on her for the victory. It still took all three members of Thrussy to pile on top of Kong to get the pinfall.
Maki Itoh went into her match against The Great Sasuke with a hand injury, adding more danger since it was also a GCW Extreme Title defence. Sasuke wanted it to be a fair fight so he tried using his spiritual abilities to heal Itoh’s injury. He then targeted her injured hand anyway. Itoh got revenge by attacking Sasuke with a pizza cutter and then striking him with her cast after a ref bump. It dazed Sasuke long enough for the referee to recover and count Itoh’s pin on him.
It is well known by now just how deadly Miyu Yamashita’s Skull Kick is. Today she won her match by Referee Stoppage because the move knocked out Broski Jimmy!
GCW “YOU ONLY DIE ONCE”, 14/08/2024 Shinjuku FACE 375 Fans
1. JCW Title: Masha Slamovich (c) defeated Marcus Mathers with the Half Package Piledriver (15:20). *V8 for Masha Slamovich.
2. Allie Katch & Dark Sheik defeated Shoko Nakajima & Kaya Toribami when Sheik pinned Toribami with the Welcome to Die (10:14).
3. Tetsuya Endo defeated Gringo Loco with a Tornado Clutch (14:53).
4. GCW Ultraviolent Title: Rina Yamashita (c) defeated 1 Called Manders with the Splash Mountain onto the Chair (13:23). *V19 for Rina Yamashita.
5. 6-Way Match: Andreza Giant Panda defeated Joey Janela, Broski Jimmy, Kikutaro, Danhausen and Effy when Andreza pinned Janela & Jimmy with the Andreza Press (9:29).
6. GCW World Title: Mance Warner (c) defeated Takayuki Ueki with the Avalanche Impaler DDT onto the Chair (21:03). *V10 for Mance Warner.
The third and final show of the tour had a few changes to the lineup because of injuries. The big one was Itoh being unable to finish the tour. Her hand injury involves a broken bone so she couldn’t compete in the GCW World Title Match with Mance Warner. Her spot was taken by Takayuki Ueki but Itoh still made an appearance during the match to attack both wrestlers with her pizza cutter.
MAO was thrown into a 6 Way Scramble with a colorful collection of characters. Broski Jimmy recovered from his knockout from the night before, Joey Janela and Effy both wanted to party, Danhausen and Kikutaro had unfinished business but the one who dominated the match more than anyone else was Andreza Giant Panda! Andreza crushed the opposition and pinned both Janela and Jimmy to become the winner.
Zayne was among the injuries that changed the card around. DDT sent in Tetsuya Endo to be his replacement. His match on the show was against Gringo Loco and it turned into a game of one-upmanship. Variations of the One Man Spanish Fly in particular became the point of contention between them. Endo used the Tetsuya In The Sky while Gringo pulled out a Backwards Spanish Fly from the top rope. Soon the aerial attacks were being blocked so Endo pulled out a Tornado Clutch to grab the win in a close contest.
TJPW were also represented on the show by the team of Shoko Nakajima & Kaya Toribami. The two of them fought against The Mothership of Katch & Sheik. The speed and agility of the TJPW duo wasn’t enough to beat the GCW team. Instead Sheik pinned Toribami with the Welcome To Die.
DDT/GCW “NEVER ENDING NOISY SUMMER”, 12/08/2024 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 999 Fans – No Vacancy
1. Special 8-Man Tag Match: Maki Itoh, Chris Brookes, Takeshi Masada & Marcus Mathers defeated Yuki Ueno, Masha Slamovich, Yuni & Ilusion when Itoh pinned Ilusion after the 450 Splash from Mathers (15:02).
2. DDT Variety Team Vs The Mothership: Allie Katch & Dark Sheik defeated Kazuki Hirata & Antonio Honda when Sheik pinned Hirata with the Diving Leg Drop (10:30).
3. DDT Vs GCW Special Tag Match: Daisuke Sasaki & KANON defeated Rina Yamashita & Broski Jimmy when Sasaki pinned Jimmy after the Freedom Call (12:36).
4. DDT Vs GCW Special Tag Match: Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino defeated Gringo Loco & 1 Called Manders when Endo pinned Loco with the Burning Star Press (14:47).
5. DDT Vs GCW Special Single Match: Danshoku Dieno Vs Effy ended in a No Contest (9:48).
6. GCW World Title – 3 Way Hardcore Match: Mance Warner (c) defeated Shunma Katsumata and Joey Janela when Warner pinned Katsumata with the Impaler DDT (18:26). *V8 for Mance Warner.
7. DDT Universal Title: MAO (c) defeated Alex Zayne by Referee Stoppage (8:17). *V10 for MAO.
As part of this year’s tour of Japan, GCW teamed up with DDT to put everything together. This includes the opening night where both promotions held a joint show at Korakuen Hall mixing their two rosters together. The main event would have been MAO’s crowning moment of his DDT Universal Title reign because he reached his 10th successful defence. Unfortunately no one was happy with how it went. Alex Zayne injured his ankle during a spot outside the ring where he did a backflip off of the stage and landed on his feet. The landing seemed to have jacked in his ankle and despite making the effort to get back into the ring, Yukinori Matsui made the call to end the match and reward MAO the victory by TKO. In an update since the show ended, Zayne got an X-ray and the results showed no serious damage was done. MAO promised to give him a rematch. He is under the impression that DDT and GCW will do a show like this again next year.
Shunma Katsumata was inserted into the big fed over the GCW World Title. The champion Mance Warner and top contender Joey Janela are in the middle of several fights over the belt and the latest battle was a 3 Way Hardcore Match with Katsumata as the third wheel. Tables, ladders, chairs and toy blocks were all used in the match. Warner also used handcuffs on Katsumata before attacking him with a stapler, a wrench and a screwdriver to bust him open. Katsumata was still able to fight while handcuffed and eventually the key was found to free him. He put Janela through the table with the Totonou Splash but Warner stole the win by giving Katsumata the Impaler DDT right afterwards. Janela promised to one day beat Warner for the GCW Title and also beat Katsumata so he can be the DDT Extreme Champion again. Katsumata wants to wrestle at GCW shows in America more often and defend the Extreme Title over there. He thinks it wouldn’t be any fun if these matches only happened in Japan.
People were warned in advance about the Danshoku Dieno Vs Effy match and those expectations were met. Before the match even began the audience were told to raise their hands if they wanted to be kissed by Dieno. GCW’s ring announcer Emil Jay was among the volunteers. Effy offered Dieno a bracelet when the match began but Dieno was too shy to take it. The actual wrestling quickly turned intimate causing Hisaya Imabayashi to enter the ring and demand them to take the match seriously. The two wrestlers obliged but it didn’t take long for the mood to get sensual again. A missed Lip Lock from Dieno knocked out Matsui so Daisuke Kiso became the replacement ref. He was then taken out of action by a Lip Lock from Effy. GCW sent out their referee Dan Perch to sort things out but Dieno & Effy joined forces to give him a Doomsday Lip Lock! One of GCW’s other referees on site Scarlette Donovan then ran in hoping to be part of the fun but neither Dieno nor Effy were interested. They gave her a Double Brainbuster instead. Referee vengeance finally happened when Adam Gault avoided the attack and gave Effy a Stunner followed by a Standing Moonsault. Dieno caught him in the Lip Lock though and formed the Hell Gate with Makoto Oishi. Imabayashi had enough because they are on a live broadcast but Effy threw him into the Hell Gate. By this point Matsui had no choice but to call off the match. Dieno and Effy celebrated together anyway. They also asked DDT to turn the 4 Way Match they are both in on 15th August into a tag match so they can be partners in more ways than one.
BURNING bounced back from losing the KO-D Tag Team Titles over the weekend by winning their DDT Vs GCW match. Gringo Loco & 1 Called Manders shared a similar tag team dynamic of agility and strength working together. Loco gave Tetsuya Endo a One Man Spanish Fly from the top rope. Manders followed up with a Moonsault but Endo rolled out of the way. Yuki Iino took down Manders with a Spear, leaving Endo to give Loco the Swivel Torture Rack Bomb and then the Burning Star Press for the win.
DDT also beat GCW when DAMNATION T.A were victorious against the unusual pairing of Rina Yamashita & Broski Jimmy. There was some help from MJ Paul along the way but KANON found himself in danger when the other team attacked him with chairs. Daisuke Sasaki got some momentum back by putting Lloyd in La Mistica Crossface Lock but Yamashita broke the hold. KANON returned and with Sasaki left Lloyd beaten with the Freedom Call. KANON is relieved because he didn’t want to lose his Right To Challenge Anytime, Anywhere Shield or risk having it go overseas. Sasaki just hated everything about today. His post-match comments? “Fuck Jimmy! Fuck Yamashita! Fuck GCW! Fuck DDT! Fuck off everything!”
Together Allie Katch & Dark Sheik are known as The Mothership and they have experienced a lot that makes pro wrestling weird and wonderful. Even so they hadn’t met a team quite like Antonio Honda & Kazuki Hirata. Honda got their attention by telling his Gongitsune joke in English. Gon wants to enter the Olympics and play table tennis but when he found a place to train he found out it was “Table Penis” instead! Hirata tried to power up with the Hirata GO! glasses but The Mothership stopped him and put the glasses on themselves. All four wrestlers danced and continued fighting to the music. It ended with Sheik pinning Hirata with the Diving Leg Drop.
Normally when Maki Itoh wrestles in Japan it is for Tokyo Joshi Pro but today she was here as a GCW wrestler and leader of the NEO Itoh Respect Army. She got upset when Yuki Ueno tried to act cuter than her. It caused a chain reaction where the rest of Itoh’s team and even referee Gault sulked with her until Ueno tagged out. Yuni tagged in and tried to cheer them all up but it was all a trap so they could take control of the match. Ueno got back in and did well against both Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada but he found a tough challenge in Marcus Mathers. Itoh also spent a lot of the match fighting with Masha Slamovich. Yuni, Slamovich & Ilusion all hit dives to the outside. Itoh considered joining in but had cold feet so Brookes gave her a Military Press out of the ring onto everyone outside. Poor Ilusion then got ganged up on. He was given the Triangle Enzui from Masada, the Praying Mantis Bomb from Brookes, the I.S.D from Itoh and then the 450 Splash from Mathers. Itoh took the spoils by pinning Ilusion after all of that.
Summer is here and everyone has either gone travelling or are getting their all their plans in order. Funny thing is the people usually being covered for their overseas matches spent most of July wrestling back in Japan. Konosuke Takeshita had a few AEW matches over and done with before he got ready for the G1 Climax. Then Maki Itoh was wrestling in Tokyo Joshi Pro finishing off her latest dates with them before she goes on another GCW tour. So most of the results below are filled up by Miyu Yamashita, Shoko Nakajima and CDK related matches.
It’s the rest of the summer that’s going to get busy. A lot of Itoh matches in GCW with Yamashita popping up here and there along the way. Also some TJPW appearances in Southeast Asia and the USA debut of Yuna Manase are all coming up soon. Then there is the matter of DDT and TJPW holding shows abroad with local promotions in places like London and Seattle. Grab some water and stay hydrated because it’s going to be a busy summer of wrestling everywhere.
Video starts at 2:27:50 for Match #1. Go to 2:52:58 for Match #2. IWA JAPAN “HARDCORE FOREVER”, 27/07/2024 The Circus Studio, G Village, Bangkok, Thailand
1. IWA Japan SETUP World Tag Team Titles – 3 Way Hardcore Match: Chris Brookes & Masahiro Takanashi (c) Vs Mister Suchart & Anont Alonzo Vs Ultramantis Black & Dr. Gore Black (w/ Kappa Kozo & Kappa Jr.)
2. IWA Japan SETUP World Title: Ultramantis Black (c) (w/ Dr. Gore Black, Kappa Kozo & Kappa Jr.) Vs Chris Brookes (w/ Masahiro Takanashi)
GCW “JOSH BARNETT’S BLOODSPORT XI”, 28/07/2024 Roulette Intermedium, New York City, New York, USA
1. Shayna Baszler Vs Miyu Yamashita
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Results
AEW “RAMPAGE”, 03/07/2024 (Aired 05/07/2024) Wintrust Arena, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1. Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher defeated Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen when Fletcher pinned Quen with the Kneeling Piledriver (10:10).
Takeshita had bigger stuff to prepare for this month but still got some ring time in AEW before heading back to Japan. He and Kyle Fletcher fought against Private Party, surviving a close call against them. Isiah Kassidy joked around to promote Shark Week and then landed the Swanton Bomb on Fletcher. Marq Quen’s 450 Splash afterwards though was blocked by Fletcher’s knees and Takeshita came in to German Suplex him away. Private Party fought back with a Top Rope Frankensteiner into the Cutter to Takeshita followed by the Silly String to Fletcher. Takeshita kicked out of Quen’s 450 Splash, took out both members with Lariats and then gave Kassidy the Blue Thunder Bomb. Fletcher then got to finish off Kassidy with the Kneeling Piledriver.
DPW “DPW LIVE 7”, 06/07/2024 NC State Fairgrounds, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
1. Battle Of The Best – Round 1: Shoko Nakajima defeated Masha Slamovich with the Diving Senton (16:16).
Shoko Nakajima touched down on DPW and left North Carolina with a big victory against Masha Slamovich despite taking some heavy hits from her. Slamovich used a Sit Down Power Bomb and also countered the Unmanned Local Train Hold into a Running Air Raid Crash that landed right into a bottom turnbuckle. But Nakajima used the top ropes against Slamovich in order to use a Power Bomb of her own. Slamovich tried using the Power Bomb again but Nakajima slipped down and pulled her into the Double Arm DDT. After that it took a Diving Senton to finish her off and make Nakajima advance to the next round of Battle Of The Best.
1. Konosuke Takeshita defeated Tommy Billington with the Powerdrive Knee (13:29).
Takeshita’s last AEW appearance for the month was a noteworthy one because his opponent was Tommy Billington, the nephew of the late Dynamite Kid! The new generation Dynamite Kid gave Takeshita a good challenge but fell to the Powerdrive Knee. Don Callis then attempted to recruit Billington to The Don Callis Family by bringing up his family’s heritage. But that was just a trap for Takeshita and the rest of The Family to attack Billington from behind until FTR ran down to save him.
NORTH WRESTLING “THUNDER STRUCK 2”, 13/07/2024 Walker Dome, Newcastle, England
1. Lizzy Evo defeated Miyu Yamashita with an Inside Cradle (13:45).
This was a case of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory here. Yamashita seemed to have a lot of the match under control until Lizzy Evo saw an opening to hit her with a Knee Strike to the face and then roll her into a Small Package for the three count out of nowhere. For Evo the result is payback for Yamashita beating her in EVE last year.
IWA JAPAN “HARDCORE FOREVER”, 27/07/2024 The Circus Studio, G Village, Bangkok, Thailand
1. IWA Japan SETUP World Tag Team Titles – 3 Way Hardcore Match: Mister Suchart & Anont Alonzo defeated Chris Brookes & Masahiro Takanashi (c) and Ultramantis Black & Dr. Gore Black (w/ Kappa Kozo & Kappa Jr.) when Alonzo pinned Gore after a Choke Slam/Power Bomb Combo through the Table (?:??). *CDK fails in V2. THE GOOD DEAL becomes the 2nd IWA Japan SETUP World Tag Team Champions!
2. IWA Japan SETUP World Title: Ultramantis Black (c) (w/ Dr. Gore Black, Kappa Kozo & Kappa Jr.) defeated Chris Brookes (w/ Masahiro Takanashi) with a School Boy (?:??). *V1 for Ultramantis Black.
Whenever CDK goes over to Thailand for SETUP Pro Wrestling that’s enough trouble to handle by itself. This however was not just a SETUP show. It was an event using the IWA Japan banner to celebrate 30 years of the promotion’s existance. CDK came over to defend the IWA Japan SETUP World Tag Team Titles in a Hardcore 3 Way Match. They had to fight the previous champions THE GOOD DEAL as well as the UMA Corps pairing of Ultramantis Black and Dr. Gore Black. Things went crazy as everybody fought outside the ring. Mister Suchart even got on a motor scooter and crashed it into everyone at ringside! A stapler gun was brought into the ring for Brookes and Ultramantis to staple each other with. Ultramantis then took advantage of miscommunication between CDK to put Brookes through a mini ironing board with a Back Drop. Masahiro Takanashi was also taken out by Dr. Gore attacking him with a toilet seat. From that point on CDK were too hurt to do anything and THE GOOD DEAL put Gore through a table. Anont Alonzo pinned him afterwards to win the belts.
It did not end there though. Earlier in the show the brand new IWA Japan SETUP World Title was introduced to the world. However Ultramantis and the UMA Corps launched an attack to steal the belt. Brookes was so mad to lose the tag titles in the main event without being pinned that he challenged Ultramantis for a World Title match straight away! Ultramantis refused but then attacked Brookes with the belt, causing the impromptu match to begin. Brookes fought back from the disadvantage and Takanashi was still there to cut off interference from the UMA Corps. But Dr. Gore threw a chair into Brookes’ face at ringside allowing Ultramantis to roll him up and escape with his first successful title defence. The UMA Corps continued to attack CDK until THE GOOD DEAL returned to save the day.
GCW “JOSH BARNETT’S BLOODSPORT XI”, 28/07/2024 Roulette Intermedium, New York City, New York, USA
1. Shayna Baszler defeated Miyu Yamashita by TKO (8:37).
If there is any big story to talk about in this month’s article it is this one. Yamashita taking part in GCW’s Bloodsport event is notable in itself. She gave shoot boxing a go pretty early into her pro wrestling career and has the kind of martial arts cred that would get you booked for a show like this. The big news though was who they chose to be her opponent. In the main event she took on Shayna Baszler from WWE! It’s the latest move from WWE to open themselves up and show they are willing to work with other wrestling companies. It’s been noted online that the Bloodsport show featured talent from WWE/NXT, TNA, AEW/ROH, NJPW’s American arm, MLW and TJPW. Baszler ended up beating Yamashita by catching her Skull Kick, turning it into a Tombstone and then beginning to ground and pound her until the referee stepped in to stop the fight.
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Upcoming Appearances
GCW “NOW AND FOREVER”, 02/08/2024 TempleLive Cleveland Masonic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs John Wayne Murdoch
August is going to be a GCW month for Maki Itoh both in America and Japan. Her next tour begins with an unexpected opponent. She’s taking on one of their most violent wrestlers John Wayne Murdoch. He won the Tournament Of Survival back in June but his win-loss record in the company since then hasn’t been great.
GCW “CAN I TRUST YOU?”, 04/08/2024 House Of Independents, Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
Itoh does not have a match announced for the show yet. This date was on her list of advertised bookings last month. The full card seems to have been shown since then and Blake Christian just so happens to have a “Pick Your Poison” style mystery opponent to be announced that day… I don’t see where else she will fit if she is still going to be there.
GCW “THE SKY IS THE LIMIT”, 13/08/2024 Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
1. Broski Jimmy Vs Miyu Yamashita
2. The Great Sasuke Vs Maki Itoh
Itoh is also representing GCW for their Japan tour that is going on with some help from DDT. In a matchup that only sounds more mind bending the more I think of it, Itoh is going to fight The Great Sasuke! Yamashita will be on one of the shows too facing Broski Jimmy. That’s another match that I would never expect but more for head scratchy reasons.
GCW “YOU ONLY DIE ONCE”, 14/08/2024 Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
1. Allie Katch & Dark Sheik Vs Kaya Toribami & Shoko Nakajima
2. GCW World Title: Mance Warner (c) Vs Maki Itoh
I made a prediction for this year that Itoh is going to win the GCW World Title. If it ever comes true then this will be the show to do it! It won’t though because GCW are all in on Mance Warner as their top champion while Itoh already holds the GCW Extreme Title but just imagine if they did.
Also added is a GCW Vs TJPW tag match. The visitors (or are they the home team because it’s GCW?) Allie Katch & Dark Sheik take on Kaya Toribami & Shoko Nakajima. I’ll probably make a separate post for the GCW Japan results since those matches are happening in Japan and DDT is involved with promoting the whole tour.
SPW “HARDCORE ISLAND 2: A FINE CITY”, 16/08/2024 Foo Chow Building, Singapore
1. 3 Way Match: Alexis Lee Vs Miyu Yamashita Vs Kaya Toribami
Now that Alexis Lee got to wrestle in Japan and fully integrate herself into TJPW it’s time to send more people back over to Singapore Pro Wrestling. This time Lee will be in a 3 Way Match against two TJPW wrestlers. Yamashita and Toribami are on board to go face her in her home country.
KITSUNE “LOVE MY SHOW!”, 17/08/2024 Brick X Brick, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Yuna Manase Vs X
I was wondering how long it was going to take until I get to write about more of the American “Joshi” promotions that are currently around. Kitsune emerged around the same time period as SPARK Joshi and Sukeban. This one though has actually been able to run a show in Japan thanks to a lot of help from Marvelous. Their next shows in California is where Yuna Manase will be making her American wrestling debut.
GCW “NO SIGNAL IN THE HILLS PT. 4”, 17/08/2024 Ukrainian Culture Center, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
Itoh will be following GCW back to America after the Japan tour ends.
GCW “SAVE ME”, 18/08/2024 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
More Itoh in GCW here.
KITSUNE “YABAI!”, 18/08/2024 1110 Bates Ave, Los Angeles, California, USA
1. Kitsune World Title: Yuna Manase Vs Megan Bayne Vs J-Rod
The original plan was for Manase to be in a 3 Way Match with Sayaka Unagi and J-Rod for the Kitsune World Title. However Unagi is unable to get her visa approved in time and won’t be able to travel to America anytime soon. Since she was the champion, Kitsune made the decision to vacate the belt. It will now go to the winner of a new 3 Way Match between Manase, J-Rod and Megan Bayne.
EVE/TOKYO JOSHI PRO “EVE X TJPW: JAPAN & UK WRESTLING UNITE!”, 24/08/2024
Conway Hall, London, England
Finally we got a venue for the show. Yamashita, Raku, Mahiro Kiryu and HIMAWARI along with Aja Kong are the Japanese talent coming over to TJPW’s joint show with EVE. The EVE wrestlers being promoted for the show so far include Alex Windsor, Nina Samuels, Lena Cross and Session Moth Martina.
GCW “HOMECOMING – NIGHT 1”, 24/08/2024 The Showboat, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs Kerry Morton
The match is in GCW but Itoh gets a little taste of NWA with Kerry Morton as her opponent here. Kerry is the son of Ricky Morton and has been spending a lot of time in NWA as part of The Southern Six. He was even on the winning team at The Crockett Cup a few months ago.
GCW “HOMECOMING – NIGHT 2”, 25/08/2024 The Showboat, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
None of her GCW matches next month have been announced as Extreme Title defences yet.
MLW “SUMMER OF THE BEASTS”, 29/08/2024 Melrose Ballroom, New York City, New York, USA
1. Delmi Exo Vs Miyu Yamashita
MLW wrote a really long passage about this match on their Twitter page but we don’t need to go through all that. Yamashita beat Delmi Exo last December, next month is time for the rematch. The difference here is Exo now has the support of MLW’s main authority figure Cesar Duran by her side.
GCW “LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG”, 31/08/2024 Thalia Hall, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1. Miyu Yamashita Vs Megan Bayne
2. Maki Itoh Vs Kylie Rae
Prepare for cute smiles everywhere when Itoh is in the ring with Kylie Rae. Things might get ugly though if Itoh ends up feeling threatened by Rae’s cheerfulness. Yamashita getting another match with Megan Bayne is something she might not want to smile about either. They wrestled each other at a DREAMWAVE show back in April. Bayne won clean and Yamashita was in a pretty bad mood about it afterwards, rejecting her post-match handshake.
INSPIRE A.D. “MAY THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN”, 01/09/2024 Empire Control Room, Austin, Texas, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs Devin Carter
One of the non-GCW bookings Itoh is taking after the summer is over at Inspire A.D. in Texas. “The Fashionista” Devin Carter is her opponent. They have only been wrestling for a couple of years, mostly around the Texas scene.
MKW “CHAMPIONSHIP SUPERCARD FROM SHANGHAI”, 14/09/2024 Bandai Namco Shanghai Base, Shanghai, China
1. Queen Of Asia Title: Yuki Kamifuku (c) Vs Crystal
Still another while until Yuki Kamifuku defends the Queen Of Asia Title against Crystal. Kamifuku has been stepping her game up over the last twelve months and it’s really been paying off for her lately.
GCW “BAD ONE”, 14/09/2024 Harpos Concert Center, Detroit, Michigan, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
This will be the last weekend of Itoh’s current tour.
GCW “THA G-CODE”, 15/09/2024 Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, New York, USA
1. Maki Itoh Vs X
And Itoh’s last American booking as of now is here.
SETUP “CHAOPHRAYA VOYAGE: 12TH ANNIVERSARY OF THAI WRESTLING”, 28/09/2024 The Circus Studio, G Village, Bangkok, Thailand
1. SETUP All Asia Women’s Title – 3 Way Match: Matcha (c) Vs Raku Vs Pom Harajuku
TJPW sent a video message to SETUP announcing the next opponents for Matcha and the SETUP All Asia Women’s Title she currently holds. Both Raku and Pom Harajuku are coming to Thailand to wrestle there for the first time!
TOKYO JOSHI PRO/DEFY “BRIGHT EYES”, 09/11/2024 Washington Hall, Seattle, Washington, USA
A big weekend is going down in Seattle during November. TJPW is teaming up with DEFY for a show. Expect around 10-12 TJPW talent to be coming over. That was already announced a while ago…
DDT/DEFY “DDT IN UTERO”, 09/11/2024 Washington Hall, Seattle, Washington, USA
What turned out to be new news about the event is DEFY will be bringing over DDT for an evening show too! DDT has not said yet how many people they are going to bring over.
DDT/TOKYO JOSHI PRO/DEFY “TRIANGLER DTD”, 10/11/2024 Washington Hall, Seattle, Washington, USA
The weekend ends with DDT, TJPW and DEFY all joining forces for a triple promotion show.
GCW/TOKYO JOSHI PRO “GCW VS TJPW”, 06/04/2024 Penns Landing Caterers Auditorium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 672 Fans – No Vacancy
1. 3 Way Match: Suzume defeated SAKI and Pom Harajuku when Suzume pinned Harajuku with the Ring A Bell (7:54).
2. Session Moth Martina defeated Raku with the Codebreaker (5:56).
3. Arisu Endo defeated Shazza McKenzie with the Ju no Okite (7:29).
4. Steph De Lander defeated Hyper Misao with the Steph Five onto a bulk of Lipstick Cases (8:10).
5. Dark Sheik defeated Yuki Kamifuku with the Diving Leg Drop (7:43).
6. Mizuki defeated Allie Katch with the Cutie Special (7:35).
7. Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe defeated Billie Starkz & Janai Kai when Watanabe pinned Kai after the Daydream Eternity (13:27).
8. Special 6-Woman Tag Match: Rina Yamashita, Masha Slamovich & Maki Itoh defeated Miyu Yamashita, Shoko Nakajima & Yuki Aino when Itoh submitted Aino with the Itoh Deluxe (21:01).
Yesterday Tokyo Joshi Pro were welcomed into The Collective as esteemed guests of GCW getting to put on their own show. Today’s show had GCW as the home team taking on the visitors from TJPW. The main event showed just how much of a GCW show it was by placing Miyu Yamashita, Shoko Nakajima & Yuki Aino into a rare hardcore wrestling environment. For Maki Itoh it is home away from home at this point. The same can be said for Rina Yamashita and even Masha Slamovich. Nakajima tried to keep things familiar to TJPW by bringing out her large sack of kaiju toys from Japan (she claims it cost her an extra 10,000 yen in luggage fees to bring them over). She ended up getting Body Slammed onto them by Rina. Team GCW brought out a door to slam Aino through but in true GCW fashion the door collapsed on itself before that could happen. They found a replacement board to put Aino through instead. One by one each wrestler from both sides got their shots in until Itoh dropped Aino with a DDT and made her submit to the Itoh Deluxe.
Daydream made up for yesterday’s defeat by beating the GCW pairing of Billie Starkz & Janai Kai today. Miu Watanabe called it a clear and sunny victory. The result was just what Rika Tatsumi needed to forget about yesterday. She now wants Daydream to wrestle all over the world so they will now wait for any offers to do so. The feeling wasn’t so bright for Starkz & Kai. They argued with each other over who’s fault it was they lost. They teamed up today but they are not a tag team as far as Starkz is concerned.
I put in the warning in the preview that Mizuki likes to bite her opponents. Allie Katch found that out the hard way. She not only bit Katch’s arms to counter her moves but her thighs and stomach as well! It got Katch so mad she wrecklessly missed a Cannonball attack allowing Mizuki to pin her with the Cutie Special. Katch said she was looking forward to this match but now that she knows how Mizuki really fights she will prepare for her more properly next time.
Yuki Kamifuku claims Dark Sheik won their match today based on wrestling style but in terms of sexiness, Kamifuku was the real winner. With that said, Kamifuku learned a lot this week from people who are a bit crazy. She wants to bring that kind of culture back with her to Fujisawa City while putting her own sexy twist on it.
The match between Hyper Misao and Steph De Lander went hardcore with the use of bamboo skewers, chairs and even a box full of lipstick cases all being used as weapons. De Lander was able to win by giving Misao the Steph Five onto the remains that were left laying on the canvas. This may not be the last time TJPW will see De Lander too. If she does come back it won’t be to make friends or happy memories. She wants to win more championships. Sadly for Misao she seemed to have injured her ankle during the match.
Arisu Endo got to wrestle a foreign opponent one on one for the first time and came out of it with a win. Shazza McKenzine was on Team GCW for this show due to the promotion’s support for her in the past. She wants to work hard so she gets to fight more TJPW wrestlers and finally beat them.
Are pop idols usually allowed to drink alcohol during performances? Don’t let those in charge of The Up Up Girls hear about what happened to Raku when she fought Session Moth Martina then. Martina offered Raku a drink but she chose to take a nap on her pillow instead. Martina then decided to slowly pour the beer into Raku’s mouth, causing her to get into a drowsy level of drunk. She eventually sobered up and got her second wind but Martina countered the Doctor Yellow with a Headbutt and pinned Raku with the Codebreaker. Raku couldn’t tell if she was dreaming or if she was drunk. What she could notice is she now feels even stronger! She would like to team with Martina next time either in America or Japan.
The opening match was a 3 Way with no actual GCW wrestlers on it due to a lot of plans changing along the way. Suzume ended up defeating SAKI and Pom Harajuku. It is a result that makes Suzume very happy because she proved she is strong enough to win matches by herself. SAKI was disappointed she couldn’t team with Nao Kakuta when that was the reason why she was booked on the show in the first place. She feels like she has been deceived because of that. Harajuku is annoyed she lost because she thinks of herself as an expert in 3 Way Matches. She still had fun wrestling in America and will definitely win a match the next time she comes over here.
Posted by JamieOD 
Dramatic DDT 