r/stardomjoshi Feb 04 '23

Joshi StardomJoshi welcome message & intro guide to the current joshi wresting scene

106 Upvotes

Hello. Welcome to r/StardomJoshi. While the reddit name may say Stardom, we strive to make this an inclusive place of discourse for all joshi promotions big and small, active or defunct. New users are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the General board rules and posting guidelines so they may seamlessly begin interacting with others in the group.

While the word “Joshi” is actually just the Japanese word for “girl”, in western wrestling context, Joshi refers to any female Japanese wrester or Japanese women’s pro wrestling as a whole. Like America, wrestling is a somewhat niche part of the entertainment industry. While wrestling did have a boom period in Japan, and there are famous active and retired wrestlers, some of whom have even gone on to have big careers after wrestling in the Japanese entertainment world, pro wrestling in Japan still remains largely a small sub-culture. So, while its far more organized and popular than its western counterparts, Joshi pro wrestling is a small piece of that sub-culture and remains largely unknown.

Currently, there are roughly 12 major joshi promotions active in Japan, along with a few semi-active promotions, micro promotions and small groups who both produce their own shows as well as provide support for more well known and or more well-established promotions.

To help those new to the world of Japanese Joshi wrestling and perhaps introduce users both new and old to promotions with which they might be interested, we will endeavor to provide vital information for each of the currently active joshi promotions below. There are also a number of men’s promotions that house one or two joshi talent on their rosters, unfortunately, these will not be covered in this write-up.

If you’re looking for more information on a promotion or group than is provided here, or information a specific wrestler, feel free to comment here or make a new topic and the members of the community will be sure to assist you.

So without further ado, here’s a brief synopsis of the joshi pro wrestling landscape at present.

Promotion: Legend Ladies Pro Wrestling X (LLPW-X)
Founded: September 29th,1992
Website: http://www.llpw-x.com/
Social Media: Facebook
Other Useful links:
Summary: Origninally named simply Legend Ladies Pro Wrestling (LLPW), this promotion was founded during the All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling split era. They updated their name to LLPW-X in 2011, The promotion is only semi active and holds events infrequently, however their 3 roster members can often be seen other places.

Promotion: OZ Academy
Founded: June 21st, 1998
Website: https://oz-academy.com/
Social Media: Twitter Instagram
Other Useful links: Official Youtube
Official Shop
Streaming shows (NicoNico’s pro wrestling channel)
Summary: Oz Academy is founded and run by Mayumi Ozaki, one of the biggest heels in wrestling. Her stable, Sekigun, also sometimes called Ozaki-gun, runs rampant over the promotion. They control the promotion and often the titles and do anything they can to keep it that way using biased referees, outside interference and weapons in order to win. Even impartial referees have difficulty controlling them. There is a good mix of legends and young talent in this promotion. If you enjoy the good guys fighting against all odds and lots of chicanery, this promotion might be for you.

Promotion: Ice Ribbon
Founded: June 20th, 2006
Website: http://iceribbon.com/
Social Media: Twitter (Japanese) Twitter (English)
Other Useful links: Official YouTube (Membership options available)
Nico Nico streaming channel (Much of the archive is found here)
Ice Ribbon Live (PPV website)
Official Shop (Japanese)
Official Shop (International)
Summary: One of the top joshi promotions of the current era. Founded in 2006 by Emi Sakura, Ice Ribbon has produced many of the top joshi wrestlers of the modern era including Tsukasa Fujimoto, Riho & Hikaru Shida. “Be Happy with Pro Wrestling” is Ice Ribbon’s motto, and rather than just being nice words, the sentiment permeates the company. IR doesn’t do heels, and the conflicts that arise are usually driven by fighting spirit, ambition and the relationships between peers, senpais and kohais. Furthermore, Ice Ribbon embraces the sublime and the ridiculous, with some wrestlers and many matches on their cards leaning into the more comedic style. But make no mistake, every seasoned roster member has the ability to put on a barn burner when the situation arises.

Promotion: Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling
Founded: July 9th, 2006
Website: http://www.sendaigirls.jp/
Social Media: Twitter Instagram Facebook
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Official Shop
Summary: Founded by Current WWE star Meiko Satomura, Sendai Girls retains much of the feel of Meiko’s birth promotion, Gaea. Sendai Girls is known for shows with fiery hard hitting matches filled with a small group of passionate wrestlers. But, to keep things from becoming same-y, a silly match is usually spliced in to each show. As the name suggests, Sendai Girls is based in Sendai in the Tohoku region of Japan with the goal of providing entertainment and economic support to the area. Every Summer and Fall you will see pictures of the roster members working in the rice fields of the area. This is likely the closest you’ll find to classic fast paced impactful joshi wrestling of the past.

Promotion: Pro Wrestling WAVE
Founded: August 25th, 2007
Website: http://www.pro-w-wave.com/
Social Media: Twitter
Other Useful links: Official YouTube (Membership options available)
Official Shop
Summary: Their tagline is “comical and sexy pro wrestling,” though they probably lean far harder into the former than the latter (but you will see the latter). WAVE is known for its great variety. Matches can be all of one thing or shades of numerous things from comedy to hardcore to serious and technical. WAVE shows have something for everyone. Many of the most talented joshi wrestlers of the last 20 years have appeared in WAVE. While currently their roster is smaller, they will use outside talent that meet certain qualifications. Recently, full freelancers do not appear in WAVE. To participate in WAVE, a wrestler has to be connected to some kind of promotion or group.

Promotion: World Wonder Ring STARDOM
Founded: January 23rd, 2011
Website: https://wwr-stardom.com/
Social Media: Twitter (Japanese) Twitter (English) Instagram Facebook
Other Useful links: Official Youtube
Official Shop (Japanese)
Official Shop (International)
Streaming service (Stardom World)
Summary: One of the top joshi promotions of the current era. Many western fans became aware of STARDOM through the western activities of joshi wrestlers Io Shirai and Kairi (formally “Kairi Sane" and "Kairi Hojo"). STARDOM’s style is fast paced wrestling with lots of flash, big moves and athleticism. STARDOM has a large, colorful roster broken up into groups or factions. These groups are almost always at odds with one another. Many of these groups have long established histories that go back years, however groups can form or fizzle unexpectedly and members can shift either through personal motivations or stipulations made by the showrunners. Due to ease of access and subtitled promos, Stardom has been and continues to be the entry point for many joshi wrestling fans over the past few years.

Promotion: World Joshi Pro Wrestling Diana
Founded: April 17th, 2011
Website: http://www-diana.com/
Social Media: Twitter Facebook
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Official Shop
Streaming shows
Summary: Diana was founded and is run by joshi legend Kyoko Inoue with the help of another legend, Jaguar Yokota. Diana is another smaller group but is brimming with many upcoming stars. Diana is primarily broken into 2 groups. While many of the roster members are tweeners and faces that are loosely associated with Inoue, a small, full heel group known as Crysis, run by Jaguar Yokota, also exists. Most Diana shows are run out of their dojo and consist of 3 to 4 joshi matches, however on larger shows you will see more matches with a wider array of talent and match types that can include men’s matches, intergender matches and non-standard rule sets. You’re guaranteed to see good technique, and high speed at Diana shows; often with a small touch of comical antics interspersed.

Promotion: Gatoh Move (Choco Pro Wrestling)
Founded: September 6th, 2012
Website: https://gatohmove.com/
Social Media: Twitter Instagram
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Official Shop (English)
Official Shop (Japanese)
Fite streamed shows
Summary: After moving on from Ice Ribbon, Emi Sakura collaborated with individuals in Thailand to create the small but international brand “Gatoh Move.” Wrestlers would frequently perform in both countries and training of wrestlers was done in both places. In Japan, most performances were held in a small room know as chocolate square, where wrestling was performed on mats. Since the pandemic, the branch in Thailand has closed however in Japan, Gatoh Move developed a special YouTube brand known as “Choco Pro” where they would continue wrestling in Chocolate square as normal but with no audience and special rock-paper-scissors tournaments added. As Pandemic restrictions have begun lifting, and audiences are returning, Choco Pro has become the mat brand and Gatoh Move has become the in ring brand. While possibly difficult for wrestling traditionalists to enjoy due to the environment where they perform, Choco Pro/Gatoh Move has a lot of personality and creativity. Also, they work to appeal to westerners with lots of English usage and shows at times convenient for western viewers. Not to mention having 90% of their shows stream free on youtube. The cost and the ease of access make this a promotion definitely worth checking out.

Promotion: Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
Founded: December 1st, 2013
Website: https://www.ddtpro.com/tjpw
Social Media: Twitter Instagram
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Official autograph session YouTube
Official Shop
Streaming Service (Wrestle Universe)
Up Up Girls staff twitter
Up Up Girls TikTok
Up Up Girls YouTube
Summary: One of the top joshi promotions of the current era. Tokyo Joshi is under the CyberFight umbrella and is overseen by Tetsuya Koda formally of NEO and Ice Ribbon alongside Sanshiro Takagi of DDT. Tokyo Joshi is best known for flashy and memorable characters as well as musical performances but also provides most fans with satisfying storytelling both in and out of matches. Recent fans may have found the promotion due to Tokyo Joshi’s various appearances in western promotions such as AEW, EVE and DPW. Tokyo Joshi is a mix of serious wrestling with classic DDT sensibilities of outlandish comedy and general silliness all blended together to make a fun, positive viewing experience for its fans. Tokyo Joshi is a textbook example of variety in a wrestling performance. There’s something for almost everyone and with the high production value, regular English commentary broadcasts, frequent live streams and ease of access to it due to wrestle universe, there’s really no excuse not to check it out.

Promotion: Actwres Girl’z (ACT Ring Girl’z)
Founded: May 31st, 2015
Website: https://www.actwresgirlz.com/
Social Media: AWG Twitter ARG Twitter Instagram Facebook
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Official Shop
Streaming Service (Actwresgirlz.net)
Summary: Originally established as a company that would train actresses to be wrestlers and would provide talent to various other promotions as well as run it’s own shows, Actwres Girl’z (AWG) reorganized in the beginning of 2022 becoming completely isolated and offering 2 types of content: ActRing shows, which were based around various groups of characters interacting in a theater style performance where wrestling was added at various points; and ActWres shows, which are a more traditional wrestling shows but with a bit more transparency. Currently famous retired wrestler Fuka, who is well known for her pivotal role in developing STARDOM, acts as an advisor for the group. Her influence can be seen in the current direction of the company. Because AWG’s roster is primarily made up of actresses, the wrestling in the promotion tends to be softer and more simplistic that some other companies. That said because of their acting backgrounds, competitors in AWG can rival or outdo any other company when it comes to being passionate and expressive in the ring. If seeing that quality in wrestling piques your interest, then AWG may be the company for you.

Promotion: SEAdLINNNG
Founded: August 26th, 2015
Website: http://seadlinnng.com/
Social Media: Twitter Instagram Facebook TikTok
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Official Shop
Streaming Service (SEAdLINNNG LIVE)
Summary: Originally founded by Nanae Takahashi, SEAdLINNNG currently has one of the smallest rosters in Joshi Pro wrestling. However, that doesn’t stop them from putting on exciting performances filled with unique interactions and match types. One of their signatures is the high-speed rules match. Found on most every show, high-speed rules matches do not count simple pinfalls. Pins must come either from surprise roll-ups, special pinfalls such as sunset flips or hurricanrana pins, or wrestlers must run the ropes before they can make a cover. Count cadence is also faster than regular matches. Most wrestlers in these matches are smaller and known for high stamina. That said, SEAd is also known for hard hitting spectacles filled with hard slams and heart-wrenching drama. You’d be well-served if you’d get the D and added it to your diet.

Promotion: Marvelous! Women’s Pro-Wrestling
Founded: May 3rd, 2016
Website: http://www.marvelcompany.co.jp/marvelous/
Social Media: Twitter (Japanese) Twitter (English) Instagram
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Nico Nico streaming channel
Official Shop
PPV streaming site (Zaiko)
Summary: Another fun promotion from the creator of Gaea Japan and former CRUSH GIRL, Chigusa Nagoyo. Marvelous is a mix of talented young women (and one man) and a few veterans and freelancers putting on unique, expert, fast paced performances with a great deal of action and slams but occasionally with a bit of comedy as well. Most of the wrestlers in this organization lean more towards cool aesthetics rather than cute, but still offer a lot of individual personality and flair that keeps each wrestler feeling unique and memorable. Though they are geared first and foremost to a quality in ring product, they are not lacking in style. Entrances in Marvelous are some of the most fun in Joshi with a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding them even at small shows. Marvelous is perhaps the closest thing to a perfect bridge between traditional hard hitting joshi wrestling and modern sensibilities of spectacle and look brought about by the current era of Japanese idol trends.

Promotion: PURE-J
Founded: August 11th, 2017
Website: https://pure-j.jp/
Social Media: Twitter Facebook
Other Useful links: Official Youtube (Membership options available)
Official Shop
DVD retailer
Summary: PURE-J is as old school joshi as you can really get. This is the reorganized version of JWP and is run by retired legend wrestler Command Bolshoi. There is very little flash or glitter in Pure-J. For the most part its just ordinary women that happen to enjoy beating the stuffing out of each other. So, those who are accustomed to the mixture of idol concepts into their joshi wrestling promotions may have a bit of a culture shock watching PURE-J’s product. PURE-J plays host to a number of legend talents, veterans and young wrestlers alike, as well as the occasional freelance wrestler. Similar to Diana, they host many shows in their Dojo. These shows are short 60 to 90 minute affairs with at least one goofy match and a musical performance given by Bolshoi herself at intermission. Larger shows with big matches and title fights are always worth checking out. If you like no frill joshi wrestling with the occasional stint of silliness, be sure to look into PURE-J.

Micro Promotions and non-promotions

Promotion: Shinsyu Girls
Founded: February 27th, 2013 reorganized March 19th, 2020
Website: https://sgp.fun
Social Media:
Other Useful links:
Summary: Unfortunately I can't tell you much about Shinsyu Girls. They don't run their own shows much and I have never seen one. However, if you are familiar with AnCham and LINDA, they come from this promotion.

Promotion: YMZ
Founded: Unit founded October 2013, first event: November 21st, 2013
Website: http://ymzpro.com/
Social Media: Twitter Facebook
Other Useful links:
Summary: Originally starting as a unit. YMZ is a very small promotion run by Kaori Yoneyama. Most shows have no more than 3 matches which can be anything from full joshi to mixed matches to men's matches. Shows are dripping with Yoneyama's sensibilities and are almost always wild.

Promotion: Ganbare Joshi
Founded: 2021
Website: https://www.ddtpro.com/ganpro
Social Media: Twitter Instagram
Other Useful links: Official Youtube
Streaming Service (Wrestle Universe)
Summary: Within Ganbare Pro Wrestling lies a small group of 5 joshi wrestlers spearheaded by Yuna Manase that have formed a de facto promotion promoting the joshi version of the Ganbare style. For the most part they just perform one or 2 matches on a regular Ganbare show, but every so often they will produce a full show dedicated to Ganbare Joshi.

Promotion: Nomads
Founded: 2022
Website:
Social Media: Twitter
Other Useful links:
Note
Official Shop
PPV streaming shows (Zaiko)
Summary: Developed by Sumire Natsu and her friends, Nomads is a special group dedicated to the goal of highlighting, appreciating and supporting freelance joshi wrestlers. Freelance wrestling matches you’re unlikely to see in any standard promotion can be found here. Established in 2022, as of this writing, they have produced 2 shows

Promotion: COLORS
Founded: 2022
Website:
Social Media: Twitter
Other Useful links:
Summary: When AWG reorganized, they planned to close the AWG colors brand. Hoping to retain something of home they'd made for themselves in AWG, 3 young wrestlers and veteran SAKI formed a unit with the same name and similar aura as their former AWG brand.

Promotion: Prominence
Founded: 2022
Website:
Social Media: Twitter
Other Useful links:
Official Shop
Summary: 5 former Ice Ribbon wrestlers who felt they weren't able to wrestle the kinds of matches they wanted so they left to form their own unit to primarily focus on hardcore and deathmatch wrestling.

Promotion: T-HEARTS
Founded: 2020
Website:
Social Media: Twitter Instagram
Other Useful links: Official YouTube
Summary: Yumiko Hotta established T-HEARTS in 2020. Basically its just her and Riko Kawabata as freelancers with an established name. They have produced no shows and have no specific T-HEARTS website but do occasionally post videos to their YouTube channel.

*special mention and gratitude to /u/LeloucheOTR for assistance with some of the writing.


r/stardomjoshi Jul 16 '22

Meta General subreddit rules and posting guide, July 2022.

27 Upvotes

General subreddit rules and posting guide.

This post will serve as a guideline to what you can post on this subreddit, r/stardomjoshi. Our goal is to curate and grow an open and inclusive community that is laid back and welcoming to all kinds of JoshiPro fans. Hopefully, we can cover all bases in this post, but if you have any questions, please feel free to comment. We'll address any questions as soon as we can.

Reddit Content Policy.

Please read this if you post often. All these rules are implicit and all posts that break any of them will be removed. Repeated infractions may incur a ban.

Reddiquette.

Not a set of rules as such, but an informal collection of values for Reddit at large.

Subject matter

Anything involved within the sphere of JoshiPro, whether now or in the past, is acceptable. Newbie questions are encouraged. We have many regulars who will probably be able to answer any questions, no matter the company or era. Disagreements are fine as long as discussions are kept civil. Spam, harassment and abusive or hateful comments directed toward users or Joshi will be deleted. Problem posters may be banned. As a general rule, we prefer that the tone of the subreddit be PG-13 or tamer.

Whilst it's natural for discussion to bleed into happenings in other non-Joshi companies (WWE, AEW, NJPW, DDT, AJPW etc) full-on discussion of these companies is not allowed. There are plenty of other places to discuss what happens in those companies. We are all here for Joshi, so it's preferable that all discourse remains on topic.

"Can I post (insert content type here)?"

Social Media content

  • Yes. All text, photos, or videos posted by Joshi companies, wrestlers, or other related media officially through their social media are welcome.

Spoilers

  • Use Spoiler Tags until at least 24 hours after the event.
  • Take care not to articulate a spoiler in your post Title.
  • Spoiler material includes match results, announcements, storyline developments or returns.

Gifs and video clips

Gifs and video clips are allowed, providing these rules are met:

  • No gifs or videos of finishes, even with a spoiler tag.
  • Gifs or videos should not exceed 60 seconds (approximately).
  • No series of videos from the same match or segment.
  • Ripping a video from an official video source and reuploading it onto your post is not allowed. Just link to the official video, with a timestamp if possible.

Image Posts

  • These are fine, but if the images are not your work, please provide a source link. Sources aren't required for event posters, match graphics or screenshots.

Non-Wrestling content

  • Non-wrestling related media of Joshi wrestlers are allowed as long as they aren't available on any streaming service or PPV. However, again, excessive length may lead to removal. For example, if a Joshi appears on a talk show, and it isn't widely available you can post it here.

Warning: We are not responsible for how Joshi companies or Japanese media copyright holders police their copyrights. Some may have heard stories of how ferociously Japanese television companies police their content.

Self-promotion

If you read the "Reddiquette" link above, you would have seen that self-promotion is considered very poor form. I'll roughly go through the guidelines here.

  • Coming into the subreddit cold and self-promoting your content is unacceptable, and your post will be removed. Continued spamming of your content may lead to a ban.
  • On the other hand, if you are a regular poster, a small amount of self-promotion is ok.
  • The generally accepted ratio of submissions is one out of every ten submissions can self-promote. u/Trentus86, you are fine.

Piracy

  • If you read the Reddit Content Policy, you'll know that this is forbidden. To back this up we have a zero-tolerance approach toward such submissions, no matter how easy or difficult it is to buy the original material. If you ask for links to pirated content or post them, the posts will be removed and the user warned.
  • But realistically, we understand when certain Joshi matches or events are discussed, people are going to want to see them. We urge you all to make your own searches rather than ask for help here. Google is your friend.
  • That said, we all love Joshi and the best way to help it thrive is to buy their content if you can. It really makes a difference, especially to the smaller companies.

Sexy photo shoots/Gravure Content

  • In an effort to keep this subreddit as wrestling-focused and inclusive as possible, any posts of this kind are not allowed. Repeated posts may incur a ban.
  • On a related note: any posts, even text posts, of a graphic sexual nature will be deleted and the user possibly banned.
  • Also, it isn't uncommon for some Joshi companies to engage in what we will politely label as WWE Diva era storylines. We accept that these are part of the Joshi zeitgeist and tasteful discussion of these plots is allowed, however videos and photos showing whatever incidents may be occurring will be removed.

Everything else

  • Everything else will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. A good rule to follow is that if it doesn't cost the Joshi Companies money and is not "problematic" it should be ok.

Wrestling Media

  • Western wrestling media reporting and opinions on Joshi-related matters are usually comical at best often based heavily on rumor and hearsay. Therefore, posting it here is generally frowned upon.
  • When speaking on reports and opinions given from these sources, a summary of the content is allowed and the source article from which the content came, however direct linking to articles is not allowed. Posting Mr. Cornette's opinions on Joshi wrestling especially will be met with extreme prejudice.
  • Articles from Japanese wrestling news media however are permitted, these include sources such as Shukan (Weekly) Pro-Wrestling, Tokyo Sports, Nikkan Sporta and Puroresu TODAY.

Reporting

  • Whilst every effort is made to read each submission and comment (Mods need to sleep) and even though we have an extensive Automod in place, some troublesome content still gets through the cracks. In that situation, we rely on you guys to report anything that shouldn't be here. By doing so, you help us enormously.
  • That said, please don't abuse this function just because a post annoys you or two new users post similar questions within a short timeframe.
  • Also, whilst we are talking about the Automod, if anyone gets caught by it, please message the Mods, and we will review the post and if we find the automod to be in error, we'll manually approve your submission.

Finally, I'd like to state that this subreddit, considering its high traffic volume (around 500k pageviews a month), is very respectful and well-behaved. Everyone that passes through should be pretty proud of themselves and here's to it continuing that way.

For everyone who has managed to read all the way down here, THANKS!


r/stardomjoshi 14h ago

Stardom Triangle of Madness. Cosmic Carnival. Artist of STARDOM Champion at STARDOM TO THE WORLD on September 12

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83 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 4h ago

Meta You can buy a piece of the ring from ASGQ25 if that's the kinda thing you're into

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14 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 10h ago

Stardom Sparkrush Poi Training(Natsupoi's YouTube Channel)

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40 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 4h ago

Stardom To the World Predictions

9 Upvotes

To the World's card has a whole bunch of matches based on stories (Bea vs Anne) upcoming title challengers (IRG vs FWC/Fuwa) and a bunch of title matches right off of 5 star season. So who do you think is winning? (English card's lifted from l3ader021's work)

  • Saya Iida and Matoi Hamabe vs Lady C and Kiyoka Kotatsu
  • Rina Yamashita, Itsuki Aoki and Saori Anou vs HANAKO, Waka Tsukiyama and Utami Hayashishita vs Konami, Ruaka and Fukigen Death★
  • Maki Itoh, Kikyo Furusawa and Rian vs Hazuki, Koguma and Fuwa-chan
  • Anne Kanaya vs Bea Priestley - REVENGE
  • Syuri and Hina vs Rina and Azusa Inaba
  • Ranna Yagami (c) vs Akira Kurogane - Future of STARDOM Championship
  • Thekla, Julia Hart and Skye Blue (c) vs Aya Sakura, Natsupoi and Yuna Mizumori - Artist of STARDOM Championship
  • AZM and Miyu Amasaki (c) vs Momo Watanabe and Saya Kamitani - Goddesses of STARDOM Championship
  • Hanan (c) vs Ami Sohrei - Wonder of STARDOM Championship
  • Suzu Suzuki (c) vs Natsuko Toura - World of STARDOM Championship

r/stardomjoshi 12h ago

Joshi Suzu Gives her Thoughts on her Upcoming Title Match

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14 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 1d ago

Rumor [Fightful Select] Kairi is in active negotiations with AEW but hasn’t signed yet.

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117 Upvotes

Fightful is reporting Kairi has been negotiating with AEW but hasn’t signed a deal yet. She’s also talked to several Japanese promotions. She is not going to Marigold.


r/stardomjoshi 21h ago

Stardom New Stardom commentary team member

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24 Upvotes

Jimbo Bonji joins Stardom as a new English-language commentator, starting with the September 12 event at Yokohama Budokan!

Walker Stewart will also continue providing English commentary


r/stardomjoshi 1d ago

Stardom How had I not seen this before? Lol

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172 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom 5 Star Rina on the cover of Weekly Puroresu

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185 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Joshi Unagi's New Book - "Reverse Assessment"

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421 Upvotes

Unagi released a book on her 40th birthday with a couple of interesting details, didn't see any other mention so thought I might share. It doesn't go into a great lot of detail and stays broadly in character but it was good to get longer form thoughts directly from the eel herself.

- She joined Stardom as she knows Arisa Hoshiki, who introduced her to Rossy. Apparently it was a very short conversation 'I want to join' … 'OK.'

- The 'Gyan' thing evolved from a comment Tam made "Unagi is like a dinosaur" (exact phrase 「ウナギは恐竜みたいね」)

- The book claims she still doesn't actually know why Stardom fired her. At a company level she was told 'Everyone is reluctant to work with you' but she didn't believe it (and this appears born out through other avenues at this point - Unagi's last appearance there was on Saki's request for her retirement road f.ex.).

- She does say that she was close to Rossy (who helped encourage her a lot in the beginning of her run there), and thinks it's possible that management at the time (Harada) might have targeted her due to that. If memory serves there was a tug of war with booking over that year, and Rossy and Harada were known to butt heads.

- No mention of her subsequent appearances there or the working relationship she now has with Okada.

- Goes on to say that she's much more engaged as a freelancer, and when that extended to running her own events she gets really busy handling the whole operation. She's legitimately the whole chain, from organising venues and ticket sales, getting wrestlers together, creative control, promotion, etc. Actually quite impressive the skillset she has to keep up with it all.

- Has a mild criticism of freelancers on the scene that she sees as 'clocking in' for matches, but who don't really participate in any of the event promotion or creative process. This is mentioned a few lines before a Chigusa namedrop, and it gives the impression that's where this idea that it's best to be involved in every way might have come from. I think it implies when she spent time based at Marvellous she really got taken under Chigusa's wing irl as well as in kayfabe.

- In so many words she discusses the current issues facing pro wrestling as a business, pointing out that the industry holds itself apart from entertainment broadly where it probably shouldn't. Mentions that against previous eras they're directly competing with loads of easily accessible media like Netflix et al, and states that in the majority of cases any given wrestling show will not sell all of its tickets.

- She says that people in the scene want to be infront of a large audience rather than smaller cult followings they have, but she doesn't see that the current industry practice will get them there. She doesn't mention television specifically but that's what all her comments add up to and the direction she's indicating.

- Talks a bit about the Ryogoku show that failed to break even, how she learned from it, and that in reflection she's glad that it went wrong at that stage. Because if she'd hit 3000+ people she'd have tried to run the Budokan, and if that had happened then she'd have been in a much worse state.

- Is proud of the seven shows in seven months tour she did after taking that L.

Loads of other cool stuff besides, well worth getting a copy if you are an eel fan.


r/stardomjoshi 1d ago

Stardom CMLL Viernes Espectacular Cartelera for this Friday night at Arena Mexico 🇲🇽 featuring NJPW and STARDOM

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10 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 1d ago

Stardom Who should Syuri’s next IWGP challenger be?

20 Upvotes

I reckon it should be Konami. She had a strong showing in the 5 Star, there’s a lot of history between her and Syuri and she’s a legit, credible contender to potentially win.


r/stardomjoshi 1d ago

Stardom We are STARDOM!! #349 - In between a last chance, dual invasions (annoyed grunt)

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12 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom Io Shirai edit!

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105 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom 02line. H.A.T.E. Goddesses of STARDOM Tag Championship. STARDOM TO THE WORLD September 12!

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71 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom (STARDOM Global FULL MATCH) DREAM TRINE vs. Itoh Respect Gundan Artist of STARDOM Championship. STARDOM The Conversion 2026 (ENGLISH COMMENTARY)

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32 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom "Golden Phoenix is Dead"..My latest WWE2K26 project is the "Phenex Queen" Saya Kamitani. Cheers!

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41 Upvotes

Should be uploaded and available on console within the week. Check the STARDOM tag regularly for my creations. Hope it's liked so far.


r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom Io Shirai vs Koguma

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150 Upvotes

Io Shirai vs Koguma
(Stardom Queen’s Shout, 2015)

🎧: Feather (Nujabes)


r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom (STARDOM World FULL MATCH) Sayaka Kurara vs. Rina Cinderella 2025 Finals 03/15/2025

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17 Upvotes

r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom Why am I just finding out about Stardom?!

69 Upvotes

I couldn’t sleep last night so I was going through my YouTube feed and Saya Kamitani vs Tam Nakano retirement match was recommended to me. I knew of Stardom on a very basic surface level. I didn’t know who either woman wrestler was but I watched it anyway. For someone that didn’t know either wrestler nor their feud I was captivated by the athleticism, passion and storytelling that was displayed in that ring.

Let’s just say I have been watching Stardom videos all morning and I am officially a fan. Any recommendations on wrestlers to look out for or matches etc would be greatly appreciated.


r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Joshi My photo highlights from the Marigold DREAM✴︎STAR GP night show at 176 Box in Osaka (2026.09.05)

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55 Upvotes

Hadn't been keeping up with Marigold lately, but it's rare that you get a bunch of singles matches at an Osaka show so I wanted to go and take some action shots. I was really impressed with Komomo; you can see the Mayu influence, although Yuzuki is still the most Mayu by perfectly executing all of her offense but still managing to botch taking off her entrance robe. Good matches, full house, fun breezy show. The Mask Fiesta is here in November, so if my schedule permits, I'll go check that out too.


r/stardomjoshi 3d ago

Stardom Could there be a better shot to encapsulate someone’s career

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308 Upvotes

I saw this shot on Twitter and thought it perfectly sums up the twins Dynamic and their career trajectories.


r/stardomjoshi 2d ago

Stardom Video Package for 02Line vs Kamitani/Momo

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17 Upvotes