Finally (almost) finished the Summer Sun Princess translation! This show happened on July 8. Here’s the recap. I’m still working on the non-dialogue parts, but I got through all of the post-match comments at least. I might be back with follow-up questions, though, depending on how the rest goes .
This was TJPW’s first show with cheering and streamers being allowed again! It was endearing to watch the new rookies be so slow at cleaning up the streamers, due to a lack of practice. The recap starts with the main event, Shoko Nakajima vs Rika Tatsumi for the Princess of Princess title, so I’ll start there.
They definitely had me believing that Rika was going to take this, despite me knowing in my heart of hearts that there was no way it was going to happen (hey, the rest of the show was full of shake-ups! they could have another one here!). I loved her missile hip attack from the top rope to the outside, and just her general brutality. Rika is an interesting wrestler to me because I don’t consider her to be particularly a favorite, but her big matches always get me invested.
But alas, it was not to be. Shoko managed to pin her, ruining her dreams of being the 狂い咲き champion. As Rika started to leave, Shoko called out to her. She told Rika that she was strong, and then she said that as the champion, not only did she win today, but she’s going to keep winning, so she looks forward to meeting Rika again further down the road.
Backstage, Shoko said that when she met Rika, she was a really fragile girl. She got injured a lot, and had a lot of close calls. But today, that Rika is nowhere to be found. Not knowing what Rika is going to do scares Shoko, but this Rika is very strong and robust.
Shoko said: “ベルトを巻いてから防衛し続けてるんですけど、東京女子はもっと成長しないとダメだなって思わせてくれる環境です,” which confused me. I think this means: “TJPW is an environment that makes me want to grow even more.”? Here’s the video.
Shoko goes on to say that since she won the belt, she wants to keep winning with the intention of defending the title against everyone. She also hopes to win the Tokyo Princess Cup, and there is also TDC Hall on October 9. She’s aiming to wear the belt a second time at Ryogoku Kokugikan, and she wants to make a lot of dreams come true.
Backstage, Rika said that today was the big match on the highest stage, so she went out there with the intent of having the best match in her career. Shoko said that she was strong, but she realized that it still wasn’t enough. But her spirit isn’t broken, and she’s going to keep going. She felt her love for pro wrestling all over again, and she wants to fall in love even more, become completely absorbed in it, and once again appear as Rika Tatsumi the champion.
The semi-main event, the tag title match, Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki vs Saki Akai and Yuki Arai, was my favorite match in the whole show. It also broke my heart, but, well, such is wrestling.
I went into this match so confident that MagiRabbi would win and retain the belts. That confidence started to shake halfway through. And then that moment at the end when Yuka dived into the ring to take the Finally herself so that it wouldn’t hit Mizuki… That was one of those wrestling moments that I knew would live in my brain forever. I was still thinking about that as I watched the ref count the final pin.
After the match, Saki said that MagiRabbi is strong, and she thinks if her and Arai challenged them 100 times, they’d be no match for MagiRabbi 99 of those times. However, although they might be inexperienced as a tag team, Arai has incredible potential. The fact that they drew the winning ticket this one time out of 100, that was due to Arai’s innate luck or her pull. Saki’s intention was to lead, but Arai also supported her in part. She said that from here, it gets hard. Now they’re in a position of being chased. She said: “明日から追われる立場として、どんどんその先を走りましょう.” “From tomorrow onward, as they start to chase us, let’s keep running.”
I really liked this because it pointed out I think what was so devastating about that match, which is that MagiRabbi really should have had it, but they lost everything in just like 30 seconds at the very end. Maybe if Yuka had disrupted the Finally kick by shoving Arai out of the way instead of taking it herself, she’d have been able to save Mizuki in time.
In Arai’s comments, she said that there were many difficult moments, but her lovely senpai was nearby, and Saki saved her many times. Arai thinks that today, she showed her best performance yet. But winning the belt isn’t her goal. She wants to do her best to keep growing and pull TJPW along as a member. She feels like she’s carrying the weight of the history of her senpais who have held this belt up until now. She doesn’t want the belt to be disgraced while she’s holding it. She also says that since none of the other members of SKE have become champions like this, she wants everyone to see the belt.
Yuka said that she was just one millimeter, two millimeters short, and she lost her belt. But “マジラビは永遠に不滅なんで” (from the video caption). I really liked that line. I translated it as “MagiRabbi is permanently indestructible.”
Her next line in the caption gave me a little trouble. She said: “荒井ちゃんも私の意地悪にもくらいついてきて、これは化けるなと思いました.” I might be missing a little context here, because I didn’t fully get it. Here was my best attempt: “Arai-chan stuck by me even though I was mean to her, and I thought she would be able to improve dramatically.”
Mizuki said that she’s frustrated, but a loss is a loss. But today’s match, and the fact that they defended the belts until now, these absolutely aren’t negatives. She’s going to use this as a springboard. She said she was going to space, but she’s going to do what she can to fly around the world first.
When I translated this, I wondered if that meant she was hoping to do an overseas tour, and sure enough, it seems the answer is yes! They just announced that she’s going to be coming to the US to wrestle Emi Sakura at Deadlock Pro Wrestling on August 6! Should be an awesome match. (Deadlock is truly getting to book some amazing joshi talent this year…)
This wasn’t covered in the recap, but Yuka also said that having a wrestler like Saki Akai holding the belt and participating in TJPW is going to be a step up for the organization. She thinks it’ll be a catalyst for them and will make TJPW more interesting.
This is kind of a funny thing for her to say, because Saki Akai hasn’t participated much in TJPW, but Sakisama very much has. Akai is actually serving in a similar role here, where she’s mentoring a less experienced wrestler through tagging with her. It has proven to be an excellent formula in the past, and this version has a different enough flavor, I’m excited to see where they go with it. It’ll be interesting to see wrestlers with an extensive history with Sakisama, like Misao, have possible opportunities to face Saki Akai…
(The two are very much treated as different people in kayfabe, but there is sort of a meta awareness present in a lot of the booking.)
I’ll end the tag titles match portion with this amazing photo from the recap that took my breath away when I saw it:
Next up, Miyu Yamashita vs current AEW women’s champion, Thunder Rosa! This was a fun one because it was actually Rosa’s return to TJPW after two years. It’s also an interesting match because in many ways, it paralleled the exact situation that led to the whole Forbidden Door thing in the first place: the AEW world champion came to Japan to fight the ace, and if the ace wins the match, they’ll earn themself a shot at the AEW title.
If you want to watch this one, AEW actually uploaded it on youtube! It features AEW’s commentators and not Chris Brookes and Akki, alas, but the match itself is just as good. If you want to watch this and be unspoiled, stop reading here.
Miyu ended up having much better luck than Tanahashi had back in NJPW in January 2020, which feels like worlds away at this point. The ace managed to beat the AEW champ and earn herself a title shot. We still don’t know when this match will be happening, but it’ll be exciting!
After the match, Rosa spoke in English and said that it was fun, and having a match with someone with that much experience, it just makes her better. She said that she’s not going to lose the title like last time, and reiterates that Miyu gets a title match whenever she wants.
Miyu said something that confused me in both the recap and the tweet caption. From the tweet: “2年半越しにロサが戻ってきて大きい団体のベルトを持ってきてくれて嬉しいし、そんな気持ちが乗っている中、勝てて嬉しかったです.” Here was my attempt: “I’m so happy that Rosa came back after two years with a belt from a big organization, and with all of those feelings riding on it, I was happy to win.”
The part I struggled with was そんな気持ちが乗っている. I tried looking it up, and 気持ちが乗る appears to refer to being in a state of heightened energy. So I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it here .
Miyu goes on to say that there’s a part of her that wonders if she only won because it was at her home. But she is still getting stronger. She says that if she can challenge for the belt, she wants to go to the U.S. not as a representative of TJPW, but simply as a wrestler.
The final match covered in the recap was Maki Itoh vs Alex Windsor (from Pro Wrestling EVE) for the International title. I’m not really familiar with Alex, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one, but the match was fun! The result was quite a shock!
After the match, Alex said (in English) that she’s taking over the world, and she’ll take the belt wherever she wants to. The video of this one is fun because she hassles Mr. Haku a little bit, because he’s there as her translator. I appreciated the shirt he was wearing, haha.
Itoh said, “なんで自分はいつも弱いんでしょう。もっと強くなりたい.” “Why am I always weak? I want to become stronger.” She mentioned that she has another overseas excursion in August, so she has to switch gears and fight against wrestlers from around the world. It may take some time, but her only choice is to work hard to become stronger. It has been a long time since she has tasted this frustration. She’s grateful, and she’s going to move forward to the next step. When the time comes, she will challenge.
The video caption adds: “今日だけは落ち込もうと思います.” I translated this as: “Just for today, I’m going to be down in the dumps.”
And that’s it for all of the matches with title implications! With TJPW, though, that’s only half of the fun. Here are some notes from the wrestlers’ comments concerning the other matches:
Moka Miyamoto and Juria Nagano, both rookies with karate backgrounds, faced off in a 空手対決! I actually wasn’t quite sure how this would go. I thought Juria might have a chance, actually, despite her career being so short. But I never should have doubted Moka!
Moka said that she was excited to see that Juria’s karate was strong, but her strikes were so powerful. But this was pro wrestling, and although Juria might be better at karate than she is, she has been doing this for longer than Juria has, so she absolutely didn’t want to lose, and was happy that she won.
Juria said that in the karate showdown, she wanted to get her first singles victory, so she’s disappointed that she lost. She had been doing 正拳突き, but this was the first time she was on the receiving end, and 正拳突き hurts so much. I wasn’t quite sure how to translate 正拳突き . I might just romanize it, honestly.
Juria finishes with: “正拳突きでダウンとれるようなパンチ力を身につけたいなと思いました.” I struggled to wrap my brain around this one a bit. I think I understand the Japanese, but putting it in English made me question my understanding. Here’s what I went with: “I wanted to learn how to punch with force like taking down an opponent with seikenzuki.”
The eight-women tag match featuring Aja Kong was fun as always (Aja loves to appear in TJPW for their big shows, usually teaming with Raku, who is her favorite). After the match, the wrestlers mostly talked about cheering and streamers being back.
Nao’s line here confused me: “声援ってこんなに力になるんだなっていうくらい、やってやろうっていう気持ちになる!” A little bit too much going on there for me to figure out . My very unsure attempt was: “Cheering makes me stronger, and it makes me want to give it my all!”
Kaya mentions that the paper tape got her right in the face, and Nao says “愛だからね!” “It’s love!”. Misao says that she wants to team up with Aja next (she tried to defect during the match, but it did not work out for her).
Yuki similarly confused me: “みんなが今までにない声量をぶつけてくれるのでテンション上がりまくったし、負けないように闘わなきゃなと思いました.” Here was my attempt: “Everyone was cheering louder than ever before, which raised my spirits, and I felt like I had to fight not to be outdone.”
Aja said that she was able to mark her return to TJPW with a victory. In the next tweet, she talks about getting to do a new Oyasumi Express with Raku (this involved Aja carrying Raku in a piggyback). Yuki and Pom commented: “あれはヤバい…” (“That was dangerous…”?). Aja says that her knee is in good condition, so she wants to continue to be invited to TJPW if there’s any occasion. She had a lot of fun!
The next match was Miu Watanabe vs Ryo Mizunami, who was filling in last minute since Willow Nightingale was unable to get her visa figured out in time to make it to the show. Ryo is one of my favorites, so I was really looking forward to this one, and it was awesome!
Ryo had nothing but praise for Miu afterward. She said: “ぶったまげました!” I think this was basically “I’m floored!”? Then she said that Miu is amazing, isn’t she? Ryo thinks we haven’t seen everything from her yet, and she still has lots of room to grow. She may have lost today, but the audience got the message. She’s a wrestler with amazing hidden potential and possibility. Ryo is looking forward to seeing where she goes from here.
Miu said that she simply thought “Mizunami, you have amazing strength”. Because the fans called out Miu’s name, even though it hurt, she told herself to get it together. At the very least, she was able to accomplish her goal of doing the Giant Swing. She wants to power up some more and do her best so that she can beat Ryo.
The next match featured Hikaru Shida, another guest from AEW, this time tagging with Hikari Noa against Kamiyu and Mahiro Kiryu. It was a fun one, especially since Shida in TJPW has a bit of a mean streak that we don’t get to see as often in AEW.
After the match, Hikari said that she had the most awesome time fighting alongside Shida, and she’s delighted that they could have a match where both of them had weapons.
Shida said that Hikari seemed to have more fun than when Shida fought her in Ryogoku, and she thinks she finally met the real Hikari Noa. She wouldn’t mind teaming up with her again, or facing her again.
Kamiyu’s comments confused me again, as is typical . I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what she was talking about at the beginning. She said: “神奈川に藤沢の次に有名な寒川っていうところがあって、そこから生まれてアメリカに行った凄いチャンネーらしい.” Here was my best shot: “There’s a place in Kanagawa called Samukawa, the second most famous place after Fujisawa, and having been born there and gone to the U.S., she seems like an awesome girl.”
Then Mahiro comments that that’s how Kamiyu acknowledges Shida… Kamiyu responds by saying that they’re going to turn Toyo University from a third-rate university into a first-rate one, and Mahiro tells her to quit it.
I feel like I’m missing some context here? Or my translation is very off, or something .
And finally, the last remaining match, which was probably my second favorite! This one was Riho and Arisu Endo vs Suzume and Mei Suruga.
Lots of history in this one. A lot of it was before my time. For folks who don’t know, Riho spent a good chunk of her career in Gatoh Move, where she was basically the ace. I believe the entire time she was there, she was the only person who held the singles title in the company. Mei is currently mostly based in Gatoh Move, where she, alongside Baliyan Akki (who was on English commentary for this show), are essentially the current Gatoh Move aces.
This match was actually one where I’d say you might be better off watching with English commentary, because both Chris and Akki know Mei very, very well. Akki is her main tag partner, as the Best Bros, and the two of them held the Gatoh Move tag titles for quite a while until Calamari Drunken Kings (Chris Brookes and Masa Takanashi) won them off of them. Chris and Mei are bitter enemies. So, as you can guess, Chris and Akki don’t exactly provide the most unbiased commentary during this match, haha.
But, interestingly enough, Mei and Riho aren’t really the main focus here. This match is really about Suzume and Arisu. Suzume and Mei formed a sort of connection when Suzume fought Mei during her anniversary show (I still haven’t seen this…), so that was sort of the first inkling of them realizing they had a connection.
But Suzume’s main tag partner is Arisu, of course, as Daisy Monkey. I didn’t realize until this match, but I think this might be their first time actually facing each other all year? Since they started tagging regularly, at least. And TJPW spent a lot of the year really building their team, so them fighting now feels extra charged.
I was amazed that I had actually managed to forget that their careers are somewhat close in length (Suzume has over a year’s head start on her, but Arisu is steadily gaining ground, experience-wise), making them rivals in addition to partners. And boy, you can really feel that rivalry here! I think this is where TJPW really, really excels. I love the way that they balance those feelings of close tag partners, but also desperate rivals who really, really want to win, at any cost. Lots of wrestling companies do this, but in TJPW, usually they can fight like this and still remain just as close (if not closer) afterward. I personally find that very relieving .
In any case, Arisu tries very, very hard, and she almost manages to get the upset here, but in the end, Suzume proves to still be the stronger of the two.
After the match, Riho says that it gave her some fresh motivation to fight someone with whom she has a connection. She said that Arisu said that she’s frustrated, so Riho hopes she’s going to become an even greater wrestler.
Arisu says that she had a lot of emotional attachment in this match, so it was frustrating to lose, but it was fun and she learned so much.
I really liked how Suzume’s comments sort of seem to echo theirs a little bit. She says that in a match where all of the wrestlers were connected with a red string of fate, there’s a lot of emotional attachment. I loved her use of 赤い糸 here. She says that it was a big deal that she was able to face Arisu. She thought she might lose at the end, and she was so frustrated, she cried.
Mei’s comment confused me. She said: “いつ鈴芽ちゃんと組む日が来ても万全のメイのサプライズをお届けしたいなと思います.” Here was my attempt: “Even if the day comes when I can properly team with Suzume, I want to deliver a perfect Mei Surprise.” I couldn’t quite figure out what she was saying here, though the “surprise” might be a reference to their tag team name, Mei Bee Surprise.
In the next video, Suzume says that she will fight with the intention of surpassing Riho, and also surpassing Mei.
And that’s everything from the comments! Whew!
There were a couple other neat announcements from the show. They announced that TJPW’s next all-women audience show is going to be held at Korakuen with free admission! I hope they’re able to have cheering for that show, because the previous all-women fan shows that they’ve done were held within the past couple years when cheering was not allowed. It’s awesome that this one is going to be at Korakuen, though. It sounds like it’ll be a proper big show!
They also announced that Max the Impaler is going to come wrestle in TJPW! I’m super excited for that! For folks who aren’t familiar, Max is a transmasculine nonbinary wrestler in America who has worked in ROH and made a few AEW Dark appearances, in addition to working the indies. They’re super cool and should make for a fun styles mix with TJPW’s typical style.
Next up, the Tokyo Princess Cup! Which is starting very soon! I’m aiming to get each translation for those shows done within two days, but we’ll see how that goes…
There are some other non-TJPW things I wanted to post about, but I’ll save that for another post .