Done with translating TJPW’s July 23 show (recap here)!
A short one this time! There was only one TPC match in this because Mizuki vs Shoko got canceled. This meant that both Pom and Suzume suddenly got a massive opportunity to have a main event singles match, which is pretty cool!
I enjoyed Pom bringing a butterfly net to her match with a hornet. Sadly, Pom’s trickery was still not enough to net (
) herself the win. But it’s pretty big for Suzume to make it into the quarterfinals!
Suzume got to close out the show by herself for the first time. When she spoke live, I could feel her emotion even without being able to catch what she was saying. She said that she never knows what Pom is going to do, and her shins hurt, but she won! Next, she will fight Rika, whom she admires, and who inspired her to join TJPW. She said that this summer, she will surpass Rika Tatsumi, whom she admires so much, and then after that, she’s aiming to win the tournament.
Backstage, according to the recap (here’s the video), Suzume said: “（1回戦は）シードだったんですけど、まず1勝”. This was a little hazy for me. I think she was saying “She was seeded into the first round, but she started out with a win.”? I’m not exactly sure of the proper way to talk about tournament seeding in English, so that holds me back a little. I also wasn’t quite sure who was the subject, but considering the context, it seems to be Pom?
Suzume went on to say that Pom does unpredictable things, but she was glad that Pom showed persistence against her. She said that she joined TJPW because she admired the way that Rika fights with all of her might, and she wants to live her life like that, too. In the twitter caption, she says that if all she wanted was to live her life to the fullest, there are other ways besides pro wrestling, but she chose this path.
Then she said: “この道を選んだからこそ、この道じゃないと成し遂げられないことをしたい.” I struggled with this. Here was what I went with: “I chose it specifically because I want to do something that can only be accomplished this way.” (Or would “that can’t be done anywhere else” be better? Or are both wrong? 
) She says that that is defeating Rika Tatsumi.
Pom said that this was her first singles match with Suzume. Then she said, “前にタッグで負けたとき、人生終わっちゃうくらい悔しかったんです.” I think this says basically: “Before, when I lost in tag team matches, I was so frustrated, it felt like the end of my life.”?
She said that for the first time in a long time, she remembered that feeling. She says that she thinks this experience was absolutely essential, so “Pom-chan’s 2022 summer” will surely become a great memory.
The twitter caption elaborates a little more. She mentions that she thought it would be cool for her to win her first ever singles main event. (Pom actually has singles match victories over both Yuka and Rika, but let’s just say they weren’t standard matches, haha. They’re probably just about the only shoot matches in pro wrestling.)
The recap also points out that Pom and Rika faced each other in the TJPW Inspiration show on April 10, which I believe I talked about in here. The upcoming cup match would be a tough match for Suzume to win, but maybe she’ll fare better this time…
The other match of consequence on this show was the replacement match for Shoko vs Mizuki, which was Shoko and Yuka vs Miu and Rika. I really loved this one! All four of them were really at their best. I feel like when Yuka and Shoko tag together, they have a particular kind of energy where they’re wrestling together but sort of competing with each other at the same time. Though in a way that makes them stronger as a team, not weaker.
I was convinced it was going to end in a draw, but Shoko managed to pull off the win at the very end, pinning Miu with less than a minute left on the clock. Tough loss for Miu! It’s her second one in a short period of time (after she took the pin in the number one contender 4way at CyberFest).
I think I was able to understand this part of the recap, but was a little confused because I couldn’t double-check it because no one else mentioned this in English. Here’s the last part of the match recap: “20分時間切れギリギリで中島がロコモーション式ノーザンライト・スープレックス・ホールドを約1年ぶりに繰り出して渡辺から勝利.” Here was my translation: “just before the 20 minute time limit, Nakajima executed a locomotion-style Northern Lights Suplex for the first time in about a year, pulling off the victory over Watanabe.”
I was a little confused over what the 年ぶり part was referring to (the move? the win over Miu?), and I’d also never heard of a locomotion-style move before. But I commonly learn new wrestling things, haha. I’m not sure if this is exactly how it would be translated in English, but google seemed to show some precedent.
After the match, Shoko said (embellishing with the twitter caption) that she thinks Mizuki is even more disappointed than she is (over losing by forfeit). She says that if she wants to call herself the best in TJPW, she thinks Mizuki is one of the opponents she has to defeat. Shoko won by forfeit, so she definitely wants to face her one-on-one when they get the chance. Next she has Miu, who might be the opponent she doesn’t want to lose to the most right now. She’s bracing herself for the challenge.
Miu said that she wanted this to be the summer of surpassing their senpais. She thinks the young wrestlers have to work hard to achieve results here, so even though she’s disappointed today, she’s going to do her best in order to surpass Shoko.
Rika’s comment was a little confusing. She said: “私も対戦相手が鈴芽になったんですけど、大きい羽が生えたばっかりだけど、むしり取って、その先の決勝で会おうよ”. I translated this as: “My opponent is Suzume, but even though she just finished growing bigger wings, I’m going to tear them off, and we’ll meet in the finals at some point down the road.”
I’m pretty sure the bigger wings refer to the new wings on Suzume’s gear, which are longer than the old ones. Rika also tore one of her wings off in their last singles match, haha. But enough of the wording in the comment was tricky, I wasn’t entirely confident. According to the recap, Rika also mentioned that she’s going to meet Miu, her tag partner, in the finals.
And that’s all for this show!
Next show will decide the semi-finals. Then the four names will be shuffled. My friends and I have debated whether this is or is not a truly random draw, haha. I guess we’ll have to see how they do the draw this year, and if there’s an easy way to work it like they did the draw for the tournament bracket…
I’m torn between rooting for Miu to win, or rooting for Shoko to go all the way and nominate Mizuki for her opponent, so that match will be extra tense for me… For the other matches, I’m hoping for some upsets, haha. I’ll be rooting for Nao, Hikari, and Suzume 
.