The 🤼 プロレス thread! Learning Japanese through pro wrestling

[fallynleaf]

I finally watched 大日本プロレス リア王 (BJW’s King Lear)! This show happened on August 7, 2008, so it is quite old at this point, but I really enjoyed it! As I think I already mentioned, BJW did a series of Shakespeare deathmatch shows from 2008-2011 (there were three: King Lear, Romeo vs Juliet, and then two showings of Macbeth). These shows are not available anywhere online, as far as I have been able to find, so I bought the DVDs secondhand and had them shipped from Japan!

I’ve been trying to translate as much stuff as I can find about these shows so that I can share them with my friends and also hopefully get more info about them out there so that Shakespeare enthusiasts can know that they exist!

King Lear is the one I have the least info for (the Romeo vs Juliet DVD came with what appears to be the original program for the show folded up inside, and Macbeth has a guidebook, which I had a friend buy secondhand for me and just got in the mail!), but the back of the DVD has a lot of good stuff on it, so I translated it with the help of a friend who was also super interested in these shows, and who helped me buy them.

I’ll include the original Japanese, and then my translation under it so that you can choose which to read haha.

The introduction on the back of the DVD:

リング云う舞台、そこはロープと言う結界が張られて居た。

前評判は、「一体どんな物なんだろう・・？」「レスラーがやる演劇なんてどうせグダグダの学芸会だろう・・」「シェイクスピアなんてプロレスラーが出来る分けないだろ・・」と様々な憶測が飛び交っていた「大日リア王」。

しかし、会場を日の当たりにした時、全てが余計な心配だったと言う事が解った。横浜赤レンガ倉庫ホールは、普段の大日本プロレスの試合会場ではなく完璧にリア王の宮殿・・リアパレスであった。

そして、宮廷人を従えてリングの上に現れたリア王付きのバイオリニスト！、そして、リア王を先頭に登場したリア家のレスラー達!!。

全ての空気は、まさにしプロレスを身に纏ったシェイクスピア劇であった。そして物語は、コーデリアの追放。王様の眼前で繰り広げられる御前試合。

そして、裏切り、仲間割れ、追放、反逆、絶望と・・雪崩式に押し寄せて来る悲劇の数々・・。その一つ一つが全てレスラー達の肉体に因る「プロレス」で完璧に表現されていたのであった・・・。

レスラー達の肉体表現に闘いを挑んだ役者達も又、四角いリングと言う結界の中、表現者としてのプライドを賭けてレスラー達に挑んで行った。

演劇でもない、プロレスでもない、しかしリングの上で起こった事は全てがプロレスであり、人間が肉体と英知を使って表現をした物は全てが芸術である。

その企画は、プロレスラーに因る、芸術に対する冒涜ではなく、挑戦状であるのかも知れない。日本のプロレス界の長い歴史に於いて、初めて表現されたシェイクスピア。それが、初演から400年の歴史を経て初めて本物の血と汗を流して闘った、男達の熱い物語であった事を、シェイクスピアは雲の上から見ていた事であろう。

紛れも無く、男達はプロレスと演劇の歴史と観客の心に深く名を刻んだのである。

My translation:

The stage was called a ring, and it was bounded by ropes.

Before the show, sentiments like: “What on earth is this?” “A play performed by wrestlers would be like a boring school play anyway…” “There’s no way professional wrestlers could do something like Shakespeare…” and various other assumptions floated around “Big Japan’s King Lear.”

However, when I saw the venue that day, I realized that these concerns were utterly uncalled for. The Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse was not the usual venue for a Big Japan Pro Wrestling match, but it was the perfect abode for King Lear—it was Lear’s Palace.

Then King Lear entered the ring with his royal attendants, accompanied by a violinist! And then came the wrestlers portraying Lear’s family, with King Lear at the helm!!

The atmosphere was entirely that of a Shakespeare play dressed up as professional wrestling. Cordelia’s exile was the story. Before the eyes of the king unfolded the contest.

And betrayal, friends turned to enemies, exile, treason, despair… countless tragedies which descended upon us avalanche-style… Each and every one of them was perfectly expressed in the “pro wrestling” that is conveyed in the bodies of the wrestlers.

As the wrestlers physically expressed the drama, so too did the actors bring the challenge to the wrestlers to stake their pride as expressive artists within the boundaries of the so-called squared circle.

It was neither theater nor pro wrestling, but everything that happens in the ring is pro wrestling, and everything expressed by human beings using their bodies and minds is art.

Because of pro wrestlers, this project is not a blasphemy against art, but maybe a formal challenge. For the first time in the long history of Japanese professional wrestling, Shakespeare was expressed. This was the first time in the 400 years of history since the show was first performed that it was fought with real blood and sweat flowing, and Shakespeare must have gazed down from above the clouds and seen the passionate tale presented by these daring men.

Without a doubt, these men have carved their names and left a deep impression in the history of pro wrestling and theater, as well as in the hearts of the audience.

It was fun translating the list of tragedies: 裏切り、仲間割れ、追放、反逆、絶望と・・ I was like, “Hey, I just learned 仲間割れ from the Wrestle Universe chat!” Overall, I did better than I thought translating this, or at least my friend had relatively minor fixes, haha. I made a few errors when transcribing the text from the DVD, but I think I caught them all when translating it.

Something that was kind of funny to me was that there were a lot of words here that were taught to me as: “this can be written in kanji as [ ], but you’ll always see it in kana.” Well, they were in kanji here! Including our old friend, 又. I thought maybe it was done to save space (they didn’t exactly have a lot of real estate on the back of the DVD), but one of my friends suggested that maybe they used more kanji to sound more ~Shakespearean~. That is also a possibility!

I found that whole thing really fascinating because, well, I’m obviously obsessed with pro wrestling, but I’ve also loved Shakespeare for a long, long time, so I sort of have one foot in each world here. It’s unfortunately wholly unsurprising to me that this show received the reaction that it did when it was first announced, because I think that gets at the high/low culture dichotomy, and the fact that most people place Shakespeare on one side of that, and pro wrestling on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. I have actually sort of done a lot of research on that, too, haha, because I focused a lot on fan studies in undergrad and in graduate school, and the high/low culture issue came up a lot!

In any case, this is the kind of show that is made for an audience of me (my inability to watch deathmatches notwithstanding…), so I was very excited about it! I would love to see more of this kind of thing in wrestling! It’s honestly similar in many ways to Hiragana Muscle, though Muscle is a comedy and this is a tragedy.

Also, the card for all of these shows is incredible! I love the match names!

Here is the card as it was printed on the back of the DVD:

序章 バイオリン 松田麻由美

第1幕 グレート・リア王より開催の御挨拶

第2幕 ドランカープリンスタッグマッチ 30分ー本勝負

バックス宮本 アプロディタ忍
VS
ゴネリル谷口 オールバニ弁慶 with オズワルド勘九郎

第3幕 200ポンドマッスルハードコアタッグマッチ 30分ー本勝負

マルス関本 ハーデース黒田
VS
リーガンWX コーンウォール小林

第四章 狂気

第五幕 追悼バトルロイヤル

コング桑田 ✕ 八代進一・谷山知宏組 ✕ 黒天使 ✕ ボクデス・スカンク組

ローズ＆蛍光灯祭壇デスマッチ 時間無制限1本勝負

エドマンド佐々木 エドガー葛西 黒天使
VS
コーデリア伊東 フランス帝王 ケント井上

My translation (I added the actual names of the performers in italics)

Prologue: Violin Mayumi Matsuda

Act 1: A Greeting from the Great King Lear

(Great Kojika)

Act 2: Drunkard Prince Tag Match (30 minutes, one fall)

BACCHUS Miyamoto APHRODITA Shinobu
VS
GONERIL Taniguchi ALBANY Benkei with OSWALD Kankuro

(Yuko Miyamoto & Shinobu VS Yuichi Taniguchi & Daikokubo Benkei with Kankuro Hoshino)

Act 3: 200lb. Muscle Hardcore Tag Match (30 minutes, one fall)

MARS Sekimoto HADES Kuroda
VS
REGAN WX CORNWALL Kobayashi

(Daisuke Sekimoto & Tetsuhiro Kuroda VS Shadow WX & Abdullah Kobayashi)

Act 4: Madness

Act 5: Mourning Battle Royal

Kong Kuwata (storyteller) ✕ Shunichi Yashiro・Tomohiro Taniyama ✕ BLACK ANGEL ✕ Bokudesu (pastor)・SKUNK (guitar)

(Kong Kuwata ✕ Shunichi Yashiro ・Tomohiro Taniyama ✕ “Black Angel” Jaki Numazawa ✕ Masahiro Kohama ・ Tatsuo Sunaga)

Rose & Light Tube Altar Deathmatch (no time limit, one fall)

EDMUND Sasaki EDGAR Kasai BLACK ANGEL
VS
CORDELIA Ito FRANCE Teioh KENT Inoue

(Yoshihito Sasaki & Jun Kasai & “Black Angel” Jaki Numazawa VS Ryuji Ito & Men’s Teioh & Katsumasa Inoue)

Most of the wrestlers were pretty easy to find via google if I just typed in the kanji and added 大日本プロレス, but a few of the non-wrestlers gave me more trouble, haha. ボクデス in particular was a headache to find (what a name, lol)! My friend had to do the google sleuthing for that one, but he did manage to find him (he’s a performance artist, as it turns out). And スカンク was helpfully listed on the back of the DVD as “ギター”. That was beyond my investigative skills, too, but my friend somehow managed to figure out who it was.

I also had a bit of trouble with the katakana names of some of the characters who aren’t actual characters in King Lear. I’m pretty sure they’re meant to be Greek/Roman gods? Sort of? It’s complicated! I was confused when initially translating the names, but when I actually watched the show, I think it clicked why they chose to go with that.

This is the third adaption of King Lear that I’ve seen/read. The first was a regular performance of the play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the second was the novel A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. Both were very good! I’ve also read the play twice. It’s honestly not my favorite Shakespeare play, but I did get pretty heavily influenced by the eye-gouging scene in the OSF production and wrote something similar into a D&D game I was running at the time, haha, and then my mom and her siblings had a King-Lear-esque falling out over their inheritance after my grandmother died, so I ended up becoming pretty well-acquainted with the story whether I liked it or not…

But, well, here are some of my impressions after watching BJW King Lear:

I wasn’t able to understand terribly much of the dialogue, haha, but I got the basic gist of the story, thanks to my King Lear knowledge. It appeared to be King Lear told through a wrestling setting instead, so I don’t think it’s really full of direct Shakespeare quotes or anything (I caught plenty of wrestling words, at least, haha), but I dunno. I did notice I caught a lot more of the dialogue when going back through the show afterward to get screencaps. There is (Japanese) commentary for the matches, which helps convey some of the story beats. That in itself was an interesting stylistic choice.

The matches themselves are actually pretty enjoyable just as matches, I think. They fit into an overall story, but the wrestlers work them like they’re regular matches, so even if you don’t fully get what’s going on, you can still enjoy the narrative of the matches individually. Only one of the matches was a true deathmatch, and that was the main event: the Rose & Light Tube Altar Deathmatch. I was able to watch more of it than I thought I would, haha, because the vibes were simply off the charts.

Here are some screenshots of the show, plus some more specific comments:

Great Kojika played the “Great” King Lear! I’m not normally a BJW watcher, so I had no idea who he was until I looked him up, but apparently he co-founded the promotion and is the oldest Japanese wrestler as well as the one with the longest career, and is also the oldest active wrestler in the world (at age 80!). Legitimately extremely fitting for this role, actually!

I really liked the way he wore the two belts around his neck like this. This is from the scene where Cordelia gets exiled.

From the Drunkard Prince tag match.

Regan and Cornwall had a bit of a 仲間割れ during their match. Not a good way to impress the king!

I hadn’t seen much of “Black Angel” Jaki Numazawa’s work before this (I’d only seen him in the last BJW X DDT crossover show, I think), but he left a pretty strong impression on me in this! His character work as (I’m assuming?) the Fool character was pretty great!

The music in this show also ruled. I loved the violin at the beginning, and the guitar they had going on during the battle royal act was fun! They also had this incredible altar setup, with bunches of roses and light tubes on the apron…

Tajiri was also here for some reason? I don’t remember seeing his name on the back of the DVD, haha.

Jun Kasai was fantastic in this! Honestly, all the wrestlers were great! I have no idea why he decided to kiss Numazawa’s character here, but, well, they decided to do that! I guess it’s a bit of a preview for the main event of Romeo vs Juliet, which is the next show…

The altar turned out to be made of light tubes, which is extremely pro wrestling, and of course someone crashed through it. I didn’t even realize what it was made out of until partially through this match. There were some other pretty incredible light tube/barbed wire/rose weapons, which of course broke spectacularly.

At one point, they scattered roses all over the ring and did a rolling cradle on top of the roses and the broken glass from the light tubes… I could only watch scattered pieces of this last match, but boy did it have a lot of striking imagery…

All in all, I loved it! I’m very excited for Romeo vs Juliet next, whenever that is able to happen! (It depends on when there are lulls in the TJPW translation workload, haha). I already got started translating the program, and I hope to get most of it done before watching the show so that my friends and I have as much context as possible.

With King Lear, I’m considering trying to translate shupro’s recap for it, since it goes more in depth about the plot (I didn’t look at the recap before watching because I didn’t want to spoil it), and then maybe making a huge blog post with everything I have translated for the show so that English-speaking fans (of wrestling and/or of Shakespeare) can know that it exists. Because I think it’s an incredibly cool work of art that really transcends genre boundaries in both directions.

I’d also love to properly gif it at some point, though who knows when I’ll get around to that, haha. Not that there’s really any particular rush, though…

Someday, when my listening comprehension is better, I’ll definitely rewatch all of these shows to get the full experience.

[rodan]

A couple translation suggestions (if you don't mind!)

@fallynleaf

「レスラーがやる演劇なんてどうせグダグダの学芸会だろう・・」

@fallynleaf

“A play performed by wrestlers would be like a boring school play anyway…”

The どうせ here I would say is like, “any way you slice it, the outcome is definitely gonna be X”
Whereas the “anyway” used here reads to me like a softer “ehh I was thinking of going but it’ll probably be X anyway so why bother” kind of anyway.
I would try to ramp up the derision - here’s my own attempt:
“A play put on by wrestlers? There’s no way that doesn’t end up just like a mind-numbing school play!”

@fallynleaf

しかし、会場を日の当たりにした時、全てが余計な心配だったと言う事が解った。

@fallynleaf

However, when I saw the venue that day, I realized that these concerns were utterly uncalled for.

A couple things:

1. you’ve got 日の当たり here but it sounds like you translated based on 目の当たり so that would be a transcription to doublecheck.
2. I don’t feel great about the first-person narrator materializing for just this sentence. I don’t think 目の当たり and 解った necessarily imply a personal narrator describing their own experiences here (although it makes sense why it would feel more natural to translate it that way…). I’d say the subject in that sense is still the general, collective opinion.
   My attempt:
   “But at first sight of the venue, all such qualms were found to be needless concern.”

@fallynleaf

そして物語は、コーデリアの追放。

@fallynleaf

Cordelia’s exile was the story.

This is really picky, but I would say the original order matches the structure more: “The story was Cordelia’s exile”
空気は…そして物語は → The atmosphere… The story.

@fallynleaf

レスラー達の肉体表現に闘いを挑んだ役者達も又、四角いリングと言う結界の中、表現者としてのプライドを賭けてレスラー達に挑んで行った。

@fallynleaf

As the wrestlers physically expressed the drama, so too did the actors bring the challenge to the wrestlers to stake their pride as expressive artists within the boundaries of the so-called squared circle.

This one is hard because there’s a two part structure with very similar ends, and it’s easier to intuit what they’re probably saying than figure it out exactly. Assuming the transcript is exactly correct though, I think what’s happening is it’s describing the deepness of the challenge posed to the pro-wrestlers by re-emphasizing it.
レスラー達の肉体表現に闘いを挑んだ役者達も ~ the actors who challenged a fight towards the wrestler’s physical expression.
又 ~ also, furthermore
四角いリングと言う結界の中、表現者としてのプライドを賭けてレスラー達に挑んで行った。~ they went to the wrestlers’ home turf and challenged the wrestlers’ very pride as performers within the bounds of the so-called squared circle.

@fallynleaf

その企画は、プロレスラーに因る、芸術に対する冒涜ではなく、挑戦状であるのかも知れない。

@fallynleaf

Because of pro wrestlers, this project is not a blasphemy against art, but maybe a formal challenge.

I think you mistook the structure here. I would say the second comma is separating two things modifying 冒涜:

(プロレスラーに因る、芸術に対する)冒涜

roughly “a blasphemy against the arts perpetrated by pro wrestlers”

@fallynleaf

Something that was kind of funny to me was that there were a lot of words here that were taught to me as: “this can be written in kanji as [ ], but you’ll always see it in kana.” Well, they were in kanji here! Including our old friend, 又. I thought maybe it was done to save space (they didn’t exactly have a lot of real estate on the back of the DVD), but one of my friends suggested that maybe they used more kanji to sound more ~Shakespearean~. That is also a possibility!

Yeah I wouldn’t say they’re being over the top with it here, but pretty much 100% of those “usually written as kanji” cases you will see as kanji if you read literature that’s a notch or two older or more serious/formal. I don’t know exactly what generates those messages in jisho and such but I assume it’s there mainly as a “write this one in kana when you use it yourself” type of thing, not a “this kanji is so rare as to be unusual in all situations” type of thing.
Here I would say it’s dialing up the gravity a bit, as appropriate for a Shakespeare play about a royal court. Kanji has a bit more weight, after all! に於いて for one doesn’t save a lot of space

Thanks for sharing so much about that show!! It looks like a really neat thing

[fallynleaf]

@rodan

The どうせ here I would say is like, “any way you slice it, the outcome is definitely gonna be X”
Whereas the “anyway” used here reads to me like a softer “ehh I was thinking of going but it’ll probably be X anyway so why bother” kind of anyway.

How about: “A play put on by wrestlers would definitely be like a mind-numbing school play at best…”

@rodan

you’ve got 日の当たり here but it sounds like you translated based on 目の当たり so that would be a transcription to doublecheck.

I thought I’d already double-checked this one, but I looked again, and sure enough, you’re right, haha, it is indeed 目の当たり! Curse you small text!! I had a fair amount of trouble with this one, and I think only sort of accidentally ended up at the correct interpretation, haha, because that was what made sense!

How’s this? “However, at the sight of the venue, all such qualms were found to be needless concern.”

@rodan

This one is hard because there’s a two part structure with very similar ends, and it’s easier to intuit what they’re probably saying than figure it out exactly. Assuming the transcript is exactly correct though, I think what’s happening is it’s describing the deepness of the challenge posed to the pro-wrestlers by re-emphasizing it.

This one was honestly super tricky! I had no idea what it was even saying, haha. The version in the translation I shared here was actually my second attempt at that line. Here was my first:

“The actors who challenged the struggle expressed by the physical bodies of the wrestlers also challenged the wrestlers to stake their pride as expressive artists within the boundaries of the so-called squared circle.”

My friend read it a little differently, hence my second attempt, haha. I think my own interpretation is a little closer to yours, though, now that I compare them.

@rodan

I think you mistook the structure here. I would say the second comma is separating two things modifying 冒涜:

That does make sense! I think I was reading it as modifying both 冒涜 and 挑戦状, but I think rewording the sentence conveys that sense better, too: “This project is not a blasphemy against art perpetrated by pro wrestlers, but maybe a formal challenge.”

@rodan

Yeah I wouldn’t say they’re being over the top with it here, but pretty much 100% of those “usually written as kanji” cases you will see as kanji if you read literature that’s a notch or two older or more serious/formal.

Honestly, it makes me wonder if a lot of the noise people make about it here on this forum is a bit overblown . People complain about WK teaching this stuff as if it’s such a rare use case, there’s no point to a general audience even learning it so early in our studies, but honestly if I can find it on the back of a pro wrestling DVD, I think most people are likely to come across it much sooner than they might expect…

[rodan]

(The alternate translations you asked about seem fine!)

@fallynleaf

This one was honestly super tricky! I had no idea what it was even saying, haha.

Yeah I went back and forth on it myself… it could always be I suppose one of those situations where the copywriter got a little turned around themselves and didn’t notice. I feel like the 役者達も又 makes you expect something like “and the pro wrestlers did too” to line up the contrast grammatically, and then that just doesn’t turn up.
As-is my hesitant conclusion was the contrast between 挑んだ and like, 挑んで行った was the emphasis being made. Like the main point I think is that they not only laid out a challenge but went to their territory to have them put it on the line.

With your original I would have quibbled that I think in “challenged the struggle expressed by the physical bodies” the 闘いを挑んだ I think means like, “challenged to a 闘い.” Like this cat I found trying to fight drowsiness.

@fallynleaf

That does make sense! I think I was reading it as modifying both 冒涜 and 挑戦状, but I think rewording the sentence conveys that sense better, too: “This project is not a blasphemy against art perpetrated by pro wrestlers, but maybe a formal challenge.”

I think probably interpreting it as modifying both is right, but yeah the impression I got from your original was that you were interpreting it as modifying like, the verb / whole sentence, like “Because of pro wrestlers, this project is…” Sounds like it’s just a chair-rearranging issue though!

@fallynleaf

Honestly, it makes me wonder if a lot of the noise people make about it here on this forum is a bit overblown . People complain about WK teaching this stuff as if it’s such a rare use case, there’s no point to a general audience even learning it so early in our studies, but honestly if I can find it on the back of a pro wrestling DVD, I think most people are likely to come across it much sooner than they might expect…

Yeah…

I think what bugs me about that kind of complaint is the implicit assumption that like, your horizons won’t be widened over the course of learning, so limiting yourself strictly to what you’re currently interested in or expect to encounter at the moment should be sufficient. Like if you’re sure you’d never check out a pro-wrestling version of a Shakespeare play then it doesn’t matter one way or another what forms of words are on the packaging or not, it’s completely irrelevant.
But that seems like a bummer when widening horizons seems like, the main point of language learning (and will definitely happen to one extent or another as you progress), so might as well lean into it.

For what it’s worth in my own anki deck I always include a card for whatever the dictionary has as the primary kanji variant, and then additionally have separate lists I can add them to to import for making cards for a no kanji variant, alternate kanji variant, or alternate no kanji variant, based on if I encountered the word one of those ways. And while that makes a lot of cards (~30k so far with ~10k new and unlearned), and some are definitely like, obscure plant varieties that I don’t drill particularly strictly, I’ve never felt like, “ugh what a useless word” since I mean… I read it once somewhere or it wouldn’t be in there. And it’s not like I’ve been unearthing ancient texts or divining the hidden secrets of the stars either…

[fallynleaf]

Not a translation post this time (I’m still trying to finish the last one up haha), but there was enough going on that I thought it’d be worth sharing some things!

Monthly Puroresu (which, incidentally, follows the TJPW translation account now … The timing was a bit funny, because I was just complaining to a few friends about a TJPW article they’d published which had wrong information, and then a day later, I got the notification that they were following me. Hopefully this means that their TJPW articles will be more accurate going forward?) wrote a guide on how to watch various Japanese promotions! They cover some companies I don’t know much about, so I added a link to it to the promotion overview post at the beginning of this thread.

Also, Kota Ibushi’s NJPW contract is up, and he is now free!! He’ll be returning to the ring on March 30 for Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport, where he’ll be facing Speedball Mike Bailey (!!), and then he’ll also be wrestling at Joey Janela’s Spring Break on the 31.

Kota vs Speedball is a match that I have been wanting to see for a very long time, haha, ever since I read this interview with Mao (who teams up with Mike Bailey as the Moonlight Express). As the interview points out, there are some parallels between Moonlight Express and the Golden Lovers, which are both DDT tag teams consisting of a Canadian nerd and a Japanese weirdo.

There are some great quotes in that piece, some including words that I think we’re discouraged from posting on this forum, haha. I do like this one: “Some fans call MAO “the second coming of Kota Ibushi” for his physical prowess—and also his affinity for nonsense.”

Moonlight Express will actually be reuniting for a match the day after Kota vs Speedball! So I’m very much looking forward to that as well! (We are so close to getting the Golden Lovers vs Moonlight Express…)

It seems like Kota’s plans are to stay a freelancer and wrestle all around the world in all sorts of different places, sort of like what he did the last time he left NJPW. He also wants to start a wrestling school in Japan! It seems likely we’ll see him in AEW at some point, though probably not anytime super soon.

Also, in honor of Kota’s contract ending, I finally finished a gifset/essay that I had been working on for a long time! It’s basically a recap of the Golden Lovers side of Kenny’s AEW/Impact/AAA stories from 2019-2021. I’d meant to finish it at the end of 2021, but, well, a lot of other stuff happened in my life, and I just couldn’t get it together (I prioritized keeping up with Japanese and then taking over the DDT/TJPW translations). I dunno how many other folks here are really invested in that story, but if you weren’t in as deep as I was, or if you weren’t closely following AEW that entire time, there were probably details you missed, so I tried my best to sum up a lot of big stories with a lot of moving pieces and get to the core of it all. I think there’s a strong chance a lot of this stuff will get revisited…

[fallynleaf]

Finished translating TJPW’s January 29 show!

Strangely, the comments are back to normal now for some reason? Boo, I liked having another set of transcripts!

This was the tag tournament semifinals. First up was Moka and Juria vs Miyu and Itoh. The rookies’ put up a good fight, but their miraculous tournament run ended here.

Juria and Moka’s comments were pretty easy. Hooray!

Miyamoto: “We made it to the semifinals, but our opponents today were really tough. Losing is really frustrating. But through the course of this tournament, I think I’ve grown a lot as a tag team with Juria-san. I want to keep going and win as much as possible in the future.”

Juria: “Since we made it this far, I wanted to go all the way to the finals and win, but… our opponents were the strongest, and they destroyed us. I got beaten up so badly. Even though I gave 100% of the power that I have now, this was the result. I also had Moka-san’s help, so I’m disappointed… I think this might be the limit of what I’m capable of now. I want to keep teaming up with Moka-san, and become an even stronger karate tag team.”

The main event was Miu and Rika vs Shoko and Misao. I was very much pulling for the hero and kaiju here, and they managed to win! Yay! I like both of the teams in the finals, so it’ll be really hard to watch one of them lose, but it’s impossible not to root for Misao and Shoko…

Once again, I had Mr. Haku’s help on the closing out the show promo, which was great because I ended up following his lead on how to translate 根性.

After the match, One to Million, who will clash with them in the finals, appeared at the entrance gate.

Nakajima: “…So, you guys won. Why are you trying to look cool lurking in the back?”

Misao: “So, the finals are us, Kyoraku Kyomei, versus you guys, right?”

(The other two step into the ring)

Nakajima: “Today, I became sure of one thing. Hero + kaiju, this combination is absolutely unbeatable!”

Misao: “You who’ll be squaring off against us, hero and kaiju… do you have guts?”

Nakajima: (to One to Million, who are talking back without a mic) “A bunch of guts? Got it. Then it’ll be Team Guts vs Hero + Kaiju. It’ll be fun, huh? What, you got something you wanna say?”

Misao: “We’re Kyoraku Kyomei, and you’re… a bunch of guts? Is there anything you want to say?”

Itoh: “Can I speak, then? …Who’s the cutest in the world?” (“Itoh-chan!”) “Thank you very much!”

Misao: “It’s the winner’s job to close the show, and that’s us, Kyoraku Kyomei!”

Nakajima: “Your song’s gonna play!”

Misao: “Go on, get out of here!”

Nakajima: (after One to Million has left) “I have one thing I want to say to you. I lost my belt last year, but I think the reason I didn’t lose like last time was because I had a superhero by my side. I’m counting on you.”

Misao: “Needless to say, I trust you more than anyone, and believe in your strength more than anyone. I think that we, Kyoraku Kyomei, can definitely win this tournament. Thank you. I was able to win today thanks to being at your side!”

They closed with, “We are Kyoraku Kyomei!”

Misao and Shoko’s comments were as entertaining as always:

Misao: “We made it past the semifinals!”

Nakajima: “We did it!”

Misao: “We beat Daydream!”

Nakajima: “Finally winning… Well, we’ve had a few matches against those two, even a title match, but I don’t think we’d ever been able to beat them before. I’m really happy with today’s win, and I really want to get results with this team. I think today is one good result. If we go on to win the tournament after this, I think the belts would be in sight, and today I thought I’d like to see them around the waists of a hero and a kaiju. I want to do our best to aim for the victory without losing focus.”

Misao: “Like Nakajima-san said, beating Daydream really gave me a huge boost in confidence. In the future, I want Kyoraku Kyomei to get even stronger, and win even greater things. But before we could do that, we always had to beat Daydream. We accomplished that today, and now all that’s left is winning. Next is One to Million.”

Nakajima: “One to Million?”

Misao: “We are a kaiju and a hero, but what do we call them?”

Nakajima: “They seem to be guts and guts.”

Then Misao said, “根性と根性？ そんな概念みたいなものに我々、ヒーローと怪獣が負けるはずないんですよ。思い込みを打ち砕いてやります.” Most of the trouble for me was trying to figure out a good way to translate this, haha.

Misao: “Guts and guts? We, hero and kaiju, certainly won’t lose to an abstract concept like that! We’ll crush your assumptions.”

Nakajima: “I’ll smash that head, too! Maki Itoh, prepare yourself!”

Misao: “I’ll smash that leg, too! Miyu Yamashita, prepare yourself!”

Nakajima: “We’ll definitely win! Yes, we are…”

Both: “Kyoraku Kyomei!”

Itoh and Miyu talked less than last time, haha. Miyu did immediately confuse me with her second sentence, though: “私はもうね、空手って意味でも２人と向き合うと同じバックボーンがあるって意味で燃えるところもあるし.”

Yamashita: “Today was the semifinals match with Moka Miyamoto and Juria Nagano. The fact that it’s karate, and also the fact that I’m facing two people with that same spirit, that gets me fired up. But this time it’s the tag team tournament, and even though there’s quite a difference in the length of our careers, I couldn’t let my guard down against them. Truly, they were stronger than I had expected, or rather it was a hard fight. I think it’s huge that we were able to overcome them here.”

Itoh: “And the crowd was cheering for Juria Nagano and Moka Miyamoto, like, a lot.We’re masochists, aren’t we?”

Yamashita: “Surely.”

Itoh: “So… we crushed them. But I think they challenged us with everything they’ve got right now, and that’s good. It was fun. Next is Kyoraku Kyomei!”

I was a little taken aback when Itoh said “ドＭなんだよね、私たち”, but there’s only one way to translate that, isn’t there?

In the second part of their comments, there was some stuff I initially wasn’t sure about, but I think I more or less got it?

Yamashita: “The other semifinal today was Daydream vs Kyoraku Kyomei. Whichever team wins, it’s bad news for us. I think the one I’m weakest against came out on top. I don’t know what Daydream is going to do, but…”

Itoh: “Daydream is straightforward. But Kyoraku Kyomei always throws screwballs, and we’re not good at that. Just a bit tricky.”

Yamashita: “In the ring at the end… we’ve known each other for a long time, so it felt like a casual conversation, but when we meet each other’s eyes, I don’t want to lose. I don’t want to lose to Misao, or to Nakajima, either. I want us to win the tournament as a tag team, and I want to win the tag belts.”

Itoh: “I want to win them, too.”

Yamashita: “It’s not just my personal feelings; I want to join forces with Itoh and win in the finals, too. If we’re together, I think no matter how strong Kyoraku Kyomei is now, we’ll be able to beat them.”

Itoh: “Well, if we beat Kyoraku Kyomei… hero and kaiju, right? And now we’ll have a monster and a monster with belts. With this, I think we’ll be able to gain some momentum. So I want to beat them. I’ll do my best.”

Yamashita: “I’m going to put everything I have into this.”

Itoh: “I won’t lose.”

The first half of Rika and Miu’s comments went fine:

Tatsumi: “Miu… I’m sorry.”

Miu: “I’m sorry, too. I couldn’t get there in time.”

Tatsumi: “No, I was the one who wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. But I think I was way too confident that there was no way we’d lose.”

Then Miu said, “そうですね。カシン…加える、進む？” I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on here .

Miu: “Yeah. You overestimated yourself. Add it up, move on?”

Tatsumi: “No. I was overconfident, but I’m making this a moment to reflect.”

This last chunk was where they lost me:

まだタッグもこれからますます面白いタッグでずっといたいと思うので。違う夢を追いかけてくれる？」

“I still want our tag team to get more and more interesting. Will you pursue a different dream with me?”

未詩「はい。白昼夢を見せながら」

Miu: “Yes, while showing Daydream.”

辰巳「夢を見ていきたいと思います」

Tatsumi: “I’d like to keep dreaming.”

And that’s it for that show!

I did watch the PPV, but am not going to do any translations for it because almost nothing in it was transcribed, and my listening comprehension is definitely not up to the task, haha. Plus it would be a lot of work! I do really enjoy 2-count and 1-count fall matches, though, so it was a fun albeit fairly inconsequential show.

I’m a little worried by the increase in PPVs on Wrestle Universe this year, but I’m hoping it’s only for shows with unusual circumstances (like the no-audience TJPW show where PPV buys replaced ticket sales, and the Mutoh show which is a gigantic crossover event with a bunch of other companies). I’m a bit surprised that Stardom’s business model there is even sustainable, because I definitely could not afford to buy that many PPVs for any company .

[rodan]

@fallynleaf

Misao: “You who’ll be squaring off against us, hero and kaiju… do you have guts?”

Nakajima: (to One to Million, who are talking back without a mic) “A bunch of guts? Got it. Then it’ll be Team Guts vs Hero + Kaiju. It’ll be fun, huh? What, you got something you wanna say?”

Misao: “We’re Kyoraku Kyomei, and you’re… a bunch of guts? Is there anything you want to say?”

I think “bunch of guts” is giving the wrong impression here, since 根性の塊 for a couple of reasons doesn’t have anything to do with like, a glob of entrails.
About the 塊 part, it would appear that “embodiment (of something)” / “personification” would be the sense used here, per weblio:

４ （「…のかたまり」の形で）その傾向が極端であるもの。「うその―」「欲の―のような人間」

They’re embodying 根性, rather than being a lump of it.

@fallynleaf

Misao: “It’s the winner’s job to close the show, and that’s us, Kyoraku Kyomei!”

It maybe didn’t make it into the transcript, and it doesn’t really matter, but for what it’s worth she does specify “it’s the winner of the main event’s job” (rather than just “winner”). Without it the English sounds a little bit like maybe she’s predicting they’ll win the tournament or something (not to the point that anyone would actually be confused, but hey).

@fallynleaf

the reason I didn’t lose like last time

This is similarly really picky and not impactful but from an English perspective “last time” sounds a little weird here I feel like, since they’ve had matches since that championship match (that she’s won). “that time” or similar seems like it would be more natural.

@fallynleaf

Then Misao said, “根性と根性？ そんな概念みたいなものに我々、ヒーローと怪獣が負けるはずないんですよ。思い込みを打ち砕いてやります.” Most of the trouble for me was trying to figure out a good way to translate this, haha.

Misao: “Guts and guts? We, hero and kaiju, certainly won’t lose to an abstract concept like that! We’ll crush your assumptions.”

Maybe “half-baked” or something like that rather than “abstract”? I feel like she’s razzing them for the vagueness of their (apparent) retort to “ヒーローと怪獣” of “根性と根性”, like abstract but with the implication that like, they shoulda thought it through more and filled in the details.

I wonder if one way to get away with translating “根性と根性” would be to go with “sprit of determination” above and then “sprit and determination” here. But maybe that’s too tricksy… “guts and guts” sounds so weird and makes it sound like they’re using the relatively well-known loanword ガッツ, but I suppose it may still be better and sound snappier than alternatives I can think of.

For the “We’ll crush your assumptions.” I think they mean like, everyone’s / the general assumptions.

Especially good example of the Shoko Nakajima “I am done talking in a backstage promo and am self-conscious about it” expression in there

@fallynleaf

Itoh and Miyu talked less than last time, haha. Miyu did immediately confuse me with her second sentence, though: “私はもうね、空手って意味でも２人と向き合うと同じバックボーンがあるって意味で燃えるところもあるし.”

Yamashita: “Today was the semifinals match with Moka Miyamoto and Juria Nagano. The fact that it’s karate, and also the fact that I’m facing two people with that same spirit, that gets me fired up.

She’s actively trying to form her thought into words here so it maybe ends up a little weird in the transcript, but I believe what she’s trying to say is like – Moka and Juria both share a karate background and additionally they both have the same sense of backbone that Miyu feels when she wrestles them.
So like, the 燃えるところ about the match-up for Miyu mean both the 空手って意味 and the ２人と向き合うと同じバックボーンがあるって意味.
So looking at your translation it seems like you parsed it ok.

@fallynleaf

Itoh: “And the crowd was cheering for Juria Nagano and Moka Miyamoto, like, a lot.We’re masochists, aren’t we?”

It seems like the transcript dropped Itoh’s line before the ドＭ part: “それがね…なんかさ…燃えちゃうよね”

@fallynleaf

And now we’ll have a monster and a monster with belts. With this, I think we’ll be able to gain some momentum. So I want to beat them. I’ll do my best.

The 化け物と化け物 are Max and Heidi - it’s “currently we have” rather than “now we’ll have”

@fallynleaf

Then Miu said, “そうですね。カシン…加える、進む？” I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on here .

Miu: “Yeah. You overestimated yourself. Add it up, move on?”

Tatsumi: “No. I was overconfident, but I’m making this a moment to reflect.”

I suspected from the katakana that Miu had misinterpreted what Rika said (an always delightful element of Japanese is that if you don’t know what a word means you can’t speak aloud the kanji now can you?), but it took looking at the quote tweets to figure out what exactly was going on:
“カシン…加える、進む？”
加進…

加進カシン, ね？

Miu has not understood 過信, and is asking if she means 加進 (which doesn’t appear to be a word)

(The quote tweets also made a lot of unrelated jokes about ケンドー・カシン)

@fallynleaf

This last chunk was where they lost me:

Seems like they kept you fine

If I have a specific note I suppose it’s about the connotation of the last line - I found a source where a musician proclaimed to the crowd 「2023年、20周年をお前たちと一緒に夢を見ていきたいです！ いい夢を見よう」.
I feel like with the 見ていきたい there’s more of a sense of like, wanting to go execute something awesome and thereby experience the dream. Whereas “keep dreaming” feels more like, focusing on the wanting. I dunno what a good option is though.

@fallynleaf

I’m a little worried by the increase in PPVs on Wrestle Universe this year, but I’m hoping it’s only for shows with unusual circumstances (like the no-audience TJPW show where PPV buys replaced ticket sales, and the Mutoh show which is a gigantic crossover event with a bunch of other companies). I’m a bit surprised that Stardom’s business model there is even sustainable, because I definitely could not afford to buy that many PPVs for any company .

It does seem like wrestling streaming services are ramping up the PPV count huh… I’m of two minds too since I think promotions could very likely wring more money out of me (and probably deserve to for the most part in terms of what the shows are worth), but I feel like a short time restriction isn’t enough for me to spend extra money at least when I can’t watch them literally live because of time zones (I still haven’t bought a Stardom PPV even though those are the ones I’m most interested in), and I also wouldn’t feel great about a long time restriction if I’m also subscribed to a streaming service… AEW got me to spend the most money on PPVs, but it’s not like their lack of a service is preferable… I dunno, it sounds like non-wrestling streaming services are in a weird spot right now too in terms of valuation of what’s on offer, so I wonder if more experimentation is in the future. if they go by what will get me individually to spend way too much money, apparently they should pivot to blu ray

[rodan]

週刊プロレス No.２２０９ (from October 2022)

Tetsuya Naito’s column is about his trip to wrestle in the UK, his first outside of Japan since the pandemic. He reports not seeing masks after arriving at the airport to the point of the pandemic being forgotten about, and not putting one on himself to fit in. It was also the first time a crowd could join in on the “de Japon” call since 2020 when he beat KENTA to become double champ. He had stuff to say in English prepared but didn’t follow his catchphrase’s advice and 焦ってしました and forgot it all. An LIJらしい detail is that Hiromu and SANADA were also on the tour and apparently were in the same hotel but they didn’t take the same flight or contact each other outside of the arena.
The column also talks about Intonio Inoki - he was struck by a moment showing Inoki’s fame when a cabbie in the UK heard he was Japanese and asked if he heard Antonio Inoki died, and was shocked when Naito told him he’s actually a wrestler for the promotion Inoki started. He says although he briefly met Inoki once or twice, he was still a “TVの中の人” to him. He also though that his dad is a big Inoki fan and used to tell him to always use さん when talking about Sadaharu Oh (a baseball star), Shigeo Nagashima (a baseball star), and Antonio Inoki, so Inoki is indirectly the reason Naito stood in a wrestling ring, since he likely wouldn’t have become a wrestler if his dad wasn’t a fan.

There’s a 新連載 column called それぞれの闘魂伝 that would appear to be a series of interviews about Antonio Inoki with people connected to him in some way. The first interviewee is… Shinsuke Nakamura!
He describes first meeting Antonio Inoki around when he was going to the LA Dojo, and sparring with him. It sounds like Inoki could still go pretty well at the time, and was never going to give up so the sparring match went on a very long time. Also, it sounds like while sparring Inoki had a tendency to dig in elbows and fingers into weak points like bellies and noses and… buttholes. But Nakamura was warned about that and dodged. Nakamura recounts a time when addressing a group of training wrestlers, Inoki said something along the lines of to never let your guard down, and demonstrated by suddenly slapping a wrestler. And then tried it on Nakamura too, but Nakamura anticipated it and dodged, but he could tell that made Inoki grumpy so next time he stuck out a cheek.
A memorable post-match incident involving Nakamura and Inoki was a November 2004 event where apparently a fan poll by ring announcer Kero Tanaka’s camp in New Japan set the main event as the first singles match between Nakamura and Tanahashi, but for some reason Inoki’s camp nixed that and replaced it with a boring miscellaneous tag match. And at the end of the show Inoki gave Nakamura 鉄拳制裁 and attacked him. I don’t fully understand the details and I assume some portion of it is kayfabe, but it sounds like Nakamura says Inoki told him he had to do it to push the Dome show, but Nakamura felt internally that it was Inoki’s fault in the first place for booking a boring match at the event. And then in 2006 Inoki left NJPW while Nakamura still had those mixed feelings about him.
He describes his feelings now that Inoki has passed as like, hearing parent who you had a falling out with has died. He says he wouldn’t have the unique pro-wrestling career he’s been able to have without Inoki, and when he pictures Inoki’s face now he also remembers his brash young self that Inoki helped form.

There’s a long interview with Giulia on the occasion of her 5 Star GP tournament victory in Stardom.
The first question posed to her is what match stood out to her other than the block final against Suzu Suzuki, and Giulia says her three losses at the start of the tournament stood out the most, and if she had to pick one, it would be the match against Hazuki. Giulia says when she joined Stardom, everybody, both the fans and the wrestlers, hated her guts, and Hazuki stoked those flames (e.g. calling Giulia before a scheduled match “葉月の望まない相手”) and then quickly after retired. But she was honestly glad to see Hazuki return since it meant those feelings could be worked out in a wrestling match when they wouldn’t ever be otherwise. And she feels that this match in the tournament made her appreciate Hazuki’s own love of wrestling more, and Giulia thinks maybe she got a good rival out of the deal and looks forward to their next singles match.
Then the topic turns to the match with Suzu. Giulia was crying a lot already before the match – she says that Suzu is so much like a beloved little sister to her (すずは、本当に血がつながってるって思えるくらい、愛おしい妹だなって思った), that she was extremely touched by seeing her after all her recent successes enter the ring to her entrance music and be accepted by Stardom’s fans.
Their being able to fight in such a big venue was also notable, and the only words they exchanged after the bell rang as the match ended were Giulia looking up at the ceiling: 「でかいな」 「ね」. From an audience of 30-50 people to now 2500. But Giulia wants to fight her next in front of even more people (say, I wonder if she managed it the other day?).
Suzu was also crying a lot before the match. Giulia can imagine the many mixed emotions Suzu’s been feeling, and can feel it more as well from reading Shupro and reading Suzu’s comments about her that way (like she quotes Suzu as talking about needing to put on a face like she hated Giulia after she left but really she loves her). Seeing Suzu’s expression in the ring as the bell rang 私も感情がめちゃくちゃ、ぐちゃぐちゃだった. She thinks the match was enough to wipe clean Suzu’s grudge, and from here they can proceed with normal competitiveness as fellow pro wrestlers. She wants to have important singles matches with Suzu and also try tagging with her .
About the final against Tam Nakano, Gilia says she laughed when she heard it was Tam she’d have to fight, and the excitement and nervousness of fighting her at a time like this quickly took hold, with her shaking under her entrance gown and worrying about if they would surpass their hair vs. hair match. But she needn’t have worried, as it was such an intense match that she was completely spent and didn’t even have enough energy to travel home, instead getting a hotel, putting ice in the futon and just sleeping. She wants to ask Tam for the room fare.
She reports her thoughts when receiving the Avalanche Tiger Suplex during the match as being “あ、死んだ” and then 「ここでくたばるわけにはいかない、コイツにやられてたまるか!!」 and she especially pushed through because after her neck injury last year she needed to probe that she could get up again and bear it and be fine. “根性、根性、根性”
They talk about the special kind of trust she has with Tam for them to put on a match like that, and Giulia remarks on how the match level in Stardom has noticeably increased, and with it the number of dangerous moves. She says she wants to get better at the technical side of wrestling to be able to entertain the crowd without relying so much on moves like that - but Tam’s special, with her it’s 死ぬか生きるか！（笑）
About the red belt challenge she won via the tournament, Giulia says that she and Syuri were a great tag team, and she definitely took something away from Syuri, but Syuri also got something from her, since she went on to win the red belt and start God’s Eye and all that. Giulia compares Syuri’s run with the belt as being like “最強のロボット” - Syuri comes away looking strong and she racks up great matches and strong defenses, but does she even really talk to her opponents? Giulia doesn’t know what this 朱世界 means in the end. Giulia says Syuri’s strength is certain, and it’s extraordinary, but that she thinks a top champion should convey more than simply strength.
The interviewer makes the connection from that to matches like Himeka’s challenge against Syuri and how that awakened some additional confidence in Himeka, and suggests that, given how Giulia awakened something like that in Starlight Kid by trying to tear off her mask, Giulia’s saying as champion Syuri should do more of that kind of thing to push their opponents forward? But Giulia walks it back a bit saying that it’s just her personal opinion of being a champion, and there’s surely as many kinds of champion as there are people.
Giulia says Syuri is a great person and extraordinarily nice, but that can be a weakness too, and Giulia knows Syuri very well and knows she has her own ways of thinking about people, about life, about anything, etc. And so that’s why the fact that Syuri’s championship reign has just shown strength rankles with Giulia. She’s noticed that Syuri’s opponents come out looking the other end like “同じじゃがいも” and Syuri’s victory promos are like ワンパターン or リップサービス - she always says the same kind of thing about having a great match and fighting again. “この飽き飽きする世界が朱世界なのか?”
Giulia thinks the red belt is weighing heavy on Syuri, so she’ll take it off her. She’s said the injury last year was a setback, but really she hasn’t lost a step, as she’s been doing what she needed to do all this time, like raising up Mai Sakurai and having Stardom’s first hardcore match, so she wants you to look forward to the result of the title match.

Next up is more Giulia, since it’s her column, also about the 5 Star GP.
She talks about Mai Sakurai’s growth - with a 4-7-1 record she didn’t meet her extremely ambitious 10-2-0 goal, but taking into consideration also that she advanced through from the preliminary tournament it’s an impressive record nonethless! Albeit not impressive enough to save Giulia and Hideki Suzuki from joining her in triple dogeza in a future edition of this column once they have the opportunity to take a picture. Giulia reports that talking to Mai, she was most excited about her chaotic match with Risa Sera where they both got counted out - Giulia got the impression that it was like when someone discovers something new that they’re really into and enthusiastic about. Giulia says since pro-wrestling is nescessarily something taught to you at first, there comes a moment when you break out of the shell and realize how free pro-wrestling can be: プロレスってこんなに自由でいいんだ, and she thinks wrestling Risa Sera gave Mai Sakurai that moment.
About Maihime’s first singles match against each other getting best bout, Giulia says 「この2人はプライベートでも大親友。そんな彼女らが恵まれた肉体と肉体をぶっつけ合った超パワー対決は、白熱の展開だった。」 and says that the wrestlers aren’t informed of those post-tournament Stardom awards before the ceremony, so their reaction shown is real.

Kenoh’s column is about Antonio Inoki. He calls him a 日本プロレス界の神 and an MMAのパイオニア and praises in particular that he プロレスを背負って、世間と勝負してた and did so many things that penetrated through to the public eye that 「日本でプロレスってジャンルが市民権を得てるのは猪木さんのおかげだ」. Kenoh gets going strong and says he’ll follow Inoki’s lead and spread peace through pro wrestling by becoming a 国会議員 and wrestling in Russia. To which the interviewer can only reply 「け、拳王さん…。」
Talking about Inoki’s catchphrases like 「１，２，３、ダーッ！」 and 「元気ですか⁉」 Kenoh acknowledges that his own catchphrase, 「クソヤローども、オレについて来い」 isn’t really something you can say outside of a pro wrestling context, so he should work to come up with something that can penetrate further into general society the way that Inoki’s did.

This issue has a really big cool feature on wrestlers’ last matches, since retirement matches have been a big subject recently what with Mutoh’s whole tour.
Naturally, the first piece of the feature is an interview with Atsushi Onita, who has so far returned from retirement 7 times. All the copy around the interview is deadpan very funny, like saying ”引退試合の特集となればやはり大仁田厚に話を聞かないわけにはいかない” or the headline advertising “大仁田厚が語る「詐欺ではない」理由.”
Onita says it’s definitely 申し訳ない but he’s surprised when people tell him it’s been 7 times since he doesn’t keep careful count. The first retirement was because of a knee injury, and they talk about how in the 昭和のプロレス界, “taking a break” or “recovering from injury” weren’t really options, it was either you keep wrestling or you retire (yikes), there wasn’t the expectation that wrestlers could freely bow out to heal up like there is now. But it’s thanks to demand (需要) from his fans, the 邪道信者, that he’s able to unretire and still have people come to see him.
Onita’s an amusing interviewee. The interviewer brings up the full year retirement tour he had in 1995 FMW and how there were presumably people upset when that retirement ended up temporary, and Onita responds with some kind of non-sequiter about how he saw on the ネットニュース that New Japan is trying a new way of accepting applicants or something like that. He says people say he commits retirement fraud, and if you say it’s fraud maybe it’s fraud, but he feels what makes it different is he doesn’t go in being like “I’m gonna commit fraud.”
The interviewer mentions that this serial unretirement wouldn’t be possible in other pro sports, and Onita spins it into a speech about how the beauty of pro wrestling is it’s breadth of possibility, since as long as you have a mat you can wrestle absolutely anywhere, unlike pro baseball where you need a stadium.
Onita claims for his retirement in 1995 he considered the Tokyo Dome but went with 川崎球場, apparently to preserve FMW’s indie image - 川崎球場 was rugged enough to be just right: “便所が臭いくらいが丁度いいかな”

Next in the feature there’s a list of notable retirement matches:

• Antonio Inoki’s was at the Tokyo Dome in on 4.4.1998, against Don Frye, with appearances including from Muhammad Ali, and Inoki reading a poem called 道. Afterward he pushed his vision of wrestling including founding UFO in 1998 and IGF in 2007, attempted a political return in 2013, and his condition worsened since 2018 until his death in 2022.
• Riki Choshu announced his retirement in 1997 and had his last match, a sorta gauntlet match against various wrestlers, at the 1.4.1998 Tokyo Dome show. A memorable moment in the retirement road was his protege Kensuke Sasaki delivering the 介錯 via lariat. After his retirement, he returned to wrestling about a year and a half later due to a challenge from Atsushi Onita, founded WJ, returned to New Japan (hey yeah he was on those Dome shows I watched), freelanced, and retired again in 2019. Now he’s putting energy into the entertainment industry.
• Genichiro Tenryu’s retirement match was in 2015 at 両国国技館 against Kazuchika Okada and it won best bout that year. Wow! After retiring he’s done talk shows and the like and revived the Tenryu Project in 2021, but his physical condition continues to fluctuate.
• Terry Funk, perhaps the most beloved foreign wrestler in Japan ever, started talking about wanting a retirement match in Japan in the future in 1980, and in 1983, after a “Terry Funk Sayonara Series” in All Japan he had a fabulous, emotional retirment match in front of 13600 fans and his teary-eyed family, declaring “フォーエバー。さよなら、さよなら.” After his retirement, 1 year later, he returned to active wrestling in All Japan after he seconded Giant Baba and Dory Funk and got bloodied by Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody.
• Akira Maeda retired in 1998 with a (shoot-style? MMA-influenced pro-wrestling? don’t ask me) match against Alexander Karelin in RINGS. After retiring, RINGS folded in 2002 and he continued to promote MMA off and on, like Big Mouth Loud in 2005 or THE OUTSIDER in 2008.
• Nobuhiko Takada retired in November 2002 at a PRIDE show at the Tokyo Dome and I don’t know enough about shootstyle promotions to convey more about it. After retirmenet he led PRIDE, including the successor event RIZIN, and goes on TV as a celebrity sometimes.
• Kenta Kobashi retired at a packed 日本武道館, exceeding expectations even in his retirement match. After retirement he entered his “second youth” and promoted his own Fortune Dream shows, along with training, speeches, and match commentary.

Next is a page talking about retirement in 女子プロレス with some less detailed examples (like Yuzuki Aikawa, Natsuki Taiyou, Dynamite Kansai, Kagetsu, etc.). It talks about how AJW had a rule where your career was restricted to the age of 25, and how that quietly started to fall away when ace Bull Nakano turned 25 and kept going. The summary suggests I think that the crop of wrestlers starting their careers in 1985-1988 joined out of idolizing the Crush Gals and so were made up of especially committed athletes, and so wrestlers from specifically that generation tend to have long careers, while wrestlers immediately before and immediately after tended to have very short ones. Compared to men’s wrestling, women’s wrestling also tends to have far fewer cases of long fadeouts and serial unretirers, as wrestlers for the most part tend to move on once retired.

Next there’s a page laying out ways other than an official retirement match that a pro wrestling career can end, with examples: sudden death (Rikidozan, Giant Baba, Shinya Hashimoto, Mitsuharu Misawa), a retirement ceremony (Jumbo Tsuruta, Stan Hansen, Masakatsu Funaki – temporarily, Kensuke Sasaki), and fading out without an official end (Toshiaki Kawada, Masahiro Chono).

The history column talks about how the Four Pillars era of AJPW used the catchphrase 「明るく楽しく、激しいプロレス」 and generally kept competition bloodless and decisive: 「ノー流血、ノー両リン」 and the columnist uses that as an introduction to talk about a time when AJPW was decidedly not like that: the feud between Destroyer and Abdullah the Butcher across 1975 and 1976 (for example, this match - it doesn’t look as horrifically bloody as I was expecting but I mean it’s an Abdullah the Butcher match so be warned about that), when it sounds like Destroyer was second in popularity in AJPW behind Giant Baba, before Jumbo Tsuruta debuted. There’s some anecdotes from Destroyer about causing a stir while filming variety shows after matches like that and his mask still being bloody no matter how much he washed it. (with, in an odd coincidence for me, a mention of Akiko Wada as an example of a show regular shocked by that – I just saw her as a cool tall biker in Stray Cat Rock from 1970)

I didn’t really take any pictures this issue, so here’s a few from Wrestle Princess why not.

In Genichiro Tenryu’s column, he talks about AJPW’s 50th anniversary show at 日本武道館 which it sounds like had lots of hardcore AJPW fans in attendance. It sounds like he wants AJPW to remember its roots and offer AJPW-like wrestling, and he likes Kento Miyahara as a star people will come to see (although he’s not full-on 生え抜き since it sounds like he started in Kensuke Office), but the combination of the younger Aoyagi getting the junior belt, a prospect from a college wrestling team making his pro debut, and the Saito brothers returning from travel, make Tenryu express concern that new stars may be pushed too fast - that’s not very AJPW-ish after all.
He also talks about Tatsumi Fujinami’s 50th career debut anniversary match scheduled against Hiroshi Tanahashi, and is impressed by Fujinami’s resiliency and continued name value as a 昭和 pro wrestler. Fujinami’s son, LEONA is also a pro wrestler, so the father is modeling a career for the son to look up to as well. Tenryu wants Fujinami to go until he can’t anymore, he can probably at least get to 55 years, right?
In an insert Tenryu talks about Keiji Muto and speculates that for his retirement at the Tokyo Dome, Shinsuke Nakamura might be the right fit for the opponent (close!).

The costume column is aout Juria Nagano from TJPW. Because of her karate experience, her costume is based on the themes ”和” and ”空手” but she had it made pro wrestlerish (like with eye-catching red instead of white) rather than just straightforwardly wearing karate gear. There’s a black belt in the costume, and the fabric hanging off of it in the front is apparently the kind of thing also on dojo gear in karate, and she always steadied her nerves by holding onto it, so it’s in her costume now too. She asked for 和っぽい flowers in the fabric design but she doesn’t know what kind they are. She only wears the arm cover on one arm now since it got in the way but she doesn’t have any particular reason why she picked the left arm.
It sounds like she’s still actively working as a real nurse too, so the nurse uniform in the entrance gear is earned. Apparently she changes her hair by season, like putting blue in to evoke the sea in summer, etc.

Hideki Suzuki’s column is about Antonio Inoki. He says he wouldn’t be a pro wrestler if Inoki hadn’t started IGF, since they didn’t have an orthodox entrance exam and he wouldn’t have been the type to persistently try one of those (side note: I’m reading a book about Tanahashi that talked about him only passing the New Japan entrance exam on his third try after hanging outside of shows and angling as persistently as possible for additional chances). It sounds like Suzuki’s a bit grumpy about the more shallow tribute actions shown for Inoki, like Yoshi-Tatsu wearing black trunks and doing a 卍固め.
Suzuki mentions there’s apparently 仁王像 modeled after Inoki at 池上本門寺 (also the resting place of Rikidozan).

In the Editor’s Eye column, they talk about a Big Japan wrestler, Hideyoshi Kamitani, who apparently used the word 妖怪 to describe himself and now has the nickname 妖怪超人. The editor compares him favorably to Kitaro from ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 (Shigeru Mizuki’s extremely famous yokai manga), for it sounds like, his blend of deathmatch and non-deathmatch styles, similar to how Kitaro portrayed positively yokai and humanity co-existing.

The end of the magazine column interviews Masahiro Chono, particularly about the early 2000s period where it sounds like Chono was in a position of power in New Japan and Inoki still owned the company. It sounds like Inoki’s influence particularly made itself known in the cards for Dome shows, and it sounds like Chono compares elements like Joan Laurer (Chyna) wrestling Chono as like Chono and the others being like “ok we’re gonna have a 和食 menu this time” and then Inoki and his interest in MMA coming over and being like “I’ve got an Italian chef so let’s put that in there too” and the overall theme of the shows ending up muddled. Chono says that New Japan doesn’t have a connection to the MMA-inflected “Inokiism” anymore but that’s a good thing since those were called the dark ages, and each generation rejects the previous one’s style in some way. And 闘魂 and strong style are still at the top of New Japan. The times when there needed to be a New Japan Dojo graduate to succeed the top spot in the promotion are past. Chono says "闘魂アントニオ猪木"は永久欠番として残してほしい, and New Japan should forge a new path forward and not try to chase or replace that legacy.
Side language note: I came across another new to me euphemism for death here: “猪木は帰らぬ人となってしまった。”

[fallynleaf]

Finished TJPW’s February 4 VOD show! This one was a short one! I got a bit scared when I saw who was in the main event after the last time Miyu and Itoh closed out a show…

The main event was a double preview match: Moka, Miyu & Itoh vs Arisu, Shoko & Misao. And it ended up going to a rare (for TJPW) time limit draw! Pretty strong sign for the rookies!

The shupro transcript for the post-match stuff was a bit frustrating, haha. A lot of it they had clumped in one weird block, and some stuff got left out.

Something I was a bit confused by was this second sentence of Miyu’s here: “だけど、それとは別でそれ以上に享楽共鳴を倒して121000000が今年こそ優勝してタッグベルトを狙いにいくから.” This part lost me a bit: “それとは別でそれ以上に”.

(After the match, Yamashita takes the mic.)

Yamashita: “There isn’t much time left before Korakuen, so I’ll tell you that I’m really happy that I get to face the two of you in the tournament final. But, besides that and more importantly, One to Million is going to beat Kyoraku Kyomei and win the tournament this year, and we’re gonna aim for the tag belts. So let’s fight each other with all our might. We will definitely win!”

Moka: “We couldn’t settle it in the match, so things feel a little uncertain, but I’ll win at Korakuen!”

Then Itoh said: “今日はオマエらに合わせてあげたというか、まあ後楽園は楽しみにしといて。伊藤たちが必ず超えるから.” That first part gave me so much trouble! I interpreted it one way, then came back and completely changed it haha. I still am not quite sure what she’s saying?

Itoh: “We let you be an even match for us today, which is to say that you better look forward to Korakuen. We’ll surely beat you.” (to the crowd) “You guys want it, don’t you? You want me to do the thing at the end of the show?”

(She calls out to the audience and does the "Who’s the cutest in the world?” “Itoh-chan!” call and response. Then her music starts to play.)

I think I understood Shoko’s part here, but struggled a bit with, well, figuring out exactly how hard to go with my translation . Her tone seemed pretty intense, so I tried to match how that sounded?

“場内に伊藤の曲が流れるも中島が「バカか！ 引き分けって言ってんだろ！」とストップ。引き揚げる121000000ともかに中島は「フザけんな！ 世界一かわいい伊藤ちゃん？ こっちは世界一大きい中島ちゃんなんだよ！ 後楽園覚悟しとけよ！ ２人に勝つことしか考えてない！ 覚えておけ！」とマイク.”

Nakajima: “Are you stupid? They said it was a draw! Stop the music!” (to One to Million and Moka, who are on their way out) “You’re full of shit! Itoh-chan, the cutest in the world? Well, I’m Nakajima-chan, the biggest in the world! You better brace yourselves for Korakuen! The only thing on my mind is beating you two assholes! And don’t you fucking forget it!”

Then Misao said, “山下さんはもう先にベルトの話してたし、伊藤ちゃんは私たちのやり方に合わせたとか言ってたけど要は余裕ぶっこいている.” A lot here I wasn’t quite sure about, haha.

Misao: “Yamashita-san was already talking about the belts, and Itoh-chan said that she has adjusted to our way of doing things, but my point is that they’re getting complacent. And when they’re in that state, that’s our chance. Especially for me. We didn’t even show half of what we can do today. The more complacent they are, the better it is for us. Kyoraku Kyomei will definitely win the tournament!”

Arisu: “Moka-san, I will definitely beat you!”

The three of them put their hands together and closed the show with a rousing “Hurrah!”

In Itoh, Miyu, and Moka’s comments, I’m not quite sure exactly what Miyu is saying here at the start: “引き分けが一番あれだし。今日3人でやって決めきれなかったのはメチャクチャ悔しい。引き分けが一番嫌なので、やり場のない気持ちというか.”

Itoh: "Well, that’s frustrating.

Yamashita: “I’m disappointed. A draw is the most, it’s—It’s really frustrating that the three of us couldn’t get a more conclusive result. A draw is the worst. I feel like I don’t have an outlet.”

Itoh: “Today was just a taste.”

Yamashita: “So it seems.”

Itoh: “We didn’t lose. We just tasted it today.”

Yamashita: “I think I saw Kyoraku Kyomei’s strength.”

Then Miyu said, “逆に後楽園で私たちが勝てるヒントには申し訳ないけどなっちゃったかな。そこでしっかり合わせる力を私たちも持っているので.” I don’t think I quite understood what she was saying here, haha.

“On the other hand, I’m sorry for the hint that we’ll be able to win at Korakuen, but it might happen. Because we clearly have the ability to match up well there, too. But putting today’s match aside, our goal is to win the tournament and challenge for the tag belts, then take them.”

Itoh: “That’s our goal: winning the tournament and taking the belts. We’re definitely winning!”

Yamashita: “We can’t move forward unless we surpass Kyoraku Kyomei, so I want to beat them soundly.”

Moka: “Arisu-chan and I will be facing each other in a singles match at Korakuen, so it feels bad that we didn’t get a win today. Arisu-chan has amazing momentum, but I want to beat her at Korakuen with even greater momentum.”

Itoh: “Let’s win together!”

Yamashita: “Let’s win!”

I think I more or less got the other team’s?

Nakajima: “It was a draw, but it was a forward-looking draw. We couldn’t settle it here, which is to say, I’m looking forward to settling it at Korakuen. That’s how it is!”

Misao: “That’s right!”

Arisu: “That’s true!”

Misao: “There are things that we haven’t shown at all yet, and Kyoraku Kyomei’s power is still far from being at its peak. The other side is getting complacent, but we still have a lot we wanna do, and we’re gonna win at Korakuen. Arisu, you did your best at the end. You were almost there.”

Arisu: “Ideally I’d have won, but as Nakajima-san said, we didn’t lose. So we’ll win at Korakuen!”

Nakajima: “We’re going to win!”

Misao: “We’re going to win!”

Arisu: “We’re going to win!”

And that’s it for this one!

[rodan]

@fallynleaf

Something I was a bit confused by was this second sentence of Miyu’s here: “だけど、それとは別でそれ以上に享楽共鳴を倒して121000000が今年こそ優勝してタッグベルトを狙いにいくから.” This part lost me a bit: “それとは別でそれ以上に”.

Seems okay to me.

@fallynleaf

Then Itoh said: “今日はオマエらに合わせてあげたというか、まあ後楽園は楽しみにしといて。伊藤たちが必ず超えるから.” That first part gave me so much trouble! I interpreted it one way, then came back and completely changed it haha. I still am not quite sure what she’s saying?

Itoh: “We let you be an even match for us today, which is to say that you better look forward to Korakuen. We’ll surely beat you.”

I went back and forth on it a bit too, but in the end I think what she says in the video is オマエらに戦い方に合わせてあげたというか as in like, (roughly and over literally) “we matched how we fought to you (since you needed it)” which I’d say generally matches the sentiment of what you put.

A small inconsequential note, but I feel like 超える when they’re talking about the tournament is sort of like “advance” as in like, what’s being 超える’d is the loser’s place in the tournament. Rather than like, the person themselves per se like when 超える is used in all those generational wall metaphors and such.

@fallynleaf

“場内に伊藤の曲が流れるも中島が「バカか！ 引き分けって言ってんだろ！」とストップ。引き揚げる121000000ともかに中島は「フザけんな！ 世界一かわいい伊藤ちゃん？ こっちは世界一大きい中島ちゃんなんだよ！ 後楽園覚悟しとけよ！ ２人に勝つことしか考えてない！ 覚えておけ！」とマイク.”

Nakajima: “Are you stupid? They said it was a draw! Stop the music!” (to One to Million and Moka, who are on their way out) “You’re full of shit! Itoh-chan, the cutest in the world? Well, I’m Nakajima-chan, the biggest in the world! You better brace yourselves for Korakuen! The only thing on my mind is beating you two assholes! And don’t you fucking forget it!”

She is certainly adopting an intense tone, but I don’t think I would put too much swearing in the translation, if only to avoid a fansub feeling (note: a link to that one proZD sketch - probably better to have headphones on for it…). I wouldn’t say she’s being totally over-the-top with the intensity (The way Asuka turns the dial up to 20 in her Japanese promos in WWE since it’s for an English-speaking audience would definitely be over the top for me) - and I’d say what she’s saying here to is exactly the kind of thing a group of generic goons in a Yakuza game would say before a fight starts. Which is the kind of brash posturing that’s part and parcel for pro wrestlers (even if it’s comparatively less common in TJPW…).
フザけんな！, 覚悟しとけよ！, 覚えておけ！ are all pretty stock fighting words I’d say (so it’s not like she’s saying anything infused with more personal contempt than that).

Maybe dropping two of the three swears or something like that would bring the level down to “intense but not distractingly so”

(Then again Shoko has demonstrated a certain enthusiasm for English swearing…)

@fallynleaf

伊藤ちゃんは私たちのやり方に合わせたとか言ってた

She’s referring back here to when Itoh said オマエらに戦い方に合わせてあげたというか in the earlier part you asked about.

@fallynleaf

余裕ぶっこいている

@fallynleaf

they’re getting complacent

Seems like 余裕ぶっこいている is roughly just like, acting/displayling like you’ve got a lot of 余裕 in a bad way.
余裕’s sort of like complacency/acting like you have nothing to worry about, but in like kind of a smug, arrogant sort of way I would say here, since it’s negative and intensified.
My take would be like, “simply put, they’re being cocky.”

@fallynleaf

“引き分けが一番あれだし。今日3人でやって決めきれなかったのはメチャクチャ悔しい。引き分けが一番嫌なので、やり場のない気持ちというか.”

Itoh: "Well, that’s frustrating.

Yamashita: “I’m disappointed. A draw is the most, it’s—It’s really frustrating that the three of us couldn’t get a more conclusive result. A draw is the worst. I feel like I don’t have an outlet.”

I don’t know that she’s necessarily like, cutting off a not fully formed thought with the 引き分けが一番あれだし。 - I would probably say it’s more like, “A draw is the most blah outcome.” Like the あれ is a vague, negative standin word.

@fallynleaf

Then Miyu said, “逆に後楽園で私たちが勝てるヒントには申し訳ないけどなっちゃったかな。そこでしっかり合わせる力を私たちも持っているので.” I don’t think I quite understood what she was saying here, haha.

“On the other hand, I’m sorry for the hint that we’ll be able to win at Korakuen, but it might happen. Because we clearly have the ability to match up well there, too.

I think she’s saying that the match showed signs that they’re going to win - like the match/how it went down became (なっちゃったかな) a 逆に後楽園で私たちが勝てるヒント. And I think the 申し訳ない is just because it’s braggy to say that.

[fallynleaf]

Thank you!!

@rodan

Which is the kind of brash posturing that’s part and parcel for pro wrestlers (even if it’s comparatively less common in TJPW…).
フザけんな！, 覚悟しとけよ！, 覚えておけ！ are all pretty stock fighting words I’d say (so it’s not like she’s saying anything infused with more personal contempt than that).

I feel like I can blame Yomichan for leading me down this path with フザけんな. These are the only three definitions it gave

[rodan]

Well, it’s not wrong!
“stock language for extremely agressive and rude situations” is still awfully aggressive and rude after all! Outside of a wrestling ring or a video game, at the very least…

[fallynleaf]

Got a bit distracted this week, but I did finish the first half of TJPW’s February 11 Korakuen show!

For some reason, this translation felt easier than usual? However, Miyu and Itoh’s (very long and moderately chaotic) part is still yet to come, so if I’m going to get utterly confused by something, I suspect it’ll happen then .

First up, Himawari vs Wakana! I really like both of the rookies, so this one was fun! It was nice to see Wakana get her first win!

Wakana’s comments:

Uehara: “HIMAWARI is in my same class and it was a true battle, but right now I’m just so happy to get my first victory! I’d been feeling super frustrated ever since Yume Pro Wrestling, and now that I finally got a win, I’m really, really happy. When I train with my senpais, I realize just how far I have to go, so I’m striving to practice even more and work hard so that I can become a wrestler who’s able to challenge for belts and aim for the top someday. Please keep supporting me!”

(You got your first win about a month after your debut, did it feel like a long time?)

“I think it was pretty soon after I debuted, but I started when the Yume Pro Wrestling project began, and I felt a lot of frustration at that time, so I wanted to continue wrestling. So I think there was a period of frustration, and when I think about that, it maybe felt like a long time. But we’re getting more and more juniors, so I think I have to really apply myself and work diligently from now on.”

Himawari’s comments:

HIMAWARI: “I’m ashamed of myself. I’m disappointed, I guess. I’m weak-spirited, or however you want to put it. I’ve been wrestling for three months, and I’ve been losing the whole time, but today’s loss is the most frustrating, and it’s pathetic that I tapped out. Argh! But I can’t keep moping over it! I’m going to take today’s loss as encouragement to train my body, and next time, I want to also strengthen my heart so that I’m strong enough not to give up even if I’m put in a Sleeper or something like that. Thank you so much. I’m going to keep doing my best, so please support me!”

Nao, Kamiyu, and Mahiro faced Raku, Neko, and Kaya in a fun little match! Unfortunately shupro did not bother to transcribe the comments for this one, so all I have are the twitter captions:

Kamiyu & crew:

Kakuta: “That was fun, but I wonder if we could have done more.”

Kamifuku: “We should have tried to act more cute and charged up.”

Kiryu: “I wanted to enter riding a horse.”

Kamifuku: (interrupting) “Shut up! Don’t put the idea out there, I’ll kill you! …Kidding! I’m sorry. I love you.”

Feels like I’m lacking a bit of context here, haha . Or I guess Kamiyu might just be being Kamiyu?

Raku & crew:

Raku: “They overwhelmed us right from the get-go.”

Neko: “Getting to do the Onyanpo and the Oyasumi Express with Raku-san was a lot of fun.”

Toribami: “I had fun doing the Oyasumi Express, too.”

Arisu vs Moka was great! I was so thrilled for Arisu getting her first singles win! Both of them have honestly shaped up to be pretty great wrestlers, and it’s awesome how far they’ve both come.

Arisu’s comments:

Endo: “I won! I finally got my first singles win. But I don’t feel like I’ve ‘surpassed’ anything. From here, I’m going to keep winning more and more and become a better pro wrestler!”

(Uehara got her first win in the opening match)

“When she came backstage, she said, ‘You have to do your best!’ and that gave me strength.”

(You faced the match with a lot of fighting spirit)

“Of course.”

(The finisher you won with?)

“There was a part of me that absolutely had to win with the Camel Clutch, so I was persistent with it. I feel like I just barely got it.”

(Your goals for the future?)

“Well, I got my first win, but I’m not going to be satisfied with just this. I want to keep getting stronger and win more matches.”

(Will you report to Reika Saiki?)

“Of course! Needless to say, I’m going to tell her as soon as possible.”

(Getting your first victory two years after your debut, and from your senpai, is that something special?)

“Yes, it is. This whole time, I’ve never been able to get a win. Last year, I was only able to win because I had Suzume-san at my side, so being able to win by myself, that’s huge for me.”

Moka’s comments:

Miyamoto: “It’s really disappointing. Arisu-chan has really been putting in the work and doing her best, and I know because we’ve been training together, so I’d wondered why she still hadn’t gotten her first win. But in the end… this is how it goes. I really didn’t want to lose, and I really, really wanted to win. I’m truly disappointed, but I will work even harder from now on so that I can get revenge.”

Pom vs Arai made me laugh, haha. I do wish Pom had won, though. She’s so funny, and I think she has particularly come into her own over the past year. She’s also a wrestler who I’ve appreciated more and more as I’ve been doing these translations, I think.

Most of Arai’s comments went alright?

Arai: “This was my first singles match since last August, so I wondered how much I’d be able to do on my own. My opponent was a bit of an otaku,” (laughs) “so it was really difficult, but I was able to win. Looking toward the singles match with Aja-san, I hope I can keep this momentum.”

(Was it also good publicity?)

“Yes, I think so. The song that Pom-san prepared for me was SKE48 Team KII’s new song. It was the first showing in Kanto. Thank you!” (laughs)

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by “ありそうでなかったので、ちょっと緊張しましたね,” though .

(Was this your first time dancing by yourself in the ring?)

“Yes, it was my first time!” (laughs) “It felt so unlikely, so I was a bit nervous.”

Got a tiny bit tripped up at the beginning of the next part, too. The second sentence here confused me a bit: “有明だけじゃなくて、来週もタッグでやらせていただくんですけど。3月に向けてとかじゃなくて、しっかりこの試合を大事に向かっていきたいし.”

(Concerning the match with Aja)

“Not only is there Ariake, but I’ll also be facing her next week in a tag match. Instead of looking toward March, it’s vital that I face this match properly, so that’s what I want to do. It’s not often that you get to fight Aja-san multiple times in such a short span of time, so I want her to really see what I can do.”

(You want to show your growth?)

“Yes, that’s right. Last time, it had been five months since my debut, and because it had only been five months, I wasn’t scared of anything. I think I had that kind of strength, but the things that I can do and how I move have changed. If I’ve only changed a little, I don’t think she’ll be convinced, so I want to show everything that I can do now.”

Pom’s comments:

Pom: “I’m her senpai, and I’m an otaku, and I thought I’d show my spirit, but… it turns out that Arai-chan has grown up like super fast. That is what I was able to deduce, so I have no choice but to give her my seal of approval. There’s no question about it, surely. I think the crowd was super happy to see Arai-chan give a live performance, so in that sense it was probably definitely a win for Pom. But look, Pom’s heart was broken just like this penlight. She said she hates me!”

The visiting Janai Kai teamed up with Hikari vs Yuki Aino and Rika. Janai Kai is a lot of fun! I think I’d seen a bit of her before, but not enough to really form a strong opinion, but I’m really looking forward to her International title challenge now.

Janai and Hikari’s comments were a mix of Japanese and English (I had some help from Mr. Haku):

Noa: (in Japanese) “This is Janai Kai, who came to TJPW. Her next match will be a title match on February 18 in Nagoya, and I’m really happy that I could fight alongside a wrestler who’s preparing for a match like that, and that we won. I’m really looking forward to the International title match. Thank you for coming to TJPW!” (In English) “Thank you!”

(What was your impression of the match?)

Janai: “Oh, it was very… very, very hot, very fast-paced. They don’t play games. So, I loved it.”

(You have a title match coming up next week in Nagoya, against Miu Watanabe for the International Princess Championship. Are you prepared, what have you got for this match coming up?)

“Yes, I have been studying her, I’ve been studying Miu, and I’m well-prepared. This is a dream of mine, to be here, so I have a lot on my mind, I’ve been through a lot to be here, so I’m ready.”

I got most of Yuki and Rika’s comments, though I got tripped up by one thing at the beginning. Rika was back on her usual nonsense, haha, and she made me laugh.

Aino: “She’s scary; she really got me.”

Tatsumi: “Are you alright?”

Aino: “No, I’m not okay!” (laughs)

Then Aino said, “めっちゃ何回も頭チカチカしたもん.” I couldn’t quite figure out how to translate this!

“There were so many times my head started pounding. It was intense.”

Tatsumi: “Nice to meet you, Janai-chan.”

Aino: “I thought ‘Kick Demon’ was just a nickname. There really are a lot of people with amazing kicks in TJPW. Like Yama-chan. And now a new formidable foe has arrived. Oh, it’s frustrating! I want to fight her again; I want to get revenge.”

Tatsumi: “Yeah, she basically got an upset victory, right? Let’s do it again, okay? I won’t say one more time. I hope she comes to Japan again.”

Aino: “Come back! Let us get revenge!”

Tatsumi: “I think I became friends with Janai-chan, too. So come to Japan anytime.”

Aino: “You became friends?”

Tatsumi: “Yes!”

Aino: “If I’m aiming to befriend someone, I don’t strangle them.”

Tatsumi: “That was a baptism.”

Aino: “Hahaha”

Tatsumi: “It’s a ritual to become friends. Since I performed it, I think we’re friends now.”

Aino: “If she hasn’t grown to hate Rika-san, I think she’ll come.”

Tatsumi: “No problem!”

Aino: “Revenge!”

The semi-main was Yuka and Mizuki vs the Idolmaster collab team of Miu and Suzume (quick sidenote: I did not realize that Andreza Giant Panda was part of the Idolmaster collab until he appeared?? Absolutely incredible. Genuinely looking forward to him making an appearance at Grand Princess, haha). This match was fun albeit shockingly inconsequential, considering who it involved.

I think I got the first half of Yuka and Mizuki’s comments:

Sakazaki: “I’m back!”

Mizuki: “Welcome back!”

Sakazaki: “I’m home!”

Mizuki: “I’ve been waiting! I saw Yuka-chi doing her best over there, and I…”

Sakazaki: “I was watching you, too.”

Mizuki: “I had a lot of matches that were a bit different from usual, but that’s a huge advantage. I’ve had some singles matches, too, so that’s an asset… I’ll be facing Yuka-chi, so I have to be prepared.”

Sakazaki: “Wow!”

Mizuki: “But she’s been shining even more, so I had to work harder.”

Sakazaki: “Really? Thank you. Even looking at it from the outside, I think our organization is good, too. We have tournaments and all that. Even in ordinary non-title matches that aren’t part of a tournament, everyone really puts their all into it. It’s really important to treat each individual match as if it’s something important, and I think this comes across when viewed from an objective standpoint. Being away from TJPW, I felt even more that it’s a good organization.”

Mizuki: “Yeah?”

Sakazaki: “We want to collaborate (with Idolmaster), too. We’re waiting!”

The beginning of the next part was a bit tricky. I wasn’t quite sure how to translate this question, even though I feel like I grasped the meaning: “お互いタイトルマッチへのスイッチは入っている状態？”

(Have you both flipped the switch and entered the state you’ll be in for your title match?)

“No, I haven’t. I’m happy just to have fun being with her now, but to be honest… I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep that motivation all the way to Ariake.”

Mizuki: “But it really hurt a lot last time.”

Sakazaki: “No, no, not now.”

Mizuki: “In any case, it was fun teaming up with you today.”

Sakazaki: “It was too much fun.”

Ah… some hints of MagiRabbi angst on the horizon…

Miu’s and Suzume’s comments were straightforward enough!

Miu: “We faced MagiRabbi. Yuka-san was back after being away for a while, so I was really fired up, but… we lost. MagiRabbi is strong as always.”

Suzume: “I’m really happy that I was able to face MagiRabbi in Yuka-san’s ‘welcome back’ match, and that I could team with Miu-san while we’re doing the Idolmaster collab. I’m so, so happy.”

Miu: “Idolmaster is doing a huge show at the Tokyo Dome today. Since we’re right next door, I was hoping that Idolmaster fans might also come support us today. The (collab goods) will be available for sale until the day after tomorrow, so I thought maybe we could get the Idolmaster fans into TJPW as well.”

And that’s everything before the main! According to smartcat, I’m 61% done, so I dunno if I’ll be able to finish the rest before the next show, but I’ll try?

[rodan]

@fallynleaf

Kakuta: “That was fun, but I wonder if we could have done more.”

Kamifuku: “We should have tried to act more cute and charged up.”

Kiryu: “I wanted to enter riding a horse.”

Kamifuku: (interrupting) “Shut up! Don’t put the idea out there, I’ll kill you! …Kidding! I’m sorry. I love you.”

Feels like I’m lacking a bit of context here, haha . Or I guess Kamiyu might just be being Kamiyu?

Just Kamiyu! In a quote tweet she ascribes it to being shocked at Kiryu’s bizarre infeasible suggestion after being silent for so long.
The 殺すぞ and the switch to immediately retracting it is very casual and Kamiyu-ish.

@fallynleaf

(The finisher you won with?)
(Your goals for the future?)

I wonder if there’s a good stock filler for translating this kind of question format a little more naturally - it seems like it would come up a lot. Maybe “Can you comment on (…)?”
(I suppose it doesn’t really matter though - they’re truncated from the original questions for the transcript anyway)

@fallynleaf

My opponent was a bit of an otaku,” (laughs) “so it was really difficult,

This sounded kind of weird to me out of context, and from the Japanese I guessed that Pom had otaku’d actively over Arai (which… yep)

Looking into だったりして, though, it sounds like it’s got a sense of like, “maybe / perhaps.”

So I think maybe:

My opponent was maybe a little bit of an otaku.” (laughs) “It was really difficult,

could be more accurate and sound a little more natural in English (since it’s a small joke about downplaying Pom’s very overt behavior)

@fallynleaf

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by “ありそうでなかったので、ちょっと緊張しましたね,” though .

(Was this your first time dancing by yourself in the ring?)

“Yes, it was my first time!” (laughs) “It felt so unlikely, so I was a bit nervous.”

Yeah this just seems like one of those phrases that’s hard to describe directly in English…

I’ve thought sometimes about how “そういうことある？” seems like it’s one of those where there’s a nonstandard but nearly direct equivalent via slang, “that’s a thing?”
and I feel like this is the same sort of ある, so I’d describe ありそうでなかった roughly directly as like, “didn’t seem like something that would be a thing”

“It was so unexpected” I feel like would be completely fine as a natural gloss though.

@fallynleaf

Got a tiny bit tripped up at the beginning of the next part, too. The second sentence here confused me a bit: “有明だけじゃなくて、来週もタッグでやらせていただくんですけど。3月に向けてとかじゃなくて、しっかりこの試合を大事に向かっていきたいし.”

I think it seems fine.

@fallynleaf

Then Aino said, “めっちゃ何回も頭チカチカしたもん.” I couldn’t quite figure out how to translate this!

“There were so many times my head started pounding. It was intense.”

I think I would say more something like maybe “there were so many times I was seeing stars” (although that’s not quite literally what it means), just since チカチカ feels like it would be more like, a sharp pain like flickering on and off, like, daze-inducing sort of pain more so than a dull throb.
Aino got kicked in the head a lot that match, so I would relate what she’s describing to the feeling of just having been kicked in the head.

@fallynleaf

The beginning of the next part was a bit tricky. I wasn’t quite sure how to translate this question, even though I feel like I grasped the meaning: “お互いタイトルマッチへのスイッチは入っている状態？”

(Have you both flipped the switch and entered the state you’ll be in for your title match?)

Maybe “have you both entered title match mode?” or something like that?

[fallynleaf]

Finished the whole second chunk of the show somehow? I guess I’m getting faster, haha. They did just do two pressers the night before the next show that I definitely won’t be finishing anytime soon, though…

@rodan

I wonder if there’s a good stock filler for translating this kind of question format a little more naturally - it seems like it would come up a lot. Maybe “Can you comment on (…)?”
(I suppose it doesn’t really matter though - they’re truncated from the original questions for the transcript anyway)

Yeah, these are tricky! I was sort of stylistically taking a leaf from Mr. Haku’s book, I guess—if I remember correctly, he always truncated them in his translations as well. I have a really hard time hearing the actual questions, haha, so I’m a bit hesitant to extrapolate the parts I don’t catch, even if it probably doesn’t matter. There’s probably a better way to format them on the blog as well, but I’ve sort of just been borrowing from the style of the transcripts because it’s easier…

As far as the actual show goes, I really liked the tag tournament final! It’s definitely going in my list of favorite matches once I get around to doing a write-up for it and finding some photos. I was cheering pretty hard for Shoko and Misao, so I was sad when they lost, but I am happy for Itoh and Miyu as well. Miyu finally broke her tournament curse, haha.

I had a bit of help from Mr Haku on the post-match stuff, which cleared up a few of my questions. Here’s what I had for it:

Itoh: “We won! Thank you very much. We were finally, finally able to get results. …I’m happy, so happy.” (to the voices saying “congratulations!”) “Thank you! I will say, I…” (tearfully) “Seeing Shoko Nakajima’s look of frustration just now, I REALLY know how she feels. I’m going to do my best on behalf of Nakajima and Hyper Misao, and Juria Nagano, Moka Miyamoto, Hikari Noa, and Kakuta Nao as well. And Ariake! At Ariake, I will defeat Max the Impaler!”

Yamashita: “On twitter, you don’t really talk about One To Million all that much, but yesterday… what was it? 'I cover for your stupidity, so when I’m in a pinch, kick ‘em down.’ Saying stuff like that, it’s totally not fair! But let me just say this: It was really frustrating that Itoh and I couldn’t get results together for so long. But we are the best! When I’m with you, it’s fun to fight and it’s also fun to team up. That’s why I want the whole world to know how great we are, not just Japan. Again, I’m so, so happy to have won this trophy with you. You truly are the best business partner.”

Itoh: “Did you look that up in a dictionary? What have you been doing? Just a couple weeks ago, I told you that’s not what ‘business partner’ means. You know, I really respect and like you. But how do you really feel about me? If it’s strictly business, we can break up.”

Yamashita: “That’s why I said I love you! You care about this too much!”

Itoh: “Because you called me your business partner!”

Then Miyu said something really sweet that I wanted to make sure I got right. She said, “これだけは言わせて。ビジネスパートナーでも、いまもこれから先も私が何十年、何百年生きても、パートナーはお前だけなの。だからビジネスパートナーでもパートナーでも、そういう概念じゃないの。お前が最高なんだよ.”

Yamashita: “Let me just say this: Whether we’re business partners or not, now and forever, no matter how many decades or hundreds of years that I live, you are my only partner. So whether it’s ‘business partner’ or ‘partner’, you are the best one.”

Itoh: “OK, thank you. Let’s do our best at Ariake.”

I also wasn’t quite sure how to translate the thing Itoh coined when they closed the show (which also comes up in their comments). Here’s what shupro had for it: “最後は「ワン・トゥー」「ミリオン！」連呼から「OK！ 1人より2人、2人なら100倍！ うちらが…ワン・トゥー・ミリオン！」と伊藤が強引に締めた。”

They closed the show with: “One To—” “Million!” and then “Two people are better than one! A hundredfold times better! We are… One To Million!"

Itoh and Miyu’s comments have three videos … Here is the first:

Yamashita: “We did it!”

Itoh: “We won!”

Yamashita: “This is the first time we’ve gotten results.”

Itoh: “We’re able to get results on our own, but we couldn’t achieve anything at all as a team, until now.”

Yamashita: “This is my first time winning a tournament!”

Itoh: “Wait, are you kidding? No, that’s right. You’re always losing in the first round or something like that.”

Yamashita: “It’s frustrating that I haven’t been able to win a singles tournament, but after so many tries, I’m so happy to win my first tournament with Itoh.”

Itoh: “Yes. I’m happy, too, and I’m happy that you haven’t gotten tired of being next to me.”

Yamashita: “I’ll never get tired of you.”

Then Itoh said, “ありがとう。伊藤がデビューした頃はホントに仲悪かったんですよ。全然喋んなかったし。でもね、伊藤ね、いまも仲良くないと思ってるけど…全然試合できるもんね.” That last part I wasn’t quite sure about, haha.

Itoh: “Thank you. When I debuted, our relationship was really bad. We didn’t talk at all. Even now, I don’t think we’re really that close… our relationship is entirely in the ring.”

Yamashita: “We’re close! But we’re different in some ways. As a wrestler, I…”

Itoh: “We’re not friends. I understand.”

Yamashita: “As a wrestler, I was able to meet Itoh in the course of my career, and just for that alone, I’m so glad that I became a pro wrestler.”

Itoh: “I see.”

Yamashita: “I’m so glad that I could meet someone like you.”

Itoh: “Itoh is also glad. We can go even higher.”

Yamashita: “It’s not over yet. Since we won here, we can go for the tag belts, right?”

Itoh: “Yes? This is just a stop along the way. We’re going to defeat Max the Impaler and Heidi and wrap their belts around our waists.”

The second part was weirdly short:

(The champion team has a title defense set in the US, and if they lose the belts, you won’t be able to have a title match)

Yamashita: “What do you mean? No way, no way!”

Itoh: “We’re rooting for Max the Impaler and Heidi. So let’s have that fight at Ariake.”

Yamashita: “There’s no point if we don’t defeat Max and Heidi. We must win! We’re facing them.”

The third part made me genuinely laugh haha.

(Can you talk about your first time closing the show?)

Itoh: “It was kinda lame, huh?”

Yamashita: “I was surprised.”

Itoh: “I improvised.”

Yamashita: “It was incredible. Itoh is a genius.”

Then Itoh said, “アイドルやりよると、ああいう即興系すごいできるっちゃ。だからよく振られるけん、MC中とかに.” I couldn’t quite figure this out, haha.

Itoh: “As an idol, you get really good at improvising like that. That’s why you often get rejected, while MCing or something. Do you want to do it now?”

Yamashita: “What do you mean?”

Itoh: “What I said then. Let’s have everyone learn it.”

Yamashita: “Let’s do it.”

Itoh: “For now, when I say ‘One To’, everyone should say ‘Million!’ Everyone who’s here, please say it. Two people are better than one! A hundredfold better! We are, One To⁠—”

Media team: “…”

Yamashita: “Huh? Why didn’t anyone say anything? Even though there are ten people… this is the opposite of amazing.”

Itoh: “You gotta be kidding me. Were you really watching?”

Yamashita: “It’s strange.”

Itoh: “Why didn’t you say it?”

Yamashita: “This isn’t the time to laugh! Let’s try it one more time. You won’t have another chance. This is the last. Please humor us. We won the tournament today, so please let us be a bit self-indulgent.”

Itoh: “Let’s go! Two people are better than one! A hundredfold times better! We are, One To—!”

Media team: “…”

Yamashita: “…Million! That’s good enough! Let’s go home!”

Itoh: “No, really. Do it right!”

Yamashita: “Let us be selfish, we won!”

Itoh: “You’re really boring adults.”

Misao and Shoko’s comments:

Nakajima: “That’s it, huh? Well… I don’t think we were defeated in terms of strength. But they were so passionate, there was a lot of pressure, and it felt like we lost to them in tenacity. I’m simply frustrated today.”

Misao: “I don’t think we lost. The match result was a loss, but Kyoraku Kyomei… I don’t think we’ve lost any value as a tag team. We couldn’t win today’s match, but I don’t want to call it a loss. I think Kyoraku Kyomei will win from here on out. We didn’t win the tournament today, but we didn’t lose.”

And that’s it!

[rodan]

@fallynleaf

Then Miyu said something really sweet that I wanted to make sure I got right. She said, “これだけは言わせて。ビジネスパートナーでも、いまもこれから先も私が何十年、何百年生きても、パートナーはお前だけなの。だからビジネスパートナーでもパートナーでも、そういう概念じゃないの。お前が最高なんだよ.”

Yamashita: “Let me just say this: Whether we’re business partners or not, now and forever, no matter how many decades or hundreds of years that I live, you are my only partner. So whether it’s ‘business partner’ or ‘partner’, you are the best one.”

The only note I have is that the だからビジネスパートナーでもパートナーでも、そういう概念じゃないの。part is I would say, Miyu explaining that like — whether it’s “business partner” or “partner”, it’s not about that kind of abstract concept (that’s why she’s not getting hung up on the distance of “business partner” like Itoh).
I’d maybe go with something like “It’s not about whether we call it “business partner” or “partner” or anything like that. You are the best.”

@fallynleaf

Here’s what shupro had for it: “最後は「ワン・トゥー」「ミリオン！」連呼から「OK！ 1人より2人、2人なら100倍！ うちらが…ワン・トゥー・ミリオン！」と伊藤が強引に締めた。”

They closed the show with: “One To—” “Million!” and then “Two people are better than one! A hundredfold times better! We are… One To Million!"

I’m a bit torn between the senses of like, “if you’ve gone up to 2, might as well go up by a factor of a hundred!!” and like, “If we’re together, we’re 100x better!!”
I suppose it’s a catchy slogan so it’s maybe a bit of both or the distinction doesn’t matter.
Maybe “Two people are better than one! If two, then a hundredfold!!” plays fine in English?

@fallynleaf

Then Itoh said, “ありがとう。伊藤がデビューした頃はホントに仲悪かったんですよ。全然喋んなかったし。でもね、伊藤ね、いまも仲良くないと思ってるけど…全然試合できるもんね.” That last part I wasn’t quite sure about, haha.

Itoh: “Thank you. When I debuted, our relationship was really bad. We didn’t talk at all. Even now, I don’t think we’re really that close… our relationship is entirely in the ring.”

I don’t think “our relationship is entirely in the ring” is right.

全然試合できるもんね would be, I’d say, like “we can totally get it done in the ring” as in like – Itoh’s saying roughly “we used to not be close, but now - well I still don’t think we’re that close, but we work well together in the ring.”

@fallynleaf

Itoh: “Yes? This is just a stop along the way. We’re going to defeat Max the Impaler and Heidi and wrap their belts around our waists.”

This is an incredibly picky English note and just a stylistic/preference thing, but I feel like it reads slightly weird to hear a wrestler say “their” belts here, since pro wrestlers cutting promos tend to always frame winning a championship as taking what’s rightfully theirs. “those belts” or “the belts” seems very slightly more natural to me for just ベルト.

@fallynleaf

Yamashita: “There’s no point if we don’t defeat Max and Heidi. We must win! We’re facing them.”

The “We must win! We’re facing them.” isn’t quite right, since they’re addressing Max and Heidi about their title match in America:

It’s more like roughly “Max, Heidi! You’d better win! We’re coming after you.”

@fallynleaf

Then Itoh said, “アイドルやりよると、ああいう即興系すごいできるっちゃ。だからよく振られるけん、MC中とかに.” I couldn’t quite figure this out, haha.

Itoh: “As an idol, you get really good at improvising like that. That’s why you often get rejected, while MCing or something. Do you want to do it now?”

This article refers to this part as “方言を交えて説明し” so it sounds like Itoh is joke bragging in Kyushu…
I think the first part more directly transcribed is アイドルやりよったけん and it seems like やりよる and けん are dialect for roughly, やる and から respectively.

I’m not 100% sure on the 振られる part but I think she’s saying like, that’s why people often don’t respond to her cheers and stuff when she’s on the mic, because she’s so good at improvising (that they can’t keep up). That would set up the joke of the next part…

… On second thought I think I’m wrong about that part, since it seems like she doesn’t say だから and does say けん in which case I guess the よく振られる would be a reason for something. Hmmm

@fallynleaf

Yamashita: “Huh? Why didn’t anyone say anything? Even though there are ten people… this is the opposite of amazing.”

I would say she said, rather than “this is the opposite of amazing”, more like “this is amazing, in the opposite way” – like, instead of an amazing cheer, it was an amazingly silent response.

@fallynleaf

Misao: “I don’t think we lost. The match result was a loss, but Kyoraku Kyomei… I don’t think we’ve lost any value as a tag team. We couldn’t win today’s match, but I don’t want to call it a loss. I think Kyoraku Kyomei will win from here on out. We didn’t win the tournament today, but we didn’t lose.”

One of those slight nuance things that’s tricky to know exactly what to do with, is I think in Japanese, 負ける has more of like, a final defeated/giving in kind of sense that makes this kind of distinction make more sense. I wonder if “We didn’t win the tournament today, but we haven’t given up.” might be acceptable for the last line here. (but it’s not a huge deal, and I’m not sure exactly)

[fallynleaf]

Finished the Miyu presser from February 17! Here’s the transcript, and here’s the video. I was afraid of bad machine translation spreading false rumors with this one, but thankfully that doesn’t seem to have happened. Still want to make sure I got it right, though!

I don’t think there were any lines that totally confused me, but I probably did miss some things without realizing it, haha. But here’s what I had:

Yamashita: “On March 31, TJPW will be having our first show in Los Angeles, and I was given the opportunity to stay for three months after that. How it happened was that I’d had a strong desire to be active overseas even before the coronavirus pandemic, and I was talking to Koda-san (representative) and other people at the office. Then after the pandemic situation settled, I started to go on more overseas excursions around May of last year, and I started to seriously consider the idea of staying in America, so I spoke with the company, and was given permission to go at this time.”

Namba: “You are scheduled to return to Japan at the Nishitetsu Hall show in June. Do you have any plans for July and onward?”

Yamashita: “I don’t know what’s going to happen after March. I don’t even know if I’ll be alive.”

Namba: “Please come back alive.”

Yamashita: “I want to come back alive, but I don’t know how things will go. I might come back to TJPW and have a match, or I might be going back to the US again in June or July. The future is a bit unclear. I myself don’t know.”

Namba: “Your tag team with Maki Itoh, “121000000”, will be facing Max the Impaler and Heidi Howitzer on March 18 at the Ariake Coliseum. It has been announced that if Wasteland War Party still have the belts at that time, this match will be for the Princess Tag Team Championship. If “121000000” become tag team champions, how will you defend the titles?”

Yamashita: “If the match at Ariake on March 18 becomes a title match, we will win the belts. And, well, if we win them, Itoh comes to America a lot, so if there are worthy opponents in the US, we’ll be able to defend the belts there. And if we want to fight someone in TJPW, if that match can only happen in TJPW, I’ll be able to go back to Japan for a bit. Itoh understands this, and we’ve talked about how both Itoh and I can be flexible during this time.”

Namba: “I think this news will make the rounds in the US as well. What if you get offers for matches during your stay in America?”

Yamashita: “As far as offers go, I was thinking about doing it myself. Please… how does the rest of it go?” (someone offscreen tells her, and then she says in English) “Please contact me for all bookings.”

Namba: “…Are you okay?”

Yamashita: (in English, with a self-satisfied grin) "I’m okay! I’m fine. Are you okay?”

Namba: (in English) “I’m okay.”

Yamashita: (in English) “Repeat after me: Please contact Miyu. Okay?”

Interviewer: “Has it been decided which promotions you will go to and who you’re going to wrestle?”

Yamashita: “A few matches have already been advertised by overseas promotions. After March 31, I think April is full. But there are still openings in May and June, and the more I talk about it, the more I want to wrestle. Because three months is such a short amount of time, I want to go to many different promotions all over the country. Please contact me!”

Interviewer: “Are there any promotions that you want to go to, or wrestlers that you personally want to fight?”

Yamashita: “The reason why I wanted to go overseas in the first place was to meet a lot of different people in a lot of different places, and I want to have matches with many different wrestlers. I don’t have anything specific in mind at the moment.”

Interviewer: “You currently hold the EVE belt, so are you also going to travel to the UK while you are based in America?”

Yamashita: “That will be possible, yes. I want to be flexible, and I want to defend the EVE belt as well.”

Interviewer: “You said that you might be in America again in July?”

Yamashita: “I don’t know how things are going to go. I don’t even know if I will make it back alive. I don’t know what lies ahead, but that’s the exciting part. I’ll come back to Fukuoka, and then I think it’ll depend on what happens during those three months and how it goes.”

Interviewer: “Do you have any worries about living there for three months?”

Yamashita: (with a self-satisfied grin) “No, I don’t. …Why are you laughing?”

Namba: “Everyone here is worried about you.”

Yamashita: “Why? You have nothing to worry about! I’ll be going back and forth just like I’m doing now, and I can communicate happily and people talk to me a lot and take me out to eat, so I’ll be fine. …Why are you laughing? I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I’m more worried that I’ll enjoy myself too much.”

Namba: “Like buying another overpriced smartphone case or something?”

Yamashita: “Yes, exactly. I don’t want to become a shopping monster.”

Namba: “Ah, I see.”

I’d like to also do the Miu and Janai Kai presser, which is after this one in that video, but since the match already happened, I’m going to try to get last week’s show done first .

[rodan]

@fallynleaf

Yamashita: “I don’t know what’s going to happen after March. I don’t even know if I’ll be alive.”

In the video she says 三か月間, confirming that it’s not “what’s going to happen after March”, but like, "seeing as how it’s a whole 3 month span, I don’t know how it’s going to go. I don’t even know if I’ll live through it. "

@fallynleaf

I might be going back to the US again in June or July

Minor thing and this is clunkier in English but I think it’s a little more like “I might be going to the US again in July, after (the return match in) June”

@fallynleaf

That will be possible, yes.

This is a really minor thing, but I think that “That is possible, yes” is closer and a little less confirming than “that will be possible, yes.”

@fallynleaf

Yamashita: (with a self-satisfied grin)

The transcript is maybe exagerrating the ドヤ顔 a bit

I feel like it’s mostly her tone that gives it that feel, like she’s no-selling the question…

[fallynleaf]

Been a bit of a busy week for TJPW stuff . I’m about halfway through the February 18 Nagoya show, which was almost as long as Korakuen . Some good developments happened on this one, though!

First up, Shino’s debut match announcement! I only had a transcript for the backstage comments portion.

Miu: “So, with that, Shino-chan’s debut has been set. How do you feel?”

Shino: “Frankly, I’m just so happy that I can finally work with everyone.” (cries)

Miu: “It was an honest surprise and she truly was caught off guard. But she has been preparing so that she can be ready to debut at any time. She was injured for a long time, but even then, she was always coming to the dojo and taking notes while doing as much as she could physically, and that’s why she was able to be ready in time for Ariake.”

Raku: “Don’t let (Miu) swing you!”

Shino: “When they were taking photos for the match announcement, I kept saying, ‘Why are they taking photos when my debut hasn’t been determined yet?’ Now I understand what it meant, and I’m so honored and so glad that I can make my debut surrounded by my senpais.” (crying) “…I haven’t debuted yet, but I’ll try not to get hurt. I’m going to work even harder. I’ll keep my spirits up.”

After that, Himawari got her first win while teaming with Yuki Aino! She defeated Wakana by submission. Here are Himawari and Yuki’s comments:

Aino: “Congratulations!”

HIMAWARI: “I won! I’m so happy. Last week, I lost to Wakana-san in a singles match, by submission. This time, I was determined not to give up. But Yuki-san was there helping me out.”

Aino: “I didn’t do anything.”

HIMAWARI: “I’m still frustrated. Are you glad that I won?”

Aino: “I could really feel HIMAWARI’s emotions, so I thought ‘Go for it!’ as I watched over her.”

HIMAWARI: “I was able to do it because I felt reassured that Yuki-san was there.”

Aino: “Really?”

HIMAWARI: “It’s true!”

Aino: “Not only was I able to be her debut opponent, but I was there for her first victory as well. That was a great experience for me as a wrestler. Thank you.”

HIMAWARI: “Yuki-san has been there for all of my important moments.”

Aino: “I won’t be able to look after you in the future.” (she laughs, then holds her hands above her head) “This is HIMAWARI’s pose.”

HIMAWARI: “I was able to make it bloom. Next will be in a singles match with Wakana-san, and then with Yuki-san… It’ll be juniors overthrowing senpais.”

Aino: "OK, let’s do it. I’m not going to lose.”

HIMAWARI: “I’m not losing either!”

I was a bit confused by the interviewer’s question here: “フィニッシュへのこだわりは？” (Proud of myself for figuring out what she was talking about with the 片エビ, though!)

(Your choice of finisher?)

“I noticed while watching TJPW that there are a lot of people who use a Boston Crab, so I thought it would be better to go with something different, so I choose to use a Half Crab. This time, I absolutely had to get a submission victory, so forcing her to tap out to the Half Crab was my only choice.”

Then Yuki said “こだわり大事”, which confused me again, haha.

Aino: “It’s important to have a speciality.”

HIMAWARI: “The Half Crab is a move that I never want to take myself.” (laughs)

I thought Miu vs Janai Kai was a lot of fun! I was really excited to see Rika come out and challenge for the belt next; I think that’ll be a great test for Miu. It didn’t even occur to me until it came up in her comments that this’ll be her first challenger who’s a senpai of hers…

I think the post-match translation went alright? I had Mr. Haku’s help again, haha (he recently suggested on twitter that he might not be sticking around in wrestling fandom terribly much longer, so I’m enjoying his contributions while we still have them…)

(After the match, Tatsumi comes and puts the belt on Miu.)

Tatsumi: “Miu, great job! Congratulations on your defense. You know, we’ve been fighting together as Daydream for a long time, and I’ve seen from up close as you’ve gotten better and better on your own, getting results and winning that belt, and shining so brightly. I’ve been thinking; I really want to fight you! So, can I be the next candidate to challenge for your belt?”

Miu: “Well… If Rika-san hadn’t been here, I might not have come to love pro wrestling as much as I do now, and because I was with Rika-san as Daydream, I was able to grow enough to win this belt. I want to surpass Rika-san one day, so I want to have a singles match, but, um… I’ll do my best.”

Tatsumi: “Does that mean OK?”

Miu: “Yes.”

Tatsumi: “Say it properly!”

Miu: “Let’s have a singles match at Ariake on March 18 with this belt on the line!”

Tatsumi: “Thank you!”

In Miu’s comments, she confused me right away with her second line, haha: “だんだん見えてなかった景色って、こういうものなんだな、こんな色のものもあるんだなって日々感じることが多くて.”

Miu: “This was my third defense. I feel like day by day, I’m able to see more and more of a view that I hadn’t seen before, things like this, colors like this. I was thinking about this belt at first, wanting to become like my senpais, wanting to see new scenery, wanting to bulk up and become a stronger, better wrestler. Rika-san is a senpai whom I really respect, and while I’m happy that she put her name forward, I have some mixed feelings. But I think precisely because Rika-san came forward here, now is the time for me to surpass her. So I will go beyond her and defend this belt, and I will do my best so that after Ariake, I can go to America as the International Champion.”

In the second part, I think I got the first couple sentences:

(Concerning the title defense against a senpai)

“Rika-san challenging for the International belt was unexpected. I’d thought that I’d like to fight Rika-san after I had become truly capable of standing on my own in the course of defending this belt.”

These two sentences I wasn’t quite sure about: “私が逆に挑戦するぐらいの気持ちだったので、まさかのこのタイミングで、え、となって。しかも、試合終わったあとに急に巻いてくれたんですよ。それがなんか逆に怖くて.”

“I thought I’d be the one who’d challenge her, so when it happened out of the blue like this, I was like ‘huh?’ Not only that, but after the match, she suddenly came up and put the belt around my waist. That’s like the opposite of scary. She grabbed a microphone right after she did it, so I was really scared, but when I saw the awesome Rika-san just coming right out and saying it, I thought, ‘This is the person I admire, the Rika-san who stands next to me,’ and I wanted to surpass her even more.”

(Janai’s kicks were very strong; what did you think about her?)

“Her kicks were awesome. I have seen a variety of wrestlers who specialize in kicks come to TJPW, but this was a kick with foreign blood. She was very intimidating, and I felt a different force compared to the Japanese wrestlers. Her kicks, without shoes or anything, simply barefoot, they were American style… I thought it was amazing. I felt the world.”

Janai’s comments were short and in English:

Janai: “I was this close. This close! Miu, I will say, I did underestimate you just a little bit. But thank you, because this is a dream of mine. It’s a dream of mine to be here. But just know, TJPW, this isn’t the last time that you’ve heard or seen the Kick Demon Janai Kai.”

In Rika’s comments, I think I got the first sentence, but wasn’t quite sure about the rest of this chunk: “未詩とは白昼夢として、若手の時は私が引っ張って、頑張っていかなきゃなって強く思ってたんですけど、いまや東京女子を代表するトップ選手の一人だから。そんな未詩と有明でシングル、闘えるというのが世界中にアピールする、いい闘いができると思うので、楽しみにしていてほしいです.”

Tatsumi: “I’m sure there are lots of folks who didn’t expect that I of all people would challenge for the International Princess belt, but I think I was able to give them a good surprise. I’m with Miu as Daydream, but when I was younger, I strongly believed that it should be me who was working hard and leading the company, and now I’m one of the top wrestlers representing TJPW. In my singles match with Miu at Ariake, I think we’ll be able to have a good match that will appeal to the entire world, so please look forward to it!” (in English) “Don’t miss it!”

I wasn’t sure about this sentence at the start of Rika’s response to the interviewer: “未詩とは白昼夢なのでとなりにいることがどうしても多くて.”

(You want to fight Miu as she is now more than you want to challenge for the belt?)

“Yes. We’re together as Daydream, so we tend to be near each other. We had a singles match when I was holding the (PoP) belt, and we only fought once when Miu was on the challenger’s side. Get your tickets now so that you can see how it goes when we’re in opposite positions this time!”

And that’s it for now! The main event is slightly more than half of the workload for this one, and I’m hoping I can finish it soon.

Then after that, I want to do the translation for the TJPW match at Mutoh’s retirement show, which shouldn’t be too much work, and then they did a presser for Yuka vs Mizuki and Arai vs Aja Kong… . I think there’s a VOD show this week, too, but that’ll be my last priority after the rest.

[rodan]

@fallynleaf

Aino: “I won’t be able to look after you in the future.” (she laughs, then holds her hands above her head) “This is HIMAWARI’s pose.”

It’s probably obvious, but just in case – the sign is imitating a sunflower, so it’s both HIMAWARI’s pose and a ひまわり pose.

@fallynleaf

I was a bit confused by the interviewer’s question here: “フィニッシュへのこだわりは？” (Proud of myself for figuring out what she was talking about with the 片エビ, though!)

(Your choice of finisher?)

こどわり is one of those words I think would be useful to have in English. I feel like the best example by a longshot is Shupro’s weekly costume column spotlighting a wrestler’s ring gear: particular points of interest are labeled as like, こだわり #1, こだわり #2 etc. My read is it’s like - a detail you have complete control over, and actively choose to make a certain way for your own X personal reasons, rather than some obvious practical concern. That’s your こだわり. In the same way that wrestlers make their ring gear fully their own, and the costume column highlights details by which they do that that a casual observer might miss. (and if it’s intense or detrimental then it can get to be a hang-up or a fixation).
In this case, the interviewer is asking (more specifically in the video) why HIMAWARI chose to go for a half Boston Crab instead of a full Boston Crab like a wrestler would normally do – there’s no obvious practical benefit, and yet it’s something HIMAWARI actively chose to do for her own reasons, so it’s a こだわり.

@fallynleaf

Then Yuki said “こだわり大事”, which confused me again, haha.

Aino: “It’s important to have a speciality.”

And so given the above – well this is why I think こだわり is a word I would reach to even in English since I don’t know a snappy way of translating this but I would say it isn’t exactly specialty… but I think it does work. “It’s important to do your own thing” or “it’s important to make it your own” might be slightly more direct? I don’t get the impression a こだわり is like, necessarily especially fruitful in the way a specialty would be.

@fallynleaf

In Miu’s comments, she confused me right away with her second line, haha: “だんだん見えてなかった景色って、こういうものなんだな、こんな色のものもあるんだなって日々感じることが多くて.”

Miu: “This was my third defense. I feel like day by day, I’m able to see more and more of a view that I hadn’t seen before, things like this, colors like this.

In the video, for that part she’s talking about how she faced 三人目の外国人の方, so she’s speaking sorta metaphorically about like, the new and varied experiences that she’s found from defending the belt against, particularly foreign wrestlers (I wonder if the 外国人 part maybe got left out of the transcript just to make sure it wouldn’t be misconstrued? – the people themselves aren’t the new experience, the perspective is).

@fallynleaf

“Rika-san challenging for the International belt was unexpected. I’d thought that I’d like to fight Rika-san after I had become truly capable of standing on my own in the course of defending this belt.”

These two sentences I wasn’t quite sure about: “私が逆に挑戦するぐらいの気持ちだったので、まさかのこのタイミングで、え、となって。しかも、試合終わったあとに急に巻いてくれたんですよ。それがなんか逆に怖くて.”

“I thought I’d be the one who’d challenge her, so when it happened out of the blue like this, I was like ‘huh?’ Not only that, but after the match, she suddenly came up and put the belt around my waist. That’s like the opposite of scary.

A couple comments here:

first – I don’t know how it is in the transcript, but in the video I would say that – the train of thought is like “I was defending the belt and feeling confident, and starting to think ‘I’d like to fight Rika’ (so it was especially a shock that right with that timing Rika coincidentally challenged me)”
I think that the transcript presumably ordering them into two sentences, and then in translation to English the first sentence getting flipped around, obscures that the reason she’s emphasizing the タイミング is that feeling confident enough to consider fighting Rika was more or less a new development, rather than just something generally in the background.
That’s the 気持ち in 私が逆に挑戦するぐらいの気持ちだったので - it was such confidence/interest that she may well have been on the cusp of challenging Rika herself. Hence, まさかのこのタイミングで、え、となって。 What a coincidence!

Secondly – and this is the rare case where I feel like I’ve commented on this point in the thread before, so I gotta underline it, but 逆に怖くて wouldn’t be “the opposite of scary” (I think not ever, but of course I’m hesitant to make an assertion like that… but you know – nah, I’ll assert it! it just wouldn’t be!).
The thing is 怖い, but in a 逆に way.
In the section before this: “私が逆に挑戦するぐらいの気持ちだったので”, the 逆に is like, “Rika challenged me in reality, but almost what happened is 逆に, I challenged her”, not “I felt that I was going to do the opposite of challenging her.”
Same too here – Rika did something nice, so you’d expect that that wouldn’t be scary, but 逆に, it somehow was.

The 逆に isn’t reversing what’s being said itself, I guess is what I mean, it’s indicating that tables turned in some way. In this case the table that turned is that a nice supportive gesture became a threat.

@fallynleaf

‘This is the person I admire, the Rika-san who stands next to me,’

Extremely nitpicky English style advice, and I can’t really make out exactly what she says in the video anyway, but I feel like “the Rika-san who stands by my side” would for whatever reason convey more of the like, admiration and support in the sentiment than “stands next to me”

@fallynleaf

In Rika’s comments, I think I got the first sentence, but wasn’t quite sure about the rest of this chunk: “未詩とは白昼夢として、若手の時は私が引っ張って、頑張っていかなきゃなって強く思ってたんですけど、いまや東京女子を代表するトップ選手の一人だから。そんな未詩と有明でシングル、闘えるというのが世界中にアピールする、いい闘いができると思うので、楽しみにしていてほしいです.”

Tatsumi: “I’m sure there are lots of folks who didn’t expect that I of all people would challenge for the International Princess belt, but I think I was able to give them a good surprise. I’m with Miu as Daydream, but when I was younger, I strongly believed that it should be me who was working hard and leading the company, and now I’m one of the top wrestlers representing TJPW. In my singles match with Miu at Ariake, I think we’ll be able to have a good match that will appeal to the entire world, so please look forward to it!” (in English) “Don’t miss it!”

A couple things here too:

First – I think the 若手 is probably just a transcription error? I think she says 組み立て as in like, since forming 白昼夢 which I feel like makes a bit more direct sense.

Secondly – I don’t think “I strongly believed that it should be me who was working hard and leading the company, and now I’m one of the top wrestlers representing TJPW.” is on quitethe right track, I’d say it’s more like Rika’s describing their dynamic as a tag team, with Rika leading Miu into further growth as a wrestler (in other words, what’s being pulled along in “私が引っ張って” is Miu, not the company),
although I’m a bit torn on exactly who’s being talked about where.

I roughly broke it down:
(未詩は)
私が引っ張って、
"頑張っていかなきゃな"って強く思ってた
いまや東京女子を代表するトップ選手の一人だから
As in like, Rika was pulling Miu forward, and making sure Miu works hard bc Miu’s already one of the top wrestlers representing TJPW.

And what I’m torn about, is it could be more like:
"私が引っ張って、頑張っていかなきゃな"って強く思ってた
いまや東京女子を代表するトップ選手の一人だから
As in like, Rika felt a responsibility to work hard and pull Miu forward because Rika’s a top wrestler representing TJPW.
But I feel like probably the 引っ張って、頑張って doesn’t connect up quite like that, and this reading seems to connect a less with the "そんな"未詩 that follows, since in this version Rika would have just been talking about herself. I also feel like the いまや fits more if she’s talking about Miu than if she’s talking about herself.

So I think I would still side with my first breakdown, probably.

@fallynleaf

I wasn’t sure about this sentence at the start of Rika’s response to the interviewer: “未詩とは白昼夢なのでとなりにいることがどうしても多くて.”

(You want to fight Miu as she is now more than you want to challenge for the belt?)

“Yes. We’re together as Daydream, so we tend to be near each other.

This is just another case where I’d punch it up with “we’re by each other’s side a lot” or “we’re together very often” or something like that. “we tend to be near each other” is accurate, but the となり here is speaking of near as in like, your tag team partner is next to you supporting you, and “tend to be near each other” in contrast in English sounds amusingly distant.