Finished the July 16 Tokyo Princess Cup TJPW show! This one is nice and short! I uh ended up only watching parts of the tournament matches in this one, since the show sadly overlapped the Kenny Omega vs El Hijo del Vikingo match in AAA… 
The first tournament match was Shoko vs Suzume, which seemed fun from what I saw of it 
. Unfortunately for poor Suzume, she had worse luck this year than last…
I think I got most of Shoko’s comments?
Nakajima: “It really feels like I put everything I had into just the first round. But I still want to win and advance to the next round, and on the day of the tournament drawing, Mizuki said that she wanted to nominate me, so I feel like I absolutely have to win.”
(Your next opponent has been decided)
“I feel like Rika has the most momentum right now. We had a match last summer with the singles belt on the line, and I feel like she has even more momentum than she had then. That simply scares me.”
(What about Suzume?)
“There are a lot of things that I want to say, but my main feeling is that it was simply a lot of fun.”
(You haven’t used that finisher in a long time, so she must have driven you pretty hard?)
I wasn’t quite sure about this: “そういうことになっちゃいますね（笑）”
“That’s what it came down to.” (laughs)
Suzume: “I lost! But, I don’t know. I really totally gave it my all. I think I was able to do every little possible thing that I could with Nakajima-san as my opponent.”
The end of this sentence was tricky (usual culprit of not feeling entirely sure what’s the subject, haha. A predator of Shoko specifically?): “いまはこんなに敵わないホントにでっかい相手なんですけど、いつか天敵って言わせるような蜂になりたいと思います.”
“She’s a truly gargantuan opponent that I’m no match for now, but someday I want to become a hornet that people will refer to as a born predator.”
(There was a great sense of anticipation from the crowd)
Her answer was a bit confusing, haha: “そうですね。こういう大事な…大事なっていうか、結果が出るものに対して背中を押してくれる人はホントにたくさんいて。当たり前には思ってないけど、でも安心してみんないるって思って闘えたかなって思います。去年はけっこう応えなきゃっていうプレッシャーに感じる部分が大きかったけど、今年はそれよりも『みんないるし』って伸び伸びできた気がします.”
“Yes! That’s so important… or maybe I should say that there were really a lot of people who pushed me to get results. I don’t take that for granted, but I think it gave me peace of mind to fight knowing that everyone was there. Last year I felt a lot of pressure to respond to those expectations, but this year I realized ‘everyone is here’ and I was able to be more carefree.”
The main event was Rika vs Raku, which I heard was awesome. I’m terrible at going back and actually rewatching stuff, so I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it, but I do love to see Raku get big main event matches like this.
Here’s the post-match:
Tatsumi: “Everyone, thank you for watching until the end!”
I think I understood this sentence for the most part, but wasn’t confident in my translation choices, haha: “なんていうか…らくはあんなにねばって、ねばりっこいやつだったとは…すごい曲者でした.”
“What can I say… Raku was so persistent, just full of tenacity… she was very cunning. But since I was able to get a win over Raku and make it past the first match, I’m looking to wreak havoc in this summer tournament! Today is the second day of a three day run of shows, so there will be another one tomorrow. I’m sure you all have tickets for that day, too, and it’ll also be on Universe, so please check it out. So, with that, bye-bye, everyone! See you tomorrow!”
Rika’s comments caused me some problems like usual, haha. Right from the start, I wasn’t exactly sure about this whole chunk: “最近のらくの急成長というか闘いが私はすごい好きで。普段はおっとりしててマイペースで試合中もそうだと思うんですけど。でもそんならくががむしゃらに闘って、キレッキレで闘う姿に私も励まされたりとか…っていう闘いをするなって思って、すごいいいなって感じて、それを今日も感じました。だし、すごい粘りもあって…今日は勝てたんですけど、また次らくと闘うのも楽しみだなって思いました.”
Tatsumi: “I really like Raku’s rapid growth, or I guess I should say her fighting. I think she’s usually calm during the match and takes it at her own pace. But this time she fought recklessly and briskly, and she encouraged me, too… I think getting to the point where she fights like that is really good, and I felt that in her today. She also had incredible tenacity… I got the win today, but I’m looking forward to fighting her again. I made it past the first round safely, and next up is Shoko Nakajima. No, I don’t like that because she’s strong.”
Then Rika referenced some stream that I don’t think I watched, so I don’t really have context for her comments, and also couldn’t figure out what she was even saying, haha. The interviewer started losing it in the background part of the way through it. Here’s what she said: “なんですけど、この前翔子が配信でツンデレ？ デレてくれたんですよ。私のことを爆弾処理の当たりを引く方って褒めてくれたんですよ。当たりを引く方？ 生き残る方を引くタイプだって言ってくれて、私もそう思ってるので、自分を。だからその当たりを引いて、次も勝利して、トップまで上り詰めます.”
“What was it, when Shoko was on stream recently, being tsundere? She was fawning over me. She praised me for being the one who’d take care of the bomb disposal. The one who takes the hit? She said that I was the type of person who’d pull out the survivors, and I think so, too. So I’m going to take that hit, win the next one, and go on up to the top.”
(She had you pretty much cornered)
“Yeah. It felt like, ‘Where does that girl hide that kind of power?’ I saw an amazing version of Raku, so I got really fired up.”
And finally, Raku’s comments:
Raku: “In the end, Rika-san was really strong. When I saw the match at Ota City between Rika-san and Yuki-san, I felt like it was amazing pro wrestling.”
The beginning of this was a bit confusing, and I wasn’t sure about the second sentence: “あー、真剣に…いつも真剣だけど、1対1でお互い闘う姿はやっぱりカッコいいなってちょうど思ってたところだったので、リカさんとたまたま当たれて試合ができてよかったです。タイトルマッチとかまた挑戦していきたいし、ビッグマッチで自分じゃなきゃダメって試合ももっとしたいので”
“They’re always serious, but I thought seeing them facing each other one-on-one, they looked so cool. So I was glad that I got the chance to face Rika-san in a match. I want to challenge for a title again, and I want to do more matches in a big show where I’m the only one who can do it. Today’s match made me want to work even harder at pro wrestling. Pro wrestling is really fun, huh? I’m rooting for Rika-san in the tournament, so I want her to do her best!”
And that’s it! Two down, two more to go!
There’s also a TJPW 路上プロレス show coming up (or, well, it already happened and the VOD will be available on PPV…), which was filmed at a theme park, if I recall correctly? The preview made it look awesome, haha. Very in the spirit of pool wrestling for sure. I’m looking forward to that one. 