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

Japanese Language
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Not really that meaningful a distinction I would probably say rather it was Risako’s inner 闘志を燃やしてるness that Rika felt hit against her. In the audio it sounds to me like she says それが rather than を which seems like it strengthens that impression.

Nitpicks, but I would probably use “break a sweat” in English here, since she’s really mainly using sweat to talk about how much effort she had to put in, not neutrally about sweat. And “a lot” feels maybe slightly too much for けっこう, where I would have felt like “quite” or “pretty good.”
Looking for support for this impression I found this page contrasting the word with the similar かなり and it had:

「結構」は「ある程度予想していたがそれ以上だったこと」で、基本的に良い意味で使います。

In this case, the prediction would be the match was no sweat, and the more-than-expected good, けっこう feeling meaning to me would be like, a nice decent sweat from a nice challenge! “A lot” makes it sound a little like it turned out to be a genuine challenge to the point she was got worried for a bit there (again this is all certainly splitting hairs though).

Not really a comment on the translation at all, but her ねs and change of tone here are real good! They give this brag a knowing cheeky tone. I wonder if there’s a great easy way to translate that into text in another language, but I suppose probably not. In some ways the single syllable sentence-enders seem like the hardest thing to translate in Japanese…

I don’t really understand her here either, and I think she might be doing some kind of a bit since it sounds like the interviewer is holding back chuckles and she still has that kinda cheeky tone. My best guess is she’s like, adopting the voice of a knowledgeable veteran providing wisdom to a hope-filled newcomer and suckering them into pro-wrestling like “oh yeah, I’ve fulfilled 3, maybe 4 dreams here. With pro-wrestling you know, you lose interest in what you did before sometimes, but it’s no big loss.”
but I could certainly be off-base.

I would probably go with “But I was scared!” or somesuch.
Pomu answers Mizuki’s question twice - first by rejecting the premise, then by saying “(Max is) 怖いんですよ！” The ん shows it’s the reason that matches with the の in Mizuki’s question. Why didn’t Pom pitch in? Well first of all she did, but Max is scary…

I think the あれやんな is just sort of like – kansai filler for Mizuki leading into an idea she thought of. I think just “Well,” might be closer than “well if that’s how it is,”

I would say here that the 瑞希さんが is suggesting that Mizuki be the one who handles Max, and the 大丈夫 is Mizuki saying no, that’s alright, I don’t want to.
(with the ぽむはいいです！ being like “well I don’t want to either!!” )

The part I’d say here is the “it” should probably be “them” both times here. It’s Max that’s implied with the と and as the object of the 任せる, after all.

Her gestures help here:

羅生門が入り口で
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平安京があって
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その間に (羅生門がとってすぐに) 鴻臚館っていう外交施設
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She’s describing a position in relation to the gate and the main palace in the ancient capital.

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After searching around… I’d actually take very slight issue with Mr. Haku’s translation! :sweat_smile: As it seems to me that 鴻臚館 is not a specific building but a type of building, and I found for example this source which seems to me to definitely be talking about multiple 鴻臚館 being present in the area, particularly two across the main road:

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(and there seem to have been other 鴻臚館 in other cities as well)

My read of Moka’s hand gesture is she spreads her hands wide enough to suggest multiple buildings in a cluster, and her grammar leaves it ambiguous.

So it seems to me that “near the entrance to the 平安 capital, just inside 羅生門, there were ambassador guest houses called 鴻臚館” would be what she’s saying.

From the chatter in the video, I would say that they’re specifically talking about before the match, where Rhia was loudly objecting to the presence of a cat in the ring, and then Noa got her to parrot ネコガスキ while proclaiming she didn’t know what anyone was saying, and then when the match started she went over to beat up Neko.

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So I suppose you could argue she was talking about neither Neko nor cats, really :sweat_smile:, but in practice I would translate both mentions of what Rhia said as “I like cats.”

I hope the next week treats you better!

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Finished translating TJPW’s October 21 show (Arisu’s hometown show) slightly too late to post about it before the next show, but at least this one was a lot shorter :sweat_smile:.

Moka and Miu had a preview match (their first and last) before their title match.

Moka started off by saying: “今日は隣にいた中島さんのおかげもあって勝つことができました。でも、やっぱり未詩さんの勢いがすごくて。久々にジャイアントスイングまでやられてしまって、すごい悲しい思いはあります。でもタイトルマッチまであと一週間くらいで残りも少ないので…”

I was a bit perplexed by the すごい悲しい思いはあります part. I felt like I understood the grammar, but couldn’t make sense of what she meant by it :sweat_smile:. Here’s what I had for her comments:

Miyamoto: “I was able to win today thanks to Nakajima-san, who was at my side. However, Miu-san had a lot of momentum. It has been a while since she hit me with a Giant Swing, and I feel really sad. But there is only a week left until the title match, and that’s not much time… In one week, I’m going to give it everything I have and beat Miu-san.”

(After facing her today, did you discover anything you need to work on before the title match?)

“Hmm… Miu-san has a lot of momentum and power, so I hope I can show enough spirit that exceeds that.”

In Miu’s comments, she starts with, “今日はもかと前哨戦が…たぶん最初で最後？になるんですけど。前回の試合からもかが今まで以上に、今までだと信じられないくらいの勢いだったり、決意みたいなのを感じたので.”

I got a bit tripped up by the “になるんですけど”, but I think maybe it’s just the mid-sentence (?) question mark that’s throwing me off?

Miu: “Today was a preview match with Moka… maybe our first and last one? Since our last match, Moka had incredible spirit, more than before, and I felt her determination.”

Then she said: “先週、率直に嬉しいなとは思ったんですけど、やっぱり嬉しいだけじゃなく、もかの気持ちをちゃんと受けとめて、その上でしっかり勝てるようにしなきゃなとは思いますし.” I guess my main question here is a translation nuance question, haha, because I wasn’t quite sure what to do with “もかの気持ちをちゃんと受けとめて” in English. All of the wording I came up with felt kind of awkward :sweat_smile:.

“Last week, I was frankly happy, but I also felt that I shouldn’t just be happy, but also receive Moka’s feelings and make sure that I win. So, one week later, Osaka. I hope everyone will come and support me.”

(You got hit with the Korokan again today)

“Yes. Rashomon and Korokan, the kanji is a bit difficult.” (laughs) “I don’t really understand.”

(I absolutely laughed at her struggling with the kanji in 羅生門 and 鴻臚館, though 羅 is a level 57 kanji, and neither 鴻 nor 臚 are in WK, so I can’t really blame her here.)

I had a bit of trouble with this next part: “でもあの技ホントにヤバくて、今回も前回も今まで予想もしてなかった技だったので。いままでの積み重ねもありつつ、さらにすごい技なので。あれだけは警戒しとかなきゃいけないし、あれ食らったら…もかは後輩ってみんな見えてるかもしれないですけど.”

The “いままでの積み重ねもありつつ、さらにすごい技なので” part in particular was tricky, and the very last line was a bit confusing in meaning.

“But that move is really dangerous, because it’s a move that I hadn’t expected up to this point, either this time or last time. I’ve experienced a lot so far, so that makes that move even more amazing. I have to be on the lookout for that one, and if I get hit by it… everyone might see that Moka is my junior. So it would be bad if it hits me. Rashomon is also hard to deal with. I feel like I can’t rest easily at all.”

The main event was a bit of a brutal one, as far as Arisu’s chances of winning go. She teamed up with Suzume and faced MagiRabbi. I think you can predict how this one went…

After the match when all four of them spoke on the mic, Yuka’s first line confused me a bit: “やるやんけ、お前ー！”

Sakazaki: “You’re doing it, aren’t you! Since we had our title match, you’ve been really spirited, and your teamwork has gotten better… good!”

Mizuki: “I’m sure Arisu is frustrated that she was soundly defeated, but she has so many people supporting her here, so let’s keep working even harder together.”

Sakazaki: “This is great. They’re practically all on Arisu’s side, huh?”

(Handing Endo the microphone)

“Say something.”

Endo: “We lost… But let me say… I’m home! Yuka-san, Mizuki-san, have we grown since our title match?”

(They answer “You have!”)

“I’m glad… Since before I started wrestling, doing a triumphant return show was my dream. It came true today. And now, I have another dream. I want to get even bigger, and come back home to Aizu-Wakamatsu. I’m going to become stronger than my senpais, and I will come back.”

I was a bit confused by what she said next: “もうこれ以上（マイクが）長くなっちゃうと…みんな、（３方向に）ホントにありがとうございます.” The part about the mic, I couldn’t quite get.

“If I keep going on the mic… Everyone,” (to all three sides) “Truly thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you! …I’ll close now. Well, I’ll see you all when I come back again. Thank you so much for today!”

Mizuki and Yuka’s post-match comments start off pretty straightforward:

Sakazaki: “Wow, there was so much love!”

Mizuki: “Truly, she’s loved by so many people.”

Sakazaki: “It was amazing. To be able to wrestle in a place like this, it was an incredible opportunity.”

Mizuki: “I was also happy to be her opponent.”

Sakazaki: “And as Daisy Monkey, she really challenged us when MagiRabbi had the tag belts. Her mindset has changed since that time, and their level as individuals has gone up, and as a team as well. Considering all that, I’m really glad.”

The end is where things get a little tricky: “（ここまでアウェーでの闘いは珍しいです）まぁまぁまぁまぁ、そうでしょうっていう想定はあったから、全然いいんですけど。なので、でじもん見てって感じではありましたけどね。その上で私たちが上をいくので。余裕の態度は取ってました.”

I was confused by アウェー at first, then figured out that the interviewer is referring to it as an “away game” basically because it’s away from home and MagiRabbi are sort of the de facto heels against the hometown hero. I think? In any case, Yuka’s last three sentences still confused me, haha :sweat_smile:.

(Until now, it has been rare to fight an away match)

“Well, I expected it’d be like that, so it was totally fine. It felt like ‘look at Daisy Monkey’. Besides, we were above them. I took a relaxed attitude." (laughs)

The first part of Arisu and Suzume’s comments was pretty straightforward:

Endo: “My return show was a lot of fun, but… in the end, MagiRabbi was too strong. It was painful, and of course I wanted to get a win in front of everyone in my hometown, but I’m glad I did this. I was able to dream a little more, and I’m glad that MagiRabbi were my opponents. And I’m glad that you’re my partner, Suzume-san.”

Suzume: “Thank you for bringing me with you.”

Endo: “I’m going to cry…”

Suzume: “It was really cool, and this seems to be a place that raises good kids who are bright and carefree. I was happy to come here with everyone, and to face two people who might be the tag team among our senpais that we have the deepest emotional attachment to. They’re definitely opponents that we both want to surpass, so I’m beyond happy that we could face them at this momentous show, and I’m definitely going to ask Arisu to bring me back here again.”

Endo: “I’ll bring you back!”

In the second part, the beginning was pretty doable:

(Her entrance was magnificent)

Suzume: “It was amazing!”

Endo: “There were so many flags.”

Suzume: “I wanted to hold one, too.”

Then according to the transcript, Arisu says: “ダメ。一緒に入場したかった.” I had a bit of trouble catching the ダメ when I tried listening, and couldn’t really make sense of it in the context of the rest of what Arisu was saying, so I didn’t know if it was a typo, or what I should do with it :sweat_smile:.

Endo: "I wanted us to enter together. It was amazing, all those flags. I was so surprised.”

(You completed your big task as a tourism ambassador)

“Yes. As a tourism ambassador, I think there are lots of people who discovered Fukushima and TJPW.”

(Did you feel any pressure?)

“Well, the poster said Arisu Endo’s triumphant return show, and BAM there I am right in the middle of it.” (laughs) “Plus, there are a lot of people in Fukushima who don’t know about pro wrestling. So, there was pressure from all sides, but we managed to pull it off…”

Suzume: “Wow, the poster is plastered all over town.”

Endo: “That’s all my friends’ doing.” (laughs)

(Naturally, the next time you return, you want to finish with a win?)

"Of course! I want to end it with a victory. I want to look cool in front of everyone. All my family and friends.”

And that’s it for that one!

The next show, on October 24, was a fan club show, which always have ridiculous stipulation matches and possibly some of the only pro wrestling matches in the entire industry that are actually a shoot and not worked (my friends and I regularly debate this).

Shupro doesn’t have any transcripts for anything from this one, and there were no backstage comments, so I’m not doing a translation, but I highly recommend watching this one, especially if you have decent Japanese listening comprehension, because the stipulations are hilarious.

I actually got to hear the WK word 人狼(じんろう) (werewolf) a lot haha because they played a game of werewolf as a match stipulation, so naturally the wrestlers spent most of the match arguing over who was the werewolf and trying to convince the others of their innocence.

I could catch bits and pieces of stuff throughout the show (I still leaned pretty heavily on Dramatic DDT’s blog post about it, though), which made it a lot more fun. I can’t wait until I can watch shows like this and actually catch most of what’s going on.

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The 悲しい思い I would say is from not defending as well as she may have hoped against Miu. It’s a good example of how structure and how thoughts connect inform the point being made in ways that can be difficult to preserve when having to unravel the grammar into something that works in English.
久々にジャイアントスイングまでやられてしまって、すごい悲しい思いはあります。
is, structurally, I would say more like, “I was even (unfortunately) hit by the Giant Swing (which I hadn’t been hit with in a while), and I feel really sad”
So the implication is that – if she’s going into a match with Miu ahead of this title shot, the very last thing she would want to happen, the thing she was most trying to avoid, would surely be falling prey to Miu’s Giant Swing, but she did not succeed at avoiding that and now right before the title match she’s gone from not having been prey to the Giant Swing in a long time, to knowing that Miu can totally hit her with it. So that’s the context informing why she’s sad.
“It has been a while since she hit me with a Giant Swing, and I feel really sad.” switches things around to make the literal meaning work better in English, but loses out on some of the structure that informs the thought process – the main thing she’s sad about isn’t that it’s been a while or that Miu hit it, it’s that ジャイアントスイングまでやられてしまって, she got hit with (even) The Giant Swing (against her best intentions).
The passive form and まで and しまう are doing quite a bit to inform the train of thought, I guess is what I mean.

The English here also makes it sound like perhaps she still hasn’t been hit with the Giant Swing, but she definitely was in the original sentence, and in the match (just in case that was misunderstood):

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Yeah it’s just signifying a questioning tone mid-sentence, exactly like your “(?)” here.

Well, Weblio has for 受け止める:

２ 事柄の意味をしっかりと理解する。自分の問題として認識する。「忠告を謙虚に—・める」

Brainstorming English alternatives with an emphasis on sounding natural in English, I suppose these are the best I’ve come up with:
“be fully receptive to Moka’s feelings”
“properly accept and respond to Moka’s feelings”

One point also, that may help with phrasing the sentence - This part is the only part that was last week: “先週、率直に嬉しいなとは思ったんですけど”
The rest is present tense (should be “I feel”) and the match in Osaka is one week from now when she’s speaking. (She is speaking in Fukushima).

The structure here is:
Miu forming thought: あれ食らったら…
Miu interjecting context for thought: もかは後輩ってみんな見えてるかもしれないですけど
Miu returning to original thought: あれ食らったら私ちょっとまずいし。

So it’s not that if she gets hit with the move, Moka will be seen as her 後輩 (which doesn’t make sense), but, like: “(People maybe see Moka as my 後輩, but) if I get hit with that move I’ll be in a difficult position (and would have a chance of losing the match)”

I would say やる is here a slangy sense sorta like in English saying someone “can go” or that kind of thing. If someone or something やる in this sense, it’s like… is good / has traction / can get it done, that kind of thing I think.
The やんけ is just Yuka being from Kansai and would be like, じゃないか, I’d say.
Here’s a result that equates やるじゃないか with 「期待していなかったのに、予想外に出来が良かった」.
I would go with something like “you’re not half bad!”, “you two can really go after all!” or phrases along those lines.

I’d say もうこれ以上 is her saying like, “all right, that’s quite enough, I’ll end here”
what she says after that in the video sounds to me like “長くなっちゃう話すこと” so I’d say she’s saying like, oops - she was starting to talk to much. And the transcript rearranged that for whatever reason into （マイクが）長くなっちゃうと with the マイク presumably meaning like, the in-ring promo itself (is what was getting too long).

Yep! I would agree about the アウェー

About “その上で私たちが上をいくので。余裕の態度は取ってました.”
I would say she’s saying that like, an additional part of why they were fine in the match is they adopted a superior attitude.

Weblio has for 上をいく:

他人より一段まさるようにふるまう。また、他よりまさっている。

and this yahoo answers post has for 余裕のある態度

相手に媚びず、いじったりする態度です。

which jibes with gut understanding (not really exactly sure where it comes from) that like – a 余裕の態度 isn’t so much relaxed in the way a layabout relaxes as it is in like, if anything involving “relaxed”… the way a king relaxes. You’re the one in charge, you’ve got the 余裕, the people around you might be worried and taking things seriously, but you’re in no trouble and you can tease them all you want. That kind of attitude.
So I would say here she’s saying that another reason they were fine being “away” is they took full control of the match, not acting like it was Arisu’s ring just because it was her hometown, it’s still Magical Sugar Rabbits’ ring.

I would say she does say it (although she’s laughing and not enunciating great.)
At 0:09 she reacts to Suzume by giving a slight head shake and saying ダメ、
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I would translate it as like “No way! I wanted us to enter together.”

The people holding flags are just (I guess) assorted local Endo supporters, and she’s given a bunch of flowers and stuff by more local officials or something, before Suzume comes out later as almost an afterthought, so I would take the ダメ as in like – Endo was a bit embarrassed by all the pomp being focused on her as-is, if she’d had her druthers she and Suzume would have entered as equals, so if Suzume had been one of the Endo flag bearers that would have been even more embarrassing!

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Finished the October 29 TJPW show! The translation for this one was really short in comparison to some recent shows :sweat_smile:.

Willow Nightingale finally made it over to Japan from AEW! She seemed like a natural fit in TJPW. The crowd really loved her bubbly energy. I’m wondering if perhaps an International title shot is coming up for her, and we’ll finally get to see that Willow vs Miu match that we missed out on this summer…

In this show, Willow tagged with Yuka against Maki Itoh and Kamiyu, and she managed to pin Kamiyu and get the win.

Most of Yuka and Willow’s comments were in English:

Sakazaki: “Willow is here!” (in English) “Please come back!”

Willow: (in English) “Oh, I hope so! I want to! I had so much fun! Oh, I’m buzzing! How’s that for a match? Exciting first win.”

Sakazaki: “Willow is a great fit for TJPW, and she’s a happy girl, so I hope she comes back soon.” (in English) “Soon, Japan?”

Willow: (in English) “Yeah!! Let’s show our muscles!”

Sakazaki: (in English) “Thank you! Bye-bye!”

Willow: (in Japanese) “Thank you!”

I was very grateful for Mr. Haku’s help with Kamiyu and Itoh’s comments, because I would have been quite confused otherwise, haha :sweat_smile:.

Kamifuku: (in English) “Maki, I’m so sorry I lost.”

Itoh: (in English) “No, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

Kamifuku: (in English) “I’m sorry.”

Itoh: (translating) “She says ‘I’m sorry for losing’"

Kamifuku: (in English) “It hurts! Everywhere hurts!”

Itoh: (translating) “She says ‘it hurts all over!’”

Kamifuku: “I Lostingale and am Sadingale…”

Itoh: (translating) “She says ‘I Lostingale and am Sadingale’. We’ll keep trying, right?”

Kamifuku: (in English) “Yes, next time, next time, please.”

Itoh: (translating) “She wants to do it again.”

Kamifuku: “I didn’t say that.”

Itoh: “You didn’t? But since we lost…”

Kamifuku: “I want to get Revengigale.”

Itoh: (translating) “She says ‘I’ll definitely do it again’.”

Kamifuku: “Thankingale. Imma Leavingale now.”

Itoh: “…Leavingale!”

The main event was Miu vs Moka for the International belt, and this match ruled?? I’ve been a fan of Moka since she debuted, but I didn’t realize she was capable of this level of match yet at this point in her career. Both of them did a fantastic job!

Miu spoke on the mic a bit after she won. I didn’t have trouble with the first half:

Miu: “My first defense was successful! I was really happy that Moka came forward first, and I’m so happy that I was able to fight her today. And from this point, I have made my first defense, but I want to grow more and more, and become more and more of a suitable candidate for this belt, and defend it loads more times. Everyone, thank you for your support! Thank you all for coming to Osaka today!”

The beginning of this next part is where both Miu and I had a bit of trouble, haha :sweat_smile:. She said: “…終わりです。どうしよ。なんて？ 今日は満席、だった…？” She seemed to be having trouble finding her words, and I wasn’t quite sure how to translate it. Here’s what I had for the rest:

(pause) “That’s it. What do I say now? Um. It was a full house today, wasn’t it? We haven’t had an Osaka show in six months, and we weren’t able to hear everyone’s voices for the past three years, so the fact that we sold out makes me so, so happy. Please keep supporting us! Thank you so much! The end!”

In her comments, Miu said:

Miu: “I was able to successfully make my first defense. Yay! I’ve been so happy since the week before last, when Moka took the mic for the first time and declared her intent. I thought her enthusiasm and passion from that point on burned stronger than ever. She’s been training very hard, and is always really honest and passionate, so it made me really happy to have Moka for my opponent in my first title defense. Though from here, it’s a bit… Well, the microphone is a challenge.” (laughs) “I didn’t know how to close the show, so I decided to try my best to go on a little longer. There are so many things I have to work hard on, so I want to keep defending my belt and work as hard as I can… Like this!” (laughs) “I’m going to do my best, with the mic.”

For the next part, I had a bit of help from Mr. Haku again:

(Do you have an idea of what your future road of defenses might look like?)

“Since it’s the International belt, I think I can hear the voice of the belt say that it would be happier if I defended it against wrestlers from overseas. Of course, I also want to do that to expand my own horizons, and I’m happy to see my hard-working juniors step forward like Moka did this time. I thought this summer that I wanted to be that type of senpai. On that note, both are” (in English) “Welcome.” (in Japanese) “Yes, I said it in English.”

(You’ll accept any challenger?)

"Yes. I want to defend the belt again and again; I want to have the most defenses.”

Then the interviewer asks Miu about the variations on the Giant Swing that she keeps coming up with, and she answers: “気付いたらいろんな方が、七色の使い手、みたいなことを言ってくれてたので.” I was a bit confused by this sentence, and didn’t really know how to translate “七色の使い手”. I feel like perhaps there is a reference or some cultural nuance I wasn’t getting? :sweat_smile:

(You’re coming up with more and more variations on the Giant Swing)

“I saw some people saying that it was like I was a user of the seven prismatic colors, or something like that. Well, I thought I would do my best to aim for 200 colors.”

(200 variations?)

“That’s a lie, I’m sorry.” (laughs)

These sentences gave me a lot of trouble, and I think I figured them out, though I wasn’t confident, haha: “でも、自分のペースに持っていけるのって結局ジャイアントスイングなので。そういう部分ではどこからでも回せてワクワクさせられるような人になりたいなって思います.”

“But ultimately I can take the speed of my Giant Swing to the next level. So I want to be someone who’s capable of hitting it out of the blue and making it exciting.”

And finally, Moka’s comments:

Miyamoto: "This was my first title match, and also my first singles main event… I was really nervous. I was able to give it my all, but Miu-san was so strong! She countered my Rashomon into a swing, and every single elbow strike was stiff. My current abilities weren’t enough at all, so I want to work even harder and get revenge.”

The interviewer asked her about using this experience in the future, and she said, “はい、生かせそうです。初めてのタイトルマッチを全力を尽くして成し遂げたことも、初めてのメインでシングルしたことも成長につながったと思うので.” I got tripped up several times in that long sentence :sweat_smile:.

(Can you use this experience going forward?)

“Yes, I think so. I put forth my best effort in my first title match and my first main event singles match, and I think I’ve grown. If I have the opportunity, I want to challenge for the belt again, and I want to become even stronger.”

And that’s it!

I’m miraculously caught up again, at least for a few days, haha. We’re fully in the thick of National Novel Writing Month season, so I’m going to have to work extra hard to stay on top of things while I’m doing that, but I think I’ll be able to hold out until their next Korakuen show (which is thankfully at the end of the month).

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I think what’s happening here is she was expecting the music cue to go off, since she bows and puts the microphone down.
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…but fully comes back up and the music hasn’t hit…
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hence the sheepish “…終わりです” after she picks the microphone back up. :sweat_smile:
Later she bows in the same way but the show-ending music hits the cue with her bow that time.

For this part:

it seems like she’s reacting to someone saying something off-screen, but I don’t know if it was someone TJPW-related being like “talk about the full house please” or just audience chatter.
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This is definitely a nitpick, but I feel like my impression is まっすぐ in a context like this (i.e. 頑張るing in one’s training) would mean more like, unwaveringly moving forward and applying oneself, that kind of thing. Like, overlapping with honest similar to like, “honest hard work” (but kinda from the other direction I) or how like, a “straightforward person” is honest, but not necessarily meaning the same thing as “she’s honest.” I guess thinking of English words meaning something similar that sound like compliments I would maybe go “focused” here?

This isn’t really even a nitpick just a thought on the subject, but I’d say in Japanese wrestlers talk about the マイク to talk about promos much more often than in English (even including phrases like “on the mic”). Wikipedia has a page just about wrestling promos called マイクパフォーマンス and I’d have to imagine that “パフォーマンス” part gets dropped a lot of the time, after all! I’m not 100% sure exactly how much マイク directly means promos (since wrestlers also definitely use マイク to talk about the microphone itself), but the lines seem at least a bit blurred to me.
I wouldn’t be shocked if like, a directory of wrestlers had stats like, 力, 技, マイク, etc. for example (though I don’t think I’ve seen specifically that).
Which is just to say – I don’t think it’s literally the microphone that’s a challenge, but giving in-ring promos. I suppose that same synecdoche probably plays ok in English too though! But I wanted to highlight it just in case.

Mr. Haku’s is closer to me here:

Subtle distinction there between “defending against wrestlers from overseas” and “defending overseas” and I think she’s saying the latter.

Hey, I remember sorta answering that kind of question a while ago!

The English dictionary definition makes it sound fancy/strange but it just means like, “as many X as there are colors as the rainbow”

Another weblio definition gives:

ななとおり。7種類。また、いろいろの種類。「—の声を出す声優」

So if you think of it as just いろいろの種類 it’s a lot clearer. Using that example, if a 七色の声を出す声優 is a voice actor with many different types of voice, then Miu is a 七色のジャイアントスイングを使うプロレスラー!

I guess it’s up to you how to translate that in a way that still makes clear the joke of inflating the specific number from 7 to 200!

Another nitpick / “it probably plays okay in English anyway” case, but うそ is definitely more lightly thrown out in situations like this than “lie” is in English, so I think a softened translation like “just kidding” could be a more direct meaning translation.
A tangent, but I remember I watched a movie (Throne of Blood) and a character (in the role of Lady Macbeth to her husband) said “それはうそです。” with the English subtitles “I know that not to be true,” as a similar example where “lie” wouldn’t have been a wrong translation but might have been too harsh / have ascribed too much maliciousness, depending on translator’s read and preference.

I would say it’s something more along the lines of like… For her, the thing that 自分のペースに持っていける, well ultimately that’s the Giant Swing.
So like… I guess the thing that she can brings to the table on her own terms / (at her own pace).
So maybe like “But ultimately the Giant Swing’s what I bring to the table” or something like that. I don’t think there’s a sense here of increase.

Not a language comment at all but it just occurred to me to wonder just how many times you’ve had and will have to translate variations on this sentiment :sweat_smile: hundreds? Thousands?
(just the nature of backstage promos of course!)

The structure here is Xことも Yことも 成長につながった.
So, maybe a nitpick but I would at least strengthen the connection here. It’s not just X and Y, and she grew. But X and Y were directly interrelated with growth.

About the tense, also, (kind of more a comment on my own initial impressions than your translation :sweat_smile:) I would probably say that she’s saying that her achievement of her first title shot and first main event was caused by / correlated to / related with growth. (rather than, for example, saying that those things caused new growth). Like, roughly structurally I think the thought process is, “I’ve grown and look at what I’ve achieved because of it. So I wanna grow more and achieve more.”

Good luck with November! To balance the workload I say just make the novel about professional wrestlers and include many suspiciously thorough promo scenes… :sweat_smile:

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So spoilers for AEW but Shibata is gonna be facing Orange Cassidy this Friday. Hopefully this means he can safely do more matches now

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I think it was actually shupro who mislead me here, haha! Here’s what the transcript had: “やっぱりインターナショナルのベルトではあるので、海外（の選手）とした方がたぶんベルトはきっと喜んでるんだろうなって声が聞こえるんですけど.”

I think maybe what I’ll do is change it to “defending against overseas wrestlers”, which sort of keeps that ambiguity.

I’m not sure I’ve reached 100 yet, but then again, it does tend to show up at least once a show :sweat_smile:. It’s something I’m hoping Smartcat will help with over time, honestly, because it should start picking up on the different variations I tend to use, which should help me avoid being less repetitive haha.

I just thought to look to see how many of these translations I’ve done, and I have apparently done, uh, 55 (counting this one). 9 were DDT, and 46 were TJPW! Only 16 have been the full text translations, though (the rest were show recaps). That is a lot! We’re coming up on almost a year since Mr. Haku left CyberFight :sweat_smile:.

Oh yeah, I meant to mention this ages ago, but I don’t mind the grammar/translation nitpicks at all! Feel free to suggest as much or as little as you want! I’m happy to get any input, and it’s really helpful to have another set of eyes looking at them, especially since I often have to work fairly fast haha so a lot of awkward wording gets overlooked.

See, if I was smart, I would have done that haha, but instead I’m trying to write a completely unrelated novel concept that I definitely probably should have properly outlined before starting the challenge.

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Yeah, I’m super excited for Orange vs Shibata!! (Also a little bit scared, because I worry about Shibata…)

I’m kind of amazed that this is going to be his second proper match after his return. What an honor for Orange, honestly. It’s the kind of match that is absolutely a dream match for me, but which I feel like would not crack most people’s list of their top ten dream Shibata matches, so I’m so pleased that we actually are getting it after all!

I didn’t realize that Shibata hadn’t wrestled since January. I actually saw that match because I was still watching NJPW then, but I haven’t really kept up with what he’s been doing since then (except for his appearance at Forbidden Door), so I had no idea. Selfishly, I’m glad I get to see him vs Orange in a promotion that I’m still watching…

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Apparently Shibata personally requested two opponents from AEW. Orange Cassidy is the first one and Danielson is the second. They’re planning on doing both

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The recent match announcement I’m excited about (although it will probably not be as good as the Shibata ones) is Shinsuke Nakamura vs. The Great Muta announced for NOAH’s new year show!

It’s a weirdly well-timed announcement for me, since I watched a bit farther in that sort of Nakamura career retrospective road I started down along with that biography of his I was reading, and that included (along with the IWGP championship unification, and starting CHAOS) his championship feud with Mutoh in 2008! Mutoh was already very much the grizzled veteran whose history the live audience appreciates more than me even then, but it was cool to see and cool that it’s ended up convenient context to make that match more interesting.

(Other highlights I enjoyed from that time were Nakamura/Tanahashi for the championship in a packed Korakuen on 3.30.2008 and the finals of “G1 CLIMAX 2009 ～New Lords，New Laws～” featuring the crowd super behind Togi Makabe who Nakamura had just gotten Yano to betray to form Chaos. Also I learned from that show that Milano Collection A.T. has an invisible dog and I guess I don’t have anywhere else that will ever be relevant to mention)

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We have our first meme from a random stranger based on the TJPW translations, haha!

https://twitter.com/nambasanreacts/status/1588319099503153152

Yeah, I’m looking forward to that one as well! It’ll be my first (and possibly only…) opportunity to watch a Nakamura match actually live, since I refuse to watch WWE. Modern Mutoh matches are, well… I will say, he has done better work than I have expected, but I’d put him below other older guys in terms of his ability to go in the ring at his current age. The spectacle of that match will be great regardless, though! Definitely one worth watching.

Speaking of NOAH, check out this tweet Kota Ibushi just posted! He’s with Kaito Kiyomiya, who is the current GHC champ, and Hokoto Omori, whose work I’m not familiar with, but he’s with AJPW. It’s a nice, hopeful tweet, with a good dose of inter-promotional solidarity (especially considering AJPW and NOAH’s rocky history, though I believe things have been less frosty between them in recent years).

Unfortunately, it looks like Kota was unable to get out of his NJPW contract, and his lawyers have advised him to keep quiet, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to see what he does next. He does still seem to be committed to bringing about some sort of revolution in the industry, though!

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週刊プロレス No.2201 (from around the end of August)

There’s a long interview with Kazuchika Okada fresh off of his G1 Climax victory.
He says he couldn’t sleep during the run of three consecutive days with big singles matches in the tournament bracket final, so that was especially tiring, but it was fun and he expresses gratitude to all the staff and wrestlers and fans that made the successful tournament 完走 possible.
He doesn’t want to treat the G1 Climax victory like a title shot you have to defend, but rather like a once-a-year championship in its own right that makes the clash at Wrestle Kingdom between the G1 Climax winner and the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion an exciting clash of equals.
The interviewer raises the existence of アンチs, but Okada says it doesn’t bother him, and whether you’re saying おめでとう or またオカダかよ it sounds like it’s a good thing in his book.
Apparently he became a father during the tournament, as his wife gave birth to a son! But it sounds like it hasn’t really become real yet for him as he hasn’t so much as changed a diaper yet, he just heard she was safe and in good care while on tour and thought “頑張るぞ.”
The interviewer says since it’s a son, maybe someday in the future… but Okada says いやいや way way to soon to be thinking like that, and he doesn’t care one way or another about the gender, he’s just glad they arrived safe.

There’s a page reporting on a press conference about the NJPW/Stardom Historic X-Over show scheduled for November 20th. It sounds like it’s going to mainly involve mixed-tag matches, and while it’s not set in stone yet what the rules are, the current assumption is it’ll be the style where the only legal opponents are of the same gender (so when one team member tags out to someone of the opposite gender, the opponent has to tag out too).
I like the strange teams and rationales listed! Stuff like Syuri and Tom Lawlor as a “UFCファイターコンビ” or Giulia and ZSJ as a “英国出身コンビ” or Tanahashi and Hayashishita as a “逸材タッグ.”

The theme of Naito’s column is G1後のあれこれ. He talks highly of Ospreay who beat him in the semifinal.
Apparently there was a “G1 Special Event” mixed in with the tournament matches that was outdoor and at noon, which was tough for the 夜行性 Naito.
He says he went to watch baseball games, and the interviewer asks if he invited his dad, but Naito says yeah he did, but 賢一さん was too busy golfing and turned him down.

There’s an interview with Atsuki Aoyagi (the younger Aoyagi) ahead of a jr. heavyweight title shot against Tiger Mask IV in AJPW.
He says it’s up to him to make sure that the belt isn’t on a NJPW wrestler at AJPW’s 50th anniversary event, and he’s gonna show high-flying pride to the point that it shows Tiger Mask what a Tiger Mask should be (since IV isn’t a high flyer like I was).

In Giulia’s column she talks about the NJPW/Stardom Historic X-Over show. She says mixed tag matches are 賛否両論 out of concern for showing male athletes seriously attacking female athletes, but that there’s a comical side of pro-wrestling as well as a serious side, and the show offers a rare festival vibe for interesting unexpected match-ups, and plus it’s 100% possible for men and women to have great matches together: そして、もしかしたら男女の垣根を超えて、お客さんを揺さぶる心と心の闘いをする事ができる場合だって…あるかもしれないよ？プロレスには無限の可能性があると思うから！
She relates a story where early on in her career it sounds like she had variously configured matches over consecutive days with the same mixed-gender group of rookie wrestlers from various promotions, and they took a little while to warm up to each other, but by the end of that run they were all completely comfortable with each other and it was sad when that run of matches ended. And among that group was Himeka! So the bond formed from that was part of what led to teaming again in Donna Del Mondo.
There’s also a picture of two cool pro wrestlers included.

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Kenoh’s column is about how he uncharacteristically declared 「オレは仙台のクソヤローどもが大好きだぁ！」after a show. The reason he gives for that is out of championly concern for NOAH’s older skew, including in the マイクs of recent shows, he took a page from Tanahashi’s book for a warmer マイク to appeal to people in their 20s and 30s.
Apparently though, the real reason may be that he got rejected on some kind of TV show, called 恋のお世話始めました and out of that disappointment and feeling that “やはり37歳、独身、モテないプロレスラーだったのか…。” transferred the unrequited feelings of love I guess to us クソヤローども.

This fan picture of Max The Impaler is fun! The tiny pom being intimidated into saying Max’s name is a good touch.

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There’s a long interview with Konosuke Takeshita, back from AEW and challenging for the KO-D title. He has a lot of thoughtful talk about his experience wrestling in AEW. He says that he realized the #1 thing in pro wrestling, in America as well as Japan, is to earn trust from the promotion, the other wrestlers, and the fans. “「信頼してもらう」のが一番”. And he talks about how with a roster of 110 people, and like ~40 people being used on a given show, and cards worked out on a whiteboard beforehand, you just travel to the next location and then find out if you’re going to be used or just head home, and both kinds of days happen. So it gives every match the major goal of earning more trust, and earning that next spot by impressing people.
He talks as well about how his goal was to show that Japanese wrestlers could be a match for American ones in terms of physical power. In that part I like his description of strong style: 「投げてもすぐ立って、また投げるけど相手もすぐ立って…日本ではよく見る光景で日本のストロングスタイル.」
He says Kenny Omega’s recovery didn’t end up aligning with his time in AEW, and he hasn’t ever talked very much with Kenny, but he can feel fan excitement that someday the stars will align and they’ll meet in the ring.
He describes his popular Cinnabon tweets like this: 「僕はシナモンというアメリカのソウルフードのGABANをツイートしてバズって、向こうの公式アカウントが反応してくれたり。」and I honestly don’t really know quite what he means there. There’s a GABAN that sells spices? Is that what he means? Was it just cinnamon itself he was so taken with and not the bons??
He says he wants to win the KO-D belt to take it back to America so he’ll be announced as a champion in DDT, as in his experience, Americans tended very much to assume he was a NJPW wrestler (while assuming female Japanese wrestlers were from TJPW) and if he said he wasn’t their next guess would be AJPW. So he wants to assert more strongly that he’s a DDT wrestler by having the belt.

The history column reports on news that Terry Funk has dementia but is doing well otherwise, and talks about his first retirement match in Japan in 1983. The columnist, Tomomi Nagare, says that he’s been watching wrestling for 54 years, and he’s probably still never seen a more momentous retirement ceremony for a foreign wrestler than that one. Terry Funk was beloved in Japan, and there was a special timeslot blocked out for it on TV, his wife and daughter were there crying at ringside, his biggest rival and disciple Stan Hansen was in the match and Terry Gordy was in Japan for the first time… it was a big deal!
The match however did not end with Funk’s signature spinning toe hold, as if to say “someday I’ll recover from this injury and be back to show Japan the spinning toe hold again!”
And… in a year he was recovered and back in Japan wrestling. Nagare says Terrymania never quite recovered to its heights pre-retirement because there was a portion of fans who felt he should stay retired after such a retirement, but he was still popular. And you could argue that Terry Funk was the progenitor of a new business model, 「一時的に引退。引退興行を華々しく開催し、しばらくしたらカムバック」 which the Japanese wrestling world had much success with in future years…

Today’s “Antonio Inoki news that reads differently since I fell behind so far reading these magazines” report, is there’s a news item revealing what those IGF revival rumors were all about: a new Inoki brand management company called “猪木元気工場” / “Inoki Genki Factory” (get it? IGF) is being started. There aren’t much concrete details, but it sounds like it’s set up to handle performances and merchandise and whatnot related to Inoki as a brand. There’s an encouraging written comment from Inoki himself, but he is suffering from a hard battle with a form of amyloidosis from which full recovery will be difficult. So the Genki Factory’s intent is to send good vibes and cheer in his direction.

Tsukasa Fujimoto got married! The groom is just a guy not related to the wrestling industry so they blurred out his face but I like that they cropped it so you can still see the cake is wrestling themed.
Some Ice Ribbon-related people were in attendance, and others like Sarray and Hikaru Shida sent video messages.
She says she doesn’t know when, but the ring is her home, so she’ll be back to wrestle someday.

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Hey look, an unpleasant deathmatch spot I haven’t seen before!
(WARNING: unpleasant deathmatch spot)

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In Hideki Suzuki’s column they talk about his match with Kazuyuki Fujita, which it sounds like had meaning because of their mutual connection with IGF. Suzuki says that while normally he pays some attention to wrestling the match that people will want to see, with this match he completely ignored that and just went for having a wrestling match geared towards his own satisfaction.

There’s an interview with Iyo Sky after her debut on the main WWE roster at Summerslam.
I think this interview is a good example of the different way that kayfabe works with Japanese wrestling media, because she talks a lot openly about how she only knew she was going to be on Summerslam two days prior, and how when she arrived it was the first time she saw Bayley and Dakota Kai and was told they were going to be a surprise on the show, and stuff like that. But when asked about her using the ropes now to get victories she says it’s because she needs to win to make a standout impression on Raw.
She says about the namechange, she said she was told she had to change it, and that “柴雷” on a big screen has an impact for Japanese and Chinese audiences that just doesn’t come across in the same way to English-speaking audiences, so “Sky” is an attempt to get at that same immediate impact. And Iyo is to clarify pronunciation since she got people mistaking it for 10, or lo and calling her Lo.
Another change is she’s stopped using the 619, which she used in Japan since she’s a lifelong fan of Rey Mysterio, out of respect because now she’s on the same show as him!
They talk about a match with Asuka, and she talks positively about her and Nakamura making the path ahead in WWE easier, and says that it was cool to reunite with Asuka since they teamed together once upon a time (along with her sister, Mio Shirai), and her goal is to make an impression on audiences that prevents them from just lumping both of them together because they’re both Japanese women.
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The short industry column is about a Zero-1 ring announcer who’s been dutifully collecting donations for Shinjiro Ohtani’s care since his major injury. It sounds like Ohtani has the same doctor as Yoshihiro Takayama (who was paralyzed under similar circumstances in 2017), and the doctor says it’s worse than Takayama’s initial condition (:grimacing:) but medical science has also progressed since then, and otherwise virtually all information about how he’s doing or the exact procedures being performed are still being kept confidential.
So while the amount raised speaks to wrestling fans’ generosity and the dilligence in collecting, there’s also a discouraging element of baseless online rumors and complaints from people assuming that the money’s not really going to Ohtani and things like that, which it sounds like has demoralized this ring announcer, 沖田, but he’s going to keep at it.

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@fallynleaf I just noticed your profile says former Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion lol who did ya beat for that in DDT?

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I beat Mao! :blush:

It happened on DDT’s February 6, 2022 show, which was actually the very last DDT show I translated before the new official translator took over (though he was doing a lot of translations as a fan at the time, and by the end, my own work was just slightly augmenting what he was doing). After that, I switched to TJPW so that my friend who’d been doing it could have a break, and then she quickly stopped having time to keep up with the promotion, so, well, here we are with the current situation, haha :sweat_smile:.

Basically how it happened (consulting my own blog, lol) is that this was a small VOD show in the middle of DDT’s tag league, and they were streaming it live on youtube from a single iPad, since it would be a couple days before the proper VOD went up on the site.

I was watching it along with a couple friends, and there was about ~1,000 people watching the stream, give or take. It was streamed in honor of DDT reaching 100,000 subscribers on youtube.

At the end of the show, Mao came over to the iPad that was streaming the show. He was double title champ at the time (he held the Universal title and the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship), so he was trying to cut a promo for the double championship match that was coming up, but he accidentally knocked over the video equipment.

The iPad fell on top of him, and the referee counted the pin. Then he declared that the 100,000 followers of the official youtube channel became the 1529th Ironman champion! Of course, we all lost the title mere seconds later, haha, when Owashi pinned the defenseless iPad.

My friends and I were a little bummed that they gave the championship to all of the youtube subscribers and not just the people physically watching the stream, but it was still a very special moment nonetheless! It is almost certainly the only wrestling championship I will ever win.

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Ahhhh of course! I completely forgot about that. So many title changes that night

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Finished translating TJPW’s November 6 show! The first half of this one was pretty easy, and the second half was, uh, a lot less so! :sweat_smile:

At the beginning of the show, a new trainee, Himawari, came out and introduced herself! She’s from Actwres and apparently is a huge DDT and TJPW fan, so that’s neat!

Shupro had a brief transcript for what she said: “この憧れの東京女子プロレスのリングでのデビューを目指してこれから頑張っていきますので、よろしくお願いします！”

Himawari: “I will do my best as I prepare to make my debut in this TJPW ring that I admire so much, so please support me!”

Rika vs Neko had a whole exchange at the beginning that I didn’t see anyone else translating, so I sort of gleamed from context a bit of what was going on. Sure enough, shupro had a transcription, so I thought I’d translate it as well, especially since Dramatic DDT didn’t mention this in his write-up for this show. This happened at the beginning of the match:

Tatsumi: “That’s enough! I’ve fought you hundreds of times, and I’ve won every single one of them. If nothing changes, I’m sure I’ll win again today. So I’ll do anything you ask for. It doesn’t matter what.”

Neko: “Rika-san, don’t attack me at all, please.”

Tatsumi: “…How about you ask for something a little less generous.”

Neko: “Then fight me without using submissions.”

At least, I think that’s what Neko meant by “リカさんは関節技なしで”? I barely understand submissions in English, so I’m not 100% sure what the best way to translate 関節技 is, haha!

Throughout the match, Rika keeps having to be reminded of this rule, though she does end up getting the win with a hip attack.

Also in the show, Willow teams up with Shoko against Miu and Suzume! Fun match, with easy comments to translate haha, due to almost everything being in English.

Willow and Shoko’s comments went like this:

Nakajima: “Yay! You’re so cool! Very strong!”

Willow: “Thank you! You’re so good! You’re so fast!”

Nakajima: “Amigo, amigo! Very strong amigo!”

Willow: “You’re such a good wrestler. We crushed them! Yeah!!”

Nakajima: “Yeah!!”

Willow: “Good job, team!”

Nakajima: “Good job, team!”

Willow: “I had fun, I kicked butt, that’s exactly what I came to TJPW to do, and Shoko was a perfect partner.”

Nakajima: “Yeah!”

Willow: “Tail?”

Nakajima: (hitting her with the tail) “Tail!”

(So, there was initially a singles match scheduled with Miu in the outset, right? And then that didn’t happen, but are you looking forward to maybe pursuing that going forward?)

Willow: “Oh, I would love to do that moving forward. One, we’re both so strong and powerful, I think that is very obvious, based on the fact that she was able to swing me around in a circle, because y’know, I’m a big girl.” (laughs) “And now she’s champion. So obviously, I come here, I wanna kick butt, I wanna have fun, but I wanna be a champion. I want to be taken seriously as well, and if going through Miu is the way to do it, so be it.” (Mr. Haku translates) “What he said.”

Nakajima: (holding both thumbs up) “Good. Very good.”

Miu and Suzume’s comments were a little trickier, but weren’t too hard:

Miu: “Today my wish came true and I got to fight Willow. I was supposed to fight her this summer, but it wasn’t able to happen then. So I’m really glad we finally got to fight, and I felt that her world-renowned power was truly great. I’d like to fight her again if we have the opportunity.”

Suzume: “This was my first time facing a foreign wrestler. I was excited and nervous and had a lot of fun! I was also really looking forward to seeing Miu-san and Willow face off. So I’m really happy I got to see that, and I hope she comes back. Please come to Japan again!”

Miu: “Come! I’ll be waiting!” (in English) “Welcome, welcome!”

(If there’s an opportunity, Willow wants to challenge for the belt)

“To that I say ‘welcome!’ Yes! In English!”

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the “世界のパワー” in "なのでやっと闘えてよかったんですけど、やっぱり世界のパワーはすごいなって感じたので. I feel like I understood the Japanese, but struggled to convey it in English :sweat_smile:.

The main event was Misao, Itoh and Miyu vs MagiRabbi and Mahiro. Misao is about to have a match in EVE, so she dressed as Harry Potter in preparation for going to England, though when the other wrestlers opened her luggage, they found it empty except for her passport, haha.

Misao did manage to win, though! She got on the mic afterward and said:

Misao: "I did it! I won! With this, I’m relieved… Even though I still haven’t packed anything yet, I can go to England with peace of mind. As I said at the beginning, Yamashita-san and I are going to miss the Kyoto show next week because we’re going on an excursion to EVE in England!

Then she said: “こうやって最近、東京女子プロレスの選手がいろんな、イギリスだけじゃなくアメリカとか、あとどこだっけ？ アジアの…” I think I figured this out?

This next part also confused me: “あらゆる世界中のところからお声掛けいただいて行けるのも、やっぱりこうやって普段の東京女子プロレスの興行にみなさんが来ていただいて、我々も一生懸命闘って、興行が盛り上がったから、その結果だと思うんです。ありがとうございます！ なんで、我々世界に恥じない東京女子プロレスとして行ってこようと思います。東京女子プロレス、最高です.”

“TJPW wrestlers have been going to various countries lately, not just England, but also America, and where else? Somewhere in Asia…?”

Itoh: “Malaysia.”

Misao: “Malaysia! I think the fact that we have been welcomed by places all over the world, that’s the result of our shows getting more and more exciting thanks to everyone coming to our regular shows like this, and all of us fighting with all our might. Thank you so much! Why are we not ashamed to go out there and represent TJPW in the world? Because TJPW is the best!”

All: “TJPW! It’s the best!”

The post match comments for this one were, uh, very chaotic :sweat_smile:. I had a hard time following along with the transcript when I tried to watch the video. I guess I’ll just post the Japanese along with all of the lines that gave me trouble? :sweat_smile:

Misao: “I won! Pami plus One in a Million won! How was that?”

伊藤「いや、負けるかと思ったよ。最初のは何だったの？ やりたいだけでしょ？」

Itoh: "Actually, I thought we were going to lose. What was that at the beginning? You just want to do it, right?

ミサヲ「違うの。開けなきゃよかったの、この２人が」

Misao: “No! No!! The two of you just had to open it, huh?”

Itoh: “I was worried about it!”

Yamashita: “It’s important to check.”

ミサヲ「言ったじゃん。開けないでって。それサインだったのに、どっちも気付かないことある？」

Misao: “Look, I told you not to open it. It was a sign, but neither of you realized it?”

伊藤「そんなの分かんないよ」

Itoh: “I don’t know about that.”

ミサヲ「そっか、ワンミリやもんな」

Misao: “That’s just how One in a Million is, huh?”

Itoh: “Tell us next time. Say, ‘there’s nothing inside, so don’t bother opening it.’”

Misao: “I don’t know if I could put it into words like that, but… Well, I won!”

Itoh: “As you’d expect from a hero.”

Yamashita: “Therefore the strategy was successful, wasn’t it?”

Misao: “I was scared of MagiRabbi, but…”

Yamashita: “Mahiro is also getting stronger, and she was a tough opponent after all.”

Itoh: “When do you leave for England?”

Yamashita: “Next week?”

Misao: “I’m not quite sure…”

山下「でも私、ＥＶＥでベルトの挑戦権を懸けた試合をやるので。勝ったらベルトに挑戦ができる。で、またそれに勝てばベルトを持って帰って来れるかもしれない」

Yamashita: “I have a match in EVE where I can earn the right to challenge for the belt. If I win it, I can challenge. And if I win again, I might be able to come back with a belt.”

Itoh: “You have a long road ahead of you.”

山下「道のりは長いけど、やるしかないでしょ。（相手は）ミリーです。それに勝てば、今ベルト持ってるチャンピオンかな？ 勝たないことにはアレだから…」

Yamashita: “It’s a long road, but I have to do it. I’m facing Millie. And if I beat her, she’s the champion who’s currently holding the belt, right? I have to win…”

伊藤「もうね、キック・ハー・アスですよ」

Itoh: “Kick her ass!”

Misao: “Awesome, you can speak English. We’re gonna come back from England with good news and liven up TJPW even more. Today was a good sign. Thank you very much!”

Yamashita: “It was a good strategy.”

Itoh: “It was a good strategy!”

Misao: “It didn’t have anything inside, but I’m glad we won!”

(Are you challenging for the tag belts?)

“We seem to be, yes.”

Itoh: “Really? That’s amazing! Good luck!”

Here is the next part:

ミサヲ「英語あんまり把握してなくて、さっき画面を見たらタイトルマッチって書いてあったので。…が、がんばります！ でも大丈夫だと思います。なんかパートナーも私と気の合いそうな子らしいので、ちょっと飲みニケーションしようかなと思ってるので」

Misao: “I don’t have a great grasp of English, and when I looked at the screen earlier, it said ‘title match’, so… I will do my best! But I think it’ll be fine. My partner seems to be a girl I mesh well with, so I’m thinking about grabbing a drink with her."

Itoh: “Martina, right? I’ve fought her before. She’s like a female version of Danshoku Dieno.”

Yamashita: “Is she? It sounds like you’ll get along.”

ミサヲ「それもちょっとアレだけど、頑張ります。（ベルトを取ったら日英を行ったり来たりするかと）任せてください！ １回目が不安なだけであって、もう１回行っちゃえば余裕なので。勝って、行ったり来たりしたいと思います。（試合前のマイクも…）もちのろんです。英語でマイクしたいと思います」

Misao: “That’s a bit of a stretch… But I’m going to do my best.”

(If you win the belts, will you go back and forth between Japan and the UK?)

“Leave it to me! I’m just nervous about the first time, so if I go again, I’ll be more at ease. I want to win and go back and forth.”

(And the microphone before the match…)

“Of course! I want to do a promo in English.”

伊藤「やれんの…？」

Itoh: “Can you do it?”

Misao: “It’s an important weapon for me, so I definitely want to do it. I am absolutely going to fight to the end.”

For Yuka, Mizuki, and Mahiro’s comments, I got a bit confused over who they were exactly talking about in a lot of these sentences, and had to attempt to rely on context, haha :sweat_smile:.

Sakazaki: “You apologized for her!”

Kiryu: “I did.”

Sakazaki: “You were ahead of her.”

桐生「はしゃいでて全然用意ができてなかったので…って思ったんですけど、やられました。え、なんでですか？」

Kiryu: “She wasn’t prepared at all, or so I thought, but… she did me in. How?”

Mizuki: “It’s absurd.”

Kiryu: “It’s absurd. Huh?”

Sakazaki: “It was funny, too.”

Kiryu: “Funny!? I wanted to win!”

Sakazaki: “That too.”

I was a bit unsure with how to translate 面白い in this whole thing. Since they were laughing, and considering how Mahiro was reacting, I assumed “funny” was a better choice, but I wasn’t confident, haha.

桐生「面白くないよりは面白い方がいいですけど…。イギリス、頑張ってほしいです。ちゃんと行けたらいいですね」

Kiryu: “It’s better to be funny than boring… But, I wish her good luck in England. I hope everything goes smoothly.”

Sakazaki: “She was dressed like Harry Potter.”

Mizuki: “There’s no way a tiny carry-on like that will be enough.”

Kiryu: “No doubt. It was totally for domestic flights.”

Sakazaki: “But when I looked inside that carry-on, the only thing in there was her passport. It would have been a disaster if we’d left it to her.”

For this last part, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, haha. Were they talking about Misao getting in trouble for trying to take aerosols on the plane?

瑞希「手にスプレー持ってたから、手荷物でスプレー取られて終わりよ」

Mizuki: “She had cold spray in her hand, so she’ll get it taken out of her carry-on luggage in the end.”

桐生「教えてあげないんですね」

Kiryu: “You won’t tell her, will you?”

瑞希「教えない」

Mizuki: “Nope.”

坂崎「困ってもらお」

Sakazaki: “I’ll get her in trouble.”

That’s it for this show!

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I googled “関節技 プロレス” and found a convenient Wikipedia page called プロレス技 which says about the 関節技 category:

テコの原理を応用して相手の逆関節を極めてギブアップを狙う。仕掛ける体の部位によって様々な技が存在する。
肩、腕関節技
脚関節技
首関節技
腰関節技
そしてこれらを複数合わせた複合関節技が存在する。

With plenty of examples from boston crabs to front face locks and so on.
It seems the difference between those and 締め技, is that if it targets joints and tries to get you to submit that way (like an armbar), it’s a 関節技, and if it targets other things like blood circulation or just tries to immobilize you (like a sleeper hold), it’s a 締め技.

I would probably say from skimming the match though that in practice, yeah, the spirit of the rule is likely that Rika can’t go for submissions or otherwise put Neko in locks or holds, and “Rika keeps having to be reminded” is probably a bit generous :sweat_smile: as my impression is it’s probably more like “Rika gets progressively frustrated with the rule and consciously skirts it more and more to the point of actively ignoring it near the end.” It’s not like it’s an official rule, after all! And showing her struggle with it puts over Neko in a way.

Out of curiosity, is that direct from Shupro or smoothing over her English on your part?
If the former, I’m pretty sure she’s saying “cool” not “good” and I mean she is very cool
image

Hmmmm… yeah come to think of it, I know what you mean! :sweat_smile:

Yep, you did! Not a translation note but as a flavor note, the forgetfulness is feigned as a spot for Itoh to interject.
image

I think the order-switching here does more (slight) harm than good, as it de-emphasizes the humble thanks aspect that’s a main point of what she’s saying.
I think something preserving the order of the reasons, like this:
“I think the fact that we have been welcomed by places all over the world, that’s thanks to all of you coming to our regular shows like this, and all of us fighting with all our might to make the shows more and more exciting!”
would be closer.

Xに恥じない is a JLPT N1 grammar pattern that means like, something is worthy of the name X. So it’s less literal than what you’ve got here, I’d say. Maybe something like “world-class” would work well for 世界に恥じない.

I don’t know exactly what the most correct way to do it (since I don’t know what Itoh’s saying with it really) but I would probably anyway tweak “You just want to do it, right?” to something else that at least makes sense in the English context - maybe something “You were just messing around, right?”.
Like thinking about it more I suppose how it connects and why it’s past tense is maybe → 最初のは(やりたいだけ)だった(でしょ). And I would say Itoh is saying that Misao did her spiel at the beginning just because she wanted to, not because of any genuine travel concern or travel reason.

The only other small comment I would have about this part is:

I would say the 心配だった in this context conveys like – Itoh is saying she was genuinely concerned for Misao and thinking of her in wanting to check what was in the suitcase. 心配 as in like,worry/care for another.
“I was worried about it!” in English sounds a little more like maybe she thought there might be a bomb or something in there :sweat_smile:.

This is another one of those places where マイク is meaning the whole promo/match-opening routine Misao does, so “the microphone” in English sounds a bit odd.
The trailing off after raising a subject is also I’d say a more standard question format in Japanese than in English, so I think it would be acceptable to make it a bit more direct like:
“And you’ll give a promo before the match like usual?” “Of course! I want to do one in English!”
or something.

Kiryu’s apology in this match is (roughly) 「ミサヲさんがこんな調子でイギリス遠征本当出来るのか心配させてしまって大変申し訳ございません」
So I would say I think Yuka’s “先走ってたからな” is describing the reason Kiryu was apologizing for Misao - Misao 先走ってた’d and was getting ahead of herself about the English trip while still completely unprepared (as shown by her lack of packing.)
Which the “はしゃいでて全然用意ができてなかったので” is saying in other words.

Yep!
I’d say the 取られて終わり is a little more like… “if it gets taken that’ll be that” than “in the end.” Like it’s a bit more like “if X happens, it’s all over” which may be where some confirmation of the getting in trouble aspect that you were looking for would be.

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Shupro didn’t transcribe that last bit, so that was all on me mishearing, haha :sweat_smile:. I listened again and still can’t quite hear it, but “cool” sounds more plausible, so I’ll go with that.

I think part of the reason why I keep feeling like I have to keep the word “microphone” in there for Misao at least is because she starts all of these with asking “Mic, please!” haha. I think I found a workable happy medium, perhaps? How about: “Will you ask for the microphone before the match?”

Also, I saw that you followed the TJPW account! I had an irrational moment of panic like “They’re gonna see all of my mistakes!” But you’ve already seen me make probably every single mistake imaginable, ahaha.

I followed you back with my main twitter account, which is locked because wrestlers are terrible vanity searchers. So if you’re wondering who that new follower is, it’s me :sweat_smile:.

I’m crossing my fingers that Elon Musk gives up on twitter and sells it for a low price and someone who actually cares about the site buys it… Wrestling truly wouldn’t be the same if it goes…

sadcowboy

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Gotcha, yeah!
Hard to explain in words exactly, but if you think of it as her saying くーる with an especially light touch on the う part of る, then maybe it’ll be clearer constrast-wise at least compared to like, what she’d be starting from for “good” would be, ぐっど. I think it would be unlikely that “good” would end up so long-“oo” centric.

Makes sense and sounds fine!

Haha, yeah no worries! (I guess twitter doesn’t notify you if a locked account follows you? Go figure!)
Honestly, I confess I’ll probably keep low-key avoiding reading the finished versions of what you post in the thread, but it’s only because I’m not the target audience (in the sense that I don’t need translations!) and because they’re yours and I want to avoid as much as possible taking away creative freedom or anything like that by being like, “HEY WHY DIDN’T YOU HEED MY OPINION MORE ABOUT THIS BIT OVER HERE” :sweat_smile:
(Not that there’s really any danger of that since the translations are plenty good before I get to them at all!)
It’s really cool though to see them get traction and everything!

I got around to following the account because twitter recommended me “ItsDanaNow” and I was like “wait why does that sound familiar? oooohhhh riiiiiight.” So that + good vibes from the level 60 thread + the weird sinking ship twitter energy made me figure “eh what the heck I don’t have anything in particular to hide and it’s not like my twitter account would be hard to find anyway”

I wonder what ephemeral and hard to search website wrestling companies will post backstage promos on if twitter completely tanks…

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Finished TJPW’s November 13 show while twitter still exists…! I enjoyed this one because it was at KBS Hall, which is always a delight. I can’t believe that Saki Akai and Yuki Arai are lucky enough to be able to have hometown return shows in a venue as cool as this one…

The main development in this show was Raku and Yuki Aino beating Toyo Mates in their match, then coming out to challenge AA Cannon at the end of the main event. I’m personally a huge fan of Raku and Aino’s team, so I was delighted by this development!

Miraculously, I had less trouble with the translation for this one.

After the main event, Raku starts off by saying:

Raku: “There’s something I want to say. No matter how many times I’ve challenged for these belts, I’ve never won them. Because of that, those belts feel like they’re just getting further and further away from me. I’ve been teaming up with Yuki-san a lot lately, and we’ve gotten some solid wins. Today, we decided we’re ready!”

Her last line was: “今日覚悟が決まりました.” I wasn’t quite sure about that one :sweat_smile:.

Here’s the next chunk of the post-match:

Aino: “Seeing Raku’s hard work and hearing her words, it has really given me a push. I believe that together with Raku, I can beat Yuki-chan and the strong and beautiful Akai-san.”

Raku: “We want to shine with those belts, too. And I want the belt to see the view through so many beautiful train windows. So, your belts…”

Both: “Please let us challenge!”

Akai: “I understand your strong feelings, but it’s our return show, and I was planning on doing a cool promo for it. However, I know the courage and resolve it takes to just come up and challenge. Yuki-chan, what should we do?”

(Arai makes an “OK” gesture beside her)

“Our leader says OK, so we’ll allow the two of you to challenge for these belts. The next Korakuen show is on November 27? OK. Then we’ll put the belts on the line in a match there.”

(Aino and Raku stay for some photos, then leave.)

Akai: “That was an unexpected development, huh?”

Arai: “I was planning on ending the show in a cool way, but…”

Then Akai says, “いまからね.” I think I understood this?

Akai: “We’ll do it starting now, okay? Today is Yuki-chan’s first hometown show as a champion.”

Arai: “Yes. I’m home!” (after the loud applause) “Thank you! I’m so happy that I was able to come back to Kyoto after a year, this time holding the tag belts with Akai-san, and that I was able to win today! I’m so, so glad that it was a full house, and so many people came! Thank you so much!”

Akai: “Today was my first time participating in a TJPW show in Kyoto. Being a champion alongside Yuki-chan and getting to wrestle in the main event of the hometown return show for both of us in Kyoto, it feels my chest with emotion. DDT also has a show tonight later today, so if you’re interested, please come see DDT, too. I hope we can do this again next year, and make another triumphant return as champions.”

Then Arai says, “また帰ってきたいです。前回の京都よりも今回、今回よりも次ということで、もっともっと成長していきたいと思うので.” I had to read that second sentence a few times, but I think I got it?

Arai: “I want to come back again. I’ve grown since the last time in Kyoto, and I want to grow even more by the next time. Please continue to support TJPW!”

Arai and Saki’s post match comments were pretty doable.

Arai: “Today, I was very happy to team up with Akai-san in our first Kyoto show in a year and get the win. I hope I was able to show a little growth since last year. I’d like to grow some more and come back.”

Akai: “This was my first time participating in a show in Kyoto with TJPW, and doing this not only with Yuki-chan as AA Cannon, but being able to return to my hometown as a champion, I think I was able to give back to Kyoto a little.”

Then Saki references that line I had a little trouble with, haha: “優希ちゃんもリング上で言ったように、また去年より今年、今年より来年ということで.”

“As Yuki-chan said in the ring, this year was better than last year, and next year will be better than this year. Next year, I hope to improve both individually and as part of TJPW.”

The interviewer asks about their next defense, and Saki says: “ちょっと今日はまだ機嫌が良くてよかったなって感じですね。もうちょっと虫の居所の悪い私だったら、どうなってたか分かんないなって思いました。でも、東京女子にいると優しい気持ちになるので。なので、（挑戦者組の）ゆるーいふわっとしたかんじも受け入れることができました.” The first part of this was a little confusing to me, but I think I figured it out. That last line, though, I have no idea what’s going on there :sweat_smile:.

(Your next defense was set)

“It’s fortunate that I was in a good mood today. If I was in a worse mood, I don’t know what would have happened. However, when I’m in TJPW, I become more amiable. So I was more receptive to the loose and fluffy feelings of the challengers. Yuki Aino is the type to hit you head-on, and I like that kind of wrestler. But Raku putting you to sleep? That’s not one of my strong points, so I think I’ll leave it to Yuki-chan.”

Then Arai answers, “私も得意ではないです（笑）。そうですね、私が後輩としてどうにかしたいと思います.” I think I had trouble with a similar line in the past, so what I think she’s saying is that since she’s Saki’s 後輩, since her 先輩 asked her to do it, she’ll find a way to do it.

Arai: “I’m not good at it either!” (laughs) “But since I’m a junior, I’ll figure out some way to deal with it."

Here’s how Raku and Aino’s comments start:

Raku: “The two of us have taken on the challenge. I’ve been teaming up with Yuki-san for a while now, and we’ve been winning a lot lately. I was also really happy to win today. Yuki-san has won this belt before, and I know that she’s really strong from being next to her. But I don’t want to rely on Yuki-san’s strength when challenging for the belts.”

Then Raku says, “２人で同じくらい力を合わせて、挑戦したいと思います.” I think I understand this, but I just wanted to make sure I was capturing the nuance right in my translation?

“I want us to fight together with the same amount of strength when we challenge.”

I wasn’t sure that I exactly understood Aino’s first two sentences here: “らくからその気持ちを聞いてて、らくの欲ってすごく嬉しいし。いつも秘めてるものを伝えてくれたことがすごい嬉しいし.”

Aino: “I’ve been listening to Raku’s feelings, and her desires make me really happy. I’m so glad that she’s told me what she usually keeps to herself. Every word of Raku’s is very, very precious, so the things she says and the way she tries her best, I said it earlier in the ring, but it really pushes me. That’s why I believe we can beat Akai-san and Yuki-chan. The tag belts are so special, and I wanted to challenge for them together with Raku. It was the champions’ triumphant return show and we butted in immediately after they won, but they still accepted our challenge.”

I didn’t get her last sentence at all, haha. My translation is just what DeepL had. Here are the last two sentences: “申し訳ない気持ちと、ありがたい気持ちで器の大きさを感じて。さらにちょっと、そういうところでも私たちが…ね.”

“I felt guilty and grateful for their tolerance. And we were also a little bit… you know…”

Raku: “There was something that set me on fire.”

Aino: “We’ll do our best! Korakuen!”

The next part starts off easy enough:

Raku: “Please support us!”

(Was your victory today the final push?)

“It’s like the pot had been simmering and then came to a rolling boil.”

Aino’s response was really confusing, haha :sweat_smile:. She said: “鍋が。私は固まってたけどね。らくがゴーしたら絶対行くって思ってた.”

Aino: "I was frozen. But I thought, ‘I’ll definitely go if Raku goes.’”

Raku: (laughs)

Aino: “So cute!”

Then the interviewer asks about their tag name, and Aino says: “そんなの、らくとつけられないよ、私…” I think she was getting embarrassed over the thought of giving them a name because of her crush on Raku? I wasn’t quite sure, though.

(Do you have a tag team name?)

“That’s, I can’t give myself a name with Raku, I…”

Raku: “Really? What should we do?”

Aino: “If you give us a name, then I’ll go with it.”

Raku: “I’ll think about it.”

Aino: “But I’m afraid that Koda-san will call me ‘creepy’ or something.”

Raku: “Don’t say that, Koda-san!”

That’s it for now!

Also, Miyu did in fact manage to win the EVE belt, so she’s going to be defending it at the next Korakuen show! Unfortunately Misao and Martina didn’t win the tag belts, though. I didn’t have the chance to see any of the EVE matches, but I support Miyu taking their belt, haha!

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So we’re getting Jun Akiyama two days in a row in a mainstream western promotion. That’s pretty awesome

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