I’d definitely be interested, but I’ll see what @fallynleaf says first. He might get more use out of them than me. I’m also in the UK so shipping costs would be more lol
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I wasn’t sure that I was interested haha, but I saw that 1971 had the Kota Ibushi vs Tanahashi G1 finals in it, so I looked it up on the shupro mobile site, and guess what?
It also covers Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi’s third singles match, earlier in that same G1 
.
Here’s an alternate angle of the moment that is maybe my favorite wrestling photo, ever:
Here’s the photo in question! It was taken by Scott Lesh, not shupro:
So, uh, yes, I am definitely interested, haha 
! I primarily want that one issue and don’t care as much about the others, but I know it’s definitely way too much of a hassle to ship them to different places, so I will take them!
There certainly aren’t any long posts to be found here, nope 
()
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I seen one of the issues covers Konosuke Takeshita v Tetsuya Endo for the KO-D title in DDT. Have fun getting into those, dude!
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Finished translating TJPW’s イッテンヨン show, after getting distracted by a billion other shows and also Golden Lovers tweets . I was going to post about them in here, but ended up getting carried away in my study log. If anyone else has any thoughts on any of the shows, though, or comments on what I had to say, haha, feel free to share them here!
The TJPW translation workload for this one was honestly shockingly light! Which, thank goodness. Lots of fun stuff, though! One of my friends was actually at this show, which is kinda fun.
We started off with Himawari’s debut match against Yuki Aino! According to my friend who translates Actwres comments, Himawari was actually a huge DDT and TJPW fan, so it’s unsurprising that she already feels right at home here. She won me over pretty much immediately, but maybe because I also have long hair that I often wear in two braids, and I have totally thought about using my hair as a weapon in a wrestling match before…
In any case, Yuki beat her, haha. After the match, Yuki said:
Aino: “All right! New Year 2023, first win of the year, yay! HIMAWARI’s debut match was like, well, we didn’t practice together, so I didn’t know what she was like, so I was really looking forward to meeting her in the ring, but at first I thought, ‘is this girl a dumbass?’ and, well, maybe she is a bit of a dumbass. However, I thought she might have some passion, so I was really excited that I was able to have a tackle fight against her as her debut opponent. So I want her to keep that emotional energy of hers and keep working hard. In 2023, I’m going to do my best, too! Yay!”
HIMAWARI: “I lost, I’m so disappointed. It was hot! For the first time, I was finally able to taste the pain of stepping into the ring as a pro wrestler. It was tough! But being able to make my debut at the beginning of the year as TJPW approaches its 10th anniversary, that’s something really special in my life. From now on, as a TJPW wrestler, I want to make things exciting here as a member of the roster, but I’m really frazzled.”
Then they asked her what kind of wrestler she wants to become in the future, and she said, “やっぱり恥を笑っていただけてちゃんと楽しませることのできる笑いも起きる、感動も起きる試合ができるようなレスラーになっていきたいなと思っているので.” I got turned around a few times while reading this, so I wasn’t quite sure I got it right haha.
(What kind of wrestler do you want to become in the future?)
“I want to become a wrestler who can make people laugh at shame, who can have matches that move people emotionally and also make them laugh by being genuinely entertaining. I tried to tackle Yuki-san today, but I couldn’t knock her down even once, so I want to train harder and break down that wall.”
The next match was Wakana’s proper debut match! She teamed with Arisu vs Moka and Juria. Afterward, Moka and Juria said:
Miyamoto: “We were able to win the first match of the year! Arisu-chan’s growth is also amazing, and it was Wakana-san’s debut match. Watching Wakana-san practice, I felt that she was growing tremendously.”
Juria: “Happy New Year! I’m really happy to win the first match of the year as part of a team with Moka-san. In her debut match, Wakana Uehara-san showed guts and a spirit that wouldn’t give up. I used to be the youngest junior, but now there’s a junior under me. I will keep doing my best in 2023 so that I won’t lose.”
Endo: “It was Wakana-san’s debut match, and the second anniversary of my debut. Since it was both of our anniversary, I wanted to finish with a win, but… we still have a long way to go, huh?”
Uehara: “Yes… I want people to see how we’ve grown from here.”
Endo: “Let’s train hard together!”
Uehara: “I look forward to it!”
(Were you able to do the moves that you had planned to do?)
“I was able to do a dropkick and a body slam, so I was happy about that.”
(What kind of wrestler do you want to become from here?)
“It was seeing Shoko Nakajima’s match that made me want to start wrestling. I thought she was powerful, acrobatic, and cool, so I admired her. I want to become a wrestler who can do high-flying moves someday, too.”
The one question I had was whether “high-flying” was a good translation choice for “空中戦” in this sentence: “私もいつか、空中戦とかできるような選手になりたいなって思ってます.” “High-flying” is a concept I only partially understand in English wrestling terminology, haha.
Kaya, Nao, and Mahiro faced Raku, Pom, and Haruna, the latter of whom I think did not get post-match comments? None that I saw, at least. In any case, no comments from that match were transcribed by shupro, so I was on my own for Kaya, Nao, and Mahiro’s. Listening to it, though, it sounds like the twitter caption got almost all of it?
Toribami: “First win of the year! We won!”
Kakuta: “Just as I said, I started 2023 by leaving my bad luck in the ring. I’m glad I was able to make good on my word, and let’s all keep growing!”
Mahiro: “Make great strides!”
The annual Shoko vs Misao match was incredible as always, haha. I absolutely lost it at the rabbit army with the plastic mallets. Their post-match comments also cracked me up (definitely recommend watching the video for this one).
Nakajima: “A draw, huh?”
Misao: “A draw? A draw?? No, it’s not a draw! Both of us are winners!”
Nakajima: “Is there such a thing as both sides winning a match?”
Misao: “Is there?”
Nakajima: “Well, we got three cute bunnies, so I guess it’s alright.”
Misao: “I guess so.”
Nakajima: “There’s that tournament, huh?”
Misao: “There’s the tournament coming up, so it’s important that neither of us got a loss here, right?”
Nakajima: “Yes!”
Misao: “Neither of us have lost yet.”
Nakajima: “We both got the first win!”
Misao: “In any case, we’re definitely going to win!”
Nakajima: “We’re going to win!”
At this point, the army of rabbits rushes in, and their comments end.
I was already leaning towards rooting for them in the upcoming tournament, but I think this just sealed the deal for me haha. They absolutely need to win now 
.
I really enjoyed Miu vs Trish Adora for the International belt! I’d seen a tiny bit of Trish before, but not enough to really form a strong picture of her style. She matched Miu well, I thought!
In Miu’s comments, this early sentence of hers tripped me up a bit: “初めて防衛戦でインターナショナルな相手、海外の選手を迎え撃ったし、やっぱりあの体格の選手って.”
Miu: “I successfully defended the International belt for the second time! Yay! I’m so happy. It was my first defense against an international opponent, and facing an overseas wrestler, and a wrestler with that physique. She was different from the other wrestlers who had come to TJPW before, so I was scared. But I’m happy because I was somehow able to defend my title, and the audience gave me so much support.”
The second sentence here gave me a bit of trouble: “そして、ここから有明も３月にあって、その後はアメリカが決まってるんですよ。で、あれは行けるかどうかみたいな大会になると思うんですけど、私はインターナショナルのベルトをそこまでちゃんと持った状態で…これ持ってたら絶対アメリカ行けると思うので.”
“From here, we have Ariake in March, and then the show in America after that. I think it’ll be a show where there’s a question of whether or not I can go, but if I hold the International belt until then… I think I can definitely go to the United States as long as I have this. I want to go to America, so I’m going to work hard on my English.” (in English) “My fight.” (laughs) “That’s how I feel. My shupro column starts today, so please check it out! This is an ad.”
(What you said at the end, can you repeat that?)
(in English) “My ganbaru, my fight? Oh, my fight, I am ganbaru… yes.”
(“Ganbaru” isn’t English, though?)
“I want to spread Japanese culture. Spreading Japanese idol culture, that’s my ganbaru.”
That last part killed me, haha. I think Miu might be using “ジャパニーズを広げて” as an excuse for her poor English skills ahaha. This one is going to have a fun translator’s note…
Trish’s comments were in English!
Adora: (in English) “I’m so happy to finally debut for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling against Miu Watanabe, who’s been an amazing champion. And I know that I am tough, but tonight, Miu was tougher. But, even though I came up short, I know, I know that the afropunk Trish Adora will return to Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling.”
For the tag title match, I kept going back and forth on what I thought would happen! I really enjoyed the match, though. Both teams played their roles perfectly. I like AA Cannon, but couldn’t help but cheer for the chaos and destruction . It’ll be really neat to watch how Wasteland War Party’s reign goes; they’re definitely something new and unique for the TJPW roster to have to figure out how to deal with.
Max and Heidi’s comments were in a combination of English and growling:
Heidi: “Sucks to be them! We came out on top just as anticipated, and oh boy do we look good in pink, right, Max?”
Impaler: (growls)
Heidi: “All I got to say is I look forward to the next pair of soft nerds they put up against the Wasteland War Party!” (laughs)
Saki Akai and Yuki Arai’s comments were fairly straightforward:
Akai: “Today we faced Max the Impaler and Heidi. In my nine year career, I have fought a lot of different kinds of wrestlers, but this was my first time facing anyone like that. We lost the belts this time, but I’m grateful to our opponents in the sense that they gave us that experience early in the new year. I was worried about Yuki-chan, but after the match, I saw in her eyes that the fire hadn’t gone out at all, so they lit a fire within us at the beginning of the year, and for that I am grateful.”
Arai: "I was really, really scared, but since it was the first match of 2023, I wanted to safely defend my belt and do my best as a champion this year. I was really shocked, or I guess surprised, I still don’t know… I guess it hasn’t really sunk in yet. But I think it means that from this point on, I have to really focus and do my best one more time. I’m participating in the tournament with Akai-san as AA Cannon, so we’re going to do our best so that we can challenge for the belts one more time.”
Akai: “My feelings now are completely different from when the tournament was initially set. We have to win that tournament and get our belts back and teach them a lesson.”
Akai’s last line was, “前にそのトーナメントが決まったっていう時と、またいまで全然自分の気持ちが全く違うものになったので、トーナメントもちゃんと勝ち上ってベルトを取り返さないと示しつかないので.” The “示し” part onward was a bit puzzling to me, haha.
The main event was Yuka vs Miyu for the title! I ended up enjoying the match a lot more than I’d expected, though it also scared me . I was worried about Miyu afterward, since she got a mild concussion, apparently, but she seems to have already recovered. It was a pretty brutal match for TJPW, and I think it’s was the best Miyu vs Yuka match yet, though I think it’s only the third time I’ve seen that matchup.
The most exciting thing for me, though, is that we’re getting Mizuki vs Yuka for the title at Ariake!! That was the number one thing I wanted from TJPW this year, so I’m thrilled!! I really liked that final stretch of the battle royale where it was just Itoh vs Mizuki, and Mizuki had to overcome her former Itoh Respect Army tag partner to become Yuka’s next challenger.
I had Mr. Haku’s help for the post-match stuff. Hooray! I always feel good when my translations are roughly in line with what he posted, haha. I remain amazed at how well he’s able to convey all the important bits within tweet constraints without leaving anything major out…
After the match, the two of them lie down for a while and can’t get up. Sakazaki manages to get to her feet and receives the belt.
Sakazaki: (to Yamashita, who is being supported by Itoh as she leaves) “Don’t leave yet, dumbass! I won’t allow it. We’re doing this again!”
(Yamashita is unsteady on her feet, but bows her head deeply, holds out her fist, screams, then leaves. Sakazaki lies spread-eagled in the center of the ring.)
“Really, it doesn’t go how I think it’ll go at all with Miyu Yamashita… We’ll definitely do it again someday.” (The audience applauds) “Alright. Thank you so much for coming out after New Years like this, when many of you are coming back to work after your vacation. … OK. The next challenger is…” (Mizuki gets up on the apron) “That’s right. Mizuki won, huh? I really don’t want to do this, but…”
Mizuki: “I saw you drifting away from me and getting stronger, and I felt like I was getting left behind. Last year, for one year, I tried my best to build confidence in myself. Today, I wanted you to win. I don’t want to do the match. I have a lot of mixed feelings, but I still want to surpass you. I want the belt that you have, and I think that I have to be the person to take it from you. It can’t be handed over to just anyone. Watching your match today, you were really scary, but I want to fight you like this, and I want to surpass you, so I’m the next challenger.”
Sakazaki: “Okay, I love you, but I can’t let you have this. Ariake… March 18 at Ariake, I will put this belt on the line, and the two of us will fight for it.”
Mizuki: “If I win, you’ll have to tell me I did a good job.”
They shake hands. They ended with a greeting for the New Year, "Eat hamburger steak!”, and “HAPPY HAPPY!”
In Yuka’s comments, the first half was straightforward enough:
Sakazaki: “A lot of people came to the show after New Year’s, and I think we really demonstrated TJPW’s momentum. And having a title match with Yamashita is always exciting. We both have a lot of emotions well up that are different from when we fight other wrestlers. There is a style of match that I can only do with Yamashita. But fighting her again today… I think I’ll have to fight Yamashita again another time, because our story isn’t over at all in this match. I think we can lift each other up further, add a little more shine to our belts, fight a lot of different people both inside and outside the country, and then the two of us can meet again.”
“Next, Mizuki and I will meet at Ariake, TJPW’s biggest venue… I’m putting this belt on the line against Mizuki, who is difficult to fight in a different way from Yamashita. I want to continue my story with Mizuki, too.”
In the next part, I think I got the first question:
(Last time you faced Yamashita, you said the match was indigestion, but what about this time?)
“Well… maybe for the two of us, this one feels like incomplete combustion.”
This last chunk was harder, though: “（瑞希の挑戦が決まっている状態での試合だったが、自身の試合には関与した？）それは、もう見ないようにしてました。最後に瑞希の曲が流れたので、それだけ確認して後はウォーミングアップだけ、自分の試合、山下だけに集中するようにしてました.”
(Going into the match, Mizuki’s challenge had already been set, so were you thinking about that during your own match?)
“I tried not to watch it. Mizuki’s music played at the end, so that confirmed it, but after that I just did my warm-ups and tried to focus on my own match and Yamashita alone.”
I wasn’t entirely confident about Yuka’s last response, either: “やっぱり、マジラビはマジラビなので。２人の中が良ければよいほど、また有明の試合も違うストーリーができると思うので.”
(There are two months until the title match.)
“MagiRabbi is still MagiRabbi. I think the better we are as a pair, the better it will be, and we’ll be able to tell a different story with the Ariake match. Our partnership will definitely stay as it is.”
Something I thought was a bit interesting was her use of 物語 and ストーリー to describe, well, her wrestling stories with Miyu and Mizuki! I don’t think I’ve seen Japanese wrestlers actually refer to their wrestling stories as such before. Unless I’m totally misinterpreting how she’s using those words, haha.
In Mizuki’s comments, her first line was a bit confusing and I wasn’t sure what to do with it: “なんか…最後伊藤さんと残って、伊藤さんからこういう形式ではあったけど、勝ったのは自分の中でもすごい大きいし.”
Mizuki: “Well… in the end, Itoh-san was the only one left, and even though I won it from Itoh-san like this, for me it was a huge victory. I’ve gained confidence, or how should I say it… I’m alright.”
(Sakazaki named Ariake for the title match)
“I’ve been ready to carry TJPW ever since I fought Mii-chan (Yamashita) at Ittenyon last year. But I really like Yuka-chi being the champion. I guess I’ve always had mixed feelings about it, but my goal has always been to surpass Yuka-chi. This whole time, as I was watching her, I started to think that I had to be the one to beat her. So I absolutely had to win today’s battle royale. It wasn’t wanting to win the match; I wanted to buy my ticket to fight Yuka-chi. She said she didn’t like it, but… I want to surpass Yuka-chi at a big venue and be able to stand at her side.”
I also wasn’t sure about her last line there: “ユカッチはちょっとヤダって言ってたけど…大きい会場でユカッチのこと超えて、ユカッチの隣にいられたらなって思います.” I think she’s saying that she wants to surpass Yuka so that she (basically earns the right to) stand beside her?
In the second part of her comments, I think I got the first part:
(There are more than two months until the title match)
“In our last title match, I felt emotions that I have never felt before, feelings that I can’t explain. I’m wondering if I’ll start having those feelings again… but the two of us are really close. We really rely on each other and have a lot of respect for each other, and for these two months, I definitely can’t be careless.”
I think I got this part, too, haha, but there was enough I was unsure about, I thought it was worth double-checking: “ユカッチを超えるには、自分のすべきことを全部しなきゃいけないし。ホントに頑張るって言葉だけじゃ全然足りないくらい頑張らないと越えられないから…（涙）２カ月、ずっと超えたいと思ってたから。２カ月だけじゃないし、全部ぶつけたいなと思います.”
“In order to surpass Yuka-chi, I have to do whatever it takes. Just saying that I’m really going to do my best isn’t enough, and if that’s all I do, I won’t be able to surpass her…” (cries) “In two months… I have been wanting to surpass her for a long time. It’s not just two months. I think I want to hit her with everything I’ve got.”
And that’s it!
The Mizuki/Yuka stuff pushes all of my wrestling storytelling buttons, so I’m really looking forward to the build up to that match. Their feud in 2020 was one of my few positive memories from that year . Usually what happens is I start out sure they’re not going to break up, then something happens to make me scared, and then the match happens and… things manage to turn out fine? Hopefully?? Well, this is the year of the rabbit, so I think it’s gonna be Mizuki’s year!!!
TJPW made up for the translation load being lighter for the Korakuen show by immediately doing two VOD shows, haha, which I’m hoping to get around to translating as soon as I can.
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Her train of thought and tone switches tracks suddenly at “恥を” so I would not be at all surprised if that’s just the transcriber’s best guess at what she said there…
The translation seems ok under the circumstances though I suppose.
yeah seems fine! I googled “空中戦 プロレス” and the first thing that came up was this article: プロレス空中戦の代表選手は誰だ！？ and the names mentioned are a laundry list of “high flyers” / “flippy shit” type wrestlers, incl. that one Ricochet/Ospreay match, Hayabusa, Great Sasuke, Rey Mysterio, etc.
It seems like maybe especially the modern extremely acrobatic style with lots of high flying - I googled around a little for Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid since I would expect them to be the 代表 of a more retro high-flying style, but it seems like 空中殺法 is the similar term that tends to come up for them - I assume just since they were doing high-flying moves, not like, showing off at each other in a full on 空中戦 the way that Ospreay and Ricochet do in that one match.
(I don’t think it’s an important distinction here though).
I think (after wondering about it for a while) that the gesture they’re doing while proclaiming 飛躍 is making bunny ears, since it’s year of the rabbit and all, so maybe something with “leap forward” or somesuch would fit even better.
Bit of a nitpick, but I would say rather than “and”, the 海外の選手 is just clarifying インターナショナルな相手. The やっぱりあの体格の選手って is leading into the next part after it (I would have put a comment there rather than a period)
Seems fine! the cameraman or whoever chuckles slightly when she switches her train of thought to “I can definitely go to the United States as long as I have this” as she pats it like it’s a passport.
The “頑張らないと” under her breath here too is very good.
I’ll look forward to getting to that someday
Oh most definitely, and the excuse is a playfully sarcastic one Heaven forbid! Her use of な、and やっぱ could only convey the utmost assurance!
Jisho has 示しがつかない as “setting a bad example to others” and glancing at weblio it’s talking about like, well, like that:
示しをつける
目上の者が目下の者に向けてお手本となるような正しい行いをとってみせること、あるいはそうすることで目下の者に規範を守るよう促したり、自らの権威を確かなものにしたりすることを意味する語。「示しをつける」は、目下の者に物事を教える良いお手本にならないという意味の「示しがつかない」という言い回しから派生した語であると考えられる。
In this case, she’s using it as the end of a “Xないとならない” - 示しがつかない is the bad thing that will happen if they don’t do the part before. They have to win the tournament and their titles back because if they don’t it will set a bad example (for other TJPW wrestlers or whoever).
This is really picky but I think for ふたりとも, “both of us” or “the both of us” would be a bit better than “the two of us.” I would say the 不完全燃焼 applies to both of them, not just the combination of them, I believe.
seems fine!
The 良ければよいほど here is a grammar point meaning like, XばXほどY - the more X, the more Y.
So it’s not the more 中が良い, the more 良い it’ll be, but the more they’re 中が良い, the more また有明の試合も違うストーリーができる. Like, “the more we’ll be able to tell a different story in the Ariake match”
I would probably say the 違う is in contrast to the 中が良い, like the better friends they are the more they’ll be able to play enemies on the day, I suppose.
For what it’s worth – I’m pretty sure I have a lot! ストーリー is pretty common in Shupro when discussing pro-wrestling, I would say (although I checked the last shupro I read for quick examples and didn’t find them). Like wrestlers discussing ヒール roles, etc. is pretty common too. That matches have stories and wrestlers play roles in them to connect with the crowd is acknowledged openly, I’d say. It’s just specifically the predetermined aspect that they stop short of mentioning in my experience.
I think I would say from the video, that “こういう形式ではあったけど” is her interrupting her thought to soften it by acknowledging the format of the match (i.e. that it wasn’t a full-on singles-match against Itoh, but a battle royale with others that they were just the last two for). If you read that part as though it were in parentheses, perhaps it’s less confusing.
I think “ユカッチの隣にいられたらな” is another place where the transcript went with their best guess. She doesn’t say it super clearly and there’s a background sound that makes it harder.
I hear personally “ユカッチの褒めてもらいたいな” which appears to maybe be okay gramattically based on some googling, and still sounds more plausible and directly sense-making to me in progress…
But with both transcripts going with “隣にいられたら” I guess I dunno that I can overrule them for you…
Yours seems like an okay interpretation of what’s there.
seems okay!
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I made a tweet promoting the translation account on twitter so that new fans who started watching on January 4 could hopefully find it, and it went a little too well, haha, and it’s up to almost 300 followers, which is a bit scary… 
. But, well, as long as I’m doing the translations, I want everyone who needs them to be able to find them, because I’d still be doing the exact same amount of work on them even if only two people were reading them haha.
In any case, I managed to finish the January 7 show! This was a much shorter one!
Yuki Aino and Raku faced Hikari and Itoh and managed to get a pretty big win!
After the match, Yuki and Raku… confused me right away, haha. Yuki said, “さすが,” and Raku said, “さすがじゃないけど、この間は一緒に闘えなかったし,” and I couldn’t really wrap my head around what Raku exactly meant by “さすがじゃないけど”. The negatives still often give me trouble .
Aino: “We won! Thank you. Just as expected.”
Raku: “It’s not what was expected, but we weren’t able to fight together the other day. I thought maybe I’d like to bring the belts back to Okayama with you, but I didn’t get my wish. For now, I thought maybe we could win today and Yuki-san would be able to go to Okayama with high spirits. I’m so glad we won together!”
Aino: “What a sweet girl, thinking about her partner like this! The tag tournament is about to start, huh?”
Raku: “So let’s keep our momentum.”
Aino: “Our first opponents are Reiwa AA Cannon, whom we were supposed to fight earlier. I think a favorable wind was blowing for us there. We were given one more chance to face them… Oh, I’m hungry.”
Then Raku says, “聞こえなかったのに。鳴ったそうです.” I couldn’t exactly figure out what she was saying in the second sentence haha.
Raku: “I couldn’t hear it, but apparently it rumbled!” (smiles)
Aino: “Sorry! Well, so… I forgot what I was saying.”
Raku: “You were talking about a favorable wind.”
Aino: “Oh yeah! We’re going to win the first match like how we won this one, and we’re going to keep our momentum.”
Raku: “Winning the whole tournament…”
Aino: “Let’s do it!”
Both: “We’re gonna eat manju buns!”
Shoko and Misao faced Yuka and Mahiro and got themselves a win, too. Their comments were really funny haha, and they’re totally just winning me over more and more.
Misao: “We won! We fought within Kyoraku Kyomei the other day and both of us started off the year with a win, and today we won our first match as a tag team. That’s a very good omen, isn’t it? …What are you eating?”
Nakajima: “It was a gift.”
Misao: “That’s the one I prepared. You got the present I gave as revenge.”
Nakajima: “I won, so I told them to give me something in return, and I got this.”
Misao: “Is it good?”
Nakajima: “Delicious.”
Misao: “Well, that’s a good sign. Everything was happy today.”
Nakajima: (to the cameraperson) “Do you want to eat some of this? We can win the whole thing. Because this is delicious.”
Misao: “Everyone, please give us a New Year’s gift, too. It’s called ‘victory.’”
Nakajima: “Praise us when we win. And I’ll be waiting for that delicious dorayaki.”
Trish Adora teamed up with Heidi Howitzer and Max the Impaler against Rika, Miu, and Pom. The match did not go very well at all in the slightest for poor Pom, who ended up getting completely destroyed and then Max carried her out slung over their shoulders like a sack of potatoes…
(Honestly, I could probably get a Max the Impaler tag match on every TJPW show and never get bored of them haha.)
The winners’ comments were all in English!
Adora: “Today, the afropunk Trish Adora and the Wasteland War—”
Impaler: (growls)
Heidi: “Wee-oo-wee-oo, somebody call the cops, because we just committed a pomicide.” (laughs) (to Max) “Put the joshi down.”
Impaler: (growls)
Heidi: “We’re here to win, we’re not here to kidnap joshis!”
(She slaps Pom’s back and wakes her up, causing her to start struggling. Pom manages to free herself and flees. Max starts chasing after her.)
Heidi: “Hey!”
(How do you feel today?)
Heidi: “Oh, I feel great! Once again victorious, once again very good-looking, once again very strong.”
The main event was Suzume and Arisu vs Mizuki and Moka. Daisy Monkey managed to pull off a win together!
I think I got what they said on the mic:
Suzume: “We did it! Thank you so much for the Kobe show! I’m so happy that so many people came, and that I could meet everyone surrounded by so many cheers. Right?”
Endo: “Thanks to everyone’s support, I was able to do my very, very best. Thank you so much!”
Suzume: “So, after this, TJPW has a tag tournament about to start… We’re gonna be teaming up for it, so I think more and more, you aren’t going to be able to take your eyes off of us. We’ll come to Kobe again, so please keep supporting TJPW!”
They finished with, “Thank you very much for today!”
Backstage, Suzume and Arisu were very excited:
Both: “Yay!”
Suzume: “Thank you so much, Kobe! Yeah, I really have like 200% more courage when I’m with Arisu.”
Endo: “That’s my line!”
Suzume: “I challenged them with the strongest feelings. Mizuki won the rumble the other day, and last year, Moka pinned me even though she’s my junior, so I felt a lot of frustration. In that sense, they were the two opponents I personally had the most emotional investment in. So by getting the win with Arisu, I think we gained a lot of momentum heading into the tournament.”
Endo: “Yay! The tournament, is it soon?”
Suzume: “It’s soon! We’ll probably be starting on January 19 in Shinjuku.”
Endo: “I’ve never got a major win before. So I’ll get the victory here, and Daisy Monkey will win the whole thing!”
Suzume: “Let’s be strong!”
Endo: “OK! I’ll do my best!”
Suzume: “Please support us!”
Then they asked Suzume, “今日は凱旋の瑞希から主役を奪った形でもあるが,” and she answered, “そうですね。ランブルでもそうだし、今年は兎年だし、世間でも東京女子でも瑞希さんの兎が主役かなって思ってたんですけど、でいじーもんきーが暴れてやりました.” I struggled a bit with “ランブルでもそうだし.”
(Today, you stole the spotlight from Mizuki in her hometown)
“We did, huh? The rumble went how it did, and this is the year of the rabbit, so in the broader world as well as in TJPW, I thought the rabbit Mizuki would take center stage, but we went on a rampage and did it. We’re gonna make it Daisy Monkey’s year!”
Endo: “That’s good! Really good!”
I couldn’t quite figure out what they meant by this last part, haha:
鈴芽「作ろう？」
Suzume: “Shall we make it?”
遠藤「作る！」
Endo: “We’re making it!”
Mizuki and Moka’s comments were short and sweet:
Mizuki: “I teamed up with Moka-chan today, but I’m going to get stronger so that I can protect her better. I’m going to do my best so that you can rely on me as much as you need!”
Miyamoto: “I’ve already relied on you enough… Today was Mizuki’s triumphant return match, but she lost because of me, and I’m really disappointed. It made me want to get stronger.”
Mizuki: “But you are strong! It wasn’t a critical match, so I felt like I could leave it to Moka-chan. There’s a tournament coming up, so try your best to get your win back, ok? I’m going to try my best, too.”
And that’s it!
This is probably my favorite time of the year in TJPW’s tour cycle because I really love the tag tournament. They’re making me work hard this month, though, haha. I still have the other VOD show to translate, and then there are three more shows this month… But, well, at least my Japanese is a lot better than where it was last year .
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I mean you got it roughly right! The さすが here I would say is complimentary of Raku, since Raku got the pin, and Aino’s thanking Raku for the victory. Like as expected (by Aino) - Raku was a great help and they won.
So then Raku’s さすがじゃないけど is tempering that compliment and confidence.
I would say as well, the けど is Raku tempering her contradiction of Aino (like the けど is sorta like the “but” in an implied “I agree with you in general but not about this part”), and the clause following with し ties back into the さすがじゃない, not a later thing. And この間 here would be more like recently I think - she’s saying they haven’t tagged together recently (as a reason for victory not being assured).
Like:
“well, not さすが though. We hadn’t fought together recently, for one”
さすが is like the number one Japanese word I find myself just using in English since it’s handy… so it’s a probably hard to translate gracefully, but my attempt would be something like:
“We won! Thank you. I knew we would with Raku’s help.”
“I didn’t know we would! It’s been a while since we last tagged, for one.”
A more literal “That’s Raku for you!” “No it isn’t!” could almost maybe work…
Raku is inferring that by Aino suddenly interrupting her thought to say “Oh! I’m hungry!” and gesturing this way:
… that Aino is commenting on her stomach having rumbled. So she says it wasn’t audible (to her / us) but it would seem Aino’s stomach rumbled.
The video has her saying it a little more clearly than the transcript for whatever reason: 腹が鳴ったそうです。
That’s funny, I suppose they probably cleaned it up in the transcript for informational purposes but it sounds like she says:
一月十…？何日かの新宿FACE
So she’s not quite certain on the exact date but it’s January something-teen
I’d say the ランブルでもそうだし is referring ahead to what she’s saying about year of the rabbit and Mizuki being in the spotlight. Like - (shortening/paraphrasing a bit just for the explanation) “This applied to the rumble too, but it’s the year of the rabbit so I thought Mizuki would take center stage - this time though Daisy Monkey took it from her!”
The “that’s good!” on is all talking about the specific phrase Suzume used - looks like the match report has it as: でじもん年
Endo’s saying the turn of phrase is good and the 作る is about I’d say like, coining / making that phrase a thing.
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Thank you!!
Is it sort of a play on, like, “the year of the rabbit”? Would “We’re gonna make it the Year of the Daisy Monkey!” be a better translation choice, do you think?
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Finished the January 8 TJPW VOD show! This was in Yuki Aino’s hometown, so her sister Nodoka came to sell rice and mochi from her farm at the show. I want to buy rice from Nodoka’s farm… 
Hikari and Nao beat Raku and Pom (Hikari got revenge on Raku for pinning her in the last show). Afterward, Hikari and Nao said:
Kakuta: “Free WiFi won! Last year in Okayama, we had the first round of the tag tournament, and we said, ‘We are Free WiFi!’ We won that match last year, and we won this year, too. I think Okayama is a Free WiFi hotspot.”
Then Hikari said, “トーナメントが始まりますけど、ふりーＷｉＦｉは楽しく。私たちの目標は…フリーＷｉＦｉのイメージキャラクターになることなので、そこを目指して頑張りたいと思います.” I wasn’t 100% sure on that second sentence, haha. I also noticed there’s a distinction between ふりーＷｉＦｉ (the tag team) and フリーＷｉＦｉ (presumably “free wifi” as a concept?).
I also wasn’t quite sure about Nao’s reply: “気付いたらＷｉＦｉの下のここが私とヒカリちゃんの顔になってるかもしれないから.”
Hikari: “The tournament is about to start, and Free WiFi is fun! Our goal is… becoming the poster girls of free WiFi, so we will do our best to achieve that.”
Kakuta: "When people realize it, mine and Hikari-chan’s faces might be featured under ‘WiFi.’”
Hikari: “I think Okayama will be the first, so let’s do our best.”
Kakuta: “The signal is good.”
Both: “BIBIBIBIBI!”
Hikari: “Last year, I was told that my pose was uncool, but oh well.”
Kakuta: “I think it has already caught on. More and more of the audience is doing this.” (Poses with both of her hands up)
Hikari: “Like this.”
Kakuta: “Bye-bye!”
Trish Adora fought Misao in a singles match, perhaps Trish’s biggest test in TJPW yet. Trish did manage to beat her, though! I felt a bit sad that after this show, Misao and Shoko’s 2023 records were uneven…
Trish’s comments were in English:
Adora: “This is my final match on my very first trip here at Tokyo Joshi Pro. I’ve had such a good time. Everyone is so kind, it’s very nice to work in front of the fans. And I had my first singles victory against Misao! So strong, a little tricky. But, ‘No touch my hair!’ Lariato, one, two, three!”
Here’s what Misao said:
Misao: “I lost. Today I fought Trish Adora-chan fair and square because this is a place associated with Momotaro-paisen, but I lost, huh? But Trish-chan was a super cheerful and friendly girl. After the match, we made peace and exchanged T-shirts with each other. So cute!! I want to fight again if we get the chance. Next time, I want to win!”
I didn’t know that Okayama was associated with Momotaro until her comments! According to wikipedia, the claim that he’s a local hero of Okayama was invented in the modern era haha and is not accepted as consensus in scholarly circles.
Wasteland War Party fought Yuka Sakazaki and Arisu Endo. It did not go well for poor Arisu. After the match, Max and Heidi said (in English):
Heidi: “AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! I’m sooo glad we are the very first foreign tag team to not only hold these, but be taking these back to the states to defend them before we come back again. Right, Max?”
Impaler: (growls)
Heidi: “Max is also very excited. And we finally had a chance to get our hands on Yuka, new champ, very strong, but not as strong as the Wasteland War Party, am I right? I’m right. Very right, I’m always right. And good-looking.” (points at Max) “Very strong.”
Impaler: (growls)
In Yuka and Arisu’s comments, Yuka’s first line was a bit confusing to me, haha . She said, “やばかったー。なんか、顔面とシルエットで負けたな.”
Sakazaki: “That was scary! With a face and silhouette like that, we lost.”
Endo: “Yes… I was scared! But I was happy to team up with Yuka-san.”
Then Yuka says, “楽しかったな。だいぶなすりつけたけど。でも岡山楽しかったです.” I couldn’t figure out exactly what was happening in that second sentence.
Here’s the rest (I think the very last bit didn’t make it into the video on twitter, but I included what shupro had):
Sakazaki: “It was fun. I’ve dragged it through the mud a bit, but Okayama was fun. I got to see Nodoka, and I got to meet people from where she grew up. I want to come back again!”
(You faced the tag team champions)
“We were a thrown together team, so that didn’t really apply here. At least, that’s how I feel. But I think we (MagiRabbi) can beat them in tag team power.”
(Do you think TJPW’s wrestlers can take the belts back?)
“Well, I think we can. The bigger they are, the easier it is to get underfoot and knock them down. If you can knock them down, you’ll surely be alright. As long as you don’t get caught. If you knock them over but get caught, then it’ll turn out like how it did today.”
Endo: “Yeah…”
坂崎「作戦を練れば大丈夫だと思います」
Sakazaki: “If you refine your strategy, I think it’ll work out.”
Yuki Aino teamed up with Shoko vs Miyu and Kamiyu in the main event, and managed to get that big hometown victory! Her first sentence was a bit tricky, but I think maybe I got it? She said: “みなさん、お正月らしい、なんか成人式だとかバタバタのタイミングに今年も来てくれてありがとうございます.”
Aino: “We won! Everyone, thank you for coming again this year around the time of year when you’re having New Year’s parties and coming-of-age ceremonies and things like that. I love my family, but I think you all know that. TJPW is as important as my family is to me. I came to Okayama, my hometown, with everyone, and we were able to put on an event like this, and so many people came. Some people came from far away, and some people came who don’t normally watch pro wrestling. It is thanks to the warmth and kindness of everyone that we were able to do this. Rika-san and Miyu beat me to a pulp today, but the two of them are important to me, and being able to fight them here, and winning after Nakajima saved me in the end, I’m so happy. Ah, I’m rambling on!”
Then Shoko said, “姉に似てるよ！” and I think she was saying that Yuki is like Nodoka?
Nakajima: “Just like your sister!”
Aino: “Yes, thank you so much for buying my sister’s rice and mochi! They’re delicious, so please eat them. And I don’t know when the next time will be, but I hope to see you all here again like this. It doesn’t have to be in Okayama, so let’s meet again at a wrestling venue. Let’s meet again, okay? Nakajima-san, do you want to say something?”
Nakajima: “Me? Well, you’re still going strong. You’re the strongest. Your sister is also the strongest farmer, working hard in the mountains. And TJPW is the strongest! In other words, we are the strongest family!” (to the crowd) “You are also part of the strongest family!”
Aino: “Everyone, thank you so much for coming today!”
Shoko using 俺 was cute, haha.
Shoko and Yuki’s post-match comments were pretty funny haha. They said:
Nakajima: “Thank you so much!”
Aino: “Thank you, thank you!”
Nakajima: “Actually, for three times in a row now, even though I’m not from Okayama or a member of the Nodoka family, I’ve always teamed up with the sisters, and today I formed a duo with Yuki. I got to fight in the main event of the Okayama return show. It’s an honor.”
Aino: “Thank you! I’ve already said that Nakajima-san is part of the TJPW Tokusatsu Club, and she’s like family to us. So that’s why we always make our triumphant return together.”
Nakajima: “Yuki’s mom gave me pears when we went to her house.”
Aino: “That’s exactly what she does for the children of our relatives.” (laughs)
Then Shoko said, “お母さんありがとう。おいしかったです、とっても.” I understood this just fine, but I guess I just had a translation nuance question. I feel like it’s probably better to translate this as “Yuki’s mother” rather than just mother, since I think Shoko just calling her “mother” reads as more familiar in English than it reads in Japanese (and I think “お母さん” sort of implies the other person’s mother?), but also since Yuki had just told her that she’s part of the family, maybe there is supposed to be a little bit of Shoko referring to Yuki’s mom as “mother” ? Maybe I’m overthinking it, haha.
Nakajima: “Thank you, Yuki’s mother. They were delicious, so good.”
Aino: “The hometown return show was so much fun, and it always makes me really happy. People who don’t normally watch wrestling came, and people who always come to see us rushed out here, too. Everyone had a good time, and I’m just really happy. Today I was able to get the pin at the end, so I’m happy about that, too. Extra happy. I said it like, ‘wow, bravo!’” (laughs)
Nakajima: “It’s my triumphant return now, too!”
Aino: “Yes!”
This next part made me laugh because the shupro transcript chose not to include it ahaha. I couldn’t quite catch exactly what Yuki said after the, uh, part I’m about to censor, but it sounded to me like she was telling them to cut that part out? I guess shupro listened .
Shoko: (in English) “Fuck yeah!”
Aino: (in English) “Fuck yeah!” (both laugh) (in Japanese) “Maybe cut that part out. But thank you, everyone!”
(Your sister also came)
“Sister, I hope you got lots of rice and mochi sales. But I’m sure that everyone bought them. They’re really delicious, so I think if you try them once, you’ll become a repeat customer. It’s dangerous for everyone. But please come take a step inside!”
Rika and Kamiyu predictably had a completely measured and rational response to losing this match . The one thing I couldn’t really figure out here was Kamiyu’s “負けて草” at the beginning.
Tatsumi: “They got us.”
Kamifuku: “We lost.”
Tatsumi: “The reason we lost is because we didn’t eat Yuki’s sister’s delicious rice before the match.”
Kamifuku: “That’s right.”
Tatsumi: “Because I didn’t eat this…”
Kamifuku: “Ah, I’m pissed. She beat me. I’m gonna burn down her fields.”
Tatsumi: “Mm-hmm. I think the show itself was a huge success.”
Kamifuku: “Okayama is a really warm and pleasant place.”
Tatsumi: “Everyone is so kind. We’ll come back again.”
Kamifuku: “Next time, I’m burning down the rice fields.”
Tatsumi: “We’re burning them.”
Kamifuku: “I’ll bring gasoline.”
And that’s it for this one! Somehow, I got all three of these shows done before the tournament starts, wow.
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Yeah pretty much! Kakuta (hey wait a second! 角田奈穂, 乃蒼ヒカリ… shouldn’t the names given in the transcript be either Nao/Hikari or Kakuta/Noa to be consistent? Maybe that’s on shupro… or maybe an age / up up girls thing??) makes hand gestures that clarify what she’s talking about:
気付いたらＷｉＦｉ
の下のここが
私とヒカリちゃんの顔になってる
She’s joking that the dot in the wifi symbol (huh you’d think there’d be an emoji for that) will become their faces, that’s how much they will come to represent free Wifi.
The other thing I would mention is that “before you know it” would be a better translation than “When people realize it” for 気付いたら here. She’s emphasizing like, when you notice it it will already have happened:
(it becomes X) → you notice it → it is X
where in English that would be more naturally emphasized with “before you know it” or something similar.
Here I would say Hikari isn’t talking about her pose specifically but – this is their tag team cheer:
Kakuta says: 電波良好！！
And then they both put their arms in the air and go BIBIBIBIBI! as if they’re transmitting data/wifi for the audience to pick up.
So Hikari’s talking about how this was called ださい last year.
The
Hikari: “Like this.”
part sounds to me in the video like something like
本当？そしてこう、頑張りましょう
which I’d say is like – she’s accepting ok, let’s keep at it like this (doing this pose).
(I could also believe そしていこう、 as in like, lastly let’s leave, since that’s what they do, but that fits less with what I assume was in the transcript)
I like the implication that Misao sees legendary heroes as colleagues
She’s saying like – they lost (already) at the level of face and silhouette - i.e. Max and Heidi have far more imposing faces and silhouettes, so in a face and silhouette based match-up, Sakazaki and Endo would have lost from the get-go.
I’d also say I don’t really have a better alternative off hand, but I don’t love “that was scary” for やばかった. I’d say it’s more like “that was intense” or “that was off the chain” or “dang those two are something else” or “that was a close one” – things like that. I’d say it’s conveying less fear and more like, “damn, wow!” type of feelings.
First of all, the なすりつけた is definitely something that Sakazaki did to Endo. The けど isn’t leading into the next sentence (the period and でも would be tipoffs there’s a break there), it’s referring back in the spoken language way of like, adding a thought. Like “it was fun. だいぶなすりつけた though.”
And the video makes it unmistakable that it’s something Sakazaki did to Endo (or at least that she should take the blame for):
だいぶなすりつけたけど
すまんな
Weblio has for なすりつける:
１ なすってつける。「傷口に薬を―・ける」
２ 過失などを他人に押し付ける。転嫁する。「自分の罪を人に―・ける」
And I would say likely here it’s 2, and she’s saying that she passed off the brunt of the match (and the associated punishment) to Endo, not really going out of her way to help (other than regular tag team reaching for the hot tag), and letting Endo take nearly all of the War Party’s offence.
I think this is fine – the subject is still the hypothetical TJPW wrestler (which is a pain for deciding how to deal with it in English), and she’s summarizing her response to the question as a wrap-up.
I would maybe tweak it to be like, “if we refine a strategy, I think we can pull it off” (with “we” meaning like, TJPW wrestlers collectively).
P.S.: it is all in the video although the fade to black starts midsentence 
I think the translation is fine, I would smooth this part over in English a bit though: “thank you for coming again this year even when it’s that time of year…”
yep!
This isn’t gonna really be the kind of thing I can personally help with very well, since the practical extent of my usage knowledge is like “well, I’m pretty sure I saw a character call an older man he wasn’t related to お父さん on Ultraman the other day…”
Looking around for resources, funnily enough the best one I found was the wikipedia page for お母さん
「お母さん」は次の場合に用いられる：
1 子が、母親に呼びかける際に使用する場合
例：「お母さーん!」
2 母親が、子に対して自分のことを指して言う場合
例：「はい、お母さんはここにいますよ。」
3 夫が、子の父親として、あたかも子の立場にいるかのように妻に対して呼びかける場合
例：「お母さん、茶をくれ。」
4 父親が、子の母親を指して子に語りかける場合
例：「お母さんに聞いてごらん。」
5 第三者が、子の母親を指して子に語りかける場合
例：「お母さんはどこに行ったの?」
6 年配女性に対して親しみを込めて呼ぶ場合
例：「お母さんはいくつですか？」
なお、かあさんは1.～3.で用いられる。同義のお袋は1.と5.（青年間）だけで用いる。他にかあちゃん、ちゃーちゃんなどとも。
It seems to me that Shoko’s “お母さんありがとう。” could be considered 1 or 6 - either she’s playing the role of a child talking to her mother for the bit, or she’s addressing an older woman she is close with.
I would say probably since they’re talking about it more like she’s a beloved cousin than like, a third sister, the existence of usage 6 makes it fit better here, although I would imagine it does still play into their bit about her being close with the family to the point of being like a relative.
That doesn’t really resolve the problem though… I don’t think there’s any word in English that would fit both usages 1 and 6 and if I think about what would be used in the equivalent situation, it would be like “Aunt [name]” or “Mrs. [name]” or something which is awkward since I don’t know exactly what that name would be in this context…
I think I’d tweak yours a little and go: “Thanks, Yuki’s mom!”
She’s definitely playing into the “friend of the kid visiting the house and being given stuff” role, and I think that’s familiar enough to fit, where “Yuki’s mother” still sounds kind of cold.
It’s a pity they didn’t attempt a bowdlerized version like with Muta
草 is internet slang for laughing (like lol), derived from:
笑→わらう→warau→ｗ→ｗｗｗｗｗ→草
(because “wwww” looks like grass)
Her ”まじで草” in the video clinches it for me that that’s definitely her usage her.
“We lost lol”
small tweak her is I’d say the 行こう means it’s more like “let’s go burn down her fields”
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Thank you!
That is in fact a shupro quirk, haha, and I go with what they have because it’s easier . I’ve wondered about it, too! It’s interesting because Arisu is always “Endo,” but Hikari is often just “Hikari”. Pom also is usually just “Pom”, and I think Yuki Aino is “Aino” in the shupro transcripts, but sometimes “Yuki” in the press conference transcripts on the DDT site, haha. In any case, it is inconsistent!
Ahaha I didn’t catch that implication, that’s so funny. Misao might be the greatest wrestler.
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週刊プロレス No.２２０7 (from early October, the end of the 5 Star GP)
Obviously, Antonio Inoki’s death is the biggest news story this issue.
He had been sick with a particular form of amyloidosis for some time, and according to 猪木元気工場, his doctor had said at some point that “その日” could be tomorrow, two days from now, a month, a year, etc. and he had ups and downs in 2022. His condition had been on an up and his younger brother talked with him the day before, but in the morning he worsened and “永遠の眠りについた.” His brother says he was sleeping a lot and it seemed peaceful.
The article talks about a video recorded posted to his youtube channel called “アントニオ猪木「最期の言葉」” Recorded about 10 days before his death, describing it as including “猪木らしい素直な思い” with regard to his expressing reluctance to record for youtube in his time of weakness, as well as a plea to stop pollution.
Oddly – the video appears to have since been privated and I didn’t find infomration why (although I did find a mirror).
My notice of “cerulean blue” is not restricted to audio it turns out, as the magazine talks about some 50th anniversary cooperation between New Japan and Inoki, but notes that 「突然の死によって燃える闘魂がセルリアンブルーのリングに還ることは、ついにかなわなかった。」
There’s a page of reactions and condolences from various Inoki-associated wrestlers, mostly notably his 愛弟子 Tatsumi Fujinami’s tearful reaction after a match, and including comments from Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda, Keiji Mutoh, Yuji Nagata, etc.
There’s then a pretty long, or very brief depending on your perspective, look back at Inoki’s life.
He emigrated to Brazil with his grandfather’s family when he was 13 in 1957 (I’ve heard immigration to Brazil was pushed as a path to a success in 50s Japan by which I mean I’ve seen a 1957 Japanese movie where the idea of leaving for Brazil was a major plot element) and worked on a coffee plantation where he was scouted by Rikidozan and returned to Japan to join 日本プロレス in 1960.
Apparently in 1966 he left to join the new 東京プロレス where he served as 社長兼エース and won his first title, the US Heavyweight Championship from Johnny Valentine, but the company folded the same year and he went back to 日本プロレス. From there he teamed with Giant Baba as ＢＩ砲, and got married, but was wrapped up in managerial scandal and left the company, founding his own, 新日本プロレス on January 26, 1972. In the 旗揚げ戦 he lost to Karl Gotch. He got his win back within the year to win his first world championship. – Incidentally, I actually have no idea what world championship this is talking about, as the sources I’ve seen including this don’t name it specifically, they just say variations on “世界ヘビー” and this is long before the IWGP name and it doesn’t look like it was NWA. It seems like Muhammad Ali had a championship with a similar red and blue design - so I wonder if maybe it’s one Inoki designed himself that didn’t ultimately catch on…? (NOTE: it seems it was the “Real World Championship”)
Highlights from there include defending against Tiger Jeet Singh, the 昭和の巌流島決闘 match against former 国際プロレス ace Strong Kobayashi, and the famous match against Muhammad Ali that was either extremely boring or a monumental beginning to Japanese Mixed Martial Arts, or both.
Now into the eighties, more highlights: the formation of IWGP in 1980 and the 1983 league tournament to crown the first IWGP Heavyweight Champion ending with Inoki losing to Hulk Hogan via Axe Bomber in a shocking image of Inoki down with his tongue out and stretchered away. Another 巌流島 match. Clashes with UWF. Beat Takeshi invading NJPW. The first pro-wrestling Tokyo Dome show.
In 1989 he won election to the 参議院 and became the first ever 議員レスラー and freed Japanese hostages in Iraq somehow.
His official retirement road started in 1994 but lasted almost four years and included the famous North Korea show, before he officially retired at the 1998 Tokyo Dome show.
He kept very busy from there though with running MMA-inflected shows and organizations like UFO or Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, and the article diplomatically mentions his influence extended to プロレス界に与えるダメージ being stronger than what it gained from the mixing of pro-wrestling and MMA Inoki was invested in at this time. This leading ultimately to Inoki’s removal from any direct involvement with NJPW, and the video game company Yuke’s purchasing the company.
From there his main involvement with wrestling was through the Inoki Genome Federation, but he left that in 2017, it sounds like due to disputes between family.
Anyway, in other more normal news, the 5 Star GP Finals happened!
Giulia’s column is from before that though, and it’s about Stardom in Showcase, the new anything goes, “超エンターテインメント型プロレス” show brand. Giulia says when she heard 「何でもアリ」 what she wanted to do was a hardcore match.
There’s some really good stuff here where she talks about how everyone’s tastes are different, and ”プロレスってさ、そもそも定義が難しいもので” so people have a tendency to have the kneejerk reaction that if they don’t like it, it’s not proper pro-wrestling. Like she saw that kind of “allergic reaction” from people in responses to Prominence’s arrival in Stardom. Giulia rejects that reaction however:
ジュリアは思ったんだよね、「それはもったい無いよ！」って。プロレスには無限の可能性がある。スターダムにはその全ての可能性を飲み込めるブラックホールのような力があると思うから。
Giulia’s really cool
Tanahashi’s column is about Mutoh (I think the Wrestle Kingdom retirement road match with both of them in it had been just announced or just started being built towards). They chat about various aspects of Mutoh and Tanahashi’s impressions of him, like they both liked weight training a lot, or what Mutoh’s leaving for AJPW meant for their dynamic between each other. One amusing bit is the interviewer raises the possibility that some have mentioned that Mutoh picked now for his retirement shows as a way to boost the industry in a time when the pandemic is causing it hardship, but Tanahashi says that Mutoh isn’t as calculating as people think, he just does what he wants in the moment and flows with the times that way and that’s what makes him a “天才” and that Mutoh already being branded 天才 is what made Tanahashi take refuge in “逸材” via thesaurus.
There’s a very long interview with El Desperado on the occasion of that match with Jun Kasai and the マイク afterward being so good.
Sounds like he suffered no major injuries thanks to Kasai’s care so his body is recovering fine but he was emotionally wiped after being so amped up after the match and drinking a lot that night and getting a powerful hangover (in contrast to Kasai properly doing weight training and stuff the next day). So Desperado doesn’t want to say “デスマッチをやったぜ” out of respect for the people who actually do it regularly.
An interesting exchange:
ーー： そもそもデスペラード選手は、いつから葛西選手のことが好きだったんですか？
デスペ： わかんない、気づいたら好きだった。
He recounts in 2009 when Kasai won Best Bout, he heard a NJPW senpai say 「デスマッチがベストバウトを取っちゃダメだよな」 and he felt 違和感 about it, although he figured it was New Japan pride rather than prejudice that motivated the comment.
It sounds like what really awakened the idea that he wanted to fight Kasai himself was at some point when Kasai proclaimed 「くすぶってるヤツはオレが闘って目を覚まさせてやる。やりたいヤツは言ってこい。」 or somesuch, and Desperado realized that applied to him. At the time it sounds like Taka Michinoku and Taichi were doing stuff like Shinjuku FACE shows (based on some googling, rough ballpark for time he’s talking about ~2013-2017 I think) and he expressed to Taka he wanted to fight Jun Kasai, and Taka responded “who’d want to watch you fight Jun Kasai?” (although Desperado doubts Taka would remember saying this himself), and so wanting to become a wrestler who could be a viable opponent for Kasai is part of what drove his rise in stature in New Japan after that.
Sounds like their first match against each other was three years ago, but it ended in a double ringout after Desperado broke his jaw.
He says he was surprised looking back at the match to see he was laughing through the pain: もう痛すぎて、カラダが勝手に笑ってた。…後で映像を見たら、笑ってる、笑ってるって（苦笑）。びっくりして、ずっとワッハッハって言ってた。
They talk about Jun’s マイク afterward, where he touchingly implored El Desperado to not act like he was ready to die (「死んでもいい覚悟なんて、捨ててしまえ」) and Desperado says that and the big reaction online about him made him feel the way in which he looks up to Kasai: 「やっぱりオレが憧れた人だもんなっていうのはあった。レスリングで憧れてる人はもちろんたくさんいるけど、人間力で憧れてるのは葛西さんと鈴木（みのる）さんなので。やっぱりああいうエネルギーはスゴいなって」
There’s some really good (but hard to summarize) stuff that follows then about how El Desperado says there’s a part somewhere inside of himself which doesn’t cling to life, that wouldn’t be too put out if his life was all over in an accdient tomorrow, and that part made him feel all right with saying that stuff about being ready to die. But Kasai’s comments showed him that a line had to be drawn, and it sounds to me like Desperado compares it to the kinds of things you say casually and thoughtlessly as a kid, without realizing it can hurt other people, until someone sets you straight and you stop, and in that way Kasai’s words let him let go of that kind of thing.
Sounds like Desperado looked on the internet how best to preserve the rose Kasai gave him and prepared some kind of preservative, and fully intends to give it back to Kasai when next they have a match, whether he wins or loses.
Desperado says that his maskmaker made a white mask out of special blood-absorbent material, so that blood would complete it: 「血で汚れて完成します。」
Desperado makes a mahjong metaphor and says that being given main event even though it was Taka and Taichi’s anniversary show was like “裏ドラが6枚ぐらい乗ったような感じで（笑）” I get what you’re putting down, デスペさん! (the ura-dora get revealed only after you’ve gone out - so it means the mahjong went good and then super worked out good on top of that)
Near the end of this very long but very good interview, Desperado says that he and Starlight Kid talked about it and they don’t want to just team for the one eight-person tag match at Historic X-Over - they want to get that over with, and if there’s no joint NJPW/Stardom show after that, they’ll want to team at a TakaTaichiDespe show and Desperado thinks their opponent should definitely involve the wrestler strongly associated with mixed-tag matches… Rina Yamashita! Yes, please do that!! I would like to see that match!!!
Kenoh’s column is about him losing the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Kaito Kiyomiya. He says it went just like the company expected - with the pro-wrestling superstar Keiji Mutoh retiring, the plucky new rising superstar inherits his move and gets put on a path to be a new superstar. Kenoh thought he would disrupt “そんな予定調和の美しいストーリー” but in the end he helped further it: ”オレ自身がその一部になっちゃった”. But he lost fair and square. He also mentions some pride in the contents of the match - for example, it was under 30 minutes when the trend nowadays is for top-level matches to go on really long. (the interviewer points out that if Kenoh held out longer it would have been longer - ”うるせーっ！”). This makes Kiyomiya the 6th GHC Heavyweight Champion in 2022 (geez).
When asked his goals, Kenoh deadpans first that he wants to focus exclusively on his youtube channel. But that was a joke and he wants to challenge Kiyomiya at the New Year’s show, win, and close it by challenging Mutoh. And there’s 新日本で一人だけ闘わないといけないヤツ…
There’s a short feature on Tenryu Project - I’m not very familiar but it sounds like it’s Genichiro Tenryu and his family’s promotion, known for especially hard-hitting rough bouts, started in 2010, and they’re having their first Korakuen Hall show in two years, amid Tenryu’s continued recovery from health issues, and his wife’s death.
(Ever since I learned what Tenryu’s entrance music was, I’ve had to put on Rainbow Goblins when he comes up, out of respect)
Comforting to remember Atsushi Onita will always be out there somewhere, exploding.
The history column is about 国際プロレス. Apparently it ran from 1967-1981, and those years can be divided up into a money-rich first 7 years and a “国際らしい”、”カネはなかったが真の支持層を熱狂させた” second 7 years.
Anyway I didn’t really pay attention to the details (this issue is taking quite long enough as it is) but it sounds like this match, or that day’s who Korakuen show, stands out as a particular 国際プロレス highlight.
There’s an interview with Yuki Mashiro of Ice Ribbon, as she has announced she’s retiring from wrestling at the end of the year. She says she had thought she’d limit it to 3 years when she started, and though she loves pro-wrestling still and there were times she figured she’d keep doing it, she’s 21 and there’s plenty of other stuff she wants to try to do, like perhaps pursuing a medical career or traveling the world. She says she’s already decided her final opponent, and it’s someone she loves very much, the person she’s meant in life who most looked after her, who she trusts and respects as both a wrestler and a person, and who she’s glad to have met thanks to starting pro wrestling. But she’s not saying who it is yet.
Fortunately, since I’m so behind on these – her last match was with Suzu Suzuki.
She’s overcome with some adventurous spirit when talking about how she wants to try travelling overseas even though she can’t speak English:
当たって砕けろっていうか、私、当たって砕けたいんです！砕けて、心折れるけどその度に何か得るものはあるし自分自身成長できると思ってます！プロレスでも心がボリボリ、バリバリ折れましたけど、そのたびに負けたくないなって思ってきたので。私、少年なんです、冒険したい！
Her story through her career has been well covered by Shupro (I know she was one of the Ice Ribbon wrestlers high on my radar thanks to the magazine) and they have high praise here: 笑ったり号泣したりブチ切れたり。プロレスを知らずに始めたヘナチョコで摩訶不思議な21歳はすごくプロレスラーしてたなと思います。
Next there’s a joint interview with Miu Watanabe and Yuka Sakazaki from TJPW, as they both have shots at singles titles coming up.
They talk about the summer tournament and about Miu’s standout performance in it, and the expectations of cracking through the barrier of the 3 first generation wrestlers built up from it. Yuka says there’s expectations in wrestlers other than them to be the future of the company, but there’s also a sense that they need to dig in their feet and be strong as the present of the company, and that today isn’t the goal, the path can’t be too smooth for that future wrestler to break through.
Miu says her drive to do well in the tournament was born from fighting generation-mate Arisu Endo in the first round and wishing that she could have met her much later in the tournament instead. She and Arisu feel like kids still compared to Yuka feeling like a sister, or mom, or grandpa to them. And kids gotta 頑張る.
They both talk very highly of the atmosphere in TJPW for the wrestlers. And Yuka says those good vibes arose naturally, as people who loved the place joined and contributed their own love.
Yuka describes her challenge against Shoko’s Princess of Princess Championship as a bit of a complex to show strength as TJPW’s current status quo, brought on by Miu’s threat to that (and Miu’s victory over Shoko).
Talking about Miu’s championship shot, she’s very anxious about the prospect of potentially having to go overseas (Yuka, speaking as her mother, says she needs the experience), and she’s worried that Alex Windsor seems large and hard to pick up and swing around, but she has to.
Yuka says she’s glad to have foreign wrestlers in TJPW showing that it’s a good and worthwhile market and brand despite the visa difficulties and the like, and the wrestlers are like part of the family or a homestay.
Miu says she say her マイファイト from her last interview and felt bad about her English so she immediately went out to buy an English book from a book store, but not knowing what would be helpful to talk to English wrestlers, she just read a little in the store and left without buying anything… but it’s one step forward!
Yuka sagely says that there’s enough shared in pro-wrestling that you can naturally get by somehow with body language and feeling, so it’s okay.
Miu: 「ハローは言えます！じゃあ大丈夫ですね」
Looks Like Jun Kasai shared a “ディープな” kiss with Effy in GCW.
(warning: blood)
There’s an article on a pro-wrestling-related radio station that’s lasted for 30 years, ラジプロ！ That’s neat! I would probably have read it more carefully if this issue weren’t already like… very full of stuff I’ve spent lots of time on.
A particularly touching Inoki tribute was Minoru Suzuki’s - he hasn’t said anything public, but at the end of a show, all he had to do was point at the sky, and mime 1, 2, 3, with the crowd filling in the voice right on cue for Suzuki’s silent ダァー！ (Inoki’s catchphrase)
Mutoh’s column is about AJPW on the occasion of it’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Mutoh ended up leaving NJPW to run AJPW for 10 years in the wake of Giant Baba’s death. He says in the time before that, his impression of AJPW was of course, Baba, as well as Jumbo Tsuruta and American wrestlers. He says NJPW and AJPW were a bit like Russia and the US at the time so they didn’t interact much, but when he interacted with Tsuruta there was a little bit of a bond since they’re both from Yamanashi Prefecture (he says he doesn’t publicize it but he similarly feels some kindredness with Shingo Takagi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru for example, for the same reason). He says he left to run All Japan because he felt he could freely do pro-wrestling there in contrast to the MMA-inflected direction that New Japan was going, and also out of ambition for the 一国一城 factor of being able to run it and be the main attraction. He says the strength of the name of AJPW was still very high and that was a major strength, but it became a weakness too, since it opened up complaints about not living up to the name, or Mutoh’s AJPW not matching what AJPW should intagibly be.
The editor’s Eye Column is about the Stardom 5 Star GP and specifically highlights a triangle of three 黄金世代 wrestlers who stood out in their matches with each other in the tournament: Saya Kamitani, MIRAI, and Suzu Suzuki. It says the 黄金世代 term first came up around a pivotal 10/3/2020 Goddess of Stardom match, and even as a generation is building up with wrestlers with short careers and bright futures in their 20s, there’s already been big accomplishments like Kamitani’s white belt reign and MIRAI’s tournament win, but the generation above, like tournament finalists Giulia and Tam, and champion Syuri, don’t have any intention of ceding the spotlight just yet.
The final column is about Suzu Suzuki’s perspective on Stardom’s 5 Star GP. I really like the dynamic she expresses here, where she entered the 5 Star GP just to go after Giulia and work out those complex emotions from her departure and absence, and she’d go through even such a huge tournament just for the chance to do it, but as it turned out she ended up glad for the wait before their match together, since she got to learn about the place Giulia left for, and the surroundings of the current Giulia, not the Giulia in the past. And she found that Stardom is full of interesting wrestlers to fight, being especially struck by how the 生え抜き wrestlers fought especially hard amidst the crowd of entrants.
She sounds very very happy about freelancing, about her rapidly rising star power, about wrestling constantly all the time, and getting to do lots of her beloved deathmatches.
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Finished the first half of TJPW’s January 15 show (the first round of the tag tournament)!
The comments for this show ended up being, uh, longer than the Korakuen show translation was 
. So I decided to split the posts into two haha so that it was a little less overwhelming…
I didn’t actually have a lot of trouble with most of these!
The first tournament match was Juria and Moka vs Toyo Mates, which ended with Juria and Moka getting the upset victory! I felt bad for Mahiro, honestly… This wasn’t the round one upset I was hoping we’d get…
After the match, Juria and Moka said:
Miyamoto: “Today I participated in the tag tournament with Juria-san for the first time together, and we were able to get past the first match. I’m so happy! This time we faced Toyo Mates, and next is Daisy Monkey. I want to beat Daisy Monkey and win the tournament with Juria-san.”
Juria: “This was my first time participating in a tournament. I was able to team up with Moka-san in our karate tag team, and I had the feeling that we were absolutely going to win no matter what it took, but… I’m so happy that we actually won! But I’m not going to just bask in the happiness of winning the first round; we’re gonna win through the next one, too. I want to seize the victory with Moka-san, so I want to work hard together.”
Miyamoto: “Let’s do our best!”
(How are you going to fight in the next match?)
“Daisy Monkey has been teaming together for a while, and their teamwork is fantastic. But we’ve been working together a lot since last year, and I think our teamwork is just getting better and better. I hope we can win by combining our strength!”
Juria: “I lost to Daisy Monkey in my debut. I was really emotional about my debut match… I have a lot of feelings attached to it, even though I lost. This time, I’ll be with Moka-san as a team. Even in my private life, Moka-san always talks to me and gives me advice, so she’s a senpai whom I love very much. I want us to crush Daisy Monkey together.”
Kamiyu and Mahiro’s comments were pretty entertaining, haha. My main question here, I guess, was more about translating tone and informal speech. Just how hard should the English translation go to match the Japanese?
Kamifuku: “What the hell are you doing?”
Kiryu: “I’m so sorry…”
Kamifuku: “Hey! The tournament just started, what the hell is this? You lost to a woman with a hairstyle that looks like the Mother of Ultra, huh? WHY!” (brief pause) “…I went too far, didn’t I? Hey, I’m just kidding.”
Kiryu: “No, but I’m really…”
Kamifuku: “Sometimes you just lose. I lose sometimes, too. Do you want to go get something to eat?”
Kiryu: “C-crab…”
Kamifuku: “Crab?”
Kiryu: “Crab omelet…”
Kamifuku: “Well, it’s cheap. Let’s go.”
The next tournament match was Reiwa AA Cannon vs Raku and Yuki Aino. I… admittedly spent most of this match thinking, "I know we just had a big round one upset, but we can get a second one in a row, right? Right?? We did not get a second one in a row 
"
After the match, Arai and Akai said:
Akai: “When this tournament was announced and we were chosen to enter, our feelings were completely different compared to how we feel today after our first match. We’ve lost our tag belts, and they’ve gone overseas. We have to once again start from scratch, climb up from absolutely nothing, and get our belts back with our own hands. Our opponents today, Raku and Yuki Aino, were a team we were supposed to defend our belts against in a title match. In that sense, I expected them to be formidable foes.”
Then she said, “ここでひとつもこぼすことはできないので、今日優希ちゃんとの連帯感というか気持ちはより太くなったように感じます”, and I wasn’t entirely sure about that first part, haha.
“I couldn’t make even a single misstep here, so I felt a certain solidarity with Yuki-chan today, or perhaps I should say, that feeling has become stronger.”
Arai: “I was really depressed because I lost us our tag belts at the beginning of the year… But being able to team up again with her right away like this and participate in the tournament, I think I was able to force my feelings to change. I want to keep working hard together so that we can keep climbing up and up.”
Akai: “More so than the last time we faced Raku and Yuki, they brought out some things that we don’t have in our toolkit. In that sense, they were very frightening. After all, you climb up the rounds of a tournament like this, at each stage, more and more powerful enemies will emerge, and you will get hit. We will put our pride and spirit on the line and make it all the way back to the top.”
In the next part, they said:
(Daydream are your next opponents)
“My mental image of Daydream had them holding the tag belts. We also had the tag belts until very recently, so we can’t lose to them here either. I am well-acquainted with Tatsumi, since the olden days. Yuki-chan also knows how scary Rika and Miu are.”
Arai: “I also teamed up with Moka-san in the tournament last year, but we couldn’t advance because we lost to Daydream. This year, I want to take revenge with Akai-san.”
Akai: “We are moving up the staircase step by step, so in that sense, I want to take a big step up by beating Daydream next.”
Then the interviewer asked about Raku and Yuki using the pillow to block their move, and Saki said, “あのダブル新人賞、私たちオリジナルの、私たちだからできる技なのでけっこう大事にしてたので、あんなかわされ方があると思わなかったので…” I wasn’t quite sure about this sentence .
(They blocked the Double Rookie of the Year Award with a pillow)
“The Double Rookie of the Year Award is our original move, and it’s a move that only we can do, which means we treasure it greatly. So I didn’t think it could be evaded like that… I want the referee to be a little more strict with his checks.”
Arai: “I’m mad!”
Akai: “I’m going to take out my anger on Daydream in the next match.”
In Yuki and Raku’s comments, I was a bit unsure about Raku’s last two sentences here: “今日はユキさんと一緒に闘えなかったタイトルマッチの気持ちも込めて試合に臨んだんですけど。ユキさんが最後頑張ってくれて、タッチしてくれた時にユキさんの気持ちも背負って。最後、私が絶対にいってやろうって思ったけど…うまくいかないところもあって.”
The “ユキさんが最後頑張ってくれて” part I interpreted differently when I first read the transcript, then I watched the video, and she seemed to be saying that Yuki was telling her “頑張って!” at the end? But I dunno .
Raku: “I went into the match today with the spirit of the title match that I hadn’t been able to do with Yuki-san hanging over it. At the end, Yuki-san encouraged me, and when she tagged me in, I also carried her feelings with me. In the end, I was determined to give it my all, but… it didn’t go well. Today, Pom was seconding us, and it felt like we were fighting 3 on 2. But I’m still here at (the bottom of) the mountain in 2023. We couldn’t climb up together in the tournament, but let’s go up that mountain.”
In the next part, the first chunk went pretty smoothly:
Aino: “Let’s do it! You’re so cute. This isn’t a redo, but when I challenged with Pom in November… that was that title challenge. I got one more chance, one more opportunity to face Reiwa AA Cannon, Akai-san and Arai-chan, together with Raku. Even though it was the first round of the tournament, I went into it as if it were a title match.”
Then she said, “なかなかね、枕使ったりとか何が何でも、どう思われたって勝ちたいと思って一生懸命やりはしたんですけど、やっぱりまだ高い山だったので.” I got tripped up a couple times in this sentence, then maybe figured it out?
“I tried my best to win by any means, using whatever I could think of, like that pillow, but in the end the mountain was still too high. She said that we’re still at the bottom of the mountain, so that means if we choose to climb it, we’ll be able to do it someday. We’re going to do our best, and 2023 has only just begun. I want to do it! But I wanted to face more tag teams. It’s disappointing.”
Raku: “I wanted to fight, too… Well, let’s get into the cable car.”
Aino: “We’ll ride it!”
Raku: “Actually, let’s climb up on our own two legs.”
Aino: “Yes! We’ll go at our own pace.”
And that’s it for this first half! The rest is literally just Miyu and Itoh’s comments (with a little bit from Free WiFi at the end); they sure talked a lot . I’m gonna try to hopefully get those done by the end of tomorrow!
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Tone’s fine I’d say. (she’s being really harsh )
For this part here - a small note that she kinda interrupts herself and I wouldn’t really say it’s connected thoughts. She just gets mad suddenly at Kiryu being ashamed and shoves her while asking 何やってんだよ again.
The beginning thought was going to be about how like - even though the tournament comes around so rarely (Mahiro screwed it up). I think suppose “the tournament just started” works fine in English and expresses similar frustration, just noting that it maps a little different.
Be sure to check out Ultraman Taro for more appearances by Juria Nagano ウルトラの母
I think the only mild things that make these difficult are the sort of inherently speaking for each other nature of giving a promo as a tag team, and the tendency to drop a lot of んで/のでs while speaking and building a train of though - with both leading to picky decisions when translating.
Like. the train of thought in “I couldn’t make even a single misstep here, so I felt a certain solidarity…” doesn’t seem like it doesn’t 100% line up,
but the one in “we couldn’t make even a single misstep here, so I felt a certain solidarity…” does more. The enemy was strong, so their cooperation increased in adversity.
The train of thought in “we treasure it greatly. So I didn’t think it could be evaded like that” doesn’t quite line up either.
but the one in “we treasure it greatly and didn’t think it could be evaded like that…” does more. The value of the move to them and the unthinkability (and questionable legality) of the counter method means the referee should be stricter.
I think the meaning is grasped fine, it’s just not being confident in it and the nature of the process means you’re tied into specific granular decisions on stuff like I/we or ので->“so” makes it tricky to smooth out some of those train of thought things, which makes being confident in the meaning harder.
I see where you’re coming from since the hand gesture she makes in the video does make it look like she’s talking about someone yelling encouragement – but I don’t I can make that interpretation work grammayically. She says clearly “最後…(gestures)頑張ってくれて…” and the stuff after that pause sound like transitioning into the next part of the thought.
I would probably interepret it rather as this:
“ユキさんが最後頑張ってくれて、タッチしてくれた時”
being one time – roughly literally “the time when Yuki worked hard and in the end managed to tag me in” with the て linking the two things as in one happened and then the other.
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I had a bit of a stressful day, but I managed to get the rest of this done!
The main event of the January 15 show was Nao and Hikari vs Miyu and Itoh. I really like both teams, but found myself pulling for Free WiFi by the end. Sadly, it was not to be . Itoh and Miyu’s comments were, uh, very long, but also really funny, haha, so I couldn’t complain too much.
After the match, Miyu’s first line after the “We won!” exchange confused me a bit. I wasn’t quite sure about this line: “忘れた頃くらいにタッグトーナメントくるからあれやったけど、勝ててよかったね.”
Yamashita: “Yes, we did it!”
Itoh: “We won!”
Yamashita: “No, we just have one win for now. It’s been a long time. The tag tournament came right when I had forgotten about it, so I’m glad that we won.”
Itoh: “Are you feeling okay?”
Yamashita: “I’m fine!”
Itoh: “Of course. When I saw your demonic side today, I knew you were alright.”
Yamashita: “It burst out. We’re a team, so I’m getting fired up, and this year for sure One to Million is going to win! Right?”
Then Itoh said, “優勝したいじゃなくてするんでしょ.” I was a bit confused by the negative haha.
Itoh: “I want to win, don’t I?”
Yamashita: “It’s about time for the tag belts… I want to win them with Itoh.”
Itoh: “Huh?”
Yamashita: “We feel the same way, right? Or maybe, your level of love has fallen? While we weren’t seeing each other.”
Itoh: “Whether or not you’re serious about the stuff you’re saying, I think that’ll become clear in the tournament, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Yamashita: “Even if there’s no tournament, I still love you!”
Itoh: “Of course Itoh wants to win it, but—”
Yamashita: “You’re ignoring me…”
Then Itoh said, “口だけの好きとかよく言ってそうだから、あんまり信用できないんだけど.” I struggled a lot with this! Maybe I got it? I dunno.
Itoh: “It’s often only your mouth saying that you like me, so I don’t really buy it.”
Yamashita: “I understand. I’ll prove it in the match.”
Itoh: “OK. Then we’ll close the show. You know, I can actually speak today. What should we say?”
Yamashita: “Limits, don’t set them! But there isn’t a response to it.”
Itoh: “Wouldn’t it be more fun for the fans to say it, too?”
They closed with,“Limits, don’t set them!” 「うおー！」
I wasn’t quite sure about how to translate the “うおー！”, haha.
Their comments backstage were pretty funny, though they talked really fast and interrupted each other a lot. They start off with:
Itoh: “We won! And welcome back, Yamashita!”
Yamashita: “I’m back!”
Itoh: “You seemed healthy, and you were at your most monstrous.”
Then Itoh says, “伊藤はね、自分がちゃんとしなくちゃって気持ちが実はちょっとあったんだけど、そんなこともなく安心しました.” I wasn’t quite sure what she was saying here.
“I’d wondered if I was going to have to do it myself, so I’m relieved that that didn’t happen.”
Yamashita: “There’s one thing that made me happy. After I got hurt, you sent me a LINE message.”
Itoh: “Naturally.”
Yamashita: “I said I was going to take some time off, and I’d be missing England, too… You said, ‘Don’t worry about it. That’s a wise decision.’ But the tag tournament was after that, and I got another message on LINE, which said, ‘Let’s do our best as a tag team again!’ That cheered me up.”
Itoh: “I’m glad.”
Yamashita: “You don’t usually text me, do you?”
Itoh: “Nope.”
Yamashita: “But you sent me a LINE, and I felt that you really had strong feelings for our tag team. That was really great, and I felt my love for you again, and I think it’s good that it soaked in before we started teaming again.”
Itoh: “Well, which of us do you like? Yuka Sakazaki or Maki Itoh?”
Yamashita: “Well… they’re different kinds of love…”
This next part is really chaotic in the video haha and I wanted to make sure I got it right, so I included the shupro transcript for all of it so that it’s a bit easier to follow:
伊藤「（爆笑）。私はなんとなく分かってるので、薄っぺらい好きが」
Itoh: (laughing) “I think I get it. Your love is very shallow.”
山下「違う！ 薄っぺらい好きじゃない。ビジネスライクなの。分かる？」
Yamashita: “No! My love for you isn’t shallow! It’s professional! Does that make sense?”
伊藤「それ言っていいの？ それ嫌われるやつだよ？」
Itoh: “You think that’s good to say? That means you hate me, right?”
山下「違う違う！ ビジネスライクって…」
Yamashita: No! No! Professional, it’s like—"
伊藤「伊藤、すごい冷めたもん」
Itoh: “You’re so cold.”
山下「みんな変えた方がいいよ。プロレスラーとして出会って、仕事を一緒にする上で伊藤に出会えてホントによかったと思ってて」
Yamashita: “Everyone should change, right? Meeting each other as pro wrestlers and working together, I’m so glad that I was able to meet you.”
伊藤「それは仕事で、って意味でしょ？」
Itoh: “So, you mean for work, right?”
山下「そうだよ。人としてじゃないよ」
Yamashita: “Yes. Not as a person.”
伊藤「自分が伊藤麻希を使ってのし上がるために、そのためなら何でもいいみたいな」
Itoh: “That sounds like you’re saying ‘I’m just using Maki Itoh to get ahead, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get there.’”
山下「バカか！ 違う。人としてじゃないよ？ 仕事として一緒に出会えたことで、やっぱ２人で並ぶことで自分が輝く時もあるしっていうことなので。そういう意味でビジネスライクで愛してるってかんじ」
Yamashita: “Are you an idiot? No! It’s not about you as a person, okay? It’s just that we met each other for work, and there are times when I shine by standing side by side with you. In that sense, it’s professional, and I love you.”
The first part ends with:
Itoh: “I get it.” (laughs) “That’s nice, your purity. It’s splendid. Thank you very much. It’s professional for me, too.”
Yamashita: “I want to change people’s impression of ‘professional’”
Itoh: “In what way? Well, win the tournament, and then that you can change the meaning of the word ‘professional.’”
Yamashita: “You’re my only partner. Because it’s with you, I want to win the tag belts.”
Itoh: “So gallant.”
The next part is a little easier:
(You are in the semifinals)
“Yes. There’s no margin for error.”
Yamashita: “It’s about time we got a combined theme or something. Other tag teams are able to combine their themes immediately, but One to Million has been teaming up for a while, and we haven’t done it at all. AA Cannon combined theirs so fast, didn’t they?”
Itoh: “That’s because we haven’t got results. That’s why we get the treatment of not having a combined entrance theme. After we win the tournament, it’ll start with my song, then after I’m done singing, you’ll come out, or something like that.”
Yamashita: “That sounds good! Let’s win.”
(Next is the winner of Miyamoto & Juria vs Daisy Monkey)
Itoh: “It’ll be a challenge no matter who we face.”
Then Miyu says, “若い子たちは何するか分かんないのが一番怖いので。そこはビンビンに張ってバキバキにぶっ倒していきたいなと.” I wasn’t quite sure about the last part, haha, so I went with what DeepL had.
Yamashita: “The thing that scares me the most about the young girls is not knowing what they’ll do. I want to put up a strong front and beat them to a pulp.”
Itoh: “I think the fans at the venue are just going to support the rookies. That makes me sad, but we’ll just ignore the atmosphere in the room and win by doing our best for ourselves.”
Yamashita: “We won’t read the room.”
(Last year, you were both on overseas excursions, so did you feel distant from each other as a tag team?)
“I don’t think so.”
Itoh: “It’s like we both gained a lot of experience points over the whole year last year. That’s why we’ve been able to improvise in our matches, and our eyes met today.”
Yamashita: “Yes! We’re coming together more and more during our matches. It wasn’t like that before. It was just me.”
Itoh: “Yes! I’ve always been in my own world. But today, our eyes met a lot, didn’t they?”
Yamashita: “With that, we can have a conversation, so I think we’ll be able to show you that this year’s One to Million is truly different.”
And that’s it for Itoh and Miyu! Phew!
Hikari and Nao’s comments are much more reasonable haha. Hikari starts out:
Hikari: “I’m disappointed at the result, but this is the first time I’ve had a partner who has lasted more than a year.” (laughs)
Then she says, “去年１年はベルトにしろパートナーにしろ、時間が経てばたつほど大切なものになるので。やっぱり離れて欲しくないし、ちょっと手探りなところはずっとあって.” I wasn’t really sure about this part, haha. I think the rest is maybe okay, though?
“That year last year, whether it’s the belt or my partner, has become more and more important to me as time passes. I don’t want us to break up, and we’ve always been a bit fumbling.”
Kakuta: “Yes, that’s true.”
Hikari: “But we were able to do the tournament together again this year… Even though we lost, I think that if we can have more and more fun wrestling as Free WiFi, the results will follow. Please keep supporting us!” (cries)
Kakuta: “People have always said to me, ‘You’re not quitting, are you?’ But even though we got our matching gear together for this opportunity, and today we really put our fighting spirit into it… I’ve lost all three of my tournaments to Yamashita-san. Two years in a row with the singles tournament, and I lost to her again today. I felt sorry, but even though I’m still losing, all I can do is be optimistic about it. I’m frustrated, but I’m thinking about the future of Free WiFi, and we’re going to keep growing. I won’t quit!"
Hikari: “We have to become the poster girls, so let’s do our best.”
Kakuta: “Free WiFi is going to do our best to be positively unbreakable!”
Hikari: “Let’s do it!”
And that’s it! Just about in time for the next show, somehow! These tournament shows are fun, but they sure do love to have every single person talk afterward!
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I would probably parse it rather as like (over literally) “because it’s been such a length of time since the last tag tournament that it’s just about faded from memory, I/we did that, but I’m glad we won.”
I thought it sounded like perhaps there was a “Miyu kicked Maki accidentally” type of spot, but it doesn’t look like it, they just come very close:
My impression is she’s talking about that there, or they’re talking about how Miyu got double teamed by Free Wifi for quite a while and very nearly got pinned (which matches more with the subsequent conversation).
I would definitely say more like “It’s not ‘we want to to win’, it’s ‘we will win’!!” 
I’ve noticed XじゃなくてY is used a lot for like, correcting stuff that was said.
Itoh is rejecting “優勝したい” and substituting “優勝する”
Yeah I feel like you just gotta unliteralize the figure of speech - 口だけ is indicating like, all talk / lip service, that kind of thing.
She’s saying it seems like Miyu just says she loves Maki all the time without really backing it up / meaning it, so she can’t really trust her when she says it now.
It’s just like, a vigorous noise. that’s all the response that they settled on.
“WOOOOAH!!” I guess is the best option? If you were to join in on the call and response, that’s what you should yell.
I would probably say rather, the ちゃんと is important - like, she was worried about keeping up with Miyu: “I better be on my A-game” but that didn’t end up being a problem.
As in like, literally 自分がちゃんとしなくちゃ - “if I don’t do this properly… (something bad will happen) (so I have to be sure to not make mistakes or oversights)”
ah, right… these two…
I know that it’s bad form to just go with the English phrase originally borrowed in all cases like this, but honestly here I think “businesslike” is a better and more direct option than “professional.”
A lot of the humor in this exchange is about how the phrase she used is such a weird one to use in that situation! And “No! My love for you isn’t shallow! It’s businesslike!” just reads funnier to me in English the same way as in the original. I suppose YMMV though.
P.S. I noticed also this tweet from Miyu where it seems like part of the problem in the backstage promo is she misunderstood what “businesslike” implied.
My read on the whole exchange is it’s exactly like when say - you and a friend are running with a bit teasing each other basically, playing to get the upper hand on each other, and one of you accidentally says something completely tease-worthy that leaves the other open to mercilessly tear you apart. Miyu’s got no hope as soon as “ビジネスライク” leaves her mouth.
This one isn’t quite wrong exactly… hmmm it’s one of those tough ones where the structure of the Japanese makes sense to me but it’s hard to express in English or even judge if the English matches it.
My best attempt at trying to structure it literally:
“is that okay to say? (because it seems like it isn’t). That’s one people hate (being told), you know that right?”
I think the biggest thing I would change about the translation “, right?” because the “よ？” I would say is more like, “I am telling you this information - do I really have to?”
Like she isn’t exactly expressing confusion at what Miyu means, she’s expressing confusion about why she said such a weird thing.
Like really roughly “my love for you isn’t shallow! It’s businesslike!” "what! Is that really what you meant to say?! that’s not better…? "
This is another one that’s hard to describe or evaluate…
She’s definitely talking about herself, since she says 伊藤, and from her body language.
Afterward she goes ほら、やっぱりね a couple of times and completely doesn’t pay attention to Miyu’s attempts at explaining herself while talking over her…
The transcript also I think might be missing some helpful bits of very quickly spoken language pieces…
Okay – I’m gonna go with the final answer of what’s happening is she processes Miyu’s beginning:
ビジネスライクって
and her reaction of 伊藤、すごい冷めたもん
is saying like – “see, even hearing it again there it felt super cold to me!”
Like I think the 冷めたもん is either the word itself or Itoh’s reaction to hearing it.
And so then this part is completely a victim from Itoh ignoring the rest of Yamashita’s explanation and talking over her with those ほらs and やっぱりs, because what Miyu was saying everyone should change is ビジネスライク’s イメージ or something like that. She’s going to repeat this more clearly later when Maki is actually listening at all. But in this case all that made it into both the transcript AND Itoh’s ears is “(somethingsomethingsomething)-みんな変えた方がいいよ。”
This is picky, but I would go more with “What are you even talking about?” here than “in what way?”
She’s even looking around in bewilderment to see if anyone else understands what Miyu is on about when she asks it
There’s an important part here missing! She says ビジネスパートナー - she’s still trying to clarify what she meant by “businesslike” and dig herself out of the hole.
more of a minor flavor note than a correction, but she’s definitely making fun of Yamashita in both of these places I dunno if it’s necessary or not to unify the translation of 潔い, but if there’s opportunity to pump up the sarcasm, she’s essentially talking to the reporters/camera in a “get a load of her” kind of way.
I think you could just say “that whole last year”
I’d say the the year is just context, and so there’s something missing in the English version to give it a subject. Like maybe “whether it’s my partner, or my belt, they’ve each” or if there’s a better turn of phrase I’m not thinking of at the moment.
The impression I get is that Hikari’s still describing the past year - those things that were more and more important to her, she didn’t want them to slip away from her, and so there was an element of like, fumbling for them to keep them with her. But that’s past and she was able to do the tournamnet this year with her partner still with her.
BIBIBIBI
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Just watching the NOAH show from today, and that line up for the NOAH Tokyo Dome show looks pretty good. Getting some TJPW on the card too
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Yeah, I spent yesterday trying to finish up my TJPW translation, and I had it almost done and then got totally distracted by the NOAH show, haha. I wrote up some thoughts on a few of the matches from that show as well as Kenoh vs Naito from the NJPW/NOAH show the day before. I’ll probably talk a bit about them in my study log, too, but there’s a sneak preview.
Re: the card for Mutoh's retirement show:
Putting my opinions of Mutoh aside, I’m super pumped about it! At long last, we are getting TJPW in NOAH!! It’s a pretty fun match for it, too: old guard vs the new guard. I’m really looking forward to that. And DDT, too! It’s nice to see how interpromotional the show is. The big marquee singles matches also look pretty good, though Mutoh’s own retirement match is, well… can’t say I’m particularly excited about that one, though I do like Naito.
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DDT, TJPW, NOAH, AJPW, and NJPW all on that show. Hopefully they can get Stardom involved too.
I also wouldn’t mind seeing Darby v Marufuji after their brief interaction in the tag match.
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