Yeah, the injury happened like ten minutes in, or ten minutes from the finish, or something like that 
. I totally didn’t notice in the moment. I think he even attended the media scrum with the injury…
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Apparently he only thought it was a fracture lol if you see the x-ray it’s definitely not a fracture
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Alright, today is SUPER SASADANGO MACHINE POWERPOINT translation time! This is from the Super Sasadango Machine vs Aja Kong match that happened on the TJPW VOD show on August 5 (Shoko’s hometown show), which is definitely a real TJPW match that happened. I also totally didn’t think to check if they had photographs of the powerpoint up on the site already, and went through the trouble of taking my own screenshots, but it turns out their photographs are incomplete, so I’ll just use mine anyway, even though they’re worse quality, haha.
“Is this the most important use of your time?” you ask. Well, no, but…
I'll put this under a cut because it's super image heavy. I included transcriptions of the Japanese because I already had them for a lot of the slides, and I figured people who still struggle with the kanji might have fun looking at the original text on your own haha):
人生初試合の上越でアジャコングに勝って地元でもっと尊敬してもらうための方法。
How to beat Aja Kong in a match for the first time in my life in Joetsu so that I’ll get more respect in my hometown.
スーパーササダンゴマシンとは
新潟市東区在住のプロレスラー。2児の父。
DDTプロレス、SLUSH-PILEに所属。
必殺技
①垂直落下式リーマンショック
②プレゼンテーション
Who is Super Sasadango Machine
A professional wrestler living in Higashi Ward, Niigata City. Father of two.
Belongs to DDT Pro Wrestling and SLUSH-PILE.
Special moves:
① Vertical Drop Lehman Shock
② Presentation
暴力
提案力
Violent power
Power of proposal
世の中の課題を解決できる。
Able to solve the problems of the world.
日本の課題
アジャコングに勝ちたい
Problems in Japan:
I want to beat Aja Kong
最強の軍師を招聘しアジャコング対策会議を実施
Invite the best strategist, and hold a meeting to come up with a plan to counter Aja Kong
“アジャコングは女子プロ版の武藤敬司”
プロ書評家・プロインタビューアー
吉田豪
“Aja Kong is the joshi version of Keiji Muto”, says Go Yoshida, a professional book reviewer and interviewer
“アジャコングさんの黒歴史はないんですか？”
“Does Aja Kong-san have any dark history?”
“かなり昔ですがCDを出して歌手デビューしてますね”
“Well, it was a long time ago, but she released a CD and debuted as a singer”
非常に黒歴史の予感。
I had a hunch that this history was quite dark.
1991年12月15日発売
ジャングルジャック『炎の叫び』（ポニーキャニオン）
作詞：サエキけんぞう、作曲：羽田一郎、編曲：水島康貴、振り付け：SAM
Released December 15, 1991
Jungle Jack “炎の叫び” (Pony Canyon)
Lyrics: Kenzo Saeki, Composition: Ichiro Hada, Arrangement: Yasutaka Mizushima, Choreography: SAM
『アジャはアメリカ人とのハーフだからラップもいけるでしょ？』という雑なプランニングで謎の歌詞パートを担当しています。
Go Yoshida: “With a half-baked plan, thinking that ‘Aja is half-American, so she can rap, right?’, they entrusted her with a part that had puzzling lyrics.”
(I wasn’t sure about my translation for this one… 
. I also wasn’t sure if the song title “炎の叫び” had ever been officially romanized anywhere, so I was a bit hesitant to translate it. I might explain that it’s roughly “shout of fire” in a translator’s note and then otherwise leave it)
「炎の叫び」
ヘイル ヘイル パンピナ
ベリベリ バキーン ロケンロール
ヘイル ヘイル バーニナ
ウェコ ウェコ バキーン シェキンロール
（くりかえし）
“炎の叫び”
[song lyrics for the chorus]
(repeat)
試合中に聴いたら精神的ダメージ大
If she hears this during the match, it’ll deal immense psychological damage to her
(I couldn’t really make much out of the katakana soup here, haha. I think I can catch a “rock ‘n’ roll” and maybe a “shake ‘n’ roll”? Everything else just reads as nonsense to me, haha)
今回の敵は超レジェンド「アジャコング」
This opponent is the super-legend “Aja Kong”
策は二重三重に張り巡らすべし。
You must set up double or triple the number of strategies.
全身凶器
Her whole body is a lethal weapon
長年一斗缶を凶器として愛用
She’s been using an 18 liter can as her favorite weapon for years
一斗缶なし 9%
一斗缶あり 91%
9% without the 18 liter can
91% with the 18 liter can
アジャコング対策の本質とは？
What is the fundamental counter strategy for Aja Kong?
一斗缶攻撃をどう回避するか？
How do you avoid her 18 liter can attack?
ものづくりのまち 燕三条製
ステンレスボウル
Made in Tsubamesanjo, the city of manufacturing
STAINLESS STEEL BOWL
一斗缶攻撃の無効化に成功
Successfully nullifies an 18 liter can attack
さらに一斗缶攻撃への対抗手段として
Furthermore, as a countermeasure against the 18 liter can,
浪花屋「元祖柿の種」の缶
A can of Naiwaya’s “Original Kaki no Tane”
浪花屋製菓 「元祖・柿の種」
Naniwaya Confectionery “Original Kaki no Tane”
⊳米菓つくりの本場・新潟で百年以上つづく老舗柿の種ブランド。
⊳ノスタルジックなデザインの缶の容器は、新潟県民にとってあまりにもおなじみ。
⊳サイズは一斗缶に比べやや小ぶりだが、保存容器として各家庭で何十年も活躍する強度と耐久性は、まさに凶器としてうってつけの存在。
⊳ A longstanding brand of kaki no tane that has been produced continuously for over 100 years in Niigata, the home of rice cracker production.
⊳ The container is a can with a nostalgic design, which is very familiar to Niigata residents.
⊳ Although it’s a bit on the small side compared to an 18 liter can, they hold up to decades of use as a storage container in each household, and that strength and durability surely makes them ideal as a weapon.
今日の作戦のまとめ
Summary of the tactics for today:
ピンチになったら「炎の叫び」をかける
一斗缶は燕三条製ステンレスボウルで回避
逆に『杮の種』の缶で一発逆転を狙う
In a pinch, put on 炎の叫び
Avoid the 18 liter can with a stainless steel bowl made in Tsubamesanjo
Or aim for a reversal with a kaki no tane can
上越の皆さんの応援が一番の武器
The support of everyone from Joetsu is my best weapon
ご静聴ありがとうございました。
Thank you for listening patiently.
(I had a lot of trouble figuring out the 静 at first, because this is the best shot we get of this slide, but I think that’s what it says? I translated it as “patiently” instead of “quietly” because that sounded like a more normal thing to say in English…)
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Here’s the rest of the TJPW August 5 translation!
I really liked Aja Kong vs Sasadango, mainly because the powerpoint gimmick is over with me haha, and since this was a VOD show, I took the time to pause and read all of the slides before watching the match proper, and that made it a lot more fun. Pro wrestling really has some wonderful nonsense, huh?
Sasadango’s three strategies had mixed success. The stainless steel bowl worked great, until Aja got ahold of it. The song had no effect whatsoever, and Aja explained why in her post-match comments.
Aja: “I just said it in the ring, but why was this match part of TJPW wrestler Nakajima’s hometown show? I was the first to ask that. But, well, if Nakajima oversaw it, then I guess it can’t be helped, and I suppose it’s alright. That Sasadango, that bastard. That stainless steel bowl of his… that hurt. It was rock solid. Even my eighteen liter can had no effect. But his thoughts were so shallow. “炎の叫び”, that’s what you’re calling my dark history? You’re wrong. We’re talking about the 王道 of joshi pro wrestling. Get that? I was singing in the ring before the Up Up Girls. I’m not ashamed of a single thing. I’ll do it anytime, even now. …Well, ‘anytime’ might be a bit of an exaggeration. But it’s not something I’m embarrassed about at all. SAM-san from TRF did the choreography, and I even danced in it.”
I wasn’t really sure how to translate 王道 in this context, like if there was some pre-established translation for it with regards to this era of joshi. If there isn’t, I’ll probably just go with “royal road”, but unfortunately I don’t have a whole lot of background knowledge of this era.
This line was a bit tricky: “ね？ アッパーキック！に負けないくらいの踊りを踊ってるからね、こっちも.”
“See? My dancing isn’t going to lose to Upper Kick. You should really study up on that before you come. It’s not dark history. As far as my dark history goes, there’s a lot more there… though I won’t tell it.”
The second sentence here was a bit tricky: “何にしてもササダンゴは勝ちたいんだったらまず一番いいこと教えてあげる。あの空の柿の種の缶だって、（中身が）いっぱい入った柿の種を持ってきてくれたらそれはこっちだって色々考えるよ。人間だもの。そこ、間違いは.”
“But if Sasadango wants to win, I’ll tell him the number one thing to do. That empty can of kaki no tane, if you bring me a full one, I’ll think about it. I’m only human. That was his mistake. So, I think maybe it’s alright to have this kind of thing happen in TJPW from time to time. Please forgive me, everyone. That’s enough for today.”
I really liked how she brought up that she was dancing in the ring before the Up Up Girls. The joshi legends of the 80s and 90s were more than simply their in-ring ability, and they did quite a bit outside of simply wrestling, too. (Kind of on a related note, I liked how Saki Akai talked about studying the photobooks of joshi legends when planning out her own photobook, and how she drew inspiration from them). I thought it was a neat way to sort of draw a connection there between Aja Kong’s work and TJPW which might not be obvious to most people, but which is nonetheless still there.
In Sasadango’s comments, his first sentence was a bit confusing: “一斗缶、ほぼ一斗缶ですよ.”
Sasadango: (falling over) “It’s the eighteen liter can, for the most part. Her backfist… I’m very concussed right now. But it’s alright. I understand now. Realizing that for Aja Kong, 炎の叫び isn’t anything like dark history, that’s what I’m most glad about.”
This sentence was tough: “ああやって自分の生きてきた道を…あんなオレたちの業界の大先輩が、自分たちの通って来た道のすべてを肯定できるって.”
“Being able to affirm in this way the path that she’d lived… that a veteran in this industry like her could do that, it affirmed all of the paths that we had taken. We also want to be that sort of wrestler, and Aja Kong teaches us that we can still grow even at that age. She said that, didn’t she? I could hear her. ‘I’ve been doing this since before the Up Up Girls. I’m the 王道 of joshi pro.’ You can see it now, right? Aja Kong with the Up Up Girls (Pro Wrestling), the Reiwa remastered version of 炎の叫び. Can’t you see it? I can see Aja Kong really belting out 炎の叫び one more time in the TJPW ring. If everyone wishes for it, it’ll surely happen. Please ask for it.”
The main event was Shoko & Yuki Aino vs Miyu & Arisu! I thought it was really, really sweet that Yuki teamed up with Shoko for her hometown show just as Shoko had teamed up with Yuki for hers. Unsurprisingly, Shoko got the win here, haha.
Here’s the post-match:
Nakajima: “So many of you came today. Thank you so much!”
I got confused by the ご縁 part in the first part of this sentence: “こんな私ですが凱旋興行させていただけるのも素敵なご縁があったからだと思うし、応援してくれる家族、そしてこうやって遠路はるばる足を運んでくださるみなさんあっての凱旋興行だと思っています.”
“I think it was because I have such wonderful connections that I was able to have this show in my hometown. This show happened thanks to the support of my family, and all of you who came all the way out here to see us. I am truly grateful. Yuki teamed up with me.”
The series of のようなs in this were tricky (and the 妹 AND 姉… I couldn’t really make much sense of that, haha): “ユキはいつも大事な時に私を助けてくれる妹のような親戚のような姉のような、そんな存在です.”
“Yuki is like a sister who always helps me out when I need her, she’s like a relative to me.”
Aino: “All of you from Niigata, Nakajima-san is family to me, so it’s like I’m returning to my hometown, too. Please treat it like that.”
Nakajima: "And Yamashita, who gave us today’s match. Over the past ten years, we’ve come to lead this organization together, and she’s my best colleague… well, I don’t know if she’s the BEST but she’s a very important one. And Arisu. Arisu is also a really important and precious junior who has just been growing and growing recently, and it’s safe to assume that she’ll become a rival someday.”
I had to read this one a couple times before I (maybe?) got it: “東京女子の我々みんなからしたら、この中島翔子さんは初期からずっと東京女子みんなを…このちっちゃな、身長はちっちゃいんですけどね。このおっきな大怪獣の背中で引っ張ってきてくれたんですよ.”
Aino: “From the perspective of all of us at TJPW, since the very beginning, Shoko Nakajima-san has always been—she’s very small, she’s short in stature, but this big, Big Kaiju has been leading everyone at TJPW. She’s a really amazing senpai.”
Nakajima: “The fact that you all came out here to my hometown Niigata, that makes you just like my relatives. All of you, you’re my relatives!” (To her two opponents) “Since you’re here, come stand over here next to me. You might be tired, but I’m tired, too. I’m standing here and trying my best.”
This sentence was a bit tricky: “では何回も何回も言ってるんですけど、ありがとうは何回行ってもいいと思うのでもう1回言わせてください.”
“Well, I’ve said it again and again, but no matter how many times I’ve said thank you, please let me say it one more time. Thank you all so much for today!”
Only Yuki and Shoko got post-match comments:
Nakajima: “Thank you so much for today. I don’t know how many times I’ll say it, but I’m going to keep saying it. Thank you very much. We came to my hometown, so I’m really relieved to have Yuki as my tag partner.”
This line really threw me off: “なんかこうね、自分ちに足を踏み入れられてもあんまりソワソワしない相手ってかんじですね.”
"It’s like even though you’re setting foot on your own territory, she isn’t nervous. I think it’s fate that I’m able to return to my hometown for this show right before our 10th anniversary, or rather it’s destiny. I think this year, lots of special things have been happening for me. So from here, I feel like we’re going to celebrate a very wonderful 10th anniversary. We were able to get the win today. Yamashita and Arisu were really strong. I’m really confident. I’m going to do my best like this.”
(Have you always wanted to have a show in your hometown?)
I wasn’t quite sure about my translation for this line: “うっすらとは思ってるんですけど、そこまで私が意欲的にやりたいなとは実は思ってなくて.”
“I was vaguely thinking about it, but to be honest, I didn’t pursue it very ambitiously. I don’t think I should say too much.” (laughs)
Aino: “Nakajima-san is a shy person.”
Here’s that tricky ご縁 part again (I changed my mind on how to translate it, which means I probably got at least one of them wrong haha): “でもホントにご縁があって、私ひとりでやりたいと思ってもできなかったことを地域の皆さんとか会社のみなさんとか、いろんな方が力を貸してくれてできたことだと思ってます.”
Nakajima: “But I really had a chance, and so many people in the community and in the company lent a hand and allowed me to do something that I wouldn’t have been able to do if I’d wanted to do it on my own.”
(Do you want to keep doing this in the future?)
“Yes! I just get so nervous.”
Aino: “Let’s do it!”
I had a bit of trouble with this bit: “甥っ子と姪っ子が来てるんですよ。生まれたての姪っ子、1回も会ったことないのに大丈夫かなって、怖がられないかなって.” I wasn’t quite sure how many nephews and nieces she has, so I don’t know if I should translate it as plural or not, haha (preserving the ambiguity that exists in the Japanese is hard in English…).
Nakajima: “My nephews and nieces came. I’ve never met my newborn niece before, and I wonder if she’ll be okay, or if she’ll be scared.” (laughs)
I also wasn’t quite sure about Yuki’s “応援してましたよ” and Shoko’s response: “応援してたかな？ それだけ心配で.”
Aino: “They were cheering for you.”
Nakajima: “They were cheering? That’s how anxious I was.”
(You said on the mic that everyone who came today are your “relatives”)
“Yes. Everyone’s an important relative.”
(Do you want to have even more relatives?)
“Yes. I think all of humanity should become my relatives.”
And that’s it for that one! Next up, the TPC semifinals and the finals!
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A picky English clarity tweak, but I think “How to beat Aja Kong in my first ever match in Joetsu” would be a little better.
Oh – also come to think of it, he’s from Niigata, but he’s not from Joetsu (Niigata and Joetsu are both cities in Niigata Prefecture). So technically I feel like “home region” or something like that would be better than “hometown” here. The equivalent in America would be “home state”
Something I noticed here is 世の中.
世の中 I’ve noticed is a really interesting phrase that frequently doesn’t translate directly to English, because it can often be used to talk about like, general life experiences, the way that in English we would say “life.”
For example, there’s a key Tokyo Story scene (no spoilers per se, but it’s under the jump just in case)
Tokyo Story
In a scene that stuck in my memory when I watched it with English subtitles,
the exchange:
「いやねえ、世の中って」
「そう、嫌なことばっかり。」
is translated in the subtitles as
“Isn’t life disappointing?”
“Yes it is.”
I wonder if that’s the first time someone cited Ozu to help explain Super Sasadango Machine
Which is just to say that the の中 in 世の中の課題 is at least worth considering.
I’ve been googling around to try to get a bead on exactly what kind of problems 世の中の課題 would be, and I think “the problems of the world” is definitely close, since it does seem to mean like, real-world problems - societal ones, injustice, climate change etc.
But I think that there’s a subtle difference in impression I get, where like – “I can solve the problems of the world” grandiose, even egomaniacal, whereas it seems like the contexts I see searching for 世の中の課題 it’s about tackling and facing them (generally I’m finding like, corporate HR solutions and stuff talking about the challenges their product or mindset can be used to face – which come to think of is right alongside his presentational tone!).
Like - in his presentation here, I think he’s emphasizing less the scale and more the flexibility. Like I feel less “I can solve world-scale problems” and a little more like “I can solve any issue including real life ones” - like the joke is that he can apply the two powers he outlined to any problem he might reasonably encounter.
I think I maybe actually liked my “real-world problems” above. I think that fits really well with my feeling on 世の中 and my feeling of the kind of problems being talked about.
Also, this is picky and I suppose a stylistic preference, but with the full sentence here, and the rhythm of a presentation (with this being the conclusion he’s drawing from his points in the slide), I would style this as a full sentence in English too: “I can solve real-world problems.”
And the transition then to the next slide is roughly like: “but, today’s problem is a very difficult one…”
Hey! A spoonerism!
It’s 本日の課題
Following off of my last point - it’s not the scale that’s the joke, it’s that he’s talking about wanting to beat Aja Kong as though it’s a serious problem requiring an innovative solution.
The impression I get (from the phrasing, and searching around) is that this is this one guy’s idiosyncratic way of giving his job title, rather than a straight description. I would therefore render it is “Go Yoshida, pro book reviewer, pro interviewer”
Lol I found the song and I’m 75% sure these are misheard lyrics for something like:
(EDIT: last night I wasn’t using headphones and I’m kind of impressed I did as well as I did. I changed ‘turn it up’ to ‘pump it up’ after listening to it again with headphones this morning. I’m surprised the rest still sounds right to me)
Hey hey pump it up
Very very fuckin’ rock and roll
Hey hey burn it up
wicka wicka breakin’ shake and roll
I would probably say the joke is that he misheard them and wrote them down as katakana (he did say they were 謎 after all) although I did see his version of the lyrics on a lyrics site (but with no timestamp) so I guess it is possible that someone else misheard them and rendered them that way, or the joke is original to the song or something.
But it does sound to me like they’re singing (attempted, cool-sounding mish mash for a song) English though.
Hey! 本日!
It is, yeah. (he says it too)
Are there any tournament spoilers in the show or the translation/comments by any chance? I’m still a bit behind.
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Nope! This show was fully before the semifinals, and had really no bearing on the TPC whatsoever, haha!
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Here I don’t think she’s talking about a particular directly era so much as she’s saying the phrase 王道を行く meaning like, she’s following the orthodox path. Like as in - it’s staying the most true to the joshi pro-wrestler archetype to sing, rather than not to sing. So of course it’s not embarrassing history.
I don’t have a great phrase to replace it off the top of my head but I would go for the meaning rather than ‘king’s road’ or ‘royal road’ since I believe this is a good example of a case where it’s a normal thing to say outside of the specific wrestling history context in a way that it isn’t in English (and in a way that isn’t true for say, ‘strong style’)
I think this is ok - matching the tone is tricky though. The original I feel like has more of a tone of like, a joke/defensive brag. With the ねs and the こっちも
My attempt to try to capture that:
“Got that? My dancing can hold its own against Upperkick, you better believe.”
Seems all right to me!
This seems fine. Although as I was trying to phrase a slightly cleaned up version, I noticed the period after the って is one of those ones that’s a bit awkward for English translation, because I would say that the って connects up with the kind of wrestler he’s saying they want to become (he’s just interjecting clauses a bit too much for it to be transcribed super clearly).
And so I would say his full thought isn’t so much that it did affirm all those individual paths, so much as it inspires them to want to be a wrestler who is able to do that affirmation like she did.
with slight tweaks, maybe something like :
“Being able to affirm like that the path she’s lived… that such a veteran in our industry as her could do that, it means we can affirm each of the paths we’ve traveled too. We all want to be the kind of wrestler who can do that."
I think this is right. I think the ご縁 are the relationships/bonds with people (such as the ones that she then mentions that allowed her to have the show).
There’s some extra humility in the こんな私ですが…も of like - that even someone like me was able to have an entire 凱旋興行 …
.
Haha, she’s just being extraordinarily vague on the specifics! like “to me she’s like a little sister, or a relative, or a big sister, something like that!” The audience laughs at the 姉のような part too.
Yep, looks right! 
Close - the transcription swapping 行っても for 言っても probably didn’t help,
but ありがとうは何回言ってもいいと思う would be like, “I think it’s all right to say thank you any number of times”
So she’s saying like, (not trying to phrase it as a finished translation here, just paraphrasing) “I’ve said thank you a ton, but I think that’s all right when it comes to thanks, so please let me say it one more time”
自分ち would be your own house (the ち contracted from うち)
and so 自分ちに足を踏み入れられてる would I’d say be to like – you are the passive subject and you are having someone in your house. And so I would say she’s saying that Yuki is the kind of partner where like, you/Shoko wouldn’t be flustered at all having her over - it would just feel natural. (seems like an amusingly characteristic kind of compliment that I can certainly relate to)
I think the joke / reason they laugh here is that she wanted to fine as a general idea but didn’t want it in the sense of like, enough to actually make it a reality (since she’s shy). And so I think here it’s less that she didn’t pursue it ambituously and more… like… “to be honest I didn’t have my heart set on it all that much in practice” maybe
I agree with your original take more - again the ご縁 here seem to me to be the things she them lists, the connections with the people in the region the company, everybody who helped her, etc. She’s saying she wouldn’t have been able to do it alone even if she’d wanted to.
The それだけ心配 is about like - “that’s my only worry”
Shoko wonders out loud to Yuki if the newborn nice was sared or not
And Yuki answers (joking) with a confident “she was definitely cheering for you” (the transcript dropped a きっと that makes it’s clearer she’s inferring - she’s allaying Shoko’s worry by reassuring her the newborn niece was surely supporting Shoko)
And so since that’s a dubious inference that’s why Shoko’s response is along the lines of a slightly skeptical “She was cheering for me huh?”
But Yuki reassures again with a nod and an うん
Then the それだけ心配です is her turning to the camera summing it up by saying that’s her only concern - implying with the present tense she still hasn’t fully bought Yuki’s reassurance.
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週刊プロレス No.２２３３ (from February)
In Kenoh’s column, he’s grumpy about NOAH’s low winrate against other promotions at the Tokyo Dome show, but it sounds like he beat Yuma Aoyagi from AJPW, so he’ll get a title shot with Manabu Soya for Aoyagi’s World Tag Team Championship. Kenoh says they’ll win and also win the GHC Tag Team Championship to be the first triple crown tag team champions (since the World Tag Team Championship is already a double crown, being two unified championships).
There’s a quadruple length finale entry to Keiji Mutoh’s column, on the occasion of (I don’t know if you heard about it or not) his retirement. I didn’t internalize it spectacularly well, but he talked about sleeping in a lot the day after the retirement show and then being back to his normal routine at the gym the next day, and about getting painkiller injections beforehand and keeping tabs on his hamstring condition. It sounds like at the previous dome show he became hurt somehow during the match and wasn’t really mobile, but managed to get backstage. But that dome has a short entrance, not like the Tokyo Dome’s very long one, so, fully committed to showing a good face walking out, he was considering different possibilities in the very plausible eventuality that it happened again this time, joking that if he asked Chono to support him on the way back they’d both be in trouble. He talks a bit about not hitting the moonsault and whether he really intended to hit it when he started to go up the ropes, but he probably didn’t - it would definitely have been a bad idea. He eschewed a ten-bell salute since it’s associated with memorials for the dead.
Giulia’s column is the second part of an interview with retiring stablemate Himeka. Giulia raises the topic that Himeka had long closed comment sections on social media, and has said she wants to be out of the public eye upon retirement. Himeka says it was particularly the not outright hateful comments, but the ones that meant well but baked in comparisons like “Himeka is nice too, but wrestler XYZ is better” that were hard to put out of her mind - since it’s not like she could dismiss them as coming from haters or non-Stardom fans. She also says she very much disliked being ranked in top 10 lists and stuff like that - she disliked the feeling of being compared to others by faceless people on the internet, and so that factored into the decision to retire. She says Stardom moves fast enough that anyone upset at her leaving will soon find a cooler new wrestler to enjoy, so she’ll soon be forgotten.
There’s an interview with Starlight Kid ahead of her Highspeed Championship challenge against AZM in Stardom.
The interviewer and SLK both express a feeling that her momentum has slowed since the start of the year, as she lost the highspeed title around then. Some people said that her losing it then was like a graduation to bigger things, but now she’s challenging for it again. It sounds like she often was conscious of like, trying to make the highspeed title strong enough to go later on the card, etc., raising its profile and all, when she was champion, but AZM hasn’t been focusing on that so much and has been defending the belt mainly against guests from other promotions. They talk about the kind of catch-22 that the highspeed belt can be sometimes, like a jr. heavyweight belt in other promotions, of on the one hand being an accomplishment but also a ceiling. SLK says that this match with AZM will be their last for the highspeed belt, for now anyway, since she wants the next time they fight to be for something else. Her momentum may have slowed but her hunger certainly hasn’t, as she expresses a desire to this year especially excel at singles matches, and she wants to try a best of 5 or best of 7 series, and also to fight Nanae Takahashi outside of a league match (since her mom watched JWA, and she herself watched NEO and wants to fight someone with that much experience). She also says she wants to wrestle overseas to see what her reputation is there (after talking about AZM’s title defenses raising her reputation overseas), but she’s never actually been out of Japan before (she had school obligations last time Stardom ran overseas and couldn’t go) although she has a passport. Although AZM mentioned the IWGP Women’s Championship, SLK isn’t interested in it.
The Antonio Inoki memorial column this week is with Fumihiko Uwai. It sounds like he was a backstage guy in New Japan from the 1970s into the 2000s, with his most prominent role being match-maker while Inoki was owner from 2002 through to 2004 when Riki Choshu returned, at which point Uwai left the company.
It sounds like Uwai wasn’t positive about Inoki, until around when he became booker Inoki invited him to his private イノキアイランド in Palau, at which point Uwai changed his mind on him, although it doesn’t sound like they were ever especially close personally.
Asked if the rumor that Inoki was mad at him for working with NOAH as booker, Uwai says no, that was just a rumor. The only time Inoki was angry at him like that, he says, was for booking Genichiro Tenryu, and he didn’t understand why until he talked to Tenryu himself, who said that, Tenryu’s main point of pride in his pro wrestling career being that he’s the only Japanese wrestler to have scored a pinfall against both Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba, he (Tenryu) learned later on from Baba that in wrestling you’ve got to give someone you beat the opportunity to get their win back - but Tenryu didn’t do that for Inoki and so that was Tenryu’s explanation for Inoki bearing a grudge. It ended up being though that backstage, Tenryu requested to talk with Inoki one on one privately, and Uwai got the impression that they came out of that with the grudge squashed.
It sounds like the event where Riki Choshu made a surprise return to NJPW at Ryogoku was Uwai’s biggest successful show as a booker, although it also marked his exit from the company (as I believe Riki Choshu also took over as booker). Uwai recounts Mutoh (then running AJPW) grumpy that his match on the show followed the huge suprise of Choshu’s return, and also that Nagata was told not to put a hand on Choshu when he turned up, but as it happened, Choshu with plenty of lead-up time had thought of exactly what to say in the ring towards Nagata, but Nagata had just learned about it the day of so he didn’t have any kind of comeback, and Nagata ended up attacking him after all just since it was the only way to follow up.
Uwai characterizes Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki as two opposite halves of the same whole (the whole being their joint connection to Rikidozan). He seems to understand Baba mainly by way of Tenryu’s influence from him, but relates Inoki’s booking advice as: 「環八の外にいる人間にも響くマッチメークしろ」 with 環八 from looking it up I believe being metonymy for like, the main city part of Tokyo, based on a road that surrounds it (sort of like “the beltway” for DC). Whereas Baba/Tenryu’s perspective would have been 「環八の中の人間が騒がないカードは外の人間も来ないよ」.
It sounds like Uwai was one of a handful of people who received posthumously a personal letter from Inoki. Uwai says it’s just 8 lines but he sounds greatly, greatly touched by it and declines to relate what it says, saying he intends to be buried with it.
In the history column, the author, Tomomi Nagare, talks about a longtime friend of his, an American photographer named Dan Westbrook, who it sounds like married a Japanese woman and through trips to Japan and his wrestling photography and fan club participation was on good terms with Giant Baba and his wife, and now visited Nagare on a trip to Japan again 50 years after his first visit (his wife had since passed away).
This sort of meanders into some details about how in the 1970s, 「全日本プロレス中継」 was ostensibly on Saturdays at 8pm, but in practice from April to October, if the Yomiuri Giants had a night game (which they did ‘over 80% of the time’) then the AJPW broadcast would be pushed back to late at night, meaning in those months AJPW television had a tough time competing with NJPW which was on 8pm on friday at the time, since it was no small feat to catch the late night showing given it was years before video taping it would have been possible. And so anyway Giant Baba would have made sure to slot ratings-boosting wrestlers like Bobo Brazil into the ones airing at the actual listed time.
Some good deathmatch pictures of Risa Sera and Suzu Suzuki, as well as Rina Yamashita.
Warning: blood
There’s a page of info on the 3 trainees for Evolution, the new women’s wrestling promotion produced by AJPW affiliated wrestler Shuji Ishikawa. They’ll be making their debut and 旗揚げ戦 in March.
Apparently their ring names are (left to right in the picture) ZONES, Chi Chi, and SUNNY. ZONES will be debuting against Rina Yamashita, SUNNY against Miyuki Takase, and Chi Chi against Yuu.
ZONES is pronounced ゾネス, and so perhaps she has one thing in common with Yamashita, who is called an アマゾネス.
In Hideki Suzuki’s column, he talks about Keiji Muto’s retirement and how the surprise involvement of Chono and everything showed Muto’s influence from Inoki, and the spectacle was very nostalgic to when Suzuki was a kid fan of Muto watching wrestling.
He praises Muto’s naturalistic and free mic skills (although they could get upstaged by the other two musketeers) and references a nickname that it took me a bit to parse: ナチュラル・ボーンマスター (Natural Born Master, not Natural Bonemaster like I thought before looking it up…).
Suzuki says along those lines he wants to be free about what he says on social media and stuff, and also wants lots of responses from fans, regardless of what it is, and make the responses within 10 minutes please. The interviewer interjects that unlike Suzuki, the fans are busy with work and school…
The costume column is with Great O-Khan! “余” says that he can’t see at all with the 護符面布 on, but the light and aura of battle naturally lead his feet to the ring. The mark on it is a combination of an ear and a question mark but the details are apparently “a state secret.”
His 辮髪 is a mixture of real hair and extensions. The extensions are usually green but he says at Christmas he’ll make it red and green and change it according to the season like that because “festivals are important to the empire.”
His gown is based around Mongolian folk clothing called デール (deel), and it’s not a print but high quality cloth. His pants are styled after pants from Mongolian wrestling (ウジュムチン・ブフ).
He says his priorities costume-wise are showing his uniqueness, faction unity, and making sure that it doesn’t look cheap. He says “余の国籍は不明” but he doesn’t want to forget his routes in China and Mongolia. About his right hand only being taped, he says that his right hand has demons sealed within it and it is easy for him to crush apples and rip thick magazines with it - and he was inspired to tape just his right hand by characters from anime and manga that he likes.
The Editor’s Eye column is about Maika’s feelings on Himeka’s upcoming retirement. From Himeka’s telling in a recent interview in the magazine, it sounded like Maika might have quickly accepted Himeka’s retirement decision, as she was fully supportive and didn’t try to change Himeka’s mind. But given that they are a famously close tag team, the editor thought it was worth probing Maika directly, and yes - although she’s being supportive, it’s not trivial for Maika to accept either, and she blames herself to some extent for not being able to support Himeka enough to have changed her mind on retirement naturally - hence her tweet after the announcement being 「守れなくてごめんね」.
Maika and Himeka met in Stardom as part of Donna Del Mondo, and gradually opened up to each other and became 親友 and now have a その2文字だけでは表現しきれない関係. Maika says Himeka is めちゃかわいい and has a scatter-brained side despite generally having things under control, like an older sister vibe but a youngest child at heart. She’s like family, and Maika is on good terms with Himeka’s family and Himeka’s met hers too. She says it’s a unique, one of a kind special relationship.
Maika isn’t picking a new tag partner yet but isn’t closing the door to the possibility down the line either. She says she would want her hypothetical next tag partner to be someone she extremely respects, or who surpasses Himeka in some way.
She says she’s surprisingly laid-back about the upcoming retirement, and feels that it’s Himeka’s life so Himeka should decide how to live it, but she does also cry thinking about the impending loneliness. She says that the countdown to Himeka’s retirement is also the countdown of time left she has to gird her tear ducts and get stronger.
With Muto having successfully met his goal of leaving his last match on his own two feet, the editors in the column at the back of the magazine chat with his wife of 31 years, Hisae Muto. Her number one feeling is, naturally, ホッとした.
I could have some details wrong on his exact surgeries and injuries and stuff, but it sounds like Muto’s artificial knees mean his knees are strong and not in pain, but the joints and bones around them bear the brunt of supporting them, and they accumulated enough damage that it sounds like the way to improve his condition would be an artificial hip, but if they went that route he definitely wouldn’t be able to wrestle, and he was told that including by the doctor who was willing to sign off on his still wrestling after his knee surgery, and so that’s what made him realize it was time to retire. Hisae expresses the sentiment that 「痛みは神様が『これ以上無理しない方がいい』というメッセージを送ってくれている」.
About Muto teasing a moonsault in his last match, Hisae says his family and doctor were both made very nervous by that. When Muto broke out a moonsault against Marufuji a while back, he was nervous about seeing his doctor since he would be mad, and the doctor said "man to man, you promised me you wouldn’t use the moonsault anymore, and I gave you the surgery on that basis. " That time it was fine, thankfully, but he was also told that next time, he might well not just end up in a wheelchair, but be permanently bedridden. So needless to say, family and doctor are both glad he didn’t give in to expectations and hit the move.
Now safely retired, it’s time for Muto to become a “normal old man”, but he’s already back training hard at the gym. Hisae isn’t especially surprised about that, and she notes that at home he doesn’t move at all since he’s worn out from the gym, and she hopes that over time his condition will ease from retirement enough that he can move around comfortably at home.
I’ve also put together a page on my notion site to use for blog stuff, and started putting these there! I definitely feel like I’ve benefited a lot by reading the magazine in following certain storylines and generally having an awareness of the wrestling industry in Japan, so if I can pass along a little bit of that to English readers by sharing it a bit more widely, that would be cool.
I like sharing them here though and also like being able to pepper in Japanese freely when the phrase feels better in the original, so I figure for now at least I’ll keep posting them here like normal, and just repost to that site with added parenthetical translations.
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週刊プロレス No.２２３４ (from March 2023)
In Hiroshi Tanahashi’s column, they talk about Keiji Muto’s retirement. The involvement of Chono was especially aesthetically appealing because it’s symmetry with Muto’s debut match - Chono and Muto debuted in the same match together. Talking about the combination of Muto’s Shining Wizard and Chono’s Kenka Kick, the Shining Kenka Kick, Tanahashi jokingly proposes a Shining High Fly. Asked to describe it, he provides a description I can’t really visualize: その場跳びのボディープレスです。相手のヒザへ飛び乗って、真上にジャンプしてから押しつぶす。
Tanahashi is impressed with Muto being able to weather the need to meet fan’s expectations and avoid doing a moonsault.
They talk a bit about Muto declining a 10-bell salute, and Tanahashi jokes he’ll do a 20-bell when he retires.
Speaking of which, Tanahashi says that he can’t visualize his retirement and plans to still work hard. To surpass Muto he’d need to draw 31,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome (although Inoki’s retirement had 70,000). And Tanahashi jokes he’ll get all of the wrestlers who debuted in the same class as him to join in, and jokes that if they book the Tokyo Dome now maybe he can get an advance discount rate.
In there they also talked about how Tanahashi started calling himself 逸材 because Muto was called 天才, and now with Muto retired, 天才 is vacant for someone else to take the name someday (probably not for a while though).
In Kenoh’s column, he’s mad! Specifically, he’s mad at Suwama and AJPW, and declaring that he and Kongo are done with them and will never work with them again. It sounds like what happened is, Kenoh and Manabu Soya are building towards a challenge for the World Tag Team Championship held by Yuma Aoyagi and Naoya Nomura in AJPW, but Suwama (currently still in Voodoo Murders revival mode) barged in and insisted that he and KONO get to challenge first, enraging Kenoh. NOAH’s still got matches percolating with AJPW, but Kenoh says as far as Kongo is concerned, it’s over - so sorry, but you won’t get to see how the Katsuhiko Nakajima / Kento Miyahara stuff goes from here.
Kenoh speculates the reason Suwama was so insistent about barging in on their tag title shot, was that all other titles in AJPW right now are held by outside wrestlers: Yuji Nagata is the triple crown champion, the Asia Tag Championship is held by Atsushi Onita and Yoshitatsu (wait, really?), etc. and so Kenoh thinks it’s a desparate bid on Suwama’s part to make sure one title at least stays in AJPW (by not letting Kenoh win it - which he would of course, in Kenoh’s telling). Kenoh thinks it’s all Suwama’s fault AJPW is in such a state and he thinks it’s a shame what he’s been doing, like getting involved with Unagi Sayaka. If it had the impact of when Genichiro Tenryu fought Shinobu Kandori that would be one thing, but he doesn’t see this thing with Sayaka as serious, and suggests that if he wants to fight a woman, he should have a full-on bout with Chihiro Hashimoto.
To show his utmost seriousness about the not working with AJPW thing, Kenoh includes a picture of him holding up the words 絶縁.
The Antonio Inoki memorial interview this week is with Super Strong Machine / Junji Hirata. It sounds like he joined New Japan in 1978, and debuted as Super Strong Machine (against Inoki) after returning from excursion in 1984, wrestling for them all the way through 2016 when he retired.
Machine recollects stories from his early career, like how he joined NJPW because he was working for a newspaper seller at the time and got given tickets for an Inoki-headlined show, and kept the program around and eventually noticed there was contact information for recruitment, so he sent a letter in, got a phone call back, and ended up passing the pro test. He characterizes Inoki as having a palpable aura of 闘魂 to the point of being scary (and I’ve gotten the distinct impression from all I’ve read about Inoki that he loved nothing more than to slap subordinates) but at heart, a kind man. He also says Inoki was terrible at baseball - always striking out despite taking it seriously when the New Japan workers had a friendly softball game (I guess that’s one area where Baba would have utterly smoked him) - apparently also in middle school Inoki got dropped from the basketball team.
It sounds like when Machine redebuted under the mask, Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami would tease him by going “hey! you’re Hirata aren’t you!” in the ring and he got them back a bit by pretending to unmask but pulling the ol’ ‘second mask under the first mask’ trick.
Once Machine decided to phone it in in a match in Taiwan when his shoulder was in a bad condition, and so wrestled an “American style” 小ずるい試合, using brass knuckles when the referee wasn’t looking. Inoki yelled at him “you’re a machine so don’t do matches like that! ガンガン行けよ” which he took to heart.
Another story Machine tells s a time after Inoki retired, when Machine was in more or less a supervisory role over the younger wrestlers, and Tenzan was having a match against somebody, and Inoki saw him and yelled at him “Hey, Hirata! Why the hell are you here but letting them have a match like that?!” as Inoki was mad at both of them that Tenzan’s headbutts weren’t actually making contact.
In Giulia’s column, she talks about the All Star Jr. Festival via a fun conceit where she acts out a dialogue between Fan Giulia and Wrestler Giulia, since she finds these days watching shows she feels like those two parts of herself are in constant dialogue. So Fan Giulia excitedly extolls aspects of the show while Wrestler Giulia comments on them more level-headedly. For example, Fan Giulia thinks it would be awesome if women’s wrestlers could have a show pulling together so many promotions like this, and they should hurry up and hold one while everyone right now is still in their prime. Whereas Wrestler Giulia has a hard time concealing negative feelings around being compared to men’s promotions, and reminds Fan Giulia that the problem is revenue and whether enough fans would turn out for something like that.
I like her Doraemon sweater.
I really liked this match between Giulia and Maya Yukihi.
and everyone’s favorite eternal foes, AZM and Starlight Kid.
In the history column this week, the author, Tomomi Nagare, talks about early Antonio Inoki singles championship victories.
There’s apparently a pernicious myth that Inoki’s first singles championship was won in Texas in 1965 - but this is a falsehood deriving from a misidentification in a reference book of a particular wrestler. Inoki’s actual first singles championship win was the US Heavyweight Championship during his time in Tokyo Pro Wrestling before that promotion folded and he returned to JWA and that US Championship was dissolved. In JWA, the mark of the young ace, the International Championship, was long held by Giant Baba, and although Inoki won multiple tag championships (with Baba and with Kintaro Ohki), purportedly even as Inoki became a major wrestling star on television, he was kept away from singles championship by those in power at JWA in order to keep a degree of separation between him and Baba. In 1971 though, he won his second ever singles championship, the NWA United National Championship in Los Angeles.
There’s an interview with Rika Tatsumi ahead of her International Princess Championship shot against Miu Watanabe in TJPW.
Rika and Miu have held the tag championship in the past, and Rika has a little brother and not a little sister but suspects her relationship to Miu is like that with a little sister, and it sounds like she thinks the relationship has more risk of changing negatively instead of deepening if she loses, so she’s gonna have to win.
If she wins, she’ll achieve the TJPW grandslam of the プリプリ王座, the International Princess Championship, and the Princess Tag Championship, and she’ll be the first one to do it, so once she heard about it from others she wanted to do it for the uniqeness. The interviewer raises the possible issue of Princess of Princess (white belt) champions not challenging so much for the International Princess (blue belt) Championship, but Rika says that the distinction is that the white belt is about strength, and the blue belt is about international appeal - so it’s not a tiered thing so much as it is about what a wrestler is shooting for, and Rika is interested in upping her worldwide appeal.
Speaking of which - how’s her English? She’s studying! At any rate, she laughs and says she is confident she’s better at English than Miu. She was shocked to hear Miu’s very Miu-like English turn of phrase “to-to-to-tomorrow” to mean “four days from now.” Rika says she can learn with apps, but she’s currently stopped at the beginning stages… Rika says she’s never been overseas (although not for any particular disinclination, she just… hasn’t done it) and unlike recent International Princess champions, she declines when asked if she’ll be influenced by other TJPW wrestlers going overseas a lot recently. Her concept for the international appeal of the belt is more of a… sending welcoming energy to the world from Japan, kind of vibe.
Asked about the generational battle aspect of fighting Miu, Rika says she isn’t really attuned to that since she thinks of Miu as just as much of a representative of TJPW at this point. And she says it’s 50/50 whether she’ll win or not, when a year or two ago she would have felt she (Rika) would definitely win. It’ll definitely be all over for her if she gets hit with the giant swing, so she’ll need to figure out a Rika-like way of fighting to focus on and provide the advantage at Ariake.
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Sorry for interupting this stream of excellences, just wanted to say that I love this so much (Stardom fan who lives in Japan), and will share it with my friend who loves プッロレス！ I’ll delete this message if it is in the way!
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You’re not interrupting at all, don’t worry! This thread exists for general conversation about Japanese pro wrestling as well as specific language discoveries/practice! It mostly ends up being me and rodan sharing stuff haha but anyone else is welcome to post at any time! 
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A Stardom fan leaving in Japan? That’s the dream right there. Good to hear from you!
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I finally finished translating TJPW’s August 12 show (the semi-finals for the Tokyo Princess Cup)! The next two are also decently long (ironically the Inspiration show translation is more characters than either Korakuen show)… There’s some good stuff in there, though!
This show had a match featuring all of the 2023 rookies: Toga teamed up with Wakana and Runa against Shino, Himawari, and Haru. It’s fun to see how far they’ve all come, especially Toga, I feel, who already has a few super solid moves. Her finisher is apparently called ロックボトム (according to the recap), so Rock Bottom, I guess! Her relationship with Shino is a bit interesting. On social media, at least, they seem to be pretty close. I’d love to see them become a tag team some day… Right now, though, Shino mostly just seems upset that Toga beat her, haha.
Toga: “I got my first victory!”
Uehara & Okubo: “I’m glad! You did it!”
Toga: “But Shino-san’s sleeper was really strong, and when Runa didn’t break it up, I almost gave up, but thanks to Wakana-san and Runa, I was able to win this time. Thank you!”
Uehara: “I was also getting nervous, and I thought that sleeper might be it. I’m glad that you won! How many months has it been since your debut?”
Toga: “Five months… no, not five. But at the very end, Shino-san’s gaze, the look in her eyes was like she was determined to win the next one even though she lost, so if we have a singles match, I’m going to do my best to win and not let her get revenge. Thank you.”
Shino: (crying, unable to speak)
HIMAWARI: “Hey, you did your best.”
志乃「（号泣しながらも）一緒の、デビュー日だったのに、こんなに、私が、一生懸命頑張っても、負けちゃうんだ。まだまだだなぁって。同じリングでやり合ったのに、いつの間に差がついたんだろうって思うけど、これを糧にもっともっと頑張ります。ごめんなさい」
Shino: (crying heavily) “Even though we debuted together, on the same day, even though I tried my best with all of my might, I still lost. I still have such a long way to go. Even though we’ve been competing in the same ring, I wonder when there started to be a gap between us. I’m going to use this as motivation to work even harder. I’m sorry.”
HIMAWARI: “Let’s work hard, from here on out. It’s alright, hey, hey, you did your best!”
Shino: (crying) “I’ll do my best.”
HIMAWARI: “I couldn’t help you. I’m sorry.”
Shino: “That’s not true.”
HIMAWARI: “Let’s all get strong together!”
Shino: “Yes, we’re all going to get strong. Thank you very much.”
I think I got Shino’s main comment there, but it was a bit broken up because she was crying so hard, so I included what shupro had transcribed just to make sure I was putting it together alright. It was basically impossible to make out much through listening alone, haha.
The next match with comments was Sakisama and Mei vs Mizuki and Mahiro, which was a whole lot of fun! Sakisama was a bit taken with Mizuki, which activated Mei’s jealousy, haha. Sakisama even ended up giving Mizuki a rose…
Sakisama spoke on the mic afterward! I had a bit of trouble with her first few sentences: “みなさま、ごきげんよう。なあに、アナタたち。なんだか今日はとっても寂しそうに、欲しがってるように見えるけどワタクシの気のせい？” The 欲しがってる in particular was tricky to translate.
Sakisama: “Good day, everyone. What’s with you all? You seem a bit like you’ve missed me, like you’re wanting, or is it just my imagination? Well, alright. Good thing you are all Biishiki-gun Babies. That means that I am your mother. That’s what it means. Do you think a mother would leave her children and go off somewhere? Right, Mei-san?”
Mei-san: “Oui. Sakisama. So that means that Mei-san is… Mama-sama!”
Sakisama: “What a cute and concerned Mama-sama. That’s right. You can also think of us as your mothers. That’s what it means. We will meet again next time. Excuse us.”
After their exit, it was announced onscreen that Bi-gun would be participating in the show on September 23 in Yokohama, and on October 9 in Hachioji (along with Martha and Yukio Saint Laurent).
Here’s Mizuki’s and Mahiro’s comments:
Mizuki: “Mahiro!”
Kiryu: (looking at the rose that Mizuki received) “She gave you that? …Oh, I’m disappointed.”
Mizuki: “But you were so cool at the end.”
I think maybe I got this? I tried looking up ピロピロ, but didn’t really understand, though I think I was able to put it together from Mizuki’s gestures during the comment: “けど、ちっちゃいさ、ピロピロ走る子にさ、なんか気がいっちゃってさ、助けに行けんかってさ、ほんとにごめんなさい.”
“I’m really sorry that I couldn’t go help you because I was so preoccupied with the little girl running around.”
Kiryu: “Those two are really strange, aren’t they?”
Mizuki: “They were strange, yes. Strange, but… hmm. I did get this rose…”
Sakisama: “Hey, Mei-san, I’ve decided that I won’t enter any saunas outside of Finland. Well, that’s fine. This heat and humidity comes along with Japan. This current season in Japan, it has a name, if I’m not mistaken. I wonder what it was. Mei-san?”
I wasn’t quite sure how to interpret what shupro had for Mei’s response: “はっ！（おぼんをポンポンと叩き）オ、ボン（お盆）でございますわ！！”
Mei: “Ah!” (tapping “obon”) “It’s O-bon!”
Sakisama: “Oh-hohohoho! So that is what it is. That’s it. Please enjoy the Japanese Obon Festival, everyone.”
(You said that you would come again)
Sakisama’s answer here was a bit tricky: “あなた何を見ていたの？私が言ったことがすべてなわけ。いいこと、わたくしがこの、赤いバラを黒と言ったらこれは黒いバラなわけ。私の言うことがすべてルールで法律なの。それがすべてよ、他に何かある？”
“What are you looking at? What I said is everything. Listen, if I say this red rose is black, then this is a black rose. Everything that I say is the rule and the law. That’s all. Is there anything else? I can’t do this. Mei-san! Today, that’s right, there was a festival at Kanda Myojin.”
Mei: “At Kanda Myojin!”
Sakisama: “That’s what I heard. If we leave now, we might still make it in time.”
Mei: “Festival!”
Sakisama: “Yes, I have to eat geso-yaki! We’re going to go eat geso, Mei-san!”
メイ「（慌てながら）とうもころしですわ！」
Mei: (hurrying) “It’s tomokoroshi!”
That last part didn’t make it into the video, which bummed me out haha because I looked at the transcript first and got totally distracted trying to figure out what on earth was going on there, and after a bit of googling, I stumbled onto something really interesting!
Mei is mispronouncing the word for corn, which is とうもろこし. According to this article, apparently in the Japanese version of My Neighbor Totoro, the 4-year old Mei also mispronounces that word in that exact same way. This transposition of sounds is called metathesis, and apparently this particular example often happens with children because it’s easier for them to say. According to the article, in the English subtitled version of the film, Mei’s mispronunciation “とうもころし” is subtitled as correctly pronounced “corn”, but the subtitles have her say “polliwog” as “wollipog” instead.
I think I’m going to keep it in my translation, haha, along with a translator’s note accompanying it, because I think that’s cool!
The last match before the tournament matches was Miu and Shoko vs Arisu and Moka, which was a neat way to highlight the group that didn’t quite make it into the semis. Sadly, I believe Arisu got injured here, though I stepped out of the room when it happened, so I didn’t catch it myself… Other than that, the match was really exciting! Hopefully Arisu will heal up and be back soon.
Shoko and Miu were the only ones with comments:
Nakajima: “Yes, we’re the group of wrestlers that couldn’t win this summer. Throughout this summer, I’ve really felt that my juniors have been gradually catching up to me in ability. That’s totally how I feel today.”
Shoko’s line here totally lost me, haha: “だから今日は手堅くいかせていただきました.”
“So that’s why I was so firm today. It was fun.”
Miu: “Wonderful, having fun is the best. I also, this summer, last… last week? I think? We’re the tournament losers, but strangely enough, I feel like these are the people I see the most at the dojo. But being able to fight each other in a situation like this, it was a lot of fun, that’s number one. Though I could see some issues that I want to work a little harder on, so I’m going to do my best even more than before. Summer is over, isn’t it?”
Nakajima: “Yep, it is. Wait, is it over?”
Miu: “Yes.”
Nakajima: “No way!”
Miu: “We’re approaching the latter half of August…”
Then Shoko said: “敗者復活戦が”. Yomichan had this one! I moused over it and it helpfully told me: “repechage.” …Wait, what? I ended up having to google that, and it’s a sports thing, apparently, which explains why I don’t know it . I guess it’s well-known enough to have a wikipedia page, so I’ll just leave it as is?
Nakajima: “Repechage.”
Miu: “Huh?”
I wasn’t quite sure what Shoko meant by this remark: “ま、敗者復活なんて言ってられないな.”
Nakajima: “Well, we can’t call it repechage.”
Miu: “Alright, well, a new season, autumn, is coming soon, so I’m going to do my best as we head into autumn!”
In the Tokyo Princess Cup semifinals, Yuki Arai faced Miyu in a valiant effort, which unfortunately didn’t work out for her, haha. Maybe next year, though! I could totally see the 2024 finals being something like Miu vs Arai…
Here’s Arai’s comments:
Arai: “I couldn’t beat Yamashita-san… I’m so frustrated…”
I read this line a bunch of times but still struggled to parse her meaning: “1年半前に名古屋でシングルでやらせてもらった時とは肩を上げられなかった時の気持ちが全然違くて.”
“When we had that singles match in Nagoya a year and a half ago, that was totally different from how I felt when I couldn’t lift my shoulders. I thought I’d grown. But Yamashita-san was so strong, and I want to become even stronger myself. There were so many people who had high expectations from me, more than I imagined, so that made me really happy, and if we get another match, I want to win the next one.”
(Last year and the year before last, each time you’ve moved one step up)
“Yes, I’ve gone up a step each year, and this year I made it into the top four. While I wasn’t even realizing it was happening, I’ve come this far… Of course, next year I want to aim even higher than this year, and I want to make people think that I have also grown in terms of my matches.”
Shupro’s transcript (as well as the one in the official recap) had this for the start of her last sentence: “すっごい自分でも実感が沸かないうちにここまで来れていて…” I was like “what on earth is 実感が沸かない?” So I googled it, and google was like: “did you mean 実感が湧かない?” . That does make a bit more sense…
The main event was Kamiyu vs Rika, which I thought was great! Except I was so bummed to see Rika lose. Noooo 
. Someday we’ll get that Rika vs Mizuki match finally 
…
Kamiyu closes out the show, but first Miyu shows up to make a statement:
Yamashita: “To be honest, I didn’t think Kamifuku would make it this far, so I’m a bit surprised. But the fighting style that Kamifuku has shown in the tournament up until now, and in her match with Rika, the way she has been fighting… I could really feel her strong feelings. So, tomorrow, I am going to hit Kamifuku with everything, with all the things I’ve gained from all that I’ve done in TJPW up to this point. I look forward to tomorrow.” (Yamashita shakes her hand and then leaves)
I thought her second to last line there was incredible: “だから明日、私がこの東京女子プロレスでずっとやってきたものを、すべて上福にぶつけます.” I tinkered with it quite a bit to try to capture the weight of how the Japanese felt, but wasn’t fully happy with my attempt. I feel like that line really conveys the inevitability of Miyu in such a cool way. She’s reminding us that she truly is the ace, that she’s been here for all ten years of this company’s history, and to get past her, you must somehow find a way to overcome all of that.
Kamiyu used “ヤバい” so many times here… As soon as I heard her promo, as the person who was going to have to figure out how to translate each of those, I was just like “…ヤバい！” One of my several eternal translation nemeses
Kamifuku: “Oh, that’s not good… that’s bad, isn’t it? Hang on.”
This line was a bit tricky: “普通に考えていまヤバくね.”
“I’m really in trouble now. About six years ago, I made my debut here in TJPW, and who at that time would’ve thought that six years later, I’d be getting a win over my senpai, saying stuff like ‘I’ll see you in the finals tomorrow’? I think it’s really bad. Everyone on commentary agrees, right? I think you do. Even the referee thinks so. I know it. I know it’s bad. I have serious respect for my senpai. And now I’ll be in the finals tomorrow.”
I’m pretty sure the ボス in this was like a video game boss, so I slightly embellished it to make that sense of it a bit clearer: “私の先生みたいなボス、山下実優さんとシングル.” This next sentence was also a bit tricky: “こんなところで闘っちゃうことになったんだけど…私は私のポリシーで生きるから.”
“I have a singles match with the final boss, Miyu Yamashita, who’s like a teacher to me. I’m going to be fighting in a place like this, but… I’m going to live by my own policy. I’m gonna go home, paint my nails one more time, do a hair treatment, and show up back here. I’m gonna up my beauty and win, so everyone please watch me!”
I had a bit of trouble figuring out a not-clunky translation for this: “真夏の夜が味方してくれたところで、カジュアルにピースで、みんなでピースして今日はとっとと帰ろうと思う.”
“With the midsummer night on my side, I think I’m going to casually peace out, so let’s all get the hell out of here. Don’t drink too much, everyone.”
She closes with: “Let’s live casually!” “Peace!”
Kamifuku: “It’s bad. How should I put it… I was in a singles main event for the first time in my life, and not only that, I won and got to close out the show. I think my life has gotten interesting again. Right now, I really don’t want to think about tomorrow. When I debuted, people said a lot of things like, ‘it’s just a gravure idol’s side gig’ and ‘a girl like that is just going to quit immediately,’ and I think it’s partially thanks to those people that I’ve made it this far. Of course, I love and appreciate the people who support me more.”
I had trouble translating the quote in this: “でも、あの時ゆきに『ふざけんなよ。お前見とけよ』って思わせてくれた俗にいうアンチのみなさんのおかげでここまで来れた分もあるので.” That “ふざけんなよ” is trouble every time, haha. I never know exactly how hard to go with the translation, since all of the options yomichan presents are pretty harsh…
“But, the ones at the time that made me think, ‘Don’t fuck with me. Just you wait and see,’ it’s thanks to those haters that I’ve been able to get here. Whether you hate me or are rooting for me, I want you to keep watching me.”
(Your opponent tomorrow is Yamashita)
“Uh-huh. Yamashita-san… I think she’s amazing.”
I wasn’t sure about this chunk: “だってさ、毎回あんなようなことやってるじゃない。チャンピオンになって、海外でもチャンピオンになって。だから、いつもこんなことやってんのかなって思ったら、ちょっと下に出ちゃいそうなところを…ゆきの方がこんなとこもあるんだぜって部分を出して.”
“Because she does that kind of thing all the time. She’s a champion. Overseas, even. So, when I thought about her always doing this sort of thing, there’s a little bit emerging from underneath… I also have a bit of that in me, too, and I showed that part of myself. I don’t want people to think of me as just an underling forever. If I beat Yamashita-san here, I’ll be able to challenge the champion straightaway.”
This sentence was tricky: “ちょっと今くすぶってるグラドルたち、みんなざわついてんじゃないの？って気持ちですね.”
“Those gravure idols living in obscurity right now, wouldn’t it get everyone talking? That’s what I’m feeling. Can I go now? I also have to wrestle tomorrow. Thank you very much.”
Tatsumi: “Ah… it’s over. My summer is over. But today I faced a version of Kamiyu I’d never seen before. Before this point, when I lost an important match, I’d feel empty, like I wanted to press reset and do it all over again. But even though I lost today, I don’t feel empty. I think this summer, I’ve definitely achieved rapid growth. Fortunately, I have belt-chan, so I’m going to make good use of my experiences this summer, and go all out as I walk the defense road yet again. Thank you so much for today.”
This question and the start of her answer were confusing to me: “（もうベルトに気持ちを切り替えた？）いや、まだ試合です。いまのいまなので（笑）。今日だけちょっと振り返って。でもポジティブなので、切り替えていけると思います.”
(You already switched focus to the belt?)
“No, it’s still the match. It’s the now.” (laughs) “I was just looking back a little bit today. But I’m optimistic, so I think I’ll be able to switch. Also, I really wanted to win this year at any cost, so I can’t entrust my feelings to her, but I would like to tell Kamiyu to do her best. Good luck, Kamiyu!”
I think maybe I got the first chunk of Miyu’s comments?
Yamashita: “Arai-chan… It’s been about two years since we fought. I really think that over the past three years, Arai-chan has had experiences that no one else could have. And as I fought her today, I could see how she has fully absorbed those experiences and fought with them in mind. Of course, the feelings she had invested in this tournament, and her feelings as she struck me, there was a lot of passion there. To be honest, she almost beat me. There was a moment where it seemed like I was going to lose to myself. But I’d always lose tournaments because I lose to myself there. At that moment, I remembered the people I’ve fought so far, the people I’ve defeated, and I thought of how when Yuka-chan won last year, she expressed all of those feelings on the mic. As I fought with all of those memories swirling in my head, that’s what got me the win in the end. I’ve made it this far, but it’s not over yet. I didn’t expect Kamifuku to make it to the finals… I think that’s what’s scary about tournaments, and what’s interesting about them. So the finals tomorrow will be against Kamifuku, but I, who has not won in ten years, know the horrors of tournaments better than anyone. That’s why I’m going to push aside my fear of tournaments and my fear of Kamifuku herself, and I am going to fight with everything I have up to this point and get the victory. I want to win the tournament and challenge Mizuki for the belt that she has.”
(It seems like there’ll be a lot of people cheering for Kamifuku tomorrow)
“Yes. I’m used to that kind of atmosphere, and I’ll just have to do my best in it. Surprisingly, and it’s not that I didn’t believe it would happen, but there were unexpectedly a lot of Miyu Yamashita cheers.” (crying)
This sentence was a bit hard: “自分の中ですごいそれが…信じてないわけじゃないんですけど、すごいそういう気持ちを感じて.”
“It’s not that I didn’t believe, but… I really had a lot of those feelings inside of me. I fought Arai-chan today, and when I entered, the fans called out ‘Yamashita!’ and I could really feel their emotions. It really touched me. With that as my foundation, regardless of the atmosphere tomorrow, I am going to hold onto that feeling and enjoy tomorrow with Kamiyu to the fullest. And then I’m going to win the tournament."
I honestly felt pretty moved listening to Miyu break down into tears here. Like she totally expected to be sort of the de-facto heel here, the big bad taking down everyone’s fave underdog hero, so she didn’t expect anyone to be actually wanting her to win… It made me feel a bit bad for cheering against her, haha.
That’s it for this one! Next up, the finals!
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Yeah, like The Rock!
(Toga’s isn’t quite so smooth yet…)
That whole group’s social media comes across as really endearing huh. I love Haru’s Irastoya clip art versions of the them all!
Yeah, I think it’s fine. I think she maybe said something other than 日だった for those syllables, or her thought just was garbled from the crying she was laying it on a little heavy huh. But I checked cagematch and they did debut the same day and not like “on this day” or anything else it would have been.
I think she’s making a joke about Saki Akai’s retirement - like the 寂しそうness and 欲しがってるness on the part of the audience is because of Sakisama’s appearances being especially precious to the audience at the moment. (but of course it’s an unspoken reason since there’s no direct connection…). Hence it leading to like, “what you think I would leave?”
My attempt for that part: "you all look especially lonely, like you’re expecting something from me. "
Yep! She’s describing in a fun way how her attention was pulled towards Mei.
It’s a pun…
What can you call this?
Oh, 盆!
(So she’s not “tapping ‘obon’” she’s tapping her ‘obon’)
I’d say here with the past tense on 見ていた, she’s saying this as in, like, “what, weren’t you watching? What I said already is all there is to it.”
I can’t make out exactly what she says here, but it’s after a quiet pause, and she suddenly loudly remembers and exclaims this and slaps her leg loud enough for Mei to make a surprised squeak so I’d say it’s more like “Oh! We can’t just hang around here!” or something along those lines - she’s remembering they can’t just sit around they gotta go hurry to the festival.
I think she’s saying (a bit smugly) like, roughly “thanks for giving me such a solid match”
Like, casting things going smoothly/solidly as thanks to the efforts on her less experienced opponents’ part, and so she’s grateful for them. (as opposed to her just winning handily and it not being worth the energy)
Amusingly, I searched for the phrase, and it seems to be something she likes to say in this kind of a situation, since she used it the same way in last year’s tournament
Funny, in the video she says 先先先週ぐらい (remarkably consistent with her totototomorrow)
Ehhhhh I dunno - I kinda get the impression it’s called that in like, rowing and fencing and fancy pants sports like that.
I feel like maybe a “loser’s bracket” is a more normal term that applies, and this wikipedia page at least suggests it’s a synonym.
The other comment I have here ties in with the next bit:
What happens here is Shoko is starting to say something beginning with 敗者復活戦が, but someone (Miyu?) yells off screen and startles her.
It sounded like whoever it was was yelling for some other reason (haven’t done the next set of promos yet but I’m half-expecting the answer to the mystery there…), and so Shoko’s comment following is making a joke about that - joking that the yell was someone angry at what she was starting to say.
So I’d try to convey her being cut off more in the first bit.
I’m surprised there’s no parentheses bit in the transcript. Is the
Miu: “Huh?”
here maybe:
Miyu: “HYAAH!”
?
The key here is: when would it be important for pro wrestlers to be able to get a shoulder up or not?
She’s saying that the moment she ate the pinfall today felt completely different from when she at the pinfall in their match 1.5 years previously in Nagoya. (Because this time, she thought she had grown, and so was much more invested, and so the feeling was more crushing)
Just one of those situations where the kanji are similar enough and describe the same kind of action that they’re more or less roughly interchangeable in a circumstance like this that isn’t literal anyway! here’s a yahoo answers asking which one is correct and a thorough explainer about the phrase (though it doesn’t seem like you need it).
This seems all right. I wonder if there’s a folksy phrase or something that could get closer to the literal 普通に考えて sense like “no two ways about it, I’m in trouble now” or “I’m in trouble, plain and simple.” or something better and closer than those…
You know – listening to her speech for this part, I think I would change all of the ヤバイ’s here from bad/in trouble, to like, “wild” and things along that line.
At first coming off of the transcript I thought she was reacting to Miyu being a tough opponent like they were earlier, but I think this part shows me that she’s rather reacting to like, astonishment at the situation, reflecting on where she’s come.
Like she comes across as happy/touched to me, rather than scared. (Which is extra neat considering the character growth it represents!)
Hmmm… this one’s tough. There’s a laugh line here with her “マジで先輩リスペクト、はい”
because it’s… very much a perfunctory like “yeah I like totally respect my senpai.”
I wouldn’t go so far as to call it insincere in the sentiment? But it is like, a dashed-off like “no yeah I get it’s out of line I totally respect my senpais and all that yep”
Definitely some Kamiyu-ish sarcasm in the tone. (and I know I just said the ヤバイs came across as more positive but this would be more negative I think with the connection to senpai respect that her ヤバイness might be flouting)
My attempt… maybe??
“I know it’s wild, I know it’s out of line. I totally respect my senpais and all that.”
This is enormously picky but I feel like since it’s one match, “the final” is more accurate than “the finals”?
I’d say the ところ in this case is the tournament final. Like, she’s saying they’re going to be fighinting in this big important decisive match, but she lives by her own policy so she’s gonna stick to her own way of doing things.
This seems fine. It’s stuff that characters yell all the time as a fight begins in a Yakuza series game, so it should be pretty harsh.
In fact – I’d go punchier: “Fuck off! Watch me.” I think that fits well here, with the spite-driven success she’s describing.
I think the image she’s describing is like, Miyu up here always being a champion and doing cool things and stuff, and then a little part of Kamiyu poking her head up under Miyu like “hey I do cool stuff too”
That kind of thing.
I think maybe she’s saying like, it will get them fired up. Like the くすぶってるグラドルたち are ones making a lackluster go of it and みんなざわついて would be them getting stirred up and excited. (but I could be wrong, that’s mostly from trying to get a sense of the two words from searching).
It took me a little bit too before it gelled, but she’s saying like:
No - my focus is still on the match (that I just had). Because it just happened . For today only, I’ll be looking back on it, (after that is when I’ll start looking ahead).
I would say the すごい and 自分の中で are primarily modifying the 感じて
so more literally like “I really felt inside of me those feelings”
as in - the fans’ feelings of wanting to support her were deeply felt.
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Yeah!! Same! It’s so cute 
For folks who haven’t seen it:
She’s also particularly taken with Toga, which is adorable. Here’s an edit she did haha of her and Shino and Uta being charmed by Toga:
I also love the fact that Haru went and visited Nodoka’s farm and apparently Nodoka gave her some Luke-and-Yoda-style 秘密特訓, haha.
Every time I think of posts like this, I think about how much we’d be missing without twitter… These little everyday interactions somehow add so much to the experience of following pro wrestling, as inconsequential as they might seem.
It’s a lot of fun seeing Haru’s genuine excitement for TJPW, and how much she seems to love being part of it. I hope she keeps her enthusiasm and sticks with wrestling.
Oh yeah, the context of the wrestlers getting startled by something offscreen makes a lot more sense, haha. I didn’t catch that when watching the video.
What the transcript had is simply: 未詩「えっ？」, which I read as a very different sound/emotion… I ended up diplomatically not attempting to transcribe the noise and just replaced it with “Miu: (gets startled)”
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In fairness, I think looking again the 未詩「えっ？」 was her reacting to what Shoko was beginning to say/joke about, like “it’s the loser’s bracket (so the tournament will continue and the sumemr isn’t over).”
Then when the off-screen noise happens, Shoko is definitely the one who gets startled, Miu just cracks up. 
I guess the transcriber just used Miu’s initial reaction to elide the off-screen yell that would be harder to explain.
On the TJPW social media subject - another fun bit is Shino’s note page! I read a bit of her amusing two-part “what kind of job is a bus guide?” where the first part is a sober official perspective, and the second part includes a flustered internal monologue.
When she was first introduced I really underestimated the amount that her having been a bus guide was going to continue to be critically relevant to her character…
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週刊プロレス No.２２３５ (from March 2023)
The cover story is a about a public お別れの会 held for NJPW founder Antonio Inoki who (I don’t know if you heard or not) passed away last year. The service included speeches and appearances from people in the industry, a flower-laying ceremony, and a closing “１，２，３，ダー！” from Kazuchika Okada and Inoki’s grandson, representing the future generations of the legacy and influence of Inoki’s 燃える闘魂.
The editor in chief has a page talking about the ceremony, and in particular he highlights Okada’s description of the “１，２，３，ダー！”, as something of Inoki’s that will not fade over time, that’s easy for everyone to conjure up, when needing to draw on spirit and solidarity. The editor talks about how modern fans might not know, but in the 90s, “１，２，３，ダー！” was the set closing line at big events for all of New Japan, as it was before wrestler-specific speeches and catchphrases became the expectation that they are today. The catchphrase was also close-at-hand to wrestling fans themselves too, as a closing line at drinking parties and the like, and really did evoke that spirit and solidarity Okada mentioned. There’s other variables involved in how far it may spread today in the Reiwa era, but Okada endeavoring to keep it enduring is a sign of why he’s so firmly at the top of NJPW. “不滅のダーはみんなのダー！”
The 20th and final entry in the Inoki memorial interview column, それぞれの闘魂伝 is with Kazuchika Okada.
When Okada joined the NJPW dojo from 闘龍門, Inoki was already out of New Japan, and when he started watching NJPW it was the era of Team 2000 and BATT and Inoki was retired as a wrestler, so Okada wasn’t very aware of him except from a panel of him still up at the NJPW dojo. Over time though he became more interested in him, but met him face-to-face only 3 times. One of those times was an interview in a different magazine that took place after Okada suddenly called out Inoki in the ring in 2020. Okada says mentioning Inoki in the ring was of his own volition and management wasn’t happy about it. Most of all it sounds like what he wanted was for Inoki to be in a NJPW event again and come back to the house he built so to speak, to get a chance to see what he thought of it. Less due to seeking approval and more just out of - curiosity, I suppose. Okada says that things changing over time is natural, and just like how older generations are made up both of some people who can’t stand say, smart phones, and other people who use it all the time, it would be interesting to see what Inoki thought of modern NJPW, all the more so if he hated it. Now especially since Inoki has died without that happening, he’s become a partner to compete with - Okada wants to make NJPW ever greater than it was in Inoki’s day and to accomplish more and more things that could only happen in the present day.
They talk a little about how 「闘魂」 and 「ストロングスタイル」 are strongly strongly associated with Antonio Inoki, and Okada acknowledges that and says that the form will change with the times and that’s only natural since it isn’t interesting otherwise, but 闘魂 the phrase will likely represent NJPW as long as the promotion continues.
In Naito’s column, he talks about various happenings in the NJPW Cup, like El Phantasmo saying he doesn’t feel like a faction leader amid Bullet Club turmoil, David Finlay joining Bullet Club, and the new 生え抜き wrestlers returning from excursion. About Shota Umino, Naito recollects one time he encountered him in the past: as a high school baseball player Umino drove Naito hard when he was prepping for the 2014 G1 Climax via strenuous ノック特訓 (I guess a baseball thing where you practice fielding balls hit your way). He and the interviewer joke that based on that, when it came to NO LIMIT, Umino must have been more of a Yujiro Takahashi fan than a Naito fan. I found video of the training - pretty sure the guy hitting the balls in the video is indeed Shota Umino.
Naito also mentions a feeling of unease that something unclear may happen soon, when watching SANADA shake hands with Taichi in the New Japan Cup…
In Kenoh’s column, he’s been placated by the World Tag Champions in AJPW accepting his challenge, meaning he’s rescinded his 絶縁 from last week. He spends a while talking about those championships and their origins and why he wants to challenge for them. Unlike other tag championships like the Asia tag championship, their belts haven’t been refurbished so it especially gives one the sense of the history of all the wrestlers who have held them over the years, and he wants to add his name to that list. He also thought of the idea of unifying them with the GHC Tag Championship to make a new GHC World Tag Championship, which he wants to do because he says the pro wrestling industry today has too many promotions and belts for any one of them to make much impact in the general public, so someone will have to start doing the work of building up ones to stand out from the pack by unifying them.
This picture of Hi69 is NOAH is sure something.
Giulia’s column is excellent this week! The topic is Tam Nakano being the next challenger for Giulia’s Red Belt.
The key phrase is “アンタが必要” which they’ve said back and forth to each other recently, with Tam quoting it back at Giulia when making her challenge. Giulia explains her own feelings behind saying it originally, around the time of that 10-person gauntlet. She describes Tam at that time as ウジウジメソメソ, at a real low point, crushed flat by difficulty and sadness, and Giulia got mad and said it, describing Tam being across the ring from her as more than just simply that because of how opposite Tam is: 息を吸う理由も逆なら、吐く理由も逆。それくらい全てが違う。 And that complete oppositeness makes Giulia’s own standpoint and way of thinking as a wrestler extremely easy to transmit to anyone because of the contrast. And so she expressed the “アンタが必要” seeing Tam in that state to say 「お前はどんな地獄の底にいたって、常にジュリアを嫉妬の目で睨みつけて、私の肉を食おうとしてなきゃダメだろ。私が命を燃やし尽くすためには、そういう存在が必要だ。」
Giulia talks about their rivalry and the hair vs. hair match where she lost the white belt and her hair to Tam, and she says time has passed since then - then they were free to run at each other pell-mell and put everything on the line, where now they both have more on their mind and more things to protect. Giulia says she can’t know why Tam said “アンタが必要” back to her, so she can only speak about her own feelings, but 「私は、今背負ってるものを全部取っ払って、何も考えずめちゃくちゃな事をできる相手が中野たむだって伝えたかった。あの頃の、相手をとっちめる事しか考えてない二人がいたからこそ、今の我々があるんじゃねーのかな。」
Finally, Giulia says that now it’s time for Tam to rise out of the dumps, because if she comes to challenge Giulia in that state, Giulia will crush her like a bug and it won’t matter if Tam retires or what after that. But she’ll say it one more time: 「私には、アンタが必要。」
Sareee’s contract with WWE has concluded and she’s coming back to Japan in May.
The photo of her with Inoki in 2019 captioned as from when her entry to WWE was initially decided gave me brief timeline confusion, since I vividly remember the magazine being high on Sareee before her departure as being around when I started reading the magazine in 2020 and don’t remember that. But I think on further reflection what happened is her WWE debut was delayed significantly from the pandemic. The brief summary of her WWE/NXT run here sounds similarly unlucky as for example the closest thing to a highlight listed is her introduction at a TakeOver from Stephanie McMahon and then a match being schedule against Meiko Satomura in NXT UK that didn’t end up happening. She says it’s not a waste though, as she feels from the bottom of her heart she’s glad she went to America.
Interestingly, the talk with Inoki in the picture isn’t the only Inoki link here: It sounds like the Inoki Genki Factory held Sareee’s press conference announcing her return, and the name for the show, Sareee-ISM, is surely a play on Inoki-ISM.
Shino Suzuki, the fourth member of Up Up Girls (Pro Wrestling) debuted in TJPW! The match recap talks about her journey to get to this point, from auditioning for idol groups and becoming a tour bus guide, and winding up in this pro wrestling vocation because of the idol connection without any particular athletic background at all, but deciding to give it her best and shot and falling for it in the process. Apparently a majorly tough time for her was when she felt pressure to debut at the 1.4 Korakuen Hall show (since apparently the group itself debuted on that show 5 years ago and often have major happenings happen there) but she wasn’t ready, and so HIMAWARI and Wakana Uehara debuting there filled her with determination to work hard and make up for it… but she broke two ribs the next day. And on top of that, auditions for new Up Up Girls (Pro Wrestling) member(s) started at the same time, and so she felt like she wasn’t necessary either.
But she worked through the difficulties and safely made her debut at this show!
Seeing the picture here - it suddenly bugged me that I didn’t know what’s written on her little bus guide flag. Consulting video evidence, I think on one side it’s 鈴木志乃 and on the other side it’s “SHE KNOW.” Okay!
There’s an interview with Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki ahead of Mizuki’s challenge for the Princess of Princess Championship in TJPW!
The pressing topic is just how do they feel as tag partners about fighting each other? It sounds like this time around, they feel confident that their relationship will not be harmed by the match, and Mizuki’s biggest concern is whether Yuka will really face her seriously as an opponent. If she isn’t able to do that, then there’s going to be trouble, but Yuka insists that, although she doesn’t want to, she knows she has to and she’ll be able to.
Yuka says she tries to match what Mizuki’s feeling, like by reading her facial expression, but Mizuki’s a bit grumpy at that preferring to not be coddled. The interviewer says it sounds like among the two of them as partners, Mizuki has taken the leadership role, but Mizuki says it may look like that but she’s too indecisive to actually decide anything. Yuka agrees with that and says that if Mizuki is uneasy, she gets uneasy too, so there’s nothing to do but stay positive.
In their last title match together 3 years ago, it sounds like they felt they had to develop some distance between each other to be able to fight, and Yuka says it caused such waves in their relationship it felt like they were going to fall into the dark side, so this time they’re employing the opposite strategy and staying close.
Asked about this title match versus other title challenges, Yuka says that this one is the most tiring of all, since with other challengers generally it’s just the match itself that’s tiring, but with Mizuki weathering all of these emotions means just going to the arena is already tiring. Mizuki notes that not having Yuka as her second is going to make it feel different from her other title challenges.
Asked how she felt after their last title match, Mizuki says she was of course disappointed, but it also reiterated to her just how cool Yuka is and made her feel like she wanted to become that kind of a champion. This is her 5th challenge for the White Belt and she says she’s not going up, and feels winning it will mark a personal change that she wants to attain.
For Yuka, it’s her 3rd defense of her 3rd reign with the belt, and she talks about how TJPW has a ten year history, but for anyone just starting to watch the promotion, what’s going on now is all there is, so it’s important to her to lead the company forward and to put on the kind of matches that stick with someone watching for the first time. With Mizuki, she can show a 儚さ unique to TJPW, and she’s confident they’ll put on a show that will make you glad you came to see it.
They talk a bit about how it’s the first women’s wrestling show at Ariake Colosseum in 20 years. The interviewer also mentions that it was around that match together 3 years ago that Mizuki debuted the 渦飴 (but she’s not thinking about specific moves in the lead-up to this match).
Mizuki calls Yuka 頑固, saying she’s quick to say you’re wrong if she disagrees, and I’m amused by the interviewer’s diplomatic 「たしかにそういったイメージはあるような気がします。」 when from the backstage promos I’m already nodding along like “uh huh no yeah, Yuka’s definitely 頑固.” Mizuki says that if Yuka decides to do a move she’ll run herself ragged until she manages to pull it off, and if someone tells Mizuki she’s wrong she’ll react with “oh, I see…” but Yuka will react with “well let’s try it out then!” and that’s why she’s eternally butting heads with Rika Tatsumi since neither will back down (this also checks out to me).
There’s already been a tag title match with Magical Sugar Rabbits booked for Los Angeles after their singles match, so that puts some safety perhaps to the assertion that their relationship won’t fall apart because of the title match - but Mizuki floats the idea that if Yuka doesn’t take her seriously as an opponent, she might have to call in sick for the LA show…
Yuka says she’s going to handle the worrying about the tag title match and beyond, because Mizuki has enough on her plate in her personal life. As an example she mentions - apparently 4 years ago, Mizuki had a 5th or 6th grader stalk her? Geez!
The interviewer asks Yuka to 「是非守ってあげてください。」 prompting the exchange:
Mizuki: 「大丈夫だよ～」
Yuka: 「いやいや…。心配なんよ。頼みますよ、お嬢さん！」
Mizuki: 「えー、しっかりしてるはずなんだけどな～。」
I like ringname reveal ceremonies - here with Sakura Aya and HANAKO in Stardom. Sounds like Maika invited HANAKO to Donna Del Mondo but HANAKO did not respond.
In Genichiro Tenryu’s column, he talks about Keiji Muto’s retirement, and he characterizes the retirement match, with a surprise bonus match when Masahiro Chono came into the ring, as emblematic of how Muto’s Americanized Entertainment Pro Wrestling drew a line between itself and the uniquely Japanese “serious” pro wrestling starting from Rikidozan and running through Inoki. He felt that the contrivance of Chono’s involvement not so long ago would have drawn boos, but the fact that the crowd was super into it shows the impact Muto made.
He uses a keyword 間, I think to mean like – space or leeway, saying that not just in wrestling but in any entertainment field, no matter how much you might gripe about the card or who you’re put up against, you should be able to have the 間 to accomplish your own pro wrestling, and Muto absolutely had that, always accomplishing his pro wrestling even in his retirement match. Tenryu says that Muto’s opponents too may often get caught up in Muto’s 間 and fall into the delusion of themselves first-rate wrestlers just because of that, when after the match the only one who left an impression on the audience was Muto. That was Muto’s strength. He says that probably, Naito felt that pain all anew, being a fan of Muto’s and all. But given that he won the match, that should be spun into a drive to get out of Okada’s shadow.
With Muto retiring and Inoki’s death, the change of eras is in the air. When asked what current wrestlers should do, Tenryu’s answer is that there’s nothing for it but to proudly wrestle the pro wrestling of the moment. There’s no sense clinging to the past since change is natural and inevitable in pro wrestling, and while you surely can’t predict exactly who will rise up to be the era-defining stars, you can be confident that someone will be that, or else wrestling would have crawled to a stop after Rikidozan or Baba died.
On a different topic, Tenryu talks about Yuji Nagata’s Triple Crown victory in AJPW, which makes him an industry Grand Slam winner. Tenryu’s reaction is very, very Tenryu, as he asks Nagata “Are you satisfied with that??” Saying that despite his prominent role in NJPW in the 2000s he only led the Tokyo Dome once or twice, and even an AJPW veteran with affection for the promotion like Tenryu can tell there’s a huge gap between AJPW and NJPW these days, so why the hell should Nagata be satisfied with the Triple Crown?
And furthermore! AJPW needs to think carefully about the implications of their “unanimous ace” Kento Miyahara lose to a 54 year old NJPW wrestler. They’re going to do nothing but shed fans at this rate, and with Shuji Ishikawa announced as the next challenger, he needs to win and bring the belt back to AJPW.
In a sidebar he also thanks the participants of a show held in support of his recent serious medical problems. (problems which it sounds like continue to the day I’m writing this, unfortunately…)
I like this picture of Saori Ano and Maya Yukihi in Sendai Girls.
Hideki Suzuki’s column is ending next issue - they announce the end with a bit where Suzuki offers to do gravure modeling to keep it going, like Giulia’s gravure shots in the book form of her Shupro column. It sounds like his column originally started on the mobile site in 2017, and it stopped when Suzuki went to WWE, but was revived after he was abruptly fired. It’ll be weird not having him around - he’s one wrestler I know mainly from Shupro, with his sarcasm and back-and-forths with his “pupil” Giulia. He’s probably too busy with his cat to write!
He uses this penultimate column to talk about a topic he wanted to get to: Yoshihiro Takayama, the pro wrestling 帝王 who was very very badly injured in 2017 and is still in a difficult condition and amid rehabilitation. Takayama, along with Minoru Suzuki, was a wrestler Hideki Suzuki looked for inspiration into his own career, admiring that ability to a freelancer who’s a big deal every single place he went. As time moves on, wrestlers out of the conversation naturally drop into the background, and Suzuki hopes by mentioning him that might be that little impetus for another support show, or at least for his memory to stay strong. And Suzuki is still, truly, waiting for the chance for a singles match.
The costume column this week is with Yuuna Mizumori, a freelancer who used to be with Gatoh Move, but as of this year has been a regular in Stardom. As a strong kid she related to powerful, green color coded characters like Fudo from Fist of the North Star or Sailor Jupiter, and so her gear uses a lot of green, paired with yellow and pink as the tropical primary colors like her catchphrase, トロピカル☆ヤッホー. A couple fun details are a hidden ゆ and a ruby-inspired design since 石言葉 for ruby is victory.
She says that currently she’s hiding her figure with a black waistband, but her goal is to lose weight and she’d like to remove that then. Since this issue came out I believe from twitter she’s done exactly that - so hey, good for her!
She has especially long hair but struggles to find a hairstyle that makes the most of it, as there’s positives and negatives to it a lot of the time.
An especially striking look in this shot from a Ryukyu Dragon show at Shinjuku FACE last november - the wrestlers are 名無し and Misaki Maeda.
The back of the magazine interview is with CyberFight 取締役 武田有弘, and it’s about NOAH’s future post Keiji Muto’s retirement.
I don’t think I internalized before this just how big a deal Muto and his retirement road has been for Muto - it’s let them run just in the last few months Nippon Budokan, Yokohama Arena, and the Tokyo Dome, and it’s been 17 and a half years since NOAH ran the Tokyo Dome last, when they ran it back to back years in 2004 and 2005. Since then the Tokyo Dome is strongly associated with New Japan when it comes to modern pro wrestling. Takeda is a apparently former New Japan staff and understands the logistics involved in running a show there, and he says that while New Japan has some tens of フロントスタッフ, NOAH employs 19 people in that capacity. So it’s a big undertaking and not necessarily something they can shoot for yearly, although Muto proposed backstage at his retirement that NOAH do 2.21 at the dome every year from here on. Takeda says his goal is more like the Dome every 4 years - and it would be nice if 4 years from now 2.21 was a Saturday!
In terms of talent in that future, Kaito Kiyomiya is pretty much the name that comes up as ace, and at the Dome show he lost to Okada, which drew some criticism. This is chalked up though to what Okada called 「修羅場の差」 - it was Kiyomiya’s first Tokyo Dome show and well, for Okada it was tuesday. So it’s only understandable that the pressure would weigh on Kiyomiya and influence the outcome. Takeda hopes Kiyomiya will be gung ho to lead the company to the Dome again in the future.
The closest thing NOAH has to an イッテンヨン-like occasion is the New Year’s Day Budokan show (AKA Kenoh’s birthday show!!) but Takeda says there may be difficulty booking the venue for that day next year, and if it can’t happen, it can’t happen, and they would just need to book elsewhere.
Something that’s going to be very important to NOAH in the coming years is recruiting and fostering new talent, and Takeda thinks Muto will be a great asset on that front, as young people wanting to be like Muto will hopefully be drawn to NOAH.
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You are correct! I remember my friends and I crossing our fingers and hoping that she’d end up not actually going to WWE. Jun Akiyama was also supposed to go to WWE in 2020, but his move got delayed due to the pandemic, and he ended up wrestling in DDT in the meantime, and, well, the rest is history, haha. We really hoped that Sareee would end up doing something similar, but alas… At least she’s back working in Japan now, though!
Sareee actually ended up wrestling in the very first Wrestle Princess, on November 7, 2020! She wrestled in TJPW on January 4 of that year as well facing Natsumi Maki (currently Natsupoi in Stardom). The two of them are really close friends, so TJPW arranged for that match to happen for Natsumi’s sake.
Besides watching her in TJPW, I also got to see a bit of her in Women’s Pro Wrestling Assemble. I think she wrestled in the first two of their shows? So I had just enough time to get to experience her and think “wow, Sareee is really cool, huh?” before she was lost to the void for a bit there 
.
Consulting cagematch, it looks like her last show before going to NXT was January 22, 2021, then she was in WWE through August 2, 2022 (looking at the match times for her WWE matches is depressing…).
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Huh! that’s funny - Wrestle Princess was my first TJPW show but I don’t think I was tuned into any storylines whatsoever going into it and so I only remember the main event and I think Kiryu and Mirai standing out to me at the time for whatever reason. I had no idea I’d seen a Sareee match. Probably at the time I had just started being subscribed to shupro but was behind on starting? It’s wild how much context in wrestling slowly bleeds in and changes your perspective…
I feel like (in hindsight) Jun Akiyama in WWE would never in a million years have worked – that heady few months where they thought hiring Hideki Suzuki would be a good idea was certainly something. I guess I’m glad in retrospect the pull towards the US isn’t as strong as it seems like it was going to become going forward for a bit there.
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Yeah, I believe Jun was just supposed to go to WWE as a coach, not as a performer, but I’m so glad that it didn’t happen because he’s been genuinely really good in DDT (and now he’s DDT’s head coach 
), and I’m sure they would’ve wasted his talents in WWE…
It was pretty funny, though, because at the end of 2020, Takagi was talking about how they sort of stole Jun from WWE lol and he sort of jokingly talked about maybe sending Jun over to AEW at some point (DDT and AEW didn’t have an official partnership at the time, but it was pretty obvious that there was a relationship existing between the companies) sort of just to rub it in WWE’s face haha by having Jun appear in their main competitor. (Jun has since appeared in AEW).
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