Co-written by Dylan Murray (@XXIchiban).
People often imagine progress as a linear path from ignorance to enlightenment, a holdover from the idealistic twentieth century. This is true in professional wrestling as in any other art form, where we hope a more diverse variety of voices get their own time to present their creative visions. In America the industry has come a long way from WWF bra & panties matches to moments like Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair main eventing a night of Wrestle Mania.
In Japan however, this progression isn’t so simple. During the 1980s and 90s, Joshi legends like Bull Nakano, Aja Kong, and Akira Hokuto were taken much more seriously than their colleagues in the west, participating in brawls and death matches just as violent, if not more so, as those of their male contemporaries in Japan. Their gender really wasn’t that much of a sticking point for some of them. They were warriors, and that’s all they needed.
Flash forward and the popularization of idol culture in wrestling has changed the environment greatly, including a lot of the presentation. The wrestlers may still hit hard in the mainstream promotions like Stardom or Tokyo Joshi Pro, but at the same time, they’re doing so in frilly outfits instead of regular wrestling gear, and it’s very rare that a hoss like Aja Kong is featured on a roster, with exceptions like Natsuko Tora largely failing to break past the midcard. That breed of wrestler is mostly relegated to the indies, where there are amazing matches to be had, just without a lot of the fanfare. Thankfully, this year one of those behemoths broke through on a prominent card, with an equally gritty opponent to match her.
The Strength of Sendai Girls
Chihiro Hashimoto is Sendai Girls’ juggernaut. An amateur wrestling savant in her youth, the Olympic hopeful has been practically unstoppable since her 2015 debut. Even from her time as a rookie, it was easy to see that Chihiro was bound to become a big deal in the joshi promotion Sendai Girls. Meiko Satomura’s company has always prided itself on producing some of the most fundamentally skilled and deadly competitors in the joshi scene. It didn’t take long for Chihiro Hashimoto to exemplify the Sendai Girls mentality to a T.
Hashimoto utilized her imposing build and grappling excellence to win the promotion’s world championship a record five times, holding the title for over 1900 combined days over the past eight years. Beyond that, Hashimoto also proved her excellence in cross-promotional warfare, with her dominance over the Marvelous roster throughout the 2021 GAEAism feud giving the world an even more extensive look at what Hashimoto at the top of her game truly looks like.
While her longest reign with the Sendai Girls World Championship concluded at the end of 2022, Hashimoto’s win/loss record remained absolutely remarkable. Heading into 2023, she had not conceded more than two falls in singles competition to any woman in the world. Even her trainer and mentor, Meiko Satomura, fell to her protege in all three of their singles matches. As Hashimoto returned to STARDOM for the first time in six years, she stood face to face with one of the only women to even come close to getting one over on her, the one and only Syuri Kondo.
Syuri may look similar to other Stardom wrestlers, but her pedigree is closer to someone like Minoru Suzuki than it is to her peers graduating from the dojo system. Debuting in 2008 as wrestler, and then in 2009 as a boxer and mixed martial artist, Syuri Kondo made her way to the highest level of the sporting world, winning the strawweight Queen of Pancrase title before a brief UFC tenure, notably going toe to toe with top strawweight contender Yan Xiaonan.
Rise of the Vermillion Bird
Unlike a lot of fighters, she didn’t pause her professional wrestling career during this time, participating in amazing feuds with future WWE superstar Asuka, then known as Kana, tagging with AEW Women’s Champion to be Hikaru Shida, and embarking on an extended run in Sendai Girls. She used her MMA experience in her style, which gave her a genuine grit that set her apart from many of her contemporaries. During this period, she even made a debut in Stardom, although it was at a house show and to no fanfare. Even outside of Japan, she was immensely successful, winning titles in CMLL, as well as Wrestling New Classic (WNC), where she also participated in some brutal deathmatches
After tempering her spirit in the flames of battle, she made her proper Stardom debut in 2020, as the newest member of Giulia’s Donna Del Mundo stable. Initially cutting her teeth in the midcard, she had surged her way to the top by the end of the year, challenging Mayu Iwatani for the top belt and then defeating Bea Priestley for the SWA World Championship. Syuri finally became appreciated on the global stage during her feud with Utami Hayashita, and is now thoroughly established as a main eventer in the promotion.
Violence Amidst Beauty
All of this brings us to All-Star Grand Queendom, a show headlined by Giulia, Tam Nakano, Iwatani, and Mercedes Mone. The exact kind of match that usually dominates the upper cards of mainstream joshi promotions, a fast paced work-rate epic with a ton of reversals, the same style dominating New Japan in the 2010s. Kondo and Hashimoto presented a much different offering, a knockout or submission match that focused on the martial arts experience of both women. This format removed the great amount of kickouts normally seen in a top Stardom match, which made the escalation of violence towards a finish more linear and climatic. It’s a bout that never overstays its welcome, full of the kind of visceral violence you rarely see outside of American Indie cards or Katsuyori Shibata’s work. This was not a match, it was a fight, and it proved that there should be a place for this kind of wrestling in the most prominent Joshi platforms.
What does any of this mean? Nothing is for certain, but we’ve seen an increase in the diversity of Joshi wrestling widely available, with visionaries like Emi Sakura and her brainchild Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling becoming more widely known in the west, or Maki Itoh’s satirical take on idol wrestling bringing her widespread popularity. All of this is great, but hopefully Hashimoto gaining steam means that there’s a place for brutal matches in the world of women’s wrestling as well. The more good wrestling the merrier, and Hashimoto’s brutal style brings a lot of merriment to her fans. Long live the legacy of Sendai Girls, as their wrestlers and alumni continue to bring an alternative to the forefront.
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