With the hype surrounding TJPW’s Grand Princess ’23 show, especially the main event of Yuka Sakazaki vs Mizuki, I thought I would take a look at the first event of TJPW’s current big show schedule, Wrestle Princess I, and look at the first time that Yuka and Mizuki fought for the title. With an International Princess Title Tournament underway and the Tag Titles also on the line, there should be a lot to look forward to in this show.
Sena Shiori & Suzume vs. Mei Suruga & Moka Miyamoto
Mei Suruga is the first of three guests on this show, and being the most experienced wrestler in the match, it should be of no surprise that she was the one to carry the match through. She and Suzume had some pretty good stints, although never of them had the movesets at the time to make it too memorable, their chemistry in the ring was great and it makes complete sense that these two have formed somewhat of a rivalry over the past few years. Sena and Moka weren’t dreadful, but a lot of their strikes looked very weak and they tended to focus on basic grappling, although Sena did pull off a pretty good arm drag from the middle rope.
Match Result – Sena Shiori & Suzume defeats Mei Suruga & Moka Miyamoto – **¾
Haruna Neko & Marika Kobashi vs. Mahiro Kiryu & Pom Harajuku
Look, I’m not going to lie to you guys and say that I enjoyed this because I really didn’t, no special comedy spots to counteract the wrestling we saw in the ring, and everything Neko and Pom did looked super soft which while they are supposed to be not taken seriously, the lack of any sort of unique comedy makes it hard to not talk about. Mahiro had a problem with not putting power into her moves at this time and Marika had only come back to wrestling four days before this after a year-and-a-half break. Pom has thankfully started to have a lot more unique comedy spots and setups in big matches these days which was a much-needed change.
Match Result – Mahiro Kiryu & Pom Harajuku defeats Haruna Neko & Marika Kobashi – *½
Hikari Noa vs. Mirai Maiumi – International Princess Tournament Semi-Final
The first match on this of the International Princess tournament. A lot of this match was spent in grappling and submission holds which is fine if you’re into that thing, but I’m not. There were a couple of bombs thrown by Mirai and Hikari’s bridge suplex is always nice but I really don’t have a lot to say about this match.
Match Result – Hikari Noa defeats Mirai Maiumi – **½
Shoko Nakajima vs. Yuki Kamifuku – International Princess Tournament Semi-Final
The other semi-final was a lot more my speed, Shoko Nakajima showed just how good she can be by really leading Yuki Kamifuku into a good match here. The match started off hot, then dulled down quite a bit during the middle, and came back hot towards the end with some smooth roll-ups, suplexes, and quick action throughout the match. Kamifuku is still a pretty basic wrestler here, but she does utilize her length to make her dropkicks, suplexes, and Famousers look very good and gets her biggest career win up to that point. Not the highest recommendation but worth a watch in my opinion.
Match Result – Yuki Kamifuku defeats Shoko Nakajima – ***
Yuna Manase vs. Raku
I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. Yuna did a great job in carrying Raku into something decent, and sans the comedy spot at the start, I thought Raku actually did a pretty good job when she got her offense in, she laid in her forearms better than quite a few people on this show. The ending was noticeably messed up (I believe Yuna may have lost a bit of grip while dropping Raku for a half nelson facebuster) but not a terrible match here.
Match Result – Yuna Manase defeats Raku – **¼
Saki Akai vs. Hyper Misao – Random Changing Rules Match
I will give credit to TJPW for at least trying to be unique here, but this match for the most part was not for me. I won’t go into the rules here, as this match is best viewed not knowing what is coming up next, and if you enjoy comedy matches you will probably get a lot more than I did. I did like the ending stretch, but there’s not much more I can say about this.
Match Result – Saki Akai defeats Hyper Misao – **½
Aja Kong & Miyu Yamashita vs. Maki Itoh & Sareee
This is the first of the real selling points for this show, Both Aja Kong and Sareee had come into TJPW for the first time earlier in the year, and now it was time for them to face each other, with two of TJPW’s biggest names to help them along. Miyu Yamashita’s stints against both Sareee and Maki were great but there’s one big flaw in the match.
While I obviously respect Aja Kong for her love of wrestling and she is one of my favorite wrestlers to go back to in her prime, she was not good here. Besides her suplexes, nothing she did looked good and it wasn’t fun to see Aja striking Maki with some super weak-looking chops. The match is still worth a recommendation just to see how good a potential Miyu with her striking vs. Sareee with her high-flying singles match would be, and the stuff with Miyu and Maki was very good as well.
Match Result – Aja Kong & Miyu Yamashita defeats Maki Itoh & Saree – ***½
Before the next match, Nao Kakuta announced that she would be wrestling for TJPW in the future, marking a rare signing not trained up by the promotion themselves. Nao had just left AWG at the time and has gone on to be a solid consistent mid-carder for the promotion.
Yuki Kamifuku vs. Hikari Noa – International Princess Tournament Final
The winner of this match wins the International Princess championship. For a title tournament final at the biggest show in the promotion’s history, this could be considered a disappointment but the match overall wasn’t bad. Kamiyu’s and Noa’s strengths both came through this match, and I liked Kamiyu’s middle-rope Famouser to finish the match. The biggest problems are the match being so short (only lasting just under 8 minutes) and nothing really memorable happening but nothing really bad here.
Match Result – Yuki Kamifuku defeats Hikari Noa – **½
Princess Tag Team Championship: Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi (c) vs. Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino
The semi-main event is the team of Daydream, Miu Watanabe, and Rika Tatsumi defending the Princess Tag Titles against the Bakuretsu Sisters. A lot of this match focused on Miu and Aino and so Rika and Nodoka didn’t get as much time as you probably would hope for in this match, although what we did see from them was pretty good.
A lot of what you would expect, some good counter wrestling, good technical work by Rika, and power work from the other three, highlights of the match for me being Rika’s setup of the Dragon Screw, Miu picking both sisters up for a double body slam and Nodoka using Rika as a battering ram onto Miu and then throwing her for a last call. Yuki Aino’s finisher onto Miu looked great here in what ended up being a pretty good match, although nothing I would call spectacular. It’s definitely worth a watch and it is a great moment to see the sisters win their first belt together but I would say the tag match from a couple of matches ago was slightly better despite that match having the bigger flaws, it also peaked higher than this match could.
Match Result – Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino defeats Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi – ***¼
Princess of Princess Championship: Yuka Sakazaki (c) vs Mizuki
This match is the entire reason I decided to review this show, with Yuka and Mizuki having a rematch at this year’s Grand Princess, a lot of hype has surrounded this match in particular as being the best in the promotion’s history, and so I wanted to see just how I thought about this claim.
I think by those metrics set, I think this match is a little overrated. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great match but just in terms of matches I’ve gone and rewatched, Miu Watanabe v.s Miyu Yamashita from the Princess Cup and Shoko Nakajima’s title matches against Miyu Yamashita and Rika Tatsami I thought were better than this. This match also hit on one of my biggest pet peeves in wrestling, which is long periods of limb work, in particular, Yuka working Mizuki’s leg. I’m sorry but I think watching limb work is super boring and it never leads to any sort of consistent selling of a body part, only coming into play at the most contrived of moments. I don’t usually care about stuff like that in wrestling but when I’m forced to sit through minutes at a time of limb work, it never works for me.
There was some fantastic stuff in this match for sure, Yuka’s running elbows? Awesome. Yuka’s Suplexes and Brainbusters? Amazing. I believe this is the first time Mizuki pulled off the Whirling Candy which must have been breathtaking then. I can absolutely recommend people watch this match but from what I’ve seen the company do since this match has happened, I think its past reputation may have put a little bit too much hype on this match and that these two have the potential to do better at Grand Princess.
Match Result – Yuka Sakazaki defeats Mizuki – ****
I also wanted to put this at the end because I don’t want things such as booking decisions to impact how I feel about a match, that’s why whenever I review an event, I oftentimes want to be spoiled on what happens so that it doesn’t cloud how I really feel about how good a certain match is but Mizuki really should have won here. It was kind of a joke to make someone a back-to-back Tokyo Princess Cup champion and not reward her at least one of the times with a title run. It kind of set a precedent for baffling decisions with the Princess Cup with Maki winning it and then not winning the belt in 2021, and Miu Watanabe not getting the go-ahead to win it in 2022 ( or hell, literally anyone outside the 3 pillars or Mizuki would have been a good choice to win it). I really hope Mizuki can get a chance with the title at Grand Princess because I think it can kickstart a new era for the promotion which in my opinion would be a great thing for the scene in general.
Show Thoughts
I’d describe this as an above-average show. One recommended match and three matches I’d say are worth a watch, with the rest of the matches not being too bad with the exception of the second match it’s a decent watch. I will say, not including the opening talk and the intermission, it is still quite a long show at three and a half hours long and it doesn’t really start kicking into gear until about halfway through. This was also right in the middle of the pandemic and so if you care about this stuff, the crowd is quite small and quiet and so if that affects your enjoyment of wrestling then that may hurt the show for you.
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