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🧭 JOSHI PURO EXPLORER 2026 - No.1

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The Joshi Puro Explorer is a weekly match pack series exploring the world of Joshi Puroresu (Japanese Women's Pro-Wrestling) for everyone. Every week, there will be a match for y'all to watch for each week day with a little write-up about the background. You can also choose to watch all of these in one sitting if you wish. I will also include a bonus match at the end of the week, so stay tuned for that.

Match length is indicated by three different "trail" categories:

Special thanks to Ruki for helping out on the match picks this week.

THIS WEEK'S COURSE

The entire course is available to view on the Archive.

MONDAY (月)

Mina Shirakawa [白川未奈], Maika [舞華], Mei Seira [星来芽依]
vs.
Saya Kamitani [上谷沙弥], Tam Nakano [中野たむ], AZM
(Supercard Of Honor 2024)

This was a showcase match from STARDOM for the big Ring Of Honor show during Mania Week. STARDOM was in a weird transitional phase around this time with the leavers for MARIGOLD having just finished their dates and Taro Okada figuring out things weeks before All Star Grand Queendom 2024. It still showed that the roster had a lot of depth despite the departures.

TUESDAY (火)

Arisu Endo [遠藤有栖] vs. MIRAI
(Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling '26)

Endo defends her International Princess title against one of her seniors for the first time. Michinoku Pro's MIRAI who has now returned to her former home and earned another chance on a championship her younger self couldn't. Both have fought once in singles competition years ago with MIRAI picking up the win, but since then, they have matured much more in the ring, turning this into a very fresh match-up.

WEDNESDAY (水)

Manami Toyota [豊田真奈美] vs. Hikari Fukuoka [福岡晶]
(Japan Grand Prix 1993)

First singles match between one of AJW's top dogs versus a rising star from JWP standing as their sole representative in the Japan GP at the height of the inter-promotional war between the two promotions. Fukuoka admired Toyota and both wrestle in very similar styles. In terms of their performance in the tournament before this, Toyota had won 2 and lost 1 while Fukuoka had won all her 2 matches.

THURSDAY (木)

Mei Suruga [駿河メイ] vs. Mei Seira [星来芽依]
(ChocoPro #452 The Apple Film)

Another first singles encounter. This time between two former tag partners who are both named Mei (メイめい) and are very skilled speedsters. This was Suruga's 7th debut anniversary match and also the 7th defense for her first Super Asia title reign.

FRIDAY (金)

Sareee & KAIRI
vs.
Arisa Nakajima [中島安里紗] & Takumi Iroha [彩羽匠]
(Sareee-ISM Chapter II)

This was the 2nd main event in the series of Sareee's line of independent produce shows after just she made her return to Japan from America. Sareee's dream of tagging with KAIRI became reality against Takumi Iroha & Arisa Nakajima who are both top-level hard-hitters as well. Arisa had also confirmed that Sareee will be the next challenger for her SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea title before, so this counted as a preliminary match for that bout. A wonderful showcase of modern Joshi Puroresu.

BONUS MATCH

Sareee vs. Arisa Nakajima [中島安里紗] (SEAdLINNNG 8th Anniversary)

During a press conference on June, 14, 2023, Arisa Nakajima and Itsuki Aoki were being questioned leading up to their upcoming Beyond The Sea title match taking place on the 28th. Since winning the title back, Arisa has only defended the belt against wrestlers from the younger generation and wants to finally put this feud into a halt after Aoki as she has other opponents in mind. The Beyond The Sea Single championship to her is a symbol of strength in women's pro-wrestling and she hasn't been fond of the current mentality in the current generation. The generation of "pretty" or "safe" pro-wrestling. In a surprise, Arisa decided to call out Sareee and invited her to watch the match with Aoki to see if she's interested in showing what Japanese women's pro-wrestling currently is all about. The wrestling she returned home for that Arisa believes only can be found within SEAdLINNNG.

At this point, Sareee had just come back from the US after finishing her 2 years with the WWE. The last match she took part in before departing Japan was her teaming up with Yoshiko to defend the SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Tag Team Titles against Arisa & Nanae Takahashi where they lost the belts.

Right after she finished Aoki, Sareee happily claimed her 1st title shot since returning for SEAdLINNNG's own 8th anniversary show.

They had their first preliminary match on July 26 where they had very rough exchanges that resulted in the demon finishing Sareee with the DxD (modified half-nelson suplex hold). Arisa was a little disappointed as she expected her to be much harder. Sareee did get hit by a straight punch during it and had part of her mouth bleeding.

Sareee eventually picked up the win back with a lot of fight the week after in her turf using the wrist clutch uranage (watch the Friday match). Arisa left satisfied that this singles match with Sareee will revitalize the whole scene again.

On August 8, SEAdLINNNG held their press conference at an Antonio Inoki exhibit. Arisa reiterates that she only likes one thing about Sareee, and that's being a durable punching bag. A toy she could throw all her powerful elbows at for a good amount of time. Sareee wants to take that right arm away like Inoki broke Tiger Jeet Singh's or else Arisa might actually kill her (lol).

Both competitors aim to have an ultimate fight that transcends the current norms of the industry and to prove who can carry the torch, the true symbol of Joshi Puroresu.

Stay tuned for the next issue of the Joshi Puro Explorer on Monday :)

乞うご期待!!!

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