Joshi Spotlight: The Failed Rookies of AJW

The standard “AJW Rookie Match”, made unique by the fact that it’s pretty much the only time we’ve seen one of them. AJW’s training was HARD.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- AJW’S FAILED ROOKIES:
* So this is a slightly unique one- a look at the various FAILED wrestlers of AJW’s rookie classes! As a promotion with a strict system of training and elevation, All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling had a system where it would take however many applicants there were, narrow it down to a handful, train a group all at once, and then debut them around the same time.

These “Trainees” would be pared down by rookies quitting, the office deciding they weren’t going to work out, etc., but eventually we’d get small debuting classes of 4-6. As the years went on, they’d go from “opening match losers” to getting focus on TV shows on occasion, then slowly pick up wins, finally get elevated, and eventually they’d start getting real pushes and be at their peak by Year 6-7. Buuuuuuuuuuuuut along the way things can happen and the wrestlers fail. And I wanted to write a column devoted JUST to the wrestlers who failed. Some of the reasons I know, some I don’t, and oftentimes I don’t even recognize the names in general or have never seen them. So naturally I can’t write full columns on THEM. But this is a tiny bit devoted to those people who fell through the cracks.

Of particular note are the infamously bad Sontitham sisters- a pair of girls from Thailand who were in only a handful of taped matches before disappearing. And I actually review a couple of them down below!

THE SYSTEM:
* So like I mentioned in my “Training & Elevation System” column, there’s a pretty rigid backstage hierarchy of people based off of who debuted when, and a hierarchy on the card itself. It’s not QUITE so rigid but generally there are “Tiers”:

Rookie (1st Year): Finished training and have passed their “Pro Test”. Are jobbing in opening matches in a “Jobber Swimsuit” using a “Communal Offense” of generic amateur-style moves, dropkicks, standing back body drops, and ending with a bodyslam of all things.
2nd Year: Still jobbing, but maybe starting to pick up unique moves.
3rd Year: Still jobbing, but getting some unique gear and moves. Will crush 1st-2nd Years. Often impresses by kicking out of third-tier moves from true stars and showing up in tag matches.
4th Year: The first year of REAL stardom. Will get real outfits and finishers, and will start to beat veterans who are on a lower level.
5th-8th Years: When real stardom is determined. Some never get elevated. Some shoot up the ranks quickly (Manami Toyota, Kyoko Inoue). By the 6th Year is often fighting for the All Pacific Title. By 7th Year you’re often either a main eventer or you never will be.

So getting dumped in the first four years can happen for almost any reason. If the office doesn’t think you have potential, you’ll get cut- both Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda were cut from the Class of 1986 before getting picked up by FMW… and proving themselves to be amazing workers. If the company is desperate, people who might otherwise get cut will stick around so they have SOMETHING to show for their training classes. Oftentimes no information is found about people.

But the training system is brutal and punishing, having 8 tiers of “senpais” (ie. upperclasswomen who can boss you around, and you WILL have to do what they say) above you is often emotionally destroying, and your push is never guaranteed. You get your ass kicked nightly and the money ALWAYS sucks. So people quit for a ton of reasons. The Matsunagas also saw a system of bullying that they either ignored or willfully let get out of control (if they hate each other, they can’t hate the BOSSES, right?)- this often led to a LOT of early quitting. Various wrestlers have talked about this- Takako Inoue is open that she used to bully Yumi Fukawa, for example, and Yumi picked on the babies immediately beneath her. Mima Shimoda was apparently quite the shit as well- her in-ring persona was no act.

THE LIST OF FAILURE:
* This is totally just me copying & pasting from Japanese Wikipedia, via Google Chrome’s translator, so bear with me. Some of these I can find matches for, while others are just ghosts. Even Cagematch doesn’t list some- I would imagine these never wrestled in a taped match or were cut as Trainees.

THE CLASS OF 1985:
* These are the classmates of Akira Hokuto, Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami. All were big stars from 1991-95 and Hokuto is a GOAT contender. At the peak of the Crush Gals phenomenon, people who weren’t showing skill early on could probably be easily dumped- this class looks absolutely massive.

RIE OKABAYASHI (retired 1986)
FUMIE KANZAKI (retired 1986)
AKEMI SAKAMOTO (retired 1986)
YASUKO ISHIGURO (retired 1987)
KYOKO ASO (retired 1987)
SAYURI NAKAJIMA (retired 1987)

DRILL NAKAMAE (retired 1989): Drill actually quickly joined Dump Matsumoto’s Atrocious Alliance, but retired before a real push could begin, and became a caddy in her hometown.

KAHORU KAGE (retired 1988): Another Dump rookie. She was a ring announcer for AJW afterwards, and is currently Takako Inoue’s business manager and runs a food bar.

THE CLASS OF 1986:
* These are the classmates of Aja Kong, Bison Kimura, Megumi Kudo, Combat Toyoda, KAORU & Miori Kamiya. All big, big stars (save Kamiya), though Kudo & Combat were also cut loose in 1988 and found success in FMW in 1990. Mika Takahashi lasted a bit, retiring in 1991. A contender for most successful class in history.

REIBUN AMADA (retired 1989): Amada quit in 1989 and moved to FMW alongside Kudo & Combat, but quit in 1990.

YACHIYO HIRATA
DARREN OHASHI BRIDGE: A half-European wrestler. Retired to work as a restaurant manager.

The Class of 1987 with their baby versions. Look at Manami’s bowl cut!

THE CLASS OF 1987:
* These are the classmates of Manami Toyota, Toshiyo Yamada, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda. These all wrestled basically FOREVER and maintained rivalries over the years, and is another top contender for “Best Class Ever”, as Manami is an all-star moverate wrestler and Las Cachorras Orientales were one of the top acts in Joshi for at least five years. Like Yamada, maybe the worst one, has had more ****+ matches than all but like 30 wrestlers.

HIROMI HASEGAWA (fired 1989): This is one of the more fascinating “Secret Stories” in joshi. From what I understand, Hiromi was a god-tier athlete (like, she stood out even over TOYOTA) and had so much potential she was immediately pushed on TV. But then suddenly a couple years in she was fired. Nobody seemed to have said why until much, MUCH later- it was said that she was caught stealing from other wrestlers and was fired for it.

SACHIKO NAKAMURA (retired 1989): Was apparently Rookie of the Year in 1988, but retired in May 1989. Returned for a few matches in Jan. 1993 “but did not last long”.

CHIAKI ICHIKAWA: No idea.

THE CLASS OF 1988:
* These are the classmates of Kyoko Inoue, Mariko Yoshida & Takako Inoue. A very good class with a future World Champion and the Ace of ARSION (a lesser company), plus probably the most famous Idol Wrestler. But a pretty small class overall.

MAYA OBATA: No idea.

KEIKO WAKI: No idea. Appears in a single match on Quebrada.

SUMIYO TOYAMA (retired 1988, moved to JWP): An interesting story of someone who quit almost immediately but was allowed to move over to rival company JWP, where she trained instead. Later made a proper debut in 1992, wrestling as the goofy Saburo in 1995. Retired at last in 1996. Far as I can tell, she never got remotely good.

THE CLASS OF 1989:
* These are the classmates of Sakie Hasegawa, Bat Yoshinaga, Tomoko Watanabe & Kaoru Ito. By all rights a good class, but got caught up in the Interpromotional Era and were elevated very, very late. Bat retired very early without seeing potential. Sakie retired after injury during her biggest push. Ito eventually became the Ace of AJW in the late ’90s while Tomoko was a resolute #2 star for years. But this is a case where everyone here feels far, far lower-end than most of the 1986-1988 big stars.

MICHIKO NAGASHIMA (quit 1991, joined LLPW): Michiko quit AJW and joined LLPW for its launch in 1992. She finally retired in 1998, never having gotten a push.

HISAE KUBOKI (retired 1990): No idea.

ATSUKO SUZUKI: No idea.

KAZUE SAITO (retired 1992): Appears in a match below. She seemed okay and tried hard. Typically wore a yellow swimsuit with two black lines on it, I guess.

MAYUMI YAMAMOTO (retired 1992): Appears in a match below. Seemed pretty generic as rookies go. She fought in a few shoot karate-type matches, and actually appeared on a lot of taped stuff.

THE CLASS OF 1990:
* These are the classmates of…. jesus. This is the Saemi “Numacchi” Numata year. She herself only lasted until 1993-94 before getting injured, and she was a horrible comedy wrestler until then. Two of this class quit almost immediately yet had a much longer career elsewhere.

YUKI LEE (quit 1990): Quit AJW and disappeared for years, but joined JD’ in 1994. Eventually quit there and fmoved around a bit, retiring in 1999. She suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. Just a kicky wrestler but too small and never really learned the proper body control to be a wrestler.

SHIHO NAKAMIGAWA (retired 1992, moved elsewhere): Is verrrrrrrrrry briefly seen in some 1992 stuff, but quit early. Got married in 1999. Formed something called RING in 2005, and changed her name to Shiho Tsubaki in 2008 and joined KAIENTAI DOJO as a freelancer. Joined Pro Wrestling Five in 2012, retiring at last in 2016. That’s a lot of stuff for someone I only just remembered doing a search of matches.

AKEMI TORISU (retired 1992): I actually did a full bio on her because her full story was kind of unique- skipped the “Applicant” process because she had legit karate skills, but was overweight and couldn’t move well, and so she was dumped early.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-l671mw1bE&ab_channel=JackSharesGraps

Darn! The link has since died! You’re all spared from Sontitham atrocities!

BAT YOSHINAGA, TOMOKO WATANABE & PIRASINEE SONTITHAM vs. MIORI KAMIYA, MIKA TAKAHASHI & KAORU ITO:
(AJW Grand Prix, Aug. 1991)
* The dreaded only televised match of Pirasinee Sontitham! Here she’s wearing a multicolored singlet and looking like a generic (if tan) joshi teaming up with the tag team of Bat & Tomoko, in their white pants and heavy mascara look they kept until late 1992. Kamiya is the resident veteran (a 5th Year by this point), Mika is from Kyoko’s class (1988) and is the veteran, and Ito is a 2nd Year with Bat & Tomoko. Ito in a plain white & yellow singlet is funny.

We get some Sontitham offense right early as she charges in on Ito with some… odd dropkicks. Like one has an upwards curve and others are kinda spread-legged. Kamiya quickly brings in Tomoko for some generic beats, then everyone trades off. Bat’s kicks look good against Ito. Tomoko pretzels, but gets stretched by Kamiya, then Mika (who does a falling deathlock and a Muta Lock-esque move), but fires back and beats on Ito with her judo flips (hey she was doing those back then, too!). Sontitham in… for a single back elbow before she’s backdropped and it’s over to Bat- Ito USES THE ASS but gets kicked down. Mika comes in and gets suplexed, but bridges out and hits a headlock takeover- tornado bulldog & two facecrushers get two! Bridging suplex and Tomoko breaks it up, then Mika gets too cute with repeating offense and gets tossed around before putting Bat on the floor and hitting a weaksauce facecrusher off the apron. Mika & Bat throw each other into stuff, then Bat/Tomoko clothesline Mika down. She reverses on them and Kamiya nearly gets Tomoko by countering her rana, then they do a pretty dangerous move with a Doomsday Device Facecrusher on Tomoko, then whipping her into Ito’s ass out of the corner for the three at (14:21).

hahah well I was watching this for Sontitham and was given an astounding array of three dropkicks, a back elbow, part of a double clothesline and that’s about it. She didn’t actively suck but she wasn’t give a CHANCE to, and my god I don’t think that’s a mistake. Granted she was by far the least experienced of this group. It’s actually a pretty good high-paced Rookie Match otherwise, with veterans controlling some of it, Bat getting to show off, and Tomoko/Ito using some of their unique offense in good ways. Good finish, too.

Rating: **1/4 (much better than I was expecting)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWRwRXbHaig&ab_channel=JackSharesGraps

TOMOKO WATANABE, PIRASINEE SONTITHAM & PORNTIP SONTITHAM vs. KAORU ITO, KAZUE SAITO & MAYUMI YAMAMOTO:
(AJW WWWA Champion Legend 1991)
* LOL here we go. BOTH Sontithams on one team, teaming with Tomoko up against other juniors. Pirasinee’s in black with blue shorts, Porntip’s in green with black shorts, Tomoko’s in black with white pants, Ito’s in the most gloriously weird white swimsuit ever (it has what looks like , Kazue’s in yellow with black stripes & Mayumi’s in white/blue.

Ito’s team attacks to start, her partners throwing pretty weak dropkicks, and Tomoko boomerangs onto her for two. Ito reverses her stretching and Mayumi throws more bad dropkicks, but gets her stomach bit. And now we get some Sontitham action, as Porntip tags in (even THAT is done awkwardly), has to reposition herself just to Irish whip Mayumi, then slowly steps forward and turns around for a back elbow. The next one is a little better (though looks like it makes no contact as she’s angled funny) and a slow-mo bodyslam gets two. Pirasinee’s in for a hair-whip and dropkicks Mayumi’s ass while she’s on the mat, but Saito comes in and throws dropkicks. Pirasinee seems to sell okay but as Ito puts boots into her she doesn’t react much. She wails in a leghold and throws wimpy kicks in it, but finally Tomoko’s in with judo flips on Ito. Saito does rookie-fu on Tomoko but gets crabbed, but gets a headscissors for two then she & Mayumi mis-time a clothesline spot. But Tomoko whips Saito into Ito’s corner ass attack and is back on. But OOH- they mess up her rana badly (her legs are under Saito’s arms). Tomoko improvises with dropkick spam and a jackhammer (!), and tags in Pirasinee for… a dropkick, which gets three (8:00). Oh wow what a finish, lol. The fans clap politely and Tomoko just walks away when the ref tries to raise her hand with the Thai sisters, who just stand there awkwardly and only one bows.

Okay so this was a BAD rookie match- Ito was good straight away and seems leagues above everyone else, having good, tight offense. Tomoko was okay, and Saito shows some good fire here with a lot of effort and speed. Pirasinee wasn’t given much of a chance to screw up, and her screaming selling is fine for a rookie though her offense is feather-light. Porntip did NOTHING, and as before, boy do I not think THAT was a mistake.

Rating: 1/2* (typical bad rookie match- Tomoko & Ito are good; Saito is okay except for the botch)

PORNTIP & PIRASINEE SONTITHAM (retired 1991): These are LEGENDS. They were sisters from Thailand who were only barely trained and were apparently among the worst in all history. In one of their only taped matches, Pirasinee scores a pin off a weak dropkick and their partner Tomoko Watanabe doesn’t even have her hand raised in victory- she just walks away. Pirasinee’s offense was feather-light and in every other match, their offensive segments were all of 5 seconds long. They did not last long.

And I’ll have you know I spent 10 minutes along with CommissionerBockwinkel going over what the likely proper spelling of their names is, lol. “Porntip” is an EXTREMELY common Thai name for women, but all the katakana says “Pantip”. Translating the Japanese version of Thai into English writing is an imprecise science- Lorefice’s stuff on Quebrada says “Birasuine” and “Bantip” a lot.

THE CLASS OF 1991:
* These are the classmates of Kumiko Maekawa, Chikako Shiratori, Rie Tamada. Not a terrific year, but Kumiko was a legit star. Interestingly, as I started reviewing 1992 in a timeline, these are wrestlers I theoretically would have seen if they’d ever made TV. They seem to have not.

MICHIKO OMUKAI (retired 1992): Omukai got a neck injury before I can recall seeing her on TV, but she joined LLPW in 1993 and farted around as a do-nothing rookie for ages before joining ARSION in 1998 and suddenly getting a big push as an Idol/Wrestler. Finally retired in 2007.

MAYUMI TERAKAWA & NORIKO OHKI: These two appear to have not even debuted.

EMI KOIZUMI & NAOKO KUMAZAWA (retired 1990): Both quit and joined FMW, but left immediately. Apparently this is translated to “They got fired for being scrubs, then jumped to FMW, where again they were fired for being scrubs”.

THE CLASS OF 1992:
* These are the classmates of Chaparrita ASARI, Yuka Shiina & Fusayo Nouchi. Not huge stars, but ASARI is known to most Western fans somewhat as the inventor of the Sky Twister Press and for being murdered on Monday Night RAW. These two never made TV at all in the timeline I watched so were probably dumped quickly.

MIHO IKARI: No idea.

AKIKO ABE: No idea.

THE CLASS OF 1993:
* These are the classmates of Yumi Fukawa… wow that’s about it. Again, never saw this one- Yumi starts getting on TV in 1995 or so and fights as an underdog until 1997, leaving for ARSION.

MIKI YOKOE: No idea.

THE CLASS OF 1994:
* These are the classmates of Yoshiko Tamura, Misae Genki, Tanny Mouse & Saya Endo. A slightly more successful class, if you can call it that. Tamura got on TV a bunch in 1995-97 and was good for a rookie.

YOKO TAKAHASHI: Retired due to a hernia. Joined JD’ as a referee in 1995. Joined women’s MMA in 1996.

NAOMI KATO (quit 1995): Joined JD’ in 1995 as The Bloody and became a good worker pretty quickly. Retired in 2005.

KAORU KANAYAMA (retired 1995): Makes all of one televised appearance at Wrestlemarinepiad ’94 and is gone in early 1995.

MISAE WATANABE vs. KAORU KANAYAMA:
* Rookie mayhem, as the slightly-experienced stringbean Misae takes on the tiny rookie Kanayama, who is such a non-presence in Joshi that the video actually describes her as “rare”. She wrestled so little that she has neither a Cagematch nor a Wrestlingdata profile, but I can see matches going back as far as September and ending around January 1995, meaning she lasted about four months before retiring for good. Both have Tomboy Rookie Haircuts here, and both in the exact same kind of Rookie Swimsuit- black with tiny colored accents. Misae’s have purple and Kaoru’s green. Thankfully they have really different body types.

Kaoru takes over early, doing that weird kind of hesitant “I dunno what to do next” thing that makes her moves look weird- think David Flair & Erik Watts. Snapmares, dropkicks, etc., until Misae finally reverses to a camel clutch, dropkicks, and the Rookie MDK, the “Bodyslam and then hold them down amateur-style”, gets the pin at (4:31), Kaoru sliding out and Misae trying the pin again for the win. Rookies being able to get pinned just by physically holding them down will never not be funny.

Rating: DUD (nothing to it)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR TOURNAMENT FINAL:
MARI MOGAMI vs. KAYO NOUMI:
* Two rookies face off in a Tournament Final. So, to really signify how slim the rookie pickings got for AJW around this time, Mari Mogami retires in March of 1996. Manjiimortal said it was a “sketchy” situation, and the YouTube comments here make mention of bullying at points- further research more or less confirms this, as she and Noumi both literally ran away from AJW at the same time… but Noumi returned! And then ran away again! And returned! On Bull Nakano’s YouTube channel, she admitted to having quit FIVE TIMES, usually being talked back by pal Nanae Takahashi! She at least lasts until 2005, appearing to be an AJW homer the entire time, and ending up as the All-Pacific Champion for 1.5 years. Mari’s in a blue “ellesse” Jobber Swimsuit, while Kayo’s in white with some light blue bits.

We’re joined in progress with Mogami dominating, unusually slow & silent about it. The crowd actually pops for Kayo’s bridge-outs when Mogami tries to hold her down for a pin, and she gets an OVATION for getting her toe on the ropes another time! Even the ref gives this “fatherly affection” impressed look, haha. Because they’re rookies, a mere trip is all it takes to halt four minutes of ass-kicking, at which point Kayo just does all the same moves Mogami was. But Mogami quickly turns a pin around on her, getting two-counts until the Rookie-Slaying MDK, the Standing Backdrop Then Lie On Them For a While, gets the three at (4:46). Wow, I was expecting Kayo to win the way she was being eaten alive out there.

Rating: 1/4* (A VERY slow-paced rookie match with an oddly hot crowd, though I dug Mogami’s frustration, frequently slapping Kayo for kicking out)

THE CLASS OF 1995:
* This was an infamous dud year, and a sign that things were truly going badly. Two rookies ran away (as in LITERALLY ran away) due to excessive bullying, which is what finally got the Matsunagas to crack down on all the people giving each other shit on the infamous long bus trips.

EMI MIYAMOTO: Had joined Oriental Pro-Wrestling in 1992, but it closed shop in 1993. She joined AJW as a rookie after that, but didn’t last long.

KAYO NOUMI (quit 1996): She ran away along with Mari Mogami, apparently due to bullying from Yumi Fukawa. Re-debuted in 1997 after AJW smoothed things over, finally retiring for good in 2004.

MARI MOGAMI (quit 1996): She was the 1995 Rookie of the Year, but ran away in 1996 due to the bullying atmosphere.

KAZUYO TAKAMATSU (retired 1995): Said to be the strongest of the class, but left super-soon after her debut.

YOKO IKEDA (quit 1995): Quit before her debut and joined FMW as a trainee and debuted there.

NANA FUJIMURA (quit 1995): Quit before her debut and joined JD’ as a trainee. Later joined Big Japan Pro Wrestling.

THE CLASS OF 1996:
* These are the classmates of Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi- actual big stars in the future! These were miracle rookies after the infamous “dud year” and helped tremendously. Miho Wakizawa and Miyuki Fujii also had long-ish careers.

RUMI SEKIGUCHI: Quit to join NEO Ladies as a trainee when they debuted, but quickly left. She joined “Smack Girl”, whatever that is (apparently early women’s MMA), but soon “faded out” according to Japan’s Wikipedia.

MAYUMI TAKAHASHI: Quit before her debut, but rejoined due to a passion for it. Due to “poor health” (anemia), she quietly retired without having many matches, “much to the regret of her many fans”. LOL did she write that herself, or did a fan do it?

MIHO WAKIZAWA vs. YACHIYO KAWAMOTO:
* Good heavens, who are THESE two? I’ve never heard of them. Expecting rookies who retired early (common to AJW at this time) I was surprised to find Miho had an 18-year career, moving on to Stardom, mostly in tag success. Yachiyo lasted… two? I think? One match in ’94 and a bunch in ’96? Miho’s in yellow (and is quite tall) & Yachiyo’s in black.

Miho completely dominates with the usual dropkicks, snapmares & armlocks, then Yachiyo comes back with dropkicks until time expires (2:33 of 15:00) shown. Those poor people.

YACHIKO KAWAMOTO: She lasts only a short time- Cagematch lists one match in 1994 (?) and a bunch in 1996.

THE CLASS OF 1997:
* This is the year AJW went bankrupt, so it’s pretty slim pickings.

NANA NAKAHARA (retired 1998): A big, strong girl who was recruited to the heel ZAPs, but flamed out super-quickly, apparently having a bad attitude.

NORIKO TOYODA (retired 1999): Apparently was quite bad according to most. Gets hidden by editing on some tapes but a gutted AJW probably needed even her.

THE CLASS OF 1998:
* The year after bankruptcy, only Isozaki Tomoka stayed on, lasting for more than 25 years!

MIKA HARIGAE (retired 1998): Went on to become a Mixed Martial Artist named “HARI”.

THE CLASS OF 1999:
* Yoshimi Shiotani stuck around for six years, but…

SEKI AYAKO (quit 1999): Said to have “retired soon after being taken back to her parents home”. I’ve heard that “parents just show up at the dojo to take their teenage daughter back” wasn’t entirely unusual.

THE CLASS OF 2000:
* This is the class of Mika Nishio.

CHIE TERASHITA: Retired to publish manga for women.

THE CLASS OF 2001:
* Saki Maemura lasted a while, I guess? Most of these re-debuted elsewhere.

TOMOMI KITAKAMI (quit 2002): Joined KAIENTAI DOJO as a trainee, but quit before debuting. Joined Yumiko Hotta’s “Major Women’s Pro Wrestling AtoZ” rebrand of ARSION as Mirai. Died in 2005.

AYAKO SATO (left 2002): Joined a wrestling club and later joined Kaoru Ito’s school in 2005 as a trainee, and continued on to Pro Wrestling Diana in 2011.

TOMOKO MORII (left 2002): Joined Ito’s school in 2006. Moved to JWP in 2011.

RIE TAKAHASHI (retired 2002): Got injured. Joined KAIENTAI DOJO as a trainee, then joined Smack Girl as “berry15”, but got hurt agian and retired for good.

FUMIKO YAMANE

THE CLASS OF 2002:
* This is the class of AMAZING KONG, who was scouted by one of the Matsunagas in LA.

KOSEKI KANA: Challenged for the AJW Junior Title in her debut, but retired immediately.

THE CLASS OF 2003:
* The final rookie class, as AJW closed up shop for good shortly thereafter. Natsumi Mizushima had a pretty long career as Natsuki Taiyo, founder of Seadlinnng (no I didn’t sit on my keyboard; that’s the actual name).

KEIKO HIROSE: Retired immediately after her debut, but returned in 2016 as “Deborah K” and joined Pro Wrestling Diana in 2022.

HIROMI TAKAHASHI: Appears on exactly one show.

And that’s it! I could delve even earlier but I’d have no idea who was a proper “star” and who wasn’t at that stage, and this is already damn long, haha. It was fun for me and now I have a proper list I can look at any time I need a quick answer to “Who the hell is THAT?” when weird rookies show up. And I’ve finally seen the legendary Sontithams.

Joshi Spotlight Master List