U.S. Lady Wrestlers In Japan

[NWA 4-Ever]

Could Joshi Puro feds sign on Lady Wrestlers from the U.S.?
There are many talented wrestlers who, IMO, could
make a name for themselves in Japan.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

They used to bring the US talents to Japan, but they haven't done much recently probably because they don't want to spend money on the wrestlers who are most likely a lot less talented than the native girls. No offense intended, but I haven't heard of any current US wrestlers who could keep up with the Japanese girls. If you can name a few, I'd appreciate. I gotta check them out then.

Up 'til mid 80s, the legends such as Leilani Kai, Monster Ripper (Rhonda Sing/Bertha Faye), Judy Martin, etc. often came to Japan as guest talents. Also, other girls such as Terri Powers, Reggie Bennett, and Debbie Malenko wrestled there, but they were regulars staying Japan rather than guest gaijins.

[frankp316]

Right now, ARSION's Bionic J is the only American wrestling regularly in Japan. I think things are starting to loosen up a bit in this area. Last summer Cheerleader Melissa & Taylor Matheny worked for ARSION mainly to benefit from the training. April Hunter wrestled Mima Shimoda on a NEO show a couple of months ago. She was able to do this through NECW promoter Sheldon Goldberg. He's the one who brought Sumie Sakai to America and Sumie picked up April on her arrival at the airport. With Sumie returning to America in April, we're likely to see more of this. Most of the American women wrestlers want to go to Japan just to learn. There are a few that could keep up with the joshi wrestlers; Phoenix, Lexie Fyfe, Little Jeanne, Sienna Blaze & Australian Amy Action to name a few. Sienna has told me she intends to go to Japan this year and has even been learning to speak Japanese. I agree that a lot of the others don't have the training or experience to keep up. They're having trouble getting matches and it's hard to be good when you're wrestling a five minute match twice a month. I was at an AWF show last week to see a 20 minute draw between Phoenix & Macaela Mercedes. How often do you see a match of that length here? The girls have to work hard and earn the respect of the promoters so they can work a match like that but some promoters need to respect women wrestlers more too.

[Mutoh-Mania]

When was the last true womens wrestling in the US? I mean come on the matches today are one slip away from a ruptured implant. I don't want to see a chair shot in my porn and I don't want porn in the ring .

[Dr Feelgood]

The training's a big problem. How many US women wrestlers are willing to go through the whole drill from the ground up, practising the basics and wrestling the rookie matches for a year or more and only climbing the hierarchy after a hard and gradual learning process?
Since Debbie Malenko's stint with AJW I can't see any, besides Bionic J's fulltime place with ARSION, of course.

Mind you, I don't blame the women. Doing the rookie stuff is a longterm investment: it won't get them over or make them WWE superstars and it won't pay immediate dividends when they return to the US (where women's wrestling isn't in a state to justify or remunerate making the full investment of learning joshi puroresu anyway). Also, the japanese promoters don't want to use the US wrestlers as rookies, they want to throw them immediately into US invasion/monster heel angles, so we get Amazing Kong.
Taylor Matheny and Melissa while they have done more training were still thrown in at a level where they didn't belong: in the matches I've seen so far, Ai Fujita carried Taylor and Marichan carried Melissa without them really giving the impression they could build a decent match on their own.
It's not negative criticism, since they showed a lot of determination and -most importantly maybe- a will to progress in their art, and it was to be expected anyway. Heck, look back at J's first stay in ARSION and you'll see much of the same. I haven't seen April Hunter vs Mima Shimoda, but I do know that Little Hokuto could carry the corpse of Katie Vick to a decent match.

Bear in mind also, I have a big joshi backlog and haven't seen all their matches. It's just that while I believe staying occasionnally in Japan will make you a better wrestler, it just won't suffice to put you on the level of all the joshi-senshu. Unless you're a natural AND have already had a training of comparable level ( a la Dynamite Kid), but no such quality level training exists for women outside Japan.

[Mutoh-Mania]

Ya hit the nail on the head. But the fact is the men want the immediate results also. The fact is that womens wrestling has become to mean T&A and thus the average fan would freak out if they saw an actual wrestling match with women involved. Shall actually, because there is a wide-open market out there if someone would just tap into it.

[EvilMidnightBomber]

the average fan would freak out if they saw an actual wrestling match with women involved

I think anyone would freak out if they actually saw an actual wrestling match break out on RAW period.


I've actually come to enjoy watching women's matches in the WWE, if purely for the sick trainwreck potential of them. Since the Rock and Austin have been gone, counting blown spots in Trish Stratus/Jackie/Victoria etc... matches as supplented counting punches and kicks in an Austin/Rock match as the most enjoyable part of the show.

[Mutoh-Mania]

You said it all! WWF should have become WEF World Entertainment Federation and just knocked the Wrestling out because they have little to no wrestling.

[ShinzakiFan]

Apparently you two are forgetting Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. But this isn't the right topic, so I won't argue in any more detail.

[DarknessDragonM2k]

I would have to agree with Shinzaki fan... not the right forum but... if you must know...plenty of talent in the WWE can wrestle well and has in japan; Eddie, Beniot, Angle, Tajiri, Lance, Chris Jericho, ect. it's just that they don't let them...why? "cause Vince loves the big men"...

[davin]

You will see some wrestling from the Angles, Benoits, and even from Chavo and Eddie, but even with the guys, the crowd seems to have only so much patience. The women on the other hand, are held to an entirely different standard. I noticed in a match with Jazz a few weeks ago, that she does use submission moves here and there, but the crowd doesn't get into it. The only exception seems to be if the move involves one of the ladies being put into a revealing postion of some sort.

I just watched a match between Yoshida and Jd's Megumi Yabushita on an Arsion tape I just got, and enjoyed it. But if that match had taken place here in the states, after a minute of grappling, the crowd would have started with the "Boreing" and "we want puppies!" chants. Forget about the likes of Trish and Stacy, but the real wrestlers like Lita, Molly, Ivory, Jackie, Jazz, and Victoria, could do a lot better if they had the chance to work more, but the audiences here would never tolerate the kind of style prevalent in Japan. The audience in Japan on the other hand, seem to understand and appreciate the technique, counters, and reversals that are on display when two good grapplers have a match. Sad part is that this will probably never change.

[Tradewynd]

Of women in the states that I've seen, I think only Victoria and Molly have the potential to be something in Japan. Trish has come a long way since her days as a model, but come on, she blows more spots than Jeff Hardy. Lita, well, other than a moonsault, it's pretty painful to watch. Jackie may have had some talent 10 years ago, but have you seen her recently? Egad. Some goes for Jazz. Way too sloppy to make it in Japan. I've done some shows with Nora(Molly Holly) and she has some serious talent, but it seems from watching her that she's losing what she from all of those 2:30 matches on Raw. But who knows, if Arison brought Nora and Victoria in as an evil heel monster tag team I'd buy tapes of it.

[davin]

Actually, when I said they could do better, I meant within the context of what you see from women here in the states. I don't think any of them would do very well in Japan. I haven't seen many matches with Victoria, but from what I have seen, there seems to be a lot there. Molly seemed like she would be a lot better when she first came on the WWE scene, but that has not played out. The biggest impression I get about her is that her talent is not being utilized. You know it's there, but it's not being allowed to come out. I haven't seen Jackie lately, but she was more impressive in the past. Jazz is sloppy, but I believe she could be a lot more polished if she worked more...again, in terms of what you see here. I think even Victoria and Molly have a LONG way to go to get to where they could work a match in Japan and not look ridiculous in the process. Speaking of which, I recently watched a match between Momoe and somebody named the Amazing Kong. It was horrible. Where did SHE come from, and when will she be going back? Talk about egad!!!

[frankp316]

Last summer, Yumiko Hotta challenged Aja Kong to a vale tudo match to protest GAEA's GAEA vs Zenjo angle. After Aja turned her down, that comedian Ogawa announced a match between Hotta & "A Kong". Of course everyone thought it was Aja but it turned out to be this large black woman. He decided to call her Amazing Kong. She was training at Inoki's dojo in LA. Ogawa declared that Amazing Kong would be the female Bob Sapp but she doesn't have the experience or ability to do anything but squash matches. He gave her this absurd push which included a title match with Momoe. It's just ridiculous but she's still there.

Regarding the previous post, you need to watch something other than the WWE. There are plenty of talented indy women wrestlers out there. Check out the following website.

http://www.glorywrestling.com/

[Rookie Mark]

What about well respected U.S. lady wrestlers, like Susan Green,
Candi DeVine, Diane Von Hoffman, Amanda Storm and others
who are wrestling for the love of it? They could be
perfect to go to Japan.