In 2016, Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani were the two most important wrestlers in STARDOM, and two of the best workers in all of (joshi) puroresu. Io Shirai was the STARDOM ace and main champion for the entirety of 2016, as she was the holder of STARDOM’s Red Belt, the World of STARDOM Title. Shirai also held three other titles in STARDOM at some point that year (SWA World Title, Goddesses of STARDOM Title w/ Mayu Iwatani, Artist of STARDOM Title w/ Mayu Iwatani & Kairi Hojo). Iwatani was the High Speed Title holder for the entirety of 2016. Most importantly, Shirai and Iwatani were involved in the three of the best four joshi puroresu matches of the year, as they had the joshi MOTY against each other on 5/15/16, an great rematch on 12/22/16, and they had a great tag team match in which they teamed up as Thunder Rock against Meiko Satomura & Kairi on 3/21/16.

STARDOM’s Thunder Rock wasn’t the only tag team that was covered in gold, because Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto, Best Friends, held several titles in 2016. As a tag team, they were the JWP & Daily Sports Tag Team Champions and the Ice Ribbon International Ribbon Tag Team Champions for the majority of the year. Nakajima also held the JWP Openweight Title on two occasions in 2016. Fujimoto held the Ice Ribbon ICExInfinity Title and the REINA World Title for a few months each. Most importantly, Best Friends was the best tag team of the year in joshi puroresu, because they were the most consistent tag team in terms of delivering quality performances and matches throughout the year.

JWP had been one of the best leagues of the 2010s because of their high-quality output. Arisa Nakajima played a big role in JWP delivering recommendable matches during a large part of the decade. However, 2016 would turn out to be the final full calendar year that this league would technically exist, as it would fold in April 2017 due to disagreements regarding licensing with the league’s production group. This was sad news, because not only was it one of the best league of the decade, it was also the oldest joshi puroresu league still in existence (since AJW’s folding in 2005), and the JWP Openweight Title was the oldest joshi puroresu championship still active at the time of the folding. On 12/18/16, Nakajima had a great match against JWP president Command Bolshoi, who would create a new company in 2017 that would serve as the successor of JWP, a league called Pure-J. Another highlight of JWP’s 2016 was the excellent match Nakajima had with Mayumi Ozaki on 4/3/16. JWP’s final year wasn’t always interesting though, as Kyoko Kimura, arguably the most overrated wrestler of 2016, once again received a rather undeserved big push. Still, as a top-to-bottom league, JWP was better overall than STARDOM that year, because STARDOM relied heavily on Thunder Rock, while failing to provide a truly solid undercard and midcard. JWP’s 7/31/16 show and 12/28/16 show are recommended for those interested in watching only a couple of JWP shows from 2016 (although the JWP 12/18/16 show should be checked out as well, even if it was just for the great Arisa vs. Bolshoi match).

2016 was the 20th anniversary of Mayumi Ozaki starting the OZ Academy stable in GAEA, and eventually this OZ Academy stable turned into the league that is still active today, which largely replaced GAEA when they closed in 2005. Speaking of anniversaries, 2016 was the 30th anniversary of Aja Kong, Mayumi Ozaki and Dynamite Kansai being pro wrestlers. While these sort of anniversaries bring a strong feeling of nostalgia, normally they don't lead to too many positives beyond that. However, 2016 actually saw the resurgence of some key veterans stars, with Aja Kong scoring her highest rank since the first year of the project (2010), Command Bolshoi making her first top 10 appearance, and Mayumi Ozaki making her first top 20 appearance. It wasn't merely that spots were vacated due to Kana joining the circus, and other top 15 stalwarts such as Natsuki*Taiyo, Shu Shibutani, and Ayumi Kurihara having retired in the past few years, it was actually because of the strong effort by the veterans that they ranked higher. I was ready to rank younger stars higher, but in 2016, Bolshoi had the 3rd best match of the year, and Aja and Ozaki gave a genuinely strong efforts throughout most of the year. I was certainly surprised by how high I was ranking them, particularly Aja was just shockingly good in 2016, carrying matches like it was 1996 instead of 2016.

OZ Academy’s 5/22/16 show was surprisingly good, as it had 3 matches on it that were worth recommending, including an excellent Syuri vs. Kagetsu match. Mio Shirai didn’t wrestle in 2016, but she continued her goofy and silly ways as an annoying heel referee in OZ Academy. 

Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling’s 1/9/16 show is an event anyone interested in joshi puroresu from 2016 should check out, because it had three SGPW matches that were worth recommending. Also, their 3/11/16 show had two very good matches. 2016 was quite a good year for those who are interested in SGPW, because there was actually a pretty good amount of footage available (unlike most of SGPW’s earlier years). 

Even though they weren’t good as consistently as JWP, STARDOM, OZ Academy and SGPW, other leagues that provided a good amount of quality content in 2016 were Pro Wrestling WAVE, Ice Ribbon and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. 

The most improved wrestlers of the year were Natsumi Maki, Kyuri, Miyu Yamashita, Shoko Nakajima, Maruko Nagasaki, Michiko Miyagi, Natsu Sumire, Saori Ano, Starlight Kid, Yuka Sakazaki and Mayumi Ozaki. Most of those wrestlers were relatively inexperienced young wrestlers who became better than they were the previous year. A notable exception is obviously the legendary Mayumi Ozaki, who finally once again was involved in noteworthy matches, because in 2016, not all of her matches were ruined by outside interference and all kinds of shenanigans (although many of her matches still did suffer from those negative factors). 

The class of 2016 joshi puroresu rookies was a strong batch of rookies. The top 5 rookies were a particularly promising bunch of talent: Chihiro Hashimoto, Yuu, RiNO, Starlight Kid and Reika Saiki. Chihiro Hashimoto, Yuu and Starlight Kid are still active today and still going strong at the time of this writing. Reika Saiki was a talented worker who was active from 2016 till 2019, and, unfortunately, she officially announced her retirement in 2022. Leon trainee Rino Orikono showed lots of potential and seemed enthusiastic, but it’s a shame RiNO only had a few matches in 2016 and then seemingly disappeared from the pro wrestling scene. Hashimoto and Yuu even were involved in matches that not only were worth recommending, but also made it to the top 30 best joshi matches of the year.

1/17/16 was the final day of Sendai Sachiko’s pro wrestling career, which was a career that began in July 2006. She had announced that she was retiring because of her marriage. This was such a shame, because Sachiko was a very enjoyable wrestler to watch, and the Jumonji Sisters (Sachiko & Chisako) were one of the best tag teams in joshi puroresu at the time of Sachiko’s retirement. Other wrestlers who retired this year were Rabbit Miu and Maki Narumiya, who both had been wrestling since 2011, and also Kanna Shinmei, who had only been wrestling since 2013. Of course, 2016 was also the first full calendar year that didn’t have Kana working in a joshi puroresu ring, as Kana had been performing as a sports-entertainer in the United States since October 2015. Her presence was certainly missed, particularly in WAVE, since she had been one of the best workers in joshi puroresu during the first half of the decade, and it would have been great to have seen her skills on display on joshi puroresu shows in 2016.

Below you’ll find reviews of seventy of the best joshi puroresu matches that took place in 2016, which is then followed by several lists, including the list of the top 161 joshi wrestlers of the year 2016 and the list of the top 30 joshi matches of that year.

TJPW 1/4/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Tokyo Princess of Princess Title Decision Match: Miyu Yamashita vs. Shoko Nakajima 19:17. The work wasn’t always very crisp during the early stages of the match, because it felt like they were trying sequences that they had a bit of trouble executing properly. They were still the two best in-ring performers on this show though, and it seems that these two were really coming into their own in 2016. The best thing about this match is that they kept trying to keep it interesting. There was never a dull moment, the tide kept changing, and the selling was solid throughout this bout. One of the biggest spots was a spectacular tope suicida. There wasn’t really a finishing stretch per se, and it didn’t feel like there were many near falls. Still, the match ended after a good amount of back-and-forth action, and it didn’t feel like an abrupt ending. This was the best match on the show (and it was actually a little bit more exciting than their 3/19/22 match). This contest was a good start for this new championship. ***

SGPW 1/9/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Arisa Nakajima vs. Mika Iwata 9:11. Iwata had been wrestling since her debut match against Aja Kong at SGPW 7/12/15, which was Meiko Satomura’s 20th anniversary show. Everything Arisa Nakajima did was done with great intensity, and you could sense that she was trying to help elevate the level of performance of the inexperienced Mika Iwata. Arisa guided Iwata through a very enjoyable match, and this match must have been a valuable lesson for Iwata, who had always shown lots of potential but just needed more ring time with a great worker like Arisa to help connect the dots and help make things start to become more second nature. Iwata seemed to know what she wanted to do, it just hadn’t become a more natural process yet. Arisa has the ability to be an ass kicker and be graceful at the same time. That helped this match be effective and successful in what it was intended to be, a useful match that was a learning experience for the younger worker. This wasn’t a very competitive match though, which means it could only be so good. It was still a very interesting match, because it’s a good example of how well Nakajima handles a match against a promising up-and-comer. *** 

SGPW 1/9/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Chikayo Nagashima & Syuri vs. Kellie Skater & Meiko Satomura 11:46. Syuri and Meiko Satomura exchanged kicks. Kellie Skater wasn’t on the level of the other three, but she tried hard and managed to fit in quite well. Chikayo Nagashima isn’t the worker she once was, but she’s still useful, especially in tag team matches. Leaving OZ Academy seems to have really hurt her career, even if it was only for the fact that she mainly wrestled for two leagues we currently have no 2016 footage of (Marvelous and Diana). At least she was involved in a good tag team match in SGPW. The best parts of the match were the times Syuri and Satomura were battling it out, because they kept taking it to each other in a very no-nonsense manner. Nagashima pinned Skater after a neat-looking fisherman’s buster. This was a pretty good match overall. Things weren’t always super smoothly executed, but they kept things interesting at all times. ***

SGPW 1/9/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Aja Kong vs. Chihiro Hashimoto 8:35. This was a very interesting match-up to decide the #1 contender for the Sendai Girls World Title. Chihiro Hashimoto was one of the most promising young wrestlers at the time, and Aja Kong knows how to carry people, so had all the makings of a match that’s worth watching. Hashimoto took a beating, but eventually found the energy to start fighting back. Since she was facing the one and only Aja Kong, this attempt to do something back didn’t go too well for Hashimoto, and she soon found herself in all kinds of trouble on the floor. Once back in the ring, Hashimoto managed to shower her incredible strength by picking Aja up and slamming her down on the mat. Aja tried to go for potential finishers, but Hashimoto managed to avoid them. Aja had to resort to using her trash can to get this match over with immediately, which could be seen as a compliment for Hashimoto, since things become more competitive than perhaps initially expected. This was a pretty good match overall, and this was about as good as a singles match involving young Hashimoto could get at the time, thanks to Aja’s knowledge and ability to carry the match. ***

SGPW 1/17/16 Sendai Miyagino-ku Bunka Center, Sendai Girls Tag Title Match: DASH Chisako & Sendai Sachiko vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & Mika Iwata 19:07. This was the final match of the Jumonji Sisters as a tag team, since this was Sendai Sachiko’s retirement show. Not surprisingly, the sisters showed excellent teamwork. They had been one of the top tag teams in joshi puroresu for the past five years. Even though this was the first time Chihiro Hashimoto & Mika Iwata ever teamed up together (not counting the 12-woman gauntlet from 11/12/15), they were chosen to be the final team to challenge the Jumonji Sisters in a tag team title match. When Mika Iwata was in the ring with the soon to be retired Sachiko, Iwata saw it as an opportunity to prove herself and to hit some nice strikes. Iwata was soon in a lot of trouble though, as the Jumonji Sisters kept making frequent tags, and were showing their skills. Iwata showed a lot of willpower though, and she wouldn’t give up. Chisako didn’t take it easy on the inexperienced Iwata. Chisako blocked one of Iwata’s strike attempts, and slapped her in the face to show her that she has to pay her dues if she wants to try to reach DASH-level awesomeness. Later in the match, Sachiko and Iwata were exchanging thrust kicks as the action was getting more intense. Chisako hit a vicious double foot stomp off the top rope, which was followed up by Sachiko’s frog splash. The time keeper thought this was the finish and started ringing the bell, but Iwata had her shoulder up before the count of three. Sachiko hit a beautiful moonsault to score the pinfall win. This time it was really the finish. The sisters remained champions, which meant that Sachiko would retire as tag team champion. Jinsei Shinzaki presented the champions with their belts, certificates and trophies. It was a good match, and it was nice to see Sachiko team up with her sister one more time. Their opponents were promising rookies who tried, but ultimately weren’t much of a tough challenge for the champs. ***¼

STARDOM 1/17/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, High Speed Title: Mayu Iwatani vs. Kay Lee Ray 13:48. Kay Lee Ray is such a dynamic athlete. Another impressive thing about her is that, unlike many other gaijin workers in joshi puroresu, Kay Lee doesn’t seem lost or out of place. Apart from a couple of short tours in late 2012 and early 2013 in Gatoh Move and JWP, 2016 was the first year in which she had more than a dozen matches in Japan. They started this match off trying to get the upper hand over the other. Kay Lee hit three tope suicidas in succession. This gave her the advantage over Mayu Iwatani, who was now groggy. Later in the match, Kay Lee hit a swanton bomb, but Iwatani knew she had to do something back quickly, so she used all the last bit of strength she had left to hit a dragon suplex just when Kay Lee was about to become a bit too confident. Both workers were now down. The final few minutes were all back-and-forth action, and things could go either way with neither worker having a clear advantage now. In the end, Iwatani kept her head cool and got the win. This was a fun match with good-quality action. ***¼

STARDOM 1/17/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World of STARDOM Title: Io Shirai vs. Kairi Hojo 29:31. The match was pretty slow for the first several minutes. Io Shirai hit a nice plancha off the top to the floor. They were teasing the spot where Shirai would normally do her moonsault off the fan entrance, but Hojo interrupted Shirai, and ended up leaping off the fan entrance onto Shirai with a flying elbow smash. Ho-chan hit her top-rope elbow drop, but Shirai kicked out. Hojo went for it again, but Shirai blocked it. Shirai hit a German suplex, but Hojo kicked out. Shirai hit a tiger suplex, which she followed up with a moonsault. This got Shirai the win. It was a pretty good match, but they didn’t show enough urgency, which ultimately made this match lack that big match feel you’d expect in a Red Belt match. Hojo was quite decent in this match, and Shirai did some cool athletic spots, but this bout was not nearly as good as hoped. Shirai never seemed in any real danger of losing, especially when considering Hojo’s biggest chance to win was after hitting a top-rope elbow drop. They wrestled for nearly half an hour, but it didn’t seem necessary to have this match go that long. With them going this long and this match lacking urgency, it just made it seem Shirai didn’t feel in danger of losing and was simply not in any hurry to be elsewhere. ***

JWP 1/31/16 Itabashi Green Hall: Arisa Nakajima vs. Rabbit Miu 15:33. Arisa Nakajima kept taking it to Rabbit Miu, making Miu work and react. Miu was at times overwhelmed, but Nakajima kept the match going by constantly doing whatever seemed like a logical next option. This was basically a Nakajima one-woman show, and while that is almost by default something that would result in an enjoyable match, it also meant that the main issue with this match was a lack of input from Miu, who barely contributed, perhaps because she was overwhelmed by Nakajima’s attempt to try to make the most out of this match. This was a pretty good match overall thanks to Nakajima, but it’s hard to consider it a very good match when it wasn’t very competitive. ***

Ice Ribbon 2/6/16 Saitama Multi Purpose Hall: Syuri vs. Tsukushi 15:00. To the best of my knowledge, this was the only singles match Syuri and Tsukushi ever had against each other. These two are usually very enjoyable workers, but it seemed their styles clashed. Syuri had her no-nonsense approach, but it felt like she took Tsukushi lightly, as Syuri was in no hurry in getting this over. Tsukushi gave a decent effort, but she’s better against an opponent who is willing to speed things up a bit more. It would have been a better match if there were some more hope spots and counters to make things more exciting. Instead, we got a solid but somewhat plain match here. It also would have helped if they had emphasized Tsukushi’s underdog role more, because that’s what she excels at, while Syuri excels at being the stiff and tough fighter, but we ended up not really getting any of that. We got some decent technical wrestling early in the match though. The middle portion of the match was just Syuri dominating Tsukushi, which was interesting to watch because of Syuri’s skills, but it didn’t really help turn this into a very good and competitive match. Things got more interesting near the finish when Tsukushi caught one of Syuri’s kicks and transitioned into a leglock. They eventually went to a time limit draw, which kinda made it come across like Syuri’s hadn’t been urgent enough, especially since she was in control for the majority of the match. Maybe Syuri was expecting a jury to show up and award her the match on points via unanimous decision. Despite this match being a disappointing one, it was still pretty good overall and interesting for those who are fans of these two workers. ***

JWP 2/21/16 Tokyo Hanayashiki Amusement Park: Arisa Nakajima & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Leon & Rabbit Miu 17:29. The dream team of Arisa Nakajima & Mayumi Ozaki completely dominated their opposition early on. Nakajima & Ozaki bullied Miu around for the most part. Leon trading blows with Nakajima was one of the best parts of the match. Inspired by Leon’s effort, Miu found the strength to fight back. Nakajima’s execution was superb, as usual. The main issue was the one-sidedness, which was to be expected when two joshi GOAT-candidates like Nakajima & Ozaki formed a nearly unstoppable team. Ozaki didn’t rely too much on the weapons, which was a plus. As a matter of fact, when Ozaki and Nakajima decided to use a chair, it backfired on a couple of occasions, which meant the introduction of the chair into the ring was often an opportunity for Leon & Miu to fight fire with fire. This was a good match, but it was mostly enjoyable because it was awesome that Nakajima & Ozaki teamed up. Nakajima & Ozaki didn’t take part in the Tag League the Best tournament, not only because it would be unfair for the competition getting destroyed by this tremendous team, but also because the whole idea behind having the ‘Tag League the Best’ tournament was that the winner would face the champions, Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto. ***¼

WILD HERO 2/22/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Arisa Nakajima & Syuri vs. Hikaru Shida & Hiroyo Matsumoto 17:15. The work in the match was generally enjoyable, but it took a while for the match to really start taking off. About seven minutes into the match, Hiroyo Matsumoto splashed Syuri in the corner, but that only seemed to trigger Syuri to beat Matsumoto up. Syuri hit several high-impact strikes. Shida was tagged in, and after hitting a jumping high knee, she was in the mood to do some more flashy stuff, including a huracarrana and a nice butt bump. Syuri decided it was time for a time-out and tagged Arisa Nakajima in, who started pounding away on Shida. When Matsumoto was back in, Nakajima and Syuri showed enough urgency to make it seem like they were about to finish things off. When Shida and Nakajima were struggling for position on the top rope, Matsumoto powerbombed her own tag team partner Shida, just because that resulted in Shida suplexing off the top rope in the process of Shida coming down. It was a drastic solution to get Nakajima back into the ring, but it worked. It didn’t seem to do the damage Matsumoto expected though, because once Nakajima was back up, she showed even more urgency than earlier. Matsumoto and Shida were getting more desperate in their attempt to finish Nakajima off. However, Nakajima ducked when Shida swung a bamboo stick at her, which meant Shida hit Matsumoto instead. The action spilled to the floor, and everyone ended up being counted out. The finish was slightly disappointing, especially since it seemed they were going to have a few more hot minutes before going home. Of course, the expectations are naturally high when top wrestlers like these are involved in a match together. Overall, this was a good match. ***¼

SGPW 3/11/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. DASH Chisako & Chihiro Hashimoto 17:31. This was the first time DASH Chisako & Chihiro Hashimoto teamed up together. After a solid but somewhat uneventful start, the match gradually became more dramatic. Hashimoto, who was by far the least experienced worker in the match, showed a lot of courage by taking it to her more experienced opponents. Hashimoto did a good job of being the underdog, while at the same time still being brave enough to show why she was the best rookie of the year. Chisako worked hard and took a lot of punishment. Her display of urgency really helped make this match feel like an important match that could have easily been the main event. It was interesting to see Chisako team up with a different tag team partner now that her sister Sachiko is no longer a wrestler. Of course, it’s a shame we’re no longer able to witness the great tag team dynamic of the Jumonji Sisters, but Chisako’s brilliance and tag team expertise enables her to uplift just about any tag team match she’s in. Chisako really has the ability to put a tag team match over as a war between two opposing sides through her intensity. At some point, young Hashimoto was not able to be of much help anymore, because she had done all she was capable of doing, and Hiroyo Matsumoto used her (tag team) wrestling experience to make sure that Hashimoto was not able to assist her tag team partner near the end of the match. This left Chisako, who had spent a lot of energy by the end of the match, quite vulnerable against the one and only Aja Kong, who was still a major force to be reckoned with 30 years into her pro wrestling career. Chisako survived a vicious brainbuster but then was not able to answer the count of three after Aja’s uraken. This was a very good match, especially thanks to Chisako’s effort and Aja’s presence. Matsumoto and Hashimoto also deserve credit for their roles in the match though. ***¾   

SGPW 3/11/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Meiko Satomura vs. Syuri 14:33. Both wrestlers were very serious and wanted to show the other they were the better striker and mat wrestler. Syuri hit several stiff mid kicks in succession. Meiko Satomura replied with some of her own, but they paled in comparison to those of Syuri. The match slowed down a bit, and they did some matwork that didn’t feel very urgent. Things picked up again when Syuri hit a stiff mid kick and went for juji gatame. Syuri showed that she came with the intention to beat Satomura. Satomura hit a high kick, Syuri replied with a jumping knee, but Satomura caught Syuri off guard with an overhead kick. Satomura was on a roll now, and things weren’t looking too good for Syuri. Satomura almost pinned Syuri after a splash off the top rope, but then randomly went for a chinRock. Satomura was hesitating too much, and Syuri eventually had Satomura in all kinds of trouble. Near the finish, the action went back and forth, and it was hard to say who was going to win this. Syuri even kicked out after being on the receiving-end of a Death Valley bomb. Satomura needed a second and even a third Death Valley bomb before she could secure the win over her tough opponent. This was a very good match. The start had the intriguing feeling out process, the middle part was a bit slower and less eventful, and then the finishing minutes were hot and really had everyone watching from the edge of their seats. ***¾

OZ Academy 3/14/16 Tokyo Shinjuku Face: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi 14:50. Tsukasa Fujimoto and Kagetsu started the match off and worked some fast sequences together, including some cool lucha-esque arm drags. Arisa Nakajima had a less merciful approach to start things off, as Arisa started kneeing Kaho Kobayashi viciously. Kagetsu came to Kobayashi’s aid though, and this gave Kobayashi a chance to breathe. Best Friends tagged in and out frequently while they beat up Kobayashi. Tsukka and Kobayashi had a cool dropkick exchange. Arisa continued to be vicious and certainly didn’t give Kobayashi an easy time. Kagetsu would occasionally try to break up Best Friends’ assault on Kobayashi, but Best Friends were determined to keep going. That’s not to say that Kagetsu didn’t get beat up herself though, because at some point Arisa & Tsukka came flying each from a different corner of the ring to missile dropkicked Kagetsu. It took a big springboard dropkick from Kagetsu to really start turning things around, at least temporarily. The action went back-and-forth, and everyone executed their moves well. Arisa executed a really nice double underhook suplex into a bridge that almost led her to victory. Arisa and Kagetsu worked smooth and fast sequences together. Kagetsu seemed to be in top form here, delivering crisp-looking offense, including well-placed kicks. Kobayashi was enjoyable, as always, and her role was mostly of the underdog type. Tsukka wrestled with urgency and precision. Tsukka’s great overview of the big picture of the match helped her be there at the right time and place. This meant she was a great backup for her tag team partner. Arisa was vicious and showed no remorse. Arisa eventually scored the pin on Kagetsu via a dragon suplex. This was an excellent match with non-stop action from start to finish, and one of the coolest things about this match is that there was no outside interference even though this took place at an OZ Academy show. ****¼ 

STARDOM 3/21/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Goddesses of STARDOM Title: Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs. Meiko Satomura & Kairi Hojo 24:21. It was clear from the start that this was a seriously worked title match. They were deliberate and effective in their approach during the early stages of the match, fully aware of each other’s reputations. The story going into this match was that Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani, also known as Thunder Rock, had been the #1 tag team for a while now, and a new team has been created in order to give them a new challenge. This turned out to be the only time Meiko Satomura & Kairi Hojo ever teamed up together though. Thunder Rock tried to keep Hojo in their corner, probably because they perceived her as the weaker, and certainly less dangerous member of the challenging team. Shirai and Iwatani were confident, yet careful to not get overconfident. Hojo screamed in agony as Thunder Rock was pounding away. Hojo was in survival mode, and eventually made the tag. Thunder Rock tried their best to keep Satomura under control, but with some help from Hojo, Satomura proved to be too strong to be held down for too long. Shaken up by the tide having turned, Thunder Rock was now being beaten up by the challengers. After all four went for a stroll in the audience, the action returned into the ring. Satomura hit Shirai with a well-executed backdrop suplex and a big forearm uppercut, followed up by some well-placed kicks. Shirai realized that not only were the tag titles in jeopardy here, but she also had her reputation as the greatest wrestler in the world to uphold. Shirai found the strength to fight back and hit a huracarrana as Satomura was running towards her. Shirai hit some kicks of her own before tagging Iwatani in. Iwatani hit a few dropkicks followed up by a northern lights suplex. Hojo was coming a bit too close to the action, so Iwatani knocked Hojo off the apron. Satomura was sensible enough to quickly make the tag once she finally stopped Iwatani’s momentum. Iwatani and Hojo were now the legal participants. Hojo didn’t seem to have too much strength left, as she didn’t fight back much. Thunder Rock tried to finish her off with a double-team move and an Iwatani superkick, followed up by a 619, a top-rope dropkick and a running double knee attack in the corner by Shirai. Hojo kept kicking out, but was too weakened to do anything back. Satomura knew it was time to step in and help out. Satomura stopped Thunder Rock’s pinfall attempts on Hojo and encouraged Hojo to fight back. Things were very action-packed near the end, with things being able to go either way. Satomura and Hojo worked together surprisingly well as a tag team, because Satomura was the strong leader and Hojo the willing follower. Hojo almost ended up winning the match for her team thanks to Satomura’s guidance. However, as much as Satomura & Hojo wanted to win this, Thunder Rock wanted it more. Thunder Rock took Satomura out of the equation with a vicious stuff piledriver. This was the biggest chance for Thunder Rock to win the match, and they took advantage of it, as Iwatani hit a modified dragon suplex on Hojo. Shirai followed this up with a beautiful moonsault, which resulted in a three count. In this match, Thunder Rock showed why they were the best tag team in STARDOM and arguably the entire pro wrestling world at the time. If they would have teamed up more often in 2016, Thunder Rock could have been the best tag team in all of joshi puroresu that year (although it’s possible Best Friends would still have been the best overall). Credit also goes to Satomura and Hojo, who did a surprisingly excellent job working together as a team. Of course, the match was smartly worked, and Thunder Rock were super workers and on top of their game. The way the match was structured made it possible for Satomura to show intensity in spurts while having faith in Thunder Rock to do the bulk of the work, and it made it possible for Hojo to focus on her segments without getting too many opportunities for melodrama, since this definitely wasn’t all about her. Thunder Rock was pushing the pace and keeping the workrate super high, which not only helped this match be great, but it made it almost impossible for Satomura & Hojo to get their weaknesses to shine through, since they had no choice other than to go along with the high workrate vibe set by Thunder Rock. The action was exciting, and the moves were well-executed. The in-ring storytelling was top-notch. Io Shirai showed why she was the best pro wrestler on the planet at the time, and Mayu Iwatani’s performance gave a strong indication that this was going to be a super year for her. Great match. ****¾

WAVE 3/23/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Mika Iida vs. Sareee 11:50. Sareee showed a lot of zealousness, but Mika Iida wasn’t going to let Sareee get her way too easily. Iida’s slickness made the part she was in control very enjoyable to watch. Sareee tried to fight back, but Iida seemed prepared for Sareee showing resistance. Sareee hit a nice missile dropkick, and it looked like things were going to go her way, but Iida turned things around. The match went back-and-forth. The pace was at its highest during the final minute, and it was Iida who eventually scored the win. It was a match that could have gone either way. Sareee gave a solid performance and showed desire. Iida seemed a bit more apt at reacting, and her work was a bit more crisp. The best thing about this match was the effort they gave, and there were no dull moments. ***¼

REINA 3/25/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, REINA World Women's Title: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Makoto 9:20. Tsukasa Fujimoto gave an excellent performance. Makoto was decent. The main issue with this match is that it was very one-sided for a title match until Makoto got the big upset win. While it was obvious they wanted it to be a surprise finish, it didn’t make sense for a top star like Tsukka to lose so quickly after pretty much dominating the whole match. *** 

STARDOM 4/2/16 Osaka Minato Ward Community Center, Goddesses of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kagetsu 15:58. This was Thunder Rock’s 10th title defense. Not surprisingly, Thunder Rock showed great teamwork. Kagetsu seemed to have some trouble adjusting and/or finding a new identity during this beginning of a new phase for her career. She appeared to be in better physical shape than ever before though, and she showed fighting spirit. Hiroyo Matsumoto didn’t really stand out too much in this match, but definitely didn’t take anything away from this match either. Io Shirai hit a beautiful springboard double dropkick on both opponents. This is the type of match that increasingly got better, as they focused on reaching a climax through a display of struggle. Mayu Iwatani’s selling played a big part in this match being interesting. It was a pretty good match, but of all the matches Thunder Rock had, this isn’t one that’s going to end up being one of the most memorable ones. *** 

JWP 4/3/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Two Count Rules: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Leon 9:11. This type of match is fun to watch once in a while, and these two made it work. The 2-count rule forced them to kick out after each 1-count, and this naturally made for a fast-paced match, as both Tsukasa Fujimoto and Leon are good at working fast-paced sequences. It was a pretty good match, but they probably would have had a match that was a little bit better if it was held under regular rules in a match longer than 10 minutes, because then they could have had a more wide-ranging match, not limited by the stipulation. ***

JWP 4/3/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, JWP Openweight Title: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Arisa Nakajima 15:36. Mayumi Ozaki had finally won the JWP Openweight Title on 7/11/15 by beating Command Bolshoi. Ozaki and Arisa Nakajima had been teaming up occasionally, but this time we got to see these two all-time greats battle each other one-on-one in the main event of JWP-Mania X 2016. Since this was 2016, the only way this was going to be a memorable match was if it was going to be a violent match, because Ozaki would then be able to combine her tremendous knowledge of wrestling psychology and her affinity for garbage wrestling to create something worth recommending. This is exactly what we got, as Ozaki incorporated her knowledge and at the same time was able to satisfy her thirst for blood. Nakajima juiced and sold the onslaught tremendously through facials and overall selling throughout this grueling battle. Nakajima showed her amazing fighting spirit by trying to counter weapon attacks with technical wrestling moves. Ozaki showed no guilt or remorse in her vicious attack on Nakajima. This wasn’t the fastest match, and it wasn’t the match with the most spectacular moves. However, this match featured great intensity, timing, and execution. They put this over as a true war. It’s a good thing this match took place in JWP and not in OZ Academy, because that meant we didn’t get outside interference. This match is one of those rare hardcore-style wrestling matches that are actually really good, because the blood and gore added something to the match. It’s nice to see a really good match involving Ozaki from 2016, which was the year she celebrated her 30th anniversary as a pro wrestler. ****

SGPW 4/8/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Sendai Girls World Title Match: Meiko Satomura vs. Aja Kong 17:43. Aja Kong is the opponent Meiko Satomura faced most often in her career. This was their 13th singles match against each other, and it was the first one since their 9/30/12 match, which was a 3.25-star match. Earlier in the decade, they also had a match on 4/9/10, which was a 3.5-star match. Their feud goes all the way back to 1998 though. In this 4/8/16 match, one of the memorable spots was when Satomura went for a frog splash, but Aja put her feet up and Satomura literally bounced off of Aja’s feet. Aja was great in her role as bringer of chaos and destruction. Because of Aja’s size, Satomura really had to really lay in those strikes. When Aja went for a Tenryu-esque backwards elbow drop off the top, Satomura caught Aja’s arm and executed juji gatame. After Satomura hit a Death Valley bomb, Aja got right back up and performed a devastating brainbuster. The match still wasn’t over though, as both women had been able to survive all the punishment they had been receiving. Satomura was even surviving after Aja had executed the uraken twice. Both women were extremely groggy at this point, as they should be after all that punishment, so the selling was spot-on. Things could go either way at this point, but you could sense that a finish could be coming up soon, as they had been building things up so well to a climax. In the end, it was Satomura who retained the title. The match was oftentimes slow and deliberate, but the selling, execution and storytelling was strong. Everything they did was impactful and meaningful. This match was on a similar level of quality as their 4/9/10 match, which also saw a focus on a methodical approach. In the 4/9/10 match, Aja was more energetic, but there was more compelling back-and-forth action and better storytelling in the 4/8/16 match. Also, the 4/8/16 match had a more decisive finish. In the end, this 4/8/16 match was just a little bit better than the 4/9/10 match. ***¾ 

OZ Academy 4/9/16 Yokohama University Osanbashi Hall: Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs. Aja Kong & Aoi Kizuki 12:08. Syuri focused on kicking people. Aoi Kizuki was her usual playful self, which somehow still led to being effective in this match. Aja Kong came to Kizuki’s aid when needed, but she seemed to trust Kizuki to do her thing. Shida was solid, but didn’t stand out from an in-ring viewpoint. Shida and Kizuki’s work against each other early in the match was fine, but near the end there were some sloppy moments. It seems they are better at teaming than wrestling against each other, at least based on this match. In the end, Shida scored the pin over Kizuki. This was a fun match that was pretty good overall for a random match in the middle of the card. After the match, Kong signed her little trash can and gave it to a little girl in the crowd. ***

OZ Academy 4/9/16 Yokohama University Osanbashi Hall: Hiroyo Matsumoto & Manami Toyota & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato 15:42. Hiroyo Matsumoto was feeling it that night. Perhaps she realized that she had to be doing the majority of the work for her team, since Tsubasa Kuragaki hasn’t been as impressive as hoped in 2016 so far, and nobody should really expect much from Manami Toyota in this decade. The MISSION 4K team, Kagetsu, Kaho Kobayashi and Sonoko Kato) stood out because of their high effort and high energy. It was a pretty good match overall, and it was good to see a more fired up Hiroyo Matsumoto. ***

WAVE 4/10/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Catch the WAVE Orion Blue Block: Hanako Nakamori vs. Misaki Ohata 7:56. This was a fun match between two wrestlers who really put over that they were trying to beat each other and score the victory. They showed a lot of urgency, as they kept going for impactful moves, and they weren’t wasting any time. They were clearly pulling all the stops. Ohata hit several German suplexes and kept launching herself at her opponent. Nakamori focused more on her effective kicks to try to stop Ohata’s momentum. Ohata was the aggressor, but Nakamori’s striking skills proved to be too much for Ohata to overcome. It was a good match, but it would have been interesting to see them wrestle each other in a longer match. ***¼

OZ Academy/MISSION K4 Produce 4/15/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Meiko Satomura vs. Kaho Kobayashi 9:57. MISSION K4 was a stable in OZ Academy that consisted of AKINO, Sonoko Kato, Kagetsu and Kaho Kobayashi. Meiko Satomura’s kicks made a lot of impact. Kaho Kobayashi replied with fiery dropkicks, but Satomura stopped Kobayashi’s brief momentum with more stiff strikes. Satomura was in no hurry, but everything she did was executed with authority. Kobayashi was the underdog, and Satomura was quite dominant. Whenever Kobayashi saw an opening to do something back, she showed a lot of determination. Kobayashi had to be quick in order to counter Satomura’s offense, because Satomura wasn’t going to let Kobyashi get away with much. In the end, it was Satomura who got the pinfall. It was nice to see Satomura motivated to have a very good match, but it felt like she was just motivated to bully Kobayashi. This match had the potential to be even better, but it lasted just under ten minutes, and it was over when it seemed they were on their way to have an interesting finishing stretch. ***¼

OZ Academy/MISSION K4 Produce 4/15/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Mixed Singles Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. AKINO 11:19. Minoru Suzuki didn’t sell too much of AKINO’s offense, and AKINO really had to struggle to make any impact. This gave this match quite a bit of a shoot style vibe. I like that Suzuki stayed true to his reputation as a tough shoot wrestler and didn’t oversell for his female opponent here. AKINO was quite the accomplished joshi worker, but Suzuki had a significant size and strength advantage. Suzuki worked over AKINO’s leg, but after using up a lot of energy, AKINO reached the ropes. Suzuki was relentless and continued working over AKINO’s leg. AKINO wouldn’t give up and managed to reach the ropes again. Suzuki would get overconfident at times, and AKINO took advantage of it by nailing some offense of her own. This was a good match, and this was one of those mixed matches that were wrestled seriously. There was no silliness. AKINO never looked bad in the match. In fact, she came across as tough and courageous, despite Suzuki being in control for almost the entirety of the match. The main downside of the match was that it was quite one-sided, but it was necessary for the match to be that way to make it realistic within the context of a worked pro wrestling match. ***¼  

REINA 5/5/16 Tokyo Itabashi Green Hall: Mika Iida vs. Konami 11:02. The 2015 Rookie of the Year, Konami, didn’t get to impress as much as hoped for in 2016. Perhaps with her mentor Kana having left to pursue a career as a sports-entertainer, it kinda left Konami in a crossroads phase early in her career. Mika Iida literally stretched Konami as much as she could during the first few minutes of this match. Konami decided a different approach was needed, so she started using kicks more. Konami is a much stronger striker than Iida, so that’s why Konami was able to get the upper hand rather quickly thanks to her striking ability. Iida wasn’t planning on losing to someone with only 1 year experience though, so Iida tried to make Konami submit via a couple of leglock variations. Konami’s offense isn’t only about strikes though, and Konami showed her mat wrestling skills as she showed some excellent counters on the mat. In the end, it was Iida who just was a bit more confident, and Iida managed to use her experience to get Konami trapped in a stepover toehold crossface. This was a good match that potentially could have been very good if it was given some more time. ***¼ 

WAVE 5/10/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, Catch the WAVE African Violet Block: Hikaru Shida vs. Kaori Yoneyama 15:00. Hikaru Shida showed a lot of urgency. She really seemed to want to win this match desperately. Kaori Yoneyama was able to not let Shida dominate her completely and was able to fight back. Shida hit a couple of nice butt bumps. Yoneyama hit some well-placed jumping knees. Both workers did a good job of selling when the other was on offense. Yoneyama worked over Shida’s knee quite effectively. Shida was in a lot of trouble, wincing in pain. Shida didn’t give up the fight though, and she was able to turn the tide by suplexing Yoneyama on the rampway. Shida followed this up with a superplex into the ring, and she kept selling her knee while executing her offense. She even went for a backbreaker, which she fittingly sold as something that did basically just as much damage to her knee as to Yoneyama’s back. At some point, Yoneyama seemed to be in full survival mode, just trying to hang in there and not give up. The final couple of minutes had some hard-fought back-and-forth action. Shida was frustrated when the match eventually went to a time limit draw, because she had given all she had and still couldn’t put the wily veteran away. This was a fun and good match, mostly because of Shida’s strong effort, but Yoneyama did a very good job playing her role in the story of Shida’s quest to win. If you’re going to watch this match, make sure you watch the full version from WAVE Network, because the edited version doesn’t give you the full story. ***¼

STARDOM 5/15/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani 21:54. The battle of Thunder Rock was a super interesting one, because it featured not only arguably the best tag team in pro wrestling at the time, it also featured two of the very best pro wrestlers in the world at the time. Luckily, it turned out to be as great as hoped for. Mayu Iwatani was very serious in her approach from the start, attacking Io Shirai with strikes, more vicious than we have been used to from Iwatani. It was clear from the start that as long as this match was ongoing, they put their tag team partnership aside. Shirai was all business as well, and she hit Iwatani with a torpedo-esque tope suicida. Iwatani didn’t want to seem second fiddle to Shirai anymore, and hit a plancha off the top to the floor. Iwatani followed it up by throwing Shirai into a chair. Shirai welcomed the challenge and kept her great offense going, which included a lifting German suplex on the floor. Shirai was in control for a while, but Iwatani fought back courageously. Shirai was quite vicious in this contest, clearly taking this title defense seriously. Iwatani hit a great-looking Ayumi Kurihara-style dropkick while Shirai was down against the ropes.The middle part of the match was a bit slower in general, but there was enough action to keep it interesting. There was a strike exchange that was quite intense, as it didn’t feel like they were just standing and waiting for each other to hit, but it was more of an impactful back-and-forth session. They kept pushing each other to the limit. Shirai was the stronger and more experienced of the two, but Iwatani showed lots of willpower, and was able to keep fighting back. One of the biggest spots of the match was Iwatani hitting a dragon suplex on the apron. A concerned Momo Watanabe and Jungle Kyona used a cold spray on Shirai’s neck. This spot showed that while Shirai was in control, Iwatani was dangerous enough of an opponent that she could turn things around just like that when an opening presented itself, and Iwatani was sharp enough to act promptly. Once back into the ring, Shirai tried to fight off Iwatani, but Iwatani managed to hit a German suplex for a near fall. Iwatani hit a Misawa-esque frog splash and followed it up with a dragon suplex. Shirai managed to kick out. Iwatani tried to finish Shirai off with a modified dragon suplex, but Shirai escaped and hit a modified tiger suplex and a lifting German suplex. Shirai then hit her beautiful moonsault for the win. This was over twenty minutes of intriguing action. Even the slower middle portion had enough going on to keep it more than worthwhile. The execution of the moves was superb. There were plenty of cool-looking moves. There wasn’t too much of a traditional finishing stretch, but they did hit plenty of big moves near the end to still have that climactic feeling. It certainly wasn’t an easy victory for Shirai, because Iwatani wouldn’t back down and wouldn’t give up. Iwatani even came close to winning, but in the end it was the STARDOM ace who showed why she is #1. This was one of the best STARDOM matches ever, arguably the very best STARDOM match ever. Great match! ****¾ 

WAVE 5/17/16 Saitama Isami Wrestle Arena, Catch the WAVE Orion Blue Block: Misaki Ohata vs. Yuuka 8:04. These two kept launching themselves at each other. There was a lot of back-and-forth action and a lot of urgency shown. They really put over that neither wanted to lose points in this tournament. The final minute was a particularly action-packed. Yuuka came close to victory, but Ohata scored the pinfall in the end. Yuuka gave a strong effort, but Ohata’s execution was smoother. In general, the execution wasn’t super crisp, but it was permissible because they really made the most of the eight minutes given to them. This was the type of high-effort match that makes joshi puroresu so fun to watch. ***

Gatoh Move 5/20/16 Ichigaya Chocolate Hiroba: Kaori Yoneyama & Emi Sakura vs. Riho & MIZUKI 15:00. Ichigaya Chocolate Square is a very small venue with just a mat on the floor and about 60 fans crammed into the room. Gatoh Move is a league that features Emi Sakura trainees and some random more established wrestlers coming in from time to time. It was cool to see Sakura team up with her former tag team partner Kaori Yoneyama again. Even though they were no longer one of the top 5 tag teams like they were in 2012, they were still a good tag team that teamed up semi-regularly. They played the role of grumpy veterans in this match, and they wanted to teach the young girls a lesson. MIZUKI & Riho are very similar, as they are both fragile-looking sympathetic babyfaces. There weren’t any ropes to do spots you’d regularly see in a joshi puroresu match, but they would occasionally use the windows to their advantage. Sakura took a bump off the window sill onto the mat. MIZUKI & Riho dove off the window sill onto Sakura. MIZUKI & Riho really were determined to show they were capable of hanging in there with the veterans, and they even came close to victory on a few occasions. Even though this match was more really fun than really good, this was a Gatoh Move match that really captured the essence of Gatoh Move’s appeal, since it was fun-loving obscure joshi puroresu. ***

OZ Academy 5/22/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Command Bolshoi & Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Aoi Kizuki & Hikaru Shida & Hiroyo Matsumoto 12:39. It was a bit chaotic, but there was lots of exciting action. It wasn’t always serious, as they focused a lot on “clever” and creative spots (tag team partners accidentally hitting each other and tag team partners purposely propelling each other etc.). There was a spot where Shida was on the second rope trying to superplex Kuragaki, but Yoneyama showed up underneath Shida and powerbombed Shida off the second rope, which resulted in Shida’s momentum taking Kuragaki down with a superplex. Overall, this was a fun match to watch though, and the effort was high. ***

OZ Academy 5/22/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Syuri vs. Kagetsu 11:42. This was the best match of what was overall quite a good show. Syuri and Kagetsu both tried to go for kicks early on, but Syuri caught Kagetsu’s kick and took Kagetsu down. Then there was a segment where they were doing several reversals on the mat. They tried to outdo each other when it came to kicking each other in the back. Syuri was screaming in anguish when Kagetsu worked over her leg, but Syuri managed to grab the ropes. Eventually, after the pendulum had swung back and forth, Syuri won the match after a series of kicks. While the match lasted less than 12 minutes, it felt like they made the most out of it due to their urgent approach. Both wrestlers contributed almost equally to the match. Syuri showed plenty of well-placed kicks and good matwork. Kagetsu showed a lot of energy, and a desire to give the best performance she could. This was better than the match Syuri had against Meiko Satomura, because there was more urgency and quickness, and it didn’t feel as much like they were just waiting for the other to strike. ****  

OZ Academy 5/22/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Aja Kong & Rabbit Miu vs. Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato 13:31. Everyone gave a good effort, but Kaho Kobayashi stood out most for her particularly high effort. She executed a well-placed missile dropkick to Aja Kong’s head near the finish. Kong showed plenty of her viciousness, especially when she decided to brawl on the floor. Kong almost beat Sonoko Kato with a brainbuster, but Kobayashi interrupted the cover. Kong eventually scored the pin on Kato anyway after she hit Kato with the uraken. ***½

BEW 5/22/16 London, England, SWA Undisputed World Women’s Title: Io Shirai vs. Kay Lee Ray 8:53. This British Empire Wrestling show took place during STARDOM's European tour. There were only about 150 people in attendance, but that didn't stop these two from working hard. Kay Lee Ray was very explosive in this match, as she hit dynamic offense and took big bumps. Kay Lee even leaped off the ringside bar area. They made the portion where they were brawling outside of the ring quite entertaining, and the fans loved it. Kay Lee hit a tope suicida that sent Io crashing into Kairi Hojo, who was Shirai’s second. The match came to an end when Shirai hit her tremendous moonsault for the victory. This was a fun match, but it was too short to be anything more than just a pretty good match. It was a fun match that’s definitely worth watching though. ***

TJPW 5/28/16 Yokohama Radiant Hall, Tokyo Princess of Princess Title: Miyu Yamashita vs. Yuka Sakazaki 15:19. It was good to see Yuka Sakazaki, who had always shown good potential, in a match that was wrestled seriously for the most part. It helped that Miyu Yamashita is a solid worker who takes her role as inaugural champion seriously. Sakazaki still got the chance to display lots of her fun personality in this match, but at least Yamashita kinda kept her on the rails, which helped everything still make sense within the context of this title match. Both workers had really stepped up her game and showed improvement in a year that saw TJPW rise from a small league that was not really to be taken seriously, to a league that has good potential and one to keep an eye on going forward. One of Sakazaki’s big spots was a springboard plancha to the floor. Yamashita was going for a suplex, but Sakazaki countered it into a crossface. Sakazaki walked on top of the top rope and hit a dropkick. Yamashita was in more trouble than she probably expected against this challenger who gave a stronger showing than usual, but Yamashita eventually prevailed. ***

WAVE 6/2/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Catch The Wave 2016 Quarter Final: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Sareee 8:44. Sareee started like a house of fire and didn’t even let Tsukasa Fujimoto enter the ring. It’s understandable Sareee showed so much urgency, because she would love to have a victory in the quarter final over someone with a big reputation. Despite Sareee’s determination, Tsukka was able to turn the tide and fight back aggressively. Tsukka’s kicks and dropkicks had a lot of power behind them. This was a fun match, and because of them keeping the pace high, this was a good match in spite of this being less than nine minutes long. This match featured arguably Sareee’s best performance of the year, and it once again showed that Tsukka’s matches are almost always interesting to watch. Near the finish, there were several near falls, including when Sareee hit a beautiful German suplex that almost got her the win. Sareee executed a tremendous uranage, but this match came to an end when Tsukka performed the Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex. It was a good match that featured well-executed smooth wrestling. ***

WAVE 6/2/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Catch The Wave 2016 Quarter Final: Mika Iida vs. Rina Yamashita 17:55. Rina Yamashita is definitely not the most sophisticated worker out there, but she usually gives a good effort. Mika Iida brought the skill and finesse, which she combined with speed and focus. Iida tried to bring purpose to what she was doing by trying to focus on wearing and beating Yamashita down while focusing on a body part, like when she was trying to twist and do all kinds of damage to Yamashita’s arm. Yamashita was smart enough to go along with what Iida was doing in this match, and Iida’s adaptability allowed Yamashita to still be able to stay true to her more straight-forward approach. At some point we got to see a perfect example of their respective approaches coming together nicely, because when Yamashita and Iida were on the floor, Yamashita ran towards Iida like a wild bull about to hit her target full steam, but Iida showed her ability to react and think quickly by moving away swiftly and ramming Yamashita’s arm into the ringpost. Iida followed up by continuing her focused attack on Yamashita’s arm once they were back in the ring. This was a good match, and it was a surprisingly fun match thanks to Iida’s ability to carry Yamashita to a good match by giving the match a purpose and a story, while still understanding how Yamashita was going to approach this match and how to incorporate those sort of unrefined qualities of Yamashita’s into the match in a way that was logic and effective. ***¼ 

OZ Academy 6/19/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: AKINO & Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato vs. Hikaru Shida & Syuri & Aoi Kizuki & Rina Yamashita 22:30. This was a fun 8-woman tag team match. They took advantage of the numbers by frequently tagging to keep the action going. Rina Yamashita was the weakest link, because she added the least quality work to this match, even when she tried. The match was at its least interesting when Yamashita was in, but she was alright enough to not ruin things. Sonoko Kato’s work looked solid during the brief moments she was in, but she didn’t really stand out in any way in this contest. It wasn’t until the final stages of the match that she got featured more. Aoi Kizuki worked hard, and was good in her role as sympathetic and likable person while still giving a decent in-ring performance. She wasn’t the best worker in the match, but her effort was admirable. Syuri’s work was very good, but she wasn’t in the match that often, although she was an important part of the final minutes. Hikaru Shida was very energetic whenever she got to show her stuff, and she was a key performer and contributor. AKINO displayed a good amount of intensity, and her offense looked very crisp. Kaho Kobayashi played a big role in the match, because she was strong when she was the one getting beat up and selling, and she was strong when she was contributing on offense. She embodied the teamwork spirit. Kagetsu was arguably the worker of the match. She executed several cool moves, including a springboard dropkick on both Shida and Kizuki at the same time. Along with Kobayashi, Kagetsu possibly showed the most urgency out of everyone. About ten minutes into the match, Shida started using her two most important and biggest weapons, her butt and her kendo stick. The finishing stretch being pretty much the last ten minutes of the match feels reasonable for a match involving eight people, and it gives you an idea of how action-packed this match was. All hell broke loose when Syuri took a bump to the floor about 90 seconds prior to the finish, which appeared to be the cue for everyone to start running around even more frantically than before. While Shida was holding her kendo stick, Kato executed a German suplex on Shida in the ring, and Shida’s kendo stick flew all the way from the ring to the floor. Considering that this group of workers doesn’t work 8-woman tags on a regular basis, this match turned out quite well overall. It got a bit chaotic at times, and the execution wasn’t always super smooth, but that was to be expected with a 8-woman tag that was non-stop action for the most part. It feels like they really tried to make the most out of it, and everyone did a good job to really try to make this good and enjoyable. It was hard to look away at any point, because it was intriguing from start to finish. ***¾  

WAVE 6/22/16 Saitama Isami Wrestle Arena: Takumi Iroha vs. Kaho Kobayashi 9:57. Takumi Iroha used her power advantage to give Kaho Kobayashi a rough time early in the match. Kaho is used to being in the underdog role and being outpowered, so she knew it was just a matter of surviving and taking advantage whenever an opening to strike back presents itself. Once Kaho got the taste of making a comeback in this match, she was on a roll and had Iroha in lots of trouble. Near the finish of the match, Kaho finally started showing some of that explosiveness we like to see from her. Iroha was even more in trouble now. Iroha had to fight back and hit a bridging German suplex that almost got her a pin out of nowhere, but Kaho was able to kick out. After Iroha’s initial dominance early on, and Kaho’s dominance during the middle portion, the final portion of the match was all about back-and-forth action. The match had started having a very urgent feel during those final minutes, and both workers were desperately trying to beat each other. In the end, Iroha was the victor. It was a good match, but they probably would have been able to have an even better match with a few more extra minutes of time given and/or if they would have shown some of that urgency they showed at the end right from the start. It’s good to see Iroha in a good WAVE match like this one, but sadly we have no footage of her matches from 2016 in Marvelous, which was the league she mainly starred for. ***

Gatoh Move 6/22/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Emi Sakura & Kotori vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto & Yuuka 14:06. It is always a big thing for Gatoh Move to have a show at Korakuen Hall. Later on this same show, Aoi Kizuki & Sayaka Obihiro battled MIZUKI & SAKI in a decent match for the Asia Dream Tag Team Title, and in the main event, Riho battled Kaori Yoneyama in a decent match for the IWA Triple Crown Title, which was also a match that celebrated Riho’s 10th anniversary as a pro wrestler. However, the best and most fun match on the card was this tag team match. Yuuka’s work was sloppier than expected, but at least she tried. Kotori played her role as fiery babyface well. She was quick and showed lots of enthusiasm. Sakura was okay in this match, but she didn’t really stand out. She worked some nice sequences with Tsukasa Fujimoto though. Not surprisingly, Tsukka was the worker of the match. However, Kotori deserves credit as well, because this match would have been a lot less fun without Kotori’s strong underdog performance. It was a pretty good match, but just barely three stars though. The execution wasn’t always very polished, but it was just lots of fun to watch because of the good effort and liveliness shown. ***

SGPW 7/2/16 Niigata-shi Taiikuka: Chihiro Hashimoto & DASH Chisako vs. Aja Kong & Rydeen Hagane 16:02. DASH Chisako took quite a beating when she faced Aja Kong. Once Chihiro Hashimoto entered the ring, Aja continued to dominate. When Rydeen Hagane entered the ring, Hashimoto was able to do something back. At some point in the match, Aja suplexed both of her opponents at the same time. When Hagane was back in the ring, she showed power, but she lacked skill and finesse. Chisako and Hashimoto worked together to try to take Hagane out while Aja was on the apron. Chisako pinned Hagane after a frog splash. It was a pretty good match overall in spite of Hagane dragging the match quality down whenever she was in the ring. The fact that Hagane was involved in a pretty good match says a lot about the top quality of the other three workers, because Hagane is almost never involved in a match worth recommending. ***

SGPW 7/2/16 Niigata-shi Taiikukan, Sendai Girls Title: Meiko Satomura vs. Io Shirai 19:08. Prior to this match, these two had three excellent singles matches against each other (SGPW 4/26/14, STARDOM 7/10/14 and STARDOM 12/23/15). For the first time in their series, the Sendai Girls Title was on the line. Io Shirai’s work was great. She displayed the will to win, and at the same time showed her tremendous athleticism. This match had the vibe of a serious title contest, because both wrestlers were very focused and didn’t want to make a mistake, especially since there was a lot at stake here. One of the highlights of the match was Shirai hitting a spectacular moonsault off the top to the floor. Shirai had a lot of momentum until Satomura turned things around with a well-executed uppercut and a well-placed stiff kick. Shirai would keep fighting back whenever she could though, which resulted in several minutes of strong back-and-forth action. In the end, it was Satomura retaining the title via pinfall after three Death Valley bombs. This match was really good, mostly because of Shirai’s greatness. Satomura gave a solid performance if you look at the entirety of the match, but it felt like she just let Shirai do her thing before moving into a brief back-and-forth portion and eventually the finish. The finish helped put Shirai over as a tough challenger, because Satomura needed not just one, but three Death Valley bombs before getting the job done (just like Satomura needed three Death Valley bombs to put away Syuri on 3/11/16). This latest chapter in the Satomura vs. Shirai series definitely wasn’t on the level of their intense 12/23/15 match, and it also was less impressive than their more flashy and more untamed 7/10/14 match, and it was even of slightly less quality than their 4/26/14 match (which was their first match together). The 4/26/14 was kinda similar to this one in that the key elements were focus and pacing, but the main issue with this 7/2/16 match is that Satomura didn’t really seem to be too interested in doing much at all and let Shirai do the bulk of the work. This is obviously not the only Satomura match that has this issue, but it felt like it was even more apparent and frustrating than usual this time. ***¾   

WAVE 7/6/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Regina Di WAVE Title Match: Yu Yamagata vs. Hikaru Shida 16:51 of 19:57. Hikaru Shida was wearing blue gear for this match instead of the usual red gear. Compared to a lot of other WAVE matches, you could tell this was a big match based on the high effort alone. Also, the cautious-but-serious suspense-building approach early on gave it that big title match vibe. There was enough intensity and action to make sure this match felt like an authentic big match, not a pretentious one. Early in the match, Shida tried to use her biggest asset to her advantage as she went for a butt bump, but Yu Yamagata could see this target coming her way, partly because Shida likes to proudly point out that this asset is of first-rate quality. Somewhere around the middle portion of the match, it initially seemed like everything was going to go Shida’s way, but Yu Yamagata was able to bite the pain and fight back.This was the best WAVE match of 2016, because they took things a bit further and fought harder. Shida hit a devastating double foot stomp off the time keeper’s podium onto a chair that was on top of Yamagata’s back. After Yamagata had recovered a bit, Yamagata hit a really well-executed missile dropkick. A jumping high knee and a falcon arrow almost got Shida the victory. Yamagata proved to be tough and kept surviving. She also proved that she was indeed a solid wrestler and a hard worker. Shida kept pushing and trying to destroy Yamagata, who kept fighting back. The finishing stretch had a lot of good drama with both workers selling the damage done while having several near falls. They pulled all the stops and the match lasted nearly minutes before Yamagata was able to put Shida away. After the match, Yamagata got her head pushed in her birthday cake. ***½

TJPW 7/23/16 Yokohama Radian Hall, Tokyo Princess Cup 2016 Second Round: Shoko Nakajima vs. Yuka Sakazaki 21:06. I really like how they put everything over so well. Even when Yuka Sakazaki was stuck in a headscissors, they treated it like a big deal. Sakazaki’s work was so much better than it was in earlier footage of her work, and a big reason is that she seems to value herself more as a pro wrestler. She clearly was one of the most improved wrestlers of 2016. Shoko Nakajima was solid, as always, and it becomes clear that when you watch early TJPW footage that Shoko was always one of the best workers on the TJPW roster. Shoko even tried to pin Sakazaki with a Billy Robinson-esque European clutch. In the end, Shoko pinned Sakazaki with a Northern Lights suplex. They were able to have some of the playful and creative elements that make TJPW so fun while still having a competitive wrestling match at the same time. This match was very good, and it’s the first match presented by this league that was this good. Fans of TJPW should definitely check this out to see what these two were doing back in 2016. ***½ 

STARDOM 7/24/16 Osaka EDION Arena #2, SWA Undisputed World Women's Title: Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm 17:51. This was their first singles match together in Japan. They had previously faced each other in Spain on 5/21/16, and that’s when Io Shirai became the first holder of the SWA World Title. SWA stands for STARDOM World Alliance (which originally was an alliance STARDOM had formed with several smaller indy leagues from various countries), and this title is meant to be an international title contested between opponents of different nationalities only. Shirai’s first defense of this title was against Scottish wrestler Kay Lee Ray in a match that took place in England on 5/22/16. Another wrestler who was a contender for this title was Portuguese wrestler Shanna, who unsuccessfully challenged Shirai for the title in a decent match on 6/4/16 in Osaka. Earlier on this 7/24/16 show, Shanna actually came close to winning the High Speed Title, but she was beaten by Mayu Iwatani in a decent match. Now, let’s focus on this 7/24/16 SWA World Title defense by Shirai. The New Zealand-born Australian wrestler Toni Storm had started her pro wrestling career in Australia before spending a lot of time wrestling in the United Kingdom and other places in Europe. 2016 was the first year Storm started spending some serious touring time in Japan (she had a couple of matches in REINA in 2013). She showed a lot of potential, because she adapted to the Japanese style quite well, and she clearly took her matches seriously. One of the things that stand out about her work is that she didn’t seem to try things she can’t do, and she stuck to a solid and basic in-ring story of trying to give the Japanese girls a run for their money in a competitive contest. Her offense looked good and effective enough to be seen as a serious threat. Her selling and movements looked unpretentious and natural. Of course, in this particular match, it helped a lot that she was facing Io Shirai, who was at the time arguably the greatest in-ring performer in professional wrestling at the time. Shirai’s selling and timing really helped establish Storm as a serious threat. When Storm went for a Bull Nakano-esque top-rope guillotine leg drop, Shirai moved out of the way. When Shirai went for her spectacular moonsault, Storm avoided it by moving out of the way. Shirai went for a lifting German suplex and executed it beautifully, but Storm kicked out at two. Storm hit a piledriver and followed it up with a big guillotine leg drop off the top rope, and this time Shirai wasn’t able to avoid it. Storm scored the win, which was definitely an upset victory. This wasn’t a super fancy match, but the in-ring story of their competitive struggle was put over quite well, and this match played a big role in putting Storm over as an international superstar. ***¼

Hiroyo Matsumoto Produce 7/31/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Aja Kong vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto 21:45. This was a slow-paced brawling type match. Aja Kong enjoyed dishing out the punishment, and Hiroyo Matsumoto showed her fighting spirit during her quest to overcome the onslaught. Once Matsumoto was able to fight back, she hit some nice backdrop suplexes. Aja threw a big barrel at Matsumoto’s head and followed it up with a stiff chairshot to Matsumoto’s head. Matsumoto powerbombed Aja off the stage onto the barrel, which flattened the barrel because of Aja’s weight. Aja brainbustered Matsumoto on the barrel. It’s a shame the match started taking this more garbage-y direction. They teased a double count-out, but they made it back into the ring on time. There was a slap exchange and Matsumoto hit another backdrop suplex. Aja came close to winning after using her trash can. In the end, it was Aja who scored the win via a backfist. It was a pretty good match overall that saw both women prove how tough they are. They probably could have had a slightly better match without the garbage-based offense, but this was the direction the match took, and their work was solid throughout this bout. *** 

JWP 7/31/16 Nagoya Club Diamond Hall: Leon vs. Manami Katsu 14:52. Leon would make Manami Katsu struggle in order to get any sort of advantage. Katsu seemed to enjoy this challenge and fought hard. Katsu executed La Tapatia quite well, and her missile dropkick was about as good as Leon’s version. They both worked hard and kept the action going. The work wasn’t very complex, but it was a lot of back-and-forth action that made it feel like a competitive battle. The execution was quite good throughout this match, but things never really got very spectacular. The bout gradually got more intense as they felt they were coming closer to a finish though. Katsu showed good intensity, but Leon was a step quicker than Katsu. Overall, this was a pretty good match that was enjoyable to watch. *** 

JWP 7/31/16 Nagoya Club Diamond Hall: Command Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki 11:01. There was a big size difference between these two, but they were both smart at making this work. Command Bolshoi used quickness and technique to try to overcome the power and size of Tsubasa Kuragaki. This wasn’t an easy task for Bolshoi, however, because Kuragaki is quite speedy for her size. Bolshoi was very tenacious though, and because of her persistence, Bolshoi got the victory. The work was very good overall in a match that told the classic story of the smaller competitor trying to overcome the size and strength of the larger one through heart and determination. ***¼   

JWP 7/31/16 Nagoya Club Diamond Hall, JWP & Daily Sports Double Tag Title Match: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Hanako Nakamori & Hana Kimura 17:17. This was the main event of a particularly good show. The teamwork shown by Best Friends was great. The opposing team was more of a random pairing. Hanako Nakamori had to carry the bulk for her team, because her tag team partner was rookie Hana Kimura, who didn’t bring much skill to the table (although her dropkick off the top rope didn’t look too bad). Hana’s best performances that year were when she was a ring card girl for Pancrase though. Luckily, Nakamori appeared to be extremely motivated to give a strong performance here. This resulted in a match that was more competitive than it looked on paper, despite Kimura dragging the match down about as much as expected. Arisa Nakajima did a great job selling for her opponents, which also played a huge factor in this being a good match. It felt like Nakajima got a lot more ring time in this match than Tsukasa Fujimoto did, and Nakajima was certainly the worker of the match. However, everything Tsukka did in this match looked good, especially her kicks. Nakajima’s intensity was too much for the young Kimura to overcome, and it was Nakajima who scored the pinfall. It was a pretty good match overall, and they made the most of a match that involved a not-so-good rookie. ***

Hana Kimura Produce 8/7/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, Mixed Tag Team Match: Mayu Iwatani & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Syuri & Keno 20:00. This was a very good mixed tag team match where all four participants took each other seriously, and tried their best to make this really good. Mayu Iwatani and Syuri worked some nice-looking sequences early on. Masaaki Mochizuki and Keno had a pretty good strike exchange. Syuri hit a stiff kick to Mochizuki’s back. In general, Syuri’s kicks were all stiff-looking in this match. Mayu tried her best to hurt Keno with some kicks, but Keno only needed one kick of his to take Mayu down. Mayu hit a well-placed enzuigiri on Syuri. Mochizuki hit a couple of nice springboard kicks on his opponents. Syuri and Mochizuki worked some nice sequences together. Mayu was not as strong as a striker as the other three, but she hit some beautiful high flying moves. Mochizuki had Keno in an ankle lock, but Keno reversed it and turned it into a seated ankle lock of his own. They all showed a lot of urgency during the final minutes, as the time limit was about to expire. Syuri was about to pin Mayu with a German suplex, but Mochizuki broke up the pin. Mayu executed a northern lights suplex on Syuri, but the time limit expired. ***½

WAVE 8/8/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Ayako Hamada vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto 13:06 of 15:00 shown. Ayako Hamada started this off with a lot of urgency, and she seemed motivated to not only want to be a winner, but also give a good performance in the process. This is the type of mindset we like to see Ayako in. Tsukasa Fujimoto is a far more consistent and reliable worker than Ayako is, so it was no surprise that Tsukka gave a very good showing. Tsukasa’s athletic moves looked amazing, and her execution was superb. They combined decent lucha sequences with more impactful puroresu stuff, which is fitting since Ayako’s father, El Gran Hamada, is the father of lucharesu. Tsukka tried to go for a JOC suplex, but Ayako was too heavy. Tsukka hit several nice kicks in this match. There were some close near falls near the end, and it was a good match overall, but it feels like they could have had a better match together. Things initially seemed to go in the direction of them working potentially a very good match, but this didn’t come into fruition. Maybe the biggest reason for this is that Ayako didn’t seem to be able to keep the initial enthusiasm and energy going for long enough, as she seemed to run out of energy and motivation near the end of the match. Of course, a time limit draw is never really a satisfying finish, and that didn’t help things. Still, these two experienced professionals are good enough to have a good and worthwhile match, even when it’s not as good of a match as expected or hoped for. It was overall not a very strong year for Ayako, but at least she was in a good singles match here. She’s definitely not the most motivated worker around, but wrestling is in her blood, so even when she is working at 75%, she’s still decent. ***

TJPW 8/13/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo Princess Cup Final: Shoko Nakajima vs. Yuu 17:12. Shoko Nakajima had beaten Yuka Sakazaki on 7/23/16 in the second round of this tournament to make it to the final. Yuu was only a rookie at the time, so it was impressive that she made it this far. The match featured interesting and serious matwork that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see in TJPW. Yuu was a lot lighter than she is these days, and that made her able to move around more back in 2016. Shoko once again showed why she is one of the best TJPW workers, as she did a very good job guiding the talented rookie to a very good match. It wasn’t just Shoko that made this match so good though, because Yuu was alert enough to keep countering and put over her quest to keep trying to find a way out of the position she was in to improve her chances of winning. While the focus was on technical wrestling, there were also moments with some more flashy moves that saw them leap at each other. There was also a strike exchange that saw Shoko hit elbow smashes in reply to Yuu’s chops. After a long and grueling battle in which both were struggling for position, trying to out-wrestle the other,  the match came to an end when Yuu scored the submission win via juji gatame. Yuu has to be one of the most overlooked rookies in history, since probably not many are aware of her work from her rookie year. Yuu would have been the rookie of the year if it wasn’t for Chihiro Hashimoto being a rookie during the same year. In this match, Shoko and Yuu two gave such a fascinating high-effort performance that almost everyone watching had to be drawn into what they were doing. Occasionally, the execution wasn’t super smooth, and Yuu seemed a bit lost at times, but all of that feels part of the overachieving charm of the match, and it’s much appreciated that they were having a match that is different from the norm (especially for TJPW standards), as they wanted to have a match that featured portions with somewhat serious grappling and remained focused on their goal of achieving it. Fans of TJPW should really watch this match to see one of the more intriguing matches in TJPW history. ***¾    

STARDOM 8/21/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, 5STAR Grand Prix 2016 Block A: Mayu Iwatani vs. Kay Lee Ray 11:21. It appears this was around the time that the Shinkiba 1st RING crowd started showing their complete loyalty and worship towards Mayu Iwatani by yelling “Mayu~!” throughout the entirety of her matches. It’s hard to blame them, because Mayu had indeed become one of the very best wrestlers in the world at the time. The match started off with flashy but urgent fast-paced action. Kay Lee Ray placed Mayu Iwatani on a chair at ringside and leaped towards Iwatani, but Iwatani moved, which meant Kay Lee went crashing into the ringside chairs. Iwatani suplexed Kay Lee on some other ringside chairs. Having just 11 minutes wasn’t helpful, but they tried to make the most of it. Kay Lee really showed that she is a smart worker through the way she acted and reacted, and she has proven that she’s so much better than pretty much all of the other gaijin workers in joshi puroresu. The main problem with this match is that it felt they were trying to work different matches, with Mayu trying to go for her usual flashy match, but Kay Lee trying to be more diverse and creative. It also seemed like they didn’t make the most out of the short time they were given. Kay Lee hit a wicked somersault plancha off the top rope though. It felt like they utilized their time in their previous match a bit better, but of course, their previous match lasted 147 seconds longer. Either way, this was pretty good overall and certainly worth watching. *** 

OZ Academy 9/4/16 Maebashi Yamada Green Dome Sub Event Arena: Kagetsu & Sonoko Kato vs. Syuri & Aoi Kizuki 13:04. Aoi Kizuki worked hard and wrestled seriously. Kagetsu, the worker of the match, hit a tremendous springboard dropkick on Kizuki. Despite not being as reliable of a worker in 2016 as she was in 2015, Sonoko Kato was a solid tag team partner for Kagetsu in this match, and she would be there for Kagetsu to back her up when needed. Syuri was solid when she was in the ring, which was mostly during the middle portion of the match, but she didn’t get involved in the match as hoped, but at least this gave Kizuki a chance to show she can be quite decent in the right setting. Kizuki seemed to work the majority of the match, but despite Kizuki’s efforts, Kagetsu scored the pinfall over Kizuki to win this tag team bout. It was a pretty good match overall, especially because there were enough moments that had them show a pretty good amount of intensity. Kizuki’s performance was memorable because she was really into it, and Kagetsu’s performance was memorable because she was the most outstanding wrestler. ***

STARDOM 9/11/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, 5STAR Grand Prix 2016 Block A: Mayu Iwatani vs. Toni Storm 9:28. Toni Storm was vicious and urgent in her approach early on, including a savage backbreaker that looked like it almost snapped Mayu in half. Storm’s forearm smash and European uppercuts also had a lot of intensity behind them. Storm’s released German suplex looked impressive as well. Storm’s behind was a big weapon of hers, and at some point she even hit a running butt bump, which had quite the impact. Storm missed a top-rope guillotine leg drop. Iwatani hit a plancha off the top to the floor. Iwatani’s strikes were well-placed, but the powerful Storm wouldn’t calm down. Iwatani had to use all her energy to try to overcome this tough opponent. The finish was a double KO, which is never really a satisfying finish, but at least it kinda worked here since the minutes leading up to it featured a good amount of hard-hitting action. Storm was very focused and determined in her approach, and Mayu’s selling and timing was impeccable. This was a very enjoyable match. It seems Iwatani is really good at working with the more talented gaijin wrestlers, because she also had a good match with Kay Lee Ray on 1/17/16. ***½ 

OZ Academy 9/11/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, OZ Academy Tag Title Match: Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Hikaru Shida & Syuri 14:26. Tsubasa Kuragaki is the worker Kaori Yoneyama teamed up with most often in her career. Hikaru Shida & Syuri had been teaming for a while in OZ Academy now, and they were now wearing matching gear. Most importantly, this team was now the #1 contender for the tag team title. Shida & Syuri worked together really well, and they were determined to keep Kaori Yoneyama in their corner as long as possible. Shida & Syuri worked this match like they were a Southern heel tag team from the ‘80s. When Kuragaki was tagged in, Shida & Syuri were getting beat up for a bit. Kuragaki applied a sasorigatame on Syuri until Shida broke up the hold. Syuri managed to apply juji gatame on Kuragi’s right arm, but Kuragaki reached the ropes. Shida hit a perfectly placed missile dropkick off the top rope directly to Kuragaki’s right arm. Shida executed ippon seoi otoshi on Kuragaki and then applied juji gatame until Yoneyama interrupted. Kuragaki interrupted Shida’s momentum with a backdrop suplex. Shida used her kendo stick, but Kuragaki managed to make the tag. Shida hit a jumping high knee. When Syuri was tagged in, she was all business against Yoneyama. Shida & Syuri gave a very focused performance, but Yoneyama & Kuragaki showed solid teamwork as well. The finishing stretch had lots of fast-paced back-and-forth action. Shida & Syuri wanted this victory more, and they were indeed victorious when Syuri pinned Yoneyama. This was a very good match that was fun from start to finish. Shida & Syuri clearly were very motivated, and their opponents helped make this really enjoyable. After the match, Shida & Syuri were clearly really happy with the big title win. ***½ 

Ice Ribbon 9/19/16 Yokohama Radiant Hall, International Ribbon Tag Title Match: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Hiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi 15:33. Hiragi Kurumi, who was previously just known as Kurumi, now had a first name and a last name. That’s kinda like the reverse of what’s happening in the sports-entertainment circus where everyone seems to be losing their first name (and/or gets their name altered so the circus can claim ownership). The name change didn’t seem to change Kurumi’s workrate though, as she was several steps behind the other three in terms of speed and overall ability. The match was significantly better when Tsukushi was in the ring. Thanks to Tsukushi’s speed and perseverance, Best Friends were in a lot of trouble near the finish, which turned this into a surprisingly competitive match. Best Friends showed their great tag team skills, not only through their combined individual performances, but also through their strong teamwork. This was a pretty good match that really picked up momentum during the final minutes, mostly because of Tsukushi’s work against Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto, but even Hiragi Kurumi managed to make some useful contributions near the end. ***

JWP 9/22/16 Tokyo Ryogoku KFC Hall: Command Bolshoi vs. DASH Chisako 8:56. DASH Chisako showed a lot of intensity. She came charging at Bolshoi at full force. Bolshoi was ready for a fight and didn’t back down. Bolshoi figured out that tying up Chisako in holds on the mat was a good way to temporarily stop Chisako’s flurry of offense. It was a fast-paced action-packed match with some cool counters. Command Bolshoi used her technique, experience and fighting spirit to fight back. Chisako went for a frog splash, but Bolshoi got her feet up. Bolshoi hit a cool-looking palm strike. Once Chisako was back to her senses, Chisako would continue to show the intensity she had shown throughout most of the bout. Bolshoi hit another one of those cool-looking palm strikes. Chisako hit a nicely executed released German suplex. Bolshoi topped it by hitting a suplex off the top rope. There was another nicely executed suplex that almost resulted in a winner, as Bolshoi hit a tiger suplex for a near fall. They were doing all of this at a high speed, as they kept taking it to each other. Chisako certainly was a tough opponent for Bolshoi, but Bolshoi managed to score the pinfall in the end. This was a good match, but it would have been nice if this was a longer match. At least these two talented performers made the most out of the few minutes this match lasted. ***¼ 

JWP 9/22/16 Tokyo Ryogoku KFC Hall: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Leon & Rabbit Miu 21:46. This was the main event of what was overall quite a good show. Arisa Nakajima and Rabbit Miu started the match off with some matwork. Tsukasa Fujimoto and Leon then did some fast-paced stuff. All four wrestlers worked hard. Best Friends showed great teamwork, as expected. Even the somewhat random pairing of Leon & Miu worked well together and turned out to be arguably one of the five best tag teams in joshi puroresu that year. They also showed some good aerial assault. Miu hit a plancha off the top rope to the floor. Leon hit a springboard plancha to the floor. Leon’s spear is arguably the best spear in the business. Best Friends were actually in danger of losing. It was good to see that Leon still had a top-notch performance in her. Miu wasn’t as good technically, but her effort was very good, and she knows how to play her role as an overachieving underdog well. Miu kept launching herself at the opposition and showed that she wanted her team to win. Best Friends showed their greatness, as they not only had high-quality offense, they also helped the match stay really good when they were not on offense, thanks to their selling and thanks to their ability to see the bigger picture of the match. In the end, even though Leon & Miu gave a strong effort, it was Best Friends with the deserving win. While this was a very good match, it felt like they didn’t quite take things to the next level to make it more than “just” a very good match. ***½ 

SGPW 9/29/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Sendai Girls Tag Title Tournament Quarterfinal: Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs. Aja Kong & Cassandra Miyagi 12:15. The tag team title had been vacant since 1/17/16 when Sendai Sachiko retired, so it was about time that new tag team champions were going to be crowned. This match had the urgency you would want to see in a tournament. Hikaru Shida & Syuri worked together really well, Aja Kong & Cassandra Miyagi not so much. Miyagi started the match off, but she didn’t bring much to the table in terms of skill, which is why it took a while for business to pick up. This turning point came when Aja entered the match and worked cool-looking sequences with Syuri and Shida. Aja was very good at being a dominating force while still being humble and generous in the selling department, which really helped this match being quite competitive. Aja hit a tremendous backdrop suplex of Shida. Miyagi tried to slingshot herself into the ring off the apron (you know, that slick move Eddy Guerrero used to do), but she missed Shida completely, which resulted in chuckles from the crowd. Shida was on a roll and did some cool stuff. Syuri joined in on the fun. Things were looking really good for Shida & Syuri when Syuri went for juji gatame while Shida prevented Aja from entering the ring, but Miyagi managed to get a rope break. Eventually, the superior teamwork shown by Shida & Syuri managed to get them the victory. Syuri pinned Miyagi for the win. It was a good match overall, despite Miyagi not being on the level of the other three. Shida & Syuri stole the show with their strong teamwork, and Aja being Aja is always a good thing. ***¼  

WAVE 10/29/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Ayako Hamada & Yu Yamagata vs. Kaho Kobayashi & Takumi Iroha 8:09 of 14:41. Takumi Iroha was fired up and showed a lot of intensity. Hamada & Yamagata gave a stronger effort here than during most of 2016, and they seemed more serious and focused than they had been in a while. Of course, we had seen Yamagata deliver a strong performance in her singles match against Hikaru Shida on 7/6/16, which was the best WAVE match of 2016. The teamwork shown by Kaho Kobayashi & Takumi Iroha made them come very close to victory. This was a good match, but it felt like the editing took a bit of a flow and enjoyment away from the match. ***¼

Ice Ribbon 11/3/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, ICExInfinity Title Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tsukushi 30:00. Tsukasa Fujimoto and Tsukushi were the two best workers in Ice Ribbon at the time (not counting visiting wrestlers from other leagues like Arisa Nakajima, for example). Tsukka was far more advanced as an all-round worker than Tsukushi or anyone else in Ice Ribbon though. Tsukka was the stronger force in this match, but Tsukushi, being her usual spunky self, didn’t want to stay down for too long and showed resistance. Tsukushi showed no fear. When Tsukka slapped Tsukushi, Tsukushi slapped back very hard. Both wrestlers challenged each other to kick harder, as they took turns sitting down in the middle of the ring asking the other to kick them as hard as they could. It was a competitive match that was easily one of Ice Ribbon’s best matches in 2016. In this match, Tsukushi wasn’t as much in the underdog role as she usually is, mostly because she seemed more fired up than usual and showed more intensity than normal. Tsukka guiding her to a match this good obviously also says a lot about Tsukka’s ability. This was wrestled as quite an even contest all the way through, which showed that Tsukushi had leveled up, and this certainly wasn’t an easy title defense for Tsukka. Despite the fact that Tsukka would always be #1 in Ice Ribbon, Tsukushi showed that she could certainly give Tsukka a run for her money. The final minutes had some of the more intricate sequences of the match. There were plenty of near falls that seemed like it could have been the finish. It wasn’t obvious that they were going for a time limit draw, because they certainly hadn’t been taking it easy at any point during this match. ***½

JWP 11/3/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Command Bolshoi & DASH Chisako & Hanako Nakamori vs. Jaguar Yokota & Tsukasa Fujimoto & KAZUKI 12:55. It was a pretty good match that was perhaps more fun than good. Great Kabuki was in Command Bolshoi’s corner and briefly helped out a bit, which caused Jaguar Yokota to start yelling at him. Hanako Nakamori worked hard and threw some good kicks. Near the end of the match, Hanako was the one who showed most urgency, and she was probably the worker of the match. Tsukasa Fujimoto was one of the best, as expected, as she was very active and energetic whenever she was in the match. Command Bolshoi was good whenever she decided to get involved, but it seemed she wanted Hanako to get more of the spotlight. Of course, the match was relatively short for a trios match, so this made it more challenging for anyone to really stand out. This is why Hanako and Tsukka definitely deserve credit for their input and output here, since they were arguably the most outstanding ones. KAZUKI was okay and didn’t get in the way, but she was mostly just rounding out the team. DASH Chisako didn’t play as much of a role as hoped, but it was cool to see her work against Jaguar for a bit. Jaguar didn’t get involved too much, but she did fine, especially considering her age (55). At this point, it’s just cool to see this living legend involved in a good trios match. The match kinda felt rushed, but at least it was pretty much all non-stop action. ***

OZ Academy 11/13/16 Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi 13:43. It seemed Best Friends was a little bit caught off guard by the strong display of tag team wrestling by MISSION K5. However, since Best Friends are one of the best tag teams in joshi puroresu history, eventually they got their act together and made things more difficult for their opponents. Kaho Kobayashi showed tons of fighting spirit, like she usually does. The match was at its best when she was working against Best Friends. This is not to say that AKINO wasn’t giving a good performance, because she was solid in this match, but the main difference is that Kobayashi had started reaching her peak as a pure worker, while AKINO was no longer at her absolute peak. It seemed like AKINO got more match time than Kobayashi in this match for some reason though. Best Friends really were super intense during the final minutes, and it feels like this match could have reached even greater heights if it would have lasted longer. Still, this was very good and very enjoyable overall. ***½

JWP 12/18/16 Tokyo KFC Hall: Arisa Nakajima vs. Command Bolshoi 30:00. This was intriguing right from the start, because they were constantly countering each other on the mat. Neither would really have the upper hand for too long. It was an exciting match that constantly went back and forth. They constantly kept moving, and constantly kept doing something that felt like it was a logical thing to do in the moment. This really helped put over that they both were fighting to win this match. They were constantly struggling to survive, that’s how competitive this was. There were times when Bolshoi would go for a suplex that Nakajima would try to hold on for dear life, trying to block the move. This really helped to indicate that every move had meaning and was treated as something that could potentially lead to a win for someone. This is a rare example of a match that was actually justified to go this long, because the struggle was so intense that neither woman would let the other get away with a victory. When it was announced that there were three minutes left, it became clear that they had been having such a great match that it felt time had flown by super quickly. From that moment onwards, it was clear that it would go to a draw, but at least it wasn’t clear from the start. Overall, this was a great match because it was a 30-minute match filled with intense wrestling and no dull moments. ****½  

STARDOM 12/22/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World of STARDOM Title: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani 17:11. This was almost as great as their 5/15/16 match. In this 12/22/16 match, Io Shirai acted more like a cocky veteran, which made some parts of the match a bit slower than expected. Everything Shirai did was well-executed and made sense in the context of the story they were trying to tell though. Mayu Iwatani was the top challenger and once she got the opportunity to hit a big move, she executed a dragon suplex on the floor. Later in the match, Iwatani hit a dragon suplex on the apron. Shirai would find the strength to overcome the punishment and get back in control several times. However, at some point, things really seemed to start looking in Iwatani’s favor. That’s when Iwatani started showing more urgency as she now truly believed in her chances to win. Shirai was now in survival mode. Shirai hit German suplexes to try to take Iwatani out of the picture, but Iwatani wasn’t going to stay down easily. The final minutes were top-notch with both of them pulling all the stops. It looked like Iwatani was actually going to win the title, but in the end, it was the more experienced Shirai who retained the championship. The pace was somewhat deliberate for their standards until the final minutes became progressively more exciting. The execution of the moves and the storytelling was superb throughout the entire match. ****½

JWP 12/28/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Tsukasa Fujimoto & KAZUKI vs. Tsukushi & Hiroyo Matsumoto 11:37. The high workrate made this lots of fun to watch. This meant it was right up Tsukka’s and Tsukushi’s alley, and it was therefore no surprise that the match was at its best when those two battled each other. Tsukka was the most impressive worker in the match because of her explosive dropkicks and no-nonsense kicks. Tsukka was also great at keeping sequences flowing smoothly, even when a part of the sequence was slightly flawed. Also, Tsukka’s great display of athleticism was delightful, as always. KAZUKI was okay-ish for the most part, but she was clearly the least memorable worker of the match. Hiroyo Matsumoto brought a lot of energy, like she usually does. At some point during the match, Matsumoto applied the Boston crap on both of her opponents at the same time. The match wasn’t very long, but at least that meant it didn’t overstay its welcome. The somewhat abrupt ending came when Tsukushi scored the pinfall over KAZUKI. This was a good match overall, and they made the eleven minutes they were given quite entertaining. They did a good job of having a fun-loving and lighthearted match that was a well-worked match at the same time. ***  

JWP 12/28/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Sareee vs. Rabbit Miu 16:35. Both workers gave a strong effort. Rabbit Miu hit a plancha off the top to the floor. This was Rabbit Miu’s retirement match, and her hard work to make this memorable paid off, as this was a good match. Sareee did well, but it seems she hadn’t improved as a worker as much as expected. The future still looked bright for her career though. Despite not being the quickest, strongest or most athletic, Sareee always shows a lot of heart and determination. Her passion is what really helps her keep going further and slowly becoming a better, more diverse worker, but she was definitely still trying to figure things out in 2016. This really felt more like it was Miu’s match, which was understandable, since she wanted to make her last match one to remember. 2016 was arguably Miu’s best year. It was nice to see that she gave strong efforts during this final year, including her very last match, this surprisingly good match. After both had constantly been trying to put the other away, Sareee eventually scored the win, despite Miu having had the upper hand during most of the match. After the match, they held a retirement ceremony for Miu, who was never the best, but she was never the worst either. She was a solid hand for the JWP midcard during her 5-year career. ***

JWP 12/28/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, JWP Openweight Title Match: Arisa Nakajima vs. Hanako Nakamori 15:29. JWP had a couple of other shows that were quite good overall, but this was arguably their best one in 2016. It’s a shame that things were about to change in JWP. This JWP Openweight Title match was the main event of JWP-CLIMAX 2016. Arisa Nakajima showed a lot of intensity, even during the portion when they were brawling on the floor, which helped sell the fact that it wasn’t just a brawl on the floor because it is an unwritten rule that it’s mandatory, but it was more that Nakajima made it clear that no matter where the fight went, she had only one thing in mind and that was beat her opponent as decisively as possible. In the ring, Nakajima continued her attack, and she gave Nakamori no time to rest. Since Nakamori wasn’t going to receive a break from Nakajima, Nakamori had to fight back hard in order to stand a chance. It took Nakamori a while to get warmed up, and she’s given better performances in the past, but she eventually made the story of her becoming a real threat to Nakajima’s plans to make this a decisive victory a somewhat justifiable and somewhat believable story. Nakajima’s work was obviously the main reason this was a really good match though. Despite Nakajima’s strong showing, it was Nakamori who got the win and the title in the end. This was Nakajima’s final match in JWP, as SEAdLINNNG was going to be the league she would mainly compete in from 2017 onwards. ***¾ 

WAVE 12/29/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Misaki Ohata 11:47 of 16:27. Ohata and Matsumoto being very familiar with each other helped their sequences look quite smooth. DASH Chisako worked hard, and it was her timing that was particularly strong. Mayumi Ozaki couldn’t resist using a chain, but she didn’t get involved in the match that much. This meant that Ohata was the most important performer in the match, since she was in the match for the majority of the time. Ohata put a lot of effort behind her offense and selling. Ozaki tried to cheat to win, but it ended up backfiring. The match was at its most intriguing when Ohata and Chisako were in the ring because of their crisp work together, but the chemistry between Ohata and Matsumoto made their sequences enjoyable as well. ***¼

Ice Ribbon 12/31/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, ICExInfinity Title Tournament Semifinal Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tsukushi 13:31. After going to a 30-minute time limit draw the last time these two met, Tsukasa Fujimoto vacated the title. It was certainly interesting to see these two meet each other in the semi finals of the tournament, since that meant that one of these two would not be able to compete in the championship decision match. The start of this match saw them counter each other’s moves, including Tsukushi countering Tsukka’s Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex attempt. During a brief brawl in the crowd, they smashed each other’s head against the “west” sign on the wall at Korakuen Hall. Tsukushi dove off the fan entrance on top of Tsukka. Just like in their 11/3/16 match, Tsukushi showed no fear and really took it to Tsukka. Of course, Tsukka was able to turn things around at some point. Risa Sera was near the ringside area, and looked on with a worried look on her face, perhaps because she realized that these two were far more skilled and adaptable than she is, and she would have to face one of them in the final of this tournament. Once again, these two were able to make the near falls convincing, as it wasn’t clear if the match would be over or not. In the end, Tsukasa Fujimoto was able to finish off Tsukushi with the Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex, which was a move Tsukka used with permission from Manami Toyota. This was a very good match. It was probably slightly better than their previous match because it was a more fast-paced action-packed sprint, which is right down Tsukushi’s alley, and that made it easier for Tsukka to guide Tsukushi to a really good match. The 11/3/16 match was memorable because of them working a 30-minute match that was very good, but this 12/31/16 match saw them get more of the match in a shorter time with crisper work, making it the best Ice Ribbon match of 2016. The final of the tournament was unfortunately not nearly as good as this match because of Risa Sera not being able to work at this level. ***¾  

(in parenthesis: pro debut dates) [in brackets: rankings of previous years] {in braces: country of origin if worker is non-Japanese} <in chevrons: 2016 joshi top 25 rookie ranking>

10.0 ~ The Best of the Best ~ 5.0*

1. Io Shirai (debut: 3/4/07) [2010 ranking: #9, 2011: #8, 2012: #7, 2013: #4, 2014: #3, 2015: #1]. The ace of STARDOM. She was in the top 2 joshi singles matches and the best joshi tag match of the year. During the research of 2016 joshi puroresu, her amazing athleticism made her the most enjoyable wrestler to watch. Mayu Iwatani also deserves a lot of credit for those 3 matches being so great, but Shirai was the lead worker and arguably the most outstanding performer in all three matches. Shirai had a very strong ring presence, like a true ring general, displaying a great deal of confidence to go along with her great ability. Everything she did was executed with great effectiveness and explosiveness. Shirai is one of the top reasons that STARDOM is #1 in the top 10 of all joshi leagues. Shirai also had a really good match in SGPW against Meiko Satomura, and that match ended up in the top 15 of the best joshi 2016 matches. Shirai also managed to carry Kairi Hojo to the only Kairi singles match from 2016 that was worth recommending.

2. Arisa Nakajima (debut: 1/3/06) [2010-2011: N/A, 2012: #1, 2013: #1, 2014: #1, 2015: #2]. Arisa Nakajima was once again an outstanding performer. Once again, the only reason she’s not #1 is because Io Shirai was just totally amazing in STARDOM that year. Arisa had really good matches in JWP and in OZ Academy. Her most memorable matches of 2016 were against Command Bolshoi in JWP on 12/18/16 (which was a great singles match) and w/ Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi in OZ Academy on 3/14/16 (which was an excellent tag team match). Arisa & Tsukka, Best Friends, were the best tag team of 2016 in joshi puroresu.

3. Mayu Iwatani (debut: 1/23/11) [2010: N/A, 2011: NR, 2012: #39, 2013: #33, 2014: #17, 2015: #6]. Mayu Iwatani had an amazing year in 2016. Just like her Thunder Rock tag team partner, Io Shirai, Iwatani showed up in three of the four best joshi puroresu matches of 2016. She had been improving steadily since her debut in 2011, but it was in 2016 that her levels of success and quality output truly skyrocketed. It wasn’t just when she wrestled against and teamed with Shirai that her matches were of remarkable quality, because, for example, Iwatani also had good singles matches against gaijin workers Toni Storm and Kay Lee Ray, and Iwatani deserves credit for those two matches being better than Shirai’s matches against those two gaijin opponents.

9.0 ~ Great ~ 4.5-4.75*

4. Tsukasa Fujimoto (debut: 8/23/08) [2010: #23, 2011: #14, 2012: #18, 2013: #14, 2014: #5, 2015: #5]. Tsukasa Fujimoto had a great year in 2016. She was so confident and consistent in her performances throughout the year. Even though Tsukka wasn’t involved in excellent or great singles matches that year, she was involved in several singles matches that were good or very good that were worth recommending, and her performances played a big role in those matches. She was a high-quality singles wrestler, and she was a high-quality tag team wrestler. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) was the best joshi tag team of 2016.

5. Syuri (debut: 10/26/08) [2010: #28, 2011: #16, 2012: #4, 2013: #6, 2014: #6, 2015: #9]. Syuri is a very skilled performer, but she didn’t always seem too interested in working around the limitations of her opponents in order to try to enhance the quality of the match. That being said, her best stuff is really good. Her two best singles matches that year (OZ Academy 5/22/16: vs. Kagetsu and SGPW 3/11/16 vs. Meiko Satomura) made it to the top 15. Syuri was also involved in four tag team matches that made it to the top 30. The tag team she had formed with Hikaru Shida was a top 5 joshi tag team that year. This article only focuses on worked pro wrestling, but it’s worth noting that Syuri was also active as an MMA fighter in the Japanese MMA league Pancrase that year, and her Pancrase 2016 run was quite the successful start to her MMA career, and she won all three of her MMA fights, which included a good fight against Brazilian MMA fighter Nicolle Caliari in Pancrase on 7/24/16.

6. DASH Chisako (debut: 7/9/06) [2010: #22, 2011: #11, 2012: #16, 2013: #10, 2014: #7, 2015: #4]. Sendai Sachiko’s retirement shouldn’t have made much of a difference for DASH Chisako’s run as a top in-ring performer, because Chisako was the better worker of the two. However, she had been pidgeonholed into the role of tag specialist, and since the magic of the Jumonji Sisters tag team was now gone, it seemed Chisako had less opportunities to show her greatness, especially outside of SGPW. Getting saddled with KAORU as a semi-regular tag team partner in 2016 didn’t help matters. However, when she was in the ring with mediocre opponents, her effort and intensity would help turn the match more often than not into a decent one. For example, this was the case with her WAVE 6/2/16 match vs. Ryo Mizunami, which was a match in the 2.75-star range. While it’s often hard to really justify recommending those type of matches featuring an opponent that lacks sophisticated skills, especially if we’re only focusing on actual good matches, it’s worth noting that those kind of matches do show that Chisako is able to carry mediocre workers to matches that are considerably better than they normally would have been if those mediocre workers were facing an opponent of lesser quality than Chisako. That’s why those non-recommended matches still play a role in the ranking of a worker like Chisako, but of course, it would have been better if Chisako would have had been given better tag team partners on a regular basis and/or simply would have been given a singles main event push, because that would have put her in the position to have lengthier, more developed higher quality matches more often. 

8.0 ~ Excellent ~ 4.0-4.25*

7. Kaho Kobayashi (debut: 6/28/13) [2010-2012: N/A, 2013: #58, 2014: #16, 2015: #13]. Kaho Kobayashi was in the second-best joshi tag match of the year when she teamed w/ Kagetsu against Best Friends at an OZ Academy show on 3/14/16. Kaho was also involved in seven other matches that were worthy of recommendation. She was particularly strong in tag team action, as she would bring her explosive energy and make the matches more lively. She excelled in being in the underdog role, fighting from underneath, which always made for an interesting dynamic in her matches.

8. Aja Kong (debut: 9/16/86) [2010: #6, 2011: #19, 2012: #23, 2013: #15, 2014: #11, 2015: #19]. Years like this, which is a year that is 30 years after Aja Kong first made her pro wrestling debut, really help make a strong case for Aja Kong as the joshi GOAT. While she didn’t necessarily have any truly excellent matches, she did have several matches that were good or very good, and for someone who has been active as long as she has, it’s not only admirable but very remarkable that she’s able to contribute high quality work and again be a top 15 joshi worker in the year 2016. Aja had three matches that were top 30-worthy, including the really good SGPW 4/8/16 match against Meiko Satomura, which featured a strong singles match performance by Aja.

9. Command Bolshoi (debut: 11/26/91) [2010: #11, 2011: #24, 2012: #14, 2013: #27, 2014: #20, 2015: #14]. Her singles match against Arisa Nakajima in JWP on 12/18/16 was the best singles match in JWP that year. Only the two great STARDOM matches between Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani were better singles matches. Bolshoi was also involved in a couple of other singles matches that were noteworthy.

10. Kagetsu (debut: 8/24/08) [2010: NR, 2011: #24, 2012: #11, 2013: #18, 2014: #15, 2015: #18]. By May 2016, she finally got used to her role in STARDOM and kinda started realizing her identity in Oedo Tai. Overall, her input and output in 2016 was of significantly higher quality than in previous years. Her best singles match that year was in OZ Academy on 5/22/16 against Syuri, and her best tag match was also in OZ Academy when she teamed w/ Kaho Kobayashi against Best Friends on 3/14/16.

11. Hikaru Shida (debut: 7/20/08) [2010: #26, 2011: #15, 2012: #6, 2013: #7, 2014: #8, 2015: #8]. She was maybe not the most consistent performer, but she gave enough high-quality performances to give us plenty of good memories of her work in matches that place in 2016. The tag team she formed with Syuri certainly helped her position because of Syuri’s excellence, but it wasn’t all Syuri, as Shida gave a strong effort and memorable performance most of the time. Shida’s match against Yu Yamagata in WAVE on 7/6/16 was a very good match and definitely worth watching, and it was probably the best WAVE match of 2016. 

7.0 ~ Very Good ~ 3.5-3.75*

12. Meiko Satomura (debut: 4/15/95) [2010: #19, 2011: #20, 2012: #29, 2013: #22, 2014: #12, 2015: #10]. Her best matches are mostly that good because of her opponents, especially the singles matches (against Io Shirai, Syuri and Aja Kong). She probably would have been great if she would show more urgency throughout the entire match and not just kinda do her thing while relying on the more all-round wrestlers (like the aforementioned Shirai, Syuri and Aja, for example) to turn the match into a memorable one. Still, we can’t overlook that she’s good enough to deserve a place in the top 15. Her strikes looked good, and she was smart enough and good enough to be involved in matches that ended up being memorable (of course, it helps if you are booking yourself against top talent in the main event of your own show and that status leads to you getting booked against one of the top tag teams in joshi on someone else’s show).

13. Shoko Nakajima (debut: 8/17/13) [2010-2012: N/A, 2013: NR, 2014: #93, 2015: #56]. Shoko Nakajima is one of the most improved wrestlers of 2016, and maybe the most surprising entry into the top 20. She had the skill and enthusiasm to make it this far. Her ability to carry promising rookie of the year Yuu and help guide Yuka Sakazaki, who was just starting to figure out that she had the potential to be a better and more serious performer, to matches that were very good in a league that featured mostly not-so-serious workers and matches speaks volumes about how good Shoko Nakajima was.

14. Kay Lee Ray (debut: 5/30/09) [2010-2015: NR {Scotland}. Kay Lee Ray was a very impressive gaijin worker. If she had more tours in Japan, she would probably have ended up higher on the list. She stood out, not only because of her athletic ability and talent, but also because she was able to be creative, and she showed that she could carry matches, including matches that involved top Japanese wrestlers.

15. Tsukushi (debut: 1/16/10) [2010-2011: NR, 2012: #38, 2013: #30, 2014: #22, 2015: #25]. Her best matches were that good because of Tsukasa Fujimoto, but Tsukushi deserves credit for always bringing her lively energy to matches, which really uplifts the enjoyment of the matches. She does enough enjoyable stuff in matches to make someone want to pay attention to her matches. Despite her not being the most credible wrestler because of her small-sized body, she brings a lot of heart, passion and effort on a reasonably consistent basis.

16. Mika Iida (debut: 11/21/10) [2010-2011: NR, 2012: #56, 2013: #46, 2014: #31, 2015: #28]. Mika Iida stands out because of how she doesn’t reply and answer in the ring in a simple straight-forward way, as she tries to come up with more interesting and intricate ways to redirect things. She prefers to counter an attempted strike with a European clutch pin attempt instead of a more simple and/or a easily available option. She seems to take great pride in trying to find a way to have a technically refined approach to her matches. Iida has to be one of the most underrated and underappreciated workers around, and just like in 2015, Iida was one of the most underrated wrestlers of the year in 2016.

17. Hiroyo Matsumoto (debut: 7/16/06) [2010: #17, 2011: #17, 2012: #24, 2013: #24, 2014: #28, 2015: #17]. Hiroyo Matsumoto was certainly still going strong in 2016, especially as a tag team worker. She was in a couple of top 30-worthy tag team bouts, and she wrestled in several other good matches that year, most of them being tag team matches, cementing her reputation as tag team specialist.

18. Hanako Nakamori (debut: 7/16/06) [2010: NR, 2011: #29, 2012: #13, 2013: #17, 2014: #13, 2015: #26]. It seemed she wasn’t involved in as many good matches as hoped, but her performances in the matches that made it to this article are worth seeking out. In particular, her match against Arisa Nakajima in JWP on 12/28/16 is a very good match.

19. Mayumi Ozaki (debut: 8/17/86) [2010-2011: NR, 2012: #36, 2013: #32, 2014: #35, 2015: #49]. This was arguably Mayumi Ozaki’s strongest year since 2006. Her most outstanding performance in 2016 took place when she had an excellent match against Arisa Nakajima in JWP on 4/3/16. That being said, she was also in many shenanigan heavy matches that weren’t good.

6.0 ~ Good ~ 3.0-3.25*

20. Leon (debut: 3/16/00) [2010: #7, 2011: #6, 2012: #5, 2013: #9, 2014: #21, 2015: #11]. Leon’s skills proved to be effective in both singles and tag team action. She was involved in a few matches that were good or better, but only two were top 30-worthy (and those two were tag team matches). Leon showed that she was still a very useful and quite a reliable worker in 2016, but it wasn’t her strongest year.

21. Chihiro Hashimoto (debut: 10/11/15) [2010-2014: N/A, 2015: #38] <joshi 2016 rookie #1>. 2016 Rookie of the Year Chihiro Hashimoto was arguably the most talented joshi rookie since 2012 Rookie of the Year winner Yuhi. She was a participant in a top 15 match when she teamed w/ DASH Chisako vs. Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto in SGPW on 3/11/16. Unlike most rookies, Hashimoto came across as someone who could handle herself in a wrestling match. Of course, she lacked experience, but she was clearly not as weak and clueless like the majority of rookies. That’s why she belonged in matches with top stars, and that’s why she even earned herself a spot in the top 25.

22. AKINO (debut: 7/21/98) [2010: #13, 2011: #25, 2012: #26, 2013: #31, 2014: #27, 2015: #21]. She was impressive mostly in tag team matches. She can still be explosive and intense, even though it’s at times in small doses. Whenever AKINO shows up in a match, it’s definitely not a bad thing, because she’s still an enjoyable worker to watch. She’s a cool worker overall.

23. Tsubasa Kuragaki (debut: 1/8/95) [2010: #27, 2011: #28, 2012: #22, 2013: #26, 2014: #25, 2015: #15]. After having a really strong 2015, it felt like her 2016 was a big disappointment. She can still be impressive at times though, and she was involved in a couple of good trios matches, a very good tag team match w/ Kaori Yoneyama vs. Hikaru Shida & Syuri and even a pretty good singles sprint against Command Bolshoi in JWP on 7/31/16. 

24. Yu Yamagata (debut 12/3/00) [2010-2011: NR, 2012: #63, 2013: #56, 2014: #67, 2015: #28]. Her 7/6/16 match against Hikaru Shida was the best match in WAVE that year. Yamagata is an experienced and reliable worker that isn’t the most exciting to watch, but she didn’t really mess things up either.

25. Yuka Sakazaki (debut 12/1/13) [2010-2012: N/A, 2013: NR, 2014: #91, 2015: #55]. She really stepped up her game in 2016. While she still stayed true to her playful and adorable personality, she wasn’t just fooling around anymore, as she committed herself to start working more seriously.

26. Misaki Ohata/Misaki Glico (debut: 12/10/06) [2010: #21, 2011: #10, 2012: #12, 2013: #12, 2014: #9, 2015: #16]. She’s a good worker, but her performances in 2016 were rather simplistic, and it never felt that she really went the extra mile that year. There were a couple of matches during the Catch the WAVE tournament that featured high-effort and urgent singles-match performances from Ohata though.

27. Kaori Yoneyama (debut: 11/29/99) [2010: #5, 2011: #12, 2012: #9, 2013: #8, 2014: #10, 2015: #12]. Despite Kaori Yoneyama still being a solid hand and overall reliable worker, we’ve definitely reached the point where her career started being more and more about having fun than having good matches. At least she wasn’t dressed up like a clown yet.

28. Sonoko Kato (debut: 4/15/95) [2010: #14, 2011: #18, 2012: #25, 2013: #38, 2014: #42, 2015: #20]. She was still a solid tag team worker, but she had no singles matches of note in 2016 despite holding the OZ Academy Openweight Title for the first third of the year. It seems 2016 is definitely a big step down from her work in previous years.

29. Takumi Iroha (debut: 4/29/13) [2010-2012: N/A, 2013: #54, 2014: #33, 2015: #29]. She possibly would have ranked higher if there was Marvelous footage available.

30. Kairi Hojo (debut: 1/7/12) [2010-2011: N/A, 2012: #61, 2013: #53, 2014: #36, 2015: #24] 

5.0 ~ Above Average ~ 2.5-2.75*

31. Rabbit Miu (debut: 8/7/11) [2010: N/A, 2011: NR, 2012: #41, 2013: #42, 2014: #37, 2015: #48]

32. Sareee (debut: 4/17/11) [2010: N/A, 2011: NR, 2012: #59, 2013: #37, 2014: #26, 2015: #35]

33. Ayako Hamada (debut: 8/9/98) [2010-2011: NR, 2012: #49, 2013: #34, 2014: #41, 2015: #22]. {Mexico/Japan}

34. Konami (debut: 10/7/14) [2010-2013: N/A, 2014: NR, 2015: #32]

35. Chikayo Nagashima (debut: 4/15/95) [2010: #8, 2011: #5, 2012: #21, 2013: #28, 2014: #44, 2015: #33]

36. Toni Storm (debut: 10/9/09) [2010-2015: NR] {New Zealand/Australia} 

37. Mika Iwata/Mika Shirahime (debut: 7/12/15) [2010-2014: N/A, 2015: #39]

38. Aoi Kizuki (debut: 5/1/05) [2010-2011: NR, 2012: #47, 2013: #36, 2014: #43, 2015: #42]

39. Yuu (debut: 1/4/16) [2010-2015: N/A] <joshi 2016 rookie #2> 

40. Miyu Yamashita (debut 8/17/13) [2010-2012: N/A, 2013: NR, 2014: #72, 2015: #95]

41. RiNO (debut: 7/24/16) [2010-2015: N/A] <joshi 2016 rookie #3> 

42. Rina Yamashita (debut: 10/27/13) [2010-2012: N/A, 2013: NR, 2014: #52, 2015: #60]

43. Yuuka (debut: 12/21/13) [2010-2012: N/A, 2013: NR, 2014: #97, 2015: #46]

4.0 ~ Average ~ 2.0-2.25*

44. Manami Katsu (debut: 3/21/11) (2010: N/A, 2011-2012: NR, 2013: #29, 2014: #29, 2015: N/A]

45. Emi Sakura (debut: 8/17/95) (2010: #18, 2011: #21, 2012: #19, 2013: #40, 2014: #48, 2015: #41]

46. Jaguar Yokota (debut: 6/28/77) [2010-2011: NR, 2012: #51, 2013: #51, 2014: #46, 2015: #36].

47. Reika Saiki <joshi 2016 rookie #4> 

48. Natsumi Maki

49. Kotori 

50. Kellie Skater {Australia}

51. Makoto

52. Maya Yukihi

53. Sayaka Obihiro

54. Kyuri

55. SAKI

56. Moeka Haruhi

57. KAZUKI

58. Yuki Miyazaki

59. Koharu Hinata

60. Manami Toyota

61. Dynamite Kansai

62. Mima Shimoda

63. Michiko/Cassandra Miyagi

64. MIZUKI

65. Starlight Kid <joshi 2016 rookie #5>

66. Saori Ano

67. Riho

68. Thunder Rosa {Mexico}

69. Nanae Takahashi

70. Apple Miyuki/Hibiscus Mii/Miyuki Matsuyama

71. Risa Sera

72. Shanna {Portugal}

73. Azumi

74. Yoko Bito

75. Megumi Yabushita

76. Yumi Oka

77. Miyako Matsumoto

78. Kanna Shinmei/KANNA

79. Yoshiko

80. Haruka Kato

81. Evie {New Zealand}

82. ASUKA

83. Natsu Sumire

84. Maki Narumiya

85. Santana Garrett {USA}

86. Viper {Scotland}

87. Cherry

88. Takako Inoue

89. Yumiko Hotta

90. Kyoko Inoue

91. Nodoka-Oneesan <joshi 2016 rookie #6>

92. Hiroe Nagahama

93. Hiragi Kurumi

94. Mochi Miyagi

95. HZK

3.0 ~ Below Average ~ 1.5-1.75*

96. Eimi Nishina <joshi 2016 rookie #7>

97. Ibis Sara <joshi 2016 rookie #8>

98. Jungle Kyona <joshi 2016 rookie #9>

99. Momo Watanabe

100. Maruko Nagasaki <joshi 2016 rookie #10>

101. Aasa Maika <joshi 2016 rookie #11>

102. Tae Honma

103. Mitsuru Konno <joshi 2016 rookie #12>

104. Diosa Athenea {Mexico}

105. Tequila Saya <joshi 2016 rookie #13>

106. Ryo Mizunami

107. Shiori Akiba

108. Rydeen Hagane

109. Yako Fujigasaki

110. Natsuko Tora

111. Maika Ozaki

112. Ai Shimizu

113. Mari Ann

114. Jenny Rose [USA]

115. Tessa Blanchard {USA}

116. Rin Kadokura <joshi 2016 rookie #14>

117. Hiromi Mimura <joshi 2016 rookie #15>

118. Yuina Onasaka <joshi 2016 rookie #16>

119. Hana Kimura <joshi 2016 rookie #17>

120. Leah Vaughan {Canada}

121. Maho Kurone <joshi 2016 rookie #18>

122. Alex Lee {Bosnia/Australia}

123. Hamuko Hoshi

124. Sawako Shimono

125. 235/Fu-mi-ko

126. Hirori <joshi 2016 rookie #19>

127. Silueta {Mexico}

128. Chelsea Green {Canada}

129. Chelsea Diamond {USA}

130. Kaitlin Diemond {Canada}

131. Kris Wolf {USA}

132. Alpha Female {Germany}

133. Cat Power {Canada}

134. Bete Noire {Scotland}

135. Arisu Nanase <joshi 2016 rookie #20>

136. Saki Akai/Saki Akamiya

137. Shinobu Kandori

138. Meiko Tanaka

139. KAORU

140. Akane Fujita

141. Tam Nakano <joshi 2016 rookie #21>

142. Mari Sakamoto <joshi 2016 rookie #22>

143. Rika Tatsumi

144. Micro

145. Ayaka

146. Mio Momono <joshi 2016 rookie #23>

2.0 ~ Poor ~ 1.0-1.25*

147. Akane Miura/Poison Miura

148. Dump Matsumoto

149. Nyla Rose {USA}

150. Nonoko

151. Holidead {USA}

152. Fairy Nihonbashi

153. Hyper Misao

154. Marika Kobashi <joshi 2016 rookie #24>

155. Azusa Takigawa <joshi 2016 rookie #25>

156. Matsuya Uno

157. Kyoko Kimura/Mask de Sun

1.0 ~ Terrible ~ 0.5-0.75*

158. Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru

159. Big Bang Nicole {USA}

160. May Lee

0.0 ~ The Worst ~ 0.0-0.25*

161. Aiger

1. Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto (Best Friends)

2. Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani (Thunder Rock)

3. Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi (MISSION K4)

4. Hikaru Shida & Syuri

5. Leon & Rabbit Miu

1. STARDOM 3/21/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Goddesses of STARDOM Title: Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs. Meiko Satomura & Kairi Hojo 24:21. ****¾ 

2. STARDOM 5/15/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani 21:54. ****¾ 

3. STARDOM 12/22/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World of STARDOM Title: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani 17:11. ****½ 

4. JWP 12/18/16 Tokyo KFC Hall: Arisa Nakajima vs. Command Bolshoi 30:00. ****½  

5. OZ Academy 3/14/16 Tokyo Shinjuku Face: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi 14:50. ****¼  

6. JWP 4/3/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, JWP Openweight Title: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Arisa Nakajima 15:36. ****

7. OZ Academy 5/22/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Syuri vs. Kagetsu 11:42. **** 

8. JWP 12/28/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, JWP Openweight Title Match: Arisa Nakajima vs. Hanako Nakamori 15:29. ***¾ 

9. OZ Academy 6/19/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: AKINO & Kagetsu & Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato vs. Hikaru Shida & Syuri & Aoi Kizuki & Rina Yamashita 22:30. ***¾ 

10. SGPW 3/11/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Meiko Satomura vs. Syuri 14:33. ***¾

11. Ice Ribbon 12/31/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, ICExInfinity Title Tournament Semifinal Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tsukushi 13:31. ***¾  

12. SGPW 7/2/16 Niigata-shi Taiikukan, Sendai Girls Title: Meiko Satomura vs. Io Shirai 19:08. ***¾   

13. SGPW 4/8/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Sendai Girls World Title Match: Meiko Satomura vs. Aja Kong 17:43. ***¾  

14. SGPW 3/11/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. DASH Chisako & Chihiro Hashimoto 17:31. ***¾  

15. TJPW 8/13/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo Princess Cup Final: Shoko Nakajima vs. Yuu 17:12. ***¾   

16. Ice Ribbon 11/3/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, ICExInfinity Title Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tsukushi 30:00. ***½ 

17. Hana Kimura Produce 8/7/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, Mixed Tag Team Match: Mayu Iwatani & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Syuri & Keno 20:00. ***½ 

18. WAVE 7/6/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Regina Di WAVE Title Match: Yu Yamagata vs. Hikaru Shida 16:51 of 19:57. ***½ 

19. JWP 9/22/16 Tokyo Ryogoku KFC Hall: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Leon & Rabbit Miu 21:46. ***½ 

20. OZ Academy 11/13/16 Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi 13:43. ***½ 

21. OZ Academy 9/11/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, OZ Academy Tag Title Match: Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Hikaru Shida & Syuri 14:26. ***½ 

22. OZ Academy 5/22/16 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE: Aja Kong & Rabbit Miu vs. Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato 13:31. ***½ 

23. TJPW 7/23/16 Yokohama Radian Hall, Tokyo Princess Cup 2016 Second Round: Shoko Nakajima vs. Yuka Sakazaki 21:06. ***½ 

24. STARDOM 9/11/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, 5STAR Grand Prix 2016 Block A: Mayu Iwatani vs. Toni Storm 9:28. ***½ 

25. JWP 2/21/16 Tokyo Hanayashiki Amusement Park: Arisa Nakajima & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Leon & Rabbit Miu 17:29. ***¼ 

26. WILD HERO 2/22/16 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Arisa Nakajima & Syuri vs. Hikaru Shida & Hiroyo Matsumoto 17:15. ***¼ 

27. WAVE 12/29/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: DASH Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Misaki Ohata 11:47 of 16:27. ***¼ 

28. STARDOM 1/17/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, High Speed Title: Mayu Iwatani vs. Kay Lee Ray 13:48. ***¼ 

29. JWP 7/31/16 Nagoya Club Diamond Hall: Command Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki 11:01. ***¼  

30. SGPW 1/17/16 Sendai Miyagino-ku Bunka Center, Sendai Girls Tag Title Match: DASH Chisako & Sendai Sachiko vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & Mika Iwata 19:07. ***¼ 

1. JWP Joshi Puroresu. STARDOM had Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani and relied heavily on them, but despite the fact that a significant part of JWP’s quality was due to Arisa Nakajima’s greatness, JWP was better at having better top-to-bottom shows than STARDOM. This means that as a league overall, JWP deserves the #1 spot. It’s a shame this will be the last time we can say that about JWP, because this league would end up dissolving in April 2017 after having been one of the best joshi puroresu leagues of the past 3 decades.

2. World Wonder Ring STARDOM. Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani both had a fantastic year in 2016, to the point that at least one of those two participated in each of the eight recommended STARDOM matches. Thanks to those two, the top 2 joshi singles matches and the best joshi tag match of 2016 all took place in STARDOM. Ironically, while STARDOM has the reputation of not picking the best gaijin to tour, in 2016, the two best gaijin in joshi puroresu were Toni Storm and Kay Lee Ray, who were both quite impressive in STARDOM, especially for joshi puroresu gaijin standards.

3. OZ Academy. Police ruining matches and outside interference in general is not something that’s new, but it’s still something that really can result in promising matches ending up being disappointing. Yumi Oka also interfered a lot on Mayumi Ozaki’s behalf, and Mio Shirai’s heel refereeing wasn’t a good thing either. If it wasn’t for all those factors, OZ Academy could have potentially reached even greater heights. That being said, OZ Academy had a strong year overall, and they made it to the top 3. They had at least a dozen good matches in 2016, and six of them were top 30-worthy matches.

4. Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling (SGPW). Unlike previous years,  there was a good amount of SGPW footage available to us, and that helped SGPW finally get a good ranking. Four of their matches made it to the top 15, and that helped earn them the #4 spot.

5. Pro Wrestling WAVE. Despite delivering a decent amount of good matches, including two matches that made it to the top 30, for the second straight year WAVE didn’t deliver any matches that made it to the top 15.

6. Ice Ribbon. It seems this league never is quite the best or the worst league. A lot of their workers are not capable of working matches on a level worth recommending. However, Ice Ribbon did have two matches that were worthy of a spot in the top 30 joshi matches of the year, thanks to Tsukasa Fujimoto.

7. Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW). If it wasn’t for Shoko Nakajima, TJPW probably wouldn’t be ranked this highly. Although, part of the credit for TJPW's reasonably high ranking should also go to Yuu, Yuka Sakazaki and Miyu Yamashita, who are the other workers who were capable of being involved in matches worth recommending in 2016. That being said, TJPW’s worst workers were poor workers, and among the worst wrestlers of the year 2016.

8. REINA

9. Gatoh Move

10. SEAdLINNNG

11. Actwres girl’Z (AWG)

12. Osaka Joshi Pro (Daijo)

NOTE: As of this writing, there is no 2016 footage available of the Marvelous and Diana leagues.

1. Chihiro Hashimoto

2. Yuu

3. RiNO

4. Reika Saiki

5. Starlight Kid

6. Nodoka-Oneesan

7. Eimi Nishina

8. Ibis Sara

9. Jungle Kyona

10. Maruko Nagasaki

11. Aasa Maika

12. Mitsuru Konno

13. Tequila Saya

14. Rin Kadokura

15. Hiromi Mimura

16. Yuina Onasaka

17. Hana Kimura

18. Maho Kurone

19. Hirori

20. Arisu Nanase

21. Tam Nakano

22. Mari Sakamoto

23. Mio Momono

24. Marika Kobashi

25. Azusa Takigawa

Honorable mentions: Kasumi, Maki Onizuka, Matsuya Uno