Miyu Yamashita: the aspiring idol turned wrestling phenom
Today's subject is the legendary ace of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, Miyu Yamashita. Here we go!
The start of TJPW’s… idol?
From Fukuoka, Japan today’s subject is the one and only Miyu Yamashita, the Momoiro Striker had her first ever match alongside her home promotion TJPW on both parties’ first ever show all the way back in 2013 when TJPW was so small that they couldn’t even afford to have enough wrestlers to compete, so referee Daisuke Kiso had to put on his wrestling boots for the occasion. It is safe to say that the promotion has changed a lot since its debut, and the same can be applied for Miyu ever since her first match for TJPW as well as her official pro debut on August 2013 at the Sumo Hall.
Despite the menacing look and thunderous strikes that she demonstrates nowadays, Miyu wasn’t always this stoic and dominant figure because many years ago she actually wanted to become an idol which is reflected in her early years of being a pro wrestler, and this would be kind of foreshadowing considering the future influx of idols that would eventually join TJPW like Saki Akai, Maki Itoh, the Up Up Girls or Yuki Arai just to name a few. So yes, Miyu wanted to be an idol but I don’t think anyone could’ve expected not only the change of demeanor that she went through, but also the massive success that she would end up reaching by doing so.
Flipping the switch:
It is difficult to pinpoit what made Miyu change herself in this way, it is such a big change that it is hard to believe how she was on the first place, but on 2016 Miyu Yamashita took a look at herself and decided to rely on her karateka background to complete a metamorphosis that would catapult her onto becoming not only one of if not the most important wrestler in TJPW’s history but also its most accomplished one.
On January 4th 2016 the TOKYO Princess of Princess Championship or what would later be known as just the Princess of Princess Championship would start its history as the promotion’s first title when Miyu Yamashita defeated Shoko Nakajima on a singles match to crown herself as the first ever champion of the promotion. Miyu went on to reign for 262 days until Yuu defeated her for the title but the story doesn’t end there because exactly 2 years to the date after becoming the title’s first ever champion, she beat Reika Saiki to become TJPW’s first ever 2 time Princess of Princess champion in what would end up being her longest and the title’s longest reign to date with a shattering 484 days which nearly doubled the longest reign of its history which she also set and to add the cherry on top of it, she also has the most successful defenses of its history with 10.
To put all of these records into perspective, the only other woman on TJPW’s history to even surpass the 400 day reign mark is Yuka Sakazaki and no other woman has been anywhere near Miyu’s record of title defenses with the maximum being 4, but the current champion Shoko Nakajima has a chance to reach half of Miyu’s record with one more successful defense. But the record book still isn’t finished because Miyu Yamashita is also TJPW’s only woman ever to become the Princess of Princess champion 3 times which means that she has reigned over TJPW a mind-blowing 1065 combined days between all 3 of these reigns!
Maki Itoh; the other side of Miyu’s coin:
Miyu’s record book is absolutely outstanding but there are other aspects of Miyu’s career that also deserve some covering and one of them is Maki Itoh. Both born on 1995, both with idol roots that led them to professional wrestling and TJPW and both reinvented themselves to become the best that they could possibly be but despite both of them having so much in common, it feels that their career paths couldn’t be more different.
Maki Itoh’s professional career started on 2018 but she previously had some sporadic appearences for DDT even as soon as 2013 but Itoh pursuing wrestling full time officially started on 2018 and like Yamashita, she looked way different at the beginning of all of it than what she does nowadays because Itoh’s mentality didn’t click with what wrestling is about at first, she lacked the confidence and strength to show her worth on her career genesis, she took 8 months to earn her first victory at TJPW so the only thing that Maki could do was to reinvent herself in a way that would boost her and reinvent herself she did, Maki Itoh had finally accepted that embracing her idol roots rather than rejecting them, would give her the edge and personality that she was long searching for. The change worked for Itoh, she started to win more matches, she grew in popularity, won the International Princess championship and even made appearences for All Elite Wrestling, this new demeanor worked most of the time except against… Miyu Yamashita.
Every professional wrestler has at least one person that has their number, someone that is their kryptonite, a person that no matter what you do in the ring, will alwaays be one step ahead of you, Miyu Yamashita is that person for Maki Itoh. As I’ve already mentioned Miyu has always been one step ahead of Maki but all of this seemed destined to change when nearly a year to the date of the release of this article on August 15th 2021 Maki Itoh went all the way to win the Princess Cup to earn the right to challenge Miyu on the biggest annual show of the promotion, Wrestle Princess. Until that date there had been 7 singles matches between them and Miyu never knew how defeat tasted against Itoh, so the date was set and the stakes couldn’t be higher, Miyu Yamashita vs Maki Itoh for the Princess of Princess championship. The match wasn’t just for the title but also for the honor and pride of Itoh so she could finally realize that the problem wasn’t on the outside but rather inside. Itoh had grown so much ever since her debut but it still wasn’t enough because history repeated itself and Miyu Yamashita defeated Itoh yet again, the ace had crushed the New Era Charisma for the 8th consecutive time. To this date Maki Itoh has yet to defeat Miyu on singles competition, even after having yet another opportunity in the US, and that is why Yamashita and Itoh are the 2 sides of the same coin.
A force throughout time:
It takes a great wrestler to win the top championship of their promotion once, but if you can win that title multiple times it turns you into an icon, this is proved all throughout professional wrestling from John Cena to Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Io Shirai, Mayu Iwatani, Go Shiozaki or Naomichi Marufuji just to name a few and it is safe to say that Miyu Yamashita at just 27 years of age, has already earned a place among the best not only in japanese wrestling, but in the entire history of professional wrestling.
3 time Princess of Princess champion while also being the first to win it, longest POP reign and most successful title defenses too, SHINE champion which during her second reign she held both the POP and SHINE titles at the same time, 3 time DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Champion, 1132 days as champion between all of her reigns, wrestled on TJPW’s first ever show and has been a key factor into turning TJPW into an international promotion, you want the physical manifestation of success? Well here it is! Many great wrestlers out there are good enough to represent their promotion at least once, but I can’t really name many that put an entire promotion in their back and pushed it forward until they turned said promotion into a hit and not only inside of Japan, but now on the entire world.
The ace goes worldwide:
It is safe to say that TJPW has reached an international level of popularity, people watch the promotion from Japan, the US, Canada, México, Argentina, Egypt, England, France, India, Turkey and Spain just to name a few, this worldwide success means that Miyu Yamashita can travel the entire world thanks to her ability and has allowed her to greet her worldwide fandom.
Ever since losing the Princess of Princess championship, Miyu Yamashita has wrestled in the United States for Prestige, DPW (you already know) and Garden State Pro Wrestling and in Spain for RCW, everyone wants to wrestle Yamashita and even wrestlers from the land of the rising sun itself followed suit because not only has Itoh wrestled in the US again, but also Jungle Kyona will make her return to the United States in over 3 years since she was on Stardom’s NY show and also Hyper Misao will be making her Pro Wrestling EVE debut later on this year in the UK and to add the icing on the cake there is a wrestler that made her debut in American soil this year against Yamashita herself on DPW and that woman is none other than the Phoenix of Osaka, Miyuki Takase. But without a shadow of a doubt Miyu’s biggest moment in this excursion came through All Elite Wrestling.
On June 1st of this year Yamashita surprised all of us when she walked through the tunnels of AEW for the first time to have a match on AEW Dark, and what followed afterwards felt like a dream come true for the ace of TJPW because not only did Thunder Rosa call her out but she earned a number one contendership for Rosa’s title when she beat the AEW Women’s World champion on TJPW’s Summer Sun Princess PPV! So all of this lead to arguably Miyu’s biggest match of her entire career when she made her Dynamite debut on July 27th on Fight For The Fallen, Yamashita gave a fantastic effort on said title match against Rosa but it wasn’t meant to be that day. Despite her loss she showed the world what she’s made of and that she is ready to win the AEW Women’s World championship whenever she feels that the time is right for her, Yamashita is already an icon on Japanese wrestling and it is just a matter of time until she becomes a worldwide wrestling icon.
Thank you for reading <3