n.b. This recording was made a couple of weeks before the announcement that GAEA Japan’s 25th anniversary celebrations would once again be put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so take anything we say about that show here with that in mind. In addition, the all-female audience Tokyo Joshi Pro show we discuss here was made availabe for streaming a few days after recording, and can now be viewed over at Wrestle Universe
In 1976 a staff member from Fuji TV’s entertainment office issued an order to the higher-ups at All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (AJW). Their order was to create a tag team which would emulate the Takarazuka Revue’s “top pair” formula, make a run at the pop charts, and turn around the promotion’s ailing TV ratings. AJW responded by putting Maki Ueda and Jackie Sato together as Beauty Pair, and the rest is history - AJW became a pop-cultural juggernaut through the late 70s to the early 90s, when it ran a 10-hour show at the Tokyo Dome, and finally the bubble burst.
A quarter-century on from that supernova moment, women’s pro wrestling in Japan seem to be on the up once more. In February 2021, World Wonder Ring Stardom ran their 10th anniversary show at Nippon Budokan, becoming the first women’s wrestling organisation to play at that storied venue since 1997. The series of exhibition cards organised under the masthead of “Women’s Wrestling Assemble” has shown that the appetite for collaboration is growing across the scene, and also drew Akira Hokuto out of retirement. Is joshi wrestling entering a new Cool Zone, and if we are, what might that look like?
In this roundtable, experts-in-the-field Alex Fraser (of the BeruBara Tag Boom podcast) and Sarah Parkin (of Big Egg Podcasting Universe) join Luke for a run-down of some of the key themes relating to joshi wrestling’s fluctuating fortunes since the boom period kicked off by the Beauty Pair. When did this wave peak, and when did it first come crashing down? What were the after-effects of this collapse, and how has the scene gone about recovering in the years since? Will we ever see a return to the glory days, and do we even want to see a second Big Egg anyway? Who can restore joshi wrestling’s wholesome reputation today like Mach Fumiake did for postwar Japan, and how crucial will Raku’s appeal to the train fan demographic prove in the long run? All this, and so much more in the inaugural Miracle Apricot Roundtable!
Intro: Kakemeguru Seishun by Beauty Pair / Arashi no Densetsu by Crush Gals / Oro de Ley by Luis Miguel / Marshmallow Cacao Station (ft. Raku) by Up Up Girls Kakko Puroresu
Outro: Dangerous Queen (4x4 mix) by DT Dream (releases 7th May on Profound Mystery)
The Miracle Apricot Roundtable: Are We Entering the "Joshi Cool Zone"?