TJPW Live in Philly (4.5.24) review 

 

April 5, 2024 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #18 

 

Source: Triller TV+ (£7.99 per month) 

 

We’re in Philly at the Collective venue the Penns Landing Caterers. Hosts are Dave Prazak and Veda Scott. I’m coming off N1 of Wrestlemania and this is significantly shorter. God bless joshi promotions for running sub 2 hour shows when the Yanks are incapable of doing a show of sensible length. We get a pre-show song and dance and it’s abundantly clear that no one understands Japanese. Everyone has a nice time though.  

 

Daisy Monkey (Arisa Endo & Susume) vs. Yuki Aino & Zara Zacker  

Daisy Monkey, as an act, do a lot of cutesy stuff. There are too many spots where someone is left waiting for something to happen. Zara, at one point, scratches her nose while waiting to get kicked in the face. That said, I could watch Susume do roll ups for days. Lovely technique. She gets one on Zacker for the win. This was fine.  

 

Hyper Misao vs. Billie Starkz 

Billie is cornered by Athena! Misao, resident superhero, is here to save us all.  

Misao is a fun act and has been for ages. Anyone who can wrestle in a cape is good, in my opinion. Billie falls for every gimmick spot like a complete chump. She is but a child. I’m sure she’ll learn. They do a spot, the Final Cut, where Billie is helped into the ropes by Athena and the way everyone positions on it is just bad. Billie finishes with a swanton after Athena is taken out by hairspray. Great selling from her.  

 

Raku & Trish Adora vs. Viva Van & Yuki Kamifuku 

Raku and her pillow are immediately a hit with the locals. Viva Van knows how to deal with it and cleans Raku out with a spin kick and hurls the pillow into the crowd. That’s top heel work. The stiffness was so unnecessary. I appreciate it. Trish Adora looks like she’s enjoying doing goofy Raku spots. The carefree feeling of TJPW is a nice switch of gears. Trish and Viva get into a more serious scrap, leaving Raku (who can’t figure out a back mount) to get dropkicked straight to hell and Kamifuku gets the pin.  

 

Aja Kong & Pom Harajuku vs. Vert Vixen & Mizuki 

I’m pretty sure Max the Impaler was supposed to be in this match and has been replaced by Aja Kong! What a replacement that is.  

Pom looks happy to be tagging with Aja. It’s a cheat code. Don’t like an opponent? Order up a spinning backfist. Pom wrestles like she’s pretending to wear high heels. Does that make sense? I like it. She’s dainty. Pom is so easy to get heat on. Like beating up 1000 tiny Ricky Morton’s all at once.  

 

Aja is very limited to what she can do in the ring nowadays. She can’t really run or take bumps. So, she’s best used standing still and hitting clotheslines. Most casual lariat you’ll ever see. Pom gets hit in the head with her own shoe and Mizuki finishes with a PERFECT Tabletop Suplex. I had a laugh watching this. Good character work across the board. 

 

Shoko Nakajima vs. Rhio 

They have an obvious story with the size difference. Shoko is talented. She’s probably the best pure wrestler on the show.  

They do a lot of counters and make the match about who can KO the other with big spots, which is not how I’d have structured it. It does suit the personality of Big Kaiju though. I’ve seen Rhio do a few dives this week and they’ve been very tame. Shoko ploughs into her at 90mph by comparison. Maybe Rhio is just scared she’ll hurt someone with her size.  

 

This is, however, a far better match than the one with Lana Austin. Not hard but proof Rhio is a talent. They have a big misunderstanding where Shoko keeps hitting the ropes and Rhio has obviously forgotten the spot. Shoko catches Rhio on the ropes with a 619 variant, which didn’t feel convoluted. Senton finishes. ***¼. Best match on the show by some distance. 

 

Maki Itoh & Miyu Yamashita vs. Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi  

The best wrestler in this company is Miyu Yamashita. I don’t think that’s a controverial opinion. Rika is a little playful and does the kawaii ‘cute’ pose, so Maki slaps her. That’s gimmick infringement brrrrrrother. The Yamashita assist on Kokeshi, where she pulls Maki back upright and rolls Rika back into position, is wonderful. I’m having a delightful time.  

 

This match has a walk and brawl, which is more fun than the one the Rock did at Mania. It’s a great tour of the building. Miu heads to the bar to get some Liquid Death, which is a remarkably poor choice.  

Maki has an interesting match. She’s a great character but her wrestling can have a few issues. She’s way late on a save, forcing Yamashita to have to kick out. It was a blind side save too, so that was risky. Yamashita nails a save a few minutes later where Maki didn’t even kick out. The match goes to pieces near the finish. Various miscues and miscommunications and Yamashita just says “fuck it” and kills Rika with the Skull Kick. The match was great fun but fell apart near the end. ***¼  

 

The 411: 

TJPW is always a fun watch. They do great character driven matches with each wrestler having their own distinctive ‘bits’ and I love how they mesh. They’d be ideal for wacky 6 or 8 person tags on some other show Mania weekend. This felt like the Stardom show, in terms of quality, but this was part of Triller TV without being PPV so this wins the joshi war because of costing. Nothing on this could match Stardom’s main event though.