NOTE: Shupro Notes are a recap for my own and others’ enjoyment of what I found interesting in an issue of the Japanese pro wrestling magazine 週刊プロレス (Shuukan Puroresu/Weekly Pro Wrestling), nicknamed “Shupro”, which I am subscribed to and read partly for language learning purposes. They are NOT meant as news reporting, full translations, comprehensive coverage, or a replacement for reading the magazine itself. Please consider buying the magazine - one convenient way is digitally on Booklive. Notes are non-exhaustive and heavily biased towards what I read and am interested in. The promotions I follow the most right now are Stardom, TJPW, and NJPW, although there’s no promotion I avoid on principle. As the notes are first and foremost meant to encourage my language study, some phrases are originally left in Japanese - I’ll try to include a rough English translation for all of these in parentheses. I’m not native or fluent in Japanese and all information should be taken with that in mind. I’m aiming to be around 1-2 months behind of the present day (since I’m frequently that behind watching actual wrestling), but am rarely so caught up.

週刊プロレス　No.２２３６ (from March 2023)

A good cover this issue, from... quite a long time ago now...

Kenoh's column is about a live show he did for his youtube channel recently. It sounds like the turnout was good, and Kenoh sounds most proud that there were non-NOAH fans who came, like lapsed wrestling fans or people who are only starting to get interested in wrestling, who've found his youtube channel and gotten interested. The interviewer notes that Kenoh might be an intimidating character at first glance, but ultimately he's a lifelong wrestling fan since he was a kid and a top-level performer overflowing with love of wrestling. Kenoh says that for him doing youtube is all about bringing people to pro wrestling - for other people subscriber counts etc. might be about getting more money, but for him it's about broadening pro wrestling. He says he intends to be so successful a youtuber as to be invited to Wrestlemania next year like Logan Paul, and Triple-H, he's waiting for your offer...

In Tanahashi's column they talk about him tagging with Okada recently. The co-columnist, ”Tanaban", notes that Okada has never won a title other than the IWGP Heavyweight / World Heavyweight Championship (no longer true as of May since he won the NEVER openweight 6 man tag belt). Tanahashi mentions that Bishamon (Goto + YOSHI-HASHI) are a tag team where 1 + 1 = 10, but he and Okada are more like 1 + 1 = 2. The co-columnist says though that Okada and Tanahashi surely aren't 1 + 1, they're more like... 10 + 8. If it were a few years ago Tanahashi still would have been 10... Tanahashi jokes that he must be a 7 and Tanaban added one to be nice to him. For the rest of the column they discuss whether Tanahashi will enter the G1 or not.

There's an interview with Sareee ahead of her return to Japan with a self-produced show at Shinjuku FACE on 5.16. She's been Sarray in NXT for a couple of years or so, and it sounds like she turned down a contract renewal. She says the reason is that she wants to do her own kind of wrestling, and what that means for her is wrestling that's a fight, full of the 闘魂 (fighting spirit) that Antonio Inoki talked about. It doesn't sound like the magical girl angle they were going with for her in NXT was particularly aligned with her own intentions or interests, but she says she values the experience anyway of giving it her best shot, and it was all experience she couldn't have gotten anywhere but WWE (especially meeting people from around the world) so she has no regrets about it, and thinks of her time in WWE as a 海外武者修行 (excursion). She describes some culture shock at American society's lack of punctuality, describing a sofa that she ordered early on that arrived late and the wrong color, and she says that back in Japan now she'll benefit from having developed a longer temper about that kind of thing. She also mentions driving in America and describes getting pulled over for zooming past a police car, but the interview points out that was more her fault... From a joint interview with Inoki before she left, Inoki said some things to Sareee that meant a lot to her (it sounds like her father was a big Inoki fan and that's how she encountered pro wrestling in the first place): 「赤が似合うよね」 (red suits you) so she's proud to keep wearing Inoki red and burning that fighting spirit, and 「迷わず行けよ」 (go resolutely) about leaving for America, and so now also she's returning to Japan 迷わず (resolutely). She's focusing entirely on setting up the 5.16 show for now. She says that she hopes to get who everyone will agree is the most suitable opponent (and it looks like she will), and to set up other matches. It sounds like KAIRI was talking about her on twitter, but Sareee declines to comment on plans after 5.16 and is aware of Stardom having developed a huge roster in recent years but sounds wary of a general impression of きれい、かわいい、キラキラness (beauty, cuteness, glamor) when she thinks wrestlers should first of all be strong. She mentions though that Stardom now has the IWGP Women's Championship which she's definitely interested in, for obvious reasons given how much she talked about Inoki in this interview.

A couple good photos from TJPW Grand Princess.

The column about regional venues returns with a rather heartwarming story about a geographically far flung bond between Michinoku Pro Wrestling and a venue in Seiyo, Ehime Prefecture which is modeled after Ryogokukokugikan. It sounds like Michinoku was originally invited there in 1995 for a young men's association anniversary event, and have wrestled there every handful of years since. But this time it's been 7 years since the last time, due to flooding associated with the 2018 earthquake in western Japan and of course the pandemic. But they're back! And the Iwate/Ehime tag team continues...

Fulfilling Himeka's request from a previous issue, there's a joint interview with her and Jun Akiyama, on the occasion of her upcoming retirement. It sounds like Himeka was originally an idol for a group called "Through Skills" and in that capacity happened to work with AJPW, and that's what made her think of pro wrestling as something to pursue after Through Skills folded. At the time Jun Akiyama was running AJPW, and so he's who she went to talk to, and as she ended up joining Actwres Girls from Saori Ano and Natsumi Maki and the like working with AJPW, Jun Akiyama taught her how to bump and passed along Jumbo Tsuruta's signature jumping knee, since after all she's tall and he still calls her ジャンボちゃん (Jumbo-chan) in this interview. So to Himeka, Akiyama is a mentor, and to Akiyama, Himeka is a bit like a daughter. They talk more about the Jumping Knee and bring up the time that Himeka hit the move on Reika Saiki, causing the jaw injury that led to her long absence and eventual retirement, and Akiyama talks about how in the old days what may well have come from that was selling the knee as "the knee that broke Reika's jaw." For Himeka though she was hesitant to hit the move for a while after that, before eventually bringing it back. It sounds like Akiyama subtweeted Yuma Aoyagi once for not using the jumping knee he taught him very much and Himeka got worried but he wasn't talking about her. They talk about how the Jumping Knee Himeka hit on Saya Kamitani on 8.21.22 was especially great, leading to an unusually frank discussion about how the way different wrestlers take moves can complement a move especially well. Akiyama says that Mitsuharu Misawa was the best taking his knees, and he would have him give it to him right in the face instead of the chest like normal, and Misawa would get a hand up at the last split second ("but probably the audience didn't notice"). Akiyama says Misawa was incredible and unique at taking moves and says he was called "受けの三沢"　("Bumping Misawa"?), and suggests that Saya Kamitani may be that kind of complement to Himeka's own knee. Jun Akiyama doesn't really watch other promotions except through twitter, so when he heard Himeka wanted to talk he thought maybe she was transferring again, and when he heard she was quitting he asked if it was a 寿引退 (retirement due to marriage), but it wasn't, for lack of a partner. It sounds like Himeka does definitely want to get married though, and she asked Akiyama for advice as an older (and I think married?) man about that, and he says to stay beautiful - it can take a lot of money to maintain, but be beautiful. Akiyama jokes that everyone in DDT says the same thing - they want to get married but don't have a partner.

There's an interview with Kazuki Hirata, the dancing wrestler of DDT. It sounds like he started dancing because one night on a whim Sanshiro Takagi asked him to do the dance of a Toryumon wrestler, Magnum Tokyo, and Takagi loved it and had him do it in the ring and it got really over. Hirata used to be a Dragon Gate / Toryumon trainee too, so the lineage sort of fit, althoug he still sounds a bit nervous about the potential of angering anyone via gimmick infringement. It sounds like he had a match with Yoshihiko he got praised a lot for but it was a Korakuen Hall dark match? He talks at the end of the interview about aiming to be the kind of wrestler where regardless of what amazing matches followed his, people will go home remembering what Hirata got up to.

The history column this week is about a 21 year old Antonio Inoki's excursion to America, and a reporter's prediction that it would mark Inoki's first full introduction to the forefront of the Japanese pro wrestling industry. It sounds like while Rikidozan was alive, Inoki was kept as an underpushed hanger-on, with Giant Baba getting the star rookie treatment instead, and it was only following Rikidozan's murder in 1963 that Inoki started getting spots to shine, and so his departure in 1964 for America was an occasion for a reintroduction on a new stronger foot, which a reporter who would follow Inoki for years after correctly predicted. (This also is presumably why this is the orthodox path for NJPW wrestlers to this day).

In Giulia's column she talks about some matches in an upcoming two shows at Yokohama Budokan, including Waka Tsukiyama's match where she'll either get her first victory or leave Stardom, and Giulia vs. Mai Sakurai in a mentor vs. student match. The most interesting stuff I think though is about Giulia's match against the debuting Aya Sakura. Giulia says she happened to watch her pro test, and found that in the promo section Sakura clearly got her point across where other applicants broke down, and it sounds like she's got actor ambitions so it makes sense. Apparently, unbelievably, Sakura meant to apply for the role in the upcoming Mayu Iwatani biopic, but accidentally applied to be a pro wrestler instead but still managed to pass and now is debuting!

The Editor's Eye column rotates from editor to editor, it sounds like making a full circuit every 7 weeks or so, and anyway, the editor this week, for lack of any better idea, makes this one a breakdown of their work across 7 days. It sounds like the deadline for the magazine is Sunday Night, so Monday usually involves waking up around noon after working on it late into the night, and this particular monday involved a TJPW show at Shinjuku FACE to get material. Then Tuesday involved going to Ariake Arena for more TJPW material ahead of their big show, and the editor accidentally arrived early and wandered around the area for a bit to avoid having to make awkward small talk with an also early arriving Yuki Arai and Arisu Endo. For their interview, Magical Sugar Rabbits of course picked yakiniku (paid for by Shupro). The editor got through Tuesday and then ran out of space so Wednesday through Sunday take up maybe a tenth of the column.

The back of the magazine column is an interview with Tetsuya Koda, a TJPW official, talking about TJPW on the occasion of their Ariake Arena show. Shows bigger than Korakuen Hall are still relatively new for TJPW, as their first was held in 2020 at Tokyo Dome City Hall, but last year they ran 3, at Ryogoku, Ota City, and TDC Hall, and Koda expresses pride that along with the 1.4 Korakuen Hall show, they're managing to build the brand by keeping that regular tempo of big shows, with Ariake Arena, Ota City, and Hachioji this year for a major show in all four seasons. They talk about how debuting and training wrestlers is especially important for TJPW since they do relatively little interpromotional interaction. And they talk about the unique color of TJPW, using Mizuki vs. Yuka Sakazaki as an example, where real raw emotions were at the forefront, but they weren't negative emotions but positive - Sakazaki and Mizuki being so close that they didn't want to fight but they fought anyway. Where other wrestling promotions often bring in negative feelings to make the battle heat up, positive feelings can do the same in a different way and that's where TJPW is focusing. They talk as well about bringing in foreign wrestlers frequently to fill spots. And they talk about the generational change approaching for TJPW. Koda says the ideal will be for internationally known stars like Miyu Yamashita, Yuka Sakazaki, and Maki Itoh to get and respond to more and more offers from overseas, and to smoothly focus on the upcoming generation of wrestlers like Miu Watanabe, Yuki Arai, and Suzume in the meantime, with wrestlers who raised their status overseas coming back for big matches too. Koda compares TJPW and its particular way of handling generational shift to an organic vegetable farm: using a bunch of non organic fertilizer and stuff could make the new crop come in faster, but it would ruin the particular appeal of the business. Koda says though that there's nothing more difficult for a pro wrestling promotion than the change of generations, and all promotions with history go through it. So since TJPW hasn't yet it's in a state like not having molted.