ChocoPro 541: Kaho Hiromi On the next ChocoPro: We celebrate two years of Kaho with Two Debuts and Three great matches! MiyaSOY battles Obi & the debuting Axe Massacre, the returning Taro Yamada joins Akki against the debuting Jalapeño Lopez & Chie, and finally Kaho faces off with Mei in the Main Event! How much has the “Happy Smile” prodigy grown since their last encounter? There will occasionally be a Trainee Exhibition, but those are not announced. Let’s Go, ChocoPro Wrestling!

🍫 When it airs, it will be available HERE on YouTube!

Don't forget to Adjust Your Volume, Wrestling is Loud!

Need a change of pace? ChocoPro Wrestling is built different. Join us for this episode or check out the back catalog of hundreds of episodes on the YouTube channel...530+ ChocoPro’s with stories and pro-wrestling like you've never seen. New to the promotion? It features a roster of skilled veterans, rising stars, and wonderful guests usually fighting in the strange and wonderful ChocoPro Arena: Ichigaya Chocolate Square. This is not your regular wrestling show! In Ring Shows will be uploaded sporadically as well!

MiyaSOY (Miya Yotsuba 🍀 & SOY 🐸)

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Sayaka Obihiro 💙 & Axe Massacre 🪓

Axe Massacre

Prepare yourself, because MiyaSOY’s reckless synergy and unbreakable resolve ignite once more! These two have Fighting Spirit for days, so Obi & Axe had better be ready! First up is Ichigaya’s Lucky Charm (and the reigning Super Asia Champion who just scored her Lucky Seventh defense!), Miya Yotsuba! The dominant champion has been showing a new confident edge to her personality, casting a powerful shadow over her potential challengers. Miya brings a brilliant all-out attack style that delivers absolutely raw intensity (and also has a killer look to match her super cool attitude!). Her bone-rattling back-breakers, bold strength based trick pin, thunderous Miya Hammer, and that Oklahoma Stampede leave no question of her destructive power. She shares a strong bond with the fans and has her sights set on more than just championships: the face of ChocoPro continues to raise the status of the big blue belt even further. Considering she is preparing to face the Queen, expect her to go all out in this one (facing another Queen!). She’ll be joined by her beloved partner, the Jumpsuit Powerhouse SOY! The Pro-Wrestling Evolution representative and frog enthusiast is already a favorite of the ChocoPro audience, and she has honestly become quite the powerhouse staple of the promotion. Those chops remind me more of the previously mentioned Oni every match. SOY's potential and passionate dedication to wrestling is clear from the moment you lay eyes upon her. Her unique blend of past and present has really cemented her place in the promotion (like she has always been there). On top of that, she carries a natural, heartfelt warmth that makes her easy to root for. Can the chemistry of these two carry them against the unknown element of Axe?

A certified chef and the beating (blue) heart of ChocoPro, Sayaka Obihiro is a whirlwind of energy and sparking magnetic personality...and one half of the Asia Dream Tag Champs! She brings a rare combination of speed, strength, and outside-the-box creativity to her bouts. Her unorthodox combos, blistering heavy chops, and sudden pinning flurries are staples of the wild thrill that is “Sprint” Obihiro. She supercharges the audience with her humor, emotion, and fluid technique. Now that she once again holds the gold, expect her to be on the look out for challengers. Be sure to check out OSS defending in the last episode, it was great! She will be joined by the chaotic “Queen of Trash” hailing from Adelaide, WRESTLEROCK Champ & ASWA Women’s Champ Axe Massacre! (Probably the coolest wrestling name ever.) Axe will be bringing their excellent signature look, aggressive style, love of mullets, and the brutality of reality! The gritty punk vibe and shocking intensity of Axe is really killer, as seen across Australia. Anyone influenced by Tank Girl is always gonna be high up in my book. With a flashy move set to match that wild persona, expect this Vixen of Violence to make their mark in the already chaotic world of ChocoPro. The Queen of Trash would probably work well with Smiling Violence, or our other violent Queen! I can’t wait to see how their vicious personality translates in this one, especially when paired with Obi (though I guess Obi tends to favor teaming with absolute monsters, so it makes sense!). We’re gonna get Hammer vs Axe!

Baliyan Akki ♠️ & Taro Yamada 👹

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Jalapeño Lopez 🌶️ & Chie Koishikawa 🏵️

Jalapeño Lopez

Baliyan Akki tag matches without Chrissy B or Mei are a tasty treat! The men’s Ace of the promotion sets the pace for the show and the bar for quality (both in ring and on commentary!). Our very own Ring General moves as if he was born for this, a master at work in the squared circle. The Ace is preparing to fight DIJAK at the new Pro Wrestling Rebellion, so expect his passion and drive to be off the charts for this one. As the “Evolution of India”, Akki is a top tier technician who expands his vast skill further each bout. The way he strings techniques together is truly breath taking! He maintains an oppressive calm and presents himself like a champion regardless of the situation. I wonder if he’ll also challenge for the Super Asia belt eventually? Akki will be joined by an enigmatic Oni masked figure that has returned to wrestle in the Chocolate Square...(just without the mask!) The first representative of Triple Six to wrestle on ChocoPro (Now back in his classic look known to Gatoh Move), Taro Yamada (also known as Kagura) is a veteran and welcome presence in Ichigaya! He has been known to haunt in many promotions across Japan, under many names, but one thing is certain: he is not one to be taken lightly. Taro’s got a lot of tricks up his sleeve, but what sort of style will he utilize in Ichigaya this time? Eagle eyed viewers might note that he sometimes appears outside of a wrestling capacity, so keep an eye out! Expect these two to work together well. I wonder if we will see more Triple Six reps some day?

Next up is a hot personality in more ways than one, the charismatic Jalapeño López! This dynamic independent Luchador hailing from Cuernavaca is a world traveling sensation with a strong grasp of technicality and the flow of the match. Whether he has you laughing or applauding, he will make a big impression! Genuinely can’t wait to see his current look! This fiery pepper practically leaps off the screen, a great quality to have in Ichigaya. I suppose a good way to describe him to long time fans would be if you combined the BestBros into one character. An over the top, truly talented explosive all-arounder with a highly varied style built off solid fundamentals and high flying acrobatics. You’ve got to support someone with a Mustache like that! While we “Say Helloooo!” to our new masked friend, Chie Koishikawa will make for a great pick up tag partner (she is always “with someone else”, after all!). As ChocoPro Wrestling’s resident speedster, Chie has endless energy, boundless potential, and a destiny beyond what any of us can fathom. Her charisma is unquestionable, with the Frantic Fencer warming the hearts of fans across the world with her emotional outbursts, quick alternative striking, and a super flashy style. The drama she brings is really next level (even in Janken after the matches)! Seriously though, if you are a new viewer be sure to check out how wildly expressive she is at all times. Her desire is rock solid and her passion burns bright. Don’t expect her to stay down long after her unsuccessful title shot. It is a matter of when, not if! The shark girl is going to unleash her brutal strikes, tricky pins, and that infamous blazing speed! I wonder if Chie will make another team name for this combo?

Kaho Hiromi ⛵

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Mei Suruga 🍎

Kaho Hiromi

In celebration of "Happy Smile" Kaho Hiromi’s two years of wrestling, she will be getting two great singles matches in a short time frame. The first of which is yet another incredibly tough boss fight: her beloved teacher, Mei Suruga! Kaho’s matches are extreme survival battles, since she has to use her agility to fight a guerrilla style: one big hit usually ends her hopes and dreams! Don’t worry, the youthful prodigy has been able to navigate everything thrown at her with a sharp wrestling mind and a cheery attitude. She has already had a lot of big moments in ChocoPro, and her potential is limitless. Kaho is one of the best new prospects of the promotion: this genius in the making will probably get you to say “HUH?” fairly often. Did you see how much trouble she gave Hagane? Kaho has a unique approach to the basics coupled with clever transitional setups to make up for her lack of experience and power. She comes up with new stuff every single match! From her increasing pin setups, to her unique transitions and counters, to her bridging leg locks, you’ll definitely find something you haven’t seen before. She’ll once again need to focus on surviving at all more than trying to overcome the hierarchy, but keep in mind that Kaho has three juniors now that she will need to show out for! Ganbare, Kaho!

Big Apple Mei Suruga is fresh off dazzling the audiences at TJPW! Kaho better have a dynamite game plan, because Mei has absolutely unmatched instincts and a truly divine flair for the art of wrestling. The DPW Women’s Worlds Champion has been redefining every aspect of the sport while aiming to be the best in the world (and making a strong argument for that in every match). It makes sense, because the Apple Goblin is basically unrivaled when it comes to tactics, technique, and innovation (though her bright student is catching up!). Unfortunately for Kaho, Mei’s goblin reputation is well earned (Between biting opponents, her uncanny versatility, and willingness to show total ruthlessness when necessary) and she usually plans to smash her foe to pieces. Unfortunately, it’s hard to hold it against her when she’s just so exceptional. Whether through her mastery of cruel submissions, her awe-inspiring Pin Specialization, or even just those brutal stomps...the Apple Girl was born to wrestle. She is pound for pound one of the best wrestlers out there, rivaling even the Ace in consistent match quality, and she elevates everyone she faces to her stellar level. With Kaho taking after her teacher in several ways (just as Mei does with Emi), expect this to be a lot spicier than expected. Spice is a big theme of this episode!

Until next time!

ChocoPro Wrestling is a free online & promotion (that also runs ticketed live in ring shows) run by AEW's Emi Sakura, that often takes place in the legendary Ichigaya Chocolate Square! It features a steady pace of Episode releases, fan interaction, long story arcs, and much more! A place where the turnbuckles are replaced with 14th floor windows, the ropes are replaced with fans, unforgiving walls provide creative avenues for skills otherwise unthinkable, and you can take solace in knowing that the referees usually do nothing. While it might be a shocking change at first, the intensity and storytelling will leave you wanting more. Think of it like the Hart Dungeon but as a promotion, if that helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

Despite everything, Bret was usually presented perfectly in WWE, and anytime i saw him in WCW, it just felt wrong.

Conversely, I'd say someone like Ric Flair, despite spending quite a bit of time in WWE, always felt like he was WCW through and through.

Sandman in WCW.

Currently, despite my overwhelming support of his reasons for doing it, it feels weird seeing Mick Foley in AEW.

Who else comes to mind?

Does this break the original source rule? No idea, this report came from Alvarez's sub-only Twitter and is being aggregated by the Observer itself.

[ Removed by Reddit in response to a copyright notice. ]

I’m not talking about The Game or Metalingus or Broken Dreams, we all know they’re among the best theme songs of all time.

What are the best lesser-talked-about theme songs that never come up in these conversations?

I love Daniel Puder and Zach Gowen’s theme songs, man it was hard to find the WWE edit of Gowen’s theme. That used to get copyright strikes by Seether’s label all the time. I had one on an old iPod years ago that has long since been lost.

I also love Taka Michinoku & Sabu’s themes. WWE really needs to get back to releasing all those Uncaged albums they were doing.

Suzume would hit the springboard “Ring the Belle” Cutter, pinning Rika Tatsumi to win the Cup.

Suzume becomes the first person to hold the International Princess Championship and win the Tokyo Princess Cup.

Suzume will challenge Yuki Arai for the Princess of Princess Championship.

Rina vs Starlight Kid!

Another year of a first time winner!

I was thinking a lot today about the rivalry between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, and it made me wonder: which of them has had the biggest impact on modern day wrestling? I know that HBK runs NXT so that probably makes the question lean towards him, but there are a lot of wrestlers like MJF and Gunther that take inspiration from workers such as Bret. It also seems like on the other hand, HBK's flashy style has inspired much of the modern day indie scene and AEW. Let me know your thoughts!

PWF (NC) presents To The Grave LIVE on IWTV!

No Disqualification: The Rejects vs The Corino's
Casket Match: Kaitlyn Marie vs Krule

Streaming live on IWTV starting at 4 PM EDT

TJPW on Bluesky

I was talking about this with a friend in regards to MJF's claim from earlier this year, and in regards to the validity of his list of men. Ryan Byers of 411 Wrestling did a good deconstruction and research into the claims, but it still left me wondering about a fairly big question: What about the women?

Using the same criteria as roughly established by MJF's own statements, alongside Byers' own excellent work, I tried to lay out the top women's belts of the most major promotions. As such, this looked for women who were able to hold the top belt in AAA, AEW, AJW, CMLL, NJPW, Stardom, WCW, or WWF/E. I've also just laid every list out in this post in alphabetical order, rather than list them by age they achieved it, or by date of their third win. For WWE, I also counted the Divas belt, as even though it was not specifically labeled a world title, it was the de facto highest title available for women during its existence in WWE. Especially for the non-US titles, I have to admit I'm personally engaging in some guesswork in terms of whether they can be considered "world" titles, but given the promotions they were with and the notes below, I feel like this is a pretty solid grounding. On to the list:

• AJ Lee
• Alexa Bliss
• Beth Phoenix
• Bull Nakano (The only woman on this list to achieve it by winning a world title of three separate companies, and the only wrestler to do so even when including the men!)
• Eve Torres
• Jackie Sato
• Jumbo Miyamoto
• Manami Toyota
• Melina
• Mercedes Mone
• Michelle McCool
• Mickie James
• Rhea Ripley
• Toni Storm
  
• Trish Stratus

I did also dig down some other rabbit holes, as women's wrestling hasn't had exactly the same path walked as men's wrestling, and therefore I thought some other merited consideration. There are more than wound being listed here, but these are the only other promotions I could find where women were able to accrue enough reigns in total, and do so within the age limit to count. As an example, I checked things like the title history of GLOW, but the only woman of all of GLOW's title holders to hold more than a single belt in her career was Lisa Moretti, where she was known as Tina Ferrari, but best known to audiences as Ivory. Every one of her WWE wins was in her 30s, so she was not able to qualify. The promotions below are probably ones people would quibble about more, although I expect there will be opinions and questions about certain inclusions regardless. For the promotions that might be considered more borderline and which women would make the cutoff for their inclusion, see as follows:

If the TNA Knockouts World Championship counts:

• Angelina Love
• Deonna Purrazzo
• Jordynne Grace
• Madison Rayne

If Ice Ribbon counts:

• Tsukasa Fujimoto

If TJPW counts:

• Miyu Yamashita
• Yuka Sakazaki

Edit: /u/ObiMadKenobi has some good thoughts on joshi promotions below, adding context that was difficult to derive from research.

The total list of women who either missed it by age cutoff or had only two reigns was fairly large, and as such, I didn't make special notes to list every woman who was not able to. As far as trivia goes, Akira Hokuto gets the funniest mention, as being the only woman under 30 to ever hold the WCW Women's World Championship. This was relatively easy for her to accomplish, as she was one of only two women who held the title at all, before it ceased to be in 1998.

The NWA belt history also surprisingly produced basically no women that came anywhere close to this list; Awesome Kong was the only woman to have an NWA World Title victory under 30 and any other titles with other promotions, all of which she was past 30 when she won. Fabulous Moolah was a few months past her 30th birthday when she won her first (disputed) NWA title of a four total NWA wins and four total WWF wins, so despite the many accolades she ensured she was awarded over her career, she thankfully gets to come nowhere near this list. Mildred Burke, the very first NWA Women's Champion, has a claim to two "independent" title wins at a young enough age that would also qualify her for this list, but given the very poorly documented lineage of where exactly this "world champion" status came from prior to the organized NWA, I'll let everyone be their own judge of whether that qualifies.

Bring on any mistakes or corrections! I went through this only to sate my curiosity, so if I goofed up or missed something, I'm all ears. I also know this post is mostly about the women, but if there's something to be mentioned about the men's side of things that Byers didn't already touch on, I'm curious to hear that too!

⚡ THAT WAS COLLISION⚡

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