My friend has made this amazing 11-volume set covering the 2020 Joshi scene. I will cover this set one volume at a time here.

The forward from the set explains the project well:

“The intention of this Yearbook is to curate a selection of matches (and some extra material) that watching in order would recreate the experience of being a hardcore Joshi Puro fan in 2020. The matches were chosen either because of their high quality, significance, or just matches that people felt were personally important to them for any other reason.”

This will not be a full review, but more of my thoughts and reasons why you should watch it!

All photos are courtesy of the Yearbook itself.

1. Natsumi Maki vs Sareee (TJPW, January 4)

These two are very similar, except Natsupoi is a lot faster and Sareee is a lot stiffer. It built great and had a great finishing run.

Rating: 7/10

2. Hikari Noa vs Maki Itoh (International Princess Title, TJPW, January 4)

This rocked! Fun brawl to start and then settled into a traditional match. Itoh’s charisma jumped off the page and she had some vicious submission nearfalls. Noa countered with a lot of really cool roll-ups.

Rating: 7.25/10

LOVED the post-match angle!

3. Miyu Yamashita vs Yuka Sakazaki (Princess of Princess Title, TJPW, January 4)

I miss pre-pandemic brawling in the crowd and that was a super awesome part of this match including doing a spot I had never seen before. Miyu’s kicks rule, as usual, and Yuka brought some amazing spots. A truly worthwhile big main event.

Rating: 8/10

4. Ayako Sato vs Sareee (Diana World Title, Diana, January 4)

This is pro-wrestling! A traditionally well-built intense struggle-filled battle. Fuck I loved this! There were some points you felt like Sareee was about to do too much, but Sato reigned her in every time. Watch this!

Rating: 8.5/10

Very good emotional post-match speech by Sato.

5. Chihiro Hashimoto vs Syuri (Sendai Girls, January 5)

This felt like a big fight between two bad asses. Not really shoot style, but didn’t feel like a traditional wrestling match either.

Rating: 7.25/10

6.  Maria vs Mei Hoshizuki (Marvelous, January 19)

This started out as a solid young wrestler’s match but started to escalate about a ⅓ through. The leg work was good and it picked up steam as it went. After a draw, we got a restart and that section was awesome.

Rating: 6.75/10

7. Arisa Hoshiki vs Utami Hayashishita (Wonder of Stardom Title, Stardom, January 19)

Hoshiki has the most innovative and cool kicks in history. Utami has cool-ass power moves and this was a really damn good performance. Exactly what you’d expect from these two trying to have a good match!

Rating: 7.25/10

8. Mayu Iwatani vs Momo Watanabe (World of Stardom Title, Stardom, January 19)

This is the big title match you want! Amazing arm work by Momo, which isn’t forgotten. Big moves building to an exciting and dramatic finish. You know a match works when there is near falls you buy on, but you don’t feel it’s overkill.

Rating: 8.5/10

In Conclusion

Such a fun set. The promos being subtitled make this the best way to watch 2020 Joshi. Everything is good and some things are great!

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Join:

https://t.co/0pOARzaXHD

We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!

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Upcoming

Volume 2!