Kings Road Chronicles

Kings Road Chronicles Welcome to the Kings Road Pod page! Your source for updates, posts and banter on the world of Japanese professional wrestling.

All views are my own and all comments are welcome. Lets make the IWC a safe space again.

13/01/2026

A beautiful retirement match and a love letter to an incredible career. Risa Sera, the Deathmatch Queen of Joshi, says goodbye to Korakuen one final time by losing to her protégé Suzu Suzuki in a hard fought and emotional main event.

Thank you Risa Sera. Thank you for your sacrifice and dedication to the industry, thank you for giving us incredible moments over 13 years. You will be missed.

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13/01/2026

What’s not to love here? It’s the early years of NOAH and the Zero1 boys of Otani & Tanaka have invaded to challenge the GHC tag division. Despite losing to STERNESS at Great Voyage 3 days before, “Emblem” (as they’re now known) are now challenging the Iron Man of Japan and his young student inside the famous KBS Hall.

Obviously KENTA is still in the young rookie phase of his career judging by his attire and mad haircut, so he takes the fall here. But it’s still a really fun match that deserves more love. Especially with Otani being goofy at the end.

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12/01/2026

You might be asking yourself “where have I seen that green haired Joshi before?” And yes…that is Ryo “ Aniki” Mizunami, the same Ryo who appeared in AEW during their early years. Ryo is the former student of Meiko Satomura and is a phenomenally charismatic joshi that can have the audience in the palm of her hand while delivering fantastic matches. What could’ve been eh…

Sadly for Chi Chi though, that same palm of Ryo’s hand was used to deliver 208 chops - to the delight of the Sendai faithful.

Joshi is the best.

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And just like that, another Joshi icons career comes to an end. Risa Sera the Deathmatch Queen of Joshi has retired afte...
12/01/2026

And just like that, another Joshi icons career comes to an end. Risa Sera the Deathmatch Queen of Joshi has retired after an emotional final match against Suzu Suzuki inside Korakuen Hall. I haven’t watched the match yet, but from what I’ve been told there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

For those unsure of who she is, Risa is the former student of Tsukasa Fujimoto and Emi Sakura, starting her career back in 2012 in Ice Ribbon where she became one of their biggest stars over a 9 year period. It was Risa that (some would say forced) convinced Ice Ribbon to break away from its Joshi traditions and allow hardcore and deathmatches to take place, leading to collaborations between the promotion and Risa for specialised Light tube matches in 2015. Despite working other promotions throughout the years including WAVE, Diana, Pure-J and BJW, It wasn’t until 2022 that Risa left Ice Ribbon completely to explore other options - winding up in Stardom and teaming with Suzu Suzuki to form Prominence, becoming Artist of Stardom Champion with her.

Despite being a fantastic technical wrestler, Risa has always drifted back to the Deathmatch scene and in the same year she joined Prominence, Risa also started her own Joshi Deathmatch promotion of the same name. But Deathmatch wrestling has taken an enormous toll on her body and over the years it’s become noticeable that she’s slowed down, this is due to the knee injuries that have been caused by her diving double knee drop finisher. In the end, at just 34 years old, Risa has called time on her career. It’s been a joy to watch some of her matches, her character work and look, her promos and her absolute insanity in the ring have left a lasting impact on the Joshi industry. She’ll be missed for sure.

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12/01/2026

What a fun little match to open up AMAKUSA title reign as GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion in front of a vocal Korakuen Hall. Daiki Odashima is absolutely one for the future and no doubt will be a singles champion in his own right, but now was not the time. After all, he’s only been wrestling professionally since 2024 and is a far cry away from the 20 years AMAKUSA has been in the industry. It’s incredible that at 40 years old, the former student of Dick Togo seems to have got better than he was a decade before, and I hope this reign, the third of his career, is a long one.

Banger match, well worth a watch.

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To the Americans who follow this page an ocean away and are horrified by what is happening in their country right now, I...
12/01/2026

To the Americans who follow this page an ocean away and are horrified by what is happening in their country right now, I see you and my heart breaks for you. If I can offer any kind of words of comfort it’s this: No matter how sophisticated or how violent Trump, his thugs and his fascist clown cult get, the history of Fascism has always had the same ending; They Lose. Because that’s what Fascists are at their core, they’re perpetual losers.

Fascism, or this new form of Neo-Fascism, isn’t some overnight ideology, it’s been rooted in culture since the turn of the 19th century. Some of the most cultured nations in history have flirted with it, even been governed by it - Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Austria, even countries in Africa have been de jure ruled by Fascist regimes. What they all have in common though is the same thing: They fail. They fail because they’re always more good than bad in the world. They fail because Fascism is a lie told by bullies, and when you stand up to that bully they always get found out. They always back down. They fail because when good people unite, when good people fight back, when good people hold truth to power - nothing can stop them. Cause there ain’t no power like the power of the people.

Trump won’t last forever, but what comes next is important. It could take 5 years or it could take 50 years to undo the damage he’s caused. But that day will come, because it’s always does. It’s always darkest before the dawn. But that dawn will come.

Stay strong Friends. Resist. Rebel. F**k ICE. F**k all of them. ¡No Pasarán!

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piledriveafascist

11/01/2026

Absolutely magical performance from Big Hash & Giant Saya inside Shin-Kiba last night. Normally Iida is used to be the one who outmuscles her opponents, but she learned the hard way that she was the underdog compared to Hashimoto. I’d be curious to see these two run it back in Stardom with a bigger crowd. Hell, I’d be curious to see Big Hash take on Bozilla as well.

This match delivered everything you could want from two Powerhouses - tests of strength, increasing physical violence and some insane spots. When the match hit the 15 minute mark you knew the finish was coming and that Albright-style Wheelbarrow from Big Hash absolutely folded Iida. What a finish.

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11/01/2026

Honestly. It’s pretty deplorable how low wrestling fans view Sumie Sakai and her 27 year old long career. One of the many students of the iconic Jaguar Yokota & Lioness Asuka, Sakai started her career in JDStars alongside her teachers, before working throughout the dark era of Joshi, a time where it was effectively out of the mainstream and promotions would come and go within a couple of years. That meant working the circuits of Oz Academy, JWP, the last years of AJW, IWA and even Michinoku Pro - competing against the likes of Jinsei Shinsaki and the Great Sasuke one week, then facing Emi Sakura and Mayumi Ozaki the next. By 2003 and with Joshi in a bad place, Sakai relocated to the States and began competing throughout the US indies, including the first ever women’s match in ROH and featuring until 2005 when ROH moved away from women’s wrestling for a period. She then featured on CHIKARA, CZW, NWA and even House of Glory throughout the 2010s. When ROH reintroduced the women’s division in 2014, Sakai became the inaugural Women of Honor Champion. Sakai legacy goes beyond matches though, her connections to the Japanese scene allowed American companies to book young lions for excursions, getting them valuable experience and opening doors to talent on both sides of the Pacific. A dependable worker, she put over more female wrestlers than maybe any other wrestler ever has and has worked in countless promotions across both countries. Name any type of match and she’s probably done it. She’s an OG Ring of Honor star and should be treated as such.

At last in her final match, Sumie got her flowers and deservedly so.

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11/01/2026

Phenomenal match between Hazuki and Mei and an incredible first defence of Wildhearts title! Back in October, Hazuki beat Koguma for the CMLL-Japan women’s title, but has largely been focused on tag matches and freelancing across the likes of Sendai, WAVE, Diana and even showed up for Risa Sera gauntlet Deathmatch in Prominence. A lot of Joshi fans have at times dismissed Hazuki as all hype, but I think she might be one of the most versatile talents Stardom has. Matches like this show just how good she can be.

As for Mei Seira, what’s left to say about the former High Speed champion? Well, the student of Chigusa Nagayo is ready for bigger belts that’s for sure. At 23, she’s a special talent in the ring. The future is incredibly bright for her and I can see Wonder of Stardom in her future, maybe even higher.

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11/01/2026

It had been almost 8 years since Riki Choshu had put his name to a wrestling show - with his final RikiPro event taking place in 2010. But by 2018 the man was getting the booking itch again and it was announced that a series of Choshu events would be independently hosted at Korakuen Hall featuring the man himself and a host of special guest talent. Those special guests turned out to be a who’s who of stars from the likes of Dragon Gate, NOAH, All Japan; and even icons of the industry being featured: namely Tatsumi Fujinami. The co- main event of the show featured Shingo Takagi, fresh from going Freelance and mere months from joining New Japan, team with Fuji himself and facing a deranged Masa and Dangan; Masato Tanaka. It’s a fever dream tag match, the sort of match you’d only get in a manager mode - and it’s a lot of fun.

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SIX FU***NG STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Yes Dave Meltzer is a madman, yes this’ll cause the IWC to meltdown.But who cares, because...
09/01/2026

SIX FU***NG STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yes Dave Meltzer is a madman, yes this’ll cause the IWC to meltdown.

But who cares, because for the final time in his career, The Ace of the Universe broke the scale.

Best Retirement match of all time.

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09/01/2026

The world is a bleak fu***ng place right now. It’s enough to make anyone depressed. But this page exists to entertain.

So let Kazuki Hirata make your day a bit better…THROUGH THE POWER OF DANCE!

I love DDT.

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