On August 29, 2017 the first WIP wrestling event was held at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Titled “Tofu Pro Wrestling The REAL 2017 WIP CLIMAX” it continued the stories established in the award winning late night drama Tofu Pro Wrestling starring many 48 group members. The 3 hour 45 minute event was a 7-match spectacle featuring the cast members from the drama and new competitors introduced through the “Road to WIP CLIMAX” YouTube series.
Despite the possibility of the entire thing being a train wreck WIP CLIMAX ended up being a fairly entertaining professional wrestling show that surpassed a lot of very low expectations. The fact that this is continuing is only a good thing for those who enjoyed seeing 48 members battle each other in the squared circle.
The WIP Saga Continues
For those who did not watch the first WIP show the major events that you should know about happened during the main event. Last year’s inaugural show ended with Shirokane Gym’s Power Stones (Hollywood Jurina and Dotonburi Shioma) defeating Kinshicho Gym’s Cherry Miyawaki and Long Speech Yokoyama to become the first WIP tag team champions.
Post match the Dasu Vaders (Suda Akari, Oya Shizuka and Nakanishi Chiyori) made a strong statement to the rest of the roster by taking out Hollywood Jurina and stealing the tag team and world title belts. Thus setting up the second event “The Real 2018 WIP QUEENDOM” on February 23, 2018 at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium.
Without a second season of the Tofu Pro Wrestling drama to lead into this live event the story of the two gyms was laid out briefly on the WIP QUEENDOM web site. After losing to the Power Stones at WIP CLIMAX Cherry Miyawaki has quit the Kinshicho gym. Her former comrade Blackberry Mukaichi has returned home dropping her heel persona she performed under during her time in Shirokane gym. Now clearly a face again she has re-adopted her Strawberry Mukaichi character.
In addition, new members have continued to join Kinshicho with the hopes of taking the top spot in WIP from Hollywood Jurina. These members are Michael Shimoguchi and Everybody Nao. At the Shirokane gym two other factions have risen from within. The Mad Dogs lead by Mad Dog Miyazaki and the Dasu Vaders lead by Octopus Suda. The latter group being the more aggressive in their intentions to be the ones at the top of WIP.
This year’s roster
This year’s event has the majority of the roster from WIP CLIMAX returning to compete in WIP QUEENDOM. There are some members who are missing in action. Most are due to graduation from their respective groups. Others have a storyline to explain their absence while the rest are just not participating without any reason as to why. Missing in action are Kato Rena, Miyawaki Sakura, Kizaki Yuria, Kinoshita Momoka, Shimada Haruka and Iwatate Saho.
The one person from this group who will be missed the most is Shimada Haruka. She ended up being one of the few who actually looked like a believable joshi wrestler when it came to her character. Conversely, few will miss Miyawaki Sakura’s lack of athleticism and overall bland underdog character.
New members to WIP come from the AKB48 and SKE48 camps. From AKB48 are Nao Ota and Shimoguchi Hinana. Arai Yuki, Otoha Machi and Matsumoto Chikako are the newcomers hailing from SKE48.