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Slam Fest is shaping up to be the perfect way for pro wrestling fans to get excited in the week leading up to WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas.
Paragon Talent Group and Palms Casino Resort will host the festival from April 15 to April 18. Talents from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), House of Glory (HOG), World Wonder Ring Stardom and Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling will perform over several days of high-octane matches.
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Miyu Yamashita faces Yuka Sakazaki during the professional wrestling ‘Cyber Fight Festival’ at Saitama Super Arena on June 6, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
Miyu Yamashita will be among the TJPW stars in the mix. He will return to Las Vegas a year after battling WWE legend Nattie Niedhart at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII. He spoke with Pak Gazette Digital about what it meant to be able to return to Las Vegas for the star-studded event.
“It’s special for me to be in the United States as the Tokyo Joshi team,” he said through his translator Koryu Haku. “We were there last year in Las Vegas, in the same place. It’s a very special feeling: the atmosphere, the air, it being a special week. The fans are very excited, very enthusiastic and that translates directly into our motivation and fight in the ring.”
To the average American professional wrestling fan, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling may be unfamiliar. The promotion itself, which is made up of all women, was founded as a sister promotion to DDT Pro-Wrestling in 2012 and became its own independent company in 2015.
Yamashita joined the promotion in 2013 and quickly rose through the ranks. She became Tokyo’s first Princess of Princess Champion in 2016. She has held the title four times in total and has been Princess Tag Team Champion twice. She also won the Tokyo Princess Cup in 2023.
She gave an insight into what fans could expect from TJPW wrestlers.
Miyu Yamashita celebrates her victory during the professional wrestling ‘Cyber Fight Festival’ at the Saitama Super Arena on June 6, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
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“The characteristic thing about Tokyo Joshi is that each fighter has a unique character,” he told Pak Gazette Digital. “Their personality is very strong and I feel like that is enhanced when we come to the United States. Maybe, everyone is thinking about the language barrier and they are trying to get more excited or try to get new fans to understand who they are.
“So for new fans coming to Tokyo Joshi, I think they’ll be able to identify a favorite, find a person they like because everyone is different and, especially when we come to the United States, that difference also stands out because everyone is trying to be super expressive and make people understand who they are.”
Yamashita will also be participating in BloodSport XV during the same week, as will Neidhart.
It is not clear, for now, if they will face each other. But Yamashita said he looked forward to facing the WWE star again.
“Nattie is someone I’ve been watching since a very early stage of my career,” Yamashita told Pak Gazette Digital. “And she is someone that I not only admire, but I think is great. She fights with a style that I like. One of my goals is to be someone like her: a strong woman, a tough woman.
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“That was BloodSport with BloodSport rules, so one day I would like to fight Nattie again in regular wrestling rules and pin her for one, two, three.”
The Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling event will take place at the Pearl Concert Theater on April 16 from 11am PT to 1:15pm PT with a meet and greet afterwards.
