Top Joshi Star May Receive AEW Women's Title Shot

By Eric Mutter

It appears Thunder Rosa is in for a busy near distant future. The AEW Women's Champion successfully defended her championship this past Wednesday on "AEW Dynamite" against Marina Shafir and had a moment right after with Toni Storm, suggesting a potential title match between the two. Before she can face Storm, however, Rosa may have to go through one of the top Joshi stars from Japan.

In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that there is talk in AEW about Rosa defending the AEW Women's World Championship against Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling star Miyu Yamashita. Meltzer stated the idea for the match came after Yamashita was said to have done very well in streaming appearances during a recent excursion to the US.

Yamashita appeared at three wrestling events during a several-week stay in the US last month and earlier this month. She twice wrestled for Prestige Wrestling in Portland, Oregon, where she defeated Impact's Masha Slamovich on May 28 and fellow TJPW/occasional AEW star Maki Itoh on May 29.

Arguably the most important match Yamashita wrestled in the states however was when she appeared on "AEW Dark: Elevation" on June 1 from the Los Angeles Forum. She would team with Skye Blue in a losing effort against Nyla Rose and Serena Deeb, only days after Rosa defeated Deeb to retain the AEW Women's World Championship at AEW Double or Nothing.

A nine-year pro this August, the 27-year-old Yamashita is considered the ace of TJPW, as well as one of the best Joshi wrestlers in the world by Joshi pundits. She is best known by fans for her devastating head kicks, and videos on Twitter of her kicks have gained notoriety over time, most notably from AEW star Malakai Black. The two would finally meet when Yamashita worked on "Dark: Elevation" last week.

Yamashita has won TJPW's top title, the Princess of Princess Championship, a record three times. She became the first champion in company history when she defeated Shoko Nakajima, who has also appeared in AEW in the past, TJPW Puroresu '16 on January 4, 2016. Along with Maki Itoh, Nakajima has gone on to become one of Yamashita's chief rivals, and recently ended Yamashita's third reign as Princess of Princess Champion in March.

Yamashita also holds the record for the longest (484 days) and third longest title (319 days) reigns in Princess of Princess Championship history (during her second and third reigns respectively) and the longest combined reigns of the title at 1,065 days. She also holds the record for most successful title defenses (10) in title history (during her second reign), as well as the most successful combined defenses at 16.

In addition to her championship success, Yamashita has also wrestled several notable names during her career. This includes AEW/TJPW star Yuka Sakazaki, WWE NXT UK Women's Champion Meiko Satomura, one-half of the WWE NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Gigi Dolin, Veda Scott, Madison Eagles, Shazza McKenzie, Allysin Kay, and even Kenny Omega and Riho in a mixed tag team match.

Outside of TJPW, Yamashita has also wrestled for fellow CyberFight promotion DDT, where she's a three-time DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Champion. She has also wrestled for defunct US promotion CHIKARA, where she competed at the 2018 King of Trios, and the WWN, where she briefly won the SHINE Championship in 2019.

It should be noted that Thunder Rosa is also a TJPW alumnus, having toured with the promotion in 2019 and 2020; she defeated Itoh to win the International Princess Championship on January 5, 2020. Despite this, Rosa and Yamashita only wrestled once in TJPW, in a trios match in 2019. As such, a potential AEW Women's World Championship bout between them would be their first-ever singles match.

Yamashita will next be seen at CyberFight Festival 2022, featuring talents from CyberFight promotions TJPW, DDT, Ganbare Pro-Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling NOAH. She will team with Maki Itoh and Juria Nagano to take on Hirai Noa, Suzume, and Yuki Arai in trios action.

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