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Slam Fest is shaping up to be the perfect way for pro wrestling fans to get amped in the week leading up to WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas.
Paragon Talent Group and Palms Casino Resort will host the festival beginning on April 15 through April 18. Talent 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 be featured for several days of high-octane matches.
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Miyu Yamashita takes on Yuka Sakazaki during the Pro-Wrestling ‘Cyber Fight Festival’ at the 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. She will return to Las Vegas a year after battling WWE legend Nattie Niedhart at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII. She spoke to Fox News Digital about what it meant to be able to return to Las Vegas for the star-studded event.
“It feels special to me to be in America as the Tokyo Joshi team,” she said through her translator Koryu Haku. “In Vegas, we were there last year, same venue. It’s a very special feeling – the ambience, the air, it being a special week. The fans are extra excited, extra hyped and that directly translates to our motivation and fighting in the ring.”
For the average American pro wrestling fan, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling may be unfamiliar. The promotion itself, which consists of only women, was founded as a sister promotion to DDT Pro-Wrestling in 2012 and it became its own standalone company in 2015.
Yamashita joined the promotion in 2013 and quickly earned her way up the ladder. She became the first Tokyo Princess of Princess champion in 2016. She’s held the title four times in total and has been a Princess tag team champion twice. She also won the Tokyo Princess Cup in 2023.
She gave some insight on what fans could expect from the TJPW wrestlers.
Miyu Yamashita celebrates her victory during the Pro-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 every wrestler has a very unique character,” she told Fox News Digital. “Their personality is very strong and I feel that is enhanced when we come to the States. Perhaps, everyone’s thinking about the language barrier and they’re trying to emote more or try to have new fans understand who they are.
“So, new fans coming into Tokyo Joshi, I think they’ll be able to identify a favorite, find a person that they like because everybody is different and, especially when we come to the States, that difference also stands out because everybody’s trying to be super expressive and trying to have people understand who they are.”
Yamashita is also set to be involved in BloodSport XV during the same week, as is Neidhart.
It’s unclear, as of now, if they will square off against each other. But Yamashita said she hoped to be able to face the WWE star again.
“Nattie is somebody I have been watching from a very early stage in my career,” Yamashita told Fox News Digital. “And she’s somebody who not only I look up to, I find very cool. She fights a style that I like. One of my goals is to be somebody 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 the one, two three.”
The Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling event will take place at the Pearl Concert Theater on April 16 from 11 a.m. PT to 1:15 p.m. PT with a meet and greet afterward.
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