Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 3 Details:

Official Title: Weekly Pro Wrestling Magazine EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 3
Release: January 30th, 2013
Pages: ~80
Cost: ¥1,200
Where to Buy: Third Party Vendors (eBay, Mercari, Buyee, etc.)

The third volume of Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa featured the following wrestlers:

• Yuzuki Aikawa
• Kana
• Makoto
• Bambi
• Kairi Hojo
• Nagisa Nozaki

Volume 3 of the series brings back Aikawa from Volume 2, with the other five wrestlers being different from the previous magazine. This would be Aikawa’s last year as the feature as she retired just a few months after this magazine came out, which would open things up for new wrestlers to appear on the cover. Like in past years, we get a good mixture here of stars (at the time) and newer wrestlers, with the most interesting addition to current fans being Kairi Hojo, later known in the WWE as Kairi Sane.

The pictures themselves are as you’d imagine as this is a gravure photoshoot after all. As in past years, Aikawa from Stardom has the most pictures as she is the star. Makoto and Nagisa Nozaki both wrestled in WNC at the time so this was good publicity for the smaller promotion, although Nagisa would leave wrestling soon after this magazine came out (she returned years later and still wrestles today). Bambi still wrestles as well, currently with 2AW but then out of K-DOJO. Kana of course needs no introduction as one of the most popular female wrestlers in the world, and in 2013 she was fairly popular as well. All and all a quality group of wrestlers as all are still active today except for Aikawa (giving Kairi a pass since her career is a bit in flux), which is impressive considering the magazine is seven years old and Joshi wrestlers tend to have short careers. Here is a sample of pictures from the magazine:

The post Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 3 Review appeared first on Joshi City.

Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 2 Details:

Official Title: Weekly Pro Wrestling Magazine EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 2
Release: May 30th, 2012
Pages: ~80
Cost: ¥1,200
Where to Buy: Third Party Vendors (eBay, Mercari, Buyee, etc.)

The second volume of Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa featured the following wrestlers:

• Yuzuki Aikawa
• Ayumi Kurihara
• Io Shirai
• Moeka Haruhi
• Aoi Kizuki
• Haruka Kato

Compared to Volume 1, the second edition doesn’t hold up as well when looking at the wrestlers’ present day popularity. Io Shirai makes her debut, which is noteworthy, however the other five wrestlers are all retired or less visible Freelancers. That’s not a knock on the appearances of the wrestlers, which is what this magazine highlights, but rather just an observation that this volume may be less popular in 2020 due to the current statuses of the wrestlers.

Aikawa was the staple for these early EXTRA magazines, and has the cover as well as the most pictures. Ayumi Kurihara remains one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ of modern Joshi as she was extremely talented, but had an issue with injuries and had to retire early. Io of course needs no introduction, as she is one of the most popular Joshi wrestlers in the world and currently is gaining even more popularity while wrestling in WWE. Kizuki retired a few years ago, while Haruhi and Kato still wrestle but not many of their matches “make tape.” Beyond the modeling-style pictures, as with the last magazine there is additional content, including an article about Mika Iida and Kurihara. Here is a sample of pictures from the magazine:

The post Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 2 Review appeared first on Joshi City.

Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 1 Details:

Official Title: Weekly Pro Wrestling Magazine EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 1
Release: February 1st, 2012
Pages: 84
Cost: ¥1,200
Where to Buy: Third Party Vendors (eBay, Mercari, Buyee, etc.)

The first volume of Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa featured the following wrestlers:

• Yoko Bito
• Kana
• Mio Shirai
• Hikaru Shida
• Makoto
• Yuzuki Aikawa

Its interesting to see that eight years later, these are still some of the most popular wrestlers on the current or recently-current scene, with the only exception being Aikawa as she retired back in 2013. For the ‘gravure’ section, approximately 40 pages were devoted to the six above wrestlers, with each getting several pictures to themselves. As the photos were taken separately there are no group pictures, as at the time all were in different promotions aside from Yuzuki and Yoko who were both wrestling out of Stardom.

The rest of the magazine includes other Joshi content, including a section highlighting Bull Nakano’s retirement event and an article about Mayu Iwatani and Arisa Hoshiki. While the target audience will be those that enjoy the modeling photoshoots, there is plenty of other content in this edition as well that may interest a wide variety of fans. The bulk of the pictures are in color (including all the gravure pictures), however some other pages are in black and white. Considering the popularity of some of the wrestlers involved, this is a quality magazine even for modern Joshi fans. Here is a sample of pictures from the magazine:

The post Weekly Pro EXTRA: Women’s Wrestling Erokawa Vol. 1 Review appeared first on Joshi City.

After the tragic passing of Hana Kimura, Weekly Pro Wrestling covered Hana Kimura’s memorial service in the next magazine, which came out on June 3rd, 2020. The spread covered five pages, and included both older pictures of Hana Kimura and pictures from the service itself.

Normally I don’t do larger scans of magazines and photobooks, however since this magazine contained some content that a lot of fans wanted to see, I decided to give everyone a chance to see the pages and translate the text if they wanted to read it. Below are all the pages that have content related to Hana Kimura. The images as uploaded are larger than they appear below, however you may need to save the pictures to your device to display the full size.

The post Weekly Pro Wrestling Magazine on 6/17/20 with Hana Kimura Memorial appeared first on Joshi City.

After the tragic passing of Hana Kimura, Weekly Pro Wrestling quickly put together a tribute for her to include in the next edition of the magazine, which was coming out just a few days later. On May 27th, the June 10th edition of the magazine was released (the official dates on the magazine are always a few weeks ahead). Not only did it have several pages remembering Hana Kimura, but it also included a “last” interview with Arisa Hoshiki and a section on Asuka’s success in WWE, which were already planned.

Normally I don’t do full scans of magazines and photobooks, however since this magazine was highly sought after and going for high prices on eBay, I wanted to give everyone a chance to see the pages and translate the text/interview if they wanted to read it. Below are all the pages that had content with Hana Kimura, Arisa Hoshiki, or Asuka in the magazine. The images as uploaded are far larger than they appear below, open them in a new tab to display the full size.

The post Weekly Pro Wrestling Magazine on 6/10/20 with Hana Kimura appeared first on Joshi City.