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

Kevin | 08/18/2020 | The Beauty of Joshi | No Comments

From 2012 to 2017, popular wrestling magazine Weekly Pro Wrestling put out special “extra” editions highlighting different Joshi wrestlers in a gravure-style photoshoot. In total, seven Women’s Wrestling Erokawa magazines were released. Early magazines featured Yuzuki Aikawa as the main wrestler, while later magazines featured Stardom wrestler Io Shirai. You can read reviews for more photobooks on the Joshi Photobook Reviews page.

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: