September 12, 2026
Ure-C, Tano-C, Lady C!
It’s time once again for this week’s Lady C Hana-C!
Last time was the Ohana-C about how Lady discovered pro wrestling and decided to become a trainee.
Although I had made up my mind to become a trainee, I was still living at my parents’ house at the time. Thinking that I might be a burden to them and that it would probably be best to get their permission, I consulted my mother first.
My mom is the type to say, “Live your life on your own terms.” When I confessed to her, she was surprised—saying, “I knew you liked pro wrestling, but you want to do it?!”—but her reaction was basically, “Well, give it a shot and see how far you can go.”
My dad, on the other hand, is a total worrywart who hates anything new. To him, the idea of throwing away a stable career like teaching just to pursue an unstable job was completely outrageous! He wouldn’t even give me the time of day to hear me out.
Around that time, referee Murayama-san and my school principal were also trying to talk me out of it. It isn’t a stable job, and I could get hurt. They reasoned that it would be better to keep teaching and just get some exercise occasionally at wrestling workshops—which was a perfectly valid point.
Even so, I wanted to take the leap no matter what. I was 24 or 25 at the time. I was the youngest I’d ever be right then. If I didn’t do it now, I might never get the chance for the rest of my life.
“If I don’t show any results after three years, I will do whatever you say. Please just let me do this now.”
Saying that, I bowed down on my hands and knees in a dogeza to my father. The two of us cried together as we talked about a lot of things.
Somehow, I got his permission and officially became a trainee.
First up was strength training.
I was 177cm and 58kg with zero athletic background.
Just three years of kendo in junior high.
I couldn’t even do a single push-up, so it took an incredibly long time just to get to the point where I could complete the workout menu.
My body would instantly scream in agony from doing movements I had never done before, and I felt truly pathetic.
Because I had no idea how to use my body, I wasn’t improving very fast.
But I had no choice but to do it, so I just kept going.
Just as I was slowly starting to learn how to take bumps, the COVID-19 pandemic began.
There was also the tragedy with Hana-san.
For months, we were in a state where neither practice nor matches were possible.
All I could do was strength training at home.
Sometimes I’d go to a gym with a ring to practice mat work and running the ropes.
I bought every volume of Demon Slayer and trained right alongside Tanjiro.
The frustration of not knowing when the state of emergency would end, being completely helpless and able to do nothing but wait.
The fact that I had no peers in my training class also took a massive toll on my mental health.
For a brief period, there were a few girls I trained with, but they all quit almost immediately.
Having no one to consult with, no one to vent to, and having to handle all the trainee chores completely by myself was incredibly tough to endure.
Honestly, my memories from this era are so painful that I’ve erased most of them from my brain.
Also, I was looking for photos to include in this column, but since I only had pictures of bruises from that time and no decent photos of myself, I’ll put in a picture of baby Maro-shan from back then, along with my very first promotional headshot.
My time as a trainee was genuinely agonizing, but I never once thought about quitting.
After over a year of being a trainee, a date was finally set for my pro test, but it ended up being postponed because of a fractured rib.
Things were absolutely not going smoothly.
October 3, 2020: The STARDOM event at Yokohama Budokan.
The day of the venue’s inaugural pro wrestling show.
While I was getting the merchandise tables ready as usual, a senior wrestler walked up and told me, “You’re doing your pro test 30 minutes from now.”
My ribs weren’t healed and I was not mentally prepared at all.
The suddenness of it sent me into a panic and I cried a little bit.
But no matter what, I had to do it.
Before the venue doors opened, with almost the entire senior roster watching over me, I did strength training, mat work, and multiple sparring sessions.
I was so frantic that I don’t have a clear memory of it, but I feel like I was crying while saying, “I want to do pro wrestling.”
Hearing about it later on, I was told that because I was usually so incapable, everyone thought I was going to fail before the test even started.
I feel truly pathetic and apologetic about that.
Somehow, my passion got through and I passed.
And with that, my debut one month later was set.
Next week’s Ohana-C will be…
“Wait, my costume won’t be ready in time?!”
This Week’s Lady C Ichi-o-C
Toy Story 5
The massively popular Disney movie series, Toy Story!
I’ve seen 1 through 4, and 5 was absolutely incredible too!
Up until now, Woody was the protagonist of Toy Story, but this time it’s Jessie! With the introduction of smart devices changing the way kids play, I really got the impression that we’ve reached a completely different stage from the previous Toy Story films.
In Toy Story 4, I was left feeling, “Bonnie… how could you put Woody, who was handed down to you by Andy, through that…”, so I was genuinely thrilled and moved by Bonnie’s growth this time around…
Also, you are absolutely guaranteed to bawl your eyes out at Emily’s scene—Machigaina-C!
Personally, my tastes and hobbies are quite similar to Bonnie and Blaze’s, so there were a lot of parts I could empathize with, and it really left me pondering what a “true friend” actually is.
When I meet up with my friends from my school days, mostly everyone drinks alcohol, but the truth is I just want to play badminton in the park or mess around on the slide.
There isn’t anyone around me who carries stuffed animals or soap bubbles, but it felt like the movie affirmed that part of me… so it brought me that kind of happiness, too.
Let’s live true to ourselves.
Make sure to go watch Toy Story!
Translator’s Notes
- Lady C’s “C” Puns: The author heavily incorporates the letter “C” from her ring name into standard Japanese words. For example, she replaces the “-shii” suffix in adjectives like ureshii (happy) and tanoshii (fun) to make “Ure-C” and “Tano-C.” She also replaces word endings that have a similar sound, turning hanashi (story) into Hana-C, ichi-oshi (top pick/recommendation) into Ichi-o-C, and machigainai (no mistake / absolutely guaranteed) into Machigaina-C. These have been retained phonetically to preserve her distinct voice and column branding.
- Dogeza: A traditional Japanese posture of kneeling and bowing deeply with one’s head to the ground, used to show absolute reverence or to beg for a profound favor/forgiveness.
- Hana-san: A respectful reference to the late Hana Kimura, a prominent roster member whose tragic passing deeply impacted the Japanese wrestling scene during the initial COVID-19 lockdown period.
- Pro Test: A rigorous physical, technical, and mental examination that Japanese wrestling trainees must pass in front of the active roster and management before they are legally cleared to make their professional debut.
- Maro-shan: A reference to Lady C’s pet cat, Maro.