The End of Summer and Aoki’s Memories
Last week, I was the Regina, eagerly awaiting news on whether I’d advanced to the 5★STAR championship tournament. But wow, as I write this now, I’ve lost the Regina and failed to make the 5★STAR finals.
I am spectacularly, completely beltless.
It makes me somewhat calmly realize just how much can happen in a single week of a person’s life.
The 5★STAR GP & The Thousand-Armed Kannon
Aoki’s summer has come to a pause.
In my first-ever 5★STAR appearance, I managed to leave a massive impact by winning my first four matches in a row, but after that, I suffered a huge downfall with three straight losses.
The dream of the “Thousand-Armed Kannon Acrylic Stand” that I kept chanting about has finally been crushed, but it was an incredibly fun month and a half. I felt the joy of singles matches more deeply, my love for pro wrestling grew even stronger, and I reaffirmed that pro wrestling is the absolute most fun thing in my life.
With things like this, isn’t it all about striking first? So, I am unilaterally swearing right here and now to declare my participation for next year!
You know, they say the Law of Attraction is a real thing, right? Nothing is officially decided, but I fully intend to just keep saying it. Next time for sure, I’m making that Thousand-Armed Kannon acrylic stand.
Next year, I want to pull off the ultimate double-header again: going straight from CATCH THE WAVE right into the 5★STAR GP. This summer was a luxurious one where I got to experience so many singles matches, but since I haven’t conquered them yet, I have every reason to challenge them again.
I’m counting on you, Next Year’s Me. And I’m counting on the “Me” from here on out who is going to grab that chance.
Losing the Regina
The same goes for the Regina.
On August 15th at Korakuen Hall, I faced Haruka Umesaki and lost the title. As expected, Umesaki’s conditioning that day was absolutely fearsome.
The fact that I dropped the belt is one thing, but to me, the Regina was my “very first singles belt.” Getting to win my first singles championship in WAVE—a place that constantly gave me room to grow back when I was a complete nobody and nowhere near as loud as I am now—was more special to me than anything. The sense of loss I felt was far beyond what I had imagined.
However, since I am a very simple person, that night some of my kind seniors took me out for dinner, calling it a “Good Job Party.” I definitely cried a little bit that night, but the very next day I went on a rampage in my match, and by the time I took a breath in bed, I found myself surprisingly calm.
Because my carry-on suitcase is somehow still heavy, I don’t physically feel the loss too much there, but when I reached for the spot where I usually put the belt and it wasn’t there, I definitely had a moment of, “Oh crap! Did I forget it!? …Wait, no, I just don’t have it anymore,” two days in a row.
But somehow, the confidence that holding the Regina gave me has completely blended into my mind and body. It naturally straightens my posture.
Maybe the days I spent carrying the mindset of “I am the Champion” came with a slight, unnoticeable pressure right beside it, because I feel like I’ve become somewhat free. I was like this before, too, but once again, I’m currently wrestling freely, totally relaxed, and just enjoying my matches.
At Marvelous on the 17th, I know I did whatever the hell I wanted a bit too much, and a certain wrestler who watched the match actually told me:
“Just because you dropped the belt doesn’t mean you can be this free! (lol)”
It seems I’m stretching my wings without even realizing it. Even so, the frustration is definitely still there. I think I’m the one who suits that belt best, so I’m going to go get it back right away.
Using the massive amount of experience I gained from this opportunity as fuel, my future is still a growth period. I’m right in the middle of my prime growing stage!
This summer has ended, and even though so many people rushed out to venues all over the country to support me, I do of course feel incredibly apologetic that I couldn’t win. But the Aoki from here on out is going to show you all so many more amazing sights, so my honest, selfish request is that I want you to stick with me without getting tired of it.
I truly want to repay the ton of love I’ve been receiving.
The Color Blue & Rin Kadokura
And, as I mentioned earlier, I competed in Marvelous on August 17th. My tag partner that day was Sora Ayame.
This kid is so interesting. When we team together and I mess something up, she glares at me with such an intense, heavy stare that it genuinely makes me think, “Do you… actually hate me…??”
Watching a flustered Aoki desperately trying to figure out her next move under that glare, that same certain wrestler who was watching asked me, “Is Aoki just weak to wrestlers associated with the color blue?”
Indeed. It seems like a lot of the important people in my life have a connection to the color blue. For example, Rin-chan.
While getting dragged around by Sora, honestly, I was remembering Rin-chan a little bit. Whenever I talk about the Regina as my “first singles belt,” I naturally also always remember that my “first tag team belt was also in WAVE.” And that partner was Rin-chan. Known at the time as Rin Kadokura.
Thinking about things like that made me suddenly feel lonely, so after I got home, I watched Rin’s retirement match on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. Coupled with the fact that it was the middle of the night, the loneliness I had kept a lid on since May welled up all at once, and I started feeling sentimental again.
Looking back, my bond with Rin-chan was a strange one.
When we first met, she was already wearing the WAVE tag belts with her partner at the time, and was already fighting on the frontlines for her home promotion… to me, she felt like a massive, untouchable senior (dai-senpai).
I forgot exactly how it started, but when I suddenly called her “Rin-chan” and kept sticking to her because her annoyed reactions were funny, I gradually fell completely in love with her. She was strict but kind, and when you spent time with her, you realized she was a bit of an airhead, too. I started chasing her around everywhere.
GAMI-san found the whole thing hilarious and paired us up for tag matches over and over again.
From there, whether we were actually in sync or not, despite just being a totally mismatched duo, for some reason before we knew it we had grabbed various opportunities and won the belts. Leading up to that, Rin-chan got mad at me, but I also surprised her by winning, and she praised me a lot.
By the time we put on those tag belts, Rin-chan was like an older sister to me—or maybe not an older sister… It was a somewhat mysterious relationship, but we had a very real, undeniable bond.
As our opportunities to team together gradually increased, that bond became even stronger. Eventually, Rin-chan started saying, “My tag partner is Aoki,” and of course, I felt exactly the same way. The results were backing us up at the time, too.
I seriously believed that as long as we were together, we were invincible.
The Turning Point: August 8, 2022
August 8, 2022, at Korakuen Hall was definitely the turning point.
On that day, we were originally scheduled to defend the AAAW Tag Team Championship against Chikayo Nagashima and Takumi Iroha. However, Rin-chan fell ill, and the title defense was postponed. Instead, I ended up in a singles match against Takumi Iroha, and on the day of the show, it was suddenly changed to an AAAW Singles Championship match.
Honestly, my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. I even wanted to cry and say, “I can’t do this…”
Around that time, I still didn’t have much confidence in myself.
“It’s okay because Rin-chan is here.” “The Rin-chan I believe in believes in me, so I have to believe in myself.”
My entire confidence was truly built around her.
But I needed to finally stand on my own two feet. I couldn’t just rely on her forever; I had to become an existence truly worthy of Rin-chan. Mustering up every ounce of bravado I had, I enthusiastically accepted the title match.
I lost. But to this day, people still tell me that was a great match.
I threw more than 100% of everything the “Me” of that time had to offer, and yet Takumi Iroha was overwhelmingly strong. She was so strong it was almost hateful. It was so cool, yet so frustrating, and ever since that day, I’ve been constantly picking fights with her. When the current me watches that match back, it’s frustrating to see that I lacked this and lacked that, but without a doubt, I achieved major growth on that day.
Rin-chan, who was watching the broadcast that day, praised me so, so much. She apologized, told me I was really strong, and finally said:
“Aoki, you’ll be fine without me now.”
At the time, I didn’t think that was true at all. Because I felt I was only able to stand tall because she was there, I just accepted it as the highest possible compliment.
But Rin-chan cared about me far more than I had ever imagined, and it seems there were even life choices she had been putting off, saying, “I’ll wait until Aoki grows up.”
That’s exactly why she said that watching this match finally took the weight off her shoulders. She told me:
“Because I watched this match, I was truly relieved, and there were things I was finally able to make a decision on.”
My Forever Tag Partner
“Aoki and Kadokura” was my first tag team, and Rin-chan was my first tag partner. And she ended up being the very first person whose retirement match I stood across the ring for.
Rin-chan has been involved in so many of my “firsts” in the pro wrestling world. Her existence is truly one of a kind to me, and there are experiences I had and heights I reached only because she was there.
Even though she had plenty of juniors in her own promotion and likely had her hands full training them, the fact that she watched over a junior from another promotion like this, treating me as someone important and fighting alongside me—now, I understand more powerfully than ever just how grateful I should be for that.
The reason I was able to become strong back then was thanks to my first tag belt, and above all else, thanks to Rin-chan’s existence.
I am still sad that Rin-chan retired. I genuinely mean it when I say I want her to come back anytime. But more than that, I want her to live a peaceful, happy life—though I do want her to watch me occasionally and praise me!
My forever special tag partner, Rin-chan. I want to become even stronger, becoming an existence Rin-chan can brag about, saying, “I was the one who pulled her along!” so we can turn the weak, past version of myself into a laughing matter.
It’s a night where I picked up my pen like this while thinking, maybe I’ll send her a LINE message for the first time in a while.
It’s embarrassing though, so I probably won’t. But thanks to Sora, I was able to remember all this. Thank you.
I still wanted to write a lot more deeply about this, but I’ll leave it here for this week.
Next week is the final column!! Crap, I’m super sad about it!! Next week too, PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO ITTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!
Translator’s Notes:
- Regina (Regina di WAVE): The top singles championship in Pro Wrestling WAVE.
- 5★STAR GP: Stardom’s prestigious annual round-robin tournament.
- Completely Beltless: The Japanese term she uses is Daimarugoshi, a playful exaggeration of marugoshi, meaning unarmed or defenseless.
- Thousand-Armed Kannon Acrylic Stand: Aoki is making a humorous, exaggerated reference to the Senju Kannon, a Buddhist deity with a thousand arms. She joked earlier in the summer that if she won the tournament, she wanted an acrylic merchandise stand of herself holding all of her belts and trophies like a multi-armed deity.
- Double-Header: She uses the term hashigo (ladder), an idiom often used for bar-hopping or chaining events together, referring to her grueling schedule of competing in WAVE’s Catch the WAVE tournament and Stardom’s 5★STAR GP back-to-back.
- Blue Wrestlers: A pun based on her current tag partner, Sora Ayame (“Sora” means sky, which is blue), and her nostalgic reminiscing of Rin Kadokura, who was heavily associated with Marvelous and frequently wore blue gear.
- GAMI: The founder, boss, and lead promoter of Pro Wrestling WAVE.
- AAAW: The legendary All Asia Athlete Women’s Championships. Originally the top titles of GAEA Japan, they were revived by Marvelous (founded by Chigusa Nagayo) to serve as their promotion’s top championships.
- Make a decision on: Rin Kadokura stepped away from the ring to marry Shinnosuke Sasaki (the son of wrestling legends Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto) and relocate to Canada. She later formally retired in 2024. Aoki is noting that Rin delayed her major life changes until she felt Aoki was ready to succeed without her.