Joy in Pro-Wrestling and Kaho Hiromi

Everyone has their own preferences and favorites when it comes to wrestling. Style, presentation, and other factors vary greatly among the large number of wrestling companies in the world and are all a matter of taste among fans.

While in general I tend towards a more athletic event, intensely competitive style of wrestling what I care about most is enjoying what I’m watching. May seem like an obvious statement, but worth explicitly mentioning as in my case it means a wide range of wrestling genres appeal to me. Both nail biting intensity and well done comedic moments can really draw me in to a match when done well.

As I often say in reference to an old favorite, TJPW’s August 26 2017 show: sometimes I want to see my two favorite wrestlers in a promotion tearing the house down for a title…

…and sometimes I want to see Maki Itoh chasing idol lumberjacks around the ring with a squeaky toy hammer.

When any promotion can give me both in the same show and have it feel natural and cohesive I’m as happy as can be.

For me wrestling is at its best when its a mix of light heartedness and intense competition. I want my humorous elements woven into the general framework of wrestlers competing and trying to win, but can go for pretty absurd match premises and gimmicks when internally consistent and done well.

Ice Ribbon and ChocoPro (formerly Gatoh Move) have been always great places for this combination, which is a large reason why they’re two of my absolute favorite promotions.

This year’s Ribbonmania from just a couple weeks ago was a great example of a well paced, thoroughly enjoyable top to bottom show with a variety of aspects to it. ChocoPro’s holiday shows were likewise a blast with a little bit of everything sprinkled throughout.

All of which brings me around to what prompted this particular deep dive into the happy aspects of wrestling: ChocoPro’s most recent roster addition Kaho Hiromi.

Emi Sakura is excellent at developing wrestlers within their own ways to really highlight what they can do while letting them be wholly unique. I’d argue no other environment or trainer could have given us Lulu Pencil, the wonderfully goofy ninja Sayuri, etc.

Over her near 30 year career Sakura has trained a large number of children, including AEW’s first ever Women’s Champion Riho who started at age 9 and is a 18 year veteran at age 27.

Sakura’s most recent wrestling prodigy, reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga, is following in her mentor’s training footsteps as well with similarly excellent results. With Sakura living in the US as part of her participation in AEW, Mei has been the primary teacher for several of the recent roster additions.

Mei runs their casual training program DareJyo in Sakura’s absence, with Sakura being heavily involved as well whenever she’s back in Japan. DareJyo recently shared one of its showcase events on YouTube. It’s a great watch and provides insight on how ChocoPro approaches introducing people to the world of wrestling.

DareJyo is open to women and girls of all ages. Several DareJyo participants have continued on into full training and later officially debuted as professional wrestlers, including Mei herself as well as the energetic and cheerful grade schooler Kaho Hiromi.

Kaho debuted on August 31, 2024 against Ryo Mizunami at Gatoh Move’s return to Korakuen Hall.

The imposing multi-time champion 20 year veteran powerhouse was a mismatch for Kaho is just about every way imaginable. But that was the point. The match was about Kaho’s effort, perseverance, and attitude. She showed all in spades. Her charisma and determination shined and the crowd was behind her even against the super popular Mizunami. The outcome was never in doubt, but I was invested in Kaho’s efforts all the same. She eventually fell to Mizunami’s leg drop, but Ryo carried the little warrior to the back on her shoulders in a show of respect.

Her matches in the months since them have been likewise engaging, but it was specifically her matches around the holidays that brought all this to the forefront in my mind and made me want to write this post. This year was rough for me and I was stuck home alone for the holidays. Being able to watch and enjoy various wrestling shows from my favorite promotions halfway around the world helped my mood a lot. And it struck me how often watching little Kaho do her best with a smile on her face against opponents bigger, stronger, and older than herself was bringing a smile to mine.

ChocoPro’s approach with Kaho has been excellent. Again the company has a lot of experience over the years with wrestlers of vastly different ages, sizes, and experience levels and knows how to showcase people within their limitations as well as the proper tone to establish.

Kaho generally wrestles with veterans and/or her trainers in the matches. If you watch carefully you’ll notice she doesn’t take heavy strikes or generally anything high impact. But you have to watch carefully to notice, as her matches are just plain too much fun and enthralling to be thinking about stuff like that.

And that’s what matters. Sakura’s companies have always been built around the idea that wrestling should be fun for both the wrestlers and fans, and the fun Kaho has in her matches is both obvious and contagious. She’s a plucky underdog trying her best, and her matches are a lighthearted blast to watch. They’ve developed a moveset and strategy that suits her, such as crossing her arms in front of her and charging opponents as a strike instead of traditional chops that would have no impact at her size.

She’s doing great. She moves well, gets the crowd excited, and is naturally incredibly easy to get caught up cheering for. Emi Sakura is one of my top favorite wrestlers in the world, yet I still can’t help but to cheer against her as she smugly taunts Kaho.

While some people may instinctively recoil from the idea of a child in a wrestling match (and/or intergender wrestling, another cornerstone of ChocoPro), there are a lot of great in ring stories to be told involving an opponent completely out of the realm of what a veteran would normally expect. It doesn’t have to be everyone’s thing, there are plenty of other companies and styles to watch, but again it all speaks to me personally as a fan.

Kaho often confounds her opponents a bit with her quickness and size. She’ll counter holds by wrapping herself around their legs in ways others can’t. She can jump around, dodge, and generally frustrate them in ways only a kid can. Usually unfortunately she gets caught and someone like Sakura leverages Kaho’s own attempted holds to force a pin (the boos Sakura has gotten when she essentially sits on Kaho for a victory are huge).

Recent highlights include ChocoPro 314’s triple threat that saw her face Sakura & Sayaka and her participation in the Christmas show’s battle royal. The latter saw her first encounter with DDT’s Chris Brookes, which was a riot (and cemented Chris being evil). She’s also had several fun mixed tag matches recently giving people like Hagane Shinno a new challenge.

Kaho’s been a wonderful addition to the ChocPro roster, and I really just wanted to take the opportunity both to spotlight her and to reminder everyone how important it is just to straight up enjoy wrestling. Whether your thing is desperately wanting a heel vanquished, deathmatches, sports-like presentation, comedy, or like me a mix of several approaches find companies that do what you like well, and have fun experiencing them.

Some other great currently active young and/or rookie wrestlers to watch include, but aren’t limited to, Ice Ribbon’s Kirari Wakana, TJPW’s Uta Takami, SEAdLINNNG’s Miria Koga, and the recently freelance Saran. I hope to keep watching all of them and Kaho for however long wrestling continues to be viable and fun for them all.

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Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.

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