Holy hell. What an unexpected, wonderful surprise.
At a press conference today (my time, technically yesterday Japan time where it aired from), alongside Sayaka Unagi, Hikari Noa* announced her return to wrestling at Unagi’s 6/21/26 produce show.
Hikari wrestled for TJPW as part of the Up Up Girls from her debut at TJPW’s 1/4/18 show until just before their 1/4/24 show. She was part of the reigning Princess Tag Team Champion Free Wi-Fi team with Nao Kakuta and had both a title defense and an upcoming singles deathmatch against Masha Slamovich scheduled.
In a press conference with TJPW general manager Tetsuya Koda and Nao it was announced that Free Wi-Fi were vacating the titles and Hikari would be out indefinitely.
The company sited “personal reasons” for her absence and for her subsequent departure from wrestling in May. There were never any direct statements from Hikari at the time, just announcements on her behalf from the company and there was no farewell appearance.
I adored Hikari and was sad to see her go. I wrote a retrospective at the time looking back on her career and always hoped maybe the stars would align someday for her to return to the wrestling world.
Well, align they have. For the second time in under six months, after Yuuka’s return at Ribbonmania, one of my all time favorite wrestlers will be coming back after what was thought to be the end of her career.
Unagi talked during the press conference about her efforts and desire to get in touch with Hikari over the last couple years and see if she still wanted to be involved in wrestling. Hikari apologized for any concern and trouble she caused, and thanked fans for their support and Unagi for the opportunity.
It’s really wonderful that she still wants to wrestle and will be getting a chance to return. I am beyond excited to have her back.
Best of luck to the deathmatch fanatic. We missed you. Welcome back.
* Hikari has made a slight change to the Japanese spelling of her name, now using ノア・ヒカリ instead of 乃蒼ヒカリ. Some people are stylizing her name now in English as “Hikari Noah” to reflect the difference, but hiragana to katakana changes don’t change the pronunciation and usually aren’t differently romanized. So I’m going to continue to use “Hikari Noa” until and unless Hikari shares an official romanization.
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