May 19, 2026 in New York, NY
Sukeban, a unique joshi pro-wrestling company that fuses wrestling with fashion and music under Japanese girl gang aesthetics, had its first ever show in NYC back in 2023. I missed that event but had the opportunity to finally check them out at their recent return to NYC. It was my first full joshi wrestling show of any kind since pre-pandemic, so I was pretty excited to be well enough and lucky enough to attend.
This time around Sukeban ran the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center, a venue well known for wrestling shows and one I’ve been to numerous times in the past for shows from companies like Ring of Honor.
A variety of Japanese women’s wrestlers from various promotions participate in Sukeban, including some who are otherwise retired from wrestling. It was a treat to see Commander Nakajima (Arisa Nakajima), Lady Antoinette (Risa Sera, who unsurprisingly found herself in a hardcore match even after retirement), and Crush Yuu (Yuu) in a wrestling related setting after their main in-ring careers have ended. Nakajima in particular seemed to be having the time of her life scowling up a storm and wrecking people as appropriate.
Everyone’s personas for these shows are unique to their Sukeban appearances and tie into Sukeban’s faction/gang warfare presentation.
As someone who was familiar with a majority of the roster for this show via their home promotions it was interesting to see them in these alternate personas. The time and effort put into their appearances was clear and impressive.
The wrestlers spent hours before the show getting prepared with fashion forward costumes and intricate makeup and hairstyles. Everyone looked great, with a number of their larger than life personas coming across as downright stunning. Atomic Banshee, to name one of many, felt like Ram Kaicho’s final form. Several of the wrestlers were near unrecognizable (some by virtue of being masked of course, but many through striking makeup and wild hair).
Going along with its character heavy, fashion forward approach, Sukeban primarily embraces the theatrical aspects of wrestling. This does mean the actual wrestling is approached differently than in other promotions. While featuring several excellent wrestlers and being a wrestling show at its core, the primary focus of Sukeban is on pageantry, characters, and providing a unique experience. For more of a sports based presentation and a full display of what the wrestlers can do in an athletic sense during long matches they need to be sought out in their home promotions.
From what I understand Sukeban varies and experiments a bit with things from show to show. For this show music was played from bell to bell throughout the matches (wrestlers of course had their own separate personal entrance music). It was a little overwhelming at times, but it underscored the promotion’s unique identity and helped the feeling of this being it’s own type of thing. Personally I liked it.
There show featured five matches ranging in styles from multi-team “gang warfare” to a hardcore style “weapons match” to more traditional tag, multi person, and singles matches. I’m not going to go through a full lineup or recap, but I was into the entire show and felt they accomplished what they set out to do.
There were admittedly some rough edges, including a 3-way match randomly turning into a 4-way match mid-way through without explanation that only made any sense to those of us who knew what the original announced card was before last minute injuries caused changes. For a couple of matches everyone was announced as a big list before they entered, making following who was who difficult. And so on.
They weren’t major issues, but cleaning up little things like the above won’t be difficult and would help with making the whole show feel as polished as the visual presentation.
There were several well done little touches and cool details that added to the larger than life feel Sukeban was shooting for. Two giant screens showed close ups of the wrestlers during entrances and highlighted the action during the matches. Smack in the Box (Misa Matsui) had a fantastic entrance where she popped out of a giant jack-in-the-box and was easily one of my favorite characters of the night.
The mystique of the Queen of Hearts (Miyuki Takase) was magnified by the visual of her walking down the street outside the Manhattan Center with the Empire State Building in the background then strolling through the crowd towards her main event title match. She was all aura and seemed to be trying to overwhelm the Sukeban World Championship away from Ichigo Sayaka (Unagi Sayaka) through sheer force of personality.
The atmosphere in general was incredible. Sukeban attracts a mixed crowd of wrestling diehards and cross sectional fans. The crowd was loud and engaged throughout the show, adding to the excitement. This is the type of experience that plays fine on video (Sukeban occasionally but not consistently stream some of their shows) but is several times better and more fun to be at live.
The matches were on the short side, all running between 5 and 9 minutes. This led to the shows coming under an hour and a half (once it started, which was a not unusual for indie wrestling half hour past announced bell time). For a traditional wrestling show at this venue this would be considered unacceptably short, and I understand if some fans feel it’s not enough for the ticket costs.
But Sukeban isn’t a traditional wrestling show. The stories told during the matches worked even in the short timeframes and the action was fine. Everyone was committed to the show’s concept and working hard in an unusual environment and attire. I felt I got my money’s worth, and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Although I admittedly would have appreciated a little more and would recommend them shooting for closer to a two hour show in the future if possible.
Sukeban is an extremely fun show for what it is, and I’d recommend anyone willing to give their particular and unusual form of wrestling a shot try to catch them live.
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