Everyone knows Mariko Yoshida as the submission queen of joshi
puroresu. She is especially admired for her time in the ARSION/A To
Z promotion as head trainer. She also started her own promotion last
June called Breath. The next show is Jan. 29.
Yoshida has now started what is being called Yoshida's Gym. What it
really is is a weekly joshi class intended to teach wrestlers the
fine points of joshi. It's not really intended for beginners though
Yoshida trains them too. Yoshida believes that improper training is
one of the problems plaguing the joshi business and this will help
correct that. Thirteen wrestlers are attending this class every
Tuesday in JD Star's ring at the Shin-kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo. The
Yoshida Gym started when JD Star decided to emphasize the Athtresses
and they realized that none of them knew what they were doing in the
ring and there was no veteran prescence to show them. So they called
Yoshida. Then JWP asked Yoshida to help them with Kyoko Kimura. The
classes have grown from there with the beginning of Breath. So this
can be best described as supplemental training.
Back in the glory days of joshi, there was a mandatory retirement
age of 25. With most of today's top wrestlers in their thirties, the
average age of Yoshida's Gym is 25.7, much older than one would
expect. Yoshida believes that today's generation of joshi is
important to the next generation. She said "If today's wrestlers
don't shine in the ring, fans don't want to see them." The classes
are free though Yoshida's only income is from her matches.
New blood isn't entering the joshi business because business is bad.
Today's young wrestlers are being held down by veterans. They don't
learn how to win and get discouraged. Yoshida remembers what things
were like when she was young. This is her attempt to improve this
generation of joshi and bring a level of professionalism that some
of them don't have. She hopes this will raise the quality level of
the in ring product.
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