Mirai memorial show

Chiemi "Mirai" Kitagami died one year ago at age 22 because of a bathtub accident. On Sept. 12, her friend GAMI and M's Style held a memorial show for Mirai at Shin-kiba 1st Ring. Mirai is the Japanese word for future and Chiemi Kitagami was a rising star of joshi puroresu. She has been missed. Fans were greeted in the lobby of the arena by a display of Mirai's costumes and some pictures.

The show started with Mirai's theme song Can't Help Falling In Love by Hi Standard. Then video letters to Mirai from Vader, Mima Shimoda and Atsushi Onita and a letter was read from Mirai's idol Akira Hokuto. The matches were mostly of the comedy variety. The first match had Yasu Urano & isami over Tomohiko Hashimoto & Kasakai in 12:29. Yumi Ohka then read from a diary Mirai kept on the road.

This was followed by a very special Royal Rumble style battle royal. The order of entry was Shuu Shibutani, Ayako Sato, GAMI, Saki Maemura, Commando Bolshoi, Sachie Abe, Sakura Emi, Yuka Shiina, Haruka Matsuo, Azumi Hyuga, Mariko Yoshida, Yumiko Hotta and...TAKA Michinoku. The whole thing turned into a square dance at one point with GAMI getting beaten down in the middle. They also did the rowboat and multiple abdominal stretches. It got back to being a regular battle royal when Yoshida, Hotta and then TAKA showed up. The match ended at 20:54 when Sakura Emi used Mirai's finsher, the Mirai Roll, to pin GAMI.

Next was a memorial video of Mirai's career highlights including what was considered her best match vs Momoe Nakanishi at the Dec. 21, 2003 Korakuen Hall A To Z show. The main event had Kyoko Kimura & Ayumi Kurihara over Atsuko Emoto & Zero. Kimura used what they called the Mirai Crossface on Zero for the win at 16:52. Oh and under the Zero mask was Sakura Emi trainee Rei.

They finished off with a tribute to Mirai with the fans throwing purple streamers. Everyone had something to say about Mirai including Mika Nishio, Sachie Abe & Yumiko Hotta who worked very closely with her at A To Z. Then everyone posed as a group in the ring. This included Mirai's parents with her mom holding a photo. It was a very emotional day for all the wrestlers. Sometimes the wrestling business is about something other than money. That's what we saw on this tribute show, a life lost at a young age. It's very sad and we all miss Mirai.