Tsubasa Kuragaki to leave JWP

Tsubasa Kuragaki

JWP held a press conference today to announce that 15 year joshi puroresu veteran Tsubasa Kuragaki will leave JWP to freelance. This is notable because Kuragaki trained at JWP and has worked there since her 1995 debut. She quit and then re-debuted in 1998. She reluctantly left JWP in 2002 and worked for NEO. JWP was having serious financial problems at the time and was close to closing. Kuragaki returned to JWP in 2003 when it became clear that they weren't closing after all. She has worked at JWP ever since. Kuragaki held the JWP Open Weight championship twice and the NEO Singles Championship once. All of her title reigns were fairly short. She would have been used as a transition champ. In 2012, she started working for OZ Academy and was also one of the JWP wrestlers who came to Chikara in Pennsylvania twice. Her final match in JWP will be October 14 at Shinjuku FACE. Her long time tag team partner Kayoko Haruyama attended the press conference. I'm sure she will be involved in the match. Kuragaki says the match hasn't been discussed yet. Kuragaki says she started thinking about leaving at the beginning of this year. She believes there are more opportunities freelancing these days and she wants to spread her wings while she still can. Kuragaki is 38 years old. She says she could work for JWP as a freelancer and she is also interested in going overseas. I expect her to work mostly for OZ Academy because a lot of veteran joshi wrestlers work there. She says she will probably have her retirement at JWP. Kuragaki is still a very good wrestler. She's quick and strong. But she lacks sex appeal and charisma and I think that has prevented her from bring a top dog. The sex appeal is one thing. Leave that to idol wrestlers. But her personality is bland. And that's why Haruyama has gotten opportunities that Kuragaki never got.