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Slam Fest is shaping up to be the perfect way for professional wrestling fans to blow off some steam during the week leading up to WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas.
Paragon Talent Group and Palms Casino Resort will host the festival from April 15-18. Talent from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), House of Glory (HOG), World Wonder Ring Stardom and Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling will be featured for several days of high-octane matches.
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Miyu Yamashita faces Yuka Sakazaki during Pro-Wrestling’s “Cyber Fight Festival” at Saitama Super Arena on June 6, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
Miyu Yamashita will be one of the TJPW stars in the mix. She will return to Las Vegas a year after facing WWE legend Nattie Niedhart at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII. She spoke to PK Press Club Digital about what it meant to be able to return to Las Vegas for the prestigious event.
“It’s special for me to be in America as part of the Tokyo Joshi team,” she said through her translator Koryu Haku. “In Vegas, we were there last year, the same place. It’s a very special feeling – the atmosphere, the air, it’s a special week. The fans are very excited, very excited and that translates directly to our motivation and our fights in the ring.”
To the average American professional wrestling fan, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling may not be familiar. The all-female promotion itself was founded as a sister promotion to DDT Pro-Wrestling in 2012 and became its own standalone company in 2015.
Yamashita joined the promotion in 2013 and quickly rose through the ranks. She became the first Tokyo Princess of Princess champion in 2016. She has held the title a total of four times and has been Princess tag team champion twice. She also won the Tokyo Princess Cup in 2023.
She gave a glimpse of what fans could expect from TJPW wrestlers.
Miyu Yamashita celebrates his victory during Pro-Wrestling’s “Cyber Fight Festival” at Saitama Super Arena on June 6, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
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“What is characteristic of Tokyo Joshi is that each wrestler has a very unique character,” she told PK Press Club Digital. “Their personality is very strong and I think that is reinforced when we come to the United States. Maybe everyone is thinking about the language barrier and trying to evoke more emotion or make new fans understand who they are.
“So the new fans coming to Tokyo Joshi, I think they will be able to identify a favorite, find a person that they like because everyone is different and, especially when we come to the United States, that difference also comes out because everyone is trying to be super expressive and trying to make people understand who they are.”
Yamashita is also expected to be involved in BloodSport XV during the same week, as is Neidhart.
It is not yet known whether they will face each other. But Yamashita said she hopes she can face the WWE star again.
“Nattie is someone I’ve watched since the very beginning of my career,” Yamashita told PK Press Club Digital. “And she’s someone that I not only admire, but think is very cool. She’s fighting a style that I love. One of my goals is to be someone like her – a strong woman, a tough woman.
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“It was BloodSport with BloodSport rules, so one day I would like to fight Nattie again under regular wrestling rules and pin her for one, two, three.”
The Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling event will take place at the Pearl Concert Theater on April 16 from 11:00 AM PT to 1:15 PM PT with a meet and greet afterward.
