Trapped in the Cagematch: Azusa Inaba vs. Tomoka Inaba (May 7, 2025)

With Trapped in the Cagematch, Kim Wong combs through the highest-rated matches according to Cagematch’s voters in preparation for the annual FSM 50 and the year-end Match of the Year extravaganza.

Azusa Inaba vs. Tomoka Inaba
TAKA & Taichi Produce TAKATaichiMania IV
May 7, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 11/21/25: 201

Fandom often requires splitting your attention between the past, present, and the future. As much as anyone can try to exist in the moment, the context created by the past and the anticipation of the future inevitably intrude on your attention. Whether it’s in sports (“Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a very good basketball player, but how does he stack up against Dwayne Wade or Cylde Drexler”) or in wrestling (“what is the historical comparison for Sareee”), the past both provides the grounding and threatens to overshadow the present (“the players/wrestlers used to have better fundamentals, and why can’t they pass and shoot free throw/throw tighter strikes and make submissions feel like meaningful struggle like they used to”). Similarly, the future provides hope for something better and hovers over the present (“sure, Jalen Brunson/Bandido is good, but have you heard about this teenager who’s playing at Archbishop Stepinac in New York/wrestling in Arena Coliseo in Guadalajara”). 

I am not immune to the hipster propaganda of feeling cool about being ahead of the curve, so I started by perusing this year’s 30 Under 30 list to see where the next wave of wrestling talent might be plying their wares. As expected, the largest companies (AEW, NJPW, and CMLL) were well-represented on that list. They have the capital to maintain a pipeline of young wrestlers and, hopefully, develop them so they are ready to lead those companies once they’ve matured. Also, as expected, smaller companies that rely on a constant churn of wrestlers to replace wrestlers who leave for bigger opportunities and larger paychecks elsewhere (Dragongate) or whose bodies cannot stand the wear and tear of wrestling for very long (Stardom) were also well represented. Amidst the data set, Professional Wrestling Just Tap Out, Taka Michinoku’s training school and wrestling company, stood out. It’s also notable that the former Kaientai Dojo, now called Active Advance Pro Wrestling, is represented in the 30 Under 30 list because Michinoku founded Just Tap Out after he was fired from Kaientai Dojo.

 The 18-years-old Azusa Inaba made her professional wrestling debut with Just Tap Out in 2023 in a match with her 23-years-old sister, Tomoka Inaba. Since her debut, Azusa and Tomoka Inaba have been in many matches together; 85 of Azusa’s 260 matches to date have involved Tomoka almost always as Azusa’s opponent. (I spotted four matches where Azusa and Tomoka teamed with each other.) Matches between siblings can be hit or miss; for every great brawl between Mark and Jay Briscoe, we have lackluster matches between Matt and Jeff Hardy. So, the combination of Azusa’s and Tomoka’s youth and the fact that this was a match, the first of two singles matches, between the sisters drew my attention. 

The teenaged Azusa was JTO Girls Champion going into the match, and the sisters opened with some grappling. I’ve always appreciated when wrestlers have small claims to fame in the ring: Bryan Danielson would never fall victim to a small package pin, Billy Kidman could supposedly never be powerbombed (though there is much video proof that one could powerbomb Billy Kidman), and Austin Aries could never be trapped by a headscissors on the mat. I hope Azusa follows Aries’ example in this (and this only) since the way she escaped Tomoka’s headscissors in this opening segment felt reminiscent of how Aries would easily maneuver his way out of the headscissors and then dropkick his opponent. 

With her handsprings and her tumbling, we can assume that Azusa wants us to see that she’s the more athletic sister and that Tomoka is the more technically-oriented. They battled basically to a standstill, neither sister able to keep the other on the mat for more than a second. Azusa’s the first to show us a bit of flair with her taunting Tomoka after flipping out of Tomoka’s attempted armdrag and the first to strike with a jumping kick to Tomoka’s face.

As the younger (and presumably more impulsive) sister, Azusa was also the first to take a risk in the match. She looked like she splatted more on the ground than on her sister, paying the price for youthful exuberance and incomplete control of her powers. She was also the first to recover, also showing that the young can pay the price better than their seniors.

After trading throws into the guardrails and attempts at kicks on the apron, Azusa and Tomoka returned to the ring. Tomoka was now in control, so she got to show off her own running kick and personality to the crowd. Then, Tomoka treated the fans with a kick to Azusa’s back that sounded and looked great, and the kick also gave Azusa a chance to show that she can emote pain to the crowd too.

Still in control, Tomoka baited Azusa into trying to match her strike for strike, which turned out poorly for Azusa, whom Tomoka blasted with multiple knee strikes to the chest. Yet, this match remained a seesaw fight as Azusa then blocked Tomoka’s brainbuster attempt and hit one of her own. 

We were then treated to really entertaining display of empty-headed displays of rebellion and toughness as Azusa unloaded barrages of elbow blows to Tomoka’s chest. Tomoka would absorb her younger sister’s barrages, channel Jay-Z’s exhortation that “ladies is pimps, too; go on—brush your shoulders off,” ignore whatever damage Azusa hoped to inflict, and then blast her about the face and body with elbow strikes of her own. There is a great piece of acting where Azusa looks toward the hard camera with a look of disbelief in her eyes.

After being beaten down to the mat by Tomoka’s elbows, Azusa administered her own toughness test to Tomoka by using her quickness to trip Tomoka and trap her in a leglock. Tomoka demonstrated a great piece of acting herself when she threw her head back in a scream before finally reaching the bottom rope to break Azusa’s hold. 

The two then got lost in the match as Tomoka was unable to fully catch Azusa’s swinging arm, which led to a messy transition. This probably wouldn’t have been quite as noticeable if they hadn’t then repeated the sequence immediately after they reset with a Dragon sleeper hold on the mat. 

After Tomoka hit an inverted Falcon arrow on Azusa, the sisters traded kicks to the head, which Tomoka withstood better. Tomoka went on the attack again, and Azusa ran into a roundhouse kick to the head. This led to Tomoka’s last burst of offense on the mat as she tried to grind Azusa down with a cross armbreaker that became an armbar. The armbar gave Azusa another chance to emote and Tomoka another chance to seem like a savvy wrestler. While Azusa screamed from underneath Tomoka and tried to shuffle them toward a rope, Tomoka slid further over Azusa’s back to block Azusa’s movement with her head. I really appreciated the struggle that Tomoka showed to try to break Azusa’s grip while she tried to extend Azusa’s arm in the cross armbreaker and this bit of tactical fighting. 

From there, Tomoka and Azusa reached for the climax. Azusa started with a series of three suplexes, and Tomoka responded with the Michinoku Driver. Azusa went back to high head kick and her trusty jumping kick to knock Tomoka down. The one-count kickout felt a little forced; I don’t think we had gotten to the emotional pitch that needed something that dramatic, though the announcers certainly seemed to enjoy shouting “One! One! One!” into their microphones. For example, they could have saved that one-count kickout until after Azusa rocks Tomoka with multiple kicks to the head, which felt like a heavier offensive sequence than Azusa’s jumping kick. 

Now in control, Azusa unloaded on Tomoka, first with this running double knee strike.

Then, she tried Kota Ibushi’s Kamigoye. I wish Azusa went for the pin here instead of kneeling and screaming.

Finally, Azusa (awkwardly) plopped Tomoka into position for her moonsault, hit the moonsault, and hit another running boot to finish Tomoka and win the match.

I was impressed by the potential that Azusa and Tomoka showed. There were certainly some rough moments, but the positives of their performance outweighed the negatives. The atmosphere seemed to be at about the right level of intensity: it was a championship match between two sisters who are frequent opponents, but it wasn’t a blood feud, so was competitive without crossing into feeling like it was bitter. At the start, Azusa showed that she was the more athletic sister, and by the end, Azusa showed that she could fight on her feet and on the mat just as well as Tomoka could. Both sisters demonstrated their ability to emotionally engage with the audience with their acting, and it was a great introduction to them. For a match between a 23-years-old wrestler of 6 years and 421 total matches experience and an 18-years-old wrestler of 2 years and 265 total matches, this exceeded my expectations and is very much worth the viewer’s time.

The match and the show can be seen on NJPW World.

Next time: Part of the joy of following a young wrestler is to see their growth and development. We saw Rina earlier in the year when she faced Starlight Kid for the Wonder of Stardom title. Let’s check in on how Rina’s developed in the months since that match and how VENY has grown since she won the SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship from Sareee.