The VOW 30 Under 30 project was wrestling’s last, best hope to spotlight the 30 best wrestlers under the age of 30 around the world. A collective list many names long, drafted by wrestling fans around the world. A monument to wrestling history dating back to 2023. A shining beacon of hope all alone in the shadow of duopolies in a money fight.
This is the story of the latest 30 Under 30 list. The year is 2026. The name of the place is Voices of Wrestling.
Please see the last entry for my caveats for this list. Let’s continue to investigate some promising wrestlers from around the world. This column will cover:
- Rhio
- Kasai (aka Deadly Shot Kasai, DSK, and Donnie Zucco)
- Emman Azman (aka Emman The Kid and Emman Noorazam)
- JJ Furno
- Robbie Thorpe
- Jarvis
- Randy Chambers
- Koshiro Asakura
- Towa Iwasaki
- YuuRI
Rhio
Name: Rhio
Age: 29
Debut: 2016
# of matches as of writing: 469
Trainer(s): PCW Wrestling School
Promotion(s):
- Pro-Wrestling: EVE
- PROGRESS Wrestling
- Insane Championship Wrestling
Accomplishments:
- ICW World Heavyweight Champion (August 31, 2025 to present)
- 4th Rope Women’s Champion (August 28, 2025 to present)
- EVE Champion (November 7, 2025 to March 8, 2026)
- PROGRESS Women’s Champion (May 4, 2025 to October 26, 2025 and October 22, 2023 to December 29, 2024)
Match(es) watched:
- Rhio vs. Emersyn Jayne
- EVE 147: Bruised, Battered & Hungover
- April 10, 2026
- Cagematch rating as of 4/10/25: 7.41
- You can watch the match and the show on Pro-Wrestling: EVE’s YouTube page behind their membership gate.
- I will keep pointing it out until all companies adopt it. I really appreciated EVE’s on-screen countdown clock for its match.
- EVE 147: Bruised, Battered & Hungover
Glows:
- Rhio wrestled to her size and character very well. She felt powerful; she also felt cheeky and mean without accidentally becoming the face against her former tag team partner, Jayne.
- She sold for Jayne without showing weakness, which was a hard balance for most big and powerful wrestlers to strike.
- I appreciated the way she pressed down on Jayne’s shoulders to reinforce her pin attempt near the end of the match.
- Rhio’s big bombs (the one-armed muscle buster, package piledriver and punt kick) were appropriately devastating.
Grows:
- She couldn’t really keep my attention when she was on offense or defense. I felt like I had to force myself to pay attention to her match when I would have expected her to captivate me. I don’t think that the issue was Jayne.
Kasai
Name: Kasai (aka Deadly Shot Kasai, DSK, Donnie Zucco)
Age: ?
Debut: 2014
# of matches as of writing: 206
Trainer(s): Robbie Zucco
Promotion(s):
- Australian Wrestling Superstars
Accomplishments:
- AWS Tag Team Champion w/Fly Guy (October 12, 2024 to present)
Match(es) watched:
- Kasai vs. Bronson King
- PWF World Cup 2025
- November 1, 2025
- Cagematch rating as of 4/10/25: N/A
- You can watch the match and the show on Pacifica Wrestling Federation’s YouTube page.
- Since the match was a tournament match for PWF’s World Cup, there was a countdown timer on the screen by the entrance. Counting down from the match’s time limit in a visible way? What a concept!
- PWF World Cup 2025
Glows:
- Kasai wore a mask in this match, and his physical mannerisms were highly reminiscent of El Generico.
- In particular, his selling was suggestive of Generico’s. (Kasai’s mask covers his mouth, so the degree of difficulty would be even higher than Generico’s.)
- He sold out on his Irish whip on King into the corner, which gave it a feeling of intensity and violence.
- His tornado DDT looked great.
Grows:
- He and King were completely lost for a moment when King ran into him off the ropes.
- King hit him with a Manhattan drop, but Kasai pretended that his butt hurt.
- It looked like he tried to flip King over his head in a back body drop, but he failed to get King completely over him. So, King kind of fell off to the side of Kasai and landed on his shoulder.
- His springboard knee drop also looked like it missed King. We could charitably say that it hit King’s left shoulder, but that would be our good deed for the quarter.
- His control section was pretty unremarkable, though that was possibly by design since Kasai was aided by Ninja 1 and Ninja 2’s interference.
Emman Azman
Name: Emman Azman (aka Emman The Kid and Emman Noorazam)
Age: ?
Debut: 2018
# of matches as of writing: 142
Trainer(s): Carlo Cannon and Shaukat
Promotion(s):
- Malaysia Pro Wrestling
- SETUP Thailand Pro Wrestling
- Renegades of Wrestling
Accomplishments:
- SPW Southeast Asian Tag Team Champion w/The Statement (April 10, 2026 to present)
- IWA Japan SETUP World Tag Team Champion w/Shivam, Andrew Tang, and Jake De Leon (September 27, 2025 to November 14, 2025)
- ROW World Champion (April 21, 2024 to November 24, 2024)
Match(es) watched:
- Da Butcherman vs. Bryson Blade vs Emman Azman vs. Andrew Tang
- SPW Club Carnage
- January 31, 2026
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch this match on Singapore Pro Wrestling’s YouTube page.
- And wow, this commentator learned how to commentate from watching WWE. A ladder thrown by Da Butcherman at his opponents was “perfectly legal [Cole],” the introduction of weapons into the match was “shades of…New Jack,” and Azman was a “young superstar.” Somebody send some Georgia Championship Wrestling tapes to Singapore ASAP.
- Somehow, Da Butcherman would face Minoru Suzuki less than two weeks after this match at SPW King’s Landing.
- Singapore Pro Wrestling deserved some credit for their steady cameras and their split-screen and picture-in-picture technology.
Glows:
- Azman had a very charismatic personality. Here, he played a very annoying heel along with Tang as the Real Global Threat. Previously, in Renegades of Wrestling in Australia, he was a member of the Ambush, another heel faction. However, I could envision Azman flipping the charisma to play an effective face as well.
- Azman’s chops sounded and looked great.
- He was quite agile and did a very credible Chris Sabin impression throughout the match.
- His selling as a heel was the right level of theatrical.
- Overall, he moved really smoothly around the ring, as evidenced by his Destino.
Grows:
- From this match, I got no sense that he is unable to put these positive elements (his charisma, his theatrical selling) together in a coherent match. Because this match was a four-way plunder match, Azman was stuck in a walk and brawl for most of the match against Bryson Blade. The match was focused on building up Da Butcherman could get most of the attention ahead of his match against Suzuki. Azman and Tang teased some tension, but Azman overall wasn’t the focus. Since Azman has teamed with Ho Ho Lun, I would love to see Azman in a singles match against Lun and perhaps open the gate to something more.
JJ Furno
Name: JJ Furno
Age: 25
Debut: 2017
# of matches as of writing: 199
Trainer(s): PCW Academy
Promotion(s):
- Professional Championship Wrestling
- Renegades of Wrestling
Accomplishments:
- PCW National Champion (October 4, 2025 to present)
Match(es) watched:
- JJ Furno (c) vs. Jarvis
- PCW Christmas Chaos 2025
- December 6, 2025
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch this match and the show on Professional Championship Wrestling’s YouTube page.
Glows:
- It’s a cheap babyface antic, but Furno dragged Jarvis around the ring to start the match so that all of the children could slap Jarvis’s chest. Sometimes, the old ways are the best ways. In particular, the child in the Minecraft Chicken Jockey hoodie relished chopping Jarvis.
- He and Jarvis were very ambitious in their early rope-running sequence, and they were very energetic.
- He consistently climbed the ropes with speed and confidence, especially on his climb to set up for the crossbody splash. It made sense that Furno had a stint with DDT in early 2025.
- Launching off the middle rope to spear Jarvis was unique.
Grows:
- Understandably, Jarvis and Furno needed to catch their breath after their energetic exchange, but neither person took the moment to engage the crowd while they caught their breath.
- Overall, Furno’s strikes did not look good. In particular, the jabs to the chest and the elbow strike during his first comeback looked soft.
- Furno landed knees-first on his 450 splash. Since Furno was tall, that meant that it was very obvious that there wasn’t much impact on his opponent on the landing.
- At the end, the face-heel dynamics shifted in a weird way. After Jarvis broke Furno’s pin by putting his foot on the rope, Furno seemed to get frustrated and got in Jarvis’s face. Meanwhile, Jarvis stumbled to his feet and took some weak shots at Furno while Furno berated him. That then led to Jarvis finally hit his reverse roundhouse kick, only he unintentionally hit the referee. That allowed Jarvis to kick Furno in the groin and bash him in the head with the PCW National Championship belt. (Jarvis looked like he won the title when the referee finally roused after Jarvis hit a reverse roundhouse kick on Furno, but Santa Claus gifted everyone a Dusty finish and restarted the match.)
Robbie Thorpe
Name: Robbie Thorpe
Age: ?
Debut: 2018
# of matches as of writing: 112
Trainer(s): HUSTLE Wrestling UK, PCW Academy
Promotion(s):
- Melbourne City Wrestling
- SLAM! Pro Wrestling League
Accomplishments:
- SLAM! Tag Team Champion w/Vinnie Bronson (February 7, 2026 to present)
- MCW World Heavyweight Champion (December 7, 2025 to present)
Match(es) watched:
- Robbie Thorpe (c) vs. Jarvis
- MCW Anniversary 2026
- February 21, 2026
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch the match and the show on Melbourne City Wrestling’s YouTube Page.
- The Thornbury Theatre was a very pretty venue. The way the light projected a shape like a sunflower on the walls near the stage was beautiful.
Glows:
- At 6’6″, Thorpe had a solid physique.
- Moving his and Jarvis’s bodies around while he had Jarvis trapped in an armbar near the ropes to break Jarvis’s rope breaks was a creative sequence.
Grows:
- The vertical lines on the front of his tights really made the tights look like underpants.
- I discerned neither Thorpe’s personality nor what he particularly excelled at from this match. He’s tall, and he seemed to lean toward being a technician who could also bust out powerful bombs like a powerbomb. It all seemed like a scattering of points in a Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none build in an RPG.
Jarvis
Name: Jarvis
Age: ?
Debut: 2018
# of matches as of writing: 92
Trainer(s):
Promotion(s):
- Professional Championship Wrestling
- Renegades of Wrestling
- Melbourne City Wrestling
Accomplishments:
- ROW Tag Team Champion w/Murdoch (April 4, 2026 to present and January 25, 2024 to June 15, 2025)
Match(es) watched:
- JJ Furno (c) vs. Jarvis
- PCW Christmas Chaos 2025
- December 6, 2025
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch this match and the show on Professional Championship Wrestling’s YouTube page.
- Robbie Thorpe (c) vs. Jarvis
- MCW Anniversary 2026
- February 21, 2026
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch the match and the show on Melbourne City Wrestling’s YouTube Page.
Glows:
- After getting chopped by all of the children sitting ringside, Jarvis smartly took a moment to threaten all of them after he sent Furno back inside the ring.
- He and Furno were very ambitious in their early rope-running sequence, and they were very energetic.
- Jarvis was well-built and lean, and he looked professional. In the Furno match, he was bald, but he had a well-styled head of hair against Thorpe.
- His downward punches looked pretty good. The delayed Ushigoroshi against Thorpe looked devastating.
- Against Thorpe, Jarvis projected strong Sammy Guevara energy. He had the crowd mostly on his side this time, which was different than how it was in the Furno match. (I’m listing it as a Glow because that meant that one could project Jarvis as a wrestler in one of the industry’s leaders.)
- His headscissors on Thorpe looked much better than the headscissors he attempted on Furno.
- Hooking his arms and legs around Thorpe to thwart Thorpe’s powerslam was a very clever bit.
- His frogsplash elbow drop on Thorpe looked great, and his springboard Stunner on Thorpe looked much cleaner than it did against Furno.
- Given his limited experience, he seemed to have a really solid handle on his character’s personality and how to engage the crowd as both a face and a heel.
Grows:
- Jarvis’s and Furno’s rope-running sequence tried to incorporate a headscissors into a cartwheel counter, and it looked very awkward and clumsy.
- Understandably, Jarvis and Furno needed to catch their breaths after their energetic exchange, but neither person took the moment to engage the crowd while they caught their breaths.
- His shooting star press in the Furno match looked inelegant.
- The handstand springboard into a Stunner also looked messy. In general, he could consider abandoning the handstand springboard setup and just run at his opponent to maximize the attacks’ impact.
- His punches against Thorpe whiffed completely. (To be fair, there was a seven months’ difference between the matches.)
Randy Chambers
Name: Randy Chambers
Age: ?
Debut: 2023*
# of matches as of writing:
Trainer(s):
Promotion(s):
- SLAM! Pro Wrestling League
Accomplishments:
Match(es) watched:
- Luke Watts & Mike Quackenbush vs. Dan Archer & Randy Chambers
- SLAM!
- March 28, 2026
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch the match on SLAM! Pro Wrestling’s YouTube page.
- Dan Archer (c) vs. Randy Chambers
- SLAM! #23
- April 11, 2026
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch the match on SLAM! Pro Wrestling’s YouTube page.
- This might have been the most pleasant surprise I’ve watched in a long time.
*Randy Chambers does not have a profile on Cagematch. I deducted that he made his debut in 2023 from his interview with Barrett of UCFM.
Glows:
- He projected well as a white meat, honorable, sporting face in the tag match, particularly when he was paired with Quackenbush.
- Though he is a bit slim, the combination of his haircut, mustache, his monogrammed tights, and boots all made him look like a classic professional wrestler.
- His exaggerated sell on Quackenbush’s springboard DDT late in the match was the right level of absurdity.
- In both matches, he showed good agility on his flips out of the corner.
- He showed very good babyface fire in his singles match against Archer, particularly at the start, where he didn’t start the fight, but he made sure to retaliate ferociously after Archer instigated.
- Based on the reactions at the UC Refectory and Ainslie Football & Social Club, he had a solid connection with the crowd. He even kissed a child on the cheek after he won the match. (It really helped that Chambers was contrasted with Dan Archer, the mohawked, beefy heel champion. I mean, look at this German suplex.)
And then Archer followed that German suplex with this vertical suplex into a powerbomb.
Grows:
- His lariat on Luke Watts lacked impact, though the blame there might fall more on Watts than Chambers.
- His punches in the corner on Archer were passable, but they could be tighter and more impactful.
- I didn’t love that he played the stupid babyface. He clearly saw that the referee was down while he was setting up for his Buckshot Lariat, but he went for the pin anyway.
Koshiro Asakura
Name: Koshiro Asakura
Age: 28
Debut: 2025
# of matches as of writing: 70
Trainer(s): Animal Hamaguchi and BJW Dojo
Promotion:
- Big Japan Pro-Wrestling
Accomplishments:
Match(es) watched:
- Hideyoshi Kamitani (c) vs. Koshiro Asakura
- BJW Great Fool’s Day
- April 1, 2025
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: N/A
- You can watch the match and the show on BJW’s YouTube page with the BJW Core membership.
- It was a fine scrap between two beefy fellows.
Glows:
- The downward elbow strikes looked snug.
- His look (red singlet, red knee pads, red high socks) was visually striking.
- He showed good instincts for when to engage the crowd for a rookie in his 46th match.
- From his front dropkicks to his shoulder tackles, he showed good intensity and fire when he was on offense.
Grows:
- He seemed exhausted by the end of the match, and his kicking out of pins seemed very difficult.
- His pins could be more intense; in particular, his pin after the powerbomb off the turnbuckles was lackadaisical.
- Unfortunately, Asakura suffered a torn ACL and a meniscus injury at a BJW show on July 27, 2025, and BJW announced that they expected him to be out for a year.
Towa Iwasaki
Name: Towa Iwasaki
Age: 27
Debut: 2017
# of matches as of writing: 360
Trainer(s): Kohei Sato and Tatsuhito Takaiwa
Promotion(s):
- BURST Pro Wrestling
Accomplishments:
- NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champion (August 2, 2020 to November 3, 2020 with Tsugutaka Sato)
- ZERO1 United National Heavyweight Champion (March 10, 2019 to January 18, 2020)
Match(es) watched:
- Daichi Hashimoto (c) vs. Towa Iwasaki
- BJW Ikkitousen Strong Climb 2025 Final
- June 22, 2025
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: 6.38
- You can watch the match and the show on BJW’s YouTube page with the BJW Core membership.
- This might not have been Iwasaki’s best match (see Grows below), but it was arguably his most prominent singles match. Unfortunately, it was plodding and messy.
Glows:
- His elbow strikes had a pleasing snap.
- Iwasaki’s lariat looked meaty when it connected.
Grows:
- His combination of chinstrap beard, bleached blond hair, and white pants was not the best combination because it made his legs seem disproportionately short compared to his upper torso. The back of his pants looked like it had a poop chute.
- He seemed to get lost or was unsure of where to go when Hashimoto tried to send him into the ropes. Instead, he stumbled into the corner.
- He completely whiffed on his attempt at the big lariat, and Daichi Hashimoto fell over for it regardless. They repeated the sequence later.
YuuRI
Name: YuuRI
Age: 28
Debut: 2020
# of matches as of writing: 478
Trainer(s): N/A
Promotion(s):
- Ganbare Pro Wrestling
Accomplishments:
- ICExInfinity Champion (June 23, 2024 to October 19, 2024 and July 17, 2023 to August 26, 2023)
- International Ribbon Tag Team Champion (November 3, 2023 to December 31, 2023 with Ancham)
Match(es) watched:
- Sareee vs. YuuRI
- Ganbare Pro Before Sunrise 2025
- December 27, 2025
- Cagematch rating as of 4/1/26: n/a
- You can watch the match and the show on Wrestle Universe.
- It was a good sprint, and YuuRI kept up with Sareee nicely.
Glows:
- She stood toe to toe with Sareee and did not back down from Sareee’s physicality and ferocity.
- Her running elbow charge into Sareee in the corner had speed, force, and intent to harm behind it.
- Her bridging pin attempt sequence late in the match was very creative.
- Her nearest comp might be Suzu Suzuki.
Grows:
- Her kicks on a seated Sareee in the corner looked terrible. However, the boot scrapes looked better.
- Her thrust kick late in the match also looked really awkward. YuuRI couldn’t extend her leg smoothly for the kick.
- The rolling pin sequence near the end of the match was messy, though Sareee deserved some of the blame there.
With all that said, let’s update our list of wrestlers under the age of 30.
1. Miu Watanabe
2. Daiki Odashima
3. MIRAI
4. Saya Kamitani
5. Starlight Kid
6. JACKY KAMEI
7. Senka Akatsuki
8. Riiita
9. Dragon Dia
10. VENY
11. Miku Kanae
12. Hazuki
13. Konami
14. Saya Iida
15. Rina
16. Arisu Endo
17. Suzume
18. Kazuma Sumi
19. Mei Seira
20. Takeshi Masada
21. Chanyota
22. Jet Wei
23. Kodai Nazaki
24. Kaisei Takechi
25. SUZAKU
26. Aran Sano
27. Yutani
28. Kohei Kinoshita
29. Jarvis (*NEW*)
30. Randy Chambers (*NEW*)
Wrestlers considered but not ranked at this time: Junta Miyawaki, Jessica Troy, Kouga, Honori Hana, Cory Zero, JGU, Hollie Barlow, NORI, Chi Chi, Titus Alexander, Hanan, Peter Tihanyi, Zoltan, Spider Fly, Toxin, Kuro, Echika Miyabi, Shay Kassidy, Aysha, Joe Lando, Danny Black, Eli Theseus, Gabriel Aeros, Alexxis Falcon, Noisy Boy, Kasai, Emman Asman, Koshiro Asakura, Towa Iwasaki, JJ Furno, KANON, YuuRI, Rhio, Ricky Sosa
Next time: Everybody come to the greatest show. Invite everybody that you know. It’s time to head to the (dark) Carnival.
