I thought I’d try to capitalize some on the GLOW hype train that’s been happening since that show’s release. Sadly, as far as I know there was never a GLOW video game. So I went with the next best thing, a joshi* video game!

*- Joshi is a japanese female wrestler. Joshi just being japanese for girl/woman. So a Joshi wrestler is a girl wrestles, but most people just say Joshi.

Fire Pro is a revered wrestling game series that has plenty of entries, it’s 29th main line entry will be coming out on Steam and PS4 sometime in 2017. The game I’m highlighting today was the 12th entry in the series and the 3rd game officially licensed by AJW(All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling) who’s logo can be seen in the middle of the ring for all the matches. It was released in 1995 for the Super Famicom in Japan.





Roster :

Aja Kong : A dominate woman’s performer who worked in AJW in the late 80′s through the late 90′s. Once the 2000′s rolled around she would shift over to Oz Academy which is a popular company ran by Mayumi Ozaki. Notable worked in WWF briefly where she was the sole survivor for her team and eliminated everyone on the opposing team. She was going to be built as a contender for the women’s title at the following Royal Rumble, before the title holder Alundra Blayze was fired.

Bison Kimura : Less notable, Bison Kimura worked with AJW from 1990 to 1997. She didn’t work as much as many women on this roster, having less than 100 matches under her belt according to cagematch.net. For comparison Aja Kong has more than 100 matches in some years of her career.

Bolshoi Kid : Is notably a long term talent for JWP(Japanese Women Pro-Wrestling Project). She started there in 1993 and would venture away for a few years from 2000-2005. She has worked mostly there in the last decade and has had matches in the promotion even in 2017.

Candy Okutsu : Wrestled from 1993 to 2000. Most notably early in her career she was a worker for JWP, which is a common thread for this list of wrestlers. The bigger stars of JWP’s early days were Mayumi Ozaki and Cutie Suzuki.

Combat Toyoda : Combat Toyoda is as legit a fighter as you’ll likely find even in Joshi circles(which are known for their workrate). Combat didn’t work in JWP or AJW much, instead cutting her teeth in the FMW(Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling). Which was a promotion know for it’s hardcore matches, they even had crossovers with ECW in the 90′s. Combat Toyoda retired in 1996 except for 2 one off matches after that. She has since changed careers and works as a restaurateur.

Chapari Asari : I couldn’t find much about her. She had a brief career(I’d assume) and was one of Aja Kong’s 2 ever opponents on WWF Raw where Aja broke her nose.

Edit: Chapari Asari was a groundbreaking high flyer. Her biggest contribution being inventing the Sky Twister Press(corkscrew moonsault). Her main years of activity were 1993 through 2000. And she was a part timer from 2001 through 2004. Her main companies were All Japan Women’s and Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion. She also did a few tours of Mexico for CMLL in the mid 90’s. She held the WWWA Super Light Heavyweight Title twice, and the Sky High Of ARSION Champion once. (Credit to reddit /u/Xalazi for contributing this information)

Cutie Suzuki : One of the breakout stars for JWP she worked more matches for them in 1994 than anyone else. She also barely worked in AJW a whopping 6 matches in her career. She was fairly popular and even got a game of her own in 1990. She would retire from wrestling in 1998. I’m not certain what she has been up to in the 2 decades since, though she did wrestle once in 2013 for Oz Academy.

Devil Masami : #2 for 1994 matches in JWP Devil Masami was a big talent for them. She had a career that spanned 3 decades from 1978-2008. She was mostly a JWP talent until the 2000′s rolled around when she like many other talents moved over to Oz Academy where she wrestled mostly until she retired. She also held the very short lived WCW Women’s championship… despite never wrestling in a WCW ring.

Dynamite Kansai : Another talent of this game who’s more well known as a JWP talent. Holding the JWP Openweight title for over 1,000 days over 2 reigns. Like many people on this list 2000′s came around and she moved over to Oz Academy where she still wrestler regularly today.

Eagle Sawai : Worked mostly for Ladies Legends Pro Wrestling-X(LLPW-X), which is still open today. However, he most active years were 93-94 and 97-98 and retired in 2007.

Etsuko Mita : Was an AJW mainstay for most of the 90′s, but took a lighter schedule in the 2000′s. While she did work for Oz Academy not as much as many on this list did… more 1 off matches here and there. She ended her career in 2009 working in both NEO Ladies and Ice Ribbon the last few years of her career.

Harley Saito : Another person who worked mostly for LLPW-X. Working their until her retirement in 2012. After wrestling she went into food management, but sadly is one of the few people who have passed on this list. She died in 2016 just a few weeks shy of her 49th birthday. The cause of death being esophageal cancer which she had learned about a year prior and had been getting treatment for.

Hikari Fukuoka : Another great talent who is known more for her work in JWP than AJW. Hikari worked through all of the 90′s before retiring in 1999, though she’s had 2 comeback matches in 2017. One of her most famous matches being a 1993 AJW vs JWP match vs Manami Toyota.

Jaguar Yokota : A pioneer of modern women’s wrestling, Jaguar had her debut at the age of 15 in 1977 and would hold her first title before she was even 20. She has retired twice, but is now an active wrestler again. Her first very young retirement at age 24 saw her stay with AJW as a trainer where he students would include : Manami Toyota, Toshiyo Yamada, Megumi Kudo, Kyoko Inoue, and Takako Inoue. Without Jaguar the joshi boom in the 90′s likely would have never happened and neither would this game. Since 2012 she regularly wrestlers for World Women Pro Wrestling Diana.

Kyoko Inoue : A student of the last entry Kyoko debutted in 1988 and for most of the 90′s would work in AJW. She would be in many 5* matches in the 90′s and come the late 90′s she would found her own promotion : NEO Ladies, which would prosper for about a decade before going defunct in 2010, Kyoko didn’t let that discourage her as she founded another company shortly after where she still wrestles called World Women Pro Wrestling Diana. (Is also noted as being the first female to hold a male title in Japan, but I don’t know how true/reliable that info is)

Lioness Asuka : Often forgot about Lioness is a talent that had success in the 80′s and carried over into the 90′s being a talent for AJW most of that time. In the 80′s she had mainstream success with her tag partner Chigusa Nagayo together known as, The Crush Gals. She retired in 2005, but had a single comeback match in 2013 in World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana.

Manami Toyota : by any measure the biggest star for AJW both at the time of this game, but also in general. Toyota was a rockstar and considered one of the best wrestlers bar none, not just among the females. She works a lighter schedule these days mostly for Oz Academy, though because of her larger than life reputation she has worked at many promotions since 2010 rolled around though she announced she will be retiring in 2017 on November 4th.

Mayumi Ozaki : Another Joshi Megastar Ozaki never worked as big of a schedule as Manami Toyota at her peak. Manami wrestled over 140 matches in her peak years compared to Ozaki’s biggest year of 69 matches. Mayumi Ozaki though of course created Oz Academy one of the premier Joshi promotions that’s been running since 1998. It helped fill the vacuum that AJW left when it shut down in 2005.

Mayumi Ozaski has ventured into writing over the years and has 3 different books : ‘ Ringside detective Maya Kitsurugi, a female professional wrestler(mystery)’ in 2014, Rogue - life as a baddie in 2003 and A heel - hard and strong in 1990. She also had a manga she wrote in 1992 as a follow up to her first book called ‘Text for Heels’.

Megumi Kudo : FMW makes it’s way back onto this list via the innovator of the Kudo Driver. She was known for having hardcore matches in FMW who made her the top star there. She wrestled from 1990 to 1997 always under the FMW banner. FMW also had a rough schedule with Kudo wrestling 120+ most years of her career. The only promotion that had more matches a year was AJW. Megumi has not been in the ring since her retirement 20 years ago and likely won’t come back… but many other long retired joshi’s have returned for a one off. So never say never.

Mima Shimoda : One of the few talents here who was a big star exclusively for AJW at the time of this game’s release. Shimoda worked almost as much as Toyota but wasn’t as recognized or praised. In the early 2000′s she was basically retired before making a resurgence in CMLL, where she would work for the next 5 or 6 years, before making her way to previously mentioned Joshi promotion Diana where she still works to this day.

Noriyo Tateno : Much like the above Lioness, Noriyo is someone who had success in the 80′s that’s forgotten in the huge boom that Joshi had in the mid 90′s. In fact, Noriyo was rivals with Lioness and also a big tag team star. With her partner Itsuki Yamazaki, known together as ‘The Jumping Bomb Angels’. They were the only survivors in the first ever female Survivor Series match and briefly held the WWF Women’s Tag team titles in 1988.From 1992 til her retirement in 2010 she primarily worked for Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling, before that she was an AJW talent.

Plum Mariko : Was a promising young star in JWP, who’s career was tragically cut short after unchecked head injuries lead to a brain abscess. She died in 1997 and both AJW and Oz Academy have held memorial shows in her honor. She was also posthumously inducted into the All Japan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1998.

Rumi Kazama : I can’t actually find much on Rumi, she had a pretty meager career and retired in 2003 with some appearances here and there since. She mostly worked in LLPW-X and Wrestle Association-R(WAR) who had a working relationship with one another doing crossover shows and the like.





Shinobu Kandori : LLPW-X wrestler who had a MOTYC hardcore match in 1997 vs Kudo who is mentioned above. She worked a few dates for AJW, but was a LLPW-X wrestler and became it’s president in 2002 and has since had scattered appearances, but never more than a half dozen in a year.

Suzuka Minami : A staple of the AJW Joshi boom in 93 and 94, she wrestled mostly for AJW(Though had a few matches in CMLL in ‘92). She basically walked away from the business in 1995 when AJW hit a road bump and hasn’t been back since.

Takako Inoue : Another AJW star that would work there through the 90′s, then switch to Oz Academy like so many others in the 2000′s. She still wrestles sporadically for various Joshi Promotions.

Toshiyo Yamada : Another AJW star Toshiyo’s biggest claim to fame is probably being tag team partner and champion with Manami Toyota who was the huge star of the promotion during it’s hottest time. Toshiyo also was in a great hair vs hair match vs Toyota that played into their tag team success. Being both partners and rivals.

Yasha Kurenai : Had a brief career in the 90′s working mostly for LLPW-X, has been retired since 1999 with a guest appearance otherwise has stayed retired.

Yumiko Hotta : like many Puroresu workers Yumiko focused on MMA and blended that into her wrestling. She was loyal to AJW until 2002 after which she was a freelancer for many joshi companies most recently in 2017 she has worked with Actwres girl'Z and is still active though she has never worked as heavy of a schedule as she did with AJW in the mid 90′s.





Kaoru Ito : worked heavily in the AJW Joshi boom, took it very light in the 2000′s until 2011 when she joined DIANA and became a regular there since.

The rest I’ll put up, but couldn’t put faces to the names : Mari Yoshida, Saki Hasegawa, KADRU, Cooga, and Bomber Hiru. If you know who these people are please feel free to fill me in and I’ll give them the same treatment as the rest of the roster.

Gameplay Review : It’s fun! If you like fire pro wrestling, which I do. This isn’t the best one, that at this point is Fire Pro Returns. The reason to play this game is being all the Joshi talent. Fire Pro Returns have some joshi talent, but it’s not the focus like it is here.

There are 5 modes : Challenge for the Red Belt(Story/Career), One night match(Exhibition), Battle Royal(Normal, Endless and Teams), Elimination match(premade teams), and Tournament match.

Also, has an Edit Wrestler and Options Menu.

If you’ve only played Fire Pro Returns or have never played the series, I think most will be surprised how good a wrestling game can be on the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo. This is one of 8 Fire Pro games that landed on that system and I’d say they are all pretty great. This plays much like the rest and works pretty well, even if falling out of the ring can feel excessive at times.

If you can find your hands on a copy, I’d recommend checking it out. Really though I’ve enjoyed all the fire pro games and can’t wait for the next installment. Until then, maybe I’ll keep playing some of the classics in this long running series.