DTC X: 1st Year Anniversary

May 21, 2025 was a very relative and normal day in my life. I was in my room doing something that I don't even remember. I was on social media and particularly on X/Twitter. As I was doom scrolling, I found out that STARDOM's most recent Korakuen Hall show will feature two debuting rookies. I decided to watch a YouTube video that feature these two ladies, and their names were Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa. Ema Maishima faced AZM while Kikyo Furusawa faced Hanan. These two put on such a good showing that I decided that I was going to write about them, and it led to the eventual SickosClub.com's article which I dubbed on here, Dynamic Thunder Connection 0. 

From that day, I decided to follow them as a fan of both of them to this day. Watching wrestlers who are developing is a completely different feeling to watching a pro wrestler who has already established themselves. The best example from a non-Puroresu lens is WWE's NXT brand from 2012 to the present day. As much as NXT has been best known as the 3rd Brand/Developmental to help skilled wrestlers to adapt to the WWE style, there are wrestlers who started their careers in NXT and are well loved like Bianca Belair, Kendal Grey, etc. The point is that if you were around when you saw the beginning of a wrestler's career, you get a sense of pride and joy when you see them achieve something big. 

The Start Of Something New

I remember starting my SickosClub journey, and I really felt like this really was the turning point in me writing my articles for them. When I was finished watching Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa, I decided that I was writing article for the website about them. It really was something that I never done with so much energy and effort into two people. Two people who I will probably never meet in my life. (Unless I save up and take a trip to Japan one day.)

I went down to searching through every single piece of information that I had at the time about them. This sounds a lot more stan account-ish of me now that I realized. Even today, I find out more about them and see myself rooting for their success. I even found about tentative names, which are names you have temporarily before gaining your official name when you becoming a professional wrestler. Their tentative names were; Mai Matsuda (Ema Maishima) and An Toyoshima (Kikyo Furusawa). Which is a lot to think about, but I think I got the point across.

I find out during their name reveal about both of their unique strengths. Ema Maishima's strength is dropkicks, which is funny looking back given that her moniker is Fly To The Blue Sky. And it feels like I really do more in terms of following these two

As I am following the careers of two people, naturally I am going to be committing double the effort as they will both have clearly different paths. Honestly, it wasn't difficult to follow their careers as they were both in the same company and their trajectories are vastly different to each in general. 

儛島エマ (Ema Maishima)

Ema Maishima is what I would like to call a more typical first year as a rookie in professional wrestling. She started off her career in a debut match against an established name on the roster. This is the usual start for a rookie's career in the world of 女子プロレス. Unlike HANAKO, who competed in a tag team match for her debut. To be fair, Aya Sakura and Komomo Minami had their debuts on the same night, so I understand why there was a probably a card shift. 

Ema Maishima would make her debut on the May 21st Korakuen Hall show in the first match against AZM, who was NJPW STRONG Women's Champion at that time. From there, loads of tag team fights would follow in terms of her getting reps for her development, but the losses would stay the same. Then on July 4th at NEW BLOOD 23, she would have her very first victory. Usually a first victory for a rookie would be a treated as a very big deal. However...

Ema's first victory is quite of a sad one. She would claim victory in a match against Rina. You might be thinking, "Why is that sad victory?" "It's a good thing." Well the win came under bad circumstances as Rina would suffer a concussion following an diving body attack from Ema. Rina was knocked out and Ema won by referee stoppage. I'm glad that Rina was okay following it, because getting a concussion has to really suck.

It does have a nice ending to things as these two would have a rematch at STARDOM's To The World show in September. It ended in a victory for Rina and they both shook hands afterwards. On October 1st, Ema would find herself in SENDAI Girls and entering the Jaja Uma Tournament. Unfortunately, she lost in the first round to Miku Kanae. In the middle of the October, she would team with Momo Watanabe in a victory against Saya Kamitani and Kikyo Furusawa. This was her first victory since the first Rina match. (I will touch on the singles stuff with Furusawa in a different section.)

In December, Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa would face SENJO's YUNA and Minami. YUNA would get the win for her by pinning Ema which led to a singles match 8 days later on Dec 26th. She would go on to the 10 minute time limit with YUNA. The 2025 year would end with Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa beating fellow rookies MAtoi Hamabe and Anne Kanaya. 2026 would be a bit rough as Ema was injured and missed the first three months of STARDOM's 2026 calendar year. 

She returned to the ring at NEW BLOOD 30. She would team with Matoi Hamabe and Anne Kanaya in a losing effort to STARS' Hanan, Saya Iida and Momo Kohgo. Ema Maishima would enter into the Rookie Of Stardom tournament along with 5 other rookies. She received a bye into the Semi Finals and ended up winning the entire tournament. She earned a Future Of Stardom title shot against current champion Ranna Yagami and was unsuccessful at All Star Grand Queendom. 

That is what I can write about Ema Maishima's career so far. Honestly given the next entry, it feels so night and day that it makes me sad. She has found her place in STARDOM's midcard and can be quite fun to watch if she ever enters the Speed Division. I just think it's a normal rookie year despite the two injuries that happened. 

古沢稀杏 (Kikyo Furusawa)

Kikyo Furusawa has had a year of pro wrestling with twists and turns. A popularity among the 2025 rookie class that can't be explained with words alone. For real though, I am completed by surprised by this run. Like it's one year since you debuted, how do you even pull that off? I feel like the year really kicked off with her first ever match in her professional career. (Also, I already went through the year when I made my solo focused DTC about her, but I only went brief.)

The first match of Kikyo Furusawa's career was against Hanan, who was a co-holder of the Goddesses Of Stardom Championship at the time. (Random Thought: I find it ironic that Hanan is now Wonder Of Stardom Champion and AZM is Goddesses Of Stardom Champion now.) This match really made people see the potential of Kikyo Furusawa. She did unique things in this and her technical style really had Hanan on the back burner. 

She was wrestling like she is Zack Sabre Jr, Xelhua or Kurt Angle with the way she was targeting Hanan's leg. That cartwheel headscissors shocked me when I first watched it and rewinding to see if my eyes have deceived me. Reversing a Boston Crab into a Victory Roll and trapping her in an Octupus stretch into another pin attempt. Hanan would get the win by breaking Kikyo in the Boston Crab and it was only up from there.

After two failed singles encounters with Momo Kohgo and Natsuko Tora, tag team matches and losses would follow suit. Her first victory would come within the mist of the 5STAR Grand Prix. On August 1st, Kikyo Furusawa teamed up with Cosmic Angels' Aya Sakura to defeat Akira Kurogane and Ema Maishima. There would be singles match with Tomoka Inaba in JTO which ended in a loss. Even though Kikyo's match catalogue has been consisting of tag team and singles losses with the occasional tag win here and there, there are key matches that really pushed Kikyo higher.

The first of these key matches starts against Saori Anou. Saoru Anou has quite a lot of decorative achievements in Joshi Wrestling. In STARDOM, she is a former 2-Time Goddesses Of Stardom Champion, a 3-Time Artist Of Stardom Champion and 2-Time Wonder Of Stardom Champion. Anou was also in contention for the World Of Stardom Champion at the time, so it was good test for Kikyo Furusawa. Kikyo Furusawa would later face Saya Kamitani on the first night of Goddesses Of Stardom Tag League. She would end her 2025 teaming with Ema Maishima to beat Matoi Hamabe and Anne Kanaya.

Kikyo would have a 50/50 start to kickoff in 2026 which includes teaming with AEW's Alex Windsor. The losses would keep following her in tag team matches whilst teaming different factions. I don't know whether to dub this a fun fact or sad fact, but she also wrestled in one of Bozilla's last matches before the Biggest European Powerhouse's injury. 

January 18th in Osaka would be a monumental change for Furusawa as she started teaming up with Maki Itoh. I already went through this in my Kikyo Furusawa focused article, but all and all, they team together as Itoh Respect Gundan (it was initially Itoh as they are both fighting for their individual singles gold in STARDOM currently.

January 31st is another key fight and possibly the most beneficial match in her career so far against one of the best wrestlers today, Sareee. It also a bout that happened by circumstances. Originally, Kikyo was meant to team with Mi Vida Loca to face E neXus V and it was Lady C who was meant to face Sareee. Lady C couldn't compete due to an illness, which resulted in a card change and Kikyo taking Lady C's place. She lost against The Sun God, but it was only up from there.

Following performances against Starlight Kid and Hina, Kikyo Furusawa would be part of this year's Cinderella Tournament. She would be eliminated in the first round by her master, Maki Itoh in a really good match. She would be part of Sareee's big 15th Anniversary show in 10 minute limit draw against SEAdLINNNG rookie Selene Misora. She entered this year's Rookie Of Stardom Tournament and ended up finishing Runner-Up behind the winner Ema Maishima.

That is all I have to say about Kikyo Furusawa's 1st year as a professional wrestler. Talk about a crazy year to be one. I was surprised by the caliber of names she got to face in singles matches. I think the Sareee match really showed how the company values her as part of the next generation of stars. 

I have now done both of their first years. Honestly, I kind of noticed the differences. But like I said, this is really just a night and day across the scenes. However, there is one more section to touch on and that is...

Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa - Style Collisions

Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa have teamed up together and were on opposites sides of the ring in tag team matches. However, these two have fought each other in singles action 4 times so far. The first three were in 2025 which I like to call the NEW BLOOD trilogy and the 4th one came in 2026. 

The first singles match they had was on October 4th at NEW BLOOD 30. I went into detail about this match in my second article about them. There was no winner as it ended in a 10 minute time limit draw. 

The seecond match came from the following NEW BLOOD show, NEW BLOOD 25. This had the same 10 minute time limit. But this had different results. Ema Maishima submitted Kikyo Furusawa with a Single Leg Crab to win in 7 minutes and 22 seconds.

The third match following that was on the following NEW BLOOD, NEW BLOOD 26. This is where Kikyo Furusawa would get her first singles victory here. She submitted Ema Maishima by using the Navarro Death Roll, which is a submission she uses rarely.

The most recent singles match they had was in the Rookie Of STAROM Tournament on April 11th. This had a unique contrast in comparison to the last three. These two were not the same from October 2025. They have improved a lot and got new moves in their arsenal. Ema Maishima would surprise Kikyo Furusawa with a specialized rollup to win the Rookie Of Stardom Tournament.

[Record: 2 - 1 - 1 Ema Maishima]

Post: I never thought that time who move so fast again, but life has to go on. Writing about these two can be quite funny to look back on. I was just a dude who didn't know what to think about for an article idea. Now, it's been 10 of these pieces. 

Happy 1st Year to Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa and hope you have a good day. And I hope you all have a good one. PEACE.

Kind Regards,

ZERO (or Archer)