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Japan’s Low-Key Legend: Nanae Takahashi

By Bodyslam Staff

Japan’s Low-Key Legend: Nanae Takahashi

Written by Alex Richards
Photos by Masahiro Kubota

Joshi wrestling is a pretty difficult scene to really talk about. There’s no other style of wrestling that has had 3 mainstream peaks, two of which saw it become a cultural phenomenon, splintered off so badly that companies once running in Yokohama Arena were reduced to peaking in tiny venues, and then kickstarted a second wind during a pandemic. What’s particularly difficult to discuss is the impact of wrestlers caught between the end of the AJW/GAEA glory days and the recent renaissance of STARDOM.

Despite all that, I’m going to try and talk about Nanae Takahashi as she makes her retirement. Takahashi is a wrestler who came in at the tail end of AJW’s glory, holds the honour of being one of the last ever WWWA world champions, and is a co-founder of STARDOM, the company currently leading the revival of women’s wrestling within Japan.

A Spark in AJW

In 1997, AJW was nearing the end of its time as a major league promotion. The glory days were behind them, debt was piling up, and in the middle of the year they suffered a mass exodus as a number of big stars and their WORLD CHAMPION(!!) all left the promotion at the same time. What was left was an interesting collection of names. Manami Toyota stuck around, Yumiko Hotta, Tomoko Watanabe, and Kaoru Ito stuck it out and finally got pushed, but on the other end of the stick were the younger wrestlers, those who previously had no hopes of making their mark in a company boasting a roster as loaded as AJW’s.

One such beneficiary of AJW’s woes was Nanae Takahashi who had debuted in 1996. By 1997 she and Momoe Nakanishi won the second-string tag titles in the company but it didn’t take long for the young duo to be a spark in the dark for the company. By 1998 they were having some absolute wars with top teams, earmarking both Takahashi and Nakanishi as two of the best prospects in a company that desperately needed them. 

It wasn’t necessarily an easy task for either woman to walk into. Post-exodus AJW had no money, no stars, and sometimes had barely enough talent to fill out a show. Asking two young wrestlers to go out there on a show-to-show basis to help carry the promotion in longer matches against far more experienced names was pretty insane. Despite that, Takahashi and Nakanishi rose to the task and delivered.

The duo took a bit of a backseat in 1999, AJW focused a lot that year on their 35th anniversary celebrations and kickstarted their working arrangements with other groups again. But by 2000, Takahashi was legitimised when she and Momoe won the WWWA Tag Team Championship, defeating well-travelled veterans LCO to capture the titles.

Takahashi remained as one of the main event talents for AJW through the 2000’s until the promotion closed, she won the WWWA title shortly before it closed and won the title a second time from a retiring Kumiko Maekawa, effectively retiring the championship and cementing Nanae Takahashi as the last ever holder of one of the most prestigious women’s titles in history.

The Dark Ages
By the time AJW folded, the new biggest Joshi promotion GAEA Japan was also closing its doors. Takahashi and a number of other legendary names were sent into the ether without any full-time Joshi promotion making enough money to bring them all in. What followed was a period of being a journeywoman as Takahashi wrestled for a few promotions, won titles in Ice Ribbon, NEO, and JWP, held self-produced events as part of Passion Red with WWE’s Asuka and Natsuki Taiyo. 

While she was a protected and respected member of the scene there was nowhere for her to really settle down some roots and make an impact. She jumped around from project to project to try and find something that stuck but ultimately she, and many others, were left unfulfilled by the Joshi scene at the time. And then came an opportunity.

The World of Stardom

In 2011, Nanae Takahashi became one of the founding members of World Wonder Ring STARDOM, a promotion set up by former AJW employee/temporary booker and ARSION co-founder/booker Rossy Ogawa. The promotion at launch was a bunch of rookies, Takahashi, Taiyo, and Yuzuki Aikawa.

Nanae’s role in the formative years of STARDOM can’t really be denied. She provided them credibility, she was the final ever WWWA Champion. It was her that helped people accept a promotion entirely built on newcomers and a Gravure Model. Beyond that, she became the in-ring focus of the promotion and the first ever world champion. At a time when the entire roster was learning on the job, Ogawa and the fans could rely on Takahashi to produce the best match of the night.

After almost two years as world champion, Takahashi remained as a veteran presence for the roster and had successful teams with Kairi Hojo and Miho Wakizawa, the former of which helped launch Hojo into the upper card of the company.

Without Nanae’s presence and steady hand, who knows how STARDOM woud’ve fared early on, especially after 2013 when Yuzuki Aikawa retired. In particular, Takahashi put over Ogawa’s new chosen ace Io Shirai as part of her ascent to replace Aikawa as the focal point of the promotion, Nanae lost to Shirai at Korakuen Hall in an absolute war that went almost 30 minutes.

In 2015, the controversial incident involving Act Yasukawa and Yoshiko caused Takahashi to leave STARDOM. Ending her run with the promotion she helped to get off the ground and changing the landscape of Joshi at the time. But, Nanae was far from done.

A Seed Grows

Takahashi didn’t wait around too long and founded SEAdLINNNG in the same year she left STARDOM. The name is meant to convey a message, a Seed planted in the ring, the three N’s signifying waves that are helping the seed grow. It’s a message carried over to most of SEAd’s imagery.

It was in SEAd that Nanae really built her legacy for the modern fan. The promotion was a smaller indie but it was built around a small core of her, Arisa Nakajima, and Yoshiko, allowing the three to have standout matches on just about every show. In fact, Takahashi will likely be most remembered in retirement for her years-long feud with Arisa Nakajima that delivered some legendary matches and ended in an instant classic hair vs hair match.

On top of that, Takahashi had excellent outings with Yoshiko, Takumi Iroha, Rina Yamashita (in tags), VENY, and even had an incredible intergender match with Go Shiozaki that was STIFF as hell.

Her time in SEAd didn’t end well as a bad leg injury took her out of action for almost the entirety of 2020. Despite returning in 2021 and being part of some cool tag matches it was clear that the injury had done a number on her. She eventually announced her departure from SEAdLINNNG in late 2021 and didn’t appear much for a few months after and spend the rest of 2022 working pretty sparsely.

For a while, it looked like Nanae would retire at a low point. Age catching up on her, her body failing, nowhere to call home, and a lack of bookings appeared to be the precursor to a sad retirement for a one-time pivotal member of the Joshi scene…but that wasn’t to be the end for her.

STARDOM Return & Marigold

Takahashi was brought back to STARDOM part-time in 2022 initially as part of an ill-faited NEO STARDOM ARMY gimmick that died almost as fast as it appeared. After some OK performances she managed to refind form late in the year as part of the unlikely tag team 7Upp alongside Yuu. This team helped to reviatlise Takahashi’s career as she found her groove again and quickly got back to her best form.

Between tag work, a run with Yunamon and Yuu as 7Uppp, and the Passion Injection series with STARDOM’s energetic lower-to-midcard workers, she had found a real home for herself as the gatekeeper veteran to the roster. Somebody that could be used as a last test for a wrestler before they achieved greatness after being put through a battle with the veteran.

It really can’t be understated how quickly things turned around for Nanae. She went from a clearly hurt veteran who left her own promotion to one of the most consistently enjoyable parts of a STARDOM that was on the rise…but even then, that wasn’t the end of her story.

In early 2024, the Joshi world was shocked when Rossy Ogawa parted ways with STARDOM, eventually taking Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, Victoria Yuzuki, Mai Sakurai, MIRAI, and Nanae Takahashi with him to start Dream Star Fighting Marigold. From the very beginning, Takahashi was up front about her thoughts on retirement and over the past year we saw her step into the ring time and time again and leave her body on the line to help a new company find its footing in the Joshi scene (sound familiar?).

When Takahashi comes to the ring she is now greeted with a chorus of fans chanting “PASSION, PASSION, PASSION” because that is exactly what she brings to the table. Every match she had in Marigold was must-see because she was fighting against her own body as much as any opponent. This is an iconic figure making her last stand against incredible opponents like MIRAI, Hayashishita, Bozilla, and Sareee.

Her Dream Star GP run last year was fantastic, it’s all on Wrestle Universe and I’d implore you to watch it, then go and watch her World title match with Sareee. The match that ended up being a precursor to her retirement announcement. Watch some of her MG Passion Injection matches as she made ANOTHER brand new roster prove itself against the last ever WWWA World Champion.

What Takahashi has given us over the last year was an emphatic stamp on her career. Another last attempt to leave things a little better than she found them. She injected the roster with some passion, had some classics, and now she gets to ride into the sunset after a career spanning almost 30 years of greatness.

Ultimately, someone I know once awkwardly made the point that pro wrestling is meant to make you FEEL things. Over the course of her career, Takahashi mastered the art of making us as fans FEEL things. We felt the love she has for wrestling, we felt the fight she put into every match, we felt her fighting against her own body to prove she was still as tough as the new generation. 

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Bodyslam Staff
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