These Japanese wrestlers throw down in latex and glitter

Miami (CNN) — With a swift kick to her opponent’s face, wrestler Atomic Banshee began to dominate the final fight of the evening on a humid evening in Miami Beach. The match was part of the world championship of Sukeban, the all-female Japanese wrestling league, and the defending champion, wearing studded black attire, horns, and ghostly white makeup, was scrapping with Ichigo Sayaka in a bubblegum sailor dress.

Sayaka rolled out of the ring and into the media pit, with Banshee in pursuit. Photographers and reporters (myself included) cleared out of the way as Banshee grabbed her challenger’s head and twin pink braids and slammed her into the metal barrier.

In the lead up to the showdown, the crowd had been chanting other competing wrestlers’ names all night — Crush Yuu! Crush Yuu! and Stray Cat! Stray Cat! — gasping and cheering as the women performed backbreaking body slams and dramatic airborne finishers. Now they watched as Sakaya fought back against Banshee, both out of and in the ring, eventually grabbing her by the horns to drive her face-first into the ring’s springy floor.

Two years ago, Sukeban exploded onto the scene with fighters in latex, corsets and bomber jackets, throwing down with full makeup, wigs and acrylic nail art. The league takes its name from Tokyo’s rebellious girl gangs of the 1960s and 1970s, and as such, they are organized as rival groups in the ring: the Harajuku Stars, Cherry Bomb Girls, and Dangerous Liaisons, to name a few. They often fight together, two-on-two in the ring, or offering their allies help with a well-placed kick from the sidelines.

A cross between sport, fashion and theater, Sukeban was co-founded by the British designer Olympia Le-Tan, along with her brother-in-law Alex Detrick and wrestler Ian Fried. You may have heard of the league if you’ve attended a major art fair or anime convention recently. They tend to host their sold-out matches during major cultural events, such as Art Basel Miami Beach, drawing in the art or fashion set along with wrestling fans.

In 2023, Sukeban hosted one of its first fights in Miami during the same buzzy art week, but in a skate park beneath the Interstate 95 highway.

“It felt quite ‘Warriors,’” Le-Tan said in a phone call, referencing the 1979 film, which follows clashing New York street gangs. “It was raw and gritty.” In the early matches, there was no music, nor a focus on celebrity cameos — though Japanese actor and radio DJ Kunichi Nomura joined up with them early to MC the matches. The event earlier this month came complete with thumping music, a live performance by Miami-based rapper JT, and appearances by “Drag Race” alum Violet Chachki and Gottmik, who joined in on two of the fights. (Serendipitously, the pair were already wearing glittering and cinched wrestling-inspired looks while traveling for their “Knockout” tour).

“We’ve evolved and we’ve learned,” Le-Tan said of their matches.

In many countries, she noted, women’s leagues are secondary to men’s, but that’s not the case in Japan, where the high-flying, theatrical joshi puroresu (professional women’s wrestling) saw a boom in the 1990s, transforming from a niche sport into a massive pop culture phenomenon that has continued to influence international wrestling today. Le-Tan and her partners were interested in bringing a league to Western audiences — Sukeban is headquartered out of New York, while the wrestlers are Tokyo-based.

Pro wrestling has always mixed flamboyance and might — and fashion, certainly, in a campy, spandex kind of way. But Sukeban intentionally plays that aspect up. Though its wrestlers have long histories in other pro leagues (Atomic Banshee, whose real name is Ram Kaicho, has been wrestling for 20 years, for instance), each of their Sukeban personas is exclusive to the league, conceptualized by Le-Tan based on their personalities and fighting styles. Their commissioner is the legendary, now retired Japanese wrestler Bull Nakano, who helped scout their full roster.

Backstage in Miami, the wrestlers were quiet as they went through hours of hair and makeup and ate dinner before final touchups, snapping into character when their looks were complete and the cameras were on. Stray Cat, in full black latex, mimed licking her paws. Delirious Dolly held up her doll doppelganger, eyes wide. Maya Mamushi — one of Sayaka’s Harajuku Stars teammates — put her hands on her hips to film a clip for CNN, and, with blue braids whipping around, unleashed a roundhouse kick inches from our photojournalist’s face.

In trailers behind the Miami Beach Bandshell, where the fight took place, esteemed makeup artist Romero Jennings applied red hearts around the eyes of Queen of Hearts, while celebrity-favorite nail artist Mei Kawajiri buffed the nails of Crush Yuu before applying an acrylic set of sculpted miniature sweet treats like waffles and donuts to her tiny canvases.

“I definitely make them shorter and shorter every time,” Kawajiri said of the nail sets, laughing.

“To me, this is almost like fashion week,” Jennings explained. As MAC Cosmetics’ global director of makeup he is a mainstay during Paris and New York Fashion Week, as well as the Met Gala. “It’s about doing these detailed looks in a very short amount of time, and the wrestlers are gonna sweat and perform. It’s fashion week for wrestling.”

Le-Tan sees the cast as an evolving set of characters, collaborating with the wrestlers on how their looks and personalities develop over time. During hair and makeup, Atomic Banshee said via translator: “Even I’m excited to see how I turn out tonight.”

Banshee added that her message to Sayaka, seated a few chairs down, was to “Watch your neck and be prepared.” But her reign as champion would soon end. Two hours later, Sayaka unleashed her final finishing move and was victorious. She climbed the corner pole to cheers, then accepted the Marc Newson-designed championship belt, as her fellow Harajuku Stars in flouncy color-coded dresses barreled out to join her.

Video by Jacqui Palumbo, Carlos Martinelli, Max Burnell, Angelica Pursley

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