Updated November 2022

For wrestling fans who discovered any form of Puroresu in the 20th century, Joshi or male-driven, the only way to see the shows without physically traveling to Japan was by trading or buying imported tapes recorded from Japanese TV or commercially sold in Japan.

Thankfully, with the advent of online video-on-demand streaming platforms, most of the Japanese promotions can now be viewed directly. This not only allows western fans to support the companies and their wrestlers in a more direct way, but it also allows fans to watch shows with a much shorter delay as many shows are either available live or with a short delay of less than a week.

Where to watch STARDOM online

World Wondering Ring STARDOM, currently the largest Joshi Wrestling promotion in the world, is owned by Bushiroad, the same parent company as New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) but maintains a separate streaming platform of its own.

The official streaming service for STARDOM can be found at Stardom World (stardom-world.com).

Monthly fee: 970¥ (approximately equivalent to $6 US) | Accepts US Credit and Debit cards (see below if it gets rejected)

GOT AN ERROR DURING SIGNUP? If you have attempted to sign up using an American (or other non-Japanese) credit or debit card, and you received an error, be sure to check that you entered the expiration date as YY/MM (year before month, not month/year as we usually enter it on American websites.)

NOTE: As with most Japanese streaming platforms, the fee is charged on the first of the month regardless of when the customer signed up. So if you would like to save a month of fees, it would be advantageous to sign up near the beginning of a calendar month.

PPV shows: Stardom World presently does not offer live streams. Major pay-per-view (PPV) shows do become available on Stardom World, typically within 3 to 5 days. However, if you prefer to watch a PPV show live, they are sold separately on PIA but do not include English subtitles for interviews and mic work. Otherwise, it's a short wait to see it on Stardom World within less than a week with the English subtitles added.

For English speakers: The Stardom World website has Google Translate integrated so you can choose English at the top of the site to see most of the pertinent text in English. As for the content itself, there are a few shows posted with English language commentary (you can find them by searching for "English" using the search feature on the website. The majority of shows are posted with either Japanese commentary or no commentary at all and with English subtitles for when wrestlers speak before and after matches. Many of the smaller shows, which are equivalent to unaired "house shows" in the US, have no commentary but still usually have English subtitles for when the wrestlers speak on the mic.

As of 2022, approximately 30% of the subscribers of Stardom World are from outside of Japan. As the English-speaking viewership continues to grow, we can expect the service to expand the ways it caters to English-speaking fans.

Where to watch Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW) online

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW) is the second-largest women's pro wrestling organization at present. TJPW is owned by CyberFight, the same parent company as the men's promotions, DDT and Pro Wrestling NOAH.

The official streaming service for TJPW (as well as DDT and NOAH) can be found at Wrestle Universe (wrestle-universe.com).

Monthly fee: 900¥ (approximately equivalent to $6 US) - 2 week free trial available, accepts PayPal as well as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express

For English speakers: English commentary tracks can be chosen from within the same video stream, so you can switch back and forth between English and Japanese

Wrestle Universe was originally launched as DDT Universe. Now that three promotions are under the CyberFight umbrella, the company has put a lot of effort into relaunching their streaming service with modernized features and integrating all three of their organizations into it as Wrestle Universe. They also launched an app for Android and iOS phones and tablets.

PPV shows: Unlike most other promotions in both Japan and the US, TJPW handles pay-per-view differently. Many of their larger shows are offered free on Wrestle Universe. Their PPV shows are generally smaller and sold separately in order to stream live.

Where to watch Ice Ribbon / OZ Academy / Sendai Girls / Pro Wrestling WAVE / Pure-J / Gatoh Move / SEAdLINNNG

Most of the smaller Joshi Wrestling promotions today can be streamed on Nico Pro (ch.nicovideo.jp/nicopro).

Monthly fee: 550¥ (approximately equivalent to $4 US)

NOTE: Nico Pro exists within the NicoNico website. (NicoNico itself offers a premium membership but you DO NOT need NicoNico premium in order to watch the wrestling content on Nico Pro.)

For English speakers: Nico Pro is not as easy to navigate for English-speaking fans as the major promotions' platforms but you can use Google Chrome to access the site and auto-translate menus to English. There are currently no English commentary tracks available for these promotions. Nico Pro has made smaller Joshi Wrestling promotions far more accessible to fans around the world when compared to the past when importing tapes was the only option, but does not cater to international fans the way that the larger companies are able to.

PPV shows: For most of these promotions, pay-per-view shows are sold separately.

For any companies not listed here or older defunct promotions, you can generally find some matches posted for free on YouTube or other websites. Active promotions tend to strongly enforce their copyright on such websites, especially as streaming services are becoming a growing part of the company revenues of larger organizations.