Part 1 – The Tale of the Three Tails
Triple Tails – A beginners guide
Triple Tails, the short-lived but fierce and successful three woman faction from the early 2010s has become a sort of gray area for many newer fans of Joshi wrestling. The stable, which has gained fame in recent years within the IWC, has also very recently been name-dropped by Michael Cole on commentary during during WWE’s PPV Fastlane on October 7th 2023, in the match between WWE Women’s Champion IYO SKY, Asuka and Charlotte Flair.
Each one of the members of Triple Tails has had an immense career, multiple championships and has a claim to their own legacy and success, along with certain notoriety in their time competing. However, what about them as a stable? Who were they, what did they do, and why were they so short-lived? In this Article, I plan to cover the lifespan and story of the Triple Tails faction, in all their glory.
The Background and Beginnings
Triple Tails consists of three prominent Joshi wrestlers, Kana, Io Shirai and Mio Shirai. The first wrestlers involved with Triple Tails are the two sisters, Io Shirai, now known as IYO SKY, and her sister Mio Shirai. These two were fresh and starting their lives in the Joshi world, originally beginning within the Joshi freelance scene, both of them debuting together in 2007, teaming together often within Team Makehan, a stable made up of wrestlers trained by Tomohiko Hashimoto. At the turn of the 2000s, they were competing in promotions like Ice Ribbon, WAVE, AJPW and more.
June 19, 2010. The two sisters form the stable of Triple Tails, alongside Kana, now known as Asuka in the WWE. The Shirais were already a formed tag team, and had been for 3 years now, since their debut. They were only a little successful, being 1x TLW Young Women’s Tag Team Champions (despite the name, this was a title of Pro Wrestling WAVE). Kana, their other member, had made her wrestling debut in 2004, and had drifted around the freelance scene until 2006, briefly retiring for a year and a half due to an illness. She returned in late 2007 to wrestle in many promotions, notably JWP, NEO and Ice Ribbon, and by 2010, she had been a 1x NEO Tag Team Champion, alongside Nanae Takahashi, in the stable, Passion Red, which she departed from in January 2010.
Returning to June 19, the Shirai sisters formed the stable of Triple Tails with fellow freelancer Kana, and in an interview with DDS Magazine, Kana recalled that “it was formed due to sympathy for each other. The secret to our success is that each of us is capable of working on our own as well. That is very important. We are wrestlers that do not have to depend on each other” – She also said that they all shared a common characteristic, being very stylish and fashionable, and in Kana’s words “The keyword “fashionable” is the most important part”.
In their first match as a trio together, they defeated the team of Ayumi Kurihara, Hikaru Shida and Yoshiko Tamura, three women who each would have future history with, at a NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling event. Sadly for us as fans in the 2020s, most of their trios years were either not taped at all, has been lost to time, or is not available for public viewing, so seeing early matches of Kana, Mio and Io together is something many of us will struggle to find. However, using the archive.org website, YouTube and various sources, I did manage to find a few of their matches as a trio, including the aforementioned debut match – You can see “The BCube Review” of all the matches I can find in my Triple Tails Special: October Legacy Review – Coming early November.
The Trio of Triple Tails – 2010-2011
Despite the popularity of the Trio of Kana, Io Shirai and Mio Shirai, they were only active from June 19, 2010, to September 18, 2011, where the group had its final appearance together before Io Shirai pursued a singles career in the new company in Joshi Wrestling, Stardom.
Anyway, back to their run when they were all under the same faction. Their trio debut match and subsequent victory over Hikaru Shida, Ayumi Kurihara and Yoshiko Tamura on the 19th June would mean that this new team was already in line for a title shot, as Kurihara and Tamura were the NEO Tag Team Champions, the team that defeated Kana and Nanae Takahashi (Red Passion) for the titles the previous December. Triple Tails would go on to claim victory in their first 3 matches together, but this would be questioned when it came to their NEO Tag Team title match. This match is very well known within the Joshi community, as it really showed how brutal and murderous Kana could be, due to the leg injury that Kurihara sustained in the match and how Kana was relentless with attacking it, it did seem like Triple Tails were going to claim gold in just their 4th match.
The match, however, would not go Triple Tails’ way (represented only by Kana and Io Shirai) and they would not end up capturing their first tag team gold together, and thus this was their first loss as a team, despite not wrestling as a trio. This specific match is one which features on the article “BCubes 3 Personal Classics”, so be sure to read about that. Throughout their entire run as a 3 woman faction, Triple Tails would have 27 matches together in the 15-month period they were a faction, with an impressive win rate of 22:5 – A very strong ratio for such a short-lived faction.
Triple Tails would return as a trio in August 2010 – Performing at a ‘Triple Tails Independent Performance’ show in a two out of three falls match against Tokyo Gurentai, this show wasn’t exactly a produce show, but the Triple Tails did feature in the main event, and in which they would lose to the opposing team 2-1 falls, but they quickly returned to their victorious selves only a week later, beating the team of Asami Kawasaki, Hikaru Shida & Nagisa Nozaki at NEO Tropical Night 2010
Mexico and the Shirais (October-November 2010)
In October 2010, Io and Mio Shirai would both make their way from Japan to Mexico, training with the IWRG (International Wrestling Revolution Group), who had a working relationship with AAA, and so both would make their way to AAA and would wrestle together on October 31st, being repackaged with new names and gimmicks. Originally, Mio made her AAA debut 13 days previously and was using the name Kitzune Nanako, before later being repackaged as Kaguya when she wrestled with Io, who debuted as Oyuki. Both would make their entrances under Cat-like Masks, as pictured above, and then discard them before they wrestled.
During their tenure in AAA, Io and Mio became associated with the faction La Legión Extranjera – Meaning ‘The Foreign Legion’ – and would wrestle alongside them, at one point, after defeating the team of Faby and Mari Apache, they would steal the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship and AAA Reina de Reinas Championship, all a part of a storyline with the Legion. The sisters would wrestle their last match in AAA in this period on November 22, defeating the Apaches as a part of their storyline. However, this being their last match, they would not continue that story, and it was quickly dropped as both Io and Mio returned to Japan after their short excursion.
The Sisters Return to Japan (December 2010)
Pro Wrestling WAVE:
Probably the most notable period for the Triple Tails trio was their tenure in WAVE, as the majority of their matches together and storylines took place within this promotion. During the Shirais’ time in Mexico, Kana had been wrestling in various promotions around Japan, such as WAVE, SMASH, Osaka-Pro and NEO. Kana would also go on to win the WAVE Tag Team Title with Ayumi Kurihara after a short tournament which they dominated to become the inaugural champions. Now back with her 2 stablemates, they made their trios WAVE debut on December 19th 2010, winning their first match as a trio in WAVE in the main event, at the same time as Kana still holding one half of the tag team titles with Kurihara. Their next 2 matches in WAVE would be a time-limit draw on WAVE’s Happy New Year event, and a victory on their weekly show, and both of these would carry the trio well into not just their first produce show of 2011, happening in February, but one story which would define the trio’s legacy.
The SMASH Invasion – Triple Tails and Tajiri
The preface to Triple Tails Invasion – Kana’s Presence in SMASH
Kana had a long history in SMASH, a promotion owned and ran by Mazakasu Sakai with Yoshihiro Tajiri (WWE/ECW/WCW Alumni) in a management position, which featured a mix of wrestling, MMA and Kickboxing. Kana debuted in the promotion at the Smash.4 show, no longer after its inception in 2010, becoming one of the top heels in not just that promotion, but all of Joshi wrestling.
Within her time there, the ‘Kana manifesto’ was published, an infamous article in the Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazine where Kana herself attacked the entire community of Joshi wrestling, calling out many wrestlers ‘bad attitudes’. She wrote about how the wrestling scene had an unrealistic manner and found herself largely disillusioned and disgusted by the Joshi scene, which she found overly stylized and more focused on how the women looked than the product itself, something she felt needed to change and to become more shoot-style, which is how Kana wrestled.
Within SMASH, after the publication of her manifesto, she found herself face to face with many JWP Wrestlers who were angered at her comments and opinions, confronting her on what she had said. Within SMASH, Kana is most known for her feud and series of matches with with Syuri, who beat Kana in the main event of Smash.4, Kana’s debut. Kana herself stated “This was my best fight. Even though I lost”.
Kana felt that Syuri “envied” her, and Kana herself found Syuri very likeable, despite the differences and hostility between them in their matches. The post-manifesto era Kana, alongside her antics in SMASH even before the arrival of Triple Tails, cemented Kana as a top heel in the entire Joshi world. Her final match before her 2 brethren made their entrance to the promotion was against Tajiri, on December 24, where she lost to Tajiri, and thus set the mood for what was to come in 2011.
Triple Tails Make Their Arrival
January 29th – Triple Tails arrive in SMASH, On this day, The Triple Tails trio debuted after the match of Yusuke Kodama and Makoto, attacking them in a post-match beat down before they were chased out by Tajiri himself. This invasion story would develop further at Smash.14 on the 25th of February, where we would see the first show that the Shirais would wrestle on in SMASH, and the sisters alongside Kana would end up defeating Ken Ohka, Tajiri and Yoshiaki Yago in a trios tag intergender match.
Triple Tails continued to commit random acts of terror in the promotion, starting by calling it an “American wannabe trash” company, and continued by attacking wrestlers and causing havoc around matches. One of their key moments was when the trio jumped both Tajiri and Kodoma, his ace and young star of SMASH, and they choked them unconscious with a rope post-match, they then threatened to castrate Tajiri, but made sure to let him know they would only do it if his balls weren’t too small to find, a heinous act of defamation against Tajiri
Their next match as a trio would be at Smash.16 on the 30th of April, against the team of Serena Deeb, Syuri and Makoto, all people who wanted to get back at the Triple Tails. Deeb said that she planned to “teach the Diva and SHIMMER Style” to Syuri and Makoto, after her return from American Wresting. It also served to develop the story between Kana and Serena, after the time when Deeb had disrespected Kana at the start of April, calling her just an amateur wrestler in the scheme of things, especially in comparison to Serena, who had wrestled in the WWE. Deeb had just returned to Japan, and this trios match was her 2nd match back in Japan.
These comments from Deeb deeply angered Kana, someone who in her manifesto was passionate and felt strongly about the state of Joshi wrestling, and being called “just an amateur” drove Kana to vow to Serena that she would bow and pay respect to her. Their first in-ring encounter in this story would be the Triple Tails trio match, in which the Triple Tails would lose to Serena’s team, Kana being pinned by Serena. Not long after this match, at Smash.17 on the 3rd of May, Kana would lose again to Serena, this time in singles competition.
However, Kana would not let this be what defined her relationship in the ring against Serena, or what would become of her legacy and reputation, and continued the Triple Tails invasion of SMASH in the SMASH Diva Title tournament, a tournament that would crown the first ever champion. Kana first defeated Lin Byron, then went on to win against Syuri, adding on to their history as opponents, and finally, at Smash.21 on the 8th of September 2011, Kana managed to fight hard enough to put herself over her enemy of Serena Deeb and thus became the inaugural champion, beating Serena in the final of the tournament to become the first ever SMASH Diva’s Champion, reminding all of how good she was, how she was not just an amateur as Deeb claimed, and putting Triple Tails on top.
The Final Months of the Trio
Osaka Pro, Oz Academy and WAVE – March – August 2011
In the last stretch of their period of their careers together as a Trio, from March to September, all 3 members were successful working as a team, working incredibly hard for a very high win rate along with having strong, successful solo careers at the time as well. For each member of the Triple Tails, 2011 was a good year, Kana won tournaments, earned multiple titles and had some top-quality matches. Io signed with Stardom along with Mio winning her first singles title, each member had success and a legacy which was already worth something.
In March 2011, the trio of Triple Tails would have a short but undefeated series of matches in Osaka Pro, in the Osaka Pro Spring Samba series, a short trios exhibition, winning all three of their matches in the tour. After this small stint in Osaka Pro, they continued their spring with the second Solo Triple Tails produce show. Their first Produce show, back in February 2011, saw Kana face off against Meiko Satomura for the second time, the first at a Kana Produce show in 2010. This rematch is a legendary battle between two killers in their prime, throwing nothing but stiff shots and grabbing holds and submissions wherever possible, a match which is rated very highly, up there on both women’s match collection. This produce show, entitled ‘Triple Tails Produce Tanuki Birthday’ saw the Triple Tails trio take on the team of Syuri, AKINO and Kagetsu, whom they defeat. As the summer came, the Triple Tails racked up win after win in Pro Wrestling WAVE, being victorious in five straight matches in the promotion from June into August.
Triple Tails Final Shows
However, on July 23rd, Triple Tails held a press conference to announce the group’s 3rd Produce Show, which was scheduled for September 18th 2011, and following this show, they would no longer be performing as a trio, due to Io Shirai moving on to pursue a singles career, which we now know was the beginning of her path to fame, in Stardom, at the time in 2011 a new promotion, but now the most famous and most viewed Joshi promotion in 2023. Shirai would debut in Stardom on August 14th 2011, still billed as a freelancer and performing at freelance shows, but would officially join the roster after the third and final Triple Tails Produce Show.
The day after that press conference, Kana as a solo performer went on to achieve more singles success, defeating Ayumi Kurihara (who she would team with in October to become the inaugural WAVE Tag Team Champions) to win the 2011 Catch the WAVE tournament, a very prestigious tournament in the promotion, which was the top prize in the promotion until 2013, as the promotion had no singles title until March 2013, when the Regina di Wave title was debuted and won by Yumi Ohka.
This tournament acted as the top prize for singles wrestlers at the time of Kana’s victory, especially as it entered her into the tournament which would begin in late 2012 for the Regina di Wave title, and as of 2023, winners of the Catch the WAVE tournament include the likes of Takumi Iroha, Hikaru Shida, Suzu Suzuki and many other stars. On August 3rd, a few weeks after the press conference of Io’s move to singles competition, it was reported and then publicized that Kana would be making her wrestling debut in the United States of America in October 2011, a place she was steadily growing famous in with the #TeamKana. She was specifically going to be wrestling for the SHIMMER promotion, the place that Serena Deeb had made her home before coming to Japan.
Triple Tail’s final show came at a peak for the trio. Io Shirai was departing for good to spearhead the biggest change in the Joshi wrestling scene for the next few years, becoming what many regard as the best wrestler in the world during her time in Stardom. Kana was heading to the USA to find more competition and fame alongside her illustrious career in Japan as a singles and tag team champion, eventually heading to NXT in 2014. Mio Shirai was becoming a very prominent singles wrestler, having a great feud with male wrestler Ken Ohka for the SGP Global Junior Heavyweight Championship.
The End of the Trio
The end of this article has now come, and it has come with the end of the Triple Tails Trio. We find ourselves at the Triple Tails third Produce Show, September 18th, 2011, Shin-kiba 1st Ring, Tokyo. The Trio of Kana, Io Shirai and Mio Shirai faced off against DASH Chisako, Ryo Mizunami and Sendai Sachiko in the main event of their last produce show as a trio. The Triple Tails are victorious in this match, but it’s unable to be watched by us, so despite being able to watch their first ever match together, we will never see their last, nor can we see many of their matches during their time as a team, a shame for all of us as fans of this sport, as these 3 certified stars can only be seen together in a handful of matches, so to those who saw them in-person during this incredible year as a team, they are lucky to have seen some of the greatest to do it all together, and we will never be able to get to see these 3 in a prime like they were during the years of 2010 to 2011, a truly special trio.
Coming Soon… Part 2!
In the next edition of this article series, I will be going into the aftermath of the end of the trip and the formation of Triple Tails.S, the duo of Mio Shirai and Kana, who stayed together as a tag team after the departure of Io Shirai. I will not only be covering their time together until 2014, and the other members who joined the faction which was once the trio of the Triple Tails, but also the recent re-emergence of Kana and Io together in the WWE, and the hinting of a possible re-union…
So stay tuned for Part 2 of the Legend of the Shirai Dynasty, because there’s always more to learn!
About Author
