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Command Bolshoi Announces Retirement

In an announcement dropped during PURE-J’s anniversary show on Sunday, founder and booker of the promotion, Command Bolshoi has decided to retire. After seventeen years in the business, Bolshoi’s revelation would come in the moments following her matchup against Arisa Nakajima. The two competitors fought to until hitting the match’s fifteen-minute mark, resulting in a draw. Bolshoi has stated that her final matchup will take place at Korakuen Hall on April 21, 2019, and her decision comes as a result of an intractable disease, Ossification of the Yellow Ligament (OYL). According to a rough translation, Bolshoi had an operation done back in November of 2011 as a result of the disease, which causes numbness and weakness within a person’s lower limbs, while compressing their spinal cord. She’s since been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which is caused by OYL.

Known throughout her career under multiple aliases, most notably “Bolshoi Kid,” Bolshoi made her in-ring debut almost twenty-seven years ago back in November of 1991 for JWP Joshi Purorseu’s predecessor, Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling. She would remain with the promotion until its official closure in April of 2017 and acted as it’s final president. Despite her allegiance to JWP, Bolshoi is a former REINA-CMLL International Champion, a belt she captured back in July 2013 by beating her longtime tag team partner, Leon for it in Tokyo.

She’s also a former two-time JWP Openweight Champion and a seven-time JWP Tag Team Champion, which she held one final time back in Janaury 2017 when she and Leon bested Hanako Nakamori and Kyoko Kimura for the belts. The titles would be retired upon JWP’s closure that April and officially separated from the Daily Sports Women’s Tag Team Titles (unified back in August 2008), with Bolshoi and Leon carrying over their current over into PURE-J. Bolshoi is mostly recognized for her work in CHIKARA, where she competed in the 2012 King Of Trios alongside Tsubasa Kuragaki and Kaori Yoneyama. Ahead of her announcement being made, Bolshoi has been added to some upcoming dates in Europe for promotions like Pro Wrestling: EVE and Over The Top Wrestling.

Information gathered via PURE-J ©