Before entering the ring Thursday night in Miami Beach, Ichigo Sayaka spent six hours in hair and make up. A flurry of stylists buzzed around her, braiding long pink extensions into pigtails and touching up her bubble gum pink makeup to match her bright pink sailor uniform.
Sayaka is one of the top stars in the Japanese women’s pro-wrestling show Sukeban.
The showcase of fashion, choreographed fighting and intricate storytelling attracted hundreds of people for the league’s championship match at the Miami Beach Bandshell.
The two-hour extravaganza included three wrestling matches, live music and a set from Japanese Yo-Yo masters. It ended with a match for the Sukeban championship title between wrestlers Sayaka and Atomic Banshee.
”I wanna carry everyone’s effort into each fight that I do at Sukeban and make them happy,” Sayaka told WLRN through a translator.
Her character is named “Ichigo” which means “strawberry” in Japanese and she is part of the Harajuku Stars, one of the clubs that fight in Sukeban.
As the storyline tells it, five girl gangs in Japan fight it out for the championship title.
Ozeylah Maral/BFA.com/Ozeylah Maral/BFA.com
Harajuku Stars: Maya Mamushi, Ichigo Sayaka, Saki Bimi, Babyface.
There’s the Harajuku Stars who wear sailor uniforms inspired by the anime Sailor Moon’s characters, the Vandals — the outlaws of the show, the Dangerous Liaisons who are a royal family of villains, the Cherry Bomb Girls who are from Shibuya and inspired by 1990s hip-hop, the Tokyo Toys who are abandoned toys from the Nakano Broadway shopping mall in Japan, and a stray cat.
“We were very inspired by the movie The Warriors and kind of wanted to integrate Japanese culture into it and do a version that was a mix of that, Japanese subcultures and wrestling,” said Sukeban co-founder and creative director, Olympia Le-Tan.
As a fashion designer with her own brand, Le-Tan said she stumbled upon Japanese women’s pro wrestling, known as Joshi puroresu, almost by accident. Her brother-in-law and co-founder Alex Detrick introduced her to the spectacle and they decided to create their own interpretation of the shows where the focus would be on the look of the wrestlers as much as on the choreographed fighting.
“When I saw the shows in Japan, I thought the athletes, the wrestlers were incredible, but the production quality was not up to their standards,” she said. “ They do their own makeup, they do their own hair, and so we wanted to sort of bring them over here and treat them like the superstars that they are and transform it.”
Le-Tan designs the costumes worn by the wrestlers, but they also have professional makeup artists, hair stylists and nail artists. Every wrestler dons a striking look based on their character’s story — the Vandals wear dark clothes and goth-inspired makeup, the Harajuku Stars have colorful eyeshadow and pom-pom nails, the Tokyo Toys have anything from a ragdoll hair and dress to a jack-in-the-box clown costume.
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Queen of Hearts during a match at the Sukeban show in Miami Beach on Dec. 3, 2025.
Sherrilyn Cabrera / WLRN
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Ichigo Sayaka and Atomic Banshee faced off in the Sukeban championship match at the Miami Beach Bandshell on Dec. 3, 2025.
Sherrilyn Cabrera / WLRN
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Wrestler Otaku-chan from the Vandals.
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Atomic Banshee fights to keep the championship title at Sukeban in Miami Beach on Dec. 3, 2025.
Sherrilyn Cabrera / WLRN
Aside from the colorful getups, the performers also had their own anime introduction videos that played on a screen behind the wrestling ring.
Although the matches are choreographed and performed, rather than being a real fight, the shows still draw in fans like 20-year-old Alex Lopez, who’s been a long-time fan of Japanese pro wrestling.
“Guys always ask me like, ‘Why do you watch this if it’s fake?’ It’s theater, it’s performance, it’s fun.” he said. “As soon as you let that suspended disbelief take it over, you’re gonna have so much fun at the event.”
Lopez said he has attended multiple Art Basel events and was pleasantly surprised to see that a niche interest like Sukeban made its way to Miami.
“ I think Art Basel does showcase anything interesting artistically, and I think wrestling is an art form in itself. It’s anything art, and it’s trying to widen Miami to various things.” he said.
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The same artistic aspect of the show also attracted showgoers like Genesis Vargas. She found out about the event through social media while looking for drawing reference pictures of wrestling jumps.
Vargas used to do mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so she feels a connection to the wrestlers. One of her personal favorites is Atomic Banshee, she said.
“ I love to see how they express themselves and especially their characters and how they bring it up on stage,” she said. “I think that would definitely inspire me and my art to be more true to myself or maybe just have an alter ego that I can just live through.”
After performances from Yo-Yo masters and JT, a former member of the hip-hop duo City Girls, the grand finale of the championship match came along.
Sayaka, who faced former Sukeban champion Atomic Banshee, loves to feed off the crowd’s energy. It’s what she enjoys most.
“ You know when you have that feeling that maybe you might lose, but you hear the audiences chanting your name and you get that energy from them and you actually conquer and win the fight?” she said. “It’s a very happy feeling for me.”
Which is exactly how the final fight ended, with Sayaka having a last-second comeback and beating Atomic, earning herself the Sukeban championship belt.
AloJapan.com