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| Fare thee well Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Tomoka Nakagawa, the devilish joshi stalwart and current SHIMMER Tag Team Champion with Kellie Skater, has announced that she will retire after her final match at Korauken Hall on December 4. The announcement leaves her with six months left as an active performer. She debuted in 2005, and will retire just short of ten years in the business at the age of 33. No announcement has been made of whether she's retiring because she feels like it, or whether she's got a chronic illness or injury to attend to. Regardless, her retirement will leave a gaping hole in SHIMMER weekends after the October set of tapings.
Nakagawa is the second SHIMMER joshi mainstay to announce retirement in the last 18 months. Ayumi Kurihara famously retired last year after nagging injuries caught up with her. Unlike Kurihara, however, her announcement came with enough of an advance that she'll be able to make an entire SHIMMER weekend. It will also be interesting to see if she's allowed to retire with the SHIMMER Tag Championships or whether she'll go out putting over a new team along with Skater. Either way, the news is pretty sad. I hope Nakagawa is happy post-career, because she's given fans the world over a lot to be happy about during it.