There is a tale so grand and so inspiring that, should you encounter it, it will change you forever.
It takes place not in an epic world of fantasy or unreal illusion. It doesn’t even take place between the usual ropes of a professional wrestling ring.
This story occurred in a small place. A place of comfort; a chocolate quare. The Ichigaya Chocolate Square, to be exact. It’s a small building with no turnbuckles, no ropes, nothing. Just a chocolate square for wrestlers to tell their stories on.
Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling is the wrestling promotion that runs their shows in this base of operations. Run by Emi Sakura, this is where the magic happens. The legend has done it all, from explosions and barb-wire to traditional joshi wrestling in Japan, she’s been there. If you’ve been around the joshi scene, you’ll likely have heard of Ice Ribbon, a promotion she herself had founded. She’s even been on full display on AEW Dark and Dark: Elevation, as well as the occasional American independent shows. But this is her main home. It’s where competition and sport thrive as the snack of the day when chocolate just doesn’t do, and is it ever-so delectable.
The hero of this story isn’t Emi Sakura, however (though she features a small part). It isn’t even some of the other members of the roster, such as Mei Suruga, Minoru Fujita, Baliyan Akki, or Chie Koishikawa.
This is the personal and inspiring legend of a freelance writer turned professional wrestler, Lulu Pencil.
Was she any good? No. Absolutely not. But she found herself in the art of combat. Her gear was not a singlet, trunks, or pants. Just a white shirt, pink overalls, and a pink hat. Oh, and some pencils too. It is of the utmost importance you remember that – she is a writer after all.
In her matches, she would damage herself more than she would her opponents. If so much as the wind blew, it would knock her down and she would be pinned for the three count. Just like that.
You’d think that would be the laughingstock, having a jobber come in again and again with a big personality, but no, that was not to be. There was an aura around her that caused people to join her. So began the force that was the Pencil Army.
The soldiers under Lulu’s authority were people who were already established, and given the last name of pencil. Minoru Pencil, Emi Pencil, etc. They believed in her, that she was a wrestler at heart.
Most roads are paved with good intentions, and this was no exception. The Pencil Army was to push Lulu to greatness because they could see it in her.
Sometimes, however, there needs to be a roadblock, or a critic.
Enter Chris Brookes.
A British independent sensation, Brookes was a growing star. Rather than end up in most places that could spotlight him more and more for the great wrestler that he is, he took his talents to some of the smaller places in Japan. DDT and Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling (Choco-Pro for short), specifically.
Inevitably, he would clash with the Pencil Army. In September, 2020, a match was booked on the weekly episodic ChocoPro series, with his DDT Universal Championship and Lulu’s pink hat both on the line. Humoring this rookie, Brookes stood, the indomitable giant against a small woman.
With ease, Brookes had won the bout, yet something had sparked in him. He saw greatness in a small package – someone who hadn’t believed in herself. Perhaps he could be that change? Perhaps he could join the Army and aid her rise to greatness?
The two would team up, with him inspired and her dedicated to getting better. Yet, as the matches wore on, he noticed something peculiar. The unintentional betrayal that was building up as much as their wins were. Chris Brookes had been doing all the heavy lifting. This was not the legacy he wanted to leave behind in the chocolate square. Not by a long shot.
The thing about Lulu, as it is with many of us, is failing to see the potential that boils inside when the lid is left on to simmer. And when she had a purpose to fight for, she gave it her all, even if it wasn’t enough.
On another episode of ChocoPro, a rematch between the two had been set. This was a tag team ‘I Quit’ match. Yuna Mizumori stood in Chris’s corner, and Emi Pencil in Lulu’s. The writer did not last long, as she was stretched to uncomfortable degrees in an Octopus Hold. Yet, she did not say the words ‘I Quit’. Either by instinct or by her stubborn will to live, she tapped but did not vocalize her surrender. Chris stretched her regardless, contorting her into a realm of hurt, trying to unlock the wrestler inside of her.
Emi couldn’t take anymore, and she threw in the proverbial towel to save her partner. To have a legend in your corner to say ‘enough is enough’ and a star in your other corner who believes in you and wants to draw out that inner power, a fork in the road was presented to Lulu. Which idealized version of yourself do you become? The one who does things for fun, or the one who does it because greatness is within grasp?
Chris saw that there was more to the tapping instead of declaring ‘I Quit’, and gave her back the pink hat, and became a dedicated member of the Pencil Army by wearing a pink hat and overalls of his own. He even dyed his hair pink.
However, good things seldom last eternally. During an eight-man tag match, Chris Brookes carried the match and was inches – inches – from victory until she tapped while in a hold from Chie Koshikawa, as he was trapped in another hold and watched it all unfold.
After all the growth, of fighting in her name and seeing that she would refuse to submit to him, only to tap out to someone else infuriated him. How insulting, how absolutely flaming this slap to the face was, was immeasurable. This was not the Lulu Pencil’s fire he saw before. It was not a wrestler, but a writer, and a writer just would not do.
Chris Brookes spat in the name of the Pencil Army, tearing up his hat as he did so, breaking Lulu’s heart. In the time to follow, Brookes would have his own allies invade and go to war with the Pencil Army.
This war would sharpen this Pencil, in spite of the attempts of Chris to erase everything. With toughness that had not been seen in her before, the wrestler was starting to crack the egg and emerge from the shell.
Nowhere was this more evident than when she jumped from the window of the chocolate shop and threw caution to the wind and landed full-force on Chris. To put context as to why this was huge, she was always so timid, so afraid of sacrificing her own body to win a wrestling match. That fear and doubt that bottles up so tightly that you just can’t help but stall and hamper what could be something big.
In July of 2021, this newfound grit and mettle was put to the test in an Iron Man Match that was set to thirty whole minutes.
Anything Lulu would throw at Brookes was not enough. Not even the hardcore lessons she learned from Minoru Fujita of the Pencil Army. Chris was using her skills she learned against her. He used the environment against her. Hell, he even used the fans in attendance against her, actually slamming them on her horizontal body. Real ‘I’ll beat a motherfucker with another motherfucker” energy.
To rub salt into the wound of an already agonized Lulu Pencil, he began to snap some of her favorite tools – pencils. All while cruelly declaring she was a loser and not a professional wrestler, just a measly writer (hey, screw you, guy!). This was it, the build-up to the emergence. The Pencil herself, Lulu Pencil snapped as well, and she snapped a pencil of her own, stabbing Chris in the knee with it. This match saw her take the war outside, using him to break the shutters and the shutters to break Chris.
This determination was welcomed, but met with even more force. Chris took her down again and again, bringing the Iron Man score to 3-0. Worse still, is the match was almost over. Time was running out. Still, there was no quit in Lulu Pencil on this day. None whatsoever. With a flash-pin, she got her one-and-only successful pin on her own.
The match was finally over. Though the match awarded the score in Chris Brookes’s favor, he was not the true winner today. Not in his eyes or anyone else’s. Finally, Lulu Pencil did what she could not before and became a professional wrestler. With a hurt head and tears flowing, she was a wrestler.
And Chris Brookes, the once hardened and rough wrestler was softened into a friend who wasn’t afraid to have fun.
And…that was it.
Currently, Lulu Pencil hasn’t been seen in the wrestling world since November of 2021, not since her brief appearances in AEW, notably on the Dark shows. In that short span of time, she won everyone over in the United States as she did back home in Japan. I remember myself having been charmed by her, not yet having seen her story in Ichigaya Chocolate Square.
Eddie Kingston, the rough and gruff man from Yonkers would be hyped up to see her in matches. CM Punk wore a Pencil Army Hat. There was even a memorable skit on Being the Elite, spoofing the hit South Korean Netflix series, Squid Games, where she remained one of the final contestants.
No matter where she went, there was a constant truth. Everyone loved her. They still do. There’s a spot in professional wrestling for her to return, should she decide it is time to come back.
Sure, this wasn’t a story of monumental proportions. It was a comfortable, cozy tale of one finding self-worth and believing in themselves. A story that we all need, and a message that deserves to ring until the heat death of the universe.
I myself have been in this position of constantly doubting myself. That damn imposter syndrome. Despite so many people in my corner, people who have done more than I have and come from many exciting avenues as content creators, I stand as a previous nobody who took his lowly writing skills and was surprised at how well-received his words would be. As a writer, I identify with her. And we should all take solace in stories like Lulu’s; when we doubt ourselves the most, we must erase that fear and scribe out our own destiny.
While I wanted to share the epic story of Lulu Pencil for everyone who missed out on it and the great product that is Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling, I want to dedicate this to everyone in my corner that wants to see me succeed. I’ll never stop being in your corner, and I thank you for being in mine.
With that, I implore you on joining me in becoming members of the Pencil Army, in Lulu’s name.
