Shuu Shibutani

Kana Shibutani (渋谷 佳奈) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler better known by the ring name Shuu Shibutani (渋谷 シュウ).

Having started her career in the JDStar promotion in September 2004, Shibutani remained with the promotion until it folded in July 2007, after which she affiliated herself with Pro Wrestling Wave.

She made her in-ring debut under the ring name Shuu Shibutani on September 19, 2004, facing Akino at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo.

Shibutani won her first title before the end of the year, when she and Athtress training partner Fuka defeated Gami and Drake Morimatsu for the TWF World Tag Team Championship on December 5.

They, however, lost the title back to Gami and Morimatsu later that same day.

Early on in her career, Shibutani earned praise for her talent and was put in a high-profile role, effectively replacing the injured Yumi Ohka.

While working regularly for JDStar, she also made several appearances for the Ibuki promotion.

From April to June 2006, Shibutani took part in the first ever League Princess tournament, but was eliminated from her round-robin, following a loss to Fuka in her final match on June 18.

She was however recognized as having the best match of the tournament with Ayumi Kurihara.

By late 2006, Shibutani had established herself as one of JDStar's top wrestlers, starting a storyline rivalry with the villainous Caribbean Gundan stable of Caribbean Kim, Caribbean Moon and Caribbean Rum.

The rivalry culminated on March 21, 2007, in a six-woman elimination tag team match, where "Team Shin-Kiba" of Shibutani, Cherry and Yuri Urai defeated Caribbean Gundan with Shibutani scoring the last elimination over Kim.

Two months later, JDStar announced that the promotion would be folding after the July 16 event.

At the final event, Shibutani first teamed with Misaki Ohata in a tag team match, where they were defeated by Fuka and Jaguar Yokota.

Later in the event, she won a multi-person battle royal, the last match ever put together by JDStar.

On August 26, 2007, Shibutani worked the first ever event held by Pro Wrestling Wave, a promotion founded by Gami and JDStar alum Yumi Ohka, losing to Kaoru in a singles match.

During the next months, Shibutani continued working both beside and against Kaoru and, on September 25, picked up her first win in Wave, when the two defeated Command Bolshoi and Dark Mask Bolshoi, the masked alter ego of Gami, in a tag team match.

Five days later, Shibutani and Misaki Ohata defeated Arisa Nakajima and Cherry in Shibutani's final Wave match before going on a learning excursion to Mexico.

Shibutani returned from Mexico on December 31, 2007, to take part in JWP Joshi Puroresu's 5th Junior All Star event, where she, Asuka Ohki and Cherry defeated Kana, Misaki Ohata and Tomoka Nakagawa in a six-woman tag team match, with Shibutani pinning Ohata for the win.

Four days later, Shibutani returned to Wave, when she teamed with Kaoru in a tag team match, where they were defeated by Bullfight Sora and noki-A.

During the rest of the year, Shibutani began teaming regularly with Kana.

On March 28, Shibutani made her debut for the Ice Ribbon promotion, teaming with Riho in a tag team match, where they defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Makoto.

During the first three months of 2008, she also made regular appearances for the NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling promotion.

For her first sixteen months in Wave, Shibutani was officially a freelancer, but on January 4, 2009, the promotion announced that she had signed a contract to become an official member of its roster.

Also in January, Shibutani formed a new partnership with Ayumi Kurihara.

In March, Shibutani and Kurihara entered the TLW (Totally Lethal Wrestling) World Young Women's Tag Team Championship, defeating Hanako Kobayashi and Misaki Ohata in their first round match on March 20, before being eliminated in their semifinal match by Moeka Haruhi and Tomoka Nakagawa on March 25.

From June to July, Shibutani took part in the first ever Catch the Wave tournament, where she finished with one draw and two losses, failing to advance from her round-robin block.

On September 21, Shibutani won the Young Oh!

Oh!

tournament, defeating Mio Shirai and Ryo Mizunami in a three-way final match.

The following November, Shibutani, Ayumi Kurihara and Kana took part in a captain's fall six-woman tag team tournament, where they made it to the finals, before losing to Gami, Io Shirai and Mio Shirai.

In May 2010, Shibutani entered the 2010 Catch the Wave tournament, but again failed to make it out of her round with a record of two wins and two losses.

In August, Shibutani tore both her meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament and was sidelined from in-ring action.

After being sidelined for over a year, Shibutani returned to Pro Wrestling Wave on August 28, 2011, losing to Akino in her return match.

On September 4, Shibutani and Cherry entered the 2011 Dual Shock Wave tournament as the "Classic Gals", but were eliminated in their first round match by Ayumi Kurihara and Kana, who went on to win the entire tournament.

On October 27, Shibutani represented Wave in Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling's Joshi Puroresu Dantai Taikou Flash tournament, a single-elimination tournament, where different joshi promotions battled each other.

In their first round match, Team Wave, which also Gami, Moeka Haruhi, Toshie Uematsu and Yumi Ohka, was defeated by Team JWP of Command Bolshoi, Hanako Nakamori, Kaori Yoneyama, Kayoko Haruyama and Leon.

Shibutani finished off 2011 with a big singles win over Yumi Ohka on December 11 with her new finishing maneuver, later named Time Machine ni Notte ("Ride the Time Machine").

After becoming a one-time Wave Tag Team Champion, she retired from professional wrestling in May 2015.

Shibutani received her training in professional wrestling at the dojo of the JDStar promotion, being part of the last batch of women to go through the promotion's "Athtress" program, which aimed at building physically attractive women into not only professional wrestlers, but also mainstream celebrities.

Originally, Shibutani had unsuccessfully applied for a traineeship at the dojo of the Major Girl's Fighting AtoZ promotion.