Modern joshi is in such a state, the 2000's really did a number on the industry - too many big promotions failing, too many small promotions and vanity promotions forming, some promising workers (but not enough) and no one making enough money to stick it out to the point where they're veterans and can train the next generation of workers.
People get mixed up about joshis and think they retire young because on injuries, and it's nothing to do with that. Basically, as soon as you start in Japan as a joshi, you've peaked in terms of where you can go. It's such a low ceiling that Natsuki Taiyo hits her head. There is no AJW or JWP or GAEA in Japan. NJPW, AJPW, and NOAH don't book women. And there's no clear ' this is the big one' joshi promotion. And there's a .000001% chance that WWE signs a josh, and if they were, I can already tell you that of the current batch there's only 3 that might work in the WWE. And that is at that .000001% chance. WWE can't book Japanese males, can't book females, what happens when you combine those with a girl who's not been run through the WWE makeup machine? Certain doom.
Even girls like SHIMMER can keep working with the mentality of 'hey i might get spotted and signed to WWE'. They won't get booked right, but they'll make some money. There's that chance. That chance doesn't exist in Japan for womens' wrestling. It's why Syuri still does kickboxing because it pays way better.
So it's completely understandable when a girl says 'ok this was fun but I got to retire and find a real job now.'
