Just Tap Out

JTO (Just Tap Out) is a Japanese pro wrestling promotion and training facility owned by TAKA Michinoku. It’s based in Chiba, Japan, and has been active since 2019. It was first known as Professional Wrestling Just Tap Out and shortened its name to JTO on July 17, 2023.

TAKA Michinoku founded JTO after his exit from Kaientai Dojo (also known as Active Advance Pro Wrestling) following a public scandal in late 2018. He announced the new promotion on April 12, 2019, and JTO held its first show on July 8, 2019, at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The debut event was headlined by Minoru Suzuki defeating Michinoku, giving the new promotion an immediate connection to a major name in Japanese wrestling.

JTO’s style is tied to technical wrestling, submission grappling, martial arts influence, and the development of younger wrestlers. JTO doesn’t use a single top championship the way most promotions do. Its top honor is a ranking. Signed wrestlers compete in ranking matches and tournaments, and their placement decides who sits at the top of each list. The highest-ranked man is called “King of JTO”, and the highest-ranked woman is “Queen of JTO.”

The ranking matches work on a points system tied to rope escapes. Under standard JTO rules, a wrestler can use rope breaks to escape submissions, but each escape counts as a lost point. A wrestler who loses three points gives up a technical knockout. So a match can end by submission, by TKO once a wrestler runs out of points, or by time-limit draw if neither result comes first. Results in these matches move wrestlers up or down the rankings.

There are three separate rankings. The JTO Ranking is the main list for men, topped by the King of JTO. The JTO J2 Ranking is a second-tier men’s list that uses a stricter version of the rules, with two lost points before a TKO instead of three. The JTO Girls Ranking is the main list for women, topped by the Queen of JTO. Each ranking match is labeled by which list it counts toward, so a card can include JTO Ranking, J2 Ranking, and Girls Ranking matches on the same night.

Tournaments feed into the rankings too. Michinoku won the first Only Give Up Tournament by beating Hayato Tamura on August 14, 2020, a submission-only event held to set the first number-one and number-two ranked men. The first JTO Girls Tournament, won by Aki Shizuku in December 2020, set the first-ranked women.

The promotion also runs a full set of titles alongside the rankings. The men’s Triple Crown is made up of the King of JTO Championship, the JTO Openweight Championship, and the JTO Tag Team Championship. Ibuki became the first men’s Triple Crown Champion in JTO history on March 3, 2026.

The women’s JTO Girls division has the Queen of JTO Championship, the JTO Girls Championship, and the JTO Girls Tag Team Championship. Aoi held all three women’s titles on October 5, 2024, to become the first Grand Slam Champion in JTO history. Ibuki became the first men’s Triple Crown Champion on March 3, 2026.

Today, JTO continues to operate as both a touring promotion and a developmental dojo. Its schedule includes CLUB JTO events, regional shows, and larger cards at venues like Korakuen Hall.

While JTO is smaller than Japan’s major wrestling companies, it’s a place where younger wrestlers can train, gain ring experience, and work with veterans. JTO wrestlers have also appeared in other Japanese promotions, including World Wonder Ring Stardom, where Tomoka Inaba and Aoi have wrestled.