Yokohama Festival: Ice Ribbon 5/3 & 5/5/18 Live Thoughts

May 3 and 5, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan

I saw these two Ice Ribbon shows earlier in the days of the Seadlinnng and Marvelous shows during Golden Week. They were all part of the “Yokohama Festival” and took place in the same venue, Yokohama Radiant Hall.

 

 

5/3/18

Maika Ozaki vs Satsuki Totoro was a fun battle of Maika’s power vs Totoro’s size to open the show. Both are really learning how to use their particular strengths to great effect in the ring. Maika’s torture rack bomb is awesome, and picked up the victory for her.

 

 

Watching live I wasn’t sure of the stipulation for Akane Fujita, Kyuri & Mochi Miyagi vs Asahi, Giulia, & Ibuki Hoshi. When Akane pinned Asahi and things kept going I was thinking 2 of 3 falls or elimination. I found out afterward it was “Captain’s Fall” (a more common stipulation in IR I should have thought of) and the more veteran team won in a shutout when Kyuri beat Guilia, who must have been her team’s captain. No idea who was captain on the other side, and the rookie team never seemed to have any real chance here. Decent match overall though.

 

 

Tsukushi had to win two #1 contendership matches for this opportunity at Hideki Suzuki’s championship (with no explanation why the first suddenly didn’t count), while “Freeze” was “handpicked” by the champ to be included. Tsukka being part of the prematch “ceremonies” might or might not have been part of the largely forgotten stipulation of her and Miyako supposedly becoming Suzuki’s assistants when he won the belt. His declarations of starting a “men’s division” in IR also came to nothing (thankfully, in retrospect).

 

 

So going into this match Suzuki had renamed the Triangle Ribbon Championship to the Sumo Battle Championship. The entrances, “pageantry,” and all other sumo aspects (which didn’t actually end up having any impact on the rules, match, or title mind you) lasted longer than the match. Tsukushi was defiant against her larger opponents, but was handled easily and pinned by Susuki in five minutes to retain while the Ice roster beat on Freeze on the outside. The ever changing/forgotten/ignored stipulations/conditions/rules for Suzuki’s title reign were beyond stupid, and while I originally had decent hopes for his involvement in Ice Ribbon it was pretty much a disaster and I couldn’t be happier that Akane now holds this title.

 

 

While I knew it was unlikely, Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera)’s International Ribbon Tag Team Title defense against Uno Matsuya & Tequila Saya potentially seemed like the perfect spot to elevate the challengers, who would have been totally believable and deserving champs. Instead the veteran dominance continued with Azure Rev retaining, but it was still one of the best matches I’ve seen from them and a great showing from the challengers even in defeat.

 

 

The main event was a first round match for Ice Ribbon’s Six Woman Tag Team Tournament, and honestly seemed a bit of a forgone conclusion to me considering Hamuko Hoshi’s regular partner was waiting in the semi-final in a different trios team. Here Hoshi teamed with Ice Cross Infinity Champion Miyako Matsumoto & Tsukasa Fujimoto against TeamDATE (Hana DATE, Karen DATE & Nao DATE). Hoshi had designs on Miyako’s title, and Miyako isn’t the most reliable teammate at the best of times anyway.

 

 

Wasn’t thrilled with the story that arose from all that, seeing the supposed regular unit and actual trios team beaten by dysfunctional teammates who attacked each other accidentally and a few times ON PURPOSE throughout the match. It honestly made the DATES look a bit incompetent, which they don’t deserve. Quite good otherwise though, with a real sense of urgency maintained and good stuff from all six at various points. Special mention to Hana, who has some of the best facial expressions in all of wrestling and always really sells the emotions/atmosphere/etc of her matches wonderfully.

 

 

In a nice character touch, Saya sold dejection at her loss throughout post show cheer (similarly Nao stared some great holes through her opponents after her match), and Hana was again a bit of a riot making faces at Asahi conveying uncertainty how she felt about Freeze’s presence in the circle next to her.

 

 

Going into the “Major Army vs Young Ice” challenge series two days later all members of the Young Ice team lost here, further positioning them as massive underdogs.

I liked this show overall and as I’ve alluded to the action was good but I could take or leave the booking.

If I only knew…

 

 

5/5/18

Before the show there was a 6-woman tag featuring trainees, with Tsukushi refereeing. It was quite a bit of fun and it will be interesting to see them all develop as/if they continue.

 

 

The opening match for the show proper saw Tequila Saya get a nice singles spotlight against the visiting Kaho Kobayashi. Kaho has really become excellent, Saya kept up nicely, and this was a solid showing for both with Kaho picking up the expected win.

 

 

With Maruko out with injury the planned ActWres vs Outsiders semi-final of Ice Ribbon’s Six Woman Tag Team Tournament was scrapped and ActWres received a bye to the final. However the match itself essentially still happened with Tsukushi swapped in for Maruko. So she teamed with Kyuri & Mio Momono vs Maika Ozaki, Saori Anou, & Tae Honma, and with ActWres proving victorious I don’t understand why this couldn’t have simply been the tourney match as planned.

That aside, this match was great fun and perhaps my favorite of the show. The bratty Tsukushi didn’t seem to appreciate being an Outsider for a night which made for an interesting dynamic, particularly when combined with all the issues surrounding Kyuri’s feud with Tae and Saori with Maika being caught in the middle.

 

 

The remainder of the show was comprised of the 8 vs 8 “Major Army vs Young Ice” challenge that had been revealed to be a best of 5 series. The lineup for the series was set up during the post-show roundtable of Ice Ribbon’s dojo show on 4/28/18, and seemed an interesting selection. The “Major Army” comes out to the Imperial March, just to really hammer the point of who the underdogs are into oblivion.

 

First up saw the Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi) against Karen DATE & Hamuko’s daughter Ibuki Hoshi. Solid way to start that saw the regular, experienced team prevail over the determined rookies.

 

 

Giulia lasted longer against Tsukasa Fujimoto than in their prior match, but still came up short and was beaten by Ice Ribbon’s ace in a bit under 7 minutes. The match fit the story they were telling and Giulia’s desire being greater than her skills for now.

 

At this point things seemed right in line with what I was expecting from the series …

 

 

With Young Ice down 0-2 in a best of 5 series, Ice Ribbon’s fan voted rookie of the year and Young Ice Tournament winner Nao DATE faced former champion Risa Sera. They had a good match for the most part, although something about the structure felt a little odd to me. And sure enough, the uneasy feeling bore out in the finish as RISA won in a bit over 7 minutes. What. The. Hell?! There was NO CONCEIVABLY REASON for Nao to drop this. Risa didn’t need the win, Nao did, and more importantly Young Ice had now already LOST the series in match 3 of 5. You could hear the crowd deflate when the ref counted 3.

 

 

So the series is decided but the other matches are happening anyway, and the crowd’s pretty much dead. Rightfully no one believes Uno Matsuya, Satsuki Totoro, & Hana DATE have any chance whatsoever against Akane Fujita, Kurumi Hiragi, & Maya Yukihi at this point (and it wouldn’t make any difference if they did win), so no matter what anyone in the match did the reaction was subdued. Magnifying the problem, this was the longest match of the night. Dumb all around. I feel bad for the wrestlers involved being put into this position. This will likely play better on DVD, with less lingering impact from the booking decisions than there was live and more ability to just enjoy the work and effort all six wrestlers put into this.

 

 

One match left in both the series and the show. The only possible redeeming aspect of the story of having vets sweep so far would be the newest rookie Asahi upsetting the champ in non-title competition to give Young Ice their only win, and Miyako Matsumoto was the kind of champ who could conceivably lose this. As such the crowd was really behind Asahi, and the match itself was quite good and exciting for the nice length of a bit under 15 minutes it ran. Miyako amuses me greatly and Asahi is fast becoming a favorite so this was awesome to be at.

Of course Asahi lost, making the whole best of 5 series pointless in every way with the veterans, who also swept everything two days before and again came out to the Imperial March for goodness sake, winning every single match. I understand the concept of paying dues, the idea behind looking tough/getting over in defeat, etc, but consistently making half your roster look weak is something else.

Asahi spoke at length afterwards, possibly adding some more context to having come up short against the champ and/or the series that I missed.

 

 

During the post show promos Saori came out and issued a challenge for tag belts, but then names Maika as her partner as Tae just smiles. Maika’s reluctant but eventually agrees, and Saori taunts Kyuri (Maika’s regular partner at the time). Another interesting layer in what was easily one of the most compelling feuds in wrestling at the time.

 

 

I do recommend these shows for some interesting matchups and good wrestling, with of course the caveat that I also personally have never been more frustrated with IR’s tone deaf booking. Why bother making a series out of those matches for these results? Just book the same card without the “Major Army vs Young Ice” framing and it all plays a ton better. Ice Ribbon actually has deep talent roster, but makes some odd choices and often seems hell bent on never truly elevating anyone until it’s pretty much too late, which is a shame to see from one of my favorite promotions.

Still, I did enjoy going to these shows overall and as I mentioned they will probably play a bit better on DVD and the action was very good for the most part, so if any of the particular matches sound intriguing they are worth checking out.