Ice Ribbon Ribbonmania 2024

Show aired live December 31, 2024.

Ribbonmania is Ice Ribbon’s big annual year end show, which I’ve been watching since I became a fan of the company in 2015 and have attended several times in the past (pre-pandemic when I could travel).

It’s been ages since I got to sit down and watch much wrestling and longer since I’ve written up thoughts on a show, so I’ve really been looking forward to this one. A lot of the wrestlers here are either new to me or I’ve only seen them a couple times.

In the wake of management changes this is the final show for a good portion of the roster before they move on to other things. I’ll be mentioning some specifics throughout the review (and will recap the remaining roster at the end).

Two roster members who are staying are not on this show: Ice Ribbon ace Tsukasa Fujimoto is on maternity leave, and Infinite Potential Girl Kaho Matsushita is out due to injury.

With all that said, away we go.

1) Kirari Wakana vs. Miria Koga 

Miria, a rookie from SEAdLINNNG, has wrestled in Ice a few times but this is my first seeing her. She faced Kirari singles and tag action previously, with both matches ending in draws.

Kirari debuted last July (with an unusual debut win). I’ve seen a bit of her here and there, and she’s come across as a charismatic rookie with sound basics and excellent potential. She reminds me a bit of Asahi in both look and energy (which is of course bittersweet considering Asahi’s untimely passing in early 2024).

Kirari was sporting awesome new gear here.

This was pretty polished for a match between two wrestlers with under a year and a half combined experience. They made the most of what they were capable of and had several tense exchanges. Determination was absolutely dripping from both and the tangible feel that winning the match is important to them came across well. Was engrossed in this one for the duration.

To my delight Kirari won by rolling Koga up super tight following an extended series of attempts and reversals. Overall Ice Ribbon’s newest roster member showed the heart of a lion.

Great way to open the show. Kudos to both rookies. I’m becoming a huge fan of Kirari, and I also hope Koga keeps coming back.

2) Grizzly Fujitaki, Nanae Furukawa & Mayuka Koike vs. Mifu Ashida, Yuu Hanaya & Yuuki Minami 

The wrestlers in this match were the six participants of the Challenger: Ring of Hope series that made it through and ended up debuting as professional wrestlers. They all debuted on August 26, 2023 at Ice In Wonderland 2023.

Minami left Ice Ribbon to go to Marigold in early 2024 and was making a special appearance. This was the final Ice Ribbon roster appearance for the other five. Koike and Hanaya are retiring. Mifu, Grizzly & Nanae seem to plan on continuing elsewhere, with their destinations unknown at the time of the show. (Mifu has since announced she will be joining TJPW and debuted on their big annual January 4th show.)

It was nice to see Minami appear for this match, giving us one last trios contest with all of them involved. She’s had a complete look overhaul in her new company. This is the first time she’s wrestled here since leaving, and the first appearance of anyone from Marigold in Ice Ribbon.

Mifu is a former International Ribbon Tag Team Champion (with partner Kyuuri) and as such the most accomplished of the six thus far.

Nanae and the returning Minami got in slap fight right away with everything devolving into a brawl, nicely setting the tone of all six having something to prove.

After the hot start there was a little bit of a styles clash / roughness in this at times. Minami seemed to have a little readjusting to do after being retrained in a different company’s style, and they are all still relatively early in their careers. That said they all fought hard and made things work. Minami busted out an awesome, vicious looking arm trap guillotine choke at one point.

Grizzly vs Mifu was the backbone of the match and the two have good chemistry. Highlights included Mifu’s Cutie Special on Grizzly and Grizzly later absolutely wiping Mifu out with a short arm clothesline.

The match came to a surprising end as Nanae tied Mifu in absolute knots and got the submission win. As I mentioned Mifu’s the only former champ of the group and I wouldn’t have bet on her taking the loss.

Hanaya never tagged in, but was involved in multi person team moments, breaking up pinfalls, etc (including a wild spill to the outside when she took a shot on Grizzly from the apron and went flying from the recoil). Both she and the other retiree Koike only ever wrestled sporadically, with under ten matches each for their careers. It was nice to see them involved one last time and get a nice sendoff with the rest of their compatriots.

The match was somewhat rough around the edges at times but I’m really just mentioning it because I noticed it. Nothing detracted much from this fun outing with a lot of energy and some really awesome moments. Overall it clicked was a really good farewell for the Challengers in Ice Ribbon.

They all took a bow together afterwards. Wishing them the best in whatever’s next for each of them.

3) Kyuuri & Yuna Manase vs. Arisa Shinose & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Bad Butts (Yappy & Ancham)

Arisa will be going to Asuka Pro-Wrestling, but seems likely to continue appearing as a guest in Ice Ribbon.Yappy and reigning Triangle Ribbon Champion Kyuuri are staying.Yoneyama, Manase, and Ancham are guest participants.

Bad Butts coming out to Sir Mix A Lot had me dying of laughter. So great.

They brawled all over the place to start, highlighted by Yappy threatening people with the ever present Bad Butts warning sign, and things never really settled down from there. Having a proper, unapologetic, “we’re villains and proud of it” heel team is a nice addition to Ice Ribbon. Good contrast too as Kyuuri leans heel at times as Triangle Champ in more of an impish, faux innocent way. It all adds an extra dimension to things and additional depth to matches like these.

The other teams eventually had enough of Bad Butts and taped them to a ring post outside, neutralizing them for the rest of the match. Things got crazy at the end as Kyuuri accidentally took out her own partner with her attempted shortcuts, and Yoneyama intentionally rammed Kyuuri into Arisa to set up Yoneyama getting the win.

I expected a Bad Butts win, but Yoneyama pinning Kyuuri and the winning partners arguing over who gets to challenge her for her singles belt makes sense too

Not much to say here, but I mean that extremely positively. This was just straightforward chaotic fun.

The live feed became unwatchable due to buffering here and I stopped watching live. Until this point it had frozen about once a match and refreshing quickly corrected things. Ice Ribbon PPVs are usual stable on this platform, so no idea what was going on. Watched the rest from here later on replay.

4) Mio Shirai & Saran vs. Ibuki Hoshi & Unagi Sayakaa 

The semi-retired Mio Shirai and perpetual thorn in her side Unagi Sayaka have been feuding on and off for a bit. Unagi’s a freelance guest, Ibuki is staying with Ice Ribbon, and Mio and Saran are making their final appearance (future plans for both unknown). Extremely curious about where Saran ends up, as she’s really finding her style and has a huge upside for whatever company she works with.

This was the planned last show of a temporary return from maternity leave for Ibuki (although she’s now decided to wrestle for a bit more before returning to hiatus).

As usual for anything involving Unagi and Mio this was extremely antics heavy. Add in the mischievous Saran and hard hitting Ibuki to anchor things and this was exactly what it needed to be. Light and entertaining match with good pacing, amusing undertones, and wild action when they got down to it. Presented at the perfect place in the card to boot.

Saran fought tooth and nail, nearly stole the match a couple times, and kicked out of a lot of close calls. But Ibuki finally put her away with a great crucifix bomb.

Saran was visibly emotional after the match. Looking forward to cheering for her wherever she goes. Really glad Ibuki got to come back a little earlier than expected to be able to wrestle here.

5) Totoro Satsuki & Tsukina Umino vs. Yumiko Hotta & Miku Kanae 

Ice Ribbon vs T-Hearts tag match. Both members of the Ice team are staying on the roster (although Umino was unfortunately injured days later with a broken collarbone and will be out for a while).

Umino debuted in April 2021 as Shizuku Tsukata in Wave, went on hiatus around the end of that year, then redebuted as Umino in Ice Ribbon in December 2022. She’s grown a lot in the last couple years and is really finding her style and persona.

Totoro was sporting her annual year end rainbow braid extensions, which always look awesome.

Never saw Miku wrestle before. She’s really good and I hope to see her more in the future.

This was on formula in best way possible for a match with larger power based veterans teaming with outmatched but resilient less experienced partners. Umino and Miku both showed great fire, both against each other and when they were fighting uphill battles against the vets.

When Totoro and Hotta were in against each other the dynamic completely changed and it became the less experienced Totoro trying to prove something against Hotta in a good old fashion power fight. At one point Totoro hit an unbelievable Finlay Roll on Hotta.

Down the stretch this was all about Umino throwing everything she had at the imposing Hotta until she just couldn’t fight anymore. Hotta finished her with a palm strike after Totoro accidentally wiped her out with a clothesline.

I really dug this. Probably my favorite match on the card up to this point, and it’s all been extremely good.

6) Manami Katsu vs. YuuRI 

Manami Katsu returned to wrestling to join Ice Ribbon a few months ago after a three year hiatus. She’s a 13 year veteran formerly of JWP/Pure-J. I never watched a ton of Pure-J but have been to a few shows and had seen her wrestle there. This is my first real look at her in Ice.

YuuRI is a regular guest wrestler from GanPro, and a former ICE Cross Infinity Champion.

Manami went straight at YuuRI from the jump and this was pretty much 12 minutes of them throwing bombs (and occasionally trying to squeeze the life out of each other) and suffering the effects. It fit well into increasing match intensity throughout the show, which of course is exactly what should happen.

Late match YuuRI survived a tombstone driver, but Manami finally kept her down with a gorgeous straightjacket German suplex for a big win. Respect shown with a big hug between the two afterward.

A hard hitting affair that made Manami look tough as hell to have defeated YuuRI. Completely different than anything else on the card, and all the better for it.

7) International Tag Ribbon Title Match: Hamuko Hoshi & Makoto (c) vs. Yuko Sakurai & Sumika Yanagawa 

This is Hamuko & Makoto’s third reign with the tag titles, and both have also held them with other partners as well. Hamuko had an additional six reigns with other partners and Makoto had an additional two.

Sumika is a former International Ribbon tag champ with Misa Kagura, who we’ll see in the main event. She is also the reigning Queen of JTO champion.

Yuko just recently won her first championship and is half of theWave Tag Team Champions with Yuki Miyazaki. Thrilled for her as Yuko’s a wonderful, sometimes underrated wrestler who’s easy to cheer for.

Makoto is a freelance regular guest (who originally started her 18 year career in Ice Ribbon). Hamuko is staying on the Ice Ribbon roster. Yuko is from COLORS and Sumika from JTO.

The challengers jumped the champs in lieu of handshakes for another appropriate quick start.

Hamuko was in wrecking ball mode, which is when she’s at her most awesome. Makoto has become a fun bully type vet primarily focused on trying to kick her opponents face off.

Sumika’s developed into a great submission wrestler and busted out some wild holds here. Yuko applied one of the most vicious looking dragon sleepers I’ve seen as well. Yuko gave as good as she got throughout. She hit a beautiful bridging suplex and a nice sitout facebuster for close near falls late match.

The champs’ hard hitting double teams ended up being the difference maker. They eventually retained with Makoto nailing a firman’s carry Michinoku driver on Yuko followed by a big top rope splash from Hamuko for the pin.

Yuko & Sumika are a good team and fought with ferocity that had the crowd pumped. This was all about the champs weathering the storm from a team giving them more fight than they might have expected. Excellent semi-main.

The champs strapped each others’ belts on afterwards. It’s a little touch that shows their pride in retaining them and support as a team.

I adored Yuko & Sumika together and definitely need to revisit numerous matches of theirs as a team I’ve missed. Would love to see them have a reign with these titles someday.

8) ICE Cross Infinity Title Match: Yuki Mashiro (c) vs. Misa Kagura 

Reigning champion Mashiro is participating as a freelancer (as of the end of October), and her challenger Kagura is from JTO.

Mashiro has had an incredible transformation over her career, and every stage has been something special. From the rookie who howled in pain when she chopped opponents, to the lovably goofy Gacha King, to the technical wizard who captured Ice Ribbon’s top prize she’s always been one to watch. Mashiro retired from wrestling in 2022 after a year and a half, but came out of retirement in early 2024.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Mashiro and was thrilled to see her return, and am equally thrilled she’s been continuing to appear in Ice Ribbon freelance. She’s also starting appearing in other companies such as Marigold.

Misa has been in tournaments for this title in the past, but this is her first time directly challenging for it. I haven’t seen her much, but remember her being solid from what I have seen of her. She’s one of those people with an infectious smile, and she came out with it beaming for this title match.

They went AT each other right away with a wild forearm exchange. All the matches have started hot without anything feeling repetitive, and the show has been an engaging breeze to stay invested in as a result.

A hilarious moment early on saw Mashiro try to double eye poke Misa, But the latter caught her arm and countered by stuffing Mashiro’s fingers back into her own mouth.

I hadn’t consciously noticed until a really cool shot in this match of Mashiro choking out Misa in the corner, but the camera work had some particularly good work all show. The mentioned low camera angle from the corner was great. They did occasionally cut to/away from it too quickly in succession making it overly noticeable and a bit distracting, but overall it was well done.

The challenger excelled when using her power and slight size advantage for devastating tackles and grinding away at the champ with leveraged submission holds. A brutal sitout spine buster delivered to Mashiro at one point looked absolutely devastating.

In contrast the champ used her explosiveness to create openings, and relied heavily on being tenacious and smart counter wrestling.

Either outcome felt possible, which I appreciate greatly in a main event. In the end Mashiro hit her cross legged suplex with a bridge to retain.

Happy Mashiro will apparently be sticking around.

Hell of a match that had a little bit of everything: heavy strike exchanges, submissions, power wrestling, brawling outside, and so on. Fantastic way to cap off the show.

Katsu came out post match and there’s Mashiro’s next challenger. That’ll work. Intense exchange and they have to be pulled apart. Match set for January 13th.

I see the post show crowd handshakes are back. Mixed feelings watching that from afar as someone dealing with chronic illnesses in a post-pandemic world. But it was always a fun thing and a cool way to show appreciation, and its absence was felt for the years they couldn’t do it.

Overall

This show was everything I like about Ice Ribbon and pro-wrestling in general. Well balanced and paced with a variety of styles done right and the lighter stuff in the undercard giving way to fraught battles for championships to end the show out. Everyone’s commitment and effort was plain to see, and this was an extremely enjoyable watch all around.

As promised here’s a list of the remaining ten woman post Ribbonmania Ice Ribbon roster: Tsukka, Hamuko and Ibuki Hoshi, Manami Katsu, Kyuuri, Totoro, Yappy, Tsukina Umino, Kaho Matsushita, and Kirari Wakana.

Looking forward to seeing what lies ahead.

---

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page.