Cabinet of Curiosities Treasure metal variant by Yuriko Shirou.
When thinking of trading cards, small collectible pieces of cardboard/card stock immediately spring to mind. But in modern collecting there are a variety of cards that break the mold a bit and are made from other materials.
Let’s take a look at the interesting case of trading cards made from metal.
Last month I wrote about printing plates, thin metal relics from the card creation process turned into collectables. In contrast here I’m highlighting actual cards made for various sets that are themselves made of metal.
One other side note before delving too deep: there are card sets and subsets that use “metal” as a descriptor, such as the Skybox Metal Universe series. It’s a theming/branding thing and the vast majority of cards in those sets are still card stock. Those are different from what I’m featuring here, which again are cards made of metal.
There are two main types of metal cards I’d like to showcase, with some subcategories. Then at the end of this post I’ll share a few tangentially related cards.
First up are the straightforward case of printed metal cards. These are exactly what one would think of as trading cards, simply printed on metal instead of card stock. They are at a minimum a bit thicker than both standard cards and the thin metal printing plates previously referenced.
While metal cards are inherently more sturdy than standard cardboard cards, proper storage and protection can have some additional things to be wary of. For example stacking regular cards is usually fine for temporary sorting, etc. But metal cards can easily scratch each other if care isn’t taken and as such while it may seem counter intuitive it’s even more important to get them immediately sleeved and protected than normal.
Like other special inserts metal cards can be variants of base cards or their own unique subsets, and vary greatly in terms of rarity and design.
A great example of straight up base set variants are the metal cards featured in Iconic Creations’ sets. These cards are identical to their base set counterparts outside of the material they’re printed on. There’s more gloss to the finish on these than Iconic Creations’ base cards, and the hues end up a touch more subdued.
Perna Studios also does some great metal chase subset versions of their base, chase, and promo cards.
By Juri H. Chinchilla.
While some metal cards have both the front and back printed like their cardboard counterparts, like those done by Perna Studios, Iconic Creations and some other publishers use stickers for the backs on metal cards.
The metallurgy subsets from Marvel Masterpieces are fantastic versions of the base cards from the same sets. The designs on these vary slightly from the base, as the border is more filled in on these and as such the images are slightly cropped compared to the base and other variants.
Planet Metal subsets from the previously mentioned SkyBox Metal Universe series (made nowadays by Upper Deck) are an unusual case. In some sets, such as the pictured cards above from Spider-Man Metal and X-Men Metal, they are a metal card chase subset. In others, such as AEW Metal, they are die cut cardboard.
There have been metal AEW cards from Upper Deck in other sets, such as the Full Gear and Chair Shots subsets from AEW Spectrum.
Metal cards can themselves have variants within a set. For example the die cut oval shaped metal cards from Upper Deck’s Shang-Chi set had rarer gold versions, and their logo shaped die cut metal cards had rarer blue variants.
Like “regular” trading cards, special subsets of metal cards are elevated with autographs. Cards may be signed by the athletes or actors featured, by the artist for art based cards, or creators related to the characters or stories referenced for comic related cards.
Often signed metal cards are specific, unique subsets. Although they can also be direct variations on non-autographed metal cards within the same set.
Pictured below is a Black Metal Logo Die Cut card from Upper Deck’s Shang-Chi set featuring Meng’er Zhang as Xialing next to the autographed version featuring the same design and image. Both were available exclusively as achievements via Upper Deck online purchasing and trading platform e-Pack.
Given the nature of the material metal card autos generally feature autographs affixed via sticker. But occasionally there can be direct autographs if done carefully with the right type of markers. The Stainless Stars subsets from Panini’s WWE Impeccable sets are great examples of autos done directly on metal cards.
Meiko Satomura and Io Shirai (now Iyo Sky) blue Stainless Stars cards.
The other major type of metal cards I’d like to spotlight is metal sketch cards.
Metal APs from Perna Studios’ Elementals and Hallowe’en Witchcraft sets by Stacey Kardash. Metal sketch cards/APs by Achilleas Kokkinakis from Classic Mythology III.
Like sketch cards done on card stock these are individualized pieces of art created on the cards. One side of the metal card is prepared with a surface meant for drawing directly on it.
Metal AP from Hallowe’en Witchcraft by Tony Perna.
In past sets Perna Studios had a small number of these metal sketch cards inserted in packs. For those sets artists often had a metal AP (Artist Proof) or two (in addition to their card stock ones) that they could accept commissions for within the content guidelines of the set.
Metal sketch cards/APs by Alexis Sarah Hill and Craig Yeung.
The combination of unique creations on unusual card material made these truly stunning pieces of art.
To wrap up here are a few metal related cards that aren’t exactly either of the types highlighted above, but do involve metal, are all pretty awesome, and are worth a look.
One subset that’s both cool and kind of hilarious is the silver bar cards from Panini Impeccable. There’s just straight up a 1 troy ounce mini silver bar in the card. The card itself is card stock surrounding the bar, but this definitely fits in this feature on metal use in trading cards.
All of the cards in this section are thicker than what most people think of for trading cards. In this case considerably so, as these monsters are 3/8 inch thick.
A really nice looking way to incorporate metal are framed cards. The card itself is still card stock, but it’s encased in a metal border (almost always gold colored in the versions I’ve seen).
Finally here’s an example of a metal card where an image is cast on it rather than printed. The below bronze Psylocke card is a tribute to Joe Jusko’s work on Marvel Masterpieces ’92 and was a reward as part of a Kickstarter for an art book featuring Joe’s images from that set.
That does it for this spotlight on a small sample of the interesting ways metal is used in trading cards. Best of luck with wherever your personal collecting tendencies take you.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to sustain more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates once to twice a week.
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. Every little bit helps.
Gatoh Move: The Last Heisei Shin-Kiba Gatoh March 22, 2019
An interesting match recently popped up in my YouTube recommendations that I forgot existed and was somehow completely unaware it was ever aired.
In 2019, current reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga was a rookie with under a year in wrestling. She was a prodigy who only trained a few months before debuting in Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), and was already showing skills far beyond her limited experience.
Fair or not, Yoshiko will always be best known for the incident with Act Yasukawa. But a lot has changed in a decade. Act has publicly forgiven Yoshiko and has amazingly returned to wrestling related activities. By 2019 Yoshiko was fully back in wrestling and had been working with a number of companies who all trusted her enough to often be wrestling their rookies and up and coming stars. See this post from a couple years back for a look at my personal thoughts on the more recent state of things and how my opinion on Yoshiko changed over time.
I’d seen excellent matches of hers in the couple years before this match against the likes of Mio Momono and the dearly missedAsahi. She was the perfect imposing monster to test one’s mettle against. Yoshiko is currently on hiatus and hasn’t wrestled in a couple years, but to my knowledge still intends to return someday.
So with the stage set for Gatoh’s super rookie against SEAdLINNNG’s gatekeeper, away we go.
Mei Suruga vs Yoshiko
First (and thus far only) singles contest between these two.
This is early in Gatoh Move’s YouTube offerings, featuring commentary by Pumi Boonytud.
Mei was trained by Emi Sakura and a protege of Aoi Kizuki. Mei’s 20 here but as usual looks younger.
Yoshiko is one of the pillars of SEAdLINNNG, and was in-between tag title reigns and a year and change away from her Beyond the Sea championship reign.
Single camera angle for this video, as it’s all hard cam footage.
Yoshiko doesn’t come out of the corner for Mei’s handshake offer. Mei responds by getting the fans to cheer for Yoshiko. The stoic one is unamused.
Lockup to start. Yoshiko easily overpowers Mei into the ropes, but the Apple Girl switches positions and lays in forearms. Yoshiko ends that in short order by grabbing Mei’s hair and pulling her out to the center of the ring.
The pace quickens as Mei ducks a lariat but then has her dropkick dodged. Mei locks hands with Yoshiko and goes for her rope jump assisted arm drag, but Yoshiko’s too solid and doesn’t budge. She pulls Mei up and just tosses her away.
A Mei Irish whip attempt does nothing, and is reversed. Mei tries a running crossbody off the ropes, but is caught and dropped into a hard back breaker.
With Mei face down near the ropes, Yoshiko simply stands on her. Yoshiko’s considerable size advantage is making quite a difference so far. Jumping double knees to Mei’s back. More standing on Mei then another knee drop leads to a 2 count.
Mei’s unceremoniously thrown into the corner, then hair tossed out. Prone in the opposite corner she’s on the receiving end of numerous face wash kicks. Yoshiko sprints to the opposite ropes and hits a hard running version.
Yoshiko hairmares Mei into the center, then lands a huge kick to Mei’s back followed by one to front for a 2 count. I winced at these.
Yoshiko controls with a hold pulling back on Mei’s arms with her feet planted in Mei’s back. She shifts into body scissors, which gives Mei an opening to do an awesome counter roll backward over Yoshiko into her own body scissors.
Mei tries her signature rolling pinning combination, but Yoshiko spreads her legs to remain stable. So the clever Apple starts a Yoshiko chant again and forces Yoshiko to move her arms in time with the audience chanting her name. The distraction causes just enough of a lapse on Yoshiko’s part for Mei to get her roll for 2. But Mei pays for it when Yoshiko lands an Earthquake splash to Mei’s back. A brief Camel Clutch is abandoned after Yoshiko pulls on Mei’s face, then Yoshiko adds some dismissive kicks for insult to injury.
With both back up Mei tries to start a strike exchange but Yoshiko counters with an overwhelming flurry instead and sweeps Mei back down. Mei gets her arms up to block a running kick but Yoshiko just kicks right through the block. This is a masterful matchup of technique and speed against size and raw power.
Mei dodges the senton, then hits a flurry of five dropkicks. She grabs Yoshiko’s head and calls for her Totsugeki (battering ram), but is shrugged off and sent towards the corner. Undeterred Mei kicks off the middle turnbuckle for momentum into a dropkick.
With Yoshiko down Mei turns her over and goes for a bow and arrow. It doesn’t work too well on her larger opponent so she switches sides. Still no go. Mei stomps on Yoshiko’s back, then hits ropes and rolls… into her “cute on purpose” taunt right in front of Yoshiko’s face. That’s a bold move.
Yoshiko is predictably annoyed, and takes a shot at Mei but the latter is too quick and avoids the wild swing. Both up to their feet and Mei baits her into a charge then ducks into a drop toehold. With Yoshiko down and stunned Mei is now able to complete the bow and arrow.
Mei releases after a few seconds though, shaking her legs out from the strain on her knees from supporting a much larger opponent. Totsugeki to the turnbuckle connects this time.
Perhaps a tad too confident after some sustained offense Mei attempts to slam Yoshiko. Yeah not so much. Yoshiko counters into a slam attempt of her own, but Mei pushes off while in the air and lands on feet. Mei hits the ropes but runs right into a beautiful tilt a whirl backbreaker by Yoshiko.
Boston crab by Yoshiko is quickly transitioned into a deep half crab. Yoshiko holds on to it for a while as Mei tries to fight to the ropes. When she gets close Yoshiko tries to stop her by twisting Mei around and grabbing her arm, but Mei makes it with other arm. Mei fought for every inch there.
Yoshiko hits a hard lariat against the ropes on Mei, followed by a senton for 2.
Apparent choke bomb is countered into a slick forward cradle for 2. Scissor rollup gets another 2. Mei’s hanging in there and forcing some close kickouts.
Off the ropes Mei gets caught in samoan drop position, but fights down to try a schoolboy. Yoshiko tries to counter with another Earthquake splash, but Mei scurries out of the way. A dropkick leads to the propellor clutch for 2.
Mei hits ropes, and ducks a lariat, but is DESTROYED by a second attempt coming back the other way. And just like that it’s over. Yoshiko pins Mei for the victory.
Excellent match that was more competitive than I might have expected if I wasn’t previously familiar with both super rookie Mei and how good Yoshiko is in this role against smaller underdogs. This match was exactly what I expected, and I mean that as a huge compliment.
Watching older Mei matches is a reminder of how quickly and intuitively she got pro-wrestling. She looked fantastic here for under a year experience. Yoshiko makes great imposing opponent and their competitive chemistry was unreal. Great stuff.
This match is available to watch for free on ChocoPro’s YouTube Channel.
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. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
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. Every little bit helps.
One more batch of AEW Fight Forever sponsored promotional wrestling matches from Tokyo Game Show 2022 to take a look at. I previously wrote about day one and day two.
This was the last day of the trade fair, so only two matches on tap this time.
Yuka Sakazaki vs Hikari Noa
Hikari’s the only wrestler to appear on all three days. Again it’s a nice treat to have these matches resurface in lieu of her departure from wrestling last year.
Both participants here were TJPW roster, so while Hikari’s other two matches were first time encounters she’s very familiar with today’s opponent. They had faced previously in a handful of singles matches and numerous tag matches.
Yuka was a couple weeks away from her third Princess of Princess Championship reign.
Hikari’s a previous International Princess Champion, which she lost in early 2022. It ended up being the only singles title of her career.
Nice counter wrestling to start. Yuka ends up with the edge but Hikari wipes her out with a dropkick as she celebrates.
Yuka bails to the outside, quickly followed by Hikari. Yuka lands some strikes then takes Hikari sightseeing. Yuka finds some space in front of an exhibit and slams Hikari on floor. She then does some posing in front of a SpongeBob display before throwing Hikari into it.
She drags Hikari through the crowd some more and tries to hide behind a costumed mascot. Hikari hits her with a superkick around the alien anyway.
Yuka negotiates a pause and has the alien shake Hikari’s hand, but whacks the distracted Hikari with his gun. At least she didn’t shoot her I suppose.
After returning the deadly weapon to its owner she takes Hikari back to ringside. They exchange strikes, then Yuka rams Hikari into a ring post. Back in the ring Yuka covers for 2. I adore it when wrestlers go for a pin immediately after a big impact outside. They’re trying to win.
Yuka kicks Hikari in the corner then climbs up to apply a head scissors and leans back outside the ropes. Classic Yuka. Referee counts it and she breaks on 4. She goes up top and does her cartwheel dodge to the apron when Hikari charges. Well, kind of cartwheel dodge. When she does it to the apron it’s sometimes more of a roll with her hands planted on the ropes. Springboard dropkick back into the ring gets 2.
Yuka controls with rolling suplexes, but Hikari floats out of the third. A jumping lariat and her dropkick barrage solidifies her advantage, and a snap mare into a dropkick to back gets 2.
Cobra twist from Hikari. Yuka tries to power to the ropes, so Hikari drops it into a cover for 2. She holds on after the kickout and goes into her rolling cradle for 2.
Staying in position she applies a seated version of the cobra twist. Yuka’s had enough though, stands up despite Hikari’s efforts, and tosses Hikari off. As usual Yuka’s strength is unreal.
Hikari ducks a clothesline and rolls Yuka up with bridge (Japanese leg roll clutch variation) for 2. Her super kick is caught though, and Yuka spins her right into a suplex.
Yuka goes up top in the corner, and has to kick Hikari’s charges away twice. Hikari catches the kick on her third charge though, and brings Yuka down with a super exploder for 2.
The exhausted combatants have an elbow/forearm exchange on their knees. It continues as they rise to their feet, until Yuka eventually wipes Hikari out with one.
Magical Merry Go Round (hammerlock airplane spin into a face buster) attempt is escaped and Hikari hits an exploder, but Yuka responds with Tea Time (scoop suplex).
Now in firm control, Yuka completes the second try at Magical Merry Go Round for the win.
Respect shown by Yuka afterwards, and both speak in the post match interview (for all previous matches it was the winner only cutting a promo).
This was the longest match of the weekend at 12 minutes, which makes sense as it was the only match to do an extended outside the ring portion (there were a couple dives and one announce table DDT on previous days). So yet another aspect of wrestling was shown off here. Fun stuff, and the in ring portions were great. Really cool match overall.
Hikari lost all three of her matches, but given her vastly more experienced opponents that wasn’t unexpected. It was all about the fight she put up, and she did great.
Hagane Shinno vs Michael Nakazawa
I’m quite familiar with Hagane via his matches in Gatoh Move/ChocoPro. Big fan of his, but after my introduction to Nakazawa in the previous batch of these matches I’m not particularly psyched for this.
Hagane had not appeared for AEW prior to this, but would work several matches for Dark a couple months later including a lauded singles against Kenny Omega.
Nakazawa comes out to join the announce desk, seemingly only so his opponent is forced to call him into the ring from there.
Once things get started Nakazawa asks for Hagane’s help putting on a kneepad, then hits him with the microphone when he obliges.
Hagane gets crotched on the ropes, then dragged along them as Nakazawa did to Ueno the previous day. This is apparently called the Hentai Slide. I have no words.
Hagane takes over with a dropkick. Nakazawa bails outside then dodges a slingshot dive attempt. Hagane however adjusts and lands on the apron. He climbs the outside turnbuckles and nails a moonsualt to the floor.
Nakazawa crawls to the stage, but Hagane catches up and suplexes him.
While Hagane is distracted by the ref trying to get them back in the ring Nakazawa uses the entrance tunnels to get behind Hagane for an ambush. He hits hiragana with … a life sized Nakazawa promotional standee. Use whatever’s on hand I guess.
Nakazawa brings the standee into the ring and charges Hagane with it, but Hagane rolls under it and dropkicks it into Nakazawa’s face.
Hagane’s crazy stiff kicks follow, then he goes up top to hit a missile dropkick for 2. A slam on Nakazawa sets up the moonsault, but Nakazawa rolls away Hagane hits canvas.
During a strike exchange Nakazawa takes off his t-shirt. If he does the underwear garbage again I’m out. Yeah his trunks are around his knees again. Pulls them back up and there he goes taking off the under trunks to put on his hand and I’m done. Not interested in watching this stuff again. Once was much more than enough.
Was fine until I gave up at around 6 out of 8 minutes. Nothing like advertising a video game with matches centered around trying to shove used underwear in people’s faces. I wouldn’t have chosen this to end the weekend.
Skipping ahead to the finish Hagane wins with a hanging corner double stomp followed by Rahei (somersault STO rollup). Hagane’s great. Nakazawa’s skills are serviceable but his gimmick sucks.
It was smart to include some comedy in the exhibition matches, but found the choice of it poor. Crowd seemed fine for it though, so mileage will vary.
Over the course of the whole weekend these matches were a great way to promote the game. The participants, styles, etc were all carefully chosen and well presented to be accessible to both prior fans and attendees who might be seeing wrestling for the first time. Everyone worked hard and with the exception of the one aspect I’ve made clear wasn’t to my tastes all three days are easy recommendations.
This event and other shows from numerous promotions (including TJPW, DDT, Sendai Girls, Marigold, and so on) can be viewed with a Wrestle Universe subscription.
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. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
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. Every little bit helps.
Back in 2022 Tokyo Game Show, an annual video game trade fair, featured several AEW sponsored wrestling matches to promote the release of AEW Fight Forever. I previously took a look at day one, and now it’s on to day two.
Konosuke Takeshita vs Chris Brookes
Cool matchup of two of DDT’s cornerstones. Brookes had numerous title reigns at this point but hadn’t ever won the big KO-D Openweight Championship yet. Takeshita had held it a number of times, and had just recently lost it a month prior.
Both these wrestlers faced Christopher Daniels (in separate singles matches) on day one.
The match starts with extended technical grappling including a cool counter where Takeshita powers Chris up while in an armlock to counter, but the latter releases his legs and stands up to prevent any sort of slam. They trade holds until Chris lands a chop and challenges Takeshita to respond in kind. A hard elbow levels Chris and that might not have been the wisest challenge to make.
An awesome moment sees Chris tease an inside out suplex from the apron, then hit a flying cutter into the ring after Takeshita fights out.
Chris works a deathlock for a bit while in control. Takeshita fights to the ropes for a break.
Later with Takeshita back on offense highlights include a wicked slingshot plancha, and a Blue Thunder Powerbomb for 2.
Takeshita goes up top. He’s intercepted by Chris but counters the latter’s superplex attempt and pushes Chris down. Chris pops right back up and hits a butterfly superplex.
Chris’ Praying Mantis Bomb (sitout butterfly piledriver) is escaped with a crazy counter seeing Ueno land on his feet when Chris sits out. A knee strike wipes Chris out.
They link left hands and forearm the hell out of each other with their rights. Takeshita eventually ducks one of Chris’ strikes and grabs a waist lock for a German suplex attempt. Chris counters into a rolling cradle but Takeshita rolls through it for 2.
A fast paced exchange of strikes ends with a big lariat by Takeshita, but the pin is countered into a tight crucifix by Chris for 2.
They go back and forth some more then Chris ducks another lariat, but after rebounding off the ropes he’s nailed with Takeshita’s kneestrike. The 3 is academic.
Handshake afterwards, then Takeshita gives the quick winner promo that’s been standard throughout the weekend.
Chris lost both his matches but looked great and Takeshita felt like a monster beating him clean here. Takeshita will wrestle again in the last match of the day.
A hard fought, exciting match. Again the presentation, participants, and matches have been spot on all around for an event like this.
Riho vs Hikari Noa
My most anticipated match of the whole weekend. Riho was AEW’s first ever Women’s Champion, and was a 16 year vet at age of 25 when this trade fair happened. This was her only match of the event.
Hikari is the only wrestler that had matches on all three days. As I said regarding day one seeing these previously unreleased matches of hers is a treat for me as I’m a huge fan and she has since left wrestling.
On a random note the smoke on the entrances is heavy today, completely blocking the side cam view of some of the wrestlers. It’s just a couple seconds of footage so no big deal, but it’s still a bit weird to see them walk through such a dense cloud.
Squaring up right away, they fight over wrist lock then go right into the standard quick paced counter exchange. Longtime wrestling fans know this when they see it, with rope running, leg sweeps, quick rolling out of covers, and so on. Always a good way to show athleticism though and a crowd pleaser. Can’t think of a better time to use it either, as there’s likely to be a bunch of first time watchers in the audience.
Hikari tries to get an edge of her much more experienced opponent with a number of hair tosses, but Riho counters the third with a cartwheel. A subsequent Riho crossbody is countered at one into a pin, which Riho quickly bridges out of.
Riho ties Hikari in the ropes, then climbs them herself and poses and waves to the audience with her foot in Hikari’s face. She breaks at 3. Riho then settles in for a bit with a deep single leg crab. Hikari struggles hard to claw her way to the ropes for a break.
Creating a bit of space, Hikari deploys her dropkick barrage. For those who haven’t seen this: she throws a number of dropkicks (or super kicks) in as quick succession as possible, sacrificing power for speed. They’re less impactful than carefully measured ones and are sometimes glancing blows, but the point is to overwhelm and wear down her opponent a bit.
Now in control, Hikari goes into her seated rolling cradle for 2.
Hikari rushes a downed Riho in the ropes, and hits a knee to the back. She does it again and gets legswept into Tiger Feint Kick (619) position. The knee was a touch awkward. Looked like Hikari expected Riho to be closer to the ropes (or maybe expected the sweep on the first run). But she adjusted well and it was a really minor thing.
Commentary went with the 619 name, so I guess I’m switching over. Riho nails it, then goes up top. Crossbody gets 2. Riho calls for the end, and her Northern Lights Suplex gets another close 2.
She goes up to the top turnbuckle again, but Hikari dodges the diving double stomp. Hikari’s charge is countered with a schoolboy rollup, and a resulting series of counter rollups for 2 ends with deep cover rollup by Hikari for an even closer 2. Great sequence.
Riho follows Hikari into ropes for a clothesline. Hikari returns the favor with hard dropkick, then follows up with a diving lariat for 2
Hikari’s Blizzard Suplex is fought out of, but she lands super kicks to Riho’s knee then head to keep control. Hikari goes up, but is slow due to exhaustion/damage. Riho meets her on the turnbuckles and after a forearm exchange superplexes Hikari back into the ring.
Riho’s diving double stomp from the top … gets 2.999999. Great shocked face from Riho at her opponent’s resilience. It’s Hikari’s last act of defiance though. Riho nails the Somato (running double kneestrike) and Hikari’s done.
Face paced and fun. In concept this was extremely similar to Hikari’s day one match against Mizunami. She was outmatched and fighting with all she had until she couldn’t anymore. But Riho’s a very different type of skilled vet than the physically imposing powerhouse Mizunami, so it was a quite different encounter.
This was essentially a dream match for me and I’m thrilled that it happened and that I could finally watch it. Shame it was one of the shortest matches of the weekend (I would’ve loved another 5 minutes), but 8 minutes is still solid and what we got was great.
Yuki Ueno vs Michael Nakazawa
Ueno was DDT’s Universal Champion at the time and came out with the belt. Outside of this, his only appearance for AEW was 7 months later on Dark.
Haven’t seen much of him, but he’s one of DDT’s top stars and was a great choice to have make an appearance.
After Ueno’s entrance different music hits, and at the announce table Nakazawa acts surprised. Didn’t catch the banter as I don’t speak much Japanese, but after a bit the crowd encourages him to get in to face Ueno.
He has the ref check him while still holding the mic and chatting. Bell rings with him still commentating as he circles Ueno. He calls for a lockup. Ueno forces him to the ropes and gives a mostly clean break. Nakazawa reverses the second lockup in the ropes and tries a cheap shot, but begs off when it doesn’t work.
Nakazawa calls for a handshake then tries a cheap shot with the mic while calling Ueno a baka (fool), but it’s blocked and he’s wiped out.
He tosses Ueno the mic and hits a super kick with the distraction. He’s now in full heel mode and the mic stuff is done. He works over Ueno in the corner for a bit.
Nakazawa pulls off his polo to reveal a Michael Nakazawa tank top.Then takes off his pants to reveal his trunks. If only he had stopped there. He whips then chokes Ueno with his pants. Once that’s done he elevates Ueno to crotch him on the ropes then slides him along them.
Nakazawa runs to ropes, but holds on to them to foil a Ueno dropkick counter. Eats the next dropkick though. Ueno repeatedly wipes him out with running forearms, then goes on an extended offensive flurry including a flying seated splash in corner, a beautiful overhead German, a plancha to the outside, and a DDT on the announce table.
Back inside, Nakazawa gets his knees up to counter Ueno’s top rope frog splash.
During a forearm exchange Nakazawa takes off his tank top to fire himself up. He eats another shot, lowers his kneepad, eats another shot, then lowers his trucks (he’s wearing another, slimmer pair underneath). The ref stops him from disrobing halfway, leading to another another shot from Ueno and Nakazawa’s now wrestling with his original trucks around his knees. I can’t believe I’m recapping this.
A teardrop suplex puts Ueno down and Nakazawa pulls his trunks up. He then takes off the underneath pair (a leg at a time) and puts them on his hands, then they struggle over whose face what’s essentially worn underwear is going to be shoved into. Of course it’s the ref that takes it as a collateral shot. This is now everything I hate about lowbrow humor in wrestling.
Nakazawa gets a rollup but there’s no ref as he’s still suffering from the underwear to the face. Suplex by Ueno, but he springboards into the trunks to the face. Cover with the trunks still over his face gets 2.
Nakazawa puts the deadly trunks on his knee, but whatever he had planned is countered with a dropkick. Half nelson suplex gets 3 for Ueno.
Objectively the crowd was into this and showing a different style of wrestling was smart. And DDT is known for its mix of comedy and action. Personally though I thought this was a waste of Ueno, showed only a fraction of what he’s capable of, and at 10+ minutes it was a lot of wasted time that could have been given to other matches. Fine for what it was, but what it was is so not for me.
Christopher Daniels & Ryo Mizunami vs Yuka Sakazaki & Konosuke Takeshita
Man if we could get AEW to regularly book Yuka and get over their aversion to intergender matches this dream team could be tearing things up every week. While Yuka was in TJPW at this time and a part time AEW guest, she’s now living in the US and a full time member of the AEW roster.
The wrestling experience in this match is insane. The least experienced participant is Yuka, who was a nine year veteran at the time. The rest range from 10 to 30 years in the business. Four masters of the craft.
The men start. Some fun counter wrestling early, leading to a Daniels cheap shot for a momentary advantage. But when things settle Takeshita hits a backdrop then a leg lariat to take over. Daniels bails to the corner to be comforted by Ryo. Tag to the women.
A counter wrestling exchange is dominated by the powerhouse, with some particularly vicious use of a headlock, but Yuka’s deceptively powerful and it won’t last long until she gives it back.
Fun sequence follows of Mizunami shrugging off Yuka’s shoulder blocks, then wiping out the smaller competitor with her own. Yuka sends Mizunami to her corner though and tags Takeshita. And thank goodness while they’re calling this a “mixed tag” we have proper intergender rules and not the silly meaning mixed tag has in the states (where tagging your partner forces a switch on the other side so men only face men and women only face women).
Takeshita elbows Mizunami in the corner. Yuka comes in for a double suplex, but she’s so much shorter than Takeshita she isn’t really needed and nonchalantly walks out while Takeshita has Ryo up. Then Yuka lands an enzugiri on Mizunami’s head as Takeshita brings her down. Great, creative double team.
Daniels comes in to get plastered with a double rolling elbow. Yuka goes out but gets tagged right back in. Looks like they’ll be minimizing the sections of men versus women, but at least it’s not being overly artificially done. Double axhandle from the top to Miznumai’s arm as Takeshita holds it.
Yuka’s trademark forward snapmare roll into a kick sets up the sliding lariat for 2. She goes up top, but from the apron Daniels grabs her leg to delay and Mizanumi slams her off the top. Mizunami works Yuka over with stomps and strikes. A chin lock into the Camel Clutch keeps Yuka grounded. Great heelish touch as Daniels tries to push the bottom rope out of Yuka’s reach as she goes for a rope break, but she eventually makes it anyway.
Yuka floats out of a bodyslam attempt, but Daniels trips her as she hits the ropes then gets into it with the announcers. Nakazawa on commentary makes a horribly sexist comment of “what’d you do man? I mean she’s just a girl man,” to Daniels. She is, in fact, a multi-time singles and tag champion who has competed numerous times against men during her career and was an equal competitor in this contest (and was 30 years old at the time). The heel move was the illegal person tripping her and had nothing to do with Daniels being a man and Yuka being a woman. Clearly trying to get more heat on Daniels, but that infantilizing bullshit is counter productive.
Mizunami lays in machine gun chops in the corner, but the showy one to end the series is ducked. Yuka fights back but is rocked by more strikes. Mizunami hits ropes and runs into TEA TIME (scoop suplex). Yuka’s crazy strong and that was so smooth despite the size difference.
Both down. Mizunami manages the tag to Daniels before Yuka can get to her own corner. He cuts her off and sends her to a neutral corner. Stopping to taunt Takeshita, he runs into Yuka’s boot when he resumes his charge. Yuka takes him down with a hurricanrana, then ducks a clothesline and rolls into the tag to bring in Takeshita.
Takeshita runs over Daniels numerous times, then nails the Blue Thunder Powerbomb. It gets 2 as Mizunami saves. Daniels uses her as a distraction for a cheap shot on Takeshita, but Yuka comes in with a missile dropkick on Daniels.
Hard Yuka elbows rock Mizunami, but a lariat turns the tide and then Mizunami levels her with a spear. Mizunami goes up top but Yuka meets her there with forearm shots. Superplex attempt is thwarted by Daniels pulling Yuka down. She fights off him off though and stuns him with an enzugiri, then Takeshita launches Miznuami off the turnbuckles at Daniels for an unwilling crossbody.
With Mizunami out on the mat, Yuka goes up for the Magical Magical Girl Splash (that’s not a typo, the double “Magical” indicates this is the version where she does a spinning splash (Twisted Bliss) from the middle of the top rope). Takeshita hits the running knee strike to Daniels a second later and a double pin gets the win (Takeshita and Daniels were still legal so that was theoretically the pin that mattered, but the ref counted both).
Fantastic match. Best of the weekend against solid competition.
Takeshita thanks his opponents for the match and the four shake hands.
Another strong batch of promotional matches, with everything not involving Nakazawa being great. And admittedly even the match I couldn’t stand served a purpose.
This event and other shows from numerous promotions including TJPW, DDT, Sendai Girls, Marigold, and so on can be viewed with a Wrestle Universe subscription.
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. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
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. Every little bit helps.
Derailments of Thought 