Featured in NYC for a limited time is a combined exhibition spotlighting both early works of Ryoko Kui and her big hit Delicious in Dungeon. I’m extremely limited in my ability to go out nowadays but was lucky enough to catch this.
It’s a mid sized exhibit space spanning a couple of long hallways with two small offshoot rooms, but the walls are covered with a sizable number of art and displays providing an extensive collection of things to look at.
One thing I particularly adore in exhibits like this is when preliminary and concept art are displayed next to corresponding finished art. There was a good amount of that here and it was all really cool to take in. Original volumes of her early manga were also on display to be looked through with a couple even having a translated volume to read (all unobtrusively tethered to keep them by their designated spots).
I’m mostly familiar with Delicious in Dungeon by reputation, having just watched the first episode so far. But that was enough to understand the appeal and I still thoroughly enjoyed looking through everything on display.
Delicious in Dungeon has become incredibly popular in part due to its unique core concept and visually stunning depictions of the monster based food central to the show.
The section of the exhibit dedicated to this aspect is particularly great. Explanatory posters with an ingredient list and a bunch of pictures were displayed above well done plastic replicas of dishes from the show.
There was a large variety of merchandise available at the store on the way out, including shirts, random pull magnets/pins/keychains, acrylic standees, manga volumes, and so on.
Visitors get a free random (of 8) postcard for attending and can get another (from a different pull set) for posting on social media while there. Pictures are allowed (which admittedly is blindingly obvious this far down in this post) but no video.
I was done in about an hour, but it was still well worth it. This is an extremely well done pop up experience that’s exactly advertised: numerous displays of cool replicas of art and items from the works of Ryoko Kui.
This exhibition is in NYC for just another couple days. Definitely worth a look if you can fit it in. Tickets must be purchased in advance for their their Eventbrite site, but availability permitting it can be done right before going in.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
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.
Starlight Kid 10th Anniversary Show – October 20, 2025
Emi Sakura is approaching her 30th Anniversary show and has a number of anticipated matches across several companies in the couple weeks before it.
This trios match on Starlight Kid’s 10th Anniversary show is a cool mix of generations and has Sakura crossing paths with a couple extremely familiar faces.
Yuna Mizumori (Yunamon) was trained by Sakura, and has extensive history both feuding and teaming with her former mentor. Yunamon left Gatoh Move ( now ChocoPro ) for Stardom in 2022. She defeated Sakura in her second to last Gatoh match, her only ever singles win against her trainer. They have not crossed paths in any capacity since until this match.
Riho is the former ace of Gatoh Move. She left in 2019, and appeared in Stardom regularly until the end of 2020 including a High Speed Championship run. She and Sakura both work for AEW now, and they faced off last month in a tag match.
Ram Kaicho wrestled for a few years as a child, including several appearances in Emi Sakura’s promotion at the time Ice Ribbon, then essentially retired for a decade before returning in 2019. She’s been regularly wrestling since.
I’m not as familiar with Rina and Hina, Stardom’s actual twins, as the rest here. And they don’t have the history with Sakura the others do. But from what little I know about them they should fit in just fine.
Due to outage problems with the intended PPV service this show aired for free and is still currently available on Stardom’s YouTube channel.
Hina, Emi Sakura, & Yuna Mizumori vs Ram Kaicho, Riho & Rina
Four of the six wrestlers in this match debuted at age 11 or younger. The least experienced wrestler here has been wrestling for 7 years. Insane amount of talent in this one.
Riho being on Ram’s team makes sense, as does Sakura and her Beauty As Is teammate Yunamon reuniting, but even so alignment-wise Riho and Sakura look like they swapped places. Sakura even came out to her full heel AEW music. Riho’s probably going to have a much easier time going with the flow of her heel teammates than Sakura will have trying to play nice. Evil Riho rocks.
Riho’s leather jacket with sheer sleeves over her poofy entrance gown is fantastic.
Pre match Sakura slaps away Riho’s handshake offer. She’s already in full Her Highness mode and the match hasn’t started. This is going to be a blast.
Ram and Hina start. Collar and elbow tie-up leads to a Ram overhand wristlock. Hina counters into her own, which Ram rolls through and goes into a hammerlock. Headlock counter into a takedown by Hina is countered into a headscissors by Ram. Hina kips out, and it’s a stalemate. Nice bit of chain wrestling to get things going.
Hina with a kick to the midsection as Ram comes in for another lockup. Whip into the corner, but Ram counters Hina’s charge by … rapidly firing off imaginary shuriken. They’re devastating and Hina recoils back from the imaginary impacts to her stomach. Yunamon comes in and also falls victim to more shuriken. Still more get Sakura. And the ref must have looked at Ram funny so he gets some too. Ram’s carrying an awful lot of those on her.
Ram gloats to the crowd and all three of her opponents jump her from behind for her audacity. Riho and Rina come in to even the odds and throw Sakura and Yunamon out of the ring. Hina gets tied up and Ram, Rina, and Riho pose on the ropes while tormenting her. Riho’s kinda actually being the most disrespectful with her knee firmly planted in Hina’s face. The trio congratulate SLK then break the pose.
Back down to just Ram and Hina, Hina reverses a whip and scoops up Ram off the ropes for a big body slam. Tag to Sakura. She brings in Yunamon with a call of “hisashiburi” (“long time no see”) and gestures for a hug. But of course it’s Sakura so when Yunamon gets close Sakura boots her in the midsection, then hits the ropes and jumps on the stunned Yunamon’s back to force a splash onto Ram.
Sakura sets up and completes the Ay Oh sing along surfboard. With the awesome hard forced dismount after a few moments too. Ram gets up and screams a bit in defiance, then gets in Sakura’s face. The latter laughs, so Ram switches her taunts to Sakura’s real name. That gets Ram casually and deservedly slapped in the face.
Sakura hits the ropes but Ram’s completely collapsed from the slap and a confused Sakura pauses for a second. Then she approaches and Ram small packages her for 2. Facecrusher stuns Sakura and Ram tags out to Rina.
Rina goes up top for a shotgun missile dropkick. Big boot to Sakura draped across middle rope follows for 2. Sakura’s up quick though and a HARD chop sends Rina reeling to the ropes, portraying the pain across her face like she just ate a lemon.
Forearm from Rina. Sakura absolutely levels her with another chop in response. Crowd’s now firmly behind Rina. She fires up and lays in several forearms (although an odd camera angle choice leaves the viewers looking at Sakura’s back instead of the impact). Sakura rakes Rina’s eyes to stop her, but her follow up strike is blocked and Rina puts Her Highness down with a nice STO. Scoop slam attempt is countered by Sakura with a back rake then she goes right into Smash Mouth.
STOMP STOMP CLAP and the We Will Rock You singalong means it’s time for Sakura’s sweet corner crossbody. She then calls Hina over and they happily proclaim it’s tea time. Hina puts out a bent knee and Sakura butterfly busters Rina over it. Then Sakura and Hina enjoy their pantomime tea. Sakura definitely has a favored partner in this.Tag to Yunamon.
Shotgun dropkick sends Rina into her own corner and Riho tags in for an old school Gatoh Move showdown. Yunamon dodges a dropkick but gets arm dragged when she tries to pull Riho up. Riho dodges a charge but gets arm dragged herself by Yunamon as the latter rebounds. Shotgun dropkick by Yunamon. Riho bridges out of the cover at 1. They haven’t lost the slightest bit of chemistry.
Of the ropes Riho does a wheelbarrow rollup into the double stomp. She goes up to the top turnbuckle, but Sakura and Hina intercept. Yunamon comes over and the three march carry Riho out to the center of the ring, but Riho’s teammates save her and break up whatever triple team slam was intended.
The two teams line up for a simultaneous brawl. Well kind of, as Sakura and Ram are reversed and in the wrong lines. This leads to shots all around as people realize they’re next to opponents, which leads to Sakura nailing Yunamon with repeated forearms in the corner because Sakura is Sakura.
The respective teams clear out and Yunamon staggers to the center to the ring after taking the abuse from her own teammate where Riho lays in her own forearms. Yunamon eventually blocks one though and spins Riho around before landing a hard chop. Riho falls back up against the ropes and Yunamon charges in with a lariat. And another after getting momentum from hitting the opposite ropes. Tropical Yahho leg drop gets 2.
Yunamon hits the ropes again but Rina jumps her and Ram follows with a codebreaker. Ram then positions Yunamon for a top rope crossbody from Riho. Hina saves at 2.
Yunamon fights off a dragon suplex attempt then charges Riho. But Riho low bridges the ropes and Yuna goes over, yet holds on to the top rope and is hanging outside. Riho hits the far ropes presumably for a dropkick but runs right into a sweet judo throw from Hina.
Yunamon skins the cat back into the ring and she and Sakura sandwich lariat Riho. Yunamon hits the ropes and nails a gorgeous Supergirl pin attempt. Riho just barely rolls her shoulder up at 2.99.
Yunamon hits some shots on the prone Riho, then picks her up in a fireman’s carry. Riho counters a slam attempt from that position into a victory roll style pin for 2. Yunamon LEVELS Riho with a lariat and folds her in half on the pin to get another crazy close 2.
Apparently that was too close for Ram, who comes in to throw powder into Yunamon’s eyes. Rina’s H.A.T.E. stablemates have the ref distracted in the corner. Rina herself follows that up with a shot from her whip to Yunamon. Poor Yunamon’s laid out on the ropes and Ram hits the 619. Finally Riho’s crucifix spinning rollup gets 3.
Post match Riho assures the ref she has no idea what that powder all over the ring is and shows him her clean hands. I knew she’d fit right in with the heels eventually.
As the three celebrate, in the other corner Sakura of course takes exception to Yunamon losing and starts stomping away at her. Hina separates them but Sakura hits her too as they head to the back. Sakura heads off on her own while Hina and Yunamon bow to the crowd together.
This was a lot of fun. The antics were largely amusing and generally expected given the mix of wrestlers involved, and when the action picked up it was great. The Yunamon and Riho stuff down the stretch was awesome, and I’d love to see a singles match from them again someday given how much Yunamon has evolved since they last met. Rina and Hina were quite good. Would definitely like to see more from both.
Again the whole show is available on Stardom’s YouTube and well worth a watch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
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.
A quick look back on some personal highlights of the careers of a couple of fun wrestlers who I’m interestingly mostly familiar with outside of their original promotion.
Nao Kakuta
In the type of amusing coincidence that’s becoming common for this blog, I had no idea I was featuring two wrestlers who double debuted against each other when I chose to spotlight them together for this post. Nao and Tae both debuted for Actwres girl’Z on 5/31/15 in a singles match against each other.
It was the better part of three years into her career when I saw Nao for the first time. It was one of only a handful of times I ever saw her wrestle live, and it remains a lasting an enjoyable memory to this day.
AWG’s Bloody Cat faced Fairy Nipponbashi on Wave’s Young OH! OH! 1/8/18 show. I adored Nao immediately, and to my delight she picked up the win when she had more than enough of Fairy’s magical nonsense and just whacked her over the head with her own wand then rolled her up for the 3 count.
My other rare opportunities to see Nao live ended up being a Kani King Produce show of all things as well as one single time in her home promotion at Actwres girl’Z 1/20/19 show.
Free Wi-Fi PSC by Miki Okazaki.
In late 2020 Nao left Actwres and went to Tokyo Joshi Pro, where she’d spend the rest of her career. She fit in well, and always seemed to be enjoying herself in her matches.
In mid 2022 she would start teaming with my then favorite wrestler in the promotion, Hikari Noa, to form the tag team Free Wi-Fi.
The two had wonderful chemistry as a team and were a blast to watch. They’d eventually win the Princess Tag Team titles in October, 2024. It was the only title of Nao’s career.
Right before TJPW’s big January 4th show that year Free Wi-Fi forfeited the tag titles with Hikari being absent for undisclosed reasons. She never returned to wrestling, and her retirement was made official in May.
Nao was winding down her career herself, and had a proper farewell including a special self produced show right before her retirement where she had a match with fellow AWG alumni she had started with in Saori Anou, Natsupoi, and Tae.
I’m long overdue with this tribute as Nao retired in July, 2024, but I still wanted to reminisce a bit. Nao still pops now and then, as I’ll mention again shortly. I hope all is going well for the former Rat Chaser.
Tae Honma
Ice Ribbon’s “Best Enemy”
I saw a lot of wrestling each time I visited Japan. My first trip was both incredible and overwhelming. I saw 17 shows from 8 different promotions featuring 144 wrestlers. Of course some of it blurred together …
In the middle of it I attended a Reina show pretty much solely to see Tsukasa Fujimoto’s title match. I had no familiarity with the promotion nor most of their roster or the guest wrestlers appearing from other promotions. While the rest of the show was good enough, to be perfectly honest I promptly didn’t remember anything outside of Tsukka vs Maki Narumiya.
As it turns out that show was actually the first time I had ever seen Tae Honma wrestle, a mere 7 months into her career. The match was her and Maki Natsumi (now Natsupoi) against Saori Anou and Yuna Manase. Totally fine tag team match, but it completely slipped my mind for a while.
I find this worth noting in hindsight mainly because two years later at Ribbonmania I was convinced I was getting my first look at Tae and remember being incredibly impressed.
Tae is charisma personified, with a smash mouth style built on top of strong technical skills. She was feuding with Kyuri at the time, which meant she was appearing at a lot of the Ice Ribbon shows I regularly attended. Their battles spilled over into other promotions as well, including the Wave Young OH! OH! show I mentioned with regards to Nao above.
Tae and Kyuri were both regular partners of Maika Ozaki (as SPiCEAP and Gekokujo respectively), and their issues would involve Maika as well as Saori Anou in various forms over time. The four had great chemistry and their matches in different combinations were always fantastic. I’m a huge fan of all four of them to this day.
Tae Honma & Maika Ozaki PSC by Veronica O’Connell
I’ve seen and attended several awesome matches of Tae’s over the years. But I’d be lying if I tried to deny that the first thing that pops to mind will forever be the infamous hot dog match from Frank Sisters Produce 1/5/18.
Tae and Maya Yukihi faced Tsukka and Hamuko Hoshi in one of the most unique matches I’ve ever seen. Music would randomly be played during the match, at which point wrestlers currently in ring could eat hot dogs supplied by their seconds.
Watching them stuff their faces with hot dogs then immediately go back to taking hard shots and stomach bumps was unsettling in the most weirdly compelling way. The action was great, with everyone giving 110% effort.
The reason this match will always spring to mind with regards to Tae for me is that she was an absolute monster and the mvp of the whole affair. She and Maya, and again mostly she, outate their opponents by 9 hotdogs. Post show I talked to Tae while getting some pictures signed and she expressed being very full and never wanting to eat hot dogs for at least a year.
Tae was officially part of the Actwres roster until they rebranded as a wrestling related theatrical company and several of their wrestlers went freelance. She had always worked heavily in other promotions even before that, and as mentioned I primarily knew her through those appearances.
I did get to attend one AWG show that featured Tae, again a show I mentioned above that had Nao on it as well. Tae had a really cool Gatoh Move crossover match that saw her team with Yuna Mizumori (now of Stardom) against Mii and Riho (now of AEW).
Tae’s had a great retirement road that let her cross paths with a number of old compatriots from her AWG days as well as making final appearances in numerous promotions she wrestled in over the years. Tae continued to team with Maika, and she will be retiring as half of Wave’s Tag Team Champions as SPiCEAP still holds those titles.
Nao Kakuta made a special appearance as part of Tae’s match against Saki from GPU COLORS yesterday.
Tae Honma’s retirement match will be today, 10/13/25 (local Japan time/date), in just a couple hours at Ranmaru Festa Vol. 43. The show can be purchased for live streaming (with a week archive) here.
Tae was always an absolute joy to watch. Wishing her all the best in life post wrestling.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
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.
Mima Kirigoe is about to leave being a pop idol behind, but her past might not be on board with her new life and new image…
I feel fair warning is needed to start off here. Perfect Blue is officially Not Rated, but let’s be clear it would likely be NC-17 if it were given one.
So for anyone who still equates animation with children’s cartoons: you are very much in the wrong place. It’s a medium that, like live action, can be used to tell a wide variety of stories in any genre. Perfect Blue is a full blown psychological thriller with horror elements and extremely graphic treatment of horrible situations.
It’s also easily one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and one of my all time favorites.
And yet I’ve only watched it a handful of times over the years because of its intensity and subject matter. I adore a good psychological thriller, in part I’m sure because of the impression this left on me, but horror and gore aren’t my thing at all. The graphic nature of this film is beyond what I’m usually able to handle, but the medium, the execution, and the sheer quality of this film make it the exception.
I first saw Perfect Blue pretty close to when it was initially released, an astonishing 28 years ago now. I was still early on in being an anime fan, and it completely blew me away. I spent the majority of the movie trying to keep up and wondering what on Earth I was watching as the film broke my brain, but in the final ten minutes or so it all seems to fit together in incredible form and makes everything that came before click into place.
This was director Satoshi Kon’s first film. He had a small but impressive list of other movies plus one tv series before his unfortunate death in 2010 at the age of 46. Everything in his catalog is well worth watching, and varies wildly in genre and subject matter.
It’s been near a decade since my last watch, and the opportunity to see the remaster in a theater made this the perfect time to revisit this masterpiece and see how it held up.
Perfect Blue is a visually stunning film, and the restoration did it justice. Everything popped in the right ways and the detail put into it can be appreciated as never before. It simply looked great.
There’s a kind of stylized realism to the film, which made certain elements really stand out when that realism was pushed aside a bit both narratively and visually. Kon was willing to make some characters look unsettling and/or ugly, which adds a lot to the visual depth and overall atmosphere.
Mima’s story was every bit as gripping as when I watched it for the first time, and knowing the key reveals didn’t detract from the building tension at all. The themes of personal choice and identity, the pitfalls of fame, the commodification of celebrities, and so on still resonate.
The pacing is exquisite, as the film knows when to hold a scene for impact and to create unease. There are several times when disturbing scenes and moments are held, creating an oppressive sense of dread.
There are several sections where time is played with and scenes are intercut together. I’ve never seen the technique put to better use. Mima’s world is falling apart, and the film’s use of parallel moments and framing to convey the fragility of her reality is incredible.
It’s a minor thing but the time period specific stuff, like the main character needing to learn what the internet is and how to navigate it, was presented really well. The film doesn’t feel poorly aged because it was from a different time, as it clearly and naturally gives the viewer just enough of a frame of reference for what era it’s in.
The entire film left a mark on me and still had as much impact this time around. One particular moment, a stunning illustration of taking full advantage what can be done in animation, blew me away and is always what I think of first when I remember this movie. It’s a split second thing, but my jaw dropped again all the same when I saw it on the big screen.
This was an instant classic when it was released, and absolutely holds up near three decades later.
Perfect Blue Remastered will be playing in select theaters for about another week. Highly recommended, with a reminder warning that this is an intense, often disturbing watch.
Side note: Perfect Blue is an adaptation, and I read and reviewed the translation of the book it was based on a few years back. The short version is while the book is solid, there were some major changes made to the film that added depth and nuance and for anyone interested in this story the movie is definitely the way to go.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
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.
Evil Uno’s Mystery Wrestling is a fun concept where the wrestlers and matches aren’t revealed before the show. Recently Uno’s fellow AEW superstar Emi Sakura appeared on one of his shows. A couple weeks later and Uno’s in Japan with a special crossover with Sakura’s own company ChocoPro (although Sakura herself is in the US and thus isn’t appearing this time).
As ChocoPro has a set core roster some of the participants where obvious/shared beforehand, but the matchups were kept secret, even in the few hours between the taping and the show’s airing.
Going into the show Mei Suruga, Baliyan Akki, Chie Koishikawa, Miya Yotsuba, Hiyori Yawata, Chris Brookes, and of course Evil Uno had been announced.
Akki and Evil Uno opened up the show, with Uno explaining it’s his first trip to Japan. Akki taught Uno the ins and outs of ChocoPro’s home turf rules in an amusing bit.
For new viewers: Ichigaya Chocolate Square is a unique venue with no ring. The audience surrounding the mat and the one wall the mat is up against are the “rope break” boundaries for submissions only. Pinfalls count as long as the wrestler’s shoulders are on the mat, and there are no rope breaks for pinfalls.
That’s the gist of what Akki explained. In addition, double teams/double pins are legal in tag team matches, there are no count outs, and referees are extremely lenient as far as DQs go (as is normal for Japanese wrestling). For more details see this quick reference I wrote a few years ago.
Uno revealed he does commentary himself for Mystery Wrestling and stepped into the camera/commentary role for match 1.
1- Hiyori Yawata & Chris Brookes vs Egg Tart (Chie Koishikawa & Hagane Shinno)
Hiyori was out first and introduced the newest member of Team Hiyori, CHRIS BROOKES! Ever the good sport Chris came out in a Hiyori hat. I love this team already.
Their opponents are Egg Tart. This is a really cool choice for the opening match.
Referee is ChocoPro GM Aoi Kizuki.
Chris heckled Chie during her intro. Then he threw her flower on the ground and was just being a general gremlin to her. Man I hate to see ChieDK bicker.
Amusing start saw Chris take one hard leg kick from Hagane and tag out. Hiyori then tried to avenge her partner and gave Hagane several … rather ineffective kicks. Hanage leveled her with a single kick of his own in response and she rolled to the corner to tag out. No one wants to mess with Hagane.
After tags on both sides Chris touched the ceiling to taunt Chie, so Chie got on Hagane’s shoulders to do the same. Chris put Hiyori on his shoulders and the audience already knew what was coming. Sure enough Chris put her head through the ceiling as soon as he stood up. Shades of Rin Rin. Chris apologized to Sakura through the camera.
Chris continued being a menace all match doing things like hitting his opponents (and poor ref Aoi) with his big rubber band thing as well as rubbing the broken ceiling tile into Chie’s forehead.
Good action all around, with the strike exchanges between the men being particularly heavy hitting and impressive. Egg Tart applied a sick looking double stretch muffler on Hiyori at one point. Probably would have been it but Chris went nuts with his elastic again and broke it up.
Eventually Chie caught Hiyori with a sweet arm trap rollup for the win.
This was a really high energy ten minute match and a fantastic example of how to work in a bit of absurdity and shenanigans into a hard hitting contest.
Post match Chris went to put the Hiyori hat back on but Hiyori complained about the ceiling thing, so her threw it at her instead.
2- ???
Uno tries to bail and hand the camera off to someone saying it’s very hard to do two things at once, Mei comes out and pushes him back behind the camera. She cuts a promo at Uno, which means towards the camera. Nicely done.
Mei makes the next match 1 count rules in honor of Uno. And then totally unnecessarily but hilariously demonstrates what a 1 count is and how to kick out before 1. I adore this. Once she’s done talking she ejects him, starting a “you get out” chant, and takes over behind the camera herself.
2- Mei’s Special Uno Count Match
And our participants are… Choun Shiryu and Trans Am Hiroshi. This’ll be something.
Choun can work any style and Hiroshi is at home in atypical matches so they worked this stipulation to the fullest.
Choun nearly stole the win early during a reversal sequence but Hiroshi kicked out before 1. Right off the bat they established that the unusual rule was going to have a big impact on their strategy.
Hiroshi did his usual meditation stuff, where he’s able to shrug off strikes and roll back into crosslegged sitting position through the power of inner peace. It worked for a bit, but then nearly backfired spectacularly when Choun went for a pin instead and Hiroshi had to frantically kickout before 1.
Ref Aoi did a phenomenal job on all the close 1 counts throughout the match, including a great series of rapid fire covers by Choun where Hiroshi had to kick out super fast several times in a row.
Late in the match Trans Am Hiroshi stopped for a song break. Choun joined in, and Hiroshi’s sneak attack after they finished singing nearly got the win with a small package. They kept fighting until Choun got caught in a sweet judo throw off of the windowsill for 1 and the win for Trans Am Hiroshi.
This was two extremely talented veterans in an entertaining outing and again a good mix of ridiculousness and solid wrestling.
Right before the main event is where the support shoutouts happen. I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Masahiro Takanashi, an incredible wrestler and a big part of ChocoPro, is currently out recovering from a serious neck injury and ChocoPro has set up a variety of ways to help if anyone is able.
3- Miya Yotsuba & Evil Uno vs Best Bros (Mei Suruga & Baliyan Akki)
Brooks is on commentary for the main event. Best Bros give him grief about the hole in the ceiling, and like the stand up guy he is he blames Hiyori.
Uno & Miya are going to be a fun team.
Mei and Uno to start. As usual Mei thinks she’s 10 feet tall and showed no fear against her much larger opponent. She then proceeded to knock herself over trying to tackle Uno. Magnificent.
Mei was more evil than Evil Uno all match, including taking a Miya towel away from a fan at one point to choke Miya with. That’s just not right. Akki fully leaned into the boos too and did a “Bros Hammer” to embarrass Miya by stealing her signature Miya Hammer and then mocked the fans’ negative reaction.
Miya & Uno later got in on the shenanigans too though, when Miya had fans link hands to make a chain all around Ichigaya for extra leverage for Uno’s abdominal stretch on Akki.
Like the opener, this was another fast paced high octane example of great tag team wrestling.
Eventually the teamwork of the well established, former tag team champion Best Bros proved too much to overcome and their trademark Dolphin Press (wheelbarrow assisted shooting star press) on Miya picked up the 3 count.
That was SO. MUCH. FUN. Uno fit right in and this was a blast.
Two of AEW’s Japanese announcers were in attendance and were invited into the post show janken (rock-paper-scissors) tourney.
This happened the day before Choco’s next ring show, New Dawn, which like all of ChocoPro’s show will eventually be available to watch for free on their YouTube channel.
This was a breeze and a joy to watch. The ChocoPro roster are masters at making the most of the environment in their unique home base, and this show is an excellent encapsulation of the kind of wrestling they do. I highly recommend it in general and particularly to anyone who is even remotely interested in checking out the company. This show is officially available to watch at any time for free.
“Thank you for … showing me that wrestling can happen anywhere, it does not need ropes, it only needs the spirit of pro wrestling.” Uno gets it. Really hope he comes back someday.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
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 