Show aired live December 31, 2025.
New Year’s Eve means it’s time once again for Ribbonmania.
Ribbonmania is Ice Ribbon’s big annual year end show at Korakuen Hall. I’ve been watching since 2015 and have attended several times in the past (pre-pandemic when I could travel).
As usual I throughly enjoyed last year’s Ribbonmania, which was an interesting show during a transition period. A significant portion of the roster were leaving the company and having their last matches as Ice Ribbon members at that show.
Going into this year’s show Tsukasa Fujimoto is still on leave and Ibuki Hoshi is unfortunately out with a torn ACL.
Further unfortunate news hit a few hours before this show with reigning ICE Cross Infinity Champion Manami Katsu being ill with a high fever and subsequently off the card. She was scheduled to defend her title in the main event again Kaho Matsushita (who missed last year’s Ribbonmania due to injury and returned early this year). The card was shuffled a bit in ways that will be noted when we get to it.
1) Moe Hiiro & Miran vs. Miku Kanae & Riko
Starting the show with a (mostly) kids spotlight as Diana’s Miran is 16 years old, Moe from Ice Ribbon’s sister promotion Hot Shushu is 14, and newest Ice Ribbon roster member Riko is 11.
Miku’s the only adult in this but actually just barely not the most experienced, as Miran debuted about 6 months before Miku in 2022. Riko and Moe are both under a year experience.
They kept this really fast paced throughout for a solid 10 minute opener. Everyone looked quite good and had great chemistry with each other, particularly for their ages and levels of experience. I’d be really interested in seeing any combination of these four face off in singles matches.
Riko and Miran fought back and forth near the end including a great series of close pin attempts to the crowd’s delight. Miran eventually hit an Asai moonsault on Riko to win. Great start.
2) Big Dekai (Totoro Satsuki & Yuna Manase) vs Big Haruka & Mizuki Kato
Slugfest incoming.
Manase’s from Ganbare Pro, Big Haruka’s from JTO, and Kato from Diana.
Big Dekai are an established team and former tag champs.
Amusingly Big Haruka is in fact the smallest wrestler in this match.
This had a different feel than anything else on the card, which is what you want from a match like this. This was largely four people trying to run over each other. Deliberately paced but consistent action, with heavy hitters throwing themselves at each other until something gives.
One notable amusingly absurd exchange saw Kato and Manase in a screaming contest, yelling in each other’s faces as one might throw punches. It led to Kato hitting the ropes only to stop short of impact and scream in Manase’s face again. Then they all resumed trying to level each other.
Eventually the established team outlasted their opponents and Totoro wiped out Kato with a lariat for a 3 count.
Decent power match. Was my first look at Kato and Haruka. Kato moves insanely quick for her size and fit right in with her much more experienced opponents (Manase’s been wrestling 11 years, Totoro 8, Kato just over 2 and Haruka about a year and a half). Haruka had a couple awkward moments but overall did fine.
Haruka got into it with Manase afterwards, albeit rather ineffectually. Manase absorbed Haruka’s forearms then dropped her with one shot. I wonder if the two will be crossing paths again soon.
3) Triangle Ribbon Title Match: Makoto (c) vs Kaori Yoneyama vs Mase Hiiro
Mase dances her way to the ring to super catchy music in a fantastic entrance. She’s the younger sister of Moe from the opener and also wrestles for Hot Shushu. Yoneyama’s a 25+ year veteran and a multi time former Triangle champ earlier in the year. Both Yoneyama and Makoto are freelancers.
This is Makoto’s first defense since she won the title a couple months prior. She also wrestled on ChocoPro’s big year end ring show less than 24 hours before this.
Yone and Mase spent a large portion of this acting like a team to Makoto’s bewilderment. Makoto kept pushing Mase aside to attack Yone or trying to convince Mase to team with her instead. It didn’t go well.
Yone kept trying to help Mase pin Makoto, and eventually Makoto had enough and looked to get serious with Mase. She put her hands around Mase’s throat and the crowd erupted in boos.
Makoto tried to change tactics and push Mase aside again but Yone had been waiting for her opening. She of course turned on Mase, pushing her into Makoto to knock the champion out of the ring then rolling up and pinning Mase to steal Makoto’s title.
The visual of Yone taunting her opponents and the crowd with her new title while is simultaneously running away from an angry child is peak Yoneyama.
Mase is CRAZY good, particularly for a young child wrestler. Wrestling just seems to click with her. They approach her matches well, in ways that remind me of Kaho Hiromi in ChocoPro (although their wrestling stye is different).
This was highly entertaining ridiculousness.
4) Arisa Shinose, Misa Kagura, & Sumika Yanagawa vs. Bad Butts (Yappy, Ancham, & Crea)
Bad Butts are the purest heels Ice Ribbon has ever had, and the enthusiasm with which they make menaces of themselves is great.
Misa’s one half of the International Tag Ribbon Champions with Manami Katsu. With Katsu scheduled to defend her singles title those titles are not being defended at this show (and of course as mentioned above Katsu ended up out with illness). Misa’s actually a multi time tag team champion in Ice Ribbon, and has held those same titles separately with both of her partners tonight as well.
This match was all about Misa’s team trying to get back at the bullies that have been tormenting them for months. It was mostly a straight up fight but of course eventually Bad Butts managed to create an opportunity to resort to weapons shenanigans.
Yappy hit all three of her opponents with her ever present Bad Butts road sign, Area choked out Misa, then Ancham hit Misa in the stomach with her chain. They then liberally triple teamed Arisa and maintained control for a bit until Misa shook off the effects of the weapons (perhaps a touch too completely) and fought back.
Late match Misa saves Arisa from Bad Butts’ double pumphandle finisher. Then after some miscommunication and a subsequent Crea kick to Yappy leads to a 2 count, Arisa’s Shining Wizard on Yappy gets the win.
Yappy goes for Shinose with the sign for revenge afterwards. Poor Sumika gets leveled instead then Misa stops Yappy from braining anyone else.
Solid grudge match with a satisfying win for the faces.
5) FantastICE Title Match: Akane Fujita (c) vs Tsukina Umino
Umino comes out in a split black and white entrance coat with a masquerade style mask and is just exuding aura.
Akane’s even more imposing than when she was a roster member. She’s bigger, a bit more no nonsense, and awfully fond of headbutts nowadays.
FantastICE is a custom stipulation championship, but the stip chosen by Akane for this particular match is just that it’s a normal match with a 20 count on the floor.
Umino is overmatched and Akane just brutalizes her most of match. Her strength is her resiliency, and this is all about whether she can last long enough to wear down Akane and claim the championship.
They fight all over, with a fair bit of outside brawling. I’m not sure the rules should allow Akane to play goalie keeping Umino from getting back in the ring while the count continues, but it did make for a dramatic moment when Umino got back in at the last second.
Umino slowly wore down her stronger opponent down with a variety of holds. She still took the brunt of a lot of high impact offense, and had several close kickouts late in the match.
Umino got a close 2 on Akane off a Venus Shoot variation (shades of Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukka, who’s currently on leave).
Eventually Umino landed a Claymore style kick off the middle turnbuckle to finally keep Akane down and win the title.
This was straight up David vs Goliath. Good stuff. Well deserved title win for Umino.
6) Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Natsumi) vs. Azure Revolution (Risa Sera & Maya Yukihi)
Risa Sera will be retiring on 1/12/26 after a 13 year career. She spent most of it in Ice Ribbon before leaving at the end of 2021 with several other roster members (including Mochi, who as known as Mochi Miyagi when she was in Ice Ribbon) to form a freelance unit called Prominence.
This is the first time Risa or Mochi have been back since early 2022. Prominence appeared in Ice Ribbon once a few weeks after leaving, then never again.
Maya went freelance separately around the same time, still appeared regularly in Ice Ribbon in 2022, and has appeared a couple times a year since.
Hamuko has been out most of the year and needs treatment for accumulated injuries. This is her last match for the foreseeable future. This is not a retirement match for her, but she’s been frank about the possibility of not being able to come back to wrestling. Steamers were passed out for her and the fans covered the ring with them during her entrance.
Side note: the Lovely Butchers have one of the most engaging and interactive entrances in wrestling and seeing the crowd bopping along to their music was quite nostalgic.
These two teams were a major part of Ice Ribbon’s tag division during the years I was attending live shows. Azure Revolution just started teaming again earlier this year as part of Risa’s retirement road. The Butchers haven’t teamed since Mochi left Ice Ribbon. Risa returning and Hamuko wrestling here for one last encounter between these teams is a treat. Risa had said she thought she’d never come back.
They toughed this out to play the hits and deliver a special moment in time. This was a callback to their prior encounters in all the ways it should have been.
The match built up to an extended Risa vs Hammy section towards the end. Eventually Azure Revolution hit a superkick Ayers Rock combo on Hamuko… for 2. The kickout was all she had left though and Risa’s Air Raid Crash wins it.
Tsukka and the roster members who’ve already wrestled came in with flowers to wish Risa well. Best wishes to her and hoping all goes well for Hamuko.
7) Yuuka vs Kirari Wakana
8) ICE Cross Infinity Title Match: Manami Katsu (c) vs. Kaho Matsushita
7) ICE Cross Infinity Title Match: Kaho Matsushita vs Yuuka vs Kirari Wakana
With Katsu out her championship is vacated and the announced semi-main is now folded into the main event. It’s Kaho Matsushita vs Yuuka vs Kirari Wakana for the vacant ICE Cross Infinity Championship. Bad break for Katsu, but this match is a huge opportunity for these three.
This is Yuuka’s return match, as she’s coming out of retirement and rejoining the roster. What a trial by fire. Yuuka was one of my absolute favorites and I am extremely psyched to have her back (… put a pin in this).
This is almost certainly Kaho’s match to win, but I want a surprise Yuuka victory so bad.
Kirari Wakana vs Yuuka:
Oh, this is Ice Ribbon’s rotating gauntlet rules, not a triple threat. So after the introductions and the referee checking all three of them Kaho goes out and we start with Yuuka vs Kirari.
The way this works is they keep having singles matches with the odd woman out facing the winner until someone wins two straight. This is a really good match format to go with in the main event to make up for the change in plans, and it also essentially means we still get the Kirari vs Yuuka match that was originally meant to be the semi-main.
Kirari refuses to come to the center to shake Yuuka’s hand, which calls back to Yuuka faking a handshake during the buildup to their planned match.
These are two extremely similar wrestlers and I was thrilled when the match was announced, thinking Kirari was the perfect opponent for Yuuka’s return.
Kirari went submission based for a good chunk of match, working over Yuuka’s right arm for an extended period.
The effects of Kirari’s assault on Yuuka’s arm were noticeable. It was hanging by Yuuka’s side at points, she had to shake it out pretty often, and she winced a bit when forced to use it for her trademark offensive forearms.
She’s so good at the little details, as I pointed out when I recently took a look at a match she once had against Kana (WWE’s Asuka). Her instincts are excellent and she’s showing practically no ring rust after 9 years away from the ring.
As things went on Yuuka managed several of her signatures for close near falls, including Angel Thunder (her sweet diving forearm on a prone opponent), the float over backslide (Saori Anou’s Pottering), Schoolgirl rollup (120% Schoolboy), and her cross legged Fisherman suplex.
A key moment saw Yuuka going face first into the mat when her top rope Angel Thunder misses. Kirari took advantage with a top rope dropkick.
Kirari went to end things with her twisting crucifix but slipped off Yuuka’s back. The move requires perfect balance as Kirari climbs onto her opponents back from the side, into a position where someone would normally roll down into a cross armbreaker, and twists into a crucifix pin instead. Kirari immediately stunned Yuuka with forearms to create a chance to try for it again… and slipped off again.
This time Yuuka took advantage of the opening to paste Kirari with forearm shots of her own and went for her costed legged back suplex. Kirari twists away and climbs onto Yuuka once more to nail the crucifix and win the fall.
They did a great job fighting over that and adjusting and the move looked awesome when Kirari eventually hit it.
Strong start. On we proceed to:
Kirari Wakana vs Kaho Matsushita:
So now if Kirari beats Kaho she’s the match winner and new champion. But if Kaho wins Yuuka comes back in to face her. And Kirari’s 12 minutes deep against a fresh Kaho.
This stats off hot, as Kaho tries to run over Kirari but the latter counters with small package and nearly wins the title. Then the fresh Kaho settles in to work over her exhausted opponent.
In general Kirari’s counters and near falls made this extra exciting as the match format meant there was the possibility of her going two straight to become champion behind every one of her pinfall attempts.
On a side note that I noticed in particular both here and during the Yuuka vs Kirari section: this referee is the best I’ve ever seen at stopping short when someone kicks out at the last second. His cadence is perfect even on super close calls.
Late in this match Kaho makes Kirari pay for going for the crucifix with a sweet overhead suplex counter.
Kirari survives Kaho’s pump handle suplex with bridge, but a Falcon Arrow wins for Kaho immediately after.
So now:
Kaho Matsushita vs Yuuka:
A Kaho win here takes the match and the title. Yuuka winning keeps the match going and she would face Kirari again.
Yuuka EXPLODES on Kaho with forearms to start, but Kaho weathers the onslaught and takes over in short order.
Kaho just wrestled while Yuuka recovered but Yuuka’s still the worse for wear of the two overall. Yuuka’s match against Kirari lasted several minutes longer than Kaho’s did.
Yuuka put up a good fight and had some nice near falls. She worked in several of her signatures again trying to stop Kaho’s momentum. At one point she busted out a sweet matrix evasion.
But Kaho kept at her and a worn out Yuuka was just barely rolling herself over to kickout at certain points.
Kaho’s pumphandle suplex eventually gets Yuuka to stay down, and with two straight wins Kaho Matsushita is the new ICE Cross Infinity Champion.
Not unexpected, and Kaho is going to be a great champion. I still had a blast cheering for my underdog and hoping for a miracle win.
Yuuka both looked totally exhausted during this and still like a major threat that Kaho had to work to beat. Well done.
Kaho beat both Kirari and Yuuka in about 7 minutes each, making the whole main event a touch over 25 minutes.
So a few hours before the start of Ice Ribbon’s biggest show of the year a wrestler with a year and a half experience, one who was having her first match in 9 years, and a 22 year old rising star who returned this year after a year out with injury suddenly found out their planned matches were changing.
They all ended up essentially wrestling two matches apiece in the main event of the biggest show of year on practically no notice, and all three worked their asses off to deliver a great main event under tough circumstances. They should be incredibly proud of their performances and the match was really good.
Manami Katsu recovered quickly and has already returned (and actually received her championship match against the new champion earlier in the day as I prepare to post this).
So about Yuuka’s return…
She looked great in this impromptu main event and rocked her return out of the park. She then wrestled on Ice Ribbon’s New Year’s show a few days later, then on Ice Ribbon’s sister theatrical company Venus’ show on 1/4/26 and another Ice Ribbon show later in the day.
Unfortunately after those matches she was diagnosed with pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and will be out for an uncertain time period.
Rotten luck all around but she will be involved in a non wrestling capacity as she’s able. This was still an impressive return to wrestling and I’m wishing her a complete as speedy recovery. As frustrating as it must be to be out so soon after returning, health comes first and I hope she takes all the time she needs.
Overall
It’s Ribbonmania. It was a blast. As usual everyone gave their all in matches that featured a mix of styles that all came together into a fun show. This is always a highlight of my year. It was just plain fun to watch.
Congratulations to our new champions, best wishes for a speedy recovery for Ibuki and Yuuka and that things go well for Hamuko, and may everyone continue to Be Happy With Pro Wrestling.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
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Derailments of Thought 