Something a little different this time as I’ll be giving a quick spotlight on and recommendations for a few of my favorite matches of all time that are all officially available to watch for free on they respective companies’ YouTube channels.
And away we go.
Ayako Hamada vs Kana – Shimmer Volume 50, 10/27/12
The World Famous Kana is of course now WWE’s Asuka.
Kana was already well established at this point 8 years into her career, but was the underdog in Shimmer for perhaps the first time against fellow joshi star and 14 year veteran Hamada. It was a big deal for this match to be happening on a US show, and it was the semi main for Shimmer’s special 50th volume. Shimmer was a US based women’s wrestling promotion that brought in talent from all over the world and produced 120 volumes over the course of 15+ years.
This is easily in my top 3 matches of the hundreds in Shimmer history, if not number 1.
Shimmer has put up numerous matches for free on their YouTube channel including several featuring other wrestlers who now wrestle for WWE or AEW. They also have a subscription streaming service with a large back catalog of full shows.
Best Friends vs Avid Rival – Pro-Wrestling Wave 8/12/17
Best Friends (Tsukasa Fujimoto & Arisa Nakajima) and Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami) are two of the best tag teams I’ve ever seen.
During my first trip to Japan in late 2015 I saw the first ever meeting between these two teams live. I was already a huge fan of Tsukka and Misaki from their Shimmer appearances and had heard a ton about Arisa. Mizunami was equally impressive as the other three, and the match blew me away.
A year and a half later a best of three series was announced between the two teams, with each of their home promotions hosting one (Arisa wrestled for SEAdLINNNG, Tsukka for Ice Ribbon, and both Avid Rival members for Wave). This series plus that original Ribbonmania match were the only four times the teams faced in their careers.
Admittedly that first encounter (which had been for Ice Ribbon’s International Tag Ribbon Titles) is probably still my favorite of their matches, but the teams had incredible chemistry in general and all four matches were great.
This match in particular was chosen for this feature by default, as it’s the one that’s easily available to watch and thus the one of the four that meets the criteria of these recommendations. Amusingly it also happens to be the only one I wasn’t at live, so I lucked out in it being the one widely distributed.
Watch their Wave Pro match here.
Misaki retired in 2018, and Arisa did in 2024. Mizunami is still active in various promotions as a freelancer, and we’ll get back to Tsukka again in a bit.
Wave has tons of matches from over the years up on their YouTube channel.
Sareee vs Dash Chisako – Sendai Girls 4/27/19
This is the one match in this post I was lucky enough attend live. I made a special trip to Sendai from Tokyo specifically to see this and it was an absolute blast.
This is two of the toughest wrestlers on the planet straight up beating the hell out of each other until one of them stays down. I really have nothing else to say here except that I loved it and go give it a watch.
Full show link (timed to the beginning of this match).
Chisako is still active in Sendai Girls, and Sareee appears in various promotions as a freelancer while also putting on her own self produced shows.
Check out more Sendai Girls matches and shows on their YouTube channel as well as on Wrestle Universe (via subscription). Sareee puts up matches on her channel and her self produced shows are available on ippv.
Special Bonus: Ice Ribbon vs Gatoh Move
In a lot of ways this extra entry at the end was what I most wanted to draw attention to and the primary motivation for this whole post idea. It’s a bit odd in ways I’ll get to but is a true hidden gem and worthwhile watch.
In all the years since founder Emi Sakura left Ice Ribbon and formed a new company called Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), the companies crossed paths exactly once with one cross promotional match hosted by each company.
Shortly before Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Sakura would make a surprise appearance at one of Ice Ribbon’s dojo shows to issue a challenge. And so Sakura, alongside partner Nanae Takahashi, would face Best Friends at Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Show.
Tsukka would then go to Gatoh Move’s home base in Ichigaya to issue a reciprocal challenge for Gatoh Move’s impending Korakuen Hall show. Sakura agreed under the condition that it would be the last Ice Ribbon vs Gatoh Move match. And it has been to this day.
Then reigning ICE Cross Infinity champion Risa Sera had wanted to accompany Tsukka, but Sakura said no she wasn’t invited. But a young Ice Ribbon wrestler named Yuuka, who had shown Sakura respect and held the ropes for her when she visited the dojo to issue her challenge, was welcome.
So it all led to:
Emi Sakura & Kotori vs Tsukasa Fujimoto & Yuuka – Gatoh Move 6/22/16
Kotori was one of Sakura’s proteges and was of similar experience to Yuuka, debuting in February of 2013 while Yuuka debuted in December of that same year.
I was not at this match, nor did I ever get ahold of one the limited amount of DVDs produced. And while Gatoh Move/ChocoPro has an insane amount of their shows and matches uploaded on their YouTube channel, including every show they’ve done for the last several years, this show/match is not yet among them. Well, not in the usual manner.
Building up to Emi Sakura’s 25th anniversary in wrestling, she sat down with Baliyan Akki and Mei Suruga for a watch party of matches from her career selected by Akki. The final match of the stream was Sakura & Kotori vs Tsukka & Yuuka. (The whole watch party is a fun retrospective on Sakura’s career.)
So the match is available in this still archived stream. The stream must be watched via direct link as it was part of ChocoPro’s channel cleanup a couple years back where they unlisted a great number of their livestreams and other ancillary content while trying to streamline the channel. These videos were intentionally left in the archive for anyone who wanted to watch them via a link but aren’t searchable and don’t appear in the channel’s listings.
The catch again is that it’s watch party style, with the match in a small subset of the screen and Sakura, Mei, and Akki commenting and chatting throughout. The delivery method might not be ideal for everyone, but I enjoyed seeing their reactions and the match itself is totally watchable as presented and excellent in whatever form. I adore everyone in the match, and just wanted to bring attention to the fact that it is lurking about for anyone who’d like to check it out.
Again, it can be watched here.
Kotori retired in late 2017. Sakura is still going strong 30 years into her career and wrestles for AEW as well as her promotion ChocoPro.
Tsukka still works for Ice Ribbon but is currently on leave. She intends to return to wrestling in the future.
Yuuka, who officially retired in 2019 and hadn’t been wrestling since a few months after this match, returned to wrestling recently at Ribbonmania 2025 and is just as awesome as she was back then. So cool to have her back.
All of ChocoPro’s shows go up on their YouTube channel, with optional support options for the promotion like YouTube membership and other sponsorships.
Ice Ribbon doesn’t post full matches or shows, but their channel has highlight videos for most every show and Club Ice Ribbon, their YouTube subscription membership, has their dojo shows and other content. Their bigger shows are on ippv, then are added to a subscription archive after a few months.
That’s it for this time around. Enjoy the large amount of content these companies share on their channels and if anyone is interested and able please also support their various subscription and ppv options. I hope everyone finds some cool stuff to watch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
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