Author: Xyon McKell

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Ice Ribbon Ribbonmania 2025

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 cross 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 starts 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 knocked her return out of the park. She wrestled again 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 again 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.

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.

Categories
Food Japan Wrestling

In the Blink of an Eye: Past Japan Trips

Today marks exactly 10 years since the first time I ever set foot in Japan. Crazy how time flies. It was a trip I’d wanted to do for ages and led to an extremely fortunate run of making several visits until early 2020.

Due to my particular mix of significant chronic health issues and the realities of a post pandemic world, I haven’t been back since and won’t be able to travel for the foreseeable future. I do hope to go back someday. Fingers crossed.

So on this anniversary I’d like to spotlight some strong memories of my trips. There’s of course way more than I’ll cover here in detail, so forgive me if I overlook something (also this will obviously be public facing stuff and certain highlights and memories involving friends and family are outside of its scope).

My first trip

Between exploring Tokyo for the first time and seeing 17 shows from 8 different promotions over the course of the two and a half weeks I was there my first trip was both a blast and a complete blur.

From my first show, an Ice Ribbon dojo show, on things just kept going in a franticly fun time. This trip would also introduce me to Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro) and their incredibly unique home venue.

I got to see wrestlers I had come to adore through Shimmer in their home promotions for the first time, including Tsukasa Fujimoto (Ice Ribbon), Misaki Ohata (Wave), and a number of others.

I was introduced to an incredible number of new to me wrestlers as well, a mix of discovering new people to cheer for and getting a look at stars I’d heard a lot about but never seen.

One particular treat was seeing Io Shirai (now Iyo Sky) vs Meiko Satomura headline Korakuen. Another was a pair of Best Friends matches, against the Jumonji Sisters and Avid Rival respectively, that remain two of my favorite matches of all time and had a great impact on the shape of my wrestling fandom going forward.

Meeting wrestlers

One particular memorable aspect of attending joshi shows was the opportunity to meet the wrestlers to purchase merchandise and get autographs and/or photos with them. There are far too many wrestlers I had the privilege to see wrestle live and meet to list. I was incredibly fortunate to meet a large number of my favorites during those trips.

One extremely significant set of memories for me involve meeting a young wrestler named Asahi. I was at her debut against the legendary Manami Toyota. She was a joy to watch wrestle and always nice to talk to, and is very much one of my favorite Ice Ribbon wrestlers of all time.

Asahi passed away in early 2024 at the age of 21. She is greatly missed.

Rest In Peace, Sunrise of Hope. 

Meet and greets done differently nowadays, but still remain a key part of joshi wrestling. One aspect that is done a lot less now, if at all, that I remember fondly was the chance to get group and roster photos.

Retirement shows

When farewell shows are done for retiring wrestlers in Japan they are full of pomp and circumstance. There are often career highlight video packages, a farewell ceremony, and if the wrestler is able a final match of some personal significance. One final show of support via throwing streamers in their colors often engulf the ring as they take their last bow.

I lucked into seeing three retirement shows during my first trip, for Act Yasukawa, Kayoko Haruyama, and Neko Nitta. They were all interesting shows and nice to have the opportunity to be at.

I was unfamiliar with Haruyama but she impressed me in the few matches I saw and it was cool to see her sendoff. Neko I had heard a lot about as she was a good friend’s favorite wrestler. It was great to see her last few matches.

Anyone with even passing familiarity with joshi wrestling at the time had heard of Act. She was retiring due to injuries resulting from an infamous incident (that it should be noted is well in the past and has been moved on from by all involved). It was a relief that she was well enough to come back for a farewell match, and even more so that she eventually returned to the wrestling world years later as part of Actwres girl’Z where she participates to this day.

During subsequent trips I would bid farewell to several of my personal favorites at their last shows live including Mika Iida, Aoi Kizuki, Misaki Ohata, and Tequila Saya.

Aoi’s retirement show and several of her retirement road shows preceding it were particularly special as I planned that trip around her retirement. Aoi was a blast to watch and it’s been awesome to see her return to wrestling related activities recently as ChocoPro’s GM and a DareJyo trainer. She also had a one time special return to the ring as part of Emi Sakura’s 30th Anniversary match a couple months ago.

There is one show noticeably absent from this list I was supposed to be at that I’ll be discussing later on.

Anniversary shows are also often unique, special events and things like getting to see Naomichi Marufuji vs Hikaru Shida at Shida’s 10th Anniversary Show was really cool.

That time I got the flu in Japan

Not all strong memories are entirely positive.

My aforementioned health issues left me susceptible to coming down with illnesses during my trips, and one particularly unlucky turn saw me catching the actual flu. Influenza A left me completely isolated in my hotel outside of leaving to get food and medicine/treatment for 10 straight days during my 2019-2020 holiday trip.

In fact I caught it on New Year’s Eve, throwing a wrench into some big plans I had for the end of my trip including a New Year’s Eve concert and Wrestle Kingdom.

Which brings us back to the conspicuous absence from the retirements section. I had tickets to the Tokyo Dome to see a childhood favorite of mine, Jushin Thunder Liger, have his last match on 1/5/20. Needless to say that didn’t happen.

My luck wasn’t all horrible though. I was fortunate enough to make the retirement show of another favorite of mine, Tequila Saya, shortly before getting sick. I caught a different concert of the flautist I was supposed to see on New Year’s (and had heard years prior in NYC) once I recovered, and Wrestle Kingdom being Wrestle Kingdom I was able to stream it and watch while resting. Not the same as being there live, but sometimes it’s about making the best of things as they come.

Non-wrestling wrestling events

Some of the most unique and fun activities I was able to participate in were non-wrestling events involving wrestlers. These varied from restaurants and bars that had wrestlers hosted events, holiday parties, and so on.

I had missed some events I planned on attending from time to time due to health or scheduling conflicts, but still managed a few really fun ones including a Sendai Girls New Year’s party and an Ice Ribbon party/rally event going into one of their big shows.

I adored both Tequila Saya’s bar After Party and the DDT run bar Swandive and visited each several times. Both are unfortunately long closed now but were excellent places to relax and have a drink while they were around.

Easily the most unusual wrestling adjacent experience I had was an Ice Ribbon collaboration with Fuerza Bruta WA! I had seen Fuerza Bruta and their mind blowing combination of music, dance, and acrobatics in NYC prior and really enjoyed it. Getting to see their Tokyo show while hanging out with a handful of other Ice Ribbon fans and Tsukka and Maya was really awesome.

Sightseeing and so on

Strange as it may seem to point out this deep into the post, wrestling *wasn’t* in fact the only thing I did in Japan. Wrestling and the Tokyo area were undoubtedly the focal points of my trips in general, but I was fortunate enough to do a lot of other things and see a lot of Japan as well.

In addition to being based in Tokyo over the course of various trips I traveled to Hokkaido, Kyoto, Sendai, Nara, Osaka, Nagoya, and a number of other areas of Japan. Not a lot of specifics to share but all the sightseeing I did was just full of gorgeous scenery to look at.

When I waist full blown tourist attraction mode I did things like visiting Tokyo Tower, riding the Tokyo Dome coaster, checking out things like the Snoopy and Studio Ghibli museums (which both rocked), and of course spending a ridiculous amount of time in Akihabara. Hey I’m an anime and game nerd at heart.

And last but not least I adore Japanese food as well as fusion variations, so suffice to say I ate extremely well while I was over there.

 

——-

Thanks to anyone who took this trip down memory lane with me. It’s been an interesting decade.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.

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.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Wrestling Omakase Appearance

Quick entry with something a bit different.

Wrestling Omakase podcast did two gigantic episodes previewing nearly every wrestling promotion running shows in Tokyo during Wrestle Kingdom week with recaps of their 2025, occasional historical information, and thoughts on the announced upcoming shows.

I joined in for the joshi episode to talk about Ice Ribbon (about 3:20 in) and ChocoPro (around 4:45). There was also a lot of in depth discussion from others about Marigold, TJPW, Actwres girl’Z, Stardom, Oz Academy, Marvelous, SEAdLINNNG, Diana, Pure-J, and Wave. Please check it out.

If anyone’s interested in a little more detail about some of the things I brought up, here are some links to relevant prior entires from this blog.

Yuuka’s retirement 

Yuuka’s impending return

spotlight on Yuuka vs Kana (WWE’s Asuka)

Risa Sera’s retirement

Be Happy by Charles Short

Wonderland by Charles Short

last year’s Ribbonmania

Aoi Kizuki’s retirement 

ChocoPro’s unique home venue

how Gatoh Move became ChocoPro

Joy in Pro Wrestling and Kaho Hiromi

Hoping everyone thoroughly enjoys whatever wrestling you choose to watch/attend.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.

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.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Retirement Reflections – Sonoko Kato & Risa Sera

Time flies. Here’s a quick look back on some personal highlights of the careers of a couple wrestlers who made a lasting impression when I first saw them near exactly a decade ago.

Also please check out a similar spotlight I did recently about Nao Kakuta and Tae Honma.

Sonoko Kato

Sonoko Kato was already a well established and decorated veteran when I slowly started getting introduced to joshi wrestling* in the early 2010s. And it would still be a few years before I had the opportunity to see her wrestle.

Shimmer Women’s Athletes, a US independent women’s wrestling promotion, brought in wrestlers from all over the world for their shows. It was through them that I discovered and became an eternal fan of numerous Japanese wrestlers and promotions. Kana (now WWE’s Asuka), Ayako Hamada, Ray, Misaki Ohata, Hikaru Shida, and a number of other incredibly talented joshi wrestlers had already appeared for the company by the time I started traveling to Chicago for Shimmer weekends in 2014.

( * – The Japanese word “joshi” simply means “girl” and “joshi puroresu” in Japan generally just means “women’s wrestling.” But as a borrowed term in English “joshi wrestling” is shorthand specifically referring to Japanese women wrestlers and promotions.)

By Fall of 2015 I was making my fourth trip out for Shimmer and would be fortunate enough to see Kato live in her first and only Shimmer weekend. I had heard the name but was largely unfamiliar with her prior and had never seen her wrestle at all.

Already at 20 years of wrestling experience at the time, Kato was great and made an immediate strong impression.

Shimmer weekends were a unique and impactful experience. The only way they could put on the shows they did with the vast array of talent coming in was to tape multiple shows at a time. So twice a year Shimmer would have back to back double taping days across a weekend. Tickets were good for a full day, generally with two shows taped on Saturday and two on Sunday.

So while Kato only traveled out for Shimmer once, I had the privilege of seeing her wrestle four times in that one weekend. She was featured in three strong singles matches (against Kimber Lee, Kellie Skater, and Nicole Savoy) as well as a short, chaotic 6-way (against Kay Lee Ray (now Alba Fyre), Allysin Kay, Candice LeRae, Kellie Skater, and Marti Bell).

Kato killed it all weekend and her combination of exciting ring skills and natural charisma. Her awesome match against Savoy was my personal favorite.

She seemed genuinely excited to be there and meet foreign fans and was particularly appreciative of a subset of us importing and preparing traditional Japanese style streamers to be thrown during the entrances for the joshi wrestlers.

Oz Academy, Kato’s home company and where she wrestled the vast majority of the time, didn’t run often during the time of year I was usually in Japan when I started making trips over there. And there isn’t much official distribution of their stuff outside of Japan.

So I only ever saw Kato wrestle in Japan a couple lucky times and overall I’ve seen far fewer of her matches than most of my other favorite wrestlers.

Though as with her Shimmer appearances what I have managed to see was excellent. I was fortunate enough to catch a tremendously fun tag match of hers on Oz Academy’s 1/6/19 show alongside Ryo Mizunami against Hikaru Shida & Rina Yamashita.

Mizunami would become a regular partner of Kato a few years later as H2D, and they were multiple time tag team champions. They also had a handful of singles matches against one another over the years, and Mizunami was chosen to be Kato’s last opponent.

Sonoko Kato retired on 11/23/25, bringing her incredible 30 year career to a close. I hope everything is going well for her post wrestling.

Risa Sera

A couple of months after I saw Kato wrestle in Shimmer I made my first ever trip to Japan. My first show was an Ice Ribbon dojo show, where among a bunch of other wrestlers I’d be watching for a long time to come I got my first look at Risa Sera.

Risa was trained in Ice Ribbon and was about 3 years into her career, just past what’s generally considered her rookie period in Japan. She had recently officially formed the Azure Revolution tag team with Maya Yukihi and a number of the matches I saw of hers back then were Azure Revolution tags.

Risa was energetic and striking with regards to her traditional wrestling, with her trademark double knee strikes and other high impact moves standing out.

She was the relative veteran and more polished member of the team in those early days. Although over time Maya was improving and evolving more rapidly and would become her partner’s equal and rival. If fact while they are a good team I have noted in the past that they had even better chemistry as opponents.

Their paths would continue to cross in numerous ways and they have reformed Azure Revolution for a number of matches as Risa’s career winds down.

Risa had great success I those years in Ice Ribbon, becoming multiple time International Ribbon Tag Team Champions and ICE Cross Infinity Champion. One of her title matches that stands out in my memory was an exciting encounter against Yuuka in the main event of Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Show.

In addition to her hard hitting championship matches and other intense outings, some of my key memories and favorite matches of hers involve the lighter side of Ice Ribbon. One intended Azure Revolution match against Tsukasa Fujimoto & Miyako Matsumoto turned into something completely different, when the petulant force of nature that is Miyako objected to teaming with Tsukka and stole Risa changing the match to her and Risa again Tsukka & Maya.

Another incredibly fun time was an Ice Ribbon vs P’s Party trios contest where the wrestlers were assigned a random finisher they had to use for pinfalls to count and Risa was stuck spending her time in the match trying to ropewalk.

Risa left Ice Ribbon after Ribbonmania 2021. She made one appearance as part of her new freelance unit Prominence shortly afterwards, but hasn’t been back since.

As a part of Risa’s retirement road she’ll be returning to Ice Ribbon one last time after four years away at Ribbonmania 2025 on 12/31/25. The match is filled with significance as it’ll be Azure Revolution against one of their main rivals during their time in Ice Ribbon.

The Lovely Butchers, Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Natsumi (formerly Mochi Miyagi when she was in Ice Ribbon) will be teaming for the first time in nearly 4 years for this special farewell contest. Mochi left Ice Ribbon when Risa did (more on that to come) and likewise hasn’t been back since that single Prominence appearance.

Maya has been freelance for years and pops up in her former company once or twice a year.

Hamuko is still in Ice Ribbon but has been on leave for most of this year due to accumulated injuries and is on the verge of being out for an extended period to get treatment. This will be her last match for a while.

To see all four of them participate once more in the kind of tag encounter that defined a lot of the period I was regularly attending Ice Ribbon shows is a treat and will be one of the emotional highlights of this year’s big show from Ice Ribbon.

Circling back around to my first trip to Japan, my most vivid memory of Risa was my first glimpse of the other major aspect of her career.

Risa Sera is now known for her hardcore and deathmatch wrestling as much as any other part of her wrestling journey. During 2015 she was slowly introducing audiences to the concept of gender being irrelevant when it comes to the types of wrestling someone choses to pursue. She had already done one self produced show with a featured deathmatch against former partner Maki Narumiya. Although it was more of a comical take on the concept as she had to convince the company to be more open to the idea of hardcore wrestling. It was a Human Hair Deathmatch where in place of normal hardcore weapons or deathmatch elements like barbed wire there were piles of cut hair as the impending “danger.”

Her second self produced show got closer to actual traditional deathmatch territory and fused lighter comical sections with brutal elements to great effect. Titled  “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… Deathmatch,” or more colloquially the Four Seasons Deathmatch, it was essentially an iron woman match for Risa only where her opponent would change after every decision and season related weapons were allowed.

Risa put up a hell of a fight for 60 full minutes and it was a fantastic experience live. It was the third match of hers I ever saw and was completely unique and engaging. To this day it’s one of my favorite hardcore/deathmatch style matches. (See my thoughts on the dvd of the show for detailed thoughts).

Risa’s done a handful of these 60 minute iron woman deathmatches over the years, and has decided to do one more as her last deathmatch on Prominence’s 12/16/25 show.

Deathmatch wrestling is often beyond my personal realm of enjoyment. I have limits after which I lose interest and/or can’t stomach what’s being presented. The line is often right around when light tubes, skewers, and so on get involved.

But I do enjoy certain manifestations of hardcore and deathmatch wrestling, like the above mentioned Four Seasons match and a tremendous hardcore match Risa had on Hikaru Shida’s 10th Anniversary Show teaming with Hagane Shinno against TARU & the legendary Aja Kong.

One of my favorite wrestlers of all time is the Hardcore Queen Dash Chisako, and it’s been a treat seeing her and like minded Risa face off in various forms recently including a singles match early this year.

And whether it’s to my particular tastes or not I fully support wrestlers embracing their own goals and style in wrestling. Risa pushed into a non traditional space and inspired a lot of wrestlers to follow her lead and/or carve their own unique path.

One particularly notable case was that of Suzu Suzuki. Suzu fell in love with deathmatch wrestling from a young age through promotions like Freedoms and BJW. But it was seeing Risa compete that made her realize that doing it herself someday wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Suzu debuted in Ice Ribbon at the age of 17 and took to wrestling extremely quickly. She won the ICE Cross Infinity Championship a little under two years into her career and started participating in hardcore matches around the same time.

Suzu was a protege of Risa’s and they both teamed and fought numerous times throughout their careers.

As alluded to above hardcore and deathmatch wrestling was always a little beyond the scope of Ice Ribbon’s usual tone and approach and came to temporary prominence in the company through Risa’s efforts and revolved around a specific subset of the roster who were passionate about it. At the end of 2021 those wrestlers, Risa, Suzu, Kurumi Hiiragi, Mochi Miyagi, and Akane Fujita, left Ice Ribbon to form their own freelance unit called Prominence. They focused on hardcore wrestling and deathmatches and participated in several companies’ shows while also hosting their own.

In 2023 Suzu left Prominence and ended up going to World Wonder Ring Stardom. On 11/3/25 Risa showed up at Stardom to request Suzu be the final opponent of her career.

Risa Sera will be retiring on 1/12/26 on a self produced show. In addition to the main event farewell match against her former protege Azure Revolution has a 3-way tag earlier in the show. The two matches should provide a suitable final chapter on Risa’s 13 year career.

Best wishes to Sera in whatever life after wrestling brings.

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.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

YUUKA’S BACK!!!

What awesome news to wake up to.

At today’s Ice Ribbon event in Yokohama retired wrestler Yuuka announced her return to the ring at Ribbonmania 2025.

Yuuka wrestled for Ice Ribbon with from 2013 to 2016 with a number of outside appearances for Pro Wrestling Wave and BJW and a handful for other promotions. She officially announced her retirement  in 2019, so this return is after 6 official years away from wrestling and 9 years since her last match.

Yuuka’s a personal favorite of mine and was always a blast to watch. A few months ago I randomly decided to spotlight a decade old match of hers against the incredible Kana (now WWE’s Asuka). In an amusing coincidence less than a half hour after I posted that blog it was announced that Yuuka would be making a special appearance at Ice Ribbon that day as a second for Kyuri in Kyuri’s anniversary match.

Since then Yuuka has worked as support staff for Ice Ribbon’s parent company NeoPlus and started participating in the theatrical wrestling project Pro Wrestling Venus.

Yuuka’s return to wrestling will be 10 years to the day of when I had the privilege of seeing her wrestle Sareee live in a special teens spotlight match at Ribbonmania 2015 during my first trip to Japan.

Really happy for Yuuka that she has this opportunity to come back to wrestling and that she wanted to do so. Excited to see what this new part of her career will bring.

Welcome back, Ice Ribbon’s White Angel.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.

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.

Categories
Books Reviews

The Icarus Plot Review

A pair of former bounty hunters turned planet development surveyors are about to receive a not-so-voluntary job offer to locate a woman named Tera and a fabled project called Icarus. On the plus side, it might happen to come with a side of revenge…

The Icarus Hunt is one of my all time favorite books, and for over two decades it was a one book stand alone story.

In 2022 Timothy Zahn revisited the world of Jordan McKell with a sequel/spinoff series called The Icarus Saga. The Icarus Plot is book one of six.

I read this when it came out, but didn’t get a chance to continue with the rest as the series progressed. I remember liking it, but the details were fuzzy resulting in this reread before I continue on with the others.

Icarus Plot picks up several years after the events in Icarus Hunt, and while similarly in first person it features a different protagonist. There’s significant conceptual overlap and opportunity for familiar faces to pop up, but the point of view character is new and comes into the narrative from a different direction.

This is a fine start to the series and explains enough that a reader could jump in here, although there’s a lot more depth if familiar with the original book this spins off of.

That said it’s masterfully balanced to serve either kind of reader. Things that could be either foreshadowing or red herrings for those familiar with Icarus Hunt add intrigue but still convey enough information for new readers to get most of the payoff. Well done all around.

The original novel was a mystery in space, and this likewise has heavy mystery elements in a well developed sci-fi world with the kind of mix of adventure and intrigue common to Zahn’s writing.

Without getting into spoilers one of the main twists was pretty predictable, but it was still well executed and important to the framework of the rest of the series. This feels every bit of its first book status as it lays a lot of groundwork for future installments, but it still works really well on its own merits.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It didn’t exactly reach the heights of Icarus Hunt, but it was a solid sequel with a good mix of new characters and familiar faces that set things up nicely for the rest of the series.

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.

 

Categories
Japan Reviews Wrestling

ChocoPro 486 Halloween Special Thoughts

November 1, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan

ChocoPro 486

Nothing was announced ahead of time, but the Halloween show lineup is pretty standard at this point: an opening match followed by the main event Halloween Rumble with plenty of costumes and shenanigans all around.

Akki came out in a Goku costume to introduce the show. He amusingly talked about how they have upgraded their effort over the years for special shows and shows off all the decorations. “We prepare now.”

1) Sakura Emi vs Erii Kanae

Emi, in her normal gear, had largely lost her voice so pre-match she tried to teach the audience how to do her sing-a-longs on cue. It didn’t go great, but I’m sure they’ll manage.

Erii came out as the wicked witch and belted out a scales song. Her voice is incredible.

ChocoPro GM and retired wrestler Aoi Kizuki is our referee.

Sakura was antagonizing Erii right from the get go, from slapping away the opening handshake offer to throwing Erii into the fans to biting her way out of holds. Erii often countered Sakura’s nonsense by singing into her ear or with her heavy hitting tackles and strikes. Erii looked really clever at several points in this in how she handled Sakura, with the veteran often needing to take shortcuts to retake the advantage.

There’s always an interesting additional level of uncertainty in Sakura’s matches against rookies, as while no one expects she has any chance of losing her back issues are so well known and established that anytime someone gets her in a hold that targets it there’s a sudden sense that just maybe a miraculous upset is in the works.

But not this time. Sakura outlasted Erii, eventually getting her We Will Rock you crossbody against the wall followed by a splash from the window for the win.

This was a textbook blending of wrestling action and the lighter entertainment aspects, with the dueling singing being the central theme, leading to a really good veteran vs rookie match. Despite spending 8 months of her year and a half career so far out with injury, Erii’s looking great.

Sakura made up with Erii afterwards and they hugged.

The effervescent GM/ref Aoi did the sponsor shoutouts, then it was on to the main event.

2) Halloween Battle Royal

ChocoPro battle royals and related match types are pretty straightforward. Eliminations can happen by pinfall or being tossed out of the window. Yep, really. Last person left wins. This is staggered entry at largely random intervals, and since it’s Halloween everyone will be in costume.

Chie Koishikawa in a giant crab costume and a cackling pirate Mei Suruga wielding an umbrella and with “KILL” written on her cheek start. I feel like Mei uses her costumes each year as an excuse to up her already impressive levels of evil.

Koishi-kani and Captain Mei had a suitably absurd and wonderfully amusing fight, with Chie giving Mei trouble with her claws and Mei doing Mei things like grabbing the crab costume’s eyes and lots of biting. Crowd was way behind Chie with big kani (“crab”) chants.

Eventually Mei “breaks” one of Chie’s claws then bites the exposed arm then an angelic Sayaka comes out to try to talk Mei out of eating Chie. When that doesn’t work the angel starts beating everyone up. Fair enough.

The chaos escalated as our pirate wrapped the angel up in duct tape, then did the same to the terrified crab’s claws. With the two out of action, Captain Mei turns her attention to … trying to destroy the Halloween balloons. Evil Apple is evil.

Entrants get more frequent as Sailor Moon Otoki (Tokiko Kirihara) hits the pirate over the head with her wand then tries to free the captives but gets interrupted by a Miya Yostuba the shark.

Miya shark slaps people around but the angel gets free and levels her. Sayaka and Miya have had issues over Miya and her tag partner Soy wanting Sayaka & Makoto’s tag titles.

Temporary Boston crab by Sayaka on Miya, then Sayaka takes off a wing and beats on Miya with it. Miya’s limited in how much her costume restricts her movement, so she takes it off and destroys Sayaka for a while. Wanted to highlight this section as it was a nice bit of feud relevant action worked in to all the craziness of this kind of holiday match.

The craziness resumed when Miya locked in her Cloverleaf but bratty pirate strikes again and chokes Miya with her own shark costume.

Later with Mei unwisely up in the window Miya hammer nearly eliminates the pirate, but Mei hung on. Sayaka rolled up Miya for 2, but as they traded blows Miya got a jackknife cradle for 3 to eliminate Sayaka and pin one half the reigning tag champs.

Bumble Bee Obihiro Sayaka is next and levels several people then joins forces with her crabified Popcorn Carnival teammate to do their baseball shot double team on Otoki and Mei. But crabs and bees can only coexist so long and they turn on each other. Later Chie gets kicked out of the window to the outside by Obi and is eliminated.

Hiyori Yawata enters in full Team Hiyori mode as a soccer player who passes out a few jerseys to fans then scores a soccer goal on Obi. Yes really and I’m not trying to explain further. Some absurdity just has to be experienced.

Later pirate Mei is up to mischief again choking out Hiyori with her own jersey and Baliyan Akki (still dressed as Goku) comes out from behind the camera to smack her upside the head.

Sayaka takes over camera and commentary for the remainder of the match.

Obi gets eliminated when Akki catches her mid air and sends her out the window.

The final entrants are our opening match participants, as Erii comes out to sing the story of explorer Sakura. They sing small world and everyone linsk hands. This won’t end well. Akki jumps Sakura before she can turn on them and in the background Mei, Miya, and Hiyori roll up Erii for 3.

Sakura waves her walking sticks around conducting We Will Rock You and keeps adding people to the pile. The sticks are kind of flailing uncontrollably at points and she caught Akki in the face at one point. Sayaka keeps taking about how dangerous it is.

Sakura forces Hiyori to help her splash everyone then throws Hiyori’s soccer ball at Aoi. The ref has been catching a lot of strays recently.

Sakura forms a staircase out of everyone and climbs to the window. That was dumb. Sure enough Akki gets up there without a staircase and knocks Sakura out for the elimination.

Chaos picks up again and Hiyori ends up being targeted by everyone else. Sweet Best Bros assisted moonsault by Otoki and Hiyori’s out. Shirt lived alliance though as BBB (double arm trap rollup) on Otoki gets 3 and she’s gone too.

Best Bros and Miya (who has put her shark costume back on at some point) are the final three participants.

Akki charges a Dragon Ball attack. Mei shoves Miya into it, but then runs into a tilt a whirl backbreaker by Akki. Best Bros fight each other for a bit leading to Mei being stranded in the window trying to fight Akki off with her trusty roll of duct tape. Akki simply knocks her out instead … and gets immediately tossed from behind by Miya! SHARK WINS.

The traditional janken tourney ends up with 3 years of experience vs 30 years of experience in the final. With Miya vs Sakura. Sakura tries to get a 30 years chant going and everyone chants Miya instead. Perfect.

Miya wins the chocolate to top off a pretty awesome show for her. During the post show she gets in Sayaka’s face and requests a tag title shot after pinning her. Sayaka begrudgingly accepts. It’s always amusing when Smiling Violence gets grumpy. It’s official for the next ring show: MiyaSoy vs Bell Flowers for the Asia Dream Championships.

Killer Queens (Emi & Mei) vs Himiko and Haruka Umesaki is announced for next show. Mei goes from scary pirate to happily waving at the camera in excitement as soon as Haruka’s name is announced. Really cool matchup of DareJyo trainers vs former DareJyo participants who went to a different company (Diana) when they debuted.

Halloween shows always rock. Highly recommended.

Visit ChocoPro’s YouTube channel to check out all of ChocoPro’s content, including the replay of this show. Everything they are doing goes up for free under Sakura’s “No Pay Wall” initiative, so if you do enjoy and are able / would like to support please see their link tree for information and support options.

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.

Categories
Anime Art Japan Manga

Delicious in NYC: Ryoko Kui Exhibition

October 10-26, 2025
Chelsea Walls

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.

Categories
Japan Reviews Wrestling

Match Spotlight: Hina, Sakura, & Mizumori vs Ram, Riho, & Rina

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.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Retirement Reflections – Nao Kakuta & Tae Honma

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.

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