I’ve recently looked back on certain matches some current WWE wrestlers had in Ice Ribbon in years past, specifically reigning US Champion Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer.
Continuing with a hidden gem, it’s time to take a look at my all time favorite wrestler: Asuka.
The World Famous Kana vs The White Angel of Ice Ribbon
(Kana is Asuka’s pre-WWE ring name. For purposes of covering this match I’ll primarily be using the name she used when it happened.)
This match was a few months before my first trip to Japan. I later made a point of tracking down the DVD specifically to see this battle of two of my favorites.
It’s been just under 10 years since this. Time flies.
Kana already had over a decade of experience at this point. This was one of her last few matches in Japan as a freelancer before leaving for NXT, so I’d just barely miss seeing her wrestle live in Japan when I went over that December. I had seen her wrestle live at Shimmer several times prior to this though.
Yuuka was 17 years old with under two years experience and was an Ice Ribbon roster member. She made an immediate impression on the first show I ever saw in Japan, and had a ton of potential. As it turned out her career was a short one, with her in ring wrestling lasting almost exactly 3 years (her official retirement announcement came long after her last match, nearly 6 years after her debut).
Kana wrestled less than ten singles matches in Ice Ribbon ever, so this was a pretty big opportunity for her rookie opponent.
Kana vs Yuuka – Ice Ribbon 9/6/15
Handshake before the bell.
They circle each other to start, then lock up. Kana easily powers Yuuka into the ropes, holds her there for a few seconds, then backs up for a clean break.
Another lockup. Kana has a size advantage so Yuuka can’t back her up, but she holds position against Kana’s pushing then reverses Kana into the ropes. Clean break.
On the third lockup Kana goes right into an overhand wristlock. Yuuka rolls out and reverses into one of her own. Kana immediately spins out back into her own. Yuuka rolls out into another reversal, which Kana rolls out of into another reversal. Great super quick counter wrestling early on here.
Kana only holds the wrist lock for a moment before transitioning into a hammerlock. Yuuka reverses into her own, but Kana counters right into a side headlock.
Yuuka shoots her into the ropes, but eats a shoulder tackle on Kana’s rebound. She drops down as Kana hits the ropes again. Kana rolls over her and charges. Yuuka do-si-dos out of the way and hits an arm drag as Kana rebounds off the ropes again. Only two minutes in and this is captivating. Really fast paced and high energy.
Kana shrugs off a dropkick. Then another. Then just swats away a third. She throws Yuuka into the ropes but the youngster hits a fourth dropkick that sends Kana into the opposite ropes. Kana responds with a dropkick of her own off the rebound.
Kana applies a Boston crab, really torquing it. Yuuka brushes her hand across the rope but Kana pulls her towards the center and sits down on it. Yuuka scrapes to the rope for a break. Yuuka tries to fires back with forearms but Kana largely absorbs them and rocks Yuuka with her own strikes.
Yuuka fires up and backs Kana into the corner with a big running forearm then lands several more, her first small bit of sustained offense. Nevermind though as she gets sent into the far corner and Kana follows with a running hip attack. Yuuka collapses to the mat and Kana covers for 2.
Half camel clutch by Kana is quickly transitioned into a cross arm breaker as Yuuka tries to turn out of the hold. Yuuka’s in deep trouble but quickly uses her whole body to flop around towards the ropes for a break. Kana holds on for a few extra seconds as the ref aggressively gets to a count of 3 before Kana lets go.
Kana twists Yuuka’s arm and then one she has it extended just kicks it hard. The crowd audibly gasped at that. Kana mockingly kicks at Yuuka as the latter tries to get up. Nice moment sees Yuuka awkwardly try to fight back with a forearm shot with her non-dominant arm, get a glancing blow, and realize she has to use her right arm even though Kana’s been working it over. She shakes it out and cradles it after every shot, but she throws the shots regardless. Was likely all instinctual, and resulted in a wonderfully subtle bit of selling.
Kana starts getting serious again with a series of chest kicks, but Yuuka keeps roaring in defiance and getting back to her knees after each one. She eventually catches Kana’s leg and uses the opening to … slap Kana right across the face. Magnificent.
Yuuka hits the ropes but Kana’s right behind her to catch her with a hard elbow off Yuuka’s rebound. Yuuka’s whipped into the corner but comes barreling back out with a shotgun dropkick that sends Kana into the opposite corner. Corner dropkick followed by a tornado DDT gets 2 as the veteran knows exactly where she is in the ring and gets a foot over the rope.
Kana reverses a whip into the corner, but Yuuka scampers up the ropes and jumps back into a beautiful crossbody for 2. A trio of forearms puts Kana against the ropes, but she kicks at Yuuka when the latter charges in for another. Yuuka approaches again and gets met with another kick. And again. Kana swings for a strike after creating a little separation but Yuuka ducks and turns it into an abdominal stretch. The vicious looking kind too with her hands locked around Kana’s neck. Kana struggles and drags them to the ropes, just for Yuuka to drop backwards into an on the mat version as Kana fingers brush the ropes.
Kana fights out and grabs an ankle lock, then switches to a knee bar on the other leg when Yuuka tries to kick at her. Kana’s got her whole body wrapped around Yuuka’s leg and Yuuka has no choice but to claw her way to the ropes. She makes it for the break.
Kana kicks right at her face against the ropes. Yuuka pulls herself up by Kana’s hair and lands a forearm. Elbow to the face in response from Kana. Yuuka forearm. Kana elbow. And back and forth we go. Yuuka’s giving as good as her intimidating opponent is, and the crowd is popping big for her strikes.
A flurry of quick forearms stuns Kana but Yuuka runs right into a hard takedown into a Fujiawara armbar. Yuuka rolls out so Kana grabs a front facelock. Yuuka immediately twists out, but Kana still has her arm and twists into chicken wing position… oh that’s not good. Kana’s got her other arm around Yuuka’s face and is looking to complete the Kana Lock. She’s fighting for it and drops backwards but Yuuka uses the momentum to roll back right over her and escapes. Nice. I thought that was it.
Yuuka’s hit with a hip attack off the ropes. Kana runs at her for a knock out kick, but Yuuka ducks and a schoolboy rollup gets 2. Yuuka gets a backslide and floats over into a bridge (Saori Anou’s Pottering) for a close 2. Keeping the pressure on Yuuka gets the Schoolgirl rollup for 2 (also called 120% Schoolboy, it’s a rollup variation where Yuuka keeps rotating and ends up in a bridge over her opponent).
A running forearm off the ropes lays Kana out and Yuuka hits the ropes again to come off into her sweet diving forearm on the mat (Angel Thunder) for 2.999. Up to the top, a crossbody gets another close 2.
Yuuka off the ropes… and Kana jumps into the flying triangle takedown and rolls right into a cross arm breaker. Yuuka tries to roll out and clasp her hands but Kana uses the momentum to transition into a Fujiwara. Yuuka rolls forward out of that but Kana pulls back on the arm and Yuuka’s in chickening position again. Uh-oh. Up to their feet and Kana’s got the facelock too. And there it is as Kana drops them both back to the mat and wraps her legs around Yuuka. Kana Lock is complete and Yuuka taps in short order.
Kana shows respect afterwards and thanks Yuuka for the match.
That was fantastic, even accounting for my bias watching two of my absolute favorites battle. Extremely fast paced but with good flow, Yuuka put up a crazy fight towards the end, and this was just straight up ten wonderfully wrestled minutes that felt much longer with everything they packed in. Formulas shine when used in the right way by the right people, and this was an excellent “imposing vet vs overmatched rookie who won’t quit” match.
This is one of those matches that is a fun little lost moment in time. There were no titles on the line, it wasn’t a career or company milestone, and in general it’s not going to be on a lot of people’s radars. But it was an absolute blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed giving it a watch a decade later.
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Revisiting pre-WWE Asuka is always a treat, and Yuuka’s short career is filled with little gems like this. Great stuff.
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.
WWE’s other fastest rising superstar, who’s a longtime personal favorite of mine, has also appeared Ice Ribbon. So likewise I’d like to share a couple of her matches from those appearances.
Stephanie Vaquer was already a world traveled star with over a decade of experience when she first appeared for Ice Ribbon. I had heard a lot about her but hadn’t seen her wrestle prior.
These two matches were chosen by the rigorous process of being the only two of her matches in Ice Ribbon that I have on DVD. That said it’s a pretty good sample, as one is her first match for the company and the other is a singles against a rising star.
Both of these shows are available in the subscription archive portion (called ICE RIBBON LIVE plus) of Ice Ribbon’s ippv platform.
Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer vs Hikari Shimizu & Kaho Matsushita – Summer Jumbo Ribbon 7/31/22
This was Vaquer’s first match in Ice Ribbon. She had wrestled in Japan before years prior on a tour for Stardom.
Dalys is likewise a star from Mexico with a decade plus career at the time of this match making her Ice Ribbon debut.
Shimizu is from GPU COLOR’S, a freelance group that evolved out of Actwres girl’Z when Actwres transitioned into wrestling based acting instead of being a straight up wrestling company. She debuted in 2017, so had about five years of experience here.
Kaho was one of Ice Ribbon’s newest rookies at the time, with under a year of experience after her debut on November 13, 2021.
Handshakes before the bell. Matching red gear for Dalys & Vaquer.
Vaquer and Shimizu start. Vaquer quickly pushes out of a collar and elbow tie up and throws Shimzu to the mat out of a waistlock. Shimizu grabs her leg though and pulls Vaquer down. Leg lace is quickly countered by Vaquer into an arm bar, which is quickly countered by Shimizu into a rollup for just 1. Standoff and they circle each other into another collar and elbow in the middle of the ring.
Shimizu arm ringer into a wristlock right into a hammerlock. Nice bit of technical wrestling as she adjusted holds throughout what was essentially just twisting Vaquer’s arm more and more. Vaquer with a sweet break as she used her free arm to pull her leg up behind her, hooked her foot onto Shimizu’s arm, then kicked down to break the hold.
Vaquer grabs a wristlock and really torques it. Shimizu rolls forward out of the pressure, kips up with Vaquer still holding her arm, then drops back down to arm drag Vaquer over. The standard exchange of leg sweep counters for 1 counts (if you watch wrestling regularly you’ve seen this at some point) leads to another momentary face off. Big smile on Vaquer’s face at the fight she’s getting out of Shimizu.
Kick to the mid section by Shimizu. That’s the second time I was expecting a double tag out and they continued fighting instead. Side headlock by Shimizu. Vaquer pushes her off into the ropes, then drops down and leapfrogs Shimizu on subsequent rebounds. Shimizu dives over Vaquer as the later rolls backwards after one last rope bounce.
Both up. Shimizu motions Vaquer to come at her, leading to a trade of arm drags and then both going for dropkicks simultaneously. Third stalemate. NOW we get the change up. Really strong start to the match.
Dalys gets right in the rookie’s face and flexes at her.
They trade trips to put each other down, then Kaho hits several dropkicks as Dalys is on her knees trying to stand. Dalys absorbs them and roars in defiance for more. Eventually a single kick to the face in return knocks Kaho down.
Shimizu comes in as Dalys drags Kaho up, but gets caught with a boot to the midsection. Dalys puts them both into front facelocks and hits a double suplex. Off camera Vaquer had climbed to the top turnbuckle and comes down with a splash on both right after the suplex landing.
Vaquer goes back to her corner and Kaho rolls out of the ring. I don’t think there was a tag on the other side, but Shimizu now seems to be officially in with Dalys. Could be this is under lucha tag rules. Not that it probably matters much to Dalys which crumpled opponent remains in with her regardless.
Shimizu fights back though with a nice flying headscissors off the ropes after ducking a clothesline. She follows with a one leg sliding dropkick but Dalys is right back up and nails Shimizu with a chest kick to end the rally.
Tag to Vaquer. Double whip into the far corner is followed with a clothesline by Vaquer and a flying hip attack by Dalys. The vets are in firm control. Dalys grabs suplex position and hits a beautiful sitout facebuster.
Vaquer swarms the fallen Shimizu and hits Devil’s Kiss (headscissor repeated mat pounding: yeah that’s the best description I’ve got – look it up if unfamiliar as it really needs to be seen).
Shimizu rolls towards the ropes for a breather and Dalys kicks her to the outside. Lucha tag rules confirmed as Kaho comes in to fight with Vaquer. Under these rules it’s a legal switch to come in when your partner leaves the ring, in addition to the traditional hand slap tag.
Vaquer dodges a dropkick from Kaho, but the latter hits an enzuigiri after getting up and follows with a soccer kick for 2. Nice deep cover from the rookie folding Vaquer near in half.
Running dropkick to a seated Vaquer. Kaho picks Vaquer up and hits the ropes, but Dalys cheap shots her with a knee to the back and Vaquer runs over with a clubbing blow to the neck. Dalys reaches over the ropes to choke Kaho with a chinlock from the apron. She adds some shots to the head and a bit of biting while doing it until the ref makes her break.
Dalys comes in from the apron, as Vaquer left the ring so Dalys is now legal. She still has a hold of Kaho, and … tags right back out to Vaquer who was back in the corner. A little odd, but they go right into a double team so it makes some sense.
Dalys whips Kaho into a Vaquer drop toehold, which leaves Kaho draped across the far middle rope. Running dropkick to Kaho’s back by Dalys is followed by a 619 (Tiger Fight Kick) by Vaquer.
Dalys intercepts Shimizu, and Vaquer and Kaho exit the ring making the others the legal competitors. Hard overhand chop by Dalys. She absorbs two retaliatory forearms, but gets rocked by a high kick by Shimizu. Second kick is blocked though and Dalys levels Shimizu with a spinning side kick. Dalys applies a camel clutch style chinlock for all of two seconds before deciding to bite Shimizu’s forehead and pull her hair instead. She’s slowly gone into full bully heel mode as the match progresses and it’s pretty great.
An attempt to whip Shimizu into the corner is reversed, but when Shimizu charges and goes for a monkey flip the powerhouse catches her and spins around to put Shimizu on the turnbuckles. Shimizu jumps off the middle turnbuckle and wipes out Dalys. Literally just crashes into her and m maybe kind of hits a kneestrike. Could have been going for a dropkick or another kind of strike but her opponent was too close. It was effective enough though. Dalys stumbles back up and Kaho hits a top turnbuckle missile dropkick from a different corner.
Unfortunately it knocks Dalys all the way back into her own corner to tag Vaquer, who wipes out Kaho with a dropkick. But then Shimizu hits one on Vaquer. And the Dalys completes the dropkick party with one on Shimizu.
All four wrestlers are down on the mat. There are no covers, but the ref starts counting by slapping his hands against the mat as if there were. Must be another rule variant in play. Normally there’d be a (verbal only) ten count when all participants are down, but this was approached like a pinfall. Everyone gets up at 2.
Shimizu and Kaho’s rush at their opponents is ducked and they’re momentarily rolled up, but they get right back up and hit dropkicks. They try to whip Vaquer and Dalys into opposite corners but end up reversed into the corners themselves. Vaquer and Dalys run by each other across the ring and hit Kaho and Shimizu with a double knee strike and flying hip attack respectively.
Dalys applies a sharpshooter to Shimizu as Vaquer ties Kaho into a pretzel and viciously cranks back on her arm. Kaho immediately gives up and this one is over.
Dominant first impression from Vaquer and Dalys. They immediately came across as stars, while their less experienced opponents still looked good putting up what fight they could. The action they all packed into seven and a half minutes was crazy. Couple rough spots, but nothing too distracting and overall this was a really good, extremely faced paced tag match that was quite enjoyable.
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Stephanie Vaquer vs Ibuki Hoshi – Ice Ribbon 8/28/22
Ibuki Hoshi is a second generation wrestler, and her mother Hamuko Hoshi also wrestles for Ice Ribbon. The two have both fought on a number of occasions and been International Tag Ribbon Champions together.
Ibuki debuted on June 11, 2017 at the age of 14. At the time of this match she had been wrestling for 5 years and was 19, and was a rising star who would hold the company’s top title about a year after this.
Hype package seems to show Ibuki getting a big surprise pin on Vaquer then challenging her to this singles match. Looked it up and Ibuki & partner Maika Ozaki were victorious over Vaquer & Ibuki’s mother Hamuko in tag action with Ibuki pinning Vaquer just a couple weeks before this (pretty much right in the middle between the above match and this one). Should be quite interesting.
(Special guest appearance by this blog for this one, as I’d sponsored Yuuki Mashiro’s banner which is visible in the background.)
Ibuki starts hot with a running dropkick on Vaquer in the corner while the latter is removing her ring robe. Ref calls for the bell and we’re officially underway.
Still in the corner, Ibuki lays in several hard chops. Vaquer ducks under a double chop attempt and charges back towards Ibuki in the corner with a boot, but Ibuki dodges out.
We finally have some separation and the two stare each other down and jaw a bit in the center of the ring.
Ibuki grabs the hair for intimidation but Vaquer latches onto that arm into a top wristlock. She forces Ibuki down towards the mat with it but Ibuki uses her other arm to trip Vaquer and break the hold. Side headlock by Vaquer is transitioned into an arm wringer as they stand up. She yanks on Ibuki’s arm then settles into a standing wristlock.
Ibuki quickly reverses into one of her own, which becomes a momentary hammerlock before Vaquer does the sweet counter from the above match to break out of it and go back to a wristlock of her own.
Ibuki carefully pulls her hand free then grabs a side headlock. Vaquer back her up into the ropes and then we’re off to the races as the pace considerably quickens for a few moments. Ibuki’s shot into the far ropes. Vaquer drops down on the rebound then charges at Ibuki off her second rebound, but Ibuki sidesteps and pushes Vaquer along into the ropes herself. Ibuki arm drag off the rebound, Vaquer holds on, kips up, and hits an arm drag of her own.
Ibuki kips up and there’s a momentary face off before Ibuki lands a kick to the midsection. She follows it up with several forearms to the kneeling Vaquer’s back. Once Vaquer drops to all fours Ibuki sits on her back and lands more forearms. Vicious.
Vaquer reverses an attempted whip and faceplants Ibuki out of the air when the latter tries a crossbody of the rebound. She angrily pulls Ibuki up by the hair then faceplants her right back down.
Vaquer stands behind a seated Ibuki for a moment, so I expected a Devil’s Kiss, but instead she pulls Ibuki up and sends her headfirst into the corner. She trips Ibuki down into seated position and steps onto Ibuki’s chest, hanging off the top rope and putting all her weight on her opponent. She breaks on 3 of the ref’s count.
Back into the center of the ring Ibuki kicks at Vaquer, but gets kneed in the midsection when she hits the ropes. Snapmare into the canter of the ring and NOW we get the Devil’s Kiss. A groggy Ibuki rolls right out of the ring to the floor afterwards.
Vaquer follows her out and throws her into the ringpost. She beats Ibuki around outside a bit. No barricades for Ice Ribbon shows so this is all happening inches from the front row crowd.
Vaquer rolls Ibuki back in, hits a nice snap suplex, and immediately goes into a rear chinlock. Ibuki makes the ropes with her foot, so Vaquer backs them up and applies a wicked dragon sleeper variant (she used her leg to immobilize Ibuki’s arm, and linked her hands behind her own back to apply more pressure). Ibuki struggles to the ropes again for another break.
Vaquer ties Ibuki up in the ropes, pulls on her trapped arms to keep her in place, and lifts her foot into choke position. Crazy flexibility. Breaks on the ref’s count of 3 and whips Ibuki off the far ropes but gets caught by a crossbody. Ibuki sends Vaquer into the corner, splashes her, then brings her out with a faceplant for 2.
Vaquer pushes away when Ibuki pulls her up and they go into a forearm exchange. After a few Ibuki lands a big one so Vaquer knocks her back into the ropes with a nasty headbutt. So Ibuki starts a chop exchange. The pace has slowed a little as the effects of the big hits are felt, which is great. Ibuki is giving as good as she’s getting and rocking Vaquer as much as vice versa. Eventually Ibuki blocks a big right hand coming in and just unloads on Vaquer with numerous slaps to the head.
Ibuki hits the ropes but gets tripped, and Vaquer applies a Japanese stranglehold with Ibuki stretched back across her knees. Ibuki floats over pretty quickly and reverses the hold. She can’t quite keep Vaquer across her knees so keeps rolling about with it looking for a definite advantage. Vaquer forces them up to their feet and twists around until she can kick out of it. Ibuki lands in the corner and Vaquer chokes her again for a second, then runs to the opposite corner to come back charging. Ibuki dodges but Vaquer stops herself before crashing into the corner and catches Ibuki in the midsection with a kick.
A few head slams into the corner and several headbutts later and Ibuki’s seated down in the corner again. Back to the opposite corner and Vaquer nails the running double knees this time. She drags Ibuki into the center and a deep cover gets 2.
Vaquer jumps up to the top rope and goes for a double stomp. Vaquer rolls through the miss after Ibuki got out of the way, but when she turns back around Ibuki hits a kick to the head. Thrust kick knocks Vaquer back against the ropes, and Ibuki hits the far ropes for a running facewash kick. Ibuki throws Vaquer back into the center of the ring and covers for 2.
Ibuki goes up to the top turnbuckle and needs a couple extra seconds to get her balance but then successfully hits a crossbody for 2. Vaquer hits a chin breaker as Ibuki pulls her up, but her followup kick is ducked and Ibuki double chops her back down. Samoan Drop gets 2. She sets up for what looks like a Lightning Spiral attempt, but Vaquer twists out and swings for a clothesline. Ibuki ducks it and levels Vaquer with a falling clothesline off the ropes. Lightning Spiral gets 2.
Ibuki tries an octopus hold but Vaquer elbows out. Vaquer sends Ibuki into the ropes and catches her on the rebound into a rolling takedown that ends up with Ibuki in a triangle choke variant. Ibuki refuses to give up but quickly passes out in the hold. Three arm drops later and Vaquer wins due to ref stoppage. Vaquer holds on a few extra seconds for emphasis before the ref pulls her off.
Great, hard hitting match with a ton of impressive technical wrestling to boot from both. Ibuki was very much up to the task of keeping pace with Vaquer. This was action packed and felt longer (in a good way) than the eleven minutes it went.
Stephanie Vaquer’s always a joy to watch, and these were a solid pair of matches. Fun stuff.
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.
Pre-WWE, new Women’s US Champion Giulia is best known for her time in World Wonder Ring Stardom.
However I was originally familiar with her primarily from her time in the promotion she was trained and debuted in, Ice Ribbon. Her two years there coincided with when I was regularly making trips to Japan and attending a lot of wrestling shows. It’s always interesting to look back on someone’s early days, and in particular I’d like to focus on two specific matches of hers with personal significance to me.
I’ll be watching these off my DVD collection, as they pre-date Ice Ribbon’s currently maintained various streaming archives. So I’ll try to do as full play-by-play as possible in lieu of being able to direct readers to any easy way to view these.
Giulia’s a year and a half into her career here, having debuted on October 29, 2017. This is a main event challenge for company’s top title.
One fall, 30 min time limit. Time limits in Ice Ribbon title matches have extra weight due to a rule in place that means there’s no champion advantage for time limit draws. If a championship match goes to the time limit, the championship is vacated.
I was at this live and it was among my top matches of that trip (all the pictures here are from my live viewing). But I haven’t watched it in years, and I’m interested to see how it holds up.
Maya is draped in belts. In addition to the ICE Cross Infinity Championship she’s defending, she was reigning Triangle Ribbon Champion, International Tag Ribbon Champion (with Risa Sera as Azure Revolution), and Oz Academy Tag Team Champion (with Saori Anou as Ozaki-gun).
They just stare down each other without leaving their corners for several seconds after the bell starts the match. Crowd’s behind both, which is expected as it’s a rising star against a well loved champ in her second title defense.
Hard lockup as they come to the center. Maya pushes Giulia back into the ropes, but gives a clean break and they circle each other back into another collar and elbow tie up. Giulia gains a little ground but then Maya powers her back into the ropes again. Giulia reverses in the ropes and teases a clean break, but repeatedly forearms the hell out of Maya instead. Maya tries to reverse Giulia into the ropes but the latter spins Maya right back into position for more forearms. Maya tries to respond in kind again but AGAIN Giulia spins right through the reversal and puts Maya into the corer for more forearms. The challenger is being super aggressive to good effect.
Giulia fires up the crowd, then whips Maya into the opposite corner and follows with a running boot. She hits the ropes to try to sustain the offense as Maya stumbles out of the corner but the champ finally strikes back and levels Giulia in the center of the ring with a high kick.
Maya pulls Giulia up several times in a row for hair mares back down, then controls for a bit with a head vice into a Camel Clutch style chin lock. Giulia reaches back with her leg to get the ropes break.
Arm ringer into a Fujiwara arm bar takes Giulia back down. The challenger rolls out but Maya keeps ahold of the arm and tries for a different submission hold. Giulia fights it off and rolls Maya back into a sunset flip style pin for 2. Maya kicks out right into a seated waist lock and grabs Giulia’s arm again. Giulia’s on her back but forces a head scissors to fight off a hammerlock attempt. They keep grappling through reversals until Maya ends up on top of a face down Giulia with Giulia’s legs tied up and Maya pulling back on her arms. Maya transitions to another chin lock from behind and Giulia bites her way out of it. Phenomenal extended stretch of mat wrestling with the challenger finally getting tired of coming up a touch short and bending the rules to escape.
Both back to their feet, but Maya catches Giulia with a kick to the stomach and puts her back down to the mat with a snap mare. Seated position is never great to be in against Maya, and sure enough she lays into Giulia’s back with a stiff kick. Giulia roars in challenge so the next one is right to her chest. Another each to her back and chest and the challenger is in rough shape. Maya paintbrushes Giulia across the face with the bottom of her boot then kicks her challenger out of the ring.
She nails Giulia in the back with a double slap as she hops down from the apron, takes a drink of water from a nearby second, then kicks Giulia across the face again. Champ’s in firm control. They trade overhand chops and are really hammering each other.
After Maya lands a series of chops they separate a bit to different corners, all still on the outside. Giulia drops to her knees to recover and gets a drink of water of her own, then spits water in Maya’s face when the champ comes back over. An enraged Maya goes for a high kick but Giulia ducks and Maya nails the ring post. She crumples to the floor in pain and Giulia is instantly all over the …other leg, stomping away, stepping on the knee, and applying a heel hook. They’re still on the floor though so she has to break to drag Maya back into the ring.
Giulia then immediately drags Maya into the corner, goes back outside herself, and wraps Maya’s leg around the ring post. She pulls and grinds it into the post a bit as the ref yells at her to get back in the ring. When she does Maya is crumpled in a pile in the corner clutching her leg. Giulia pulls her up into a handstand and slams her leg into the mat in a unique bit of viciousness. Giulia slams Maya’s leg against the mat some more then ties her legs up and pulls back on her ponytail. I don’t think that an entirely legal hold. Ref counts to 4 and Giulia breaks.
Back up and Giulia does an elevated shin breaker to Maya’s right leg (the one that originally kicked the ring post). Giulia’s just destroying both legs now so we’re all good.
She ties Maya up in the ropes and instead of pounding on the mat to fire up the crowd she slaps Maya’s back for it. That’s cold. She hits the opposite ropes and comes charging back with a big boot to the back of Maya’s head. Cover gets 2.
Maya blocks a whip out of the corner temporarily, then reverses it when Giulia powers through. But when she charges Giulia in the other corner she eats another boot. Giulia hops up to the second rope into a crossbody for 2.
STF applied but Maya rolls out quickly into one of her own. Giulia counters that with her previously established go-to of biting Maya’s arm. Maya stays on top of Giulia though and fights for a seated Fujiawara (Becky Lynch’s Dis-arm-her). Giulia keeps her arm from extending, then rolls out into a leg lace. She adds a stretch muffler on the other leg and Maya’s in trouble. But Maya is able to grab Giulia’s weakened arm and transitions out into another Fujiwara variation. They been twisting each other in knots all match.
Giulia claws and scrapes to get her leg to the ropes for the break. Maya’s unsteady on her damaged legs but tries a suplex anyway. Giulia fights off, but eats a slap to the side of the head from Maya. Then another. And another. A series of knees put Giulia down against the ropes, but Maya’s a touch slow on the run to the opposite ropes and Giulia dodges the knee strike. Giulia tries a running boot with Maya against the ropes but it’s also dodged. Maya has Giulia’s leg tied in the ropes, and nails her in the face with a kick from the apron. Back in she unties Giulia and covers for 2.
Giulia fights off another suplex attempt and catches a kick. She drops into a leg lace and applies almost a seated cloverleaf variant. Maya fights to the ropes. Giulia breaks immediately and hits the far ropes to wipe Maya out with several big boots to the head as she tries to get up. Cover gets 2.
They fight back and forth over a reverse DDT attempt by Giulia with Maya repeatedly trying to counter into an STO. Giulia prevails and the reverse DDT gets 2. However back up Maya nails the STO for 2.
Maya hits the ropes and lands a hard kick to the face, but she kicked with her damaged foot from earlier so she collapses against the ropes nursing it. She hobbles out and forearms Giulia as the later stands, only to get hit with a forearm when she tries to reverse a Giulia whip attempt. Giulia off the far ropes… into a spin kick to the mid section. Knee lift keeps her stunned, and Maya follows up with a hard big boot. The champ looms over the fallen Giulia, then knees and kicks her head repeatedly when she tries to get up.
Giulia’s out against the bottom rope, and hers the running knee Maya wanted earlier. She goes right through the ropes with it absolutely leveling Giulia (like Sareee and Mizuki do with their against the ropes dropkicks for those familiar with them). Maya tries to shake some feeling back into her leg on the apron, then climbs up top. Missile dropkick folds Giulia in half and gets 2.
Maya hits the ropes for another knee strike but Giulia follows her in for a big boot. Maya returns the favor as Giulia hits the far ropes. Maya hits the opposite ropes again but runs into a big boot in the middle of the ring off the rebound. Cover gets 2 then Giulia goes up to the top turnbuckle.
Maya catches her with a palm strike then hair mares her down. Champ up top … and Giulia catches her with a palm strike. The back and forth in this match is just fantastic. Giulia climbs up and powers the champ into an avalanche power slam for close 2.
Giulia looked for a hammerlock slam but Maya floats out into an arm drag. Another high kick knocks Giulia down but the exhausted champ also collapses. Ref starts counting them both down, but they’re up before 5.
They go into a brutal forearm exchange where they are running at each other for more impact on them. Giulia eventually lands three in a row, then boots Maya when she runs at Giulia to try to return the shots. Maya approaches again and another boot. Third time Maya brushes the foot away, runs behind Giulia to hit the ropes, then runs right into another boot anyway for 2. Giulia’s putting up a hell of a fight.
Giulia up top and a missile dropkick gets 2. Maya’s kickouts at this point are just barely a roll of the shoulder. She’s been through a war and is spent. Giulia goes for the hammerlock spin slam again and hits it for 2. She stays on top of Maya and locks in an STF.
She cranks back on the champ repeatedly as the crowd screams for Maya to claw her way to the ropes. When she gets close Giulia releases and drags her back to the center of the ring. Hammerlock slam set up again, but this time Giulia drops Maya right onto her knees. Man that looked nasty. Back into the STF and she’s cranking the hell out of it. Maya powers to the ropes, but is wiped out.
Giulia pulls her up and reaches for the hammerlock again. Maya pushes away while still holding on to Giulia and just starts kicking her repeatedly in the head. She lets go after a few and backs up for a savate kick. She winds up and nails a side kick in the head for 2. Maya lifts Giulia but the latter floats out and grabs the hammerlock slam position again. This time she drops into a shoulder breaker. I forgot how many variant moves she does from that setup. Closest 2 yet on that cover.
Maya up and swings at Giulia but gets tied up in an octopus hold. Short lived though, as Maya drops into a slam and covers for… barely 1. Shocked awe from the crowd on that quick kickout. Maya just kicks her in the face though and covers again for 2.
Maya’s Crystal of Snow (Iconoclasm, sitout power slam) connects this time and gets 2. She lifts the challenger up one last time and destroys her with a butterfly package piledriver to finally get the 3 count.
Loved this live and love it now. Giulia looked great, especially for so early in her career, and fought like mad for twenty five minutes until the champ was finally able to batter her down. This totally holds up and was a hard hitting war laden with a ton of great grappling to boot.
———-
Giulia vs Asahi – Yokohama Ribbon 9/24/18
This one’s a bit different and significant for a mix of reasons, some admittedly heavy.
Asahi was a wrestler who debuted in Ice Ribbon on August 27, 2017 at the age of 14. She worked for Ice Ribbon until early 2023, then spent the remainder of her career in Actwres girl’Z. Asahi sadly passed away in early 2024 at the age of 21.
She was a personal favorite of mine, as I really enjoyed her style of wrestling and cheering her on. I was at her debut match against the legendary Manami Toyota and was lucky enough to have met Asahi and seen her wrestle numerous times over the years. She is missed.
Asahi was a key rival of Giulia’s in their early careers, as they had debuted just a couple months apart. They had a lot of great encounters and interactions, including during a really unique trios match they were partners in I attended in early 2019 .
So for the second match of this entry I’d like to take a look at a singles encounter between the two from September 2018.
Somehow I’ve never watched this particular match before, so in contrast to the above this’ll be a completely new experience. This is right around a year into the career of both competitors, and roughly six months before Giulia would challenge Maya for the title in the above match. This match was the “semi-final” (second to last match) of the show.
These two had crossed paths in tag matches several times prior to this, mostly as opponents but a couple times as partners. They had also faced in one prior singles contest, that went to a draw.
Hot start to this as Giulia only poses briefly during her entrance, then hurries out of the ring to run up the other path and ambush Asahi behind the curtain before the latter can even be announced or come out. She drags Asahi to the ring by her hair and the match is officially underway.
Asahi gets in Giulia’s face and screams in defiance as they enter the ring but Giulia just tosses her down, kicks her into the corner, and steps on her head. Asahi might have the tiniest bit more experience, but the smaller, younger competitor is being overwhelmed and is definitely the underdog here.
Giulia drags Asahi to the center for a snap mare, then hits the ropes and runs right through her seated opponent with a kick to the head for 2. She then throws Asahi into the corner and chokes Asahi with her foot. That turns into standing face washes with the soles of her boots.
Back to the center and a hair mare puts Asahi down again. Asahi grimaces in pain as Giulia applies a rear chinlock. In short order Giulia opts to release it so she can just mockingly slap Asahi over the head a few times. Slap to the back and a cover for 2. She’s in straight up bully mode.
Dragon sleeper applied and Asahi keeps struggling to repeatedly bridge up until she’s able to inch to the ropes for a break. Giulia drags her up by the hair again and ties her in the ropes. Another slap to the head then more embracing facewashes and slaps to the back follow.
Giulia hits the far ropes and comes running for a boot but Asahi quickly jumps out to the apron and ducks the kick. Asahi pushes Giulia’s leg away, then catches Giulia’s attempted wild punch in an armbar over the rope. After a few seconds she has to break due to the ref’s count and does so by dropping off the apron and snapping Giulia’s arm over the rope. First offense by Asahi of the match.
Asahi goes up top. Giulia catches her and throws her down, but Asahi lands in a roll and quickly gets up, turns around, and dropkicks Giulia back into the corner.
Whip attempt reversed in Giulia’s hammerlock slam position, but Asahi floats out and slaps Giulia across the face. She had that coming at this point. It’s not well received though and Giulia hit Asahi upside the head again, hairmares her down again, and steps on her head again.
Asahi’s had enough and as the ref tries to count to make Giulia get off Asahi the latter speeds up the process by biting Giulia’s leg. Well, her boot at least, but close enough. She finally gives back the abuse she’s been enduring in kind and stomps and steps on Giulia’s face a bit. Although Giulia’s a fast learner and copies Asahi’s counter technique, sinking her teeth into Asahi’s leg.
Once that’s caused some separation, she boots Asahi into the ropes. Off the far ropes and she gets the boot to the back she tried for earlier. Asahi is stretched across the bottom rope and takes more kicks to the face and choking.
Asahi catches Giulia with a faceplant though and stomps on her arm several times. Giulia tries to kick at Asahi from the mat, so Asahi drops into a cover. Giulia immediately kicks out at 1, but the motion swings her arm that Asahi had been working over straight into an armbar. Asahi transitions into a seated Fujiwara, then twists Giulia wrist to apply more pressure.
As Giulia gets closer to the ropes, Asahi suddenly changes her grip and falls backwards still holding Giulia’s arm to switch into a cross arm breaker. Giulia manages to get a foot on the ropes to escape though.
They trade several scoop slams, while slapping, kicking, and shouting at each other in defiance in between them.
After three each Giulia tries to block and counter Asahi’s fourth, but Asahi fights back out and powers through to complete the slam and covers for 2. Back up they lay into each other with forearms. Both give good shots, but the size difference means Giulia’s are more effective and knocking back Asahi more. They proceed to simultaneous forearm shots and Asahi’s eventually laid out while Giulia is affected but able to get up.
She goes over to Asahi and drags Asahi up by her hair, but Asahi drops into a surprise small package for a close 2 count. Asahi hits the ropes with a burst of energy and hits a dropkick, then jumps into a rollup for 2. Deep schoolboy rollup gets another 2.
Asahi goes up top. Giulia runs over and tries to slam her down, but Asahi climbs onto Giulia shoulder. Back towards the center she twists into kind of a crossbody from above. Cover gets 2, but Asahi keeps at repeating the cover several times without letting Giulia up for a series of successively closer 2 counts. I adore when wrestlers fight for a pin like that.
Asahi climbs to the middle turnbuckle and hits a missile dropkick, then repeats it in the opposite turnbuckle and covers for 2. The she kick and slaps at Giulia trying to pull Giulia up, but when Giulia gets to her feet she gathers herself and boots Asahi in the face.
They grab hands and keep swinging at each other with their other arms, but after several mutual blocks Giulia spins Asahi into reverse DDT position and hits a stepover drop. She ties Asahi up tight and the latter barely rolls backwards out of the pin to kickout.
She applies an STF and cranks away until Asahi’s able to drag herself to the ropes for a break. Giulia immediately goes for the hammerlock sideslam and connects, but Asahi kicks out just in time to the crowd’s delight.
Asahi knows she’s in trouble and desperately wraps her arms around the top and middle ropes, struggling to hold on as Giulia tries to pry her away with a waist lock. Some knee strikes and leveraging her bodyweight back eventually rolls Asahi way from the ropes into a facedown position in the middle of the ring. Giulia wraps her legs around the head and shoulder of her screaming, struggling opponent, then pulls back with an armbar and Asahi is forced to tap.
This was thirteen intense minutes of two rookies completely conveying that they had had quite enough of each other. They used their basics well while giving glimpses of the great potential everyone already knew they both had. A little rough around edges at times, which was not only understandable at their level but also completely appropriate for the type of raw battle they were having. There was a good deal of innovation too, and it all came together in a really compelling match. Asahi rocked as the overwhelmed underdog determined to keep clawing and scraping until the end, and after a brutal start fought back to the point of having Giulia in danger. Giulia made the perfect bully who kept at it until she got the win.
It was a treat to be reminded of how much emotion Asahi put into her matches. I’m really glad I watched this, and that’s exactly what the point of wrestling should be.
Overall these were two thoroughly captivating matches and an interesting look back into the early career of today’s Beautiful Madness.
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.
Recently we all said goodbye to who was in my opinion simply the best wrestler in the world.
Meiko Satomura debuted April 15, 1995, and was already a 20 year veteran when I was first fortunate enough to see her wrestle live at the end of 2015. I had of course heard of her, as she was already well on her way to being a legend, but I hadn’t seen her wrestle until then. I was in for a treat.
As it happens that show was one of the first shows I ever saw live in Japan at all, Stardom Year End Climax 2015. It was headlined by Meiko defending the Wonder of Stardom title as an outsider champion against company ace Io Shirai (now WWE’s Iyo Sky). It was a hell of an introduction to two truly incredible wrestlers.
Meiko wrestled Io 1-on-1 a total of five times (twice each before and after the above match). As luck would have I managed to attend another of their battles at Senjo’s April 2018 show. It was another excellent, engrossing encounter and it was fascinating to see how two already extremely accomplished wrestlers kept evolving in the couple years that had passed.
In retrospect it also ended up being their final singles encounter. Rather surprising given their overlap time in WWE, and the fact WWE never ran the match is insane.
Everything Meiko did in the ring had meaning, with great attention paid to the little details of her craft. So every match felt special, and battles against opponents with skill levels like Io’s were always jaw dropping.
Meiko’s intensity was always on full display. She dismantled her opponents with hard hits and unmatched mastery of wrestling fundamentals. She brought out the best in her everyone she fought and forced them to rise to her level. Japan’s “Final Boss” was the wrestler everyone wanted to test themselves against.
Some of my personal favorite matches of Meiko’s involved her facing up and coming stars. These were almost never about whether or not Meiko’s opponent could win. It was about the fight they put up.
Throughout my trips to Japan I saw a total of eight of Meiko’s matches. Her promotion, Sendai Girls (Senjo), had a schedule that didn’t always match up with when I was there. But I did see her four times in Senjo and as many in other promotions.
Five of those were singles matches, and in addition to the pair of Io matches I was lucky enough to have been at two matches of Meiko’s at TJPW (Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling) shows where a couple of that company’s top stars got to test their mettle against the legend.
The first was in August of 2017, against TJPW’s ace in waiting Miyu Yamashita. It was exactly the breakout performance I’d been waiting for from Miyu at that time, and it’s no surprise it came against someone the caliber of Satomura.
From my review of that show: “Miyu wrestled like someone with something to prove from the very first second and really took it to Meiko, believably smothering the veteran at points with relentless offense, but just couldn’t put the larger, more experienced wrestler. Meiko of course is an artist in the ring and always a joy to watch.”
That same show was headlined by my two favorite TJPW roster members battling it out for the Princess of Princess Championship. A couple years later a personal dream match happened as the victor of that match, Reika Saiki, got her own one on one encounter with Meiko on TJPW’s 1/4/2019 show. As always with my highly anticipated matches of Meiko’s, it was exactly what I expected and hoped for.
The fifth singles match of Meiko’s I saw live left to talk about was legend vs legend. On my first Senjo show she wrestled Ayako Hamada in a #1 contender ship match for the Sendai Girls World Title that was simply phenomenal. The two beat the hell out of each other and it was my top match of the entire trip.
Outside of the matches of hers I was lucky enough to see live, one particularly cool experience I had was the opportunity to attend was a Sendai Girls New Year’s Party fan event in early 2019. It was a fun chance to meet and hang out with Senjo wrestlers and other fans, and of course an honor to meet Satomura.
Meiko, DASH Chisako, and Millie McKenzie
Meiko could do it all, and never shied away from a fight. Moving on from stuff I personally saw live, I want to specifically point out her intergender matches. She waged war against a number of male opponents over the years, including wrestlers who would go on to appear for WWE or AEW and may be quite familiar to foreign fans such as Pete Dunne and Konosuke Takeshita. The entire feud she had alongside fellow Sendai Girls wrestlers Chihiro Hashimoto and DASH Chisako against DDT Pro’s faction All Out was wild and well worth seeking out.
Speaking of WWE, as I alluded to above Meiko regularly appeared for WWE for a while later in her career. She appeared in the Mae Young Classic 2018, making it to the semi finals with victories over Killer Kelly,Mercedes Martinez, and Lacey Lane before being eliminated by Toni Storm.
She returned in 2021 and made most of her appearances as part of the roster on NXT UK, and was NXT UK Women’s champion from 6/2021 to 9/2022.
She made a few NXT appearances early 2023 after NXT UK was wound down, and last appeared for WWE during their Japan tour in July 2024. While I lamented that WWE never ran an Iyo vs Meiko singles, they did cross paths in a WWE ring during this tour.
Meiko teamed with Bayley, Bianca Belair, and Jade Cargill to face Damage Control (Iyo, Asuka, Kairi Sane, and Dakota Kai) on two shows. On the final show of the tour Meiko challenged her previous teammate Bayley for the WWE’s Women’s Title.
Her April 2025 retirement had been announced right before that title match. Going into 2025 I wondered if one final appearance might happen at the Royal Rumble or possibly during Wrestlemania weekend (which was shortly before her final show). There were also rumors of her being in attendance of NXT Roadblock in NYC. But as it turns out the match against Bayley was her final WWE appearance in retrospect, and a championship match isn’t a bad bookend for her time there.
Meiko’s retirement tour was a gauntlet of tough opponents and challenging contests as she bid farewell to the ring. She faced DASH, Chihiro, Saori Anou, Minoru Suzuki, Yuki Arai, Nanae Takahashi, Takumi Iroha, Sareee, and a great number of other significant opponents in emotional matches. Sadly a challenge from Emi Sakura never materialized into a match, but otherwise it was a series of great farewell matches featuring near everyone fans could have hoped to see challenge the Final Boss one last time.
Meiko’s final show was on April 29, 2025 at Korakuen Hall. In the main event she teamed with Manami against Senjo ace Chihiro and another legend, Aja Kong.
Manami’s inclusion in this match was special and significant. Trained by Meiko and having debuted at the age of 13, she’s now 20 and a 7 year veteran charismatic rising star in Senjo. I saw her wrestle live early on in her career and her potential was immediately obvious.
I’d also seen her and Meiko team opposite Kong once before. On Senjo’s 1/6/2019 show The Senjo roster team of Meiko, Manami, Mika Iwata, & Cassandra Miyagi face Aja, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Alex Lee, & Mikoto Shindo. Manami was fed to the wolves, with Meiko at one point refusing a tag and demanding the relative rookie get back to the center of the ring and put up more of a fight against the monstrous Kong. She was pushed to her limits, rose to the occasion, and the audience went nuts when she eventually secured the victory for her team.
Meiko & Manami would prove successful one last time, winning Meiko’s retirement match when Meiko pinned Kong with Scorpion Rising.
But that wasn’t quite the end. Post match Aja wanted to fight alongside Meiko one last time and throws out a challenge. Five wrestlers argued about who was going to accept but the vets don’t care about the handicap. So Meiko Satomura’s true final match ended up being a five minute time limit draw in which she and Kong fended off Chihiro, Iwata, Iroha, YUNA & Senka Akatsuki (and Sakura Hirota doing Sakura Hirota things). All told Meiko’s final show was a fitting an appropriate goodbye.
Farewell Final Boss. Thanks for an incredible 30 years and best wishes in whatever comes after wrestling.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts should 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.
BBM releases yearly card sets for a variety of sports, and for a great many years I’ve been collecting their joshi wrestling sets. Here we’ll take a look at the details and differences in their 2025 set.
Known as True Heart until 2020 and simply Women’s Wrestling since then, these yearly sets focus on women wrestlers from all across Japan.
Historically most joshi wrestling companies and freelancers participated, with the main exception being World Wonder Ring Stardom. Stardom roster members have not appeared in these sets for over a decade (Stardom has done occasional card based products on their own in the past). Actwres girl’Z also stopped participating a few years back with their classification switch from a wrestling company to an entertainment company.
This year however there seems to be quite a few more wrestlers absent. The T-Hearts roster as well as some notable freelancers are missing from the set. Also Dream Star Fighting Marigold, the new company run by the founder and former owner of Stardom, isn’t included.
BBM did put out a statement talking about production constraints, and that this year scheduling issues led to some regional wrestlers not making it into the set.
However the base set still features 154 wrestlers with an additional 2 tag team and 3 announcer cards. It’s wild that the set is still pretty massive even with the absences, and while having some favorites missing is less than ideal there being around 200 active women’s wrestlers in Japan and the depth it brings to wrestling is a good problem to have.
Assortment of Kira insert cards.
Keeping with the packing distribution changes made last year, there are 7 cards per pack and 18 packs per box. One of the cards in each pack is one of the 24 “Kira” chase cards, shiny cards which feature a gold facsimile auto of the depicted wrestler.
When there are chase cards in a pack other than the Kira cards, they replace one of the base cards that would otherwise be in the pack. So there are still 7 cards per pack total.
Assortment of SP insert cards.Assortment of “secret” cards.
The other chase subsets in the 2025 set are a 9 card foil subset (SP1-SP9), and 13 “secret” chase cards. Secret versions have the same numbering as the base card of whoever is depicted. So for example TJPW’s Mifu Ashida (formerly of Ice Ribbon) is card number 008 in the base set. So her secret card is also numbered 008. Only 13 wrestlers have secret variants so the numbering on them jumps around.
The secret subset this year features “plain clothes” photos of certain wrestlers in everyday attire. The base cards and other subsets of course feature them wearing their wrestling gear.
I’m happy to see the return of the plain clothes cards. The last several years of secret inserts have mostly been alternate poses/backgrounds of the wrestlers in their gear. Those cards are nice themselves, but this subset stands out more and seems more fitting for the alternate/secret subset theme. The selection of wrestlers was a nice mix and they got to show off their personal style and personalities.
In my anecdotal experience this year there tends to be 3 SP foil and 2-3 secret cards per box.
Yuki Arai base cards.
There also is a special, unusual “secret base card” variant showcasing a second set of Yuki Arai’s gear. Her signature cards (more on those to come) are split between the two outfits. She’s the only person with a variant base card. This is an attempt to do something a little different/special within the set, and if it’s well received it may be done in future sets as well.
I’m a little mixed on it personally. I don’t mind having a second card for her, and can get behind the idea of having a couple special base cards that aren’t rare chase cards. That said I’d lose the secret numbering for it. Having them both be card 012 is unnecessary complicated for sorting and collecting (the plain clothes cards are a different matter in how distinct they are). Label them 12A and 12B at least if not just giving them separate number in the set. All that said about a minor technical point, both her base cards look cool. Giving them two different background colors to stand out was a nice touch.
The yearly base set varies in size each year to reflect new wrestlers, retirements, cards for tag teams, and so on. As mentioned are a lot of joshi wrestlers active in Japan and these are not small sets. The 2025 base set consists of 159 cards (plus the Arai variant), which is about a box and a half of base cards (if no duplicates are drawn).
Sayuri Namba and Shino Suzuki
One of the most sought after aspects of these sets are the randomly inserted signature cards autographed by the wrestlers. The last couple years these cards have been designed with colored borders down the sides on an otherwise white background likely to draw attention to the wrestlers and the signatures (and to make them distinct from insert autos). Personally I like the simplicity and the look of them, but some collectors prefer the colorful backgrounds of past sets.
The odds seem to be just a touch lower than last year (last year was itself a bit down from previous years). I’ve generally seen 3 autographs per box, with the secret sig cards I drew being a 4th auto in the box. The boxes I’ve seen with a cheki only had 2 base sig cards with it.
Tsukka and YappyKyuri and Kirari Wakana Totoro Satsuki and Manami Katsu
The signature cards are numbered and there are usually 100 each corresponding to the base set for the wrestlers who did autographs. A majority of the wrestlers in the set do signature cards, but not everyone.
Like last year nearly all of the base signature cards this year are on card autographs. The only stickers I’ve noticed so far were for Hikaru Shida, who is based on the US, and on the Magenta tag team dual auto card where proper spacing is paramount. As usual the insert autos use stickers, presumably for design reasons. The stickers are transparent and barely noticeable, even if you know to look for them.
Wakana Uehara secret version signature card.
As implied above both the secret and SP foil subsets have associated signature cards. Unlike past years, the foil autos are not short printed compared with the base autos.
Base, secret, and foil autos are all generally /100 now. A couple wrestlers have slightly lower base autos numbers, and Yuki Arai and Haruka Umesaki’s foil autos are a bit lower at /85 and /74 respectively.
The insert autos have fully colored backgrounds, which nicely sets them apart from the white backed secret insert subset those correspond to as well as the white with colored borders designs on the base autos.
There are also a few super rare /5 signature cards featuring Suzume, Mizuki, Yuki Arai, Sareee, and Ram Kaicho.
One of my absolute favorite signature cards ever is in this set. Maika Ozaki is a powerhouse and has a cool tag team entrance pose she does where she lifts her partner (and sometimes partners plural) up onto her shoulder. She’s done it most often with her Gekokujo partner Kyuri and her SPiCEAP partner Tae Honma.
This year SPiCEAP got a dual auto signature card, and BBM oriented it vertically and designed it almost as if it was two stacked up horizontal sig cards so that their pose could be featured. It’s stunning and easily one of the coolest cards they’ve done.
Kirari Wakana
Some of the most distinctive chase items in these sets are chekis: mini polaroids of the wrestlers signed and sometimes decorated by them. There are generally 10 for each wrestler who does them (not everyone in the base set does). A few wrestlers are featured in different outfits and have two distinct /10 versions this year.
These are unique collectibles, and some of the harder hits to pull at roughly 2 per case (1 in 6 boxes). They’re a fun additional and some of the centerpieces of my personal collection.
Emi Sakura and Kaho Hiromi
So that’s it for this year’s BBM Women’s Wrestling release. I wish everyone good luck with their pulls and pickups.
Sayaka
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts should 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.
ChocoPro, formerly Gatoh Move, is a Japanese pro-wrestling company based in Ichigaya Japan. Founded by near 30 year wrestling veteran Emi Sakura, ChocoPro embraces and embodies Sakura’s core belief that wrestling should be fun for both the audience and the wrestlers.
For the last couple of years a ChocoPro themed mobile game has been in development, and today the anticipation came to an end with its release.
Having evolved from a joshi (women’s) wrestling company ChocoPro’s core roster is primarily women, but they are a fully intergender company featuring a number of both men and women wrestlers on every show. As such the ChocoPro wrestlers in this game include both women and men.
ChocoPro Happy Festival is a collection of 9 mini-games each featuring one of ChocoPro’s wrestlers. Wrestlers featured include reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga, Sayaka, Chie Koishikawa, Tokiko Kirihara (Otoki), Sayaka Obihiro (Obi), Emi Sakura, Miya Yotsuba, Baliyan Akki, and DDT Pro’s Masahiro Takahashi (Masa)*. There might also be a special guest appearance lurking about.
Adorable chibi versions of the wrestlers are used on the games. The visuals are gorgeous. The chibis capture the essence of the wrestlers, the backgrounds and details are great, and everything is colorful and vibrant.
The games are straight forward, as expected and appropriate for mini-games, but still amusing and addictive. There’s a nice variety of game types included. Three are side scrollers, two are stop the gauge games, one’s a matching game, two are reaction games, and the last a speed puzzle.
Thematically they’re fantastic. From Mei running along jumping around collecting apples to Sayaka elbowing dummies out of the ring for distance to feeding Her Highness cake and so on each game was clearly carefully designed with great knowledge and respect for the subjects.
Instrumental versions of familiar songs from Gatoh Move and ChocoPro through the years have been adapted to be used for the various menu screens, and each wrestler’s stage features their entrance music. Music is so closely intertwined with a wrestler/promotion’s presentation that it’s inclusion in something like this feels necessary, and was done excellently.
There’s effort and care visible in every aspect of the game. Wonderful little details, like glasses piling up around Masa as you serve him more and more beer during his game or the various levels of happiness or disappointment the wrestler has after the game depending on how you did are great touches. The loading screens during installation are cool profiles of the included wrestlers (which I wish there was a way to view on demand – there’s thankfully no loading screens needed during play after the game’s installed).
Speaking of Masa’s game, it’s likely the reason for the 17+ years old rating this has in the Apple App Store. There’s really nothing else in here beside the alcohol inclusion that would push this above an all ages rating.
The other half of the package here is the rewards system. Choco Points earned in the mini-games can be redeemed for icons and photo tickets. Photo tickets will randomly unlock one of 300 photos. Unlocked photos can be viewed in the photo album, as well as chosen to be featured on home screen. Photos include action and posed shots of ChocoPro wrestlers.
To be honest I’m mostly a console gamer and don’t play/buy mobile games often. So I don’t have much frame of reference on the $12 price point for a mini-game collection of this type. I will say that this is well made and is a wonderful pickup for fans of the company, and for me was definitely worth getting.
It’s really cool to see this game go from concept to fully released, and it turned out great. ChocoPro Happy Festival is a love letter to the company, and an easy recommendation.
——-
*It would feel like an omission to talk about Masa in this post without mentioning that he is currently out with a major neck injury. He recently was released from ICU and is starting rehabilitation. Wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to sustain more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates once to twice a week.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Cabinet of Curiosities Treasure metal variant by Yuriko Shirou.
When thinking of trading cards, small collectible pieces of cardboard/card stock immediately spring to mind. But in modern collecting there are a variety of cards that break the mold a bit and are made from other materials.
Let’s take a look at the interesting case of trading cards made from metal.
Last month I wrote about printing plates, thin metal relics from the card creation process turned into collectables. In contrast here I’m highlighting actual cards made for various sets that are themselves made of metal.
One other side note before delving too deep: there are card sets and subsets that use “metal” as a descriptor, such as the Skybox Metal Universe series. It’s a theming/branding thing and the vast majority of cards in those sets are still card stock. Those are different from what I’m featuring here, which again are cards made of metal.
There are two main types of metal cards I’d like to showcase, with some subcategories. Then at the end of this post I’ll share a few tangentially related cards.
First up are the straightforward case of printed metal cards. These are exactly what one would think of as trading cards, simply printed on metal instead of card stock. They are at a minimum a bit thicker than both standard cards and the thin metal printing plates previously referenced.
While metal cards are inherently more sturdy than standard cardboard cards, proper storage and protection can have some additional things to be wary of. For example stacking regular cards is usually fine for temporary sorting, etc. But metal cards can easily scratch each other if care isn’t taken and as such while it may seem counter intuitive it’s even more important to get them immediately sleeved and protected than normal.
Like other special inserts metal cards can be variants of base cards or their own unique subsets, and vary greatly in terms of rarity and design.
A great example of straight up base set variants are the metal cards featured in Iconic Creations’ sets. These cards are identical to their base set counterparts outside of the material they’re printed on. There’s more gloss to the finish on these than Iconic Creations’ base cards, and the hues end up a touch more subdued.
Perna Studios also does some great metal chase subset versions of their base, chase, and promo cards.
By Juri H. Chinchilla.
While some metal cards have both the front and back printed like their cardboard counterparts, like those done by Perna Studios, Iconic Creations and some other publishers use stickers for the backs on metal cards.
The metallurgy subsets from Marvel Masterpieces are fantastic versions of the base cards from the same sets. The designs on these vary slightly from the base, as the border is more filled in on these and as such the images are slightly cropped compared to the base and other variants.
Planet Metal subsets from the previously mentioned SkyBox Metal Universe series (made nowadays by Upper Deck) are an unusual case. In some sets, such as the pictured cards above from Spider-Man Metal and X-Men Metal, they are a metal card chase subset. In others, such as AEW Metal, they are die cut cardboard.
There have been metal AEW cards from Upper Deck in other sets, such as the Full Gear and Chair Shots subsets from AEW Spectrum.
Metal cards can themselves have variants within a set. For example the die cut oval shaped metal cards from Upper Deck’s Shang-Chi set had rarer gold versions, and their logo shaped die cut metal cards had rarer blue variants.
Like “regular” trading cards, special subsets of metal cards are elevated with autographs. Cards may be signed by the athletes or actors featured, by the artist for art based cards, or creators related to the characters or stories referenced for comic related cards.
Often signed metal cards are specific, unique subsets. Although they can also be direct variations on non-autographed metal cards within the same set.
Pictured below is a Black Metal Logo Die Cut card from Upper Deck’s Shang-Chi set featuring Meng’er Zhang as Xialing next to the autographed version featuring the same design and image. Both were available exclusively as achievements via Upper Deck online purchasing and trading platform e-Pack.
Given the nature of the material metal card autos generally feature autographs affixed via sticker. But occasionally there can be direct autographs if done carefully with the right type of markers. The Stainless Stars subsets from Panini’s WWE Impeccable sets are great examples of autos done directly on metal cards.
Meiko Satomura and Io Shirai (now Iyo Sky) blue Stainless Stars cards.
The other major type of metal cards I’d like to spotlight is metal sketch cards.
Metal APs from Perna Studios’ Elementals and Hallowe’en Witchcraft sets by Stacey Kardash. Metal sketch cards/APs by Achilleas Kokkinakis from Classic Mythology III.
Like sketch cards done on card stock these are individualized pieces of art created on the cards. One side of the metal card is prepared with a surface meant for drawing directly on it.
Metal AP from Hallowe’en Witchcraft by Tony Perna.
In past sets Perna Studios had a small number of these metal sketch cards inserted in packs. For those sets artists often had a metal AP (Artist Proof) or two (in addition to their card stock ones) that they could accept commissions for within the content guidelines of the set.
Metal sketch cards/APs by Alexis Sarah Hill and Craig Yeung.
The combination of unique creations on unusual card material made these truly stunning pieces of art.
To wrap up here are a few metal related cards that aren’t exactly either of the types highlighted above, but do involve metal, are all pretty awesome, and are worth a look.
One subset that’s both cool and kind of hilarious is the silver bar cards from Panini Impeccable. There’s just straight up a 1 troy ounce mini silver bar in the card. The card itself is card stock surrounding the bar, but this definitely fits in this feature on metal use in trading cards.
All of the cards in this section are thicker than what most people think of for trading cards. In this case considerably so, as these monsters are 3/8 inch thick.
A really nice looking way to incorporate metal are framed cards. The card itself is still card stock, but it’s encased in a metal border (almost always gold colored in the versions I’ve seen).
Finally here’s an example of a metal card where an image is cast on it rather than printed. The below bronze Psylocke card is a tribute to Joe Jusko’s work on Marvel Masterpieces ’92 and was a reward as part of a Kickstarter for an art book featuring Joe’s images from that set.
That does it for this spotlight on a small sample of the interesting ways metal is used in trading cards. Best of luck with wherever your personal collecting tendencies take you.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to sustain more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates once to twice a week.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Gatoh Move: The Last Heisei Shin-Kiba Gatoh March 22, 2019
An interesting match recently popped up in my YouTube recommendations that I forgot existed and was somehow completely unaware it was ever aired.
In 2019, current reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga was a rookie with under a year in wrestling. She was a prodigy who only trained a few months before debuting in Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), and was already showing skills far beyond her limited experience.
Fair or not, Yoshiko will always be best known for the incident with Act Yasukawa. But a lot has changed in a decade. Act has publicly forgiven Yoshiko and has amazingly returned to wrestling related activities. By 2019 Yoshiko was fully back in wrestling and had been working with a number of companies who all trusted her enough to often be wrestling their rookies and up and coming stars. See this post from a couple years back for a look at my personal thoughts on the more recent state of things and how my opinion on Yoshiko changed over time.
I’d seen excellent matches of hers in the couple years before this match against the likes of Mio Momono and the dearly missedAsahi. She was the perfect imposing monster to test one’s mettle against. Yoshiko is currently on hiatus and hasn’t wrestled in a couple years, but to my knowledge still intends to return someday.
So with the stage set for Gatoh’s super rookie against SEAdLINNNG’s gatekeeper, away we go.
Mei Suruga vs Yoshiko
First (and thus far only) singles contest between these two.
This is early in Gatoh Move’s YouTube offerings, featuring commentary by Pumi Boonytud.
Mei was trained by Emi Sakura and a protege of Aoi Kizuki. Mei’s 20 here but as usual looks younger.
Yoshiko is one of the pillars of SEAdLINNNG, and was in-between tag title reigns and a year and change away from her Beyond the Sea championship reign.
Single camera angle for this video, as it’s all hard cam footage.
Yoshiko doesn’t come out of the corner for Mei’s handshake offer. Mei responds by getting the fans to cheer for Yoshiko. The stoic one is unamused.
Lockup to start. Yoshiko easily overpowers Mei into the ropes, but the Apple Girl switches positions and lays in forearms. Yoshiko ends that in short order by grabbing Mei’s hair and pulling her out to the center of the ring.
The pace quickens as Mei ducks a lariat but then has her dropkick dodged. Mei locks hands with Yoshiko and goes for her rope jump assisted arm drag, but Yoshiko’s too solid and doesn’t budge. She pulls Mei up and just tosses her away.
A Mei Irish whip attempt does nothing, and is reversed. Mei tries a running crossbody off the ropes, but is caught and dropped into a hard back breaker.
With Mei face down near the ropes, Yoshiko simply stands on her. Yoshiko’s considerable size advantage is making quite a difference so far. Jumping double knees to Mei’s back. More standing on Mei then another knee drop leads to a 2 count.
Mei’s unceremoniously thrown into the corner, then hair tossed out. Prone in the opposite corner she’s on the receiving end of numerous face wash kicks. Yoshiko sprints to the opposite ropes and hits a hard running version.
Yoshiko hairmares Mei into the center, then lands a huge kick to Mei’s back followed by one to front for a 2 count. I winced at these.
Yoshiko controls with a hold pulling back on Mei’s arms with her feet planted in Mei’s back. She shifts into body scissors, which gives Mei an opening to do an awesome counter roll backward over Yoshiko into her own body scissors.
Mei tries her signature rolling pinning combination, but Yoshiko spreads her legs to remain stable. So the clever Apple starts a Yoshiko chant again and forces Yoshiko to move her arms in time with the audience chanting her name. The distraction causes just enough of a lapse on Yoshiko’s part for Mei to get her roll for 2. But Mei pays for it when Yoshiko lands an Earthquake splash to Mei’s back. A brief Camel Clutch is abandoned after Yoshiko pulls on Mei’s face, then Yoshiko adds some dismissive kicks for insult to injury.
With both back up Mei tries to start a strike exchange but Yoshiko counters with an overwhelming flurry instead and sweeps Mei back down. Mei gets her arms up to block a running kick but Yoshiko just kicks right through the block. This is a masterful matchup of technique and speed against size and raw power.
Mei dodges the senton, then hits a flurry of five dropkicks. She grabs Yoshiko’s head and calls for her Totsugeki (battering ram), but is shrugged off and sent towards the corner. Undeterred Mei kicks off the middle turnbuckle for momentum into a dropkick.
With Yoshiko down Mei turns her over and goes for a bow and arrow. It doesn’t work too well on her larger opponent so she switches sides. Still no go. Mei stomps on Yoshiko’s back, then hits ropes and rolls… into her “cute on purpose” taunt right in front of Yoshiko’s face. That’s a bold move.
Yoshiko is predictably annoyed, and takes a shot at Mei but the latter is too quick and avoids the wild swing. Both up to their feet and Mei baits her into a charge then ducks into a drop toehold. With Yoshiko down and stunned Mei is now able to complete the bow and arrow.
Mei releases after a few seconds though, shaking her legs out from the strain on her knees from supporting a much larger opponent. Totsugeki to the turnbuckle connects this time.
Perhaps a tad too confident after some sustained offense Mei attempts to slam Yoshiko. Yeah not so much. Yoshiko counters into a slam attempt of her own, but Mei pushes off while in the air and lands on feet. Mei hits the ropes but runs right into a beautiful tilt a whirl backbreaker by Yoshiko.
Boston crab by Yoshiko is quickly transitioned into a deep half crab. Yoshiko holds on to it for a while as Mei tries to fight to the ropes. When she gets close Yoshiko tries to stop her by twisting Mei around and grabbing her arm, but Mei makes it with other arm. Mei fought for every inch there.
Yoshiko hits a hard lariat against the ropes on Mei, followed by a senton for 2.
Apparent choke bomb is countered into a slick forward cradle for 2. Scissor rollup gets another 2. Mei’s hanging in there and forcing some close kickouts.
Off the ropes Mei gets caught in samoan drop position, but fights down to try a schoolboy. Yoshiko tries to counter with another Earthquake splash, but Mei scurries out of the way. A dropkick leads to the propellor clutch for 2.
Mei hits ropes, and ducks a lariat, but is DESTROYED by a second attempt coming back the other way. And just like that it’s over. Yoshiko pins Mei for the victory.
Excellent match that was more competitive than I might have expected if I wasn’t previously familiar with both super rookie Mei and how good Yoshiko is in this role against smaller underdogs. This match was exactly what I expected, and I mean that as a huge compliment.
Watching older Mei matches is a reminder of how quickly and intuitively she got pro-wrestling. She looked fantastic here for under a year experience. Yoshiko makes great imposing opponent and their competitive chemistry was unreal. Great stuff.
This match is available to watch for free on ChocoPro’s YouTube Channel.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
One more batch of AEW Fight Forever sponsored promotional wrestling matches from Tokyo Game Show 2022 to take a look at. I previously wrote about day one and day two.
This was the last day of the trade fair, so only two matches on tap this time.
Yuka Sakazaki vs Hikari Noa
Hikari’s the only wrestler to appear on all three days. Again it’s a nice treat to have these matches resurface in lieu of her departure from wrestling last year.
Both participants here were TJPW roster, so while Hikari’s other two matches were first time encounters she’s very familiar with today’s opponent. They had faced previously in a handful of singles matches and numerous tag matches.
Yuka was a couple weeks away from her third Princess of Princess Championship reign.
Hikari’s a previous International Princess Champion, which she lost in early 2022. It ended up being the only singles title of her career.
Nice counter wrestling to start. Yuka ends up with the edge but Hikari wipes her out with a dropkick as she celebrates.
Yuka bails to the outside, quickly followed by Hikari. Yuka lands some strikes then takes Hikari sightseeing. Yuka finds some space in front of an exhibit and slams Hikari on floor. She then does some posing in front of a SpongeBob display before throwing Hikari into it.
She drags Hikari through the crowd some more and tries to hide behind a costumed mascot. Hikari hits her with a superkick around the alien anyway.
Yuka negotiates a pause and has the alien shake Hikari’s hand, but whacks the distracted Hikari with his gun. At least she didn’t shoot her I suppose.
After returning the deadly weapon to its owner she takes Hikari back to ringside. They exchange strikes, then Yuka rams Hikari into a ring post. Back in the ring Yuka covers for 2. I adore it when wrestlers go for a pin immediately after a big impact outside. They’re trying to win.
Yuka kicks Hikari in the corner then climbs up to apply a head scissors and leans back outside the ropes. Classic Yuka. Referee counts it and she breaks on 4. She goes up top and does her cartwheel dodge to the apron when Hikari charges. Well, kind of cartwheel dodge. When she does it to the apron it’s sometimes more of a roll with her hands planted on the ropes. Springboard dropkick back into the ring gets 2.
Yuka controls with rolling suplexes, but Hikari floats out of the third. A jumping lariat and her dropkick barrage solidifies her advantage, and a snap mare into a dropkick to back gets 2.
Cobra twist from Hikari. Yuka tries to power to the ropes, so Hikari drops it into a cover for 2. She holds on after the kickout and goes into her rolling cradle for 2.
Staying in position she applies a seated version of the cobra twist. Yuka’s had enough though, stands up despite Hikari’s efforts, and tosses Hikari off. As usual Yuka’s strength is unreal.
Hikari ducks a clothesline and rolls Yuka up with bridge (Japanese leg roll clutch variation) for 2. Her super kick is caught though, and Yuka spins her right into a suplex.
Yuka goes up top in the corner, and has to kick Hikari’s charges away twice. Hikari catches the kick on her third charge though, and brings Yuka down with a super exploder for 2.
The exhausted combatants have an elbow/forearm exchange on their knees. It continues as they rise to their feet, until Yuka eventually wipes Hikari out with one.
Magical Merry Go Round (hammerlock airplane spin into a face buster) attempt is escaped and Hikari hits an exploder, but Yuka responds with Tea Time (scoop suplex).
Now in firm control, Yuka completes the second try at Magical Merry Go Round for the win.
Respect shown by Yuka afterwards, and both speak in the post match interview (for all previous matches it was the winner only cutting a promo).
This was the longest match of the weekend at 12 minutes, which makes sense as it was the only match to do an extended outside the ring portion (there were a couple dives and one announce table DDT on previous days). So yet another aspect of wrestling was shown off here. Fun stuff, and the in ring portions were great. Really cool match overall.
Hikari lost all three of her matches, but given her vastly more experienced opponents that wasn’t unexpected. It was all about the fight she put up, and she did great.
Hagane Shinno vs Michael Nakazawa
I’m quite familiar with Hagane via his matches in Gatoh Move/ChocoPro. Big fan of his, but after my introduction to Nakazawa in the previous batch of these matches I’m not particularly psyched for this.
Hagane had not appeared for AEW prior to this, but would work several matches for Dark a couple months later including a lauded singles against Kenny Omega.
Nakazawa comes out to join the announce desk, seemingly only so his opponent is forced to call him into the ring from there.
Once things get started Nakazawa asks for Hagane’s help putting on a kneepad, then hits him with the microphone when he obliges.
Hagane gets crotched on the ropes, then dragged along them as Nakazawa did to Ueno the previous day. This is apparently called the Hentai Slide. I have no words.
Hagane takes over with a dropkick. Nakazawa bails outside then dodges a slingshot dive attempt. Hagane however adjusts and lands on the apron. He climbs the outside turnbuckles and nails a moonsualt to the floor.
Nakazawa crawls to the stage, but Hagane catches up and suplexes him.
While Hagane is distracted by the ref trying to get them back in the ring Nakazawa uses the entrance tunnels to get behind Hagane for an ambush. He hits hiragana with … a life sized Nakazawa promotional standee. Use whatever’s on hand I guess.
Nakazawa brings the standee into the ring and charges Hagane with it, but Hagane rolls under it and dropkicks it into Nakazawa’s face.
Hagane’s crazy stiff kicks follow, then he goes up top to hit a missile dropkick for 2. A slam on Nakazawa sets up the moonsault, but Nakazawa rolls away Hagane hits canvas.
During a strike exchange Nakazawa takes off his t-shirt. If he does the underwear garbage again I’m out. Yeah his trunks are around his knees again. Pulls them back up and there he goes taking off the under trunks to put on his hand and I’m done. Not interested in watching this stuff again. Once was much more than enough.
Was fine until I gave up at around 6 out of 8 minutes. Nothing like advertising a video game with matches centered around trying to shove used underwear in people’s faces. I wouldn’t have chosen this to end the weekend.
Skipping ahead to the finish Hagane wins with a hanging corner double stomp followed by Rahei (somersault STO rollup). Hagane’s great. Nakazawa’s skills are serviceable but his gimmick sucks.
It was smart to include some comedy in the exhibition matches, but found the choice of it poor. Crowd seemed fine for it though, so mileage will vary.
Over the course of the whole weekend these matches were a great way to promote the game. The participants, styles, etc were all carefully chosen and well presented to be accessible to both prior fans and attendees who might be seeing wrestling for the first time. Everyone worked hard and with the exception of the one aspect I’ve made clear wasn’t to my tastes all three days are easy recommendations.
This event and other shows from numerous promotions (including TJPW, DDT, Sendai Girls, Marigold, and so on) can be viewed with a Wrestle Universe subscription.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Back in 2022 Tokyo Game Show, an annual video game trade fair, featured several AEW sponsored wrestling matches to promote the release of AEW Fight Forever. I previously took a look at day one, and now it’s on to day two.
Konosuke Takeshita vs Chris Brookes
Cool matchup of two of DDT’s cornerstones. Brookes had numerous title reigns at this point but hadn’t ever won the big KO-D Openweight Championship yet. Takeshita had held it a number of times, and had just recently lost it a month prior.
Both these wrestlers faced Christopher Daniels (in separate singles matches) on day one.
The match starts with extended technical grappling including a cool counter where Takeshita powers Chris up while in an armlock to counter, but the latter releases his legs and stands up to prevent any sort of slam. They trade holds until Chris lands a chop and challenges Takeshita to respond in kind. A hard elbow levels Chris and that might not have been the wisest challenge to make.
An awesome moment sees Chris tease an inside out suplex from the apron, then hit a flying cutter into the ring after Takeshita fights out.
Chris works a deathlock for a bit while in control. Takeshita fights to the ropes for a break.
Later with Takeshita back on offense highlights include a wicked slingshot plancha, and a Blue Thunder Powerbomb for 2.
Takeshita goes up top. He’s intercepted by Chris but counters the latter’s superplex attempt and pushes Chris down. Chris pops right back up and hits a butterfly superplex.
Chris’ Praying Mantis Bomb (sitout butterfly piledriver) is escaped with a crazy counter seeing Ueno land on his feet when Chris sits out. A knee strike wipes Chris out.
They link left hands and forearm the hell out of each other with their rights. Takeshita eventually ducks one of Chris’ strikes and grabs a waist lock for a German suplex attempt. Chris counters into a rolling cradle but Takeshita rolls through it for 2.
A fast paced exchange of strikes ends with a big lariat by Takeshita, but the pin is countered into a tight crucifix by Chris for 2.
They go back and forth some more then Chris ducks another lariat, but after rebounding off the ropes he’s nailed with Takeshita’s kneestrike. The 3 is academic.
Handshake afterwards, then Takeshita gives the quick winner promo that’s been standard throughout the weekend.
Chris lost both his matches but looked great and Takeshita felt like a monster beating him clean here. Takeshita will wrestle again in the last match of the day.
A hard fought, exciting match. Again the presentation, participants, and matches have been spot on all around for an event like this.
Riho vs Hikari Noa
My most anticipated match of the whole weekend. Riho was AEW’s first ever Women’s Champion, and was a 16 year vet at age of 25 when this trade fair happened. This was her only match of the event.
Hikari is the only wrestler that had matches on all three days. As I said regarding day one seeing these previously unreleased matches of hers is a treat for me as I’m a huge fan and she has since left wrestling.
On a random note the smoke on the entrances is heavy today, completely blocking the side cam view of some of the wrestlers. It’s just a couple seconds of footage so no big deal, but it’s still a bit weird to see them walk through such a dense cloud.
Squaring up right away, they fight over wrist lock then go right into the standard quick paced counter exchange. Longtime wrestling fans know this when they see it, with rope running, leg sweeps, quick rolling out of covers, and so on. Always a good way to show athleticism though and a crowd pleaser. Can’t think of a better time to use it either, as there’s likely to be a bunch of first time watchers in the audience.
Hikari tries to get an edge of her much more experienced opponent with a number of hair tosses, but Riho counters the third with a cartwheel. A subsequent Riho crossbody is countered at one into a pin, which Riho quickly bridges out of.
Riho ties Hikari in the ropes, then climbs them herself and poses and waves to the audience with her foot in Hikari’s face. She breaks at 3. Riho then settles in for a bit with a deep single leg crab. Hikari struggles hard to claw her way to the ropes for a break.
Creating a bit of space, Hikari deploys her dropkick barrage. For those who haven’t seen this: she throws a number of dropkicks (or super kicks) in as quick succession as possible, sacrificing power for speed. They’re less impactful than carefully measured ones and are sometimes glancing blows, but the point is to overwhelm and wear down her opponent a bit.
Now in control, Hikari goes into her seated rolling cradle for 2.
Hikari rushes a downed Riho in the ropes, and hits a knee to the back. She does it again and gets legswept into Tiger Feint Kick (619) position. The knee was a touch awkward. Looked like Hikari expected Riho to be closer to the ropes (or maybe expected the sweep on the first run). But she adjusted well and it was a really minor thing.
Commentary went with the 619 name, so I guess I’m switching over. Riho nails it, then goes up top. Crossbody gets 2. Riho calls for the end, and her Northern Lights Suplex gets another close 2.
She goes up to the top turnbuckle again, but Hikari dodges the diving double stomp. Hikari’s charge is countered with a schoolboy rollup, and a resulting series of counter rollups for 2 ends with deep cover rollup by Hikari for an even closer 2. Great sequence.
Riho follows Hikari into ropes for a clothesline. Hikari returns the favor with hard dropkick, then follows up with a diving lariat for 2
Hikari’s Blizzard Suplex is fought out of, but she lands super kicks to Riho’s knee then head to keep control. Hikari goes up, but is slow due to exhaustion/damage. Riho meets her on the turnbuckles and after a forearm exchange superplexes Hikari back into the ring.
Riho’s diving double stomp from the top … gets 2.999999. Great shocked face from Riho at her opponent’s resilience. It’s Hikari’s last act of defiance though. Riho nails the Somato (running double kneestrike) and Hikari’s done.
Face paced and fun. In concept this was extremely similar to Hikari’s day one match against Mizunami. She was outmatched and fighting with all she had until she couldn’t anymore. But Riho’s a very different type of skilled vet than the physically imposing powerhouse Mizunami, so it was a quite different encounter.
This was essentially a dream match for me and I’m thrilled that it happened and that I could finally watch it. Shame it was one of the shortest matches of the weekend (I would’ve loved another 5 minutes), but 8 minutes is still solid and what we got was great.
Yuki Ueno vs Michael Nakazawa
Ueno was DDT’s Universal Champion at the time and came out with the belt. Outside of this, his only appearance for AEW was 7 months later on Dark.
Haven’t seen much of him, but he’s one of DDT’s top stars and was a great choice to have make an appearance.
After Ueno’s entrance different music hits, and at the announce table Nakazawa acts surprised. Didn’t catch the banter as I don’t speak much Japanese, but after a bit the crowd encourages him to get in to face Ueno.
He has the ref check him while still holding the mic and chatting. Bell rings with him still commentating as he circles Ueno. He calls for a lockup. Ueno forces him to the ropes and gives a mostly clean break. Nakazawa reverses the second lockup in the ropes and tries a cheap shot, but begs off when it doesn’t work.
Nakazawa calls for a handshake then tries a cheap shot with the mic while calling Ueno a baka (fool), but it’s blocked and he’s wiped out.
He tosses Ueno the mic and hits a super kick with the distraction. He’s now in full heel mode and the mic stuff is done. He works over Ueno in the corner for a bit.
Nakazawa pulls off his polo to reveal a Michael Nakazawa tank top.Then takes off his pants to reveal his trunks. If only he had stopped there. He whips then chokes Ueno with his pants. Once that’s done he elevates Ueno to crotch him on the ropes then slides him along them.
Nakazawa runs to ropes, but holds on to them to foil a Ueno dropkick counter. Eats the next dropkick though. Ueno repeatedly wipes him out with running forearms, then goes on an extended offensive flurry including a flying seated splash in corner, a beautiful overhead German, a plancha to the outside, and a DDT on the announce table.
Back inside, Nakazawa gets his knees up to counter Ueno’s top rope frog splash.
During a forearm exchange Nakazawa takes off his tank top to fire himself up. He eats another shot, lowers his kneepad, eats another shot, then lowers his trucks (he’s wearing another, slimmer pair underneath). The ref stops him from disrobing halfway, leading to another another shot from Ueno and Nakazawa’s now wrestling with his original trucks around his knees. I can’t believe I’m recapping this.
A teardrop suplex puts Ueno down and Nakazawa pulls his trunks up. He then takes off the underneath pair (a leg at a time) and puts them on his hands, then they struggle over whose face what’s essentially worn underwear is going to be shoved into. Of course it’s the ref that takes it as a collateral shot. This is now everything I hate about lowbrow humor in wrestling.
Nakazawa gets a rollup but there’s no ref as he’s still suffering from the underwear to the face. Suplex by Ueno, but he springboards into the trunks to the face. Cover with the trunks still over his face gets 2.
Nakazawa puts the deadly trunks on his knee, but whatever he had planned is countered with a dropkick. Half nelson suplex gets 3 for Ueno.
Objectively the crowd was into this and showing a different style of wrestling was smart. And DDT is known for its mix of comedy and action. Personally though I thought this was a waste of Ueno, showed only a fraction of what he’s capable of, and at 10+ minutes it was a lot of wasted time that could have been given to other matches. Fine for what it was, but what it was is so not for me.
Christopher Daniels & Ryo Mizunami vs Yuka Sakazaki & Konosuke Takeshita
Man if we could get AEW to regularly book Yuka and get over their aversion to intergender matches this dream team could be tearing things up every week. While Yuka was in TJPW at this time and a part time AEW guest, she’s now living in the US and a full time member of the AEW roster.
The wrestling experience in this match is insane. The least experienced participant is Yuka, who was a nine year veteran at the time. The rest range from 10 to 30 years in the business. Four masters of the craft.
The men start. Some fun counter wrestling early, leading to a Daniels cheap shot for a momentary advantage. But when things settle Takeshita hits a backdrop then a leg lariat to take over. Daniels bails to the corner to be comforted by Ryo. Tag to the women.
A counter wrestling exchange is dominated by the powerhouse, with some particularly vicious use of a headlock, but Yuka’s deceptively powerful and it won’t last long until she gives it back.
Fun sequence follows of Mizunami shrugging off Yuka’s shoulder blocks, then wiping out the smaller competitor with her own. Yuka sends Mizunami to her corner though and tags Takeshita. And thank goodness while they’re calling this a “mixed tag” we have proper intergender rules and not the silly meaning mixed tag has in the states (where tagging your partner forces a switch on the other side so men only face men and women only face women).
Takeshita elbows Mizunami in the corner. Yuka comes in for a double suplex, but she’s so much shorter than Takeshita she isn’t really needed and nonchalantly walks out while Takeshita has Ryo up. Then Yuka lands an enzugiri on Mizunami’s head as Takeshita brings her down. Great, creative double team.
Daniels comes in to get plastered with a double rolling elbow. Yuka goes out but gets tagged right back in. Looks like they’ll be minimizing the sections of men versus women, but at least it’s not being overly artificially done. Double axhandle from the top to Miznumai’s arm as Takeshita holds it.
Yuka’s trademark forward snapmare roll into a kick sets up the sliding lariat for 2. She goes up top, but from the apron Daniels grabs her leg to delay and Mizanumi slams her off the top. Mizunami works Yuka over with stomps and strikes. A chin lock into the Camel Clutch keeps Yuka grounded. Great heelish touch as Daniels tries to push the bottom rope out of Yuka’s reach as she goes for a rope break, but she eventually makes it anyway.
Yuka floats out of a bodyslam attempt, but Daniels trips her as she hits the ropes then gets into it with the announcers. Nakazawa on commentary makes a horribly sexist comment of “what’d you do man? I mean she’s just a girl man,” to Daniels. She is, in fact, a multi-time singles and tag champion who has competed numerous times against men during her career and was an equal competitor in this contest (and was 30 years old at the time). The heel move was the illegal person tripping her and had nothing to do with Daniels being a man and Yuka being a woman. Clearly trying to get more heat on Daniels, but that infantilizing bullshit is counter productive.
Mizunami lays in machine gun chops in the corner, but the showy one to end the series is ducked. Yuka fights back but is rocked by more strikes. Mizunami hits ropes and runs into TEA TIME (scoop suplex). Yuka’s crazy strong and that was so smooth despite the size difference.
Both down. Mizunami manages the tag to Daniels before Yuka can get to her own corner. He cuts her off and sends her to a neutral corner. Stopping to taunt Takeshita, he runs into Yuka’s boot when he resumes his charge. Yuka takes him down with a hurricanrana, then ducks a clothesline and rolls into the tag to bring in Takeshita.
Takeshita runs over Daniels numerous times, then nails the Blue Thunder Powerbomb. It gets 2 as Mizunami saves. Daniels uses her as a distraction for a cheap shot on Takeshita, but Yuka comes in with a missile dropkick on Daniels.
Hard Yuka elbows rock Mizunami, but a lariat turns the tide and then Mizunami levels her with a spear. Mizunami goes up top but Yuka meets her there with forearm shots. Superplex attempt is thwarted by Daniels pulling Yuka down. She fights off him off though and stuns him with an enzugiri, then Takeshita launches Miznuami off the turnbuckles at Daniels for an unwilling crossbody.
With Mizunami out on the mat, Yuka goes up for the Magical Magical Girl Splash (that’s not a typo, the double “Magical” indicates this is the version where she does a spinning splash (Twisted Bliss) from the middle of the top rope). Takeshita hits the running knee strike to Daniels a second later and a double pin gets the win (Takeshita and Daniels were still legal so that was theoretically the pin that mattered, but the ref counted both).
Fantastic match. Best of the weekend against solid competition.
Takeshita thanks his opponents for the match and the four shake hands.
Another strong batch of promotional matches, with everything not involving Nakazawa being great. And admittedly even the match I couldn’t stand served a purpose.
This event and other shows from numerous promotions including TJPW, DDT, Sendai Girls, Marigold, and so on can be viewed with a Wrestle Universe subscription.
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