Sukeban, a unique joshi pro-wrestling company that fuses wrestling with fashion and music under Japanese girl gang aesthetics, had its first ever show in NYC back in 2023. I missed that event but had the opportunity to finally check them out at their recent return to NYC. It was my first full joshi wrestling show of any kind since pre-pandemic, so I was pretty excited to be well enough and lucky enough to attend.
This time around Sukeban ran the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center, a venue well known for wrestling shows and one I’ve been to numerous times in the past for shows from companies like Ring of Honor.
A variety of Japanese women’s wrestlers from various promotions participate in Sukeban, including some who are otherwise retired from wrestling. It was a treat to see Commander Nakajima (Arisa Nakajima), Lady Antoinette (Risa Sera, who unsurprisingly found herself in a hardcore match even after retirement), and Crush Yuu (Yuu) in a wrestling related setting after their main in-ring careers have ended. Nakajima in particular seemed to be having the time of her life scowling up a storm and wrecking people as appropriate.
Everyone’s personas for these shows are unique to their Sukeban appearances and tie into Sukeban’s faction/gang warfare presentation.
As someone who was familiar with a majority of the roster for this show via their home promotions it was interesting to see them in these alternate personas. The time and effort put into their appearances was clear and impressive.
The wrestlers spent hours before the show getting prepared with fashion forward costumes and intricate makeup and hairstyles. Everyone looked great, with a number of their larger than life personas coming across as downright stunning. Atomic Banshee, to name one of many, felt like Ram Kaicho’s final form. Several of the wrestlers were near unrecognizable (some by virtue of being masked of course, but many through striking makeup and wild hair).
Going along with its character heavy, fashion forward approach, Sukeban primarily embraces the theatrical aspects of wrestling. This does mean the actual wrestling is approached differently than in other promotions. While featuring several excellent wrestlers and being a wrestling show at its core, the primary focus of Sukeban is on pageantry, characters, and providing a unique experience. For more of a sports based presentation and a full display of what the wrestlers can do in an athletic sense during long matches they need to be sought out in their home promotions.
From what I understand Sukeban varies and experiments a bit with things from show to show. For this show music was played from bell to bell throughout the matches (wrestlers of course had their own separate personal entrance music). It was a little overwhelming at times, but it underscored the promotion’s unique identity and helped the feeling of this being it’s own type of thing. Personally I liked it.
There show featured five matches ranging in styles from multi-team “gang warfare” to a hardcore style “weapons match” to more traditional tag, multi person, and singles matches. I’m not going to go through a full lineup or recap, but I was into the entire show and felt they accomplished what they set out to do.
There were admittedly some rough edges, including a 3-way match randomly turning into a 4-way match mid-way through without explanation that only made any sense to those of us who knew what the original announced card was before last minute injuries caused changes. For a couple of matches everyone was announced as a big list before they entered, making following who was who difficult. And so on.
They weren’t major issues, but cleaning up little things like the above won’t be difficult and would help with making the whole show feel as polished as the visual presentation.
The Queen of Hearts (Miyuki Takase)
There were several well done little touches and cool details that added to the larger than life feel Sukeban was shooting for. Two giant screens showed close ups of the wrestlers during entrances and highlighted the action during the matches. Smack in the Box (Misa Matsui) had a fantastic entrance where she popped out of a giant jack-in-the-box and was easily one of my favorite characters of the night.
The mystique of the Queen of Hearts (Miyuki Takase) was magnified by the visual of her walking down the street outside the Manhattan Center with the Empire State Building in the background then strolling through the crowd towards her main event title match. She was all aura and seemed to be trying to overwhelm the Sukeban World Championship away from Ichigo Sayaka (Unagi Sayaka) through sheer force of personality.
Sukeban Champion Ichigo Sayaka (Unagi Sayaka)
The atmosphere in general was incredible. Sukeban attracts a mixed crowd of wrestling diehards and cross sectional fans. The crowd was loud and engaged throughout the show, adding to the excitement. This is the type of experience that plays fine on video (Sukeban occasionally but not consistently stream some of their shows) but is several times better and more fun to be at live.
The matches were on the short side, all running between 5 and 9 minutes. This led to the shows coming under an hour and a half (once it started, which was a not unusual for indie wrestling half hour past announced bell time). For a traditional wrestling show at this venue this would be considered unacceptably short, and I understand if some fans feel it’s not enough for the ticket costs.
But Sukeban isn’t a traditional wrestling show. The stories told during the matches worked even in the short timeframes and the action was fine. Everyone was committed to the show’s concept and working hard in an unusual environment and attire. I felt I got my money’s worth, and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Although I admittedly would have appreciated a little more and would recommend them shooting for closer to a two hour show in the future if possible.
Babyface (An Cham rocking a Harajuku look)
Sukeban is an extremely fun show for what it is, and I’d recommend anyone willing to give their particular and unusual form of wrestling a shot try to catch them live.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Something a little different this time as I’ll be giving a quick spotlight on and recommendations for a few of my favorite matches of all time that are all officially available to watch for free on they respective companies’ YouTube channels.
And away we go.
Ayako Hamada vs Kana – Shimmer Volume 50, 10/27/12
The World Famous Kana is of course now WWE’s Asuka.
Kana was already well established at this point 8 years into her career, but was the underdog in Shimmer for perhaps the first time against fellow joshi star and 14 year veteran Hamada. It was a big deal for this match to be happening on a US show, and it was the semi main for Shimmer’s special 50th volume. Shimmer was a US based women’s wrestling promotion that brought in talent from all over the world and produced 120 volumes over the course of 15+ years.
This is easily in my top 3 matches of the hundreds in Shimmer history, if not number 1.
Shimmer has put up numerous matches for free on their YouTube channel including several featuring other wrestlers who now wrestle for WWE or AEW. They also have a subscription streaming service with a large back catalog of full shows.
Best Friends vs Avid Rival – Pro-Wrestling Wave 8/12/17
Best Friends (Tsukasa Fujimoto & Arisa Nakajima) and Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami) are two of the best tag teams I’ve ever seen.
During my first trip to Japan in late 2015 I saw the first ever meeting between these two teams live. I was already a huge fan of Tsukka and Misaki from their Shimmer appearances and had heard a ton about Arisa. Mizunami was equally impressive as the other three, and the match blew me away.
A year and a half later a best of three series was announced between the two teams, with each of their home promotions hosting one (Arisa wrestled for SEAdLINNNG, Tsukka for Ice Ribbon, and both Avid Rival members for Wave). This series plus that original Ribbonmania match were the only four times the teams faced in their careers.
Admittedly that first encounter (which had been for Ice Ribbon’s International Tag Ribbon Titles) is probably still my favorite of their matches, but the teams had incredible chemistry in general and all four matches were great.
This match in particular was chosen for this feature by default, as it’s the one that’s easily available to watch and thus the one of the four that meets the criteria of these recommendations. Amusingly it also happens to be the only one I wasn’t at live, so I lucked out in it being the one widely distributed.
Misaki retired in 2018, and Arisa did in 2024. Mizunami is still active in various promotions as a freelancer, and we’ll get back to Tsukka again in a bit.
This is the one match in this post I was lucky enough attend live. I made a special trip to Sendai from Tokyo specifically to see this and it was an absolute blast.
This is two of the toughest wrestlers on the planet straight up beating the hell out of each other until one of them stays down. I really have nothing else to say here except that I loved it and go give it a watch.
Chisako is still active in Sendai Girls, and Sareee appears in various promotions as a freelancer while also putting on her own self produced shows.
Check out more Sendai Girls matches and shows on their YouTube channel as well as on Wrestle Universe (via subscription). Sareee puts up matches on her channel and her self produced shows are available on ippv.
Special Bonus: Ice Ribbon vs Gatoh Move
In a lot of ways this extra entry at the end was what I most wanted to draw attention to and the primary motivation for this whole post idea. It’s a bit odd in ways I’ll get to but is a true hidden gem and worthwhile watch.
In all the years since founder Emi Sakura left Ice Ribbon and formed a new company called Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), the companies crossed paths exactly once with one cross promotional match hosted by each company.
Shortly before Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Sakura would make a surprise appearance at one of Ice Ribbon’s dojo shows to issue a challenge. And so Sakura, alongside partner Nanae Takahashi, would face Best Friends at Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Show.
Tsukka would then go to Gatoh Move’s home base in Ichigaya to issue a reciprocal challenge for Gatoh Move’s impending Korakuen Hall show. Sakura agreed under the condition that it would be the last Ice Ribbon vs Gatoh Move match. And it has been to this day.
Then reigning ICE Cross Infinity champion Risa Sera had wanted to accompany Tsukka, but Sakura said no she wasn’t invited. But a young Ice Ribbon wrestler named Yuuka, who had shown Sakura respect and held the ropes for her when she visited the dojo to issue her challenge, was welcome.
Kotori was one of Sakura’s proteges and was of similar experience to Yuuka, debuting in February of 2013 while Yuuka debuted in December of that same year.
I was not at this match, nor did I ever get ahold of one the limited amount of DVDs produced. And while Gatoh Move/ChocoPro has an insane amount of their shows and matches uploaded on their YouTube channel, including every show they’ve done for the last several years, this show/match is not yet among them. Well, not in the usual manner.
Building up to Emi Sakura’s 25th anniversary in wrestling, she sat down with Baliyan Akki and Mei Suruga for a watch party of matches from her career selected by Akki. The final match of the stream was Sakura & Kotori vs Tsukka & Yuuka. (The whole watch party is a fun retrospective on Sakura’s career.)
So the match is availablein this still archived stream. The stream must be watched via direct link as it was part of ChocoPro’s channel cleanup a couple years back where they unlisted a great number of their livestreams and other ancillary content while trying to streamline the channel. These videos were intentionally left in the archive for anyone who wanted to watch them via a link but aren’t searchable and don’t appear in the channel’s listings.
The catch again is that it’s watch party style, with the match in a small subset of the screen and Sakura, Mei, and Akki commenting and chatting throughout. The delivery method might not be ideal for everyone, but I enjoyed seeing their reactions and the match itself is totally watchable as presented and excellent in whatever form. I adore everyone in the match, and just wanted to bring attention to the fact that it is lurking about for anyone who’d like to check it out.
Kotori retired in late 2017. Sakura is still going strong 30 years into her career and wrestles for AEW as well as her promotion ChocoPro.
Tsukka still works for Ice Ribbon but is currently on leave. She intends to return to wrestling in the future.
Yuuka, who officially retired in 2019 and hadn’t been wrestling since a few months after this match, returned to wrestling recently at Ribbonmania 2025 and is just as awesome as she was back then. So cool to have her back.
All of ChocoPro’s shows go up on their YouTube channel, with optional support options for the promotion like YouTube membership and other sponsorships.
Ice Ribbon doesn’t post full matches or shows, but their channel has highlight videos for most every show and Club Ice Ribbon, their YouTube subscription membership, has their dojo shows and other content. Their bigger shows are on ippv, then are added to a subscription archive after a few months.
That’s it for this time around. Enjoy the large amount of content these companies share on their channels and if anyone is interested and able please also support their various subscription and ppv options. I hope everyone finds some cool stuff to watch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
A pair of former bounty hunters turned planet development surveyors are about to receive a not-so-voluntary job offer to locate a woman named Tera and a fabled project called Icarus. On the plus side, it might happen to come with a side of revenge…
The Icarus Huntis one of my all time favorite books, and for over two decades it was a one book stand alone story.
In 2022 Timothy Zahn revisited the world of Jordan McKell with a sequel/spinoff series called The Icarus Saga. The Icarus Plot is book one of six.
I read this when it came out, but didn’t get a chance to continue with the rest as the series progressed. I remember liking it, but the details were fuzzy resulting in this reread before I continue on with the others.
Icarus Plot picks up several years after the events in Icarus Hunt, and while similarly in first person it features a different protagonist. There’s significant conceptual overlap and opportunity for familiar faces to pop up, but the point of view character is new and comes into the narrative from a different direction.
This is a fine start to the series and explains enough that a reader could jump in here, although there’s a lot more depth if familiar with the original book this spins off of.
That said it’s masterfully balanced to serve either kind of reader. Things that could be either foreshadowing or red herrings for those familiar with Icarus Hunt add intrigue but still convey enough information for new readers to get most of the payoff. Well done all around.
The original novel was a mystery in space, and this likewise has heavy mystery elements in a well developed sci-fi world with the kind of mix of adventure and intrigue common to Zahn’s writing.
Without getting into spoilers one of the main twists was pretty predictable, but it was still well executed and important to the framework of the rest of the series. This feels every bit of its first book status as it lays a lot of groundwork for future installments, but it still works really well on its own merits.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. It didn’t exactly reach the heights of Icarus Hunt, but it was a solid sequel with a good mix of new characters and familiar faces that set things up nicely for the rest of the series.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Nothing was announced ahead of time, but the Halloween show lineup is pretty standard at this point: an opening match followed by the main event Halloween Rumble with plenty of costumes and shenanigans all around.
Akki came out in a Goku costume to introduce the show. He amusingly talked about how they have upgraded their effort over the years for special shows and shows off all the decorations. “We prepare now.”
1) Sakura Emi vs Erii Kanae
Emi, in her normal gear, had largely lost her voice so pre-match she tried to teach the audience how to do her sing-a-longs on cue. It didn’t go great, but I’m sure they’ll manage.
Erii came out as the wicked witch and belted out a scales song. Her voice is incredible.
ChocoPro GM and retired wrestler Aoi Kizuki is our referee.
Sakura was antagonizing Erii right from the get go, from slapping away the opening handshake offer to throwing Erii into the fans to biting her way out of holds. Erii often countered Sakura’s nonsense by singing into her ear or with her heavy hitting tackles and strikes. Erii looked really clever at several points in this in how she handled Sakura, with the veteran often needing to take shortcuts to retake the advantage.
There’s always an interesting additional level of uncertainty in Sakura’s matches against rookies, as while no one expects she has any chance of losing her back issues are so well known and established that anytime someone gets her in a hold that targets it there’s a sudden sense that just maybe a miraculous upset is in the works.
But not this time. Sakura outlasted Erii, eventually getting her We Will Rock you crossbody against the wall followed by a splash from the window for the win.
This was a textbook blending of wrestling action and the lighter entertainment aspects, with the dueling singing being the central theme, leading to a really good veteran vs rookie match. Despite spending 8 months of her year and a half career so far out with injury, Erii’s looking great.
Sakura made up with Erii afterwards and they hugged.
The effervescent GM/ref Aoi did the sponsor shoutouts, then it was on to the main event.
2) Halloween Battle Royal
ChocoPro battle royals and related match types are pretty straightforward. Eliminations can happen by pinfall or being tossed out of the window. Yep, really. Last person left wins. This is staggered entry at largely random intervals, and since it’s Halloween everyone will be in costume.
Chie Koishikawa in a giant crab costume and a cackling pirate Mei Suruga wielding an umbrella and with “KILL” written on her cheek start. I feel like Mei uses her costumes each year as an excuse to up her already impressive levels of evil.
Koishi-kani and Captain Mei had a suitably absurd and wonderfully amusing fight, with Chie giving Mei trouble with her claws and Mei doing Mei things like grabbing the crab costume’s eyes and lots of biting. Crowd was way behind Chie with big kani (“crab”) chants.
Eventually Mei “breaks” one of Chie’s claws then bites the exposed arm then an angelic Sayaka comes out to try to talk Mei out of eating Chie. When that doesn’t work the angel starts beating everyone up. Fair enough.
The chaos escalated as our pirate wrapped the angel up in duct tape, then did the same to the terrified crab’s claws. With the two out of action, Captain Mei turns her attention to … trying to destroy the Halloween balloons. Evil Apple is evil.
Entrants get more frequent as Sailor Moon Otoki (Tokiko Kirihara) hits the pirate over the head with her wand then tries to free the captives but gets interrupted by a Miya Yostuba the shark.
Miya shark slaps people around but the angel gets free and levels her. Sayaka and Miya have had issues over Miya and her tag partner Soy wanting Sayaka & Makoto’s tag titles.
Temporary Boston crab by Sayaka on Miya, then Sayaka takes off a wing and beats on Miya with it. Miya’s limited in how much her costume restricts her movement, so she takes it off and destroys Sayaka for a while. Wanted to highlight this section as it was a nice bit of feud relevant action worked in to all the craziness of this kind of holiday match.
The craziness resumed when Miya locked in her Cloverleaf but bratty pirate strikes again and chokes Miya with her own shark costume.
Later with Mei unwisely up in the window Miya hammer nearly eliminates the pirate, but Mei hung on. Sayaka rolled up Miya for 2, but as they traded blows Miya got a jackknife cradle for 3 to eliminate Sayaka and pin one half the reigning tag champs.
Bumble Bee Obihiro Sayaka is next and levels several people then joins forces with her crabified Popcorn Carnival teammate to do their baseball shot double team on Otoki and Mei. But crabs and bees can only coexist so long and they turn on each other. Later Chie gets kicked out of the window to the outside by Obi and is eliminated.
Hiyori Yawata enters in full Team Hiyori mode as a soccer player who passes out a few jerseys to fans then scores a soccer goal on Obi. Yes really and I’m not trying to explain further. Some absurdity just has to be experienced.
Later pirate Mei is up to mischief again choking out Hiyori with her own jersey and Baliyan Akki (still dressed as Goku) comes out from behind the camera to smack her upside the head.
Sayaka takes over camera and commentary for the remainder of the match.
Obi gets eliminated when Akki catches her mid air and sends her out the window.
The final entrants are our opening match participants, as Erii comes out to sing the story of explorer Sakura. They sing small world and everyone linsk hands. This won’t end well. Akki jumps Sakura before she can turn on them and in the background Mei, Miya, and Hiyori roll up Erii for 3.
Sakura waves her walking sticks around conducting We Will Rock You and keeps adding people to the pile. The sticks are kind of flailing uncontrollably at points and she caught Akki in the face at one point. Sayaka keeps taking about how dangerous it is.
Sakura forces Hiyori to help her splash everyone then throws Hiyori’s soccer ball at Aoi. The ref has been catching a lot of strays recently.
Sakura forms a staircase out of everyone and climbs to the window. That was dumb. Sure enough Akki gets up there without a staircase and knocks Sakura out for the elimination.
Chaos picks up again and Hiyori ends up being targeted by everyone else. Sweet Best Bros assisted moonsault by Otoki and Hiyori’s out. Shirt lived alliance though as BBB (double arm trap rollup) on Otoki gets 3 and she’s gone too.
Best Bros and Miya (who has put her shark costume back on at some point) are the final three participants.
Akki charges a Dragon Ball attack. Mei shoves Miya into it, but then runs into a tilt a whirl backbreaker by Akki. Best Bros fight each other for a bit leading to Mei being stranded in the window trying to fight Akki off with her trusty roll of duct tape. Akki simply knocks her out instead … and gets immediately tossed from behind by Miya! SHARK WINS.
The traditional janken tourney ends up with 3 years of experience vs 30 years of experience in the final. With Miya vs Sakura. Sakura tries to get a 30 years chant going and everyone chants Miya instead. Perfect.
Miya wins the chocolate to top off a pretty awesome show for her. During the post show she gets in Sayaka’s face and requests a tag title shot after pinning her. Sayaka begrudgingly accepts. It’s always amusing when Smiling Violence gets grumpy. It’s official for the next ring show: MiyaSoy vs Bell Flowers for the Asia Dream Championships.
Killer Queens (Emi & Mei) vs Himiko and Haruka Umesaki is announced for next show. Mei goes from scary pirate to happily waving at the camera in excitement as soon as Haruka’s name is announced. Really cool matchup of DareJyo trainers vs former DareJyo participants who went to a different company (Diana) when they debuted.
Halloween shows always rock. Highly recommended.
Visit ChocoPro’s YouTube channel to check out all of ChocoPro’s content, including the replay of this show. Everything they are doing goes up for free under Sakura’s “No Pay Wall” initiative, so if you do enjoy and are able / would like to support please see their link tree for information and support options.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Starlight Kid 10th Anniversary Show – October 20, 2025
Emi Sakura is approaching her 30th Anniversary show and has a number of anticipated matches across several companies in the couple weeks before it.
This trios match on Starlight Kid’s 10th Anniversary show is a cool mix of generations and has Sakura crossing paths with a couple extremely familiar faces.
Yuna Mizumori (Yunamon) was trained by Sakura, and has extensive history both feuding and teaming with her former mentor. Yunamon left Gatoh Move ( now ChocoPro ) for Stardom in 2022. She defeated Sakura in her second to last Gatoh match, her only ever singles win against her trainer. They have not crossed paths in any capacity since until this match.
Riho is the former ace of Gatoh Move. She left in 2019, and appeared in Stardom regularly until the end of 2020 including a High Speed Championship run. She and Sakura both work for AEW now, and they faced off last month in a tag match.
Ram Kaicho wrestled for a few years as a child, including several appearances in Emi Sakura’s promotion at the time Ice Ribbon, then essentially retired for a decade before returning in 2019. She’s been regularly wrestling since.
I’m not as familiar with Rina and Hina, Stardom’s actual twins, as the rest here. And they don’t have the history with Sakura the others do. But from what little I know about them they should fit in just fine.
Due to outage problems with the intended PPV service this show aired for free and is still currently available on Stardom’s YouTube channel.
Hina, Emi Sakura, & Yuna Mizumori vs Ram Kaicho, Riho & Rina
Four of the six wrestlers in this match debuted at age 11 or younger. The least experienced wrestler here has been wrestling for 7 years. Insane amount of talent in this one.
Riho being on Ram’s team makes sense, as does Sakura and her Beauty As Is teammate Yunamon reuniting, but even so alignment-wise Riho and Sakura look like they swapped places. Sakura even came out to her full heel AEW music. Riho’s probably going to have a much easier time going with the flow of her heel teammates than Sakura will have trying to play nice. Evil Riho rocks.
Riho’s leather jacket with sheer sleeves over her poofy entrance gown is fantastic.
Pre match Sakura slaps away Riho’s handshake offer. She’s already in full Her Highness mode and the match hasn’t started. This is going to be a blast.
Ram and Hina start. Collar and elbow tie-up leads to a Ram overhand wristlock. Hina counters into her own, which Ram rolls through and goes into a hammerlock. Headlock counter into a takedown by Hina is countered into a headscissors by Ram. Hina kips out, and it’s a stalemate. Nice bit of chain wrestling to get things going.
Hina with a kick to the midsection as Ram comes in for another lockup. Whip into the corner, but Ram counters Hina’s charge by … rapidly firing off imaginary shuriken. They’re devastating and Hina recoils back from the imaginary impacts to her stomach. Yunamon comes in and also falls victim to more shuriken. Still more get Sakura. And the ref must have looked at Ram funny so he gets some too. Ram’s carrying an awful lot of those on her.
Ram gloats to the crowd and all three of her opponents jump her from behind for her audacity. Riho and Rina come in to even the odds and throw Sakura and Yunamon out of the ring. Hina gets tied up and Ram, Rina, and Riho pose on the ropes while tormenting her. Riho’s kinda actually being the most disrespectful with her knee firmly planted in Hina’s face. The trio congratulate SLK then break the pose.
Back down to just Ram and Hina, Hina reverses a whip and scoops up Ram off the ropes for a big body slam. Tag to Sakura. She brings in Yunamon with a call of “hisashiburi” (“long time no see”) and gestures for a hug. But of course it’s Sakura so when Yunamon gets close Sakura boots her in the midsection, then hits the ropes and jumps on the stunned Yunamon’s back to force a splash onto Ram.
Sakura sets up and completes the Ay Oh sing along surfboard. With the awesome hard forced dismount after a few moments too. Ram gets up and screams a bit in defiance, then gets in Sakura’s face. The latter laughs, so Ram switches her taunts to Sakura’s real name. That gets Ram casually and deservedly slapped in the face.
Sakura hits the ropes but Ram’s completely collapsed from the slap and a confused Sakura pauses for a second. Then she approaches and Ram small packages her for 2. Facecrusher stuns Sakura and Ram tags out to Rina.
Rina goes up top for a shotgun missile dropkick. Big boot to Sakura draped across middle rope follows for 2. Sakura’s up quick though and a HARD chop sends Rina reeling to the ropes, portraying the pain across her face like she just ate a lemon.
Forearm from Rina. Sakura absolutely levels her with another chop in response. Crowd’s now firmly behind Rina. She fires up and lays in several forearms (although an odd camera angle choice leaves the viewers looking at Sakura’s back instead of the impact). Sakura rakes Rina’s eyes to stop her, but her follow up strike is blocked and Rina puts Her Highness down with a nice STO. Scoop slam attempt is countered by Sakura with a back rake then she goes right into Smash Mouth.
STOMP STOMP CLAP and the We Will Rock You singalong means it’s time for Sakura’s sweet corner crossbody. She then calls Hina over and they happily proclaim it’s tea time. Hina puts out a bent knee and Sakura butterfly busters Rina over it. Then Sakura and Hina enjoy their pantomime tea. Sakura definitely has a favored partner in this.Tag to Yunamon.
Shotgun dropkick sends Rina into her own corner and Riho tags in for an old school Gatoh Move showdown. Yunamon dodges a dropkick but gets arm dragged when she tries to pull Riho up. Riho dodges a charge but gets arm dragged herself by Yunamon as the latter rebounds. Shotgun dropkick by Yunamon. Riho bridges out of the cover at 1. They haven’t lost the slightest bit of chemistry.
Of the ropes Riho does a wheelbarrow rollup into the double stomp. She goes up to the top turnbuckle, but Sakura and Hina intercept. Yunamon comes over and the three march carry Riho out to the center of the ring, but Riho’s teammates save her and break up whatever triple team slam was intended.
The two teams line up for a simultaneous brawl. Well kind of, as Sakura and Ram are reversed and in the wrong lines. This leads to shots all around as people realize they’re next to opponents, which leads to Sakura nailing Yunamon with repeated forearms in the corner because Sakura is Sakura.
The respective teams clear out and Yunamon staggers to the center to the ring after taking the abuse from her own teammate where Riho lays in her own forearms. Yunamon eventually blocks one though and spins Riho around before landing a hard chop. Riho falls back up against the ropes and Yunamon charges in with a lariat. And another after getting momentum from hitting the opposite ropes. Tropical Yahho leg drop gets 2.
Yunamon hits the ropes again but Rina jumps her and Ram follows with a codebreaker. Ram then positions Yunamon for a top rope crossbody from Riho. Hina saves at 2.
Yunamon fights off a dragon suplex attempt then charges Riho. But Riho low bridges the ropes and Yuna goes over, yet holds on to the top rope and is hanging outside. Riho hits the far ropes presumably for a dropkick but runs right into a sweet judo throw from Hina.
Yunamon skins the cat back into the ring and she and Sakura sandwich lariat Riho. Yunamon hits the ropes and nails a gorgeous Supergirl pin attempt. Riho just barely rolls her shoulder up at 2.99.
Yunamon hits some shots on the prone Riho, then picks her up in a fireman’s carry. Riho counters a slam attempt from that position into a victory roll style pin for 2. Yunamon LEVELS Riho with a lariat and folds her in half on the pin to get another crazy close 2.
Apparently that was too close for Ram, who comes in to throw powder into Yunamon’s eyes. Rina’s H.A.T.E. stablemates have the ref distracted in the corner. Rina herself follows that up with a shot from her whip to Yunamon. Poor Yunamon’s laid out on the ropes and Ram hits the 619. Finally Riho’s crucifix spinning rollup gets 3.
Post match Riho assures the ref she has no idea what that powder all over the ring is and shows him her clean hands. I knew she’d fit right in with the heels eventually.
As the three celebrate, in the other corner Sakura of course takes exception to Yunamon losing and starts stomping away at her. Hina separates them but Sakura hits her too as they head to the back. Sakura heads off on her own while Hina and Yunamon bow to the crowd together.
This was a lot of fun. The antics were largely amusing and generally expected given the mix of wrestlers involved, and when the action picked up it was great. The Yunamon and Riho stuff down the stretch was awesome, and I’d love to see a singles match from them again someday given how much Yunamon has evolved since they last met. Rina and Hina were quite good. Would definitely like to see more from both.
Again the whole show is available on Stardom’s YouTube and well worth a watch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Mima Kirigoe is about to leave being a pop idol behind, but her past might not be on board with her new life and new image…
I feel fair warning is needed to start off here. Perfect Blue is officially Not Rated, but let’s be clear it would likely be NC-17 if it were given one.
So for anyone who still equates animation with children’s cartoons: you are very much in the wrong place. It’s a medium that, like live action, can be used to tell a wide variety of stories in any genre. Perfect Blue is a full blown psychological thriller with horror elements and extremely graphic treatment of horrible situations.
It’s also easily one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and one of my all time favorites.
And yet I’ve only watched it a handful of times over the years because of its intensity and subject matter. I adore a good psychological thriller, in part I’m sure because of the impression this left on me, but horror and gore aren’t my thing at all. The graphic nature of this film is beyond what I’m usually able to handle, but the medium, the execution, and the sheer quality of this film make it the exception.
I first saw Perfect Blue pretty close to when it was initially released, an astonishing 28 years ago now. I was still early on in being an anime fan, and it completely blew me away. I spent the majority of the movie trying to keep up and wondering what on Earth I was watching as the film broke my brain, but in the final ten minutes or so it all seems to fit together in incredible form and makes everything that came before click into place.
This was director Satoshi Kon’s first film. He had a small but impressive list of other movies plus one tv series before his unfortunate death in 2010 at the age of 46. Everything in his catalog is well worth watching, and varies wildly in genre and subject matter.
It’s been near a decade since my last watch, and the opportunity to see the remaster in a theater made this the perfect time to revisit this masterpiece and see how it held up.
Perfect Blue is a visually stunning film, and the restoration did it justice. Everything popped in the right ways and the detail put into it can be appreciated as never before. It simply looked great.
There’s a kind of stylized realism to the film, which made certain elements really stand out when that realism was pushed aside a bit both narratively and visually. Kon was willing to make some characters look unsettling and/or ugly, which adds a lot to the visual depth and overall atmosphere.
Mima’s story was every bit as gripping as when I watched it for the first time, and knowing the key reveals didn’t detract from the building tension at all. The themes of personal choice and identity, the pitfalls of fame, the commodification of celebrities, and so on still resonate.
The pacing is exquisite, as the film knows when to hold a scene for impact and to create unease. There are several times when disturbing scenes and moments are held, creating an oppressive sense of dread.
There are several sections where time is played with and scenes are intercut together. I’ve never seen the technique put to better use. Mima’s world is falling apart, and the film’s use of parallel moments and framing to convey the fragility of her reality is incredible.
It’s a minor thing but the time period specific stuff, like the main character needing to learn what the internet is and how to navigate it, was presented really well. The film doesn’t feel poorly aged because it was from a different time, as it clearly and naturally gives the viewer just enough of a frame of reference for what era it’s in.
The entire film left a mark on me and still had as much impact this time around. One particular moment, a stunning illustration of taking full advantage what can be done in animation, blew me away and is always what I think of first when I remember this movie. It’s a split second thing, but my jaw dropped again all the same when I saw it on the big screen.
This was an instant classic when it was released, and absolutely holds up near three decades later.
Perfect Blue Remastered will be playing in select theaters for about another week. Highly recommended, with a reminder warning that this is an intense, often disturbing watch.
Side note: Perfect Blue is an adaptation, and I read and reviewed the translation of the book it was based on a few years back. The short version is while the book is solid, there were some major changes made to the film that added depth and nuance and for anyone interested in this story the movie is definitely the way to go.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Evil Uno’s Mystery Wrestling is a fun concept where the wrestlers and matches aren’t revealed before the show. Recently Uno’s fellow AEW superstar Emi Sakura appeared on one of his shows. A couple weeks later and Uno’s in Japan with a special crossover with Sakura’s own company ChocoPro (although Sakura herself is in the US and thus isn’t appearing this time).
As ChocoPro has a set core roster some of the participants where obvious/shared beforehand, but the matchups were kept secret, even in the few hours between the taping and the show’s airing.
Going into the show Mei Suruga, Baliyan Akki, Chie Koishikawa, Miya Yotsuba, Hiyori Yawata, Chris Brookes, and of course Evil Uno had been announced.
Akki and Evil Uno opened up the show, with Uno explaining it’s his first trip to Japan. Akki taught Uno the ins and outs of ChocoPro’s home turf rules in an amusing bit.
For new viewers: Ichigaya Chocolate Square is a unique venue with no ring. The audience surrounding the mat and the one wall the mat is up against are the “rope break” boundaries for submissions only. Pinfalls count as long as the wrestler’s shoulders are on the mat, and there are no rope breaks for pinfalls.
That’s the gist of what Akki explained. In addition, double teams/double pins are legal in tag team matches, there are no count outs, and referees are extremely lenient as far as DQs go (as is normal for Japanese wrestling). For more details see this quick reference I wrote a few years ago.
Uno revealed he does commentary himself for Mystery Wrestling and stepped into the camera/commentary role for match 1.
1- Hiyori Yawata & Chris Brookes vs Egg Tart (Chie Koishikawa & Hagane Shinno)
Hiyori was out first and introduced the newest member of Team Hiyori, CHRIS BROOKES! Ever the good sport Chris came out in a Hiyori hat. I love this team already.
Their opponents are Egg Tart. This is a really cool choice for the opening match.
Referee is ChocoPro GM Aoi Kizuki.
Chris heckled Chie during her intro. Then he threw her flower on the ground and was just being a general gremlin to her. Man I hate to see ChieDK bicker.
Amusing start saw Chris take one hard leg kick from Hagane and tag out. Hiyori then tried to avenge her partner and gave Hagane several … rather ineffective kicks. Hanage leveled her with a single kick of his own in response and she rolled to the corner to tag out. No one wants to mess with Hagane.
After tags on both sides Chris touched the ceiling to taunt Chie, so Chie got on Hagane’s shoulders to do the same. Chris put Hiyori on his shoulders and the audience already knew what was coming. Sure enough Chris put her head through the ceiling as soon as he stood up. Shades of Rin Rin. Chris apologized to Sakura through the camera.
Chris continued being a menace all match doing things like hitting his opponents (and poor ref Aoi) with his big rubber band thing as well as rubbing the broken ceiling tile into Chie’s forehead.
Good action all around, with the strike exchanges between the men being particularly heavy hitting and impressive. Egg Tart applied a sick looking double stretch muffler on Hiyori at one point. Probably would have been it but Chris went nuts with his elastic again and broke it up.
Eventually Chie caught Hiyori with a sweet arm trap rollup for the win.
This was a really high energy ten minute match and a fantastic example of how to work in a bit of absurdity and shenanigans into a hard hitting contest.
Post match Chris went to put the Hiyori hat back on but Hiyori complained about the ceiling thing, so her threw it at her instead.
2- ???
Uno tries to bail and hand the camera off to someone saying it’s very hard to do two things at once, Mei comes out and pushes him back behind the camera. She cuts a promo at Uno, which means towards the camera. Nicely done.
Mei makes the next match 1 count rules in honor of Uno. And then totally unnecessarily but hilariously demonstrates what a 1 count is and how to kick out before 1. I adore this. Once she’s done talking she ejects him, starting a “you get out” chant, and takes over behind the camera herself.
2- Mei’s Special Uno Count Match
And our participants are… Choun Shiryu and Trans Am Hiroshi. This’ll be something.
Choun can work any style and Hiroshi is at home in atypical matches so they worked this stipulation to the fullest.
Choun nearly stole the win early during a reversal sequence but Hiroshi kicked out before 1. Right off the bat they established that the unusual rule was going to have a big impact on their strategy.
Hiroshi did his usual meditation stuff, where he’s able to shrug off strikes and roll back into crosslegged sitting position through the power of inner peace. It worked for a bit, but then nearly backfired spectacularly when Choun went for a pin instead and Hiroshi had to frantically kickout before 1.
Ref Aoi did a phenomenal job on all the close 1 counts throughout the match, including a great series of rapid fire covers by Choun where Hiroshi had to kick out super fast several times in a row.
Late in the match Trans Am Hiroshi stopped for a song break. Choun joined in, and Hiroshi’s sneak attack after they finished singing nearly got the win with a small package. They kept fighting until Choun got caught in a sweet judo throw off of the windowsill for 1 and the win for Trans Am Hiroshi.
This was two extremely talented veterans in an entertaining outing and again a good mix of ridiculousness and solid wrestling.
Right before the main event is where the support shoutouts happen. I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Masahiro Takanashi, an incredible wrestler and a big part of ChocoPro, is currently out recovering from a serious neck injury and ChocoPro has set up a variety of ways to help if anyone is able.
3- Miya Yotsuba & Evil Uno vs Best Bros (Mei Suruga & Baliyan Akki)
Brooks is on commentary for the main event. Best Bros give him grief about the hole in the ceiling, and like the stand up guy he is he blames Hiyori.
Uno & Miya are going to be a fun team.
Mei and Uno to start. As usual Mei thinks she’s 10 feet tall and showed no fear against her much larger opponent. She then proceeded to knock herself over trying to tackle Uno. Magnificent.
Mei was more evil than Evil Uno all match, including taking a Miya towel away from a fan at one point to choke Miya with. That’s just not right. Akki fully leaned into the boos too and did a “Bros Hammer” to embarrass Miya by stealing her signature Miya Hammer and then mocked the fans’ negative reaction.
Miya & Uno later got in on the shenanigans too though, when Miya had fans link hands to make a chain all around Ichigaya for extra leverage for Uno’s abdominal stretch on Akki.
Like the opener, this was another fast paced high octane example of great tag team wrestling.
Eventually the teamwork of the well established, former tag team champion Best Bros proved too much to overcome and their trademark Dolphin Press (wheelbarrow assisted shooting star press) on Miya picked up the 3 count.
That was SO. MUCH. FUN. Uno fit right in and this was a blast.
Two of AEW’s Japanese announcers were in attendance and were invited into the post show janken (rock-paper-scissors) tourney.
This happened the day before Choco’s next ring show, New Dawn, which like all of ChocoPro’s show will eventually be available to watch for free on their YouTube channel.
This was a breeze and a joy to watch. The ChocoPro roster are masters at making the most of the environment in their unique home base, and this show is an excellent encapsulation of the kind of wrestling they do. I highly recommend it in general and particularly to anyone who is even remotely interested in checking out the company. This show is officially available to watch at any time for free.
“Thank you for … showing me that wrestling can happen anywhere, it does not need ropes, it only needs the spirit of pro wrestling.” Uno gets it. Really hope he comes back someday.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Seems to be tradition at this point that when I manage to do retrospectives for the blog I’m at least a month past the actual anniversary (actually a full two this go round). My sense of time certainly is off kilter nowadays and summer simply blurred by.
And with the pandemic upending the world and me being largely on hiatus for a few years it’s been a while since I did one of these. But better late than never, and my tiny little corner of the internet somehow got to a decade old this past July.
Overview
It’s been four years since my last blog retrospective, which was post #682 at the time. This is post #728 (I’ve deleted exactly 2 entries ever, so my total number of posts written since last time is 48). Under 50 posts in 4 years is on the low side to my previous output, but there was practically nothing from 2021-23, so not too bad overall for my slow and struggling return over the last year and a half.
I did not make 700 posts by end of 2021 as I hoped to. In fact I didn’t write anything else in 2021 after the retrospective, had only 3 entries in 2022, and nothing in 2023. My chronic illnesses and others things have impacted my life in big ways. But this blog is a passion project of mine, I enjoy being able to share my thoughts on my hobbies, and I’m glad to be back, sporadic as it’s been.
In early 2024 I was preparing to return to the blog with another retirement piece and some art related content. Instead those came later and my first post in a year and a half was an emotional farewell to one of my favorite wrestlers who unexpectedly passed away extremely young. I had the privilege of attending Asahi’s debut match in person, and was a big fan of the effort and emotion she poured into her wrestling. She is greatly missed. Rest in peace, Sunrise of Hope.
Specific Post Details
Looking back in aggregate there was a lot of variety in my posts and there’s a lot to cover in terms of stuff I’d like to highlight. Writing was often a struggle during this time period and it’s nice to be happy with the results of that effort.
While the genres covered are largely the same through the life of Derailments of Thought, the specific manifestations have morphed a bit. With my health limitations in a post pandemic world I’m not able to go out nearly as much as I used to, and I can’t really travel at all. So my Japan trips and the live event coverage that resulted will remain a thing of the past for the foreseeable future.
I was lucky enough to manage a few local events across the last couple years though, including a fantastic NXT Roadblock at MSG and some concerts of the incredibly fun Atarashii Gakko. I also made it to one film of Japan Cuts 2024. Japan Society’s annual film festival was something I attended heavily in the past and was a big part of the early years of this blog, so it was cool to be back in some fashion and share thoughts on Great Absence.
As in the past some of the most special and personal posts are wrestler specific pieces that are usually about retirements, major career changes, or in a few unfortunate cases memorials. Several of my favorites have retired recently, and there are more announced to come.
These are all new posts since last time’s retrospective. Please see that post for links to a great many prior entries of these types.
In addition, I wrote a special spotlight early this year about the joy wrestling can bring in general with particular focus on ChocoPro’s newest and youngest member, Kaho Hiromi.
Other wrestling content I’ve done recently focused mainly on match spotlights, ranging from unusual and/or potentially overlooked matches to stuff I wanted to revisit or just caught my eye.
The unique TokyoGameShow matches that happened in 2022 as part of promotional hype for AEW’s video game had never been aired until they were added to Wrestle Universe late last year. These included several once ever matchups featuring favorites of mine crossing paths so were a real treat to finally get to see.
In the last couple months I’ve looked back on some matches wrestlers currently performing in the US had in Ice Ribbon way back when, including Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, and Asuka. They feature Giulia’s biggest match ever in the promotion she started in, a contentious match of hers against fellow rookie Asahi, Vaquer’s first match in Ice Ribbon as well as her facing one of the company’s rising stars, and a hidden gem of a match with veteran Kana against fiery rookie Yuuka. Was really cool to look back on all of these.
Another big part of the blog lately has been focused on the collecting side of things. I did card spotlights on BBM’s 2024 and 2025 Women’s Wrestling card sets, as well as features on specific types of unusual cards like printing plates, other metal cards, comic cuts, and minis.
Some of the posts I’m happiest about sharing featured several incredible artists from whom I have a wonderful collection of cards and other art. They include Miki Okazaki, Ice Ribbon’s Yappy, Lydi Li, and Veronica O’Connell.
In an effort to avoid mentioning and linking to every single post I did in the last couple years I’m going to gloss over the occasional book/movie/game reviews I did, but they remain an important part of the blog and I got to read/see/play some really cool stuff.
Lastly, one of my all time favorite writers passed away in May after a long battle with health issues. Peter David’s work shaped a ton of my views on what comics and novels could be. Rest In Peace, Writer of Stuff.
Top Posts
Going to approach this part a little different this time, primarily because the top 4 posts are exactly the same as last time, and going nowhere. They all had over 1,200 views then (plus a proportionate handful each since), which is dominant for my meager ramblings that have about 20 regular readers.
On that note, a copied reminder from my last couple retrospective posts regarding my most viewed posts:
“Derailments of Thought is 100% a personal hobby blog, and my little corner of the web is generally pretty modest in terms of views. More than half of my posts garner under 20, and the “highly viewed” posts generally end up with a few hundred. This is fine, and I greatly appreciate everyone who takes the time to read. I’m pointing it out for context for the extent in which a couple of my pieces have deviated from the norm. I’m sharing this short list because I find the mix of subjects and other little details interesting.”
Since last time only 2 posts have overtaken the 587 views 5th place’s Tokyo Joshi Pro 1/4/16 Live Thoughts had then, so I’m going to spotlight them specifically in lieu of rehashing thoughts on the above. Please see last time for more details on those posts.
One last note: my blog homepage itself gets a much larger percentage of the views than it used to, so all of this is highly approximate as there are no counts of what specific posts people read off that or tagged sections. I imagine my artist features are a bit undercounted as I get decent interest for those as I post about them on Instagram, where there’s no direct link to the individual post just a general blog link in my bio.
The TJPW 1/4/16 show is now at 813 views, which would place it 6th now if this was still list format.
Yoshiko 686 views: The first new addition that caught on isn’t actually a new post since last time. It has been published just a few months before and mentioned in that retrospective and was steadily climbing in views. It’s a look back on one of joshi wrestling’s most infamous incidents after several years had passed and presented my thoughts on important context that I felt needed to be considered when looking back on it.
Farewell to the Muscle Idol: Reika Saiki’s Retirement 999 views: The other is amusingly being mentioned and linked to for the third time within this post. The Muscle Idol, Reika Saiki, was incredibly popular as a wrestler, an idol, and in her “muscle” related work and remains so even after retiring from it all. Not surprised this one piques people’s interest, and am glad to share my memories of her career. (Side note: that ridiculously precise view count is legit as of time of writing and was not fudged in any way.)
——-
Asahi PSC by Veronica O’Connell
So that’s a decade down. Wild how time flies.
Thank you to anyone who took some time to read through this retrospective, and I hope you found at least a post or two of interest to check out. I currently can’t guarantee any sort of update schedule, but I have stuff in the works and intend to keep at this as I’m able.
In the not too distant future I’m hoping to do more collecting and/or artist spotlights, as well as maybe continuing with more match features on interesting little moments from the past. There are a TON of recent and upcoming retirements so I’m playing around with a new format to share a few key memories of several wrestlers in one post. We’ll see if that pans out. And of course occasional book/movie/game reviews and other randomness will be sprinkled in.
Here’s to another ten years or so.
Again I’m extremely thankful for everyone who’s read, shared, and or commented on things I’ve written. Doing so is much appreciated, and often needed, support.
If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
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.
———-
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.
———-
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.
Derailments of Thought 