A quick look back on some personal highlights of the careers of a couple of fun wrestlers who I’m interestingly mostly familiar with outside of their original promotion.
Nao Kakuta
In the type of amusing coincidence that’s becoming common for this blog, I had no idea I was featuring two wrestlers who double debuted against each other when I chose to spotlight them together for this post. Nao and Tae both debuted for Actwres girl’Z on 5/31/15 in a singles match against each other.
It was the better part of three years into her career when I saw Nao for the first time. It was one of only a handful of times I ever saw her wrestle live, and it remains a lasting an enjoyable memory to this day.
AWG’s Bloody Cat faced Fairy Nipponbashi on Wave’s Young OH! OH! 1/8/18 show. I adored Nao immediately, and to my delight she picked up the win when she had more than enough of Fairy’s magical nonsense and just whacked her over the head with her own wand then rolled her up for the 3 count.
My other rare opportunities to see Nao live ended up being a Kani King Produce show of all things as well as one single time in her home promotion at Actwres girl’Z 1/20/19 show.
Free Wi-Fi PSC by Miki Okazaki.
In late 2020 Nao left Actwres and went to Tokyo Joshi Pro, where she’d spend the rest of her career. She fit in well, and always seemed to be enjoying herself in her matches.
In mid 2022 she would start teaming with my then favorite wrestler in the promotion, Hikari Noa, to form the tag team Free Wi-Fi.
The two had wonderful chemistry as a team and were a blast to watch. They’d eventually win the Princess Tag Team titles in October, 2024. It was the only title of Nao’s career.
Right before TJPW’s big January 4th show that year Free Wi-Fi forfeited the tag titles with Hikari being absent for undisclosed reasons. She never returned to wrestling, and her retirement was made official in May.
Nao was winding down her career herself, and had a proper farewell including a special self produced show right before her retirement where she had a match with fellow AWG alumni she had started with in Saori Anou, Natsupoi, and Tae.
I’m long overdue with this tribute as Nao retired in July, 2024, but I still wanted to reminisce a bit. Nao still pops now and then, as I’ll mention again shortly. I hope all is going well for the former Rat Chaser.
Tae Honma
Ice Ribbon’s “Best Enemy”
I saw a lot of wrestling each time I visited Japan. My first trip was both incredible and overwhelming. I saw 17 shows from 8 different promotions featuring 144 wrestlers. Of course some of it blurred together …
In the middle of it I attended a Reina show pretty much solely to see Tsukasa Fujimoto’s title match. I had no familiarity with the promotion nor most of their roster or the guest wrestlers appearing from other promotions. While the rest of the show was good enough, to be perfectly honest I promptly didn’t remember anything outside of Tsukka vs Maki Narumiya.
As it turns out that show was actually the first time I had ever seen Tae Honma wrestle, a mere 7 months into her career. The match was her and Maki Natsumi (now Natsupoi) against Saori Anou and Yuna Manase. Totally fine tag team match, but it completely slipped my mind for a while.
I find this worth noting in hindsight mainly because two years later at Ribbonmania I was convinced I was getting my first look at Tae and remember being incredibly impressed.
Tae is charisma personified, with a smash mouth style built on top of strong technical skills. She was feuding with Kyuri at the time, which meant she was appearing at a lot of the Ice Ribbon shows I regularly attended. Their battles spilled over into other promotions as well, including the Wave Young OH! OH! show I mentioned with regards to Nao above.
Tae and Kyuri were both regular partners of Maika Ozaki (as SPiCEAP and Gekokujo respectively), and their issues would involve Maika as well as Saori Anou in various forms over time. The four had great chemistry and their matches in different combinations were always fantastic. I’m a huge fan of all four of them to this day.
Tae Honma & Maika Ozaki PSC by Veronica O’Connell
I’ve seen and attended several awesome matches of Tae’s over the years. But I’d be lying if I tried to deny that the first thing that pops to mind will forever be the infamous hot dog match from Frank Sisters Produce 1/5/18.
Tae and Maya Yukihi faced Tsukka and Hamuko Hoshi in one of the most unique matches I’ve ever seen. Music would randomly be played during the match, at which point wrestlers currently in ring could eat hot dogs supplied by their seconds.
Watching them stuff their faces with hot dogs then immediately go back to taking hard shots and stomach bumps was unsettling in the most weirdly compelling way. The action was great, with everyone giving 110% effort.
The reason this match will always spring to mind with regards to Tae for me is that she was an absolute monster and the mvp of the whole affair. She and Maya, and again mostly she, outate their opponents by 9 hotdogs. Post show I talked to Tae while getting some pictures signed and she expressed being very full and never wanting to eat hot dogs for at least a year.
Tae was officially part of the Actwres roster until they rebranded as a wrestling related theatrical company and several of their wrestlers went freelance. She had always worked heavily in other promotions even before that, and as mentioned I primarily knew her through those appearances.
I did get to attend one AWG show that featured Tae, again a show I mentioned above that had Nao on it as well. Tae had a really cool Gatoh Move crossover match that saw her team with Yuna Mizumori (now of Stardom) against Mii and Riho (now of AEW).
Tae’s had a great retirement road that let her cross paths with a number of old compatriots from her AWG days as well as making final appearances in numerous promotions she wrestled in over the years. Tae continued to team with Maika, and she will be retiring as half of Wave’s Tag Team Champions as SPiCEAP still holds those titles.
Nao Kakuta made a special appearance as part of Tae’s match against Saki from GPU COLORS yesterday.
Tae Honma’s retirement match will be today, 10/13/25 (local Japan time/date), in just a couple hours at Ranmaru Festa Vol. 43. The show can be purchased for live streaming (with a week archive) here.
Tae was always an absolute joy to watch. Wishing her all the best in life post wrestling.
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.
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.
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
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BBM releases yearly card sets for a variety of sports, and for over a decade I have been collecting their joshi wrestling sets. Here we’ll take a look at the details and differences in their most recent offering.
Known as True Heart until 2020 and simply Women’s Wrestling since then, these yearly sets focus on women wrestlers all across Japan. Most joshi wrestling companies and freelancers participate. The main exception is World Wonder Ring Stardom, whose roster members do not appear in these sets (Stardom has done occasional card based products on their own in the past).
There are also rare special sets released in addition to the yearly sets, such as the recent 2023 Ambitious. As opposed to the general random nature of packs and boxes, Ambitious 2023 was a box only release. Each box contained a complete 47 card base set, one of nine possible acrylic standee cards, and a small number of random chase inserts and signature cards.
The standard packing numbers for the last several years of Women’s Wrestling releases have been 6 cards per pack, 20 packs per box. Each box had some chase cards in random packs, with the chase card replacing one of the base cards (so you’re always getting 6 cards in a pack).
This release dropped from 20 packs per box to 18, but increased the cards per pack to 7. The seventh card in each pack is a one of the 24 “Kira” chase cards, shiny cards which feature a facsimile auto of the depicted wrestler. It’s a solid move for BBM, as now each pack has something a little special in it.
The other chase subsets in the 2024 set are a 9 card foil subset, and 19 “secret” chase cards (18 base card secret variants plus a secret card for Nanashi (“no name”)). The base cards generally feature two images of the featured wrestler while the various inserts highlight a single pose, headshot, etc. There tends to be 3 foil and 3 secret cards per box.
An assortment of base cards from the 2024 set.
The yearly base set varies in size each year to reflect new wrestlers, retirements, occasional special cards for tag teams, and so on. There are a lot of joshi wrestlers active in Japan and these are not small sets. The 2024 base set consists of 156 cards, which is a little over a box and a half of base cards (if no duplicates were drawn).
One of the main draws of the sets are the special randomly included cards signed by the wrestlers. This year there are 3-4 sig cards per box.
Anecdotally, for several cases I’m aware of, there were exactly 3 boxes in the 12 box case that had 3 sig cards with the remainder having 4. So it seems like a pretty stable 75% of boxes have 4 sig cards and 25% have 3.
These autographed cards are numbered and there’s generally around 100 of each base version. The vast majority of the base sigs cards this year are on card signatures (with stickers only used for included wrestlers currently based overseas), which is great.
The base signature card design this year is very simple, but I personally like them a lot. The focus is firmly on the wrestler and their signature, and having a fair bit of white background on them makes the insert variants with fully colored backs contrast more.
The 2024 set has signed secret variant cards for the wrestlers who have secret base versions. These are limited/numbered to 90. The foil insert subset has associated signature cards numbered to 60 each.
There are also a small number of “super secret” signature cards. Aja Kong has one limited to 30 copies, while five other wrestlers have versions limited to 10.
Stickers were used for all of the insert autos, which isn’t ideal but is understandable as they’re going for a certain look with these and the stickers limit signatures to a confined area on the card. All of the various insert autos this year look stunning.
The last chase items to talk about 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), with a few wrestlers doing different outfits and having a total of 20 this year.
In past years chekis were generally extremely stable pull rate-wise at 3 per case (or 1 per 4 boxes). This year it has dropped to 2 per case (1 in 6 boxes). While they are among the most rare inserts to try to collect, they’re wonderfully unique and a focus of my personal collection.
So that’s it for my breakdown of this year’s BBM Women’s Wrestling release. I wish anyone who decides to collect some of this fun set good luck with their pulls and pickups.
I’ve written a lot about art I collect of several of my favorite professional wrestlers from a variety of artists. A couple years ago, in Another Wonderful Way Pro-Wrestling is Art 3, I briefly talked about an unusual case: one of those wrestlers is a wonderful artist herself. Yappy has done a number of pieces of her coworkers (as well as self portraits) and today I’ll be spotlighting more of her work.
Yappy has been wrestling for a women’s wrestling company in Japan named Ice Ribbon for nearly five years. She has a naturally upbeat and energetic personality that translates into engaging ring charisma and fun matches. She’s a huge part of Ice Ribbon’s interactions with foreign fans, from explanatory videos to spearheading their international store, and has appropriately nicknamed herself Ice Ribbon’s Bridge to the World. Her soon to return Weekly Ribbon Unravel YouTube show highlights general happenings in Ice Ribbon in English for a foreign audience.
Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukasa Fujimoto.
Yappy’s larger pieces are wonderfully dynamic, with a strong sense of style and motion to them that beautifully captures the personality of her subjects. The above rendition of Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukasa Fujimoto is also carefully accentuated by metallic highlights that really bring it to life.
Yappy has also done pieces of (now former) regular guest participants such as former ICE Cross Infinity Champion Saori Anou and former multi-time International Tag Ribbon Champion Maika Ozaki.
I adore playing card style art, and Yappy’s Queen of Foxes illustration of Anou is so creatively done. The regal pose is perfect for the concept, and it’s finished with the same type of great shimmering metallic highlights as the Tsukka piece.
Maika’s piece is adorable and colorful, showing the cute side of one of joshi wrestling’s strongest powerhouses.
One of my favorite illustrations Yappy’s done is Ice Ribbon’s Totoro Satsuki with their mascot Ribbonne in a tribute to the wrestler’s namesake, Studio Ghibli’s animated classic My Neighbor Totoro.
Totoro Satsuki and Ribbonne.
One of the coolest things about Yappy’s art is her willingness to experiment and the resulting variety of styles she can work in. Her joyous black and white illustration of Saran feels quite different from her colored work, but is just as engaging.
Another great example of this is her playful, comic strip style depictions of her interactions with former Ice Ribbon wrestler Nao Ishikawa.
Yappy and Nao Ishikawa.Tequila Saya illustration by Yappy for Charles Short’s second Ice Ribbon book.
Yappy did a series of illustrations for Charles Short’s second book about Ice Ribbon, titled Wonderland. These portrayals show off her range, as the chibi influenced versions still capture the essence of the wrestlers’ likenesses and charisma.
Tsukina UminoKaho Matsushita
The last batch of art I’ll spotlight here is Yappy’s art nouveau pieces. Three pieces in total (more on that to come), they are extremely striking and pop with color to make an immediate impression.
Yappy incorporated wonderful detail into these. Ice Ribbon’s Mugendai (“infinite potential”) Girl Kaho Matsushita’s has an infinity motif, and Tsukina Umino’s other job as a murder mystery game GM heavily inspired the theme for her piece.
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More information about both Yappy’s art and her wrestling can be found on her social media.
There’s one more wonderful art nouveau piece to discuss, left to last because there’s unfortunately some sad news that now goes along with it. In early February 2024 Actwres girl’Z reported a 21 year old wrestler named Asahi had unexpectedly passed away. Asahi started her career in Ice Ribbon and was a dear coworker and friend to Yappy. She was also a personal favorite of mine, being a joy to watch in the ring and an inspiring presence in general. Yappy’s incredible rendition of the Sunrise of Hope that originally started her art nouveau series is cherished momento of someone gone far too soon.
Heartbreaking news is not how I intended to return to blogging (and my previously planned posts will be coming soon). But tragedies are all too often completely unexpected, and I feel compelled to share some words of personal remembrance of a wrestler who meant a great deal to me as a fan.
Actwres girl’Z has shared that one of their performers, 21 year old Asahi, has unexpectedly passed away (no other details have been shared: please respect the privacy of her grieving family, friends, and colleagues).
Asahi debuted for a promotion named Ice Ribbon in August 2017. The then 14 year old faced wrestling legend Manami Toyota in her debut match. I was lucky enough to attend that show live, and was impressed with the sense of determination and resiliency Asahi showed.
The wrestler who would eventually be nicknamed The Sunrise of Hope became an absolute favorite of mine, and it was a joy to see her evolve and grow as her career progressed. She put her heart into her matches, was technically skilled, and most importantly was just flat out fun to watch.
One of my favorite memories of the emotion she put behind everything is a bit of an odd inclusion here, as it never really made tape. But it’s such a vivid memory to this day I’d like to share it.
At a show in early 2019 Asahi was part of a P’s Party themed team, alongside fellow rookies Tequila Saya and Giulia, going against then Ice Ribbon veterans Risa Sera, Maya Yukihi, and Akane Fujita. It was an elimination match with special stipulations, and by the end P’s Party had the unlikely advantage as it was down to Asahi and Giulia against Akane. Asahi had Akane on the verge of elimination and was slowly grounding her senior down, only to be shoved away at the last second by a partner who wanted the glory for herself. P’s Party won, but Asahi was betrayed all the same. What followed was intense, and only a tiny snippet made it to the video of the event.
“Asahi stares a HOLE through her so called partner, and then goes CRAZY trying to claw and scrape her way to attack Giulia requiring three others to hold her back until finally Tsukka comes in to calm her down. Fantastic fire from Asahi here, and there was more story and character conveyed in these 30 seconds than I’ve seen in entire shows.”
No matter what type of moment, Asahi always vividly conveyed her emotions with captivating charisma.
Another special memory for me was getting to see her wrestle another of my favorites, Misaki Ohata, at a P’s Party show in a great match seeing Asahi throw everything she could at her vastly more experienced opponent.
I have not been able to return to Japan since before the pandemic, so the final times I was able to see Asahi wrestle live were Ribbonmania 2019 and one dojo show a couple weeks later. Her being victorious in the tag team gauntlet and then later part of Tequilia Saya’s retirement match in the main event are happy memories.
In Spring of 2023 Asahi left Ice Ribbon to go to Actwres girl’Z, a company with a more theatrical based approach to wrestling related entertainment. She was a good fit and I recommend checking out her work there as well.
It’s heart wrenching to try to process the loss of someone so young, with a seemingly bright future ahead of her. Farewell, our dear Sunrise. You will be remembered, and missed.
Wave’s big year end show ended up even more significant than usual for the company. Not only was it Misaki Ohata’s retirement show, but also the final “phase 1” show for Wave as they prepared to go on hiatus for four months to then relaunch under new management.
Hiroyo Matsumoto is a force of nature in the ring, and the formula of seeing how much an up and comer can withstand against Lady Godzilla is a good one. Hiroe Nagahama put up a good fight in this opener before Hiroyo’s relentless onslaught gave her the victory.
Next up was a 9-woman battle royal, somewhat surprisingly unthemed since this was a retirement show. Cherry outlasted Fairy Nihonbashi, Hikaru Shida, Himeka Arita, Kaori Yoneyama, Miyuki Takase, Natsumi Maki, Rin Kadokura, and SAKI to win in about ten minutes.
Considering the talent level and interesting names involved, some of the early eliminations and the spotlight coming down to Cherry and Fairy at the end was a bit underwhelming. Still there were a number of amusing spots (including a rather well done slow motion sequence), it didn’t overstay its welcome, and this was reasonably entertaining overall.
In my review of Hikaru Shida’s 10th Anniversary show I remarked how well Wave’s Rina Yamashita and her partner that night Mio Momono executed the resentful tag partners story and won without making their opponents look weak. Men’s Wave featuring Keisuke Goto & Kenichiro Arai vs Koju Takeda & Onryo was pretty much the opposite.
Goto & Arai (opponents in the previous year’s Men’s Wave tag) were at each others throats all match, leading to occasional advantages for their opponents, but in the end Goto tired of Arai, shoved his partner away, did his own thing, and won the match single handedly. Which earned him Arai’s respect after the match. Basic ringwork and meh story here (and I don’t quite get the point/appeal of Onryo’s gimmick of coming to the ring saturated with powder and essentially being a human dust cloud to the point the ring needed cleaning before the next match).
In what I considered a rather surprising upset, Nagisa Nozaki defeated a former Regina di Wave champion in Marvelous’ Takumi Iroha in singles competition. This was a well worked, exciting little match and a huge yet believable win for Nagisa.
After a preview seeing them on opposite sides of a tag encounter the night before at SEAdLINNNG, that company’s estranged former tag team champions Rina Yamishita and Yoshiko continued their feud in singles competition. The two waged war and beat the hell out of each other for a full 15 minutes, going to a time limit draw. There was silliness around Rina’s insistence in covering *herself* in a trash can for a couple of (failed) attacks, but in general this heated brawl was intense and relentless. Great match for what it was.
Speaking of SEAdLINNNG, their founder and current champion Nanae Takahashi, defeated ASUKA (a former Regina di Wave champion in her own right) next in a match with a few nice flourishes that was a bit paint-by-numbers otherwise.
So with Mio Momono pulled from every other show leading up to this due to impending knee surgery she rightfully took it easy here and … BWAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, no. While I really hope she didn’t push herself too hard the self proclaimed BOSS as always gave everything she had (including a dive to the floor minutes into the match O_o), with her WAVE Tag Team champion partner Yumi Ohka and opponents Sakura Hirota & Yuki Miyazaki doing a remarkable job of protecting Mio without anyone ever making it look obviously like they were protecting Mio.
Boss to Mammy would eventually drop those titles to the Hirota & Miyazaki after a near twenty minute battle that was much better than I honestly expected with Mio injured and the challengers largely a comedy team. Sakura busted out the working boots in a major way here, reminding everyone how much skill actually goes into her type of comedy by transcending it at points with spot on technical displays. She even hit the dive to the outside (well, after two failed attempts of course 😉 )!!! She’s still Sakura Hirota of course though, and won by collapsing into a pin on Ohka after a collision.
Mio has since had her knee surgery, and I wish her a speedy recovery and return.
In the main event Misaki Ohata challenged her Avid Rival tag team partner Ryo Mizunami for the Regina di Wave Title in Ohata’s final match.
This was a different kind of retirement match than I’ve seen for others. Since it was a championship match they had a straight up contest befitting the prestige of the title and traditional “retirement spots” were completely absent. They clearly still had some fun with things though, such as when they brawled to the time keeper’s table and Misaki rang the bell directly in Ryo’s ear (ouch!).
As to be expected from two wrestlers of this caliber that know each other so well this was an excellent, hard hitting, back and forth encounter. Misaki eventually busted out a rolling variation of her Sky Blue Suplex (!!) and just wore the champion down until a final Sky Blue Suplex with bridge gave her the win and saw Misaki retire as Regina di Wave champion. Fantastic match and a well deserved honor for the twelve year veteran.
Misaki was in good spirits and joking around a bit during her retirement ceremony (even while her poor partner cried goodbye), a nice sign of her being satisfied with her career and ready to proceed to whatever’s next. I’ll miss her but wish her well.
Likely because of Wave’s hiatus, there was no Zan-1 champion crowned this year. To end the night a video hyping Wave’s return in April was played, hinting at Hirota signing with Wave among other things.
Wave’s year (and “phase 1”) end show was missing some of the elements I’d usually associate with a retirement show, but it still felt a fitting and suitable goodbye for Misaki. The matches were mostly decent with a few exceptional ones, making the show enjoyable even beyond it’s significance and emotional notes.
Like during my May trip, this was another case where I went to a to Pure-J primarily to see Aoi Kizuki as her career wound down. This was her final show for Pure-J, exactly one week before her self produced retirement show. It was my second of Aoi’s final company shows, as I saw Aoi Last Ribbon the day before.
Despite Pure-J’s regular roster members being talented, there’s something missing for me when they wrestle one another. So I generally find the visiting wrestlers more interesting and that my enjoyment level of the show usually depends on who’s visiting and how they’re used.
It’s been really cool to see Ice Ribbon’s Giulia develop and get opportunities to wrestle in other promotions, and was even cooler to see her picking up a victory over Mari Manji to open this show. Her character’s coming along, she’s solid in the ring, and she’s definitely someone to keep an eye on as her experience grows. Manji seems decent enough in the couple of short looks I’ve had of her, although this was honestly Giulia’s spotlight.
The next match was my first look at Gatoh Move’s newest rookie Mei Suruga, who I’d heard a LOT about, and it was all immediately validated as Mei clearly “gets it.” She already has uncanny instincts regarding how to incorporate her charisma into her ringwork, which is also ahead of her experience level. She really impressed me, and it was just a glimpse of what was to come. Her victorious opponent Kazuki is fine, but it was Mei’s exuberance and personality that made this fun and compelling.
Saki & Manami Katsu vs Raideen & Keiko Aono was centered on Aono as she approached her own retirement after a 23 year career (also a week away at the time). This was pretty paint by numbers, but was still fine, a deserved spotlight for Aono, and I always enjoy seeing Saki.
It was really nice to see Moeka Haruhi get a singles spotlight in the semi-main of her “So On Flower” partner’s Pure-J goodbye show. She looked good against one of Pure-J’s resident veteran’s in Leon before falling in defeat.
In the main event Aoi Kizuki teamed with her regular partner from Pure-J, their reigning champion Hanako Nakamori, against Pure-J’s ultimate veteran and one of their most spotlighted rising stars in Command Bolshoi & Yako Fujigasaki respectively.
The chemistry between the four was quite good, and strong action was mixed with career tribute spots including the Joshi traditional corner splash sequence (with Giulia and Moeka amusingly giving Aoi hugs instead of strikes) for another cool, well done sendoff for the Happy Maker.
2 for 2 on fun overall shows capped of with Aoi’s last match with the company in question, with more to come.
As a side note, this was meant to be the first of a double header for me with a Gatoh Move show at the same venue later that day, but that’s a story for when I get to Gatoh’s 10/4 show…
Pure-J is an interesting case for me. They have a reasonably talented core roster… most of whom I personally don’t really connect with for some reason. As such I wasn’t sure I was going to attend this show (and had originally planned to attend another running at the same time than had some Ice Ribbon wrestlers appearing), but once Aoi Kizuki announced her retirement I wanted to take advantage of possibly one last chance to see her wrestle (although as it turns out I will have a few more…). Other guests including Saori Anou, Sareee, Mari (in my only chance to see her this trip), and Saki also increased my interest in this show.
As honestly expected for me I found the opening two matches of Commando Boishoi vs Mari Manji and Leon vs Kazuki fine but unremarkable.
Yako Fujigasaki is hit or miss for me, so I wasn’t sure how the Visual Hunter Battle Royal (which was more like a gauntlet match for Yako than a everyone-for-themselves battle royal) was going to go. It ended up being great fun. Saki, Koharu Hinata, Aoi Kizuki, Hanako Nakamori (Pure-J champion and my favorite of their roster), Saori Anou, and Makoto got the better of Yako frequently and there were several good story beats mixed into Yako’s attitude, perseverance, and eventual win. Hanako got in her face after the match and has every ringside cracking up with whatever was said. Yako’s definitely improving and growing on me, and she was pitch perfect in her role here both when getting her comeuppance and when it was time to turn on the attitude. Aoi always amuses me greatly, Saki is a vastly underrated talent, and the more I see Saori the bigger a fan of hers I become.
Mari & Sareee kept the main event tag contest against Manami Katsu & Rydeen Hagane energetic and exciting while allowing the Pure-J regulars to flash power and control portions as appropriate without bogging down the pace. Sareee’s a superstar in the making.
I liked this more than I expected, primarily on the strength of the later two matches. The highlights continue to be from guests (and again that’s not a knock on the talent of the core roster, but more reflection of my personal tastes), but as long as the show’s enjoyable that doesn’t matter in the least. Decent way to wrap up the wrestling portion of that trip.
I saw these two Ice Ribbon shows earlier in the days of the Seadlinnng and Marvelous shows during Golden Week. They were all part of the “Yokohama Festival” and took place in the same venue, Yokohama Radiant Hall.
5/3/18
Maika Ozaki vs Satsuki Totoro was a fun battle of Maika’s power vs Totoro’s size to open the show. Both are really learning how to use their particular strengths to great effect in the ring. Maika’s torture rack bomb is awesome, and picked up the victory for her.
Watching live I wasn’t sure of the stipulation for Akane Fujita, Kyuri & Mochi Miyagi vs Asahi, Giulia, & Ibuki Hoshi. When Akane pinned Asahi and things kept going I was thinking 2 of 3 falls or elimination. I found out afterward it was “Captain’s Fall” (a more common stipulation in IR I should have thought of) and the more veteran team won in a shutout when Kyuri beat Guilia, who must have been her team’s captain. No idea who was captain on the other side, and the rookie team never seemed to have any real chance here. Decent match overall though.
Tsukushi had to win two #1 contendership matches for this opportunity at Hideki Suzuki’s championship (with no explanation why the first suddenly didn’t count), while “Freeze” was “handpicked” by the champ to be included. Tsukka being part of the prematch “ceremonies” might or might not have been part of the largely forgotten stipulation of her and Miyako supposedly becoming Suzuki’s assistants when he won the belt. His declarations of starting a “men’s division” in IR also came to nothing (thankfully, in retrospect).
So going into this match Suzuki had renamed the Triangle Ribbon Championship to the Sumo Battle Championship. The entrances, “pageantry,” and all other sumo aspects (which didn’t actually end up having any impact on the rules, match, or title mind you) lasted longer than the match. Tsukushi was defiant against her larger opponents, but was handled easily and pinned by Susuki in five minutes to retain while the Ice roster beat on Freeze on the outside. The ever changing/forgotten/ignored stipulations/conditions/rules for Suzuki’s title reign were beyond stupid, and while I originally had decent hopes for his involvement in Ice Ribbon it was pretty much a disaster and I couldn’t be happier that Akane now holds this title.
While I knew it was unlikely, Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera)’s International Ribbon Tag Team Title defense against Uno Matsuya & Tequila Saya potentially seemed like the perfect spot to elevate the challengers, who would have been totally believable and deserving champs. Instead the veteran dominance continued with Azure Rev retaining, but it was still one of the best matches I’ve seen from them and a great showing from the challengers even in defeat.
The main event was a first round match for Ice Ribbon’s Six Woman Tag Team Tournament, and honestly seemed a bit of a forgone conclusion to me considering Hamuko Hoshi’s regular partner was waiting in the semi-final in a different trios team. Here Hoshi teamed with Ice Cross Infinity Champion Miyako Matsumoto & Tsukasa Fujimoto against TeamDATE (Hana DATE, Karen DATE & Nao DATE). Hoshi had designs on Miyako’s title, and Miyako isn’t the most reliable teammate at the best of times anyway.
Wasn’t thrilled with the story that arose from all that, seeing the supposed regular unit and actual trios team beaten by dysfunctional teammates who attacked each other accidentally and a few times ON PURPOSE throughout the match. It honestly made the DATES look a bit incompetent, which they don’t deserve. Quite good otherwise though, with a real sense of urgency maintained and good stuff from all six at various points. Special mention to Hana, who has some of the best facial expressions in all of wrestling and always really sells the emotions/atmosphere/etc of her matches wonderfully.
In a nice character touch, Saya sold dejection at her loss throughout post show cheer (similarly Nao stared some great holes through her opponents after her match), and Hana was again a bit of a riot making faces at Asahi conveying uncertainty how she felt about Freeze’s presence in the circle next to her.
Going into the “Major Army vs Young Ice” challenge series two days later all members of the Young Ice team lost here, further positioning them as massive underdogs.
I liked this show overall and as I’ve alluded to the action was good but I could take or leave the booking.
If I only knew…
5/5/18
Before the show there was a 6-woman tag featuring trainees, with Tsukushi refereeing. It was quite a bit of fun and it will be interesting to see them all develop as/if they continue.
The opening match for the show proper saw Tequila Saya get a nice singles spotlight against the visiting Kaho Kobayashi. Kaho has really become excellent, Saya kept up nicely, and this was a solid showing for both with Kaho picking up the expected win.
With Maruko out with injury the planned ActWres vs Outsiders semi-final of Ice Ribbon’s Six Woman Tag Team Tournament was scrapped and ActWres received a bye to the final. However the match itself essentially still happened with Tsukushi swapped in for Maruko. So she teamed with Kyuri & Mio Momono vsMaika Ozaki, Saori Anou, & Tae Honma, and with ActWres proving victorious I don’t understand why this couldn’t have simply been the tourney match as planned.
That aside, this match was great fun and perhaps my favorite of the show. The bratty Tsukushi didn’t seem to appreciate being an Outsider for a night which made for an interesting dynamic, particularly when combined with all the issues surrounding Kyuri’s feud with Tae and Saori with Maika being caught in the middle.
The remainder of the show was comprised of the 8 vs 8 “Major Army vs Young Ice” challenge that had been revealed to be a best of 5 series. The lineup for the series was set up during the post-show roundtable of Ice Ribbon’s dojo show on 4/28/18, and seemed an interesting selection. The “Major Army” comes out to the Imperial March, just to really hammer the point of who the underdogs are into oblivion.
First up saw the Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi) against Karen DATE & Hamuko’s daughter Ibuki Hoshi. Solid way to start that saw the regular, experienced team prevail over the determined rookies.
Giulia lasted longer against Tsukasa Fujimoto than in their prior match, but still came up short and was beaten by Ice Ribbon’s ace in a bit under 7 minutes. The match fit the story they were telling and Giulia’s desire being greater than her skills for now.
At this point things seemed right in line with what I was expecting from the series …
With Young Ice down 0-2 in a best of 5 series, Ice Ribbon’s fan voted rookie of the year and Young Ice Tournament winner Nao DATE faced former champion Risa Sera. They had a good match for the most part, although something about the structure felt a little odd to me. And sure enough, the uneasy feeling bore out in the finish as RISA won in a bit over 7 minutes. What. The. Hell?! There was NO CONCEIVABLY REASON for Nao to drop this. Risa didn’t need the win, Nao did, and more importantly Young Ice had now already LOST the series in match 3 of 5. You could hear the crowd deflate when the ref counted 3.
So the series is decided but the other matches are happening anyway, and the crowd’s pretty much dead. Rightfully no one believes Uno Matsuya, Satsuki Totoro, & Hana DATE have any chance whatsoever against Akane Fujita, Kurumi Hiragi, & Maya Yukihi at this point (and it wouldn’t make any difference if they did win), so no matter what anyone in the match did the reaction was subdued. Magnifying the problem, this was the longest match of the night. Dumb all around. I feel bad for the wrestlers involved being put into this position. This will likely play better on DVD, with less lingering impact from the booking decisions than there was live and more ability to just enjoy the work and effort all six wrestlers put into this.
One match left in both the series and the show. The only possible redeeming aspect of the story of having vets sweep so far would be the newest rookie Asahi upsetting the champ in non-title competition to give Young Ice their only win, and Miyako Matsumoto was the kind of champ who could conceivably lose this. As such the crowd was really behind Asahi, and the match itself was quite good and exciting for the nice length of a bit under 15 minutes it ran. Miyako amuses me greatly and Asahi is fast becoming a favorite so this was awesome to be at.
Of course Asahi lost, making the whole best of 5 series pointless in every way with the veterans, who also swept everything two days before and again came out to the Imperial March for goodness sake, winning every single match. I understand the concept of paying dues, the idea behind looking tough/getting over in defeat, etc, but consistently making half your roster look weak is something else.
Asahi spoke at length afterwards, possibly adding some more context to having come up short against the champ and/or the series that I missed.
During the post show promos Saori came out and issued a challenge for tag belts, but then names Maika as her partner as Tae just smiles. Maika’s reluctant but eventually agrees, and Saori taunts Kyuri (Maika’s regular partner at the time). Another interesting layer in what was easily one of the most compelling feuds in wrestling at the time.
I do recommend these shows for some interesting matchups and good wrestling, with of course the caveat that I also personally have never been more frustrated with IR’s tone deaf booking. Why bother making a series out of those matches for these results? Just book the same card without the “Major Army vs Young Ice” framing and it all plays a ton better. Ice Ribbon actually has deep talent roster, but makes some odd choices and often seems hell bent on never truly elevating anyone until it’s pretty much too late, which is a shame to see from one of my favorite promotions.
Still, I did enjoy going to these shows overall and as I mentioned they will probably play a bit better on DVD and the action was very good for the most part, so if any of the particular matches sound intriguing they are worth checking out.
Dumb all around. I feel bad for the wrestlers involved being put into this position. This will likely play better on DVD, with less lingering impact from the booking decisions than there was live and more ability to just enjoy the work and effort all six wrestlers put into this.
Derailments of Thought 