Tag: GatohMove

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Food Japan Wrestling

In the Blink of an Eye: Past Japan Trips

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

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

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

My first trip

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting wrestlers

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

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

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

Rest In Peace, Sunrise of Hope. 

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

Retirement shows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That time I got the flu in Japan

Not all strong memories are entirely positive.

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

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

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

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

Non-wrestling wrestling events

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

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

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

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

Sightseeing and so on

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

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

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

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

 

——-

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

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

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

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Japan Wrestling

Wrestling Omakase Appearance

Quick entry with something a bit different.

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

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

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

Yuuka’s retirement 

Yuuka’s impending return

spotlight on Yuuka vs Kana (WWE’s Asuka)

Risa Sera’s retirement

Be Happy by Charles Short

Wonderland by Charles Short

last year’s Ribbonmania

Aoi Kizuki’s retirement 

ChocoPro’s unique home venue

how Gatoh Move became ChocoPro

Joy in Pro Wrestling and Kaho Hiromi

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

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

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

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Japan Reviews Wrestling

ChocoPro 486 Halloween Special Thoughts

November 1, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan

ChocoPro 486

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

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

1) Sakura Emi vs Erii Kanae

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

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

ChocoPro GM and retired wrestler Aoi Kizuki is our referee.

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

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

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

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

Sakura made up with Erii afterwards and they hugged.

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

2) Halloween Battle Royal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Halloween shows always rock. Highly recommended.

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

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Japan Reviews Wrestling

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

Starlight Kid 10th Anniversary Show – October 20, 2025

Emi Sakura is approaching her 30th Anniversary show and has a number of anticipated matches across several companies in the couple weeks before it.

This trios match on Starlight Kid’s 10th Anniversary show is a cool mix of generations and has Sakura crossing paths with a couple extremely familiar faces.

Yuna Mizumori (Yunamon) was trained by Sakura, and has extensive history both feuding and teaming with her former mentor. Yunamon left Gatoh Move ( now ChocoPro ) for Stardom in 2022. She defeated Sakura in her second to last Gatoh match, her only ever singles win against her trainer. They have not crossed paths in any capacity since until this match.

Riho is the former ace of Gatoh Move. She left in 2019, and appeared in Stardom regularly until the end of 2020 including a High Speed Championship run. She and Sakura both work for AEW now, and they faced off last month in a tag match.

Ram Kaicho wrestled for a few years as a child, including several appearances in Emi Sakura’s promotion at the time Ice Ribbon, then essentially retired for a decade before returning in 2019. She’s been regularly wrestling since.

I’m not as familiar with Rina and Hina, Stardom’s actual twins, as the rest here. And they don’t have the history with Sakura the others do. But from what little I know about them they should fit in just fine.

Due to outage problems with the intended PPV service this show aired for free and is still currently available on Stardom’s YouTube channel.

Hina, Emi Sakura, & Yuna Mizumori vs Ram Kaicho, Riho & Rina

Four of the six wrestlers in this match debuted at age 11 or younger. The least experienced wrestler here has been wrestling for 7 years. Insane amount of talent in this one.

Riho being on Ram’s team makes sense, as does Sakura and her Beauty As Is teammate Yunamon reuniting, but even so alignment-wise Riho and Sakura look like they swapped places. Sakura even came out to her full heel AEW music. Riho’s probably going to have a much easier time going with the flow of her heel teammates than Sakura will have trying to play nice. Evil Riho rocks. 

Riho’s leather jacket with sheer sleeves over her poofy entrance gown is fantastic.

Pre match Sakura slaps away Riho’s handshake offer. She’s already in full Her Highness mode and the match hasn’t started. This is going to be a blast.

Ram and Hina start. Collar and elbow tie-up leads to a Ram overhand wristlock. Hina counters into her own, which Ram rolls through and goes into a hammerlock. Headlock counter into a takedown by Hina is countered into a headscissors by Ram. Hina kips out, and it’s a stalemate. Nice bit of chain wrestling to get things going.

Hina with a kick to the midsection as Ram comes in for another lockup. Whip into the corner, but Ram counters Hina’s charge by … rapidly firing off imaginary shuriken. They’re devastating and Hina recoils back from the imaginary impacts to her stomach. Yunamon comes in and also falls victim to more shuriken. Still more get Sakura. And the ref must have looked at Ram funny so he gets some too. Ram’s carrying an awful lot of those on her.

Ram gloats to the crowd and all three of her opponents jump her from behind for her audacity. Riho and Rina come in to even the odds and throw Sakura and Yunamon out of the ring. Hina gets tied up and Ram, Rina, and Riho pose on the ropes while tormenting her. Riho’s kinda actually being the most disrespectful with her knee firmly planted in Hina’s face. The trio congratulate SLK then break the pose.

Back down to just Ram and Hina, Hina reverses a whip and scoops up Ram off the ropes for a big body slam. Tag to Sakura. She brings in Yunamon with a call of “hisashiburi” (“long time no see”) and gestures for a hug. But of course it’s Sakura so when Yunamon gets close Sakura boots her in the midsection, then hits the ropes and jumps on the stunned Yunamon’s back to force a splash onto Ram.

Sakura sets up and completes the Ay Oh sing along surfboard. With the awesome hard forced dismount after a few moments too. Ram gets up and screams a bit in defiance, then gets in Sakura’s face. The latter laughs, so Ram switches her taunts to Sakura’s real name. That gets Ram casually and deservedly slapped in the face.

Sakura hits the ropes but Ram’s completely collapsed from the slap and a confused Sakura pauses for a second. Then she approaches and Ram small packages her for 2. Facecrusher stuns Sakura and Ram tags out to Rina.

Rina goes up top for a shotgun missile dropkick. Big boot to Sakura draped across middle rope follows for 2. Sakura’s up quick though and a HARD chop sends Rina reeling to the ropes, portraying the pain across her face like she just ate a lemon.

Forearm from Rina. Sakura absolutely levels her with another chop in response. Crowd’s now firmly behind Rina. She fires up and lays in several forearms (although an odd camera angle choice leaves the viewers looking at Sakura’s back instead of the impact). Sakura rakes Rina’s eyes to stop her, but her follow up strike is blocked and Rina puts Her Highness down with a nice STO. Scoop slam attempt is countered by Sakura with a back rake then she goes right into Smash Mouth.

STOMP STOMP CLAP and the We Will Rock You singalong means it’s time for Sakura’s sweet corner crossbody. She then calls Hina over and they happily proclaim it’s tea time. Hina puts out a bent knee and Sakura butterfly busters Rina over it. Then Sakura and Hina enjoy their pantomime tea. Sakura definitely has a favored partner in this.Tag to Yunamon.

Shotgun dropkick sends Rina into her own corner and Riho tags in for an old school Gatoh Move showdown. Yunamon dodges a dropkick but gets arm dragged when she tries to pull Riho up. Riho dodges a charge but gets arm dragged herself by Yunamon as the latter rebounds. Shotgun dropkick by Yunamon. Riho bridges out of the cover at 1. They haven’t lost the slightest bit of chemistry.

Of the ropes Riho does a wheelbarrow rollup into the double stomp. She goes up to the top turnbuckle, but Sakura and Hina intercept. Yunamon comes over and the three march carry Riho out to the center of the ring, but Riho’s teammates save her and break up whatever triple team slam was intended.

The two teams line up for a simultaneous brawl. Well kind of, as Sakura and Ram are reversed and in the wrong lines. This leads to shots all around as people realize they’re next to opponents, which leads to Sakura nailing Yunamon with repeated forearms in the corner because Sakura is Sakura.

The respective teams clear out and Yunamon staggers to the center to the ring after taking the abuse from her own teammate where Riho lays in her own forearms. Yunamon eventually blocks one though and spins Riho around before landing a hard chop. Riho falls back up against the ropes and Yunamon charges in with a lariat. And another after getting momentum from hitting the opposite ropes. Tropical Yahho leg drop gets 2.

Yunamon hits the ropes again but Rina jumps her and Ram follows with a codebreaker. Ram then positions Yunamon for a top rope crossbody from Riho. Hina saves at 2.

Yunamon fights off a dragon suplex attempt then charges Riho. But Riho low bridges the ropes and Yuna goes over, yet holds on to the top rope and is hanging outside. Riho hits the far ropes presumably for a dropkick but runs right into a sweet judo throw from Hina.

Yunamon skins the cat back into the ring and she and Sakura sandwich lariat Riho. Yunamon hits the ropes and nails a gorgeous Supergirl pin attempt. Riho just barely rolls her shoulder up at 2.99.

Yunamon hits some shots on the prone Riho, then picks her up in a fireman’s carry. Riho counters a slam attempt from that position into a victory roll style pin for 2. Yunamon LEVELS Riho with a lariat and folds her in half on the pin to get another crazy close 2.

Apparently that was too close for Ram, who comes in to throw powder into Yunamon’s eyes. Rina’s H.A.T.E. stablemates have the ref distracted in the corner. Rina herself follows that up with a shot from her whip to Yunamon. Poor Yunamon’s laid out on the ropes and Ram hits the 619. Finally Riho’s crucifix spinning rollup gets 3.

Post match Riho assures the ref she has no idea what that powder all over the ring is and shows him her clean hands. I knew she’d fit right in with the heels eventually.

As the three celebrate, in the other corner Sakura of course takes exception to Yunamon losing and starts stomping away at her. Hina separates them but Sakura hits her too as they head to the back. Sakura heads off on her own while Hina and Yunamon bow to the crowd together.

This was a lot of fun. The antics were largely amusing and generally expected given the mix of wrestlers involved, and when the action picked up it was great. The Yunamon and Riho stuff down the stretch was awesome, and I’d love to see a singles match from them again someday given how much Yunamon has evolved since they last met. Rina and Hina were quite good. Would definitely like to see more from both.

Again the whole show is available on Stardom’s YouTube and well worth a watch.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Art Cards Comics Japan Music Reviews Wrestling

Ten Years of Meandering Musings

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.

Those 3 posts in 2022 were fairly significant at least, featuring Reika Saiki’s retirement, Yuna Mizumori leaving Gatoh Move, and a light reference article about exhibition matches in joshi wrestling and the unique environment of Ichigaya Chocolate Square.

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.

Retirements:
Reika Saiki 
Sayuri 
Hikari Noa 
Arisa Nakajima 
Sayuri Namba 
Meiko Satomura 

Career changes:
Yuna Mizumori leaves Gatoh Move 

In Memoriam:
Eternal Sunrise 

Other:
Joy in Pro-Wrestling and 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 Tokyo Game Show 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.”

So #1-4 in order remain
Japan Cuts 2017: Mumon: The Land of Stealth  
Japan Cuts 2019: Samurai Shifters
Raven’s of Thri Sahashri Beginner’s Guide 
A Ray of Light Gone Too Soon 

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.

Categories
Cards Japan Wrestling

Collecting Spotlight: BBM Women’s Wrestling 2025 Card Set

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 Yappy
Kyuri and Kirari Wakana
Totoro Satsuki and Manami Katsu

The signature cards are numbered and there are usually 100 each corresponding to the base set for the wrestlers who did autographs. A majority of the wrestlers in the set do signature cards, but not everyone.

Like last year nearly all of the base signature cards this year are on card autographs. The only stickers I’ve noticed so far were for Hikaru Shida, who is based on the US, and on the Magenta tag team dual auto card where proper spacing is paramount. As usual the insert autos use stickers, presumably for design reasons. The stickers are transparent and barely noticeable, even if you know to look for them.

Wakana Uehara secret version signature card.

As implied above both the secret and SP foil subsets have associated signature cards. Unlike past years, the foil autos are not short printed compared with the base autos.

Base, secret, and foil autos are all generally /100 now. A couple wrestlers have slightly lower base autos numbers, and Yuki Arai and Haruka Umesaki’s foil autos are a bit lower at /85 and /74 respectively.

The insert autos have fully colored backgrounds, which nicely sets them apart from the white backed secret insert subset those correspond to as well as the white with colored borders designs on the base autos.

There are also a few super rare /5 signature cards featuring Suzume, Mizuki, Yuki Arai, Sareee, and Ram Kaicho.

One of my absolute favorite signature cards ever is in this set. Maika Ozaki is a powerhouse and has a cool tag team entrance pose she does where she lifts her partner (and sometimes partners plural) up onto her shoulder. She’s done it most often with her Gekokujo partner Kyuri and her SPiCEAP partner Tae Honma.

This year SPiCEAP got a dual auto signature card, and BBM oriented it vertically and designed it almost as if it was two stacked up horizontal sig cards so that their pose could be featured. It’s stunning and easily one of the coolest cards they’ve done.

Kirari Wakana

Some of the most distinctive chase items in these sets are chekis: mini polaroids of the wrestlers signed and sometimes decorated by them. There are generally 10 for each wrestler who does them (not everyone in the base set does). A few wrestlers are featured in different outfits and have two distinct /10 versions this year.

These are unique collectibles, and some of the harder hits to pull at roughly 2 per case (1 in 6 boxes). They’re a fun additional and some of the centerpieces of my personal collection.

Emi Sakura and Kaho Hiromi

So that’s it for this year’s BBM Women’s Wrestling release. I wish everyone good luck with their pulls and pickups.

Sayaka

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

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Japan Reviews Video Games Wrestling

ChocoPro Happy Festival Video Game Review

ChocoPro, formerly Gatoh Move, is a Japanese pro-wrestling company based in Ichigaya Japan. Founded by near 30 year wrestling veteran Emi Sakura, ChocoPro embraces and embodies Sakura’s core belief that wrestling should be fun for both the audience and the wrestlers.

For the last couple of years a ChocoPro themed mobile game has been in development, and today the anticipation came to an end with its release.

Having evolved from a joshi (women’s) wrestling company ChocoPro’s core roster is primarily women, but they are a fully intergender company featuring a number of both men and women wrestlers on every show. As such the ChocoPro wrestlers in this game include both women and men.

ChocoPro Happy Festival is a collection of 9 mini-games each featuring one of ChocoPro’s wrestlers. Wrestlers featured include reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga, Sayaka, Chie Koishikawa, Tokiko Kirihara (Otoki), Sayaka Obihiro (Obi), Emi Sakura, Miya Yotsuba, Baliyan Akki, and DDT Pro’s Masahiro Takahashi (Masa)*. There might also be a special guest appearance lurking about.

Adorable chibi versions of the wrestlers are used on the games. The visuals are gorgeous. The chibis capture the essence of the wrestlers, the backgrounds and details are great, and everything is colorful and vibrant.

The games are straight forward, as expected and appropriate for mini-games, but still amusing and addictive. There’s a nice variety of game types included. Three are side scrollers, two are stop the gauge games, one’s a matching game, two are reaction games, and the last a speed puzzle.

Thematically they’re fantastic. From Mei running along jumping around collecting apples to Sayaka elbowing dummies out of the ring for distance to feeding Her Highness cake and so on each game was clearly carefully designed with great knowledge and respect for the subjects.

Instrumental versions of familiar songs from Gatoh Move and ChocoPro through the years have been adapted to be used for the various menu screens, and each wrestler’s stage features their entrance music. Music is so closely intertwined with a wrestler/promotion’s presentation that it’s inclusion in something like this feels necessary, and was done excellently.

There’s effort and care visible in every aspect of the game. Wonderful little details, like glasses piling up around Masa as you serve him more and more beer during his game or the various levels of happiness or disappointment the wrestler has after the game depending on how you did are great touches. The loading screens during installation are cool profiles of the included wrestlers (which I wish there was a way to view on demand – there’s thankfully no loading screens needed during play after the game’s installed).

Speaking of Masa’s game, it’s likely the reason for the 17+ years old rating this has in the Apple App Store. There’s really nothing else in here beside the alcohol inclusion that would push this above an all ages rating.

The other half of the package here is the rewards system. Choco Points earned in the mini-games can be redeemed for icons and photo tickets. Photo tickets will randomly unlock one of 300 photos. Unlocked photos can be viewed in the photo album, as well as chosen to be featured on home screen. Photos include action and posed shots of ChocoPro wrestlers.

To be honest I’m mostly a console gamer and don’t play/buy mobile games often. So I don’t have much frame of reference on the $12 price point for a mini-game collection of this type. I will say that this is well made and is a wonderful pickup for fans of the company, and for me was definitely worth getting.

It’s really cool to see this game go from concept to fully released, and it turned out great. ChocoPro Happy Festival is a love letter to the company, and an easy recommendation.

——-

*It would feel like an omission to talk about Masa in this post without mentioning that he is currently out with a major neck injury. He recently was released from ICU and is starting rehabilitation. Wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to sustain more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates once to twice a week.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Gatoh Move Match Review: Mei Suruga vs Yoshiko

Gatoh Move: The Last Heisei Shin-Kiba Gatoh
March 22, 2019

An interesting match recently popped up in my YouTube recommendations that I forgot existed and was somehow completely unaware it was ever aired.

In 2019, current reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga was a rookie with under a year in wrestling. She was a prodigy who only trained a few months before debuting in Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), and was already showing skills far beyond her limited experience.

Fair or not, Yoshiko will always be best known for the incident with Act Yasukawa. But a lot has changed in a decade. Act has publicly forgiven Yoshiko and has amazingly returned to wrestling related activities. By 2019 Yoshiko was fully back in wrestling and had been working with a number of companies who all trusted her enough to often be wrestling their rookies and up and coming stars. See this post from a couple years back for a look at my personal thoughts on the more recent state of things and how my opinion on Yoshiko changed over time.

I’d seen excellent matches of hers in the couple years before this match against the likes of Mio Momono and the dearly missed Asahi. She was the perfect imposing monster to test one’s mettle against. Yoshiko is currently on hiatus and hasn’t wrestled in a couple years, but to my knowledge still intends to return someday.

So with the stage set for Gatoh’s super rookie against SEAdLINNNG’s gatekeeper, away we go.

Mei Suruga vs Yoshiko

First (and thus far only) singles contest between these two.

This is early in Gatoh Move’s YouTube offerings, featuring commentary by Pumi Boonytud.

Mei was trained by Emi Sakura and a protege of Aoi Kizuki. Mei’s 20 here but as usual looks younger.

Yoshiko is one of the pillars of SEAdLINNNG, and was in-between tag title reigns and a year and change away from her Beyond the Sea championship reign.

Single camera angle for this video, as it’s all hard cam footage.

Yoshiko doesn’t come out of the corner for Mei’s handshake offer. Mei responds by getting the fans to cheer for Yoshiko. The stoic one is unamused.

Lockup to start. Yoshiko easily overpowers Mei into the ropes, but the Apple Girl switches positions and lays in forearms. Yoshiko ends that in short order by grabbing Mei’s hair and pulling her out to the center of the ring.

The pace quickens as Mei ducks a lariat but then has her dropkick dodged. Mei locks hands with Yoshiko and goes for her rope jump assisted arm drag, but Yoshiko’s too solid and doesn’t budge. She pulls Mei up and just tosses her away.

A Mei Irish whip attempt does nothing, and is reversed. Mei tries a running crossbody off the ropes, but is caught and dropped into a hard back breaker.

With Mei face down near the ropes, Yoshiko simply stands on her. Yoshiko’s considerable size advantage is making quite a difference so far. Jumping double knees to Mei’s back. More standing on Mei then another knee drop leads to a 2 count.

Mei’s unceremoniously thrown into the corner, then hair tossed out. Prone in the opposite corner she’s on the receiving end of numerous face wash kicks. Yoshiko sprints to the opposite ropes and hits a hard running version.

Yoshiko hairmares Mei into the center, then lands a huge kick to Mei’s back followed by one to front for a 2 count. I winced at these.

Yoshiko controls with a hold pulling back on Mei’s arms with her feet planted in Mei’s back. She shifts into body scissors, which gives Mei an opening to do an awesome counter roll backward over Yoshiko into her own body scissors.

Mei tries her signature rolling pinning combination, but Yoshiko spreads her legs to remain stable. So the clever Apple starts a Yoshiko chant again and forces Yoshiko to move her arms in time with the audience chanting her name. The distraction causes just enough of a lapse on Yoshiko’s part for Mei to get her roll for 2. But Mei pays for it when Yoshiko lands an Earthquake splash to Mei’s back. A brief Camel Clutch is abandoned after Yoshiko pulls on Mei’s face, then Yoshiko adds some dismissive kicks for insult to injury.

With both back up Mei tries to start a strike exchange but Yoshiko counters with an overwhelming flurry instead and sweeps Mei back down. Mei gets her arms up to block a running kick but Yoshiko just kicks right through the block. This is a masterful matchup of technique and speed against size and raw power.

Mei dodges the senton, then hits a flurry of five dropkicks. She grabs Yoshiko’s head and calls for her Totsugeki (battering ram), but is shrugged off and sent towards the corner. Undeterred Mei kicks off the middle turnbuckle for momentum into a dropkick.

With Yoshiko down Mei turns her over and goes for a bow and arrow. It doesn’t work too well on her larger opponent so she switches sides. Still no go. Mei stomps on Yoshiko’s back, then hits ropes and rolls… into her “cute on purpose” taunt right in front of Yoshiko’s face. That’s a bold move.

Yoshiko is predictably annoyed, and takes a shot at Mei but the latter is too quick and avoids the wild swing. Both up to their feet and Mei baits her into a charge then ducks into a drop toehold. With Yoshiko down and stunned Mei is now able to complete the bow and arrow.

Mei releases after a few seconds though, shaking her legs out from the strain on her knees from supporting a much larger opponent. Totsugeki to the turnbuckle connects this time.

Perhaps a tad too confident after some sustained offense Mei attempts to slam Yoshiko. Yeah not so much. Yoshiko counters into a slam attempt of her own, but Mei pushes off while in the air and lands on feet. Mei hits the ropes but runs right into a beautiful tilt a whirl backbreaker by Yoshiko.

Boston crab by Yoshiko is quickly transitioned into a deep half crab. Yoshiko holds on to it for a while as Mei tries to fight to the ropes. When she gets close Yoshiko tries to stop her by twisting Mei around and grabbing her arm, but Mei makes it with other arm. Mei fought for every inch there.

Yoshiko hits a hard lariat against the ropes on Mei, followed by a senton for 2.

Apparent choke bomb is countered into a slick forward cradle for 2. Scissor rollup gets another 2. Mei’s hanging in there and forcing some close kickouts.

Off the ropes Mei gets caught in samoan drop position, but fights down to try a schoolboy. Yoshiko tries to counter with another Earthquake splash, but Mei scurries out of the way. A dropkick leads to the propellor clutch for 2.

Mei hits ropes, and ducks a lariat, but is DESTROYED by a second attempt coming back the other way. And just like that it’s over. Yoshiko pins Mei for the victory.

Excellent match that was more competitive than I might have expected if I wasn’t previously familiar with both super rookie Mei and how good Yoshiko is in this role against smaller underdogs. This match was exactly what I expected, and I mean that as a huge compliment.

Watching older Mei matches is a reminder of how quickly and intuitively she got pro-wrestling. She looked fantastic here for under a year experience. Yoshiko makes great imposing opponent and their competitive chemistry was unreal. Great stuff.

This match is available to watch for free on ChocoPro’s YouTube Channel.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Joy in Pro-Wrestling and Kaho Hiromi

Everyone has their own preferences and favorites when it comes to wrestling. Style, presentation, and other factors vary greatly among the large number of wrestling companies in the world and are all a matter of taste among fans.

While in general I tend towards a more athletic event, intensely competitive style of wrestling what I care about most is enjoying what I’m watching. May seem like an obvious statement, but worth explicitly mentioning as in my case it means a wide range of wrestling genres appeal to me. Both nail biting intensity and well done comedic moments can really draw me in to a match when done well.

As I often say in reference to an old favorite, TJPW’s August 26 2017 show: sometimes I want to see my two favorite wrestlers in a promotion tearing the house down for a title…

…and sometimes I want to see Maki Itoh chasing idol lumberjacks around the ring with a squeaky toy hammer.

When any promotion can give me both in the same show and have it feel natural and cohesive I’m as happy as can be.

For me wrestling is at its best when its a mix of light heartedness and intense competition. I want my humorous elements woven into the general framework of wrestlers competing and trying to win, but can go for pretty absurd match premises and gimmicks when internally consistent and done well.

Ice Ribbon and ChocoPro (formerly Gatoh Move) have been always great places for this combination, which is a large reason why they’re two of my absolute favorite promotions.

This year’s Ribbonmania from just a couple weeks ago was a great example of a well paced, thoroughly enjoyable top to bottom show with a variety of aspects to it. ChocoPro’s holiday shows were likewise a blast with a little bit of everything sprinkled throughout.

All of which brings me around to what prompted this particular deep dive into the happy aspects of wrestling: ChocoPro’s most recent roster addition Kaho Hiromi.

Emi Sakura is excellent at developing wrestlers within their own ways to really highlight what they can do while letting them be wholly unique. I’d argue no other environment or trainer could have given us Lulu Pencil, the wonderfully goofy ninja Sayuri, etc.

Over her near 30 year career Sakura has trained a large number of children, including AEW’s first ever Women’s Champion Riho who started at age 9 and is a 18 year veteran at age 27.

Sakura’s most recent wrestling prodigy, reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga, is following in her mentor’s training footsteps as well with similarly excellent results. With Sakura living in the US as part of her participation in AEW, Mei has been the primary teacher for several of the recent roster additions.

Mei runs their casual training program DareJyo in Sakura’s absence, with Sakura being heavily involved as well whenever she’s back in Japan. DareJyo recently shared one of its showcase events on YouTube. It’s a great watch and provides insight on how ChocoPro approaches introducing people to the world of wrestling.

DareJyo is open to women and girls of all ages. Several DareJyo participants have continued on into full training and later officially debuted as professional wrestlers, including Mei herself as well as the energetic and cheerful grade schooler Kaho Hiromi.

Kaho debuted on August 31, 2024 against Ryo Mizunami at Gatoh Move’s return to Korakuen Hall.

The imposing multi-time champion 20 year veteran powerhouse was a mismatch for Kaho is just about every way imaginable. But that was the point. The match was about Kaho’s effort, perseverance, and attitude. She showed all in spades. Her charisma and determination shined and the crowd was behind her even against the super popular Mizunami. The outcome was never in doubt, but I was invested in Kaho’s efforts all the same. She eventually fell to Mizunami’s leg drop, but Ryo carried the little warrior to the back on her shoulders in a show of respect.

Her matches in the months since them have been likewise engaging, but it was specifically her matches around the holidays that brought all this to the forefront in my mind and made me want to write this post. This year was rough for me and I was stuck home alone for the holidays. Being able to watch and enjoy various wrestling shows from my favorite promotions halfway around the world helped my mood a lot. And it struck me how often watching little Kaho do her best with a smile on her face against opponents bigger, stronger, and older than herself was bringing a smile to mine.

ChocoPro’s approach with Kaho has been excellent. Again the company has a lot of experience over the years with wrestlers of vastly different ages, sizes, and experience levels and knows how to showcase people within their limitations as well as the proper tone to establish.

Kaho generally wrestles with veterans and/or her trainers in the matches. If you watch carefully you’ll notice she doesn’t take heavy strikes or generally anything high impact. But you have to watch carefully to notice, as her matches are just plain too much fun and enthralling to be thinking about stuff like that.

And that’s what matters. Sakura’s companies have always been built around the idea that wrestling should be fun for both the wrestlers and fans, and the fun Kaho has in her matches is both obvious and contagious. She’s a plucky underdog trying her best, and her matches are a lighthearted blast to watch. They’ve developed a moveset and strategy that suits her, such as crossing her arms in front of her and charging opponents as a strike instead of traditional chops that would have no impact at her size.

She’s doing great. She moves well, gets the crowd excited, and is naturally incredibly easy to get caught up cheering for. Emi Sakura is one of my top favorite wrestlers in the world, yet I still can’t help but to cheer against her as she smugly taunts Kaho.

While some people may instinctively recoil from the idea of a child in a wrestling match (and/or intergender wrestling, another cornerstone of ChocoPro), there are a lot of great in ring stories to be told involving an opponent completely out of the realm of what a veteran would normally expect. It doesn’t have to be everyone’s thing, there are plenty of other companies and styles to watch, but again it all speaks to me personally as a fan.

Kaho often confounds her opponents a bit with her quickness and size. She’ll counter holds by wrapping herself around their legs in ways others can’t. She can jump around, dodge, and generally frustrate them in ways only a kid can. Usually unfortunately she gets caught and someone like Sakura leverages Kaho’s own attempted holds to force a pin (the boos Sakura has gotten when she essentially sits on Kaho for a victory are huge).

Recent highlights include ChocoPro 314’s triple threat that saw her face Sakura & Sayaka and her participation in the Christmas show’s battle royal. The latter saw her first encounter with DDT’s Chris Brookes, which was a riot (and cemented Chris being evil). She’s also had several fun mixed tag matches recently giving people like Hagane Shinno a new challenge.

Kaho’s been a wonderful addition to the ChocPro roster, and I really just wanted to take the opportunity both to spotlight her and to reminder everyone how important it is just to straight up enjoy wrestling. Whether your thing is desperately wanting a heel vanquished, deathmatches, sports-like presentation, comedy, or like me a mix of several approaches find companies that do what you like well, and have fun experiencing them.

Some other great currently active young and/or rookie wrestlers to watch include, but aren’t limited to, Ice Ribbon’s Kirari Wakana, TJPW’s Uta Takami, SEAdLINNNG’s Miria Koga, and the recently freelance Saran. I hope to keep watching all of them and Kaho for however long wrestling continues to be viable and fun for them all.

Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.

If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my  Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Art Cards Comics Japan Wrestling

Imagined Reality: The Art of Veronica O’Connell

Psylocke sketch card by Veronica O’Connell

I’ve had a surprisingly difficult time finding the proper words to open this look at the work of a truly special artist. There’s something indescribable that jumps out of Veronica O’Connell’s art and demands attention. So I decided to let the stunning depiction of Psylocke above make the first impression.

Ghost Spider, Spider-Woman, & Silk AP by Veronica O’Connell

I honestly don’t recall when I first saw Veronica’s work, but I do remember being blown away with her versions of Marvel characters and immediately putting her art on my collection list.

There is an incredible balance of realism and the fantastic in her illustrations. Her takes on comic characters simultaneously look like they could step right off into the real world while still feeling appropriately larger than life.

The qualities that initially caught my eye are on full display in the above gorgeous Spider-Women triptych, which is mind boggling. All the art I’ll be showing in this blog is directly drawn on blank trading cards. So each of the three characters shown above (Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, and Silk) is drawn on a third of a 3.5″ x 2.5″ work area. The detail and impact she’s able to achieve under such conditions is phenomenal.

There is so much style infused into Veronica’s work. Her use of color and lighting is exquisite and a big part of what makes her art so eye catching. It also underlies her emphasis of mood and atmosphere, making the same subjects feel different in different pieces depending on what she’s chosen to convey while retaining their core essence.

I have multiple cards by her of some of my favorite comic heroines, including Psylocke, Emma Frost, and Spider-Gwen, and the contrast between equally captivating depictions of the same character is fascinating to see.

Spider-Gwen PSC by Veronica O’Connell

My discovery of Veronica’s art through her Marvel work eventually led to the great opportunity to get some Personal Sketch Cards (PSCs) done as part of another key subset of my card collection.

I have followed and enjoyed Japanese women’s professional wrestling (joshi wrestling) for over a decade and collect related art in a number of forms. Veronica is the third artist to create PSCs for this collection, along with Juri H. Chinchilla and  Miki Okazaki

Kairi Sane PSC by Veronica O’Connell

Veronica’s renditions of the wrestlers she’s drawn for me are absolutely stunning. She achieves an amazing level of detail, capturing the subtleties of her subjects expressions and doing an exceptional job representing their intricate wrestling gear.

Perhaps most impressive is her ability to create such incredible likenesses on such small workspaces. From a distance these precise works could be mistaken for photographs, while up close the aspects that make the depictions hyper realistic elevate them even further.

Over time I’ve gotten 24 wrestling PSCs from Veronica, featuring a total of 30 wrestlers. Only 8 of those wrestlers had been drawn for me before on PSCs by other artists, meaning 22 of the wrestlers she drew for me were first time subjects for my sketch card collection.

All of the repeats were drawn in different gear and/or with different partners than the other cards I have, and it was a treat to get Veronica’s take on recurring collection subjects like WWE’s Asuka, AEW’s Riho and Hikaru Shida, and Sendai Girl’s DASH Chisako. Likewise awesome was adding in wrestlers I’d been meaning to have drawn like Asuka’s tag partner Kairi Sane and Stardom’s Starlight Kid.

Juria Nagano PSC by Veronica O’Connell

The vast majority of the wrestlers I had drawn for the first time were a large number of roster members and regular guests from two of my favorite promotions.

From Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW), Veronica did wonderful cards of now former roster members Juria Nagano and Sakisama (with Mei Saint-Michel), tag teams Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh (121000000) and Himawari & Wakana Uehara, long time roster members Mizuki and Yuki Kamifuku (Kamiyu), and the Up Up Girls Hikari Noa, Miu Watanabe, Raku, & Shino Suzuki.

Veronica’s encapsulation of that Up Up Girls lineup is a particularly nice memento for me given the recent departure of my favorite member, Hikari Noa, from both TJPW and the Up Up Girls.

The other big focus among the joshi wrestling cards Veronica’s done for me is a company called Ice Ribbon. One of my most watched promotions, it was a privilege to get Veronica to do related cards for me.

The core IR lineup I got includes brief former roster member Amu Yumesaki, and current roster members featuring second generation wrestler Ibuki Hoshi and impressive newer wrestlers like Tsukina Umino, Mifu Ashida, and Kaho Matsushita.

I was also happy to add former IR regular guests Ram Kaicho (from Triple Six), Saori Anou (now of Stardom), and Tae Honma & Maika Ozaki (SPiCEAP, both freelance), and reigning ICE Cross Infinity Champion YuuRI (from GanPro) to the collection.

As with the comic art, Veronica’s vivd colors, stunning lighting and shading, and delicate touches make all of her wrestler illustrations simply gorgeous. I could not be happier with how they all turned out.

Joshi PSC displays. Art by Veronica O’Connell, Juri Chinchilla, and Miki Okazaki.

I’m extremely thankful to Veronica for all the fantastic art she’s created for me. I hope to continue collecting more in the future.

Asahi PSC by Veronica O’Connell

To wrap up I’d like to talk about a particularly special card Veronica’s done for me, although there is unfortunately tragic news attached to it. Early this year Actwres girl’Z reported a 21 year old member of their roster named Asahi had unexpectedly passed away. Asahi started her career in Ice Ribbon and was a personal favorite of mine. Nicknamed the Sunrise of Hope, she was always a joy to watch and is greatly missed. Veronica’s remembrance piece of Asahi is absolutely breathtaking and a cherished keepsake.

Rest in Peace Asahi.