Something a little different this time as I’ll be giving a quick spotlight on and recommendations for a few of my favorite matches of all time that are all officially available to watch for free on they respective companies’ YouTube channels.
And away we go.
Ayako Hamada vs Kana – Shimmer Volume 50, 10/27/12
The World Famous Kana is of course now WWE’s Asuka.
Kana was already well established at this point 8 years into her career, but was the underdog in Shimmer for perhaps the first time against fellow joshi star and 14 year veteran Hamada. It was a big deal for this match to be happening on a US show, and it was the semi main for Shimmer’s special 50th volume. Shimmer was a US based women’s wrestling promotion that brought in talent from all over the world and produced 120 volumes over the course of 15+ years.
This is easily in my top 3 matches of the hundreds in Shimmer history, if not number 1.
Shimmer has put up numerous matches for free on their YouTube channel including several featuring other wrestlers who now wrestle for WWE or AEW. They also have a subscription streaming service with a large back catalog of full shows.
Best Friends vs Avid Rival – Pro-Wrestling Wave 8/12/17
Best Friends (Tsukasa Fujimoto & Arisa Nakajima) and Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami) are two of the best tag teams I’ve ever seen.
During my first trip to Japan in late 2015 I saw the first ever meeting between these two teams live. I was already a huge fan of Tsukka and Misaki from their Shimmer appearances and had heard a ton about Arisa. Mizunami was equally impressive as the other three, and the match blew me away.
A year and a half later a best of three series was announced between the two teams, with each of their home promotions hosting one (Arisa wrestled for SEAdLINNNG, Tsukka for Ice Ribbon, and both Avid Rival members for Wave). This series plus that original Ribbonmania match were the only four times the teams faced in their careers.
Admittedly that first encounter (which had been for Ice Ribbon’s International Tag Ribbon Titles) is probably still my favorite of their matches, but the teams had incredible chemistry in general and all four matches were great.
This match in particular was chosen for this feature by default, as it’s the one that’s easily available to watch and thus the one of the four that meets the criteria of these recommendations. Amusingly it also happens to be the only one I wasn’t at live, so I lucked out in it being the one widely distributed.
Misaki retired in 2018, and Arisa did in 2024. Mizunami is still active in various promotions as a freelancer, and we’ll get back to Tsukka again in a bit.
This is the one match in this post I was lucky enough attend live. I made a special trip to Sendai from Tokyo specifically to see this and it was an absolute blast.
This is two of the toughest wrestlers on the planet straight up beating the hell out of each other until one of them stays down. I really have nothing else to say here except that I loved it and go give it a watch.
Chisako is still active in Sendai Girls, and Sareee appears in various promotions as a freelancer while also putting on her own self produced shows.
Check out more Sendai Girls matches and shows on their YouTube channel as well as on Wrestle Universe (via subscription). Sareee puts up matches on her channel and her self produced shows are available on ippv.
Special Bonus: Ice Ribbon vs Gatoh Move
In a lot of ways this extra entry at the end was what I most wanted to draw attention to and the primary motivation for this whole post idea. It’s a bit odd in ways I’ll get to but is a true hidden gem and worthwhile watch.
In all the years since founder Emi Sakura left Ice Ribbon and formed a new company called Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), the companies crossed paths exactly once with one cross promotional match hosted by each company.
Shortly before Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Sakura would make a surprise appearance at one of Ice Ribbon’s dojo shows to issue a challenge. And so Sakura, alongside partner Nanae Takahashi, would face Best Friends at Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Show.
Tsukka would then go to Gatoh Move’s home base in Ichigaya to issue a reciprocal challenge for Gatoh Move’s impending Korakuen Hall show. Sakura agreed under the condition that it would be the last Ice Ribbon vs Gatoh Move match. And it has been to this day.
Then reigning ICE Cross Infinity champion Risa Sera had wanted to accompany Tsukka, but Sakura said no she wasn’t invited. But a young Ice Ribbon wrestler named Yuuka, who had shown Sakura respect and held the ropes for her when she visited the dojo to issue her challenge, was welcome.
Kotori was one of Sakura’s proteges and was of similar experience to Yuuka, debuting in February of 2013 while Yuuka debuted in December of that same year.
I was not at this match, nor did I ever get ahold of one the limited amount of DVDs produced. And while Gatoh Move/ChocoPro has an insane amount of their shows and matches uploaded on their YouTube channel, including every show they’ve done for the last several years, this show/match is not yet among them. Well, not in the usual manner.
Building up to Emi Sakura’s 25th anniversary in wrestling, she sat down with Baliyan Akki and Mei Suruga for a watch party of matches from her career selected by Akki. The final match of the stream was Sakura & Kotori vs Tsukka & Yuuka. (The whole watch party is a fun retrospective on Sakura’s career.)
So the match is availablein this still archived stream. The stream must be watched via direct link as it was part of ChocoPro’s channel cleanup a couple years back where they unlisted a great number of their livestreams and other ancillary content while trying to streamline the channel. These videos were intentionally left in the archive for anyone who wanted to watch them via a link but aren’t searchable and don’t appear in the channel’s listings.
The catch again is that it’s watch party style, with the match in a small subset of the screen and Sakura, Mei, and Akki commenting and chatting throughout. The delivery method might not be ideal for everyone, but I enjoyed seeing their reactions and the match itself is totally watchable as presented and excellent in whatever form. I adore everyone in the match, and just wanted to bring attention to the fact that it is lurking about for anyone who’d like to check it out.
Kotori retired in late 2017. Sakura is still going strong 30 years into her career and wrestles for AEW as well as her promotion ChocoPro.
Tsukka still works for Ice Ribbon but is currently on leave. She intends to return to wrestling in the future.
Yuuka, who officially retired in 2019 and hadn’t been wrestling since a few months after this match, returned to wrestling recently at Ribbonmania 2025 and is just as awesome as she was back then. So cool to have her back.
All of ChocoPro’s shows go up on their YouTube channel, with optional support options for the promotion like YouTube membership and other sponsorships.
Ice Ribbon doesn’t post full matches or shows, but their channel has highlight videos for most every show and Club Ice Ribbon, their YouTube subscription membership, has their dojo shows and other content. Their bigger shows are on ippv, then are added to a subscription archive after a few months.
That’s it for this time around. Enjoy the large amount of content these companies share on their channels and if anyone is interested and able please also support their various subscription and ppv options. I hope everyone finds some cool stuff to watch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
New Year’s Eve means it’s time once again for Ribbonmania.
Ribbonmania is Ice Ribbon’s big annual year end show at Korakuen Hall. I’ve been watching since 2015 and haveattendedseveraltimes in the past (pre-pandemic when I could travel).
As usual I throughly enjoyed last year’s Ribbonmania, which was an interesting show during a transition period. A significant portion of the roster were leaving the company and having their last matches as Ice Ribbon members at that show.
Going into this year’s show Tsukasa Fujimoto is still on leave and Ibuki Hoshi is unfortunately out with a torn ACL.
Further unfortunate news hit a few hours before this show with reigning ICE Cross Infinity Champion Manami Katsu being ill with a high fever and subsequently off the card. She was scheduled to defend her title in the main event again Kaho Matsushita (who missed last year’s Ribbonmania due to injury and returned early this year). The card was shuffled a bit in ways that will be noted when we get to it.
1) Moe Hiiro & Miran vs. Miku Kanae & Riko
Starting the show with a (mostly) kids spotlight as Diana’s Miran is 16 years old, Moe from Ice Ribbon’s sister promotion Hot Shushu is 14, and newest Ice Ribbon roster member Riko is 11.
Miku’s the only adult in this but actually just barely not the most experienced, as Miran debuted about 6 months before Miku in 2022. Riko and Moe are both under a year experience.
They kept this really fast paced throughout for a solid 10 minute opener. Everyone looked quite good and had great chemistry with each other, particularly for their ages and levels of experience. I’d be really interested in seeing any combination of these four face off in singles matches.
Riko and Miran fought back and forth near the end including a great series of close pin attempts to the crowd’s delight. Miran eventually hit an Asai moonsault on Riko to win. Great start.
2) Big Dekai (Totoro Satsuki & Yuna Manase) vs Big Haruka & Mizuki Kato
Slugfest incoming.
Manase’s from Ganbare Pro, Big Haruka’s from JTO, and Kato from Diana.
Big Dekai are an established team and former tag champs.
Amusingly Big Haruka is in fact the smallest wrestler in this match.
This had a different feel than anything else on the card, which is what you want from a match like this. This was largely four people trying to run over each other. Deliberately paced but consistent action, with heavy hitters throwing themselves at each other until something gives.
One notable amusingly absurd exchange saw Kato and Manase in a screaming contest, yelling in each other’s faces as one might throw punches. It led to Kato hitting the ropes only to stop short of impact and scream in Manase’s face again. Then they all resumed trying to level each other.
Eventually the established team outlasted their opponents and Totoro wiped out Kato with a lariat for a 3 count.
Decent power match. Was my first look at Kato and Haruka. Kato moves insanely quick for her size and fit right in with her much more experienced opponents (Manase’s been wrestling 11 years, Totoro 8, Kato just over 2 and Haruka about a year and a half). Haruka had a couple awkward moments but overall did fine.
Haruka got into it with Manase afterwards, albeit rather ineffectually. Manase absorbed Haruka’s forearms then dropped her with one shot. I wonder if the two will be crossing paths again soon.
3) Triangle Ribbon Title Match: Makoto (c) vs Kaori Yoneyama vs Mase Hiiro
Mase dances her way to the ring to super catchy music in a fantastic entrance. She’s the younger sister of Moe from the opener and also wrestles for Hot Shushu. Yoneyama’s a 25+ year veteran and a multi time former Triangle champ earlier in the year. Both Yoneyama and Makoto are freelancers.
This is Makoto’s first defense since she won the title a couple months prior. She also wrestled on ChocoPro’s big year end ring show less than 24 hours before this.
Yone and Mase spent a large portion of this acting like a team to Makoto’s bewilderment. Makoto kept pushing Mase aside to attack Yone or trying to convince Mase to team with her instead. It didn’t go well.
Yone kept trying to help Mase pin Makoto, and eventually Makoto had enough and looked to get serious with Mase. She put her hands around Mase’s throat and the crowd erupted in boos.
Makoto tried to change tactics and push Mase aside again but Yone had been waiting for her opening. She of course turned on Mase, pushing her into Makoto to knock the champion out of the ring then rolling up and pinning Mase to steal Makoto’s title.
The visual of Yone taunting her opponents and the crowd with her new title while is simultaneously running away from an angry child is peak Yoneyama.
Mase is CRAZY good, particularly for a young child wrestler. Wrestling just seems to click with her. They approach her matches well, in ways that remind me of Kaho Hiromi in ChocoPro (although their wrestling stye is different).
This was highly entertaining ridiculousness.
4) Arisa Shinose, Misa Kagura, & Sumika Yanagawa vs. Bad Butts (Yappy, Ancham, & Crea)
Bad Butts are the purest heels Ice Ribbon has ever had, and the enthusiasm with which they make menaces of themselves is great.
Misa’s one half of the International Tag Ribbon Champions with Manami Katsu. With Katsu scheduled to defend her singles title those titles are not being defended at this show (and of course as mentioned above Katsu ended up out with illness). Misa’s actually a multi time tag team champion in Ice Ribbon, and has held those same titles separately with both of her partners tonight as well.
This match was all about Misa’s team trying to get back at the bullies that have been tormenting them for months. It was mostly a straight up fight but of course eventually Bad Butts managed to create an opportunity to resort to weapons shenanigans.
Yappy hit all three of her opponents with her ever present Bad Butts road sign, Area choked out Misa, then Ancham hit Misa in the stomach with her chain. They then liberally triple teamed Arisa and maintained control for a bit until Misa shook off the effects of the weapons (perhaps a touch too completely) and fought back.
Late match Misa saves Arisa from Bad Butts’ double pumphandle finisher. Then after some miscommunication and a subsequent Crea kick to Yappy leads to a 2 count, Arisa’s Shining Wizard on Yappy gets the win.
Yappy goes for Shinose with the sign for revenge afterwards. Poor Sumika gets leveled instead then Misa stops Yappy from braining anyone else.
Solid grudge match with a satisfying win for the faces.
5) FantastICE Title Match: Akane Fujita (c) vs Tsukina Umino
Umino comes out in a split black and white entrance coat with a masquerade style mask and is just exuding aura.
Akane’s even more imposing than when she was a roster member. She’s bigger, a bit more no nonsense, and awfully fond of headbutts nowadays.
FantastICE is a custom stipulation championship, but the stip chosen by Akane for this particular match is just that it’s a normal match with a 20 count on the floor.
Umino is overmatched and Akane just brutalizes her most of match. Her strength is her resiliency, and this is all about whether she can last long enough to wear down Akane and claim the championship.
They fight all over, with a fair bit of outside brawling. I’m not sure the rules should allow Akane to play goalie keeping Umino from getting back in the ring while the count continues, but it did make for a dramatic moment when Umino got back in at the last second.
Umino slowly wore down her stronger opponent down with a variety of holds. She still took the brunt of a lot of high impact offense, and had several close kickouts late in the match.
Umino got a close 2 on Akane off a Venus Shoot variation (shades of Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukka, who’s currently on leave).
Eventually Umino landed a Claymore style kick off the middle turnbuckle to finally keep Akane down and win the title.
This was straight up David vs Goliath. Good stuff. Well deserved title win for Umino.
6) Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Natsumi) vs. Azure Revolution (Risa Sera & Maya Yukihi)
Risa Sera will be retiring on 1/12/26 after a 13 year career. She spent most of it in Ice Ribbon before leaving at the end of 2021 with several other roster members (including Mochi, who as known as Mochi Miyagi when she was in Ice Ribbon) to form a freelance unit called Prominence.
This is the first time Risa or Mochi have been back since early 2022. Prominence appeared in Ice Ribbon once a few weeks after leaving, then never again.
Maya went freelance separately around the same time, still appeared regularly in Ice Ribbon in 2022, and has appeared a couple times a year since.
Hamuko has been out most of the year and needs treatment for accumulated injuries. This is her last match for the foreseeable future. This is not a retirement match for her, but she’s been frank about the possibility of not being able to come back to wrestling. Steamers were passed out for her and the fans covered the ring with them during her entrance.
Side note: the Lovely Butchers have one of the most engaging and interactive entrances in wrestling and seeing the crowd bopping along to their music was quite nostalgic.
These two teams were a major part of Ice Ribbon’s tag division during the years I was attending live shows. Azure Revolution just started teaming again earlier this year as part of Risa’s retirement road. The Butchers haven’t teamed since Mochi left Ice Ribbon. Risa returning and Hamuko wrestling here for one last encounter between these teams is a treat. Risa had said she thought she’d never come back.
They toughed this out to play the hits and deliver a special moment in time. This was a callback to their prior encounters in all the ways it should have been.
The match built up to an extended Risa vs Hammy section towards the end. Eventually Azure Revolution hit a superkick Ayers Rock combo on Hamuko… for 2. The kickout was all she had left though and Risa’s Air Raid Crash wins it.
Tsukka and the roster members who’ve already wrestled came in with flowers to wish Risa well. Best wishes to her and hoping all goes well for Hamuko.
7) Yuuka vs Kirari Wakana
8) ICE Cross Infinity Title Match: Manami Katsu (c) vs. Kaho Matsushita
7) ICE Cross Infinity Title Match: Kaho Matsushita vs Yuuka vs Kirari Wakana
With Katsu out her championship is vacated and the announced semi-main is now folded into the main event. It’s Kaho Matsushita vs Yuuka vs Kirari Wakana for the vacant ICE Cross Infinity Championship. Bad break for Katsu, but this match is a huge opportunity for these three.
This is Yuuka’s return match, as she’s coming out of retirement and rejoining the roster. What a trial by fire. Yuuka was one of my absolute favorites and I am extremely psyched to have her back (… put a pin in this).
This is almost certainly Kaho’s match to win, but I want a surprise Yuuka victory so bad.
Kirari Wakana vs Yuuka:
Oh, this is Ice Ribbon’s rotating gauntlet rules, not a triple threat. So after the introductions and the referee checking all three of them Kaho goes out and we start with Yuuka vs Kirari.
The way this works is they keep having singles matches with the odd woman out facing the winner until someone wins two straight. This is a really good match format to go with in the main event to make up for the change in plans, and it also essentially means we still get the Kirari vs Yuuka match that was originally meant to be the semi-main.
Kirari refuses to come to the center to shake Yuuka’s hand, which calls back to Yuuka faking a handshake during the buildup to their planned match.
These are two extremely similar wrestlers and I was thrilled when the match was announced, thinking Kirari was the perfect opponent for Yuuka’s return.
Kirari went submission based for a good chunk of match, working over Yuuka’s right arm for an extended period.
The effects of Kirari’s assault on Yuuka’s arm were noticeable. It was hanging by Yuuka’s side at points, she had to shake it out pretty often, and she winced a bit when forced to use it for her trademark offensive forearms.
She’s so good at the little details, as I pointed out when I recently took a look at a match she once had against Kana (WWE’s Asuka). Her instincts are excellent and she’s showing practically no ring rust after 9 years away from the ring.
As things went on Yuuka managed several of her signatures for close near falls, including Angel Thunder (her sweet diving forearm on a prone opponent), the float over backslide (Saori Anou’s Pottering), Schoolgirl rollup (120% Schoolboy), and her cross legged Fisherman suplex.
A key moment saw Yuuka going face first into the mat when her top rope Angel Thunder misses. Kirari took advantage with a top rope dropkick.
Kirari went to end things with her twisting crucifix but slipped off Yuuka’s back. The move requires perfect balance as Kirari climbs onto her opponents back from the side, into a position where someone would normally roll down into a cross armbreaker, and twists into a crucifix pin instead. Kirari immediately stunned Yuuka with forearms to create a chance to try for it again… and slipped off again.
This time Yuuka took advantage of the opening to paste Kirari with forearm shots of her own and went for her cross legged back suplex. Kirari twists away and climbs onto Yuuka once more to nail the crucifix and win the fall.
They did a great job fighting over that and adjusting and the move looked awesome when Kirari eventually hit it.
Strong start. On we proceed to:
Kirari Wakana vs Kaho Matsushita:
So now if Kirari beats Kaho she’s the match winner and new champion. But if Kaho wins Yuuka comes back in to face her. And Kirari’s 12 minutes deep against a fresh Kaho.
This starts off hot, as Kaho tries to run over Kirari but the latter counters with small package and nearly wins the title. Then the fresh Kaho settles in to work over her exhausted opponent.
In general Kirari’s counters and near falls made this extra exciting as the match format meant there was the possibility of her going two straight to become champion behind every one of her pinfall attempts.
On a side note that I noticed in particular both here and during the Yuuka vs Kirari section: this referee is the best I’ve ever seen at stopping short when someone kicks out at the last second. His cadence is perfect even on super close calls.
Late in this match Kaho makes Kirari pay for going for the crucifix with a sweet overhead suplex counter.
Kirari survives Kaho’s pump handle suplex with bridge, but a Falcon Arrow wins for Kaho immediately after.
So now:
Kaho Matsushita vs Yuuka:
A Kaho win here takes the match and the title. Yuuka winning keeps the match going and she would face Kirari again.
Yuuka EXPLODES on Kaho with forearms to start, but Kaho weathers the onslaught and takes over in short order.
Kaho just wrestled while Yuuka recovered but Yuuka’s still the worse for wear of the two overall. Yuuka’s match against Kirari lasted several minutes longer than Kaho’s did.
Yuuka put up a good fight and had some nice near falls. She worked in several of her signatures again trying to stop Kaho’s momentum. At one point she busted out a sweet matrix evasion.
But Kaho kept at her and a worn out Yuuka was just barely rolling herself over to kickout at certain points.
Kaho’s pumphandle suplex eventually gets Yuuka to stay down, and with two straight wins Kaho Matsushita is the new ICE Cross Infinity Champion.
Not unexpected, and Kaho is going to be a great champion. I still had a blast cheering for my underdog and hoping for a miracle win.
Yuuka both looked totally exhausted during this and still like a major threat that Kaho had to work to beat. Well done.
Kaho beat both Kirari and Yuuka in about 7 minutes each, making the whole main event a touch over 25 minutes.
So a few hours before the start of Ice Ribbon’s biggest show of the year a wrestler with a year and a half experience, one who was having her first match in 9 years, and a 22 year old rising star who returned this year after a year out with injury suddenly found out their planned matches were changing.
They all ended up essentially wrestling two matches apiece in the main event of the biggest show of year on practically no notice, and all three worked their asses off to deliver a great main event under tough circumstances. They should be incredibly proud of their performances and the match was really good.
Manami Katsu recovered quickly and has already returned (and actually received her championship match against the new champion earlier in the day as I prepare to post this).
So about Yuuka’s return…
She looked great in this impromptu main event and knocked her return out of the park. She wrestled again on Ice Ribbon’s New Year’s show a few days later, then on Ice Ribbon’s sister theatrical company Venus’ show on 1/4/26 and another Ice Ribbon show later in the day.
Unfortunately after those matches she was diagnosed with pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and will be out for an uncertain time period.
Rotten luck all around but she will be involved in a non wrestling capacity as she’s able. This was still an impressive return to wrestling and I’m wishing her a complete as speedy recovery. As frustrating as it must be to be out so soon after returning, health comes first and I hope she takes all the time she needs.
Overall
It’s Ribbonmania. It was a blast. As usual everyone gave their all in matches that featured a mix of styles that all came together into a fun show. This is always a highlight of my year. It was just plain fun to watch.
Congratulations to our new champions, best wishes for a speedy recovery for Ibuki and Yuuka and again that things go well for Hamuko, and may everyone continue to Be Happy With Pro Wrestling.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Time flies. Here’s a quick look back on some personal highlights of the careers of a couple wrestlers who made a lasting impression when I first saw them near exactly a decade ago.
Sonoko Kato was already a well established and decorated veteran when I slowly started getting introduced to joshi wrestling* in the early 2010s. And it would still be a few years before I had the opportunity to see her wrestle.
Shimmer Women’s Athletes, a US independent women’s wrestling promotion, brought in wrestlers from all over the world for their shows. It was through them that I discovered and became an eternal fan of numerous Japanese wrestlers and promotions. Kana (now WWE’s Asuka), Ayako Hamada, Ray, Misaki Ohata, Hikaru Shida, and a number of other incredibly talented joshi wrestlers had already appeared for the company by the time I started traveling to Chicago for Shimmer weekends in 2014.
( * – The Japanese word “joshi” simply means “girl” and “joshi puroresu” in Japan generally just means “women’s wrestling.” But as a borrowed term in English “joshi wrestling” is shorthand specifically referring to Japanese women wrestlers and promotions.)
By Fall of 2015 I was making my fourth trip out for Shimmer and would be fortunate enough to see Kato live in her first and only Shimmer weekend. I had heard the name but was largely unfamiliar with her prior and had never seen her wrestle at all.
Already at 20 years of wrestling experience at the time, Kato was great and made an immediate strong impression.
Shimmer weekends were a unique and impactful experience. The only way they could put on the shows they did with the vast array of talent coming in was to tape multiple shows at a time. So twice a year Shimmer would have back to back double taping days across a weekend. Tickets were good for a full day, generally with two shows taped on Saturday and two on Sunday.
So while Kato only traveled out for Shimmer once, I had the privilege of seeing her wrestle four times in that one weekend. She was featured in three strong singles matches (against Kimber Lee, Kellie Skater, and Nicole Savoy) as well as a short, chaotic 6-way (against Kay Lee Ray (now Alba Fyre), Allysin Kay, Candice LeRae, Kellie Skater, and Marti Bell).
Kato killed it all weekend and her combination of exciting ring skills and natural charisma. Her awesome match against Savoy was my personal favorite.
She seemed genuinely excited to be there and meet foreign fans and was particularly appreciative of a subset of us importing and preparing traditional Japanese style streamers to be thrown during the entrances for the joshi wrestlers.
Oz Academy, Kato’s home company and where she wrestled the vast majority of the time, didn’t run often during the time of year I was usually in Japan when I started making trips over there. And there isn’t much official distribution of their stuff outside of Japan.
So I only ever saw Kato wrestle in Japan a couple lucky times and overall I’ve seen far fewer of her matches than most of my other favorite wrestlers.
Though as with her Shimmer appearances what I have managed to see was excellent. I was fortunate enough to catch a tremendously fun tag match of hers on Oz Academy’s 1/6/19 show alongside Ryo Mizunami against Hikaru Shida & Rina Yamashita.
Mizunami would become a regular partner of Kato a few years later as H2D, and they were multiple time tag team champions. They also had a handful of singles matches against one another over the years, and Mizunami was chosen to be Kato’s last opponent.
Sonoko Kato retired on 11/23/25, bringing her incredible 30 year career to a close. I hope everything is going well for her post wrestling.
Risa Sera
A couple of months after I saw Kato wrestle in Shimmer I made my first ever trip to Japan. My first show was an Ice Ribbon dojo show, where among a bunch of other wrestlers I’d be watching for a long time to come I got my first look at Risa Sera.
Risa was trained in Ice Ribbon and was about 3 years into her career, just past what’s generally considered her rookie period in Japan. She had recently officially formed the Azure Revolution tag team with Maya Yukihi and a number of the matches I saw of hers back then were Azure Revolution tags.
Risa was energetic and striking with regards to her traditional wrestling, with her trademark double knee strikes and other high impact moves standing out.
She was the relative veteran and more polished member of the team in those early days. Although over time Maya was improving and evolving more rapidly and would become her partner’s equal and rival. If fact while they are a good team I have noted in the past that they had even better chemistry as opponents.
Their paths would continue to cross in numerous ways and they have reformed Azure Revolution for a number of matches as Risa’s career winds down.
Risa had great success I those years in Ice Ribbon, becoming multiple time International Ribbon Tag Team Champions and ICE Cross Infinity Champion. One of her title matches that stands out in my memory was an exciting encounter against Yuuka in the main event of Ice Ribbon’s 10th Anniversary Show.
In addition to her hard hitting championship matches and other intense outings, some of my key memories and favorite matches of hers involve the lighter side of Ice Ribbon. One intended Azure Revolution match against Tsukasa Fujimoto & Miyako Matsumototurned into something completely different, when the petulant force of nature that is Miyako objected to teaming with Tsukka and stole Risa changing the match to her and Risa again Tsukka & Maya.
Another incredibly fun time was an Ice Ribbon vs P’s Party trios contest where the wrestlers were assigned a random finisher they had to use for pinfalls to count and Risa was stuck spending her time in the match trying to ropewalk.
Risa left Ice Ribbon after Ribbonmania 2021. She made one appearance as part of her new freelance unit Prominence shortly afterwards, but hasn’t been back since.
As a part of Risa’s retirement road she’ll be returning to Ice Ribbon one last time after four years away at Ribbonmania 2025 on 12/31/25. The match is filled with significance as it’ll be Azure Revolution against one of their main rivals during their time in Ice Ribbon.
The Lovely Butchers, Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Natsumi (formerly Mochi Miyagi when she was in Ice Ribbon) will be teaming for the first time in nearly 4 years for this special farewell contest. Mochi left Ice Ribbon when Risa did (more on that to come) and likewise hasn’t been back since that single Prominence appearance.
Maya has been freelance for years and pops up in her former company once or twice a year.
Hamuko is still in Ice Ribbon but has been on leave for most of this year due to accumulated injuries and is on the verge of being out for an extended period to get treatment. This will be her last match for a while.
To see all four of them participate once more in the kind of tag encounter that defined a lot of the period I was regularly attending Ice Ribbon shows is a treat and will be one of the emotional highlights of this year’s big show from Ice Ribbon.
Circling back around to my first trip to Japan, my most vivid memory of Risa was my first glimpse of the other major aspect of her career.
Risa Sera is now known for her hardcore and deathmatch wrestling as much as any other part of her wrestling journey. During 2015 she was slowly introducing audiences to the concept of gender being irrelevant when it comes to the types of wrestling someone choses to pursue. She had already done one self produced show with a featured deathmatch against former partner Maki Narumiya. Although it was more of a comical take on the concept as she had to convince the company to be more open to the idea of hardcore wrestling. It was a Human Hair Deathmatch where in place of normal hardcore weapons or deathmatch elements like barbed wire there were piles of cut hair as the impending “danger.”
Her second self produced show got closer to actual traditional deathmatch territory and fused lighter comical sections with brutal elements to great effect. Titled “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… Deathmatch,” or more colloquially the Four Seasons Deathmatch, it was essentially an iron woman match for Risa only where her opponent would change after every decision and season related weapons were allowed.
Risa put up a hell of a fight for 60 full minutes and it was a fantastic experience live. It was the third match of hers I ever saw and was completely unique and engaging. To this day it’s one of my favorite hardcore/deathmatch style matches. (See my thoughts on the dvd of the show for detailed thoughts).
Risa’s done a handful of these 60 minute iron woman deathmatches over the years, and has decided to do one more as her last deathmatch on Prominence’s 12/16/25 show.
Deathmatch wrestling is often beyond my personal realm of enjoyment. I have limits after which I lose interest and/or can’t stomach what’s being presented. The line is often right around when light tubes, skewers, and so on get involved.
But I do enjoy certain manifestations of hardcore and deathmatch wrestling, like the above mentioned Four Seasons match and a tremendous hardcore match Risa had on Hikaru Shida’s 10th Anniversary Show teaming with Hagane Shinno against TARU & the legendary Aja Kong.
One of my favorite wrestlers of all time is the Hardcore Queen Dash Chisako, and it’s been a treat seeing her and like minded Risa face off in various forms recently including a singles match early this year.
And whether it’s to my particular tastes or not I fully support wrestlers embracing their own goals and style in wrestling. Risa pushed into a non traditional space and inspired a lot of wrestlers to follow her lead and/or carve their own unique path.
One particularly notable case was that of Suzu Suzuki. Suzu fell in love with deathmatch wrestling from a young age through promotions like Freedoms and BJW. But it was seeing Risa compete that made her realize that doing it herself someday wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Suzu debuted in Ice Ribbon at the age of 17 and took to wrestling extremely quickly. She won the ICE Cross Infinity Championship a little under two years into her career and started participating in hardcore matches around the same time.
Suzu was a protege of Risa’s and they both teamed and fought numerous times throughout their careers.
As alluded to above hardcore and deathmatch wrestling was always a little beyond the scope of Ice Ribbon’s usual tone and approach and came to temporary prominence in the company through Risa’s efforts and revolved around a specific subset of the roster who were passionate about it. At the end of 2021 those wrestlers, Risa, Suzu, Kurumi Hiiragi, Mochi Miyagi, and Akane Fujita, left Ice Ribbon to form their own freelance unit called Prominence. They focused on hardcore wrestling and deathmatches and participated in several companies’ shows while also hosting their own.
In 2023 Suzu left Prominence and ended up going to World Wonder Ring Stardom. On 11/3/25 Risa showed up at Stardom to request Suzu be the final opponent of her career.
Risa Sera will be retiring on 1/12/26 on a self produced show. In addition to the main event farewell match against her former protege Azure Revolution has a 3-way tag earlier in the show. The two matches should provide a suitable final chapter on Risa’s 13 year career.
Best wishes to Sera in whatever life after wrestling brings.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically as I am able.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
At today’s Ice Ribbon event in Yokohama retired wrestler Yuuka announced her return to the ring at Ribbonmania 2025.
Yuuka wrestled for Ice Ribbon with from 2013 to 2016 with a number of outside appearances for Pro Wrestling Wave and BJW and a handful for other promotions. She officially announced her retirement in 2019, so this return is after 6 official years away from wrestling and 9 years since her last match.
Yuuka’s a personal favorite of mine and was always a blast to watch. A few months ago I randomly decided to spotlight a decade old match of hers against the incredible Kana (now WWE’s Asuka). In an amusing coincidence less than a half hour after I posted that blog it was announced that Yuuka would be making a special appearance at Ice Ribbon that day as a second for Kyuri in Kyuri’s anniversary match.
Since then Yuuka has worked as support staff for Ice Ribbon’s parent company NeoPlus and started participating in the theatrical wrestling project Pro Wrestling Venus.
Yuuka’s return to wrestling will be 10 years to the day of when I had the privilege of seeing her wrestle Sareee live in a special teens spotlight match at Ribbonmania 2015 during my first trip to Japan.
Really happy for Yuuka that she has this opportunity to come back to wrestling and that she wanted to do so. Excited to see what this new part of her career will bring.
Welcome back, Ice Ribbon’s White Angel.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
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.
Seems to be tradition at this point that when I manage to do retrospectives for the blog I’m at least a month past the actual anniversary (actually a full two this go round). My sense of time certainly is off kilter nowadays and summer simply blurred by.
And with the pandemic upending the world and me being largely on hiatus for a few years it’s been a while since I did one of these. But better late than never, and my tiny little corner of the internet somehow got to a decade old this past July.
Overview
It’s been four years since my last blog retrospective, which was post #682 at the time. This is post #728 (I’ve deleted exactly 2 entries ever, so my total number of posts written since last time is 48). Under 50 posts in 4 years is on the low side to my previous output, but there was practically nothing from 2021-23, so not too bad overall for my slow and struggling return over the last year and a half.
I did not make 700 posts by end of 2021 as I hoped to. In fact I didn’t write anything else in 2021 after the retrospective, had only 3 entries in 2022, and nothing in 2023. My chronic illnesses and others things have impacted my life in big ways. But this blog is a passion project of mine, I enjoy being able to share my thoughts on my hobbies, and I’m glad to be back, sporadic as it’s been.
In early 2024 I was preparing to return to the blog with another retirement piece and some art related content. Instead those came later and my first post in a year and a half was an emotional farewell to one of my favorite wrestlers who unexpectedly passed away extremely young. I had the privilege of attending Asahi’s debut match in person, and was a big fan of the effort and emotion she poured into her wrestling. She is greatly missed. Rest in peace, Sunrise of Hope.
Specific Post Details
Looking back in aggregate there was a lot of variety in my posts and there’s a lot to cover in terms of stuff I’d like to highlight. Writing was often a struggle during this time period and it’s nice to be happy with the results of that effort.
While the genres covered are largely the same through the life of Derailments of Thought, the specific manifestations have morphed a bit. With my health limitations in a post pandemic world I’m not able to go out nearly as much as I used to, and I can’t really travel at all. So my Japan trips and the live event coverage that resulted will remain a thing of the past for the foreseeable future.
I was lucky enough to manage a few local events across the last couple years though, including a fantastic NXT Roadblock at MSG and some concerts of the incredibly fun Atarashii Gakko. I also made it to one film of Japan Cuts 2024. Japan Society’s annual film festival was something I attended heavily in the past and was a big part of the early years of this blog, so it was cool to be back in some fashion and share thoughts on Great Absence.
As in the past some of the most special and personal posts are wrestler specific pieces that are usually about retirements, major career changes, or in a few unfortunate cases memorials. Several of my favorites have retired recently, and there are more announced to come.
These are all new posts since last time’s retrospective. Please see that post for links to a great many prior entries of these types.
In addition, I wrote a special spotlight early this year about the joy wrestling can bring in general with particular focus on ChocoPro’s newest and youngest member, Kaho Hiromi.
Other wrestling content I’ve done recently focused mainly on match spotlights, ranging from unusual and/or potentially overlooked matches to stuff I wanted to revisit or just caught my eye.
The unique TokyoGameShow matches that happened in 2022 as part of promotional hype for AEW’s video game had never been aired until they were added to Wrestle Universe late last year. These included several once ever matchups featuring favorites of mine crossing paths so were a real treat to finally get to see.
In the last couple months I’ve looked back on some matches wrestlers currently performing in the US had in Ice Ribbon way back when, including Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, and Asuka. They feature Giulia’s biggest match ever in the promotion she started in, a contentious match of hers against fellow rookie Asahi, Vaquer’s first match in Ice Ribbon as well as her facing one of the company’s rising stars, and a hidden gem of a match with veteran Kana against fiery rookie Yuuka. Was really cool to look back on all of these.
Another big part of the blog lately has been focused on the collecting side of things. I did card spotlights on BBM’s 2024 and 2025 Women’s Wrestling card sets, as well as features on specific types of unusual cards like printing plates, other metal cards, comic cuts, and minis.
Some of the posts I’m happiest about sharing featured several incredible artists from whom I have a wonderful collection of cards and other art. They include Miki Okazaki, Ice Ribbon’s Yappy, Lydi Li, and Veronica O’Connell.
In an effort to avoid mentioning and linking to every single post I did in the last couple years I’m going to gloss over the occasional book/movie/game reviews I did, but they remain an important part of the blog and I got to read/see/play some really cool stuff.
Lastly, one of my all time favorite writers passed away in May after a long battle with health issues. Peter David’s work shaped a ton of my views on what comics and novels could be. Rest In Peace, Writer of Stuff.
Top Posts
Going to approach this part a little different this time, primarily because the top 4 posts are exactly the same as last time, and going nowhere. They all had over 1,200 views then (plus a proportionate handful each since), which is dominant for my meager ramblings that have about 20 regular readers.
On that note, a copied reminder from my last couple retrospective posts regarding my most viewed posts:
“Derailments of Thought is 100% a personal hobby blog, and my little corner of the web is generally pretty modest in terms of views. More than half of my posts garner under 20, and the “highly viewed” posts generally end up with a few hundred. This is fine, and I greatly appreciate everyone who takes the time to read. I’m pointing it out for context for the extent in which a couple of my pieces have deviated from the norm. I’m sharing this short list because I find the mix of subjects and other little details interesting.”
Since last time only 2 posts have overtaken the 587 views 5th place’s Tokyo Joshi Pro 1/4/16 Live Thoughts had then, so I’m going to spotlight them specifically in lieu of rehashing thoughts on the above. Please see last time for more details on those posts.
One last note: my blog homepage itself gets a much larger percentage of the views than it used to, so all of this is highly approximate as there are no counts of what specific posts people read off that or tagged sections. I imagine my artist features are a bit undercounted as I get decent interest for those as I post about them on Instagram, where there’s no direct link to the individual post just a general blog link in my bio.
The TJPW 1/4/16 show is now at 813 views, which would place it 6th now if this was still list format.
Yoshiko 686 views: The first new addition that caught on isn’t actually a new post since last time. It has been published just a few months before and mentioned in that retrospective and was steadily climbing in views. It’s a look back on one of joshi wrestling’s most infamous incidents after several years had passed and presented my thoughts on important context that I felt needed to be considered when looking back on it.
Farewell to the Muscle Idol: Reika Saiki’s Retirement 999 views: The other is amusingly being mentioned and linked to for the third time within this post. The Muscle Idol, Reika Saiki, was incredibly popular as a wrestler, an idol, and in her “muscle” related work and remains so even after retiring from it all. Not surprised this one piques people’s interest, and am glad to share my memories of her career. (Side note: that ridiculously precise view count is legit as of time of writing and was not fudged in any way.)
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Asahi PSC by Veronica O’Connell
So that’s a decade down. Wild how time flies.
Thank you to anyone who took some time to read through this retrospective, and I hope you found at least a post or two of interest to check out. I currently can’t guarantee any sort of update schedule, but I have stuff in the works and intend to keep at this as I’m able.
In the not too distant future I’m hoping to do more collecting and/or artist spotlights, as well as maybe continuing with more match features on interesting little moments from the past. There are a TON of recent and upcoming retirements so I’m playing around with a new format to share a few key memories of several wrestlers in one post. We’ll see if that pans out. And of course occasional book/movie/game reviews and other randomness will be sprinkled in.
Here’s to another ten years or so.
Again I’m extremely thankful for everyone who’s read, shared, and or commented on things I’ve written. Doing so is much appreciated, and often needed, support.
If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
I’ve recently looked back on certain matches some current WWE wrestlers had in Ice Ribbon in years past, specifically reigning US Champion Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer.
Continuing with a hidden gem, it’s time to take a look at my all time favorite wrestler: Asuka.
The World Famous Kana vs The White Angel of Ice Ribbon
(Kana is Asuka’s pre-WWE ring name. For purposes of covering this match I’ll primarily be using the name she used when it happened.)
This match was a few months before my first trip to Japan. I later made a point of tracking down the DVD specifically to see this battle of two of my favorites.
It’s been just under 10 years since this. Time flies.
Kana already had over a decade of experience at this point. This was one of her last few matches in Japan as a freelancer before leaving for NXT, so I’d just barely miss seeing her wrestle live in Japan when I went over that December. I had seen her wrestle live at Shimmer several times prior to this though.
Yuuka was 17 years old with under two years experience and was an Ice Ribbon roster member. She made an immediate impression on the first show I ever saw in Japan, and had a ton of potential. As it turned out her career was a short one, with her in ring wrestling lasting almost exactly 3 years (her official retirement announcement came long after her last match, nearly 6 years after her debut).
Kana wrestled less than ten singles matches in Ice Ribbon ever, so this was a pretty big opportunity for her rookie opponent.
Kana vs Yuuka – Ice Ribbon 9/6/15
Handshake before the bell.
They circle each other to start, then lock up. Kana easily powers Yuuka into the ropes, holds her there for a few seconds, then backs up for a clean break.
Another lockup. Kana has a size advantage so Yuuka can’t back her up, but she holds position against Kana’s pushing then reverses Kana into the ropes. Clean break.
On the third lockup Kana goes right into an overhand wristlock. Yuuka rolls out and reverses into one of her own. Kana immediately spins out back into her own. Yuuka rolls out into another reversal, which Kana rolls out of into another reversal. Great super quick counter wrestling early on here.
Kana only holds the wrist lock for a moment before transitioning into a hammerlock. Yuuka reverses into her own, but Kana counters right into a side headlock.
Yuuka shoots her into the ropes, but eats a shoulder tackle on Kana’s rebound. She drops down as Kana hits the ropes again. Kana rolls over her and charges. Yuuka do-si-dos out of the way and hits an arm drag as Kana rebounds off the ropes again. Only two minutes in and this is captivating. Really fast paced and high energy.
Kana shrugs off a dropkick. Then another. Then just swats away a third. She throws Yuuka into the ropes but the youngster hits a fourth dropkick that sends Kana into the opposite ropes. Kana responds with a dropkick of her own off the rebound.
Kana applies a Boston crab, really torquing it. Yuuka brushes her hand across the rope but Kana pulls her towards the center and sits down on it. Yuuka scrapes to the rope for a break. Yuuka tries to fires back with forearms but Kana largely absorbs them and rocks Yuuka with her own strikes.
Yuuka fires up and backs Kana into the corner with a big running forearm then lands several more, her first small bit of sustained offense. Nevermind though as she gets sent into the far corner and Kana follows with a running hip attack. Yuuka collapses to the mat and Kana covers for 2.
Half camel clutch by Kana is quickly transitioned into a cross arm breaker as Yuuka tries to turn out of the hold. Yuuka’s in deep trouble but quickly uses her whole body to flop around towards the ropes for a break. Kana holds on for a few extra seconds as the ref aggressively gets to a count of 3 before Kana lets go.
Kana twists Yuuka’s arm and then one she has it extended just kicks it hard. The crowd audibly gasped at that. Kana mockingly kicks at Yuuka as the latter tries to get up. Nice moment sees Yuuka awkwardly try to fight back with a forearm shot with her non-dominant arm, get a glancing blow, and realize she has to use her right arm even though Kana’s been working it over. She shakes it out and cradles it after every shot, but she throws the shots regardless. Was likely all instinctual, and resulted in a wonderfully subtle bit of selling.
Kana starts getting serious again with a series of chest kicks, but Yuuka keeps roaring in defiance and getting back to her knees after each one. She eventually catches Kana’s leg and uses the opening to … slap Kana right across the face. Magnificent.
Yuuka hits the ropes but Kana’s right behind her to catch her with a hard elbow off Yuuka’s rebound. Yuuka’s whipped into the corner but comes barreling back out with a shotgun dropkick that sends Kana into the opposite corner. Corner dropkick followed by a tornado DDT gets 2 as the veteran knows exactly where she is in the ring and gets a foot over the rope.
Kana reverses a whip into the corner, but Yuuka scampers up the ropes and jumps back into a beautiful crossbody for 2. A trio of forearms puts Kana against the ropes, but she kicks at Yuuka when the latter charges in for another. Yuuka approaches again and gets met with another kick. And again. Kana swings for a strike after creating a little separation but Yuuka ducks and turns it into an abdominal stretch. The vicious looking kind too with her hands locked around Kana’s neck. Kana struggles and drags them to the ropes, just for Yuuka to drop backwards into an on the mat version as Kana fingers brush the ropes.
Kana fights out and grabs an ankle lock, then switches to a knee bar on the other leg when Yuuka tries to kick at her. Kana’s got her whole body wrapped around Yuuka’s leg and Yuuka has no choice but to claw her way to the ropes. She makes it for the break.
Kana kicks right at her face against the ropes. Yuuka pulls herself up by Kana’s hair and lands a forearm. Elbow to the face in response from Kana. Yuuka forearm. Kana elbow. And back and forth we go. Yuuka’s giving as good as her intimidating opponent is, and the crowd is popping big for her strikes.
A flurry of quick forearms stuns Kana but Yuuka runs right into a hard takedown into a Fujiawara armbar. Yuuka rolls out so Kana grabs a front facelock. Yuuka immediately twists out, but Kana still has her arm and twists into chicken wing position… oh that’s not good. Kana’s got her other arm around Yuuka’s face and is looking to complete the Kana Lock. She’s fighting for it and drops backwards but Yuuka uses the momentum to roll back right over her and escapes. Nice. I thought that was it.
Yuuka’s hit with a hip attack off the ropes. Kana runs at her for a knock out kick, but Yuuka ducks and a schoolboy rollup gets 2. Yuuka gets a backslide and floats over into a bridge (Saori Anou’s Pottering) for a close 2. Keeping the pressure on Yuuka gets the Schoolgirl rollup for 2 (also called 120% Schoolboy, it’s a rollup variation where Yuuka keeps rotating and ends up in a bridge over her opponent).
A running forearm off the ropes lays Kana out and Yuuka hits the ropes again to come off into her sweet diving forearm on the mat (Angel Thunder) for 2.999. Up to the top, a crossbody gets another close 2.
Yuuka off the ropes… and Kana jumps into the flying triangle takedown and rolls right into a cross arm breaker. Yuuka tries to roll out and clasp her hands but Kana uses the momentum to transition into a Fujiwara. Yuuka rolls forward out of that but Kana pulls back on the arm and Yuuka’s in chickening position again. Uh-oh. Up to their feet and Kana’s got the facelock too. And there it is as Kana drops them both back to the mat and wraps her legs around Yuuka. Kana Lock is complete and Yuuka taps in short order.
Kana shows respect afterwards and thanks Yuuka for the match.
That was fantastic, even accounting for my bias watching two of my absolute favorites battle. Extremely fast paced but with good flow, Yuuka put up a crazy fight towards the end, and this was just straight up ten wonderfully wrestled minutes that felt much longer with everything they packed in. Formulas shine when used in the right way by the right people, and this was an excellent “imposing vet vs overmatched rookie who won’t quit” match.
This is one of those matches that is a fun little lost moment in time. There were no titles on the line, it wasn’t a career or company milestone, and in general it’s not going to be on a lot of people’s radars. But it was an absolute blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed giving it a watch a decade later.
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Revisiting pre-WWE Asuka is always a treat, and Yuuka’s short career is filled with little gems like this. Great stuff.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
WWE’s other fastest rising superstar, who’s a longtime personal favorite of mine, has also appeared Ice Ribbon. So likewise I’d like to share a couple of her matches from those appearances.
Stephanie Vaquer was already a world traveled star with over a decade of experience when she first appeared for Ice Ribbon. I had heard a lot about her but hadn’t seen her wrestle prior.
These two matches were chosen by the rigorous process of being the only two of her matches in Ice Ribbon that I have on DVD. That said it’s a pretty good sample, as one is her first match for the company and the other is a singles against a rising star.
Both of these shows are available in the subscription archive portion (called ICE RIBBON LIVE plus) of Ice Ribbon’s ippv platform.
Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer vs Hikari Shimizu & Kaho Matsushita – Summer Jumbo Ribbon 7/31/22
This was Vaquer’s first match in Ice Ribbon. She had wrestled in Japan before years prior on a tour for Stardom.
Dalys is likewise a star from Mexico with a decade plus career at the time of this match making her Ice Ribbon debut.
Shimizu is from GPU COLOR’S, a freelance group that evolved out of Actwres girl’Z when Actwres transitioned into wrestling based acting instead of being a straight up wrestling company. She debuted in 2017, so had about five years of experience here.
Kaho was one of Ice Ribbon’s newest rookies at the time, with under a year of experience after her debut on November 13, 2021.
Handshakes before the bell. Matching red gear for Dalys & Vaquer.
Vaquer and Shimizu start. Vaquer quickly pushes out of a collar and elbow tie up and throws Shimzu to the mat out of a waistlock. Shimizu grabs her leg though and pulls Vaquer down. Leg lace is quickly countered by Vaquer into an arm bar, which is quickly countered by Shimizu into a rollup for just 1. Standoff and they circle each other into another collar and elbow in the middle of the ring.
Shimizu arm ringer into a wristlock right into a hammerlock. Nice bit of technical wrestling as she adjusted holds throughout what was essentially just twisting Vaquer’s arm more and more. Vaquer with a sweet break as she used her free arm to pull her leg up behind her, hooked her foot onto Shimizu’s arm, then kicked down to break the hold.
Vaquer grabs a wristlock and really torques it. Shimizu rolls forward out of the pressure, kips up with Vaquer still holding her arm, then drops back down to arm drag Vaquer over. The standard exchange of leg sweep counters for 1 counts (if you watch wrestling regularly you’ve seen this at some point) leads to another momentary face off. Big smile on Vaquer’s face at the fight she’s getting out of Shimizu.
Kick to the mid section by Shimizu. That’s the second time I was expecting a double tag out and they continued fighting instead. Side headlock by Shimizu. Vaquer pushes her off into the ropes, then drops down and leapfrogs Shimizu on subsequent rebounds. Shimizu dives over Vaquer as the later rolls backwards after one last rope bounce.
Both up. Shimizu motions Vaquer to come at her, leading to a trade of arm drags and then both going for dropkicks simultaneously. Third stalemate. NOW we get the change up. Really strong start to the match.
Dalys gets right in the rookie’s face and flexes at her.
They trade trips to put each other down, then Kaho hits several dropkicks as Dalys is on her knees trying to stand. Dalys absorbs them and roars in defiance for more. Eventually a single kick to the face in return knocks Kaho down.
Shimizu comes in as Dalys drags Kaho up, but gets caught with a boot to the midsection. Dalys puts them both into front facelocks and hits a double suplex. Off camera Vaquer had climbed to the top turnbuckle and comes down with a splash on both right after the suplex landing.
Vaquer goes back to her corner and Kaho rolls out of the ring. I don’t think there was a tag on the other side, but Shimizu now seems to be officially in with Dalys. Could be this is under lucha tag rules. Not that it probably matters much to Dalys which crumpled opponent remains in with her regardless.
Shimizu fights back though with a nice flying headscissors off the ropes after ducking a clothesline. She follows with a one leg sliding dropkick but Dalys is right back up and nails Shimizu with a chest kick to end the rally.
Tag to Vaquer. Double whip into the far corner is followed with a clothesline by Vaquer and a flying hip attack by Dalys. The vets are in firm control. Dalys grabs suplex position and hits a beautiful sitout facebuster.
Vaquer swarms the fallen Shimizu and hits Devil’s Kiss (headscissor repeated mat pounding: yeah that’s the best description I’ve got – look it up if unfamiliar as it really needs to be seen).
Shimizu rolls towards the ropes for a breather and Dalys kicks her to the outside. Lucha tag rules confirmed as Kaho comes in to fight with Vaquer. Under these rules it’s a legal switch to come in when your partner leaves the ring, in addition to the traditional hand slap tag.
Vaquer dodges a dropkick from Kaho, but the latter hits an enzuigiri after getting up and follows with a soccer kick for 2. Nice deep cover from the rookie folding Vaquer near in half.
Running dropkick to a seated Vaquer. Kaho picks Vaquer up and hits the ropes, but Dalys cheap shots her with a knee to the back and Vaquer runs over with a clubbing blow to the neck. Dalys reaches over the ropes to choke Kaho with a chinlock from the apron. She adds some shots to the head and a bit of biting while doing it until the ref makes her break.
Dalys comes in from the apron, as Vaquer left the ring so Dalys is now legal. She still has a hold of Kaho, and … tags right back out to Vaquer who was back in the corner. A little odd, but they go right into a double team so it makes some sense.
Dalys whips Kaho into a Vaquer drop toehold, which leaves Kaho draped across the far middle rope. Running dropkick to Kaho’s back by Dalys is followed by a 619 (Tiger Fight Kick) by Vaquer.
Dalys intercepts Shimizu, and Vaquer and Kaho exit the ring making the others the legal competitors. Hard overhand chop by Dalys. She absorbs two retaliatory forearms, but gets rocked by a high kick by Shimizu. Second kick is blocked though and Dalys levels Shimizu with a spinning side kick. Dalys applies a camel clutch style chinlock for all of two seconds before deciding to bite Shimizu’s forehead and pull her hair instead. She’s slowly gone into full bully heel mode as the match progresses and it’s pretty great.
An attempt to whip Shimizu into the corner is reversed, but when Shimizu charges and goes for a monkey flip the powerhouse catches her and spins around to put Shimizu on the turnbuckles. Shimizu jumps off the middle turnbuckle and wipes out Dalys. Literally just crashes into her and m maybe kind of hits a kneestrike. Could have been going for a dropkick or another kind of strike but her opponent was too close. It was effective enough though. Dalys stumbles back up and Kaho hits a top turnbuckle missile dropkick from a different corner.
Unfortunately it knocks Dalys all the way back into her own corner to tag Vaquer, who wipes out Kaho with a dropkick. But then Shimizu hits one on Vaquer. And the Dalys completes the dropkick party with one on Shimizu.
All four wrestlers are down on the mat. There are no covers, but the ref starts counting by slapping his hands against the mat as if there were. Must be another rule variant in play. Normally there’d be a (verbal only) ten count when all participants are down, but this was approached like a pinfall. Everyone gets up at 2.
Shimizu and Kaho’s rush at their opponents is ducked and they’re momentarily rolled up, but they get right back up and hit dropkicks. They try to whip Vaquer and Dalys into opposite corners but end up reversed into the corners themselves. Vaquer and Dalys run by each other across the ring and hit Kaho and Shimizu with a double knee strike and flying hip attack respectively.
Dalys applies a sharpshooter to Shimizu as Vaquer ties Kaho into a pretzel and viciously cranks back on her arm. Kaho immediately gives up and this one is over.
Dominant first impression from Vaquer and Dalys. They immediately came across as stars, while their less experienced opponents still looked good putting up what fight they could. The action they all packed into seven and a half minutes was crazy. Couple rough spots, but nothing too distracting and overall this was a really good, extremely faced paced tag match that was quite enjoyable.
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Stephanie Vaquer vs Ibuki Hoshi – Ice Ribbon 8/28/22
Ibuki Hoshi is a second generation wrestler, and her mother Hamuko Hoshi also wrestles for Ice Ribbon. The two have both fought on a number of occasions and been International Tag Ribbon Champions together.
Ibuki debuted on June 11, 2017 at the age of 14. At the time of this match she had been wrestling for 5 years and was 19, and was a rising star who would hold the company’s top title about a year after this.
Hype package seems to show Ibuki getting a big surprise pin on Vaquer then challenging her to this singles match. Looked it up and Ibuki & partner Maika Ozaki were victorious over Vaquer & Ibuki’s mother Hamuko in tag action with Ibuki pinning Vaquer just a couple weeks before this (pretty much right in the middle between the above match and this one). Should be quite interesting.
(Special guest appearance by this blog for this one, as I’d sponsored Yuuki Mashiro’s banner which is visible in the background.)
Ibuki starts hot with a running dropkick on Vaquer in the corner while the latter is removing her ring robe. Ref calls for the bell and we’re officially underway.
Still in the corner, Ibuki lays in several hard chops. Vaquer ducks under a double chop attempt and charges back towards Ibuki in the corner with a boot, but Ibuki dodges out.
We finally have some separation and the two stare each other down and jaw a bit in the center of the ring.
Ibuki grabs the hair for intimidation but Vaquer latches onto that arm into a top wristlock. She forces Ibuki down towards the mat with it but Ibuki uses her other arm to trip Vaquer and break the hold. Side headlock by Vaquer is transitioned into an arm wringer as they stand up. She yanks on Ibuki’s arm then settles into a standing wristlock.
Ibuki quickly reverses into one of her own, which becomes a momentary hammerlock before Vaquer does the sweet counter from the above match to break out of it and go back to a wristlock of her own.
Ibuki carefully pulls her hand free then grabs a side headlock. Vaquer back her up into the ropes and then we’re off to the races as the pace considerably quickens for a few moments. Ibuki’s shot into the far ropes. Vaquer drops down on the rebound then charges at Ibuki off her second rebound, but Ibuki sidesteps and pushes Vaquer along into the ropes herself. Ibuki arm drag off the rebound, Vaquer holds on, kips up, and hits an arm drag of her own.
Ibuki kips up and there’s a momentary face off before Ibuki lands a kick to the midsection. She follows it up with several forearms to the kneeling Vaquer’s back. Once Vaquer drops to all fours Ibuki sits on her back and lands more forearms. Vicious.
Vaquer reverses an attempted whip and faceplants Ibuki out of the air when the latter tries a crossbody of the rebound. She angrily pulls Ibuki up by the hair then faceplants her right back down.
Vaquer stands behind a seated Ibuki for a moment, so I expected a Devil’s Kiss, but instead she pulls Ibuki up and sends her headfirst into the corner. She trips Ibuki down into seated position and steps onto Ibuki’s chest, hanging off the top rope and putting all her weight on her opponent. She breaks on 3 of the ref’s count.
Back into the center of the ring Ibuki kicks at Vaquer, but gets kneed in the midsection when she hits the ropes. Snapmare into the canter of the ring and NOW we get the Devil’s Kiss. A groggy Ibuki rolls right out of the ring to the floor afterwards.
Vaquer follows her out and throws her into the ringpost. She beats Ibuki around outside a bit. No barricades for Ice Ribbon shows so this is all happening inches from the front row crowd.
Vaquer rolls Ibuki back in, hits a nice snap suplex, and immediately goes into a rear chinlock. Ibuki makes the ropes with her foot, so Vaquer backs them up and applies a wicked dragon sleeper variant (she used her leg to immobilize Ibuki’s arm, and linked her hands behind her own back to apply more pressure). Ibuki struggles to the ropes again for another break.
Vaquer ties Ibuki up in the ropes, pulls on her trapped arms to keep her in place, and lifts her foot into choke position. Crazy flexibility. Breaks on the ref’s count of 3 and whips Ibuki off the far ropes but gets caught by a crossbody. Ibuki sends Vaquer into the corner, splashes her, then brings her out with a faceplant for 2.
Vaquer pushes away when Ibuki pulls her up and they go into a forearm exchange. After a few Ibuki lands a big one so Vaquer knocks her back into the ropes with a nasty headbutt. So Ibuki starts a chop exchange. The pace has slowed a little as the effects of the big hits are felt, which is great. Ibuki is giving as good as she’s getting and rocking Vaquer as much as vice versa. Eventually Ibuki blocks a big right hand coming in and just unloads on Vaquer with numerous slaps to the head.
Ibuki hits the ropes but gets tripped, and Vaquer applies a Japanese stranglehold with Ibuki stretched back across her knees. Ibuki floats over pretty quickly and reverses the hold. She can’t quite keep Vaquer across her knees so keeps rolling about with it looking for a definite advantage. Vaquer forces them up to their feet and twists around until she can kick out of it. Ibuki lands in the corner and Vaquer chokes her again for a second, then runs to the opposite corner to come back charging. Ibuki dodges but Vaquer stops herself before crashing into the corner and catches Ibuki in the midsection with a kick.
A few head slams into the corner and several headbutts later and Ibuki’s seated down in the corner again. Back to the opposite corner and Vaquer nails the running double knees this time. She drags Ibuki into the center and a deep cover gets 2.
Vaquer jumps up to the top rope and goes for a double stomp. Vaquer rolls through the miss after Ibuki got out of the way, but when she turns back around Ibuki hits a kick to the head. Thrust kick knocks Vaquer back against the ropes, and Ibuki hits the far ropes for a running facewash kick. Ibuki throws Vaquer back into the center of the ring and covers for 2.
Ibuki goes up to the top turnbuckle and needs a couple extra seconds to get her balance but then successfully hits a crossbody for 2. Vaquer hits a chin breaker as Ibuki pulls her up, but her followup kick is ducked and Ibuki double chops her back down. Samoan Drop gets 2. She sets up for what looks like a Lightning Spiral attempt, but Vaquer twists out and swings for a clothesline. Ibuki ducks it and levels Vaquer with a falling clothesline off the ropes. Lightning Spiral gets 2.
Ibuki tries an octopus hold but Vaquer elbows out. Vaquer sends Ibuki into the ropes and catches her on the rebound into a rolling takedown that ends up with Ibuki in a triangle choke variant. Ibuki refuses to give up but quickly passes out in the hold. Three arm drops later and Vaquer wins due to ref stoppage. Vaquer holds on a few extra seconds for emphasis before the ref pulls her off.
Great, hard hitting match with a ton of impressive technical wrestling to boot from both. Ibuki was very much up to the task of keeping pace with Vaquer. This was action packed and felt longer (in a good way) than the eleven minutes it went.
Stephanie Vaquer’s always a joy to watch, and these were a solid pair of matches. Fun stuff.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Derailments of Thought 