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.
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.
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.
I’ve recently looked back on certain matches some current WWE wrestlers had in Ice Ribbon in years past, specifically reigning US Champion Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer.
Continuing with a hidden gem, it’s time to take a look at my all time favorite wrestler: Asuka.
The World Famous Kana vs The White Angel of Ice Ribbon
(Kana is Asuka’s pre-WWE ring name. For purposes of covering this match I’ll primarily be using the name she used when it happened.)
This match was a few months before my first trip to Japan. I later made a point of tracking down the DVD specifically to see this battle of two of my favorites.
It’s been just under 10 years since this. Time flies.
Kana already had over a decade of experience at this point. This was one of her last few matches in Japan as a freelancer before leaving for NXT, so I’d just barely miss seeing her wrestle live in Japan when I went over that December. I had seen her wrestle live at Shimmer several times prior to this though.
Yuuka was 17 years old with under two years experience and was an Ice Ribbon roster member. She made an immediate impression on the first show I ever saw in Japan, and had a ton of potential. As it turned out her career was a short one, with her in ring wrestling lasting almost exactly 3 years (her official retirement announcement came long after her last match, nearly 6 years after her debut).
Kana wrestled less than ten singles matches in Ice Ribbon ever, so this was a pretty big opportunity for her rookie opponent.
Kana vs Yuuka – Ice Ribbon 9/6/15
Handshake before the bell.
They circle each other to start, then lock up. Kana easily powers Yuuka into the ropes, holds her there for a few seconds, then backs up for a clean break.
Another lockup. Kana has a size advantage so Yuuka can’t back her up, but she holds position against Kana’s pushing then reverses Kana into the ropes. Clean break.
On the third lockup Kana goes right into an overhand wristlock. Yuuka rolls out and reverses into one of her own. Kana immediately spins out back into her own. Yuuka rolls out into another reversal, which Kana rolls out of into another reversal. Great super quick counter wrestling early on here.
Kana only holds the wrist lock for a moment before transitioning into a hammerlock. Yuuka reverses into her own, but Kana counters right into a side headlock.
Yuuka shoots her into the ropes, but eats a shoulder tackle on Kana’s rebound. She drops down as Kana hits the ropes again. Kana rolls over her and charges. Yuuka do-si-dos out of the way and hits an arm drag as Kana rebounds off the ropes again. Only two minutes in and this is captivating. Really fast paced and high energy.
Kana shrugs off a dropkick. Then another. Then just swats away a third. She throws Yuuka into the ropes but the youngster hits a fourth dropkick that sends Kana into the opposite ropes. Kana responds with a dropkick of her own off the rebound.
Kana applies a Boston crab, really torquing it. Yuuka brushes her hand across the rope but Kana pulls her towards the center and sits down on it. Yuuka scrapes to the rope for a break. Yuuka tries to fires back with forearms but Kana largely absorbs them and rocks Yuuka with her own strikes.
Yuuka fires up and backs Kana into the corner with a big running forearm then lands several more, her first small bit of sustained offense. Nevermind though as she gets sent into the far corner and Kana follows with a running hip attack. Yuuka collapses to the mat and Kana covers for 2.
Half camel clutch by Kana is quickly transitioned into a cross arm breaker as Yuuka tries to turn out of the hold. Yuuka’s in deep trouble but quickly uses her whole body to flop around towards the ropes for a break. Kana holds on for a few extra seconds as the ref aggressively gets to a count of 3 before Kana lets go.
Kana twists Yuuka’s arm and then one she has it extended just kicks it hard. The crowd audibly gasped at that. Kana mockingly kicks at Yuuka as the latter tries to get up. Nice moment sees Yuuka awkwardly try to fight back with a forearm shot with her non-dominant arm, get a glancing blow, and realize she has to use her right arm even though Kana’s been working it over. She shakes it out and cradles it after every shot, but she throws the shots regardless. Was likely all instinctual, and resulted in a wonderfully subtle bit of selling.
Kana starts getting serious again with a series of chest kicks, but Yuuka keeps roaring in defiance and getting back to her knees after each one. She eventually catches Kana’s leg and uses the opening to … slap Kana right across the face. Magnificent.
Yuuka hits the ropes but Kana’s right behind her to catch her with a hard elbow off Yuuka’s rebound. Yuuka’s whipped into the corner but comes barreling back out with a shotgun dropkick that sends Kana into the opposite corner. Corner dropkick followed by a tornado DDT gets 2 as the veteran knows exactly where she is in the ring and gets a foot over the rope.
Kana reverses a whip into the corner, but Yuuka scampers up the ropes and jumps back into a beautiful crossbody for 2. A trio of forearms puts Kana against the ropes, but she kicks at Yuuka when the latter charges in for another. Yuuka approaches again and gets met with another kick. And again. Kana swings for a strike after creating a little separation but Yuuka ducks and turns it into an abdominal stretch. The vicious looking kind too with her hands locked around Kana’s neck. Kana struggles and drags them to the ropes, just for Yuuka to drop backwards into an on the mat version as Kana fingers brush the ropes.
Kana fights out and grabs an ankle lock, then switches to a knee bar on the other leg when Yuuka tries to kick at her. Kana’s got her whole body wrapped around Yuuka’s leg and Yuuka has no choice but to claw her way to the ropes. She makes it for the break.
Kana kicks right at her face against the ropes. Yuuka pulls herself up by Kana’s hair and lands a forearm. Elbow to the face in response from Kana. Yuuka forearm. Kana elbow. And back and forth we go. Yuuka’s giving as good as her intimidating opponent is, and the crowd is popping big for her strikes.
A flurry of quick forearms stuns Kana but Yuuka runs right into a hard takedown into a Fujiawara armbar. Yuuka rolls out so Kana grabs a front facelock. Yuuka immediately twists out, but Kana still has her arm and twists into chicken wing position… oh that’s not good. Kana’s got her other arm around Yuuka’s face and is looking to complete the Kana Lock. She’s fighting for it and drops backwards but Yuuka uses the momentum to roll back right over her and escapes. Nice. I thought that was it.
Yuuka’s hit with a hip attack off the ropes. Kana runs at her for a knock out kick, but Yuuka ducks and a schoolboy rollup gets 2. Yuuka gets a backslide and floats over into a bridge (Saori Anou’s Pottering) for a close 2. Keeping the pressure on Yuuka gets the Schoolgirl rollup for 2 (also called 120% Schoolboy, it’s a rollup variation where Yuuka keeps rotating and ends up in a bridge over her opponent).
A running forearm off the ropes lays Kana out and Yuuka hits the ropes again to come off into her sweet diving forearm on the mat (Angel Thunder) for 2.999. Up to the top, a crossbody gets another close 2.
Yuuka off the ropes… and Kana jumps into the flying triangle takedown and rolls right into a cross arm breaker. Yuuka tries to roll out and clasp her hands but Kana uses the momentum to transition into a Fujiwara. Yuuka rolls forward out of that but Kana pulls back on the arm and Yuuka’s in chickening position again. Uh-oh. Up to their feet and Kana’s got the facelock too. And there it is as Kana drops them both back to the mat and wraps her legs around Yuuka. Kana Lock is complete and Yuuka taps in short order.
Kana shows respect afterwards and thanks Yuuka for the match.
That was fantastic, even accounting for my bias watching two of my absolute favorites battle. Extremely fast paced but with good flow, Yuuka put up a crazy fight towards the end, and this was just straight up ten wonderfully wrestled minutes that felt much longer with everything they packed in. Formulas shine when used in the right way by the right people, and this was an excellent “imposing vet vs overmatched rookie who won’t quit” match.
This is one of those matches that is a fun little lost moment in time. There were no titles on the line, it wasn’t a career or company milestone, and in general it’s not going to be on a lot of people’s radars. But it was an absolute blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed giving it a watch a decade later.
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Revisiting pre-WWE Asuka is always a treat, and Yuuka’s short career is filled with little gems like this. Great stuff.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
WWE’s other fastest rising superstar, who’s a longtime personal favorite of mine, has also appeared Ice Ribbon. So likewise I’d like to share a couple of her matches from those appearances.
Stephanie Vaquer was already a world traveled star with over a decade of experience when she first appeared for Ice Ribbon. I had heard a lot about her but hadn’t seen her wrestle prior.
These two matches were chosen by the rigorous process of being the only two of her matches in Ice Ribbon that I have on DVD. That said it’s a pretty good sample, as one is her first match for the company and the other is a singles against a rising star.
Both of these shows are available in the subscription archive portion (called ICE RIBBON LIVE plus) of Ice Ribbon’s ippv platform.
Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer vs Hikari Shimizu & Kaho Matsushita – Summer Jumbo Ribbon 7/31/22
This was Vaquer’s first match in Ice Ribbon. She had wrestled in Japan before years prior on a tour for Stardom.
Dalys is likewise a star from Mexico with a decade plus career at the time of this match making her Ice Ribbon debut.
Shimizu is from GPU COLOR’S, a freelance group that evolved out of Actwres girl’Z when Actwres transitioned into wrestling based acting instead of being a straight up wrestling company. She debuted in 2017, so had about five years of experience here.
Kaho was one of Ice Ribbon’s newest rookies at the time, with under a year of experience after her debut on November 13, 2021.
Handshakes before the bell. Matching red gear for Dalys & Vaquer.
Vaquer and Shimizu start. Vaquer quickly pushes out of a collar and elbow tie up and throws Shimzu to the mat out of a waistlock. Shimizu grabs her leg though and pulls Vaquer down. Leg lace is quickly countered by Vaquer into an arm bar, which is quickly countered by Shimizu into a rollup for just 1. Standoff and they circle each other into another collar and elbow in the middle of the ring.
Shimizu arm ringer into a wristlock right into a hammerlock. Nice bit of technical wrestling as she adjusted holds throughout what was essentially just twisting Vaquer’s arm more and more. Vaquer with a sweet break as she used her free arm to pull her leg up behind her, hooked her foot onto Shimizu’s arm, then kicked down to break the hold.
Vaquer grabs a wristlock and really torques it. Shimizu rolls forward out of the pressure, kips up with Vaquer still holding her arm, then drops back down to arm drag Vaquer over. The standard exchange of leg sweep counters for 1 counts (if you watch wrestling regularly you’ve seen this at some point) leads to another momentary face off. Big smile on Vaquer’s face at the fight she’s getting out of Shimizu.
Kick to the mid section by Shimizu. That’s the second time I was expecting a double tag out and they continued fighting instead. Side headlock by Shimizu. Vaquer pushes her off into the ropes, then drops down and leapfrogs Shimizu on subsequent rebounds. Shimizu dives over Vaquer as the later rolls backwards after one last rope bounce.
Both up. Shimizu motions Vaquer to come at her, leading to a trade of arm drags and then both going for dropkicks simultaneously. Third stalemate. NOW we get the change up. Really strong start to the match.
Dalys gets right in the rookie’s face and flexes at her.
They trade trips to put each other down, then Kaho hits several dropkicks as Dalys is on her knees trying to stand. Dalys absorbs them and roars in defiance for more. Eventually a single kick to the face in return knocks Kaho down.
Shimizu comes in as Dalys drags Kaho up, but gets caught with a boot to the midsection. Dalys puts them both into front facelocks and hits a double suplex. Off camera Vaquer had climbed to the top turnbuckle and comes down with a splash on both right after the suplex landing.
Vaquer goes back to her corner and Kaho rolls out of the ring. I don’t think there was a tag on the other side, but Shimizu now seems to be officially in with Dalys. Could be this is under lucha tag rules. Not that it probably matters much to Dalys which crumpled opponent remains in with her regardless.
Shimizu fights back though with a nice flying headscissors off the ropes after ducking a clothesline. She follows with a one leg sliding dropkick but Dalys is right back up and nails Shimizu with a chest kick to end the rally.
Tag to Vaquer. Double whip into the far corner is followed with a clothesline by Vaquer and a flying hip attack by Dalys. The vets are in firm control. Dalys grabs suplex position and hits a beautiful sitout facebuster.
Vaquer swarms the fallen Shimizu and hits Devil’s Kiss (headscissor repeated mat pounding: yeah that’s the best description I’ve got – look it up if unfamiliar as it really needs to be seen).
Shimizu rolls towards the ropes for a breather and Dalys kicks her to the outside. Lucha tag rules confirmed as Kaho comes in to fight with Vaquer. Under these rules it’s a legal switch to come in when your partner leaves the ring, in addition to the traditional hand slap tag.
Vaquer dodges a dropkick from Kaho, but the latter hits an enzuigiri after getting up and follows with a soccer kick for 2. Nice deep cover from the rookie folding Vaquer near in half.
Running dropkick to a seated Vaquer. Kaho picks Vaquer up and hits the ropes, but Dalys cheap shots her with a knee to the back and Vaquer runs over with a clubbing blow to the neck. Dalys reaches over the ropes to choke Kaho with a chinlock from the apron. She adds some shots to the head and a bit of biting while doing it until the ref makes her break.
Dalys comes in from the apron, as Vaquer left the ring so Dalys is now legal. She still has a hold of Kaho, and … tags right back out to Vaquer who was back in the corner. A little odd, but they go right into a double team so it makes some sense.
Dalys whips Kaho into a Vaquer drop toehold, which leaves Kaho draped across the far middle rope. Running dropkick to Kaho’s back by Dalys is followed by a 619 (Tiger Fight Kick) by Vaquer.
Dalys intercepts Shimizu, and Vaquer and Kaho exit the ring making the others the legal competitors. Hard overhand chop by Dalys. She absorbs two retaliatory forearms, but gets rocked by a high kick by Shimizu. Second kick is blocked though and Dalys levels Shimizu with a spinning side kick. Dalys applies a camel clutch style chinlock for all of two seconds before deciding to bite Shimizu’s forehead and pull her hair instead. She’s slowly gone into full bully heel mode as the match progresses and it’s pretty great.
An attempt to whip Shimizu into the corner is reversed, but when Shimizu charges and goes for a monkey flip the powerhouse catches her and spins around to put Shimizu on the turnbuckles. Shimizu jumps off the middle turnbuckle and wipes out Dalys. Literally just crashes into her and m maybe kind of hits a kneestrike. Could have been going for a dropkick or another kind of strike but her opponent was too close. It was effective enough though. Dalys stumbles back up and Kaho hits a top turnbuckle missile dropkick from a different corner.
Unfortunately it knocks Dalys all the way back into her own corner to tag Vaquer, who wipes out Kaho with a dropkick. But then Shimizu hits one on Vaquer. And the Dalys completes the dropkick party with one on Shimizu.
All four wrestlers are down on the mat. There are no covers, but the ref starts counting by slapping his hands against the mat as if there were. Must be another rule variant in play. Normally there’d be a (verbal only) ten count when all participants are down, but this was approached like a pinfall. Everyone gets up at 2.
Shimizu and Kaho’s rush at their opponents is ducked and they’re momentarily rolled up, but they get right back up and hit dropkicks. They try to whip Vaquer and Dalys into opposite corners but end up reversed into the corners themselves. Vaquer and Dalys run by each other across the ring and hit Kaho and Shimizu with a double knee strike and flying hip attack respectively.
Dalys applies a sharpshooter to Shimizu as Vaquer ties Kaho into a pretzel and viciously cranks back on her arm. Kaho immediately gives up and this one is over.
Dominant first impression from Vaquer and Dalys. They immediately came across as stars, while their less experienced opponents still looked good putting up what fight they could. The action they all packed into seven and a half minutes was crazy. Couple rough spots, but nothing too distracting and overall this was a really good, extremely faced paced tag match that was quite enjoyable.
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Stephanie Vaquer vs Ibuki Hoshi – Ice Ribbon 8/28/22
Ibuki Hoshi is a second generation wrestler, and her mother Hamuko Hoshi also wrestles for Ice Ribbon. The two have both fought on a number of occasions and been International Tag Ribbon Champions together.
Ibuki debuted on June 11, 2017 at the age of 14. At the time of this match she had been wrestling for 5 years and was 19, and was a rising star who would hold the company’s top title about a year after this.
Hype package seems to show Ibuki getting a big surprise pin on Vaquer then challenging her to this singles match. Looked it up and Ibuki & partner Maika Ozaki were victorious over Vaquer & Ibuki’s mother Hamuko in tag action with Ibuki pinning Vaquer just a couple weeks before this (pretty much right in the middle between the above match and this one). Should be quite interesting.
(Special guest appearance by this blog for this one, as I’d sponsored Yuuki Mashiro’s banner which is visible in the background.)
Ibuki starts hot with a running dropkick on Vaquer in the corner while the latter is removing her ring robe. Ref calls for the bell and we’re officially underway.
Still in the corner, Ibuki lays in several hard chops. Vaquer ducks under a double chop attempt and charges back towards Ibuki in the corner with a boot, but Ibuki dodges out.
We finally have some separation and the two stare each other down and jaw a bit in the center of the ring.
Ibuki grabs the hair for intimidation but Vaquer latches onto that arm into a top wristlock. She forces Ibuki down towards the mat with it but Ibuki uses her other arm to trip Vaquer and break the hold. Side headlock by Vaquer is transitioned into an arm wringer as they stand up. She yanks on Ibuki’s arm then settles into a standing wristlock.
Ibuki quickly reverses into one of her own, which becomes a momentary hammerlock before Vaquer does the sweet counter from the above match to break out of it and go back to a wristlock of her own.
Ibuki carefully pulls her hand free then grabs a side headlock. Vaquer back her up into the ropes and then we’re off to the races as the pace considerably quickens for a few moments. Ibuki’s shot into the far ropes. Vaquer drops down on the rebound then charges at Ibuki off her second rebound, but Ibuki sidesteps and pushes Vaquer along into the ropes herself. Ibuki arm drag off the rebound, Vaquer holds on, kips up, and hits an arm drag of her own.
Ibuki kips up and there’s a momentary face off before Ibuki lands a kick to the midsection. She follows it up with several forearms to the kneeling Vaquer’s back. Once Vaquer drops to all fours Ibuki sits on her back and lands more forearms. Vicious.
Vaquer reverses an attempted whip and faceplants Ibuki out of the air when the latter tries a crossbody of the rebound. She angrily pulls Ibuki up by the hair then faceplants her right back down.
Vaquer stands behind a seated Ibuki for a moment, so I expected a Devil’s Kiss, but instead she pulls Ibuki up and sends her headfirst into the corner. She trips Ibuki down into seated position and steps onto Ibuki’s chest, hanging off the top rope and putting all her weight on her opponent. She breaks on 3 of the ref’s count.
Back into the center of the ring Ibuki kicks at Vaquer, but gets kneed in the midsection when she hits the ropes. Snapmare into the canter of the ring and NOW we get the Devil’s Kiss. A groggy Ibuki rolls right out of the ring to the floor afterwards.
Vaquer follows her out and throws her into the ringpost. She beats Ibuki around outside a bit. No barricades for Ice Ribbon shows so this is all happening inches from the front row crowd.
Vaquer rolls Ibuki back in, hits a nice snap suplex, and immediately goes into a rear chinlock. Ibuki makes the ropes with her foot, so Vaquer backs them up and applies a wicked dragon sleeper variant (she used her leg to immobilize Ibuki’s arm, and linked her hands behind her own back to apply more pressure). Ibuki struggles to the ropes again for another break.
Vaquer ties Ibuki up in the ropes, pulls on her trapped arms to keep her in place, and lifts her foot into choke position. Crazy flexibility. Breaks on the ref’s count of 3 and whips Ibuki off the far ropes but gets caught by a crossbody. Ibuki sends Vaquer into the corner, splashes her, then brings her out with a faceplant for 2.
Vaquer pushes away when Ibuki pulls her up and they go into a forearm exchange. After a few Ibuki lands a big one so Vaquer knocks her back into the ropes with a nasty headbutt. So Ibuki starts a chop exchange. The pace has slowed a little as the effects of the big hits are felt, which is great. Ibuki is giving as good as she’s getting and rocking Vaquer as much as vice versa. Eventually Ibuki blocks a big right hand coming in and just unloads on Vaquer with numerous slaps to the head.
Ibuki hits the ropes but gets tripped, and Vaquer applies a Japanese stranglehold with Ibuki stretched back across her knees. Ibuki floats over pretty quickly and reverses the hold. She can’t quite keep Vaquer across her knees so keeps rolling about with it looking for a definite advantage. Vaquer forces them up to their feet and twists around until she can kick out of it. Ibuki lands in the corner and Vaquer chokes her again for a second, then runs to the opposite corner to come back charging. Ibuki dodges but Vaquer stops herself before crashing into the corner and catches Ibuki in the midsection with a kick.
A few head slams into the corner and several headbutts later and Ibuki’s seated down in the corner again. Back to the opposite corner and Vaquer nails the running double knees this time. She drags Ibuki into the center and a deep cover gets 2.
Vaquer jumps up to the top rope and goes for a double stomp. Vaquer rolls through the miss after Ibuki got out of the way, but when she turns back around Ibuki hits a kick to the head. Thrust kick knocks Vaquer back against the ropes, and Ibuki hits the far ropes for a running facewash kick. Ibuki throws Vaquer back into the center of the ring and covers for 2.
Ibuki goes up to the top turnbuckle and needs a couple extra seconds to get her balance but then successfully hits a crossbody for 2. Vaquer hits a chin breaker as Ibuki pulls her up, but her followup kick is ducked and Ibuki double chops her back down. Samoan Drop gets 2. She sets up for what looks like a Lightning Spiral attempt, but Vaquer twists out and swings for a clothesline. Ibuki ducks it and levels Vaquer with a falling clothesline off the ropes. Lightning Spiral gets 2.
Ibuki tries an octopus hold but Vaquer elbows out. Vaquer sends Ibuki into the ropes and catches her on the rebound into a rolling takedown that ends up with Ibuki in a triangle choke variant. Ibuki refuses to give up but quickly passes out in the hold. Three arm drops later and Vaquer wins due to ref stoppage. Vaquer holds on a few extra seconds for emphasis before the ref pulls her off.
Great, hard hitting match with a ton of impressive technical wrestling to boot from both. Ibuki was very much up to the task of keeping pace with Vaquer. This was action packed and felt longer (in a good way) than the eleven minutes it went.
Stephanie Vaquer’s always a joy to watch, and these were a solid pair of matches. Fun stuff.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Pre-WWE, new Women’s US Champion Giulia is best known for her time in World Wonder Ring Stardom.
However I was originally familiar with her primarily from her time in the promotion she was trained and debuted in, Ice Ribbon. Her two years there coincided with when I was regularly making trips to Japan and attending a lot of wrestling shows. It’s always interesting to look back on someone’s early days, and in particular I’d like to focus on two specific matches of hers with personal significance to me.
I’ll be watching these off my DVD collection, as they pre-date Ice Ribbon’s currently maintained various streaming archives. So I’ll try to do as full play-by-play as possible in lieu of being able to direct readers to any easy way to view these.
Giulia’s a year and a half into her career here, having debuted on October 29, 2017. This is a main event challenge for company’s top title.
One fall, 30 min time limit. Time limits in Ice Ribbon title matches have extra weight due to a rule in place that means there’s no champion advantage for time limit draws. If a championship match goes to the time limit, the championship is vacated.
I was at this live and it was among my top matches of that trip (all the pictures here are from my live viewing). But I haven’t watched it in years, and I’m interested to see how it holds up.
Maya is draped in belts. In addition to the ICE Cross Infinity Championship she’s defending, she was reigning Triangle Ribbon Champion, International Tag Ribbon Champion (with Risa Sera as Azure Revolution), and Oz Academy Tag Team Champion (with Saori Anou as Ozaki-gun).
They just stare down each other without leaving their corners for several seconds after the bell starts the match. Crowd’s behind both, which is expected as it’s a rising star against a well loved champ in her second title defense.
Hard lockup as they come to the center. Maya pushes Giulia back into the ropes, but gives a clean break and they circle each other back into another collar and elbow tie up. Giulia gains a little ground but then Maya powers her back into the ropes again. Giulia reverses in the ropes and teases a clean break, but repeatedly forearms the hell out of Maya instead. Maya tries to reverse Giulia into the ropes but the latter spins Maya right back into position for more forearms. Maya tries to respond in kind again but AGAIN Giulia spins right through the reversal and puts Maya into the corer for more forearms. The challenger is being super aggressive to good effect.
Giulia fires up the crowd, then whips Maya into the opposite corner and follows with a running boot. She hits the ropes to try to sustain the offense as Maya stumbles out of the corner but the champ finally strikes back and levels Giulia in the center of the ring with a high kick.
Maya pulls Giulia up several times in a row for hair mares back down, then controls for a bit with a head vice into a Camel Clutch style chin lock. Giulia reaches back with her leg to get the ropes break.
Arm ringer into a Fujiwara arm bar takes Giulia back down. The challenger rolls out but Maya keeps ahold of the arm and tries for a different submission hold. Giulia fights it off and rolls Maya back into a sunset flip style pin for 2. Maya kicks out right into a seated waist lock and grabs Giulia’s arm again. Giulia’s on her back but forces a head scissors to fight off a hammerlock attempt. They keep grappling through reversals until Maya ends up on top of a face down Giulia with Giulia’s legs tied up and Maya pulling back on her arms. Maya transitions to another chin lock from behind and Giulia bites her way out of it. Phenomenal extended stretch of mat wrestling with the challenger finally getting tired of coming up a touch short and bending the rules to escape.
Both back to their feet, but Maya catches Giulia with a kick to the stomach and puts her back down to the mat with a snap mare. Seated position is never great to be in against Maya, and sure enough she lays into Giulia’s back with a stiff kick. Giulia roars in challenge so the next one is right to her chest. Another each to her back and chest and the challenger is in rough shape. Maya paintbrushes Giulia across the face with the bottom of her boot then kicks her challenger out of the ring.
She nails Giulia in the back with a double slap as she hops down from the apron, takes a drink of water from a nearby second, then kicks Giulia across the face again. Champ’s in firm control. They trade overhand chops and are really hammering each other.
After Maya lands a series of chops they separate a bit to different corners, all still on the outside. Giulia drops to her knees to recover and gets a drink of water of her own, then spits water in Maya’s face when the champ comes back over. An enraged Maya goes for a high kick but Giulia ducks and Maya nails the ring post. She crumples to the floor in pain and Giulia is instantly all over the …other leg, stomping away, stepping on the knee, and applying a heel hook. They’re still on the floor though so she has to break to drag Maya back into the ring.
Giulia then immediately drags Maya into the corner, goes back outside herself, and wraps Maya’s leg around the ring post. She pulls and grinds it into the post a bit as the ref yells at her to get back in the ring. When she does Maya is crumpled in a pile in the corner clutching her leg. Giulia pulls her up into a handstand and slams her leg into the mat in a unique bit of viciousness. Giulia slams Maya’s leg against the mat some more then ties her legs up and pulls back on her ponytail. I don’t think that an entirely legal hold. Ref counts to 4 and Giulia breaks.
Back up and Giulia does an elevated shin breaker to Maya’s right leg (the one that originally kicked the ring post). Giulia’s just destroying both legs now so we’re all good.
She ties Maya up in the ropes and instead of pounding on the mat to fire up the crowd she slaps Maya’s back for it. That’s cold. She hits the opposite ropes and comes charging back with a big boot to the back of Maya’s head. Cover gets 2.
Maya blocks a whip out of the corner temporarily, then reverses it when Giulia powers through. But when she charges Giulia in the other corner she eats another boot. Giulia hops up to the second rope into a crossbody for 2.
STF applied but Maya rolls out quickly into one of her own. Giulia counters that with her previously established go-to of biting Maya’s arm. Maya stays on top of Giulia though and fights for a seated Fujiawara (Becky Lynch’s Dis-arm-her). Giulia keeps her arm from extending, then rolls out into a leg lace. She adds a stretch muffler on the other leg and Maya’s in trouble. But Maya is able to grab Giulia’s weakened arm and transitions out into another Fujiwara variation. They been twisting each other in knots all match.
Giulia claws and scrapes to get her leg to the ropes for the break. Maya’s unsteady on her damaged legs but tries a suplex anyway. Giulia fights off, but eats a slap to the side of the head from Maya. Then another. And another. A series of knees put Giulia down against the ropes, but Maya’s a touch slow on the run to the opposite ropes and Giulia dodges the knee strike. Giulia tries a running boot with Maya against the ropes but it’s also dodged. Maya has Giulia’s leg tied in the ropes, and nails her in the face with a kick from the apron. Back in she unties Giulia and covers for 2.
Giulia fights off another suplex attempt and catches a kick. She drops into a leg lace and applies almost a seated cloverleaf variant. Maya fights to the ropes. Giulia breaks immediately and hits the far ropes to wipe Maya out with several big boots to the head as she tries to get up. Cover gets 2.
They fight back and forth over a reverse DDT attempt by Giulia with Maya repeatedly trying to counter into an STO. Giulia prevails and the reverse DDT gets 2. However back up Maya nails the STO for 2.
Maya hits the ropes and lands a hard kick to the face, but she kicked with her damaged foot from earlier so she collapses against the ropes nursing it. She hobbles out and forearms Giulia as the later stands, only to get hit with a forearm when she tries to reverse a Giulia whip attempt. Giulia off the far ropes… into a spin kick to the mid section. Knee lift keeps her stunned, and Maya follows up with a hard big boot. The champ looms over the fallen Giulia, then knees and kicks her head repeatedly when she tries to get up.
Giulia’s out against the bottom rope, and hers the running knee Maya wanted earlier. She goes right through the ropes with it absolutely leveling Giulia (like Sareee and Mizuki do with their against the ropes dropkicks for those familiar with them). Maya tries to shake some feeling back into her leg on the apron, then climbs up top. Missile dropkick folds Giulia in half and gets 2.
Maya hits the ropes for another knee strike but Giulia follows her in for a big boot. Maya returns the favor as Giulia hits the far ropes. Maya hits the opposite ropes again but runs into a big boot in the middle of the ring off the rebound. Cover gets 2 then Giulia goes up to the top turnbuckle.
Maya catches her with a palm strike then hair mares her down. Champ up top … and Giulia catches her with a palm strike. The back and forth in this match is just fantastic. Giulia climbs up and powers the champ into an avalanche power slam for close 2.
Giulia looked for a hammerlock slam but Maya floats out into an arm drag. Another high kick knocks Giulia down but the exhausted champ also collapses. Ref starts counting them both down, but they’re up before 5.
They go into a brutal forearm exchange where they are running at each other for more impact on them. Giulia eventually lands three in a row, then boots Maya when she runs at Giulia to try to return the shots. Maya approaches again and another boot. Third time Maya brushes the foot away, runs behind Giulia to hit the ropes, then runs right into another boot anyway for 2. Giulia’s putting up a hell of a fight.
Giulia up top and a missile dropkick gets 2. Maya’s kickouts at this point are just barely a roll of the shoulder. She’s been through a war and is spent. Giulia goes for the hammerlock spin slam again and hits it for 2. She stays on top of Maya and locks in an STF.
She cranks back on the champ repeatedly as the crowd screams for Maya to claw her way to the ropes. When she gets close Giulia releases and drags her back to the center of the ring. Hammerlock slam set up again, but this time Giulia drops Maya right onto her knees. Man that looked nasty. Back into the STF and she’s cranking the hell out of it. Maya powers to the ropes, but is wiped out.
Giulia pulls her up and reaches for the hammerlock again. Maya pushes away while still holding on to Giulia and just starts kicking her repeatedly in the head. She lets go after a few and backs up for a savate kick. She winds up and nails a side kick in the head for 2. Maya lifts Giulia but the latter floats out and grabs the hammerlock slam position again. This time she drops into a shoulder breaker. I forgot how many variant moves she does from that setup. Closest 2 yet on that cover.
Maya up and swings at Giulia but gets tied up in an octopus hold. Short lived though, as Maya drops into a slam and covers for… barely 1. Shocked awe from the crowd on that quick kickout. Maya just kicks her in the face though and covers again for 2.
Maya’s Crystal of Snow (Iconoclasm, sitout power slam) connects this time and gets 2. She lifts the challenger up one last time and destroys her with a butterfly package piledriver to finally get the 3 count.
Loved this live and love it now. Giulia looked great, especially for so early in her career, and fought like mad for twenty five minutes until the champ was finally able to batter her down. This totally holds up and was a hard hitting war laden with a ton of great grappling to boot.
———-
Giulia vs Asahi – Yokohama Ribbon 9/24/18
This one’s a bit different and significant for a mix of reasons, some admittedly heavy.
Asahi was a wrestler who debuted in Ice Ribbon on August 27, 2017 at the age of 14. She worked for Ice Ribbon until early 2023, then spent the remainder of her career in Actwres girl’Z. Asahi sadly passed away in early 2024 at the age of 21.
She was a personal favorite of mine, as I really enjoyed her style of wrestling and cheering her on. I was at her debut match against the legendary Manami Toyota and was lucky enough to have met Asahi and seen her wrestle numerous times over the years. She is missed.
Asahi was a key rival of Giulia’s in their early careers, as they had debuted just a couple months apart. They had a lot of great encounters and interactions, including during a really unique trios match they were partners in I attended in early 2019 .
So for the second match of this entry I’d like to take a look at a singles encounter between the two from September 2018.
Somehow I’ve never watched this particular match before, so in contrast to the above this’ll be a completely new experience. This is right around a year into the career of both competitors, and roughly six months before Giulia would challenge Maya for the title in the above match. This match was the “semi-final” (second to last match) of the show.
These two had crossed paths in tag matches several times prior to this, mostly as opponents but a couple times as partners. They had also faced in one prior singles contest, that went to a draw.
Hot start to this as Giulia only poses briefly during her entrance, then hurries out of the ring to run up the other path and ambush Asahi behind the curtain before the latter can even be announced or come out. She drags Asahi to the ring by her hair and the match is officially underway.
Asahi gets in Giulia’s face and screams in defiance as they enter the ring but Giulia just tosses her down, kicks her into the corner, and steps on her head. Asahi might have the tiniest bit more experience, but the smaller, younger competitor is being overwhelmed and is definitely the underdog here.
Giulia drags Asahi to the center for a snap mare, then hits the ropes and runs right through her seated opponent with a kick to the head for 2. She then throws Asahi into the corner and chokes Asahi with her foot. That turns into standing face washes with the soles of her boots.
Back to the center and a hair mare puts Asahi down again. Asahi grimaces in pain as Giulia applies a rear chinlock. In short order Giulia opts to release it so she can just mockingly slap Asahi over the head a few times. Slap to the back and a cover for 2. She’s in straight up bully mode.
Dragon sleeper applied and Asahi keeps struggling to repeatedly bridge up until she’s able to inch to the ropes for a break. Giulia drags her up by the hair again and ties her in the ropes. Another slap to the head then more embracing facewashes and slaps to the back follow.
Giulia hits the far ropes and comes running for a boot but Asahi quickly jumps out to the apron and ducks the kick. Asahi pushes Giulia’s leg away, then catches Giulia’s attempted wild punch in an armbar over the rope. After a few seconds she has to break due to the ref’s count and does so by dropping off the apron and snapping Giulia’s arm over the rope. First offense by Asahi of the match.
Asahi goes up top. Giulia catches her and throws her down, but Asahi lands in a roll and quickly gets up, turns around, and dropkicks Giulia back into the corner.
Whip attempt reversed in Giulia’s hammerlock slam position, but Asahi floats out and slaps Giulia across the face. She had that coming at this point. It’s not well received though and Giulia hit Asahi upside the head again, hairmares her down again, and steps on her head again.
Asahi’s had enough and as the ref tries to count to make Giulia get off Asahi the latter speeds up the process by biting Giulia’s leg. Well, her boot at least, but close enough. She finally gives back the abuse she’s been enduring in kind and stomps and steps on Giulia’s face a bit. Although Giulia’s a fast learner and copies Asahi’s counter technique, sinking her teeth into Asahi’s leg.
Once that’s caused some separation, she boots Asahi into the ropes. Off the far ropes and she gets the boot to the back she tried for earlier. Asahi is stretched across the bottom rope and takes more kicks to the face and choking.
Asahi catches Giulia with a faceplant though and stomps on her arm several times. Giulia tries to kick at Asahi from the mat, so Asahi drops into a cover. Giulia immediately kicks out at 1, but the motion swings her arm that Asahi had been working over straight into an armbar. Asahi transitions into a seated Fujiwara, then twists Giulia wrist to apply more pressure.
As Giulia gets closer to the ropes, Asahi suddenly changes her grip and falls backwards still holding Giulia’s arm to switch into a cross arm breaker. Giulia manages to get a foot on the ropes to escape though.
They trade several scoop slams, while slapping, kicking, and shouting at each other in defiance in between them.
After three each Giulia tries to block and counter Asahi’s fourth, but Asahi fights back out and powers through to complete the slam and covers for 2. Back up they lay into each other with forearms. Both give good shots, but the size difference means Giulia’s are more effective and knocking back Asahi more. They proceed to simultaneous forearm shots and Asahi’s eventually laid out while Giulia is affected but able to get up.
She goes over to Asahi and drags Asahi up by her hair, but Asahi drops into a surprise small package for a close 2 count. Asahi hits the ropes with a burst of energy and hits a dropkick, then jumps into a rollup for 2. Deep schoolboy rollup gets another 2.
Asahi goes up top. Giulia runs over and tries to slam her down, but Asahi climbs onto Giulia shoulder. Back towards the center she twists into kind of a crossbody from above. Cover gets 2, but Asahi keeps at repeating the cover several times without letting Giulia up for a series of successively closer 2 counts. I adore when wrestlers fight for a pin like that.
Asahi climbs to the middle turnbuckle and hits a missile dropkick, then repeats it in the opposite turnbuckle and covers for 2. The she kick and slaps at Giulia trying to pull Giulia up, but when Giulia gets to her feet she gathers herself and boots Asahi in the face.
They grab hands and keep swinging at each other with their other arms, but after several mutual blocks Giulia spins Asahi into reverse DDT position and hits a stepover drop. She ties Asahi up tight and the latter barely rolls backwards out of the pin to kickout.
She applies an STF and cranks away until Asahi’s able to drag herself to the ropes for a break. Giulia immediately goes for the hammerlock sideslam and connects, but Asahi kicks out just in time to the crowd’s delight.
Asahi knows she’s in trouble and desperately wraps her arms around the top and middle ropes, struggling to hold on as Giulia tries to pry her away with a waist lock. Some knee strikes and leveraging her bodyweight back eventually rolls Asahi way from the ropes into a facedown position in the middle of the ring. Giulia wraps her legs around the head and shoulder of her screaming, struggling opponent, then pulls back with an armbar and Asahi is forced to tap.
This was thirteen intense minutes of two rookies completely conveying that they had had quite enough of each other. They used their basics well while giving glimpses of the great potential everyone already knew they both had. A little rough around edges at times, which was not only understandable at their level but also completely appropriate for the type of raw battle they were having. There was a good deal of innovation too, and it all came together in a really compelling match. Asahi rocked as the overwhelmed underdog determined to keep clawing and scraping until the end, and after a brutal start fought back to the point of having Giulia in danger. Giulia made the perfect bully who kept at it until she got the win.
It was a treat to be reminded of how much emotion Asahi put into her matches. I’m really glad I watched this, and that’s exactly what the point of wrestling should be.
Overall these were two thoroughly captivating matches and an interesting look back into the early career of today’s Beautiful Madness.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts will hopefully be on the way soon.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Recently we all said goodbye to who was in my opinion simply the best wrestler in the world.
Meiko Satomura debuted April 15, 1995, and was already a 20 year veteran when I was first fortunate enough to see her wrestle live at the end of 2015. I had of course heard of her, as she was already well on her way to being a legend, but I hadn’t seen her wrestle until then. I was in for a treat.
As it happens that show was one of the first shows I ever saw live in Japan at all, Stardom Year End Climax 2015. It was headlined by Meiko defending the Wonder of Stardom title as an outsider champion against company ace Io Shirai (now WWE’s Iyo Sky). It was a hell of an introduction to two truly incredible wrestlers.
Meiko wrestled Io 1-on-1 a total of five times (twice each before and after the above match). As luck would have I managed to attend another of their battles at Senjo’s April 2018 show. It was another excellent, engrossing encounter and it was fascinating to see how two already extremely accomplished wrestlers kept evolving in the couple years that had passed.
In retrospect it also ended up being their final singles encounter. Rather surprising given their overlap time in WWE, and the fact WWE never ran the match is insane.
Everything Meiko did in the ring had meaning, with great attention paid to the little details of her craft. So every match felt special, and battles against opponents with skill levels like Io’s were always jaw dropping.
Meiko’s intensity was always on full display. She dismantled her opponents with hard hits and unmatched mastery of wrestling fundamentals. She brought out the best in her everyone she fought and forced them to rise to her level. Japan’s “Final Boss” was the wrestler everyone wanted to test themselves against.
Some of my personal favorite matches of Meiko’s involved her facing up and coming stars. These were almost never about whether or not Meiko’s opponent could win. It was about the fight they put up.
Throughout my trips to Japan I saw a total of eight of Meiko’s matches. Her promotion, Sendai Girls (Senjo), had a schedule that didn’t always match up with when I was there. But I did see her four times in Senjo and as many in other promotions.
Five of those were singles matches, and in addition to the pair of Io matches I was lucky enough to have been at two matches of Meiko’s at TJPW (Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling) shows where a couple of that company’s top stars got to test their mettle against the legend.
The first was in August of 2017, against TJPW’s ace in waiting Miyu Yamashita. It was exactly the breakout performance I’d been waiting for from Miyu at that time, and it’s no surprise it came against someone the caliber of Satomura.
From my review of that show: “Miyu wrestled like someone with something to prove from the very first second and really took it to Meiko, believably smothering the veteran at points with relentless offense, but just couldn’t put the larger, more experienced wrestler. Meiko of course is an artist in the ring and always a joy to watch.”
That same show was headlined by my two favorite TJPW roster members battling it out for the Princess of Princess Championship. A couple years later a personal dream match happened as the victor of that match, Reika Saiki, got her own one on one encounter with Meiko on TJPW’s 1/4/2019 show. As always with my highly anticipated matches of Meiko’s, it was exactly what I expected and hoped for.
The fifth singles match of Meiko’s I saw live left to talk about was legend vs legend. On my first Senjo show she wrestled Ayako Hamada in a #1 contender ship match for the Sendai Girls World Title that was simply phenomenal. The two beat the hell out of each other and it was my top match of the entire trip.
Outside of the matches of hers I was lucky enough to see live, one particularly cool experience I had was the opportunity to attend was a Sendai Girls New Year’s Party fan event in early 2019. It was a fun chance to meet and hang out with Senjo wrestlers and other fans, and of course an honor to meet Satomura.
Meiko, DASH Chisako, and Millie McKenzie
Meiko could do it all, and never shied away from a fight. Moving on from stuff I personally saw live, I want to specifically point out her intergender matches. She waged war against a number of male opponents over the years, including wrestlers who would go on to appear for WWE or AEW and may be quite familiar to foreign fans such as Pete Dunne and Konosuke Takeshita. The entire feud she had alongside fellow Sendai Girls wrestlers Chihiro Hashimoto and DASH Chisako against DDT Pro’s faction All Out was wild and well worth seeking out.
Speaking of WWE, as I alluded to above Meiko regularly appeared for WWE for a while later in her career. She appeared in the Mae Young Classic 2018, making it to the semi finals with victories over Killer Kelly,Mercedes Martinez, and Lacey Lane before being eliminated by Toni Storm.
She returned in 2021 and made most of her appearances as part of the roster on NXT UK, and was NXT UK Women’s champion from 6/2021 to 9/2022.
She made a few NXT appearances early 2023 after NXT UK was wound down, and last appeared for WWE during their Japan tour in July 2024. While I lamented that WWE never ran an Iyo vs Meiko singles, they did cross paths in a WWE ring during this tour.
Meiko teamed with Bayley, Bianca Belair, and Jade Cargill to face Damage Control (Iyo, Asuka, Kairi Sane, and Dakota Kai) on two shows. On the final show of the tour Meiko challenged her previous teammate Bayley for the WWE’s Women’s Title.
Her April 2025 retirement had been announced right before that title match. Going into 2025 I wondered if one final appearance might happen at the Royal Rumble or possibly during Wrestlemania weekend (which was shortly before her final show). There were also rumors of her being in attendance of NXT Roadblock in NYC. But as it turns out the match against Bayley was her final WWE appearance in retrospect, and a championship match isn’t a bad bookend for her time there.
Meiko’s retirement tour was a gauntlet of tough opponents and challenging contests as she bid farewell to the ring. She faced DASH, Chihiro, Saori Anou, Minoru Suzuki, Yuki Arai, Nanae Takahashi, Takumi Iroha, Sareee, and a great number of other significant opponents in emotional matches. Sadly a challenge from Emi Sakura never materialized into a match, but otherwise it was a series of great farewell matches featuring near everyone fans could have hoped to see challenge the Final Boss one last time.
Meiko’s final show was on April 29, 2025 at Korakuen Hall. In the main event she teamed with Manami against Senjo ace Chihiro and another legend, Aja Kong.
Manami’s inclusion in this match was special and significant. Trained by Meiko and having debuted at the age of 13, she’s now 20 and a 7 year veteran charismatic rising star in Senjo. I saw her wrestle live early on in her career and her potential was immediately obvious.
I’d also seen her and Meiko team opposite Kong once before. On Senjo’s 1/6/2019 show The Senjo roster team of Meiko, Manami, Mika Iwata, & Cassandra Miyagi face Aja, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Alex Lee, & Mikoto Shindo. Manami was fed to the wolves, with Meiko at one point refusing a tag and demanding the relative rookie get back to the center of the ring and put up more of a fight against the monstrous Kong. She was pushed to her limits, rose to the occasion, and the audience went nuts when she eventually secured the victory for her team.
Meiko & Manami would prove successful one last time, winning Meiko’s retirement match when Meiko pinned Kong with Scorpion Rising.
But that wasn’t quite the end. Post match Aja wanted to fight alongside Meiko one last time and throws out a challenge. Five wrestlers argued about who was going to accept but the vets don’t care about the handicap. So Meiko Satomura’s true final match ended up being a five minute time limit draw in which she and Kong fended off Chihiro, Iwata, Iroha, YUNA & Senka Akatsuki (and Sakura Hirota doing Sakura Hirota things). All told Meiko’s final show was a fitting an appropriate goodbye.
Farewell Final Boss. Thanks for an incredible 30 years and best wishes in whatever comes after wrestling.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. Derailments of Thought currently updates sporadically, but more regular posts should be on the way soon.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
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.
Derailments of Thought 