Over a lifetime of card collecting and a good near 15 years of particular focus on sketch cards, interesting changes to the collection and interplay between my various hobbies have arisen and developed.
I’ve talked about a particular centerpiece of my card collection that combines key hobby interests of mine often across artists spotlights and posts on other topics (and during my appearance on That Card Collectors Podcast).
However until now I haven’t done a dedicated feature about that particular collection here. I also recently realized one of the involved artists’ related cards were scattered among many years of posts with a few of those cards never fully highlighted here at all. So let’s talk a bit about one of my most unique sub collections and the artist who inspired me to develop it.
Hana Kimura PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Asuka PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
Sketch cards are trading cards that artists have directly created their art on. The card image is not printed as with most trading cards, instead the card face is initially blank to be drawn or painted on by the artist.
Personal Sketch Cards (PSCs) are cards created and distributed by the artists themselves as opposed to ones done for commercial card sets under certain requirements from the publishing company. PSCs can be done on simple card stock or specially printed cards artists have prepared with a printed back identifying their PSCs.
I’ve collected Juri Chinchilla’s art for 17 years now, going back to getting her renditions of my favorite video game characters at anime conventions. My foray into collecting sketch cards started in earnest with finding out about Perna Studios’ sets via Juri’s work for them.
When Juri started taking PSC commissions I was thrilled with the opportunity to expand my collection of her art with further depictions of a variety of subjects.
Juri had a large but ultimately limited amount of PSC stock printed. I arranged for some future reserved batches, with the understanding that it would be a years long endeavor with a few cards done at a time and months or longer between batches as she worked on other things.
Yuka Sakazaki PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Jumonji Sisters (Sendai Sachiko & Dash Chisako) PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Reika Saiki PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Dash Chisako PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
I’m a lifelong fan of professional wrestling and a huge fan of Japanese women’s pro-wrestling in particular, having been exposed to several joshi* wrestlers via Shimmer Women’s Wrestling in the early 2010’s and later making several trips to Japan. During those trips I saw numerous shows from joshi promotions live and became a direct fan of several companies and many, many wrestlers.
(*”Joshi” is a Japanese word that simply means “girl” (or “woman” depending on the context). “Joshi puroresu” is “women’s pro-wrestling.” In English joshi wrestling has become shorthand for specifically talking about Japanese women’s wrestling and joshi when used in wrestling based conversations shorthand for Japanese women wrestlers. That’ll be the usage here, but be aware that the original Japanese word “joshi” by itself has no tie to wrestling.)
My first PSCs from Juri were standard sketch card fare of favorite video game, comic book, and anime characters. While planning my second batch I had an odd idea and reached out to Juri to ask if she’d be up for creating a card for one of my favorite wrestlers, Mitsuru Konno.
Mitsuru Konno PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
Juri was on board for the unusual challenge and completely knocked it out of the park. It came out great and inspired what is now a core part of my collecting. I immediately knew I wanted to get more of these done, and over the next several years my remaining groups from Juri became almost entirely wrestler PSCs.
The collection eventually also grew to encompass other artists, and I was fortunate enough to get a number of cards done by Miki Okazaki and Veronica O’Connell (see their linked artist spotlights for further discussion and a complete look at the joshi PSCs they each did for me).
Tequila Saya PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Misaki Ohata PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
The likeness Juri is able to portray and the detail she includes on such small workspaces is incredible. Standard trading cards and thus the PSCs being discussed are 3.5″ x 2.5″. The quality of image Juri achieves is extremely impressive.
There’s a soft vibrancy to Juri’s work that’s quite striking, often based in her use of colored pencil highlighted with other media accents including markers, metallic ink, and pasted sparkles. Her work often captures the personality of the subject in a memorable way.
One example of the amazing amount of detail shown is in her illustration of a tag team named Best Friends, complete with one of the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship belts they possessed as reigning champions at the time.
Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
Another impressive showcase of Juri’s ability to highlight small details in a complex illustration is the most ambitious group of PSCs she did for me.
One of my batches timed out to right around when Emi Sakura, a legendary wrestler/trainer and founder of Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), was approaching her 25th wrestling anniversary. I was planning on a Gatoh Move heavy batch at some point and had only previously had Mitsuru drawn from the company. The time seemed appropriate to proceed with Gatoh Move wrestlers featured.
I talked to Juri about making the next batch a themed group of cards spotlighting the entire Gatoh Move roster, including the then current members, their recently departed company ace, and the incoming rookies who would double the size of the small roster.
The idea ended up becoming a phenomenal 6-card puzzle, which I believe is still the largest sketch card puzzle Juri’s done. I only specified the pairs per card and certain gear if the wrestler had multiple. The general layout, position in the puzzle of each pair, poses, and so on were all Juri. And the result was absolutely stunning.
Gatoh Move 6-PSC puzzle by Juri Chinchilla.
(From left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Sayaka Obihiro & Mitsuru Konno, Emi Sakura & Riho, Chie Koishikawa & Tokiko Kirihara, Yuna Mizumori & Mei Suruga, Sayuri & Sayaka, and Lulu Pencil & Rin Rin.)
Jenny Rose and Sareee PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Sarray PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
The time delay nature of building such a collection created some interesting side effects and opportunities.
I had tentative subjects for all the cards mapped out from the beginning, but when the time came for each group changes were made. Some wrestlers I had planned for PSCs didn’t end up drawn or were illustrated by other artists years later. Some wrestlers I chose for later cards hadn’t even debuted when my first cards were done.
The completed cards became snapshots of particular moments in time. I have multiple cards of certain wrestlers in different wrestling gear, different personas, different tag teams, etc from different periods in their careers. The variety presented and the particular versions of each wrestler shown are part of what makes these cards such a treasured part of my collection.
Mitsuru Konno PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Aoi Kizuki PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
And of course a lot has changed in wrestling in the near decade I’ve been building this collection.
A couple of wrestlers both left wrestling and later came back since their cards were done. It’s been great to see HikariNoa and Yuki Mashiro in the second part of their careers.
A couple of cards are remembrances of wrestlers sadly passed away and greatly missed.
Yuki Mashiro & Nao Ishikawa PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Madeline & Haruka Umesaki PSC by Juri Chinchilla.Yappy & Asahi (with Ribbonne) PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
My joshi wrestling inspired collection goes far beyond these PSCs, including official BBM trading cards, memorabilia, photos, and other forms of art. But these particular cards are a highlight, and like a good many of my other collecting habits this all started with Juri Chinchilla.
Juri no longer does open card commissions, but more about her wonderful art and current projects can be found on her various social media accounts for Juri Chinchilla / Juri the Dreamer.
Best of luck to everyone with whatever shape your collection takes.
Joshi PSC displays. Art by Juri Chinchilla, Miki Okazaki, and Veronica O’Connell.
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.
Short spotlight here where I’m going to let the pictures do most of the talking.
During my appearance on That Card Collectors Podcast I showed a handful of cards and discussed many more. Here’s a look at many of the cards and pieces of art mentioned.
A previous post I did with more details about that appearance, including where to listen or watch and links to several mentioned blog posts, can be found here. Please check the podcast out for more context on the wonderful cards and artists featured below.
A variety of chekis from BBM’s Women’s Wrestling sets:
Joshi wrestler PSC collection:
The first art commissions I ever got from Juri Chinchilla:
Dizzy, Millia Rage, and Jam Kuradoberi from Guilty GearKasumi and Ayane PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
Nonoka Seto PSC by Miki Okazaki.
Best of luck to everyone with whatever shape your collection takes.
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.
Quick bit of cross promotion in case anyone’s interested.
I recently chatted about my card collection with Ian and Josh on That Card Collectors Podcast. See that page for links to the episode on Spotify and iTunes, and find it (audio version) on YouTube here.
A video version where a lot of the cards we discussed were shown is also up on their YouTube channel here.
It was a fun time chatting with them about collecting. Please check it out (and see related blog links below).
Nonoka Seto PSC by Miki Okazaki.
We talked a bit about this blog and a number of card related posts I’ve done, including articles about specific card types and sets as well as spotlights on some incredible artists. Here are those posts for easy reference if anyone’s interested in further details.
Ghosts of Christmas “Box Topper” Wooden Sketch Card AP by Juri Chinchilla
Best of luck to everyone with whatever shape your collection takes.
Hikaru Shida cheki.
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.
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.
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