Tag: Stardom

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Japan Wrestling

Final Boss: Meiko Satomura’s Retirement

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.

Categories
Art Cards Comics Japan Wrestling

Imagined Reality: The Art of Veronica O’Connell

Psylocke sketch card by Veronica O’Connell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spider-Gwen PSC by Veronica O’Connell

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

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

Kairi Sane PSC by Veronica O’Connell

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

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

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

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

Juria Nagano PSC by Veronica O’Connell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Asahi PSC by Veronica O’Connell

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

Rest in Peace Asahi.

Categories
Art Cards Comics Japan Wrestling

Monochrome Masterpieces: Collecting Printing Plates

Today I’d like to talk about one of the most unusual and unique trading card related collectibles: the printing plates used to generate the images on the cards.

Printing plates are thin metal sheets used in the printing process of the card they represent. Generally there are four plates for a card corresponding to four basic component colors: black, cyan, magenta and yellow. When distributed plates usually have a sticker affixed to the back with publisher, set, card, and copyright information.

Different colored variants of a card won’t have different plates (changing ink saturation levels produces these versions) but variants with different background patterns, text or logos, etc will. Whether these other versions, or any plates at all, are distributed depends on the manufacturer, set, and distribution method.

Printing plates are extremely unique as a collectible. While many of them are still in great shape, given their nature they are also often imperfect as they may contain smudges, printing lines, blurred images, scratches, or other after effects of the printing process. How much these imperfections affect someone’s desire to collect a particular plate generally depends on the extent and of course personal preferences.

Also certain ink colors may have been practically unused in creating an image and that corresponding plate could be largely blank or an otherwise incomplete image. While rare, this phenomenon is a risk and particularly pops up comic and other art based cards (as opposed to photo based cards, where underlying colors are generally present across the image).

In certain circumstances printing plates may also be distributed with autographs. Actors or athletes depicted, or creators or voice actors of shown characters, sometimes have their autographs on the front of the plates. Usually it’s done via affixing a signed sticker, but direct signatures aren’t unheard of. This is an added layer of collectability and reward for the person who draws the plate.

Peni Paker collection

In addition to printing plates being randomly inserted into packs of their card sets, they are also commonly used as special distribution prizes. Upper Deck often has certain plates set aside to be used as rewards for completing collection goals in their online buying and trading platform ePack.

Sometimes plates used for these purposes are grouped together as sets, occasionally even being collected in connecting booklets. This can be convenient for completionists, as trying to collect all four color plates for a particular card when the plates are separately randomly inserted is a daunting task.

Metal Universe X-men printing plate booklets in custom display cases by Hardball34.

My personal affinity for collecting plates evolved from getting several wonderful booklet collections from the Metal Universe X-men set, as well as drawing some for my favorite characters from Marvel Annual sets and my favorite wrestlers from WWE and AEW sets.

From there I started more proactively chasing/trading for/buying plates and they’ve become a cornerstone of my collections all around. I adore the way the underlying color images look, and there’s just something cool about having a piece of the process.

The lion’s share of my plates are Marvel related from Upper Deck (UD), featuring a dazzling array of comic book characters and MCU actors.

However I also heavily collect joshi wrestling cards, and plates of certain wrestlers from UD’s AEW sets as well as Topps WWE sets form an additional, smaller centerpiece of my collection.

AEW’s Riho, Hikaru Shia, Nyla Rose, and William Regal and WWE’s Asuka and Iyo Sky.
Riho plate displayed with AEW 1/1s in a custom frame by Dion Divens.

Chasing plate “rainbows” (a complete color collection of plates for a given card) is a case by case basis for me. For certain images, characters, and wrestlers I collect everything of theirs I can find. In other cases a particular color plate for a particular card jumps out at me and I’m happy just to have that.

Occasionally a plate I’d otherwise want to keep just doesn’t look great to me in that color and/or with its particular imperfections. And of course as with any card related collectible rarity, availability, popularity with other collectors, and luck all greatly influence what actually ends up in the collection.

These little pieces of metal have become some of my favorite collectibles. I love monochrome art in the first place, and the fact that these are essentially art and photos broken down into that format appeals to me greatly. I’m sure I’ll be expanding their numbers for a long time to come.

I hope everyone’s enjoyed the look at my collection of these unusual inserts. Best of luck with wherever your personal collecting tendencies take you.

Categories
Art Wrestling

Ice Ribbon’s Bridge to Dynamic Illustrations: The Art of Yappy

I’ve written a lot about art I collect of several of my favorite professional wrestlers from a variety of artists. A couple years ago, in Another Wonderful Way Pro-Wrestling is Art 3, I briefly talked about an unusual case: one of those wrestlers is a wonderful artist herself. Yappy has done a number of pieces of her coworkers (as well as self portraits) and today I’ll be spotlighting more of her work.

Yappy has been wrestling for a women’s wrestling company in Japan named Ice Ribbon for nearly five years. She has a naturally upbeat and energetic personality that translates into engaging ring charisma and fun matches. She’s a huge part of Ice Ribbon’s interactions with foreign fans, from explanatory videos to spearheading their international store, and has appropriately nicknamed herself Ice Ribbon’s Bridge to the World. Her soon to return Weekly Ribbon Unravel YouTube show highlights general happenings in Ice Ribbon in English for a foreign audience.

Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukasa Fujimoto.

Yappy’s larger pieces are wonderfully dynamic, with a strong sense of style and motion to them that beautifully captures the personality of her subjects. The above rendition of Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukasa Fujimoto is also carefully accentuated by metallic highlights that really bring it to life.

Yappy has also done pieces of (now former) regular guest participants such as former ICE Cross Infinity Champion Saori Anou and former multi-time International Tag Ribbon Champion Maika Ozaki.

I adore playing card style art, and Yappy’s Queen of Foxes illustration of Anou is so creatively done. The regal pose is perfect for the concept, and it’s finished with the same type of great shimmering metallic highlights as the Tsukka piece.

Maika’s piece is adorable and colorful, showing the cute side of one of joshi wrestling’s strongest powerhouses.

One of my favorite illustrations Yappy’s done is Ice Ribbon’s Totoro Satsuki with their mascot Ribbonne in a tribute to the wrestler’s namesake, Studio Ghibli’s animated classic My Neighbor Totoro.

Totoro Satsuki and Ribbonne.

One of the coolest things about Yappy’s art is her willingness to experiment and the resulting variety of styles she can work in. Her joyous black and white illustration of Saran feels quite different from her colored work, but is just as engaging.

Another great example of this is her playful, comic strip style depictions of her interactions with former Ice Ribbon wrestler Nao Ishikawa.

Yappy and Nao Ishikawa.
Tequila Saya illustration by Yappy for Charles Short’s second Ice Ribbon book.

Yappy did a series of illustrations for Charles Short’s second book about Ice Ribbon, titled Wonderland. These portrayals show off her range, as the chibi influenced versions still capture the essence of the wrestlers’ likenesses and charisma.

Tsukina Umino
Kaho Matsushita

The last batch of art I’ll spotlight here is Yappy’s art nouveau pieces. Three pieces in total (more on that to come), they are extremely striking and pop with color to make an immediate impression.

Yappy incorporated wonderful detail into these. Ice Ribbon’s Mugendai (“infinite potential”) Girl Kaho Matsushita’s has an infinity motif, and Tsukina Umino’s other job as a murder mystery game GM heavily inspired the theme for her piece.

——-

More information about both Yappy’s art and her wrestling can be found on her social media.

There’s one more wonderful art nouveau piece to discuss, left to last because there’s unfortunately some sad news that now goes along with it. In early February 2024 Actwres girl’Z reported a 21 year old wrestler named Asahi had unexpectedly passed away. Asahi started her career in Ice Ribbon and was a dear coworker and friend to Yappy. She was also a personal favorite of mine, being a joy to watch in the ring and an inspiring presence in general. Yappy’s incredible rendition of the Sunrise of Hope that originally started her art nouveau series is cherished momento of someone gone far too soon.

Rest in Peace Asahi.

Categories
Art Cards Comics Japan Wrestling

Captivating Color: The Art of Miki Okazaki

It’s always exciting for me to discover new artists whose work jumps out and appeals to my personal artistic preferences. Today I’d like to highlight the striking art of Miki Okazaki.

Ghost Spider and Gwen Stacy sketch cards from Upper Deck’s Into the Spider-Verse set, and a recently pulled Rokurokubi sketch card from Iconic Creations’ Yokai Parade set. All by Miki Okazaki.

The first time I saw any of Miki’s art was on sketch cards for Upper Deck’s Into the Spider-Verse card set. It made an immediate impression and had an air of whimsy, and when I followed her on Instagram and found out she was open for commission at the time I jumped at the chance to add more of her work to my collection.

Among the various subjects I collect art of, two of the biggest are joshi pro-wrestlers and Marvel’s Mystique mid-transformation. In my first batch of commissions from Miki I was able to add wonderful pieces to both collections.

For the incredible Mystique as Silk sketch cover she did for me I specified only the subject. The composition and other specifics were left up to Miki, and she knocked it out of the park with a great dynamic pose and overall awesome general feel.

Miki’s Mystique/Silk cover on display with Silk sketch cards by Effix, Fred Ian, Marcia Dye, and Ash Gonzales in a custom light up frame by Dion Divens.

It’s a great example of her general style with coloring that really pops and a bunch of cool small details, like the exact way things are split between Mystique and Silk around the face and hair, that enhance the overall effect.

I am a huge fan of Japanese women’s professional wrestling, and have an extensive collection of personal sketch cards (PSCs) I’ve commissioned of many of my favorites, including quite a number from Juri H. Chinchilla (whose art I’ve discussed extensively in Beautiful Dreams, Beautiful Dreams 2,Beautiful Dreams 3, and Beautiful Dreams 4).

I was thrilled that Miki was open to doing some of these for me, and my first requests were a combination of wrestlers I’d planned on having done for quite a while in Ice Ribbon’s Kyuri & Maika Ozaki, AEW’s Hikaru Shida, and Marvelous’ Mio Momono & Maria, a perennial favorite in WWE’s Asuka, and even a brilliant up and coming rookie in Gatoh Move’s Miya Yotsuba.

She did an outstanding job with the unfamiliar subjects, and this became just the first of several batches of joshi PSCs I would get from her over the course of 2023. The joshi cards really illustrate Miki’s ability to apply her personal style to her art while still really capturing the essence of the subject.

The next batch included Yappy & Banny from Ice Ribbon, Momo Watanabe from Stardom, Emi Sakura and Best Bros (Mei Suruga & Balliyan Akki) from Gatoh Move, and TJPW’s announcer Sayuri Namba. These are all excellent and the coloring and highlighting really stand out in this group. The backgrounds are masterfully vibrant in a complementary way that doesn’t overwhelm the wonderful depictions of the wrestlers.

Finally around the end of the year I had cards done of TJPW’s Free Wi-Fi (Hikari Noa & Nao Kakuta), and Daisy Monkey (Suzume & Arisu Endo), another up and coming Gatoh Move rookie Nonoka Seto, WWE’s reigning Women’s Champion Iyo Sky (formerly Io Shirai), Stardom’s Yuna Mizumori (formerly of Gatoh Move), and freelancer Momoka Hanazono.

The detail on these is particularly fantastic, and it’s was really cool to see how Miki’s style evolved over such a short period. I know I’m repeating myself to the point of sounding like a broken record, but once again the coloring is impeccable and perfectly spotlights the subjects.

The Nonoka Seto card is particularly special from a few reasons, from the awesome way Miki captured her pointed finger pose in shadow even though the arm is out of frame to the fact that it’s a companion piece to the card Miki did for me of her sister, fellow Gatoh Move wrestler Miya Yotsuba.

I greatly appreciate all the art Miki has created for me and I hope to continue collecting her work in the future.

More information about Miki’s wonderful art can be found on her social media pages.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Yoshiko

This is something I honestly never expected to write about. But for a variety of reasons a look back is in order.

Regardless of what anyone already knows or feels, I’d ask those who’ve stumbled upon this to please read to the end.

Yoshiko is a professional wrestler currently with a company called SEAdLINNNG. Last year she went viral and became know among non-wrestling fans due to her cooking videos on Tik Tok. The juxtaposition of this tough wrestler with rough language and mannerisms excitedly making cute, delicate sweets made her a sensation.

But for people even passingly familiar with joshi pro-wrestling, Yoshiko is primarily known as the culprit in a match turned real at the expense of a fellow competitor.

On February 22, 2015 Yoshiko was set to defend the top title of World Wonder Ring Stardom against Act Yasukawa. Instead of the professional wrestling match everyone expected, things immediately devolved into chaos as Yoshiko decimated Act with very real punches leaving her face bruised and bloody in a matter of seconds (pictured above on the cover of ShuPro coverage of the incident).

The competitors were separated to their respective corners so Act could be checked on, then the match went on in start and stop fashion for almost eight minutes. All of it was a continuation of Yoshiko brutalizing Act, until Kyoko Kimura had enough and took it upon herself to throw in a towel in from Act’s corner while restraining Act from getting back into the ring yet again.

I was not yet actively watching joshi promotions then, but was familiar with some joshi wrestlers via a US company called Shimmer. I only knew of Stardom by name and didn’t know of the two wrestlers involved so had no preconceived notions or attachments, but everyone watching any kind of women’s wrestling at the time heard about this. I subsequently watched it, which was viscerally difficult and disturbing. In Japan it’s become referred to as “The Ghastly Match” and its infamy endures with mentions and discussions repeatedly reemerging to this day.

Stardom management’s stubborn inaction when the match clearly should have been stopped immediately after the first separation is now often glossed over in retellings. But whether motivated by kayfabe, business interests, or something else entirely, they completely failed in their duties to protect their wrestlers by letting things go on so long when it was apparent the real fight was continuing. This is not to take any responsibility off of Yoshiko for what happened, but I feel it worth mentioning that the scope of it could have and should have been mitigated. They did try to address things after the fact, taking temporary pay cuts and instituting some new rules in the wake of it all.

The match was retroactively declared a no contest, and Yoshiko was stripped of her title and suspended indefinitely from Stardom. Act suffered multiple fractures and would require surgery, leading her to vacate her own title she already held going into the match.

Nanae Takahashi, one of Stardom’s founders, left the company to go “freelance” a few months after the incident amid rumors that she disagreed with Yoshiko being punished. She announced the creation of her own company just a month after that, and SEAdLINNNG would have its first show in August of 2015.

Defenders of Yoshiko were quick to point out that Act threw the first punch as an indication that it was an agreed upon shoot / not instigated by Yoshiko. However they were having a wrestling match and Act’s punch could very well have been a working punch. Also given the extent to which Yoshiko’s beating of Act continued, the “who swung first” idea is largely irrelevant. There were of course also many rumors about the general situation between the two wrestlers beforehand and speculation about what led to the incident.

I by no means claim to know every detail, or even most. It is not my purpose here to speculate on what’s unknowable or investigate rumors but rather to consider how what is apparent should be approached, particularly now.

Act returned to Stardom at the end of September, but a combination of the injuries sustained and her having Graves’ disease led to complications that prompted her to retire in December at Stardom Climax 2015 (which happened to be one of the first shows I saw during my first ever trip to Japan). It was sad to see her retire but the match(es) was an appropriate way to bid her well and I was glad she got to come back for a little while and leave somewhat on her own terms.

Whatever led to the altercation, what was clear about the situation was that one wrestler brutally assaulted another, repeatedly after separations presumably meant to try to get them back on track to the title match they were supposed to have, leading to the end of her career. I was certainly among those that didn’t think Yoshiko had a place in wrestling, no matter the surrounding circumstances.

And even if she did, it felt like her second chance came too soon.

Around the time of her retirement, Act stated that she forgave Yoshiko and hoped she would return to the ring. For a number of people that was the end of it. Act forgave her, fans would never know the behind the scenes details, and that was that. Others, including myself, didn’t share that opinion.

Act’s forgiveness was of course extremely important to consider, an a wonderful sign that she was able to move on, but in isolation I didn’t see it as sufficient with respect to Yoshiko returning. Yoshiko had still assaulted someone and come away with what felt like no real repercussions. The nature of kayfabe and the wrestling business in general meant no charges were filed. Just a couple weeks after Act’s retirement Yoshiko was back in an appearance for SEAdLINNNG, officially joining the company a month later and returning to the ring a month after that. She was out of wrestling for only a year, and returned not to the company that had suspended her while trying to address the incident but instead to one that felt like it had been specifically formed so she’d have someplace to return to. What happened was public (and horrific), and there wasn’t any public indication of Yoshiko having to earn her way back.

So given my personal views on the whole thing it wasn’t until a full year and a half after Yoshiko returned that I saw my first SEAdLINNNNG show in August of 2017. I was in Tokyo for a week primarily to see the rematch series of one of my favorite matches of all time. While I still had no interest in seeing Yoshiko I grudgingly decided I was not going to allow her presence on the card prevent me from attending to see two of my favorite teams in the world wrestle and support them. Besides, she was starting to show up in so many joshi promotions she’d be unavoidable anyway unless I just stopped attending shows in general.

Yoshiko happened to be facing my favorite rookie at the time, Mio Momono. Again I had never seen Yoshiko wrestle before. The match was great. So much so that it was actually my second favorite of the trip despite myself. And I’m specifically mentioning this to point out that it didn’t matter AT ALL to the subject at hand.

Too often athletes, entertainers, etc get passes on things because of their talent. It can easily cloud fans’ judgement. So I want to be clear that the fact that I discovered that night that Yoshiko was an extremely good wrestler did nothing to change my opinion on her actions or her place in wrestling. But there was something about that match and ones that would follow that DID matter in that respect, although I didn’t consciously realize it at the time.

That conscious realization solidified the following spring when I saw her wrestle Asahi from Ice Ribbon in another great encounter of the larger, brutish Yoshiko taking a fiery, determined rookie. Though the number of companies willing to work with her was significant, even more significant was the fact that they weren’t just working with her. Like Marvelous with Mio Ice Ribbon, a company I particularly personally trust to take care of their wrestlers from things I’ve observed over time, trusted her to work safely with their rookies. It really underscored that no one was afraid of anything like what happened with Act ever happening again. More and more companies that had no obligation to use Yoshiko or let their wrestlers face her had absolutely no issue doing so on any level.

Moving forward to present day, the last six months or so have seen a couple of surprisingly relevant, positive events related to the now six year old incident. In late 2020 Act returned to a wrestling ring as a participant in ACTRING, a show that combines theatrical performance and wrestling elements produced by Actwres Girl’z. In March this year both Yoshiko and Nanae returned to Stardom in special appearances for their big 10th anniversary show. Yoshiko, while reigning as SEAdLINNNG’s singles champion, was defeated by Stardom’s ace Mayu Iwatani (in a non-title match).

It is of course fantastic to see Act able to come back in some capacity, and somewhat fitting that shortly thereafter Yoshiko returned to the promotion where it all took place and in some sense faced her comeuppance.

What happened in Act and Yoshiko’s match will be remembered and revisited forever, and rightfully so. It was a horrible occurrence that shouldn’t be forgotten. But the issue with newer fans finding out about what happened primarily via things like What Culture’s article on brutal women’s matches, etc is that context about what’s happened since is usually lost. Again it’s totally appropriate to mention it in those discussions, but it’s a six year old event that doesn’t exist in isolation.

I can understand the perspective of those who think she shouldn’t have been forgiven, and again I was among them, but at this point she has been by all the people involved, by her industry, and of course by Act. I said earlier that I felt Act’s forgiveness was important but insufficient on its own. It’s not on its own anymore. The primary arguments that Yoshiko shouldn’t have been able to return to wrestling were the incident showing she was unsafe and that she didn’t face proper repercussions. There’s now five years of experience contrary to the former, and with every conceivable benchmark that one could have wanted before she returned now reached the timing of her return and other aspects of the latter becomes moot. Act’s back in wrestling. Yoshiko returned to the company who suspended her. Yoshiko’s trusted to work safely with companies’ most vulnerable employees. I don’t know what else could possibly be asked for at this point.

I don’t begrudge anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable watching Yoshiko given the incident happened at all, and the point of this is not to try to dissuade them. I’d just ask them to keep in mind when talking to people who have moved on that there are many valid reasons for having done so.

It’s not 2015 anymore. Talking about this like the incident just happened and Yoshiko is a currently a dangerous, untrustworthy monster is doing both her and the joshi wrestling scene in general a huge disservice.

To me Yoshiko has proven worthy of the second chance given to her, and like Act I wish her well with her continued career in wrestling.

Categories
Art Cards Comics Japan Manga Video Games Wrestling

Beautiful Dreams 4: More Art of Juri the Dreamer

It’s been almost two years (wow 2020 threw off my sense of time) since my last spotlight on the work of my favorite artist, and I’d like to share and talk about more of her incredible work and some of the inspirations behind the pieces. See Beautiful Dreams, Beautiful Dreams 2, and Beautiful Dream 3 for more about Juri H. Chinchilla’s art, including past pieces I’ll be mentioning in this write up.

Jenny Rose and Sareee PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.
Tequila Saya PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.

Juri’s Personal Sketch Cards (PSCs) have been a great opportunity to request particular subjects and design elements. One of the more unique requests I’ve made was a card featuring one of my favorite professional wrestlers, and I adored it so much that I’ve followed up with several more since. Juri’s done an AMAZING job depicting these previously unfamiliar to her subjects and these are in many ways the pride of my entire art collection. See Another Wonderful Way Pro-Wrestling is Art 3 for more about the above works featuring Jenny Rose & Sareee and retired Ice Ribbon wrestler Tequila Saya.

Gatoh Move 6-PSC puzzle by Juri H. Chinchilla.

Gatoh Move is one of my favorite wrestling companies, and it’s so wonderful to see the roster represented in absolutely stunning form on the above six card PSC puzzle by Juri. The top row of cards feature Sayaka Obihiro & Mitsuru Konno, Emi Sakura & Riho, and Chie Koishikawa & Tokiko Kirihara. The bottom row has Yuna Mizumori & Mei Suruga, Sayuri & Sayaka, and Lulu Pencil & Rin Rin.

The timing on these cards ended up being suitable in many ways. They were completed shortly after Sakura’s 25th Anniversary in wrestling and shortly before a personal favorite of mine, and the wrestler I’ve requested Juri draw the most, Mitsuru Konno retired.

Riho is Gatoh Move’s former ace, and shortly after she left to go freelance the company the core roster doubled in size with the debut of six rookies (Chie, Tokiko, Sayuri, Sayaka, Lulu, & Rin Rin). I love the encapsulation of the company’s past, present, and future around that time on this batch of cards and Juri knocked this out of the park. As usual I only specified the subjects and an occasional small detail like particular gear. The layout, poses, and incredible way these all fit together into a larger scene is all Juri and I couldn’t possibly be happier with how it all came together.  

Lilith by Juri H. Chinchilla.
Lilith & Morrigan PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.
Morrigan by Juri H. Chinchilla.

One of the first PSCs I got from Juri was an incredible depiction of the Darkstalkers “sisters” Morrigan and Lilith, two of my favorite fighting game characters to play. In the last Beautiful Dreams feature I showed a larger, equally amazingly done drawing of the former. Later on Juri revisited and completed a wonderful Lilith companion piece I am very happy to add to my collection.

Juri’s range in styles and subjects is highlighted in striking renditions of video game, comic, and movie characters such as Nakoruru from Samurai Showdown, X-men’s Psylocke & Emma Frost, and DC’s Enchantress.

I discovered Perna Studios‘ high quality card sets through Juri’s art, and her work for them continues to be incredibly perfect for the subject matter. Her hauntingly beautiful black and white ghost from the Hallow-Ink set and fantastically playful Alice in Wonderland Artist Proof (AP) from Classic Fairy Tales 2.

Iconic Creations (which I hope to write about in more detail soon) has been releasing incredible card sets based around literature and legends. Juri’s sketch cards for the sets have been wonderfully evocative of the subject matter, particularly the stunning Snow Queen and swordswoman APs I got from the Christmas Literature and Way of the Sword sets.

Iconic’s sets feature a variety of way to showcase the stunning art they include, including special cards like wood sketch cards and other inventive variants. The prize centerpieces of their sets are the oversized wooden “box toppers.” I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to get Juri’s box topper AP from the Christmas set, and pull her box topper sketch card from Treasure Hunters. Both my requested Ghosts of Christmas AP and Juri’s mermaid are absolutely breathtaking.

Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.
Jumonji Sisters (Sendai Sachiko & Dash Chisako) PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.

I mentioned another favorite company of mine, Ice Ribbon, above in relation to Tequila Saya. Their ace is featured on one of the newest PSCs I’ve gotten from Juri. It’s part of a duo of cards I’ve had planned for a while. During my first trip to Japan I saw a match between two phenomenal teams that remains one of my favorites of all time, and Juri’s renditions of the two pairs are simply incredible.

SEAdLINNNG’s Arisa Nakajima & Ice Ribbon’s Tsukasa Fujimoto, known as Best Friends, are two top tier singles competitors who are even more fearsome as a team. I adore Juri’s illustration of the pair with Ice Ribbon’s International Tag Ribbon Championship Belt.

The Jumonji Sisters, consisting of the since retired Sendai Sachiko & her sister Dash Chisako, were the epitome of poetry in motion. It was a privilege to get to see them in action live a couple of times before Sachiko retired, and the casual confidence and closeness Juri captured in their card is absolutely perfect.

Dash still wrestles for Sendai Girls and is simply incredible. She was previously featured in a solo PSC by Juri mid flight of her jaw dropping Hormone Splash (top rope frog splash).

Hikari Noa PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.
Yuka Sakazaki PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.

Tokyo Joshi Pro is an incredibly fun promotion filled with a wide variety of characters and styles. I’m a huge fan of Hikari Noa, and Juri captured both her idol and wrestler aspects showing off the wonderfully cute side of the deathmatch loving Up Up Girl.

Yuka Sakazaki is arguably the best high flyer in all of wrestling, and always a joy to watch. I love the sense of motion Juri achieved in her beautifully detailed depiction of TJPW’s Magical Girl.

Hana Kimura PSC by Juri H. Chinchilla.

The last card I’ll talk about here card is special, as well as sad. Hana Kimura was an incredible young wrestler who tragically passed away last year due to suicide amid a myriad of online harassment and other factors. Hana was one of my favorite performers in her home promotion and had striking charisma. She was always fun to watch in the ring and always seemed to go out of her way to be friendly to fans and make sure everyone was having a good time

Juri wonderfully captured Hana in a gorgeous card that is a great remembrance to someone dearly missed.

Rest in Peace Hana.

More information about Juri’s art can be found on her artist page. I hope to continue to follow and collect her wonderous creations for a long time to come. 🙂

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Heartbreaking

I barely know where to begin here. Part of me doesn’t want to write this. And part of me has to.

A short while ago it was confirmed that Hana Kimura has passed away.

Hana wrestled for Stardom and was the daughter of retired wrestler Kyoko Kimura. She had been wrestling for four years and was one of my personal favorites in the promotion. She always made an impression, and seemed to have all the potential in the world. The last time I saw Hana was at Stardom’s American Dream 2019 show in NYC. I commented about how over she was, how far she had come as a performer since I’d seen her in her rookie year, and how impressive her character work in particular was. Her charisma was striking and she always seemed to go out of her way to be friendly to fans and make sure everyone was having a good time.

Earlier in the day Hana posted some worrying tweets indicating self harm. She had been the target of extreme cyberbullying, in part in relation to her appearances on the show Terrace House. Her tweets were shortly removed (possibly by Twitter, who has a reporting function for self-harm tweets to try to extend help) and numerous fans and others who knew Hana tried to reach out to those who could contact her as well as tweeting messages of love and support.

Further details about her passing have not been official released at the request of her family and I won’t speculate further, but felt it important to mention the circumstances briefly.

Her loss is beyond tragic, particularly so young. Underneath the rising wrestling superstar and reality tv personality was a 22 year old woman having a harder time than anyone knew. Please think of the person on the other side of the computer screen, and never wish or encourage harm on anyone. Words cannot express my anger and total lack of comprehension towards those who would wish such things on another. There are also important issues to look at in entertainment industries and the presentation of and support systems available to performers.

On the other side of things, if anyone is ever in trouble and things seem hopeless, please know that you are not alone and there is hope, and please reach out for whatever help and support you need.

I feel a terrible sense of loss and heartache for Hana and wish things had been different. My thoughts are with her family.

Rest in Peace Hana. You will be greatly missed.

——-

Edit 1/21/21:

Since I wrote this Hana’s mother Kyoko has spoken out about a variety of factors potentially contributing to Hana’s suicide and is pursuing legal remedies for justice in Hana’s name, as well as setting up a non-profit to help prevent such things. Those who wish to help can purchase official Hana t-shirts and/or other merchandise (proxy required for international shipping) to directly support Kyoko.

Categories
Japan Reviews Wrestling

Stardom American Dream 2019 in the Big Apple 4/5/19 Live Thoughts

April 5, 2019 in Brooklyn, NY

Wrestlemania weekend in the NYC area saw the return of Joshi puroresu company Stardom to the US for the first time since their two show CA tour in 2015. This was also my first time attending a Stardom event since the end of 2016. There were a number of talents I was particularly interested in seeing, as well as curiosity about what Stardom would choose to present to the foreign audience.

 

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There were some operational difficulties to talk about. Fans were not let into the building until less than ten minutes before the advertised start time, leading to a disgruntled start for attendees having spent significant time waiting in line outside in the cold rain. Attempts were being made to repair the broken bottom rope, leading to the show starting about a half hour late. The rope was never fully repaired and sagged nearly to the mat, unable to support any weight. So the entire show was performed with a functionally unusable bottom rope.

The live stream also reportedly had problems, but the replay is up in its entirety now and as I’m sharing my impressions of attending live it doesn’t have an impact on this writeup.

 

Stardom stressed at the outset that they intended to have a traditional Japanese show for the American crowd, starting with having their regular ring announcer here.

 

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1. JAN (Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora) vs Sonya Strong & Violette

Good choice for an opener, with the local team the clear heels allowing the crowd to get really into the visiting team, particularly Kyona. JAN wins a decent, crowd pleasing opener.

 

2. 3-Way: Hana Kimura & Bobbi Tyler vs Brittany Blake & Dr. Britt Baker vs Bea Priestley & Konami

“You blocked me on Facebook. Now you’re going to die.”

Hana was CRAZY over, but her & Bobbi were also able to get boo’d as needed for the story of the match. Excellent work by both. This was a bit rough in parts, but nicely energetic and chaotic in largely good way leading to a fun encounter overall. Crowd seemed to be waiting for a little more of a spotlight on Konami, but she looked good in what we saw of her. Hana picks up the win, and goes CRAZY and starts throwing things at the ring announcer when the wrong music plays. She was on point and in character every second she was visible (more on that later) and it’s really cool seeing how far she’s come as a performer since I last saw her in her rookie year.

 

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3. High Speed Championship: Hazuki (c) vs Dust

Short but effective. Feels like this may have been where they shaved a little bit of time after the late start. Dust is a bit under appreciated I think, and has really found her grove the last couple of years. She worked well with Hazuki, whose general presence and mannerisms were striking. Champ retained here.

 

 

 

4. Wonder of STARDOM Championship: Momo Watanabe (c) vs Utami Hayashishita

Excellent, and even more impressive once discovered that Utami chose to work through a broken thumb here. This completely lived up to expectations, while leaving room for the inevitable rematch to take things a step further. It’s also a nice illustration of Stardom following through on giving NYC an authentic, worthy show, as this was a big, important first time singles title match for them between their current reigning tag team champions. The hype around Utami seems justified, and it’s nice to see Momo excelling as (one of) Stardom’s ace(s). It took a lot, but Momo eventually prevailed with a clean pin over her rookie partner and retained her title. Just the start of the story though I’m sure. This was the match I was most hyped for, and it delivered big time.

 

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Main Event. Elimination Match: Oedo Tai (Kagetsu, Andras Miyagi, Jamie Hayter & Session Moth Martina) vs STARS (Mayu Iwatani, Saki Kashima, Arisa Hoshiki & Tam Nakano) 

Was a little surprised this main evented over the Wonder of Stardom title defense, but I do understand the choice to end on a big all out battle between two top factions. Japanese style rules here, with eliminations by pinfall, submission, or over the top to the floor.

Oedo Tai’s dance makes quite the spectacle live, and both teams felt like big deals during the introductions, heightening anticipations. This was a lot of fun, and made good use of the format. It was really well booked to keep the audience invested, and the crowd erupted when Mayu ultimately pulled out the victory for her team.

 

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I was also particularly impressed by Arisa, who I’ve heard a fair bit about but hadn’t seen. She did a wonderful job as a subtle workhorse here, a role similarly filled by Hayter on the other team. Miyagi seems to be doing well in her new home promotion and is a great fit with Oedo Tai. Kagetsu plays her role really well and it’s easy to see why she’s one of the wrestlers Stardom has built around, and Tam’s always fun to see. Good match to end on a high note with the audience.

STARS called the rest of the roster back to sign off with in a one time show of unity to represent Stardom and thank the fans. Hana alone remained lurking on the stage off to the side where she watched the main event from, dismissively staring at her various former compatriots. Nice touch.

 

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The show ended at 6:15 pm, running fifteen minutes past the supposed plan, bringing the show time to about an hour and forty-five minutes with the delayed start. I was one of the people who left immediately to go to NXT, so didn’t participate in the meet and greet following the show.

The show felt energetic and fine in length overall, largely because the wrestlers made the most of the time they had and Stardom put together a card of smart matchups. As Stardom stated, this card is totally one they could have run in Japan, which was 100% the right approach to make a good impression and potentially draw new viewers into following the company regularly.

 

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Working around not having a functional bottom rope was a challenge, and the wrestlers all adjusted admirably. I do however wish they didn’t have to and had the opportunity to go all out.

I personally feel like Stardom can get in its own way sometimes and find them a bit hit or miss, so was thrilled to see them put their best foot forward and have everything come together from an in-ring perspective here. Overall this was a focused, well presented and performed show under extremely difficult conditions. While there are valid criticisms and preparation issues to address, I hope it will be remembered for the level of wrestling and not the surrounding difficulties. This show was great live.

Categories
Japan Wrestling

The NXT Step for a Pirate

The signing of Stardom’s Kairi Hojo in early 2017 by the WWE created immediate buzz and excitement. It was wonderful to see that feeling build in anticipation as the Mae Young Classic and her debut as Kairi Sane approached.

 

Kairi is a masterful ring technician, measuring everything she does carefully and exerting expert body control for maximum visual impact. Her trademark diving elbow from the tope rope looks as beautiful as it does devastating. Her excellent selling draws the audience in and invests them emotionally in her matches, yet she always believably feels like a threat to her opponent no matter how much punishment she’s taken or how much bigger her opponent is. She brings something special and unique to WWE, and the hype surrounding her debut as it approached showed they realized it.

 

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My own perspective on Kairi’s pre-WWE career was bit different from when I wrote about Kana (NXT Step for a Legend) and Johnny Gargano (NXT Step for an Icon) heading to NXT, as I’d only seen her live on two occasions (though she essentially wrestled twice on each show). Even from that small sample it was easy to see the command she has of her craft.

 

My first time seeing Kairi live was under unique circumstances, as she was involved in Act Yasukawa’s retirement match at Climax 2015.

 

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Act’s retirement match and ceremony had an incredible atmosphere around it, and the entire spectacle was awesome to be at live. Kairi teamed with Act & Haruka Kato vs. Holidead, Kris Wolf & Kyoko Kimura in a match that went on for about 10 minutes, with back and forth action that saw Act and her teammates, particularly Kairi, more and more at odds. Both Act and Kairi did a phenomenal job at portraying two people who thought they had reconciled but were just never meant to get along. Things eventually exploded and the two fought into the crowd with everyone else along for the ride, resulting in a double countout.

 

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Then the “real” match began, as Act rejoined her former Oedo Tai stablemates leading to Act Yasukawa & Kyoko Kimura vs Haruka Kato & Kairi Hojo. This was a fitting send off, with Act and her teammates clearly enjoying themselves against long time rivals. Kairi was clearly genuinely emotional as she helped bid farewell to her fellow wrestler’s career.

 

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The following year I was back for Climax 2016 and saw Kairi in a pair of equally impressive matches at opposite ends of the spectrum. In a special contest model Nana Suzuki made her debut in a singles match against Hojo, one of Stardom’s aces. Nana actually played her role as an overmatched but determined underdog well and the match was quite good, due in no small part to Kairi playing her own role of dominant veteran absolutely perfectly. She knew exactly how to rightly control most of the offense and avoid reducing her own standing yet still make her rookie opponent look strong. That takes an incredible amount of skill and a deft touch, and the two told a great story here.

 

 

Later that night Kairi told a completely different story as she and partner Yoko Bito looked to regain their Goddesses of Stardom Titles from Oedo Tai (Kyoko Kimura & Kagetsu). This time Kairi was in some sense the underdog, as there was a lot of interference from the Oedo Tai entourage outside the ring. The stacked odds and again excellent awareness of the story being told combined to generate quite the conquering hero reception for Hojo & Bito when they finally overcame it all and took their belts back. It was a treat not only seeing Kairi perform twice, but in such different (but complimentary and consistent) circumstances.

 

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Fast forward back to a few months ago and Kairi entered a WWE ring for the first time as part of the Mae Young Classic. It was certainly no surprise when she provided several of the best matches of the whole thing, including a show-stealing first round encounter with Tessa Blanchard, great bouts with Bianca Belair, Dakota Kai, and Toni Storm, and a fitting finale to the whole thing against Shayna Baszler. Seeing her joy at becoming the well deserved first ever MYC winner was wonderful. Since then she has become an integral part of NXT’s women’s division, and is likely to feud with Shayna Baszler and eventually progress to a one on one challenge to champion Ember Moon.

 

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Incredible art print depicting (and signed by) Kairi by Rob Schamberger.

 

Kairi Sane is the epitome of the cliche “a joy to watch,” and I wish her all the best as this exciting new phase of her career continues.