Tag: TokyoJoshiPro

Categories
Food Japan Wrestling

In the Blink of an Eye: Past Japan Trips

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

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

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

My first trip

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting wrestlers

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

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

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

Rest In Peace, Sunrise of Hope. 

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

Retirement shows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That time I got the flu in Japan

Not all strong memories are entirely positive.

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

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

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

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

Non-wrestling wrestling events

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

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

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

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

Sightseeing and so on

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

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

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

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

 

——-

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

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

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

Categories
Japan Wrestling

Wrestling Omakase Appearance

Quick entry with something a bit different.

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

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

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

Yuuka’s retirement 

Yuuka’s impending return

spotlight on Yuuka vs Kana (WWE’s Asuka)

Risa Sera’s retirement

Be Happy by Charles Short

Wonderland by Charles Short

last year’s Ribbonmania

Aoi Kizuki’s retirement 

ChocoPro’s unique home venue

how Gatoh Move became ChocoPro

Joy in Pro Wrestling and Kaho Hiromi

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

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

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

Categories
Art Cards Comics Japan Music Reviews Wrestling

Ten Years of Meandering Musings

Seems to be tradition at this point that when I manage to do retrospectives for the blog I’m at least a month past the actual anniversary (actually a full two this go round). My sense of time certainly is off kilter nowadays and summer simply blurred by.

And with the pandemic upending the world and me being largely on hiatus for a few years it’s been a while since I did one of these. But better late than never, and my tiny little corner of the internet somehow got to a decade old this past July.

Overview

It’s been four years since my last blog retrospective, which was post #682 at the time. This is post #728 (I’ve deleted exactly 2 entries ever, so my total number of posts written since last time is 48). Under 50 posts in 4 years is on the low side to my previous output, but there was practically nothing from 2021-23, so not too bad overall for my slow and struggling return over the last year and a half.

I did not make 700 posts by end of 2021 as I hoped to. In fact I didn’t write anything else in 2021 after the retrospective, had only 3 entries in 2022, and nothing in 2023. My chronic illnesses and others things have impacted my life in big ways. But this blog is a passion project of mine, I enjoy being able to share my thoughts on my hobbies, and I’m glad to be back, sporadic as it’s been.

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

In early 2024 I was preparing to return to the blog with another retirement piece and some art related content. Instead those came later and my first post in a year and a half was an emotional farewell to one of my favorite wrestlers who unexpectedly passed away extremely young. I had the privilege of attending Asahi’s debut match in person, and was a big fan of the effort and emotion she poured into her wrestling. She is greatly missed.
Rest in peace, Sunrise of Hope.

 

Specific Post Details

Looking back in aggregate there was a lot of variety in my posts and there’s a lot to cover in terms of stuff I’d like to highlight. Writing was often a struggle during this time period and it’s nice to be happy with the results of that effort.

While the genres covered are largely the same through the life of Derailments of Thought, the specific manifestations have morphed a bit. With my health limitations in a post pandemic world I’m not able to go out nearly as much as I used to, and I can’t really travel at all. So my Japan trips and the live event coverage that resulted will remain a thing of the past for the foreseeable future.

I was lucky enough to manage a few local events across the last couple years though, including a fantastic NXT Roadblock at MSG and some concerts of the incredibly fun Atarashii Gakko. I also made it to one film of Japan Cuts 2024. Japan Society’s annual film festival was something I attended heavily in the past and was a big part of the early years of this blog, so it was cool to be back in some fashion and share thoughts on Great Absence.

As in the past some of the most special and personal posts are wrestler specific pieces that are usually about retirements, major career changes, or in a few unfortunate cases memorials. Several of my favorites have retired recently, and there are more announced to come.

These are all new posts since last time’s retrospective. Please see that post for links to a great many prior entries of these types.

In addition, I wrote a special spotlight early this year about the joy wrestling can bring in general with particular focus on ChocoPro’s newest and youngest member, Kaho Hiromi.

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

Career changes:
Yuna Mizumori leaves Gatoh Move 

In Memoriam:
Eternal Sunrise 

Other:
Joy in Pro-Wrestling and Kaho Hiromi 

Other wrestling content I’ve done recently focused mainly on match spotlights, ranging from unusual and/or potentially overlooked matches to stuff I wanted to revisit or just caught my eye.

The unique Tokyo Game Show matches that happened in 2022 as part of promotional hype for AEW’s video game had never been aired until they were added to Wrestle Universe late last year. These included several once ever matchups featuring favorites of mine crossing paths so were a real treat to finally get to see.

In the last couple months I’ve looked back on some matches wrestlers currently performing in the US had in Ice Ribbon way back when, including Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, and Asuka. They feature Giulia’s biggest match ever in the promotion she started in, a contentious match of hers against fellow rookie Asahi, Vaquer’s first match in Ice Ribbon as well as her facing one of the company’s rising stars, and a hidden gem of a match with veteran Kana against fiery rookie Yuuka. Was really cool to look back on all of these.

Another big part of the blog lately has been focused on the collecting side of things. I did card spotlights on BBM’s 2024 and 2025 Women’s Wrestling card sets, as well as features on specific types of unusual cards like printing plates, other metal cards, comic cuts, and minis.

Some of the posts I’m happiest about sharing featured several incredible artists from whom I have a wonderful collection of cards and other art. They include Miki Okazaki, Ice Ribbon’s Yappy, Lydi Li, and Veronica O’Connell.

In an effort to avoid mentioning and linking to every single post I did in the last couple years I’m going to gloss over the occasional book/movie/game reviews I did, but they remain an important part of the blog and I got to read/see/play some really cool stuff.

Lastly, one of my all time favorite writers passed away in May after a long battle with health issues. Peter David’s work shaped a ton of my views on what comics and novels could be.
Rest In Peace, Writer of Stuff.

Top Posts

Going to approach this part a little different this time, primarily because the top 4 posts are exactly the same as last time, and going nowhere. They all had over 1,200 views then (plus a proportionate handful each since), which is dominant for my meager ramblings that have about 20 regular readers.

On that note, a copied reminder from my last couple retrospective posts regarding my most viewed posts:

“Derailments of Thought is 100% a personal hobby blog, and my little corner of the web is generally pretty modest in terms of views. More than half of my posts garner under 20, and the “highly viewed” posts generally end up with a few hundred. This is fine, and I greatly appreciate everyone who takes the time to read. I’m pointing it out for context for the extent in which a couple of my pieces have deviated from the norm. I’m sharing this short list because I find the mix of subjects and other little details interesting.”

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

Since last time only 2 posts have overtaken the 587 views 5th place’s Tokyo Joshi Pro 1/4/16 Live Thoughts had then, so I’m going to spotlight them specifically in lieu of rehashing thoughts on the above. Please see last time for more details on those posts.

One last note: my blog homepage itself gets a much larger percentage of the views than it used to, so all of this is highly approximate as there are no counts of what specific posts people read off that or tagged sections. I imagine my artist features are a bit undercounted as I get decent interest for those as I post about them on Instagram, where there’s no direct link to the individual post just a general blog link in my bio.

The TJPW 1/4/16 show is now at 813 views, which would place it 6th now if this was still list format.

Yoshiko 686 views:
The first new addition that caught on isn’t actually a new post since last time. It has been published just a few months before and mentioned in that retrospective and was steadily climbing in views. It’s a look back on one of joshi wrestling’s most infamous incidents after several years had passed and presented my thoughts on important context that I felt needed to be considered when looking back on it.

Farewell to the Muscle Idol: Reika Saiki’s Retirement 999 views:
The other is amusingly being mentioned and linked to for the third time within this post. The Muscle Idol, Reika Saiki, was incredibly popular as a wrestler, an idol, and in her “muscle” related work and remains so even after retiring from it all. Not surprised this one piques people’s interest, and am glad to share my memories of her career.
(Side note: that ridiculously precise view count is legit as of time of writing and was not fudged in any way.)

——-

Asahi PSC by Veronica O’Connell

So that’s a decade down. Wild how time flies.

Thank you to anyone who took some time to read through this retrospective, and I hope you found at least a post or two of interest to check out. I currently can’t guarantee any sort of update schedule, but I have stuff in the works and intend to keep at this as I’m able.

In the not too distant future I’m hoping to do more collecting and/or artist spotlights, as well as maybe continuing with more match features on interesting little moments from the past. There are a TON of recent and upcoming retirements so I’m playing around with a new format to share a few key memories of several wrestlers in one post. We’ll see if that pans out. And of course occasional book/movie/game reviews and other randomness will be sprinkled in.

Here’s to another ten years or so.

Again I’m extremely thankful for everyone who’s read, shared, and or commented on things I’ve written. Doing so is much appreciated, and often needed, support.

If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Japan Reviews Wrestling

Tokyo Game Show AEW Matches 9/18/22

September 18, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan

One more batch of AEW Fight Forever sponsored promotional wrestling matches from Tokyo Game Show 2022 to take a look at. I previously wrote about day one and day two.

This was the last day of the trade fair, so only two matches on tap this time.

Yuka Sakazaki vs Hikari Noa

Hikari’s the only wrestler to appear on all three days. Again it’s a nice treat to have these matches resurface in lieu of her departure from wrestling last year.

Both participants here were TJPW roster, so while Hikari’s other two matches were first time encounters she’s very familiar with today’s opponent. They had faced previously in a handful of singles matches and numerous tag matches.

Yuka was a couple weeks away from her third Princess of Princess Championship reign.

Hikari’s a previous International Princess Champion, which she lost in early 2022. It ended up being the only singles title of her career.

Nice counter wrestling to start. Yuka ends up with the edge but Hikari wipes her out with a dropkick as she celebrates.

Yuka bails to the outside, quickly followed by Hikari. Yuka lands some strikes then takes Hikari sightseeing. Yuka finds some space in front of an exhibit and slams Hikari on floor. She then does some posing in front of a SpongeBob display before throwing Hikari into it.

She drags Hikari through the crowd some more and tries to hide behind a costumed mascot. Hikari hits her with a superkick around the alien anyway.

Yuka negotiates a pause and has the alien shake Hikari’s hand, but whacks the distracted Hikari with his gun. At least she didn’t shoot her I suppose.

After returning the deadly weapon to its owner she takes Hikari back to ringside. They exchange strikes, then Yuka rams Hikari into a ring post. Back in the ring Yuka covers for 2. I adore it when wrestlers go for a pin immediately after a big impact outside. They’re trying to win.

Yuka kicks Hikari in the corner then climbs up to apply a head scissors and leans back outside the ropes. Classic Yuka. Referee counts it and she breaks on 4. She goes up top and does her cartwheel dodge to the apron when Hikari charges. Well, kind of cartwheel dodge. When she does it to the apron it’s sometimes more of a roll with her hands planted on the ropes. Springboard dropkick back into the ring gets 2.

Yuka controls with rolling suplexes, but Hikari floats out of the third. A jumping lariat and her dropkick barrage solidifies her advantage, and a snap mare into a dropkick to back gets 2.

Cobra twist from Hikari. Yuka tries to power to the ropes, so Hikari drops it into a cover for 2. She holds on after the kickout and goes into her rolling cradle for 2.

Staying in position she applies a seated version of the cobra twist. Yuka’s had enough though, stands up despite Hikari’s efforts, and tosses Hikari off. As usual Yuka’s strength is unreal.

Hikari ducks a clothesline and rolls Yuka up with bridge (Japanese leg roll clutch variation) for 2. Her super kick is caught though, and Yuka spins her right into a suplex.

Yuka goes up top in the corner, and has to kick Hikari’s charges away twice. Hikari catches the kick on her third charge though, and brings Yuka down with a super exploder for 2.

The exhausted combatants have an elbow/forearm exchange on their knees. It continues as they rise to their feet, until Yuka eventually wipes Hikari out with one.

Magical Merry Go Round (hammerlock airplane spin into a face buster) attempt is escaped and Hikari hits an exploder, but Yuka responds with Tea Time (scoop suplex).

Now in firm control, Yuka completes the second try at Magical Merry Go Round for the win.

Respect shown by Yuka afterwards, and both speak in the post match interview (for all previous matches it was the winner only cutting a promo).

This was the longest match of the weekend at 12 minutes, which makes sense as it was the only match to do an extended outside the ring portion (there were a couple dives and one announce table DDT on previous days). So yet another aspect of wrestling was shown off here. Fun stuff, and the in ring portions were great. Really cool match overall.

Hikari lost all three of her matches, but given her vastly more experienced opponents that wasn’t unexpected. It was all about the fight she put up, and she did great.

Hagane Shinno vs Michael Nakazawa

I’m quite familiar with Hagane via his matches in Gatoh Move/ChocoPro. Big fan of his, but after my introduction to Nakazawa in the previous batch of these matches I’m not particularly psyched for this.

Hagane had not appeared for AEW prior to this, but would work several matches for Dark a couple months later including a lauded singles against Kenny Omega.

Nakazawa comes out to join the announce desk, seemingly only so his opponent is forced to call him into the ring from there.

Once things get started Nakazawa asks for Hagane’s help putting on a kneepad, then hits him with the microphone when he obliges.

Hagane gets crotched on the ropes, then dragged along them as Nakazawa did to Ueno the previous day. This is apparently called the Hentai Slide. I have no words.

Hagane takes over with a dropkick. Nakazawa bails outside then dodges a slingshot dive attempt. Hagane however adjusts and lands on the apron. He climbs the outside turnbuckles and nails a moonsualt to the floor.

Nakazawa crawls to the stage, but Hagane catches up and suplexes him.

While Hagane is distracted by the ref trying to get them back in the ring Nakazawa uses the entrance tunnels to get behind Hagane for an ambush. He hits hiragana with … a life sized Nakazawa promotional standee. Use whatever’s on hand I guess.

Nakazawa brings the standee into the ring and charges Hagane with it, but Hagane rolls under it and dropkicks it into Nakazawa’s face.

Hagane’s crazy stiff kicks follow, then he goes up top to hit a missile dropkick for 2. A slam on Nakazawa sets up the moonsault, but Nakazawa rolls away Hagane hits canvas.

During a strike exchange Nakazawa takes off his t-shirt. If he does the underwear garbage again I’m out. Yeah his trunks are around his knees again. Pulls them back up and there he goes taking off the under trunks to put on his hand and I’m done. Not interested in watching this stuff again. Once was much more than enough.

Was fine until I gave up at around 6 out of 8 minutes. Nothing like advertising a video game with matches centered around trying to shove used underwear in people’s faces. I wouldn’t have chosen this to end the weekend.

Skipping ahead to the finish Hagane wins with a hanging corner double stomp followed by Rahei (somersault STO rollup). Hagane’s great. Nakazawa’s skills are serviceable but his gimmick sucks.

It was smart to include some comedy in the exhibition matches, but found the choice of it poor. Crowd seemed fine for it though, so mileage will vary.

Over the course of the whole weekend these matches were a great way to promote the game. The participants, styles, etc were all carefully chosen and well presented to be accessible to both prior fans and attendees who might be seeing wrestling for the first time. Everyone worked hard and with the exception of the one aspect I’ve made clear wasn’t to my tastes all three days are easy recommendations.

This event and other shows from numerous promotions (including TJPW, DDT, Sendai Girls, Marigold, and so on) can be viewed with a Wrestle Universe subscription.

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

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

Categories
Japan Reviews Wrestling

Tokyo Game Show AEW Matches 9/17/22

September 17, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan

Back in 2022 Tokyo Game Show, an annual video game trade fair, featured several AEW sponsored wrestling matches to promote the release of AEW Fight Forever. I previously took a look at day one, and now it’s on to day two.

Konosuke Takeshita vs Chris Brookes

Cool matchup of two of DDT’s cornerstones. Brookes had numerous title reigns at this point but hadn’t ever won the big KO-D Openweight Championship yet. Takeshita had held it a number of times, and had just recently lost it a month prior.

Both these wrestlers faced Christopher Daniels (in separate singles matches) on day one.

The match starts with extended technical grappling including a cool counter where Takeshita powers Chris up while in an armlock to counter, but the latter releases his legs and stands up to prevent any sort of slam. They trade holds until Chris lands a chop and challenges Takeshita to respond in kind. A hard elbow levels Chris and that might not have been the wisest challenge to make.

An awesome moment sees Chris tease an inside out suplex from the apron, then hit a flying cutter into the ring after Takeshita fights out.

Chris works a deathlock for a bit while in control. Takeshita fights to the ropes for a break.

Later with Takeshita back on offense highlights include a wicked slingshot plancha, and a Blue Thunder Powerbomb for 2.

Takeshita goes up top. He’s intercepted by Chris but counters the latter’s superplex attempt and pushes Chris down. Chris pops right back up and hits a butterfly superplex.

Chris’ Praying Mantis Bomb (sitout butterfly piledriver) is escaped with a crazy counter seeing Ueno land on his feet when Chris sits out. A knee strike wipes Chris out.

They link left hands and forearm the hell out of each other with their rights. Takeshita eventually ducks one of Chris’ strikes and grabs a waist lock for a German suplex attempt. Chris counters into a rolling cradle but Takeshita rolls through it for 2.

A fast paced exchange of strikes ends with a big lariat by Takeshita, but the pin is countered into a tight crucifix by Chris for 2.

They go back and forth some more then Chris ducks another lariat, but after rebounding off the ropes he’s nailed with Takeshita’s kneestrike. The 3 is academic.

Handshake afterwards, then Takeshita gives the quick winner promo that’s been standard throughout the weekend.

Chris lost both his matches but looked great and Takeshita felt like a monster beating him clean here. Takeshita will wrestle again in the last match of the day.

A hard fought, exciting match. Again the presentation, participants, and matches have been spot on all around for an event like this.

Riho vs Hikari Noa

My most anticipated match of the whole weekend. Riho was AEW’s first ever Women’s Champion, and was a 16 year vet at age of 25 when this trade fair happened. This was her only match of the event.

Hikari is the only wrestler that had matches on all three days. As I said regarding day one seeing these previously unreleased matches of hers is a treat for me as I’m a huge fan and she has since left wrestling.

On a random note the smoke on the entrances is heavy today, completely blocking the side cam view of some of the wrestlers. It’s just a couple seconds of footage so no big deal, but it’s still a bit weird to see them walk through such a dense cloud.

Squaring up right away, they fight over wrist lock then go right into the standard quick paced counter exchange. Longtime wrestling fans know this when they see it, with rope running, leg sweeps, quick rolling out of covers, and so on. Always a good way to show athleticism though and a crowd pleaser. Can’t think of a better time to use it either, as there’s likely to be a bunch of first time watchers in the audience.

Hikari tries to get an edge of her much more experienced opponent with a number of hair tosses, but Riho counters the third with a cartwheel. A subsequent Riho crossbody is countered at one into a pin, which Riho quickly bridges out of.

Riho ties Hikari in the ropes, then climbs them herself and poses and waves to the audience with her foot in Hikari’s face. She breaks at 3. Riho then settles in for a bit with a deep single leg crab. Hikari struggles hard to claw her way to the ropes for a break.

Creating a bit of space, Hikari deploys her dropkick barrage. For those who haven’t seen this: she throws a number of dropkicks (or super kicks) in as quick succession as possible, sacrificing power for speed. They’re less impactful than carefully measured ones and are sometimes glancing blows, but the point is to overwhelm and wear down her opponent a bit.

Now in control, Hikari goes into her seated rolling cradle for 2.

Hikari rushes a downed Riho in the ropes, and hits a knee to the back. She does it again and gets legswept into Tiger Feint Kick (619) position. The knee was a touch awkward. Looked like Hikari expected Riho to be closer to the ropes (or maybe expected the sweep on the first run). But she adjusted well and it was a really minor thing.

Commentary went with the 619 name, so I guess I’m switching over. Riho nails it, then goes up top. Crossbody gets 2. Riho calls for the end, and her Northern Lights Suplex gets another close 2.

She goes up to the top turnbuckle again, but Hikari dodges the diving double stomp. Hikari’s charge is countered with a schoolboy rollup, and a resulting series of counter rollups for 2 ends with deep cover rollup by Hikari for an even closer 2. Great sequence.

Riho follows Hikari into ropes for a clothesline. Hikari returns the favor with hard dropkick, then follows up with a diving lariat for 2

Hikari’s Blizzard Suplex is fought out of, but she lands super kicks to Riho’s knee then head to keep control. Hikari goes up, but is slow due to exhaustion/damage. Riho meets her on the turnbuckles and after a forearm exchange superplexes Hikari back into the ring.

Riho’s diving double stomp from the top … gets 2.999999. Great shocked face from Riho at her opponent’s resilience. It’s Hikari’s last act of defiance though. Riho nails the Somato (running double kneestrike) and Hikari’s done.

Face paced and fun. In concept this was extremely similar to Hikari’s day one match against Mizunami. She was outmatched and fighting with all she had until she couldn’t anymore. But Riho’s a very different type of skilled vet than the physically imposing powerhouse Mizunami, so it was a quite different encounter.

This was essentially a dream match for me and I’m thrilled that it happened and that I could finally watch it. Shame it was one of the shortest matches of the weekend (I would’ve loved another 5 minutes), but 8 minutes is still solid and what we got was great.

Yuki Ueno vs Michael Nakazawa

Ueno was DDT’s Universal Champion at the time and came out with the belt. Outside of this, his only appearance for AEW was 7 months later on Dark.

Haven’t seen much of him, but he’s one of DDT’s top stars and was a great choice to have make an appearance.

After Ueno’s entrance different music hits, and at the announce table Nakazawa acts surprised. Didn’t catch the banter as I don’t speak much Japanese, but after a bit the crowd encourages him to get in to face Ueno.

He has the ref check him while still holding the mic and chatting. Bell rings with him still commentating as he circles Ueno. He calls for a lockup. Ueno forces him to the ropes and gives a mostly clean break. Nakazawa reverses the second lockup in the ropes and tries a cheap shot, but begs off when it doesn’t work.

Nakazawa calls for a handshake then tries a cheap shot with the mic while calling Ueno a baka (fool), but it’s blocked and he’s wiped out.

He tosses Ueno the mic and hits a super kick with the distraction. He’s now in full heel mode and the mic stuff is done. He works over Ueno in the corner for a bit.

Nakazawa pulls off his polo to reveal a Michael Nakazawa tank top.Then takes off his pants to reveal his trunks. If only he had stopped there. He whips then chokes Ueno with his pants. Once that’s done he elevates Ueno to crotch him on the ropes then slides him along them.

Nakazawa runs to ropes, but holds on to them to foil a Ueno dropkick counter. Eats the next dropkick though. Ueno repeatedly wipes him out with running forearms, then goes on an extended offensive flurry including a flying seated splash in corner, a beautiful overhead German, a plancha to the outside, and a DDT on the announce table.

Back inside, Nakazawa gets his knees up to counter Ueno’s top rope frog splash.

During a forearm exchange Nakazawa takes off his tank top to fire himself up. He eats another shot, lowers his kneepad, eats another shot, then lowers his trucks (he’s wearing another, slimmer pair underneath). The ref stops him from disrobing halfway, leading to another another shot from Ueno and Nakazawa’s now wrestling with his original trucks around his knees. I can’t believe I’m recapping this.

A teardrop suplex puts Ueno down and Nakazawa pulls his trunks up. He then takes off the underneath pair (a leg at a time) and puts them on his hands, then they struggle over whose face what’s essentially worn underwear is going to be shoved into. Of course it’s the ref that takes it as a collateral shot. This is now everything I hate about lowbrow humor in wrestling.

Nakazawa gets a rollup but there’s no ref as he’s still suffering from the underwear to the face. Suplex by Ueno, but he springboards into the trunks to the face. Cover with the trunks still over his face gets 2.

Nakazawa puts the deadly trunks on his knee, but whatever he had planned is countered with a dropkick. Half nelson suplex gets 3 for Ueno.

Objectively the crowd was into this and showing a different style of wrestling was smart. And DDT is known for its mix of comedy and action. Personally though I thought this was a waste of Ueno, showed only a fraction of what he’s capable of, and at 10+ minutes it was a lot of wasted time that could have been given to other matches. Fine for what it was, but what it was is so not for me.

Christopher Daniels & Ryo Mizunami vs Yuka Sakazaki & Konosuke Takeshita

Man if we could get AEW to regularly book Yuka and get over their aversion to intergender matches this dream team could be tearing things up every week. While Yuka was in TJPW at this time and a part time AEW guest, she’s now living in the US and a full time member of the AEW roster.

The wrestling experience in this match is insane. The least experienced participant is Yuka, who was a nine year veteran at the time. The rest range from 10 to 30 years in the business. Four masters of the craft.

The men start. Some fun counter wrestling early, leading to a Daniels cheap shot for a momentary advantage. But when things settle Takeshita hits a backdrop then a leg lariat to take over. Daniels bails to the corner to be comforted by Ryo. Tag to the women.

A counter wrestling exchange is dominated by the powerhouse, with some particularly vicious use of a headlock, but Yuka’s deceptively powerful and it won’t last long until she gives it back.

Fun sequence follows of Mizunami shrugging off Yuka’s shoulder blocks, then wiping out the smaller competitor with her own. Yuka sends Mizunami to her corner though and tags Takeshita. And thank goodness while they’re calling this a “mixed tag” we have proper intergender rules and not the silly meaning mixed tag has in the states (where tagging your partner forces a switch on the other side so men only face men and women only face women).

Takeshita elbows Mizunami in the corner. Yuka comes in for a double suplex, but she’s so much shorter than Takeshita she isn’t really needed and nonchalantly walks out while Takeshita has Ryo up. Then Yuka lands an enzugiri on Mizunami’s head as Takeshita brings her down. Great, creative double team.

Daniels comes in to get plastered with a double rolling elbow. Yuka goes out but gets tagged right back in. Looks like they’ll be minimizing the sections of men versus women, but at least it’s not being overly artificially done. Double axhandle from the top to Miznumai’s arm as Takeshita holds it.

Yuka’s trademark forward snapmare roll into a kick sets up the sliding lariat for 2. She goes up top, but from the apron Daniels grabs her leg to delay and Mizanumi slams her off the top. Mizunami works Yuka over with stomps and strikes. A chin lock into the Camel Clutch keeps Yuka grounded. Great heelish touch as Daniels tries to push the bottom rope out of Yuka’s reach as she goes for a rope break, but she eventually makes it anyway.

Yuka floats out of a bodyslam attempt, but Daniels trips her as she hits the ropes then gets into it with the announcers. Nakazawa on commentary makes a horribly sexist comment of “what’d you do man? I mean she’s just a girl man,” to Daniels. She is, in fact, a multi-time singles and tag champion who has competed numerous times against men during her career and was an equal competitor in this contest (and was 30 years old at the time). The heel move was the illegal person tripping her and had nothing to do with Daniels being a man and Yuka being a woman. Clearly trying to get more heat on Daniels, but that infantilizing bullshit is counter productive.

Mizunami lays in machine gun chops in the corner, but the showy one to end the series is ducked. Yuka fights back but is rocked by more strikes. Mizunami hits ropes and runs into TEA TIME (scoop suplex). Yuka’s crazy strong and that was so smooth despite the size difference.

Both down. Mizunami manages the tag to Daniels before Yuka can get to her own corner. He cuts her off and sends her to a neutral corner. Stopping to taunt Takeshita, he runs into Yuka’s boot when he resumes his charge. Yuka takes him down with a hurricanrana, then ducks a clothesline and rolls into the tag to bring in Takeshita.

Takeshita runs over Daniels numerous times, then nails the Blue Thunder Powerbomb. It gets 2 as Mizunami saves. Daniels uses her as a distraction for a cheap shot on Takeshita, but Yuka comes in with a missile dropkick on Daniels.

Hard Yuka elbows rock Mizunami, but a lariat turns the tide and then Mizunami levels her with a spear. Mizunami goes up top but Yuka meets her there with forearm shots. Superplex attempt is thwarted by Daniels pulling Yuka down. She fights off him off though and stuns him with an enzugiri, then Takeshita launches Miznuami off the turnbuckles at Daniels for an unwilling crossbody.

With Mizunami out on the mat, Yuka goes up for the Magical Magical Girl Splash (that’s not a typo, the double “Magical” indicates this is the version where she does a spinning splash (Twisted Bliss) from the middle of the top rope). Takeshita hits the running knee strike to Daniels a second later and a double pin gets the win (Takeshita and Daniels were still legal so that was theoretically the pin that mattered, but the ref counted both).

Fantastic match. Best of the weekend against solid competition.

Takeshita thanks his opponents for the match and the four shake hands.

Another strong batch of promotional matches, with everything not involving Nakazawa being great. And admittedly even the match I couldn’t stand served a purpose.

This event and other shows from numerous promotions including TJPW, DDT, Sendai Girls, Marigold, and so on can be viewed with a Wrestle Universe subscription.

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

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

Categories
Japan Reviews Video Games Wrestling

Tokyo Game Show AEW Matches 9/16/22

September 16, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan

Back in 2022 Tokyo Game Show, an annual video game trade fair, featured several AEW sponsored wrestling matches to promote the release of AEW Fight Forever. The eventual game itself was less than warmly received, but the unique matches had quite a bit of buzz around them from those lucky enough to catch them.

The lineup contained a mix of a few select AEW roster, some Japanese wrestlers who had appeared for AEW, a couple of DDT’s stars and one of TJPW’s top rising stars (at the time). Most of them worked two or more matches through the weekend. There were a total of 9 matches over the three days involving 10 different wrestlers.

These matches were recently put up for streaming on the Wrestle Universe platform (subscription required). They involved a lot of my favorites wrestlers of all time on both the women and men’s sides so I’m thrilled to see them finally shared.

Christopher Daniels vs Chris Brookes

Winner faces Takeshita later in the last match of the day. First of many dream matches in this lineup for me. Been watching Daniels wrestle for well over a decade starting back in ROH, and I’m extremely familiar with Chris via ChocoPro.

Daniels has worked Japan a lot in the past and is part of AEW talent relations, so was a natural choice to be involved in this. Brookes has been DDT roster for years, making this an interesting matchup of two foreigners well established in Japan. All of the other competitors in these matches are Japanese.

Daniels was getting close to 30 years in at the time of these matches. He retired from in-ring competition earlier this year.

On a completely random note, Chris has incredibly awesome entrance music.

Brookes’ size advantage vs Daniels’ experience edge anchored this match. It was all about Daniels picking Chris apart and Chris fighting back with holds and high impact strikes and moves. Solid, straightforward stuff that was exactly what it needed to be as the initial offering to a potentially largely unfamiliar audience.

Ending saw Daniels hide behind the ref when Chris up top and kick ropes to cause an unfortunate landing for Brookes. With Chris crumpled on the mat the Best Moonsault Ever (BME, a triple jump up the corner turnbuckles into a moonsault) was academic for the for win.

By the numbers finish in the best way possible that gave Chris an out and let Daniels proceed to Takeshita.

Daniels teased heel tendencies during the match and went full bore during the post match interview by attacking his translator (Michael Nakazawa) to send a message to Takeshita. Takeshita came out and Daniels bailed, saying they’ll face when he says so. Super efficient way to set up a story for their impending match.

Ryo Mizunami vs Hikari Noa

Such a treat to see these lost Hikari matches. She was a personal favorite who left wrestling last year. The three women’s singles matches across this event are basically her running a gauntlet of several of my other favorites. A rising star in TJPW at the time, these were her first and only AEW affiliated matches. The other women participants had all appeared for AEW before. She starts with the charismatic powerhouse Mizunami.

Mizunami easily overpowered Hikari in the opening lockup, absorbed Hikari’s dropkicks like they were nothing, and wiped her out with several shoulder tackles.

It was made crystal clear that Hikari was fighting an uphill battle here, and her tenaciousness was the story. She fought tooth and nail to even get a hair toss, which took several attempts and stomps to Ryo’s feet to be able to move the much larger competitor.

Mizunami easily reversed a scoop slam, and later when Hikari floated out of another slam attempt by Mizunami the latter simply leveled Hikari with a chop. A Camel Clutch tortured Hikari until she could make the ropes, she took machine gun chops in corner, and so on. At one point was nailed with and STO and Mizunami’s big leg drop for a super close 2.

But Hikari was the best kind of persistent underdog and fought back whenever she got an opening. At one point she countered a corner rush with a dropkick, ducked a Mizunami lariat then hit a flying clothesline, then threw her dropkick barrage at the powerhouse. Later a great rolling cradle got 2. Other close calls for Mizunami came from a sliding rollup with a bridge and a superkick barrage.

Late match Mizunami took a superkick but then fought off a Blizzard Suplex setup and nailed Hikari with a lariat followed by a spear. Hot Limit (Cradle Shock variant) ended it.

Energetic encounter with the outmatched Hikari throwing all she could at Mizunami until she had nothing left. Perfect match for the participants. Fun stuff.

Christopher Daniels vs Konosuke Takeshita

Daniels slaps away handshake offer to remind everyone he went full heel earlier in the day. This is about 6 months before Takeshita’s big heel turn in AEW, and he was 100% pure babyface in this time period. Takeshita started in DDT but now primarily wrestles in AEW, being official roster for both companies (and recently NJPW as well).

Daniels pulled Takeshita’s hair then gloated about taking him down. In turn Takeshita LEVELED Daniels with a slap. Ten seconds in and the battle lines are drawn, the characters clear, and the crowd engaged.

Takeshita got a huge reaction for landing some big shots on Daniels early. He teased an inside out suplex from the apron, but Daniels went to the eyes and proceeded to control for a while. Highlights included a sweet Saito suplex, and mounted punches to *back* of Takeshita’s head in the corner in an unusual and brutal looking spot.

Later a back elbow and a lariat gave Takeshita some daylight, and the pace picked up. Takeshita hit a gorgeous plancha then back in a Blue Thunder Powerbomb got 2.

Daniels dodged Takeshita’s jumping and hit Angel’s Wings… FOR ONE?! Great use of the quick kickout there.

Takeshita fought back with a rolling elbow, but his charge in the corner eats boot. BME gets 2. Having Takehista tough things out and survive the move that put Brookes away earlier is particularly nice layered storytelling for anyone who attended both matches.

A palm strike with Takeshita up top set up a FrankenSteiner attempt by Daniels. But he was pushed off and ate canvas. A jumping knee from the turnbuckles followed, then Takeshita hit another for good measure to get 3.

Formulas are formulas for a reason. Great little feel good, well worked face over heel match. Hottest match of the day.

All three of these matches were a blast and exactly what they should have been for the event. Really impressed with how it was all handled and presented, and at a solid 9-10 minutes of action apiece these were a great way to promote the game and potentially introduce new fans to AEW and wrestling in general. Looking forward to watching the rest.

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

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

Categories
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 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 Reviews Wrestling

Inspiration #2 Live Stream Thoughts

July 1, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Joshi Pro has been experimenting with several interesting new initiatives to expand the type of content they offer. Recently That’s JPW, their semiweekly one match all English shows, wrapped up after 24 episodes over the course of three months. It was a well done, worthwhile endeavor and I hope it returns someday.

Inspiration’s another unique new offering with a ton of potential. They’re shorter than usual shows (three matches, around an hour) that include things outside of TJPW’s normal purview.  Inspiration #1 was a great start, with all three Up Up Girls getting spotlight singles opportunities against major opponents and the deathmatch loving Hikari having her (and TJPW’s) first ever hardcore match in the main event.

Inspiration’s second show continues the format of an unusual stipulation match in the main event, and features four rookies getting spotlight opportunities as two of them face TJPW’s aces in singles matches while the other two face each other.

1) Arisu Endo vs Moka Miyamoto

Special match here for both, as it’ll be a first singles victory no matter who wins. Only Arisu and Yuki Arai have debuted more recently than Moka, so this is her first singles match against a less experienced opponent. Both have looked very impressive in their short careers so far, so I’m excited for this encounter.

One great thing about TJPW is that most of their rookies debut with a fair amount of their character/style in place. Moka’s traditional Japanese influence on her gear is unusual and makes her standout as much as Arisu’s unique, more flamboyant gear does for her.

Moka incorporates her karate background into her strikes, and Arisu centers her offense around knee drops to the back of the head. These core approaches give them something to build around as they gain more experience.

This became a really good example of how well properly executed fundamentals can anchor a match. They went hold for hold trading waist locks, side headlocks, reverse chin locks, hammerlocks, arm ringers, and so on as each gradually tried to build an advantage.

They were both always working holds and fighting for escapes. Moka concentrated on Arisu’s leg as the match went on while Arisu doggedly kept going for her kneedrop to the back of the head variations which connected more and more often.

Moka started to take control late, but her karate strikes setting up a submission hold were a tad too slow and just as she got it locked in time expired.

Rather surprised at this going to time limit. Wrestling a compelling draw is tough at their experience, and this was very solid and never felt like they were wrestling for a draw. In some ways the way they kept it engaging throughout is more impressive than a victory would have been for either. Good stuff.

2) Yuka Sakazaki vs Suzume

Huge opportunity for Suzume against one of TJPW’s top stars right before Yuka travels to the US for a month to wrestle for AEW.

TJPW’s magical girl is rightfully well known for her incredible high flying, but is also deceptively strong and a great technical wrestler. It’s the latter two traits she used to keep control of Suzume early while Suzume used her speed to try to counter.

Yuka’s tenacity against Suzume’s resilience became the story here. In one particularly great exchange Yuka stopped Suzume’s efforts to get out of a side headlock by reaching the rope with a leg by using her own leg to wrap up Suzume’s without releasing the hold, making Suzume roll them both completely over to get the ropes and the break.

Suzume fought back against everything Yuka tried, and managed to put together a solid string of offense late match. Yuka just kept laying on the power to wear Suzume down though. She eventually hit her awesome Magical Merry Go Round (over the shoulder hammerlock airplane spin into a sitout facebuster) to put Suzume away.

Yuka can do it all and I adore when she goes into aggressive mode. Suzume looked great here against her and it all came together into a really enjoyable match.

3) UWF Rules Match: Miyu Yamashita vs Mirai Maiumi

Miyu is the reigning Princess of Princess champion, but this is non-title. No pinfalls in this. Winner is determined by knockout, tapout, or TKO. Knockout is determined by failure to get up for a 10-count.

Each wrestler starts with 5 points, and a TKO happens if they are reduced to zero. A point can be lost by being knocked down (with a knockout count starting, simply taking your opponent off their feet briefly in some manner is insufficient), using a rope break, or breaking the rules (certain strikes such as punches and elbows are prohibited). If the time limit is reached, most points left wins.

UWF rules is a popular style in Japan that is considered to be the foundation of MMA, based in kicks/submissions. The match between the striker Yamashita and the grappler Mirai should be interesting. This will be my first UWF rules match. Given the unique nature of it I’m going full play-by-play here.

Tentative start with an exchange of delivering and checking each other’s low kicks. Mirai catches one and twists Miyu to the mat but the latter escapes and gets back to her feet before Mirai can apply any holds.

Miyu largely keeps her opponent at bay but when Mirai does dash in to grab a leg Miyu gets a front face lock on the ground instead. Mirai gets free and gets on top of Miyu’s back. Miyu keeps covered tight for a while preventing Mirai from getting an advantage, but Mirai eventually pulls Miyu over with a waist lock and rolls into a seated body scissors from behind. Miyu fights off Mirai’s attempts to take her head and spins around until she’s on top of Mirai on the Matt trying to get control of Mirai’s head and arms.

Mirai manages to flip it around so she’s on top and presumably in control, but the champ grabs her head in a front face lock from below. Mirai gets out and laces Miyu’s legs, then they largely stalemate each other for a bit until Mirai gets Miyu flipped face down and grabs her legs.

Mirai ties up Miyu’s right leg with her own legs, all the while have to fend off Miyu trying to twist out or use her arms to dislodge Mirai. She finally gets it settled and grabs Miyu’s other leg in a half crab. Miyu flips out but it was a trap and Mirai grabs the foot on Miyu’s still tied up right leg and pulls down, completing a beautiful triangle leg lace. Miyu’s in trouble and has to go to the ropes with her other foot to break, costing her a point and bringing her down to 4.

Mirai breaks and they’re separated to neutral corners. Being vertical again Miyu starts being more aggressive with her kicks to keep the grappler away and Mirai has to move back several times to avoid them. Mirai eventually shoots in regardless and takes Miyu down with a wasitlock, but Miyu’s able to push Mirai away then use her legs from a seated position to keep the standing Mirai back.

Mirai tentatively gets ahold of a leg, but it’s Miyu’s turn to spring a trap as she uses that legs to pull Mirai in and spins around in a GORGEOUS transition until Miyu’s in back mount position with a chin lock and bodyscissors on Mirai on the mat.

Mirai flips over with Miyu still on her back and creates a little separation, so Miyu converts to a cross armbreaker attempt. Mirai’s got her hands solidly locked to it takes all Miyu’s strength to break her grip and get the arm extended, but once she does Mirai has to quickly get to the ropes to break. One point down for Mirai and they’re both at 4.

Back to vertical again and Miyu alternates between hitting low kicks, just pushing Mirai away with boots to the chest, and the occasional swing at her head to make sure Mirai’s paying attention. She is and so far has avoid all Miyu’s “test” big strikes.

Miyu lays in a string of low and middle kicks that rock Mirai a bit, but it becomes clear the latter was absorbing them on purpose when she responds by LEVELING Miyu with her signature left lariat. Knockdown on Miyu costs a point putting her at 3. Miyu back up at 7 and they square up again.

Miyu charges but Mirai rolls her right into a key lock. She gets the body scissors too and it’s in DEEP. Miyu’s only chance of escape is backing up to the ropes and there’s another point spent. Miyu’s at 2.

Back to neutral corners and Miyu’s right arm is limp at her side. She begs off a bit but then NAILS a kick to the temple out of nowhere to lay Mirai out. Mirai’s back up at 9 but shaky. Knockdown costs her a point and she’s at 3.

Miyu presses the advantage and runs in with a knee strike and a flurry of kicks and palm strikes. She just barely misses another head kick. Mirai grabs the next mid kick and takes Miyu down, but Miyu hits a kick to Mirai’s head from the mat to break.

Back up and Miyu cuffs Mirai’s head a few times, then lands the Skull Kick and Mirai’s done. 10 count is academic. Miyu gets the victory. Mirai looked like she could hang with the champ though, and there are definitely big things ahead of her in the years to come.

A couple of presentation enhancements to make the rules clearer / provide reminders would be a good idea (I looked up the rules online before the show, or likely would’ve missed a lot of the context). That said, the match ended by knockout so not catching all of the nuance of the point system shouldn’t have hampered viewers too much in this case.

So the style and pace of this is much slower than a regular wrestling match, but intentionally so and not to its detriment. It won’t grab everyone but makes a good special stipulation for the right competitors and Miyu and Mirai were definitely perfect for this.

I really adored it, so for me this was another great main event to another great show making Inspiration two for two. Really looking forward to the next one.

Inspiration and TJPW’s other shows can be viewed with a Wrestle Universe subscription (which includes other promotions as well and is a great value at 900 yen a month).