After a quieter September, I’ve gone all out for October. We’ve got a host of exciting matches to talk about here, including two dives into uncharted territory and a somewhat accidental Meiko Satomura month as I continue my journey through the GAEAISM YouTube channel. It was getting so unruly that there were a couple of things I didn’t have time to write about. If you ever see me in the street, feel free to ask, and I’ll bore you about them.
Senka Akatsuki vs Miku Kanae, Sendai Girls (1/10/25), Sendai Girls
Senka Akatsuki vs Miku Kanae was a second-round match in the yearly Jaja Uma Tournament. This time around, Sendai trusted the rookies involved to carry a show by themselves, putting the first and second rounds on this card. That meant Kanae had already beaten Ema Maishima, while Senka received a bye, setting them up for this main event.
It’s fascinating to watch other youngsters face off with Senka. Part of it is, I’m sure, that Kanae had already wrestled earlier in the day, but she almost approached this like she was battling a veteran. While Senka might not be the fanciest wrestler in the world, she has a physical presence that no one in this tournament could match. As she walked out in her red swimsuit, standing tall and gazing straight ahead, micmic looked even smaller than usual. So, she tried to get the job quickly, offering Akatsuki a hand before going for the first of many attempts to bundle her up. She wrestled like someone who knew that if Senka started bullying her, she’d already lost.
That approach hits in two ways. The easy one is that it makes Senka look like a tank. She’s a force to be feared, someone that you have to take out before they can get a hold of you. The perhaps quieter conclusion, however, is that micmic had a plan. She knew who Akatsuki was, had figured out the advantages she had and was doing everything in her power to counteract them. There was little to no stalling when she was on offence, everything was an attempt to set up a pin or a roll-up that could potentially see her steal out with the three.
Not that it was perfect. Miku occasionally got dragged into trading strikes with Senka, a mistake both tactically and for the flow of the match, especially as the whole thing was only around 5 minutes. It’s not either of their strengths at this point in their careers, so if you jettisoned it, this would be an even tighter sprint. However, that’s a minor quibble, and perhaps ultimately unfair considering where they both are right now. This felt like the first chapter in something that could run and run, as their combo of speed and power made them natural opponents. If we’re lucky, it will be the first attempt, and if they want to really treat us, they’ll get Sora Ayame and Kirari Wakana involved in the future, too.
Mayu Iwatani vs Senka Akatsuki, Friday Night Gacha (3/10/25), Marvelous
The appeal of Senka Akatsuki is in the simplicity of Senka Akatsuki. She’s not unique in that sense – Marvelous rookies always start in their most stripped back form, right down to the gear they’re given, but there is something particularly bull-headed in her approach to it. The opening to this match captured that perfectly. As an arm popped up in front of the camera to punch the air in celebration at catching the baseball Mayu Iwatani had thrown into the crowd, you almost didn’t notice Senka wiping out the Icon in the background. Fittingly, she did it in the most straightforward way possible – barging into her to send her flopping to the ground. Even veteran Mayu was caught up in playing to the crowd, but Senka is always focused on the next thing to crash into.
It set up a match that worked as a nice contrast to the Miku Kanae one, but pressed a lot of the same buttons. Now, Senka is in the position of the underdog, going up against one of the biggest names in the scene. Yet, she was still a threat that Mayu had to adapt to. While Iwatani was never in trouble the way that micmic was, she was caught flat-footed by the bullish power of this youngster. She had come into this in first gear, expecting to breeze through the opener of this new Chigusa Nagayo Friday night wrestling project, but had suddenly found herself dealing with a rookie who just wouldn’t stop coming. Hesitate for a second, and she’s back up, charging towards you, desperate to force you down to the mat and smother you.
Eventually, Iwatani figured out her footing, not quite needing to shift up to top gear, but at least manoeuvring her way into third as she wiped the Marvelous youngster out with a beautiful German. However, this was yet another example of Senka being kind of undeniable. My instinct is to try to temper the excitement around her. As a Marvelous fan who watches all her matches and sees the flaws, I think the hype has blown up somewhat prematurely. While I can’t imagine the internet is about to start influencing her wrestling, I do worry that the enthusiasm will get her booked in places that might do so in negative ways (although in Chig, Takumi and Mio we trust). However, when you watch her wrestle, barging through people and trying to muscle her way to victory, it’s hard not to get carried away. She’s stripping wrestling down to its simplest components and milking them for everything they’re worth. In a world where everyone seems to constantly strive to be bigger and flashier, I want as much of that as possible. She has a long way to go, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy what she’s delivering right now.
Rika Tatsumi vs Raku, Autumn Victory in Shinagawa (4/10/25), TJPW
Another month, another delightful Rika Tatsumi midcard shenanigan fest.
Rika is currently being cycled down the card. With partner Miu Watanabe having won the big belt, Daydream are on the back burner, and while I am sure the time will come for her to wrap her hands around her friend’s throat once again, other things are going on right now. However, as much as I would have Rika constantly occupying the main event, that is no bad thing. For, alongside being one of my favourite big match wrestlers in the company, Tatsumi is also a master of the nonsense, and I am getting a lot of joy out of her messing around in the midcard.
Take this match, for example, in which Rika and Raku got stuck in a cycle of trying to do each other’s signature moves. Could I watch a full 10-minutes of them doing that? Probably not, but I could at least manage five. It’s certainly better than any other finisher-stealing nonsense that has been going on recently. There are plenty of wrestlers I don’t want to see doing that stuff, but in Rika and Raku, you have two people with great comic timing who are likeable enough to pull it off. People often talk about comedy wrestling as if it’s easy, but anyone who has ever tried to make a crowd laugh would surely tell you that’s nonsense. Bad comedy wrestling probably is easy (and there is plenty of that), but going out and entertaining a crowd, getting the right reactions and leaving everyone satisfied? I’d rather be dropped on my neck a couple of times than have to figure that out.
And that’s the magic of Rika Tatsumi. She’s as comfortable and happy doing this as she is in any main event, and, most importantly, seems to understand the importance of it. She doesn’t treat messing around with Raku and Pom as a night off. It’s another job on the card with a different set of skills. Rika, thankfully, has those in abundance, and while I hope that big belt finds its way into her hands again someday, I’m more than happy to watch a thousand of these before it does.
Rina Yamashita vs Antonio Honda, New Dawn (5/10/25), ChocoPro
95% of you give Antonio Honda nowhere near the credit he deserves for how good he is. Even those of you sitting there thinking that you’re a Honda fan and give him plenty of props are probably still underestimating his talent. Yes, I know, Stuart defending another nonsense wrestler is hardly a new story, but Honda is up there with Sakura Hirota as someone who builds their nonsense on an incredible wrestling base. There’s a perception that people lean towards the silly because they’re incapable of doing anything serious, but anyone with half a knowledge of either of their careers will tell you that’s bollocks. The likes of Anton and Hirota do that shit because they love it.
What’s interesting about Honda is that his influences are, on the whole, rooted outside of Japan. I can’t claim to be an expert on either of them, but to my eye, there is more Jerry Lawler and Dusty Rhodes in Honda than most. When he gets the tap on the shoulder to put the serious hat on, he’s all big sells, bigger emotion and even bigger punches. There’s nothing complex about the way Honda wrestles, although he showed off a bit of work on the mat in this match, as well as dumping Rina on her neck with a backdrop, but it all taps into something that feels emotionally real. I zone out during 99% of strike exchanges these days, but when he and Rina were duking it out, Honda throwing those wild swings that he does better than nearly anyone, I was rooted to the screen. He sells the blows, stumbling about, before reeling back to put everything into his reply. Strike exchanges aren’t inherently bad (very few things in wrestling are), but you need to make me believe in them. Honda and Rina did that.
And this was another big Rina display, too. I mentioned in my review of her match with Mei that ChocoPro has appeared to rekindle something in Yamashita. She has spent so long wandering around the Japanese freelance scene or being introduced to bad habits through shitty wrestlers in America that watching her in ChocoPro feels like discovering a whole new person. She was fired up and focused, aware that Honda had the experience edge on her, so she had to hit hard to put him down for good. Towards the end, after the aforementioned exchanging of blows, she seemed to have a touch of blood on her teeth, presumably from a cut in her mouth, as she climbed the ropes for a splash. I am by no means a deathmatch hater, and I think Rina’s had some brilliant ones, but I couldn’t help pondering how much more impact that touch of red being licked away had than a million gushing head wounds.
The match also marked a reset for ChocoPro. For all I love Mei Suruga, she isn’t having this match. Even Emi Sakura, who is a much more physical wrestler, isn’t someone I can imagine tapping into this same vein. Rina is somewhat alien to the Choco house-style, and this hints at how that can be used to explore whole new avenues. It excites me. I want to see what she can do with a Chie, a Sayaka or even a Hiyori. ChocoPro isn’t about to become the Rina Yamashita show, but it can certainly draw influence from her, and with her in this form, that will be no bad thing.
Mio Momono, Takumi Iroha & Senka Akatsuki vs Mayu Iwatani, Utami Hayashishita & Seri Yamaoka, Monday Magic Xtreme Season Episode 1 (6/10/25), NOAH
The Marvelous and Marigold feud does it again!
It’s funny how much more palatable I find Takumi Iroha and Utami Hayashishita in this environment. I still think they took a touch too much of this match, filling up the middle with their interactions, but it’s so much more enjoyable when they’re in an environment that doesn’t cater towards their penchant for the epic. They’re forced to strip things back, relying on being the two powerhouses Aces of their teams, crashing into each other and throwing out big moves. The first time they tagged in, their offence was almost entirely made up of shoulder blocks, as they battled to one-up each other. That’s the version of their matches I want to see!
Of course, that wasn’t the highlight. That once again fell to Senka and Yamaoka. I was going to write about how remarkable it is that they’re this good together so early in their careers, but I actually think that’s a big part of why it works. They’re both still rough around the edges, and that brings so much to their encounters. It’s in Senka’s dedication to bullheadedly trying to take Seri to the mat, despite surely having figured out that she’s outmatched there. When she inevitably is outworked, it feels right, particularly in an era where so many wrestlers round out their flaws, turning everything into a fifty-fifty battle. I also adored her unwillingness to let go of her Boston Crab on two separate occasions. The first was when Mio was delivering dropkicks to Seri’s head, as Senka held on for her to hit three of them before still forcing her opponent to crawl to the ropes. The second was when Mayu tried to break one with a stiff kick to the back, only for Akatsuki to refuse to budge until Utami turned up and hit her even harder. So many wrestlers let go of holds or pins for the lightest of strokes, but the Marvelous rookie is like me with a pint on a Friday night, refusing to give it up until she has no other choice.
If there was a flaw, it was that Mio and Mayu were somewhat overlooked. They got a few moments together, and Mio, as she always does in these cross-promotional battles, ramped up the Chucky side of her personality, laying in everything that little bit more. However, I kind of get why. They were both required to be the glue of the match, always being called upon to break up a pin or stitch various pieces together. Sometimes it’s a curse to be relied on by everyone, as it prevents you from taking centre stage, but it doesn’t make your role any less important.
Still, even with that minor quibble, this was a great showing. There are always little flaws in these things, especially when they’re filling twenty minutes. However, every time Marvelous and Marigold come together, they capture the magic of two groups who aren’t willing to give an inch. There might not be hate in the air, but there is competition, fuelled by pride in what they represent. Because of that, it’s a feud I’m happy to let run and run, and matches like this are why.
Phil Wang vs Ed Gamble, Clash of the Comics (8/10/25), Clash of the Comics
Clash of the Comics is a semi-regular event that merges comedy and pro wrestling. In essence, that means you get a bunch of UK safe-hands leading comedians through basic but usually funny matches. Gamble vs Wang was the main event of their most recent show, and comes with the caveat that I was there in person, so I had consumed multiple beers before watching it, which is always going to make something more enjoyable.
And if you haven’t figured it out from that description, this is not a match for the spreadsheet nerds to seek out. Neither Wang nor Gamble are close to the level of the rookies I regularly cover on this website. They’re two comedians who have undergone some training and had maybe had a chance to run through this a couple of times. However, what it was, regardless of all that, was some fantastic wrestling bullshit. Gamble came in having stolen Wang’s title and spent the whole match, with the help of his backup Bullit and Rishi Ghosh, shenaniganing his way out of any danger. When he did find himself in a pickle, he inevitably went full heel stooge, begging off before taking his beatings from everyone’s favourite Wang. There was a load of nonsense, a big heel turn and even a promised rematch somewhere down the line.
The reason it makes this list comes back to something I’ve talked about a few times recently: commitment. If you commit to the bit, add a hot crowd who are there to have a good time, and see it through to the end without ever breaking immersion, you can make good wrestling. Okay, it won’t necessarily be technically impressive or something I’m particularly interested in watching on tape, but it will work for the crowd in the room. Everyone here from the commentary team (of which Nish Kumar was a particular highlight) to the wrestlers helping out committed to what they were doing, which meant that even though the whole thing was messy and all over the place, it was also a whole lot of fun. Would I watch it every week? No. Of course not. For a once-a-year treat, though? It’s perfect.
I spent a lot of time at this show looking around the room and attempting to figure out the demographic of the crowd. There were a few wrestling t-shirts scattered here and there, but they were in the minority. The majority seemed to be comedy fans – people who have seen many of these names on Taskmaster or maybe in small clubs around the UK. Yet, it was one of the best crowds I’ve been a part of. It comes back to something I’ve talked about with friends before. Seasoned fans are often the worst people to watch with. We’ve seen it all before, so it’s not as exciting as it once was. Show someone who has never been to a wrestling show a superplex or someone crashing through a table, and you suddenly remember how mind-blowing that is. I don’t think the nerds who read this website need to go and watch this match, but I think we should all be supportive of this kind of thing in general. If nothing else, I bet at least a handful of people watching it came away wanting to see more.
Momoka Hanazono & Cohaku vs Mei Suruga & Honoka, Mochi Natsumi 15th Anniversary Show (11/10/25), Produce Show
It feels like a while since I’ve watched some proper goblin wrestling. Everyone involved in this brings elements of it to countless other matches, but it feels like a day and an age since a group of them were brought together and let loose. Here, they even got a lumbering old giant to bounce off, as someone came up with the ingenious idea of putting Shuji Ishikawa in the middle of them as referee. The man has enough issues controlling his own unruly daughters, why would you give him more to deal with!
I’ve said it before, but this is my favourite Mei Suruga. She’s become a great Ace in ChocoPro, putting on some matches that I genuinely love, but she really sparkles when asked to be an outsider. Coming in and corrupting a relative innocent like Honoka into her mischievous ways. Of course, we know how brilliant she and Momoka are together, as out of all of Mei’s goblin friends, she’s easily the one she has the most chemistry with as an opponent. However, I do not understand how someone hasn’t booked Mei vs Cohaku by now. I know Suruga doesn’t wrestle in WAVE or Oz Academy as much as she used to, but that match makes itself, surely? They’ve been on the opposite side of various tag encounters over the years, but it’s something that sits just behind Suruga and Momono getting together in my list of things that have to happen sooner rather than later. There is literally nothing stopping you.
Credit also to big Shuj, who played this all perfectly. Yes, some of the beats were expected, although I’ll still avoid ruining the jokes, but there was such joy in watching him march around the venue, gathering up these warring goblins and depositing them back in the ring. Ishikawa is one of my favourite kinds of wrestlers, as while he’s clearly a monster of a man, he also seems like an utter sweetheart. You only have to watch his interactions with his gang of adult daughters in Evolution to see that. He put both sides of his personality to good use here, making for some of the easiest to watch wrestling you’ll find.
And that’s all I needed from a match like this. Like a Rika Tatsumi TJPW midcard outing, it doesn’t need stakes. It simply needs four wrestlers with a love of the game going out and looking to have a lovely old time. These goblins come to life when they get into that ring, and I’ll happily watch them menace each other, and everyone else who gets in their way, for hours.
Kotoeiho vs Tobizaru, Grand Championship (16/10/25), Sumo
I should start this off by pointing out that I know very little about sumo. Beyond reading Hinomaru Sumo earlier this year, listening to my friends over at the Puro Pourri Podcast’s recent ‘Wrestling is Sumo’ episode and watching a few clips on Twitter now and then, it’s a whole new world for me. However, it’s a world I’ve been keen to explore, making these shows in London, which were very easy to watch in the UK, a perfect place to delve into the land of big lads. So far, I’ve been having a blast.
And this bout captured one of the things that I’ve found fascinating about it all. It’s a world of stoicism and humility, where celebrating or showboating is practically non-existent. Even the most stoic of Japanese wrestlers looks expressive and over the top compared to the rikishi, and yet, now and then, you get a slight crack in that facade, and because everything is played straight, it doesn’t take a lot to feel like a big deal. Here, it came in a thrilling display of one-upmanship, as Kotoeiho showed off his beautiful stomps before the fight, holding his leg in the air for a seemingly impossible period of time. Apparently, it’s something he’s famous for. However, Tobizaru was having none of that. The ‘Flying Monkey’ met the challenge, raising his own leg and holding it in place. He couldn’t do it for quite as long, or quite as elegantly as Kotoeiho, but there was a clear message there, as he delivered some rare mind games and woke up the crowd in the process.
I don’t have the vocabulary to talk about the fight itself. Like most sumo, it was short and thrilling, a thunderous initial collision followed by Tobizaru delivering a clap in front of his opponent’s eyes, dashing around him, showing that mixture of power and speed that makes this all so exciting, lifting him off the ground and almost gently depositing him out of the ring. It’s over in seconds, which is what makes it so enthralling. The rikishi deliver a burst of energy, which at first looks random and wild, but on closer inspection is intricate with technique and plans, as tactical as it is ferocious.
It’s unlikely I’ll be rebranding to Ramblings About Sumo any time soon, but I do suspect I’ve caught the bug. It’s a sport filled with ceremony and pomp, setting up something that, for all its intricacies, is ultimately incredibly simple. Two big lads crash into each other and see who comes out on top. How can you not be enthralled by that?
Bobubobu Momo Banana (Mio Momono & Yurika Oka) vs Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase), Sendai Girls (17/10/25), Sendai Girls
On their third attempt, I think this was the first time the pairing of Bobubobu Momo Banana and Red Energy really clicked for me. That’s not entirely their fault. The second attempt, and the one that had the titles on the line, was derailed by Mio Momono’s injury, forcing Yurika Oka to work most of the match by herself. However, there has always been something slightly off about these teams’ chemistry. On paper, it looks great, especially considering Mio’s established rapport with Miyuki Takase and Oka and Mika Iwata’s big-sister-little-sister relationship. It felt like there was a lot for them to get into, but they weren’t quite able to find it.
And I still don’t think this is the best version of this match, but it was a lot closer to my ideal. That feeling came primarily from them loosening up. This main evented the show it was on, but it was a smaller Sendai event, and with that came the freedom to mess around. That’s a freedom Mio and Oka are never going to ignore, and they spent most of this match getting under Red Energy’s skin. It’s the perfect dynamic. Iwata and Takase getting more and more pissed off as they try to swat these pests out of the air is so much better than any serious battle of wills.
Plus, you still have all that chemistry. Mio and Takase took a chunk of the final act, and they were great together, even with a touch of miscommunication when the ref failed to count what was clearly supposed to be the winning three. Oka, meanwhile, has come so far. I firmly stand against the idea that she’s only gotten good in the last couple of years. She was good back in the Mystic Young Fox days. However, she has found her personality, and as she scampers around, being a menace, you can’t help but delight in her wrestling.
With Yuu’s retirement meaning Team 200kg are in their final few months, there is about to be a sizable power gap at the top of the Sendai tag division. This match was proof that Red Energy and Bobubobu Momo Banana are ready to step into it, and while I hope we get at least one more showdown between Mio, Oka, Hash and Yuu, I’m now a lot more excited to see what these teams can do together going forward.
Shino Suzuki vs Miyu Yamashita, Uta Takami vs Shoko Nakajima & Haru Kazashiro vs Mizuki, Additional Attack (18/10/25), TJPW
I don’t think I’ve ever lumped three matches in together, but these feel like they come as something of a package. I’ve already waxed lyrical about each one individually in my review of the whole show, so if you want more on the ins and outs of what went down, you can read that.
These matches weren’t just great individually, though. They also felt like a pretty big moment for the younger wrestlers involved. It was TJPW handing over the midcard of a Korakuen. Sure, their trips there are no longer their biggest shows, but they’re still important, and even if they were matched with veterans, there’s a lot of pressure not to fuck it up in that situation. If these three matches aren’t good, that’s a fair chunk of the card that has been thrown out the window.
And while I’ve taken them as one here, what was really special about this was how different every match felt. Shino tried to survive Miyu, Uta was challenged to keep up with Shoko, and Haru got to push her advantage against Mizuki. There was crossover, obviously, but each outing had its own personality and ideas. I moaned in the already mentioned review of this show that all American wrestlers, regardless of where they’re trained, seem to occupy the same headspace. Here, you see four wrestlers from the same company, each showing their own individuality. I’m pretty sure I could watch a blacked-out version of all three of them run the ropes and instantly put the names to the voids.
Of course, my love of these is also influenced by the affection I have for these three. As I say all the time, a huge part of why I love this nonsense is the journey of watching someone step through that curtain for the first time, nervous and unsure of themselves, and then getting to follow them as they blossom into the wrestler they become. Shino, Uta and Haru have all taken different roads to get this far, but we’ve had the joy of watching them on that journey, and if you’re not emotionally invested after that, you must be dead inside. However, my affection doesn’t make what they’re doing any less impressive. Early in their careers, they’re proving that they deserve to be given all the opportunities to succeed, and on this Korakuen, they smashed it out of the park.
Mei Suruga & Trans AM Hiroshi vs Hoshitango & Sayaka Obihiro, ChocoPro #481 (18/10/25), ChocoPro
Hoshitango is not a mobile man. The former sumo was never exactly a mover and a shaker, but as he enters his 60s, he’s even slower than he once was. However, he is fucking massive. In the cramped confines of Ichigaya, you can do a lot with that. What could be more fun than seeing a wee pest like Mei Suruga buzz around a giant of a man?
And this is a simple match, but one that does a lot with not that much. The joy of it comes from seeing Mei bounce off Hoshitango. She prances around him, slapping his bald head and stomping on his stomach, but when push comes to shove, her offence is ineffectual at best. While Suruga can irritate him, her chances of actually doing any damage are non-existant. In contrast, all Hoshitango has to do is fall on top of someone, and you can buy it as a finish. I mentioned Ichigaya already, but it is such a key part of this match. With the fans crowded in close to the mat, Hoshitango grows in size when he steps through that door, becoming even more intimidating because of how close everything is to him.
Mei vs Hoshitango is one of those match-ups that ChocoPro throws out every year or two, and honestly, I never tire of it. Would I want to watch it every week? No, of course not. There is only so much you can do with it. However, as an occasional treat, and with two consummate pros in Obi and Hiroshi to back them up, it always goes down well. I’ll see you back here next year when they hopefully do it again.
Takumi Iroha vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous (19/10/25), Marvelous
It’s not often I praise Takumi Iroha’s restraint in main event matches. I’ve been frustrated by Iroha’s tendency towards the epic in the past. However, when she was tasked with standing across from Senka Akatsuki in her first title shot, in Senka’s hometown, she played it perfectly. Iroha wasn’t in this match to shock or wow the fans. Her job was to hold what they wanted at bay, keeping Senka from those bursts of bullish offence that have become her signature. For the bulk of this match, Iroha took control, wrestling Akatsuki to the floor, bullying her and riling up a crowd that, until this point, had been quiet.
And it worked. Slowly, but surely, the Ishikawa fans started to come to life, chanting on their hometown girl and willing her to get out from underneath the Ace. It meant when those bursts of energy came, as she barrelled her way through the champ or hoisted her up for suplexes, the crowd were delighted. They wanted it from the start, but it was all the sweeter for having been denied to them. Truthfully, this is one of those matches where everyone knew the switch wouldn’t be happening. While Marvelous might have allowed Akatsuki to skip the queue, they’re not about to put the big belt on her this early in her career. However, you can still give the fans what they want, those moments of glory as Akatsuki hammers her way through the champion. They’ll accept defeat if they think they’ve been richly rewarded for their support beforehand.
Akatsuki deserves credit, too. Iroha laid the road for her here, and all she really had to do was walk down it, but she did it well. We also saw her being asked to sell an arm, and while I think that’s been a weak part in her game so far, she did give one of her better performances in that regard. She’s slowly figuring out the importance of not coming forward constantly, and while I hope she never loses it entirely, she has started to lean into showing a touch of vulnerability as well. Marvelous’ rookies benefit from the earnestness that Chigusa Nagayo presumably encourages them to pull from, and that rings a lot more true when you show weakness as well as strength.
Killer Queens (Emi Sakura & Mei Suruga) vs Makoto & Kaho Hiromi, ChocoPro #482 (24/10/25), ChocoPro
Emi Sakura’s latest return to Japan has seen her try to cram in as much as possible ahead of her 30th Anniversary show. There have been countless ChocoTalks, appearances in Oz Academy and Sendai Girls, as well as a host of fun matches in Ichigaya. It’s produced some great wrestling, and I’ll talk about one more of them below, but I think this is my favourite so far.
Part of that is that this really does feel like a snapshot of the last twenty years of Sakura’s thirty-year career. Makoto debuted on the second Ice Ribbon show, losing on the first of the two events that day in just over a minute and on the other one in just under a minute. If you’ve never seen a Makoto match from back then, it’s quite the contrast, as she occupied something closer to a Lulu Pencil role in early Ice. Then there’s Mei, Emi’s current Ace, and Kaho, the latest genius youngster to have flourished under her wing. Throw in Aoi Kizuki as referee, and while you’re missing several key figures (no real overview of her career is complete without Riho being there), you at least have a spread of Sakura trainees that represent a lot of what she’s accomplished. She, understandably, is always quick to point out that she is not just a trainer, but a wrestler in her own right. However, a large part of her legacy was on that mat with her.
Of course, you then also have to deliver on the wrestling, but there was little worry about that. Makoto’s weak days are far behind her, as her wrestling in Ichigaya now stands out for its physicality. She’s all big hits and vicious knee drops, which she was more than happy to let loose on her trainer – a feeling that was amplified by Sakura making sure to drop the titbit that there used to be some tension between her and GM Aoi. Everyone on that mat has a career that is intertwined with Emi Sakura, but for Makoto, that started before Mei was old enough to discover wrestling and long before Kaho was alive. It’s hard to deny that kind of history.
They weren’t the only ones involved, though. Mei and Kaho’s chemistry is well-documented on this site, and their sisterly bond is always delightful. I particularly enjoyed Suruga’s response to Kaho sneaking up on her in height, as she reacts rather like I do whenever I spot how much my hair is thinning in the mirror. Crush it down, pretend it’s not happening, and maybe it will go away. More fitting for the anniversary celebration, though, was how great Emi and Kaho are together. It’s been the case since Kaho’s first exhibition, but their clear affection for each other has been brought back into focus by a video of Hiromi presenting Sakura with a gift ahead of her 30th anniversary. It’s not just how much it means to Emi, although, despite her oni posturing, it clearly means the world, but how much Sakura clearly means to Kaho. There is a real trust between them that shines whenever they come together on the mat.
Most of all, it’s just really fun. A sprinkling of tension and silliness on top of some Ichigaya magic. At a time when everyone is celebrating Sakura, she has no qualms about being the villain, playing the bastard to everyone around her. It gives these matches so much pep, particularly when we learnt afterwards that part of Makoto’s issue with Emi is that she recently stood her up when they arranged to go to the cinema. It was built on affection and frustration in equal measure, and it turns out that’s a heady brew.
Emi Sakura vs Mizuki, ChocoPro #484 (27/10/25), ChocoPro
I’ve asserted a few times recently that I suspect Mizuki’s heart is in the lower-stakes affairs. Give her the opportunity to steal Pom’s shoes or hand her a rookie to play with, and she comes to life. That’s not to suggest I think she’s been phoning in her various title runs and main events, simply that I think if she had the choice, she’d probably prefer something with a bit less pressure. Of course, the caveat to all this is that it may simply be that I enjoy Mizuki more in these roles.
Either way, Mizyupon making her way to Ichigaya to tangle with her old mentor Emi Sakura always sounded like a good time. It isn’t the match you would have got if they’d met on a TJPW Korakuen, but that’s not a flaw. Ichigaya encourages a restrained style of wrestling, and that’s often what makes things there so interesting. Akki has previously opined that everyone should have to wrestle in ChocoSquare because, after you’ve done it enough, a ring feels easy. In those tight confines, with the lack of ropes or even a solid surface, there is only so much you can do.
Thankfully, while Mizuki may not spend as much time there as she once did, we had two masters of working that room in attendance. It was partly Sakura bullying the rabbit and partly the rabbit tapping into the fun that Ichigaya provides. She even broke out a spot that I’ll always associate with Lulu Pencil as a combination of a table and the window crafted a slide to send her careening into Sakura. On the eve of her thirtieth anniversary, Emi was laying it on thick, cracking Mizuki over her knee and laying in those big chops, but the rabbit is a hard wrestler to corral. She always has a touch of magic up her sleeve, and with the fans largely in her corner, she was happy to add a flourish to everything she did.
I love matches like this. When Ichigaya is full and everyone is engaged, there is nowhere else like it. The fans are on top of the wrestlers, at times literally providing an assist, and even a venue with the storied brilliance of Korakuen can’t provide something like that. When you’ve got two performers as comfortable and as confident there as Mizuki and Emi, they almost don’t need to do anything. They can ride that atmosphere to something delightful, and in an outcome that no one will find shocking, that’s what they delivered.
Past Rambles
Meiko Satomura vs Kyoko Inoue, Double Destiny (20/9/97), GAEA
Perhaps it’s that I watched them close together, but I couldn’t help drawing parallels with this and the Senka Akatsuki vs Mayu Iwatani match I talked about above. Sure, there’s the surface-level stuff. It’s two Chigusa Nagayo rookies, clad in red, taking on an outside veteran. That’s obvious. It’s also there in the structure of the match, though. Like Mayu, Kyoko is caught flat-footed by Satomura at the start of this. Meiko is less bullish than Senka – she goes after the arm rather than trying to barge through her – but the effect is the same. Kyoko finds herself taking more offence than she expected and, for a second or two, is struggling to readjust.
And there are differences. Meiko was deeper into her career and was already a tag champion, so there was a sense that she could pull the upset off. In turn, Inoue gives her that little bit more. There’s a great moment here when Satomura slaps the veteran across the face, angering Kyoko enough to fire off a suplex, only for her then to pause, safe in the knowledge that a selling Meiko won’t see, and grab her aching face, getting across the viciousness of the blow. Satomura is also much more adept at selling Inoue’s offence than Senka is. She bumps her ass off for her lariats, foregoing the modern taste of spinning through the air to simply fold herself into the mat, making them look barbaric in their strength.
However, on the simplest levels, these matches complement each other perfectly. A Chig protege taking on an iconic veteran and pushing them further than expected. Kyoko even turned the tide with a German Suplex that bears a lot of similarities to the one Mayu used, with both being delivered with a sense of ‘I’ve had enough of this nonsense’. I think even the most hyped fan would struggle to argue that Senka is as good now as Meiko was at this point, but the line between them is there, and if Akatsuki can go on to be half as impressive as Satomura was, she’ll have had a hell of a career.
Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato, Critical Hit (13/10/97), GAEA
Gruelling is rarely a positive description, but there is something gruelling about this match. Satomura and Kato, two of the original GAEA rookies, were tag champions at this point, but that didn’t stop them from laying into each other. It’s a battle of stiff kicks, hard throws and thudding blows. While it’s a bit of a wrestling cliche to say that it’s often friends who lay it in thickest on each other, that certainly seems to be the case here, as neither looks to give an inch as they hammer away. It’s aggressive and focused in a way that now, nearly thirty years later, I think of as defining the career of Meiko Satomura in particular.
It’s also interesting because of its flaws. We have footage of these two in the ring together right up until earlier this year, and you can see how much they’ve changed. The most obvious moment was when they tumbled off the top rope while setting up a move. I felt the fall played nicely into the narrative of the match, as the two of them were so worn down from the beatings that they couldn’t keep their footing. They’d done a great job throughout of selling that exhaustion, and it would have been easy to play into that slip as another example, which is how I suspect they would have done it later in their careers. At this point, however, they knew they had a big spot planned from that position, so they rushed to get back there, hurrying back up to the top so they could get in position for Kato’s Finlay roll from the second rope.
And that’s okay! I get it, they’re two young wrestlers who have come up with an exciting high spot, and they want to pull it off. You can’t really blame them for that. Would the Kato and Satomura of future years have felt the need to do so? Probably not. At the very least, they would have probably found a more natural way to make their way back to it, without ruining the hard work they were doing in their haste to correct their error. However, that’s the benefit of years of experience. I’m not about to throw a match out because of one mistake and an imperfect response to it. If anything, that’s why I love returning to the past, getting a glimpse of the rawer, more excitable versions of wrestlers I’ve come to respect.
It certainly doesn’t make this match not worth watching. Even if you had no context for where Satomura and Kato would go, I can’t imagine not getting something from this battle between two young wrestlers, desperate to prove themselves. They would learn from that mistake and many more over the years to come, but they were already pretty damn good before they’d had that chance.
Los Cachorras Orientales (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato, Wild Times (15/1/98), GAEA
I’ve seen a couple of the wrestling intelligentsia types be somewhat disparaging about LCO over the years. It’s the typical complaint that they’re not actually great wrestlers because they don’t tick all the boxes people have decided make up a great wrestler. I would like to, not at all politely, call bullshit on that claim. Not only do they have one of the hardest tag names in wrestling, but matches like this are perfect proof of what LCO bring to the table. Up against the first of Chigusa Nagayo’s rookies to be granted the right to wear the red and the blue, Mita and Shimoda drag them through hell and back, leaving them bloodied and bruised from the experience. It rules.
And yes, I think LCO are great here. They’re vicious and chaotic, as likely to accidentally brain each other with chairs as they are their opponents. However, what I think makes them special is what they get out of Meiko and Kato. The two of them had spent time feuding with Mayumi Ozaki’s Oz Academy, so they were hardly new to the idea of a bloody brawl, but there aren’t many people with the presence of Shimoda and Mita. The two of them, particularly Mita, tower over their opponents, with Kato and Satomura seemingly shrinking every time they go up against them. They can hammer away on LCO, throwing those stiff forearms and kicks, but they might as well be beating on a brick wall for all the effect it has. As the match goes on, they become increasingly desperate, Meiko grabbing the second’s plastic bucket in a wild attempt to try and find something to hurt LCO. Kato goes even simpler, digging her teeth into Mita’s thigh. Neither works, but it serves as proof of how Kato and Satomura are forced to adapt. To even have a chance here, they have to get into the trenches.
Which is something that young wrestlers need. I’m not saying every rookie needs to be put through a bloodbath (there is a time and a place), but I do think they need to be taught the joy of chaos. Wrestling doesn’t benefit from perfection. Sure, we don’t want people being dropped on their heads or injured every week, but that willingness to go off the rails, to brawl around an arena, fly through chairs and bleed all over the place is often what differentiates the good from the great. Sometimes you need to ditch the perfect grappling to have a fucking fight, and whether you want it or not, LCO are going to give you it. They dragged Chig’s pupils down to their level in this match, and I suspect everyone came out the other side all the better for it.
Ramblings About Wrestling 
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