25) Ramblings

I hate reviewing one-day tournaments. The nature of the beast is that you end up with a bunch of short, simple matches that don’t necessarily lend themselves to my usual ramblings. I could, of course, cut it all back, but I don’t really see the point. Writing a 100 words that don’t say anything isn’t quite as mind-numbingly stupid as describing a match move-for-move, but it’s equally valueless. However, there was still stuff I wanted to talk about on this show, so I’m not going to skip it entirely. Instead of the usual shtick, here’s some semi-organised ramblings about Marvelous’s latest trip to Korakuen.

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09/05/2025 2

Aja Kong vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous (17/4/25)

A lot of people have looked up at Aja Kong like that. Credit: Screenshot

There was a lot of stuff going down over WrestleMania weekend, and while it would be easy for me to be comically dismissive of it, there was actually a decent amount that caught me eye. Thanks to TJPW putting together a Korakuen-level card and a host of my favourites making the journey to Las Vegas, there were nuggets of gold to be found amongst the usual troupe of interchangeable white men (I swear the same guy came out about twenty times during the Clusterfuck). And yet, out of all the wrestling that was happening, the match that stood out to me was a standard rookie vs legend showdown, the type you can see on nearly any card in Japan most weekends. Why? Senka Akatsuki, that’s why.

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23/04/2025 1

Ai Houzan vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous (12/1/25), Marvelous

I can’t deal with sad Ai. Credit: Screenshot

After they battled to a time-limit draw on January 4th, Marvelous announced that this rematch between Ai Houzan and Senka Akatzuki would be under AJW shoot-pin rules. If you watch any old AJW rookie match (and a few involving more experienced heads), you’ll see the wrestlers properly grappling to get each other’s shoulders down for the three, and my understanding (although I’m far from the expert on this) is that’s because they were. They’re still wrestling (Ai started this match with a dropkick attempt), but there’s a touch of real competition in there.

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12/01/2025 3