25), Ice Ribbon

Getting back into Ice Ribbon is one of my wrestling goals for 2025, and one of the early joys of that has been watching more Bad Butts. I would never have conceived the idea of Yappy embracing her dark side because it seems to be the antithesis of her lovely public persona, but Ancham and her have got something with this pairing. They’re managing to be cool while retaining enough of a bumbling, heelish nature that they never slip into the tired trope of bad guys who are desperate to be cheered. Plus, on an Ice roster full of plucky young underdogs, having two experienced bullies to go after them will never be a bad thing.

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28/01/2025 0

Ice Ribbon After the Rain (23/6/24) Review

If you’d asked me at the start of the year to list the things that could help Ice Ribbon get close to filling Korakuen Hall in 2024, I would have got a few hundred deep before even considering the idea of pairing up with Stardom. It’s not that I would have doubted such a strategy’s ability to work, but with Rossy Ogawa involved, the idea seemed implausible. In recent years, Stardom and Ice Ribbon have not got along, and that’s putting it mildly. I would have been more comfortable betting on myself to win the ICExInfinity title than this relationship coming to pass. Yet, here we are. Following on from Best Friends beating Eye Contact at Flashing Champions, Mayu Iwatani stepped into a proper company to take on Tsukasa Fujimoto. By now, I’m sure you all know how it ended, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty to discuss.

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27/06/2024 0

Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for March 2024

Somehow, March is over and done with, making it time for another roundup of my favourite matches from the past thirty-one days. We’re entering the busy portion of my working year, so I haven’t seen everything I would have liked, and a show like Grand Princess happened a touch too late for it to make the list (although, keep an eye on the site for a full review), but there is still plenty to get your teeth into. Enjoy!

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01/04/2024 0

Ice Ribbon #1337 (23/3/24) Review

After a sparsely attended Korakuen in January, Ice Ribbon returned to that famous old venue backed by what appeared to be a much healthier crowd. With the show headlined by a rare mother vs daughter battle, plus the return of the Triangle Ribbon title and a hoss pairing going after the tag belts, this had the structure of a pre-everything going wrong Ice card, which is what I want to see. Let’s see if the vibes were able to match the potential.

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29/03/2024 0

Ice Ribbon Ribbonmania (31/12/23) Review

2023 was a tough one for Ice Ribbon, as several cracks expanded into fissures. It was such a disaster that I worried we might be about to see the end of a company that I, and many others, have a lot of affection for. However, slowly but surely, things have started to turn around, and with new ownership at the top, there’s the possibility that things might be moving in the right direction. We’re a long way from the heights of a few years ago, and I have my doubts if we’ll ever get back there, but the chance to create a fun and exciting product is there if they can grasp it. What better place to start than Ribbonmania, the show that serves as both their year-ender and year-starter.

Final quick note: I never stopped watching Ice Ribbon entirely (I even went to the Korakuen in August), but I have been more out of the loop than usual, so I may be missing a few slithers of context. Let me know in the comments if I say anything egregiously stupid.

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02/01/2024 0

Marvelous Oyama (4/9/22) Review

After Marvelous treated me to Mio Momono vs Ai Houzan on their last show, they decided to keep the good times rolling by having Ai’s next opponent be Miyako Matsumoto. What does that match look like? I have no idea, but I definitely want to see it, so let’s get on with the show!

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06/09/2022 0

Marvelous Osaka (10/7/22) Review

Day two of Marvelous’s weekend away saw them rock up in Osaka, where, thankfully, the technical issues that plagued Saturday’s show didn’t persist. Despite those problems, I thought the previous day had some good stuff, so let’s find out if Sunday could match (or perhaps even better) it.

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13/07/2022 1

Marvelous 6th Anniversary Show (1/5/22) Review

Six beautiful years of Marvelous. Okay, I haven’t been there since the start, but everything I’ve seen is beautiful, so I’m willing to bet the rest is too. They celebrated their birthday in Korakuen Hall by crowing a new era of AAAW tag-team champions, so their seventh year was getting off to an exciting start.

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02/05/2022 1

Marvelous (20/4/22) Review

Marvelous’s anniversary is fast approaching, and with it, the final of the AAAW Tag League. This show, therefore, was about figuring out who would be facing off for those belts as we bring the group stage to a close. If my maths is correct, both blocks still had at least two potential winners coming in, so there was plenty to play for. ‘Mon the Mystic Young Fox!

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21/04/2022 1

Marvelous (10/4/22) Review

Better late than never, eh? I missed this show airing last week because I got drunk in London and forgot about it. Then again, Passmarket also changed their terms and conditions, meaning I might not have been able to buy it anyway, so it wasn’t all my fault. I’ve been saved, though, by Marvelous selling it on their Vimeo page (no idea if they’re going to continue doing that in the future, it’s Marvelous, and they’re hardly reliable), so I can keep my streak of reviewing their shows alive. To make matters even better, thanks to them not being the most-watched company around, I still came in unspoiled, so that’s good. Anyway, enough blabbing, on with the show.

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18/04/2022 0