Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
My first full month in Japan made for a live show-heavy collection of matches. There are only a couple of things here that I wasn’t in the room for, as I’ve been enjoying the advantages of living in a city that tends to have multiple options a day. I suspect that does alter the way I approach writing about them, but hopefully you still find it interesting!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for April 2026”
If you follow me on some form of social media, you might be aware that I moved to Japan this month. If you don’t, well, I did. It would be a weird thing to lie about.
It’s relevant here because it means a lot of my wrestling viewing is going to change. I’m living in Tokyo, so now when an event like Grand Princess rolls around, I’m probably going to be in the building. That’s obviously a lovely thing for me, but it does mean having to rethink how I approach writing about this stuff. Being there live doesn’t really lend itself to a match-by-match review. Maybe, once I’m settled in, I will figure out a way to do it, but not having easy access to a pause button and enjoying a lemon sour or four makes picking apart the action in intimate detail difficult. I could, of course, rewatch when I’m home, and I may do that with shows down the line, but I’m quite busy at the moment, and this was a long one.
So, instead of going over individual matches, I’ve picked out a few big talking points to dive into. Let me know if you love, like or hate this format because I’ll inevitably be tweaking it as we go.
Continue reading “TJPW Grand Princess ’26 (29/3/26) Ramblings”
There is a lot to be said for wrestling lifers. They are the glue that holds the whole shebang together. The people who start promotions, who train the next generation and pass on their wisdom to those who, hopefully, will one day take their place. However, I also think there is beauty in those who don’t commit. In those who come in, do everything they need to do, and get out. It’s always sad. I still dream of all the Lulu Pencil matches we never got, including with the person I’m talking about today, but not everything needs to last. Apologies for pulling on a quote scrawled by a thousand teenagers, but maybe it is better to burn out than fade away.
Continue reading “Hiyori Yawata and the Beauty of a Short Career”
Confession time. I was determined going into 2025 to watch more Ice Ribbon, but, as is often the case, I failed. Time, money and all those other boring things got in the way. However, with Ribbonmania closing out the year, I decided to pop back in, see what was going down and have a ramble about it. With that in mind, I apologise if I’m missing any context here. I’m sure there’s someone else out there who can fill in the gaps.
Continue reading “Ice Ribbon Ribbonmania (31/12/25) Review”
I make the same joke every year that it’s time for the most important show to happen on Ittenyon, so why would I stop now? Sure, Tanahashi has sold out the Dome, but is that as important as Pom and Raku teaming with Max the Impaler? I think not.
Continue reading “Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling ’26 (4/1/26) Review”
It’s an incredibly short ramble for December, as I’ve been busy preparing my matches of the year and, well, Christmas. You know, at some point you do have to put wrestling aside and actually talk to people, loath as I am to admit it. However, I am willing to go on a limb and say that no one else has ever focused on these three things in the same feature before, so it has that going for it. Enjoy!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for December 2025”
For a long time, I didn’t have an obvious choice for my match of the year. There was loads of stuff I’d loved, but nothing that instantly cemented itself at the top of the pack. On top of that, I didn’t make a trip to Japan, and the only shows I saw live were AEW and EVE, neither of which I care about enough to place in that strata, even with the elusive in-the-room magic. However, when I sat down to start rewatching my favourites, I quickly realised that the answer had been staring me in the face the whole time. There was a match I loved above the rest, and it was the one that, in a lovely rarity, took place between my two wrestlers of the year.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Match of the Year 2025: Shoko Nakajima vs Uta Takami, Additional Attack (18/10/25), TJPW”
It’s that time of year again, and we kick things off with my best of the rest. These are the matches that aren’t quite my favourite of the year, but if you got me on a different day, they could be. As always, they’re listed in chronological order, and there are a bunch of others that could have made this list (including one that I already wrote about). If you’re feeling the burning need to inform me I’m wrong about something on this list, please don’t bother – it’s not worth either of our time. However, if you’ve got some cool recommendations, I’m always intrigued to hear them.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Year 2025: The Best of the Rest”
When I started to put together my end of year list, my initial feeling was that I wouldn’t include this match. It seemed too obvious, too boring. I’m well aware that’s a fault of mine, a need to point towards the unnoticed rather than accept when the thing in front of me is just as special, but I long ago made peace with that. Besides, it was easy to double down on that feeling when friend-of-the-site Unmanned Local Train posted their writing on it, a piece that beautifully captured so much of what made it great.
Continue reading “Meiko Satomura & Manami vs Aja Kong & Chihiro Hashimoto, Meiko Satomura THE FINAL (29/4/25), Sendai Girls”
Another month, another host of matches that I think you should be watching. There are a couple of wildcards included, but the majority of it is me watching my usuals. It’s a lot of TJPW, ChocoPro and GAEA. Meanwhile, we’re entering match of the year territory, as I am, as always, running late in starting to put together my list. It’s a year where I don’t have an obvious front runner, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as there is a load of stuff I really love. I’m excited to watch them all again.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for November 2025”
Ramblings About Wrestling 