While I didn’t go to quite as much wrestling in July as I had the previous few months, I still made my way to a fair few shows and had some bits and pieces I fancied writing about. We’ve got old men being bastards, exciting rookies and ChocoPro giving Miya Yotsuba a huge win. If all of that sounds of interest to you, read on!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for July 2026”Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for March 2026

As mentioned elsewhere, I moved to Japan this month! So, hopefully you’ll understand that while I have been going to more live shows, getting time to write about them hasn’t been my main priority. I’ve still managed to have a ramble about a bunch of matches I enjoyed, but there were quite a few that I would have liked to talk about, and simply didn’t have the time. Fingers crossed things will be a bit less frantic next month!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for March 2026”Mei Suruga vs Miya Yotsuba, It’s Timeee (18/7/25), ChocoPro

Conventional wisdom dictates that we all eventually morph into our parents. It doesn’t matter how different a road you might walk down, nature or nurture will lead you back to the door you were born behind. That certainly seems true for Mei Suruga. The deeper into her career Mei gets, the more Emi Sakura creeps into her game. We’ve seen it with her bullying of youngsters in Ichigaya, and now we get the joy of watching her go in as the dominant champion against a wrestler she trained. Miya Yotsuba was Mei’s first student to debut, and while she perhaps doesn’t feel like she’s walking in Mei’s footsteps (more on that in a second), she was desperate to prove herself the equal of her teacher.
Continue reading “Mei Suruga vs Miya Yotsuba, It’s Timeee (18/7/25), ChocoPro”Ramblings About’s Matches of the Months for June 2025
After a couple of months where I’ve struggled to put one of these together for various reasons, I feel like I got back into the groove in June. It’s been something of a return to safe ground, as I’m touching on a lot of TJPW, ChocoPro and Marvelous, but there are a couple of other things in there, and I just needed to find my spark again. Fingers crossed you enjoy it, and if you’ve got any cool recommendations that I missed, feel free to let me know!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Months for June 2025”Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for May 2025
For the second month in a row, I’ve left a whole bunch of matches I would have loved to write about on the table. That’s partly because I was still incredibly busy at the start of May, so I’m working my way through my backlog, and partly because my brain hasn’t been playing fair recently, and I’ve been struggling to do, well, anything. However, I did manage to get a few words down, so hopefully, there’s something here to enjoy! Fingers crossed that normal service will be resumed next month.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for May 2025”Miya Yotsuba vs Emi Sakura, ChocoPro 400 Day 1 (4/10/24) Review
Recently, after friend-of-the-site Flupke shared some GIFs on Twitter, I came to the realisation that Miya Yotsuba feels less like a product of Mei Suruga and more like one of Mitsuru Konno. If Mitsuru had kept wrestling, taking up her position as Gatoh Move’s ace and working in Darejyo, you could imagine her producing a Yotsuba – a wrestler who still has that Gatoh spirit but is also aggressive and ambitious. Mei and Mitsuru’s big ChocoPro feud, one of the final things Konno did in wrestling, was built around their differing ideologies, Mei’s fun vs Mitsuru’s drive. It’s funny then that Suruga’s first student would come to reflect Konno’s way of thinking as much (if not more) than she does Mei’s.
Continue reading “Miya Yotsuba vs Emi Sakura, ChocoPro 400 Day 1 (4/10/24) Review”Gatoh Move – To The Future

Gatoh Move probably shouldn’t have survived the last five years. When COVID shut down wrestling in Japan as we knew it, things looked bleak for even the big promotions, never mind the tiny one that inhabits an old dentist’s in Ichigaya. Emi Sakura has admitted that she thought it was the end, and honestly, with the world seemingly burning down, would anyone have blamed her for giving up? Thankfully, she’s made of tougher stuff. Instead of curling up in a ball, she took a wild swing, calling on an old friend in Minoru Suzuki and putting on a show intended entirely for YouTube. On that day, ChocoPro was born, and while we didn’t know it yet, Gatoh Move was saved.
Continue reading “Gatoh Move – To The Future”Gatoh Move Road to Korakuen – MAKE@IKUSA (19/6/24) Review

The build to Korakuen Hall continued as Gatoh Move once again stopped by Shinkiba for a show with all the potential in the world. We now know our main event for Gatoh’s biggest event in years, as Mei Suruga will take on Emi Sakura, but with the boss having returned to America, she’s deputised one of her oldest friends to step in and put her trainee through her paces. Kaori Yoneyama vs Mei Suruga? Yes, please.
Continue reading “Gatoh Move Road to Korakuen – MAKE@IKUSA (19/6/24) Review”Gatoh Move ‘Road to Korakuen – Apple Ambitious’ (30/5/24) Review

That Gatoh Move trip to Korakuen Hall is drawing ever closer, meaning this show served a double purpose. The first is the same as every Gatoh Move event this year, as they pave the road to that big day. As for the second? Well, the Apple Goblin has been wrestling for six glorious years, and it’s time to give her some dues. Not that she was blessed with an easy anniversary showdown, as Best Bros took on Hyakkin Thunders in the main event. Still, if you want to reach the top, you’ve got to deal with the best, and Emi and Masa are certainly that. Let’s see what went down.
Continue reading “Gatoh Move ‘Road to Korakuen – Apple Ambitious’ (30/5/24) Review”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!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for March 2024”





