Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for January 2026

It might be a new year, but some things remain the same, as I commit to rambling about whatever wrestling I’ve been watching each month. You can tell it’s January because I always enter a new twelve months motivated to keep up with as much different stuff as possible. Will these lists be slowly whittled down to mainly covering Marvelous, TJPW and ChocoPro by the time April rolls around? Probably, but it’s nice to convince myself 2026 could be the year I stay on top of everything. You never know!

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02/02/2026 0

Ramblings About’s Matches of the Year 2025: The Best of the Rest

Miu’s swings are a reliable source of good photos. Credit: 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.

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26/12/2025 0

Senka Akatsuki vs Spike Nishimura, Chihiro Hashimoto 10th Anniversary Show ~ KAIBUTSU A DECADE (16/11/25), Sendai Girls

Five minutes can make a big difference. No one, outside of the minuscule Marvelous bubble, was talking about Senka Akatsuki until five minutes in Las Vegas changed it all. Suddenly, she became the most hyped joshi rookie in who knows how long, with the vast majority of it coming from people who had only seen those five minutes of her work. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be the one to pour cold water on the excitement. I was at Senka’s debut, and I’ve seen nearly every match. She’s worth paying attention to, but a lot of said hype has skated past the flaws. Which is a shame because we’re now at the point where Senka is trying to address those, and that’s when things get interesting.

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18/11/2025 0

Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for October 2025

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.

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01/11/2025 0

Mio Momono & Senka Akatsuki vs Mirai & Kizuna Tanaka, Marvelous (13/7/25)

Mio and her large adult daughter. Credit: Here

She’s back!

There is joy in watching Mio Momono wrestle. The grin on her face when she kipped up for the first time, the way she slapped Mirai across the face before standing toe-to-toe with her or even the affectionate chuckle with which Chigusa Nagayo calls her Chuckie on commentary, the love bursting through for her wee menace of a pupil. There are a lot of great wrestlers in the world, and I am fond of many of them, but there are none that make me feel as alive as Mio Momono does. In that, she stands alone.

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15/07/2025 1

Ramblings About’s Matches of the Months for June 2025

The biggest match of the month, Hyper Misao vs imposter syndrome. Credit: TJPW

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!

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01/07/2025 0

Marvelous 9th Anniversary (5/5/25) 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

Ramblings About’s Matches of the Months for January 2025

Arai booting 2025 into life. Credit: TJPW

We’re back for Ramblings Abouts’ first matches of the month for 2025. I apologise for missing a few of these towards the end of last year, but I had some personal shit that took up a lot of my brain space, and I’m sure the two of you who read this didn’t even notice. However, I am back for 2025 and planning to watch far too much of this dumb stuff while also complaining that I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to. Multiple big hitters are missing from this list because I haven’t had a chance to watch them yet, but that doesn’t mean what I have seen loses any value. They’re all great matches, which I recommend going out of your way to see. And if you have any recommendations, stick them in the comments below!

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01/02/2025 0

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