Okay, so removing the ten-match limit for these lists has maybe caused me to go a bit overboard. In my defence, April was a hell of a month for wrestling, despite the event I was looking forward to most, GAEAISM, being postponed because of Japan’s COVID issues. Thankfully, plenty of other stuff was there to pick up the slack, and, well, scroll down to see how much I had to talk about.
How about that for a show name? Joshi has an abundance of incredible show titles, but Ice Ribbon has outdone them all there. It was a fitting moniker for what will probably be the last show we see from a Korakuen with fans in it for a while, as Tokyo heads back into lockdown. I’ve no doubt Ice Ribbon will see it out in style, though. Go forth maidens and fight!
I’ve decided to make a couple of tweaks to my matches of the month round-up. The most obvious one is that this hasn’t been a top ten list for a while, so there is no real need to stick to ten entries. Some months it might be more, some months it might be less, and it’s silly to force myself into a corner for no reason. Secondly, I am going to make a tiny change to the kind of things I write about. There are often brilliant wrestling matches where I have nothing to say. That doesn’t take away from how good they are, but not everything requires analysis beyond saying it rules. On top of that, if they come from one of the promotions I write about regularly, I’ve often reviewed them before. So, rather than stretching myself to come up with something new, I’m adding an honourable mentions list to the bottom of each month, where I’ll round up all the stuff you should watch, but where I have nothing new to add to the conversation.
Apart from that, it’s business as usual! Here are a load of matches from the last month that I loved.
It is time for Ice Ribbon to be RE:BORN! This time last year, it was RE:BORN that kicked off Suzu Suzuki’s run to the title as she retired chirin chirin and went off to live in the woods for a bit. A year on and Suzu is reinventing herself again, as having lost the belt to Tsukka she is off to the deathmatches. The more things change, the more they kinda stay the same.
Lot of badasses in that picture. Credit: SEAdLINNNG
The WWE Countdown finally comes to an end as Sareee’s final match in Japan would be with SEAdLINNNG. If anyone has any ideas about how we can stop her going, you better pitch them now because we’re running out of time.
It’s been a while since I put together a Wrestler Mixtape and having enjoyed the brilliant Hamuko Hoshi vs Tsukushi Haruka IW19 title match, I was in the mood for some more Skoosh. So, here are three random matches plucked from YouTube and some rambling about the twenty-three-year-old veteran to go along with them. Enjoy!
A Grow Together review may feel slightly redundant over two weeks after it happened, but it’s only recently aired on Nico, and it’s not often you get to talk about an Aja Kong main event in 2020. Plus, I regularly get people looking at reviews I wrote over a year ago, so I’m sure someone still cares.
If Ice Ribbon dish up FantastICE matches, I will come. Whether Risa Sera is playing baseball or stabbing someone with something, it’s going to be worth my time, so let’s get to it.
It’s time for a slight tangent in our run through Stardom’s history. Before the next show on Stardom World, they sent a team to Sendai Girl’s Flash Tournament. Featuring entrants from JWP, WAVE, Stardom, Ice Ribbon, Sendai Girls, Reina, Diana and a freelance team, it was the Assemble of its day, making it a fitting show to cover at the moment. Plus it gives us a chance to have a wee peek at what was going on in different companies.
It was a bit of a busy weekend for the old joshi, wasn’t it? Everyone seemed to be running shows, and nearly all of them delivered something noteworthy. Why was that the case for Ice Ribbon? Well, read on to find out.