Ramblings About’s Wrestlers of the Year 2024: Mei Suruga & Haru Kazashiro

Wrestler of the Year can be defined in a whole bunch of different ways. The worst people craft metrics based on business and how much money someone supposedly made, but it probably won’t surprise anyone to know that’s not my approach. Nope, it’s a pure vibes thing for me. When I reflect on the last twelve months, what wrestlers come to mind? Well, this year, it was relatively easy. These two people made me smile the most in 2024. So, while multiple other names could sit alongside them, they’re the ones with the dubious distinction of being named Ramblings About’s Wrestler of the Year.

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02/01/2025 0

Ramblings About’s Match of the Year 2024: Miu Watanabe vs Shoko Nakajima

It’s fitting that as I write this, Mizuki and Miu Watanabe are building to Ittenyon by debating whether Miu is a princess or a monster. While I’m not brave enough to say it to the champ’s face, the truth is I’d argue she graduated to monsterhood with this match. Sure, beating Miyu Yamashita to win the Princess of Princess Title was huge. It’s Miyu in a Tokyo Joshi main event. If you come out in one piece, you’re doing pretty well. However, while Miu vs Miyu was a battle of two different types of power, Shoko Nakajima represented a very different challenge. On the first defence of her new belt, Watanabe had to contend with the best pure wrestler in the company, and as Yamashita knows better than anyone, that’s a banana skin that it’s all too easy to slip on.

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31/12/2024 2

Ramblings About’s Matches of the Year 2024: Best of the Rest

Fuck knows how, but 2024 is drawing to an end, which means it’s time for me to wang on about my favourite things in wrestling from the last twelve months. Up first, the best of the rest. These are the matches that, on a different day, could have easily been my favourite of the year. I’ve seen a few people suggest it’s been a weaker period for wrestling, but I didn’t feel that way as I struggled to whittle this down to ten. A handful of bouts I assumed would be on here were pipped at the post and replaced by something that excited me that little bit more. So, if your favourite is missing, imagine it’s number 11.

As usual, it’s a list that reflects my tastes, which means there are some glaring holes. I intended to make this the year I dived into lucha, but I failed, so it has no representation here, not because it’s shite, but because I don’t watch enough of it. There are only so many hours in the day, and I like to spend a few of them on non-wrestling-related activities.

Anyway, on to the list!

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30/12/2024 0

Mio Momono vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous (22/11/24) Review

The older I get and the more comfortable I become in my opinions, the more I realise how little appeal your big, main-event style matches have for me. That’s not to say they can’t be great and that there isn’t catharsis in those moments, but it’s not the stuff I naturally gravitate towards. My eye is much more likely to be caught by intrigue like this. A rookie (who has less than ten matches under their belt) vs the best wrestler in the world who, before the show, was openly relishing in the idea of being booed for bullying her.

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04/12/2024 0

Mei Suruga vs Sayaka, ChocoPro 400 Day 2 (5/10/24) Review

Mei’s second title defence was the real test of her reign. Wrestling Miyuki Takase is easy. She rarely dips below a certain level and, with it taking place in a ring, you know what that match will look like. That’s not to suggest it wasn’t good or exciting – it was – but there was a comfort level there. Arguably, wrestling Sayaka in Ichigaya should be similar. It’s their home, and most of the sixty-plus times they’ve faced off before have taken place there. However, with that belt on the line, things change. We’ve never seen Sayaka in a high-profile one-on-one match before, and it’s always intriguing to see how someone adapts to that pressure.

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08/10/2024 0

Miya Yotsuba vs Emi Sakura, ChocoPro 400 Day 1 (4/10/24) Review

She won’t be bullied. Credit: Screenshot

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.

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07/10/2024 0

Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for September 2024

The year is slipping away, but Miu’s still smiling. Credit: TJPW

September’s matches of the month is one of the more diverse selections I’ve put together recently. We’ve got everything from rookies doing their pro-test to mask matches in Arena Mexico. There is even one match that happened in August! I never claim these things are definitive, but I would like to imagine this one has something for everyone, and hopefully, you’ll discover at least one match you haven’t seen. Enjoy!

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01/10/2024 0

TJPW Wrestle Princess 5 (22/9/24) Review

Gearing up for one more hit. Credit: TJPW

I know it’s how time works, but I’m still unsure how a year has passed since Miyu Yamashita defeated Mizuki for the Princess of Princess title at Wrestle Princess 4. Yet, somehow, here we are, Wrestle Princess 5. Neither Yamashita nor Mizuki were in the main event, as the shining new face of Miu Watanabe looked to defend her title from outsider and Princess Cup holder, Ryo Mizunami. Elsewhere, Tokyo Joshi’s favourite god and ghost married couple go head-to-head, Pom has got some big pals, and Daisy Monkey’s title reign faces its biggest threat yet. Sounds like a good day, right? Let’s find out if it was.

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24/09/2024 1

Mio Momono’s Glorious Failure

She always goes down fighting. Credit: sya_tyo

Yes, I’m going to talk about Mio Momono again. No, I won’t apologise about it. If any other wrestlers ever get that good, I promise to go on about them incessantly, too.

I’m sad to admit it, but Mio is making glorious failure her trademark. Even when she succeeds, it’s inevitably followed by a crushing fall. As a fan of the Scottish football team, it’s all painfully familiar, and as I’ve firmly attached myself to the Momono express, I feel like I’ve cursed myself to spend even more time with my head in my hands dreaming about what could have been. I can’t help it. Mio makes me care, and it doesn’t matter if I try to sit back to watch from a position of detached cool – she always succeeds at drawing me in.

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11/09/2024 1

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.

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09/09/2024 0