Tag: Yuki Arai

TJPW Max Heart Tournament Final (10/2/24) Review

Pictures that make you smile. Credit: TJPW

TJPW returned to Korakuen Hall to decide the winner of the 2024 Max Heart Tournament. On one side of the ring, we had the former champions, Daydream, who, in winning, would have been setting Miu Watanabe up to wrestle twice at Sumo Hall. Attempting to stop that from happening was Daisy Monkey, the young pretenders, who were desperate to break through. Last year, this final produced one of my matches of the year. Would it do so again? Let’s find out.

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TJPW Max Heart Tournament (27/1/24) Review

Shit is about to go down. Credit: TJPW

It’s Max Heart semi-final time, as TJPW filed into KFC Hall to find out who will be battling for a big trophy and a shot at the tag-team titles. Of the four teams left, only Daydream have held gold before, and even with Miu already booked to challenge Miyu for the shiniest belt of them all, you’ve got to look at them as the favourites. Will they make it to the final? Let’s find out!

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TJPW Max Heart Tournament: First & Second Rounds Review

Rika takes things to the outside. Credit: TJPW

The Max Heart tournament has become a regular fixture in the TJPW calendar, as various tag teams compete in a knockout format for a shot at the belts. It’s become a tradition to have this in the post-Ittenyon spot, and it always feels like the perfect way to ease us into the year. With the first and second rounds happening over the same weekend, I have decided to lump them together into one review so that I don’t have to come up with multiple introductions. If anything interesting happens in the undercard, I’ll make sure to mention that, too.

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Tokyo Joshi Pro ’24 (4/1/24) Review

A new challenger for the champ. Credit: TJPW

Tokyo Joshi now hosts several more extravagant yearly shows than their annual Ittenyon trip to Korakuen Hall, but there is still something special about this one. The combination of the date, that venue, and it being TJPW’s traditional ‘big show’ gives it a magical feel, even if they are now in that old hall nearly every month. Without fail, this is one of my shows of the year, so let’s see if TJPW can keep that run going.

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Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for December 2023

A lot of crying faces. Credit: TJPW

My December roundup is a short one, as a combination of being home for Christmas/Hogmanay and putting a lot of effort into my match-of-the-year list has limited my current wrestling watching. It means it’s only really covering the first half of the month, but there were still some big moments to talk about and a few things to celebrate, so hopefully, you’ll find something to enjoy.

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Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for August 2023

Unleash the violence. Credit: Here

August is a slightly different month for my Ramblings About roundup. Since the 18th, I’ve been in Japan, so the second half of this list is entirely made up of matches I’ve seen in person. Seeing something live alters how you view it, and if you’re looking for in-depth analysis over more feeling-based yelling, you might want to go elsewhere. However, I’ve been having a lovely old time, and I still hope there is some value in what I have to say.

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Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for April 2023

Pom found a big friend! Credit: TJPW

April and the start of May are the busiest months of the year for me, so I haven’t watched anywhere near as much wrestling this month. However, I consume a stupid amount of the stuff on average, so let’s not pretend I haven’t still spent a lot of time watching people pretending to fight. With that in mind, here are my favourite matches from April of 2023.

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Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for January 2023

A painful start to the year. Credit: TJPW

Maybe it’s just me, but January always feels like a fresh start for my wrestling viewing. My backlog from the previous year goes out of the window, under the assumption that if I haven’t watched it yet, I never will, and it’s a chance to jump back into promotions that I might have fallen away with it. When you throw in Ittenyon and all the excitement around that, it’s usually a good month, something this list makes clear.

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Ramblings About’s Matches of the Year 2022: The Best Of The Rest

Somehow, we’ve made it through another year, and while I think it’s safe to say all is not well in the world, the wrestling has at least been very good. 2022 was a year of change in the world of joshi, a lot of which was quite anxiety-inducing for someone who takes comfort from this nonsense, but I think we’ve come out the other end of it all with the scene in strong and (more importantly) interesting health. There have also been a lot of incredible matches, and this is my list of the ones that aren’t quite my match of the year but which, on a different day, may well be so. Enjoy!

Quick note: I sorta cheated this year and snuck an extra match in by writing about it elsewhere. The brilliant and lovely Flupke (FlupkeDiFlupke on Twitter) invited me to write about the wonderful Ice Ribbon gauntlet of gauntlets as part of his newsletter. You can find my thoughts (alongside his much better ones) on that here. Then, once you’ve read that, you should also read the rest of his end-of-year stuff, which is equally great.

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