That’s a wrap! My final round-up of the month for 2022 is a bit shorter than the others, thanks to Christmas, end-of-year stuff and probably a few too many beers. Still, there were a few matches that I wanted to shout out, so there is plenty to get your teeth into anyway. Plus, if you do want more, I’ve written about my wrestlers of the year, the best of the rest matches and my match of the year, so give those a read after you’re done with this.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for December 2022”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.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Year 2022: The Best Of The Rest”Marvelous AAAW Title Tournament (4/12/22) Review
Marvelous’s last Korakuen of the year wasn’t supposed to look like this, but after an injury to Takumi Iroha, they had no other choice. Not only would this show see Chigusa Nagayo return to the ring, but it would have a one-day tournament to crown the new AAAW champion. Who would earn that honour? If you’re reading this, you probably already know, but let’s find out!
Continue reading “Marvelous AAAW Title Tournament (4/12/22) Review”SEAdLINNNG (22/9/21) Review
Let’s get D! Yes, we’re back with the company with the catchphrase that will always make me giggle because I am a child. On paper, this was a hell of a card, and spoiler, but it lived up to that expectation. So, I’m going to stop talking nonsense and get into the brilliance.
Continue reading “SEAdLINNNG (22/9/21) Review”SEAdLINNNG Nanae Takahashi 25th Anniversary (11/7/21) Review
Twenty-five years is a long time to do anything, never mind something as physically demanding as wrestling. That’s doubly true when you are Nanae Takahashi, who hasn’t exactly taken it easy. Thankfully, she’s made it this far in one piece and chose to celebrate her 25th Anniversary by putting together one hell of a card. Although, I would question the logic of booking herself against Arisa Nakajima, who, let’s face it, probably wants to hurt her. But hey, what do I know?
Continue reading “SEAdLINNNG Nanae Takahashi 25th Anniversary (11/7/21) Review”AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 21 Review
We’re moving into the latter half of AJW’s ’87 as episode 21 of Classics features a chunk of Tag League and a couple of intriguing singles. It’s then all somewhat let down by a decision from whoever edited it, but we’ll get to that, and it hopefully won’t ruin all the fun.
Continue reading “AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 21 Review”AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 20 Review
I’m not sure I’ve ever kept up one of these wee projects for as long as this. The ROH one was barely out the blocks before the racism and homophobia had me banging my head against a wall, and while I’m planning on continuing my run through Stardom, it’s been a little bit stop-start. Then again, not everything is cherry-picked AJW, which does make it a little bit easier. Episode 20 was filmed over two shows in 1987, the first taking place on the 16th of June in Okinawa and the second on the 28th in Korakuen. Let’s get into it!
Continue reading “AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 20 Review”AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 19 Review
Episode 19 of AJW Classics continues our walk through 1987, with all four of these matches coming from the April 27th show. There is at least one biggie here, plus a few other interesting titbits, so let’s get into it.
Continue reading “AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 19 Review”Assemble Vol. 3 (6/3/21) Review
Assemble is back! It’s the third show for the joshi collective, although I’ve also seen it being billed as volume 4 because volume 3 was cancelled, which was confusing, so I decided to stick with three. Sorry, none of that is important. What’s important is that we have a whole load of wonderful companies in the same venue, all going out of their way to make me happy. Isn’t that nice of them?
Continue reading “Assemble Vol. 3 (6/3/21) Review”AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 18 Review
Episode 18 of AJW Classics has four matches all from the same show, as this is the 15th of April 1987. So far, this series has failed to deliver a single stinker of an episode, so surely that runs got to end sometime? Guess we should find out.
Continue reading “AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 18 Review”