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!

Continue reading →

01/02/2025 0

Ice Ribbon After the Rain (23/6/24) Review

If you’d asked me at the start of the year to list the things that could help Ice Ribbon get close to filling Korakuen Hall in 2024, I would have got a few hundred deep before even considering the idea of pairing up with Stardom. It’s not that I would have doubted such a strategy’s ability to work, but with Rossy Ogawa involved, the idea seemed implausible. In recent years, Stardom and Ice Ribbon have not got along, and that’s putting it mildly. I would have been more comfortable betting on myself to win the ICExInfinity title than this relationship coming to pass. Yet, here we are. Following on from Best Friends beating Eye Contact at Flashing Champions, Mayu Iwatani stepped into a proper company to take on Tsukasa Fujimoto. By now, I’m sure you all know how it ended, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty to discuss.

Continue reading →

27/06/2024 0

Ice Ribbon #1337 (23/3/24) Review

After a sparsely attended Korakuen in January, Ice Ribbon returned to that famous old venue backed by what appeared to be a much healthier crowd. With the show headlined by a rare mother vs daughter battle, plus the return of the Triangle Ribbon title and a hoss pairing going after the tag belts, this had the structure of a pre-everything going wrong Ice card, which is what I want to see. Let’s see if the vibes were able to match the potential.

Continue reading →

29/03/2024 0

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.

Continue reading →

01/02/2023 0

Marvelous Hakata (27/11/22) Review

It’s the last one before the biggie, as Marvelous popped down to Hakata for their final show before the one-night AAAW Title tournament. Currently, it doesn’t feel like there is a clear favourite for the belt (although I might be influenced by my belief that Mio shouldn’t win it right now), so while I’m sure this show was a fun trip, it was also the last chance for people to pick up some momentum. Let’s see what went down.

Continue reading →

29/11/2022 0

Marvelous (4/11/22) Review

Marvelous are in the midst of a streak of rotten luck. Just as Mio Momono gets fully back to fitness, Takumi Iroha picked up another injury, damaging her clavicle. Thankfully, it’s not as serious as the last one, but she’s still going to be out for three months, which is a right pain in the arse. Then, to make matters worse, Mio was ill for this show, as she was struggling with a headache (although they seemed to indicate on Twitter that the doctors said she’d be fine), and Rin had to miss it for personal reasons. Thankfully Marvelous have enough friends on speed dial that they can continue on even with a much-depleted roster.

Continue reading →

05/11/2022 0

Ice Ribbon #1238 ~ 3rd Kizuna Tournament (30/10/22 Evening) Review

Show two of the Kizuna Tournament took place hours after the first, so there was no rest for those involved. However, with a big old trophy and a couple of wishes on the line, I’m sure they were all fired up to impress. Who would come out as the winner? Well, it was a few days ago, so you probably already know, but if you don’t, read on to find out!

Continue reading →

02/11/2022 0

Ice Ribbon #1237 ~ 3rd Kizuna Tournament (30/10/22 Afternoon) Review

The Ice Ribbon Kizuna Tournament has quickly become a yearly tradition and a fun one at that. With the winning team awarded a wish each, it’s a hefty prize and something worth the tough day’s work getting said victory means. I’ve been a bit lax on covering Ice recently as, to be brutally honest, I haven’t had enough money to justify buying their PPVs. However, I decided to treat myself to these two shows, so it seemed the perfect time to jump back in.

Continue reading →

31/10/2022 0

Marvelous in Kariya (15/11/22) Review

After a cracking show the day before in Osaka, Marvelous headed to Kariya for another card that looked like it had the potential to deliver something exciting. Would it? Well, let’s find out.

Continue reading →

16/10/2022 0

Marvelous Osaka (14/10/22) Review

It’s worth mentioning at the start (mainly so I don’t have to keep repeating it throughout) that Marvelous had some technical problems on this show. That meant the video quality was a bit dodgy, and matches occasionally skipped ahead a few seconds or went into fast-forward as they tried to catch up. It wasn’t enough to make it unwatchable, at least for me, but your mileage may vary. Anyway, that aside, this looked like a stacked card on paper, so let’s see what went down.

Continue reading →

15/10/2022 0