Ice Ribbon - #845 ~ Oktober Ice Ribbon Fest (10/29/2017)

1. Giulia & Takako Inoue vs. Nao DATE & Satsuki Totoro

**1/4

3. Kyuuri & Matsuya Uno vs. Natsumi Maki & Tae Honma

***

4. Arisa Nakajima & Manami Toyota vs. Hana DATE & Tsukasa Fujimoto

****

5. Regina Di WAVE Championship: Misaki Ohata (c) vs. Maruko Nagasaki

**

6. ICE×∞ Championship #1 Contendership Four Way: Akane Fujita vs. Hiiragi Kurumi vs. Maika Ozaki vs. Nori DATE

What a wild ride, I did not expect this from a joshi 4WAY. It was non-stop bomb throwing. Maika and Nori close the match after the other two are eliminated, and I thought they delivered big. I was so proud of Maika when she got the win, big moment for her career.

****

7. International Ribbon Tag Team Championship (vacant) Tournament - Finals: Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera) vs. Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi)

Great main event. They kept things moving and the action was hard-hitting and enjoyable. Maya-obachan no-selling a Styles Clash was ridiculous, but I didn't feel it hurt the match. Excellent work. Everyone worked hard.

****

SEAdLINNNG - d-Higher (10/18/2017)

4. Arisa Nakajima vs. La Rosa Negra

It's nice to see Arisa working singles again. I didn't feel Negra had any chance of winning, but she played her part as the sub-boss to whatever they have planned for Arisa in December. The way she sold Arisa's offense was great; she was getting demolished by those suplexes.

***

5. Ryo Mizunami, Saki Akai & Sareee vs. Kaho Kobayashi, Rina Yamashita & Yoshiko

This was Sareee's farewell from the D. Although she will still be working with them as an outsider. This had good energy, an upbeat pacing. Yoshiko's building heat with Saki Akai, but the highlight was her lariat battle with Mizunami. I loved their WAVE match last year, I hope they meet in singles again someday. Kaho was also a standout. Great main event.

***1/4

Ice Ribbon - #832 ~ ICE in WONDERLAND 2017 (8/27/2017)

2. Asahi vs. Manami Toyota

This was Asahi's debut and she's against Manami Toyota! Asahi's peers were surrounding the ring, cheering her on, the crowd was super into it.

***1/2

5. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami)

****3/4

6. Elimination: Maruko Nagasaki, Matsuya Uno, Satsuki Totoro & Tequila Saya vs. Team DATE (Hana DATE, Karen DATE, Nao DATE & Nori DATE)

There was a lot of action here and it didn't spiral out of control like the match in Yokohama. Hana DATE was injured so everyone swarmed her. The Maruko-Nori ending was had believable near-falls and proper escalation. Great match. 

****1/4

7. ICE×∞ Championship: Risa Sera (c) vs. Maya Yukihi

This caught me by surprise -- I didn't know Maya-obachan had it in her. Her leg work was great and she had all of these clever counters to Sera's offense. Sera's comebacks were kind of selling-free, but her offense looked strong and much better than it has looked in past defenses.

****1/2

SEAdLINNNG - Summer Blast (8/24/2017)

1. High Speed: Kaho Kobayashi vs. Manami Toyota vs. Maruko Nagasaki

**

2. ULTRA U-7 Tournament Semi-Final: Mio Momono vs. Yoshiko

The work leading up to the sudden death was whatever... there was a lot of obvious filler, Yoshiko using her weight to crush Mio was interesting. When they get to the sudden death, 2-count for the win, is where things get hot and Korakuen was really into it. Great stuff.

**1/2

3. ULTRA U-7 Tournament Semi-Final: Sareee vs. Takumi Iroha

Great match, loved the strike exchanges, and Iroha destroys Sareee with her powerbombs.

***

4. TLC Rules Match: Nanae Takahashi vs. The Great Sasuke

This match was mostly about The Great Sasuke trying to cripple himself. He sets up traps that do not work out in his favor, time and time again. Nanae wasn't holding back, Sasuke was willing to take hideous punishment, and I thought the action generally flowed well into the high spots. This was a lot of fun.

****

5. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami)

This was a 20-minute rollercoaster of double team moves and surly elbow strikes. Arisa/Ohata seems to be the end goal of this best of three series, and I dug the heat building segments. 

****1/4

6. ULTRA U-7 Tournament - Final: Takumi Iroha vs. Yoshiko

I wasn't really into this one. It starts to pick up when Iroha does a tremendous sell of Yoshiko's sleeper hold, she was foaming at the mouth, struggling to catch her breath.. but the work before it was dull. Definitely one of the weaker Yoshiko matches this year. 

***

OZ Academy - Summer Soft Breeze (7/16/2017)

1. Aja Kong vs. Hikaru Shida

An uphill battle for Shida, and she had to use whatever openings she could find, and seize the opportunity with shinai strikes and knees to head. It didn't reach the violence of their past encounters, with the blood and what have you, and the double KO ending hurts, but I thought this was otherwise an awesome brawl.

***3/4

2. MK4 (Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato) vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Yoshiko

Awesome match; loved the double team maneuvers. Yoshiko and Yoneyama had a fun team dynamic, and Sonoko is just the best.

***1/2

3. Manami Toyota vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki

**

4. Sekigun (Alex Lee, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka) vs. Aoi Kizuki, Hiroe Nagahama & Rina Yamashita

This was a perfectly fine houseshow trios match. The opening FIP segment was pure sadism; Hiroe is a great bumper. I'm warming up to Alex Lee in Ozakigun.

***

5. AKINO vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto

**

Ice Ribbon - #796 Sendai Ribbon 2017 (4/15/2017)

2. Tequila Saya, Kyuuri & Akane Fujita vs. Matsuya Uno, Maruko Nagasaki & Hiiragi Kurumi

***1/2

4. Maya Yukihi vs. Misaki Ohata

***1/4

5. DASH Chisako & Manami Toyota vs. Tsukushi & Tsukasa Fujimoto

***3/4

6. ICE×∞ Championship: Risa Sera (c) vs. Mochi Miyagi

These two brought the heat. I like Sera's edge. She chokes Miyagi with her own whip and wrestles more aggressively. Miyagi herself had something of a transformation, more aggressive approach than usual as well. This was worked so differently than the Risa Sera we've seen recently.

***3/4

Ice Ribbon - New Ice Ribbon #783 ~ Ryogoku KFC Hall (1/29/2017)

4. Triangle Ribbon Championship: Manami Toyota (c) vs. Kyuuri vs. Mochi Miyagi

Manami Toyota's renaissance continues.

***1/2

5. Aja Kong vs. Maya Yukihi

Aja Kong bullied Maya to bring out the fire and then extinguished it through sheer destruction.

***

6. Hamuko Hoshi & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. This is Ice Ribbon (Hiiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi)

An awesome main event. Hiroyo and Kurumi's segment was out of this world; two burly joshi being snug as hell with each other. And then Tsukushi and Hamuko had their moment to close the match with counters and near-falls.

****1/2

Manami Toyota vs. Sakie Hasegawa (AJW, 3/20/1996)

AJW - HIGHEST'96 (3/20/1996)

Manami Toyota vs. Sakie Hasegawa

Hasegawa's retirement road. The crowd was heavily invested and the aura that created took this to a different dimension. Saki hits these rolling sovats that result in crazy dramatic near-falls. The ending was pretty flat.. there's a botched avalanche sunset flip and they go straight for the finish, but there was fine grappling leading up to it.

***3/4

SEAdLINNNG - Integral-d (1/26/2017)

4. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Sareee vs. Aja Kong & Yoshiko

Sareee came into this thing looking for a fight with her sights set on Yoshiko, and they do some great feuding that builds up to an explosive climax. A dormant anger from Yoshiko provoked and unleashed! I loved the chaos of the finale; a commotion mowing through the crowd as talents come rushing in to break up the brawl. Easily one of the best non-finishes I've ever seen.

****3/4

5. Arisa Nakajima vs. Nanae Takahashi

This was a big match, one that gradually builds over close to 30 minutes. Arisa was working hard, her execution was pristine and she showed a lot of heart. This was billed as her rebirth and it felt like it. I look forward to what she'll do as a member of SEAdLINNNG.

****

Ice Ribbon - New Ice Ribbon #779 ~ New Year Yokohama Ribbon 2017 (1/9/2017)

1. Maika Ozaki & Tequila Saya vs. Maruko Nagasaki & Matsuya Uno

Maruko started incorporating an evasive roll into her moveset and it has reshaped her as a performer, she's finding creative ways to implement it.

***

3. Manami Toyota vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tsukushi

Cute match, you could tell that they were enjoying themselves and each other out there. Fujimoto takes a scary fall during an Ocean Cyclone-device dropkick. God bless this tiny woman.

**3/4

4. Hiiragi Kurumi vs. Kyuuri

This match was all Kurumi, she murders Kyuuri with a barrage of power moves. I don't think I've ever seen her hit the Go Flasher before so that was a first.

***1/4