I bought a couple of 2016 BBM True Heart Autographs off of an eBay seller who seems to have a lot of this stuff. The main thing I was after was this Command Bolshoi limited inscription autograph. These differ from the base autographs because they use different ink colors and most of them carry an inscription of some kind. They are also numbered # / 5 while most of the base autos are numbered around # / 100. I still don't have a copy of her base auto from the set, but I'm working on it. I've been working on gathering her autographs from every set I can, but I'm kind of at the mercy of the online marketplace. Luckily for me the Command Bolshoi cards that come to market tend to stay there until I buy them, so I'm not in a huge hurry to get them. I'm apparently the only Bolshoi super-collector. This one is different from some of her other cards in that she isn't wearing her giant coat. You can see that she's absolutely shredded. She competes as a bodybuilder in addition to the wrestling thing. This one is # 4 / 5 and saves me the trouble of importing more boxes in a futile search for a very limited card.
This one is a base autograph of Rika Tatsumi. It has pink ink for the autograph, but it's a base auto numbered # 49 / 81. I grabbed this one because it was cheap, especially after combined shipping, and because of the little cat picture and the fact that she wrote her Twitter handle ( @doratles ) as an inscription. I don't know anything else about her as a wrestler. You don't get autographs like this from ballplayers, that's for sure.
I picked up this 2015 autograph from the same seller a little while after I got the 2016 cards. This card features masked wrestler Ray, who also wrestles unmasked as Lin Byron. This cards is numbered # 21 / 90.
A little while ago the news broke on several wrestling sites and forums that Ray had gone in for concussion testing and doctors found an inoperable tumor on her brain. For whatever reason that news hit me pretty hard. I didn't flip out or cry or anything, but it's something I've been dwelling on from time to time over the last couple of weeks. It's just kind of weird when real-world troubles push their way into our little cardboard worlds.
Command Bolshoi posted a couple of photos of her and Ray on her Facebook page to help promote a wrestling show that JWP is doing as a benefit for medical expenses and moral support. It's pretty cool that the wrestling community in Japan is so close. It seems like any time a wrestler has some hardship come up in life they get together to do a benefit show in that person's honor. Ray has promised to continue seeking treatment options and make wrestling appearances when she can. A brain tumor is a pretty rough thing to get past, though. I am a pessimistic person by nature, but I hope she can find some non-surgical option that will work out for her.
I picked up this 2015 autograph from the same seller a little while after I got the 2016 cards. This card features masked wrestler Ray, who also wrestles unmasked as Lin Byron. This cards is numbered # 21 / 90.
A little while ago the news broke on several wrestling sites and forums that Ray had gone in for concussion testing and doctors found an inoperable tumor on her brain. For whatever reason that news hit me pretty hard. I didn't flip out or cry or anything, but it's something I've been dwelling on from time to time over the last couple of weeks. It's just kind of weird when real-world troubles push their way into our little cardboard worlds.
Command Bolshoi posted a couple of photos of her and Ray on her Facebook page to help promote a wrestling show that JWP is doing as a benefit for medical expenses and moral support. It's pretty cool that the wrestling community in Japan is so close. It seems like any time a wrestler has some hardship come up in life they get together to do a benefit show in that person's honor. Ray has promised to continue seeking treatment options and make wrestling appearances when she can. A brain tumor is a pretty rough thing to get past, though. I am a pessimistic person by nature, but I hope she can find some non-surgical option that will work out for her.
That's really sad news. Although I don't follow Japanese Women's wrestling, I love the posts you make on them and hope that things go well for her her.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad news. I don't plan to stop posting about these Japanese Women's wrestling cards any time soon.
DeleteMan that is terrible news. In the last couple of years, I've seen a few documentaries on wrestling and it's sad how many injuries these wrestlers deal with. I definitely see how this kind of news can impact you personally. I've never even heard of Ray... but the news has bummed me out. Hope there's a happy ending to her story.
ReplyDeleteYeah, wrestling has got to be tough on the body. When I was new to the Army all the old guys would tell us to stop jumping off the front of the tanks because it would catch up to our knees and backs some day. They would always climb down the ladder on the side. I never believed them until I got old and my knees and back started hurting. Then I started climbing down the ladder and telling the new guys to stop jumping off the front deck.
DeleteRay's situation seems unfair. She's obviously super-fit and takes good care of her body, but you can't always keep this kind of thing away even by taking good care of yourself.
Dang, that's awful. :( I'm not very immersed in the Japanese women's wrestling scene, but it has come up at times during my random Youtube wrestling binges over the years, and I kinda became a fan of Ray through that, because her talent just jumps off the screen. She is really, really good, and I hope there's a way for her to survive this and live a long and happy life.
ReplyDeleteI hope so, too. She is definitely a talented wrestler and seems to give it her all in the ring. People do recover from this kind of stuff, but I would imagine it's a tough road with long odds for success.
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