BBM Ayumi Kurihara Memorial Card Set Checklist and Review

In my collection I have a wide variety of Joshi card sets from over the years, many of which do not have a card list anywhere on the Internet. So I hope to slowly add more of them to Joshi City, with the next set being a special card set released for the retiring Ayumi Kurihara.

Card Set: BBM Ayumi Kurihara Memorial ~Thank you for Everything~
Release Date: 2013
Number of Cards in Set: 25 base cards, 9 special cards, and 12 autograph cards
Cost per Set: ¥4,200
Where to Purchase: Third Party Vendors (Buyee, Ebay, etc.)

Not many Joshi wrestlers have had an entire card set released solely for them, in fact I think Ayumi Kurihara may have been the first. Only 3,000 sets were released, and I think it is safe to assume they did not sell very well as they are still available in 2020 below their retail value. The timing was rough, as in 2013 Joshi was still recovering in popularity and it was not very popular yet in Western circles, which is where a lot of card collectors reside. Even though Ayumi Kurihara was a great wrestler, she never reached the popularity of modern Stardom wrestlers, or wrestlers such as Kana and Mio Shirai during her time period. That doesn’t mean its a bad set, but it certainly wasn’t a popular card set as Joshi boxes are normally hard to find and this box set is not.

The box contains 27 cards: 25 base cards, 1 SP card, and 1 autograph card. The 25 base cards are the same in every box, and show Ayumi Kurihara throughout her career with both personal pictures and wrestling accomplishments. For the special card, there are nine different options and are mostly individual photos of Ayumi in various attires. Finally, one autograph card is included. The autograph cards range from being serial numbered from 200 to 300, with the autograph card being inserted randomly. Half the autograph cards one can pull are individual signatures with just Ayumi Kurihara, while the other half are dual signed cards with her various tag team partners. The variety here is great, but with only one autograph per box, it discourages fans from buying multiple boxes as its possible to get the exact same cards in each box. The box set is a must-buy for fans of Ayumi Kurihara as the base set is quality, but due to the cost and card number it may be a hard sell to just casual Joshi card collectors. Here is the full checklist of the set:

Base Card Checklist:

1. AtoZ (with Kana) 2. AtoZ Debut 3. M’s Style Graduation 4. Bone Fracture 5. First Blood 6. NEO Tag Team Championship Win 7. Overseas Expedition 8. NEO Championship Win 9. CMLL Women’s Championship Win 10. Catch The WAVE Win

11. OZ Academy Tag Championship Win 12. First Barbed Wire Match 13. A☆YU☆MI 14. White Tails 15. Yellow Costume 16. Red Costume 17. Swimsuit 18. Kurihara and AKINO 19. Kurihara and Nakagawa 20. Kurihara and Kana

21. Kurihara and Shibutani 22. Kurihara and Mio Shirai 23. Kurihara and Mika Iida 24. Rivals and Friends Group Picture 25. Thank you!

Special Foil Card and Autograph Card Checklist (one of each per box):

Red = Special Card
Blue = Autograph Card

SP1 Blue Costume SP2 Red Costume SP3 Yellow Costume SP4 M’s Style Costume SP5 Plain Clothes SP6 Plain Clothes SP7 Swimsuit SP8 Match Photo SP9 Retirement Interview

Red Costume Blue Costume Yellow Costume A☆YU☆MI Plain Clothes Swimsuit Kurihara with AKINO Kurihara with Nakagawa Kurihara with Kana

Kurihara with Shibutani Kurihara with Mio Shirai Kurihara with Mika Iida

Here is the full card set, in order:

 

Finally, a sample of the Special Card and Autograph Card: