Hatsuhinode Kamen vs Momo Watanabe
This is basically clipped to the finish, with the only
Watanabe offence we see being a roll up. Kamen hits a suplex and cradle pin for
the win
Hudson Envy, Kris Wolf & Kyoko Kimura vs Act Yasukawa,
Dragonita & Heidi Lovelace
There seems to be some ongoing issue between Kimura and
Yauskawa, and despite her teammates trying to hold her back, Act rushes the
opposing corner to start, predictably getting beaten up and some beer poured
over her. I don’t recall seeing much of Dragonita in this match, with Lovelace
working the vast majority of it for her team, and she looks terrific
throughout. I loved how the animosity between Yasukawa and Kimura meant that
Kimura let her attention slip from Lovelace in the ring to have a strike
exchange with Act on the ring apron, which allowed Lovelace to take control by
attacking from behind. Lovelace hits a great looking STO. Wolf I found a bit
irritating, but I loved her selling of a Rings of Saturn by Lovelace as, after
Kimura rescues her, she continues to favour her left arm, even when clapping
along with a delayed suplex. Lovelace gets worked over from that point on, and
Envy hits a Celtic Cross for the win. After the bout, the 6 women seem to put their differences aside and look to be joining together.
Koguma & Reo Hazuki vs Risa Sera & Takumi Iroha
The team of Sera and Iroha have a bit of height on their
opponents which they use to their advantage in this match, with both using
their longer legs for a lot of leg-based offence. Dug the opening cat-and-mouse
work between Koguma and Iroha, especially as Iroha cuts it off viciously with a
nasty looking foot stomp. When Koguma is on offence, she’s pretty fun,
following every bit of offence with this kind of excited hop, like she didn’t
think she could pull the move off. Sera has a load of knee based offence that
looks really good, loved her vicious running kneedrops to the back.
Unfortunately, the ref is really poor here and hurts the match a bit, with his
delayed count between 2 and 3 telegraphing the kickouts. There’s a lot of
nearfalls you don’t buy because of it. Koguma reverses a suplex by Iroha into a
reverse naked choke and, even though Iroha doesn’t tap, she’s so out of it that
Koguma and Hazuki are able to control her for a good portion of time. When Sera
does get the tag, they also double team her for a long period, until Sera
fights back with more nice knee based offence. Sera hits a big top rope knee
drop on Hazuki for the win.
Io Shirai vs Kaori Yoneyama
Yoneyama is quite squat and stocky compared to Shirai, so I was
a bit surprised at how fluidly she moved throughout this match, especially at
the start when they exchanged a really quick series of pin attempts. Shirai
hits a pair of lovely topes just before a quick clip. When we come back, Shirai
looks to be about to hit a one-person Spanish Fly, but Yoneyama wisely drops
down, causing Shirai to fly to the mat in place for Yoneyama to hit a massive
top rope senton for two. What I loved was the real sense of fight in this match
– Yoneyama really feels like she’s trying everything to win here, and there’s a
lovely battle for a top rope powerbomb, Shirai holding onto the turnbuckles for
all she’s worth before viciously kneeing Yoneyama in the head to escape. Shirai
is just that little to quick for Yoneyama, who gets caught climbing the ropes
as Shirai hits the Spanish Fly to win. Really dug this.
Act Yasukawa vs Mayu Iwatani
This is for Iwatani’s Wonder of Stardom title. Yasukawa is
accompanied by her new friends, which Iwatani also has an entourage on the
outside, and this comes into play during the match. At first, Iwatani is in
total control, wearing Yasukawa down with a series of stiff kicks. However, she
tries to dropkick a down Yasukawa, who moves, causing Iwatani to get hung up on
the bottom rope in a nasty looking bump. From this point, every time Iwatani
tries to get back in control, Yasukawa’s entourage interfere to help her
maintain control. At one point, it ends up 1 on 5 outside the ring. Yasukawa
gets a Stretch Muffler inside the ring, before everything spills outside again
and we get utter chaos as all parties get involved in a big brawl. Loved the
dives by Iwatani from the top rope and again from the stage to take everyone
out. Back inside, there’s a lovely moment where Iwatani kicks out of a rollup
and Yasukawa transitions straight into another Stretch Muffler. Just when it
looks like Iwatani is going to win, Kimura pelts her with a steel box, allowing
Yasukawa to steal the win. Quite fun, albeit with a big case of smoke and
mirrors to fill in the cracks. Yasukawa is a real charismatic presence, but
doesn’t seem to be quite good enough in the ring yet.
Yoshiko vs Nanae Takahashi
This is for Yoshiko’s World of Stardom title. As soon as I
saw Yoshiko, I knew I recognised her from somewhere, then remembered it was
from a news story last year, where she’d assaulted another wrestler during a
match, which had led to that wrestler needing surgery for fractured bones.
Taking a look on t’internet, it turned out that the opponent was Yasukawa, who
ended up retiring in December, so that was a slightly depressing thing to
uncover going into this match.
Partly due to this, partly due to the full-body jumpsuit she
wore and partly due to the vacant-but-dangerous look in her eye, this made
Yoshiko remind me a bit of Nailz (albeit a vastly better wrestler). There was a
lack of emotion on her face that gave off an aura of danger, and her size makes
her look brutish. Takahashi’s plan therefore seems to be to outwrestle her,
working over the arm of Yoshiko. Yoshiko’s raw power means that she’s able to
turn the tide with one blow, but unlike someone like Brock Lesnar, she’s not
portrayed as the smartest of wrestlers meaning her power advantage can be
nullified. Here, it’s shown by her repeatedly clotheslining Takahashi with the
bad arm, which she then sells the pain of, giving Takahashi time to recover.
Both get nearfalls, with a hammerlock spinebuster and some sentons all getting
two for Yoshiko, whilst Takahashi also gets some close two counts with a series
of slams and suplexes. In the end, the overwhelming power of Yoshiko is too
much, as she blasts Takahashi with a clothesline to pick up the win.
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