Everyone worked hard to deliver an exciting match. Satomura, Kato, and Uematsu all showed a lot of fire. There wasn't much of a bridge to the high spots, but it got quite good about six minutes in when they started doing them. Uematsu carried her team, which was definitely a good thing considering who her partner was. Uematsu was making last second saves, but finally Satomura held her off and Kato Dragon suplexed Hirota for the win.

18:26 (12:37 aired)

Rating:

Rina Ishii vs. Meiko Satomura Taped 2/21 Saitama Honkawagoe Pepe Hall Atrium (1,000)

This match shouldn't have been as good as it was, or probably even close since Ishii has never been pushed at all. I never really understood why Ishii was buried on the undercard and never shown on TV. While I realize she was green and may not be all that great, she could work circles around the joker Suckura, who they always shoved down our throats even when she wasn't supposed to be funny. Anyway, Satomura did an excellent job of carrying this match, and both women had their best performances of the year.

"Ishii was really good in this match. You're right about Ishii being way better than Hirota. It boggles the mind why Ishii was not in the spotlight more. The match showed that Satomura has really developed one of the best young wrestlers. Not to take anything away from Ishii's performance here, but I think Satomura should be given the credit for making this match what it was," wrote Jason.

The style of this match was most similar to ARSION's initial style. It started out really fast with Ishii giving Satomura a space rolling elbow Satomura before the bell. This allowed her to get a few of her athletic spots in before Satomura caught her in a wakigatame. Much of the match was solid matwork that added to the match and occasionally looked beautiful. Ishii appeared to be a lot more technically sound than you would think. We don't know if she has any arm moves that she can win with, so her arm attack was questionable. On the other hand, Satomura's wasn't questionable since she has won with the nadare shiki no udehishigigyakujujigatame. They always kept the pace up and kept it "interesting" by doing athletic spots to bring it back to the mat. No matter where the action was taking place, they did nice counters back and forth. Eventually they began working at a rabid pace and it got high spot intensive, but it still that wasn't easy to get the spots off.

It was clear the match was going to come down to who could properly execute a legit finisher first. Satomura was crying because she couldn't finish Ishii off, which was kind of lame considering how low Ishii is on the totem pole. It reminded me of Kobashi crying during the 1997 Carny when Akiyama kicked out of his powerbomb, but at least Satomura is a way younger and not a world champion. The highlight of the match was Ishii doing a nadare shiki no neckbreaker drop. The finish saw Ishii go for her huracanrana finisher for the first time, but Satomura caught her and turned it into her Death Valley bomb finisher, which had been teased a few times earlier, for the win. A really impressive showing by both women, but the fact that they were a bit sloppy holds the star rating down.

11:08

Rating:

Sonoko Kato vs. Chigusa Nagayo Taped 2/21 Saitama Honkawagoe Pepe Hall Atrium

The typical Chigusa sprint. The match was exciting, but it was way too short with Kato not getting to push Chigusa at all. In one of the weirder scenes of the year, Chigusa disciplined Kato after the match, seemingly over not liking her execution, including hitting her several times. Satomura eventually tried to come to Kato's rescue, but she got the same treatment, resulting in a bloody mouth. Both Satomura & Kato cried. Maybe if I could understand what Chigusa was saying this would have come off better, but it looked like a scene out of her dark Ring, Ring, Ring movie, which isn't a compliment.

Jason: You'd think, given what Kato has displayed in the ring before this match, that she would be able to push Nagoya some. Instead, it was almost like Nagoya was pushing Kato down a notch or two. The end seemed really disturbing to me.

4:59

Rating:

Akira Hokuto & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura Taped 2/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1,800/1,500)

This match was kind of helter skelter. It was a sprint with way too many spots rolled out. At least Satomura, and especially Kato, got to take it to Chigusa. Hokuto pinned Satomura with her northern lights bomb.

10:13

Rating:

Makie Numao vs. Chigusa Nagayo Taped 2/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

This was a decent match, but it was very short. Nothing really special or notable about the match. Chigusa got the submission with the uraakiresukengatame (reverse Achilles' tendon hold).

4:51

Rating:

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada Taped 2/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Once the heels got themselves over the match was mainly spots. The work and spots, at least, were quite good. Yamada bled. Oz was outside the ring and she got involved a few times, including preventing KAORU from nadare shiki no brainbustering Chikayo. At one point, Oz whispered something in Hokuto's ear, which led to Hokuto hitting KAORU with a chair when she tried a swandive move. Yamada got into it with Oz, so Hokuto attacked her. Chikayo then tried to run KAORU into the ropes so Oz could uraken her, but KAORU ducked it and Chikayo got clocked. KAORU then Excalibured Chikayo for the win.

16:03

Rating:

Special thanks to: Jason Higgs