UFC 287 4/8/23: Luana Pinheiro vs. Michelle Waterson-Gomez 3R. Waterson did well when she was able to fight at distance, and this was most of the fight. 4 minutes in, Waterson off balanced Pinheiro with a front kick to the neck, and Pinheiro was leery of her sidekick and front kick after that to the point she wasn't going for many takedowns or utilizing the clinch nearly as much as she would have liked to. Pinheiro still had a lot more power, and did really well with the calf kick, but was having difficulty reaching with her punches from the outside because the combination of loading up and having to lunge in made them easy for Waterson to avoid. Waterson was out pointing Panera throughout the entire first round, but Panera landed two good right hands in the final seconds, which apparently swayed the judges to give her the round. It seems crazy that none of the judges scored this for Waterson, and this was the difference in the fight. Pinheiro's calf kicks were really beginning to add up in the second round, and she was reacting to what Waterson was presenting better as well, particularly that Waterson was only using the right leg when that was the forward leg in the side stance. That being said, Pinheiro's main offense on the outside was the kick to the left leg, and Waterson being sideways took that out of the equation, so even if her offense was worse from that stance, she still did more than Pinheiro. Both women were slowing down towards the end of the second round because Waterson's left calf had been compromised, hampering her ability especially during the mid portion of this round to close distance or kick with full power balancing on the left leg, and Pinheiro was tiring due to throwing everything full power. Pinhero had been doing a better job of fighting at a closer range in the 2nd round, but as the round progressed, Waterson was able to extend the distance even further. This wasn't the perfect strategy for Waterson though because it was easier for Pinheiro to time her coming in, especially since the left calf wasn't functioning properly. Waterson did a great job of defending takedowns, but Pinheiro was the better fighter on the inside, and cut Waterson's nose in the third round with one of her knees. This fight was super close. Pinheiro won the second round, but in the other two rounds Waterson had so much more activity, while Panera did more damage if and when she actually landed. Waterson didn't do much damage, but it felt like she barely won this fight by virtue of being so much more active & consistent. Waterson throwing 67 more strikes in a close fight like this where both fighters are landing with 1/3 accuracy actually makes a difference because even in the 2nd round, which was Pinheiro's round, the significant strikes were even, and Waterson overall landed two more. Pinheiro won a 29-28 split decision. Good match.

STARDOM 5/15/16 Korakuen Hall, World of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani 21:54
PA: Joshi partner battles are never friendly encounters. This was another big chance for Iwatani, and she was all business, while in turn, Io wanted to prove her dominance. Iwatani scored some good kicks early, which Io initially tried to wear and shrug off, before opting to blow her away with her quickness and delivering a tope. Io wasn’t short on confidence, and some timewasting gave Iwatani an opportunity to fight back. Iwatani looked to pounce with a Dragon Suplex on the floor, but Io was ready for it and countered, delivering a German Suplex to take control. Io went on a deliberate attack which was as just as disdainful as it was vicious. Iwatani would try to fight back, but Io seemed to have all the answers. Iwatani was able to put together some offense, and they had a really good exchange where Io went through multiple counters to the Dragon suplex, finishing up by landing on her feet and hitting a German Suplex. They went into a back and forth striking exchange soon after, a trope I can’t say enough negative things about, but here, it was actually done well even if their forearm strikes aren’t the strongest part of their game. Iwatani got the better of the exchange, but it had taken just as much out of her and she was unable to capitalize. Iwatani’s next big chance was after she avoided Io’s moonsault and she scored a kick. Io rolled under the ropes, but Iwatani pounced quickly, hitting a Dragon Suplex on the apron, which was the biggest spot of the match. She couldn’t win from that position, but she did do a lot of damage to Io and bought herself some time. Iwatani looked to go in the for the kill when Io returned to the ring. Io blocked another attempt at Dragon Suplex, but Iwatani managed to hit a German, a Frog Splash and her regular Dragon Suplex for near falls. She needed to hit her modified Dragon Suplex, but it would bring about her downfall. Io countered the attempt and hit a modified Tiger Suplex, then a German before finishing her moonsault. This match had great action from start to finish and strong storytelling. I remembered it being more high spot heavy than it was, which is really a testament to how well they used them. Io was still the best, but Iwatani showed she belonged and was a dangerous opponent. ****1/2

ML: The 4th meeting between the Thunder Rock partners, but their first proper big singles match, after two shorter tournament/league matches in 2015. Io beat Mayu quickly when she was just a 2nd year wrestler in 2013, but Mayu faired much better last year, winning the Cinderella semifinal and drawing in the 5* GP. As with the classic Crush Gals battles, these two did not wrestle as though they were friends. In fact, it's the least polite of the trilogy, even though it's the only one where they are teammates. One would have expected this to mostly be an athletic spectacle, which is where these two excel the most. However, while they did some nice fast and athletic stuff here and there, in general, rather than being fancy or cute, both were super serious and just doing their best to win by beating the living crap out of each other, putting the belt above their partnership. It was a much slower match than I expected, but while they took their time by their standards, we were rewarded by both women really making sure they laid into the opponent. They literally bumped heads at the outset, which set the tone for the whole dickishness encounter. This was an extremely physical match, to the point it might be the most physical match either ever wrestled. It was overloaded with ill will, with Mayu, in particular, showing a lot more attitude than usual, and working far far stiffer. She appeared to have a chip on her shoulder, having failed to win the World of Stardom Title twice in 2015. She was probably feeling a bit left out, with Shirai on her 2nd run and Kairi Hohum having defeated Io to win the title then Mayu in her 1st defense. Mayu had to do everything she could to reach the level of the promotion's ace, but Io wasn't giving an inch, and was constantly putting Mayu back in her place. If you're thinking they should leave the striking to someone like Satomura, you haven't seen this match yet. Trust me, Satomura has never made striking seem this intense and vicious. These two really went the extra mile to execute all the strikes, as well as the dropkicks, suplexes, virtually everything they did had extra precision and impact. The hard hitting largely replaced the matwork you'd usually see early on in a longer joshi match, which obviously was more of a plus than that it also replaced a lot of the flying we'd usually see from them later in the match. This was intense and urgent wrestling of the highest calibre though, so I wasn't missing the spectacle. These two know each other so well that there was extra urgency to avoid anything resembling a moonsault from Io or a Dragon suplex from Mayu. Their unwillingness to hold anything back eventually escalated to the point that when an opportunistic Mayu finally managed to Dragon suplex Io, it happened to be on the hard ring apron, which nearly led to a ring out after Shirai collapsed at the 13 count trying to reenter. It seemed like the match was just gearing up, which shows how good it was because I didn't realize they were already 20 minutes in. Unfortunately, it was almost over already. Shirai was able to incapacitate Iwatani enough with two big suplexes that she could stomp on her for good measure on the way to walking to the corner for her winning moonsault. This match felt a bit incomplete to me because there was a lot more they could have done had Mayu been allowed to push further. It was fine for the first match in the trilogy, even though Mayu should have been considered a stronger challenger in my opinion. They strayed quite a bit from what they normally do exceptionally, and also didn't really do a blowout match, but they did such a masterful job of pulling the audience into the match with their stiffness, urgency, and intensity that the match just flew by regardless.This beatdown arguably wasn't the best match they could have done, but thankfully there's still some wrestlers who are willing to challenge themselves to excel at different things, rather than just doing the same old shit. ****1/2

STARDOM 12/22/2016 Korakuen Hall, World of STARDOM Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani 17:11
PA: The biggest difference going into the second Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani title match is that Io had betrayed Mayu, disbanded Thunder Rock (and Threedom), and humiliated her for weeks. The start saw Iwatani rightly refusing the handshake and smacking Io across the face. She attempted a flying headscissors, but Io landed on her feet and just smirked, which told you all you needed to know about her demeanor. Io was more heelish and cocky this time, so she was more deliberate in her attacks. I liked this approach, and it made sense within the story. Her attacks to Iwatani’s leg were excellent here, but it didn’t go anywhere, and Iwatani’s selling was rather selective. Iwatani had a little more of an edge to her as well. She was able to hit her Dragon Suplex on the floor, but Io was able to overcome that. A few minutes later, Iwatani hit her Dragon Suplex on the apron, followed by one in the ring. These were big blows, but not enough to finish Io. Iwatani’s confidence was growing though, and she was really starting to believe. Iwatani was looking to push, and did with great urgency. Io weathered the storm and came back with a German Suplex, but Iwatani wasn’t done yet. She tried to hit a Dragon Suplex from the top rope, which surely would’ve ensured a three count had she landed it, but Io was able to land on her feet. Once again, the big move had cost Iwatani. Io hit her triple German Suplex, added insult to injury with a Dragon Suplex, then hit her moonsault. Iwatani kicked out at one, using all of her adrenaline and emotion for one last burst. Iwatani attempted a tombstone, but Io reversed it and that was it for Iwatani’s comeback. Two moonsaults later, the fairytale was over. Some of the work wasn’t quite as good as their May match, but this was a progression of the story, Mayu pushed Io more, it was more explosive with a bigger finish. Their storytelling remained superb, and it was a more than worthy follow up. ****1/2

ML: Shirai has held the title since defeating Meiko Satomura on 12/23/15 at last years Year-End Climax, and while she was a dominant champion in both of her runs, she has become a cocky bully heel. She believed she no longer needed "loser" Iwatani, to the point of breaking up their great championship team during the tag league final, and regularly demeaning her since, telling her she was worthless. Now bitter rivals, this match wais actually less stiff than the previous one where they were still friends, but it was all about upping the ante and raising the bar. Even if in a slightly different manner, both matches were more or less extremely well executed, very hard hitting contests, without doing a lot that's showy purely for the sake of it. This one wais faster, more fluid and explosive, and clearly more spectacular with a higher level of difficulty. It was a lot more reliant on big moves than striking, to the point the striking largely disappeared. Iwatani was more driven than ever, but still a big underdog, and part of the problem is that her regular offense wais once again portrayed as just not cutting it at championship level. Her only real weapon is the Dragon suplex. She was able to push a lot more here, but really all through variations of that one big move, so in a sense she wasn't truly more competitive, she just hit the bomb more this time. The match started out with Shirai offering an insincere handshake, which Mayu slaps her in the face for, and already tried for her Dragon suplex, but Io easily fought it off with elbows. One difference here was Io slid under the ropes when she charged a few times and picked Mayu's leg, damaging the knee early on by slamming it into the post. The early portion was the more different part of the match, with some really good work on the outside of the ring, and general nastiness from Io brutalizing the knee. Thankfully, being a heel hasn't turned Shirai from wrestler to poser, she is arrogant, but, if anything, she's even more about doing damage and winning, and thus there wasn't time for the requisite stalling and playing to the crowd after every move to pad the runtime that we saw in their 3rd match. The wrestling in this one was more challenging, but the second half felt less original, as for the most part it was only building upon what they already did earlier in the year. So then it kind of depends, if you just watch one of their 2016 matches, this one is almost definitely the better one to watch as they did more in less time, but watching both together, it may not feel enough better or more evolved to feel fresh enough when it was still essentially the moonsault vs. the Dragon suplex because Io doesn't have any knee finishers to sustain the portion of the action that was most different here. The match threatened to turn with Mayu hitting her Dragon suplex on the floor. Though Io once again collapsed on the outside before barely beating the count, back in the ring, she still cut Mayu off pretty quickly. Iwatani had to hit the Dragon suplex on the ring apron to slow Shirai down, and then she seemingly had a real chance to win when she immediately followed up doing it again in the ring, but since Shirai kicked out, what exactly did that leave Iwatani with? Well, there's always the avalanche style Dragon suplex, but Shirai landed on her feet, and that was the beginning of the end for Mayu. Mayu kicked out of the moonsault at 1, and hit another Dragon suplex for her final hope spot, but then Io tombstoned her and finished with consecutive moonsaults. Though it was about 5 minutes shorter than their previous match, it felt more like a complete match, in the sense that they really went about as far with the story they were telling as they could. I enjoyed this match a little more of the 2016 matches, as it was really tight, but in some sense, the May match felt more like the bitter rivals match and this felt more like the spot oriented match I was expecting the May match to be. You certainly can't go wrong with either. ****1/2

STARDOM 6/21/2017 Korakuen Hall, World of STARDOM Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani 27:52
PA: The final title match between these two worked really well as a third part of their trilogy and a payoff to Mayu’s story, but taken in isolation was the weakest entry in the series. While it’s still a strong match and there is a lot to like, it suffers from being needlessly drawn out for the sake of making it more epic and attempting to top what they’d done before. I don’t want to make it sound the sterile Bushiroad era ‘epic’ where it’s 10 minutes of work dragged out to 25+ and the matches have no structure (or at least one that makes any sense), these two were far better than that, but by their standards, it’s a step down. Io was coming in with a serious, and legitimate neck injury, so Iwatani’s chances were greatly increased. They got off to a slower start than in their previous match, which made sense when the challenger was on her last chance and the champion was injured. Iwatani had success early going after Io’s back, and Io was immediately showing a lot more vulnerability than we’re used to seeing. Iwatani tried her Dragon Suplex on the floor, but it was the same result as their first match with Io countering to a German Suplex. Io was looking to get into her usual role of punishing Iwatani, and her attacks were on point. She hit her beautiful tope and they fought out in the crowd, Iwatani came back and hit a diving body press from the fan entrance. I was happy we didn’t have any of these crowd brawls in the previous matches because they usually just amount to wasted time to get a spectacular dive in and serve no other purpose, but here it was used as a major turning point in the match. Iwatani was getting the best of Io, she could have used more urgency though. At one point, Io was supposed to counter a tornado DDT but they missed the spot and Mayu started selling anyway. Io was able to counter the Dragon Suplex by landing on her feet. That’s always a great counter, but Iwatani reacting like she landed it made her look foolish. Io got some brief offense, but wasn’t able to get anything going for herself. Iwatani tried the Dragon Suplex from the top turnbuckle, but Io blocked it, and she had to settle for ramming her head into the ringpost. Mayu busted out Kairi’s version of a diving footstomp to really damage Io (Kairi had left for America a few weeks earlier where I could happily ignore her, so they paid tribute to her with a couple of her spots in this match). Io struggled outside in pain but beat the count out, only for Mayu to pounce. Io blocked a Dragon Suplex in the ring. To this point this was the strongest segment of the whole match, but then we had a bunch of stalling. Io’s neck was really bothering her and she needed time, but Mayu didn’t really know how to buy time or react (and neither did Daichi), she just stood on the apron waiting for Io to recover so they could do the next planned spot. The next big spot was the Dragon Suplex on the apron, and Mayu did try to press after that but Io was able to fight back. They had a really good, intense striking exchange, then exchanged suplexes only to pop up on each other. Io defiantly fired up, if she was going to go down, she was going down like the warrior she is, but Iwatani slugged her and she crumpled down onto the mat with nothing left. I really liked this exchange, and I felt this is where they should’ve gone home. The story was told and they’d hit the peak, all that was left was for Iwatani to finish with the Modified Dragon Suplex, but instead she fell to the mat as well, and when she tried to follow up, Io turned her rana attempt into a crab. Iwatani made the ropes, so Io did Kairi’s elbow to Iwatani’s back, and then a Texas Cloverleaf. Io wanted a moonsault, but Iwatani grabbed her foot, so Io hit a Dragon Suplex for a near fall and then hit her moonsault, only for a two count. Io needed to finish it now and went for the tombstone, but Iwatani reversed it. Locomotion Dragon Suplexes got a near fall, but Io was done and Iwatani was finally able to hit her modified Dragon Suplex for the first time in three matches to finally put an end to Io. Iwatani's post-match reaction was great. She had finally done it! Io tried to crown her as the new champion and strap the belt around her waist, but Mayu was too skinny and it didn't fit, which was pretty funny. Io’s performance can’t be praised enough, you could feel her vulnerability, but she wasn’t going to be a pushover. She gave Mayu all she had, and it was a strong way to start the new era. It’s too bad that the new era couldn’t live up to what Io had done, and Mayu’s first run ended via injury just three months later. ****

DC: The last two times these two wrestled each other in singles action, they produced the two best joshi puroresu matches of the year 2016 (5/16/16 and 12/22/16, ****¾ and ****½ respectively), which were both successful World of STARDOM Title defenses by Io Shirai. Shirai had been on a roll, and this was in fact her 15th title defense during this title reign, her second reign as World of STARDOM Champion. Things were changing in STARDOM, as Kairi Hojo had recently left. As an in-ring performer, Hojo has always been overrated, but she was one of the top stars in STARDOM, and her leaving the company certainly shook things up a bit in the top ranks. This meant it was the perfect moment for Mayu Iwatani to prove she was ready to shine as the brightest star in STARDOM. The only problem was, Iwatani had only been able to defeat Shirai once, and that was a Cinderella tournament match that allowed a win to occur via over-the-top-rope elimination, which is exactly what happened on 4/23/15. This means Iwatani had never been able to get a pinfall or submission win over Shirai in a singles match, and that made her the clear underdog in this match. This wasn't going to stop Iwatani from trying, of course, especially since she gave Shirai a run for her money in their two great battles in 2016. In this 6/21/17 match, Shirai started off with a lot of confidence. They worked some beautiful sequences that emphasized Shirai's tremendous athleticism. Shirai showed no signs of stepping down as the best in-ring worker in joshi puroresu. However, Iwatani was determined to at least take away the title Shirai was so proud of. These two had two great matches before, so there was no reason for them to not have a great match here. The battle spilled to the floor, and Shirai hit a German suplex on the floor. After the action returned into the ring, Shirai hit a dropkick off the second rope with great authority that sent Iwatani back to the floor. Shirai then hit a tremendous tope suicida. Shirai's tope suicidas are so amazing because she just launches herself with such ferocity onto her opponent. This sort of excellence of execution is where these two excel, as they just perform the moves that much better than almost anyone else. Iwatani showed that she could also fly, as she leaped off the fan entrance with a diving body press. Io made it back into the ring just on time, and Iwatani immediately welcomed her back into the ring with an Ayumi Kurihara-style dropkick while Shirai was trying to catch her breath near the bottom rope. Iwatani went for a Dragon suplex, but, like a cat, Shirai seems to always be able to land on her feet. Shirai got a near fall when she hit a bridging German suplex. Iwatani hit a dropkick off the top rope. Shirai took a rough landing on her neck when Iwatani came off the top rope with a double footstomp while Shirai was hanging upside down in the tree of woe. Shirai took another nasty bump when Iwatani hit a Dragon suplex on the apron. Iwatani went for a La Fiera-esque frog splash, but Shirai moved out of the way. Iwatani hit a Dragon suplex, and Shirai used all her strength to kick out. The way she kicked out showed that she was now just barely hanging in there with the challenger, emphasizing that Iwatani's victory was something that could really happen. Shirai put Iwatani in a half Boston crab, seemingly just to get Iwatani to stay down for a while. Shirai showed great desperation, but she also showed she wasn't planning on leaving this building without the belt. Determined to do whatever it takes to retain the belt, Shirai hit a flying elbow off the top rope onto Iwatani's back and then executed a Texas cloverleaf. Shirai executed the move like her intention was to break Iwatani's back. Since Iwatani's body was so flexible, the move didn't have the impact Shirai intended, so Shirai went back to what she knew could get the job done at any time, the bridging German suplex. Iwatani managed to kick out just barely. Shaken up from Shirai's devastating offense, Iwatani grabbed onto Shirai's legs to try to slow the determined Shirai down. Shirai had enough and hit Iwatani with the Dragon suplex, one of Iwatani's main moves. Iwatani managed to avoid embarrassment, as she kicked out, just in the nick of time. There was one move Shirai hadn't gone for, and she was about to hit it next. This was a fabulously executed moonsault that not only looked extremely graceful, but it also looked like it had tremendous impact. The relentless Shirai tried to go for a tombstone piledriver, but she managed to avoid it, and hit Shirai with a tombstone piledriver of her own. Iwatani's face showed a sign of relief, as she went for the Dragon suplex. Shirai was somehow able to kick out. Shirai kicked out in a way that almost seemed like the autopilot of her body-mind mechanism had taken over, as she was selling like she was now barely able to continue. Iwatani's facials went from a look of relief to now a look of disbelief, which really helped add more to the drama of the final minutes. Iwatani knew she couldn't spend much time hesitating or worrying about anything, and she quickly went back into full concentration mode. Iwatani hit a modified lifting Dragon suplex into a bridging pinning combination. This time, it was really the end of this battle, as Shirai was not able to kick out. A proud Rossy Ogawa, who had always believed in Iwatani from day one, walked over to Iwatani to give her the Red Belt. Iwatani had a big smile on her face, which was a smile that showed joy and gratefulness at the same time. It was a great moment that Iwatani had worked hard for. It was not only the culmination of a beautiful story of a wrestler fighting hard to make it to the top, but it is also part of Iwatani's life story, as she had been suffering from a great deal of anxiety and depression before joining STARDOM, and in a way, the way she had been challenging herself to get better and better as a wrestler mirrors the story of her dealing with her traumatic life experiences before joining STARDOM. Over six years prior, Iwatani took a big and courageous step forward in her life, and as she showed the will to work on herself and improve her life, she joined STARDOM. It's great to see that it helped Iwatani in getting a grip on her mental health situation, but it is obviously also great for wrestling fans, because Iwatani turned out to be a great wrestler. The execution was superb throughout this match. There was maybe one spot that wasn't perfectly executed, but nothing that came close to having an impact on match quality, and even if that would have been the case, then it would have obviously been forgiven, since this was such a high-quality match overall. Both workers showed a lot of intensity, and what they did particularly well was how they really put this over as a heated battle. They weren't just going from highspot to highspot, as they showed a lot of intensity in between the big moves as well. They would try to rough each other up with some strikes before hitting a big suplex. This was an excellent match with excellent in-ring work, but it wasn't just what they did that made it excellent, it was also the way they did things. They treated each other like two great competitors who knew what the other was capable of, showing viciousness and great respect at the same time. They really managed to make this match come across as an important contest between two of the best in the world. This was a huge victory for Iwatani, easily the biggest win of her career, which rightfully propelled her status to that of someone who was viewed as being of great importance to the company. The main issue with the match is that it didn't have nearly as much action as their previous two matches, and it was also quite a lot slower than their two great matches. This is why as a match overall, it was 'merely' excellent and not truly great. The post-match interviews given by Iwatani and Shirai were great, as the words that were spoken and the emotion displayed further emphasized that this was a great battle between two great warriors. Shirai's second reign as STARDOM Red Belt Champ had come to an end, but what a reign it was. Inaugural World of STARDOM Champion Nanae Takahashi had a longer title reign, but she defended her title far less often than Shirai did (only seven successful title defenses spread out over 602 days), and certainly not with anywhere near the level of skill. This means that Shirai's 546-day title reign with 14 successful title defenses has to be considered the most impressive title reign in STARDOM history, especially if we also take match quality into account. Even to this day, nobody else in history has been able to successfully defend the World of STARDOM Title 14 times in a row. ****¼

ML: Mayu had been on her own for about seven months now, and was embracing the lone wolf mentality. Her confidence in herself was growing at the same time the aura of the indomitable Io Shirai was somewhat fading. Yes, it's difficult to say that someone who had now held the title for 576 days running, downing every name foreigner they could unearth from the talented Kay Lee Ray, Kasey Owens, Shayna Baszler, & Toni Storm to the talentless Viper, Alpha Female, & Taya Valkyrie, was on the decline, but her neck had payed the price throughout the long hard journey, and Mayu's main weapon was designed to destroy even the healthiest of necks. We seemed poised to finally get the competitive match I've been waiting for. Ironically, as great as the trilogy was, none of the matches were even, back and forth sort of matches. Instead, they all felt like the one fighter was clearly better on that day, and was only going to lose if they made a mistake and got caught by the one big shot they knew they had to do everything in their power to avoid. It took a little while for us to realize it, but Io was now Misawa with the creaky neck hoping to hold up to however many drops on the head it would take to eventually hit the one big finisher and escape. So in that sense, Iwatani now had options, while Shirai, after a good start, really just had to find her way to the moonsault. Mayu went all the way from needing the Dragon suplex to practically even gain a real advantage in their first title match, to dominating most of the time once this match got going. It showed both her own growth and Io's deterioration, as Mayu no longer felt desperate, while Io no longer felt like the teacher who always had every answer, and was thus a step or two ahead of her student. Io wasn't going to give up any time soon, but there was the growing sense that her will was much more sturdy than her body. So yes, this match was very different from the other two, but at the same time, while a little more competitive, it was largely just one-sided in the other direction, with Io now barely getting any near falls. Still, the outcome was arguably most in doubt because we needed to actually see Mayu win a real match over Io, and generally in Japan, if the bigger name is selling the whole time, they ultimately win. This was the longest of their championship trilogy by about 5 minutes, but also the slowest by a mile, feeling more like a stretched out wannabe epic men's match with all the extra time devoted to selling. Right from the outset, rather than the quick starts of their previous two matches, they were suddenly hesitant to even lock up. It's amazing that Io could still give this level a performance in the shape she was in, but at the same time, this match was a lot more smoke and mirrors than their 2016 matches. They did as many big spots as perhaps they could, but in between, they didn't do nearly as much wrestling wise, instead just trying to milk everything for drama. Io selling heavily was certainly more reasonable than Mayu doing it too. Mayu could arguably have sold her knee better in the 2nd match because that could have been an injury that was compromising her ability to perform if done differently, but here she had moved far more to the overselling camp than the underselling one, because now we were just stuck in the hurts/forgotten pattern of selling everything big to keep things slow because Io was struggling physically. This drawn out style works better for lesser wrestlers who lack material and options, but doesn't really suit what Shirai & Iwatani have to offer and do best. As strong as these matches all were, it was mostly because their skill and athleticism was just so far above what any other women currently wrestling were physically capable of, with a few exceptions such as Arisa Nakajima, DASH Chisako, & Tsukasa Fujimoto. None of the matches were truly satisfying in the sense of really exciting me with the sense of wonder of who was going to come out on top, and how it was going to happen. The second match was the closest to feeling complete, but it was the least original of the three. The first match was the most original of the three, but it was also the least competitive. In this third match, they did the most big moves, but it took the longest to get going, had the least tempo and flow with the more overdramatic American trappings in full effect, and generally just felt kind of drawn out with the standing/laying around between each spot accounting for the extra 5-10 minutes, and then some. Mayu was much nicer than in their first match when they were best friends, perhaps because Io's neck really was too bad to take anymore punishment than necessary. She started off trying to do other things, partially due to Io making her pay for trying the Dragon suplex on the floor and in the ring. One could argue that maybe Mayu didn't need to attack the neck. She was doing great comparatively speaking, having already nearly gotten a ring out after a plancha off the fan entrance, and generally had Shirai stumbling around and holding her neck even without specifically targeting it. Allowing Shirai to hang around was risky business though. It wasn't until Shirai stopped the avalanche style Dragon suplex that Mayu really took advantage, audibling into jumping off the top rope and jerking Io's neck (theoretically ramming it into the metal cable that attaches the turnbuckle and post). Mayu was now able to hit the killer Dragon suplex on the apron. The selling of these big spots would have seemed much better if they weren't already overselling everything that came before, which just made it feel as though there wasn't the same of urgency we saw in their earlier encounters. Right after this though, when you were thinking Shirai was close to dead, the match finally took off, with the explosion of mostly uninterrupted action that would have worked better when they were actually healthy. Mayu managed to kick out of the moonsault, which made Io's neck hurt even more! Shirai tried to use a tombstone to set up another moonsault, but Mayu countered with a tombstone of her own, and nearly won with a locomotion Dragon suplex. Mayu was then able to execute her modified Dragon Suplex for the first time in the trilogy to take the title. The title finally going to the best wrestler the STARDOM dojo has produced was obviously very well deserved. I mean, for heaven's sake, Yoshiko of all talentless stiffs and disgusting individuals managed to win STARDOM's top title 3 years after debuting on their first show with Iwatani, and Kairi Hohum, who was from the next year's rookie class, also somehow leaped over Iwatani and got it in 3 years compared to the 6 it somehow took Iwatani. It was time to change the title, and Iwatani was the right person for the job, even though bad luck ultimately kept her reign from panning out. ****

JWP 1/15/93 Korakuen Hall JWP vs. AJW Showdown: Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue 29:44.
PA: The second best tag match of the entire joshi interpromotional era (after the Dream Rush tag) is a somewhat overlooked match that took place in JWP, which blows away the arguably more well known tag match with Hikari from the month before, as well as many others. Ozaki was 0-2 against Zenjo, and after Hotta spent most of the previous match pulverizing Hikari, who was way out of her league, Kansai had to come in to even up the odds. Losing was simply not an option anymore, they had their best two wrestlers and had to win to prove they could compete with Zenjo. The crowd were red hot, giving this match a special atmosphere. It was the most important match in JWP’s short history up to this point, the crowd knew it and the wrestlers treated it that way with everything they did. They didn't do much early on in terms of high spots, but they built it and paced it exactly as they should have, in terms of keeping it pretty basic and believable, with the intensity through the roof. The feel was entirely different than the typical mindless Toyota style joshi matwork oriented openings, even before she stopped even trying in the early sections. Here, everything, no matter how basic, had importance. The teams worked so well together, and though they are both similar, subtle contrasts made them very different. Takako wais able to get offense in, but only when Hotta weakened the opponent first. On the other hand, Ozaki was more confident in her ability, and able to scrap and wear down her opponent, then bring in Kansai to deliver the heavy damage. They started moving things along after the 14 minute mark with a brawl, which led to Takako getting murdered with brutal kicks from Kansai in the ring, and later, Ozaki getting the same treatment from Hotta. The stiffness from Hotta and Kansai throughout the match was everything you could have wanted throughout the whole match, but especially during these beatings. The last 5 minutes were all the big moves and saves they’d been building towards. There were a bunch of great near falls in there. I liked how they brought it back to Ozaki vs. Takako for the finish, they'd been killed for most of the match, but Ozaki getting the win herself made all of her pain worth it after her two previous failures. Any doubt she belonged competing at this level was erased, and her post-match reaction made it all the more sweeter. You could see how much this meant to her, Kansai, and all of JWP. This match accomplished everything it set out to do, and was an all time great tag match. The only real downside was a few execution problems, though aside from Takako's missed armdrag in the middle, nothing detracted from the match. They perfectly built up the Hotta vs. Kansai single match (which was the main goal and was set up in the post-match), continued the Takako vs. Ozaki feud, and left the door open for a rematch down the line. Overall, I'd put this as the #2 JWP match of all time after 7/31/93, they were able to do everything they did over the course of a half hour, and still leave you wanting more. *****

DC: JWP vs. AJW. Let’s go back to January 1993, the first month of a truly great year for joshi puroresu. AJW’s Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue had battled a JWP team before, at the 12/1/92 JWP show Hotta pinned Hikari Fukuoka, who was teaming with Mayumi Ozaki in that great tag team match worth at least ****½.  This time around, on 1/15/93, Ozaki teamed with Dynamite Kansai, who was her tag team partner in the greatest women’s tag team match ever on 11/26/92, a true classic worth *****. In the 12/1/92 match, the first JWP vs. AJW match, 3rd year wrestler Fukuoka was the weak link, mostly because she hadn't quite come into her own yet, but she played her role well as a future star who was being elevated by being involved in matches like these. What we got here in the 1/15/93 match was an even more intense match with the promotional ace in Fukuoka's place. The match started off with Hotta and Kansai trying to outpower and outstrike each other. As you'd expect, things were pretty even between the two initially. Kansai tagged in Ozaki, who briefly continued the momentum Kansai had started for the team until Takako was tagged in. During these early stages, everyone was struggling for position and frequent tags were made, which prevented anyone from really getting too dominating early on. However, despite the efforts of Ozaki & Kansai, Hotta became increasingly more brutal and aggressive real fast. Hotta’s stiff assault on Ozaki about four minutes into the match is one of the more unforgettable aspects of the match. The crowd never loses hope in Ozaki, which was evident when there were loud “O-za-ki!” chants. Takako Inoue didn’t come close to matching the intensity shown by Hotta and Ozaki. However, Takako was definitely still a solid tag team partner for Hotta here anyway, taking over for the team when Hotta felt it was time to step out of the match. Kansai showed quite some stiffness when she beat up Takako, but Takako wasn’t able to do much back. While Takako didn’t necessarily show the amount of intensity and eye for detail required from the match, she did take the beating she was on the receiving end of quite well, and during the finishing stretch, her ability to time and react was just about as strong as that of the others. Ozaki played her role to perfection, and she didn’t show any compassion for the opposition, as she just wanted to take advantage of any opportunity she got. Ozaki’s more subtle moments were sometimes almost as great as her less subtle moments, for example, when she would jump in front of Takako in order to prevent Takako from making the tag. This showed that Ozaki was really sincere in defending the honor of her team and league. In these cases, I’m referring to Ozaki’s role in the storyline, of course, because in actuality she was doing whatever was best for everyone involved, including all performers in this match and not in this match, as she understood the impact of this feud would have on joshi puroresu in general. The pace was kept steady for pretty much even the entire middle part of the match, but there was quite significant more intensity shown by Ozaki and Kansai when they were in control. When Hotta and Takako were in control, Hotta showed a lot of aggression, but Hotta & Takako didn’t feel like they were anywhere close to being the cohesive unit Ozaki & Kansai were. While Hotta & Takako were the outsider girls from the big league who felt like they were above the girls from the ‘secondary’ league, Ozaki & Kansai were more like an actual great tag team, not only trying to defend the pride of their league, but also working logically from the perspective of a great tag team trying to beat top class opposition in a big main event. The first five minutes really set the tone for what this match was going to be, really establishing that this was more than just another match. However, it was the finishing stretch that really stood out most. The 8-minute near fall stretch of this match saw the pace, urgency and drama increase to maximum levels. In fact, it’s the near fall stretch that truly helps push this match to greatness after sometimes meandering a bit during the middle portion. Although it should be noted that the match never became dull in any way, and they were always doing something at all times. During the final minutes, it felt like everyone just continued doing what they were doing earlier in the match, only this time with the dial turned up to maximum. Hotta’s aggression and viciousness certainly helped play up the ‘war’ aspect of this interpromotional war. Kansai was a great tag team partner for Ozaki, but it felt like Kansai could have challenged Hotta more, though perhaps it was decided that Hotta vs. Kansai was to be saved for another day since this was building to their 4/2/93 Dreamslam match. As we look closer at this 1/15/93 match, it becomes clear Ozaki gave yet another great performance, really showing a lot of passion in defending the pride of the underdog JWP league. However, Hotta deserves credit for giving the best performance of her career, and her super intense performance helped make this match a great one. This match eventually came to an end when Ozaki pinned Takako. It was a great match, and I would definitely listen to an argument for this potentially being a 5-star match. ****¾ 

ML: These earliest interpromotional matches had such an incredibly urgent and intense vibe that they seem to exist on another planet we need to somehow find our way back to. They just feel so all or nothing, you either win the Super Bowl or you're Scott Norwood. There's a huge difference between these initial tests and even what we were seeing in the 1994 interpromotional joshi shows, which were still outstanding, but more for the work than for the fervor. Trying to compare this stuff to basically everything we've seen in recent years is like comparing a fight to the death to screwing around nudging your friends just for shits and giggles, or in other words, Orange Cassidy. The brilliance of this match is slightly difficult to quantify because the sum was so much greater than the individual parts. Even though they weren't really doing anything particularly flashy or spectacular during the first 2/3 of the match, it absolutely flew by as if it were 5 minutes. I'm constantly critical of the interminable faux epics we are endlessly fed today because that's how every big show must end. They feel like they are 3 hours because they don't have any sense of urgency, or do anything surprising or most importantly meaningful with all the extra time I want to say they've been granted, but more accurately I should say have been saddled with because that's exactly the feeling I'm left with most of the time. Here is the answer to these current time wasters, the stallers and layers that just leave me with the feeling that they are simply trying to survive their own match, in the worst possible sense of the word, an actual near 30 minute match that feels like the shortest half hour of your viewing life because it's so overloaded with unbridled energy, enthusiasm, pride, and hatred it that can't be delayed, much less halted. This is the mindset that warrants getting extra time, it's the workers living and experiencing every minute to the fullest rather than padding the concert length by doing their corny hit for the 3rd time because they don't have any other songs that are even playable. There's never a simplistic answer when people ask what a great match should look or shouldn't look like, but certainly this and something like the C.M. Punk vs. MJF 3/6/22 Dog Collar match are the two opposite ends of the spectrum, the former being the sort of style transcending relentless all out war wrestlers and bookers should be trying to emulate in a long heated contest, while the later being nothing beyond hokey credibility killing melodrama where everyone just looks foolish because the match is never stopped despite there being a minute of complete and utter nonsensical inactivity after each and every time anyone does even the slightest uninspired motion. Right away, Kansai and Hotta were actually bouncing around and showing footwork in their striking sequence, trying to do something that looked much more shoot oriented. Kansai pretty much showed more energy in the first minute against Hotta than she did in her entire GAEA career, and Hotta was equally juiced. There's not as much natural heat between Hotta and Ozaki, but Hotta kept disrespecting Ozaki because she's tiny, not wanting to fight her or take her seriously, creating a rivalry that allowed Hotta to be at her nastiest, which is where she excels most, and Ozaki to play the underdog that refuses to accept that she's anything but unlimited. Hotta has never been one of my favorites, or particularly consistent in her attitude and effort, but she's absolutely outstanding in this match, a career performance, for sure. Tonight, she's basically everything we are used to Aja Kong being, the hell raising, chaos creating, brutalizing heel who knows how to play things and gets more out of the opposition, especially in terms of carrying things. She's just totally on with her storytelling, timing, and intensity, and even though Ozaki is the best actual worker involved, and Kansai is a much more consistent badass, who at this point could basically work like as big or as small a wrestler as she wanted to, while Hotta was more limited to being an ass kicker, it's really Hotta's cues and more credible based style with some out of control striking and brawling that leads the way here. I really liked the early spot where Hotta broke Ozaki's rear naked chinlock and turned into her guard, then picked Ozaki up and just viciously slammed her like a toy. Early on, Ozaki basically got to attack Hotta first, but once she got that 1 shot in, Hotta just swatted her like a fly. Kansai tried to help Ozaki out, but if we know one thing about Ozaki, it's that she won't back down from anyone, and Hotta's attitude was just making her come harder and harder when she might normally just tag out. Ozaki was already down 0-2 to AJW, and lost to Hotta in JWP when she was the star of her team (with young Hikari Fukuoka), so there was a lot of pressure on her to make good now that her partner was the promotional ace. In any case, Hotta and Takako's game plan quickly became keeping Ozaki in the ring, and Ozaki played right into their hands, which, since JWP were the home team and thus the faces, was at least a slightly different spin on the usual '80s hot tag scenario. This ultimately didn't go down that path though because they were sticking pretty rigidly to the pecking order, so Takako was also purposely being portrayed as the weak link, and even if this was the less focused on portion of the story, would get into even more trouble than Ozaki because she was #4. Hotta vs. Kansai was the money match here, so Ozaki & Inoue being their heavy bags also kept teasing and tantalizing the audience with what they really wanted to see, without giving too much away. Hotta is a natural bully, and a general badass, who when she wants to be is great at creating heat with the opposition, but while her work was technically proficient, Takako struggled to add anything to her standard role of absorbing the pot shots,or do anything that created any real interest in her. That's not to say she was bad by any means, but the charisma and storytelling of everyone else was both elevating the interest in them, this match, and future matches, while one way or the other, Takako was essentially just giving Hotta a breather. Ozaki always knew how to play things in these days, and found ways to create 1000 times the interest in her against Hotta than Takako created in her against Kansai, despite it being almost the exact same scenario. When the match turned, and Takako became Kansai's and even Ozaki's whipping girl, she simply lacked the character to elevate these sequences, which was unfortunate because to some extent this had been a match where it wasn't not so much what they did, but how they did it. In other words, when they were just going wild out there and putting 300% effort and energy in, it didn't matter that they were using a lot of submissions and moves that weren't top notch excitement on their own, but rather that they were jerking and contorting with ill intentent, but it did start to matter now that Takako was failing to be a compelling victim. Ozaki & Kansai did their best to maintain the high level, but when Takako managed to make the hot tag and Hotta got back to bullying Ozaki, it was just utter chaos in the best possible totally out of control urgent manner. Hotta was just a one woman wrecking crew, but she was kind of fighting two on one because Kansai kept trying to run interference to stop Hotta from completely brutalizing Ozaki. Hotta had been both taunting Kansai and keeping her eye on Kansai all night because Kansai could care less about there being rules against just jumping in to help her partner. The first 20 minutes were mostly brutal kicks and submissions, but the final 10 were an all out explosion of ridiculous action. This sounds like a huge tonal shift, but it worked because they had been putting every ounce of energy into everything they were doing throughout, so even though they were on the mat a lot, they were always wrenching rather than resting, and all the standup action was very urgent. This final portion of the match now came closer to matching the action of the Yamada & Toyota Dream Rush match, without sacrificing much of what had made this match different (it obviously felt less credible, but, of course, it was never truly credible to begin with). That being said, this is one of those timeless matches that's not really about the moves, but rather creating a certain feeling, an aura, and thus will still look great in 50 years when guys we aren't even that impressed by are doing 1080 degree splashes, and it's just no big deal. Takako eventually got herself into real trouble, and now it was Hotta who was jumping in any chance she got, trying to turn the tide back. Both Takako, who was in the center of the ring fighting Ozaki, and Hotta, who was in her corner, avoided Kansai's running lariat, but while Hotta was busy choking Kansai in the corner, Ozaki landed on her feet for Takako's suplex and pinned her with her tequila sunrise to finally break through for JWP. There was a classic post match celebration where Ozaki crawled over to Kansai and collapsed onto her with an embrace. JWP had finally done it! Ozaki had finally done it! They were legit, as they always knew they were. Kansai then left the ring and brought back a picture of Ozaki's father, who passed away suddenly the previous month. Ozaki would score more super dramatic wins for JWP this year, and was a good portion of the reason the earliest interpromional shows before AJW dropped the ball with he were so much more memorable, as most of her matches had amazing drama to go along with amazing work. It was through these matches against AJW that Ozaki rose out of the shadow of the steady legend Devil Masami and the marketable idol Cuty Suzuki and became the promotions much needed #2, but she was clearly #1 in JWP in terms of what she was able to deliver in the ring, and in competition with only Akira Hokuto as the world's best female. Tonight was really Hotta's night though, even if in defeat. This is probably the 2nd best match in the history of JWP behind Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki & Cuty Suzuki & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa 7/31/93. It's not a perfect match, if such a thing exists, but this is the way I want to see the fighters interact with one another. There's very few matches in the history of the sport that can compete with the leave nothing on the table, kill or be kill, vanquish the enemy or the kingdom is lost vibe this match was able to sustain for half an hour. The execution had some flaws, and Takako was out of her depth, but for effort, energy, intensity, and intangibles this is incredibly difficult to top. *****

EWP 9/26/03 EWP Intercontinental Title: Robbie Brookside vs. Osamu Nishimura 12R.
DC: This was interesting to watch. Wrestling a ‘60s style match in a decade that saw a large amount of modernization in many fields was quite a daring move. The courage these two had to just stick to this thing they set out to do rather than being very concerned about having to do certain things in order to be 'accepted' was great. We got none of that kind of 'lack' mentality here. The not-so-great production quality added more to the retro vibe of the match. There were very few exciting moves in this match, and because of that, the rounds felt more like an interruption despite something notable happening at the end of many rounds, and it made it more noticeable that not much progression had been made compared to the previous round(s). However, it was nice to see that this match offered something very different than what was being done at the time (and in more recent years), which makes the match memorable. Towards the end of the fourth round, about ten minutes into the match, they started showing a bit more fire behind their moves. It’s not like they didn’t do anything in the first ten minutes like in a modern-day NJPW match, but still this match didn’t feel very captivating during the first ten minutes. However, as the match went on, it became clear that the match was never going to drastically change pace or direction. It wasn’t a very ‘fun’ match to watch, but it was definitely unique and different. Also, the work was definitely good overall, as there were never any bad moments during the match. The lack of decisions during the match, and the match going to a time limit draw kinda gave it the unsatisfying vibe of a goalless soccer match. Since they’re basically working a ‘60s style match, it seems fair to watch it with a green-tinted sixties mind and compare it to a ‘60s match. I’d have to conclude that as a ‘60s style match, it wasn’t necessarily very exceptional, because it never had any moments that made me go “wow, this is really cool,” and there were never any moments that made me wish they had a rematch against each other. However, as a 2000s match, it was definitely exceptional in the sense that it was more or less very different from any match anyone else was wrestling in the year 2003 (to the best of my knowledge, at least). I’m glad to have watched this, because this wasn’t just your average match and stands out in its own unique way. Also, whenever someone will talk about English wrestler “Wildcat” Robbie Brookside or Japanese wrestler Osamu Nishimura, this match will very likely come to mind first when hearing either of those names (and not in a bad way, since this was a good match). I’ll have to admit that I can’t really say that I actually truly enjoyed or liked watching the match enough to want to watch it a second time. Overall, I’d say it’s fair to call it a good match, as I absolutely respect the effort and intention of the match, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a very good match. I wonder if they would have been able to have worked at least as good of a match like this if they went for a more fast-paced 15-minute match. Maybe it would have been better, maybe it would have been far less memorable? Who knows? Perhaps this was the only type of match they could have had that would make their match-up memorable. With that being said, we also have to consider that there probably would have been several wrestlers that would have been able to make this match more compelling if they were put in the position of wrestling this match. Brookside and Nishimura certainly do deserve credit though, because what made this match a good one was the sincerity that both workers wrestled this match with. It had the feel of a serious sports contest. Perhaps that’s why this match was able to work in a European country, since the people in attendance were possibly not necessarily expecting an entertaining or flashy fight like they would have in one of the top pro wrestling countries. One of the qualities of the match is that this is the type of match I’d imagine I could show someone who didn’t know wrestling was a work and didn’t know about MMA, because the seriousness and the lack of nonsense of the match made this acceptable as a somewhat realistic type match (at least for pro wrestling standards). It is admirable that they stayed committed to working this style for the full 36 minutes without for a minute worrying about having to do something more conventional. ***1/4

ML: Compelling WOS lives match, albeit dated even by their 3 decade old standards. They worked very hard and took this very seriously, doing a great job of building the rivalry and escalating the tension. The early rounds were nicely built around the technical wrestling, largely in the WOS style. I really enjoyed the opening, as it gave time to a captivating style of grappling that largely has been lost to time, even if this wasn't exactly the A grade version of it. This increasingly gave way to the cheap shots in the ropes and on the outside, with the ref constantly blowing the whistle at them. These fit incredibly well into the match though, as they not only did a great job of putting over the deadliness of these opportunistic if shady attacks, but they ultimately led to the submissions being the best manner of capitalizing on the damage that was done illegally. The generally low key selling was very good, going a long way toward making this seem like an important, epic struggle if the real rather than strictly time based definition of the word. They countered off the lock up, and put a high value on these escapes early on. However, they never really incorporated any of the tumbling or gymnastic aspects that made the WOS style of counter wrestling exciting, so for me this didn't have any particular British flair, it was perhaps more of the heel Lou Thesz style of mixing serious technical wrestling with shortcuts to help facilitate it. It also never felt as though it would be a short match, which I didn't want it to be, but at the same time they could have done a better job of teasing finishes. The key spot came in R6 when Nishimura kneebreakered Brookside on the apron, which earned him a yellow card, but he was able to dominate the rest of the round working over the injured knee. Nishimura kicked Brookside after the bell, which drew his ire, so when Nishimura then turned his back and walked to his corner, Brookside finally made a comeback charging at him with an elbow, which earned him a yellow card back. Nishimura was racking up the infractions at the start of the 7th, kneebreakering Brookside on a chair, and denying him reentry with a dropkick, which was the first time either guy did any sort of jumping maneuver. Brookside made Nishimura pay for taking cheap shots to keep him on the outside, picking his leg and ramming his knee into the post then kicking him when he tried to reenter. Brookside worked over Nishimura's knee in the 8th round, with a kneecap dropkick into a figure 4. Brookside's knee was the more damaged of the two though, and he was arguably saved by the bell in the 10th round when Nishimura used the figure 4 on him. Nishimura's style tonight was arguably even more that of Inoki than of his mentor Fujinami since it was "shoot" oriented, borrowing the leg sweeping techniques from the Inoki/Ali match. You could argue that they could have done a match where both work each others knees over without taking half the match to get there, but this actually felt organic and was exciting because it wasn't obvious how it was going to evolve, twist, and turn, in the same way a Keiji Muto match is as exciting as watching paint dry because you know exactly what is going to be done, every time, without fail, and just about the exact time everything is coming. This felt opportunistic, that feels totally forced and uninspired. They were a bit more lenient in what they were able to do in the later portion, but again, this is where the length helped because they had slowed each other down enough that more was reasonably possible. For the most part, the higher risk offense was believable within pro wrestling logic because neither guy could move much to defend themselves. The main exception was Nishimura going for broke at the start of the 11th round with a diving knee drop, but this was fine because it failed miserably, and led to him getting dominated for the entire round. He did manage to get an elbow in just before the bell, as he had been doing a great job of finishing the rounds big, including laying Brookside out with a spinning solebutt at the end of the 8th round, but this time Brookside elbowed him back after the bell, and they had a heated exchange that did wind up ending with Nishimura getting the last shot in. Nishimura finally got his manjigatame on with about 45 seconds left, but Brookside was able to just suck it up and leave with the title. ***3/4

GLEAT 3/7/23 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Lidet UWF Title Tournament First Round, UWF Rules: Shinya Aoki vs. Tetsuya Izuchi 8:18.
DC: This was a lot of fun to watch. The main reason for this is that Shinya Aoki made Tetsuya Izuchi fight back stiffer and harder. Aoki’s underselling and his ability to put over a lack of cooperation in a shoot style sense are aspects that can really enhance a match, especially a shoot style wrestling match. Whether they were doing standup striking or mat grappling, Aoki constantly made Izuchi struggle. Izuchi was up for the challenge, and tried his best to fight back. There was a kid in the crowd who kept yelling: “Izuchi!” At some point in the match, it looked like the kid’s wish was about to become reality, as Izuchi seemed to be coming closer to pulling off the win. However, in the end, Aoki managed to surprise Izuchi with a Fujiwara armbar for the submission victory. Aoki is currently one of the most fun wrestlers to watch, at least when he’s working these Lidet UWF shoot style matches in GLEAT. Overall, this was quite an enjoyable sub-10-minute match. If these two ever have a rematch, a bit more fire and aggression by Izuchi are elements that could make a potential rematch better. Izuchi is definitely someone who has shown potential, but it feels like he’s still not quite as good as he could be. He could trust himself a bit more so that he can allow himself to take a leap of faith more often. Another thing that would make this match better is match length. They would have benefited from at least another 5 or 8 minutes for this to be even better than what we got here. Even though this was only eight minutes long, Aoki’s emphasis on not doing the usual cooperative or semi-cooperative style match was what made this compelling. It feels like GLEAT hasn’t fully capitalized on the potential of their Lidet UWF shoot style division, so getting to watch a very good match like this feels like a cherishable moment. It’s not a MOTYC or anything like that, but it would be nice to see more matches like this, because it would be cool to see wrestlers challenge each other to fight back harder and try to put over the fighting aspect of this pro wrestling game a bit more. By the way, for those who care about the points lost in this match, Izuchi used two rope breaks, Aoki used a rope break, and Aoki was knocked down three times before Aoki made Izuchi submit. ***½