AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II 6/25/23 Toronto Scotiabank Arena, IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay 39:45. DC: This was the much anticipated rematch of their MOTYC that took place on 1/4/23 in the Tokyo Dome. I was live at this event in Toronto, and as much as the live experience was great, I will try to not let this influence my review and rating of the match. Kenny Omega went for his finisher, the one-winged angel early in the match, and Will Ospreay went for an OsCutter soon after. Both were unsuccessful in hitting those big moves. Ospreay landed on his feet after a dragon suplex attempt by Omega. Two of the first big moves that were successfully hit were Ospreay hitting a shooting star press on Omega’s back while Omega was hanging over the ropes, which Ospreay then followed up with a big OsCutter on the apron. The pace of this match was generally quite slow and it stayed slow for a long time, because now they were focusing on blood and brawling. Omega started juicing after Ospreay rammed Omega’s head onto the announcers’ table. The Canadian flag was abused by Ospreay, which obviously got quite a lot of heel heat, but Omega ended up clotheslining Ospreay upside down and using the flag as a weapon on Ospreay. Ospreay juiced after getting his head rammed into the steel ringsteps. Ospreay also got DDT'd on the ringsteps. While the work was executed slowly and somewhat methodically, the execution of each move was great throughout the match. Ospreay used a sharpshooter and then a crippler crossface. The sharpshooter was obviously a reference to one of the most famous champions in Canadian wrestling history, Bret Hart (who, despite being my childhood hero, wasn't as great as Kenny Omega or Chris Benoit). And the crossface was obviously a reference to Chris Benoit, who despite being one of the all-time greatest Canadian wrestlers of all time, unfortunately ended up being quite an infamous name in pro wrestling history for reasons we don’t need to go into right now. This match was more towards an American match instead of a Japanese match. The slower pace and the focus on working the crowd was more prevalent here than in their Tokyo Dome match. Also, the double juice and focus on a heavier focus on brawling than expected made this a somewhat unexpected match. On one hand, it’s nice they tried something different, but maybe they tried too hard to go for a different type match. It felt like catered this too much for a North American audience, which was unnecessary, since the AEW fans have shown appreciation for Japanese and Mexican style wrestling. Perhaps this match shows that sometimes it's best to stick to what you know works, as opposed to making a drastic change to one’s habits. If they would have just stuck with what worked for them in Tokyo, stylistically, then this probably would have been another MOTYC. One of the coolest moves happened when Ospreay hit a beautiful sky twister press from the top turnbuckle to the floor. At this point, the pace started quickening a little bit and the spots became more spectacular. In hindsight, it did feel like this quickening of the pace and the increasing of the intensity came a little too late after they had spent so much time selling the blood and brawling. Another big move came when Ospreay came off the top rope with an OsCutter. Don Callis was in Ospreay’s corner because in the storyline, he had recently betrayed Omega after having been on Omega’s side for so long. Callis was sent back by the ref earlier in the match, but he came back and handed Ospreay a screwdriver for Ospreay to use as a weapon towards the end of the match. Ospreay then hit a hidden blade and a stormbreaker. However, Omega managed to get a foot on the ropes, and the crowd erupted, as Omega now still had a chance to survive and win this match despite this blatant cheating by Ospreay and Callis. Ospreay used Omega’s v-trigger and Omega’s one-winged angel. An enraged Omega kicked out and used any last amount of strength in him to fight back. Omega executed a German suplex, but Ospreay kicked out. Omega then got hit with a Tiger Driver ‘91! Somehow, Omega kicked out. Ospreay hit the stormbreaker, and this time it was over. Ospreay became the new IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion. If we compare this match to their great 1/4/23 match, we have to come to the conclusion that this was significantly less impressive. One of the main reasons was that we didn’t get the intensity and impressiveness of the type of sequences we know they are capable of like they showed in Tokyo. Instead, we got a more Americanized match with a focus on blood and brawling, which was an interesting attempt, but it was clearly not something they excel at when paired together. When Ospreay was selling a lot in the Tokyo match, Omega was quite vicious. Here, Omega was selling a lot, but Ospreay failed to reach the levels of viciousness that Kenny reached in Tokyo. Of course, this match being disappointing isn’t Ospreay’s fault, as Omega didn’t exactly challenge Ospreay to show his best stuff, as Omega wrestled this like it was just another AEW TV match. And, of course, we don’t know if they were simply told to work the match this way by the bookers of this show. There’s no real need to blame anyone, but it’s clear that in addition to this match not being as impressive as 1/4/23 Omega vs. Ospreay, this 6/25/23 match also wasn’t as impressive as Omega’s match with Hijo del Vikingo from the 3/23/23 AEW Dynamite TV show. A case could be made for this Omega vs. Ospreay match being the third-best match of the year so far, but, despite being interesting for pretty much the entire duration of the match, it’s certainly hard to consider this match a true MOTYC when it failed to live up to the expectations and failed to reach the greatness of the aforementioned 1/4/23 Omega vs. Ospreay and 3/23/23 Omega vs. Vikingo. Even though this wasn’t the match Omega and Ospreay were capable of having, it was still an excellent and enjoyable match overall. ****

ML: They met the extremely low standard of being the best match on another massively disappointing Forbidden Door show, slightly better than the far more lively 10 man, these two matches being the ones with good workers who were trying, but this was a big step down from their Wrestle Kingdom match. Even though they kind of exhausted everything in their arsenal given the length, they never really challenged one another in the manner in which they incorporated any of it, or brought their best stuff in terms of actually creating together. It was a good match of the variety where Kenny has to find a way to pull something out of the mediocre opponent, made very good by the fact that Ospreay is actually one of the best and most exciting wrestlers in the world. Because Will is closer to Kenny's equal, the match should have been worked in the more challenging sequence laden, back and forth counter oriented manner of two greats finally having the opportunity to test, and perhaps exceed their boundaries. Instead, it was kind of the worst of both league's styles, the overlong epic of New Japan combined with the blood oriented and corny entertainment shenanigans of AEW. This was more a longer version of the match you want might want Omega to do against Jon Moxley, who lacks the skill to match challenge Omega in the athletic, technical, or counter-based action, but is a good brawler and willing bleeder who can be counted on to give his all. Definitely Bryan Danielson had the performance of the night, going well above and beyond the call of duty to manage to keep some kind of pace and even force Mr. Gedoboto to do something beyond stand or lie around staring at the opponent like a deer in the headlights, and I wrote this before I realized he was doing much of it with a broken arm, but while Omega is the master of working with Okada, and giving those sort of performances that make the opponent much better than they actually are, tonight his match didn't really take advantage of much that Ospreay has to offer. Ospreay also doesn't excel as a sadistic heel even in the best circumstances, much less for an audience that barely knows who he is unless they watch international wrestling. Ospreay's offense is still much more interesting than the majority of Omega's opponents, of course, and that accounts for much of why this was a very good match rather than a good one, but the match rarely got beyond the most basic level of doing a single big move then waiting around. My primary feeling about the match is that it was just so drawn out, and even watching it a second time hoping I might come around to what they actually did rather than what I was hoping/expecting them to do once I knew what the match actually was because these are two of my favorites, it still just feels slow, and like about as big of a miss as these two could have had given 40 minutes on a huge stage to match or top their previous great match. The focus here was on it being a grudge match, but it was so long that they wrestled with no sense of urgency, which really kills that illusion, the primary virtue of the grudge match being that both parties are supposed to be all fired up about killing one another. I don't need them to be doing chain wrestling and flips for 40 minutes, but if they are going to do this style especially, there needs to be a lot more intensity than this, and they need to not get endlessly distracted pandering to the crowd. Will was the jaded heel out for revenge, but all those sleepless nights waiting to finally get his win over Kenny resulted in him desecrating the Canadian flag while Kenny recovered rather than taking another step towards seizing the victory. This was one of those matches that could really have used the cliche fast junior style opening because it started off very slowly, easing into the story of both men, Will especially, doing whatever it took, but then with Kenny getting busted open early when Will rammed him into the Forbidden Door advertisement on the announcers table, and then Will getting busted open when Kenny DDT'd him on the ring steps, in a play off the famous turnbuckle incident from their previous fight, they moved into everything slowing down due to blood loss mode. In retrospect, the opening was that junior style action, such as it was for what they were doing today, but watching it the first time, it seemed so deeply rooted in the we are just getting started mentality, especially because the speedier action was teasing the big moves they'd deliver later, that I would never have guessed that this would be the majority of the "faster" and more counter oriented action they were going to display tonight. It was threatening to take off early when the Don Callis' ejection for tripping Omega interrupted things, and then after a pescado by Ospreay, they started moving toward the brawling. Though there was some of the best offense in this portion, such as Ospreay hitting the shooting star press with Omega draped over the top rope then the Oscutter on the apron, it was more of the variety they could do with anyone where they were just jumping at each other rather than developing sequences where they worked with one another. The match was certainly always interesting, but I wouldn't say it was ever riveting. I liked that they went in a lot of different directions, which made it less predictable, but there weren't many sequences that were up to their capability. Actually, there weren't many sequences period, and that was my big problem with the match, as the story they told kind of boxed them into being stuck in slow paced, methodical mode. They weren't exactly taking it easy for 30 minutes like in most of these soporific Okada or Naito NJ "epics", but things slowed to a crawl with Ospreay attempting to get heel heat after virtually every spot once Kenny was busted open. This is really where American wrestling always loses me because when you have your opponent battered and bloodied, you should be going in for the kill, pouring it on with a full effort to finish so you get the hell back to the locker room, but instead all the intensity and urgency is drained from the contest because they give the opponent tons of time to recover, concentrating on doing anything and everything but actually pressing their advantage to defeat them. Kenny was better about this than Will since he was the face, and his offense during this portion was a more shoot oriented bit that was still slow since it was submission based, but at least they were sitting in a hold rather than walking around in between them. Still, Omega had to pause to give the Canadian flag to a kid who was yelling that Ospreay sucked. This mid portion was by far the weakest portion of the match, and that was a long stretch considering they didn't threaten to kick things into gear until around the 30-minute mark, when they begin moving into the finishing segment with some of the usual big moves plus some special stuff. The thing is, by this point they were rightfully selling to try to usher in the finish, so now they couldn't really justify speeding up the pace too much, or not breaking up the momentum by going for pins. They were finally gaining some momentum though when Callis resurfaced. No attempt was made to escort him out of the arena or anything, no one even bothered him about being there after he was already booted, so poor Tony Schiavone had to make up some lame story about how they'll fine him for this infraction. Imagine if Earl Weaver just took a bathroom break and went right back to the dugout. In any case, while I'm sure Tony Khan felt the Callis nonsense was necessary to get to the point where Omega lost, one of the biggest problems throughout was that the majority of the heat was on Callis rather than Ospreay. The match stopped to set up the big spot where Callis tried to protect Ospreay from the V-trigger, but eventually Kenny did it anyway, and of course Callis didn't take one for the team. Instead, he then passed Ospreay the screwdriver that he used on Omega during the Moxley cage match, an Ospreay used it on Omega to escape The one-winged angel. Omega still managed to escape the hidden blade and stormbreaker. Ospreay tried to add insult to injury by finishing Omega off with his own one-winged angel, but Omega kicked out at 1. Ospreay avoided a few one-winged angels, and got a near fall with a devastating Tiger driver '91 before hitting a typically terrible looking hidden blade then winning with the stormbreaker. It's possible that I'm a little high on their first match and a little low on this one, but that one both excited me and kept me "believing" in the athletic contest. ***1/2

UFC on ABC 5 6/24/23

Chepe Mariscal vs. Trevor Peek 3R. Peek comes forward very aggressively and throws everything with full power. He is a fun fighter to watch, but he's not exactly what you would call good yet, he's simply unorthodox with tremendous power. His biggest problem is that the opponent knows what he is going to do because everything is such a big aggressive powerful motion, and Mariscal did a great job of finding numerous ways to counteract that. This fight had great action from start to finish, with Peek just bombing away, but Mariscal being the craftier, more technical, and complete fighter who seized the openings left by his eager opponent, even throwing him multiple times because Peek was perpetually trying to move forward even when he was tied up. Dominick Cruz said Peek "literally turns the fight into a street fight behind a dumpster", unlike the infamous fair of Duke Droese though, this was actually interesting and entertaining. Peek had the initial onslaught of raw power, but midway through the first round, Mariscal began to take over, landing a big knee on the inside, using an over-under throw, and going into a deep rear naked choke. Peek was the longer fighter, and when he was willing to stay on the outside, he had much better results in terms of not getting nailed with too many counters, but his nature is to keep closing the distance. To some extent, that is a necessity though because Peek has no head movement and winds up to throw everything, so if he isn't creating chaos with overwhelming pressure, it's easier for his opponents to find the openings either before or after to hit his stationary head. Mariscal took the fight on 10 days notice and was fighting up a weight class, but it wasn't surprising that it was Peek that was wearing down first given his style expends so much more energy. It definitely didn't bode well for Peek that whenever he would stop attacking, Mariscal would just pick him apart or toss him down again. Mariscal was winning all the little battles in the clinch, using Peek's forward motion against him or tripping him up. Peek began to come forward with uppercuts to the body, and Mariscal ate a few big ones, but responded by kicking his leg out as soon as he began his entry. I thought Mariscal should have used more of these leg kicks, and also tried to initiate the inside fighting more, because he was totally dominating any time they were locked up. Peek just swings so hard though that it's difficult to get out of the mindset that the first order of business is to avoid his big strikes, and shift into the mindset that you can keep him from striking effectively by tying him up then easily taking him down. Mariscal was winning all the rounds nonetheless, and with Peek fatiguing because everything was all muscle, he was in a much bigger hole than simply being down two rounds because there was even less deception to his bite down on the mouthpiece style as time progressed. Nonetheless, Peek never gave up on his self, and was able to push through the fatigue very well. Mariscal did a great job of countering the uppercuts in the 3rd with overhand rights, but that didn't stop Peek from trying more and more of them. Peek has a truly amazing chin, as even though Mariscal kept hitting him squarely and cleanly, at most Peek would pause for half a second then throw yet another bomb back. Peek was defending takedowns with more urgency in the third round, but Mariscal was able to land even front kicks to the face. Peek made a big push for the finish the final minute, but even though Mariscal had no reason to risk it, he mixed it up even more aggressively trying to get the Finish himself, including another big front kick. Despite the fatigue, the final minute was the most action-packed of a fight that was nothing but action already. This was some crazy stuff! Mariscal won a unanimous decision 30-27. While neither this nor the main event were super competitive, this was a much closer fight with 100 times the action. It definitely should have been fight of the night, if they didn't give it to Barber vs. Ribas. Even David Onama vs. Gabriel Santos was much better than Ilia Topuria vs. Josh Emmett. Very good match.

Maycee Barber vs. Amanda Ribas R2 3:42. Barber has been one of the UFC fighters who is difficult to like because they overrate her to such a ridiculous extent. It's not that she doesn't have heart and talent or that she isn't a good prospect, but let's be honest, she should have lost 4 of her last 6 fights if not for the kind of shady decisions that go to these sort of overhyped fighters Dana White decides they are promoting, and at that point she'd probably be back in Invicta rather than in the co-main event on national TV. Certainly, Miranda Maverick and Andrea Lee actually won those matches, but nonetheless, this was a huge step forward for Barber, and by far her best performance thusfar. When Barber set her mind to it, she was able to come forward effectively behind the jab with tight and well-balanced combos rather than pursuing wildly and mostly just brawling. Her boxing was just tighter overall, and she was able to pounce on openings being aggressive and hard hitting without leaving herself so prone to the counter. Barber was often getting the best of it by landing the bigger strikes, but both fighters had a lot of moments, and were regularly putting the opponent in danger. This was a really exciting, super high paced back and forth fight. Both women were pushing the pace, and constantly trying to attack. Just when you thought one made a big move to gain the advantage, the other would often take it right back. Barber's corner was telling her that Ribas starts with the jab every time, but the thing that was actually hurting Barber was when Ribas instead used a switch step to lead with the right hook and then follow with the left straight. Barber was mostly on the defensive early, but she shattered Ribas's nose with a left hook, and cut her again with an elbow when Ribas was clinching against the cage. Ribas was moving up from the strawweight division, and clearly had the smaller frame, though their height was more or less the same. She was doing her best to get her submission game going, but Barber defended well on the ground after her headlock takedowns, and her kneebar attempt got her pummeled with punches and hammerfists. Barber finished the 1st round strong, taking the top off the failed kneebar and continuing to rain down a barrage of strikes. Barber tried for a high single at the start of the second, and landed a nice elbow on the break, but Ribas answered with a left hook to bloody Barber's nose. Ribas was doing better in the second round, she had another headlock takedown and was answering better on her feet, even landing a good right straight after taking a left high kick. Barber landed a second left high kick at the start of the next sequence though, and when Ribas came forward to try to get it back, Barber nailed her with a right flush on the nose. Barber landed a third left high kick and followed with big right hands. This time Ribas tried to drop into a desperation single leg rather than throwing a big punch back, and Barber was able to just drop to her knees and maul her with right hands and elbows to the face. This was one of those tough stoppages where Ribas definitely wasn't out and was still trying to fight back, but she kept taking unanswered blows to the face without doing anything to change her position. Keith Peterson didn't want to stop it, but when Ribas wound up more on her back taking elbows, he was kind of stuck. Very good match.

PWFG 3/4/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock 30:00.
DC: This was the best match of PWFG’s debut show, and arguably the best PWFG match of the year. (Ken) Wayne Shamrock and his brothers had a rather rough childhood, but he excelled in college football and wrestling. He made his pro wrestling debut in the Carolinas in 1989. In October 1990, he made his debut for Newborn UWF in Japan, and that’s when he really got involved with shoot wrestling. UWF folded soon after his debut there, and he followed Masakatsu Funaki and others to Yoshiaki Fujiwara’s newly formed Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, and then to Pancrase. Of course, we know that Shamrock would go on to become one of the key names in early UFC history, and because of his success and name value there, he eventually made his way to the sports-entertainment business. His run in the circus from 1997 onwards was obviously when his career slowly would start taking a nosedive, as usually is the case with talented wrestlers ending up in what Mike Lorefice likes to refer as Chainsaw Vinnie’s morgue. And while not taking anything away from Shamrock’s success in UFC, one could make the argument that shoot style pro wrestling was the thing that Shamrock excelled at most. Certainly, his performance in this match was a great one. Minoru Suzuki had made his pro wrestling debut in 1988 in NJPW before he joined Newborn UWF 1989. After Newborn UWF folded, Suzuki became one of the co-founders of Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, along with Yoshiai Fujiwara and Masakatsu Funaki. Suzuki had some notable undercard matches in UWF, but this match between Suzuki and Shamrock was arguably the match that would put these two on the map as truly significant shoot style wrestlers. The match started off with both participants being tangled up in leg submission attempts. Then they went to some standup grappling that quickly resulted in more time spent on the mat. What’s so particularly excellent about this match is that they never really seemed to give each other an inch. They were constantly battling for position, making it harder for the other to get out of the current situation. Despite this going 30 minutes, they managed to keep things fascinating from start to finish. This is quite a feat in itself, but they also managed to keep things realistic all the way through. Shamrock really got this style, he truly understood it. Not only that, he even excelled in it. Suzuki is one of the greatest shoot style wrestlers ever, and that’s something that sometimes gets forgotten or even overlooked by those who are merely familiar with his more silly NJPW heel work of more recent years. At some point in the match, Shamrock executes a northern lights suplex, and it seems so realistic and so logical somehow, especially due to the way he follows up immediately by grabbing Suzuki’s arm in an attempt to get Suzuki to submit, and Suzuki’s subtle selling makes this sequence even more golden. Ironically, Suzuki’s subtle selling here is a stark contrast to his somewhat comical and corny overselling in NJPW. Towards the end of the match, they are taking more risks, which increases the drama and excitement. We got to see some good counters and escapes near the end. The urgency with which Shamrock escaped Suzuki’s attempted armbar was an amazing moment. Both wrestlers were serious and concentrated during the entire bout. They did such a great job of really emphasizing that they were pretty much evenly matched in terms of skill and position. It was super competitive all the way through, and everything flowed so organically and logically. The only thing that was less desirable about this match was the fact that it ended in a 30-minute time limit draw, as it would have been even more satisfactory to see a winner. However, perhaps this indeed the perfect ending after all, because this wound up being the most notable series PWFG produced. The execution in this match was superb. This was a great pro wrestling match. ****½  

PWFG 5/16/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Naoki Sano vs. Wayne Shamrock 26:15.
DC: Naoki Sano’s road to PWFG is a rather unusual one, and we can in fact say that his entire career is quite an unusual one. Sano started out as a NJPW junior heavyweight in the 1980s, and he’s perhaps mostly known for his famous series of matches with Jushin Thunder Liger that culminated on 1/31/90 with a legendary great match. Sano then joined SWS, the infamous ‘money puroresu’ league, a league that didn’t last too long. While he was working for SWS, Sano would also start competing for PWFG, and this match we’re looking at right here was Sano’s first PWFG match, so it appears this was his first true shoot style match. It was particularly interesting seeing Sano here in action against (Ken) Wayne Shamrock, who just a little over two months prior had worked a great match with Minoru Suzuki on 3/4/91. Sano and Shamrock were both somewhat cautious in the beginning, but not in a non-intense kinda way, more in a manner where they conveyed that they respected each other's abilities and didn’t want to make a mistake early on. Shamrock seemed to be more aggressive than Sano though, as Shamrock was constantly looking for opportunities and openings to set up a vital submission hold. Sano was initially fine with just hanging in there and just not getting in a position that would give Shamrock too much of an advantage. Shamrock showed his wrestling skills with some nifty takedowns. Not only his ability to hit takedowns made Shamrock dangerous, it was also his ability to follow them up with a threatening submission hold that basically meant Sano had to be very aware of every possible move Shamrock would attempt to go for. At some point, Shamrock started getting a bit too dominant, and it would have been nice if Sano would have become a bit more aggressive and daring. Shamrock was dangerous even in the stand-up, mostly because of his aggressiveness. Interestingly enough, Sano executed a DDT, which somehow didn’t seem too silly in this shoot style setting. Sano got a nice STF executed on Shamrock that showed that Shamrock couldn’t just get too confident yet. Shamrock hit a wonderful German suplex that almost caused Sano to not be able to get up in time for the ten count. This was a very good match, and the only real downside of the match is that it was just a little bit too one-sided due to Shamrock being clearly the superior fighter in every way. Of course, the shocking finish would tell a different story. While Sano’s victory seemed somewhat undeserving, at least based on how the match was wrestled overall, it made for a good ending of the match, and it shows that a win can come out of nowhere. Sano’s dragon suplex and the Fujiwara armbar were well executed, but the setup of the dragon suplex kinda looked a bit too showy and not as realistic as most of the things they were doing in this match. Either way, while this certainly wasn’t the memorable match Shamrock had with Suzuki two months prior, this match was never not interesting, and Shamrock really proved once again that he was a truly superb shoot style wrestler. Sano also deserves credit for holding up his own end. Very good match. ***¾  

PWFG 7/26/91 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano 30:00.
DC: The match starts off with some exciting grappling that was worked in an urgent manner. While Minoru Suzuki is the one who truly made this great, Naoki Sano was clearly more up to the task here than in his match against (Ken) Wayne Shamrock, which was Sano’s first PWFG match. One of the best things about this match is that it was truly intense at all times. Neither Suzuki nor Sano was giving the other an inch. Sano was really a lot more fired up and gutsy than in his first PWFG match. This made this match feel super competitive and quite even. Because they made each other struggle so much to get even the slightest advantage, every big move felt even bigger than they would normally. This is one of those matches where it’s just totally intriguing from start to finish, and you almost can’t wait to see what happens next due to the way they’re able to draw the viewer in through their super focused approach. When wrestlers show they care so much about everything they do in the match, it makes the viewer remember this match for a long time. There are so many moments that show that shoot style wrestling is so much more interesting than standard pro wrestling (at least in general). For instance, when Sano takes Suzuki down with a double-arm suplex, and Sano tries to follow up, Suzuki doesn’t just go along with whatever Sano is going for next, and Suzuki tries to block and fight it off with all his might. The match never stops being a massive display of struggle. This super competitive match eventually came to an end when the 30-minute time limit expired. This was a match that did a great job at being quite realistic yet dramatic at the same time. Of course, the great crowd heat helped as well. Great match! ****½ 

PWFG 9/28/91 Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock 16:34.
DC: This was the much anticipated rematch of the great Minoru Suzuki vs. (Ken) Wayne Shamrock match. They had a great 30-minute draw on PWFG’s debut show on 3/4/91, and this one, everyone was looking forward to a winner. They approached the match more urgently, as you’d expect from two wrestlers now looking for a decisive win. The intensity level was high, and they knew each other still quite well from their previous battle, so they were moderately cautious yet relatively aggressive at the same time. It’s a small little detail, but I felt that in the 3/4/91 match, they were more concentrated, while in this match they were more willing to take risks. While their slightly more adventurous approach here made for a more action-packed match, somehow it didn’t feel quite as rewarding watching it as the 3/4/91 match. Normally, you’d think that a 16-minute match would be an improvement over a 30-minute match, but in this case, their 30-minute match was so superbly worked that it feels like we didn’t get as much bang for our buck from them this time around. The 3/4/91 match felt more like it was a shoot style match ‘extraordinaire.’ This match felt more showy than the 3/4/91 match. Perhaps showy isn’t the right work, but it’s certainly more flashy, and while that sounds initially like a good thing, it also seems to take away the realistic and intriguing constant battle for position that made the 3/4/91 match so great. That being said, this was truly an excellent match in its own right. However, it occasionally felt like they weren’t being as organic and realistic as they potentially could have been. After 16 minutes, Shamrock won this bout via KO, and while it was a really fun match to watch, it didn’t feel quite as fulfilling as the great 3/4/91 match. Excellent. ****   

JWP 7/9/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai 25:11.
DC: This was one of their first singles matches against each other. They had at least one singles match together prior to this match when Dynamite Kansai was still known as Miss A in 1991. Mayumi Ozaki never showed any intimidation whenever facing a larger opponent. As a matter of fact, Ozaki took it right to Kansai as soon as the match started. The action spilled to the floor, and when Kansai threw Ozaki into the guardrail with tremendous force, the entire guardrail moved and partially fell apart. The action would return to the ring. What stood out in this match was the force and intensity everything was executed with. What was slightly disappointing about the match is that the second half never turned out to be as exciting as hoped and expected. Also, the match just kinda ended without an intriguing finishing stretch. This wasn’t the best match they’d have together, but it was still a very good one that is certainly worth watching. It was nice to see Ozaki score the win. ***½

JWP 8/16/93 Osaka, JWP Openweight Title: Dynamite Kansai vs. Mayumi Ozaki 20:28
DC: Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki were one of the best sporadic tag teams in the business at this point, and had opposed each other many more times in tag team competition, but it appears this was their first singles title match against each other. Kansai had been the champion since 12/2/92 when she became the inaugural JWP Openweight Champion by defeating Cuty Suzuki in the tournament final. Ozaki had been one of the best workers in JWP for a while now, and in 1993, she was arguably the very best women’s pro wrestler in the world, so to say she was a worthy challenger would be an understatement. Ozaki went for a huracarrana or something similar, but Kansai caught her and hit a sit-out crucifix powerbomb. Ozaki kicked out at two. Kansai hit a diving headbutt, but Ozaki once again kicked out. Ozaki hit the tequila sunrise, but Kansai kicked out. They were clearly going for big moves early on, and they were going for covers early. Even when they were stuck in each other’s holds, they would show a determination to get out of the situation they were in. Both women were clearly putting this match over as an important bout. The previous four bouts on this card kinda had a regular house show vibe, but this really had the feel of a proper main event title match. Even though this match is only available in a hand-held version, the work is good enough to draw you into what they were doing. During the brawl in the crowd, we didn’t really get a clear view of what was happening though. During the middle portion of the match, the pace had certainly slowed down, and there was more of a focus on wear down holds. Also during these parts, we don’t always get to see clearly what they’re exactly doing, which is a shame, because Ozaki in particular is  someone who likes to pay close attention to details during her performances. At the 15-minute mark, Ozaki started getting more offense again, and things got a bit more exciting than during the previous minutes. Ozaki was definitely the more energetic of the two. When Kansai started chopping Ozaki somewhat nonchalantly, Ozaki took Kansai down with a Fujiwara armbar. Soon after that, Ozaki hit a twister somersault plancha off the second rope to the floor. It really felt like Ozaki was determined to show that she was a worthy challenger and that she wanted to show that this was a match worth watching. She executed several moves off the top rope, but none of them got her to victory. Kansai then hit a big backdrop suplex, but Ozaki kicked out, which prompted respectful applause from the audience. Kansai signaled that she wanted to finish things, and she went for the sit-out crucifix powerbomb three times in a row. The first time, Ozaki escaped. The second time, Kansai hit it but didn’t go for a cover. The third time, Kansai hit it again and scored the pinfall win. Kansai retained the JWP Openweight Title. It was a very good match overall and it was fun to have a look at it, but this never really exceeded the relatively high expectations. That being said, it’s certainly a match worth watching, especially for joshi puroresu fanatics and completists. ***½  

CHIKARA 9/13/09: Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Brian Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli 21:47.
ML: The basis of the match is you had the home promotion superstar and trainer Quackenbush teaming with his trainee turned partner Jigsaw, who would already be very overmatched against the conquering indy superstars of Team Uppercut, one of whom was about to move on to the worldwide circus, even if he wasn't working on a recently injured knee. The early portion of the match was a great showcase for the explosive tumbling oriented World of Sport style mixed with some extra Lucha Libre when Quackenbush was wrestling, particularly against Danielson. Of course, the match kept morphing into a lot of different styles and themes, with Quack and Danielson standing out in all of them. The one somewhat consistent area was the typical American tag team isolate and brutalize the face in peril basis, with Jigsaw taking some nasty strikes in the few moments when his knee waisn't being taken apart. There was a particularly rotten feat of strength by Claudio where he used a single leg giant swing to abuse Jigsaw's knee. Team Uppercut found ways to play heel that actually added to the match, for instance Danielson answering Jigsaw's feeble elbows from the bottom with an explosive flurry of mount elbows to show him how it's done. They were just big bullies! Quackenbush eventually just came in and slapped Danielson in the face, taking over for Jigsaw lucha libre style, with a big exchange of the European uppercut versus the palm strike that felt a bit like a cheat without the hot tag even though this was obviously the matchup everyone wanted to see, and the more of it we got the better. The impressive finishing sequence kicked in purolucha style, with Jigsaw making a few key saves for his mentor, including breaking up Danielson's cattle mutilation, but this ultimately resulted in him putting himself back into the fray much too soon. Jigsaw managed to hang in there somehow though, and hit an impressive huracarrana to the floor on Claudio. Everyone kept waiting for Jigsaw to meet his untimely demise, but shockingly Quackenbush wound up catching Danielson in the gator clutch for the win. While this match was never outstanding, the quality was always quite high, and I very much enjoyed the way it evolved, with the different styles on display, while still playing to the strengths of the performers. Obviously Quackenbush vs. Danielson was by far the best pairing, but the contributions of Claudio and Jigsaw were quite useful as well, and you never felt like you were just hoping for them to tag or anything. It never quite felt like a big match, largely because there was no one there, as they still did their best to add some drama without being silly about it. ***1/2

Fu-Ten 10/24/10: Daisuke Ikeda & Takahiro Oba vs. Kengo Mashimo & Makoto Hashi 28:10.
ML: A truly badass match! The skill level was not that high, but they went so far above and beyond the necessary level of stiffness that it more than made up for it. There were basically two different singles matches here, as they didn't really mix the pairings. Ikeda vs. Hashi was just standing there bombing away. If you enjoy headbutt exchanges, this is certainly the match for you! It feels like that's half of what these two did, certainly the most headbutts I've ever seen in a match, with both busted open hardway. I found the Mashima vs. Oba pairing to be more interesting, as they actually remembered that something that's more or less of the worked shoot variety should have some movement and defense. They got some good footwork going, and tried to make each other miss. Mashima would enter and exit, throw combinations and use muay thai knees in a mostly realistic manner. This pairing was much more energetic and explosive, working in a more dynamic fashion. Ikeda versus Hashi was very intense to be certain, but was almost purely operating in the beatdown mode, with the exception of a few rolling sentons from Ikeda. It's odd that Hashi, who barely has any experience working shoot style, was the one that adhered most to purely striking, especially since Ikeda was the one who threw in the most puroresu offense to break up the endless headbutting. There was no wasted time here, but I was definitely hoping for the Ikeda versus Hashi pairing to expand beyond the headbutting down the stretch. The Ikeda vs. Mashima pairing late was quite interesting, but then the rest of the match was basically just the butting rams Ikeda and Hashi retreading the same old waters until someone finally succumbed to a headbutt. Mashima was the standout here, while Ikeda is the overall best worker participating in the match and has a lot of familiarity with Hashi from NOAH, so the pairings were the right ones to bring out what Mashima & Ikeda wanted to do today. Hashi is better than Oba overall, but was the worst today despite some goofiness from Oba because he practically only did one thing. That thing was what made the match memorable to a great extent, but at the same time, in a match that this long, they could have mixed things up and found more diversity and differentiation. For me, this started off as an excellent match that had a chance to be a classic, but decreased as time went on due to the diminishing returns of the constant ramming. ***3/4

SEAdLINNNG 2/9/18 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Misaki Ohata 18:12
DC: This was an action-packed match from start to finish. While Best Friends were doing their ring entrance performance, they were attacked by their opponents. Arisa Nakajima and Misaki Ohata were the most impressive ones on their respective teams. Arisa’s intensity and level of involvement was top-notch. Tsukasa Fujimoto certainly was a great tag team partner for Arisa, but it didn’t feel like Tsukka was in the zone as much as Arisa was when it came to the overall performance level. Tsukka was like the bass player who just follows the overall line of the song, without really coming up with anything too special, but at least did whatever she did very well. Tag team specialist Hiroyo Matsumoto always manages to contribute at least adequately to each tag team match she’s in, because that’s her thing, but she was the least interesting performer in this match. The match relied a lot on Ohata’s input, because she was the one who was going to decide if this was going to be a very good match or not, since, despite her solid work, Matsumoto wasn’t going to be relied upon enhancing the match quality in any significant way. Matsumoto did some standard powerhouse-type stuff, and her days of giving strong performances in excellent tag team matches in OZ Academy feel like they was ages ago. Whatever she did here, it was all good enough to never drag things down in any way though. Ohata’s selling was certainly very good, which was helpful, because Best Friends got quite a good amount of offense against her. Ohata’s execution was good, but it wasn’t always very urgent. The match was generally quite good. There was one spot that was a bit silly though, despite it being a creative spot. It’s one of those moments where trying to be too creative sometimes works against you. This spot had Matsumoto trying to powerbomb Arisa, but as they were in the corner, Tsukka tried to hold on to Arisa, in an attempt to prevent the powerbomb, but then, with some help from Ohata, Matsumoto used her strength to then powerbomb Arisa, which subsequently meant Arisa ‘accidentally’ suplexed Tsukka off the top rope in the process. It wasn’t a completely terrible moment, but it certainly was a “what the hell is going on here?” type of moment. A much cooler spot happened when Arisa leaped off the top and drove Ohata’s head onto the apron via a DDT. Ohata sold this well-enough, as she managed to find enough strength to suplex Arisa on the floor before both needed a minute to sell on the floor. Arisa and Ohata traded forearm smashes as they were trying to make their way back to the ring. Things got out of control as Arisa and Ohata kept fighting and never made it back into the ring on time. The result was a double count out. While this was a disappointing result, as double count outs usually are, at least it was a good set up for the upcoming 2/12/18 singles match between Arisa and Ohata. Arisa’s passion and care for detail is admirable and inspiring, and it’s really what made this match memorable. Very good. ***½

WAVE 2/12/18 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Regina di WAVE Title: Misaki Ohata vs. Arisa Nakajima 14:25
DC: 2018 was the final year of Misaki Ohata’s 12-year career. Despite being in her final year as an active wrestler, she was still a top competitor. Here she was even the Regina di WAVE Champion, a title she had won by defeating Yumi Oka on 1/20/18. As Ohata made her way towards the ring in this match against the tough challenger Arisa Nakajima, it already became clear this wasn’t going to be an easy match. Arisa didn’t even let the champion enter the ring, as Arisa attacked Ohata right away. Arisa aggressively attacked Ohata on the floor, but Ohata wasn’t going to let Arisa get away with this too easily, as Ohata fought back intensely. The match kept going back and forth at a moderately fast pace. This match had exactly what their 3-star SEAdLINNNG 1/14/18 match lacked, and that was urgency. Neither wrestler let the other rest or stall for too long, and the action kept moving. Arisa hit a brutal-looking double footstomp off the top rope onto Ohata on the floor. This no-nonsense approach further emphasized that neither participant wanted to walk away without the title belt. Ohata persevered and kept fighting back, no matter what Arisa did. The back-and-forth forearm smashes didn’t feel like the mandatory ones where they just stand and wait for the other to hit them, because what we got here was both of them trying to find every bit of strength left in them to nail the other until they would go down. As Ohata came charging towards Arisa, it was Arisa who countered Ohata’s attempted offense into a Dragon suplex. Arisa immediately hit another Dragon suplex, and this time it was one that ended with a bridging pinning combination. Ohata kicked out though. The match got even more intense and urgent now, as they just wouldn’t stop attacking each other. Ohata hit a fisherman’s buster for a near fall. They kept throwing bombs, and the near falls kept coming. In the end, it was the champion who was able to pin the challenger via tiger suplex. Excellent. ****

PURE-J 8/11/18 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Arisa Nakajima vs. Command Bolshoi 15:00
DC: During the early minutes, Command Bolshoi did whatever she could to try to remain in control on the mat. Arisa Nakajima tried her best to outdo the master technician, but Bolshoi was always one step ahead, at least when it came to the matwork early on. Once Arisa managed to escape and get the match turned into a less submission-oriented style, we luckily still got the same amount of intensity and urgency shown. It was nice to see Bolshoi, whose career was winding down, give a strong effort for this excellent singles match against arguably the best women’s wrestlers in the world at the time, Arisa. The execution was excellent. The countering and escaping was all executed excellently as well. There was a really cool spot where Arisa hit a suplex, and Bolshoi immediately countered with an armbar. Arisa then tried to suplex her way out of Bolshoi’s clinginess, but Bolshoi kept holding onto Arisa’s arm. What was so fascinating about this match is that they didn’t just do a regular walkthrough-type match, but they had a match that was competitive and had intriguing harmony and dynamics. This was probably one of the better 15-minute draws you’ll ever see, because it felt like they gave it all they had in those 15 minutes. We also got a good few minutes of near falls that helped make things even more exciting than they already were. And instead of being disappointed, which is often the case with time limit draws, here the viewer is left with admiration and the urge to give these two a standing ovation. This was a truly excellent match. ****¼ 

Sendai Girls 1/6/19 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Sendai Girls World Title Match: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee 16:37
PA: The first battle of 2019 between these two for the Sendai Girls World Title. This one felt like something of a dry run of what they’d on 6/8/19, as they were still figuring stuff out. I really liked the early portion with Sareee slipping out of everything Hashimoto was going for, and trying to throw her off her game with slaps and flash pins. She wasn’t afraid to bend the rules with hair pulling either. The result was that Sareee had more of the advantage in the first half than Hashimoto did, but couldn’t do any real damage. She was able to score some nasty back kicks, and one to the head, but Hashimoto caught her when she tried a PK, and put her in an ankle lock. Sareee got control back afterwards and ended up dropkicking Hashimoto to the outside and hitting a pair of diving footstomps, but ended up getting dumped with a suplex out there, with the 19 count tease. They worked with good intensity in the final minutes, but it was certainly something they'd improve upon. Hashimoto was mainly dropping Sareee with suplexes, and Sareee would make fiery comebacks and catch flash pins. Sareee caught a couple of big moves and won the last striking exchange, but as she signalled to the crowd, Hashimoto used those wasted seconds to grab her and drill her with a German suplex and had the match won from there. Sareee was able to catch a last gasp Uranage but Hashimoto caught two more Germans to put her away. Sareee was able to catch a last gasp Uranage, but Hashimoto caught two more Germans to put her away. This was a good match, and they worked with good intensity, particularly in the final minutes, but it’s something they’d build upon in their subsequent matches. Sareee did a good job with asking Hashimoto a lot of questions, but Hashimoto had the answers. ***1/4

Sendai Girls 4/16/19 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Sareee vs. Meiko Satomura 15:30
PA: After coming up short against Hashimoto in January, Sareee’s next big challenge in Sendai Girls was the boss herself, Meiko Satomura. They teased strikes early, but stuck to the mat in the opening minutes. They went back and forth, but Satomura was the craftier of the two. I really liked the opening exchange. It wasn’t long before it turned into a complete slaughter, basically Satomura was doing the job, so she spent the entire match killing Sareee first. She did a great job of doing it though. Satomura’s attacks were ferocious and her submissions and suplexes looked brutal, basically Satomura at her best. Sareee gave it all back to her when she had the chance, but her comebacks were cut off almost immediately. Satomura sold everything well, letting you know Sareee was doing damage to her despite getting in so little offense, so it probably came across as though Sareee got in more than she actually did. The finish was too abrupt though. They had a really good, albeit brief strike exchange which Satomura won and hit her Death Valley Bomb for a near fall then Sareee came back with a Uranage to get the pin. Satomura wasn’t impressed by the loss in the post-match, and this led to Sareee challenging Hashimoto again at the end of the show to set up the double title match in June. ***1/2

Sendai Girls 6/8/19 Niigata City Gym, Sendai Girls World & World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana Double Title Match: Sareee [WWWD] vs. Chihiro Hashimoto [SENDAI] 18:06
PA: After defeating Meiko Satomura in April to set up another challenge for the Sendai Girls World Title, Sareee defeated Aja Kong in May to regain the World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana Title, resulting in this being a double title match. This match was basically an evolved version of what they’d done in January, for the most part. The layout was the same, as were many of the big spots, though they made variations to them and they made things a lot more dramatic overall. The improvements mostly came later in the match though, to the point I found the first half to be a step down from what they’d done in January. They didn’t lose my attention, but it was a more of a methodical straightforward affair with Hashimoto generally dominating things, and Sareee asking less questions. Hashimoto is a reactionary wrestler, so if she’s not being pushed, she tends to let things drift and gets stuck in a methodical second gear. Sareee was able to catch some stiff kicks and picked things up with her footstomps, forcing Hashimoto to start unleashing her big power moves. Hashimoto went for a lariat, but Sareee avoided it and dropkicked her out of the ring. She followed up with a plancha and a footstomp off the apron. She seemed to be setting up to do it again, but Hashimoto thwarted that, and powerbombed her on the floor. They did the 19 count tease again, and made it a little more dramatic with Sareee falling from the apron when she was trying to return to the ring. This is one of the improved spots I mentioned, but I guess what hadn’t occurred to them was that the biggest improvement would have been just not doing a count out tease that no one buys at all (at least the third match didn’t have one). I liked Hashimoto’s follow up though, as soon as Sareee made it into the ring she urgently tried to pin her, and when that didn’t work, she started hitting vicious short arm lariats. From this point on the match was excellent. They were really urgent and intense. Hashimoto hit her rolling senton from the second and she was slightly off target, landing on Sareee’s face. Sareee was desperate not to take another one of those and fired up. They ended up exchanging German suplexes for a double down, and had an excellent striking exchange. Hashimoto kept trying to land her big moves and lariats while Sareee was countering and going for flash pins. Hashimoto caught her in a wheelbarrow German and powerbombed her but she couldn’t hit the finishing German suplex. Sareee managed to catch Hashimoto coming off the ropes and dump her on her head with two Uranages, and while she wasn’t able to finish with them, they turned out to be the killer blows. Hashimoto was hanging on now, she caught her with short arm lariats again but they didn’t have any of her power behind them like the ones earlier and Sareee countered for another Uranage, a rolling sabot and a Wrist Clutch Uranage to get the win. ***3/4

Sendai Girls 10/13/19 Sendai Sun Plaza, Sendai Girls World Title Match: Sareee vs. Chihiro Hashimoto 17:03
PA: Their third and final match of the Senjo series. Hashimoto looked like a killer, dominating and using her power and submission to try to stay in control and shut down Sareee. Sareee was creative with her counters and used to her speed and agility, looking for anything she could pounce on to get in as much damage as she could before Hashimoto would inevitably catch her. They weren’t covering new ground, but they executed it far more effectively and with Hashimoto being such a force it made Sareee stand out a lot more in the scrappy babyface role. The first half felt like it was always building and never got stuck or started dragging. It also helped that there was no long count out tease, and the action just kept going the whole time. They teased it, but they actually never left the ring for the entire match. They kept coming at each other, and the match got more urgent and intense as it went on. Sareee would do what she had to derail Hashimoto, and wasn’t too worried about damaging herself to do so. She attempted a Uranage when she had the chance, but Hashimoto blocked it and slapped her so Sareee fired back with a nasty headbutt that caused a double down. She followed up with some great forearm strikes, but ate a vicious lariat and a powerbomb. Hashimoto was done with this now, and wanted to put Sareee away. She went for her Wheelbarrow German, but Sareee scrambled to the rope. Hashimoto attempted another lariat, but Sareee countered that and got a couple of flash pins before getting caught in the Wheelbarrow German. Sareee avoided Hashimoto’s lariat again and hit two brutal Uranages. She went for the Wrist Clutch Uranage, but Hashimoto blocked it, so she hit two rolling savate kicks, and then was able to hit the Wrist Clutch Uranage, but this time Hashimoto survived it. Sareee tried another kick, but got caught, and Hashimoto caught her and was finally able to put her down with a German suplex, one more and that was all she wrote. Hashimoto regained the Sendai Girls World title. Of the three matches, this was the best easily in terms of everything coming together and being an excellent match from start to finish. ****

SEAdLINNNG 9/18/19 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, SEAdLINNNG Beyond the Sea Title: Takumi Iroha vs. Arisa Nakajima 24:28
DC: Marvelous’ Takumi Iroha had been the SEAdLINNNG Beyond the Sea Title holder since defeating Nanae Takahashi on 5/29/19. Iroha tried to get Arisa Nakajima in the Running Three, but Nakajima had this well schooled and managed to avoid it by getting tangled up in the ropes. There was a ‘mandatory’ brawling the crowd section, which actually wasn’t very exciting. Once back in the ring, things picked up with Nakajima hitting some aggressive strikes. Iroha sold the leg, but still fought back eventually. Nakajima’s Las Fresa de Egoistas stablemate Maria distracted Takumi Iroha, and Nakajima hit a superplex. The match went back and forth. Nakajima kept going for an ankle lock, and it seemed like Nakajima was determined to make Iroha submit. Iroha hit some pretty good strikes that stopped Nakajima in her tracks. Nakajima was able to answer the ten count, but Iroha immediately hit her with a Liger Bomb. Iroha wasn’t able to score a pinfall, so she tried to go for the Running Three, but Nakajima once again was able to escape Iroha’s finishing move. Nakajima came leaping off the top rope and hit Nakajima with a DDT on the apron. When Nakajima went for the moonsault, Iroha got her feet up to block the move. Iroha hit another Liger Bomb and a swanton bomb.  Iroha once again went for the Running Three, but Nakajima escaped again. Nakajima was now determined to make it to the finish line as the winner. Nakajima hit a Dragon suplex for a near fall. The match kept going back and forth, and the near falls also kept coming. Iroha again went for the Running Three, but Nakajima once again escaped. Iroha never ended up hitting her finisher, because the match came to an end when Nakajima executed a bridging half nelson suplex for the win. Nakajima had finally become the new SEAdLINNNG Beyond the Sea Champion! It was a very good match that potentially could have been excellent if a bit more urgency would have been shown during the first half of the match. The near falls towards the end were certainly exciting. It was a relatively long match that was on the verge of becoming slightly too long, but in the end, it had a strong finale that made the viewer able to walk away as a satisfied one. Iroha gave quite a decent showing, but it felt like Nakajima was doing the majority of the hard work, and it was certainly Nakajima’s display of intensity and willpower that made this a very good match. ***½  

Marvelous/SGPW GAEAism Decade Of Quarter Century 6/13/21 Tokyo Ota City General Gym, GAEAISM THE PAST & FUTURE AAAW Title, AAAW Tag Title, Sendai Girls World Title, Sendai Girls Tag Title All Rights Elimination Match: Chihiro Hashimoto & DASH Chisako & Mika Iwata vs. Mio Momono & Rin Kadokura & Mei Hoshizuki 25:10

PA: This was the big Marvelous vs. Senjo match for all the belts the companies own. Takumi Iroha was out injured, so this became Mio Momono’s big chance to shine. They did a good job of setting the tone before the bell rang with Hashimoto trying to stare down Mio and the two mystery partners, DASH and Hoshizuki having a niggle. Mio and Hoshizuki got things off to a frenetic start trying to take Hashimoto out of the equation with flash pins. This was an incredible start with the pins coming so fast that Hashimoto could barely kick out before the next one came. The ‘away’ Senjo team established themselves as the heels early on with Rin playing face in peril. DASH and Hashimoto were putting some good heat on her, but Iwata came in for a striking exchange that was so bad it almost ruined the momentum until Hashimoto came in and put a stop to it. That was all Iwata did in the biggest match of her career, and all it did was make me glad she was eliminated so early. The Marvelous team worked really well as a unit and used their superior teamwork to get back into it, leading to Rin eliminating Iwata at the 6 minute mark. DASH came in and took over and wasn’t having too much trouble with Rin until the Marvelous team hit her with a barrage of lightning fast triple teams. They were so good with their teamwork that I wish we could have had a regular tag team match because they were so much fun to watch as a unit. I was really impressed with Hoshizuki. Her offense was really good, and she was moving around well, looking excellent in her segment with DASH. Unfortunately, it ended in bizarre fashion, as Tommy Ran screwed up and stopped counting at two for no reason after DASH hit an Excalibur. Oh well, DASH hit another one and eliminated her at around 10 minutes. DASH was eliminated almost immediately after with Mio’s JK Bomb, leaving Hashimoto by herself. That leads me to my one annoyance with the match - the booking of it. The Marvelous side was excellent, they were booked as an ensemble cast, even Hoshizuki felt like an important member of the team, and it really felt like they lost a member when she was eliminated. The Senjo side was another story. You could tell DASH and Iwata were only in the match because they couldn’t book Hashimoto in a handicap match. They weren’t given much. DASH made the most of what little she was given, Iwata, not so much. We got to the handicap match with Mio and Rin trying to double team Hashimoto, but Hashimoto suplexed them both at the same time to put a stop to their run. There were a few cool spots in this portion, the best one they did was Mio trying to grab Rin’s hand to save her from a Wheelbarrow German suplex, but Hashimoto hit it anyway, sending Mio flying, but overall it really slowed down here and we were just waiting for Rin to get eliminated to see what would happen with Mio vs. Hashimoto. That happened at the 15 minute mark when Hashimoto caught a powerslam and forced Rin’s shoulders to the mat. Hashimoto was laying out Mio with lariats and big moves, including a really brutal powerbomb, but Mio wouldn’t stay down. Mio was trying things and having some moderate success, but wasn’t doing any damage until she started using her head. Literally. She hit a stupid amount of headbutts that seemed to put Hashimoto down. Hashimoto woke up from that filed with rage, and just pounded Mio into the mat. Mio tried to frantically fight her way out of another powerbomb with anything she could, but was planted for a near fall. Hashimoto followed that with a lariat with Mio taking a sick inside out bump. She tried to fight off Hashimoto’s Wheelbarrow German, but was planted with that as well. Things weren’t looking good for the underdog. She managed to counter the German and score a couple of flash pins, but Hashimoto countered the Momo Latch into her own. Mio kept coming with another headbutt and a dropkick. She tried a diving body press, but Hashimoto caught her and powerslammed her before putting her away with a nasty German suplex. There was no good reason why Mio couldn’t have won here (aside from politics, but I did specify ‘good reason’), it would have worked better for the story, especially since Hashimoto had basically dominated the Marvelous team 1 vs. 3. It didn’t leave the forthcoming Mio vs. Hashimoto singles match particularly intriguing in terms of what the result was going to be. In any case, this was a really excellent match that could have been elevated to something great if the Senjo team were booked with more imagination. Hashimoto did a great job carrying the match and arguably had the best performance of her career and Mio really shone, showing all of her fire and determination when she had the chance. The start until Hoshizuki and DASH were eliminated were great, as were the final 10 minutes when it came down to Hashimoto and Mio. ****1/4

ML: GAEA had a lot of 10 minutes sprints in their day, but never put on anything that was so brimming with energy and enthusiasm, or a sprint near this length or quality. This is just about the best match Chigusa Nagayo ever promoted under any banner. Just hearing the name GAEA being brought back, one would have expected a slow motion Chigusa main event, supported by a bunch of 10+ years past their prime names on the undercard, but Chigusa has been doing a better job with Marvelous now that she's no longer trying to be the featured performer, and finally got it right here, instead highlighting enthusiastic wrestlers from the current generation. The initial 3 on 3 portion of this match is simply outstanding. It has the feel of the old interpromotional matches, with all out urgency wrestled at top speed. If it had just been a 6 woman tag, it surely would have been a great match, but the more people they took out of the match, the more it reasonably slowed down. The purpose of this match was to put Marvelous' top up and comer Mio Momono into the conversation with SGPW's top young star Chihiro Hashimoto, and the match as a whole, but particularly the second half did that to the point we were dying to see their singles match(es). Marvelous was outgunned because their top star, Takumi Iroha, had been out since October, leaving only juniors to try to match the behemoth Hashimoto. I loved the energy the Marvelous team brought to the match. They didn't necessarily do anything amazing early on individually, but they fought as a cohesive unit, and the whole was fantastic. The early portion was just an all-out barrage of combo moves and successive flash pins from the Marvelous team. It did a great job of establishing the Marvelous team as a superior unit, which helped make up for them lacking the top dog. The annoying thing is they basically just tossed DASH and Iwata in because it would have been too humiliating for Marvelous had they just booked this is a 3 on 1. It definitely shows the farcical nature of pro wrestling that the mystery partners on each team turned out to be wrestlers who already worked on the undercard. Chisako literally did a 20 minute hardcore match an hour before participating in arguably the biggest match of her career, given it was for four titles, and Hoshizuki was in the opener. Hashimoto started things off because the match had to be all about her, but the Marvelous team were really quick hitting, and before Hashimoto had even kicked out of one person's flash pin, someone else had hit her from another angle with a different one. This was probably the best flash pin action you will ever see, as it is so quick hitting due to the tandem nature. The Sendai Girl's team tried to double team a little as well, but Hashimoto would never leave the ring except so Iwata and Chisako could get pinned, which ultimately resulted in the Marvelous team seeming way better and Hashimoto slowing down later on because she worked at least 85% of the match. Chisako did some things when she actually got a chance, but Iwata's contribution to the match was essentially one braindead striking exchange that Hashimoto quickly got bored of and interrupted (if only Hashimoto would interject herself into NOAH matches...). Chisako can always be relied upon for attitude, and despite being given almost no time, managed to created a little rivalry with Hoshizuki during the pre match announcements, chest bumping each other back and forth. What little they got to do together was impressive. It definitely felt like the match lost something when Hoshizuki was eliminated by Chisako, as she was doing a great job of pushing the pace and chaining her offense together, and had been more impressive than Kadokura. Almost as soon as Chisako pinned Hoshizuki, after a bizarre incident where Tommy Ran inexplicably stopped the count even though there didn't appear to be anything to warrant that, Momono eliminated Chisako, presumably just so we could get down to the handicap match that they we're really trying to do. Definitely a little more thought and better timing on the eliminations would have improved the match. In any case, during the handicapped match we got a cool spot where Mio stood on the second then top rope in order to grab Kadokura's hand, trying to save her from Hashimoto's wheelbarrow German suplex, but Hashimoto ultimately brute strenghed it anyway, so Mio was essentially armed dragged into the ring by her own teammate. There were less and less of these good double team spots now that they wee down to three people, and the match was beginning to slow down. Hashimoto pinned Kadokura with a power slam, so the final 10 minutes was a single match between Hashimoto and Momono for virtually all the gold these leagues own. Momono finally managed to get Hashimoto in some trouble with an armbar and a series of endless spastic mounted headbutts. Hashimoto really planted her with a high angle powerbomb after Momono exhausted everything she could think of to avoid it. Things were looking really bleak for Momono now, but the great underdog managed to come up with some more flash pin attempts to keep hope alive and things interesting. Momono was more than willing to suffer any number of concussions of her own doing trying to when this match, but Hashimoto eventually caught her out of the air and hit a big powerslam followed by the high angle German suplex for the win. Obviously, this was a big showing from Hashimoto because she carried so much of the match, an excellent performance by her knowing when to be the base and when to be the wrecking ball, as well as from Momono because she was so scrappy and competitive hanging with Hashimoto when it felt like she needed help from both of her teammates in order to do so. Having Hashimoto win this match was pretty ridiculous though given she fought three on one most of the night. The odds being stacked against her should have been the reason Momono actually managed to win this, and then Hashimoto would, of course, win their singles matches because Momono didn't have two teammates to help her out. The match had so much energy though that it was easy enough to look past some of the awkwardness and missed opportunities, but in the end, it still felt like Momono gained more in terms of respect than she did in terms of credibility since DASH & Iwata weren't allowed to be anything approaching factors. ****1/4

Marvelous 6/24/22 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, Mio Is Back: Chikayo Nagashima & Takumi Iroha vs. Mio Momono & Rin Kadokura 22:33
PA: Mio’s big return from injury after spending nine months on the shelf was as much of a showcase of her as it turned out to be a precursor to her AAAW Title rivalry with Nagashima, which wasn’t even supposed to happen. Mio opted to make Rin start with Takumi, but it didn’t take long for her to get involved, starting with an electrifying short sequence with Nagashima to show us she had no ring rust. She got a little too excited and showboated, allowing Nagashima to take control and slow things down. The veterans worked heel and gave Mio’s back a working over, mainly with crabs, but here it was actually quite gripping because of Mio’s selling and the knowledge that she almost retired due to her back injury. Nagashima was showing some real disdain with her attacks. The two are certainly natural rivals given that Mio is basically Nagashima from 20 years earlier. Nagashima has slowed down with age and injury, but has adapted well to her lost athleticism. She is quite effective as the grumpy veteran, while still being able to pick things up and work at a level you wouldn’t expect from a 46 year old. Rin got a tag for her only extended segment of the match, which was largely Takumi kicking the crap out of her, but she had a small chance to shine. In the second half, she contributed to little more than double teams, saves and getting knocked off the apron. Mio got the hot tag, and had some success hitting her spots. However, she decided to go toe to toe with Takumi, and that didn’t work out well for her. It ended up with Takumi knocking her down with a spinning back elbow and telling her to get back up just so she could knock her down with heavy shots again. This was another simple yet effective segment because of Mio’s fire and selling. Mio was able to find an opening using her speed. Takumi largely stayed in control though, but couldn’t hit anything big. Her tag to Nagashima set off an excellent final five minutes. Nagashima started off with veteran heel abuse on Mio, and miscommunication led to Mio pushing Nagashima with a JK bomb for a near fall and a bunch of urgent near falls, while Nagashima could only hang on and try to counter. Takumi was able to catch Mio with a kick, allowing Nagashima to hit her Fisherman Buster to spoil the fairytale comeback. This match was fairly simple in its structuring, but worked effectively. Poor Rin was an afterthought, but this match was all about Mio, and she brought a ton of fire and showed why she’s the best underdog in wrestling today. The veterans did a good job in their role, and carried the match well. The post-match played things up well for the future, with Takumi supportive of her junior while Chikayo just taunted her and walked off. ***1/2

ML: Momono's return featured her to the point that poor Kadokura barely even wrestled. This was a very energetic and spectacular performance by Momono, looking like this generation's Momoe Nakanishi. She was much more impressive here than in her singles matches with Nagashima, as the tag setting is probably much more conducive to showcasing her explosive athletic skill set. Tonight she was really making the match, whereas in the singles matches, especially the longer, better one, it was really Nagashima doing the work to carry her and set her up. Nagashima did a ton of that here though too, basically sacrificing herself to make Momono look great in the sense that she kept working the fast paced sequences with Momono in a losing effort in order to help make Momono shine. Nagashima basically had to slow things down to outduel Momono, but that wasn't the match they were trying to do here given Momono was the big deal tonight, so Nagashima didn't get as much sustained offense as she might have otherwise. She would cut Momono off, and rough her up a bit or work the back, but these were all brief transitional spots to set up Momono's next athletic sequence without it coming off as though they were standing around just watching her do cartwheels. Iroha was the other star of the match. Her work was very strong, but she was doing her thing, the athletic kick-based offense, being the boss rather than setting up Momono, so she was having most of her team's success. Iroha vs. Momono was supposed to be the rivalry because Iroha is Marvelous' top star, while Momono is potentially the heir apparent. Nagashima is more suited to work with Momono though because they are so similar, so it wound up with Nagashima doing sequences with Momono then Iroha putting a beating on Momono with her kicks. Iroha is probably three or four weight classes above any of the others, but such a good athlete that she still stood out as the best worker in the match even when doing the faster paced stuff that should be to the advantage of the others. Definitely when it comes to high impact, she's head and shoulders above the rest, but Nagashima has a lot more ability to actually work with the opponent than Iroha does, and Momono is by far the most energetic and exciting. The issue with Iroha is she's more of a we'll take turns doing high impact and/or flashy things type of worker, which means she always looks good but at the same time her matches don't necessarily become more than the sum of their parts. Nagashima and Momono worked some particularly impressive flash pin sequences down the stretch before Nagashima finally pinned Momono with her fisherman buster to make up for not actually doing much damage during the match. A great return for Momono despite predictably getting pinned. ***1/4

Marvelous 12/4/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, AAAW Title Tournament Final: Chikayo Nagashima vs. Mio Momono 10:38
PA: Takumi Iroha was the first AAAW champion since the belt was revived, but vacated it due to injury. This was the final of a one night tournament to crown the new champion, with both wrestlers working their third match of the night. It appeared to be Mio’s big night, but Nagashima had other ideas about that, and once again played spoiler. Mio got off to a hot start, but it wasn’t long before Nagashima cut her off and started working her over. The match was quite one-sided, with Nagashima really showing Mio she had a long way to go before she was ready to be a champion - whether that’s actually realistic, given that Mio is a far superior athlete at this point is another story, but they did tell the story well regardless. Mio made her hot, fiery comebacks, but Nagashima was really just looking for mistakes to capitalize on. Mio showed her resilience and was able to get a good near fall with her JK Bomb, but afterward Nagashima caught a Tequila Sunrise and a Fisherman Buster to put her away quite easily. The finish seemed far too easy, but the match felt rushed in general. It is still quite good in its own right, but it works better as part of the whole story. ***

ML: They did the whole title tournament in one night, so the match wasn't as long or good as it would have been otherwise, given both had already wrestled two matches earlier. It was a fitting final pitting the best wrestler Chigusa Nagayo trained in the 1990's against the best wrestler she trained in the 2010s. Nagashima held this title 20 years ago, beating Meiko Satomora in a result that at the time gave us hope she was finally going to be seen as something beyond a tag specialist, but as with any hope for anything GAEA related, it was immediately crushed, this time in one of Nagayo's most ill-timed manuever's having Nagashima just up and lose it without making a successful defense to Manami Toyota, who had recently retired to GAEA. Rather than have the chance to attain the notoriety of her peer Meiko Satomura by being carried to one notable singles match a year by a great from the previous generation, Nagashima was vanquished back to the tag division, and didn't have another singles title run until capturing the OZ Openweight Title a decade later. Given she almost retired a few years ago, this title run was rather unlikely for her. Sometimes it's about being in the right place at the right time though, and Takumi Iroha's injury created a vacancy they weren't ready to fill yet with Momono, who had only returned from her latest injury in the middle of 2022. This was a short match, but that was always good for Nagashima, who was one of the most exciting and energetic performers of the past 2 1/2 decades before wrecking her knee in 2014. She doesn't have a first step anymore, or much of her legendary speed and explosion, but all those things are what Momono brings to the table. Nagashima has always been a consistent hard worker who gave what she had, and she managed things well tonight. The match was roughly what you would expect, 10 minutes of good action with Nagashima bullying and disrespecting the exceptional young talent. Momono was mostly on the defensive, but made hot comebacks chaining moves together at lightning speed until Nagashima cut her off. Momono is clearly the more entertaining wrestler at that point, as both are known for exceptional athleticism, but closing in on 30 years in the business, Nagashima is no longer able to compete with someone half her age. Nagashima did a nice job of setting Momono up, while actually still being interesting while she was in control. The problem with this match was that was all too often given Momono was losing. The match was entertaining throughout, but lacked a serious run by Momono, a finishing sequence, and drama in general. Basically it was thin and rushed, the usual pitfalls of the one-night tournament format. This match was probably even kind of one-sided because they were telling the longer tale of Momono overcoming the odds to finally win the first singles title of her career in the rematch. That's really the match to watch, but this being a much different match that sets it up makes it an important and valuable part of the great story of an actual talented young wrestler beating a veteran for a "top" singles title. ***

Marvelous 3/15/23 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st RING: Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Mio Momono 16:20
PA: This was the first time these two had been across the ring from each other in almost two years. They are basically perfect opponents to work the simple speed vs. power match. They have good chemistry, and one criticism of Hashimoto is she doesn’t always fire up enough, but Mio brings that and then some. Mio tried to come out with her speed, but Hashimoto just overpowered her with ease, and dominated methodically. Mio was always looking for openings, and was able to quicken the pace, but unable to hit anything that required her suplexes or armdrag. Hashimoto tried a rolling senton, which didn’t work for her and gave Mio a chance, but she wasn’t able to hit her dive either. I really liked the exchange that kicked off the final portion. Mio caught a boot to Hashimoto and slapped her, Hashimoto slapped her back and told Mio to slap her again, so Mio headbutted her instead and jumped on her with a flurry of strikes. It didn’t have a great deal of impact, but Hashimoto was rattled enough that Mio was able to counter a powerbomb into a sunset flip and score her JK Bomb. Hashimoto fired back afterward with a lariat and a German for a double down. They got to the finish with Mio landing on her feet after two German suplex attempts from Hashimoto. She managed to catch her German suplexes she was trying for earlier. They didn’t have enough impact and it wasn’t easy for her to get Hashimoto up for those, so Hashimoto survived and found an opening very soon after to hit her own German suplex to end the match. This could have been more fleshed out, but as a Shinkiba semi-main event, you couldn’t really expect more. It was a well executed match from two women with good chemistry. ***1/4

ML: Hashimoto's most interesting work is against dynamic, speedy opponents, most notably DASH Chisako, so it was no surprise when they began pairing her with Momono in bigger matches in 2021 that Mio was a good opponent for her. Hashimoto is not what one would describe as a consistently interesting wrestler, her quality largely depends upon what the opponent has to throw at her, but in matches such as this where you have a high level opponent who also has a very contrasting style, they can bring the best out of one another. As with the better Hashimoto matches, the exciting fast-paced sequences from the opponent made up for the portions were she is just using her size to ground them. This had a similar problem to the Momono vs. Arisa Nakajima match the month before in that mostly it was Momono's offense that was what was interesting early on, but Hashimoto allowed her to counter a lot more often, making the match a lot more dynamic and dramatic. Hashimoto is also a lot healthier than Nakajima at the moment, and thus was much more energetic, engaged, and motivated because she wasn't seemingly battling her own body as much as her opponent. While the early portion of both matches was somewhat up and down, once Hashimoto moved past the submission portion and got her brutal power offense going, it was very compelling, and they really built things up here into a proper big match despite this one only being the semifinal. It wound up feeling shorter because once it got going, it kept gaining momentum and holding your attention, rather than dying out until the next Mio comeback. This match also felt much less predictable in the sense that they were not only countering each other a lot more, but it mostly wasn't obvious who was going to win the battle, or with what. Momono put up a very spirited and scrappy fight, even winning a big strike exchange and just beating Hashimoto down on the mat, all through effort and determination. Even though it was only a matter of time before Momono would get steamrolled charging into some big lariat or power move, she's displayed so much heart that you always felt like she was at least in it with a chance. Hashimoto was ultimately a great base for Momono, and more than willing to keep setting her up. Hashimoto again won with her German suplex, but even though it wasn't in the class with their 7/11/21 match, this was still a really tough challenge that Momono gained from, as well as looked really impressive in . ***1/2

Marvelous 5/3/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, AAAW Title: Chikayo Nagashima vs. Mio Momono 26:06
PA: Five months after failing to capture the AAAW Title, Mio was back for another try. This time she was more than prepared, having challenged the likes of Arisa Nakajima and Chihiro Hashimoto in order to 'get ready'. One interesting aspect of this match is that Mio is basically this generations Nagashima, and Nagashima is in the role of the veteran who would have been carrying her to an excellent match back then - at least in theory, the reality was that in the same situation, Manami Toyota did little more than bury her. Nagashima is no longer the athlete she once was, but she doesn’t try to match Mio there. She understands her path to victory is to take advantage of Mio by thwarting her flying and beating her down, stomping her and utilizing her submissions. That’s basically how the match progressed, but unlike in December, Mio was able to thwart Nagashima more often and make constant comebacks, having plenty of chances to shine here. The match had a really nice pace to it, and actually meandered less than their 10 minute match in December. Nagashima did a great job of carrying it, knowing when to give Mio comebacks and when to cut her off. There’s always a great sense of urgency when Mio is involved, and once Nagashima started getting frustrated with her constant comebacks, she was happy to take advantage of Mio’s injured shoulder. It wasn’t really how Nagashima wanted to win, but you do what you have to do when things get desperate. There wasn’t much of a threat of anyone hitting a finisher through to this point, Chikayo had easily thwarted an earlier JK Bomb and Mio had turned a Fisherman Buster attempt into a DDT, but 18 minutes in, both were selling the damage and the openings were coming. An excellent final portion began with an exchange of slaps (thankfully a good one), which seemed to fire them both up. Chikayo won the battle, and attempted her Fisherman Buster, but Mio countered it into a small package, and the two exchanged near falls as they’d done in the tag match on Mio’s return. Mio made Nagashima’s last near fall of the exchange incredibly dramatic by kicking out at the last possible moment, and Nagashima did the same later after Mio hit the Momo Latch. Mio looked to follow that with the JK Bomb, but ran into an Uraken and a Fisherman Buster for another great near fall. Mio escaped the Tequila Sunrise and blocked another Uraken to hit a JK Bomb, but only got two for it. Nagashima fired back with another Fisherman Buster and since it didn’t work earlier, she opted to go for a submission by tearing up Mio’s shoulder, but Mio hung on yet again. Nagashima thought a Fisherman Buster from the top would end things, and she was probably right, but Mio countered it into an avalanche version of her JK Bomb. I’d have gone with that as the finish, but it was only a near fall. It wasn’t long before we got the finish with Mio avoiding a lariat and hitting a German before scoring another JK Bomb to capture the AAAW Title. I enjoyed this match a lot more on second viewing. Mio delivered a strong performance, and not to take anything away from her, but it was Chikayo who made the match. She was fantastic carrying it, and really made Mio here. This was probably the best singles performance of her career, and how many wrestlers have done that at age 47? The post-match was as emotional as it was comical due to the ridiculous size of that AAAW belt. Mio had done it! But that belt was never going to fit around her waist. They probably should have made a new version suited for women who aren’t the size of Chigusa or Devil. ****

ML: Momono has more than the potential to be one of the best sub 5 ft wrestlers the sport has ever seen. She is an excellent athlete, very exciting, and a charismatic underdog. Injuries have been the issue that has derailed her momentum. 2023 is her eighth year, and if we are lucky, it will be the 4th full year she has managed. These two are fairly similar styistically apart from being separated by two generations, and Nagashima having an aggressive mean streak. Nagashima is no longer an exceptional athlete, and definitely doesn't get started again after landing on her feet like she used to before the knee injury, but she has actually made good adjustments to remain interesting and relevant, rather than just sloppily performing the moves she did in her heyday at 1/4 speed, ala Manami Toyota. Nagashima did a fantastic job here of reinventing herself to carry this match. Their December match was for the most part just two athletes going at it, with the typical pro wrestling problem of the much older one who was glaringly inferior being the one who somehow won. In this match though, while still maintaining all the useful aspects of her game, Nagashima somewhat transformed into the sort of wrestler who would have carried her and set her up 20 years ago, had she been given this sort of opportunity instead of just being cast as an exciting tag wrestler. It was a very mature performance where she made Momono pay for trying to use her leaping and flying, and was able to maintain her own advantages longer by incorporating more of the beatdown and submission aspects of her game, for just long enough that the pace didn't start lagging. This was still largely a junior style match, but Nagashima altered things enough in order to control Momono in areas she could be said to be better at still, while giving Momono more of the spotlight when it came to shining through her athletic comebacks. Given Nagashima made a career out of explosive brief segments in tag wrestling, doing a 26 minute match at the age of 47 in an era when long matches are mostly just padded and overdramatic nonsense, without it feeling even slightly overlong or unnecessary was an accomplishment in and of itself. That this was possibly the best singles match of her career really says a lot. Sure, Momono being such a good athlete helped a lot, but Nagashima was clearly the one carrying the match, and did more to make Momono look better than Momono did to make her look better. For the most part, comparisons to Momono were not at all in her favor, but she wisely worked around them as much as she could while still doing a match where Momono shined. This was a big step up from their December match because it maintained the energy, despite being two and a half times longer, while also using that time to make it more dynamic, diverse, and dramatic. They did a really nice job of thwarting each other here, and I liked that they teased moves they didn't necessarily deliver, making it seem more of a struggle to hit what they could. They did counter the important moves such as the fisherman buster and JK bomb, but they went beyond that in establishing the general sense that they had to keep working hard and fighting to win each sequence with something, what that actually was took a back seat. The veteran Nagashima was more opportunistic, and willing to do what it took, taking some shortcuts or working on Momono's injured shoulder. Momono had the big speed advantage though, so when she got going she could put a run together, but her offense was much more high risk, and she would quickly crash and burn, or one could say be outsmarted/outmaneuvered by the veteran. The sense of urgency was high, and there was a lot more back and forth here, because Momono would just use her quickness and athleticism to counter back. Last time, Momono didn't really come close, but here she was always very competitive even though Nagashima had more control time, at least getting a lot of fancy counters and flash pin attempts, for instance, turning Nagashima's fisherman buster into a small package. Nagashima has always been very much about countering into the flash pin, and both rely heavily on the footstomp, so there was a lot of mirroring or variation upon the same ideas. The finishing sequence saw Momono eat an uraken, but then duck the second one and go into a series of German suplexes. Momono got a near fall with a hurracarrana, but when she charged presumably for a second one, Nagashima came back with another uraken. Nagashima wasn't able to finish with the first fisherman buster, so when she hit it again she instead tried an arm bar on the weakened shoulder, but Momono made the ropes. Nagashima was even able to kick out of an avalanche Style JK bomb earlier, but after Momono ducked a lariat and went into a German suplex, she was finally able to finish Chikayo off with the JK bomb. This was a ceremonial passing of the torch, as Nagashima is the best of the first generation of Chigusa Nagayo's GAEA trainees, while Momono is the best of the first generation of Nagayo's Marvelous trainees. Meiko Satomura, if she was around, would obviously be the biggest scalp, but there's very little stylistic similarity there, while Momono is basically this generation's Nagashima. Chigusa clearly designed the AAAW title to fit around her growing waist, rather than either of these two. It's the largest of all the women's belts, and 149cm Momono would probably have to be 9 months pregnant for it to maybe not just slide off her waist. Luckily Momono doesn't have to try to wrestle in this thing, and as long as she has a free arm or two to hold it in place on the way to and from the ring, having too much gold isn't likely to slow her down much. ***3/4

Sareee Produce 5/16/23 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, Sareee-ISM ~Chapter One~: Sareee vs. Chihiro Hashimoto 23:27
PA: After a horrible run at the anti-performance center in Florida, which saw her given an embarrassing gimmick and hardly getting to wrestle, Sareee returned to Japan to do what she loves to do. This was her first match in Japan in well over two years, and she was taking on her greatest rival. Sareee was understandably rusty, she had trouble with some spots and wasn’t moving around as well as she has in the past. Hashimoto was her usual self, you get what you get with her, and she can only be as good as her opponent. The opening minutes established the roles well enough, but the matwork wasn’t particularly exciting, there was some good stuff in there, but it was mainly just drifting along, stuck in second gear with Hashimoto going through her mat wrestling and dominating at her usual pace. Sareee made her comebacks, but didn’t do much to challenge her. At the 11 minute mark, Sareee got a triangle on Hashimoto and Hashimoto picked her up and tried to slam her in the corner. They sloppily tumbled outside and fought in the crowd. Things finally picked up when they returned, and the match started getting more interesting. Sareee caught a wakigatame on Hashimoto and footstomped her arm before hitting a diving footstomp. The armwork didn’t go anywhere, but it was enough to work Sareee back into the match. They worked a finishing segment typical of these two, and it was quite good. Hashimoto desperately grabbed Sareee’s foot when she went up for another stomp and they exchanged German suplexes, had a double down tease, and the striking exchanges. It was all done well. Hashimoto was dominating with her power, but Sareee staying in it with her flash pins and desperate comebacks. The finish saw Sareee hit a Uranage, but Hashimoto blocked her Wrist Clutch Uranage, so Sareee headbutted her and hit an enzuigiri. Wrist Clutch Uranage got a near fall and Hashimoto ducked her coming off the ropes and hit her German suplex to win. This was basically the Sareee vs. Hashimoto match, but padded out for an extra 6 minutes. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as the matches they were having in 2019, but it was still a good match and a nice return for Sareee. ***

UFC on ESPN 46 6/3/23: Alex Caceres vs. Daniel Pineda 3R.
ML: Nonstop action from start to finish, no matter what position they were in. One of the reasons I enjoy Caceres's fights is that it's never just the standard techniques and positions we keep seeing now because everyone is training in what generically works. In this case though, it was largely Pineda who was causing a lot of the differentiation early on, as in order to avoid Caceres's reach advantage, he was pulling guard after his takedowns failed and then very aggressively going for submissions from the bottom. Caceres cut Pineda outside the right eye with ground and pound, but Pineda had a triangle and a good armbar attempt off his back. Caceras's hurt Pineda with a big left hand at the end of the first round, set up by a left low kick and a right straight. This fight was never stagnant, and never predictable. Pineda opened the second with a couple big right hands, which allowed him to get inside for the takedown against the cage, but Caceres was right back up. Pineda threw some slow spinning backfists that Caceres easily avoided, even picking him off with a short right because Pineda went right back to the failed strategy. Pineda had a side body triangle, which was a very odd position. Caceres couldn't quite get out of it to take the top, but Pineda couldn't take his back either. Eventually, Pineda was able to use a Kimura sweep to mount. Pineda wound up exceeding Caceres's 3 minutes of control time in the first to even the fight. Caceres started the third with a big liver kick that took the wind out of Pineda. Caceres was throwing the right to the head because Pineda was focused on defending the left to the body, and then Caceres would try to get a left kick in above or below the block. Pineda ate a good body hook, but was able to duck another left into a flash takedown. Caceres landed the jab, then faked another one, but instead delivered a nasty left body hook that stopped Pineda in his tracks. Pineda managed to answer with a big right though, and began to walk Caceres down. This was some crazy zombie action! Caceres answered with a step knee to the liver. Definitely, Caceres had a huge advantage in speed and stamina, beyond the obvious reach advantage that forced Pineda to keep pressing forward even though he was exhausted. Pineda refused to concede the fight, to the point that Caceres decided to look for the takedown because he just couldn't knock him out. Caceres got the reverse bodylock and Pineda rolled, but Caceres made the proper adjustments to take his back. Pineda had a knockdown with a right hook in the final seconds that was apparently scored a slip, as Caceres was circling away. This was close to 10-8 for Caceres, so even if it were a knockdown, that gets it back to a 10-9 for Alex. Caceres won a 29-28 unanimous decision. Very good match.