Korakuen Hall is on the horizon, and with an intriguing card already booked, TJPW were back in Kitazawa to try and get us just that little more excited. Would they be successful? Let’s find out.
Mahiro Kiryu defeated Kira Summer
Mahiro is a good opponent for rookies. She’s a safe pair of hands who won’t do anything too adventurous and is also at a position in the card where the match can be somewhat even. Plus, she gets an easy route into her apology by taking advantage of them. While it’s unlikely to produce a rookie classic, as a learning exercise, it’s dependably solid.
It was all key to Kira getting an opportunity to show what she could do on the offensive. She’s still working with that rookie toolset, so it was all basic stuff, but everything she did looked okay. Some of the forearms were a bit weak, and she was still a tad awkward when transitioning around the ring, but it always felt like she knew what she was doing. They even played into the lack of variety in her attacks, the second go-round of the leg drop allowing Kiryu to counter and set up the finish. It was a tiny touch but an appreciated one.
None of which made for a match that you can get too excited about, but that’s not the point of this stuff. It’s a handful more minutes under Kira’s belt and a chance to do something different. It won’t be remembered, but the steps it allows her to take on her journey to becoming a better wrestler are still felt.
Verdict: Standard Rookie Fare
Rika Tatsumi defeated Nao Kakuta and Chika Nanase in a three-way
Poor Chika. It would be bad enough having to face Nao or Rika alone, but both at once! That’s cruel.
However, Nanase gave a good account of herself. Arguably her best yet. Like Kira, she’s still working with the basics, but this was a good underdog performance. That came to the fore when Tatsumi decided she was now her tag team partner, which was an excuse for Rika to hang out on the apron and watch Nanase get beaten up by Nao. As she was thrown around the ring by her hair, the fans were firmly on her side, and while it was all an uphill battle, it was one she attacked gamely. There’s a likeable pluckiness to her that shone through when put in the ring with two great bullies.
Although, for all their horrible ways, Rika and Nao deserve a lot of the credit here. They structured this well, blending silliness with some decent wrestling and ensuring that Nanase’s involvement highlighted her without asking too much. Plus, the flashes of action between them were fun, as their tempestuous ways meant things got fiery rather quickly. It all made for an enjoyable wee match that left me with a smile on my face.
Verdict: Good Fun
Maki Itoh & Uta Takami defeated Yuki Kamifuku & Toga
Uta keeps finding herself hanging out with bad influences. First, it was Rika employing her as a minion, and now Itoh has her refusing handshakes. She’ll end up going through a rebellious teen phase if we’re not careful. Not that Maki’s influence was entirely negative. She did manage to convince Uta to power through her fears and hit a crossbody from the apron. Sure, her method was to kick her off, but it worked!
That relationship also played its part in Uta feeling like the main character. Whether being encouraged by Itoh or beat up by Kamiyu and Toga, she has little sister energy, which makes it hard not to root for her. She’s a screechy, wee, scrappy thing who looks tiny in a company that isn’t exactly full of giants, which is a great position to be in if you can use it. Her performance here wasn’t perfect. There was an awkward moment between her and Toga where they both got in a bit of a muddle, but they recovered quickly and were smart enough not to try and redo the spot. Most importantly, when she’s thrown at someone bigger and scarier than her, she gives it everything, and that will be her bread and butter moving forward.
The other person who looked good was Toga. Maybe it was having a wee rookie to beat up, but she was very assured here, with her new gear also making a big difference. You get the impression that she’s ready to be given a little more responsibility, and while she eventually went down to Itoh, there was enough in the final stretch to make me want to see what a full-blown singles match between them would look like. Let’s hope she gets a spot in the Princess Cup so we can see her in a showdown with some stakes.
Verdict: The Rookies Impress
Raku & Pom Harajuku defeated Mizuki & Shino Suzuki
Pom is making a habit of losing one of her shoes. Admittedly, this time, it was very much her fault. She kept taking it off to try and hit Mizuki with it. It never worked (Raku got hit more than the rabbit did), but it was a plan she’d committed to regardless of the consequences (not having a shoe).
Alongside the shoe shenanigans, this was defined by its silly moments. From Raku’s lullaby to Shino taking Pom on a tour of the turnbuckles, they were all having a lovely time. It meant the actual wrestling took second billing. Raku and Shino had a decent run for the closing stretch, but it was mainly a vibes match. Not that I’m complaining. Raku and Pom vibes are the best vibes. Plus, some midcard fluffiness is essential on any TJPW show, and this provided it in spades.
It does mean I don’t have much to say about it. I suspect anyone reading this knew whether the match was for them when I opened by talking about one of the wrestlers repeatedly losing a shoe. If you only care about serious stuff, move on. For the rest of us, it was an enjoyable romp.
Verdict: A Nice Time
HIMAWARI, Wakana Uehara & Runa Okubo defeated Daisy Monkey (Suzume & Arisu Endo) & Haru Kazashiro
We’re building to the tag title match at Korakuen, as both sides recruited a teen to fight for them. That makes it sound like they had a proxy war through their young understudies, but I can assure you that wasn’t the case. It was just a trios match. One in which Runa was sporting an eyepatch. That didn’t play a role, but I imagine wrestling is hard with two eyes, so she probably deserves credit for doing it with one.
Anyway, away from the use of child soldiers wearing eyepatches, the big challenge this match had was to set the beats for that title showdown. Daisy Monkey have spent most of their careers as the underdogs, but Korakuen will see them enter as heavy favourites, and I’m excited to see how they handle that. We got a bit of it here, as Wakana and HIMAWARI were fighting for scraps, looking for the tiniest opening to try and wriggle their way into the action. For most of it, they struggled, as Arisu and Suzume’s rapid teamwork kept them a step or two ahead. However, towards the end, the challengers brute-forced their way through, taking Daisy Monkey out of the action and leaving them clear to debut their new tag finisher, an assisted suplex on Haru that got the three.
It all made for some solid build-up work. I’m still not expecting the less experienced team to leave Korakuen with those belts (and they shouldn’t), but I think they are in a position to have the best match of their careers so far. They’re very different wrestlers, but they’ve come together as a pairing that makes sense, and with Daisy Monkey on a fantastic run, there is every chance they’ll strike gold together. With this match giving us a hint of what it will look like, it left me feeling more excited than I was before, which can only be a good thing.
Verdict: Strong Work
Shoko Nakajima & Yuki Aino defeated Miu Watanabe & Moka Miyamoto
Our second build-up match saw Shoko and Miu get a chance to flex their muscles ahead of their showdown at Korakuen. God, I can’t wait for that one.
The story they seemed to be settling into here is that while Miu has that power, Shoko has those years of experience and technical mastery. Time after time, she avoided Watanabe’s attempt to muscle her way through the action, always succeeding in staying a step ahead as she twisted and snuck away from moves like the Giant Swing. She earned this title shot by bundling Miu up, and they built on that here, the champion feeling like she was in danger of slipping on a banana peel and into Shoko’s trap. Nakajima doesn’t have to knock her out or beat her in a strike exchange. She just has to be in the right position to take advantage when Watanabe makes a mistake.
Away from our Korakuen main event, you know you can rely on Aino and Moka. It sounds like a bit of a backhanded compliment, but they are the perfect seconds for a match like this. Reliable and solid hands who, when required, are happy to sit back and play second string to those being highlighted. They’re both capable of stepping up, and they had a couple of good interactions with each other, but this was never about them. It was about Shoko and Miu teasing us ahead of their showdown.
In that sense, it followed the semi-main in doing a cracking job. I don’t need a whole lot of effort put in to get me excited for that match. Shoko is one of the most reliably brilliant wrestlers on the planet, and Miu has, as far as I can remember, never let us down in a big-match setting. It has the potential to be a best-of-the-year contender, and I certainly won’t be the one to bet against it.
Verdict: Another Good Build-Up Tag
Overall Show
That was a solid show. The rookies did well in the undercard, there were some light-hearted antics, and then the two build-up matches did a strong job of whetting my appetite. There’s nothing you have to go out of your way to see, but with the show going under two hours, it’s some easy watching.
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