May is a quieter month for my best matches roundup, not because there isn’t plenty to talk about (there is), but because it’s exam time in Scotland, and as someone whose job is to help kids prepare for them, I’ve been quite busy. Still, I had a lot to say about the things I did have time to watch, and there are at least a couple I will be returning to at the end of the year, so May more than held up its end of the bargain.
Hikari Noa vs Sawyer Wreck, Inspiration (1/5/23), TJPW
Hikari Noa isn’t a great hardcore wrestler. You could probably make the argument she’s not even a particularly good one. In her first full deathmatch, a lot of the stuff she went for didn’t quite work, an issue amplified by her being up against Sawyer Wreck, who, by virtue of towering over her, made some of her offence look ineffective at best. And yet, despite all that, I loved it. Hikari isn’t a Suzu Suzuki-style deathmatch prodigy, but that’s what makes her great.
Because what this match lacked in perfect bloodletting, it more than made up for with enthusiasm and guts. Hikari brought a childlike joy to proceedings, charging around the ring, excitedly grabbing hold of her next weapon and delighting at the opportunity to put them to use. There is still a sense that Noa is less worried about winning these matches and more about doing all the cool shit she watched as a fan. Does that occasionally mean it goes wrong, leading to her being on the receiving end? Of course! Does she give a shit? Hell no. Wrestling rarely uses imperfection well, but when it was combined with Hikari’s delight at being let loose in this environment, it only made her more likeable.
Most of all, I love that TJPW is willing to indulge her dream. Sure, I imagine part of it is that she shifts a shitload of merch, so they want to keep her happy, but that doesn’t change the end result. They’re giving her the time and space to live out her stabby dreams, and whether she eventually becomes a great deathmatch wrestler or not, I adore seeing her do it.
Mio Momono vs Chikayo Nagashima, 7th Anniversary (3/5/23), Marvelous
I didn’t think Mio Momono should beat Chikayo Nagashima for the AAAW Title. Not because I didn’t believe Mio should be champion, she should be, but because I thought she had to beat Takumi Iroha. That story told itself, and while Iroha’s injury made it a bit harder to get there, I was firmly behind the idea of doing whatever was needed to force it through. I was so wedded to it that when they announced Mio vs Chikayo for the belt, I was actually disappointed. Yes, one of my favourites was challenging for the big one with a genuine chance of winning, but they weren’t doing it the way I wanted them to!
And if you ever needed proof that I am an entitled idiot, then there you have it because this was incredible. Sure, maybe the Takumi match would have been even better, but if it had been, the excitement probably would have killed me, so I should be glad we didn’t go that way. Not only did this match deliver on the cathartic release of Mio finally climbing the mountain, but it did it with aplomb, delivering the kind of closing stretch that had me jumping out of my seat to twirl across the room, convincing me time after time that it was over only to have it go on, buffeting me around on the edge of an emotional crevice. By the time Mio won, any disappointment was long gone.
That’s why I love wrestling. Sure, I adore pulling matches apart and figuring out why I like them, but the best stuff, the stuff that sticks with me forever, doesn’t let me do that. It’s the stuff that has me dancing around in a style that is only usually seen by those who have been unlucky enough to be standing near me at 2:30 am on one of the rare nights when I’ve been drunk enough to decide that clubbing actually isn’t that bad. It’s the stuff where I sit down to write a review and don’t even know where to start because how can you capture any of that in words? It’s the stuff that makes me burst into tears because halfway across the world, a lass I’ve never met and have no real connection to won a belt in a pseudo-sport that most people think is a bit weird. Mio Momono is that kind of stuff, and I don’t care who she beat because this was special, and I’ll remember it for a long time.
Miu Watanabe vs Arisu Endo, Yes! Wonderland ’23 (5/5/23), TJPW
With Yuka Sakazaki announcing her intention to leave TJPW in December of this year, it’s only natural to consider what that means for the future. There is a reason Yuka has headlined nearly every big TJPW show, and whatever certain people on Twitter might think about her, she’s a hell of an in-ring force. There isn’t a roster in the world that wouldn’t miss her, and her absence will leave a massive hole at the top of the Tokyo Joshi card.
And yet, I find myself weirdly calm about the whole thing. Yuka has done everything she can do in TJPW, and while I would happily watch another thousand title reigns, I’m also excited to see if she can break through outside of her home base. Most importantly, though, she is leaving TJPW in a hell of a position. Not only have they reached a size that I don’t think anyone would have predicted during those first mat shows, but they have a deep roster full of wrestlers bursting with potential. Sakazaki’s done her job. Now it’s time for the rest to pick up the load.
All of which brings us to this match, a midcard bout with no real stakes that, nevertheless, fucking ruled. Arisu and Miu are natural opponents, Endo’s scrappy and explosive offence combining beautifully with Miu’s brute force. Endo had no chance of winning, but she’s perfected making me forget about that. As she clung to the Camel Clutch, forcing Miu to crawl to the ropes, there wasn’t a single part of me dismissing the moment because of the hierarchy. Not only that, she’s started developing that main event offence, converting her usual jump-up dropkick to knock Miu from the top rope to the floor. It’s becoming clear what an Arisu Endo big show performance will look like, and it already gets me excited.
As for Miu, what more needs to be said? If Endo is potential, then Miu is potential-realised, as I have no doubt she could have that belt strapped around her waist tomorrow and have zero issues with carrying TJPW on her back. She’s the whole package, a likeable ball of powerful energy that has consistently been delivering in the ring at a ridiculously high level for well over a year now. I can’t quote the number of tickets sold because, to be brutally honest, I don’t give a shit, but in every other way, I know she’s ready.
That will be Yuka Sakazaki’s legacy. Not just the great matches, but that she was a key (if not the most important) part of getting TJPW to this spot. Whether she goes to America and becomes the biggest star in the world or spends the next few years alongside Emi Sakura desperately fighting to get noticed, her DNA will forever be engrained in TJPW and vice-versa. They made each other, and while it’s time for Yuka to go off and try to figure it out on her own, I suspect she’s going safe in the knowledge that she always has a home to return to if needed.
Sareee vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Sareee-ISM (16/5/23), Sareee Produce
There is a bittersweet aspect to Sareee’s return to Japan. On a purely personal level, I’m fucking delighted. Not only is Sareee a brilliant wrestler, but she represents the violent side of joshi that, in recent years, has played second fiddle to the more idol-based stuff. Personally, I’m a fan of both, so I have no stake in that argument, but having Sareee return to boot people in the head can only be a good thing. However, that comeback is somewhat tainted by it meaning her dream of making it in WWE failed. Like most people, I was sceptical about her ambition to bring her style of wrestling to the biggest company in the world, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want it to work. Someone as talented as Sareee deserves the largest platform possible. It’s just a shame that WWE was never going to be the best place for her to showcase what she can do.
What WWE lacked, however, a match like this had in abundance. Returning to Japan, Sareee looked like she’d never been away, instantly settling into a war with her old foe Chihiro Hashimoto. According to Cagematch, her time in America only saw her wrestle for more than ten minutes once, back in August of 2021. Yet she came roaring into Japan with a twenty-minute-plus performance against one of the toughest wrestlers in the scene, more than holding her own until Big Hash’s final German Suplex proved a step too far. It wasn’t only a great performance from someone who hasn’t had to do this recently. It was a great performance, full stop.
While this match ruled, what was most exciting about it was the opportunities it opened up for the future. It may have only been two and a bit years since Sareee left, but a lot has changed in that time, and there are a host of fresh encounters waiting for her. She’s already come face-to-face with Mio Momono at the Hana Kimura Memorial show (more on that later), and if you don’t want to see those two battle over the AAAW Title, you’re probably in the wrong place. Any Sareee is an asset, but a fired-up Sareee coming back from years in the wilderness ready to prove that what she does is the best wrestling around? There isn’t much better than that.
Chris Brookes vs Hyper Misao, Baka Gaijin + Friends Vol. 5 (23/5/23), Baka Gaijin
Baka Gaijin do it again. Whoever came up with the idea of giving Misao a hammer with firecrackers attached to it is a hero, and I hope they are proud of themselves.
Brookes vs Misao was nonsense. Beautiful, chaotic nonsense that featured everything from the already mentioned hammer to Misao hanging from the ceiling like a cat, trying to escape that bastard (who I hope recovers from his injury quickly). One of the great things about performing on that tiny mat is that it almost removes you from the responsibility of having a traditional match. Instead, you’re free to engage in something that could almost be described as sketch wrestling, moving from one idea to the next, linking them together if you can, but mainly leaving you free to focus on acting out your silliest ideas.
And if you need two people to cram ten minutes with silly ideas, you can’t do much better than Brookes and Misao. They shoved everything they could into this, and it was all the better for it, as it was essentially a chance for them to muck around. Thankfully, I would happily watch them muck around all day, every day, and this was a blast.
If there were any questions about how seriously everyone involved in this match would be taking it, Mio Momono answered them by staring down Aja Kong and Sareee during their entrances, barely moving a muscle. These four aren’t natural slackers, but even if the other three had wanted to indulge in taking it easy, Mio wouldn’t have let them.
There is a direct link between this match and Momono’s trial series, as both saw Mio looking to prove herself. In this one, she was coming up against a legendary former AAAW champion and someone who is widely recognised to be one of the best wrestlers in the scene today, even if she has spent the last few years trapped in purgatory. It was only natural that Mio, having recently won her first singles title, would want to do everything in her power to prove that she deserved to share the ring with them. However, this was also different from that trial series. In those matches, there was a desperate edge to Mio’s attempts to hang with her opponents, one that suggested she didn’t quite believe in herself. Now, she has the confidence of a champion. Yes, Sareee and Aja are further down the road than her, and she wanted to earn their respect, but she already knows how good she is.
Unsurprisingly, all of that set up some outstanding wrestling. Mio and Sareee is a match made in heaven, two people who only get more violent the harder you hit them, and every interaction brimmed with tension. They’ve been going back and forth on Twitter, leading to the hope that we’ll see Sareee challenge for that title, and if the snippets we got here are any indication, that could be special. However, it ended up coming second in the list of matches I want to see, as I have a sneaking suspicion that Aja vs Mio could be even better. Kong has surprisingly few Marvelous appearances on her CV (I don’t know if there has been a documented falling out between her and Chig or not), but I think she would be a perfect choice to bring a sense of legitimacy to Mio’s reign. We’ve seen Momono create magic with older and less mobile wrestlers before (most recently Kaoru Ito), and Kong’s willingness to be thrown around by the younger generation would make her job even easier. In fact, we got a hint of that here, Mio getting Aja over for a German (one of several she hit in this match), a move that might have overtaken Mirai’s lariat in my list of favourite ‘Kong being taken off her feet by a younger wrestler’ moments.
I feel bad for having failed to mention Iwata, whose performance was great but fell victim to what’s becoming the Iwata curse: she was there to take the beating. To give her credit, she takes a beating better than nearly anyone, that fiery passion making her one of life’s best glorious failures, but that probably doesn’t make Aja and Sareee repeatedly dumping her on her head any less painful. Still, while we live in the hope that Iwata’s day will come, this match was about Mio Momono, and it appears that her day is right now.
Shoko Nakajima vs Yoshihiko, HYPE! (25/5/23), Hyper Misao Produce
There was never any doubt that Shoko Nakajima would be a fantastic match-up for Yoshihiko, and there were multiple cool spots in this match. However, I wanted to give particular credit to Shoko’s decision to work the legs, setting up perhaps my favourite use of the Irish whipping someone only for them to collapse spot ever. I’m sure someone must have done that against Yoshihiko before, but it’s such a beautifully elegant piece of nonsense that it made me want to stand up and applaud. Anyone can go out, throw Yoshihiko around and take some silly bumps, but it takes a touch of magic to come up with something like that.
Mahiro Kiryu & Yuki Aino vs Rika Tatsumi & Arisu Endo, Hype (25/5/23), Hyper Misao Produce
Where do you even begin with this match? So many people parrot lines about wrestling’s ability to be anything, but more often than not, that means they think it can be a bit silly or maybe take place on a mat. Hyper Misao actually believes in that idea. She used the main event of her produce show to break the framework within which wrestling exists and, in the process, created something magical. It’s not the first time she’s done this (her ‘retirement’ is another example), but there was one key difference between this and her previous attempts. This time around, Misao didn’t make it about her. Instead, she picked out Mahiro Kiryu, the perennial undercarder and all-around good egg who has, in the past, had a tendency to fade into the background. In other words, the last person you would expect Hyper Misao to position as the central character of her own show.
Thankfully, Misao has an eye for this stuff that I clearly don’t, and she knew Mahiro had a story to tell. That’s why the main event of Hype saw a strange masked figure join Kiryu in leaping through time and space, doing everything they could to help her and Aino defeat the pairing of Arisu and Rika. It saw, among other things, Mahiro getting slotted into the Up Up Girls, Haruna Neko into the role of Sakisama and Endo and Rika having to do a convincing performance of trying to wrestle while terrified of shitting themselves. It was outstanding nonsense, backed by a series of genuinely terrific performances. Whether it was Namba filling in the gaps, leading various wrestlers through bizarre parallel universe versions of pre-show shenanigans or the fans reacting perfectly to each new iteration of this match, everyone committed to journeying into Misao’s brain. The star, however, was Mahiro, who was astonishing throughout, embracing the various gimmicks she was thrust into and proving to have the ability to do more than I have ever given her credit for. If that had been the entire match, I’d still be yelling about it from the rooftops.
It wasn’t, though, and the real beauty of this wasn’t just that Misao gave Mahiro that platform but that she gave it to her for a reason. Because as this story began to unravel, it became clear that it was about more than Hyper Misao having a laugh. Towards the end, our masked stranger was (shockingly) revealed as Miso, who began lamenting that, even with time travel, changing the past isn’t so easy. It was this that set Mahirio up to reveal, for the first time, that her path into wrestling wasn’t so different from everyone’s favourite superhero. Sitting in the ring, tears flowing down her face, she told the world that at the time in her life when she was most lost, she stumbled upon DDT and, much like Misao, saw a way out. Now, seven years later, there are a lot of things she would like to gallop through time changing, but becoming a wrestler isn’t one of them.
I compared this to Misao’s ‘retirement’ before, but I don’t think that does it justice. On the one hand, yes, it was another Misao-led piece of genius with a big emotional kick at the end, but this time she did it for a friend. She designed her show to shine a light on Mahiro, which is a beautiful, selfless act. On top of that, Kiryu took that spotlight and put on the performance of a lifetime, starting light and frothy but building into emotional and heartbreaking before ending (when they finally got around to having the full match) with pure defiance, the fans roaring her on as she tried everything to survive against Rika Tatsumi. She couldn’t. No amount of time travel could prepare her for Rika, but it didn’t matter. Because the point of this whole thing is that wrestling is about so much more than the results, and I don’t think there is a person in the room (or watching at home) who didn’t come out of it feeling like they are now the biggest Mahiro Kiryu fan on the planet. They were both extraordinary, and there won’t be another wrestling match this year, or in many others, that will do the things this did. It was perfect.
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